Evening star., 1901-12-21
Those of the Present Analysed and
the Future Suggested.
MEN AND MlIDENS IN COMPETITION
What viii Be.the Verdict Of the
Twentieth Century,
TENT ARG UMEN T S
Copyright, 19o1.)

Copyright, 19o1)
| Written for The Evening Star.
| So rapid has been the progress Of the
great social and intellectual revolution
known as the higher or collegiate education
of women that it has, so to speak, no past.
| but exists entirely in the present time, and
| it's future development more perhaps than
| that Of any other movement OF the nine
| teenth century, may be expected to create
anew the heavens and the earth Of the
twentieth century. In 1870, or thereabouts,
the time had come throughout the civilized
world for women to be educated. and, in
forecast thereof, in the late fifties and early
| sixties girls began to be born with an in
stinctiye desire to go to college. / was one
of those girls, and l know from talking
with other women of my own age that
there were hundreds like me- Although
throughout my girlhood | had never known
woman who had gone to college nor seen
| any one who had seen woman who had
gone to college, well remember that, from
the time l was ten years oia, f dreamed of
college by day and night until my parents
Yielded, as everything must yield to such
longing, and took me to the entrance exam
inauons Of Cornell University, themselves
seeing then for the first time college wo-
men. 1t is no marvel that in every coun-
try the barriers of custom and prejuulce
sire of women born to go to college.
That the United States is touay far in
advance o. AL other countries in the num-
Der of women obtaining:a college education
is due, it seems to me, to two facts: first,
to our national system of educational public
schools, which had been in operation. since
1o45, long before college education was
thought of for women, and enapied girls to
be prepared for college in the same classes
with their brothers as soon as there were
colleges for them to go to; and, second, to
the fact that already in 1870, when colleges
opened to women, there were more women
than men teaching in these same pubic
schools, so that women graduating from
college found instant employment. 1t is
the good fortune of American women that,
unlike women in other countries, they did
not have to begin their college education by
creating, slowly and painfully, and with
out state assistance, college preparatory
high schools.
In consequence Of these pre-existing con-
ditions, and also of the sympathetic atti-
tude of American men toward their wo-
men ian attitude which is in all probability
women in America outnumber by many
thousands those of all other countries
taken together. eg3 =! ......,
What Figures Show.
According to the last United States edu-
cational7 report there were, in the year
1889, studying in the United, States In the
undergraduate departments of 337 coeduca-
tonai colleges, 1896 women; in eleven
independent -womenis colleges, 3,799 wo-
men, and IN affiliated women's colleges,
1,05G women, total OF q ,8O1 women now
in college, women forming about 27.4 per
cent OF all college, students In the same
year there were studying in colleges and
universities in Great Britain 1850 women,
women forming only 12.5 per cent of ali
college students. About 2s0O women were
graduated from Ameriean colleges every
year. The United States commits ;oner of
education estimates that there We're in the
United States in 1889 323 women in college
out of every million women. Yet althous n
SO few in numbers, these 1923 women in
every 1,O00,eO0 are swiftly effecting what
amounts to a social revolution in thought
and opinion; SO overwhelming is the I'M
preston made on us by the college wo-
man that we seem to lose all sense of per-
spective in dogmatizing about her. Even
so acute and friendly an observer as Pro-
fessor tMunsterberg forgets that we have
10 90 with only thirty years of college
education, affecting only an fnffnitesfnaI
fraction of all women, when he says in the
June number of the International Monthly
tiiat neltner coeducation nor the equality
OF opportunity has done anything to elimi-
nate those characteristics of the female
mind which are well known the world
over a...r--
But whatever may be thought of the
unfeasonabieneSs of women in general the
college woman Is at least the most rea-
sonabie and logical of all women, Just as.
WnateVer We may think of the health of
the women in general she is at least the
most healthy of all women In each sue
cesslVe year girls are entering college more
athletlc and in better physical condition.
each year at Bryn Mawr the students eat
more rounds of beef and mutton DER head
than in the previous year.
Physical Conditions,
This improved physical condition of wo
men comedies in time with the improve
ment of Qfr1S =, e..
cation, and is, I believe the direct conse
| quence Of 1t. The college woman is also
proving herself the most efficient of all
women: she makes so successful a teacher
that she Is swiftly driving unframed wo-
| men teachers out of the private and public
secondary schools. and will soon begin to
| drive them from the elementary schools.
| she is also driving men from the schools
1t Is easy to say that this Is because her
salary Is lower, and not because she Is
peter teacher; but if this Is the explana-
| tlon, why is the higher priced college wo-
man replacing the lower priced unframed
woman In the schools? The same increase
| In the number of women teachers as COM
Pared with men is found in England and
Scotland and has begun in France and
Germany. 1t is probable that women are
f1tted in peculiar manner to become the
teachers OF the, race. The college woman
! Is also slowly entering other professions as
well as teaching: as librarians college wo-
men already outnumber men.
great deal Is said, and great deal
TOO much IS said. of the marriage or nom
marriage of college women. VIII college
life make women disinclined to marry? Do
| as many college women as other women
marry? Do they wish for children? Will
tney consent to bear them? viii they be
able to bear them. viii they be able to
nurse nWi,s such children As they may bear?
WIN not college eduraxion make them un-
loving wives and unlovlns mothers? No,
Thousand times, ndt xhs very asking of
| Such questions shows Alr lack of nerSnao
tive. Who would be foolish enough to suggest
tnaf iona years OF norhlal spllege life could so
college col g man as to harden; his heart against
marriage. deprive hifn of tenderness for
children or of power toIbeget them, and
cause MIN to desert or Maltreat wife and
family? One, by one; college women have
patiently pa and su ,cessfully. met and silenced
az tne prl9rL objee etispsio college educa-
/ tion,insufhcfent pIRsKaf health, inferior
scholarly scla9 eIldoMmeS indecorum. of con-
thaa umcs IN coeaucationaf ssileges-and now
argument E of the most Hsfd.ous kind
Rsss Ris Fase n one s.ta, e the ana wisest q
with the