The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1923-11-08
The College Girl and
the Marriage Question

~ O college girls marry for money
position and protection or for
love? In an effort to get a
reliable answer to this question the
writer interviewed deans Of women,
undergraduates and graduates. mar
ried and unmarried. And they all
answered, with variations, For love.
According to one married gradu-
ate, cornered in the Bryn Mawr Club,
girls never did marry for anything
but love.
81 never agreed with those people
who said that girls married for pro-
lection" she said. Perhaps fifty
years ago they were forced to marry
by their parents or they had to
marry or starve because they
couldn't support themselves. They
NAV have married without love then.
But I don't think that nowadays
any girl from college, or otherwise,
marries without being in love-or
thinking she is in love-
According to one very pretty and
charming Smith graduate (married)
college girls are more likely to marry
FOR love than any other class of girls
because they have no other incentive
Cor marriage.
"They have been trained to use
their minds, and so they have more
chance. for. self-support," she said
Besides, they are not going to
marry because they are bored, for
they don't have to be bored. They
can go nearly everywhere, and they
can do nearly everything that men
can do; they can have a full, varied,
interesting and independent life. So
when a college girl marries you can
be sure she marries for love-"
Every one agrees with this idea OF
the love marriage. A New York bust
ness woman who employs a great
many college girls says that they
come to New York from small towns
seeking employment. They think
they come to succeed in business;
to show the world the stuff they are
made of. But, unconsciously and
fundamentally they come hoping
they will have greater opportunity
to meet manageable young men.
They have observed the home town
stock of youths and found it wanting.
So they go forth to the big city; 1t
is unknown and mysterious to them,
and in it they hope to find romance.
And they often do.
Of course, they would be the very
last people to admit this, even to
themselves.
college," said the business woman,
lis not a school for the suppression
of romance
College girls are no peculiar breed.
They are just average, ordinary girls.
They go to college not necessarily
because they are studiously inclined,
but becaues they want to meet new
and different people and have a good
time. College is their first open road
away from provincialisn.
The only way in which college girls
differ from others is in their critical
attitude toward prospective husbands
One married graduate, who declared
that she married for love and moth
ing else, said that she demanded
much more of a man after she left
college than before.
"I had more to give, so naturally /
demanded more" she went on. 81
became interested only in men with
broad and cosmopolitan interests"
This is proved by the character of
the professions and business in which
the husbands of Bryn Mawr grad
yates are engaged. In the order of
their popularity they are: Profess
sors, physicians, engineers, officials
and managers of businesses and law
yers.
The breadth of interest of college
girls may be one of the reasons why
after they are married they are not
satisfied to be wives and mothers
only. At least many of them are not
The charming Smith girl referred to
above, who has only recently become
a wife, is working on magazine.
THAT is the trouble with college
girls" she said. They are not sat
isfied to be just wives. Is it trou-
BILE? I don't know. ANYWAY it is a
fact. After I left college 1 worked
on a magazine for seven years. Then
I got married and gave up the work,
but I was so bored with nothing to
do all day long that 1 was nearly
wild. Other towns must be different
from New York. Here it's deadly
unless you're busy. I had to decide
between being too busy or too idle,
and decided it would be better to be
too busy. You see I have no chill