Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-17
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

men and therefore their presence In q
college will inevitably lower the stand
ard Of scholarship
CD The physical constitution Of wom-
en- makes 1t impossible for them to en-
dure the strain of severe mental effort.
(c) The presence Of women in college
win result in Whaling the manners, II
not the morals, of both the men and
women; the men will become effeminate
and weak; the women coarse and
masculine
Cd Whatever the real mental capac-
ity or physical ability of women. so
fixed Is the worlds conviction of their
inferiority that colleges admitting them
Will inevitably forfeit the worlds con-
fidence and respect.
There were many other wise convic-
tons of the professors of those days
ll870, but the above shows the trend
Needless to say that within a decade
or two every one of the objections was
confessed to have been groundless and
absurd.
The struggle of women for admission
into the learned professions, such as
medicine and law, has been equally
strenuous. The first recognition of
women as physicians came In 1871,
and, strangely enough. the chief oppo-
sition was based upon practice in OBJ
stetrics.
In 1872 a medical paper was read
before the Illinois Medical Society by
young woman who had recently re-
ceived diploma in medicine from the
Paris Ecole de Medicine, and she was
admitted to membership on motion OF
Its president, who married her a few
months later. Yet seven years later
1879. the Boston Medical and Surgical
Journal published this: I'VE regret to
be obliged to announce that, at a
meeting of the councillors, held October
!, 1t was voted to admit women to the
Massachusetts, Medical Society,""
y ~
1t was at about the same period-the
later seventieS-when a few colleges
admitted women into their law schools
and few States admitted them to
practice in the courts. Among the in
situations still refusing woman law stu
dents IN those days were Yale, Harvard
and Georgetown Universities, the Cum
berland University Law School of Leb-
anon, Tenn, and the Washington and
Lee University of Virginia and the
State University of Virginia. We have
had successful woman lawyer as AS
SAo"aAiS ACUoiAcy 0cHeEdI Oh the OnlCeo
States quite recently. Even politicians
have not forgotten her efficiency.
The magnificent work of women in
all ages in lines of mercy and relief OF
suffering humanity, their bravery In
war, their patience and efficiency In
hospitals. their leadership in reforms
OF all kinds, are recognized more readily
than is their efficiency In the direct
competition with masculine brains in
the professions. Yet they are rapidly
shedding their "inferiority complexes
skin.
Even in enlightened United States II
took q full century of struggle before
| women were given not full equal
rights" but moderate protection against
the high-handedness of man. The
struggle did not begin in the decade
which brought admission into the coll
leges. In l776, when John Adams, the
second President of the United States
was busily engaged as member Of the
| Continental Congress in Philadelphia
in crystallizing American ideals. he re-
ceived vigorous letter from his wife
who remained in Boston, In which she
urged that women be recognized in the
Constitution of the new Government
| She wrote:
Il long to hear that you have declar-
| ed an independently. and in the new
code of laws which suppose 1t will be
necessary for you to make, desire that
you will remember the women and b.
more generous and honorable to them
than your ancestors. Do not put such
unlimited power into the hands of hus-
bands. Remember all men would bv
tyrants II they could"
How Ii would have rejoiced Damn
Adams II she could have seen q woman