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Editor: Nicholas Murray Butler

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

FOR THE

UNITED STATES COMMISSION TO THE PARIS EXPOSITION OF 1900

MONOGRAPHS ON EDUCATION

IN THE

UNITED STATES

EDITED BY

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER

EDUCATION OF WOMEN

M. CAREY THOMAS

THIS MONOGRAPH IS CONTRIBUTED TO THE UNITED STATES EDUCATIONAL EXHIBIT BY THE STATE OF NEW YORK

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

FOR THE

UNITED STATES COMMISSION TO THE PARIS EXPOSITION OF 1900

MONOGRAPHS ON EDUCATION

IN THE

UNITED STATES

EDITED BY

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER

EDUCATION OF WOMEN

M. CAREY THOMAS

THIS MONOGRAPH IS CONTRIBUTED TO THE UNITED STATES EDUCATIONAL EXHIBIT BY THE STATE OF NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT BY J. B. LYON COMPANY 1899

EDUCATION OF WOMEN

The higher education of women in America is taking place before our eyes on a vast scale and in a variety of ways. Every phase of this great experiment, if experiment we choose to call it, may be studied almost simultaneously. Women are taking advantage of all the various kinds of education offered them in great and ever-increasing numbers, and the period of thirty years, or thereabouts, that has elapsed since the beginning of the movement is sufficient to authorize us in drawing certain definite conclusions. The higher education of women naturally divides itself into college education designed primarily to train the mental faculties by means of a liberal education, and only secondarily, to equip the student for self-support, and professional or special education, directed primarily toward one of the money-making occupations.

COLLEGE EDUCATION

Women's college education is carried on in three different classes of institutions: coeducational colleges, independent women's colleges and women's colleges connected more or less closely with some one of the colleges for men.

The greater part of the college education of the United States, however, is carried on in private, not in state universities. In 1897 over 70 per cent of all the college students in the United States were studying in private colleges, so that for women's higher education their admission to private colleges is really a matter of much greater importance. The part taken by Cornell university in New York state in opening private colleges to women was as significant as the part taken by Michigan in opening state universities. Cornell is in a restricted sense a state university, inasmuch as part of its endowment, like that of the state universities, is derived from state and national funds. Nevertheless, there is little reason to suppose that Cornell would have admitted women had it not been for the generosity of Henry W. Sage, who offered to build and endow a large hall of residence for women at Cornell university. After carefully investigating coeducation in all the institutions where it then existed, and especially in Michigan, the trustees of the university admitted women in 1872. The example set by Cornell was followed very slowly by the other private colleges of the New England and middle states. For the next twenty years the colleges in this section of the United States admitting women might be counted on the fingers of one hand. In Massachusetts Boston university opened its department of arts in 1873, and admitted women to it from the first; but no college for men followed the example of Boston until 1883, when the Massachusetts institute of technology, the most important technical and scientific school in the state, and one of the most important in the United States, admitted women. This school, like Cornell, is supported in part from state and national funds. Very recently, in 1892, Tufts college was opened to women. In the west and south the case is different, and the list of private colleges that one after another have become coeducational is too long to be inserted here. Among new coeducational foundations the most important are, on the Pacific coast, the Leland Stanford junior university, opened in 1891, and, in the middle west, Chicago university, opened in 1892. To show the differing attitude toward coeducation of the different sections of the United States, I have arranged the 480 coeducational colleges and separate colleges for men given in the U.S. education report for 1897-98 in a table on the opposite page. In matters like women's education, which are powerfully affected by prejudice and conservative opinion, we find not only a sharp cleavage in opinion and practice between the west and the east of the United States, but also distinct phases of differing opinion, corresponding in the main to the old geographical division of the states into New England, middle, southern and western.

In the western states it will be observed there are, excluding Roman Catholic colleges and seminaries, out of 195 colleges 182 coeducational and only 13 colleges for men only. All of these except 3 are denominational; 6 belong to the Lutheran, 1 to the Dutch Reformed, 1 to the German Evangelical, 1 to the Episcopalian, and 1 to the Congregationalist. The other 3 are, as we might expect, in the most eastern and the earliest settled of the western states; one in Ohio, Western reserve, which teaches women in a separate women's college; one in Indiana, Wabash college, one of the three most important colleges in Indiana; and one in Illinois, Illinois college. Roman Catholic institutions apart, in 14 states and all 3 territories every college for men is open to women . In the southern states and southern middle states there are, excluding Roman Catholic colleges and seminaries, out of 161, 125 coeducational and only 36 colleges for men only. Among these 36, however, are the most important educational institution in Maryland, the Johns Hopkins university; the most important in Georgia, the University of Georgia; in Louisiana the two most important, the Louisiana state university and Tulane university, and in Virginia the very important University of Virginia. Roman Catholic institutions apart, all the colleges in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida and West Virginia are coeducational. In New England and the northern middle states out of 64 colleges, excluding Roman Catholic colleges and seminaries, only 29, or less than half, are coeducational. The colleges for men only include all the largest undergraduate colleges in this section--Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Pennsylvania. Maine and Vermont are liberal to women, 2 colleges in Maine and 3 in Vermont being coeducational, but the total number of students in college in these states is very small . The leading colleges of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are closed, and in Massachusetts only 2 are open and 7 closed.

Of the four hundred and eighty colleges for men enumerated by the commissioner of education 336, or 70 per cent , admit women. It would be misleading, however, to count among American institutions for higher education, properly so-called, most of the coeducational colleges and separate colleges for men included in this list, and it would be equally misleading to compare the number of women studying in such colleges in the United States with the number of women engaged in higher studies in England, France and Germany. In order to obtain a better idea of opportunities for true collegiate work open to women at the present time in the United States I have selected from these four hundred and eighty colleges and from the numerous colleges for women classified elsewhere, a list of fifty-eight colleges properly so-called, employing for the purpose the four means of classification most likely to commend themselves to the impartial student of such things. Of these fifty-eight colleges four are independent colleges for women and three women's colleges affiliated to colleges for men; of the remaining 51, 30, or 58.8 per cent, are coeducational, and a nearer examination makes a much more favorable showing for coeducation. Of the 21 colleges closed to women in their undergraduate departments five have affiliated to them a women's college through which women obtain some share in the undergraduate instruction given, the affiliated colleges in three cases being of enough importance to appear in the same list. Of these five, four admit women without restriction to their graduate instruction, and in addition Yale, the University of Pennsylvania and New York university make no distinction between men and women in graduate instruction. The Johns Hopkins university maintains a coeducational medical school. In this list then of fifty-eight, which includes all the most important colleges in the United States, there are, apart from the two Catholic colleges, only ten to which women are not admitted in some departments. Princeton is the only one of the large university foundations that excludes women from any share whatsoever in its advantages. The diagram on the opposite page shows the steady progress of coeducation from 1870 to 1898.

GROWTH OF COEDUCATION

Coeducational 30?7% 1870 For men only 69?3% ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Coeducational 51?3% 1880 For men only 48?7% ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Coeducational 65?5% 1890 For men only 34?5% ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Coeducational 70?% 1898 For men only 30?% ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

I have prepared the diagram for 1870 from the U. S. ed. rep. for 1870, pp. 506-516, and the diagram for 1897-98 from the U. S. ed. rep., pp. 1848-1867, and from the table, opposite page 9 of this monograph. The diagrams for 1880 and 1890 are copied from the report for 1889-90, p. 764. For assistance in the preparation of this and other diagrams, and in working out the percentages given here, and elsewhere, in this monograph I am much indebted to Dr. Isabel Maddison.

If Catholic colleges are excluded, as in the map opposite page 10, coeducational colleges formed, in 1898, 80 per cent, and colleges for men only 20 per cent of the whole number--a still more favorable result for coeducation.

All the arguments against the coeducation of the sexes in colleges have been met and answered by experience. It was feared at first that coeducation would lower the standard of scholarship on account of the supposed inferior quality of women's minds. The unanimous experience in coeducational colleges goes to show that the average standing of women is slightly higher than the average standing of men. Many reasons for the greater success of women are given, such as absence of the distraction of athletic sports, greater diligence, higher moral standards, but the fact, however it may be explained, remains and is as gratifying as astonishing to those interested in women's education. The question of health has also been finally disposed of; thousands of women have been working side by side with men in coeducational institutions for the past twenty-five years and undergoing exactly the same tests without a larger percentage of withdrawals on account of illness than men. The question of conduct has also been disposed of. None of the difficulties have arisen that were feared from the association of men and women of marriageable age. Looking at coeducation as a whole it is most surprising that it has worked so well. Perhaps the only objection that may be made from men's point of view to coeducation in America is that it has succeeded only too well and that the proportion of women students is increasing too steadily. Not only is the number of coeducational colleges increasing but the number of women relatively to the number of men is increasing also. In 1890 there were studying in coeducational colleges 16,959 men and 7,929 women; or women, in other words, formed 31.9 per cent of the whole body of students. In 1898 there were 28,823 men and 16,284 women studying in coeducational colleges, women forming 36.1 per cent of the whole body of students. Between 1890 and 1898 men in coeducational colleges have increased 70.0 per cent, but women in coeducational colleges have increased 105.4 per cent.

There is every reason to suppose that this increase of women will continue. Already girls form 56.5 per cent of the pupils in all secondary schools and 13 per cent of the girls enrolled and only 10 per cent of the boys enrolled graduate from the public high schools. It is sometimes said that men students, as a rule, dislike the presence of women, and in especial that they are unwilling to compete for prizes against women for the very reason that the average standing of women is higher than their own. If there is any force in this statement, however, it would seem that men should increase less rapidly in coeducational colleges than in separate colleges for men. The reverse, however, is the case. During the eight years from 1890 to 1898 men have increased in coeducational colleges 70.0 per cent, but in separate colleges for men only 34.7 per cent. This is all the more remarkable, because in the separate colleges for men are included the large undergraduate departments of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania. It is women who have shown a preference for separate education; women have increased more rapidly in separate colleges for women than in coeducational colleges. It will be observed, however, that the separate colleges for women, like the separate colleges for men included in my list of fifty-eight, are in the east; it is in the east only that any preference for separate education is shown by either sex.

In addition to the existing colleges belonging to these groups, a separate college for women, Trinity, meant to be of true college grade, will soon be opened in Washington under the control of the Roman Catholic church.

It is often assumed by the adversaries of coeducation that independent colleges for women may be trusted to introduce a course of study modified especially for women, but the experience, both of coeducational colleges that have devised women's courses and of women's colleges, demonstrates conclusively that women themselves refuse to regard as satisfactory any modification whatsoever of the usual academic course. At the opening of Vassar college itself it is clear that the trustees and faculty made an honest attempt to discover and introduce certain modifications in the system of intellectual training then in operation in the best colleges for men. They planned from the start to give much more time to accomplishments--music, drawing and painting--than was given in men's colleges, and the example of Vassar in this respect was followed ten years later by Wellesley and Smith. These accomplishments have gradually fallen out of the course of women's colleges; neither Vassar nor Wellesley allows time spent in them to be counted toward the bachelor's degree. Smith alone of the colleges of group I still permits nearly one-sixth of the whole college course to be devoted to them. Bryn Mawr, which opened ten years later than Smith or Wellesley, from the beginning found it possible to exclude them from its course.

In like manner Vassar, Smith and Wellesley in the beginning found it necessary to admit special students--students, that is to say, interested in special subjects, but without sufficient general training to be able to matriculate as college students; but their admission has been recognized as disadvantageous, and has gradually been restricted. In 1870 special students, as distinguished from preparatory students, formed 19.6 per cent of the whole number of the students of Vassar; in 1899 they formed only 3.9 per cent, and only 3.3 per cent of the whole number of Wellesley students. Smith since 1891 has declined to admit them at all, and Bryn Mawr never admitted them.

Again, Wellesley and Vassar in the beginning organized preparatory departments with pupils living in the same halls as the college students and taught in great part by the same teachers. The presence of these pupils tended to turn the colleges into boarding schools, and the steady and rapid development of Vassar as a true college began only after the closing of its preparatory department in 1888; until this time the number of students in the college proper had been almost stationary; Wellesley closed its preparatory department in 1880; Smith never organized one; Bryn Mawr never organized one; Mt. Holyoke, the Woman's college of Baltimore, and Wells college have all closed their preparatory departments within the last seven years.

It seems to have been at first supposed that the same standards of scholarship need not be applied in the choice of instructors to teach women as in that of instructors to teach men, that women were fittest to teach women, and that the personal character and influence of the woman instructor in some mysterious way supplied the deficiency on her part of academic training. For a long time not even an ordinary undergraduate education was required of her, and there are still teaching in women's colleges too many women without even a first degree. But it has been found on the whole that systematic mental training is best imparted by those who have themselves received it; the numbers of well-trained women are increasing; and the prejudice against the appointment of men where men are better qualified has almost disappeared.

It has been recognized that the work done in women's colleges is most satisfactory to women when it is the same in quality and quantity as the work done in colleges for men, and it has been recognized also that they need the same time for its performance. Domestic work, therefore, which by the founder of Wellesley was regarded as a necessary part of women's education, is at present, I believe, required nowhere except on the perfectly plain ground of economy. The hour of domestic service originally required of every student in Wellesley was abandoned in 1896; a half-hour is still required at Mt. Holyoke, but tuition, board and residence are less expensive there. The time given to domestic work is obviously so much time taken from academic work.

In the matter of discipline the tendency has been toward ever-diminishing supervision by the college authorities. Vassar and Wellesley began with the strict regulations of a boarding school; it was regarded as impossible that young women living away from home should be in any measure trusted with the control of their own actions. Smith from the first allowed more liberty, in part because many of her students lived in boarding houses outside the college. In all three colleges the restrictions laid upon the students have been gradually lessened, and at Vassar there is at present a well-developed system of what is known as "limited self-government," according to which many matters of discipline are intrusted to the whole body of students. Bryn Mawr was organized with a system of self-government by the students perhaps more far-reaching than was then in operation in any of the colleges for men; the necessary rules are made by the Students' association, which includes all undergraduate and graduate students, and enforced by an executive committee of students who in the case of a serious offense may recommend the suspension or expulsion of the offender, and whose recommendation, when sustained by the whole association, is always accepted by the college. The perfect success of the system has shown that there is no risk in relying to the fullest extent on the discretion of a body of women students.

In the smaller group, which includes the College for women of Western reserve university and the H. Sophie Newcomb memorial college, the affiliated college tends to become an entirely separate institution; in its instructors and instruction it differs widely from the institution to which it is affiliated; it is, in fact, a different college called into existence by the same authorities. In the larger group, which includes the Women's college of Brown, Barnard and Radcliffe, the affiliated college tends to blend itself with the institution to which it is affiliated in a new coeducational institution. The ideal in view is a complete identity of instructors and instruction and the law of economy of force forbids attaining this ideal by the duplication of the whole instruction given. It is less wasteful to double the number of hearers in any lecture room than to repeat the lecture. It is in the Women's college of Brown that we find the closest affiliation and, accordingly, the nearest approach to coeducation. The corporation of Brown furnished the land on which Pembroke hall, the academic building of the Women's college, was erected, and accepted the gift of the building when it was completed; Brown has from first to last openly assumed responsibility for its affiliated college in fact as well as name. In the graduate department of Brown there is, as has been said, unrestricted coeducation; and in many of the smaller undergraduate elective courses women are reciting with men. In the graduate department of Columbia there is now unrestricted coeducation. It is in the case of Radcliffe that there is least approach to coeducation. What has made possible the policy pursued at Radcliffe has been the self-sacrificing zeal of many eminent Harvard professors, willing at any cost of inconvenience to give to women what could seemingly on no other terms be given; but the sacrifice is too great, and in the modern world too unnecessary; it is at present almost everywhere possible for the professor interested in educating women to lighten his own labors by admitting them to the same classes with men. Only the affiliated colleges of the second group present in their internal organization a type essentially different from that of the independent college--a type intermediate between the independent and the coeducational.

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

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