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THE HIGHER EDUCATION
OF WOMEN
ALEXANDER STRAHAN, PUBLISHER
LONDON, _148 Strand_
NEW YORK, _178 Grand Street_
THE HIGHER EDUCATION
OF WOMEN
BY EMILY DAVIES
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ALEXANDER STRAHAN, PUBLISHER
LONDON AND NEW YORK
1866
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY, 7
CHAPTER II.
IDEALS, 16
CHAPTER III.
THINGS AS THEY ARE, 38
CHAPTER IV.
THINGS AS THEY MIGHT BE, 72
CHAPTER V.
PROFESSIONAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE, 98
CHAPTER VI.
SPECIFIC SUGGESTIONS, 130
CHAPTER VII.
CONCLUSION, 164
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CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
In any inquiry of a practical nature, intended to lead to some
definite course of action, it is obviously necessary to start with a
tolerably clear idea of the end in view--the object for which it is
proposed to provide. In the case of education, definitions more or less
satisfactory have already so often been given, that it might seem
superfluous to go into the question again. As a matter of practice,
however, it is found that, when it is attempted to apply the received
definitions of the general objects of education to the case of women,
they are usually questioned or modified, if not altogether set aside.
When, for instance, Mr Maurice tells us that ‘the end of education
itself is, as it has always been considered, to form a nation of
living, orderly men,’ the definition will be accepted, with the tacit
reservation that it applies only to men, in the exclusive sense of
the word, and has nothing to do with the education of women. Again,
when Milton, in his treatise on Education, lays down that the end of
learning is ‘to repair the ruin of our first parents by regaining to
know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love Him, to imitate Him,
to be like Him,’ the language might be taken in a general sense; and
when he goes on to define a complete and generous education as ‘that
which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously all
the offices, both private and public, of peace and war,’ the words
might still, perhaps, bear a common interpretation; but as soon as
he comes to describing in detail, ‘how all this may be done between
twelve and one-and-twenty,’ it becomes evident that he is thinking of
boys only. In the most recent writers, the tendency to regard general
theories of education as applying exclusively to that of men, is quite
as strongly marked.
It seems, therefore, that in attempting to treat of female education,
it is necessary once more to ask what we are aiming at, and to obtain,
if possible, a clear understanding and agreement as to the end in view.
What ought the educators of girls to be trying to make of them? What is
the ideal towards which they ought to direct their efforts, the end to
be desired as the result of their labours?
To these questions we shall probably receive one or other of two
answers. Many persons will reply, without hesitation, that the one
object to be aimed at, the ideal to be striven after, in the education
of women, is to make good wives and mothers. And the answer is a
reasonable one, so far as it goes, and with explanations. Clearly,
no education would be good which did not tend to make good wives and
mothers; and that which produces the best wives and mothers is likely
to be the best possible education. But, having made this admission, it
is necessary to point out that an education of which the aim is thus
limited, is likely to fail in that aim. That this is so will appear
when the definition is transferred to the education of men. It will be
admitted that a system of education which should produce bad husbands
and fathers would prove itself to be bad; and an education which
produces the best husbands and fathers is likely to be in all respects
the best; because the best man in any capacity must be the man who can
measure most accurately the proportion of all his duties and claims,
giving to each its due share of his time and energy. A man will not
be the better husband and father for neglecting his obligations as a
citizen, or as a man of business. Nor will a woman be the better wife
or mother through ignorance or disregard of other responsibilities.
There is, indeed, a view of male education which, having worldly
advancement for its ultimate object, regards it exclusively as a
means of acquiring professional dexterity; but such a conception
of the purposes of education--however legitimate, in a limited and
subordinate sense--when elevated into the position of the final goal,
must be looked upon rather as a lapse from a higher standard, than as
a principle deliberately maintained by any high-minded and thoughtful
person. In disinterested schemes of male education, it is usually
assumed, as a matter of course, that the great object is to make
the best of a man in every respect, leaving him to adapt himself to
specific relations, according to the state of life into which it shall
please God to call him.
A similar idea seems to underlie the other, and more comprehensive
reply, which will probably be given to our inquiry, namely, that
the object of female education is to produce women of the best and
highest type, not limited by exclusive regard to any specific functions
hereafter to be discharged by them. This answer at once brings down
upon us the terrible question, What is the best and highest type of
woman? And as this question lies at the root of the whole matter, it
cannot be passed by. Many people, indeed, talk as if it was a matter
on which the world had long since made up its mind, and which might
be assumed to be already decided. But when we ask what it is that the
world has decided, it is difficult to obtain anything like a clear and
unanimous answer. The ideal differs not only among different races, and
in different ages, but most widely in our own country, and in modern
times. Unanimity is scarcely to be found in any class of writers or
thinkers, though on this point, of all others, some sort of agreement,
at least between parents and teachers, would seem to be most essential.
It may perhaps be of service, as a step towards a mutual understanding,
to examine, though necessarily in a very imperfect and cursory manner,
some of the most commonly received notions current on the subject.
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