discussion that in Vassar we have the legitimate parent of all
future colleges for women which were to be founded in such rapid
succession in the next period. It is true that in 1855 the
Presbyterian synod opened Elmira college in Elmira, New York, but
it had practically no endowment and scarcely any college students.
Even before 1855 two famous female seminaries were founded which
did much to create a standard for the education of girls. In 1821
Mrs. Emma Willard opened at Troy a seminary for girls, known as
the Troy female seminary, still existing under the name of the
Emma Willard school. In 1837 Mary Lyon opened in the beautiful
valley of the Connecticut Mt. Holyoke seminary, where girls were
educated so cheaply that it was almost a free school. This
institution has had a great influence in the higher education of
women; it became in 1893 Mt. Holyoke college. These seminaries are
often claimed as the first women’s colleges, but their curriculum
of study proves conclusively that they had no thought whatever of
giving women a collegiate education, whereas, the deliberations of
the board of trustees whom Mr. Vassar associated with himself show
clearly that it was expressly realized that here for the first
time was being created a woman’s college as distinct from the
seminary or academy. In 1861 the movement for the higher education
of women had scarcely begun. It was not until eight years later
that the first of the women’s colleges at Cambridge, England,
opened.
Footnote 23:
The founder of Wellesley expected to leave the college a large
endowment, but his fortune was dissipated in unfortunate
investments. The splendid grounds and many halls of residence of
the college constitute a form of endowment, otherwise its lack of
productive funds would have excluded it from class I.
Footnote 24:
The numbers of students are for the year 1899–1900.
Footnote 25:
To the women’s colleges of group III they are admitted still in large
numbers, and they still form 35.1 per cent of all the undergraduate
students in the affiliated college of Radcliffe, and 35.7 per cent of
all the undergraduate students in the affiliated college of Barnard;
in part, perhaps, because these colleges are largely dependent upon
their tuition fees, and in part too, no doubt, because the presence of
special students is less disadvantageous where there is no dormitory
life.
Footnote 26:
Colleges for women draw their students from private schools to a much
greater extent than do coeducational colleges; and it was the very
great inefficiency of these schools that induced the earlier colleges
for women to organize preparatory departments of their own. The
entrance examinations of the women’s colleges are the only influence
for good that has ever been brought to bear upon the feeble teaching
of these schools. In 1874, before the numbers of women wishing to
prepare for college were great enough to influence the private
schools, a plan for raising their standard was devised by the Woman’s
education association of Boston, at whose request Harvard university
for 7 years conducted a series of examinations modeled on the Oxford
and Cambridge higher local examinations which have been such an
efficient agency in England. Committees of women were organized in
different cities, and an attempt was made to induce girls’ schools to
send up candidates for these examinations. In 7 years, however, only
106 candidates offered themselves for the preliminary examination, and
only 36 received a complete certificate. In 1881 the entrance
examinations of Harvard college were substituted for these special
women’s examinations, in the hope that the interest in reaching the
standard set by Harvard for its entering class of men might add to the
number of candidates; but even after this change was made
comparatively few candidates took the examinations, and in 1896 the
effort was discontinued; the Harvard examinations have been used from
that time onward simply as the ordinary entrance examinations of
Radcliffe college. In Great Britain the Cambridge higher local
examinations are taken annually by about 900 women. There was needed
some such pressure as is brought to bear by pupils determined to go to
college to induce private schools to add college graduates to their
staff of teachers. The requirements for admission to Bryn Mawr college
have to my personal knowledge been a most important factor in
introducing college-bred women as teachers into all the more important
private girls’ schools of Philadelphia and in many private schools
elsewhere; and every college for women drawing students from private
schools has the same experience. On the other hand, every relaxation
in the requirements for admission, such as the practice of admitting
on certificate adopted by Vassar, Wellesley and Smith, tends to
deprive girls’ schools of a much needed stimulus. Radcliffe and
Barnard, like Bryn Mawr, insist upon examination for admission and
decline to accept certificates.
Footnote 27:
Until Bryn Mawr opened in 1885 with a large staff of young unmarried
men, it had been regarded as almost out of the question to appoint
unmarried men in a women’s college; now they are teaching in all
colleges for women. The same instructors pass from colleges for men to
colleges for women and from colleges for women to colleges for men,
employing in each the same methods of instruction. Some years since
one of the professors at Smith college received at the same time
offers of a post at the Johns Hopkins, at Columbia, and at Bryn Mawr;
and among the professors the most successful in their teaching at
Princeton, Chicago and Columbia are men whose whole experience had
been gained in teaching women at Bryn Mawr.
Footnote 28:
The following data have been furnished me by the courtesy of the
presidents or deans of the colleges concerned, except the data of the
H. Sophie Newcomb memorial college, for which I am indebted to
Professor Evelyn Ordway. These data are for the year 1900; the numbers
of instructors and students have been obtained from the catalogues for
1898–99.
Footnote 29:
In one instance only—that of Evelyn college in New Jersey—has an
affiliated college, once established, been compelled to close its
doors. Evelyn, however, partook of the nature of a private enterprise
school, and was begun on an unacademic basis in 1887. A certain number
of Princeton professors consented to serve on the board of trustees
and give instruction there, but it was, in reality, a young ladies’
finishing school with a few students (in 1891, 22; in 1894, 18; in
1897, 14) pursuing collegiate courses. Music and accomplishments were
made much of, and in 1897 the college came to a well-merited end.
Footnote 30:
Radcliffe and Barnard are the only two of the affiliated colleges that
appear in the U. S. education reports in division A of women’s
colleges. The students of the other three are reported under Brown,
Western reserve and Tulane respectively, thus giving these colleges a
false air of being coeducational in their undergraduate departments.
The endowment and equipment of these three affiliated colleges,
although entirely independent of the colleges to which they are
affiliated, are given nowhere separately.
Footnote 31:
It is difficult for those interested in women’s education in England
to understand the existence in America of independent colleges for
women, and if American education were organized like English education
they would, indeed, have no reason to exist. In an English university,
consisting, as it does, of many separate colleges whose students live
in their separate halls of residence, are taught by their own
teachers, hear in common with the students of other colleges the
lectures offered by the central university organization, and compete
against each other in honor examinations conducted by a common board
of university examiners, the colleges for women—at Cambridge, Girton
and Newnham, and at Oxford, Somerville hall, Lady Margaret hall and
St. Hugh’s hall—are organized in precisely the same way as colleges
for men. They may, or may not, be as well equipped as the best men’s
colleges, but the difference is a matter of endowment, not of
university organization; there are differences also between the
various colleges for men. Examinations, again, play a far more
important part in English than in American education. There are in
Great Britain only a few examining and degree-giving bodies, for whose
examinations all the various colleges prepare their students. The
degrees mean that certain examinations have been passed, and have a
definite and universally acknowledged value. A degree given by an
American college means that the person receiving it has lived for some
time in a community of a certain kind, enjoying certain opportunities
of which he has conscientiously availed himself. For this reason no
one of the 491 colleges of the United States enumerated in the U. S.
education report for 1897–98 bestows its degree in recognition of
examinations passed in any other college. For this reason Harvard
college has had logic on its side in declining to confer upon the
students completing their undergraduate course in Radcliffe college
the Harvard B. A. They have not lived in the same community, nor yet
had all the opportunities of the Harvard student. The certificate
received by the student of Girton or Newnham represents exactly the
same thing as the Cambridge degree; the B. A. of Radcliffe does not
represent the same thing as the Harvard B. A. What is represented by
the degrees of different colleges in the United States may, or may
not, be equal, but never is the same. Nevertheless Columbia, Brown,
Tulane and Western reserve confer their degrees upon the women
graduates of their affiliated colleges for women.
Footnote 32:
The first American affiliated college was the so-called Harvard annex,
which was brought into existence by the devoted efforts of a small
number of influential professors of Harvard college, who voluntarily
formed themselves into a “Society for the collegiate instruction of
women,” and repeated each week to classes of women the lectures and
class work they gave to men in Harvard college. The idea first
occurred to Mr. Arthur Gilman in 1878. Girton college, Cambridge,
England, after which the annex was modeled, had then been in
successful operation for nine years. Mrs. Louis Agassiz, the widow of
the famous naturalist, agreed to become the official head of the
undertaking, and she associated with herself other influential Boston
and Cambridge women. Mr. Arthur Gilman became the secretary of the
society. The president of Harvard college declared that, so far as the
university was concerned, the professors were free to teach women in
their leisure hours if they chose. The annex was opened for students
in 1879 in a rented house near the Harvard campus with 25 students.
Footnote 33:
The medical school of the Johns Hopkins university is a true
university school, admitting only holders of the bachelor’s degree;
the law school of Harvard university is practically a university
school, although seniors in Harvard college are received as students.
Footnote 34:
Out of the 58 most important American colleges enumerated on page 12
only 23, it will be remembered, appear in the lists of the Federation
of graduate clubs. Unfortunately it must not be inferred that all
these 23 colleges are doing true professional work and offering
graduate students a three years’ course leading to the degree of Ph.
D. In some of them there are provided only courses leading to the
degree of A. M., which, like the degree of A. B., indicating general
culture. The affiliated college of Radcliffe appears in the list of
graduate clubs, although it can scarcely be said to exist
independently as a separate graduate school, being virtually the
portal by which women are admitted to a limited amount of graduate
work at Harvard. In 1899–1900 only 12 graduate lecture courses and 3
research courses were repeated at Radcliffe.
Footnote 35:
The graduate courses of Clark (which has no undergraduate department)
are few in number and attended by only 48 men; the exclusion of women
is, therefore, very surprising especially as the principal subjects of
instruction, pedagogy, experimental psychology and the like, are of
peculiar interest to women. The exclusion of women from all but the
medical department of the Johns Hopkins university is really of
serious import, because the Johns Hopkins university, judged not by
numbers but by scholarly research and publication, the number of Ph.
D. degrees conferred, and the important college and university
positions filled by its graduates, has long been, and perhaps is
still, the most important graduate school in the United States. Its
attitude toward women is to be accounted for in part by its location,
and in part by the fact that its management is in the hands of a
self-perpetuating board of twelve trustees appointed originally by the
founder, and without exception Baltimoreans, so that no pressure can
be brought to bear upon the corporation from more progressive sections
of the country.
Footnote 36:
These figures are taken from the Graduate handbook for 1899, published
by the Federation of graduate clubs. Of these the greatest number
studying in any one institution in the west was to be found in the
University of Chicago, and the next greatest in the University of
California; the greatest number studying in any one institution in the
east was to be found at Barnard-Columbia, and the next greatest at
Bryn Mawr. There were studying in the graduate departments of the
University of Chicago (including summer students) 276 women; in the
University of California, 90; in Barnard-Columbia, 82; in Bryn Mawr,
61; in Radcliffe-Harvard, 58; in Yale, 42; in Cornell, 36; in the
University of Pennsylvania, 34. The position of Bryn Mawr in this
series seems to show conclusively that an independent woman’s college
maintaining a sufficiently high standard of instruction may compete
successfully for students with much larger and older coeducational
foundations.
Footnote 37:
See Fellowships and graduate scholarships, published by the
Association of collegiate alumnæ, Richmond Hill, N. Y., III Series,
No. 2, July, 1899.
Footnote 43:
A private law school for women existed for some years in the city of
New York, founded by Madame Kempin, a graduate of the University of
Zurich. At the request of the Women’s legal education society it was
incorporated with the New York University law school.
Footnote 44:
See U. S. ed. rep. 1897–98, p. 1825, corrected according to note 1,
page 15 of this monograph.
Footnote 45:
The number of women graduates has been obtained in every case
through the courtesy of the presidents of the colleges concerned.
In some cases the women graduates have had to be selected from the
total number of graduates and counted separately for the purpose.
As the figures have never been printed before, I give them below:
_22 colleges belonging to the Association of collegiate
alumnæ_:—coeducational colleges: Boston, 522 graduates;
California, 440; Chicago, 267; Cornell, 517; Kansas, 259; Leland
Stanford, Jr., 289, Massachusetts institute technology, 45;
Michigan, 940; Minnesota, 458; Nebraska, 263; Northwestern, 317;
Oberlin, 1,486; Syracuse, 508; Wesleyan, 118; Wisconsin, 620.
Independent colleges: Vassar, 1,509; Wellesley, 1,727; Smith,
1,679; Bryn Mawr, 321. Affiliated colleges: Radcliffe, 278;
Barnard, 106; College for women of Western reserve, 135.
_Additional colleges_, 15 in number: Women’s college of Brown,
102; Cincinnati, 99; Columbian, 60; Colorado, about 70; Illinois,
131; Indiana, 282; Iowa, 340; Maine, 28; Missouri, no record; Ohio
State university, 150; Ohio Wesleyan, 615; Texas, 60 Vanderbilt,
11; Washington (St. Louis), 55; West Virginia, 17. Total, 14,824
women graduates.
Footnote 46:
The number of women studying in universities in Germany in 1898–99 was
approximately 471, probably mainly foreigners (statistics given in the
Hochschul Nachrichten, Minerva, etc.); in France in 1896–97,
approximately 410, of whom 83 were foreigners (Les Universités
françaises, by M. Louis Liard; vol. 2 of Special Reports on
Educational Subjects, Education department, London, 1898); in England
and Wales in 1897–98, approximately 2,348. (See catalogues of
different colleges.) The total number of women graduates in England
and Wales who have received degrees, or their equivalent, from English
and Welsh universities is about 2,180.
Footnote 47:
Two statistical investigations of the health of college women have
been undertaken; one in America in 1882, which tabulated various data
connected with the health, occupation, marriage, birth rate, etc., of
705 graduates of the 12 American colleges belonging at that time to
the Association of collegiate alumnæ (Health statistics of women
college graduates; report of a special committee of the Association of
collegiate alumnæ, Annie G. Howes, chairman; together with statistical
tables collated by the Massachusetts bureau of statistics of labor.
Boston: Wright and Potter Printing Co., 18 Post Office Square. 1885),
and one in England in 1887 (Health statistics of women students of
Cambridge and Oxford and of their sisters, by Mrs. Henry Sidgwick,
Cambridge university press, 1890). The English statistics dealt with
566 women students (honor students who had taken tripos examinations
and final honors, and women who had been in residence three, two and
one year) of Newnham and Girton colleges, Cambridge, and of Lady
Margaret and Somerville halls at Oxford. It was found that in England
75 per cent of the honor students were at the time of the
investigation in excellent or good health. It was found that in
America 78 per cent of the graduates were at the time of the
investigation in good health and 5 per cent in fair health. In
estimating the result of this investigation it is difficult to find a
standard of comparison. There is no way of knowing what percentage of
good health is to be expected in the case of the average woman who has
not been to college. It is stated in the American health
investigation, page 10, that Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, while obtaining
data for her monograph on the question of rest for women, found that
of 246 women only 56+ per cent were in good health. The American
statistics were compared with the results obtained in an investigation
of the condition of 1,032 working women of Boston, made by the
Massachusetts bureau of statistics of labor; the comparison showed
that the health of college women was more satisfactory than the health
of working women. The English statistics were compared with the health
statistics of 450 sisters or first cousins who had not received a
college education, and it was found that, at all periods, about 5 per
cent less of honor graduates were in bad health than of sisters and
cousins. The comparative tables showed that the married graduates were
healthier than their married sisters, that there were fewer childless
marriages among them, that they had a larger proportion of children
per year of married life, and that their children were healthier.
Footnote 48:
The health, marriage rate, birth rate, etc., of woman graduates will
be compared in every case with the corresponding statistics for the
women relatives nearest in age who have not received a college
education; an attempt will also be made to obtain corresponding
statistics for the nearest men relatives who are college graduates.
Footnote 49:
The health investigation of English women students showed that the
average age of marriage for students was 26.70 as against 25.53 for
sisters, and that 10.25 per cent of the students were married and
19.33 per cent of the sisters, or, omitting the students who had just
left college when the returns were sent in, about 12 per cent of
students. The rate of marriage of students after their college course
was completed and of their sisters seemed to be the same, the
difference in the total number of marriages being apparently accounted
for by causes existing before the termination of the college course,
“possibly the desire to go to college, or to remain in college may be
among them, but having been in college is not one of them.” (See
summary of results by Mrs. Sidgwick, page 59.) Mrs. Sidgwick concludes
as a result of the investigation that not more than one-half of
English women of the social class of women students or their sisters
marry. The American investigation of 1883 showed that 27.8 per cent of
the American college graduates, their average age being 28½ years,
were at that time married, and that, judging by the indications of the
marriage percentages among older graduates, about 50 per cent were
likely sooner or later to be married. In an investigation of the
marriage of Vassar graduates made in 1895, and not including the
graduates of that year, it was found that rather under 38 per cent of
the whole number of students, and about 63 per cent of the first four
classes, were married, see Frances M. Abbott: A Generation of college
women, The Forum, vol. XX, p. 378. Out of the total number of 8,956
graduates, including those graduating in June, 1899, of the 16
colleges belonging to the Association of collegiate alumnæ that have
kept accurate marriage statistics, 2,059 are married, or 23.0 per
cent.
Footnote 50:
Mrs. Sidgwick’s investigation showed that 77 per cent of all English
students reporting, and 83 per cent of honor students, had engaged in
educational work.
Footnote 51:
Between 1890 and 1898 women undergraduate students have increased
111.8 per cent, and men undergraduate students have increased 51.2 per
cent.
Footnote 52:
In the college departments of coeducational colleges the average
number of women studying is 48.4, whereas in the college departments
of independent women’s colleges the average number of women studying
is 331.91, and in affiliated colleges 192.8. In 1897–98 11.4 per cent
of all the women studying in coeducational colleges obtained the
bachelor’s degree, whereas 13.4 per cent of all the women studying in
independent women’s colleges obtained the bachelor’s degree, which
indicates probably that women prefer women’s colleges for four years
of residence. In the same year 13.3 per cent of all men undergraduate
students obtained the bachelor’s degree. The average number of
graduates of the 4 women’s colleges belonging to the Association of
collegiate alumnæ is 1,309 per college, the average age of the
colleges being 23 years; the average number of graduates of the 15
coeducational colleges belonging to the Association of college alumnæ
is only 469.9, although the average age of the colleges is 27.7 years.
During the 8 years from 1890 to 1898, women undergraduate students
have increased in coeducational colleges 105.4 per cent, whereas they
have increased in women’s colleges, division A, 138.4 per cent.
Precisely the reverse is true of men students (see pp. 14 and 15,
including foot notes).
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