Part 3

=Barnard college, New York city=—Affiliated to Columbia university, union dissoluble by either party after year’s notice; opened in 1889; status very much that of Radcliffe until January, 1900, when women graduates were admitted without restriction to the graduate school of Columbia, registering in Columbia, not as heretofore in Barnard, and Barnard was incorporated as an undergraduate women’s college of the university, its dean voting in the university council, and the president of Columbia becoming its president and a member of its board of trustees; Barnard’s faculty consists of the president of the university, the dean of Barnard, and instructors, either men or women, nominated by the dean, approved by Barnard trustees and president of Columbia and appointed by Columbia; courses for A. B. degree and all examinations determined and conducted by Barnard faculty, subject to provisions of university council for maintaining integrity of degree; all degrees conferred by Columbia; after July 1, 1904, no undergraduate courses in Columbia, except in the Teachers’ college, will be open to Barnard seniors as heretofore, complete undergraduate work will be given separately at Barnard, not necessarily by same instructors; 131 undergrad. s.; 76 grad. s.; 73 special s.; productive funds, $150,000; one large building containing lecture rooms, laboratories and accommodation for 65 students, cost, $525,000; vols. in reading room, 1,000; access to Columbia, library; scientific laboratories of Columbia not available; cost of laboratory equipment $9,250; land (in city), 200 × 160 feet; tuition fee, $150.

=Women’s college of Brown university, Providence, Rhode Island=—Affiliated to Brown university; university degrees and examinations opened to women, and their undergraduate instruction informally begun in 1892; women’s college established by Brown university as a regular department of the university in 1897 under control of the university trustees; advisory council of five women appointed by trustees to advise with president of university and dean of women’s college; funds of the women’s college held and administered separately by trustees; all degrees conferred by Brown; women and men examined together; required courses given in Brown repeated to women by same instructors; all instruction given by Brown instructors; all graduate work in Brown open to graduate women without restriction since 1892; women recite with men in many of the smaller elective undergraduate courses; 140 undergrad. s.; 38 grad. s.; 25 special s.; a lecture hall costing $38,000; no residence hall; access to Brown library; scientific laboratories of Brown not available; very inadequate laboratory equipment; no productive funds; tuition fee, $105.

=College for women of Western reserve university, Cleveland, Ohio=—Affiliated to Western reserve university; established by Western reserve in 1888; degrees conferred by Western reserve; graduate department of Western reserve open to graduate women without restriction; separate financial management; separate faculty 21 (9 Ph. D.s.)—14 men, 7 women; 165 undergrad. s.; 18 special s.; productive funds, about $250,000; a lecture hall, a residence hall accommodating 40 students; total cost of buildings, including land, about $200,000; 3 laboratories of men’s college available at certain times; access to Western reserve library; tuition, $85; lowest charge, board, room rent and tuition (beds made by students), $335.

=H. Sophie Newcomb memorial college for women, New Orleans, Louisiana=—Affiliated with Tulane university, but situated in another part of the city; founder, Mrs. Josephine Louise Newcomb; opened 1886; under control of board of trustees of Tulane; graduate department of Tulane university open to graduate women without restriction since 1890; separate financial management; separate president and faculty; 8 instructors (1 Ph. D.)—5 women, 2 without first degrees; 3 men, 1 without first degree; 51 undergrad. s.; 34 special s. (10 in gymnastics); 54 s. of art; 80 pupils in preparatory dept.; art dept.; productive funds, $400,000; a lecture building, a chapel, an art building, a pottery building, two residence halls accommodating 75 students, a high school building; total cost of buildings about $225,000; vols. in library about 6,000; tuition, $100; lowest charge, board, room rent (two in one room, beds made by students) and tuition, $280.

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

=Graduate instruction in the faculty of philosophy=—True university instruction begins after the completion of the college course, and very little such instruction is given by any American university[33] except in the so-called graduate schools belonging to the twenty-three colleges in the United States included in the Federation of graduate clubs.[34] In the following 16 of these 23 graduate schools women are admitted without restriction and compete with men for many of the scholarships and honors: Yale, Brown, Cornell, Columbia, New York university, Pennsylvania, Columbian, Vanderbilt, Missouri, Western reserve, Chicago, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, Leland Stanford Junior; Bryn Mawr and Wellesley admit women only; Harvard admits them to certain courses through the mediation of Radcliffe. There remain, apart from the Catholic university, only 3 graduate schools excluding women: Clark, Princeton and the Johns Hopkins university; and in the Johns Hopkins they are admitted to at least one university department—that of the medical school.[35]

In 1898–99 there were studying in these 23 graduate schools 1,021 women, forming 26.8 per cent of the whole number of graduate students.[36] In 1889–90 the U. S. education report estimates that there were 271 women graduate students out of a total of 2,041 graduate students, or women formed 13.27 per cent of all graduate students; in 1897–98 the report for that year estimates that there were 1,398 women out of a total of 5,816 graduate students, or women formed 24.04 per cent of all students—a remarkable increase as compared to the increase of men graduate students in 8 years.

=Graduate fellowships and scholarships=—In 1899 there were open to women 319 scholarships varying in value from $100 to $400 (50 of these exclusively for women) and 2 foreign scholarships (1 exclusively for women); 81 residence fellowships of the value of $400 or over (18 of these exclusively for women); 24 foreign fellowships of the value of $500 and upwards (12 of these exclusively for women).[37]

_Comparative table of the progress of coeducation and increase of women students from 1890 to 1898 and 1899 in theology, law, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, schools of technology and agriculture._

══════════════════════════════════════╤════════════════════════════════ │ 1890[38] ──────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┬──────────┬────────── │Number of │Number of │Percentage │ colleges │ coed. │ of coed. │ for men │ colleges │ colleges │ only │ │ ──────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┴──────────┴────────── Theology │ No women reported Law │ No women reported Medicine (regular and irregular)[41] │ 67│ 46│ 40.7 Dentistry │ 14│ 13│ 48.1 Pharmacy │ 13│ 16│ 55.2 Schools of technology and agriculture │ 14│ 12│ 46.2 endowed with national land grant[42]│ │ │ ══════════════════════════════════════╧══════════╧══════════╧══════════

══════════════════════════════════════╤════════════════════════════════ │ 1899[39] ──────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┬──────────┬────────── │Number of │Number of │Percentage │ colleges │ coed. │ of coed. │ for men │ colleges │ colleges │ only │ │ ──────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────── Theology │ 97│ 68│ 41.2 Law │ 22│ 64│ 74.4 Medicine (regular and irregular)[41] │ 69│ 80│ 53.7 Dentistry │ 12│ 44│ 78.6 Pharmacy │ 4│ 48│ 92.3 Schools of technology and agriculture │ 16│ 48│ 75. endowed with national land grant[42]│ │ │ ══════════════════════════════════════╧══════════╧══════════╧══════════

══════════════════════════════════════╤═════════════════════ │ 1890[38] ──────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┬────────── │Number of │Percentage │ women │ women of │ students │ all │ │ students ──────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┴────────── Theology │ No women reported Law │ No women reported Medicine (regular and irregular)[41] │ 854│ 5.5 Dentistry │ 53│ 2.0 Pharmacy │ 60│ 2.1 Schools of technology and agriculture │ 774│ 12.5 endowed with national land grant[42]│ │ ══════════════════════════════════════╧══════════╧══════════

══════════════════════════════════════╤═════════════════════ │ 1898[40] ──────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┬────────── │Number of │Percentage │ women │ women of │ students │ all │ │ students ──────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┼────────── Theology │ 198│ 2.4 Law │ 147│ 1.3 Medicine (regular and irregular)[41] │ 1397│ 6.0 Dentistry │ 62│ 2.4 Pharmacy │ 174│ 4.7 Schools of technology and agriculture │ 2281│ 16.1 endowed with national land grant[42]│ │ ══════════════════════════════════════╧══════════╧══════════ Footnote 38:

The numbers of coeducational and other professional schools are estimated from the U. S. ed. rep. for 1889–90.

Footnote 39:

Through the kindness of Mr. James Russell Parsons, Jr., author of the monograph on professional education in the United States, published as one of this series, I am able to insert the figures for 1899, see p. 21. By personal inquiry I have been able to add four to his list of coeducational schools of theology.

Footnote 40:

The number of professional students for the year 1898 is taken from the U. S. ed. rep. for 1897–98.

Footnote 41:

For the sake of clearness I have omitted from the above table the 7 separate medical schools for women, although I have counted their students in the total number of women medical students, both in 1890 and 1898. In 1890 there were studying in the 6 regular medical women’s colleges 425 women, as against 648 women in coeducational regular medical colleges; in 1898 there were studying in them 411 women, as against 1045 in coeducational colleges, a decrease of 3.3 per cent, whereas women students in coeducational medical colleges have increased 16.3 per cent. I limit the comparison to regular medical schools because women have increased relatively more rapidly in irregular medical schools and there is only one separate irregular medical school for women. It is sometimes said that women prefer medical sects because the proportion of women studying in irregular schools is relatively greater than the proportion studying in regular schools; but in 1898, 85.7 per cent of the irregular schools were coeducational and only 46.6 per cent of regular schools, a fact which undoubtedly increases the proportion of students studying in irregular schools.

Footnote 42:

The statistics for the schools of technology and agriculture are taken from the U. S. education report for 1889–90, pp. 1053–1054, and from the report for 1897–98, pp. 1985–1988. I have excluded schools of technology not endowed with the national land grant. In 1890 there were 27 of such schools (5 of them coeducational); in 1898 their number had fallen to 17 (3 of them coeducational). Very few women are studying in these schools; in 1898 women formed only 0.2 per cent of all students studying in them.

=Theology, law, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary science, schools of technology and agriculture=—Ten years ago there were very few women studying in any of these schools. The wonderful increase both in facilities for professional study and in the number of women students during the last eight years may be seen by referring to the comparative table on the opposite page.

It is evident to the impartial observer that coeducation is to be the method in professional schools. Except in medicine, where women were at first excluded from coeducational study by the strongest prejudice that has ever been conquered in any movement, no important separate professional schools, indeed none whatever, except one unimportant school of pharmacy have been founded for women only.[43] It is evident also that the number of women entering upon professional study is increasing rapidly. If we compare the relative increase of men and of women from 1890 to 1898 we obtain the following percentages: increase of students in medicine, men, 51.1 per cent, women, 64.2 per cent; in dentistry, men, 150.2 per cent, women, 205.7 per cent; in pharmacy, men, 25.9 per cent, women, 190 per cent; in technology and agriculture, men, 119.3 per cent, women, 194.7 per cent.

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

There are many questions connected with the college education of American women which possess great interest for the student of social science.

=Number of college women=—In the year 1897–98[44] there were studying in the undergraduate and graduate departments of coeducational colleges and universities 17,338 women, and in the undergraduate and graduate departments of independent and affiliated women’s colleges, division A, 4,959 women, women forming thus 27.4 per cent of the total number of graduate and undergraduate students. The 22 colleges belonging to the Association of collegiate alumnæ, which are, on the whole, the most important colleges in the United States admitting women, have conferred the bachelor’s degree on 12,804 women. If we add to these the graduates of the Women’s college of Brown university, 102 in number, and the graduates of the 14 additional coeducational colleges included in my list of the 58 most important colleges in the United States, we obtain, including those graduating in June, 1899, a total of 14,824 women holding the bachelor’s degree.[45] There is thus formed, even leaving out of account the graduates of the minor colleges, a larger body of educated women than is to be found in any other country in the world. These graduates have received the most strenuous college training obtainable by women in the United States, which does not differ materially from the best college training obtainable by American men (indeed, women graduates of coeducational colleges have received precisely the same training as men), and may fairly be compared with the women who have received college and university training abroad. In other countries women university graduates, or even women who have studied at universities, are very few;[46] in America, on the other hand, the higher education of women has assumed the proportions of a national movement still in progress. We may perhaps be able to guide in some degree its future development, but it has passed the experimental stage and can no longer be opposed with any hope of success. Its results are to be reckoned with as facts.

=Health of college women=[47]—Those who have come into contact with some of the many thousands of healthy normal women studying in college at the present time, or who have had an opportunity to know something of the after-lives of even a small number of college women, believe that experience has proved them to be, both in college, and after leaving college, on the whole, in better physical condition than other women of the same age and social condition. Since, however, people who have not the opportunity of knowledge at first hand continue to regard the health of college women as a subject open for discussion, a new health investigation, based on questions sent to the 12,804 graduates of the 22 colleges belonging to the Association of collegiate alumnæ, is now in progress. The statistical tables will be collated a second time by the Massachusetts bureau of statistics of labor and sent to the Paris exposition as part of the educational exhibit of the Association of collegiate alumnæ.[48]

=Marriage rate of college women=—Here again no positive conclusions can be reached until we know what is the usual marriage rate of women belonging to the social class of women graduates. Everything indicates that the time of marriage is becoming later in the professional classes and that the marriage rate as a whole is decreasing. An investigation undertaken simultaneously with the new health investigation by the Association of collegiate alumnæ will enable us to speak with certainty in regard to the marriage rate of a large number of college women and their sisters.[49] It must be borne in mind that the element of time is very important, and in the case of women the later and therefore younger classes are all larger than the earlier ones, see table on opposite page.

_Marriage rate of college women_

═══════════════════════════════════════╤══════════╤════════════════════ │Opened in │ Percentage of │ │ graduates married ───────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┼──────────────────── Vassar │ 1865 │ 35.1 Kansas │ 1866 │ 31.3 Minnesota │ 1868 │ 24.5 Cornell │} │} Syracuse │} 1870 │} 31.0 Wesleyan │} │} Nebraska │ 1871 │ 24.3 Boston │ 1873 │ 22.2 Wellesley │} 1875 │} 18.4 Smith │} │} Radcliffe │ 1879 │ 16.5 Bryn Mawr │ 1885 │ 15.2 Barnard │ 1889 │ 10.4 Leland Stanford Junior │ 1891 │ 9.7 Chicago │ 1892 │ 9.4 ═══════════════════════════════════════╧══════════╧════════════════════

It will be seen that independent, affiliated and coeducational colleges fall into their proper place in the series, thus showing conclusively that the method of obtaining a college education exercises scarcely any appreciable influence on the marriage rate.

The marriage rate of Bryn Mawr college, calculated in January, 1900, will also serve as an illustration of the importance of time in every consideration of the marriage rate: graduates of the class of 1889, married, 40.7 per cent; graduates of the first two classes, 1889–1890, married, 40.0 per cent; graduates of the first three classes, 1889–1891, married, 33.3 per cent; graduates of the first four classes, 1889–1892, married, 32.9 per cent; graduates of the first five classes, 1889–1893, married, 31.0 per cent; graduates of the first six classes, 1889–1894, married, 30.0 per cent; graduates of the first seven classes, 1889–1895, married, 25.2 per cent; graduates of the first eight classes, 1889–1896, married, 22.8 per cent; graduates of the first nine classes, 1889–1897, married, 20.9 per cent; graduates of the first ten classes, 1889–1898, married, 17.2 per cent; graduates of the first eleven classes, 1889–1899, married, 15.2 per cent.