Part 6

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).

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. Moved the advertising section from the second page to the end. 2. Changed “re ite” to “recite” on p. 13. 3. Silently corrected typographical errors. 4. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed. 5. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. 6. Enclosed bold font in =equals=.