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receiving for years. Mary Lyon, busy in 1838 in founding Mt. 

 Holyoke, demanded a higher education for women who might thus 

 fit themselves to fiU the places which were waiting for them. Mary 

 Lyon was far ahead of her time. She foresaw that women would 

 enter the teaching profession and knew that they needed prepara- 

 tion. What woman without special training would today dare to 

 oflfer herseif as a candidate for a school position? The Girls' Latin 

 School founded in Boston in 1878 through the efforts of many 

 women in that city, was an expression of the conviction of these 

 women that, given an even chance, girls could prove themselves 

 equal to the excessive demands of a classical education. The steady 

 growth of this school with its rigidly maintained high Standard has 

 justified the belief of these founders. Wherever we turn, we find 

 similar results : fears that College women would not marry are not 

 borne out by statistics ; f orebodings that health would be ruined are 

 removed by records of our gymnastic departments which show im- 

 proved physical conditions, due probably to the regularity of College 

 life ; doubts of the ability of women to maintain lines of thought are 

 dispelled by the long lists of women filling positions inside our Col- 

 leges and outside, where intellectual worth and executive power are 

 the prerequisites. Think for a moment of Miss Thomas at Bryn 

 Mawr, of Miss Pendieton at Wellesley, and of Miss Woolley at Mt. 

 Holyoke, to mention only a few. 



The demonstration of our ability to cope with an education is 

 complete. Now we face a new Situation: what education is best? 

 To quote Dr. Eliot again f rom the same address : " We are free now 

 to arrange for an education for women which is specially adapted to 

 the needs of women." And again : " The prime motive of the 

 higher education of women should be recognized as the development 

 in women of the capacities and powers which fit them to make 

 family life more intelligent, more enjoyable, happier, more produc- 

 tive — productive in every sense, physically, mentally and spiritually." 

 Time was when Dr. Eliot did not believe in higher education for 

 women. I once heard of an episode which took place in a Har- 

 vard faculty meeting. President Eliot had been pleading the cause 

 of Radcliffe, then known as "The Annex." One of the professors 

 remarked that he remembered a similar meeting held in that very 



