COEDUCATION AND MARRIAGE 



Women Graduates of Western Colleges and Universities Show Widely Varying 



Marriage Rates, but in All Cases Studied are Higher than Those 



of Eastern Separate Colleges — Nature of the 



Problem Different in Each Institution 



IT IS now well known to eugenists 

 that only from 40 to 50% of the 

 graduates of the great women's 

 colleges of the United States ever 

 marry. These women come, on the 

 whole, from superior families, and the 

 unfortunate results of their celibacy, 

 from a eugenic viewpoint, are widely 

 recognized. 



Coeducation has often been suggested 

 as likely to improve this condition, and 

 several investigations of the marriage 

 rate of women in coeducational institu- 

 tions have been published, which seemed 

 to substantiate this claim. Further 

 data, however, have been needed. 



It is now possible to give the marriage 

 rate of the women graduates of the 

 University of California, Illinois Uni- 

 versity, Ohio State University, Wiscon- 

 sin University, Kansas State Agricul- 

 tural College, and Oberlin College. In 

 these great coeducational institutions, 

 which are probably fairly representative 

 of the universities and colleges of the 

 West, it is found that from 50 to 67% 

 of the women graduates marry. 



A directory of graduates, published by 

 the University of California alumni 

 association a few months ago, lists 

 3,654 women. The first class graduated 

 from the University in 1864, and in the 

 succeeding twenty years just forty-nine 

 women graduated, the first one of them 

 securing her degree in 1874. After that 

 the proportion of women in the institu- 

 tion steadily increased until at present 

 they make up roughly two-fifths of the 

 student body. One-third of the women 



graduates of the University of Califor- 

 nia, it is stated, are now teachers. 



Taking the alumni directory, Arthur 

 Price^ tabulated every tenth name. 

 This gave a random sample of the 

 women graduates, but a rather small 

 one for statistical purposes. He found 

 the record as follows : 



The falling off in the last group, Mr. 

 Price suggests, is perhaps due in part 

 to the short time that has elapsed 

 since graduation. The investigation of 

 Wellesley data by Johnson and Stutz- 

 mann- showed that about one-fourth 

 of the girls who marry at all, do so more 

 than ten years after graduation. 



Mr. Price fiarther found that one-third 

 of all the women who marry at all, 

 marry University of California men. 

 His explanation of the low marriage 

 rate of the earlier classes is as follows: 



"A generation ago, the girls who went 

 to college were actuated by some 

 explicit purpose, some particular zeal of 

 learning. Now, it is a commonplace of 

 experience for bright or studious girls, 

 or girls who want a change of scene, to 

 enter college and graduate. There are 

 few California families of comfortable 

 circumstances who have not at least 

 one daughter a graduate or a student 

 at the State University or Stanford." 



It seems probable however, that the 

 low percentage (28.6) is mainly due to 



1 See San Francisco Examiner, Sunday, October 1, 1916. Mr. Price has kindly given further 

 details in a letter dated October 27. 



2 JouRN.^L OF Heredity, Vol. vi, pp. 250-3. It was found that of the classes 1879-1888, 

 35% had married ten years after graduation, 48% twenty years after graduation. As the authors 

 point out, this long delay in marrying is extremely dysgenic. 



43 



