Banker: Coeducation and Eugenics 



209 



women, and have been arranged by 

 decades, this being a con\'enient period 

 of time and also permitting the segrega- 

 tion of the statistics for the two phases 

 of the institutional life, the first two 

 decades covering Genesee College and 

 the last three belonging strictly to 

 Syracuse. It is evident that at the 

 time of transition there is no marked 

 differentiation in the statistics, a fact 

 which confirms our belief that there was 

 no essential break in the continuity of 

 the institutional life. 



In compiling the figures only those 

 students who graduated in l.beral arts 

 courses were considered. Figures for 

 non-graduates would be interesting for 

 comparison especially in the case of the 

 women, but the records do not give the 

 later history of this group. The re- 

 striction to liberal art work seemed 

 necessary in order that the results 

 might be comparable with -statistics 

 previously published for men's and 

 women's colleges. Prior to 1873 there 

 were no fine arts students, but after 

 that date they increased rapidly, and 

 it must be remembered that in the 

 last two decades covered by our figures 

 there was a considerable body of 

 women in fine arts work, many of 

 whom became the wives of the men in 

 the liberal arts college. This has bear- 

 ing on one of our categories as will be 

 seen later. 



STUDENT BODY HOMOGENEOUS 



Naturally the first comparison to be 

 made is between the two tables. In 

 this case we have two populations 

 differentiated in only the one factor of 

 sex. Both men and women were drawn 

 from the same social strata. This was 

 particularly true of the liberal arts col- 

 lege. There were students of both sexes 

 from homes of wealth, at least sufficient 

 to provide for all their necessities ; there 

 were some in straitened circimistances 

 demanding close economy; and there 

 were yet others really struggling with 

 poverty. In each class there were 

 apparently as many women as men in 

 proportion to the total number of each 

 in the college, so far as one could judge 



who was intimately acquainted with 

 the student life of the institution. The 

 college environment, at least in the last 

 two or three decades, was absolutely 

 uniform. The students of both sexes 

 roomed largely in private houses in the 

 vicinity of the college or in a few 

 fraternity club-houses and took their 

 meals at private boarding houses or 

 students' clubs. There were no dormi- 

 tories, no matron or dean of women, 

 and the young women were under no 

 more surveillance as to conduct and 

 social liberties than the young men; for 

 many there was doubtless a larger 

 liberty in social life than they had been 

 permitted to enjoy at home. The two 

 sexes met in the same classrooms, 

 heard the same lectures, and recited in 

 each other's presence. 



The first point to be considered in a 

 comparison of the two sexes is the pro- 

 portion that marry. In the earlier de- 

 cades the nmnbers involved are so small 

 that considerable variation in averages 

 or percentages is probably of no great 

 significance. Both sexes seem at first 

 to have maintained a nearly equal fre- 

 quency of marriage, but in the later 

 decades there is a remarkable falling 

 off in the percentage of women who 

 marry, and, for the whole period, we 

 have only 57% of the women as com- 

 pared to 81% of the men. The signific- 

 ance of this, if any, we will leave for 

 later discussion. 



The next item in the table, "Average 

 age at marriage," need detain us but 

 briefly. There appears nothing peculiar 

 about it. The women average about a 

 year younger than the men and the 

 figures appear remarkably uniform es- 

 pecially for the young men. In view of 

 the fact that during the period covered 

 the amount of preparation reciuired of 

 young men for professional life has 

 steadily augmented, it seems remarkable 

 that there has not been an advancing 

 average age at marriage. This has 

 commonly been predicated, but our 

 figures do not support the hypothesis. 

 They sustain the deductions of Phillips 

 as to similar conditions at Harvard and 

 Yale.i 



1 Phillips, John C. A Study of the Birth Rate in Harvard and Yale Graduates. Har^-ard 

 Graduates Magazine, 25: 25-34. Reprinted in part in the Journ.vl of Heredity, 7: 565-569. 



