WOMEN IN SCIENCE 



Delivered at Mt. St. Vincent on the Hudson 



IT has been said that the twentieth century has become, 

 in an especial way, the woman's century. All forms of 

 feminine activity have started up throughout the length 

 and breadth of our land. But those who speak thus calmly 

 ignore and seldom investigate what women have done in the 

 past. To you of the graduating class, this cannot fail to be 

 of the greatest interest. You are now prepared to exercise 

 your intellectual activities and to take part in the social and 

 mental life around you. Feminine activities have assumed 

 myriad forms — from seeking the suffrage and contending with 

 men in national and municipal problems to exploring the waste 

 places of science and all other forms of human endeavor to 

 benefit humanity. 



Not the least of these many activities for the modern woman 

 is the steady growth of Catholic colleges for women through- 

 out the land. It has sometimes been made a reproach to the 

 Church that she failed to provide an adequate outlet for the 

 intellectual activities of her young womanhood. The reproach 

 may have been true a half-century ago ; but you and I have 

 cause to know that the reasons for such lack were chiefly 

 financial and not intellectual. 



A picture of what the Church has accompHshed in the nine- 

 teenth century should be an augury and an inspiration for the 

 graduates of this college to-day. One hundred years ago 

 there were but a handful of Catholics along the fringe of sea- 

 coast which formed the American States of that day, barely 

 enough to warrant the appointment of three bishops, with a 

 few straggling churches. But to-day we have temples which 

 equal any in the Christian world, and, what is more, they are 

 constantly filled; we have institutions of charity, education 

 and mercy throughout the land. These are constantly grow- 

 ing and widening their activities and influence. We are grow- 

 ing apace, so that we are reckoned with as one of the greatest 



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