THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 27 



not have been very far removed, and not much further off than 

 five or six thousand years from the present date ; and those skele- 

 tons found near Mentone may be those of men who lived eight 

 or nine thousand years ago, before the coldest epoch had gradually 

 driven them further south, near the completion of the evolution 

 of the race, and its consolidation into the perfect form of man, 

 whose intelligence lives and breathes as much as does his more 

 visible and wonderfully formed body. 



RECENT TENDENCIES IN THE EDUCATION OF 



WOMEN. 



BY MARY ROBERTS SMITH, 



ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN SOCIOLOGY, LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY. 



THE first women who asked admission to colleges which offered 

 a higher education to men were those whose strong indi- 

 viduality and distinctive intellectual bent demanded some other 

 outlet than housekeeping for their energies. They wished to 

 teach in the higher schools, or to enter the professions of litera- 

 ture, law, or medicine. That competition with men in these lines 

 required better training than was afforded by the " female semi- 

 nary " was obvious, and they naturally inferred that it was only 

 to be had by means of the same curriculum as that which men 

 pursued. These first women, therefore, applied themselves to 

 mathematics, Greek, and Latin, and found in them satisfaction 

 for hungry minds, if not a perfect equipment for their business 

 in life. Although many of them afterward married, their strong 

 intellectuality is clearly shown by the mark which they have 

 left on their generation in some lines of professional labor. 



At that time women were not prepared to question the meth- 

 ods of education ; in such matters they were accustomed to be led 

 by men, and what seemed good to men seemed doubly good to 

 those to whom it was newly opened. Indeed, before the middle 

 of this century it had not occurred to many minds that anything 

 else than the classical curriculum could be the basis of a truly 

 high education. What wonder, then, that women should eagerly 

 seek that which men valued most ? 



When it had once been granted by even a small number of 

 intelligent people that it might be desirable for some women to 

 seek a higher education, the door was practically open to any 

 ambitious girl who had the will-power to overcome prejudice at 

 home and the pluck to endure the opposition and scorn of men at 

 college. Coeducation was- the outcome of this tendency to de- 

 mand for women precisely the same kind of education as that 



