232 THE TREND OF THE RACE 



Proportions of Graduates who Marry 



(From Popenoe and Johnson's Applied Eugenics) 



Decade of graduation '45 '55 '65 '75 '85 '95 '0° 



Per cent married 78 74 67 72 59 57 55 



Per cent not in home-making 



occupations 20 13 12 11 30 30 39 



Miss Shinn {Century, Oct., 1895) gives the following data on 

 the marriage rates of college women assuming graduation at 

 the average age of 22 : 



Marriage Rates of College Graduates. 



Age Coeducated Separate 



25 38.1 29.6 



30 49-9 40 • I 



35 53-6 46.6 



40 569 518 



It may be said that about 50 per cent of college women remain 

 unmarried. It is apparently true that women of superior intellect 

 and force of character are those who, whether college women or 

 not, are pretty apt to be selected for spinsterhood. They are 

 more likely to win positions which permit them to enjoy the 

 comforts and many of the luxuries of life; they develop other 

 interests which often detract from the appeal to matrimony. 

 In some cases they lose a certain feminine charm, a misfortune 

 that arouses a deep-seated instinctive recoil in the opposite sex. 

 There can be no doubt that the race is losing a vast wealth of 

 material for motherhood of the best and most efficient type. 

 Many of the women who are nowadays most prone to sacrifice 

 motherhood to a "career" are just the ones upon whom the obli- 

 gation of motherhood should rest with the greatest weight. It 

 may be seriously doubted if the growing independence of women, 

 despite its many advantages, has proven an unmixed blessing. 

 Thus far it has worked to deteriorate the race in the interests of 

 social advancement, a process which is bound to be disastrous in 

 the long run. 



