NATURE 



395 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1874 



THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN 



NONE of the subjects discussed at the recent meeting 

 of the British Association at Belfast were of 

 greater practical importance than the one introduced to 

 the notice of the Economic Section by Mrs. Grey in her 

 paper on the Science of Education, and supplemented 

 by the address afterwards delivered by her at a meeting 

 held under the auspices of the National Union for Im- 

 proving the Education of Women of all Classes. So much 

 nonsense is talked and written on the tliemc of the 

 higher education of women, the _ utterances even of 

 some of those who are looked on as authorities on the 

 i[uestion are too often so doctrinaire and unpractical on 

 one side or the other, that it is a relief to read the well- 

 considered and thoughtful reflections of one who has 

 bestowed much labour and serious thought upon it, and 

 who has given evidence that she is wedded to no pre- 

 conceived views. The crowded attendance at the Section 

 when Mrs. Grey's paper and the two which followed it — 

 also by ladies — were read, and the lengthened and ani- 

 mated discussion to which they gave rise, sufficiently 

 cxince the wide interest felt in the subject by those who 

 attended the meetings of the Association. 



The branch which specially concerns us is the extent 

 to which instruction in some or all of the various branches 

 of science should enter into the liberal education of 

 women ; and this again is but a phase of the more general 

 question as to the mode in which, if at all, the education 

 ot girls should differ from that of boys. We may set aside 

 on the present occasion as a subject of too great import- 

 ance to be discussed in a general article like this, the 

 much-vexed question of the Medical Education of Women. 

 With regard to the difference which has been established 

 by general custom or prejudice between the ordinary curri- 

 culum of the studies of boys and girls. Miss Davies has 

 pointed out with great force, in one of her Essays on the 

 Higher Education of Women, what appear at first 

 sight some glaring inconsistencies and absurdities. To 

 boys who are destined for a mercantile life or a public 

 career, an intimate acquaintance with French and German 

 is now almost indispensable ; Latin and Greek are there- 

 fore almost universally taught in boys' schools, while the 

 modern languages are considered an essential part of the 

 course of study of a girl, to whom they will be of much 

 less service. A fair knowledge of the elements of physics 

 anil chemistry would be of immense advantage to a 

 woman in the management of a household ; but these 

 are subjects considered by many to be decidedly unfcnii- 

 nine. Music is the most ine.xhaustible and harmless re- 

 creation for the mind overtasked with the burden of daily 

 cares ; but music hardly comes within the scope of a boy's 

 education, at least in this country ; while it is almost 

 compulsory on girls, whether they have the talent for it or 

 not, and who have at all events abundant other occupa- 

 tion, such as needle-work, for their leisure moments. The 

 earliest years of a child's life are almost entirely regulated, 

 for good or for evil, by the mother and her female de- 

 pendents ; but any knowledge of human physiology or 

 hygiene has been till recently almost forbidden to the 

 Vol X. — No. 255 



girl on the score of delicacy. May we not sum [up by 

 saying that few men have the 'leisure, after they arrive at 

 manhood, for pursuing the studies of their youth ; while 

 an enormous number of women of the upper and middle 

 classes would be most thankful for a rational substitute for 

 the purposeless vacuity in which they are at present forced 

 to spend a large portion of their time ? And yet in the 

 face of this it is still the orthodox creed that the educa- 

 tion which any English gentleman gets or can get at a 

 public school or University is too broad or too deep for 

 the mass of women of the same class. 



An almost ludicrous instance of the difficulty which is 

 experienced practically in the attempt to frame a curricu- 

 lum of studies which shall be specially adapted for girls, 

 was brought out in the recent debate in the Convocation 

 of the University of London on the desirableness of ad- 

 mitting women to degrees. When the existing General 

 Examination for women was instituted, a Committee of 

 the Senate was appointed to draw up a scheme which 

 should meet all the requirements of the case. After long 

 deliberation, the extent to which it was found possible to 

 deviate from the ordinatry Matriculation examination was 

 this : Greek was made optional ; and girls were allowed to 

 take Botany if they wished instead of Chemistry, and 

 Italian if they preferred it instead of German ; they were 

 also exempted from all the books of Euclid except the 

 first, if they took Geography instead ! The first of these 

 indulgences is now extended to boys ; and the other dif- 

 ferences are so trivial that we are glad to see that another 

 Committee of the Senate has already recommended that 

 the examination be altogether assimilated to that for 

 Matriculation. When this is done, it may possibly occur 

 to the Senate that there will be no object in keeping up a 

 distinction of name between the two ; and how will it 

 then be possible to refuse to women examinations which 

 shall be equivalent to those that admit men to degrees, at 

 least in the Faculties of Arts, Science, and Laws ? We 

 do not propose here to discuss the expediency of 

 nominally permitting women to take degrees in our 

 universities ; but there is one aspect of the question 

 which has hardly been sufficiently considered by those 

 who oppose the innovation. A university degree is the 

 acknowledged hall-mark of a certain standard of educa- 

 tion for men who make teaching their profession. A 

 very large number of women are equally dependent on 

 teaching as a means of livelihood ; notwithstanding the 

 many additional facilities given them of late years for 

 acquiring knowledge, they have at present no equivalent 

 test of their qualifications ; and as long as this is the 

 case the really competent governess or schoolmistress 

 will always be subject to unequal competition from her 

 incompetent sisters, and the rising generation of both 

 boys and girls will be the sufferers. 



The vision that fiightens many from looking with 

 candid and impartial mind at the problem of the higher 

 education of women is the fear that the educated woman 

 will be lifted out of what we are pleased to term her sphere, 

 and rendered unfit for what man considers to be her 

 duties. But the admirers of the uneducated woman may 

 take comfort in the assurance given them by I'rof. 

 Fawcett at the Brighton meeting of the British Asso- 

 ciation, that whatever lacilities are offered for im- 

 proving their minds, there will still be left for many 



