Elizabeth Cady Stanton Speeches and Writings File Speech: "Co-education" 1872 From 1868 until 1880, Mrs. Stanton was increasing occupied as a popular lecturer in the Lyceum field. She was usually engaged in this work eight or nine months each year. A lecture to meet some special occasion was written "on the wing" often on the back of a former lecture, often on odd sheets picked up at some small hotel. The date of the following was 1872. Co-education. The planetary world with its changing seasons, days, & nights, evolved for centuries in order, & harmony, before Newton discovered the law of gravitation. This western continent, slumbered peacefully amid the tidal waves of the Atlantic, & Pacific long before Columbus prophesied of this far off land. And so, in social life, great facts maintain themselves, before we take cognizance of their existence, in spite of theories that would block every step in progress, as abundant as the sands of the sea, & as easily washed away. Oftimes we have heard conceit, & ignorance declare this, & that connot be, & lo! it is. The co-education of the sexes, as a practical experiment, has been going on in this country for the greater part of a century, although "The Nation," President Eliot of Harvard College, Dr. Edward Clark of Boston and others just aroused to the consideration of this question, declare such an experiment "dangerous," "impracticable," "contrary to nature," "at variance with the ordinances of God", "destructive of the health morals & manners of our girls"; in fact, "would tend to undermine the whole foundation of our social edifice" Such solemn warnings, from the pulpit, the press, & the professor's chair, are given in face of the facts, that in district schools, high schools, & academics, boys & girls, "young men, & women of marriagable age," coming from distant homes," have been, & are being educated together, in all the northern states. In almost every western college, & university, we find boys, & girls studying all branches, side by side-mathematics, languages law, medicine, theology. The girls maintaining good morals, manners, and health, & also equal rank in scholarship. The Presidents, Professors, Regents, & Trustees, at the head of these institutions, have given strong, unqualified testimony, in favor of the co-education of the sexes in colleges, & universities, as well as 8 well as academies, & district schools. It is over thirty years since western colleges began the experiment, & now, the great state of New York, in opening Cornell University to girls, has set her seal of approbation on the system. [¶] Hence this is no longer a matter [*89*] 9 of theory in America, but an established fact. It is a loss of time, & effort, to rest this question, a single hour, on the judgement of men bound by custom, & prejudice, who have never fairly considered the ethics of the subject, nor the facts that exist around them [*90*] 10 [Paragraph Symbol] President White of Cornell University, in his able majority report[,] in favor of admitting girls to that institution, says, the committee in search of facts, corresponded with numbers of persons, in various parts of the country, whose experience in the education of the sexes together, made their [*91*] 11 statements of value, but they did not consult, the authorities of colleges, that had never tried the system; That would have been, as if the Japanese authorities, roused to the necessity of railroads, & telegraphy, had corresponded with eminent Chinese philosophers, regarding the ethics of the subject, instead of sending persons, to observe the [92] .12. working of railroads, & telegraphs where they are already in use. [Paragraph symbol] Following this plan, I have collected abundant testimony, as to the wisdom of the experiment, we have so long tried in this country; to give it all would make my paper too voluminous; moreover the real question to day, is not the safety [*93*] .13. & wisdom of co-education, for that is already proven, but rather, shall the wealthy, well endowed colleges of the east, with all their advantages, be thrown open to girls, or shall the people of the several states, be taxed to build, & endow similar ones for [girls] them? [*94*] .14. [Paragraph symbol] When we consider the thought, effort, time and money, requisite to do the latter, it is evident, that the present generation of girls would pass away, before that could be accomplished. Morover, the same aguments that would rouse popular sentiment to do this work, would open Harvard, Yale, & Columbia. In a financial point of view, it would be far easier [*95*] 15 to open the colleges, we have, to girls, than to found others. And this is a point, that common sense men, & legislators are wont to consider, When they are told that there are sixteen colleges, & universities for boys in the [for boys] state of New York, with two hundred professors, & $15,000,000 and grants of land in addition,, some, with [*96*] .16. empty halls, they would say, "rather than repeat this labor, & expense to build separate colleges, let our daughters enter existing institutions, & use our means, all educational funds & appropriations, to improve & make them [all] what they should be. Buildings, libraries, scientific apparatus, all the appliances for complete education [*97*] .17. cannot be spoken into existence; they are the results of oft repeated acts of state, & individual munificence, they grow, like systems of government, religion, & education. Other Harvards, Columbias, & Yales, for girls are impossible for generations, & we should be satisfied with nothing less. Women of wealth have contributed [*98*] .18. to these institutions, for boys, all over the land; directly, by munificent bequests, & indirectly, by the taxes they have paid for their endowments; [and] therefore, they have a right to an equal share in their benefits. It is important, for the girls, now knocking at the doors of these venerable [*99*] .19. institutions, to know that they have a right inside. There is no law human, or divine, nothing in their charters, that forbids. Nothing, but the crotchets of a few conservative minds, to combat, & conquer. In a recent discussion on Co-education, before the social [*100*] .20. science association in Boston, Wendell Phillips. declared the right of every girl, born in Massachusetts, to walk up, & down old Harvard's Halls. He says. [Sevanster?] lead ronp. [solit] Harvard College belongs to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; and if he had a daughter and her health was such and her disposition such that she wanted to go, he would carry it to the Supreme Court--if he supposed there were an honest one--and claim it as a right. If Harvard College wants to draw back within the line of certain theories and her own conceptions, let her disgorge the contributions of the State, and then, when she relies on her own funds, when she is a private way, she may put up a sign, "This is a private way; dangerous passing here." But while it is opened by the State, accepted by the Commissioners, graded and hardened by the labor of the Commonwealth, must it be opened to all! 21. President Pierce, in an address to the graduating class of Rutgers College, maintains the same right. He says. lead norp [solid] If then the law of the land creates privileged classes, such, for instance, as orders of nobility, on whom it bestows powers not given to others, it makes distinctions that are repugnant alike to the teachings of Christianity and of experience. The utter rejection of this sort of feudalism from the Constitution of the United States was a great step in the progress of Christian civilization, and is soon to be followed throughout the world. But if the State fulfils its duty to a part of the people in the bestowment of that which it is a benefit for them to receive and a duty for the State to give, and does not do the same for the whole, or, if it does this for such other [par?] in a less degree, its neglect of these, or its less complete fulfilment of its duty towards them against whom it thus discriminates, this is in the nature of a wrong, and tends to create an inequality among those entitled to equal treatment, which is the essential injustice of that feudalism which was meant to be wholly repudiated and forever banished from this country. Precisely this has been done by the State in the matter of the education of women, and by the community in copying the example of the State. Now, the relation between religion and education is that of parent and child. Wrong, then, in a matter of such great importance as the education of one-half of the whole people, may well claim the earnest attention of the Christian Church, and, therefore, I deem it entirely appropriate to this Sabbath evening and to this house of worship, to argue the following proposition: That while the State, in granting great sums of money for the education of men, and the community, in imitating in this, the example of the State, have done well; yet, in so much as both have failed to do so equally for women, this less complete fulfilment of public duty is not only a great wrong to a part of the community, but a great harm to the whole, as it directly fosters an inequality which is repugnant to Christianity and the the best interests of society. 22. Here we have the opinions of two able men, representing widely different classes of thinkers, that girls are excluded from our colleges & universities contrary to law, to the spirit of our constitution, & to the theory of our government. The essential element of republican government 23. is opposed to all sorts of feudalism, to orders of nobility, to privileged classes, to all discrimination among citizens. Our rulers have come to understand this principle, as applied to men of color. Can nothing but the cannons' roar, & loud artillery, enable them to see its application to woman? X put in pg (24) 24.a To show how unequally women have been treated, in this country, of equal rights & privileges, contrast the educational advantages of the sexes in the state of New York. The ideal college in the state is Columbia, founded in 1754. It has fifteen professors, & its buildings, apparatus, & funds amount 24.b. to $3,300,000. Of the two youngest, the Free College of New York, has twenty officers in the faculty, its buildings, & apparatus amount to $262,000, & its yearly appropriations represent a capital of $2,500,000. Cornell University has thirty in its faculty. It has received a valuable grant 24c of land from the United States, as well as a vast sum from private liberality, & it's endowment is variously estimated, at from two, to three millions. The whole number of colleges, & universities in this state is sixteen with about two hundred [??sepors], & $1,000,000 capital invested. It should 24 d also be noted, that the provision for the education of men in this state, which began at so early a period, has been greatly increased within a few years, as seen in the endowment of Cornell University, the College of New York, the University of Rochester & the new University of Syracuse, for which 24e last half a million of dollars has been subscribed within a few months; besides large sums recently contributed to other institutions. But, from the first settlement of the state, down to within a few years, there have been no colleges for women, & there are now but few viz: Ingham University, 24 F Elmira, Vassar, & Rutgers Colleges. We may now add Cornell University as, by the munificent gift, of the Hon. Henry W Sage of Brooklyn, a building is already being constructed, for the accommodation of girls. Rutger has no endowment, the funds of the other three amount 24 .G. to about $100,000, their buildings, & apparatus to about $1,000,000. More than half of this, is credited to Vassar, the munificent donation of Matthew Vassar. [Paragraph symbol] Now, Somes here we have the estimate, in dollars, & [&] cents. of the popular value placed respectively on the education of men, & women [*111*] 24 .H. $15,000,000 against $1,100,000. What say the women tax payers of the state, to this inequality? And yet, through all these years, noble women[,] who believed in woman's sphere, [&] who never talked of property rights, or the election franchise, did their best to raise thought to the higher education of girls. [*112*] 24.I. Emma Willard, Hannah Upham, Caroline Stanton, Delia Sackett, though they could never get an appropriation from the legislature, for their schools, nor a bequest from women of wealth, yet, like pillars of light they have led the way [in which] in which Matthew Vassar & [*113*] 24 .J. Henry. W. Sage have followed. Verily these men, in funding, & fostering Vassar & Cornell, have done more for human advancement, than any military chieftains of ancient, or modern times, Buried for centuries beneath [*114*] 24 .K. mountains of ignorance[,] prejudice, & superstition. We cannot estimate the hidden treasures that the development of womans mind[,] will add to the wealth of the state. Let the daughters, of New York now say, with united voice, "no more appropriations 24 .L. for the education of boys, until the girls have drawn $15,000,000 from the state treasury, to endow their institutions of learning, or until the leaders of education, in this state, are nice enough, to throw open all institutions of learning to both sexes." .24.M [enable them to see its application to woman ? x see A] If the daughters of New York & Massachusetts, as Mr Phillips & Branden Pierce assert have the right to enter Harvard & Columbia why are they denied? One says there is a difference in the sexes, therefore there should be a difference in the education, .25. No doubt there is sex in the moral & spiritual world, as well as in the vegetable, & animal kingdoms. And [&] it is because of this very principle, of this very difference in man, & woman that they should be educated together. All our systems must be fragmentary, & introverted until we have the masculine & feminine .26. -dements united; until we have a flow & interflow of brain forces until man & woman occupy the same plane of thought. Man can never reach the divinest heights of which is he is capable, until woman is ready to meet him there. But this difference, in the sexes is too subtle; [*119*] .27. and as yet, too little understood, to attempt to shape all the conditions of life, with reference to it. Those faculties, & powers of mind & body, that are common to both sexes, are what it is proposed to educate in our schools. We may safely trust the rest to Nature;- to preserve & educate that subtle difference called sex, [*120*] .28. [that] which she alone understands. We do not find ourselves, in home life, compelled to spread different tables, to provide apartments at higher[,] or lower degrees of heat, for the different sexes. We go to the same churches[,] & lectures & swallow the same theology, to the same theaters, operas, balls, & parties, [*121*] .29. & breath the same carbonic acid gas. We travel in the same street cars, railroads, & steamboats, & are smashed up, & blow up in the same way. Though the insurance companies, do make a difference, believing that women, like cats, have nine lives, they insure us against death.. but not accidents. Again, this principle of sex, does not affect the common individual manifestations. [*122*] .30. Behold! man eats, drinks, & sleeps; & so does woman. He loves, is religious, penitent, prayerful, reverent; & so is woman. He hates, is irritable, impatient, unreasonable, tyrannical; & so is woman. He is noble, courageous, self reliant, generous, magnanimous, & so is woman. What virtue or vice, .31. What aspiration or appetite, has ever crowned, or clouded the glory of manhood, [that] we have not seen, in woman, too, its beauty, or its blight? Are not our hopes & fears, for time & eternity, the same? In country schools, where boys & girls are educated together, sex is lost sight of on the play ground, .32. & in the recitation room. Who has not seen a girl, wash a boy's face in the snow, & carry off a prize in the classics? In studying Algebra & Geometry, in reading Virgil & the Greek testament, who ever found a feminine way? Or of extracting the cube root of x,y,z? Or any masculine way, of giving through the minds .33. & tenses of the verbs "amo", & "tupto" ? Let those, who quote nature so freely, consider her treatment of this principle of sex that pervades all organic life. All living things, inhabiting the three elements, land, air, & water, from the vienless aphis that lives his hour, upon the tiny 126 leaf. 34 to the ichthrosaurus, that crawled among the rushes in the giant times if the earth, from the lichen of an arctic sock to the towering palm of a tropic forest, all have this distinction of sex, as clearly or widely marked as in man, & yet , we find nowhere two systems of alimentation, two sets of means 35 for the support, mirror of this two- -fold life. The male & female plant, the male & female animal, through the entire range of animated being inhale the same vital atmosphere, drink from the same gushing fountain, bask in the same vivifying sunlight, draw all the same resources 36 of their existence, growth from one common storehouse. It, then, it would be ridiculous to talk of male & female atmospheres,springs,rains,or sunshine, how much more ridiculous is it to talk of male & female coeducation schools, colleges,seeing that this principle of sex .37.a. is still more subtle in the world of mind than in that of matter! To quote again your President Pierce's very able address on this point, he says, {"Y. W. Higginson in a (Leader) {recent paper before the {joint science association {in Boston said (solid) non solid lead nonp [*130*] There is a difference between the sexes that at once raises the question whether there should not be a difference in their education. After the most careful thought that I could give the subject, I am of the opinion that it should be the same to a much greater extent than most persons are willing to concede. Up to a certain point the education of men is much the same; beyond that point comes in a special training. Thus, on leaving college, the young man who is to pursue law receives a legal training. But the great fact here to be noticed is, that , up to a certain point all liberally-educated men are trained much in the same manner. For a long time a liberal education seems to take no note of the specific ends, which, finally, it may be desirable to aim at. It contents itself with enlarging and strengthening the mental powers . It unrolls before the young man the ample page of knowledge, confident that this is the best preparation for any path that he may finally choose. If, then, it is best for the young man that, by a liberal education, his memory should be strengthened, his reasoning powers disciplined, his judgment matured, his mind enlarged - why is it not best for the young woman also? This is a question for those who differ with us to answer. It is a question that more would seriously ask, were it not that the minds of many are unconsciously swayed by a belief in the essential inferiority of woman. and restricting them to the judicious dry toast and the enlivening teacup. 1. one of the fallacies, [for instance] is that which confounds the laws of sex with the laws of digestion Man and Woman being of different sexes, says some physiologist, must obviously require different intellectual diet. Why so, if they do not need different physical diet? If we go home and dine with the physiologist, we find him politely assisting his wife to soup, and his daughter to roast mutton, ignoring the fact of sex. His own dinner-table refutes his theory; his knife is sharper than his logic, and his joints of mutton disjoint his argument. Sex is certainly as marked in the body as it is anywhere, Yet nature shows an essential identity of the digestive system in Man and Woman. If this is true of the body it would seem to be true of the mind. To say, boys study Greek and mathematics, therefore,girls, being different, should not, is as if you said, boys eat beef and potatoes, therefore girls being different, must find something else to eat. I resist the argument of the physiologist, therefore, till I see him prohibiting his own womankind from the dinner they have superintende [*130*] ¶ [*37 [1/2 a] B. "Inferiority," here, is the whole difficulty in a nut shell, judged alone by the comparative advantages we see for the education of the sexes. Men are considered "superior"; hence, their education has seemed to all, of primal importance; even women of wealth, while making munificent bequests to institutions 37 1/4 C. for boys, have uniformly ignored their own sex, ¶ We may talk of " the angels of society," "whose mission is the holiest on earth," "who are the moral power" of the world, " but who believes this? Women themselves? Have they shown it , in this work of education? In [*131a*] 37 giving thousands to institutions that forbid a woman to cross their thresholds, & nothing to those that welcome them there? Has one woman yet made a valuable bequest to Vassar College, the best appointed institution for girls in the world? as to Cornell University, that has opened its doors to all? When women themselves, by their acts, sanction & accept this charge of "inferiority," we need not wonder that man acts in the same opinion. 38. "Inferiority" is what these gentleman really mean when they talk of "difference of sex." If this impeachment of [the] feminine mind[s] has any force, instead of repressing their efforts to secure higher education, thus making the "inferiority" still greater, every encouragement, advantage, and appliance, to stimulate [them] women in the right direction, 39 A should be as freely put forth, as they have been for the "Superior Sex," from the beginning. Were this done, the degrees of "inferiority" might be greatly decreased, & the sexes brought on the same plane In fact, where this has been done, they have been annihilated. the tables, completely turned, & the girls proved superior to the boys. 39B [This is the testemony, that] 41 Dr. Armstrong [,] Principal of the state Normal school at Fredonia [,] & whose experience [ten] extends to colleges also, Principal Sheldon of Oswego [,] and[,] & last though not least, , President Mark Hopkins of Williams College [,] when such men all testify in favor of Coeducation, Columbia, Union & our New York Free Academy [,] need not longer 135 39B [11. Another of these ghosts of objections is the asumption of the hopeless intellectual inferiority in the case of women. I call it an assumption, because there is no class of facts directly sustaining it, and the class of facts which have most to do with it - the records, that is, of our public schools - look just the other way.] The school superintendent of my own city said to me: "Those who theorize on public schools without personal knowledge imagine us to be constantly taxing the powers of the girls to keep them up to the standard of the boys. It is the other way; my whole struggle is to keep the boys up to a grade which the girls maintain without difficulty." [*Col T.W. Higginson in a recent paper Breview for the Boston Club said*] 135C I myself remember, in a city where we had twenty prize medals for the high school, that two-thirds of the pupils were girls, and all our effort was to keep the girls from getting three-quarters of the prizes. Girls are so quick-witted, they have so few distractions compared to boys, and their school constitutes so much larger an interest in their lives, that they unquestionably hold their own, and it may be a little more that their own, in our high schools and academies. It is pretty safe inference that they will not drop far behind in university studies, and I am disposed to adopt as a general formula that certificate given by the school committee of a New Hampshire town to a teacher: "This is to certify that Fanny Noyes stands on a medium with other girls of her age and sex, and for what I know is as good as folks in general!" 135a Heine has pointed out, in his "Reisebilder," that the young men of these days are very severely taxed -they have so much to keep in their heads -whist, politics, genealogies, the liturgy, carving, and all sorts of things - that it is no wonder they forget their mathematics and history. From some of those distractions, at least, young ladies are free: even the demands of dress do not quite fill the place of these. And as for the demands of society, we must remember that these are only felt severely among a very few hundred or thousand, in a few large cities. In almost any town in New England the obstacle in the way of a studious girl is not want of time, but want of teaching and encouragement. So long as she is allowed to stay in the high school, she holds her own, and she stays so long that it taxes the ingenuity of the committee to get rid of her. During the short- lived experience at a high school in Boston in 1826, it was made a serious charge against it that the girls would not leave it. Good President Quincy said with plaintive earnestness: "of all those who entered the high school, not one, during the 18 months it was in operation, voluntarily quitted it, and there was no reason to suppose that nay one would voluntarily quit for the whole three years, except in case of marriage." Strange to say, this was what killed the institution - this preposterous pertinacity - this love of knowledge which refused to leave school for anything short of honorable wedlock! The school had to be abolished in order to graduate the class: a method too suggestive of Charles Lamb's "Dissertation on Roast Pig" to be generally desirable. 135b, 40. carter This is the testimony that comes from every college x where girls have had fair play. And there is no stronger proof, of the natural chivalry of man, than the apparent pleasure with which these President, & Professors, leading educators publish the complementary facts. When such men in the state of New York as Samuel. B. Woolworth, secretary of the Board of Regents. x &, for thirty two years, Principal x of some of our best Academies, Principal House of the state Normal school at Cortland. 42. fear to make the experiment. Some objectors think, it could demoralize young girls to associate with the boys who crowd our colleges. Can it be that brothers & sisters, who have played together through all the years of childhood, who have shared each other's joys & sorrows, could in safety tread the same college halls, 43. study the same books, listen to the same lectures, draw diagrams on the same black board, try chemical experiments with the same apparatus, chop logic on the same subjects, under the watchful eye of teachers, under college rules & discipline? Would our daughters be in greater danger with our neighbors' sons in such conditions, than in evening 44 promenades in crowded cities, in theaters operas, balls, parties, dancing schools, sleigh rides, & picnics? There is no country in the world where boys & girls, men & women, mingle as freely together, as here, no country can boast as high a standard of morality. Such an objection might do in Turkey, but not in republican America. 45. But it be true that if the moral atmosphere of our colleges is such that no young lady of refinement could safely enter there, these nice mothers would be willing to have their sons subjected to such influences. Might we not find here new fields of missionary effort? The Christian work of devout women has been specially blessed in India, the Sandwich .46. Islands, might [they] it not be equally effective in Harvard, Yale, Columbia? Remember, these boys, are to be our future statesman, our teachers of law, theology, medicine; the husbands[,] & fathers, of the next generation. Can the purifying work begin too soon? Are not the best interests of the state, the church[,] & the home, all .47. involved in the moral atmosphere[,] of our College halls? If it were fitting for a Florence Nightingale, amid the horrors of war, in a Russian Hospital, to minister to the wants of sick[,] & dying soldiers, may not noble girls, with equal propriety[,] & advantage, guard the morals of our future heroes, in all these institutions .48.-49 of learning? ¶ I think, however, that objectors have magnified the dangers, in this direction, & have done the young gentlemen, in our colleges great injustice. For the [women] ladies, who have entered these temples of learning, send back no reports of "hotbeds of vice," or of "human monstrosities,." It may be, then Bugbears disappeared for the coming of the young ladies, as the snakes, & frogs of Ireland[,] fled before St. Patrick. 50. Neither have these young lady students lost their "natural delicacy," "refinement," and "womanliness," nor have they acquired any false ideas of their particular "spheres," nor gone off in balloons, in search of new ones. No such predictions have been verified. One would think, 51 to hear people talk of woman's "womanliness" that it was a kind of amulet, made of blown glass which could be easily be put on, or taken off, or dashed to pieces. And yet, the daughters of these conservative gentlemen, go to balls & parties with bare necks or arms or waltz with gentlemen, 52. in the presence of admiring hundreds. Their costume is described in the public journals the next day, & yet their "delicacy," "refinement," "womanliness" is not supposed to suffer. I have know women to carry great bundles of work from slop shops to their garrets, where they supported themselves by the needle, 53. starting at twenty five cents a day, & yet retain their delicacy. I have known them to live in luxury, with coarse, drunken, brutal husbands for years, & be refined still. So subtle, elastic, and imponderable is this quality of "womanliness." Is it remarkable, then, that President White should be able to report, after his trip of observation, that 54. he "was uniformly impressed with the quiet dignity, modesty, & refinement of the young lady students in all the western colleges? And this is the testimony from all quarters, ¶ This "womanliness" has been through so many fiery trials & maintained its identity so well that I think now we can anywhere trust it. 55. How much longer will it take the world to learn, that the mutual influence of the sexes, is to purify, elevate, & dignify each other. [??] (leader ??) ¶ On this point President Pierce gives us common sense, philosophy, and Bible. He says 149 Surely there is nothing which the under-graduate learns in his college course which he should not be glad that his wife should know as well as himself. Surely, a liberal education has miserably failed of its aim, when a man desires in a wife, not an equal, but a toy or a slave. The idea of a woman as a slave is a barbarian idea. The savage has it to perfection, and because he has it he is a savage. The savage makes woman do the work of a beast of burden; the half-civilized Chinese puts on her all the drudgery of hard work--"the wife drags the plough, the husband sows the grain." To the savage, woman is a slave. The half-civilized man combines with this the idea of woman as a toy. This is an unchristian idea; unhappily, it is too common even with us, yet, with some other degrading ideas, it is a relic of heathenism. The whole difference between civilized Europe, half-civilized Asia, and savage Africa, can be accurately measured by the idea of woman--the best test of civilization in either a nation or an individual. The question, then, whether our civilization is to advance or retrograde--stand still it cannot-- depends on the place hereafter to be given to woman. As to this question, the present seems to be a sort of crisis. The signs point both ways on the whole, the prospect is hopeful and cheering, but we must either to back or go on--we must become either more Asiatic or more Christian. 149a I am fully persuaded that the time is not far distant when it will be thought almost incredible that the question of the inferiority of woman should ever have been seriously debated. I am fully persuaded that upon all great questions touching humanity, the human mind will, at length, accept the teachings of Christ as final; and the question whether or not woman is the equal of man I conceive authoritatively settled by Him, when He pronounces marriage such a union as excludes the idea that there can be essential inferiority in one of the parties. His ideal of marriage, unknown alike to the classical nations and to the Hebrews, is incompatible with the inequality of the sexes. Nor do we find a trace in His life or teachings, or in those of His apostles, which tends in the least to countenance such an idea. The few apparent exceptions to this statement grow out of Oriental usage, or are explained by the truth that subordination is consistent with equality. Not even superficial reasoners should have been misled by these exceptions, when, generally speaking, there is no distinction, in the moral duties imposed on each, none in the warnings and promises addressed to each, none at the cross, none in the day of judgment. 149b 56. "But," says another objector, "it would lower the standard of scholarship to admit young ladies to the colleges." Judge Conley, one of the Professors in Michigan University, says that such has not been the case there. One of the best mathematicians in that institution for years was a girl. She solved 57. a difficult problem,which had been presented to several successive classes without finding a solution. One of the best Greek scholars, too, was a girl. How is it possible for students who keep at the head of their classes & win all the prizes, to lower the grade of scholarship? 58 a Samuel B. Woolwirth says on this point a leader nonpareil "The co-education of the sexes has been favorable to good order & discipline & exerted a mutual stimulating influence on scholarship." Principal Sheldon, of the State Normal School at Oswego, writes of coeducation: "I think the influence is good on both sexes, socially, morally, and intellectually. My experience in all grades of schools below the university has confirmed me in this opinion. This experience has led me to feel that it would work equally well in the university. Of this, however, I cannot be so confident, as the conditions here are somewhat changed. I am now making a practical experiment in this direction by sending my own daughter to Michigan University. Principal J. W. Armstrong, D. D. of the State Normal School at Fredonia writes: "My observation shows that the morals of students of either sex deteriorate, apparently, in proportion to the rigor of the separation of the sexes. The same is true of their delicacy of feeling, their sense of honor, and their love of truth. "In all mixed seminaries and academies where social intercourse of the sexes was either forbidden or largely restrained, the ladies lost in prudence, delicacy, and truthfulness faster than the gentlemen. "For many years my views of school government have been much more liberal than the common practice would justify. In this Normal School I allow, and even encourage, all the freedom of intercourse between the sexes, which would be allowed in a well-regulated family. This has been tested for two years. The results are good in the recitation-room, where they mingle as they choose on the seats; in the halls, where they communicate freely as at home; in the boarding places, where they have only the same restrictions. They visit, walk, and ride out together, out of recitation hours, whenever and wherever they please. The results are, they study better, are more polite, visit far less, walk and ride together far less, than when restrained, and never under imprudent or objectionable circumstances. "We have the most orderly, studious, and happy school I was ever in. "In Genesee College the results were good, though the restrictions were too many to allow the best results. "All my experience and observations have confirmed my earlier faith in the sense and virtues of the youth of a land who attend our schools, of the necessity of the two sexes exerting reciprocally their influence upon their development, in order to obtain the best results, and of the fact that nine-tenths of all the irregularity and disorder in our Colleges arises from the establishment of an arbitrary and unnatural state of society among the students. 58[1/2] B Peunsas President White of Cornell University, who made an extended tour through the West, visiting all colleges where the experiment of co-education had been tried says (Solid) lead may President Raymund of Vassar College at the social service invitation in Boston said lead may the most concise and vigorous rendering from the most concise and vigorous of all -- Tacitus himself -- was given by a young lady at Oberlin College. Nor did the Committee notice any better work in the most difficult of the great modern languages than that of some young women at Antioch College. Nor is our own University entirely without experience on this point. Among candidates for admission, two years since, no better examination was passed than that by a young lady who had previously been successful in a competition for the State scholarship, in one of the best educated counties of the State. If it be said that the presence of women will tend to lower the standard of scholarship, or at all events to keep the Faculty from steadily raising it, it may be answered at once, that all the facts observed are in opposition to this view. The letters received by the Committee, and their own recent observations in class-rooms, show beyond a doubt, that the young women are at least equals of the young men in collegiate studies. As already stated, the best Greek scholar among the thirteen hundred students of the University of Michigan, a few years since; the best mathematical scholar in one of the largest classes of that institution to-day, and several among the highest in natural science, and in the general courses of study, are young women. And, on the whole, it is very difficult to say what there is in science or literature that will do the man's mind good that will not do the woman's mind good. At Vassar they had far outgrown the question whether girls can keep up with boys. They have gentlemen professors at Vassar, and the question among them is how to keep ahead of the girls. It is not a joke, but a fact. He was 17 years professor in a boys' college before he went to Vassar, and nine years the head of a large boys' school; yet he never was so put to it to keep up with his [cinsses?] as in Vassar. .59. Can this print the President of Oberlin College, Rev Dr Fairchild, says; lead nouss Dr Winchell, Professor of Natural History[,] in Michigan State University, kept for a time a table of statistics, to show the relative proficiency of young men[,] & women As to ability to maintain an excellent standing in college classes, [Doctor Fairchild declares] that during his own experience as professor -- eight years in ancient languages, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew,--eleven in mathematics, abstract and applied,--and eight in philosophical and ethical studies--he has never observed any difference in the sexes as to performance in the [ecita ons]. 60. The points on which the comparison was made were two, viz: The subject of botany itself, and style in writing etc. In the comparison as regards botany itself, "all young women" stood first on the whole list; all young men stood eleventh. In the comparison as regards style etc., "all young women" stood first, and "all young men" seventh. The average standing in botany in a scale of 100 was 93 for the young women, against 70 for the young men. In orthography the mean number of words misspelled by the young women was 1.91, and by the young men 4.95. The proportional number of words mis-spelled was for the young women 22, for the young men 56. In every respect, the young women gained the victory. The general testimony is that girls are more conscientious in study than boys, that this is the main cause of their remarkable success. Another cause may be that girls appreciate more highly advantages so long denied them. 61 & 62. Another fallacy is that women have not the physical health to endure a collegiate education. Any special reform, which all other ills of society remain as they are, seems out of joint with its surroundings. But if one has the faith & patience to survey the future 63. from the causes at work in the present, realize what the thoughts & efforts of a generation must inevitably accomplish, in all directions, then many things, which now seem impenetrable, dangerous, will appear safe & desirable. Great truths run in parallel 64. lines, to see him straight one finds others must be brought forward at the same time. Thus, simultaneously with the moment for the higher education of woman, reforms in her habits of life, dress, diet, and exercise, are proposed. Girls now have them. 65. boat, ball clubs, running, skating, gymnastics. And in their curriculum, are included Botany, Astronomy, & Surveying, all compelling outdoor exercise & observation. Thus, the artificial, hump-backed, flabby-muscled, feeble-nerved women of today will soon be unknown forever. But statistics 66. show that, even now, the girls in colleges enjoy as good health & live as long as the boys. President Fairchild of Oberlin College says in this print - "Nor is there any manifest inability on the part of young women to endure the required labor. A breaking down in health does not appear to be more frequent than with young men. We have not observed a more frequent interruption of study on this account; nor do our statistics show a greater draft upon the vital forces in the case of those who have completed the full college course.Out of eighty-four young ladies who have graduated since 1841, seven have died - a proportion of one in twelve. Of three hundred and sixty-eight young men who have graduated since that date, thirty-four are dead, or a little more than one in eleven. Of these thirty-four young men, six fell in the war, and, leaving these out, the proportion of deaths still remains one to thirteen. Taking the whole number of gentlemen graduates, omitting the theological department, we find the proportion of deaths one to nine and a half; of ladies, one to twelve; and this in spite of the lower average expectation of life for women, as indicated in life insurance tables. The field is, of course, too narrow for perfectly conclusive results; but there is no occasion for special apprehension of failure of health to ladies from study." 67. President Raymond of Vassar College says, as to the affect of study on that There is nothing truer than this idea, thrown out by Professor Raymond, "that study promotes health their health, he would challenge the United States to turn out 400 young women between the ages of 16 and 24 that will compare with Vassar College girls. They have no sickly girls there except those who came sick; and they restore the health of a very handsome percentage of these. We know, and physiology will bear me out on the statement, that study wisely pursued is beneficial to the health. It is the healthiest occupation that I have ever found, or my daughters either. It is not study that kills students; it is bad habits, bad living, and foolish methods of study. The whole question is: Is it possible that woman should have an intellectual vocation - should be called by Providence to such a life. I believe in co-education. It is the millennial system of education. Vassar was bund by certain restrictions. He did not know what was to prevent Vassar College, in her own good time, from opening her doors to boys, and then he thought Cornell University would be at a disadvantage. (Laughter & applause). Miss Maria Mitchell of Vassar was present, and bore testimony through Mrs. Dall to the health of the girls in that institution. 68. simply as a means to this end. There is no greater blessing to the rising generation of girls than college life, with its years of study, occupation, ambition, aspiration. We cannot estimate the misery & desire caused by the utter vacuity of the lives of girls, especially of the wealthy classes. 69. The aimless, hopeless pleasure seekers, for whom good fathers think they have done their uttermost, when they have supplied every need, + have left heads & hearts & hands alike unoccupied. Let the next generation of girls be liberally educated, kept 70. in college until they are twenty five years old, in the constant society of young men of their own age & attainments, & the health of both sexes would be improved, & the tone of society greatly changed for the better. 71. But another grave objection to coeducation is that "attachments would be formed," & "engagements" & "marriages" grow out of them, and that "thus the thoughts of both sexes would be drawn from their legitimate studies." Another class of objectors 72. assert that the higher education of women would open to them so many new & pleasant fields for thought & action, that marriage would be indefinitely postponed, or ignored altogether. These objections seem to answer each other, if danger lies in one direction, it cannot in the other. 73. And yet, there is some truth in both statements. If we could sense the ambition of our daughters to go through a thorough collegiate course, to enter some trade, or profession and once to enjoy the freedom of self support & self dependence, girls would not marry as early in 74. life as they now do. But that, instead of an objection, would be a great blessing to the race, for one object of the higher education of both men & women is the development of higher types of manhood & womanhood. As long as girls of twenty, with feeble minds & bodies, make the majority of 75. our mothers, improvement is effectually blocked. Again, when girls are scientifically educated & independent, they will be governed in marriage by the law of attraction & not by sordid motives of policy. The man will be the control figure, not his bank book and family. 76. The first step towards higher, purer, more enduring unions is the complete education of woman. Some form of marriage has always existed, & will no doubt continue. However, the Regents of the Universities may decide the question of co-education. 77. Cicero says "the next important study of man is man." I suppose he used "man" in its comprehensive sense including woman. And is not such knowledge of each other as important in the sum of human happiness, (?) as it does all branches of social science, as is the study of mathematics, or the languages? 78. In constant association, in active competition for the same prizes, young men & women might bring to this study the same clearness & discrimination as to all other subjects. Our thoughts are not distracted by relations to which we are accustomed. The facts already show that in those colleges 79. where the sexes are educated together there is less "flirting" "fewer scandals" less thought of each other than in these monastic institutions where all interaction (?) is forbidden. President Fairchild of Oberlin College says: To show that the system of joint education "does not bewilder woman with a vain ambition or tend to turn her aside from the work which God has impressed upon her entire constitution" - that is, the duties of a wife and mother, it is stated that "of the eighty-four ladies who have taken the college course, twenty-seven only are unmarried, and of these, four died early, and of the remaining twenty-three, twenty are graduates of less than six years standing." In answer to the question whether young people will, under such a system, form such acquaintances as will result, during their course of study or after they leave college, in matrimonial engagements, the Doctor says: -"Undoubtedly they will, and if this a fatal objection, the system must be pronounced a failure. The majority of young people form such acquaintances between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four, and these are the years devoted to a course of study. It would be a most unnatural state of things if such acquaintances should not be made." He then says, very pertinently: -"The reasonable inquiry in the case is whether such acquaintances and engagements can be made under circumstances more favorable to wise and considerate adjustment or more promising of a happy result." 80. President White of Cornell University says: "How do young men and young women forms such engagements now?" It is matter of notoriety that these engagements -the most important of life,-are, as a rule, formed with less care, foresight and mutual knowledge than any other. Choice is determined by mere casual meeting, by an acquaintance of a few weeks, by winning manners at a ball, by a pleasing costume in the street, and at the best by a very imperfect revelation of those mental and moral qualities which are to make or mar the happiness of all concerned. Should such engagements be formed in a University where both sexes are educated together, they would be based upon a far more thorough and extended knowledge, upon an admiration of a much higher range of qualities, and upon a similarity in taste and temper, which could not be gained elsewhere. Every one acquainted with life in our larger and better Colleges and Universities, knows that nowhere do men more surely value each other for real and substantial qualities and attainments. Nowhere is the merely dressy man in lower estimation; nowhere is the thorough scholar, the ready writer, the powerful orator, more highly regarded; nowhere do wealth, family influence, intriguing, caballing, avail less; nowhere do earnest purpose and good work avail more. Certainly the choice of a companion for life made in such an atmosphere cannot be less safe than that which is made under the present system in the world at large. If any theorist objects, with some force, that these attachments between students of either sex, would so fill the thoughts, as to leave no place for study, the testimony already laid before the trustees shows that practical educators find that these same attachments act as a powerful stimulus to study. | 81. The main objections all summed up against co-education may be concisely stated thus. 1) "The sexes differ therefore the systems of education should differ." 2) "It would lower the grade of scholarship & morals." 3) "Girls have not sufficient strength of 82. mind & body to endure the strain of a thorough collegiate course." 4) "It would make boys "effeminate" less brave & manly." 5) "Boys & girls could not study together. They would be continually thinking of each other, flirtations would take the place of Latin, 83. mathematics & marriage, of graduation & diplomas. Prove to these (?) that the reverse of all this has proved true; that in the colleges, where the experiment has been tried, the grade of scholarship & morals has been debated; that boys & girls stimulate each other to great lessons & behavior; 84. that boys have not lost courage; that no colleges sent to me late was a more brave, hardy, manly, body of young men, than sent from Oberlin & Antioch; that real friendships take the place of flirtations. Prove all this, & they will then fly in another 85. direction, maintain that, in this every day acquaintance in the recitation even men must lose all their chivalry for women; that the poetry of life would be all gone; forgetting, that chivalry & poetry are essential elements of a being & will ever seek some modes of expression under all circumstances. 86. In the higher education of the women of the future, vain is the attempt to bend eternal laws to human follies & blunders. With the half civilized idea of woman's nature, sphere, and destiny, every step outside old conventionality seems to imperil, the whole social superstructure. 87. And there ideas are fast fading away; the last type of slavery, that of woman, to man, is ended. "The hour strikes on the clock, wound by no mortal hand. Woman awakes, to work on her own salvation with joy & rejoicing, Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.