Do Men Seek Clever Women As Wives?... Statistics Show That They Do.

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 306, 17 March 1928, Page 26

Do Men Seek Clever Women As Wives?... Statistics Show That They Do.

, R- J - S. BOLIN and Dr. S. J. Holmes, of the University of California, 1 ■"«' exam i ne| J the records of Jnl'J/cft 2,074 women who had graduated from the college between 1574 and and 1910. They found in comparing scholarship records w T ith the number of marriages that the brighter girls ranged a shade higher in matrimonial success than their less intelligent sisters. Neither health, temperament, racial extraction nor beauty was considered by the investigators in compiling the figures for their result. Only one classification was made. Did the girl rate high in class standing, or an indication of hard study or special brilliance, or did she just manage to make the grade for graduation? Another fact which smashes the old story that men desire dull Doras is the discovery that there is no relation between the scholastic records and the time it takes a girl to get married after graduation. The tabulation shows that the average marriage occurred 4.6 years after graduation, with the largest number occurring the first year after graduation. Questionnaires sent to 10,000 graduates brought revealing data on whether the students were marrying, whether they were following the profession for which they had prepared themselves and whether they were engaged in work that was beneficial to the community as a whole or in purely personal enterprises. Startling facts were brought forth in connection with the first question, which concerned marriage. Few more than half of the women graduates accept the responsibilities of matrimony. Only one-fourth of the coeds ever became mothers. Miss Lucy Stebbins. dean of women, had her own theory when the findings were announced. “It isn’t so much that the college girl must have a superior being to admire,” she said. “She. hesitates to enter wedlock because of the undoubted advantage she can gain by pursuing a career. The sacrifice involved in making a home and raising a family is too great, and, further, the girl of the higher education is content

to wait in independence for romance to find her, rather than to seek it out. She can afford to wait.” College education has nothing to do with the fact that many women go through life alone, according to Rudolph M. Binder, professor of sociology in New Y'ork University, one of the largest eo-educational schools in the country. “These women who remain single,” said Professor Binder, “would have never married even if they had not had a college education. Instead of a college education being k handicap, it is a distinct advantage, and it is because these advantages have been recognised that the number of college women is increasing. “There are two kinds of women who do not marry—those who won't marry and those who can’t. The women who won’t marry are indifferent to the mating call or they are minus a deep feeling for maternity. Those ' who can’t marry want to very often, but they are so unattractive physically that no man is stirred to ask them. “In the old days of tribal law or the reign of the family, the unmarried woman wag practically a social outcast. When we come nearer to our own time the spinster condemned to idleness by the prevailing code, had to live upon the bounty of a brother, uncle or other relative. “But as the conventions changed, in dustry and the professions opened opportunity to women to make their lives count for something, and to achieve economic independence. At

j the same time colleges began to fet down the bars and women began t 0 make use of the advantages which j culture and education give in m a if j ing one’s way in the world. j “A single woman may, nowadays (live a life of her own. In the old day, j she could not live at all. njA: f women are made conspicuous by sia* istics concerning the marriage rate ;of college women, while the 'woman |of the same type who does not go t 0 I college is unnoticed in the reckoainr ; “Being smart is no handicap to a woman. A clever man knows he needs a partner of equal ability to help him make the best of his struggle j n | world. I “And college is a place where - ; smart woman has a better chance to meet her own type of man than out side. It may be true that some col- ! lege women find it difficult to marry because they feel that the men they I know are beneath them, and I know c{ a few cases in my experience, but thie ;is a very small proportion of the j number of college graduates. ■ "Such cases are cancelled many • times by the number of brilliant women who have found in college lip, the opportunity to meet a higher grade of man than they could in the narrow circle of home or business. “A man rarely weds at 30 the giri [he might have been willing to take ito the altar at 20. Instinct and in fatuation are disappearing, and hi, mature mind is centring on success in his business or profession. He may often have to take his work home with him. A butterfly who insisted upou gadding about every night would ruin his chances for future progress because he needs a sensible woman who has some knowledge of his problems and is able to give him the companionship of a ripened mind. “A college education means later marriage. Later marriage means a better and more conscious choosing c' a partner for life and this means less divorce. “Under these circumstances it is easy to see that college is no handicap but an investment which gives a woman chances for a large return. “Men who make fine headway : n winning the prizes of life often owe their success to their wives as well as to their own efforts. The average college woman finds no difficulty in keeping pace with the growth of her husband. This avoids the mental separation which is a frequent cause of divorce after a man has struggled upward to success. The coed has a knowledge of the world and of social graces which are never without some value to the man she marries.”