THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2400, 26 November 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN.

Thk question of tile education oi women in the higher brandies oi knowledge lias been occupying a good deal of space oi late in the leaning English and Ain. ricao reviews. There have bven articles for ami against, and women have written with as Hindi warmth on the subject (the articles are always hy women) as upon the kindred question of their political enfranchisement. The question, being an integral part of the great general question of the world's progress, is certainly an important one. Tnat the time is coming when women arc to occupy a radically different position from that which is theirs to-day is a fact patent to every observing eye, and it is as well that they shou.d be appropriately equipped when their time comes. When one looks back oier the history of the world and follows the gradual hut steady evolution of women Irom slavery, botli figurative and literal, and unintelligent indifference, toward their present determiued and consistent clamour for equal political rights with men, the conclusion naturally forces itself that time ami tide will enable ihem to surmount greater obstacles and land them on more ambitious planes still. Thomas Wentworth Hiirgenson, in the current uumner of the I'or/tiit points lo the fact that the enfranchisement of women in the United States would give them the balance of political power, as they outnumber me i in sixteen of the most import mt Statesin the Union, including New York and Pennsylvania.’ .Men would then be exactly where women are now, which would bo a revolution cert duly, ana sad for the men. In view of such an issue, therefore, the question of the education of the future arbiters of the destinies of fifty millions of people, presents a somewhat serious aspect; and although in England the question of woman suffrage may not be of such appalling significance as ours is under the present census, at least it is quite significant enough to render the sister question of woman’s education equally engrossing. Mrs. Lynn Linton contributes an article to one of the English reviews in which, after perambulating all round one side of the question, she, tacitly acknowledges her incapacity to forecast inevitable events by aonoundngthatexcept in the ease of George Eliots women, had better not be educated above the nursery and linen closet. Having floundered a little out of her depth she takes refuge in the time-honored platitude that after all women were intended by nature to be wives mil mothers, a<d (hat the humble vocation is what they had best stick to. Stic does not say anything about fashionable women, bur, it is to ue inferred that the intellect wliich has been dev.(up >1 to meet the exacting requirements of the nursery and the linen closet is also good enough for the ball-room. Gene-iUy it is. She makes a business-like sta emont to the effect that in nincty-nme cases out of every hundred the money which is spent on a girl's education in “ologie-,” and Collegiate studies generally, is practically so much mouev thrown away, inasmuch as these same uinetv-nine women invariably marry and 'settle down to the traditional career for which the sex was iuvemed. Also tint woman is physically incapable of menial strain and att-eiidiag to the nursery at the same time ; therefore, that women wh . will ins : st upon cultivating their incelle--shou'd never marry. Ail of these arguments are g .o i in their way, but unfortunately then' way is limited. It is quite trie that ninety - nine out of every hundred college.e bleated women marry and are lost to fame in the performance of flic unambitious duties whion are the lot of the million. It is quite true that the World will, singly, never he ir from them or concern itself in the flattering statements of their individual diplomat, but how about their combined force when the balance of political power pisses into their hinds? tmouid not the quality of that force 1 e as strung nu I as line and as intellectually keen as training can make it? Ami the more severely the intellect is trained, the higher slate of development it reaches, the greater the cairn, .dear, logical judgment of which it is capable. There is nothing like a severe course in geometry, for instance, to strengthen and perfect tile reasoning and analytical powers of the mind. Therefore, although the ninety-nine women may not be elected to All an exalted place in the world’s destiny, still it is quite as important that they should know how to vote as intelligently and thoughtfully as their more fortunate sisters. And quite as important to man, if he would but realise it. If women are to have the balance of power, it is as well that they should be able to deal justly by what will then be the weaker sex. It would be hard or. men if feminine legislation, or the influence of the feminine vote, should bring about that the very clothes a man wore were not his own but his wife’s—the reverse of which law was a matter of fact in Massachusetts until a very recent date. It is proverbial that women are spiteful, and if not educated out of this and other female lower qualities, it is impossible to say what they may not do by way of retaliation. Therefore a good, sound “masculine education “(to use an anomalous term), will not hurt these humble wives and mothers, and the money spent upon it will not be thrown away. This deduction gives rise to another question, which, however, cannot be fully answered here. Statistics have proved that the mother transmits her mental qualities to her sons, What will be the result, therefore, if these universal feminine intnllectual giants of the future produce a race of men who must surpass them through their superior physical basis, as they would also surpass man as lie exists to-day. The complication might be an embarrassing one, miles--, indeed, the intellectual development of women resulted iu their producing a physically inferior race of offsprings. In that ease the whole vexed question would be solved in the simplest manner possible : the human race would die out and the apostles of pessimism would rejoice. In answer to the second question, that women who aspire to the dizzy intellectual heights of man would not marry, it may be observed that if women already outnumber men in sixteen States of this Union and are rapidly getting ahead in the other twelve, and if it be in accordance with the law of population generally that women increase more rapidly and live longer then men, then what is known at present as the fair sex may awell educate themselves without ansi.. ' for the morrow. But for flm > minority who, coming first aio i.rs;, served in the matter of husbands, the law as laid down by Mrs Linton does not hold good either. John stnart Mill kid hown a law some years ago that there should be a legal limit put upon families, owing to the fact that population tends to increase faster than production. In tlm cour-e of time this law will have to go into effect, as the planet upon which wo live lias only so many square miles to be tilled. Then women can educate themselves 10 any extent they please, marry and take a mental rest for u few years (a very good thing for them), then, wfieii their duty by the species is over, return with renewed strength and interest to their intellectual pursuits and ambitions. The legal limit will probably be a ii.arnr.v one,'’.and the bearing of three or four children will not permanently injure any woman of ordin-

ary i quipment ; nor are the duties of such i family >■in-ron- and all-ab-i rhing if she have any si-um- of managcm-iit. It is only whan .she find' In-rs. If the nn lh--r of anything over half a doz.-n that she U ineapaei’a’—l phy-ieally and socially for anv of the higher and more enjoyable phases of life. Bona Dka.