COLLEGES FOR WOMEN. Three types of the collegiate education for women in the United States prevail. The first in time and in popularity is known as coeducation; the second, as separate education; and the third, as co-ordination in education. Under the first form, men and women are educated together under identical conditions; under the second, women are educated by colleges founded and administered for them as women; under the third, there arc established in the same univer sity two colleges, one for men and one for women. The third form is subject, however, to considerable varieties in administration.
The first college founded for both men and women was Oberlin. Its charter was granted in 1834. The colle.ge was the result of the philanthropic and missionary movements of the first decades of the last century. The town and the Institute, as the college was called for about a score of years, were closely allied. In the first circular published regarding the institution, it was said that among its great objects was the extending of the benefits of the most useful education to ((both sexes?' ((The elevation of female character° was also noted as a purpose. The giving of a college education to both men and women together was not a primary thought. The primary thought WaS to offer the best education to women. The conditions obliged the giving of the education to both sexes upon equal terms. In the first year of the college, 40 women were enrolled. Few of them were fitted, however, to pursue college studies. A preparatory department was formed. In 1837 four women offered themselves as candidates for college rank. Their classification was more or less Irregular. At the commencement of 1841 three women received a degree, the first women to receive a degree in arts ui the United States. For about a score of years Oberlin alone receiVed women into its classes on the same terms, substantially, as those on which it received men.
The second step in the education of inen and women together W8S taken 20 y.ears after the beginning was made at Oberlin in another Ohio town. Antioch College, in Yellow Springs, was founded by Horace Mann in 1852. In his inaugural address Horace Mann declared him self heartily in favor of what is now Imown as coeducation. He affirmed that coeducation is the only mtthod to be pursued, at least for many years, on the ground of its relative inexpensive ness. He believed that social intercourse be tween young men and women would prove ad vantageous to each, preventing manners frotn becoming rude and sentiments coarse. He be
lieved that the peril of forming undesirabk at tachments is less under academic than under ordinary social conditions.
The beginning thus made in two Ohio col leges • advanced rapidly. Its chief field of growth lay in the universities founded by the various States. In 1856 low-a, in 1866 Kansas, in 1868 Minnesota, in 1871 NebrasIta, founded universities for both men and women. The University of Indiana, founded in 1820, was in 1868 opened to women. The universities of Mkhigan, of Illinois, of California, of Mis souri, were open to women in 1870, and the Ohio State University three years after. In 1874 Wisconsin adopted convlete coeducation. At the present time evxry State university, mq cepting three or four, is open to women.
The older parts of the country approached the question of the education of women through the establishment of new colleges for them. It was easier to found colleges for women•than to adjust colleges already organized for men, and whose conditions and traditions were estab lished, to the admission of women. Yet Mid dlebury, Colby and other colleges were opened to them; and Boston University, Bates in Maine and Cornell In New York were coeducational either in the beginning or soon after. The founders of the four more eminent colleges for women in the seventh and eighth decades of the 19th century were moved by the. same pur pose. They desired to establish institutions which should give to women. an education as good as the older colleges were giving to men. The purposes of Matthew Vassar, of Sophia Smith, of Henry F. Durant, the founder of Wellesley, and of Dr. Joseph W. Taylor, the founder of Bryn Mawr, were alike slow in fruition. In the year 1845, at the age of 53, Matthew Vassar decided to devote a large por tion of his estate to some benevolent purpose. It was not until 20 years after that Vassar Col lege was opened to students. In the year that Vassar received its acts of incorporation Sophia Smith began to think of the establishing. of a college for women. The college ',vas incor porated in 1871 and opened for students in 1875. In 1864 Henry F. Durant, losing by death an only son, determined to use a part of his estate in philanthropy. In 1870 the institution was in corporated as the Wellesley Female Seminary; three years after the name was changed to Wellesley College, and in 1877 the college was authorized to grant degrees. For many years Dr. Joseph W. Taylor considered the question of devoting his estate to the education of women.