The Commissioner of Education reports that in the academic year 1915-16 there were in the United States 144 colleges for men, with 43,851 undergraduate students; 89 colleges for women, with 20,638 undergraduate students ; 341 institutions for both sexes, with 109,009 undergraduate men and 69,543 undergraduate women— in all, 574 institutions, with a total of 152,860 undergraduate men and 90,181 under graduate women. The degrees conferred upon women by universities, colleges and technologi cal schools in 1915-16 were as follows: The tendency toward the utilitarian is more marked in the coeducational institutions than in the separate women's colleges, a difference easily explained, since the step is a natural one, from the opening of a work-shop for the men students to the establishment of courses in domestic science for the women. The uni versities endowed by the land grant were the first to introduce the last-named subject and now form the majority of the institutions which include it in their curricula.
Early specialization is also more common in the coeducational college, the separate college placing greater emphasis in its undergraduate course upon liberal culture. The general tend ency to-day, however, is away from unrestricted elective toward more required work, a °group) system, or a system of °majors? by which the student may have in her undergraduate course something more than a purely technical and hence one-sided training.
The results of education for women are shown in the large increase of numbers in the professions, the census of 1890 giving the num ber of women in professional service as 311,689, that of 1900 as 430,576, that of 1910 as 733,885, 44.1 per cent. of all the people in professional service. One of the chief reasons urged by the early champions of the movement was that they might he better qualified to become teach ers and to-day their representation in that pro fession outranks all others.
The number of women who are given the higher positions in the profession of teaching, however, is not in proportion, as the following report for 1915-16 shows: Professors and instructors in universities, colleges and technological schools: 574 institutions Men Women Preparatory departments 2,399 1.418 Collegiate departments 19,140 4,246 Professional departments 7,653 95 Total (excluding duplicates) 28,472 6,397 Within the last few years there has been a large increase in the number and variety of employments which college women enter. They are not only teachers and physicians, but also nurses, superintendents of hospitals, secretaries, registrars and keepers of records, librarians, social workers, in settlements and associated charities, professional housekeepers, assayers and poultry-raisers. They have opened labora tory kitchens, laundries and greenhouses, have engaged in scientific and historical research, published books, become musicians and artists, deans and presidents of colleges. Nor has their interest been confined to the professions by which they might earn a living. A recent
writer says that °between the two broad oceans there is hardly any significant movement outside of trade and politics which is not aided by un paid women who work purely out of ideal mo tives? Educated women are interesting them selves in the problems of the cities in which they live, serving on boards of education and of sanitation, making possible public playgrounds and vacation schools, agitating the questions of improved tenements, pure water supply and clean streets. The experiment of college train ing for women has already justified itself by what they have accomplished in promoting pub lic health and morals.
The Great War has intensified this call for college women. Laboratories which two or three years ago had no place for them, are de manding more trained workers than the colleges can supply. Positions as draughtsmen, account ants, social workers, government employees, farmers, dietitians, nurses and organizers for different kinds of work, are opening faster than the colleges can send out graduates to fill them. Never was there such real need of the educated woman.
The fear that academic training would unfit women physically and divert them from the home by the attraction of other careers has proved unfounded. The women's colleges and many of the coeducational institutions provide gymnasiums and regular physical training, re quire out-of-door exercise, and have careful physical examination. These provisions, to gether with the regular hours and systematic life of the college, mean a better physical con dition than in the case of the average non college woman.
To those who know the college woman in her home the question concerning her fitness for it is not debatable. The supreme result of the college training is the development of char acter and the cultivation of self-control, of con sideration for others and of a more rational outlook, means preparation for the home as well as for the profession.
Bibliography.— Boone, 'Higher Education of Women' in the United States,' pp. 362-382) ; Dexter, 'The Education of Wo men' ((History of Education in the United States,' pp. 424-453) ; Freeman, 'Vassar Col lege' VIII, 73); Hooker, 'Mount Holyoke College' New England .Magamne, XXI, 545) ; North, 'Wellesley College' (Histor ical Address, 1900) : Palmer, 'The Higher Edu cation of Women' (Forum, XII, 28, 1891); Putnam, 'Rise of Barnard College' (Colum bia University Quarterly, June 1900) ; Seelye, 'Smith College> (in of the Quarter Centenary of Smith College' 1900); Small, 'Girls in Colonial Schools' ((Education,' XXII, 552) ; Smith, of Com missioner of Education, 1917,> Vol. II) ; Stow, of Mount Holyoke Seminary, 1837 87' ; 'Education of Women' (But ler's (Education in the United States,' 1900, Vol. I, 319-358) ; Warner, 'Radcliffe College' (Harvard Graduates Magazine, March 1894).
May E. Wocam, President of Mount Holyoke College.