The Civil War placed both elementary and secondary education largely in the hands of women teachers. There accordingly followed a demand on their part for better opportunities for instruction. Oberlin Collegiate Institute in Ohio had, in 1833, admitted women. In 1S55 Antioch College, also in Ohio, was founded—co educational from the beginning, and having as its first president Horace Mann. the ardent advo cate of this system. The following State univer sities were from the beginning coeducational: Utah, opened in 1850; lowa, opened in 1856; Washington. opened in 1862; Kansas. opened in 1866; Minnesota, opened in 186S; and Nebraska, opened in 1871. The State universities of In diana. and Michigan admitted women in 1868 and 1870 respectively. To-day, of the thirty two State universities, all except those of Vir ginia, Georgia, and Louisiana are coeducational. Of private colleges. Cornell, after an investi gation and stimulated by a generous offer from Henry W. Sage, admitted women in 1872. Other private institutions were, however, somewhat slow to follow. Boston University. founded in 1873, admitted women from the first, and in 1883 the Institute of Technology became coeducational. To-day, of fifty-eight leading colleges and four are inde pendent colleges for women, three are women's colleges affiliated with colleges for men, thirty are coeducational, and of the remaining twenty one, five have affiliated women's colleges. In addition, all the great university foundations, except Harvard and Princeton, admit women to graduate instruction. Only twelve of the fifty eight institutions admit women to none of their departments: and these are, with one or two exceptions, on the Atlantic seaboard. Women are also rapidly gaining ground in the profes sional colleges. In 1899 eighty out of 149 col leges of medicine, sixty-four out of eighty-six colleges of law, forty-four out of fifty-six colleges of dentistry, and forty-eight out of fifty-two col leges of pharmacy iu the United States were coeducational.
In Canada, _McGill University was opened to women in 1883. To-day all the Canadian uni versities, six in number, admit women. The leading universities of Australia admit women not only as students, but as lecturers and pro fessors. In ISIS the University of London opened all degrees, honors, and prize, to students of both sexes on equal terms. Victoria Uni versity and the University of Wales give similar privileges to women. The University of Durham excludes women from only the degree in theology. Cambridge admits women to nearly all university and college lectures and grants a titular degree to such as fulfill the regular conditions. This degree, however, does not admit them to the governing board of the university. At Oxford women are admitted to nearly all university and college lecture,, except those in medicine. They may take the examinations. and the results are announced, but they do not receive a degree. The four universities of Scotland. Aberdeen, Saint Andrews. Edinburgh, and Glasgow admit
women to all degrees except in law, and Aberdeen even to that. The Royal University of Ireland grants equal privilege: to both sexes. In France women are admitted to lectures on the same terms with men, professors. however, having a discretionary power of exclusion.
In Germany the struggle of women for admis sion to the universities has been especially stub born, and resistance has now to a very consider able extent given way. To be admitted, a woman must obtain consent from the Minister of In struction, the rector of the university, and the professors whose courses she wishes to attend. Ordinarily only the courses of the philosophical faculty are thrown open to them, but in a few cases women have attended courses in medicine and law. Ileidelberg. Freiburg, and Giittingen were among the first to grant the degree of Ph.D. to women; hut in 1898 Berlin, perhaps the most conservative of all in this respect, bestowed this degree on Friinlein Neumann. In 1898-99, 315 women. mostly foreigners, attended the Ger man universities. In Austria. since 1878, women have been admitted to the eight universities as hearers, and recently, in the ease of foreigners. as matriculated students. During the winter of 1899 - 1900 forty women were registered at Vienna, and in 1897 the degree of M.D. was granted to Friirdein Possauer. In 1895 the three Ilungarian universities were thrown open to women, and graduates of the medical depart ments are allowed to practice. The Italian uni versities have, since 1876, all been open to women on the same terms with men, and the fe male attendance is large. The medical faculties of the Swedish universities were opened to women in 1870. and those of law and philosophy in 1873. In 1899 six women had taken the degree of Licentiate in Philosophy, and one that of Doctor of Laws. The latter. Friinlein Esehelsson. was made privat-docent (q.v.), to lecture on civil law. In Switzerland the universities are all open to women, and in most cases on the same terms as to men. At Zurich women were formally admitted in 1872, and they are even permitted to hold professorial chairs. There were, in 1895, 200 women in attendance, and a woman was lec turer on Roman law. Women have been ad mitted on the same terms as men to the Uni versity of Copenhagen since 1875. The Spanish universities and those of the Netherlands are equally open to both sexes. Russian higher edu cation for women has had a stormy history. The medical schools were opened to them about 1860, then closed, and again in 1872 reopened on ac count of the Nihilism that sprang up among women who went abroad, and particularly to Switzerland, to study. A separate medical school for women was established at Saint Petersburg in 1872, suppressed in 1882 on ac count of Nihilism, and in 1897 reopened. The universities are now closed to women, but there are higher courses given to them at Saint Peters burg under the Minister of Public Instruction.