The attitude of the universities of Europe to ward the admission of women is described in the article on COEDUCATION. In Great Britain there are many women's colleges connected with the great universities. At Cambridge. Girton Col lege was opened in 1869 and Newnham College in 1871. At Oxford, Somerville I1a11 and Lady Margaret Hall were opened in 1379, and Saint Hugh's llall in 1886. At the University of Lon don, University College and King's College have departments for women. Bedford College for Women was opened in 1849, and Royal Holloway College in 1886. There are also numerous local colleges affiliated with various universities in England and Wales. In Ireland, Queen's Col lege, Belfast : Queen's College. Cork: and Queen's College, Galway. are affiliated with the Royal University of Ireland. Tn Scotland, Uni versity College at Dundee is a college for women affiliated with the universities of London, Saint Andrews, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. At Glasgow, Queen Margaret College was in 1892 affiliated with the university at that place. On the Con tinent, however, women's colleges have not been established. Private' training and 'finishing' schools suffice for those who do not enter the universities. Tn the various professions women find no chance for instruction to any extent in separate institutions except in the case of medi cine. in the United States there were in 1898 seven medical schools for women. In London there is one. and Edinburgh has two; several are in Canada, and one at Saint Petersburg.
The development of opportunities for the higher education of women has been actively promoted by a number of organizations, promi nent among which are, in the United States, the Massachusetts Society for the University Edu cation of Women, founded in 1877, and the Asso ciation of Collegiate Alumnae. founded in 1882; and in England the Girls' Public Day School Company, founded in 1874, and the Cambridge Association for the Promotion of the Higher Education of Women. established in 1879. An
organization for similar purposes was in 1898 formed in Berlin. The development of oppor tunities for the university education of women has also had a favorable reaction upon facilities for their secondary instruction not only in the United States, but also in England and France, and to-day even the meagre system of girls' gym nasia in Germany is beginning to feel the influ ence of a demand that women shall he prepared for the universities. In 189S, however, the Prus sian Minister of Education refused an applica tion for the establishment of a girls' school in Breslau, saying that university education for women is only for exceptional cases, and that the Government will not undertake to prepare them for this.
Three statistical investigations into the health of college women have been undertaken, two in America by the Association of Collegiate Alum nae in 1SS5 and 1900. and one in England by Mrs. Henry Sidgwi•k in 1897. In America the health of the college women compared favorably with that of working women, and in England with that of non-college sisters and cousins. Nor does the marriage rate of college women seem to be less than that of their sisters. On the other hand, a large proportion of them are self-sup porting. the principal occupation being teaching, which in 1895 was the business of 37 per cent. of the graduates of Vassar. and in 1S98 of 49 per cent. of the graduates of Radcliffe College.
Consult: Thomas, "Education of Women," in Butler, Monographs on Education in the United States (New York, 1900) ; Fitch, "Women and Universities," in Educational Aims and Methods (New York, 1900) ; Lange, The Higher Educa tion of Women (New York. 1900) ; French. "Ed ucational Status of Women in Different Coun tries" (with bibliography), in Report of United States Commissioner of Education (Washington, 1894-95). See COEDUCATION.