The greater part of the college education of the United States, however, is carried on in private, not in state universities. In 1897 over 70 per cent of all the college students in the United States were studying in private colleges, so that for women’s higher education their admission to private colleges is really a matter of much greater importance. The part taken by Cornell university in New York state in opening private colleges to women was as significant as the part taken by Michigan in opening state universities. Cornell is in a restricted sense a state university, inasmuch as part of its endowment, like that of the state universities, is derived from state and national funds. Nevertheless, there is little reason to suppose that Cornell would have admitted women had it not been for the generosity of Henry W. Sage, who offered to build and endow a large hall of residence for women at Cornell university. After carefully investigating coeducation in all the institutions where it then existed, and especially in Michigan, the trustees of the university admitted women in 1872. The example set by Cornell was followed very slowly by the other private colleges of the New England and middle states. For the next twenty years the colleges in this section of the United States admitting women might be counted on the fingers of one hand. In Massachusetts Boston university opened its department of arts in 1873, and admitted women to it from the first; but no college for men followed the example of Boston until 1883, when the Massachusetts institute of technology, the most important technical and scientific school in the state, and one of the most important in the United States, admitted women. This school, like Cornell, is supported in part from state and national funds. Very recently, in 1892, Tufts college was opened to women. In the west and south the case is different, and the list of private colleges that one after another have become coeducational is too long to be inserted here. Among new coeducational foundations the most important are, on the Pacific coast, the Leland Stanford junior university, opened in 1891, and, in the middle west, Chicago university, opened in 1892. To show the differing attitude toward coeducation of the different sections of the United States, I have arranged the 480 coeducational colleges and separate colleges for men given in the U.S. education report for 1897–98 in a table on the opposite page. In matters like women’s education, which are powerfully affected by prejudice and conservative opinion, we find not only a sharp cleavage in opinion and practice between the west and the east of the United States, but also distinct phases of differing opinion, corresponding in the main to the old geographical division of the states into New England, middle, southern and western.[[7]]
I 20 western states and 3 territories
| STATES | Total no. cols. | Coed. | Men only |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio | 35 | 29 | 3 R. C., 1 Luth., 1 P. E., Western reserve. |
| Indiana | 14 | 9 | 2 R. C., 1 Luth., 1 Cong., Wabash college. |
| Illinois | 31 | 24 | 5 R. C., 1 Ger. Ev., Illinois college. |
| Michigan | 11 | 10 | 1 R. C. |
| Wisconsin | 10 | 7 | 1 R. C., 1 Luth., 1 Dutch Reformed. |
| Minnesota | 9 | 7 | 1 R. C., 1 Luth. |
| Iowa | 22 | 20 | 2 Luth. |
| North Dakota | 3 | 3 | |
| South Dakota | 6 | 6 | |
| Nebraska | 12 | 11 | 1 R. C. (professional dept. open) |
| Kansas | 19 | 17 | 2 R. C. |
| Montana | 3 | 3 | |
| Wyoming | 1 | 1 | |
| Colorado | 4 | 3 | 1 R. C. |
| Arizona | 1 | 1 | |
| Utah | 2 | 2 | |
| Nevada | 1 | 1 | |
| Idaho | 1 | 1 | |
| Washington | 9 | 7 | 2 R. C. |
| Oregon | 8 | 8 | |
| California | 12 | 9 | 3 R. C. |
| Indian Territory | 2 | 2 | |
| Oklahoma | 1 | 1 | |
| 217 | 182 | 22 R. C., 6 Luth., 1 Ger. Ev., 1 Dutch Ref., 1 P. E., 1 Cong. |
II 14 southern and 2 southern middle states
| STATES | Total no. cols. | Coed. | Men only |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delaware | 2 | 1 | Delaware college. (The one coeducational college is for negroes.) |
| Maryland | 11 | 4 | 4 R. C., St. John’s, Maryland agric. college, Johns Hopkins. |
| District of Columbia | 6 | 3 | 3 R. C. |
| Virginia | 10 | 4 | 2 M. E. So., Univ. of Virginia, Hampden-Sidney, Washington and Lee, William and Mary. |
| West Virginia | 3 | 3 | |
| North Carolina | 15 | 10 | 1 R. C., 2 Presb., 1 Luth., 1 Bapt. |
| South Carolina | 9 | 7 | 1 A. M. E., College of Charleston. |
| Georgia | 11 | 6 | 2 Bapt., 1 A. M. E., 1 M. E. So., Univ. of Georgia, |
| Florida | 6 | 5 | 1 R. C. |
| Kentucky | 13 | 9 | 1 R. C., 1 Bapt., 1 Presb., Ogden college. |
| Tennessee | 24 | 20 | 1 R. C., 2 Presb., 1 P. E. (Univ. of South.) |
| Alabama | 9 | 7 | 2 R. C. |
| Mississippi | 4 | 2 | 1 Bapt., 1 M. E. So. |
| Louisiana | 9 | 3 | 2 R. C., 1 M. E. So., 1 Cong., Louisiana State univ., Tulane. |
| Texas | 16 | 12 | 3 R. C., 1 Presb. |
| Arkansas | 8 | 8 | |
| Missouri | 26 | 21 | 3 R. C., 1 Bapt., 1 Presb. |
| 182 | 125 | 21 R. C., 5 M. E. So., 6 Bapt., 7 Presb., 1 Luth., 2 A. M. E., 1 P. E., 1 Cong. |
III 6 New England and 3 northern middle states
| STATES | Total no. cols. | Coed. | Men only |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maine | 4 | 2 | 1 Bapt. (Colby, limited coed.), Bowdoin |
| New Hampshire | 2 | 1 R. C., 1 Cong. (Dartmouth) | |
| Vermont | 3 | 2 | Norwich university |
| Massachusetts | 9 | 2 | 2 R. C., 2 Cong. (Amherst), Harvard, Williams, Clark |
| Rhode Island | 1 | Brown | |
| Connecticut | 3 | 1 | 1 P. E. (Trinity), Yale |
| New York | 23 | 5 | 8 R. C., 2 P. E. (Hobart), 1 Bapt. (Colgate), Polytechnic institute of Brooklyn, Hamilton, College of City of New York (boys’ high school), Columbia, Union, Rochester, New York university |
| New Jersey | 4 | 2 R. C., 1 Dutch Ref. (Rutgers), Princeton | |
| Pennsylvania | 32 | 17 | 4 R. C, 1 Luth., 1 Moravian, 1 Friends (Haverford), 1 Dutch Ref. (Franklin & Marshall), Pennsylvania military college, Philadelphia central high school (boys’ high school), Lehigh university, University of Pennsylvania, 3 Presb. (Lafayette, Washington & Jefferson, Lincoln) |
| 81 | 29 | 17 R. C., 1 Luth., 3 P. E., 3 Cong., 3 Presb., 2 Bapt., 1 Friends, 2 Dutch Ref., 1 Moravian (The Univ. of Penna. admits women to many departments, but not to full undergraduate work leading to the bachelor’s degree) |
In the western states it will be observed there are, excluding Roman Catholic colleges and seminaries, out of 195 colleges 182 coeducational and only 13 colleges for men only. All of these except 3 are denominational; 6 belong to the Lutheran, 1 to the Dutch Reformed, 1 to the German Evangelical, 1 to the Episcopalian, and 1 to the Congregationalist. The other 3 are, as we might expect, in the most eastern and the earliest settled of the western states; one in Ohio, Western reserve, which teaches women in a separate women’s college; one in Indiana, Wabash college, one of the three most important colleges in Indiana; and one in Illinois, Illinois college. Roman Catholic institutions apart, in 14 states and all 3 territories every college for men is open to women (the one university of the territory of New Mexico, not included in the U. S. education report, is open to women). In the southern states and southern middle states there are, excluding Roman Catholic colleges and seminaries, out of 161, 125 coeducational and only 36 colleges for men only. Among these 36, however, are the most important educational institution in Maryland, the Johns Hopkins university; the most important in Georgia, the University of Georgia; in Louisiana the two most important, the Louisiana state university and Tulane university, and in Virginia the very important University of Virginia.[[8]] Roman Catholic institutions apart, all the colleges in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida and West Virginia are coeducational. In New England and the northern middle states out of 64 colleges, excluding Roman Catholic colleges and seminaries, only 29, or less than half, are coeducational. The colleges for men only include (with the exception of Cornell) all the largest undergraduate colleges in this section—Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Pennsylvania. Maine and Vermont are liberal to women, 2 colleges (3 if we count the limited coeducational college of Colby) in Maine and 3 in Vermont being coeducational, but the total number of students in college in these states is very small (in Maine only 843 men and 189 women; in Vermont only 301 men and 99 women). The leading colleges of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are closed, and in Massachusetts only 2 are open and 7 closed.[[9]]
Of the four hundred and eighty colleges for men enumerated by the commissioner of education 336, or 70 per cent (or, excluding Catholic colleges, 80 per cent), admit women. It would be misleading, however, to count among American institutions for higher education, properly so-called, most of the coeducational colleges and separate colleges for men included in this list, and it would be equally misleading to compare the number of women studying in such colleges in the United States with the number of women engaged in higher studies in England, France and Germany.[[10]] In order to obtain a better idea of opportunities for true collegiate work open to women at the present time in the United States I have selected from these four hundred and eighty colleges and from the numerous colleges for women classified elsewhere, a list of fifty-eight colleges properly so-called, employing for the purpose the four means of classification most likely to commend themselves to the impartial student of such things.[[11]] Of these fifty-eight colleges four are independent colleges for women and three women’s colleges affiliated to colleges for men; of the remaining 51, 30, or 58.8 per cent, are coeducational, and a nearer examination makes a much more favorable showing for coeducation. Of the 21 colleges closed to women in their undergraduate departments five have affiliated to them a women’s college through which women obtain some share in the undergraduate instruction given, the affiliated colleges in three cases being of enough importance to appear in the same list. Of these five, four (all but Harvard) admit women without restriction to their graduate instruction, and in addition Yale, the University of Pennsylvania and New York university make no distinction between men and women in graduate instruction. The Johns Hopkins university maintains a coeducational medical school. In this list then of fifty-eight, which includes all the most important colleges in the United States, there are, apart from the two Catholic colleges, only ten (Dartmouth, Amherst, Williams, Clark, Princeton, Lehigh, Lafayette, Hamilton, Colgate, Virginia, all situated on the Atlantic seaboard) to which women are not admitted in some departments. Princeton is the only one of the large university foundations that excludes women from any share whatsoever in its advantages. The diagram on the opposite page shows the steady progress of coeducation from 1870 to 1898.[[12]]
GROWTH OF COEDUCATION