And the first glance at the statistics gives adequate ground for uneasiness. Take the figures for Wellesley College, for instance:
| Status in fall of 1912 | Graduates | All students |
|---|---|---|
| Per cent married (graduated 1879-1888) | 55% | 60% |
| Per cent married in: | ||
| 10 years from graduation | 35% | 37% |
| 20 years from graduation | 48% | 49% |
From a racial standpoint, the significant marriage rate of any group of women is the percentage that have married before the end of the child-bearing period. Classes graduating later than 1888 are therefore not included, and the record shows the marital status in the fall of 1912. In compiling these data deceased members and the few lost from record are of course omitted.
In the foregoing study care was taken to distinguish as to when the marriage took place. Obviously marriages with the women at 45 or over being sterile must not be counted where it is the fecundity of the marriage that is being studied. The reader is warned therefore to make any necessary correction for this factor in the studies to follow in some of which unfortunately care has not been taken to make the necessary distinction.
Turn to Mount Holyoke College, the oldest of the great institutions for the higher education of women in this country. Professor Amy Hewes has collected the following data:
| Decade of graduation | Per cent remaining single | Per cent marrying |
|---|---|---|
| 1842-1849 | 14.6 | 85.4 |
| 1850-1859 | 24.5 | 75.5 |
| 1860-1869 | 39.1 | 60.9 |
| 1870-1879 | 40.6 | 59.4 |
| 1880-1889 | 42.4 | 57.6 |
| 1890-1892 | 50.0 | 50.0 |
Bryn Mawr College, between 1888 and 1900, graduated 376 girls, of whom 165, or 43.9%, had married up to January 1, 1913.
Studying the Vassar College graduates between 1867 and 1892, Robert J. Sprague found that 509 of the total of 959 had married, leaving 47% celibate. Adding the classes up to 1900, it was found that less than half of the total number of graduates of the institution had married.
Remembering what a selected group of young women go to college, the eugenist can hardly help suspecting that the women's colleges of the United States, as at present conducted, are from his point of view doing great harm to the race. This suspicion becomes a certainty, as one investigation after another shows the same results. Statistics compiled on marriages among college women (1901) showed that:
| 45% of college women marry before the age of 40. |
| 90% of all United States women marry before the age of 40. |
| 96% of Arkansas women marry before the age of 40. |
| 80% of Massachusetts women marry before the age of 40. |