She has shown that only a part of this discrepancy is attributable to the geographic difference, some of it is the effect of lack of co-education. Some of it is also attributable to the type of education.
The marriage rate of women graduates of Iowa State College[109] is as follows:
| 1872-81 | 95.8 |
| 1882-91 | 62.5 |
| 1892-01 | 71.2 |
| 1902-06 | 69.0 |
Study of the alumni register of Oberlin,[110] one of the oldest coeducational institutions, shows that the marriage rate of women graduates, 1884-1905, was 65.2%, only 34.8% of them remaining unmarried. If the later period, 1890-1905, alone is taken, only 55.2% of the girls have married. The figures for the last few classes in this period are probably not complete.
At Kansas State Agricultural College, 1885-1905, 67.6% of the women graduates have married. At Ohio State University in the same period, the percentage is only 54.0. Wisconsin University, 1870-1905, shows a percentage of 51.8, the figures for the last five years of that period being:
| 1901 | 33.9 |
| 1902 | 52.9 |
| 1903 | 45.1 |
| 1904 | 32.3 |
| 1905 | 37.4 |
From alumni records of the University of Illinois, 54% of the women, 1880-1905, are found to be married.
It is difficult to discuss these figures without extensive study of each case. But that only 53% of the women graduates of three great universities like Illinois, Ohio and Wisconsin, should be married, 10 years after graduation, indicates that something is wrong.
In most cases it is not possible to tell, from the alumni records of the above colleges, whether the male graduates are or are not married. But the class lists of Harvard and Yale have recently been carefully studied by John C. Phillips,[111] who finds that in the period 1851-1890 74% of the Harvard graduates and 78% of the Yale graduates married. In that period, he found, the age of marriage has advanced only about 1 year, from a little over 30 to just about 31. This is a much higher rate than that of college women.
Statistics from Stanford University[112] offer an interesting comparison because they are available for both men and women. Of 670 male graduates, classes 1892 to 1900, inclusive, 490 or 73.2% were reported as married in 1910. Of 330 women, 160 or 48.5% were married. These figures are not complete, as some of the graduates in the later classes must have married since 1910.