AN 
ADDRESS 
UPON THE 
CO-EDUCATION OF THE SEXES. 
BY 
EDWARD H. MAGILL, 
President of Swarthmore College, Delaware County, Pa. 
PHILAtrEfcPffiA- 
Stationers and Steam-Power Printers, 911 Arch Street, 
CHARLES A. DIXON & CO.-, 
1873. AN 
A D D R ESS 
UPON THE 
CO-EDUCATION OF THE SEXES. 
BY 
EDWARD H. MAGILL, 
President of Swarthmore College, Delaware County, Pa. 
PHILADELPHIA : 
CHARLES A. DIXON & CO., 
Stationers and Steam-Power Printers, 911 Arch Street. 
18 7 3. CO-EDUCATION OF THE SEXES. 
That the sexes should be educated together in our higher in- 
stitutions of learning, seems to partake so much of the nature of 
an axiom as to be almost incapable of proof. It is indeed 
rather a question of practice than of theory, and co-education 
being certainly the normal if not the existing condition of things, 
the burden of proof rests mainly with those who oppose it. 
Motives of economy, and simplicity of organization, certainly 
demand it, unless some weighty reasons can be given why it is 
undesirable. That the moral and social effect of educating the 
sexes together is in every way advantageous to them both, may 
be considered as fully established by the united testimony of men 
of large practical experience. Pages of conclusive evidence upon 
this point might be quoted from the principals of large normal 
schools in different parts of the country, in which the mixed 
system has been thoroughly tested for the past quarter of a 
century, but it is urged, though wholly without reason, that con- 
clusions thus reached would not be applicable to colleges. I will 
therefore confine myself chiefly to the testimony of presidents 
and professors of the different colleges in the country where this 
system has been tried. The number of these being yet compara- 
tively small, the same men may be repeatedly referred to upon 
different points. I quote first from the Rev. Dr. Fairchild, 
President of Oberlin College, an institution now numbering over 
one thousand students, of both sexes, where co-education has 
been well tested for more than thirty years. He says : “ To 
secure social culture the student does not need to make any ex- 
penditure of time, going out of his way, or leaving his proper 
work for the pleasure or improvement resulting from society. 
He finds himself naturally in the midst of it, and he adjusts him- 
self to it instinctively. It influences his manners, his feelings, 
his thoughts. He may be as little conscious of the sources of 4 
the influence as of the sunlight, or the atmosphere ; it will en- 
velope him all the same, saving him from the excessive introver- 
sion, the morbid fancies and moroseness which sometimes arise 
in secluded study, giving elasticity of spirit, and even of move- 
ment, and refinement of character not readily attained out of 
society.” The Rev. Dr. Hosmer, President of Antioch College, 
and a successor of Horace Mann, speaking of the students of 
Antioch, says : “ As to character and conduct I am sure that 
our young men have been improved; rendered more orderly, 
gentle, and manly ; and our young women stronger and more 
earnest, by being members of the same institution and meeting in 
the recitations.” 
It is a common remark that institutions for both sexes, to be 
successful, must be placed under carefully guarded and able 
management. This is a necessary condition of success every- 
where, in all institutions, and I maintain that the same organiz- 
ing ability and power of control which will manage successfully 
an institution for one sex alone, will be even more successful 
where the sexes are united. The difficulties which loom up, and 
seem so insurmountable in theory, vanish in practice. Those 
who have always been accustomed to see young men and young 
women in separate institutions of learning, and who know how 
much time and thought they spend upon each other when thus 
separated, are apt to suppose that this difficulty would be in- 
creased if they were educated together. No conclusion could 
be more fallacious. There is nothing like daily association in 
the class-room, and competition in study, to wear off the halo of 
young romance, and enable them to see each other as they really 
are. That they will be likely to form acquaintances which will 
result in matrimonial engagements after leaving college cannot, 
of course, be denied. Upon this point I quote from the Rev. 
Dr. Fairchild. He says : “ If this is a fatal objection, the system 
must be pronounced a failure. The majority of young people 
form such acquaintances between the ages of sixteen and twenty- 
four, and these are the years devoted to a course of study. It 
would be a most unnatural state of things if such acquaintances 
should not be made. The reasonable inquiry in the case is 
whether such acquaintances and engagements can be made under circumstances more favorable to a wise and considerate adjust- 
ment, or more promising of a happy result.” When we consider 
how rashly young persons ordinarily enter into this, the most 
important of all engagements, with but an imperfect knowledge 
of each other's characters, we can readily judge whether the case 
would be made worse if these acquaintances were made during a 
course of study, where, by daily association in the classes, young 
persons have the best opportunities to know each other’s real 
character. Under such circumstances, so far from improper 
alliances growing out of such relations, it is clear that the very 
reverse must be the result, and that many very unsuitable alli- 
ances will thereby be prevented. 
That the daily association of young men and young women in 
the pursuit of their studies has a refining and elevating effect 
upon both, is a matter of common observation with all who have 
seen the experiment fairly tried. It is generally believed that, 
while it may produce this favorable result upon young men, it is 
not so clear in the case of young women, and that what is gained 
by the one, in this respect, is lost by the other. This is an error 
in theory, which practical experience cannot fail to correct. 
UponAhis point let me quote the words of President White, of 
the Cornell University. In a recent report upon this subject he 
says : “ As to the good effect on the women who have actually 
entered colleges, the testimony is ample. The committee in its 
visits found no opposing statements, either from college officers, 
students of either sex, or citizens of university towns, and all 
observations failed to detect any symptoms of any loss of the 
distinctive womanly qualities so highly prized.” I quote 
the following words from a letter recently received from the 
father of a young woman who has spent three years with us at 
Swarthmore College. He says: “ Her sojourn with you has 
been of great service to her, and I think it will have a perma- 
nent effect in forming her character. Aside from the book 
knowledge to be obtained, we wished to accomplish two purposes 
in sending her from home; first, to throw her more upon her 
own resources, and thus strengthen a rather yielding character, 
lacking self-esteem; and second, we wanted her to associate with 
young men in such a competitive way that when she meets them in society she will be better able to understand, weigh and value 
them at their real worth, and not be dazed by her first contact 
with the other sex.” 
I need not multiply words, nor heap up testimony on the sub- 
ject. We all understand that brothers and sisters, in every 
well-regulated family, exercise a mutually refining and elevating 
effect upon each other, and that it is always a misfortune to 
either to be deprived of the influence of the other. What is true 
in the family is equally true in the school or college, under 
proper regulations. How many have seen a son or brother 
return home after years of constant association with his own sex 
only, in school or college, awkward and rude, with a mind stored 
with knowledge, dearly purchased at a totally unnecessary ex- 
pense of refinement and cultivation ; and how many, on the 
other hand, have seen a sister or daughter return after a similar 
absence, and long association with her own sex only, at school, 
simpering and shy in the presence of the other sex, and with the 
most romantic and exalted ideas of their character, often to be 
corrected by bitter experience and the sacrifice of a life which 
might have been useful and happy ; and how sad a thought it is 
that a foolish and unreasoning prejudice will continue this great 
wrong to both sexes, by depriving each, through these critical 
formative years, of the society of the other. 
Having shown that morally and socially young persons are 
improved by co-education, I come now to consider its effect upon 
scholarship. In the first place let me say that if high scholar- 
ship must be sacrificed to elevate the moral standard of the ris- 
ing generation, let it be sacrificed; but that no such sacrifice 
will be necessary we have already abundant testimony. Some 
men are fond of saying that girls readily keep pace with boys in 
their earlier studies, and even outstrip them, but when they 
advance further, and the real work begins, they fill behind. It 
is not at all uncommon to hear this remark from those who 
are especially fortunate that in their race for intellectual distinc- 
tion, young women have not had the opportunity to compete. 
It is growing less and less safe to make this gratuitous statement 
as facilities for higher education are gradually being opened to 
women. Wherever the attempt has been made to present equal 7 
opportunities to the two sexes, women have not suffered by the 
comparison. Upon this point let us hear the testimony of the 
President of Oberlin. He says : “ During my own experience 
as professor, eight years in ancient languages—Latin, Greek 
and Hebrew, eleven in mathematics abstract and applied, and 
eight in philosophical and ethical studies, I have never observed 
any difference in the sexes as to performance in the recitations." 
President White in a recent address says : “ The best Greek 
scholar among 1300 students of the University of Michigan a 
few years since, the best mathematical scholar in one of the 
largest classes of that institution to-day, and several among the 
highest in natural science, and in the general courses of study, 
are young women.” 
Take these statements in connection with the fact that facili- 
ties for the higher education of woman are so rare and of so re- 
cent date, and do they not clearly show that women can success- 
fully compete with men in intellectual efforts ? That women of 
distinction in the various departments of learning have arisen, in 
the face of all the discouragements placed in their way, and that 
young women compete so successfully with young men in those in- 
stitutions where they hate been admitted of latter years, are facts 
which form a triumphant refutation of the unfounded charge 
that women always fall behind when they come to the real work. 
I am forcibly reminded in this connection of the remark of Pro- 
fessor Walter Smith, a man of large educational experience in 
England, now State Director of Art Education in Massachusetts, 
lie says : “I have heard young men, who never taught a 
mixed class of males and females for an hour in their lives, 
glibly lay down the axiom that £ man’s is the reasoning and pro- 
gressive mind, woman’s the contemplative and conservative 
mind,’ and then proceed to account for this phenomenon by quo- 
tations of the opinions of the philosophers, or by the recital of 
their own experience—observation made, probably, during a 
ball or a pic-nic.” 
But even if it were true that women, generally, would bo 
found, upon trial, unequal to men, it would be no argument 
whatever for closing the doors of our colleges against them. 
Let that matter settle itself by the examinations for admission, 8 
and the biennials, just as it does for boys and men of varying 
capacity. Nor does it change the aspect of this question that 
the great majority of girls will not be likely to seek a collegiate 
education. President Angell, of the University of Michigan, in 
a letter recently received, says:—“ Those girls who do wish a 
collegiate education should have a chance to get it; and since 
our colleges cannot be duplicated for w omen, they should be ad- 
mitted, unless some serious practical objections can be shown. 
In fact, all who try the experiment report that there are none. 
We have not had the slightest embarrassment from the reception 
of women. They have done their work admirably, and, appa- 
rently, with no peril to their health.” Why do we presume to 
dictate to woman what particular course is proper for her 
sphere ? Let all avenues of knowledge be opened to both sexes 
alike, and let both alike, under a judicious optional system, freely 
partake of the knowledge which they desire. Fear not the 
lowering of the standard of literary institutions by the change 
proposed. The women who will seek admission to the newly 
opened institutions of learning will rather stimulate by their 
presence and example than lower the standard by their deficient 
scholarship. Professor Cooley, of the Law department of the 
University of Michigan, and Chief Justice of the State, says:— 
“You are mis-informed if you are told that the standard of ad- 
mission is lowered by admitting women to the University. The 
tendency has been in the other direction.” 
I must here take occasion to remark that if our young women 
would be successful in pursuing the higher courses now opening 
before them, they must be willing to devote several years of 
their early womanhood to earnest study, not be in too great 
haste to enter society, and give less of their time and thoughts 
to dress and to fashionable accomplishments. Unless our girls 
and young women arc willing to make this reasonable sacrifice, 
these things will continue to be in the future, as they have been 
in the past, among the chief causes of the inferior education 
of woman. 
It may be contended that, admitting the capacity of young 
women to compete with young men, the scholarship of the 
colleges must nevertheless suffer because the presence of the op- 9 
positc sex would prevent that earnest undivided devotion to 
study so essential to a high grade of scholarship. What is the 
present order of things ? Do the young men in our colleges de- 
vote no time nor thought to the society of the opposite sex during 
their college course ? President White, when investigating this 
subject, found that this objection had no weight in the Univer- 
sity of Michigan, where co-education has been tried for the past 
four years. He says : “ There has been less social intercourse 
between the young women and young men in college than 
between the latter and the daughters of citizens in the town not 
in college; the young ladies seem to be quietly on their guard 
against receiving too much attention from students of the other 
sex.” The reason is obvious. Their thoughts are otherwise 
occupied. 
I come now to allude briefly, and with great diffidence, to our 
own institution (Swarthmore College) as it is yet in its infancy, 
and we cannot speak from either long or extensive experience. 
It contains over two hundred students of both sexes, nearly equal 
in numbers. All reside in the same college building; sit together 
in the classes, in the general study hall and at table; are together 
freely in the halls and parlors, and upon certain portions of the 
grounds between recitation hours and on holidays—of course 
under the care and conscientious oversight of a large body of 
resident instructors and professors of both sexes. Of the result 
thus far (and we have been established four years) I will say in a 
word that the effect upon character, manners and scholarship has 
been such as to satisfy the highest hopes of the advocates of the 
system, and silence the cavilling and objections of those who, 
upon theoretical grounds, predicted an early failure. The few 
who still doubt are invariably those whose minds were made up 
from the beginning, and who have always kept aloof from us, and 
never witnessed the practical working of our system for them- 
selves. / 
I have thus endeavored to show that morally and socially co- 
education is productive of the best results; and that scholarship 
will not suffer, but rather be promoted by it. 
With reference to the single point which remains, the effect 
of study upon the health of young women, the testimony is 10 
ample. T. W. Higginson, in a paper upon “ Higher Education 
for Women” recently read before the American Social Science 
Association in Boston, states, that statistics do not prove that 
educated women are more sickly than those who are ignorant; 
and, that more girls sink listlessly into disease from the sheer 
reason of having nothing to do, to study, or to think of, than 
are injured by over-study. In the discussion which followed the 
reading of the paper, Mrs. Cheney used these impressive words:— 
“Grateful as I feel to Mr. Higginson for what he has said of the 
relation of study to the health of women, I wish him to put it 
much stronger. I believe that good mental discipline is the very 
thing most needed to restore the health of our girls. I see so 
many g'irls break down from the gayetics of society, and so many 
restored from ill health by earnest purposes and study, that I 
feel it to be a positive truth, not only that good study would not 
hurt women, but would save them.” In speaking of this subject 
President Raymond, of Vassar College, said; “I challenge the 
United States to produce 400 girls as healthy as those of our col- 
lege.” Prof. Maria Mitchell added her emphatic testimony to that 
of President Raymond. Most of the ill health of girls and young 
women who are pursuing a course of study, and who are generally 
supposed to be suffering from close confinement and over-exertion, 
is fairly attributable to other causes. The Principal of a leading 
normal school in New England informed me, a few years ago, that 
a promising young woman of his class, who had just died of 
brain fever, Avas believed to have died from hard study, whereas 
he knew that she was in the habit of returning from parties at 
midnight or later, and being ambitious to excel in her classes, 
she would then study two or three hours before retiring, thus 
almost Avholly depriving herself of sleep, and that other cases, 
quite similar to this, had fallen under his observation. President 
Fairchild of Obcrlin, who has had larger experience, and better 
opportunities to judge than perhaps any other man in this 
country, says:—“Nor is there any manifest inability on the part 
of young women to endure the required labor. A breaking down 
in health does not appear to be more frequent than with young 
men. We have not observed a more frequent interruption of 
study on this account; nor do statistics show a greater draft 11 
upon the vital forces in the case of those Avho have Completed the 
full college course. Of young ladies Avho have graduated since 
1841, the deaths have been one in twelve; of the young men, a 
little more than one in eleven.” You will perceive that this 
comparison, based upon thirty-one years’ statistics, is more 
favorable to Avomen than that shoAvn by our ordinary tables of 
mortality for the same age. We may hence infer that the pur- 
suit of collegiate studies is rather favorable to the health of 
women than 'prejudicial to it; and this conclusion, reached by 
statistics, Ave might readily reach through simple reasoning, the 
regular habits induced by the life of a student being more con- 
ducive to health and longevity than the frivolous excitements 
and irregular hours indulged in by the devotees of society. 
The theoretical objections to co-education in our higher institu- 
tions of learning are daily giving way before the test of practical 
experience. The most decided opponents of the system are those 
who have never tried it, or seen it tried; its strongest advocates 
those who, having Avitnessed the effects of the separate system, 
have brought co-education to the test of daily practice. This 
fact alone speaks volumes in its favor. The tide is surely ad- 
vancing, and not ebbing, as some of our leading educators would 
have us believe. 
Nothing short of co-equal educational advantages, and the 
same degrees conferred upon both sexes for equal attainments, 
will meet the demands of the times. It will be in vain to attempt 
to resist this claim by the olfer to confer other marks of distinc- 
tion, which fall short of, or are different from the degrees regu- 
larly conferred. These may be well; at least the offer to confer 
them is a significant sign of the times. They can, however, 
scarcely be regarded as other than milestones on the way of pro- 
gress, and not the ultimate goal. If the practical objections to 
admitting women to the undergraduate classes are considered 
insuperable, we might naturally inquire why they might not 
receive the same degrees as the regular graduates, if prepared to 
pass the same examinations. It is not a sufficient answer to sfty 
that but few women would pass the ordeal were the opportunity 
offered. If they cannot be admitted to the classes, this experi- 
ment, at least, might be fairly tried. 12 
President Raymond, while acknowledging himself in favor of 
co-education, calls it the Millenial System of Education. If he 
means by this that it will prevail only when the Millenium 
arrives, if he reads aright the signs of the times, he must surely 
regard the Millenium as near. Well may Harvard condescend 
to consider and discuss this question, when it is claiming the 
serious consideration of so many of the colleges throughout the 
country; and, in its own immediate vicinity, the Boston 
University, with its munificent donation of ten million dollars to 
begin with, is to throw open the doors of all its departments to 
women. Surely the tide is rising ; and placing our chair upon 
the sinking sands, and insisting that it is ebbing,' while the 
waves dash over our feet, cannot delay it by a single hour. 
In conclusion, let me say that this question seems to assume 
different forms in different parts of the world. Were we dis- 
cussing it to-day in some city of the Orient instead of in Phila- 
delphia, it would probably be worded :—“ Can women be allowed 
to go unveiled in the streets, or sit at the table with their lords 
without endangering the public morals ?-' Were we in Paris, it 
might be: “ Can respectable young women ever appear un- 
attended in the public streets ?” In Palestrina or Lugnano or 
Subiaco, it might take the form : “ Are women capable of any 
office higher than that of beasts of burden?” In Philadelphia 
we ask : “ Can young men and young women be safely educated 
together in the same institution,” and, “Are women capable of 
making the same intellectual acquirements as men.” These 
different questions are but different forms of the same question, 
varying according to different localities and different latitudes. 
The time will come when our posterity will read with amaze- 
ment and incredulity the statement that in the city of Philadel- 
phia, after the middle of the nineteenth century, the question 
was seriously entertained by a dignified and intelligent body of 
educators, in advance of their age in many things, whether 
women were intellectually equal to men, and whether the sexes 
should be educated together in our higher institutions of learning. APPENDIX 
LETTER FROM PRESIDENT FAIRCHILD. 
Reference has been frequently made in this pamphlet to President 
Fairchild, of Oberlin College. In the recent discussion upon “Higher 
Education for Women” at the American Social Science Association in 
Boston, some shade of doubt was cast upon the success of co-education 
in Oberlin and other institutions, where it has been tried in the West. 
I therefore addressed to the President a letter of inquiry, that I might 
be assured that his views upon this subject had undergone no change. 
The following, received since the foregoing pages were in type, is his 
reply. I give it without comment. It speaks for itself. 
OBerlin College, Ohio, 
May 26th, 1873. 
PRESIDENT MAGILL, 
My Dear Sir:— 
The only report which I have seen of President Eliot’s recent remarks 
on the subject of the education of women is that of the New York 
Tribune. If this report be correct President Eliot must labor under 
some misapprehension. It is true that we have a special “Ladies’ 
Course,” and far the larger portion of our young ladies pursue this 
course; but this “Ladies’ Course” was adopted at the founding of the 
school, and the admission of young ladies to the full college (classical) 
course was a subsequent matter. No such thing was thought of in the 
beginning. It was granted, at length, to a few young ladies, who desired 
the fuller course. Of the four who first entered upon this course, in 
1837, three completed it; and from that time there have been more or 
less pursuing this course. The numbers have varied from 10 to 36, but 
by what law I have not been able to discover. There have been sev- 
eral fluctuations from a maximum to a minimum, and the reverse, 
within the last thirty years. We have recently reached the lowest 
number, and are apparently again on the increase. 14 
APPENDIX. 
No special influence is used with the young ladies. They select their 
own course, with such advice as they choose to seek. 
I know of no foundation for the idea that the college course for ladies 
is looked upon with disfavor here. Several of the professors have given 
their daughters this course, and others are arranging to do the same. 
It is regarded as a question of health and taste for study, and there 
seems to be no more apprehension, among us, in regard to the success of 
a young woman, in this course, than of a young man. A young woman 
is just as likely to lead the class as otherwise. 
President Eliot speaks of a conversation with the “ Matron,” whose 
opinion was decided against the college course for ladies. The Princi- 
pal of the Ladies’ Department, when President Eliot was with us, and 
for many years before, tells me that she never held such an opinion, 
and has always regretted that she did not advise her own daughter to 
take the college course instead of the other. Our present Principal 
pursued the “ Ladies’ Course” and she told me to-day that it was the 
regret of her life that she did not take the college course. Since her 
graduation she has endeavored to make up the lack. 
Probably none among us think that the full college course is as often 
desirable for young women as for young men. But it should be under- 
stood that our “Ladies’ Course” involves about five years of study after 
a common school education;—i. e.four years after one year of prepara- 
tion in Latin and Mathematics. Our college course requires three years 
of preparation. Our “ Ladies’ Course” is the equivalent of the “Scien- 
tific” Course in this College, in Michigan University, and in other West- 
ern Schools. The young ladies, after the first two years of their course; 
recite with the college classes, when their studies are the same, without 
any special difficulty, so that our entire arrangement involves the fact 
of co-education. 
There lias been but one opinion among us in regard to the success of 
the “ experimentand there is not to-day the first symptom of a re- 
actionary feeling, among either teachers or pupils. Nor have I the 
slightest evidence of any such re-action in the schools of the West that 
have adopted the system, and I am somewhat intimately acquainted 
with most of them. A few days since, I was at the University of Michi- 
gan, where ladies have been in attendance for two or three years. One 
of the professors told me that almost all the professors were opposed 
to the arrangement at the outset; now not one. 
These are the facts with us, as they stand to-day. You can use them 
as you think best. 
Truly, your friend, 
James H. Fairchild. mUMim EDUCATION FOE WOMEN. 
Swarthmore College, situated on the 
West Chester Rail Road, ten miles from Phila- 
delphia, was established Friends, to extend 
the benefits of a thorough Collegiate Education 
to both sexes, who may here pursue the same 
courses of study, and receive the same degrees. 
The discipline is as nearly as possible that of 
a well regulated family. 
The Institution includes, in addition to the 
four regular college classes, a preparatory school. 
The accomplishments taught in fashionable 
schools are excluded, being considered incom- 
patible with the serious work of pursuing a lib- 
eral course of study, and among the chief cau- 
ses of the inferior education of woman. 
For catalogue, giving full particulars as to 
courses of study, terms, etc., etc. 
Address: 
EDWARD H. MAGILL, (President. 
Swarthmore College, Delaware Co., Pa.