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American Women's Colleges through European Eyes, 1865–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

James C. Albisetti*
Affiliation:
The University of Kentucky

Extract

In March 1904, at a time when the Prussian Ministry of Education was giving serious consideration to the admission of women to institutions of higher education, it received a petition signed by the rectors of eight of Prussia's nine universities. The rectors expressed strong opposition to the introduction of coeducation and called instead for the creation of a separate university for women, where they suggested that professorial appointments would “be open to the best scholarly talents among the women.” To support this viewpoint, they noted that in the United States, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Wellesley, Vassar, and Bryn Mawr colleges employed 249 women as professors, versus just 88 men.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 by the History of Education Society 

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References

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32 Zimmermann, , Universitäten, 76; Münsterberg, , “Frauenstudium,” 345; Waetzoldt, , “National Features,” 470. On the American students at the Victoria Lyzeum, see Albisetti, James C., “German Influence on the Higher Education of American Women, 1865–1914” forthcoming in German Influence on Education in the United States to 1917 , ed. Geitz, Henry, Heideking, Jürgen, and Jurgen Herbst (New York, 1993).Google Scholar

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39 See Weisz, George, The Emergence of Modern Universities in France, 1863–1914 (Princeton, 1983).Google Scholar

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56 Albisetti, , Schooling German Girls, 242–50. In a somewhat different appeal to American evidence, some professors at the University of Vienna in January 1905 tried unsuccessfully to block the Habilitation of the first female lecturer, Elise Richter, by asserting that “American colleges and universities that allowed women to teach did not enjoy great reputation.” See Pulgram, Ernst, In Pluribus Prima: Elise Richter,” Cross Currents 5 (1986): 428.Google Scholar