EFFECT OF EDUCATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 158, 6 July 1935, Page 16

EFFECT OF EDUCATION.

DO UNIVERSITY GIRLS MARRY?

When a writer, as gifted as Mr. Gilbert Frankau,. commits himself to the statement that "University girls do not marry" one is tempted to delve fairly deeply into the truth of a dictum of this character. . From personal experience most of us would bo prepared to cast cold water on tlio suggestion at once. It would seem, from the evidence around us, that the proportion or university girls who marry is just as high as in any other class. But the root of Sir. Frankau's argument, it would appear, is rather that a university career unfits a woman for marriage. In his opinion, states an English paper, the aim of a university education is merely the gaining of a considerable, and perhaps undesirable, amount of book knowledge, and a consequent lessening of menial flexibility that, thereby, unfit her for the companionship and adventure of married life. At tho outset, oue would bu prepared to say that a course of book learning, which lias tho ultimate object; of teaching a woman to think clearly and consecutively, is no drawback to tho companionship of marriage. On tho contrary, tho average man undoubtedly welcomes a wife whoso mental equipment is equal to his own, provided, of course, that it is not obviously superior. A trained mind is certainly not inferior to a vapid one when it comes ito meeting the ups and downs of life, and, without doubt, it is unquestionably more interesting to deal with. It may bo true, as applied to educational institutions that cater for women solely, that a tendency might exist to concentrate solely on books and examination results to the cs:clusion of worldly matters outside. But, as regards the ordinary university, where men and women have common studies and come into continuous contact, this certainly is not the case. In most universities men and women have strong mutual interests, and the action and reaction of the masculine and feminine mind are just as great as elsewhere. One has only to glance at the cafes, of, say Oxford or at the skiffs on the river to show that the society of university women is'not altogether unattractive to the otlieir sex. ,

There may be excepions—jiwt as there are in the cases of men—but if Mr. Frankau investigated somewhat more closely he would probably find that the average girl loses none L of her charm or capacity for household % management because ehe happens to have :read some subjects deeply and even to have passed examinations. His theory is just the prevailing one that modern women rush to extremes, and that because university girls .acquire some learning they must, therefore, become book worms and nothing else. On the contrary,, the training and education that these students undergo tend to open their minds and make them more adaptable and more-ready to meet changed circumstances and conditions than the girls who have lived practically all their lives within the same four walls.

A woman who has absorbed a certain definite philosophy of life is better suited to live in matrimonial harmony than one whose ideas have been gained in just a haphazard fashion. She has more poise to face the changing facts of life, she lias many more interests, and she is far more likely to retain the intellectual interest of her husband without losing any of her feminine attraction and charm.