The Dominion FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1926. WOMEN AT THE UNIVERSITIES

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 17, 15 October 1926, Page 8

The Dominion FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1926. WOMEN AT THE UNIVERSITIES

The Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, alarmed at the fact that women now number one-fifth of the students attending the university, considers that some legal limitation ought to be placed upon them. lie does not regret that he assisted to secure the admission of women to degrees, but be says that nobody loresaw that they would ultimately come to the university in such numbers. Is it. to be implied that' had someone foreseen this, the original concession would have been refused.' It is a minor incident, but behind it is a principle. The cabled report of the Vice-Chancellor’s remarks as published was evidently condensed. One would have liked to have examined his reasons for the suggestion. The excess of women over men. in the United Kingdom 'is so pronounced that it is rapidly becoming an economic problem, if the problem stage has not already been reached. Thousands of women, whether they like it or not. stand condemned, to lives of single blessedness and independent labour because there are not enough men to go round. That being the case, there should, iif fairness, be no bar to their claim to qualify for careers. The Oxford Vice-Chancellor may have been troubled in his mind by the social issues opened tip by the indiscriminate rush of women to the universities, irrespective of a definite aim in life, or by an apprehension of the economic disturbance likely to ensue from the flooding bv women of professions which support a large number of married men. If one regards marriage as a career for women, which, in its highest and best.sense it is. then the right environment tor training would not be found in the academic atmosphere of a university. It is probably correct that many girls who embark upon a university career would be much happier and better prepared for the more congenial state of matrimony if they pursued domestic avocations.

Men to-dav are less inclined to dogmatise as to what women can do and cannot do. The modern way is to offer them the test of experience and sec whether they can or cannot. We have opened to them the doors of the learned professions and even of Parliament itself. Our indulgence in these respects has not been attended by the economic and political chaos which opponents of this new charter declared would be the result. In this country there arc. comparatively speaking, very few women in the medical profession, fewer, if anv. in the legal profession, and none in Parliament. Practical experience has settled these contentious matters without argument.