FIFTY YEARS AGO

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23616, 28 March 1940, Page 8

FIFTY YEARS AGO

EDUCATION FOR WOMEN The question of the education of women and the part they -were to play in public and business life was the subject of conflicting opinions tSO years ago, the following editorial comment being taken from die New Zealand Herald of March 28, 1890:—. "A new factor in the education question has become somewhat prominent in England. Hitherto the points considered have been chiefly those affecting the training of boys and young men. Educationists are gradually perceiving that even more important are those which affect the training of girls and young women. Are they to be rendered able to compete with men in the learned professions and in the various callings hitherto considered unsuitable for them, or are they to be trained after the old fashion 1o become the wives of the present generation and the mothers of that to coine? The consideration involves the much talked of women's rights, and the position that women should occupy in the social and political world. Are we to revert to the old fashioned way of bringing lip girls or are we to go 011 in tbe new course, cram them with learning, send them out into the world to do man's work, give them the electoral vote, and train them into politicians?"