The attitude of the schools and of the learned class towards the
education of women serves to show in what manner and to what
extent learning has departed from its ancient station of priestly
and leisure-class prerogatives, and it indicates also what
approach has been made by the truly learned to the modern,
economic or industrial, matter-of-fact standpoint. The higher
schools and the learned professions were until recently tabu to
the women. These establishments were from the outset, and have in
great measure continued to be, devoted to the education of the
priestly and leisure classes.
The women, as has been shown elsewhere, were the original
subservient class, and to some extent, especially so far as
regards their nominal or ceremonial position, they have remained
in that relation down to the present. There has prevailed a
strong sense that the admission of women to the privileges of the
higher learning (as to the Eleusianin mysteries) would be
derogatory to the dignity of the learned craft. It is therefore
only very recently, and almost solely in the industrially most
advanced communities, that the higher grades of schools have been
freely opened to women. And even under the urgent circumstances
prevailing in the modern industrial communities, the highest and
most reputable universities show an extreme reluctance in making
the move.
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