The (almost really) Complete Works of Lewis Carroll

In the bewildering multiplicity of petty side-issues, with which the question, of granting University Degrees to Women, has been overlaid, there is some danger that Members of Congregation may lose sight of the really important issues involved.

The following four propositions should, I think, be kept steadily in view by all who wish to form an independent opinion as to the matter in dispute.

(1)

One of the chief functions, if not the chief function, of our University, is to prepare young Men—partly by teaching, partly by discipline, partly by the personal influence of those who have charge of them, and partly by the influence they exercise on one another—for the business of Life.

[This needs to be specially borne in mind in connection with the assumption, so constantly made in this controversy, that the sole meaning of the B.A. Degree is that it guarantees the possession of a large amount of knowledge.]

Consequently,

(2)

The first question to be asked, as to any Scheme proposed to our University, is, “How will it affect those for whose well-being we are responsible?” When we have assured ourselves that it will not exercise any harmful influence on our own Students, then, and not till then, may we fairly proceed to consider how it will affect those for whose well-being we are not responsible.

(3)

Any Scheme for the recognition of Women-Students—whether by a series of Certificates or a single Diploma—whereby those who have resided here will have an advantage, in the keen competition for educational posts, over those who have not, will most certainly end in making residence compulsory on all. Whether they wish it or not, whether they can afford it or not, Women-Students will find that they must reside, unless they are content to be hopelessly distanced in the race whose prize is “daily bread.”

Consequently,

(4)

Any such Scheme is certain to produce an enormous influx of resident Women-Students. Considering that we have over 3000 young Men-Students, and that the number of young Women, who are devoting themselves to study, is increasing “by leaps and bounds,” it may be confidently predicted that any such Scheme will bring to Oxford at least 3000 more young Women-Students. Such an immigration will of course produce a rapid increase in the size of Oxford, and will necessitate a large increase in our teaching-staff and in the number of our lecture-rooms.

The main question before us is, “Will the mutual influence, of two such sets of Students, residing in such close proximity, be for good or for evil?”

Some Members of the Congregation will reply, “For good,” some, “For evil.” By all means let each form his own independent judgement, and give effect to it by his vote: but let him do it deliberately, and in the full light of facts.

The late Dr. Liddon was strongly of opinion that such an influence would be for evil, at any rate for the young Women. I have myself heard him—no doubt many others have done the same—express, most warmly and earnestly, his fears as to the effect the new movement, for flooding Oxford with young Women-Students, would have on the young Women themselves. And I have no doubt that, were he yet among us, his silvery tones would have been heard in Congregation last Tuesday, deprecating the introduction, into our ancient University, of that social monster, the “He-Woman”.

Surely the real “way out”, from our present perplexity, is to be found in some such course as that advocated by Mr. Strachan-Davidson, that Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, should join in a petition to the Crown to grant a charter for a Women’s University.

Such a University would very soon attract to itself the greater portion of young Women-Students. It takes no great time to build Colleges; and we might confidently expect to see “New Oxford,” in the course of 20 or even of 10 years, rivaling Oxford, not only in numbers, but in attainments. At first, perhaps, they might need to borrow some teachers from the older Universities; but they would soon be able to supply all, that would be needed, from among themselves; and Women-Lecturers and Women-Professors would arise, fully as good as any that the older Universities have ever produced.

This proposal has been met by the plea that it is not what the Women themselves “desire.” Surely no weaker plea was ever urged in any controversy. Even men very often fail to “desire” what is, after all, the best thing for them to have. And those ancients, on whom the onerous task was laid, of weighing and, if reasonably possible, satisfying the claims of the horse-leech and her two daughters, had other things to consider than the mere shrillness of their outcries.