vania, organized in 1880, and with 489 students and 63 teachers in 1918; Smith College at Northampton, Mass.
France began to open its universities to women in 1858; England followed in 1864; Switzerland in 1866; Sweden in 1870; Denmark, Holland, Finland and India in 1875; Italy and Belgium in 1876; Australia in 1878; Norway in 1884; Iceland in 1886; Hungary in 1895; Austria in 1897; Prussia in 1899, and Germany in 1900.
Today no one clings any longer to the old prejudices against the abilities of women. College education among women has become so common as to attract little or no attention. It is regarded as the essential training for intellectual, professional and business life, and it is no longer an effort to secure it, but rather to make it of the greatest possible value to the students and to the community. As women do a large proportion of the teaching in public schools as well as in colleges for both sexes, the education of the citizens of the 20th Century depends largely upon the opportunities available to women in the past, present and future.
As educators as well as founders of learned institutions large numbers of women became most favorably known. There was for instance Jeanne Louise Henriette Campan. When the tempests of the French Revolution began to rage, she held a position at the royal court as reader to the young princesses. Thrown on her own resources after the dethronement and execution of the King and the Queen she established a school at Saint-Germain. The institution prospered, and was patronized by Mme. Beauharnais, whose influence led to the appointment of Mme. Campan as superintendent of the Academy founded by Napoleon at Ecouen, for the education of the daughters and sisters of members of the Legion of Honor. While in this position Mme. Campan wrote a treatise "De l'Education des Femmes."
Emmy Hart Willard in 1823 founded Troy Female Seminary at Troy, N. Y., over which she presided until 1838. Mary Mason Lyon established in 1836 Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, of which she was president until her death in 1849.
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody in Boston was largely instrumental in introducing Froebel's kindergarten system in the United States. She likewise wrote a number of educational works. In England Emily Anne Shireff was active as President of the Froebel Society of England. Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, who worked for the extension of university education to women, aided in 1868 in establishing Girton College, at Cambridge, England. Anne Jemima Clough founded in 1867 the North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women, and in 1875 the Newnham College for Women.
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