(e) Their experience in college makes them desire a standard of living
higher than that of their own families or of the men among whom they
were brought up. They become resistant to the suit of men who are of
ordinary economic status. While waiting for the appearance of a suitor
who is above the average in both intelligence and wealth, they pass the
marriageable age.
(f) They are better educated than the young men of their acquaintance,
and the latter are afraid of them. Some young men dislike to marry girls
who know more than they do, except in the distinctively feminine fields.
These and various similar causes help to lower the marriage-rate of
college women and to account for the large number of alumnae who desire
to marry but are unable to do so. In the interest of eugenics, the
various difficulties must be met in appropriate ways.
Marriage is not desirable for those who are eugenically inferior, from
weak constitutions, defective sexuality, or inherent mental deficiency.
But beyond these groups of women are the much larger groups of celibates
who are distinctly superior, and whose chances of marriage have been
reduced for one of the reasons mentioned above or through living in
cities with an undue proportion of female residents.
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