Psychology Experts See Education Of Women as Vital in Home Life

Women who have received higher education were praised last night as "really essential in maintaining true respect for intellectual endeavor," by experts on psychology from the University and Radcliffe.

Gordon W. Allport, professor of Psychology, was moderator of a panel on "the effects of higher education on men-women relationships," sponsored by the Student Baptist Association of Boston in the Old Cambridge Baptist Church. The speakers were Dr. Dana L. Farnsworth, Director of University Health Services, and Dr. Carl Binger, Radcliffe Health Director.

All three stressed the importance of mothers as preservers of spiritual and intellectual values in the home by reinforcing the lessons of church and school. They deplored the prevalent belief that higher education is wasted on women who do not pursue careers. "Mothers ought to realize that what they are doing is more important than anything else," Binger said.

Need of Personal Development

Farnsworth and Binger agreed that there should be no distinction between the education of men and women, "as far as top-level planners are concerned." Binger felt that this lack of differentiation "sometimes develops mannish attitudes in women," but that this is often a device to hide inner turmoil and instability.

According to Farnsworth, an emphasis on factual material and the sciences in higher education has obscured the vital area of personal development. Starting with education as "the process by which we learn to relate ourselves to others . . . and cope with uncertainty," Farnsworth voiced concern over the lack of "personal fulfillment and emotional richness.

Aggressive Women

Binger also noted that many women have been "forced into competitive aggressiveness" by education on a plane with men, and deplored the resulting suppression of feminine gentleness. He felt that higher education produces more mature men and women who are therefore better able to adjust themselves to the problems of marriage. "Self-knowledge is the best safeguard against marriage break-up," Binger said.

In nothing the "major role of women in political, economic, and spiritual life," Binger remarked that 30 percent of married women have jobs outside the home, an increase of 15 percent over 1940.