A Curious Inconsistency: Coeducation in Secondary Education in the Netherlands, 1900–1960

Abstract

During the first half of this century, a curious inconsistency existed in girls' secondary education in the Netherlands. On the one hand a majority of educationalists repeated objections against coeducation for girls over twelve. On the other hand the greater number of girls—or indeed their parents—continued to prefer mixed schooling. This article examines the arguments brought forward. It also tries to give an explanation of the enduring and remarkable agreement among educationalists who came from very different cultural backgrounds, such as feminism, educational reformism, orthodox Calvinism, and Roman Catholicism. The majority of the arguments turned out to be of a didactic or psychological nature. Furthermore, the arguments appear to be based on a naturalistic concept of gender differences, as represented by leading psychological theories. During the fifties, a phenomenological or culturalistic approach of the human mind became dominant. “Then coeducation stopped being considered as harmful to the “natural” development of adolescent girls.