776 Ch. 19 • Rapid Industrialization and Its Challenges

A protest opposing the admission of women to the University of

Cambridge in 1881 demonstrates the unwillingness of many to

erase gender distinctions in education.

degree. Women could not receive degrees or have full privileges as students
at Oxford until 1920 and at Cambridge until 1948.

The Decline of Religious Practice

In a century of vigorous state secularization, particularly in Western Eu­

rope, many clergy viewed the period of rapid social change at the turn of

the century with anxiety. The institutional influence of churches on states

had declined dramatically in most of Europe. More than this, in some

places, the influence of organized religion on society continued to wane.

Secular education, espousing the cult of the nation, accelerated this trend,

even though many people in Catholic countries still attended Church

schools. However, fewer people went to church than earlier in the century.

In London a survey at the turn of the century revealed that less than 20

percent of the population regularly attended services, a marked decline. In

Spain, Galicia, the Basque provinces, and much of Castile remained

devout, while much of southern Spain did not.

The first Catholic sociologists of religion found a sharp rise in “de­

christianized” regions, as demonstrated by rates of couples not having

church marriages or being slow to have their children baptized, or the

decline in religious vocations. By the 1890s, the Church considered some