   In the essay “The Higher Education of Women” (1890–1891) Cooper provides a feminist argument for educating women. She examines the sentiments against the education of women in the early 1800s and provides a counter argument by referencing the positive impact that education has had in the lives of women who were able to attend colleges and pursue B. A. degrees as well as the positive impact on the world more broadly. According to Cooper, higher education among women “…has given symmetry and completeness to the world’s agencies” (VAJC, 76). Thus, one of the objectives of giving women access to higher education is to better equip them to influence humanity and to contribute to the questions, problems and debates on the world stage. Cooper argues, “the feminine factor can have its proper effect only through women’s development and education so that she may fitly and intelligently stamp her force on the forces of her day…” (VAJC, 78).