In paragraph four of the excerpt from "The Higher Education of Women," Cooper effectively uses the contrasting support of "women as calm" and "men as unnerved" to develop her argument.
She writes, "The opportunity of an equal education with men has been offered to women, and for the last thirty years women have been availing themselves of it with more and more success. They have shown that they have a capacity for study, which only wanted the opportunity to develop it. They have shown that they have a perseverance, an equanimity, and a self-control which men have often wanted. They have shown that they can be calm where men are unnerved."
Here, Cooper is highlighting the qualities that women have exhibited as they have pursued higher education, and contrasting these with the shortcomings that men have exhibited in the same context. She is arguing that women have proven themselves to be just as capable as men, if not more so, and that they should therefore be afforded the same opportunities for education and professional success.