BRARYQr A,^HIBRARYGc, Life 5"i ir -'^ ^-^ ^^ -^ C5 "^/^aJAINDJVVV^ #UBRARYG<. <^iUBRARYQc. v^^^f" _.i iJUI7liJU(7l iy ^*OJIlVDvlO>' 1^. c ^OFCAIIFO% \ fiQ Or -^^ - ^ O ^^UDNVSOT^ "^/JMAINft-aWV ^^ %\. ^10SANCEI% ■^/JMAINflJViV CO so I 5^tUBRARYQc. -S^HIBf )M\ I 1 SL: ^IUBRARYQa^ ^ 'VAavo«iii^- ^lOSANCEl^^ Q A^^lEUBRARYQr^ #-lIBRARYG^ ii^Ai i('Jl «^5MEl]NIVER% I' =3 3 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT A HISTORICAL SURVEY BY DR. KAETHE SCHIRMACHER TRANSLATED FROM THE SECOND GERMAN EDITION BY CARL CONRAD ECKHARDT, Ph.D. INSTRUCTOR IN HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1912 All right* reserved Copyright, 1912, By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1913. J. 8. Cushing Co. —Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Maas., U.S.A. H (< 1150 " Unterdriickung ist gegen die menschliche Natur " " Oppression is opposed to human nature " 1403290 TRANSLATOR'S NOTE Hitherto there has been no English book giving a history of the woman's rights movement in all coun- tries of the world. English and American readers will therefore welcome the appearance of an EngUsh edi- tion of Dr. Scbirmacher's " Die moderne Frauenbe- wegung." Since Dr. Schirmacher is a German woman's rights advocate, actively engaged in propa- ganda, her book is not merely a history, but a political pamphlet" as well. Although the reader may at times disagree with the authoress, he will be inter- ested in her point of view. ^ In the chapter on the United States I have added, with Dr. Scbirmacher's consent, a number of trans- lator's footnotes, showing what bearings the elections of November, 1910, and October, 191 1, have had on the woman's rights question. An index, also, has been added. BouLDEK, Colorado, November, 191 1. vU PREFACE The first edition of this book appeared in 1905. That edition is exhausted, — an evidence of the great present-day interest in the woman's rights movement. This new edition takes into account the developments since 1905, contains the recent statistical data, and gives an account of the woman's suffrage movement which has been especially characteristic of these later years. Wherever the statistical data have been left unchanged, either there have been no new censuses or the new results were not available. The facts contained in this volume do not require of me any prefatory observations on the theoretical justification of the woman's rights movement.^ From the remotest time man has tried to rule her who ought to be comrade and colleague to him. By virtue of the law of might he generally succeeded. Every protest against this law of might was a "woman's rights movement." History contains many such protests. The modern ' I have discussed the theoretical side in a pamphlet of "The German Public Utility Association" {Deutscher Gemeinniitziger Verein), Prague, 1918 Palackykai. iz X PREFACE woman's rights movement is the first organized and international protest of this kind. Therefore it is a movement full of success and promise. Leadership in this movement has fallen to the women of the Cau- casian race, among whom the women of the United States have been foremost. At their instigation were formed the World's Christian Temperance Union, the International Council of Women, and the International Woman's Suffrage AlHance. ^ In many lands, even in those inhabited by the white race, there are, however, only very feeble begin- nings of the woman's rights movement. In the Orient, the Far East, and in Africa, woman's condi- tion of bondage is still almost entirely unbroken. Nevertheless, in these regions of the world, too, woman's day is dawning in such a way that we look for developments more confidently than ever before. In all countries the woman's rights movement origi- nated with the middle classes. This is a purely his- torical fact which in itself in no way impHes any an- tagonism between the woman's rights movement and the workingwomen's movement. There is no such antagonism either in Australia, or in England, or in the United States. On the contrary, the middle class and non-middle class movements are sharply separated in those countries whose social democracy uses class- hatred as propaganda. Whether the woman's rights PREFACE XI movement is also a workingwomen's movement, or whether the workingwomen's movement is also a woman's rights movement or socialism, depends there- fore in every particular case on national and historical circumstances. The international organization of the woman's rights movement is as follows : the International Coimcil of Women consists of the presiding oflBicers of the various National Councils of Women. Of these latter there are to-day twenty-seven; but the Servian League of Woman's Clubs has not yet joined.^ To a National Council may belong all those woman's clubs of a coun- try which unite in carrying out a certain general pro- gramme. The programmes as well as the organiza- tions are national in their nature, but they all agree in their general characteristics, since the woman's rights movement is indeed an international movement and arose in all countries from the same general con- ditions. The first National Council was organized in the United States in 1888. This was followed by organizations in Canada, Germany, Sweden, England, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia (with five coun- cils), Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria, Norway, Hungary, etc. ' The presiding ofiScers of the International Council to the present time were : Mrs. Wright Sewall and Lady Aberdeen. This year, June, 1909, Lady Aberdeen was reelected. Xll PREFACE As yet there are no statistics of the women repre- sented in the International Council. Its membership is estimated at seven or eight milUons. The National Council admits only clubs, — not individuals, — the chairmen of the various National Councils forming the International Coimcil of Women solely in their capacity of presiding officers. This International Council of Women is the per- manent body promoting the organized international woman's rights movement. It was organized in Wash- ington in 1888. The woman's suffrage movement, a separate phase of the woman's rights movement, has Ukewise organ- ized itself internationally, — though independently. Woman's suffrage is the most radical demand made by organized women, and is hence advocated in all countries by the "radical" woman's rights advocates. The greater part of the membership of the National Councils have therefore not beeii able in all cases to insert woman's suffrage in their programmes. The International Council did sanction this point, however, June 9, 1904, in BerUn. A few days previously there had been organized as the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, likewise in BerUn, woman's suffrage leagues representing eight different countries. The leagues which joined the Alliance represented the United States, Victoria, Eng- PREFACE Xm land, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Since then the woman's suffrage move- ment has been the most flourishing part of the woman's rights movement. The International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, which was pledged to hold a second congress only at the end of five years, has already held three congresses between 1905 and 1909 (1906, Copenhagen; 1908, Amsterdam; 1909, London), and has extended its membership to twenty-one countries (the United States, AustraUa, South Africa, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Nether- lands, Finland, Russia, Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria, Italy, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Servia, and Ice- land). The first president is Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt. The chief demands of the woman's rights movement are the same in all countries. These demands are four in number. 1. In the field of education and instruction: to en- joy the same educational opportunities as those of man. 2. In the field of labor: freedom to choose any occupation, and equal pay for the same work. 3. In the field of civil law : the wife should be given the full status of a legal person before the law, and full civil ability. In criminal law: the repeal of all regulations discriminating against women. The legal XIV PREFACE responsibility of man in sexual matters. In public law : woman's suffrage. 4. In the social field: recognition of the high value of woman's domestic and social work, and the incom- pleteness, harshness, and one-sidedness of every circle of man's activity (Mannerweli) from which woman is excluded. A just and happy relationship of the sexes is de- pendent upon mutuaUty, coordination, and the com- plementary relations of man and woman, — not upon the subordination of woman and the predominance of man. Woman, in her peculiar sphere, is entirely the equal of man in his. The origin of the international woman's rights movement is found in the world-wide disregard of this elementary truth. The subject which I have treated in this book is a very broad one, the material much scattered and daily changing. It is therefore hardly possible that my statements should not have deficiencies on the one hand, and errors on the other. I shall indeed wel- come any corrections and authoritative information of a supplementary nature.^ THE AUTHORESS. PASIS, JUNE 3, 1909. > The report of the International Woman's Suffrage Congress, Lon- don, May, 1909, had not yet appeared, and the reader is therefore referred to it. TABLE OF CONTENTS FAGB Translator's Note vii Preface ix-xiv I. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES The United States of America 2 Australia 42 Great Britain 58 Canada 96 South Africa 100 The Scandinavian Countries 101-126 Sweden 103 Finland no Norway 116 Denmark 122 The Netherlands 126 Switzerland 133 Germany 143 Luxemburg 157 German Austria 158 Hungary 169 II. THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES France 175 Belgium 190 Italy 196 XV XVI TABLE OF CONTENTS PACK Spain 206 Portugal 211 The Latin-American Republics of Central and South America 212 III. THE SLAVIC AND BALKAN STATES Russia 215 Czechish Bohemia and Moravla 230 Galicia 232 The Slovene Woman's Rights Movement . . . 235 Servia 236 bulgarla 239 Rumania 242 Greece 242 IV. THE ORIENT AND THE FAR EAST Turkey and Egypt 245 bosnla and herzegovina 25o Persia 251 Indla 252 China 256 Japan and Korea 260 Conclusion 263 Index 267 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT CHAPTER I THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES The woman's rights movement is more strongly organized and has penetrated society more thoroughly in all the Germanic countries than in the Romance countries. There are many causes for this: woman's greater freedom of activity in the Germanic countries ; the predominance of the Protestant religion, which does not oppose the demands of the woman's rights movement with the same united organization as does the Catholic Church ; the more vigorous training in self-reliance and responsibility which is customarily given to women in Germanic-Protestant countries ; the more significant superiority in numbers of women in Germanic countries, which has forced women to adopt business or professional callings other than domestic.^ • Their inferiority in numbers (in Australia and in the western states of the United States) has, however, often served their cause in just the same way. B I 2 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT The woman's rights movement in the Germanic- Protestant countries has been promoted by moral and economic factors. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Total population : 91,972,267. Women: about 45,000,000. Men : about 47,000,000. The General Federation of Women's Clubs. The National American Woman's Suffrage Association. North America is the cradle of the woman's rights movement. It was the War of Independence of the colonies against England (i 774-1 783) that matured the woman's rights movement. In the name of "free- dom" our cause entered the history of the world. In these troubled times the American women had by energetic activities and unyielding suffering entirely fulfilled their duty as citizens, and at the Convention in Philadelphia, in 1787, they demanded as citizens the right to vote. The Constitution of the United States was being drawn up at that time, and by 1789 had been ratified by the thirteen states then existing. In nine of these states (Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, North and South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island) the right to vote in THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 3 municipal and state affairs had hitherto been exer- cised by all "free-born citizens" or all "taxpayers" and "heads of families," the state constitutions being based on the principle : no taxation without representa- tion. Among these "free-born citizens," "taxpayers," and "heads of families" there were naturally many women who were consequently both voters and active citi- zens. So woman's right to vote in the above-named states was practically established before 1783. Only the states of Virginia and New York had restricted the suffrage to males in 1699 and 1777, Massachusetts and New Hampshire following their example in 1780 and 1784. In view of this retrograde movement American women attempted at the Convention in Philadelphia to secure a recognition of their civil rights through the Constitution of the whole federation of states. But the Convention refused this request; just as before, it left the conditions of suffrage to be determined by the individual states. To be sure, in the draft of the Constitution the Convention in no way opposed woman's suffrage. But the nine states which formerly, as colo- nies, had practically given women the right to vote, had in the meantime abrogated this right through the insertion of the word "man" in their election laws, and the first attempt of the American women to secure 4 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT an expressed constitutional recognition of their rights as citizens failed. These proceedings gave to the woman's rights move- ment of the United States a poHtical character from the very beginning. Since then the American women have labored untiringly for their poHtical emancipa- tion. The anti-slavery movement gave them an excellent opportunity to participate in pubUc affairs. Since the women had had experience of oppression and slavery, and since they, like negroes, were strug- gling for the recognition of their "human rights," they were amongst the most zealous opponents of "slavery," and belonged to the most enthusiastic defenders of "freedom" and "justice." Among the Quakers, who played a very prominent part in the anti-slavery movement, man and woman had the same rights in all respects in the home and church. When the first anti-slavery society was formed in Boston in 1832, twelve women immediately became members. The principle of the equaUty of the sexes, which the Quakers held, was opposed by the majority of the population, who held to the Puritanic principle of woman's subordination to man. In consequence of this principle it was at that time considered "mon- strous" that a woman should speak from a pubUc platform. Against Abby Kelly, who at that time was THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 5 one of the best anti-slavery speakers, a sermon was preached from the pulpit from the text : "This Jezebel has come into the midst of us." She was called a "hyena"; it was related that she had been intoxi- cated in a saloon, etc. When her political associate, Angelina Grimke, held an anti-slavery meeting in Pennsylvania Hall (Philadelphia) in 1837, the hall was set on fire, and in 1838 in the chamber of the House of Representatives in Massachusetts a mob threatened to take her life. "The mob howled, the press hissed, and the pulpit thimdered," thus the proceedings were described by Lucy Stone, the woman's rights advo- cate. Even the educated classes shared the prejudice against woman. To them she was a "human being of the second order." The following is an illustration of this : In 1840 Abby Kelly was elected to a committee. She was urged, however, to decUne the election. "If you regard me as incompetent, then I shall leave." "Oh, no, not exactly that," was the answer. "Well, what is it then?" "But you are a woman . . ." "That is no reason; therefore I remain." In the same year an anti-slavery congress was held in England. A number of American champions of the cause went to London, — among them three women, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Elizabeth 6 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT Pease. They were accompanied by their husbands and came as delegates of the "National Anti-slavery Society." Since the Congress was dominated by the English clergy, who persisted in their belief in the "inferiority" of woman, the three American women, being creatures without political rights, were not per- mitted to perform their duties as delegates, but were directed to leave the convention hall and to occupy places in the spectators' gallery. But the noble William Lloyd Garrison silently registered a protest by sitting with the women in the gallery. This procedure clearly indicated to the American women what their next duty should be, and once when Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton came from the gallery to the hotel Mrs. Stanton said, "The first thing which we must do upon our return is to call a convention to discuss the slavery of woman." This plan, however, was not executed till eight years later. At that time EHzabeth Cady Stanton, on the occasion of a visit from Lucretia Mott, summoned a number of acquaintances to her home in Seneca Falls, New York. In giving an accoimt of the meet- ing at Washington, in 1888, at the Conference of Pioneers of the International Council of Women (see Report, pp. 323, 324), she states that she and Lucretia Mott had drawn up the grievances of woman under eighteen headings with the American Declaration of THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 7 Independence as a model, and that it was her wish to submit a suffrage resolution to the meeting, but that Lucretia Mott herself refused to have it presented. Nevertheless, in the meeting Elizabeth Cady Stan- ton herself, burning with enthusiasm, introduced her resolution concerning woman's right to vote, and, as she reports, the resolution was adopted unanimously. A few days later the newspaper reports appeared. "There was," relates Elizabeth Cady Stanton, "not a single paper from Maine to Louisiana which did not contain our Declaration of Independence and present the matter as ludicrous. My good father came from New York on the night train to see whether I had lost my mind. I was overwhelmed with ridicule. A great number of women who signed the Declaration with- drew their signatures. I felt very much humiliated, so much the more, since I knew thai I was right. . . . For all that I should probably have allowed myself to be subdued if I had not soon afterward met Susan B. Anthony, whom we call the Napoleon of our woman's suffrage movement." Susan B. Anthony, the brave old lady, who in spite of her eighty-three years did not dread the long journey from the United States to Berlin, and in June, 1904, attended the meetings of the International Council of Women and the International Woman's Suffrage AUiance, was in early Ufe a teacher in Rochester, New 8 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT York, and participated in the temperance movement. She had assisted in securing twenty-eight thousand signatures to a petition, providing for the regulation of the sale of alcohol, which was presented to the New York State Legislature. Susan B. Anthony was in the gallery during the discussion of the petition, and as she saw how one speaker scornfully threw the petition to the floor and exclaimed, "Who is it that demands such laws? They are only women and children . . . ," she vowed to herself that she would not rest content until a woman's signature to a petition should have the same weight as that of a man. And she faithfully kept her word. After a life of unceasing and unselfish work, Susan B. Anthony died March 13, 1906, loved and esteemed by all who knew her. At the commemoration services in 1907, twenty-four thousand dollars were subscribed for the Susan B. Anthony Memorial Fund (to be used for woman's suffrage propaganda). Susan B. Anthony was honorary president of the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance. It is to be noted that a number of European women (such as Ernestine Rose of Westphalia), imbued with the ideas of the February Revolution of 1848, were compelled to seek new homes in America. These new- comers gave an impetus to the woman's suffrage move- ment among American women. They were greatly THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 9 surprised to find that in republics also political free- dom was withheld from women. This was strikingly impressed upon the women of the United States in 1870. At that time the negroes, who had been emancipated in 1863, were given political rights throughout the Union by the addition of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution.^ In this way all power of the individual states to abridge the poUtical rights of the negro was taken away. The American women felt very keenly that in the eyes of their legislators a member of an inferior race, if only a man, should be ranked superior to any woman, be she ever so highly educated; and they expressed their indignation in a picture portraying the American woman and her political associates. This represented the Indian, the idiot, the lunatic, the criminal, — and woman. In the United States they are all without poUtical rights. Since 1848 an energetic suffrage movement has been carried on by the American women. To-day there is a "Woman's Suffrage Society" in every state, and all these organizations belong to a national woman's suffrage league. In recent years there has arisen a vigorous woman's suffrage movement within the 1 "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." lO THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT numerous and influential woman's clubs (with almost a million members) and among college women the College Equal Suffrage League, the movement extend- ing even into the secondary schools. The National Trades Union League, the American Federation of Labor, and nineteen state Federations of Labor have declared themselves in favor of woman's suffrage. The leaders of the movement have now established the fact that "the Constitution of the United States does not contain a word or a line, which, if interpreted in the spirit of the 'Declaration of Independence,' denies wo- man the right to vote in state and national elections." The preamble to the Constitution of the United States reads as follows : "We, the people of the United States ... do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Women are doubtlessly people. All the articles of the Constitu- tion repeat this expression. The objects of the Con- stitution are : 1. The establishment of a more perfect union of the states among themselves, 2. The establishment of justice, 3. The insurance of domestic tranquillity, 4. The provision of common defense, 5. The promotion of the general welfare, 6. The securing of the blessings of liberty to our- selves and our posterity. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES II All of these six points concern and interest women as much as men. Supplementary to this is the "Dec- laration of Independence." Here are stated as self- evident truths: 1. "That all men are created equal," 2. "That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happi- ness," 3. "That to secure [not to grant] these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." On this last passage the Americans comment with especial emphasis : they say the right to vote is their right as human beings, — they possess it as a natural right; the government cannot justly take it from them, cannot even grant it to them justly. So long as the government does not ask the women for their consent, it is acting illegally according to the Declaration of Independence. For it is nowhere stated that the consent of one half, the male half, will suffice to make a government legal. On the basis of this declaration of principles the American women have made it a point to oppose every individual argument against woman's suffrage. For this purpose they frequently use small four-page 12 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT pamphlets, which are issued as the "Political EquaUty Series" by the American Woman's Suffrage Associa- tion. They say "It is generally held that: 1. "Every woman is married, loved, and provided for. 2. " Every man stays at home every evening. 3. " Every woman has small children. 4. " All women, when they have once secured political rights, will plunge into poUtics and neglect their households." "What is the exact state of affairs in these matters? 1. "A great many women are not married ; many are widows who must educate their children and seek a means of livelihood. Thousands have no other home than the one they create for themselves, and they must often support relatives in addition to themselves. Many of the married women are neither loved, pro- vided for, nor protected. 2. " Many men are at home so seldom in the evening that their wives could quietly concern them- selves with poUtical matters without being missed at all. And such men, seconded by bachelors, clamor most about the 'dissolu- tion of the family' through poUtics. 3. "The children do not remain small indefinitely; they grow up and hence leave the mother. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES I3 It may be true that the mother, instead of participating in political affairs, prefers to sew flannel shirts for the heathen, or pre- fers to read novels, but one ought at least to permit her the freedom of making the choice. 4. "The right to vote will not change the nature" of woman. If she wished to leave the home as her sphere of activity, she would have found other opportunities long ago." Further fears are the following: i. The majority of women do not wish the right to vote at all. To this we must answer that we cannot yet come to a conclusion concerning the wish of the majority in this respect. The petitions for woman's suffrage always have a greater number of signatures than any other petitions to Congress. 2. Women will use the right to vote only to a limited extent. The statistics in Wyoming and Colorado prove the contrary. 3. Only women ^'of ill repute" will vote. Thus far this has been nowhere the case. The men guard against attracting these ele- ments. Moreover, the right to vote is not restricted to the men "of good repute" either, etc., etc. The American women can obtain the political fran- chise by two methods: i. At the hands of every indi- vidual legislature (which would occasion 52 sepa- rate legislative acts, — 48 states and 4 territories). 14 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT 2. Through the adoption of a sixteenth amendment to the national Constitution by Congress.^ Let us con- sider the first method. The franchise quaUfications in the United States are generally the following: male sex, twenty-one year? of age, American citizen- ship (through birth, or by naturalization after five years* residence). Amendments to the state constitution must be accepted by the state legislature (consisting of the lower house and the senate),^ and then be accepted in a referendum vote by the (male) electorate. To secure the adoption of such an amendment in a state legislature is no easy task. In the first place the presentation of a woman's suffrage bill is not received favorably; the RepubHcans and Democrats struggle for control of the legislature, the majority one way or the other never being large. Therefore the party leaders usually consider woman's suffrage not on the basis of party poUtics. Matters are decided on the basis of opportuneness. Especially is this the case in those states where the bill must be passed by two successive legislatures. In this case, between the time of the first passing of a bill and the referendum, there is a new election, and the opponents of woman's suffrage can defeat the adherents of the measure at • Composed of the House of Representatives and the Senate. » In many states by two consecutive legislatures. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES IS the polls before the women themselves can exercise the right of suffrage. Changing the national Constitution through the adoption of a sixteenth amendment has difficulties equally great; the amendment must pass the House of Representatives and the Senate by a two-thirds vote and then be ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures or specially called conventions. To the present time only two of the Presidents of the Union have publicly expressed themselves in favor of woman's suffrage, — Abraham Lincoln and Theo- dore Roosevelt. In 1836 Lincoln addressed an open letter to the voters in New Salem, Illinois, in which he said: "I go for all sharing the privileges of the gov- ernment who assist in bearing its burdens"; and he was in favor of "admitting all whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms {by no means excluding females).^' Garfield, Hayes, and Cleveland gave their attention to the question of woman's suf- frage ; the last two supporting motions in favor of the movement. Theodore Roosevelt, in 1899, as Assem- blyman in the New York State Legislature, spoke in favor of woman's suffrage: "I call the attention of the Assembly to the advantages which a general ex- tension of woman's right to vote must bring about." In order to attain their end, — poHtical emancipa- tion, — the American women use the following means 1 6 THE MODERN WOMAN 's RIGHTS MOVEMENT of agitation : petitions, the submission of legislative bills, meetings, demonstrations, the distribution of pamphlets, deputations to the legislatures of the indi- vidual states and to the Congressional House of Repre- sentatives, the organization of workingwomen, requests to teachers and preachers to comment on patriotic memorial days on woman's worth, and to preach at least once during the year in favor of woman's suffrage. To the present time four states of the Union have granted full municipal and political suffrage to women (active suffrage, the right to vote; passive suffrage, eligibility to oflSce). The states in question are Wyo- ming, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho, Wyoming and Utah inaugurated woman's suffrage in 1869 and 1870, re- spectively, when they were still territories; and in 1890 and 1895, when they were given statehood, they retained woman's suffrage. Colorado granted it in 1893 and Idaho in 1896. The political emancipation of woman in the State of Washington is close at hand,^ in South Dakota,^ Oregon,^ and Nebraska it seems assured. In Kansas, since 1887, women have possessed active and passive suffrage in mu- nicipal elections. In the State of Illinois they are 1 On November 8, 1910, an amendment providing for woman's suf- frage was adopted by the voters of Washington. [Tr.] * On November 8, 1910, both South Dakota and Oregon rejected amendments providing for woman's suffrage. [Tr.] THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 1 7 about to secure it.^ All of these are western states with a new civilization and a numerical superiority of men. Practical experience with woman's suffrage shows the following: everywhere the elections have become quieter and more respectable. The wages and salaries of women have been generally raised, partly through the enactment of laws, such as laws regulating the salaries of women teachers, etc., partly through the better professional and industrial organization of working- women, who are now trained in political affairs. A comparison of the salaries of women teachers having woman's suffrage with salaries in states not having woman's suffrage shows the value of the ballot. The pubUc finances have been more economically ad- ministered, intemperance and immorahty have been more energetically combated, candidates with im- moral records have been removed from the political arena. Inasmuch as women have full political rights in the four states named (six, including Washington and California), they also vote for presidential elec- tors, and thus exercise an influence in the national presidential elections. It is the woman with good aver- age abilities that is most frequently the successful can- didate in political campaigns. 1 In October, igii, California adopted woman's suffrage by popular vote. [Tr.] c 1 8 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT But as yet the number of women who devote them- selves to a political life is not large. The women in Colorado seem to have a special ability for this. With- out any consideration for party affiUations they secured the reelection of Judge Lindsey of the Juvenile Court. Generally speaking, they have devoted their efforts everywhere to the protection of youth. At the present time the estabhshment of a special bureau for the protection of youth is being advocated, and a national conference to discuss the welfare of children is to be held in Washington, D.C.^ Because the EngUsh anti-woman's suffrage advo- cate, Mrs. Humphry Ward, expressed the famiUar fear that "the immoral vote would drown the moral vote," the Reverend Anna Shaw declared at the Woman's Suffrage Congress at London (May, 1909), that she openly challenges Mrs. Humphry Ward to produce one convincing proof for her assertion. She herself had carefully investigated the recent elections in Denver, Colorado, to ascertain how many, if any, of the "immoral" women voted, and received as * This "Conference on the Care of Dependent Children" was called by President Roosevelt, and met, January 25 and 26, 1909, in the White House. Two hundred and twenty men and women, — experts in the care of children, from every state in the Union, — met, and proposed, among other things, the establishment of a Federal Child's Bureau. Thus far Congress has done nothing to carry out the proposal. {Char- ities and the Commons, Wol. XXI, 643, 644; 766-768; 968-990.) [Tr.] THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 1 9 answer that these women, who naturally are in a minority, generally do not vote at all ; first, because they pursue their trade under false names, secondly, because most of them are not permanently domiciled and for both reasons are not entered on the voting lists ; these women vote only when an influence is exerted on them from above or by persons around them. In the State of Utah, where woman's suffrage has existed since 1870, "the women have quietly begun and continued without a break the exercise of that power, which from the remotest time had been their right. They have concerned themselves with political and economic questions, and if they have committed any errors, these have not yet come to light. They have been delegates to county and state conventions, they have represented the richest and most populous electoral districts in the state legislature, and they serve as heads of various state departments" (state treasurer, supervisor of the poor, superintendent of education, etc.). In Colorado (with woman's suffrage since 1893) the women have organized clubs in all cities, even in the lonely mining towns (Colorado is in the Rocky Mountains), and have informed themselves in political affairs to the best of their ability. In the capital city, Denver, a club has been formed in which busy women can meet weekly to inform themselves on political affairs. In Colorado parental authority 20 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT over children prevails now (in place of the exclusively paternal). In Idaho (with woman's suffrage since 1896) the women voters exerted a strong influence against gambhng. The enfranchised women, who had a right to vote in the Httle town of Caldwell, had sup- ported a mayor who was determined to take measures against gambUng. The barkeepers, topers, gamblers, and ne'er-do-wells were against him. The women presented the magistrate vnih a petition, which was read together with the signatures. "During the read- ing of the names of the unobtrusive housewives who were rarely seen beyond their own thresholds, the countenances of the men became serious. For the first time they seemed to grasp what it really meant for a city to have woman's suffrage." The bar- keepers and the gamblers got the worst of it and dis- appeared from the town hall. An old municipal judge said, "When have our mothers ever demanded anything before?"^ In the same way the women of Kansas have employed their municipal suffrage since 1887. Concerning an election in which women voted, the "Women's Rights Movement" reports the following: "Almost all the women (about one third of the popula- tion) in Wyoming, voted" (7000 votes out of 23,000). ^ The "mothers" hold special congresses in the United States to dis- aiss educational and public questions, (Mothers' Congresses.) THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 21 "In Boise, Idaho, it was one of the quietest election days in the annals of the city. Everywhere the women came to the polls in the early part of the day." " In Salt Lake City, Utah, there was no interruption of trafl5c, no dis- turbance of any kind . . . the women came alone without having their husbands accompany them to the ballot-box during the noon-hour." Because of the unsatisfactory experiences which Amer- ica has had with universal suffrage ^ as such, the woman's rights movement had suffered also and has been re- tarded; but owing to the proceedings of the English suffragettes during the past three years it has been given a new impetus. In the state legislatures through- out the various parts of the country, legislative bills have, during this time, been introduced; on these occasions the women presented their demands in the so-called "hearings" (which take place before the legis- lature). This took place in 1908 in Rhode Island, Wis- consin, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma^, Maine, Massachusetts, California, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, and Washington. In the latter state the House has just passed a woman's suffrage amendment; if the Senate passes it, the amendment will be submitted to • Here universal male suffrage is meant. [Tr.] * In November, 1910, an amendment in favor of woman's suffrage was defeated by a referendum vote in Oklahoma. [Tr.] 2 2 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT popular vote.^ A very active woman's suffrage cam- paign in the State of Oregon (1906) failed, owing to the opposition of the friends of the liquor interests and the brothels .2 It is both significant and gratifying that the woman's suffrage movement is spreading to the Eastern States ; an example of this is the great demon- stration of February 22, 1909, in Boston. The woman's suffrage societies of the various states are formed into a national league: the National Wo- man's Suffrage Association, with about 100,000 mem- bers. The President is the Reverend Anna Shaw. This Association has recently drawn up an enormous petition to Congress in order to secure woman's suf- frage through federal law, and has established head- quarters in Washington, the federal capital. During eleven weeks 6000 letters and 1000 postal cards were written, and 100,000 petition-blanks were distributed. To the present time only a small number of women have sought state legislative offices; women members of city councils are rather numerous. At the present time there is a woman representative in the legislature of Colorado. The former governor, Mr. Alva Adams, alluded to her as "a bright, efficient woman," who has 1 The amendment passed the Senate and was adopted in November, 1910, by popular vote. [Tr.] * la November, 1910, a woman's suffrage amendment was again de- feated, as was the amendment prohibiting the sale of liquor. [Tr.] THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 23 introduced many bills and secured their passage. For, says the governor, "it must be a pretty miserable law which a tactful woman cannot have enacted, since the male legislators are usually courteous and kindly dis- posed, and disregard party interests in order to accept the measure of their female colleague." From which we conclude that] the women legislators strive espe- cially for measures which are for the general good.^ In the United States there is also an "Association Opposed to Woman's Sufifrage." Its chief supporters are found among the saloon-keepers, the habitual drunk- ards, and the women of the upper classes. But the American women believe "that if every prayer, every tear can be supported by the power of the ballot, mothers will no longer shed powerless tears over the misfortunes of their children." ^ The American women had to struggle not only for their rights as citizens, but they encountered great difficulty in securing an education. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the education of girls in the United States was entirely neglected; the secondary as well as the higher institutions of learning were as good as closed to them. Woman's "physical and intellec- 1 In November, 1910, four women were elected to the House of Repre- sentatives of the Colorado legislature. [Tr.] * Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, in collaboration with Susan B. Anthony, has written a Uistory of Woman's Suffrage which deals with the sub- ject so far as the United States are concerned. [Tr.] 24 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT tual inferiority" was referred to, just as with us [in Germany]; woman's "loss of her feminine nature" was feared, and it was declared "that within a short time the country would be full of the wrecks of women who had overtaxed themselves with studies." To all these fears the American women gave this answer: Women,^you say, are foolish? God created them so they would harmonize with man. As for the rest they awaited developments. As early as 182 1 the first in- stitution for the higher education of women, Troy Seminary, was founded with hopes for state aid. In 1833, OberUn College, the first coeducational college, was opened with the express purpose "of giving all the privileges of higher education to the unjustly con- demned and neglected sex." Among the first women students was the youthful woman's rights advocate, Lucy Stone. She wished to learn Greek and Hebrew, for she was convinced that the BibHcal passage, ''and he shall rule over thee," had not been correctly trans- lated by the men. In 1865 with the foimding of Vassar College, the first woman's college was estabhshed. To-day both sexes have the same educational oppor- tunities in the United States. The four oldest uni- versities (Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Johns Hop- kins), established on the EngUsh model, still exclude women, and do not grant them academic degrees. However, the latter point is of comparatively minor THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 25 importance in its relation to the educational opportu- nities of women. Most of the western universities are coeducational ; in the East there are special woman's colleges. In the colleges and universities the number of women students is a little over one-third of the num- ber of men students, but in the high schools the girl students outnumber the boys. The removal of all restrictions to woman's instruction in the secondary and higher institutions of learning is furthering the activity of the American women in the professions. As teachers, they are employed chiefly in the public schools, in which they constitute 70 per cent of the total staff. So the majority of the "freest citizens " in the world are educated by women. The number of women teachers in the public schools is 327,151. In the higher institutions of learning there is nothing to prevent their appointment. Among university teachers (pro- fessors and those of lower rank) there are about 1000 women. Their salaries are equal to those of the men, which is not always the case in the elementary schools, since the tendency is to restrict women to the subor- dinate positions.^ The women who teach in the woman's colleges must, in every case, possess a superior individuality. Thus a woman president of a college must possess academic * Equal pay has been established by law in the states having woman's suffrage. 26 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT training in order to control her teaching force; she must possess a deep insight into human nature in order that her educational relations with the pubUc may be successful ; she must have a knowledge of business in order to administer the property of her institution satis- factorily and command the respect of the financiers of her governing board. Fifteen thousand American women are students in woman's colleges, and twenty thousand in coeducational colleges and universities. In the latter, the women have distinguished themselves through application and abiUty so that frequently they have taken all the academic honors and prizes to the exclusion of the men. Since they can no longer be excluded on the ground of their inferiority, their superiority is now the pretext for their exclusion. But a suspension of coeducation in the United States is not to be considered. The state universities, supported with pubUc funds, are all co- educational. The existence of non-coeducational col- leges and universities in addition to state institutions is regarded as a guarantee of personal freedom in mat- ters pertaining to higher education. Since the public school system in the United States is in great part coeducational, the exclusion of women from conferences pertaining to school affairs and their administration would indicate that an especially great injustice were being committed. This was indeed THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 27 recognized, and women were given the right to vote on school affairs not only in the five woman's suffrage states [Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, and Kansas], but also in twenty-three other states, in which women are without political rights in other respects. The famous deaf-bUnd woman, Helen Keller, was appointed to serve on the state committee on the education of the blind. In Boston trained nurses are employed to make visits to the homes of the school children. An agitation is on foot to have women inspectors of schools. In all woman's suffrage states special attention is devoted to educational matters. Thus the State of Idaho appropriated $2500 for the estabHshment of a lectureship in domestic science. From 1872 to 1900 the number of women students has increased 148.7 per cent (while the number of men students increased 60.6 per cent). Among women there are also fewer illiterates, drunkards, and criminals ; in other words, women are the more moral and better educated part of the American population ; and it is these who are excluded from active participation in political affairs. The number of women lawyers is estimated at one thousand; in twenty-three states they may plead in the Supreme Court. Women lawyers have their own professional organizations. In Ohio, women are employed in the police service; in Pennsylvania they are appointed as tax-collectors; 28 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT in the city of Portland a woman was appointed as in- spector of markets with police power. Women justices of the peace are as numerous as women mayors. In Oregon a woman is secretary to the governor, for whom she acts with full authority. In all woman's suffrage states women act as jurors. Besides these states only Illinois permits women to serve as jurors — and then only in a juvenile court. There are said to be about 2000 women journalists. Their writings are often sensational, but in the United States sensationalism is characteristic of the profession. Of women preachers there are 3,500, belonging to 158 different denominations. Among these women preachers there are also negresses. The women study in theological seminaries, are ordained and devote them- selves either to the real calling of the ministry, social rescue work, or to the woman's rights propaganda, as does the excellent speaker, the Reverend Anna Shaw. The women preachers who devote themselves to social rescue work usually study medicine also, so that they can first secure confidence as persons skilled in the cure of the body, and then later the cure of the soul is less difficult. There are 7000 women in the medical profession, — more than in any other profession. The first women who studied medicine were American, Elizabeth Black- well having done so as early as 1846. Only the Uni- THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 29 versity of Geneva (New York) would admit her; in 1848 she graduated there. Then she continued her studies in Paris and London, returning in 1851 to New York, in order to practice. Her first patients were Quakers. Elizabeth Blackwell and her sister Emily (Blackwell) then founded in New York the "Hospital for Indigent Women," to which the medical schools in Boston and Philadelphia sent their graduates to obtain practical work.^ A large number of women lawyers, preachers, and doctors are married. In 1900 the total number of women in the professions (exclusive of teach- ing) was 16,000. In igoo, 14.3 per cent of the female population were engaged in industries; since 1880 the number of women engaged in the professions and industries increased 128 per cent (while that of the men increased 76 per cent).^ Most of the technical schools admit women. There are fifty-three women architects. The Woman's Build- ing of the World's Exposition in Chicago (1893) was designed by Sophia Haydn and erected under her super- vision. It is not unusual for women who are owners of business enterprises to take technical courses. Thus Miss Jones, as her father's heir, became, after a careful • It is worth mentioning that in the Spanish-American War Miss McGee filled the position of assistant surgeon in the medical department, doing so with distinction. * A. V. Mdday, Le droit desfemmes au travail, Paris, Giardet ct Briere. 30 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT education, manageress of her large steel works in Chicago. The Cincinnati pottery [Rookwood], founded by women, is also managed by them. There are five women captains of ships, four women pilots, and twenty- four women engineers. During twenty-five years, women have had 4000 inventions patented. The women of the South pro- duced fewest inventions. But in these fields women still meet with prejudice and difficulties. In increasing numbers women are becoming bankers, merchants, contractors, owners or managers of factories, share- holders, stock-brokers, and commercial travelers. About 1000 women are now engaged in these occupa- tions. As ofl5ce clerks women have stood the test well in the United States. They are esteemed for their discretion and willingness to work. They are paid $12 to $20 a week. According to the most recent statistics on the trades and professions (1900) there were 1271 women bank clerks, 27,712 women book- keepers, and 86,118 women stenographers. In the civil service we find fewer women (they are not voters) : in 1890 there were 14,692, of whom 8474 were postal, telephone, and telegraph clerks, and 300 were poHce officials. In 1900, the total number of women engaged in commerce was 503,574. The prejudice against the women of the lower classes is still evident. Here at the very outset there is a great THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 31 difiference between the wages of men and women, the wages of the latter being from one third to one half lower. This is caused partly by the fact that women are given the disagreeable, tiresome, and unimportant work, which they must accept, not being given an op- portunity to do the better class of work, — frequently because they have not learned their trade thoroughly. A further cause for the lower wages of women is that they are working for "pocket-money" and "inciden- tals," and thus spoil the market for those who must pay their whole living expenses with what they earn. Among the women workers of the United States there are two classes, — the industrial class and the ama- teurs. The latter make the existence of the former al- most impossible. Such a competition is unknown to men in industrial work. Mrs. v. Vorst ^ proposes a solution — to make the industrial amateurs become special artisans by means of a longer apprenticeship, thus relieving the industrial slaves from injurious com- petition. Office work and work in the factories enables the American women of the middle and lower classes to satisfy their desire for independence; those who are not obliged to provide for themselves wish at least to have money at their disposal. That is a thoroughly sound aspiration. These girls become factory em- * In her book, L'ouvriere aux Etals-Unis, Paris, Juven, 1904. 32 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT ployees and not domestic servants, (i) because work in their own home is not paid for (the general disregard of housework drives the women striving for independ- ence away from the house) ; (2) because of the ab- sence of regularity in housework; (3) because the domestic servants are not free on Sundays ; (4) because they must live with the employers. These facts are established by answer to inquiries made by Miss Jack- son, factory inspector of Wisconsin. The women employed in the stores and factories are in general paid about the same wages, $4 to $6 a week. A saleswoman, upon whom greater demands are made as to dress and personal appearance, finds it more diffi- cult to live on these wages than would the woman employed in the factory. As pocket-money, how- ever, this sum is a very good remuneration, and this explains why the girls of these classes, in imitation of the bad example set them by the members of the upper ranks of society, manifest such an extraordinary taste for costly clothes and expensive pleasures. In 1888, an official inquiry showed that 95 per cent of the women laborers lived at home ; in 189 1 another official inquiry showed that one third of the women laborers earned $5 a week ; two thirds from $5 to $7, and only 1.8 per cent earned more than $12, while the men laborers earned on the average $12 to $15 a week. Women laborers are organized as yet only to a small extent THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 33 (i per cent, while lo per cent of the men are organized). There are separate social-democratic organizations of women, formed through the Federation of Labor. The workingwomen especially will be helped by the right to vote. In the ''Political Equality Series" appears a pamphlet entitled Why does the Working- woman need the Right to Vote ? In the first place she needs the right to vote in order to secure higher wages. Just suppose that the members of the typographical union were to-morrow deprived of their right to vote. Only their full political emancipation could again re- store them to thsir former position of prestige among the working classes. This is exactly the case with the women, and they have not even reached the highly- developed organization of the typographers. A politi- cally unfree laboring class is also unable to maintain its vocation against a laboring class possessing political rights; if the vocation is remunerative the unfree class will be deprived of it or be kept from it altogether. The oppression of the workingwomen has its effect also on men through its tendency to lower wages. Therefore at the present time the trades-unions have recognized that to organize women is in the interests of all work- ingmen, and while the women were refused organization forty years ago, the Federation of Labor is to-day pay- ing trades-union organizers to induce women to be- come members of trades-unions. The introduction of 34 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT a low rate of wages in one branch of a trade (pursued by both men and women) is always a menace to the branches that survive the reduction. The number of women engaged in the industries in 1900 was 1,315,890. The number of married women engaged in industrial pursuits is small; in 1895, an ofl&cial investigation showed that in 1067 factories 7,000 workingwomen out of 71,000 were married. The chief industries in which women are employed are the textile industry (cotton), laundering, the manufacture of ready-made clothing, corsets, carpets, millinery, and fancy-goods. Women work alongside the men in wool-spinning, in bookbinding, and in the manufacture of shoes, mittens, tobacco, and confectionery. The inability of workingwomen to exercise politi- cal rights makes minors of them when compared with workingmen, and this decreases their importance as human beings. Women cannot protect themselves against injustice, and these things put them at a great disadvantage. The American women became involved in a lively conflict with President Roosevelt (otherwise favoring woman's rights) concerning his gift to a father and mother for bringing twenty children into the world. The women declared in the Woman's Journal that it is wrong to encourage an immoderate procreation of children among a population 70 per cent of THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 35 which possesses no property.^ Above all, this en- couragement is not only a menace to the overworked and oppressed workingwomen, but it is inhuman, and really lowers woman to the position of a machine for bearing children. The institution of factory inspection does not as yet exist in the whole Union. According to the report of Mrs. V. Vorst^ the factories and the homes of la- borers in the Southern States are extremely unsatis- factory. Child labor is exploited there, a matter which is now being dealt with by the National Child Labor Committee. According to this same work (the inquiry of Mrs. v. Vorst) the living conditions in the North and Central States are better, and the moral menaces to the young girl are inconsiderable. The women of the property-holding classes are attempting to do their duty toward the women of the factories and stores by founding clubs, vacation colonies, and homes for them. Within recent years the great department stores have appointed "social secretaries," who look after the weal and woe of the employees. It would be well to have such secretaries in the factories and mills also. Since 1874 the working week of sixty hours for women in industry and commerce has spread from Massachusetts to almost the entire Union. Since 1890, ' Those who cannot pay an annual tax of two dollars. * In L'ouvriere aux Eiats-Unis. 36 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT night labor has been prohibited by law. The working girls have been provided with seats while at work, partly as a result of legislation and partly by the volun- tary act of the employers. In agriculture women find a profitable field of activ- ity. Of course they are never field hands, but are employers and laborers in the dairy business, in poultry farming, and in the raising of vegetables and fruit. Women have introduced the growing of cress, cran- berries, and cucumbers in various regions, and have culti- vated the famous asparagus of Oyster Bay and the "Improved New York Strawberries." In 1900, there were 980,025 women engaged in agriculture (as com- pared with 9,458,194 men). The number of women domestic servants in the United States amounts to 2,099,165; fifty per cent of the families dispense with servants, since they cannot afiford to pay $15 to $20 a month for a servant, or $30 for a cook. Educated women, called visiting housekeepers, undertake the supervision of some of the households of the better class, aided, of course, by help in the house. The legal status of the American women is regulated by 52 sets of laws, corresponding to the number of states and territories. The civil code is unfavorable to woman in most of the states. In the National Trade Union League (New York) the Reverend Anna Shaw declared recently that in 38 states the property laws THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 37 made "joint property holding" legal, as a result of which the wife has no independent control of her per- sonal earnings or her personal effects, e.g. her clothes. In 38 states the wife also has no legal authority over her children. For full particulars the reader is referred to Volume IV of the History of Woman's Suffrage. To an increasing extent the women are using their right to administer their property independently, and the men are usually proud of the business ability and success of their wives. A legal regulation of prostitution (such as prevailed formerly in England and as prevails now in Germany) does not exist in the United States. Cincinnati is the only city which in the European sense has pohce con- trol of prostitution. Public opinion has successfully resisted all similar attempts. (Woman's Journal, July, 1904.) The American Commission, which went to Europe to study the regulation of prostitution, de- clared that the American woman cannot be expected to sanction such an arrangement, and that, moreover, the system had not stood the test. In the police stations, poUce matrons are employed. The law pro- tects the woman in the street against the man and not, as in Europe, the man against the woman. In order to combat the double standard of morals the "Social Purity League" was formed. The mem- bership is composed of those men and women who are 38 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT thoroughly convinced that there is only one standard of morality for both sexes, since they have the same obligations to their offspring. Founded in 1886, this organization has spread since 1889 throughout the entire Union. The "World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union," the second largest international woman's organization, originated in America. It was founded in 1883 by Frances E. Willard (her father was Hilgard, from the Palatinate). The Union has 300,000 members in the United States at the present time, and 450,000 members in the whole world. In 1906 it met in Boston. It is the determined enemy of alcohol, and gives proof of its convictions through the work of its soldier's and sailor's department, its committees on railroads, tram- ways, police stations, cab drivers, etc. This Union, as well as the "Social Purity League," is a firm advo- cate of wom.an's suffrage. The emancipation of the American women is pro- moted through sports. If on the one hand they appre- ciate an elaborate toilette, on the other hand they recog- nize the advantages of bloomers, the walking skirt, and the divided skirt. In these costumes they play bas- ketball, polo, tennis, and take gymnastic exercise, fence, and row. The woman's colleges are centers of athletic Hfe. There the girls now play football in male costume, the public being excluded. In all large cities there are THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 39 athletic clubs for women, some extremely sumptuous (with a hundred-dollar fee) as well as very simple clubs for workingwomen of sedentary life. We have seen that the legal status of women in many states is still in need of reform. All the more instruc- tive is the survey of laws concerning women and chil- dren in the woman's suffrage states, pubhshed by Mrs. C. Waugh McCuUock, a woman lawyer, of Chicago. The wife disposes of her wages and her dowry (in Wyo- ming, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho). Men and women receive equal pay for the same work. All professions and public offices are open to women. Women act as jurors. They have the same right of inheritance as men. Divorce is granted to either party under the same circimistances. The claims of the wife and the children under age are given a decided preference over those of creditors. Education from the kindergarten to the university is free and is open to women. The labor of women in mines is prohibited. The maximum working-day for women is eight hours. All houses of correction and institutions for the protection of women and children must have women physicians and over- seers. The age of consent is 18 years. Gambling and prostitution are prohibited. Both father and mother exercise parental authority. The surviving husband is guardian of the children. The sale of alcoholic liquors and tobacco to children is prohibited. No child 40 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT under 14 years of age may work in the mines. Porno- graphic literature and pictures are prohibited. In conclusion I shall take several points from the lecture which Professor F. Laurie Poster held before the Political Equality League in Chicago, after the women of Chicago had waged a vigorous campaign for the right to vote in municipal afifairs. Why is the value of woman placed so low ? Merely because she is more helpless than man. Children are valued even less than women because they surpass the women in helplessness. Only animals have less power of defense ; therefore they have the lowest value placed on them. In the United States it has now been demon- strated that whoever possesses the right to vote is es- teemed more highly than he who does not have that right. We see this in the woman's suffrage states; here the women have made provisions not only for themselves, but for the children as well, for it is one of the fundamental instincts of woman to protect her little ones. In most of the states of the Union, however, women can help directly neither themselves nor their children. That women should be forced to struggle for these ends against the opposition of man is one of the most imfortunate phases of the whole movement. When woman became property, a possession, the overestimation of her sexual value began. Her sex was her weapon, and her capabilities became stunted. THE GERMANIC COtJNTRIES 41 This over emphasis of the sexual causes a great part of the most flagrant evils among civilized peoples. To-day we have reached a stage where we despise him who sells his vote. Unfortunately it is still permitted to sell one's sex. In this roundabout way woman attains most of the good things in life. Her economic successes depend almost entirely on the resources of the man to whom she belongs. Both sexes suffer as a result of this attitude of society. Woman's uncertain feeling, that she must concentrate her interests and responsi- bilities in the one who provides for the family, has created exceedingly peculiar customs and a wholly absurd code of honor for both man and woman. Thereby woman is directed to a roimdahout way for everything she wishes to obtain. Whatever she wishes for herself must appear as a domestic virtue, if possible as a sacrifice for the family. Man thinks it very natu- ral that he should do what he desires, that he should pursue his pleasures and gratify his passions, for he is indeed the one who possesses authority and does not need first to stamp his wishes as virtues. But it seems just as natural to him that the women of the family should be endowed with a double portion of piety, econ- omy and willingness to make sacrifices, — virtues in which he is so lacking. Women are created especially for that. By nature they are better, and indeed they make great efforts to cover the faults of the offending 42 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT one and forgivingly accept him again. In fact they do it gladly; it gives them pleasure, and man certainly does not wish to deprive them of the opportunity for such great joys. Therefore man is instantly at hand to warn woman when she shows any incUnation toward adopting "masculine" habits. But he certainly would be more conscientious and more moral if woman no longer assumed these virtues vicariously for him. Wo- man must make her demands of man. For that she must be free} AUSTRALIA ^ Total population : 4,555,662. Women: 2,166,318. Men : 2,389,344. An association of women's clubs in each of five colonies. The Australian Women's Political Association, embracing six colonies. It is a rare thing for Europeans to have a definite conception of the Australian Commonwealth. This is 1 The organ of the National American Woman's Suffrage Association is Progress and is published in Warren, Ohio. There, one can also secure Perhaps and Do you Know, two valuable propaganda pamphlets written by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt. Other literature on woman's suffrage can be obtained from the same source. * Although New Zealand is not politically a part of the Australian Federation, it will for convenience be treated here as such. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 43 the more to be regretted since this federation of re- pubUcs is among the countries that have made the greatest progress in the woman's rights movement. In no other part of the world has such a radical change in the status of woman been effected in so short a time and with such comparatively insignificant struggles. Till 1840, AustraHa had been a penal colony. Since then, — after the discovery of the first gold fields, — a multitude of fortune-seekers, gold-miners, and adven- turers joined the population of deported convicts. The good middle-class element for a long time remained in the minority. Certainly nobody would have believed that there existed at that time in Australia all the con- ditions necessary for the growth of a flourishing and highly civilized commonwealth. Nevertheless, such was the case. There were formed seven democratic states, whose people were not bound by any traditionalism or excessive fondness for time-honored, inherited customs ; these people wished to have elbowroom and were de- termined to establish themselves on their own soil in their own way. This all took place the more easily since England gave the growing commonwealth in general an exceedingly free hand, and because the in- habitants were by nature independent. Australia was colonized by those who, having come into conflict with the laws of the old world, found their sphere of hfe nar- row and restricted. 44 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT Because Australia to-day has only about five million inhabitants, the country is confronted only in a limited way with the problem of deaUng with congested masses of people, a condition which is favorable to all social ex- perimentation. Those in authority believe they can direct and eventually mold the development of the Commonwealth. Sixty-five per cent of the population are Protestant ; the Germanic element predominates. The women constitute not quite 50 per cent of the population. Thus in many respects the Australian colonies possess conditions similar to those prevailing in the western states of the American Union, and the results of the woman's rights movement are in both regions approxi- mately the samiC. Mrs. M. Donohue, one of the dele- gates from AustraUa, declared at the London Woman's Suffrage Congress that her country had brought about "the greatest happiness for the greatest number." Naturally, the AustraUan governments had originally a series of material problems to solve, real problems of existence, as, for example, to find a satisfactory agricul- tural pohcy in a predominantly farming and cattle- raising country. When the economic basis of the coun- try seemed sufficiently secure, the intellectual interests were given attention. A country which never had slavery or a feudal regime, a Salic Law, or a Code Na- poleon ; a country which has no divine right of kings, THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 45 and is not oppressed with militarism ; a country which judges a man by his personal ability and esteems him for what he is, such a country certainly could not tol- erate the dogma of woman's inferiority. Between 1 87 1 and 1880, the school systems of the various colo- nies were regulated by a series of laws. Elementary instruction, which is free and obligatory, is given in pubHc schools to children of both sexes between the ages of five and fifteen, but in most cases the sexes are segregated. In the public schools of the whole con- tinent about 20,000 teachers are employed (9,000 men and 1 1,000 women). The men predominate in the leading well-paid positions. The secondary school system (as in England) is composed largely of private schools, and is to a great extent in the hands of the Protestant denominations and the Catholic orders. The governments subsidize these institutions. Girls and boys enjoy the same educational opportunities in the schools, part of which are coeducational. The four Australian universities — Sidney (New South Wales), Melbourne (Victoria), Adelaide (South Australia), and Aukland (New Zealand) — are to-day open to women, who can secure all academic degrees granted by the philosophical, law, and medical faculties.^ The number of students in the universities is as follows: in Sidney, 1054 (of whom 142 are women); 1 The theological degrees are granted only in England. 46 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT in New Zealand University, 1332 (of whom 369 are women); in Melbourne, 853 (of whom 128 are women). The total number of students in Adelaide and Hobart is 626 and 62 respectively, but the number of women students is not given. The educational problem is thus solved for the Australian woman in a favorable manner : she has equal and full privileges in the universities. What are the conditions in the occupations? "All occupations are open to women," is stated in a report which I have used.^ But that is not entirely correct. Women are teachers, but they are not lecturers and professors in the universities. As preachers they are admitted only among the Nonconformists. There are women doctors and dentists, and in four colonies (New Zealand, Tasmania, West AustraUa, and Vic- toria) women are permitted to practice law, but they are confronted with a certain popular prejudice when they attempt to enter medicine, law, technical science, and a teaching career in the universities. The state employs women in the elementary schools ; in the postal and telegraph service; as registrars (permitting them to perform marriage ceremonies) ; and as factory in- spectors. But the salaries and wages in Austraha are not always the same for both sexes. Thus, for ex- I Report of the International Woman's Suffrage Conference, Wash- ington, 1902. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 47 ample, in South Australia the male head masters of the public schools draw salaries of no to 450 pounds sterling, while the women draw 80 to 156 pounds sterling. Since school affairs are not affairs under the control of the Commonwealth, the federal law (equal wages for equal work) cannot be applied in this par- ticular. In Tasmania ^ (where the women have voted since 1903) women are teachers in the public schools, employees in the postal, telegraph, and telephone systems, supervisors of health in the public schools, and assistants to the quarantine and sanitary boards; they are registrars in the parishes, superintendents of hospitals, asylums, prisons, etc. Public offices in the army, the navy, and the church alone remain closed to them. ; It is to be noted here that Mrs. Dobson, of Tas- mania, was the official representative of the Australian government at the International Woman's Suffrage Congress held in Amsterdam in 1908. The oflficial yearbook of the Australian Federation gives the following industrial statistics for 1901 : state and municipal office holders, 41,235 women (69,899 men) ; domestic servants, 150,201 women (50,335 men) ; commerce, 34,514 women (188,144 men) ; transporta- tion, 3429 women (118,730 men); industry, 75,570 women (350,596 men) ; agriculture and forestry, > Report of the National Council of Women, 1908. 48 THE MODERN WOMAN' S RIGHTS MOVEMENT fisheries, and mining, 38,944 women (494,163 men). In all fields, with the exception of domestic service, the men are in a numerical superiority; therefore the matrimonial opportunities of the Australian woman are favorable. For every 100 girls 105.99 boys were born in 1906; the statistics for 1906 showed a greater number of marriages than ever before (30,410). The difference in the ages of the married men and women is 4.5 years on the average; the nimiber of children per family is about 4 (3.77). Five Australian colonies (New Zealand, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and New South Wales) have enacted the following laws for the protection of workingwomen : 1. Maximum working time — 48 hours a week. 2. The prohibition of night work (except in Queens- land). 3. Higher wages for overtime. The eight-hour day is necessitated throughout Australia by the climate. The other provisions are perhaps not stringently enforced. Children under thir- teen years cannot be employed in the factories. Social- istic regulations, such as fixing the minimum wages in certain industries, and the establishment of obligatory courts of arbitration, have been instituted in several colonies (Victoria, New South Wales, etc.). In the beginning the English Common Law regulated THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 49 the legal status of the Australian women. During the past fifty years this law has undergone many modi- fications. Each colony acted independently in the matter, and therefore there is no longer uniformity. In all cases separate ownership of property is legal. However, joint parental authority is legally established only in New Zealand. The divorce laws are preju- dicial to women in almost all respects. In the field of legislation the influence of woman's suffrage has already made itself definitely felt. Each colony has its state legislature which consists of a Lower House and a Senate. Every Australian who is twenty-one years old is a voter in both state and munici- pal elections. (There is a property qualification only for those voting for the Senate.) In 1869 the woman's suffrage movement began in Australia (in Victoria). The right to vote in school and municipal affairs was given to women as a matter of course.^ The right to vote in state affairs was granted to women first in New Zealand in 1893, in South Australia in 1895, in West Australia in 1899, in New South Wales in 1903, in Queensland in 1905, and in Victoria in 1908. When the six Australian colonies (excluding New Zealand) formed themselves into a federation in 1900, an Australian Federal Parliament was established. The women of all of the six colonies voted for the par- * Woman Suffrage in Australia, by Vida Goldstein. E 50 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT liaraentary officers on an equality with men. Here was a curious thing — the women of the four con- servative colonies voted for the members of the Federal ParHament but could not vote for the state legislature. On the basis of the documents dealing with Vic- toria I shall give a more detailed account of the his- tory of woman's suffrage in this colony. The greatest statesman of Victoria, George Higinbotham, in 1873 introduced the first woman's suffrage bill before Par- liament. This met with no success. A number of similar attempts were made until 1884. In this year there was founded the first "Woman's Suffrage So- ciety" in Victoria. The movement then spread rapidly, and in 1891 thirty thousand women petitioned ParHa- ment for the suffrage in state affairs. For the time being this attempt likewise met with failure. But the political organization of the women was strengthened through the formation of the "United Council for Woman's Suffrage." Every year after 1895 this Council gave advice to the Lower House concerning the framing of woman's suffrage bills, and thus en- larged its influence. Hitherto the passing of the suffrage bill had been prevented by the opposition of the Upper House (which was not chosen by universal suffrage). On November 18, 1908, the bill was finally passed by the House of Obstruction, and thus the women, who had worked for the suffrage, were finally THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 5 1 emancipated. Since 1893, the year of the emancipa- tion of women in New Zealand, the opponents of woman's suffrage put off the women with the request to wait and see how the plan worked in New Zealand ; in 1896 the women were asked to wait and see how the plan worked in New South Wales ; in 1902 they were asked to see how woman's suffrage worked in the federal elections. In 1908 it was possible to secure only 3500 signatures against woman's suffrage. In New Zealand the women have exercised active suffrage since 1893. There also, the gloomiest pre- dictions were made when this "unprecedented" meas- ure was adopted. There were, of course, women opponents of woman's suffrage. Such, for example, was Mrs. Seddon, the wife of the Prime Minister of New Zealand. She said: "It seemed to me that the women ought to remain away from the tumult and riotous scenes of the polling booths. But I gave up this view. With us, the women benefited the suffrage and the suffrage benefited the women. The elections have taken place more quietly and women have indi- cated a lively interest in public affairs. "Woman's suffrage has not caused family dissen- sions. It has frequently happened that whole famiUes have voted for the same candidate. In other cases different members of one family voted for different candidates. But this has not disturbed domestic tran- 52 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT quillity, for nowhere have family feuds been engendered by one member or another of the family boasting of the success of his candidate. The fear that the women would vote largely for Conservative candidates, through the influence of the clergy, was not realized. Already the women have twice contributed to the reelection of a Liberal minister. Neither the Protestant nor the Catholic clergy endeavored to influence the votes of the women anywhere." The Countess Wachtmeister, a Californian traveling in Australia, confirms this opinion, "Thanks to woman's suffrage the respectable elements that formerly often remained away from the political arena have now again stepped to the front; they have presented successful candidates, and have begun to play an important part in the political life of the country." Since women have exercised the right to vote in New Zealand the following legal reforms have been enacted : 1. Divorces are granted to the wdfe and to the hus- band upon the same groimds. 2. The husband can no longer deprive the wife and children of their inheritances by means of a will. 3. The conditions of suffrage in municipal elections were made the same for both women and men. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 53 4. The saloons are closed on election days. 5. Women are admitted to the practice of law. 6. The age of consent for girls was raised to 17. Similar reforms were enacted in South Australia. There Mrs. Mary Lee is the leader in the woman's suffrage movement, and founder of the "Women's Suffrage Society." When the woman's suffrage bill was passed in 1895 the Prime Minister, the Minister of Public Instruction, and the Lord Mayor gave Mrs. Lee an impressive reception in the town hall; they thanked her for the untiring efforts which she had devoted to the cause, and the Prime Minister said, "Mrs. Lee is the originator of the greatest reforms in the constitutional history of Australia." What en- lightened views the ministers in the antipodal countries do have ! Are they really our antiscians to such a degree ? Since 1896, the following reforms have been effected by the South Australian Parliament : 1. A modification of the marriage law (the husband must provide for the wife and children if his brutality leads to a divorce). An enlarge- ment of woman's sphere in the business world. Separate property rights. 2. Greater strength was given to the law compelling the father of illicit children to fulfill his pecuniary duties. 54 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT 3. A severer penalty for trafficking in girls. 4. The increasing of the age of consent to 17. 5. Improved laws providing for the care of depend- ent children. 6. A maximum working week of 52 hours for chil- dren engaged in industry. 7. Laws suppressing pornography. 8. Laws prohibiting the sale of liquor and tobacco to children. 9. Women were appointed to the positions of in- spectors of schools, prisons, hospitals, etc. In West Australia, where women have voted since 1899, the women were admitted to the practice of law; the age of consent was raised to 17 years; and the conditions on which divorce are granted were made the same for man and woman. In Europe people still question the practical value of woman's suffrage. Following the establishment of woman's suffrage in New South Wales and Tasmania, juvenile courts were introduced; New South Wales adopted a very strin- gent law regulating the sale of liquor (local option ; no barmaids under 21 years could be employed; the sale of liquors to children under 14 years was prohibited). Since women have voted in the elections for the Federal Parliament they have formed the Australian Woman's Political Association. The President is Miss Vida Goldstein, of Victoria. To the Association THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES $$ belong woman's suffrage leagues, woman's trade- unions, temperance societies, woman's church clubs, and other organizations. For the present the women will not ally themselves with any of the existing parties, since the principles of none of them correspond exactly to the programme which the women have set up. The "Political Equality League" is satisfactory in one respect (equal rights for both sexes), but goes too far in its socialistic demands. The women have succeeded in having federal laws enacted providing that all state employees be paid the same wages for the same work, and that the legal provisions for naturalization permit woman to retain her right of self-government and her individuality. The government will propose a federal law securing imiformity in the marriage laws (laws in regard to marriage, property, divorce, and parental authority). In all the Australian colonies women have active suffrage, but not in all cases the passive. Wherever they possess the latter they have laid little claim to it : 1. because a part of the capable women believe they can work more effectively and achieve more if they are not attached to a political party ; 2. because the established party programmes very frequently embody the demands of the women ; 56 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT 3. because for this reason the political parties expect no special advantage from the women, and it is difl5cult to secure the support of the great party papers for the women candi- dates ; 4. because the Australian elections also cost money, and the capable women are not always well-to-do. In 1903, Miss Vida Goldstein announced her candi- dature for the Federal Parliament and was defeated. In the federal elections of 1906 on an average 58.36 per cent of the registered men and 43.30 per cent of the registered women voted (against 53.09 and 30.96 per cent in 1903), In two pamphlets, — Woman's Suffrage in New Zealand, and Woman's Suffrage in Australia,^ — the leading men of the youngest region of the world have given their written testimony on the practical workings of woman's suffrage. These men are prime ministers of the colonies, public prosecutors, the ministers of the various state departments, members of the lower houses in the parliaments, high dignitaries of the Church, the editors of large political newspapers. They all make the most favorable statements concern- ing woman's suffrage. ' Both published in Rotterdam, 92 Kniiskade, International Woman's Suffrage Alliance. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 57 "The women have demanded nothing unreasonable from their representatives, and have always placed themselves on the side of clean politics and clean politicians." "Woman's suffrage has brought about neither the millennium nor pandemonium," and the New Zealanders do not understand why it is that in other countries people "can still become agitated over anything so inherently reasonable as woman's suffrage." All who A\ash to have the right to participate in a discussion on woman's suffrage must first study these two books of testimonials. A mere knowledge of these facts will cause much insipid discussion to cease in public meetings. From the French consul in Dantzig, Count Jouflfroy d'Abbans, one familiar with Australian conditions, I learned the following isolated facts concerning woman's suffrage. It has a salutary influence throughout. Women show a lively interest in political and municipal questions; for the sake of their political rights they neglect their "specifically feminine" duties so little that they come to the parliamentary sessions with knitting, embroidery, and sewing. They also engage in these feminine activities while attending the night sessions. On election days there is certainly often a cold dinner or supper. But that occurs on washing days, too, and no one has yet wished to deny women the privilege of doing the washing. It is safe to say 58 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT that the Australian woman's rights movement will not fail because of this obstacle. GREAT BRITAIN Total population : 41,605,220. Women: 21,441,911. Men: 20,163,309. English Federation of Women's Clubs. Woman's Suffrage League. *' England is the storm center of our movement," declared the President of the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance in the Amsterdam Congress, This was the conviction of the Congress, which therefore resolved to hold the next International Woman's Suf- frage Congress in London (in April, 1909). The fact is undisputed that the English suffragettes — whether one favors or opposes their actions — have made Great Britain the center of the modem woman's rights move- ment. England is a European country, an old coim- try with rigid traditions, which, nevertheless, are the freest political traditions that we have in Europe to- day. For fifty years the English women have struggled for the right to vote. In spite of the fact that their country has neither Salic Law nor continental milita- rism (two of the greatest obstacles to all woman's rights movements), the English women have not as yet at- THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES $g tained their ends. This is an indication of the tenacity of the prejudices against women in the countries of older civilizations. The opposition offered to the political emancipation of women in England is all the more remarkable since the English women were able to exercise the right to vote on an equality with men in national elections till 1832, and in municipal elections till 1835.^ To that time we find the same conditions prevailing in England as prevailed in the nine American commonwealths previous to 1783. This parity of circumstances is explained by the English principle of representation : no taxation without representation. In 1832 and 1835, however, the English women, who as taxpayers were qualified to vote, had the right to vote in national and municipal affairs taken from them; for the word "persons" the expression "male persons" was sub- stituted in the election law. When this disfranchise- ment took place none of those concerned cried out against it. For two hundred years the women had made no use worth mentioning of the right to vote. But a part of the women, especially those of the liberal and cultured circles, saw the significance of this retro- grade step. The political struggles of general concern during the 1 Consult HeleQ Blackburn, Eislory of Woman's Suffrage in Eng- land. 6o THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT following period (such as the antislavery movement and the anticorn-law movement) furnished these women an opportunity to educate themselves in political affairs, and, like the American women of that time, they in many cases learned their political ABC by means of the same questions. Such men as Cobden, Pease, Biggs, Knight, and others were the advance guard of the political women in England. The earliest pam- phlet on women's suffrage preserved to us appeared in 1847, It is a small leaflet and says among other things, "As long as both sexes and all parties are not given a just representation, good government is impossible" (which is a paraphrase of the American principle — every just government derives its powers from the consent of the governed). The contrary view had been stated in the Encydopcedia Britannica as early as 1842 by the father of John Stuart Mill: "It is self-evident that all persons whose interests are identical with those of a different class are excluded from political represen- tation without injury." Certainly from such an arrange- ment the "representatives" will suffer no injury. That select group of intellectual women who trained them- selves politically during the antislavery movement and the struggle for free trade consisted of the mothers, the sisters, and daughters of liberal politicians and academically trained men. Many of these women were themselves students and teachers. No antagonism THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 6 1 ever existed in England between the woman's suffrage movement and the movement favoring the education of woman. Such were the conditions in 1866. A new election law was to be introduced in Parliament; a new class of men was to be granted the right of suffrage by the lowering of the property qualification. The women decided to present a petition to the House of Commons requesting the right to vote in national elections. The women had decided to act thus publicly because of the presence of John Stuart Mill in the House of Commons, and because of an utterance of Disraeli's, "In a country in which a woman can be ruler, peer, church trustee, owner of estates, and guardian of the poor, I do not see in the name of what principle the right to vote can be withheld from her." Four petitions (one signed by 1499 women, one by 1605 taxpaying women, and two more signed by 3559 and 3000 men and women) were sent to the House of Commons ; and on May 20, 1867, John Stuart Mill, after he had presented the petitions, moved that the right to vote be given to the qualified women taxpayers. His motion was re- jected by a vote of 196 to 73. Thereupon there were formed for systematic propaganda, woman's suffrage societies in London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birming- ham, and Bristol; these cities are still the center of the movement. The new election law gave women a 62 THE MODERN WOMAN 's RIGHTS MOVEMENT further advantage — the expression male person was replaced with the generic word "man." ^ Since an Act of Parliament (13 and 14 Vict,, c. 21) declares that in all laws the masculine expression also includes the feminine, unless the contrary is expressly stated, the friends of woman's suffrage believed they could inter- pret this expression in favor of women. The attempt to do this was now made. A niunber of qualified women demanded that they be registered with the voters; they were determined to have recourse to the law if the government commission refused to register their votes. At this time the first public meeting of women in England was held in the famous "Free Trade Hall" in Manchester. But the courts and the Supreme Court interpreted the law against the women, — "they are disqualified neither intellectually nor morally, but legally." Then a methodical propaganda by means of public meetings was begun ; the first victory was won as early as 1869, — the women taxpayers were given the right to vote in municipal affairs in England, Scot- land, and Wales. Between 1870 and 1884, the political organization of the women was strengthened; the women of the aris- tocracy (Lady Amberly, Lady Anne Gore-Langton, » See the excellent little work of Mrs. C. C. Stopes, "The Sphere of 'Man' in the British Constitution," Votes /or Women, London, 4 Clement's Ion. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 63 and others) were won over to the cause of woman's suffrage. A "Central Committee for Woman's Suf- frage" was formed, and a number of excellent women speakers (Biggs, Maclaren, Becker, Fawcett, Craigen, Kingsley, Tod, and others) spoke throughout the coun- try. A further success was achieved when the Par- liament of the Isle of Man ^ (House of Keys) gave quali- fied women the right to vote. In 1884, the property quaUfication was again re- duced through a new election law; the friends of woman's suffrage took advantage of this opportunity to present a motion in Parliament favoring woman's suffrage, in support of which the following statements were made: "Two milUon men, many of whom are ignorant and uneducated, and possess only a small plot of ground, are to be given political rights. On what principle is the same right withheld from 300,000 women who are educated and who are landowners?" This motion was lost also. In 1885 the English women, in order to make their influence felt in political affairs, formed the "Primrose League," which supported the Conservative candidates in the election campaigns ; and in 1887 was formed the "Women's Liberal Fed- eration," which supported the Liberals in a similar manner. The next attempt to secure woman's suffrage ' In the Irish Sea, between Ireland and Scotland, having a population of 29,272 women and 25,486 men. 64 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT was made in 1897, but it was unsuccessful. During the Boer War woman's suffrage receded into the back- ground, and not until March 14, 1904, was a woman's suffrage bill again introduced; this bill did not be- come law. At that time the woman's suffrage move- ment was lifeless, and in a thoroughly hopeless con- dition. All the usual means of propaganda had been exhausted, — meetings, petitions, and personal work during campaigns made no impressions either on the members of ParUament, the government, or on pubUc opinion. It was no longer possible to educe argvunents against the right of qualified women to vote (it was not a question of universal suffrage, but, just as in the case of the men, it was a matter of granting the franchise to women holding property in their own name and earning their own living). Governments, however, wish to be coerced into granting the franchise, and the representa- tives of the woman's suffrage movement were not de- termined enough to exercise the necessary coercion. Therefore, the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies transferred the leadership of the movement to the National Women's Social and PoHtical Union, whose members are known by the name of suffragettes. This transference of leadership took place during the^ autimm of 1905. The suffragettes then adopted mihtant tactics, mak- ing the government their point of attack. This was THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 65 a good stroke, for since 1905 England has had a Liberal Cabinet, and several of the ministers and over 400 of the 600 members of the House of Commons have de- clared themselves as friends of woman's suffrage. "Then why don't you grant us our political freedom?" asked the suffragettes. The women are heads of families, they pay rent and taxes, just as the men. All their conditions of Hve- lihood are as dependent upon the laws as are those of the men. A liberal government and liberal members of ParUament ought to be Uberal towards women and grant them the suffrage. Many of these ministers and many members of ParUament owe their political careers, their election, and their influence to the prac- tical campaign activities of women or to the woman's suffrage movement, which they supported in order to enlarge their political influence. They have made use of the woman's suffrage movement and now wish to do nothing in return. The fate of all woman's suf- frage bilb introduced since 1870 (13 in number) proves that it is hopeless to have such bills introduced by pri- vate members. Women must turn their hopes to a bill introduced by the government. The present Liberal government needs only to treat the matter seriously; then a woman's suffrage bill will be passed. But the government has not treated the matter seriously; hence the suffragettes have declared war. 66 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT It is their determination to fight every ministry which is not kindly disposed toward the suffrage movement. The struggle is carried on by the following means : organization of societies; meetings throughout the country; street parades and open air meetings (es- pecially significant are those of June 13 and 21, 1908); the employment of first-class speakers, who make con- cise, clear, ingenious, and stirring speeches ; the raising of large sums of money (20,000 pounds, i.e. $100,000 annually; there is a reserve fund of 50,000 p)ounds, i.e. $250,000) ; the publication of a well- managed periodical, Votes for Women.^ \K The leaders are Mrs. and Miss Pankhurst, Mrs. Drummond, Annie Kenney, Mr. and Mrs. Pethick Lawrence. These and the most determined of their associates undertake to send deputations to the Liberal Prime Minister, Mr. Asquith, and to ask the question in all public meetings in which members of the Cabi- net speak, — when will 'you give women the right to vote ? I .' The deputations go to Parliament because women, as taxpayers, have the right to speak to the Prime Minister, who continually receives deputations of men. Since the Prime Minister does not wish to grant women the right to vote, the deputations of women are prevented > 4 Clement's Inn, Strand, London, W.C. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 6j from entering the Houses of Parliament by strong squads of police, both mounted and on foot; and if the women do not desist from their attempt to make known to the Prime Minister the resolutions of their meeting, they are arrested for the disturbance of the peace, the interruption of traffic, or the instigation of timiult and riot; they are arraigned in the police court and are sentenced to imprisonment in the ordinary prisons. The Liberal government stubbornly refuses to regard these women as poHtical offenders and to punish them as such. The woman's suffrage advocates, who ask the Cab- inet members questions in public meetings, direct their questions to both friends and opponents of woman's suffrage. For, they inquire, of what use are our friends to us if they do nothing for us? The members of the Enghsh Cabinet have a joint responsibility for their political 'programme. If the friends of woman's suffrage treat the matter seriously, they must either convert their colleagues or resign. As long as they do not do that, they are merely playing with woman's suffrage and the women think it necessary to "heckle" them. The women who ask the questions are often ejected from the meetings in a very rough way.^ The suffragettes give the government conclusive proof of their pohtical power when they oppose Liberal ' See E. Robin's novel, The Convert. 68 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEAIENT candidates at all by-elections and contribute to the defeat of the candidates or cause a reduction of their votes. To the present this has occurred in fourteen cases. It is due to the success of these tactics that the whole world is to-day speaking about woman's suffrage, which has become a burning pohtical question in Eng- land. All along the people and the press are giving greater support to the suffragettes who have the cour- age to brave the horrors of the London prison, and there become acquainted with the distress of the poor, the destitute, and the helpless. During the last three or four years of the activity of the suffragettes a great number of woman's suffrage organizations were founded: The Woman's Freedom League (Mrs. Despard), The Men's League for Woman's Suffrage, The Artists' Suffrage League, The Conserv- ative and Unionist Women's Franchise Association, The Actresses' Franchise League, The Writers' League, etc. Scotland and Ireland have their own woman's suffrage associations. In opposition there have been formed the National Women's Antisuffrage Association and a Men's League for Opposing Woman's Suffrage (those are sup- ported chiefly by the aristocratic circles). They declare that woman does not need the right to vote since she exercises an " enormous^ indirect influence"; that wo- man does not msh the right to vote; that her sub- THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 69 ordination is based on natural law since brute force rules the world; woman's suffrage would result in England's destruction, if a majority of women voters (England has a majority of women) were permitted to decide questions concerning the army and navy. The leader of the suffragettes, Mrs. Fawcett, re- cently estabUshed the fact that the newly formed Association has a considerably smaller number of prominent names among its members than the organiza- tion formed two years ago, which soon came to an in- glorious end. She emphasized the fact that the two important women, who at that time still favored the antisuffrage movement, — Mrs. Louise Creighton and Mrs. Sidney Webb, — have since gone over to the suffrage advocates. On the occasion of Mrs. Fawcett's pubhc debate with Mrs. Humphry Ward, the leader of the antisuffragists (in February, 1909), it happened that 235 of those present favored woman's suffrage and 74 were opposed. The argument against the brute force statement was treated in three excellent articles in Votes for Women under the title "The Physical Force Fallacy."^ The most influential of the English women, together with the women in the industries, the students of both sexes, the workingwomen, — in short, the intellectual and professional women are in favor of the suffragettes ; 1 By Lawrence Housman, Feb. 11, 18, and 26, 1909. 70 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT and the woman's suffrage advocates have "the spiritual certainty" that moves mountains. Let no one beheve that the appeals made on the streets, the parades of the women as sandwich-men, or the noisy publicity of their tactics are gladly indulged in by the women. These actions are entirely opposed to woman's nature. But the women have recognized that these tactics are neces- sary and they act accordingly because it is their duty. Such movements have always been successful. Women do not possess the right to vote in parlia- mentary elections ; but, if taxpayers, they can vote in municipal affairs in the whole of Great Britain and Ireland. The married women of England and Wales have a restricted right of suffrage, however: they are "persons" and therefore voters in parochial elections, in the election of poor-law administrators, and of urban and rural district councillors ; but they are not regarded as "persons" and are not voters in elections for the borough and county councils. In one single case, in the County of London, by the law of 1900, married women were given almost the same rights as those exercised by married women in Scotland and Ireland.^ The right of single or married women to hold office (passive suffrage) ^ has prevailed in England and Wales 1 See E. C. Wolstenholme Elmy, Women's Franchise, the Need 0} the Hour. * Wolstenholme Elmy, ibid. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 7 1 since 1869 in respect to the offices of guardians of the poor, overseers, waywardens, churchwardens, — and since 1870 (Education Act) in respect to school boards.^ At the very first school elections women were elected, which induced women to have themselves presented also as candidates for the offices of poor-law adminis- trators. In 1875 the first unmarried woman was elected to that office, the first married woman in 188 1. In the discharge of their duties in both classes of offices the women have acted admirably. Nevertheless, the reac- tionary Education Act of June, 1903, took away from the women the right to hold office as members of school boards in the County of London. They can still secure administrative offices by governmental appointment, but no longer by an election. In 1888 were created the county coimcils for England and Wales ; the county councils were at the same time organs for the self- governing municipalities. Since this law, like those of 1869 and 1870, did not specially exclude women from the right to hold office, two women, Mrs. Cobden and Lady Sandhurst, presented themselves as candidates for the office of county councillors of London. They were elected. Thereupon Mrs. Beresford-Hope, whom Lady Sandhurst had defeated, contested the legality of the election. In 1889, the Court of Appeals declared that women were eligible to public office only when this 1 This right is possessed by women in Scotland and Ireland also. 72 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT is expressly stated} This decision of the Court, which was in conflict with the English Constitution, also brought about the loss of the right of the women of Scotland and Ireland to hold office as county councillors. As a result of this judicial decision, when the new Local Self-government Act for England and Wales was enacted (1894), it was necessary expressly to state the eligibility of women (unmarried and married) to hold the minor local ofl&ces (parish, urban, rural district councillors, poor-law guardians, etc.). Article 22, however (in spite of historical precedents), excluded women from the office of justice of the peace. In 1894 the same thing occurred in Scotland, and in 1898 in Ireland. In 1899, the attempt to secure the eligibility of women to the metropolitan borough councils (for London only) ^ failed, owing to the opposition of the House of Lords. The law of 1907,^ known as the Qualification of Women Act, grants unmarried women the right to hold office in the borough and county councils (councillor, alderman, mayor). Married women have this right only in the County of London; elsewhere they can 1 This is in "direct conflict with the statute (13 Vict., c. 21, sec. 4) pro- viding that women enjoy all those rights from which thej' are not ex- pressly excluded. ' London, like other capital cities, is regulated by a separate set of laws. * Applying to England and Wales. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 73 merely vote for these officers.^ On the occasion of the first elections under this act twelve women presented themselves as candidates; six were elected (one as mayor) ; hitherto the women had been elected only in small places, and then owing to exceptional circum- stances. Whoever investigates the struggle of the women to secure their rights in the local government and studies the attitude of the men toward these ex- ceedingly just demands will comprehend the exas- perating circumstances under which the women are to-day struggling for the right to vote in the EngHsh parliamentary elections. In questions of power and of gaining a livelihood [Macht- und Brotfragen] the nobiUty of man can really not be depended upon. The woman's suffrage movement has led to the con- summation of a number of legal reforms : the property laws now legalize the separation of the property of husband and wife ^ ; in the United Kingdom the wife administers her own property and disposes of it, and has full control over her earnings. The remainder of the laws regulating marriage are still rather rigorous, — in England at least ; the wife has no hereditary right to her husband's property. If she economizes in the administration of the household, the savings belong to the husband. The \vife cannot demand any pay in 1 The right to vote is a condition necessary for the holding of office. ' See the Married Women's Property Acts of 1870 and 1883. 74 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT money for performing her domestic duties; the mere expenses of maintenance are sufficient remuneration, etc. In normal cases the father alone has authority over the children. It is made very difficult for a woman to secure a divorce, etc.^ The women that have labored so untiringly in po- litical affairs have very naturally made it a point to promote the educational opportunities of their sex. Since 1870, the elementary school system has been regulated by the school boards, which have introduced obligatory public instruction. In these institutions the boys and girls are segregated (except in the rural districts). On an average there is one male teacher to every three women teachers in these institutions. The secondary schools are private, as in Australia. Hence it was not necessary for the English women to wrest every concession from a reluctant government (as was the case in Germany) ; but private initiative, combined with the devotion of private individuals, made possible in a few years the full reorganization of England's institutions of learning for girls. This reorganization began in 1868 and led to the following results: the establishment of higher institutions of learning in all English cities (these are called girls' pub- lic day schools, most of them being day schools. They 1 See the article by Mr. Pethick Lawrence in Votes Jot Women, March 3,1909- THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 75 are governed by committees consisting of the founders, the principals, and the qualified advisers). Latin and mathematics are obligatory studies in the curriculum. The schools are in close relationship with Oxford and Cambridge universities, the universities inspecting the schools and supervising the various examinations (in- cluding the examinations of the students upon leaving the schools). In England these schools are for girls only ; in Scotland, girls attend similar schools which are coeducational. The number of women teachers is estimated at 8000. Admission to the universities was secured with diflS- culty by the women. At first a number of women requested the privilege of attending lectures in the uni- versities of Oxford and Cambridge. Since these uni- versities are resident colleges, it was necessary to pro- vide boarding places for women. This was done in 1869 and 1870 in both places, through the work of Miss Emily Davies and Miss Anna Clough. Both of these beginnings developed into the women's colleges of Girton and Newnham. Since then, St. Margaret's Hall, Somersville Hall, and HoUoway College have been established for women. These institutions cor- respond to the German philosophical faculties [the colleges of literature and liberal arts in the United States]. An entrance examination is necessary for admission. The course of study is three years. The 76 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT final examination, called " tripos," embraces three subjects ; it corresponds to the German Oberlehrerexa- men, — examinations given to candidates for the posi- tion of teachers in the Gymnasiums, the Realgymnasi- ums, Oberrealgymnasiums, etc. Theology, medicine, and law cannot be studied in these woman's colleges (any more than in the American woman's colleges). Part of the teachers live in the woman's college buildings ; part of them belong to the faculties of Oxford and Cambridge. The former are w^omen tutors and pro- fessors. The English colleges for women are maintained by private funds. Many women not wishing to take the "tripos" examination or to become teachers attend the university to acquire a higher education. Others prepare themselves for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, or Doctor of Philosophy. These examinations are accepted by Oxford and Cambridge universities, but the women are not granted the corre- sponding titles, because the use of such titles would make the women Fellows of the University, which would entitle them to the use of the university gardens and parks, and to live in one of the colleges. All other universities in England, Scotland, and Ireland, with the exception of Trinity College, Dublin, admit women to all departments, accepting their examinations and granting them academic degrees. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 77 The women's colleges are centers of sport, — inci- dentally they possess their own fire department. To arouse an interest in political affairs and to develop facility in speaking, debating clubs have been organized. More than 1300 women have graduated from Cambridge, and more than 1200 from the University of London. When Mary Putnam wished to study medicine in 1868, she had to go to Paris. Jex Blake, who attempted the same thing in Edinburgh in 1869, was driven out by the students. She went to London and was there at first given instruction by the noble Dr. Anstie. As early as 1870 there was formed in London a special School of Medicine for women, to which a hospital for women was later attached, being directed and supported entirely by women physicians. To-day, 553 women doctors are practicing in Great Britain. Of these 538 have ex- pressed themselves in favor of, and 15 against, woman's suffrage. In England, women were first permitted to take the public examination in dental surgery as late as 1908 ; while the Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Irish Royal Colleges of Surgeons had admitted them long before. Women can study law in England, but as yet they have not been admitted to the bar. If this privilege were granted to women, they would have to affiliate with the London lawyers' associations, such as the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, Gray's Inn, etc. Members of these organizations must several times a month 78 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT attend the dinners or banquets of the lawyers. These corporate customs of the English Bar are said to exclude women from the legal profession just as similar customs have excluded them from tutorships and professorships in Oxford and Cambridge. In spite of this, Miss Cave recently sought admis- sion to Gray's Inn, but was refused because she was a woman. She appealed her case to the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, but they declared that they had no jurisdiction; the matter will be pursued further. The first woman preacher in England, a native of Germany, Miss v. Petzold, studied theology in Ger- many and graduated there. After her trial sermon in Leicester she was elected in preference to her male competitors. Later she accepted a call to Chicago. The Congregationalists have four women preachers; the Salvation Army over 3000. Except in those call- ings where personal ability is determinative, the salaries of English women are lower than those of the men. The women have a large field for their efforts in the public schools (where there are three women teachers to one man teacher). In the secondary schools for girls, instruction and control are entirely in the hands of women; their salaries are quite sufficient (the minimum being 100 pounds sterling, about $500). As we have seen, the higher institutions of learning also offer the women well-paid positions (the tutors THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 79 being paid $2000, with board and lodging; the prin- cipals $2500). The well-paid civil ofl5ces are reserved for the men. Although there are more women teachers and more female students in the schools than males, there are 244 male inspectors of pubUc schools and 18 women inspectors; the male inspector-general is paid 1000 pounds sterling annually, the woman inspector-general 500 poimds. In the secondary schools there are 20 male inspectors and 3 women inspectors with annual salaries of 400 to 800 pounds, and 300 pounds re- spectively. The women teachers of the elementary schools (of whom there are approximately 111,000) draw on an average two thirds the salary of the men teachers, though they have the same training and do the same amount of work. In spite of the fact that there are two million women engaged in industry, there are 900 male factory in- spectors and hardly 60 female factory inspectors. Here again the men are paid 1000 pounds and the women only 500 pounds a year. In the postal and telegraph service the same injustice exists : the men begin with a minimum wage of 20 shillings a week, while the women are paid 14 shillings; the men in- crease their salaries to 62 shillings a week ; the women to 30 shillings. The male telegraph operator begins with 18 shillings and is finally given 65 shillings a 8o THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT week; the woman telegraph operator begins with i6 and reaches 40 shillings. The male clerks of the second division of the civil service are paid 250 pounds and the women 100 annually. In 1908, the number of women employees in the postal and telegraph service of Great Britain was 13,259; the number of women supernumeraries, 30,476 : total number, 43,735. The highest positions (heads of departments, staff officers) have been attained by 4 women and by 178 men. In recent years many new callings have been opened to women living in the cities. They are engaged in the manufacture of confectionery. Prominent and wealthy women have established businesses of their own, in which fine confections are produced, — in many cases by destitute, nervous, and overworked women music teachers. Women are active as book- binders, stockbrokers, bills of exchange agents, audi- tors, teachers of domestic economy, instructors in gymnastics, ladies' guides, wardrobe dealers (the costly robes of the women of fashion are sold on commission through agents), paperers and decorators, etc. The Woman's Institute ^ has published a complete handbook on the occupations of women. This book does not omit the occupation of explorer, in which Mrs. French Sheldon has distinguished herself (by ex- ploration in the interior of Africa). In London, the ^ London, S.W., 92 Victoria Street. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 8 1 number of women engaged in gainful pursuits is natu- rally very large, many of the women being alone in the world. The women journalists and authoresses in London have been numerous enough to organize a club of their own, — the Writers' Club, in the Strand. The number of women employed in commercial houses is very large, — 450,000. The weekly wages, especially the wages of the saleswomen in the shops, are often quite moderate, 20 to 25 shillings where exceptional demands are made as to attractive dress and appear- ance. The women have organized the Shop Assist- ants' Union. For women with this weekly wage the securing of good rooms and board at a reasonable price is a vital question. There are three apart- ment houses for workingwomen, — the Sloane Garden Houses, and the apartments for women in Chenies Street and in York Street. Women teachers, de- signers, artists, bookkeepers, cashiers, secretaries and stenographers obtain room and board here at varying rates. There are bedrooms (with two beds) for 43/2 to 5 shillings a week for each person, furnished rooms for 10 to 14 shillings. The dining room is a restaurant. Only the evening meal, dinner (served from 6 to 7), is served to all at once. This meal costs 10 pence (20 cents). In Chenies Street living expenses are some- what higher: 6 pence for breakfast, 9 pence for luncheon, i shilling for dinner; which is about 55 82 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT cents a day for board. For suites of two to four rooms $15 to S30 a month is charged. The Alexandra House in Kensington offers women artists similar privileges; the Brabanzon House (under the protection of the Countess of Meath) accommodates employees of the shops only. Since the English women are — for- tunately — independent in spirit, these institutions lack the scholastic, monastic, or tutelary characteristics that are unfortunately foimd in many similar institu- tions on the continent. Very few of the English women have become indus- trial entrepreneurs. However, they have directed their attention to agriculture as a means of earning a Hveli- hood and have organized agricultural schools for women. Here the women engage especially in poultry raising, vegetable and fruit growing, which in Eng- land are very lucrative ; England annually imports 41 million pounds' worth of milk, eggs, poultry, vege- tables, and fruits. The councils of London, Berk- shire, Essex, and Kent counties support the Horti- cultural College for women in Swanley, Kent, which was founded privately by wealthy and influential per- sons. In England 100,000 women are engaged in agriculture. The demand for trained women gar- deners to-day still exceeds the supply. Trained women gardeners are frequently engaged for a long term of years to teach untrained gardeners. Women are em- THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 83 ployed in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew and in Edinburgh. Holloway College has a woman gar- dener. In 1898 a model farm for women was founded by Lady Warwick in Reading. The institution began with twelve women students, who cultivated two acres of land. Within a year the number of students was quadrupled; and then eleven acres were cultivated instead of two. The woman that wishes to learn stock feeding and dairying is sent to a special farm. The course re- quires two years. The Agricultural Association for Women, founded by Lady War-vvick, aids the women agriculturists and finds positions for the pupils. In Great Britain there are eight public schools in which women can learn agriculture and gardening. Many county councils have estabhshed courses in gardening, to which women are admitted. Agriculture is encouraged in England because the migration from the country to the city has increased extraordinarily. Agriculture is restricted in favor of stock raising, which gives employment to fewer laborers than agriculture. In spite of the great increase in population, the number of agriculturists has steadily decreased since 1851. On the other hand, the indus- trial population (and it is predominantly urban) has increased significantly. Every industrialization means a pauperization to a certain extent. It produces the 84 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT army of unskilled laborers, the victims of the sweating system, who in a destitute condition are left to eke out their wretched existence in the "East Ends" of the large cities. There is no corresponding misery in the country districts. A marked industrialization therefore causes a degree of general pauperism such as is unknown in the agricultural regions of western Europe. The pursuit of gardening among women has a social-political significance. The EngHsh laboring population is estimated at 4,000,000 people, among whom the trade-union movement has made consider- able progress. The English trade-union statistics of 1904 show 148 trade-unions having women members. There are all together 125,094 female members, i.e. 6.7 per cent of all organized laborers. The greatest num- ber of these are in the textile industries (almost 100,000). The total number of women laborers in this industry is 800,000. Men Women (8HIL. A WEEK) (8HIL. A week) Cotton Industry . . , 29.6 18.8 Woolen Industry . . . 26.1 I3-I Lace Industry .... 39-6 13-5 Woven Goods Industry . 31-5 14-3 Linen Industry .... 22.4 10.9 Jute Industry .... 21.7 13-5^ 1 Valuable information concerning women in the industries is given in the programme of April 4, 1909, of the London Congress of the Interna- tional Woman's Suffrage Alliance. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 85 In the textile industry, in which women are better organized than elsewhere (there being 96,000), there existed in 1906 the preceding diflference between the wages of men and women (see table, p. 84). The organization of women laborers was first advo- cated by Mrs. Paterson and Miss Simcox at the trade- union congress held in Glasgow in 1875. But this organization is confronted with the same difficulties as exist elsewhere : the women believe that they are engaged in non-domestic work only temporarily; therefore they are interested in the improvement of labor only to a sHght degree, and in addition are burdened with housework; while the male laborer is free when the factory closes. In almost all indus- tries women are paid lower wages than men, — partly because those who are poorly equipped are given the lower grades of work and are not given an opportunity to do the more difficult work; partly, too, because they are women, i.e. people of the second order. Weekly wages of 5 to 7 shillings are common. Naturally, the workingwoman who is all alone in the world cannot exist on such a sum. In one industry only the women are given the same pay as the men for doing the same work, — this is the textile industry in Lancashire. Since 1847 this industry has been protected by a law prohibiting night work for women. In this industry men and women laborers are organ- 86 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT ized in the same trade-union. The standard of living of the whole body of workers is very high. There can be no doubt that the legislation for the protection of the laborers of this industry, in which the exploitation of women and children had been carried to the ex- treme previous to 1847, has caused the raising of the general standard of living. Without the intervention of law, exploitation would have been pursued further in this industry. So the English women have before them an example of the salutary effect of legislation for the protection of the laborers in the textile industries. Nevertheless, there is in England a faction among the woman's rights advocates which vigorously resists every movement for the protection of w^omen laborers; it has organized itself into the ''League for Freedom of Labor Defense." It acts on the principle that every law for the protection of women laborers signifies an unjustifiable tutelage ; that the workingwomen should defend themselves through the organization of trade- unions; that the laws for the protection of women laborers decrease women's opportunities for work and drive them from their positions, which are filled by men (who can work at night). These fears are based purely on theory. In prac- tice they are realized only in entirely isolated cases. The truth is that legislation for the protection of women laborers (prohibition of night work and the fix- THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 87 ing of a maximum number of work hours a day) is entirely favorable to an overwhelming majority of workingwomen. It protects them against a degree of exploitation that they could not resist unaided because the majority of them are not organized, and have no power to organize themselves; they will secure this power only through laws protecting women laborers. A comparative international study of laws for the pro- tection of women laborers, published by the Belgian department of labor/ shows that the number of women laborers has nowhere decreased, and that wages have not declined as a result. Concerning this point Mrs. Sidney Webb says: "In most cases women cannot be replaced by men, either because the men are not sufficiently dextrous or because their labor is too expensive. What employer will pay a man 20 to 30 shillings a week when a woman can accomplish just as much for 5 to 12 shillings a week?" We shall return to this subject in discussing France. Those women that are members of trade-unions persistently demand the right to vote; many of them intimate that through this right they expect to secure an increase in wages. Naturally the wishes of women laborers possessing the franchise will be considered very differently from the wishes of those not possessing ' Ansiaux, La reglemenlation du travail des fcmmes. 88 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT this right. Proof of this has been given by the Ameri- can woman's suffrage states. Previous to the debates on woman's suffrage in Parliament in 1904, a deputa- tion of workingwomen from the potteries in Stafford- shire presented the members of ParHament from that district with a petition having 4000 signatures, re- questing the introduction of a woman's suffrage bill, so that women might not continue to be excluded from all well-paid positions on account of their political inferiority. On this occasion the Hon. Mr. A. L. Emmott (member of Parliament from the Oldham district) declared that the salary of the women em- ployees in the postal savings banks had been reduced from 65 pounds (with an annual increase of 3 pounds) to 55 pounds (with an annual increase of 2 pounds, 10 shilUngs). This would have been impossible if women had had the right to vote. Domestic servants are as yet organized only to a small extent, but they are well trained; they number 1,331,000. In none of the Anglo-Saxon countries of the world is there a schism between the woman's rights move- ments of the middle class and the Social-Democrats, such as is found in Germany, In each of the Anglo- Saxon countries there is a Socialist, and even an Anarchist party, but these parties do not antagonize the woman's rights movement. The repubhcan con- stitutions in America, — the more democratic institu- THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 89 tions of society, — in general moderate the acute oppo- sition. The absence of historical obstacles has a con- ciliating influence everywhere in these countries. In England, where history, monarchy, and traditional class antagonism seem to give sociab'sm favorable con- ditions of growth, socialism has for a long time been hampered by the trade-unions. In other words, the English workingmen, the first to organize in Europe, had already improved their condition greatly when the socialistic propaganda commenced in England. In their trade-unions they confined themselves to the economic field; they avoided mixing economics with pohtics; they worked with both parties, they steered clear of class hatred, and it was difiicult to influence them with the speculative ultimate aims of social democracy. It has been only in the last decade that social-democracy has made any progress in England ; therefore in the woman's rights movement middle-class women and workingwomen work together peaceably. Of all the women in Europe the EngUsh women first became conscious of their duty toward the lower classes. In this atmosphere, — clubs and homes for working girls, and the London "College for Working Women," — institutions such as we on the continent know only in isolated cases flourished readily. These institutions devote their attention to the girls of the lower ranks of society. go THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT The oldest club is the "Soho Club and Home for Working Girls" in Soho Square, London, founded in 1880 by the Hon. Maude Stanley. It is open from seven in the morning to ten at night and also on Sunday. Tea can be obtained for 2}/^ pence (5 cents), and dinner for 6}/2 pence (13 cents). The admission fee is i shilling, the annual dues are 8 shillings. The members have a library at their disposal, and they publish a club magazine. The London Girls' Club Union Magazine. Members of such clubs (including those outside Lon- don) have formed themselves into a union. The members of the committee — composed of wealthy and influential women — concern themselves person- ally with the affairs of the clubs, giving not only their money, but their time and influence. The "College for Working Women" has existed in Fitzroy Square for more than 25 years. Here are taught English, French, history, geography, drawing, arithmetic, read- ing, writing, singing, cooking, sewing, wood turning, and other subjects. The quarterly fee is i shilling (for use of the library, attending lectures, etc.), the fees for the courses range from i shilling and 3 pence to 2 shillings and 6 pence (31 to 62 cents) quarterly. A commission gives examinations. The institution grants scholar- ships and gives prizes. The number of such clubs in the whole of Great Britain is estimated at 800. The English woman is developing a considerable THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 9 1 activity in the sociological field. Florence Nightingale, who organized a regular hospital service on the field of battle during the Crimean War (1854), upon her return to England took steps to secure the training of educated women for the nursing profession, in which the English nurse has been the model. The most im- portant Training College for nurses not connected with religious orders is in Henrietta Street, in London. Still this distinguished profession, which is represented in the International Red Cross Society, has not yet attained state registration of nurses, — i.e. an ofl5cially pre- scribed course of study concluding with a state exami- nation. The English midwives are vehemently complaining because the new Midwives Act will be deliberated on by a commission having no midwife as a member. The superintendent of the London Institute for Midwives has protested against this on behalf of 26,000 midwives. Another woman, Octavia Hill, participated in the official inquiry of the living conditions of the London East End, which led to a systematic campaign against the slums. This work is at present continued in Lon- don by 31 or more women sanitary officers. They supplement the work of the factory inspectors, since they inspect the conditions under which women home- workers live. In the whole country there are more than 80 such women sanitary ofiicers. 92 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT The home-workers are mostly women. Half of the 900,000 or more English women engaged in the manu- facture of ready-made clothing are permitted to work at home. Their wages are wretchedly low. The gov- ernment, which pays the men of the Woolwich Arsenal trade-union wages, is one of the worst exploiters of women (who do not have the right to vote) ; in the Army Clothing Works the government employs women either directly or indirectly (as home-workers through sweaters).^ The urgent need of widening woman's field of labor and improving her conditions of labor is clearly stated in a lecture which Miss B. L. Hutchins delivered before the Royal Statistical Society. According to the census of 1901 there were 1,070,000 more women than men in Great Britain. In 1901, of every 1000 persons 516 were women (in 1841, only 511 were women). The longevity of women is higher than that of men (47.77 to 44.13). When the old age pensions were introduced, 135 women to every 100 men applied for aid. Only half of the adult women (5,700,000) are provided for through marriage, and then only for 20 to 30 years of their lives. Previous to marriage, and afterward, most of the women are dependent on their own work for a living. Because English women know from experience that their condi- 1 See Mrs. Pethick Lawrence, "Women and Administration," Votes for Women, March 12, 1909. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 93 tions of labor can be improved only through the exercise of the suffrage, they have adopted their "militant tactics." In the field of poor-relief England again has taken the lead, inasmuch as she has permitted women to fill honorary posts in the municipal administration of the poor-law. At the present time 1162 women are engaged in this work, 147 of whom are rural district councillors. The chief reform efforts of the women were directed to the care of children and to the workhouses, through which channels private aid reaches the recipient. Still, among 22,000 guardians of the poor the number of women hardly reaches 1000. The old prejudice against women asserted itself even in this field. A "Society for Promoting the Return of Women as Poor-law Guardians" is endeavoring to hasten reform.^ The Enghshman has the valuable characteristic of forming organizations that strive to achieve very defi- nite, though often temporary, ends, thus giving private initiative great flexibility. Such an organization, with a limited purpose, is the "Woman's Cooperative Gild," founded in 1883. Its purpose is to promote the co- operative movement (as far as consumption is concerned) among women, and to show them their enormous social and economic power as consumers. Women are the chief purchasers, as they purchase the housekeeping ' See the article of Alice Salmon, ZentrdblaU. 94 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT supplies. It is to their interest to purchase through the cooperative associations that exclude the middlemen, and at the end of the year pay a dividend to the mem- bers of the associations. These associations can exer- cise an important social influence inasmuch as they create model conditions of labor for their employees (short working day, high wages, early closing of the shops, no work on Sundays or holidays, opportunity to sit down during working hours, insurance against sickness, old age insurance, sanitary conditions of labor, etc.). The Gild organizes women into coopera- tive societies, and by theoretical as well as practical studies informs the women of the advantages of the cooperative system. The movement to-day numbers 26,000 members. In England a marked increase in the use of alcoholic liquors among women was noticed ; whereupon legal and medical measures were taken to curb the evil. The most effective measure would be an attack on the drunkenness of the husband, which destroys the home. The oflScial report of the first English school for mothers, located in St. Pancras, London, has just appeared. This report shows that the experiment has been entirely successful. Of all measures to decrease the death rate among children, the establishment of schools for mothers is the best. During the course of instruction the young married women were recom- THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 95 mended to organize mothers' clubs in order to secure the necessaries of Hfe more cheaply. The school for mothers also attempts to give the young mothers nourishing meals, which can be furnished for the low sum of 2^ pence (about 6 cents). In the field of morals English women have achieved a success which might well excite the envy of other countries ; viz. the repeal of the law of 1869 concerning the state regulation of prostitution. The law had hardly been accepted by an accidental majority when public opinion, under the leadership of members of Parlia- ment, doctors, and preachers, protested against the measure. Nothing made such an impression as the public appearance of a woman on behalf of the repeal of this measure concerning women. In spite of all scorn, all feigned and frequently malicious pretensions not to comprehend her, in spite of all attempts, frequently brutal, to browbeat her, — Josephine Butler from 1870 to 1886 unswervingly supported the view that the regu- lation was to be condemned from the legal, sanitary, and moral viewpoint. Through the tireless work of Mrs. Butler and her faithful associates, Parliament in 1886 repealed the act providing for the regulation of prostitution. Since 1875, Mrs. Butler has organized internationally the struggle against the official regula- tion of prostitution. On December 30, 1906, death came to the noble woman. 96 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT Conditions in England are an evidence of how much more difficult it is for the woman's rights movement to make progress in old countries than in new. Traditions are deeply rooted, customs are firmly established, the whole weight of the past is blocking the wheels of prog- ress. In countries with older civilization the woman's question is entirely a question of f orce.^ CANADA Total population : 5,372,600. Women : 2,619,578. Men: 2,751,473. Canadian Federation of Women's Clubs. Canadian Woman's Suffrage Association. Politically Canada belongs to England, geographically it is a part of North America. The Canadian women take a keen interest in the woman's rights movement of the United States, which is setting them an excellent example. The last congress of the "International Council of Women" met in Toronto, Canada, under the presidency of Lady Aberdeen, the present president and the wife of the former governor-general of Canada. Canada is a large, young, agricultural country with large families and primitive needs. Therefore the 1 For a survey of English conditions aSecting women we recommend The Women's Charter oj Rights and Liberties, by Lady McLaren, 1909, London. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 97 progress of the woman's rights movement is less marked in Canada than in the United States and England. Throughout Canada the workingwoman is paid less than the workingman, partly because she is more poorly trained, partly because she is kept in subordinate positions, partly because, in order to find work at all, she must offer her services for less money. Even when teaching, or doing piecework, woman is paid less than man. In Canada there is as yet no political woman's rights movement strong enough to rectify this injustice by means of organizations and laws as has been done in AustraHa. As yet there are no women preachers in Canada. Women lawyers are confronted both with popular prejudice and legal obstacles. The study and practice of medicine is made very difficult for women, especially in Quebec and Montreal. In New Brunswick and Ontario as well as in the northwest provinces there is a more liberal attitude toward women's pursuit of higher education. No Canadian university excludes women entirely, but not a few of the higher institutions of learning refuse women admission to certain courses and refuse to grant certain degrees. The prevailing property laws in the eastern part of Canada legalize joint property holding (and we know what that means for woman) ; in the western part there is separation of property rights or at least separate control over earnings, the wife having full control of her wages. The male H 98 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT Canadian, when twenty-one years old, becomes a voter and has full political rights.^ But the Canadian woman has only restricted suffrage rights. Unmarried women that are taxpayers exercise only active suffrage in municipal and school elections. Each province has its own laws regulating these conditions of suffrage. The Copenhagen Congress (1906) of the International Woman's Suffrage Alhance promoted the cause of woman's suffrage in Canada very considerably. At a public meeting in which the Canadian delegate, Mrs. MacDonald Denison, gave a report of the work of the International Congress, a resolution favoring woman's suffrage was adopted, and this was used very effectively in propaganda. This propaganda was carried on among women's clubs, students' clubs, debating clubs, etc. The intellectual elite is to-day in favor of woman's suffrage. In 1907 the Canadian Woman's Suffrage Association, supported by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the Women Teachers, the Medical Alumnae, the Progressive Thought Association, the Toronto Local Council of Women, and the Progressive Club, sent a delegation to the Mayor and Council of the city of Toronto to express their support of a resolu- tion which the Council had drawn up favoring the right of married women to vote in municipal elections. 1 In Canada there are municipal elections, provincial parliamentary elections, and elections for the Dominion Parliament. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 99 Thus supported, the resolution was presented to the authorized commission, but here it was weakened by an amendment (granting the suffrage only to married women owtiing property). The author of this amend- ment, a member of the Toronto City Council, received his reward for this kindness to the women in the form of a defeat at the next election. Organizations favoring woman's suffrage have been founded throughout the country (HaUfax, Nova Scotia ; St. John, New Brunswick). Woman's suffrage advo- cates speak in mass meetings and in men's clubs, etc.^ A demand for woman's suffrage, made by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, was answered evasively by the Prime Minister, Sir Wilfred Laurier, — the provincial parliaments must take the matter up first, then the Dominion Parliament can consider it. In the spring of 1909 the City Council of Toronto sent a petition favoring woman's suffrage to the Canadian Parliament, and at the same time 1000 woman's suffrage advocates called on the Prime Minister. The 1909 Congress of the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance will undoubtedly help the Canadian woman's suffrage movement. * See the Report of the Woman's Suffrage Alliance Congress, Amster- dam, 1908. 100 THE MODERN WOM.A.N S RIGHTS MOVEMENT SOUTH AFRICA Natal and Cape Colony * Total population : 1,830,063. Transvaal Total population : 1,354,200. Woman's Suffrage Association for all three countries. In South Africa, Natal was the leader in the woman's rights movement. In 1902, through the work of Mr. and Mrs. Ancketill, the Woman's Equal Suffrage League was organized, which endeavored primarily to interest and educate its members. Later, in 1904, pubHc propaganda was begun. In June a petition was pre- sented to the Lower House by Mr. Ancketill. When he presented the matter in the form of a motion, it was not put to a vote, owing to the newness of the subject. The agricultural population opposes woman's suffrage; the urban population favors it. The woman's rights movement is made difficult in South Africa by the fol- lowing circumstances: An enervating climate "that makes people languidly content with things as they are." The lack of educated and independent women (women teachers are state employees) ; the lack of a numerous class of workingwomen ; difficult housekeeping, owing to the imtrustworthiness of the natives as domestic 1 See the Report of the International Women's Sufirage Alliance, Amsterdam, 1908. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES lOI servants; the peculiar position of men as taxpayers (men only pay a poll tax) and as arms bearers (all men must serve in the army).^ In Cape Colony similar conditions prevail. The Women's Enfranchisement League was formed in 1907 ; and in July, 1907, there took place the first woman's suffrage debate in Parliament. The woman's suffrage societies of Natal, Cape Colony, and the Transvaal have formed an association and have joined the Inter- national Woman's Suffrage Alliance. In Natal and Cape Colony women taxpayers exercise the right to vote in municipal affairs. The regulation of the suffrage qualifications for the Federal Parliament is being con- sidered. The South African delegates in London (1909) expressed the fear that women would not be given the federal suffrage. THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES Sweden Total population : S>377>7i3« Women: 2,751,257. Men : 2,626,456. Finland Total population : 2,71 2,562. Women : 1,370,480. Men: 1,342,082. » The last two arguments are easily refuted. I02 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT Norway Total population : 2,240,860. Women : i,i55,i69. Men: /}/>47 -Wt /T *• » 1,085,691. JL/CflTnUTK Total population : 2,588,919. Women : 1,331,154. Men: 1,257,765, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark will be grouped together since they are so closely connected by race and culture ; repetition will thereby be avoided, and clearness promoted. All four countries have the advantage of having a population largely agricultural, — a population scattered in small groups. Clearly, the problem of dealing with congested masses of people is here absent. Everywhere there is an eagerness for education. The educational average is high. The position of woman is one of freedom, for here have been kept alive the old Ger- manic traditions which we [the Germans] know only from reading Csesar or Tacitus. An external factor in hastening the solution of the question of woman's rights was the very unusual numerical superiority of women. The foreign wars, which took the majority of the men away from home for long periods of time, — first in the Middle Ages, and then again in the seven- THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 103 teenth and eighteenth centuries, — and the fact that the Scandinavian countries themselves were afflicted with wars only to a small extent, explain the freedom of the Scandinavian women. Like the English women, they had for centuries not known the significance of war for woman. In the absence of the men, women continued the transaction of business and industrial enterprises. In the name of the feudal law and as heads of famiUes they administered affairs, exercising rights that were elsewhere denied to women. SWEDEN Total population : 5,377,213. Women: 2,751,257. Men : 2,626,456. Swedish Association of Women's Clubs. Woman's Suffrage Society. In Sweden the woman's rights movement is closely connected with that of the United States. The founder of the Swedish woman's rights movement was Frederika Bremer, who in 1845 visited the United States, study- ing the conditions of the women there. Upon her return she encouraged the Swedish women through her novel Ilerlha to emancipate themselves. This took place in 1856. The government, being unable to disregard the free traditions of the past, was thoroughly I04 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT in favor of the demands of the woman's rights move- ment. As early as 1700, women owning property exercised the right of voting in the election of ministers. In 1843 this right had been extended to all women taxpayers. In 1845 the daughter's right of inheritance had been made equal to that of the son's. In 1853 was begun the custom of appointing women teachers in the small rural schools; in 1859 women were admitted as teachers in all public institutions of learning. Since 1 86 1 women have been eligible as dentists, regimental surgeons, and organists (but not as preachers). In 1862 every unmarried woman or widow over twenty- one years of age, and paying a tax of 500 crowns (about $135), was granted active suffrage in municipal affairs. The municipal electors, inasmuch as they elect the members of the Landsthing (county council) and the members of the town councils, exercise a poHtical influ- ence, for the members of the Landsthing and the town councils elect the members of the two Chambers of the Riksdag, the national legislative body. On February 10, 1909, all taxpaying women (unmarried, widowed, and married) were granted the passive suffrage (except for the ofl&ce of county councillor). Here is a curious fact, — married women that do not possess the right to vote in municipal affairs can still hold oflBce ! In 1866 the art academies were opened to women, in 1870, the universities; later women were permitted to THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES I05 enter the postal and telegraph service. In peculiar contrast to these reforms are the old regulations con- cerning the guardianship of women/ which has been especially supported by the nobility and conservatives, and has been used chiefly to maintain the subordina- tion of married women. Against this condition the "Association to Advocate the Right of Married Women to Possess Property" has struggled since 1873. It secured, in 1,874, the right of women to make a marriage contract providing for the separation of property.^ This association now undertook the political education of the women voters in mimicipal elections; hitherto they had made Uttle use of their right to vote (in 1887, of 62,362 women having the right to vote only 4844 voted). Thanks to the propaganda of this association, participation in elections is to-day quite general. The introduction of coeducation in the secondary schools is also due to the activity of this association, supported by Professor Wallis, who had investigated coeducation in the United States. But in the field of secondary education there is still much to be done for Swedish women, — their salaries as teachers are lower than those of men; in * Woman never reaches her majority ; she must always have a male representative. ' The husband still remains the guardian of the wife. To-day the wife controls her personal earnings, but merely as long as they are in cash ; whatever she buys with them falls into the control of the husband. lo6 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT matters of advancement and pensions women are dis- criminated against, though they are expected to possess professional training and ability equal to that of the men. In 1889 the Baroness of Adlersparre succeeded, through untiring propaganda, in securing for women admission to school and poor-law administration. To the baroness is due also the revival of needlework as an appUed art, as well as the revival of agricultural in- struction for women. All of these ideas she had ex- pressed since 1859 in her magazine For the Home (Furs Heim). Since 1884 the center of the Swedish woman's rights movement has been the "Frederika Bremer League," founded by the Baroness of Adlersparre. This is a sort of "Woman's Institute," and undertakes inquiries, collects data, secures employment, organizes members of trades and professions, fixes minimum wages, organ- izes petitions, gives advice, offers leadership, gives stipends; in short, in various ways it centralizes the Swedish women's rights movement. In 1896 the "Association to Advocate the Right of Married Women to Possess Property" aifihated with the "Frederika Bremer League." The following are the facts concerning the work of educated women in Sweden: The number of elementary school teachers is about double that of the men (in THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 107 1899 there were 9950 women as compared with 5322 men). The salaries of the women are everywhere lower than those of the men. In 1908 there were 12,000 women teachers in the elementary schools, their annual salary being 1400 crowns ($375) or more. There are 35 women doctors in Sweden, most of whom practice in Stockholm. The Swedish midwives are well trained. Nursing is a respected calling for edu- cated women ; also kinesiatrics (hygienic gjonnastics), the latter being lucrative as well. The first woman Doctor of Philosophy was Ellen Fries, who received the degree in 1883. Sonja Kowa- lewska was a professor in mathematics in the free Uni- versity of Stockholm. Ellen Key is also a teacher, her field being sociology. In Sweden there are two women university lecturers ; one in law, the other in physics. As yet there are no women lawyers and preachers. The legislative act of February, 1909, which secures for women their appoint- ment in all state institutions (educational, scientific, artistic, and industrial), will greatly improve woman's professional prospects. Sweden is not a land of large manufactories; hence there is no problem arising from the presence of large masses of industrial laborers. Since 1865 the wages of the agricultural laborers have risen 85 per cent for women and 65 per cent for men. There are 242,914 I08 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT women engaged in agriculture, 57,053 in industry, — 3400 of the latter being organized. There are 15,376 women employed in commerce; they are throughout paid lower wages than the men (400 to 1200 crowns, i.e. $107 to $321). The organization of the workingwomen is not con- nected with the woman's rights movement ; it is afl&l- iated with the workingmen's movement. In this field Ellen Key has been quite active as a national educator. She is a supporter of the laws for the protection of women laborers, and on this point she has frequently met opposition among the woman's rights advocates of Sweden (an opposition similar to that offered by the English Federation for Freedom of Labor Defense). In 1907 an exposition of home-work was held in Stock- holm, similar to the German expositions. The right to vote in national elections ^ in Sweden is exercised by landowners and taxpayers; however, only by men. Therefore there is a Swedish National Woman's Suffrage Society, which in recent years has grown very considerably, having over 10,000 members. In the autumn of 1906 a delegation from the society was received by the Prime Minister and the King, who, however, could hold out no promise of a government measure favoring woman's suffrage. The society then 1 See the Report of the Iiitemational»Woman's SuSrage Alliance Con- gress, Amsterdam, igo8. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES IO9 tried to influence the Pariiament with an enormous petition ha\ing 142,188 signatures. This petition was presented February 6, 1907. In 1906 and 1907 the Labor party and the Liberal party inserted woman's suffrage into their platforms and presented bills favoring the measure. Twice (in 1907 and 1908) Parliament rejected the clause providing for woman's suffrage. On February 13, 1909, the Swed- ish males were granted universal suffrage (active and passive) in national elections ; at the same time ParHa- ment tried to appease the women by granting them the passive suffrage in mimicipal elections. In the spring of 1909 the bill concerning woman's right to vote in na- tional elections (Staaf Bill) was accepted by the Con- stitutional Commission by a vote of 1 1 to 9 ; the Lower House also accepted it, but it was rejected by the Upper House. The political successes of the Norwegian women have a stimulating effect on Sweden. Prohibition has influential advocates in Sweden, and supporters in ParUament. At the request of the Swed- ish women's clubs, police matrons were appointed to cooperate with the police regulating prostitution in Stockholm, Helsingborg, Trelleborg, and Malmo. At the present time a commission is considering future plans for police regulation of prostitution in Sweden. In Sweden, where there are about half a million organ- 110 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT ized adherents to the cause of temperance, there are 77 daily papers that consistently print matter pertain- ing to temperance. Not only these 77 papers, most of whose editors are Good Templars, but at least 13 other dailies refuse all advertisements of alcoholic liquors.^ In Norway, where similar conditions pre- vail, there are a quarter of a million temperance advo- cates, and about 40 daily papers that favor the cause. FINLAND Total population : 2,712,562. Women: 1,370,480. Men: 1,342,082. No league of Finnish women's clubs. No woman's suffrage league. The discussion of the Finnish woman's rights move- ment will follow that of Sweden, for Finland was till 1809 politically a part of Sweden ; the cultural tie still exists. In Finland also, the woman's rights movement is of literary origin, — Adelaide Enrooth and Frederika Runeburg preached the gospel of woman's emancipa- tion to an intellectual elite. Through the influence of Bjornson, Ibsen, and Strindberg the discussion of the "social lie" (Gesellschaftsluge) became general. In 1 See the supplement, "Opposed to Alcoholism," in Otie People, One School, for April, igog. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES III the eighties of the last century, the ideas and criticisms were turned into deeds and reforms. Above all a thorough education for woman was demanded. Since 1883, coeducational schools have been established through private funds in all cities of the country. These institutions have received state aid since 1891. They are secondary schools, having the curriculums of German Realschulen and Gymnasiums.^ Not only is the student body composed of boys and girls, but the direction and instruction in these schools are divided equally between women and men; thereby the pre- dominance of the men is counteracted. Even before the establishment of these schools women had privately prepared themselves for the Abiturientenexamen (ex- aminations taken when leaving the secondary schools), and had entered the University of Helsingfors. In 1870 the first woman entered the University ; in 1873 the second; in 1885 two more followed. To-day, 478 women are registered in Helsingfors. Most of these women are devoting themselves to the teaching pro- fession, which is more favorable to women in Finland than in Sweden. The first woman doctor, Rosina Hickel, has been practicing in Helsingfors since 1879- The number of women doctors has since risen to 20. * ARealschule teaches no classics, but is a scientific school emphasizing manual training. A Gymnasium prepares for the university, making the classics an essential part of the curriculum. [Tr.] 112 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT In Finland any reputable person can plead before the court; but there are no professional women law- yers and no women preachers. However, there are women architects and women factory inspectors. Since 1864, women have been employed in the postal service; since 1869, in the telegraph service and in the railway offices. Here they draw the same salary as the men, when acting in the same capacity. Commercial callings have been opened to women, and there is a de- mand for women as office clerks. The statistical yearbook for Finland does not give separate statistics concerning workingwomen. The total number of laborers in 1906 was 113,578. Per- haps one tenth of these were women, — engaged chiefly in the textile and paper industries, and in the manu- facture of provisions and ready-made clothing. There are few married women engaged in industrial work. Women are admitted to membership in the trade- unions. In a monograph on women engaged in the ready-made clothing industry ^ are found the following facts (estab- lished by official investigation of 621 establishments employing 3205 women laborers) : 97.7 per cent of the women were immarried, and 2.3 per cent married; the minimimi wages were 10 cents a day ; the maximum, $1.50 ; the women laborers living with their parents or 1 By Vera Hillt, Statistics of Labor, VI, Helsingfors, 1908. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES II3 relatives numbered 1358; the sanitary conditions were bad. Home industry in Finland (as well as in Sweden and Norway) has recently shown a striking growth. It was on the point of succumbing to the cheap factory prod- ucts. In order to perpetuate the industry, schools for housewives were established in connection with the public high schools in the rural districts. In these schools were taught, in addition to domestic science and agriculture, various domestic handicrafts that oflfered the women a pleasant and useful activity during the long winters. Not being carried on intensively, these handicrafts could never lead to exploitation and over- work. In 1864 the guardianship of men over unmarried women was abolished. Married women are still under the guardianship of their husbands. Since 1889, the wife has been able to secure a separation of property by means of a contract. She has control of her earnings when joint property holding prevails. The unmarried women taxpayers and landowners have been voters in municipal elections since 1865. In the rural districts they have also had the right to hold local administra- tive offices. Just as in Sweden, they have the right to participate in the election of ministers ; and since 1891 and 1893 they have had active and passive suffrage in regard to school boards and poor-law administration. 114 THE MODERN WOMAN S EIGHTS MOVEMENT Taking advantage of the collapse of Russia in the Far East, Finland — in May, 1906 — established uni- versal active and passive suffrage for all male and fe- male citizens over twenty-four years of age. She was the first European country to take this step. On IVIarch 15, 1907, the Finnish women exercised for the first time the right of suffrage in state elections. Nine- teen women were elected to the Parliament (comprising 200 representatives). The women belonged to all par- ties, but most of them were adherents of the Old-Fin- nish party (having 6 representatives) and of the So- cialist party (having 9 representatives). Ten of the women representatives were either married or were widows. They belonged quite as much to the cultured, property-owning class as to the masses. This ParUa- ment was dissolved in April, 1908. In the new elec- tions of July, 25 women were elected as representatives. Here again most of the elected women belonged to the Old-Finnish party (with 6 representatives) and to the Socialists (with 13 representatives). Nine of the women representatives are married. Of the husbands of these women one is a doctor, one a clergyman, one a working- man, two are farmers, etc. Of the unmarried women representatives six are teachers, two are tailors, two are editors of women's newspapers, four are traveling lecturers, one is a factory inspector, and there is one Doctor of Philosophy. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES I15 In both parliaments the women presented numerous measures, some of general concern, others bearing on woman's rights.^ Some of the measures provided for : the improvement of the legal status of illicit children, parental authority, the protection of maternity, the aboUtion of the husband's guardianship over the wife, the better protection of children, the protection of the woman on the street, the aboUtion of the regulation of prostitution, and the raising of the age of consent. This list of measures indicates that the Finnish laws regulating marriage are still antiquated, and that the poHtical emancipation of woman did not immediately effect her release from legal bondage. One of the Fin- nish woman's advocates said, "Our short experience has taught us that we may still have a hard fight for equal rights." Not only the antiquated marriage laws are incon- sistent with the national political rights of women ; in the municipal election laws, too, woman is treated un- justly. Married women do not exercise the right of suffrage, and widows and unmarried women possess the passive suffrage only in the election of poor-law administrators and school boards. Two woman's suffrage organizations — Unionen and Finsk Kvinno- * See the complete list of measures in Jus SuJJragi, September 15, 1908. This is the organ of the International Woman's Suffrage Alli- ance. Il6 THE MODERN WOMAN* S RIGHTS MOVEMENT forening — have existed since 1906 ; they have no party aMiations. Two new woman's suffrage societies — Swenska Kinnoforbundet and Naillutto (Young-Fin- nish) — are party organizations. The bill concerning the abolition of the official regu- lation of prostitution has meanwhile become law, re- placing the former unsatisfactory, and for Finland, ex- ceptional law. The law corresponding to the English Vagrancy Act (supplement to paragraph 45 of the Fin- nish Civil Code) provides that " whoever accosts a wo- man in public places for immoral purposes shall pay a fine of $50." On October 31, 1907, the manufacture, importation, sale, or storing of alcoholic liquors in any form what- ever was prohibited by law. In recent years the Finnish woman temperance lecturer, Trigg Helenius, has carried on a successful international propaganda. External and internal difficulties have to the pres- ent made impossible the formation of Finnish women's clubs and a federation of the women voters. NORWAY Total population : 2,240,860. Women: 1,155,169. Men: 1,085,691. League of Norwegian Women's Clubs. Woman's Suffrage Association. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES II7 In recent years the Norwegian woman's rights movement has made marked progress. Just as in the other Scandinavian countries, women were freed as early as the middle of the nineteenth century from the most burdensome legal restrictions by a liberal major- ity in Parliament. In 1854 the daughters were given the same right of inheritance as the sons, and male guardianship for unmarried women was abolished. However, the real woman's rights movement, like that of Sweden and Finland, began in the eighties of the last century. Aasta Hansteen, Clara Collett, Bjornson, and Ibsen had prepared public opinion for the emanci- pation of women. Like Frederika Bremer, Aasta Hansteen had emigrated to America owing to the prejudices of her countrymen; and, again like Fred- erika Bremer, she returned to her native land and could rejoice over the progress of the movement which she had instigated. In 1884 the Norwegian Woman's League was founded. It has since 1886 published a semimonthly woman's suffrage magazine, Nylaende. In 1887 the Norwegian woman's rights movement won the same victory that Mrs. Butler had won in England in 1886 : the official regulation of pros- titution was abolished (neither in Sweden nor in Den- mark has a similar reform been secured thus far). A? early as 1882 several university faculties had admitted women, and in 1884 women were given the legal right Il8 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT to secure an academic training, and they were declared eligible to receive all scholarships and all academic degrees. In 1904 a law was enacted admitting women to a number of public offices. Paragraph 12 of the Constitution excludes them from the office of minister in the Cabinet; they are excluded from consulships on international grounds, from miUtary offices by the nature of the offices, and from the theological field through the backwardness of the Norwegian clergy. But they were admitted to the teaching and legal professions, and to some of the administrative depart- ments of the government. The law made no dis- crimination between married and unmarried women. It is believed that the women can decide best for themselves whether or not they can combine the work of an administrative office with their domestic duties. Hitherto the teaching profession had presented difficulties for women. Fewer women than men were appointed; the women were given the subordinate positions and paid lower salaries. The women had energetically protested against these conditions since the passing of the law of 1904; in 1908 they succeeded in having the magistrate of Christiania raise the ini- tial salary of women teachers in the elementary schools from 900 crowns ($241) to iioo crowns ($295), and the maximum salary from 1500 crowns ($402) to 1700 THE GERAIANIC COUNTRIES II9 crowns ($455). In Christiania the women also de- manded that women teachers be given the position of head master; there were many women in the pro- fession, — 2900 in the elementary schools, and 736 in the secondary schools. The women shop assistants' trade-union in an open meeting in Christiania has demanded equal pay for equal work. By a law passed in May, 1908, women employees in the postal service were given the same pay as the men employees. As a result of this the women tele- graph operators, supported by the Norwegian Woman's Suffrage Association, drew up a petition requesting the same concession as was made the women postal employees, and presented the petition to the govern- ment and the Storthing. This movement favoring an increase of wages was strongly supported by the woman's suffrage movement. The women taxpayers (including married women) have possessed active and passive suffrage in munici- pal affairs since 1901. The property qualification re- quires that a tax of 300 crowns ($80) must be paid in the rural districts, and 400 crowns ($107) in cities. In 1902 women exercised the suffrage in municipal affairs for the first time ; in Christiania 6 women were elected to municipal offices. The Norwegian League of Women's Clubs and the 120 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT woman's suffrage associations protested to the govern- ment and to the Parliament because suffrage in the national elections had been withheld from the women. The separation of Sweden and Norway (1906), which concerned the women greatly, but in which they could exercise no voice, was a striking proof of woman's powerlessness in civil affairs. Hence the Norwegian Woman's Suffrage League instituted a woman's ballot, in which 19,000 votes were cast in favor of separation, none being cast against it. In 1907 six election bills favorable to woman's suf- frage were presented to the Storthing ; and June 10, 1907, women taxpayers were granted active and passive suffrage in municipal elections (affecting about 300,000 women; 200,000 are still not enfranchised). This right of suffrage is accorded to married women. The next general elections will take place in 1909. Since the Norwegian men have active and passive suffrage in parliamentary elections, the women also made their demands to the Storthing. The Ministry resolved, in pursuance of this demand, to present the Storthing with the requisite constitutional amend- ment (Article 52). The Storthing requested that before the next municipal elections (1910) the Min- istry present a satisfactory bill providing for woman's suffrage in municipal elections. At the present time 142 women are city coimcilors (122 in the cities). THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 121 In the autumn of 1909 women will for the first time participate in the parliamentary elections. At two congresses of the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance (Amsterdam, in 1908 ; and London, in 1909), Norway was officially represented by the wife of the Minister of State, Qvam. The emancipation of women legally and in the pro- fessions had preceded their political emancipation, Norwegian women first practiced as dentists in 1872 ; since 1884, women have been druggists and have prac- ticed medicine. They practice in all large cities. There are 38 women engaged as physicians for the courts, as school physicians, as university assistants in museums and laboratories, and as sanitary officers. Since 1904 there have been two women lawyers. Cand. jur. EUsa Sam was the first woman to profit by this reform. The first woman university professor was Mrs. Matilda Schjott in Christiania; to-day there are three such professors. There are 37 women ar- chitects. In 1888 married women were given the right to make marriage contracts providing for separate property holding. Even where there is joint property holding, the wife controls her earnings. In Norway the law protects the illegitimate mother and her child better than elsewhere. The Norwegian law regards and punishes as accomplices in infanticide all those that drive a woman to such a step, — the 122 THE MODERN WOMAN* S RIGHTS MOVEMENT illicit father, the parents, the guardians, and employers, who desert a woman in such circumstances and put her out into the street. Since 1891, women have been eligible to hold office as poor-law administrators; since 1899 they can be members of school boards. The number of workingwomen is 67,000. Of these 2000 are organized. DENMARK Total population ; 2,588,919. Women: 1,331,154. Men: 1,257,765. Federation of Danish Women's Clubs. Woman's Suffrage League. The origin of the woman's rights movement in Den- mark is also literary, — to Frederika Bremer in Sweden, Aasta Hansteen and Clara CoUett in Norway, must be added as emancipators, Mathilda Fibiger and Pauline Worm in Denmark. The writings of both of these women in favor of emancipation, — "Clara Raphael's Letters" and "Sensible People," — date back as far as 1848 ; they were inspired by the liberal ideas prevailing in Germany previous to the "March Revolution." An organized woman's rights move- ment did not come into being until twenty-five years later. A liberal parliamentary majority in Denmark abolished, in 1857, male guardianship over unmarried THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 1 23 women; and in 1859 established the equal inheritance rights of daughters, thus following the example of Sweden and Norway. It was necessary first to secure the support of public opinion through a literary dis- cussion of woman's rights. This was carried on be- tween 1868 and 1880 by Georg Brandes, who trans- lated John Stuart Mill's The Subjection oj Women, and by Bjornson and Ibsen. In 187 1 Representative Bajer and his wife organized the first woman's rights society, the "Danish Woman's Club," which rapidly spread throughout Denmark. At first the Club en- deavored to secure a more thorough education for women, and therefore labored for the improvement of the girls' high schools, and for the institution of co- educational schools. In 1876 it secured the admission of women to the University of Copenhagen. In the teaching profession women are employed in greater numbers, and are better paid than in Sweden at the present time. There are 3003 women elemen- tary school teachers and 2240 women teachers in the high schools. As yet there are no women lecturers or professors in the university.^ Since i860, women have filled subordinate positions in the postal and tele- graph services, and since 1889 they have also filled the higher positions ; there are in all 1500 women employees. • In 1904 women were declared eligible by an official ordinance to hold university ofEces. 124 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT The subordinate positions in the national and local administrations are to a certain extent open to them. The number of women engaged in industrial pursuits is 47,617; the number of domestic servants, 89,000. The domestic servants are organized only to a limited extent (800 being organized). The women in the in- dustries are better organized, — chiefly in the same trade-unions as the men. In 1899 the women com- prised one fifth of the total number of organized la- borers ; since then this proportion has increased con- siderably. The average wages of the women domestic servants are 20 crowns ($5.36) a month ; the average wages of the workingwomen are from 2 to 2.5 crowns (53 to 67 cents) a day. Since 1880 the wife can secure separate property holding rights through a marriage contract. Where joint property holding prevails, the wife controls her own earnings and savings. In 1888 municipal suffrage was demanded by the ''Danish Woman's Club," but the Rigsdag rejected the measure. Since then the ques- tion has occupied much attention. In 1906 the Con- gress of the Woman's International Suffrage Alliance performed excellent propaganda work. New woman's suffrage societies were organized, and the older societies were enlarged.^ In the meantime the bill concerning ' It might be well to mention Dansk Knndesamfund, Politisk Kvinde- forening, Landsforhund, V algrelsforeningen af iqo8 (a Christian associa- tion of men and women). THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 1 25 municipal suffrage was being sent from one House to the other. Finally, on February 26, 1908, it was adopted by the Upper House, on April 14 by the Lower House, and on April 20 signed by the King. All tax- payers, twenty-five years of age, were permitted to vote. All classes of women — widows, unmarried, and married women — were enfranchised. They have active and passive suffrage. In March, 1909, they exercised both rights for the first time. The partici- pation in the election was general ; six women were elected in Copenhagen. The women are now demand- ing the suffrage in national affairs. Immediately after the victory of 1908 the Woman's Suffrage League or- ganized strong demonstrations in forty cities in favor of this demand. Here it must be mentioned that the women in Ice- land were granted, in the autumn of 1907, active and passive suffrage in municipal affairs. In January, 1908, they participated in the elections for the first time. In Reikiavik, the capital, 2850 people voted, 1220 of whom were women. Four women were elected to the city council, one polling the highest number of votes. In 1909, the Icelandic Woman's Suffrage League joined the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance. A num- ber of Icelandic woman's suffrage societies in Canada have affiliated with the Canadian Woman's Suffrage League. 126 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT On March 30, 1906, official regulation of prostitution was abolished in Denmark ; but a new law of similar character was enacted providing for stringent measures. THE NETHERLANDS Total population : 5,673,237. Women: 2,583,535. Men: 2,520,602. Federation of the Netherlands Women's Clubs. ^ Woman's Suffrage League. Although women are in a numerical superiority 'in the Netherlands, it is much less difficult for them to find non-domestic employment than it is for the German women, for instance. The Netherlands has large colonies and therefore a good market for its male workers. The educated Dutchman is kindly disposed toward the woman's rights movement, and in the educated circles the wife really enjoys rights equal to those of the husband, which is less frequently the case among the lower classes. The marriage laws are based on the Code Napoleon, which, however, was consider- ably altered in 1838. The guardianship of the husband over the wife still prevails. According to paragraph 160 of the Civil Code the husband controls the personal property that the wife acquires; but he administers her real estate only with the wife's consent. Accord- THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 1 27 ing to paragraph 163 of the Civil Code the wife cannot give away, sell, mortgage, or acquire anything inde- pendently. She can do those things only with her hus- band's written consent. No marriage contract can annul this requirement ; but the wife can stipulate the independent control of her income. According to paragraph 1637 of the Civil Code the wife is permitted to control for the benefit of the family the money that she earns while fulfilling a labor contract. AffiUation cases, it is true, are recognized by law, but under considerable restrictions. The first sign of the woman's rights movement mani- fested itself in the Netherlands in 1846. At that time a woman appeared in public for the first time as a speaker. She was the Countess Mahrenholtz-Biilow, who introduced kindergartens (Frdbelsystem) into the Netherlands. In 1857 elementary education was made compul- sory in the Netherlands. At that time this instruc- tion was free, undenominational, and under the con- trol of the state ; but in 1889 it was partly given over into denominational and private hands. The secondary s'-hools for girls are partly municipal, partly private. Most of the elementary schools are coeducational ; in the secondary schools the sexes are segregated ; in the higher institutions of learning coeducation prevails, the right of girls to attend being granted as a matter 128 THE MODERN WOMAN 's RIGHTS MOVEMENT of course. Girls were admitted to the high schools also without any opposition. These measures were due to Minister Thorbecke. Thirty years ago the first woman registered at the University of Ley den. Women study and are granted degrees in all departments of the universities of Leyden, Utrecht, Groningen, and Am- sterdam. In the elementary, secondary, and higher institutions of learning, there are fewer women teachers than men, and the salary of the women teachers is lower. Women are now being appointed as science teachers in boys' schools also. The government is planning measures opposed to having married women as teachers and as employees in the postal service. The women's clubs are vigorously protesting against this. Women serve as examination commissioners and as members of school boards, though in small numbers. The city school boards rely almost entirely upon women for supervising the instruction in needle- work. Since 1904 two women were appointed as state school inspectors, with salaries only sufficient for maintenance. In the Netherlands there are 20 women doctors (31 including those in the colonies), 57 women drug- gists, 5 women lawyers, and one woman lecturer in the University of Groningen. There are three women preachers in the Liberal "League of Protestants." Since 1899 4 women have been factory inspectors; THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 1 29 2, prison superintendents ; 2, superintendents of rural schools. Thirty-four are in the courts for the pro- tection of wards. Women participate in the care of the poor and the care of dependent children. The care of dependent children is in the hands of a national society, Pro juveniute, which aided in securing juvenile courts in the Netherlands. Especially useful in the education and support of workingwomen has been the Tessel Benefit Society (Tessel Schadeverein), which is national in its organization. It will be well to state here that the appointment of women factory inspectors was secured in a rather original manner. In 1898 a national exhibition of commodities produced by women was held in the Hague. In a conspicuous place the women placed an empty picture frame with this inscription: "The Women Inspectors of all These Commodities Pro- duced by Women." This hastened results. The shop assistants of both sexes organized them- selves conjointly in Amsterdam in 1898. There are two organizations of domestic servants. The Dutch woman's rights advocates proved by investigation that for the same work the workingwomen — because they were women — were paid 50 per cent less than men. The "Workingwomen's Information Bureau," which was made into a permanent institution as a result of the exhibition of 1898, has been concerning itself with 130 THE MODERN WOMAN' S RIGHTS MOVEMENT the protection of workingwomen and with their organization. The women organizers belong to the middle class. The SociaHst party in the Netherlands has been organizing workingwomen into trade-unions. In this the party has encountered the same difficulties as exist elsewhere; to the present time it can point only to small successes. Two of the Socialist woman's rights advocates are Henrietta Roland and Roosje Vos. Henrietta Roland is of middle-class parentage, being the daughter of a lawyer; she is the wife of an artist of repute. Roosje Vos, on the contrary, comes from the lower classes. Both of these women played an important part in the strike of 1903. They organized the "United Garment Workers' Union." In spite of the fact that a woman can be ruler of the Netherlands, the Dutch women possess only an insignificant right of suffrage. In the dike associa- tions they have a right to vote if they are taxpayers or own property adjoining the dikes. In June, 1908, the Lutheran Synod gave women the same right to vote in church affairs as the men possess. The Evangelical Synod, on the other hand, rejected a similar measure as well as one providing for the ordaining of women preachers. An attempt to secure municipal suffrage for women failed, and resulted in the enactment of reactionary laws. In 1883 Dr. Aletta Jacobs (the first woman doctor THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 131 in the Netherlands), acting on the advice of the well- known jurist — and later Minister — van Houten, requested an Amsterdam magistrate to enter her name on the Hst of municipal electors. As a tax- payer she was entitled to this right. At the same time she requested Parliament to grant her the suffrage in national elections. Both requests were surmnarily refused. In order to make such requests impossible in the future, parUament inserted the word "male" in the election law.^ These occurrences aroused in the Dutch women an interest in political affairs; and in 1894 they organized a "Woman's Suffrage Society," which soon spread to all parts of the country. The Liberals, Radicals, Liberal Democrats, and Socialists admitted women members to their political clubs and frequently consulted the women concerning the selec- tion of candidates. The clubs of the Conservative and Clerical parties have refused to admit women. At the general meeting in 1906 a part of the members of the "Woman's Suffrage Society" separated from the organization and formed the "Woman's Suffrage League" (the Bond voor Vrouwenkiesrecht, — the older organization was called Vereeniging voor Vrouen- kiesrecht). Both carry on an energetic propaganda in the entire country, the older organization being the more radical. In 1908 the older organization made 1 Compare similar proceedings in the United States and England. 132 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT all necessary preparations for the Amsterdam Con- gress of the Woman's Suffrage AlHance, which resulted in a large increase in its membership (from 3500 to 6000), and resulted, furthermore, in the founding of a Men's League for Woman's Suffrage (modeled after the English organization). The question of woman's suffrage has aroused a Uvely interest throughout the Netherlands ; even the Bond increased its membership during the winter of 1908 and 1909 from 1500 to 3500. In September, 1908, there were two great demon- strations in the Hague in favor of universal suffrage for both men and women. The right to vote in Hol- land is based on the payment of a property tax or ground rent; therefore numerous proposals in favor of widening the suffrage had been made previously. When a liberal ministry came into power in 1905, it imdertook a reform of the suffrage laws; in 1907 the Committee on the Constitution, by a vote of six out of seven, recommended that ParHament grant active and passive suffrage to men and women. But ^vith the fall of the Liberal ministry fell the hope of having this measure enacted, for there is nothing to be ex- pected from the present government, composed of Catholic and Protestant Conservatives. As has already been stated, propaganda is in the meantime being carried on with increasing vigor, and in Java a woman's suffrage society has also been organized. A noted THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES I33 jurist, who is a member of the Dutch Bond voor Vrou- wenkiesrecht, has just issued a pamphlet in which he proves the necessity of granting woman's suffrage: "Man makes the laws. Wherever the interests of the immarried or the married woman are in conflict with the interests of man, the rights of the woman will be set aside. This is injurious to man, woman, and child, and it blocks progress. The remedy is to be found only in woman's suffrage. The granting of woman's suffrage is an urgent demand of justice." SWITZERLAJID ^ Total population : 3,313,817. Women: about 1,700,000. Men: about 1,616,000. Federation of Swiss Women's Cubs. Woman's Suffrage League. Switzerland's existence and welfare depend on the harmony of the German, the French, and the Italian elements of the population. Switzerland is accustomed to considering three racial elements; out of three different demands it produces^ one acceptable com- promise. Naturally the Swiss woman's rights move- ment has steadily developed in the most peaceful ' Since Switzerland contains a preponderance of the Germanic eleiaent, it will be considered with the Germanic countries. 134 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT manner. No literary manifesto, no declaration of principles of freedom is at the root of this movement. It is supported by pubUc opinion, which is gradually being educated to the level of the demands of the movement. The woman's rights movement began in Switzerland as late as 1880 ; in 1885 the Swiss woman's club movement was started. The Federation of Women's Clubs is made up of cantonal women's clubs in Zurich, Berne, Geneva, St. Gallen, Basel, Lausanne, Neuchatel, and in other cities, as well as of inter- cantonal clubs, such as the "Swiss Public Utility Woman's Club" (Schweizer Gemeinniitziger Verein), "la Fraternite," the " Intercan tonal Committee of Federated Women," etc. Recently a CathoUc woman's league was formed. Since 50 per cent of the Swiss women remain unmarried, the woman's rights move- ment is a social necessity. In the field of education the authorities have been favorable to women in every way. In nine cantons the elementary schools are coeducational. There are pubHc institutions for higher learning for girls in all cities. In German Switzerland (Zurich, Winterthur, St. Gallen, Berne) girls are ad- mitted to the higher institutions of learning for boys, or they can prepare themselves in the girls' schools for the examination required for entrance to the uni- versities (Maiura). There are 18 seminaries that admit girls only; the seminaries in Kiissnacht, Rors- THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 135 chach, and Croie are coeducational. Women teachers are not appointed in the elementary schools of the cantons of Glarus and Appenzell-Outer-Rhodes. On the other hand in the cantons of Geneva, Neuchatel, and Ticino 59 to 66 per cent of the teachers in the ele- mentary schools are women. They are given lower salaries than the men. The canton of Zurich pays (by law) equal wages to its men and women teachers, but the additional salary paid by the municipaUties and rural districts to the men teachers is greater than that paid to the women. In its elementary schools the canton of Vaud employs 500 women teachers, some of whom are married. The Swiss universities have been open to women since the early sixties of the nineteenth century. As in France, the native women use this right far less than foreign women, especially Russians and Germans. The total number of women studying in the Swiss universities is about 700. Most of the Swiss women that have studied in the imiversi- ties enter the teaching profession. Women are fre- quently employed as teachers in high schools, as clerks, and as librarians. Sometimes these posirions are filled by foreign women. The first woman lecturer in a university in which German is the language used has been employed in Berne since 1898. She is Dr. Anna Tumarkin, a native Russian, having the right to teach in universi- 136 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT ties aesthetics and the history of modern philosophy. In 1909 she was appointed professor. In each of the universities of Zurich, Berne, and Geneva, a woman has been appointed as university lecturer. Women doctors practice in all of the larger cities. There are twelve in Zurich. The city council of Zurich has decided to furnish free assistance to women during confinement, and to establish a municipal maternity hospital. In Zurich there has been established for women a hospital entirely under the control of women ; the chief physician is Frau Dr. Heim. The practice of law has been open to women in the canton of Zurich since 1899, and in the canton of Geneva since 1904. Miss Anna Mackenroth, Dr. jur., a native German, was the first Swiss woman lawyer. Miss Nelly Favre was the second. Miss Dr. Briistlein was refused admission to the bar in Berne. Miss Favre was the first woman to plead before the Federal Court in Berne, the capital. As yet there are no women preachers in Switzerland. In Lausanne there is a woman engineer. In the field of technical schools for Swiss women, much remains to be done. The com- mercial education of women is also neglected by the state, while the professional training of men is every- where promoted. Women are employed in the postal and telegraph service. The Swiss hotel system ofiFers remunerative positions and thoroughly respectable THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES I37 callings to women of good family. In 1900 the num- ber of women laborers was 233,912; they are engaged chiefly in the textile and ready-made clothing indus- tries, in lacemaking, cabinetmaking, and the manu- facture of food products, pottery, perfumes, watches and clocks, jewelry, embroidery, and brushes.^ Owing to French influence, laws for the protection of women laborers are opposed, especially in Geneva. The in- spection of factories is largely in the hands of men. Home industry is a blessing in certain regions, a curse in others. This depends on the intensity of the work and on the degree of industrialism. The trade-union movement is still very weak among women laborers. According to the canton the movement has a purely economic or a sociaHst-political character. Only a few organizations of workingwomen belong to the Swiss Federation of Women's Clubs. Since 1891 the men's trade-imions have admitted women. The first women factory inspectors were appointed in 1908. According to the census of August 9, 1905, 92,136 persons in Switzerland are engaged in home industry; this num- ber is 28.3 per cent of the total number of persons (325,022) engaged in these industries. The foremost ' In Geneva and Lausanne the men exerted every effort to exclude women from the typographical trade. The prohibition of night work made this easy. The same result will follow in the railroad and postal service. Therefore in the Swiss woman's rights movement there are some that are opposed to laws for the protection of women laborers. 138 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT of the home industries is the manufacture of em- broidery, engaging a total of 65,595 persons, of whom 53.5 per cent work at home. The next important home industries are silk-cloth weaving, engaging 12,478 persons (41 per cent of the total employed) ; watch making, engaging 12,071 persons in home industry (or 23.7 per cent of the total) ; silk-ribbon weaving, en- gaging 7557 persons (or 51.9 per cent of the total). The highest percentage of home workers is found among the straw plaiters (78.8 per cent) ; then follow the military uniform tailors (60.1 per cent), the em- broidery makers (53.5 per cent), the wood carvers and ivory carvers (52 per cent), the silk-ribbon weavers (51.9 per cent), and the ready-made clothing workers (49.3 per cent). The International Association for Labor Legislation, as everybody knows, is trying to ascertain whether an international regulation of labor conditions is possible in the embroidery-making indus- try. The statistics just given indicate the importance of this investigation for Switzerland. The statistics of the home industries of Switzerland will be found in the ninth issue of the second volume of the Swiss Statistical Review {Zeitschrijt jUr Schweizerische Statis- tik). The new Swiss law for the protection of women laborers has produced a number of genuine improve- ments for the workingwomen. A maximimi work- THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 139 ing day of 10 hours and a working week of 60 hours have been established. Women can work overtime not more than 60 days a year; they are then paid at least 25 per cent extra. The most significant innova- tion is the legal regulation of vacations. Every laborer that is not doing piecework or being paid by the hour must, after one year of continuous service for the same firm, be granted sLx consecutive days of vacation with full pay; after two years of continuous service for the same firm the laborer must be given eight days; after three years of service ten days; and after the fourth year twelve days annually. A violation of this law renders the offending employer liable to a fine of 200 to 300 francs ($40 to $60). In 191 2 a new civil code will come into force. Its composition has been influenced by the German Civil Code. The government, however, regarded the "Swiss Federation of Women's Clubs" as the representative of the women, and charged a member of the code conmiission to put himself into communication with the executive committee of the Federation and to express the wishes of the Federation at the dehbera- tions of the committee. This is better than nothing, but still insufficient. When the civil code had been adopted, every male elector was given a copy; the women's clubs secured copies only after prolonged effort. 140 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT The property laws in the new Swiss Civil Code provide for joint property holding, — not separation of property rights. However, even with joint property holding the wife's earnings and savings belong to her (a provision which the German cantons opposed). On the other hand, affiliation cases are admissible (the French cantons opposed them). The wife has the full status of a legal person before the law and full civil ability, and shares parental authority with the father. French Switzerland (through the influence of the Code Napoleon) opposes the pecuniary responsibility of the illegal father toward the mother and child. Official regulation of prostitution has been aboHshed in all the cantons except Geneva; several years ago a measure to introduce it again was rejected by the people of the Canton Zurich by a vote of 40,000 to 18,000. Geneva is the headquarters of the Inter- national Federation for the Abolition of the Ofiicial Regulation of Prostitution. In 1909 the abolition of the official regulation of prostitution was again de- manded in the city coimcil. By a vote of the people the Canton Vaud accepted a measure prohibiting the manufacture, storage, and sale of absinthe. Recently the Swiss women have presented a petition requesting that an illicit mother be granted the right to call herself "Frau" and use this designation (Mrs.) THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 141 before her name. The benevolent purpose of this movement is self-evident. Through this measure the illicit mother is placed in a position enabling her openly to devote herself to the rearing of her child. With this purpose in view, not less than 10,000 women have signed a petition to the Swiss Federal Council, request- ing that a law be enacted compelling registrars to use the title "Frau" (Mrs.) when requested to do so by the person concerned. Thirty-four women's clubs have collectively declared in favor of this petition. Women exercise the right of municipal suffrage only in those localities whose male population is absent at work during a large part of the year (as in Russia). Women can be elected as members of school boards and as poor-law administrators in the Canton Zurich; as members of school boards in the Canton Neuchatel. The question of granting women the right to vote in church affairs has long been advocated in the Canton Geneva by the Reverend Thomas Muller, a member of the Consistory of the National Protestant Church, and by Herr Locher, Chief of the Department of Public Instruction of the Canton Zurich. In the Canton Geneva, where there is sepa- ration of church and state, agitation in favor of the reform is being carried on. The women in the Canton Vaud have exercised the right to vote in the Eglisc litre since 1899, ^^^ '^^ the Eglise nationale since 1908. 142 THE MODERN WOMAN 'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT Since 1909, women have exercised the right to vote in the Eglise evangelique libre of Geneva. The woman's suffrage movement was really started by the renowned Professor Hilty, of Berne, who declared himself (in the Swiss Year Book of 1897) in favor of woman's suffrage. The first society concerning itself exclusively with woman's suffrage originated in Geneva {Associa- tion pour le suffrage feminin). Later other organiza- tions were formed in Lausanne, Chaux de Fonds, Neuenburg, and Olten. The Woman's Reading Circle of Berne had, since 1906, demanded political rights for women, and the Zurich Society for the Reform of Education for Girls had worked in favor of woman's suffrage. On May 12, 1908, these seven societies organized themselves into the National Woman's Suffrage League, and in June afl5Hated with the Inter- national Woman's Suffrage Alliance. The Report of the International Woman's Suffrage Congress, Amster- dam, 1908, explains in a very lucid manner the political backwardness of the Swiss women: Switzerland re- gards itself as the model democracy; time has been required to make it clear that politically the women of this model state still have everything to achieve. The meeting of the Committee of the International Council of Women in Geneva (September, 1908) accomplished much for the movement. The Swiss Woman's PubUc Utility Association, THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 1 43 which had refused to join the Swiss Federation of Women's Clubs because the Federation concerned itself with pohtical affairs (the Public Utility Associa- tion wishing to restrict itself to public utilities only), was given this instructive answer by Professor Hilty : " Public utility and poHtics are not mutually exclusive ; an educated woman that wishes to make a living with- out troubling herself about poUtics is incomprehensible to me. The women ought to take Carlyle's words to heart: 'We are not here to submit to everything, but also to oppose, carefully to watch, and to win.' " Germany Total population : 61,720,529. Women: 31,259,429. Men: 30,461,100. German Federation of Women's Clubs. Woman's Suffrage League. In no European country has the woman's rights movement been confronted with more unfavorable conditions; nowhere has it been more persistently opposed. In recent times the women of no other coun- try have lived through conditions of war such as the German women underwent during the Thirty Years' War and from 1807 to 181 2. Such violence leaves a deep imprint on the character of a nation. 144 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT Moreover, it has been the fate of no other civiUzed nation to owe its political existence to a war trium- phantly fought out in less than one generation. Every war, every accentuation and promotion of miUtarism is a weakening of the forces of civilization and of woman's influence. "German masculinity is still so young," I once heard somebody say. A reinforcement of the woman's rights movement by a large Liberal majority in the national assembUes, such as we find in England, France, and Italy, is not to be thought of in Germany. The theories of the rights of man and of citizens were never applied by German Liberalism to woman in a broad sense, and the Socialist party is not yet in the majority. The political training of the German man has in many respects not yet been extended to include the prin- ciples of the American Declaration of Independence or the French Declaration of the Rights of Man ; his respect for individual liberty has not yet been de- veloped as in England ; therefore he is much harder to -mn over to the cause of "woman's rights." Hence the struggle against the official regulation of prostitution has been left chiefly to the German women ; whereas in England and in France the physicians, lawyers, and members of Parhament have been the chief supporters of abolition. I am reminded also of the inexpressibly long and difficult struggle that we THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES I45 women had to carry on in order to secure the admis- sion of women to the universities; the establishment of high schools for girls ; and the improvement of the opportunities given to women teachers. In no other country were women teachers for girls wronged to such an extent as in Germany. The results of the last industrial census (1907) give to the demands of the woman's rights movement an invaluable support: Germany has nine and a half million married women, i.e. only one half of all adult women (over 18 years of age) are married. In Germany, too, marriage is not a Hfelong "means of support" for woman, or a "means of support" for the whole number of women. Therefore the demands of woman for a complete pro- fessional and industrial training and freedom to choose her caUing appear in the history of our time with a tremendous weight, a weight that the founders of the movement hardly anticipated. The German woman's rights movement originated during the troublous times immediately preceding the Revolution of 1848. The founders — Augusta Schmidt, Louise Otto-Peters, Henrietta Goldschmidt, Ottihe v. Steyber, Lina Morgenstern — were " f orty-eighters " ; they believed in the right of woman to an education, to work, and to choose her calling, and as a citizen to participate directly in public life. Only the first three of these demands are contained in the programme of 146 THE MODERN WOMAn'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT the "German General Woman's Club" (founded in 1865 by four of these women, natives of Leipzig, on the anniversary of the battle of Leipzig). At that time woman's right to vote was put aside as some- thing Utopian. The founders of the woman's rights movement, however, from the very first included in their programme the question of women industrial laborers, and attacked the question in a practical way by organizing a society^for the education of working- women. The energies of the middle-class women were at this time very naturally absorbed by their own afifairs. They suffered want, material as well as intel- lectual. Therefore it was a matter of securing a Hveh- hood for middle-class women no longer provided for at home. This was the first duty of a woman's rights movement originating with the middle class. Of special service in the field of education and the liberal professions ^ were the efforts of Augusta Schmidt, Henrietta Goldschmidt, Marie Loeper-Housselle, Helena Lang, Maria Lischnewska, and Mrs. Kettler. Kindergartens were established ; also courses for the instruction of adult women, for women principals of high schools, for women in the Gymnasiums and Real- gymnasiums. Moreover, the admission of women to the universities was secured ; the General Association 1 Industrial training was promoted chiefly by the " Lette-House," founded in Berlin in 1865 by President Lette and his vsdfe. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES I47 of German Women Teachers was founded, also the Prussian Association of Women Public School Teachers, and high schools for girls. The Prussian law of 1908 for the reform of girls' high schools (pro\dding for the education of girls over 1 2 years, — Realgymnasiums or Gymnasiums for girls from 12 to 16 years, women's colleges for women from 16 to 18 years) was enacted under pressure from the German woman's rights move- ment. Both the state and city must now do more for the education of girls. The academically trained women teachers in the high schools are given con- sideration when the appointments of principals and teachers for the advanced classes are made. The women teachers have organized themselves and are demanding salaries equal to those of the men teachers. At the present time girls are admitted to the boys' schools {Gymnasiums, Realgymnasiums, etc.) in Baden, Hessen, the Imperial Provinces of Alsace and Lor- raine, Oldenburg, and Wurttemberg. The German Federation of Women's Clubs and the convention of the delegates of the Rhenish cities and towns have made the same demands for Prussia. The Prussian Association of Women Public School Teachers is demanding that women teachers be ap- pointed as principals, and is resisting with all its power the threatened injustice to women in the ad- justment of salaries. The universities in Baden and 148 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT Wurttemberg were the first to admit women; then followed the universities in Hessen, Bavaria, Saxony, the Imperial Provinces, and finally, — in 1908, — Prussia. The number of women enrolled in Berlin University is 400. About 50 women doctors are practicing in Germany ; as yet there are no women preachers, but there are 5 women lawyers, one of whom in 1908 pleaded the case of an indicted youth before the Altona juvenile court. Although there are only a few women lawyers in Germany, women are now permitted to act as counsel for the defendant, there being 60 such women counselors in Bavaria. Recently (1908) even Bavaria refused women admission to the civil service. In the autumn there was appointed the first woman lecturer in a higher institution of learning, — this taking place in the Mannheim School of Commerce. Within the last five years many new callings have been opened to women : they are librarians (of municipal, club, and private libraries) and have organized them- selves into the Association of Women Librarians; they are assistants in laboratories, cUnics, and hospitals ; they make scientific drawings, and some have special- ized in microscopic drawing ; during the season for the manufacture of beet sugar, women are employed as chemists in the sugar factories; there is a woman architect in Berlin, and a woman engineer in Ham- THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 149 burg. Women factory inspectors have performed satisfactory service in all the states of the Empire. But the future field of work for the German women is the sociological field. State, municipal, and private aid is demanded by the prevaiUng destitution. At the present time women work in the sociological field without pay. In the future much of this work must be performed by the professional sociological women workers. In about 100 cities women are guardians of the poor. There are 103 women superintendents of orphan asylums ; women are sought by the authorities as guardians. Women's cooperation as members of school committees and deputations promotes the organ- ized woman's rights movement. The first woman in- spector of dwellings has been appointed in Hessen. Nurses are demanding that state examinations be made requisite for those wishing to become nurses; some cities of Germany have appointed women as nurses for infant children. In Hessen and Ostmark [the eastern part of Prussia], women are district ad- ministrators. There is an especially great demand for women to care for dependent children and to work in the juvenile courts; this will lead to the appoint- ment of paid probation ofiicers. In southern Ger- many, women police matrons are employed; in Prussia there are women doctors employed in the police courts. There are also women school physi- 150 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT cians. Since 1908, trained women have entered the midwives' profession. When the German General Woman's Club was formed in 1865, there was no German Empire; Berlin had not yet become the capital of the Empire. But since Berlin has become the seat of the Imperial Par- liament, Berlin very naturally has become the center of the woman's rights movement. This occurred through the establishment of the magazine Frauenwohl [Woman's Welfare] in 1888, by Mrs. Cauer. In this manner the younger and more radical woman's rights movement was begun. The women that organized the movement had interested themselves in the educa- tional field. The radicals now entered the sociological and poUtical fields. Women making radical demands allied themselves with Mrs. Cauer ; they befriended her, and cooperated with her. This is an undisputed fact, though some of these women later left Mrs. Cauer and 'alHed themselves with either the "Con- servatives" or the "SociaHsts." In the organization of trade-unions for women not ex- clusively of the middle class, Minna Cauer led the way. In 1889, with the aid of Mr. JuHus Meyer and Mr. Sil- berstein, she organized the " Commercial and Industrial Benevolent Society for Women Employees." The society has now 24,000 members. State insurance for private employees is now (1909) a question of the day. THE GEEMANIC COUNTRIES 151 Jeannette Schwerin founded the information bureau of the Ethical Culture Society, which furnished girls and women assistants for social work. At the same time Jeannette Schwerin demanded that women be permitted to act as poor-law guardians. The agitation in public meetings and legislative assemblies against the Civil Code was instituted by Dr. Anita Augsburg and Mrs. Stritt. The opposition to state regulation of prostitution was begun by the "radical" Hanna Bieber-Bohm and Anna Pappritz. Lily v. Gikycki was the first to speak publicly concerning the civic duty of women. The Woman's Suffrage Society was organized in 1901 by Mrs. Cauer, Dr. Augsburg, Miss Heymann, and Dr. Schirmacher. In 1894 the radical section of the "German Federa- tion of Women's Clubs" proposed that women's trade- unions be admitted to the Federation. This radical section had often given ofifense to the "Conservatives" — in the Federation, for instance — by the proposal of this measure; but the radicals in this way have stimulated the movement. As early as 1904 the Berhn Congress of the International Council of Women had shown that the Federation, being composed chiefly of conservative elements, should adopt in its programme all the demands of the radicals, including woman's suffrage. The differences between the Radi- 152 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT cals and the Conservatives are differences of personality rather than of principles. The radicals move to the time of allegro; the conservatives to the time of an- dante. In all public movements there is usually the same antagonism ; it occurred also in the English and the American woman's rights movements. In no other country (with the exception of Belgium and Hungary) is the schism between the woman's rights movement of the middle class and the woman's rights movement of the Socialists so marked as in Germany. At the International Woman's Congress of 1896 (which was held through the influence of Mrs. Lina Morgenstern and Mrs. Cauer) two Social Demo- crats, Lily Braun and Clara Zetkin, declared that they never would cooperate with the middle-class women. This attitude of the Social Democrats is the result of historical circumstances. The law against the German Socialists has increased their antagonism to the middle class. Nevertheless, this harsh statement by Lily Braun and Clara Zetkin was unnecessary. It has just been stated that the founders of the German woman's rights movement had included the demands of the workingwomen in their programme, and that the Radicals (by whom the congress of 1896 had been called, and who for years had been engaged in politics and in the organization of trade-unions) had in 1894 demanded the admission of women's labor organiza- THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 1 53 tions to the Federation of Women's Clubs. Hence an alignment of the two movements would have been exceedingly fortunate. However, a part of the Social- ists, laying stress on ultimate aims, regard "class hatred" as their chief means of agitation, and are therefore on principle opposed to any peaceful co- operation with the middle class. A part of the women Socialist leaders are devoting themselves to the organi- zation of workingwomen, — a task that is as difficult in Germany as elsewhere. Almost everywhere in Germany women laborers are paid less than men laborers. The average daily wage is 2 marks (50 cents), but there are many workingwomen that receive less. In the ready-made clothing industry there are weekly wages of 6 to 9 marks ($1.50 to $2.25). At the last congress of home workers, held at Berlin, further evidence of starvation in the home industries was educed. But for these wages the German woman's rights movement is not to be held responsible. In the social-political field the woman's rights ad- vocates hold many advanced views. Almost without exception they are advocating legislation for the pro- tection of the workingwomen; they have stimulated the organization of the "Home-workers' Association" in Berlin ; they urged the workingwomen to seek ad- mission to the Hirsch-Duncker Trades Unions (the German national association of trade-unions) ; they 154 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT have established a magazine for workingwomen, and have organized a league for the consideration of the interests of workingwomen. In 1907 Germany had 137,000 organized workingwomen and female domestic servants.^ Most of these belong to the socialistic trade-unions. The maximum workday for women is fixed at ten hours. The protection of maternity is promoted by the state as well as by women's clubs. Peculiar to Germany is the denominational schism in the woman's rights movement. The precedent for this was established by the "German Evangelical Woman's League," founded in 1899, with Paula Miiller, of Hanover, as President. The organization of the League was due to the feeling that "it is a sin to witness ^ith indifference how women that wish to know noth- ing of Biblical Christianity represent all the German women." The organization opposes equality of rights between man and woman ; but in 1908 it joined the Federation of Women's Clubs. In 1903 a "Catho- hc Woman's League" was formed, but it has not joined the Federation. There has also been formed a "So- ciety of Jewish Women." We representatives of the interdenominational woman's rights movement deplore this denominational disunion. These organizations are important because they make accessible groups of people that otherwise could not be reached by us. ' In Germany there are one million domestic servants. THE GERJkLA.NIC COUNTRIES 1 55 Another characteristic of the German woman's rights movement is its extensive and thorough organization. The smallest cities are to-day visited by women speak- ers. Our " unity of spirit," — praised so frequently, and now and then ridiculed, — is our chief power in the midst of specially difiScult conditions in which we must work. With tenacity and patience we have slowly overcome unusual difficulties, — to the present without any help worth mentioning from the men. In the Civil Code of 1900 the most important de- mands of the women were not given just consideration. To be sure, woman is legally competent, but the prop- erty laws make joint property holding legal (wives control their earnings and savings), and the mother has no parental authority. Relative to the impending revision of the criminal law, the women made their demands as early as 190S in a general meeting of the Federation of Women's Clubs, when a three days' discussion took place. Since 1897 the women have progressed considerably in their knowledge of law. The German women strongly advocate the estabUsh- ment of juvenile courts such as the United States are now introducing. The Federation also demands that women be permitted to act as magistrates, jurors, law- yers, and judges. In the struggle against official regulation of pros- titution the women were supported in the Prussian 156 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT Landtag by Deputy Miinsterberg, of Dantzig. Prus- sia established a more humane regulation of prostitu- tion, but as yet has not appointed the extraparlia- mentary commission for the study of the control of prostitution, a measure that was demanded by the women. The most significant recent event is the ad- mission of women to political organizations and meet- ings by the Imperial Law of May 15, 1908. Thereby the German women were admitted to political life. The Woman's Suffrage Society — founded in 1902, and in 1904 converted into a League — was able pre- vious to 1908 to expand only in the South German states (excluding Bavaria). By this Imperial Law the northern states of the Empire were opened, and a National Woman's Suffrage Society was formed in Prussia, in Bavaria, and in Mecklenburg. As early as 1906, after the dissolution of the Reichstag, the women took an active part in the campaign, a right granted them by the Vereinsrecht (Law of Association). In Prussia, Saxony, and Oldenburg the women worked for universal suffrage for women in Landtag elections. Since 1908 the political woman's rights movement has been of first importance in Germany. As the women taxpayers in a number of states can exercise municipal suffrage by proxy, and the women owners of large es- tates in Saxony and Prussia can exercise the suffrage in elections for the Diet of the Circle (Kreistag) by THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 1 57 proxy, an effort is being made to attract these women to the cause of woman's suffrage. In 1908 the Protestant women of the Imperial Prov- inces (Alsace and Lorraine) were granted the right to vote in church elections, a right that had been granted to the women of the German congregations in Paris as early as 1907.^ LUXEMBURG Total population : 246,455. Women: 120,235. Men: 126,220. No federation of women's clubs. No woman's suffrage league. The woman's rights movement in Luxemburg origi- nated in December, 1905, with the organization of the "Society for Women's Interests" {Verein fur Frauen- interessen), which has worked admirably. The so- ciety has 300 members, and is in good financial con- dition. Throughout the country it is now carrying on successful propaganda in the interest of higher edu- cation for girls and in the interest of women in the in- dustries. In Luxemburg, after girls have graduated from a convent, they have no further educational facil- 1 For information concerning the German woman's rights movement we recommend The Memorandum-book of the Woman's Rif^hls Movement {Das Merkbuch der Frauenbewegung), B. G. Teubner, Leipzig. 158 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT ities. The society has established a department for legal protection, and an employment agency; it has published an inquiry into the Living conditions in the capital. In the capital city there is a woman member of the poor-law commission ; ten women are guardians of the poor ; one woman is a school commissioner ; and there is a woman inspector of the municipal hospital. The society is well supported by the Uberal elements of the government and the public. Its chief object must be the establishment of a secular school that will prepare women for entrance to the universities. GERMAN AUSTRIA Total population : about 7,000,000. Women : about 3,750,000. Men: about 3,250,000. Federation of Austrian Women's Clubs. No woman's suffrage league. The Austrian woman's rights movement is based primarily on economic conditions. More than 50 per cent of the women in Austria are engaged in non- domestic callings. This percentage is a strong argu- ment against the theory that woman's sphere is merely domestic. Unfortunately this non-domestic service of the Austrian women is seldom very remunerative. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 1 59 Austria itself is a country of low wages. This condi- tion is due to a continuous influx of Slavic workers, to large agricultural provinces, to the tenacious survivals of feudalism, etc. Therefore women's wages and sal- aries are lower than in western Europe, and low living expenses do not prevail everywhere (Vienna is one of the most expensive cities to Hve in). The "Women's Industrial School Society," founded in 1851, attempted to raise the industrial abihty of the girls of the middle class. In accordance with the views of the time, needle- work was taught. Free schools for the instruction of adults were established in Vienna. The economic misery following the war of 1866 led to the organization of the "Woman's Industrial Society," which enlarged woman's sphere of activity as did the Lette-Society in Berlin. Since 1868 the woman's rights movement has secured adherents from the best educated middle-class women, — namely, women teachers. In that year the CathoUc women teachers organized a "Catholic Women Teachers' Society." In 1869 was organized the inter- denominational "Austrian Women Teachers' Society." This society has performed excellent service. The women teachers, who since 1869 had been given positions in the public schools, were paid less than the men teachers having the same training and doing the same work. Therefore the women teachers presented themselves to the provincial legislatures, demanded an increase l6o THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT in salary, and, in spite of the opposition of the male teachers, secured the increase by the law of 189 1. In 1876 a society devoted its efforts to the improvement of the girls' high schools, which had been greatly neglected. In 1885 the women writers and the women artists or- ganized, their male colleagues having refused to admit women to the existing professional societies. In 1888 the women music teachers likewise organized them- selves. At the same time the question of higher edu- cation for women was agitated. In Vienna a "lyceum" class — the first of its kind — was opened to prepare girls for entrance to the universities (Abiturientenexamen). Admission to the boys' high schools was refused to girls in Vienna, but was granted in the provinces (Trop- pau, and Mahrisch-Schonberg). Girls were at all times admitted as outsiders (Extraneae) to the examinations held on leaving college {Abiturientenexamen). In this way many girls passed the "leaving" examination before they began their studies in Switzerland. Until 1896 the Austrian universities remained closed to women. The law faculties do not as yet admit women. The women's clubs are striving to secure this reform. Those women that had studied medicine in Switzer- land previous to 1896, and wished to practice in Austria, required special imperial permission, which was never withheld from them in their noble struggle. In this way Dr. Kerschbaumer began her practice THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES l6l as an oculist in Salzburg. However, the Countess Possanner, M.D., after passing the Swiss state exam- ination, also took the Austrian examination. She is now practicing in Vienna. As the Austrian doctors have active and passive suffrage in the election to the Board of Physicians (Arztekammer) ^ Dr. Possanner also requested this right. Her request was refused by the magistrate in Vienna because, as a woman, she did not have the suf- frage in municipal elections, and the suffrage for the Board of Physicians could be exercised only by those doctors that were municipal electors.^ Thereupon Dr. Possanner appealed her case to the government, to the Minister of the Interior, and finally to the adminis- trative court. The court decided in favor of the peti- tion. It must be emphasized, however, that the Board of Physicians favored the request from the beginning. Women preachers and women lawyers are as yet un- known in Austria. As in former times, the teaching profession is still the chief sphere of activity for the middle-class women of German Austria. According to the law of 1869 they can be appointed not only as teachers in the elementary schools for girls, but also as • A body having advisory powers in matters relating to the medical profession and to sanitary measures. [Tr.] * The question was decided by the administrative court in one special case. Compare the case of Jacobs, Amsterdam. 1 62 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT teachers of the lower classes in the boys' schools. Their not being municipal voters has two results : if the mu- nicipality is seeking votes, it appoints men teachers that are "favorably disposed"; if the municipality is po- litically opposed to the male teachers, it appoints women teachers in preference. But to be the plaything of poUtical whims is not a very worthy condition to be in. If women teachers marry, they need not withdraw from the service (except in the province of Styria). More than lo per cent of the women teachers in the whole of Austria are married, more than 2 per cent are widows. The women comprise about one fourth of the total num- ber of elementary school teachers, of whom there are 9000. Their annual salaries vary from 200 to 1600 guldens ($96.40 to $771.20). The ordinary salary of 200 guldens is so insufficient that many elementary school teachers actually starve. The competition of the nuns is feared by the whole body of secular school teachers. In Tyrol instruction in the elementary schools is still almost wholly in the hands of the re- ligious orders. The sisters work for Httle pay; they have a community life and consume the resources of the dead hand. Of the secondary schools for girls some are eccle- siastic, some are municipal, and some private. The lycemns give a very good education (mathematics is obligatory), but as yet there are no ordinary secondary THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 1 63 schools whose leaving examinations are equivalent to the Abiturientenexamen of the Gymnasiums. The "Aca- demic Woman's Club" in Vienna is demanding this reform, and the Federation of Austrian Women's Clubs is demanding the development of the municipal girls' schools into Realsckulen. The state subsidizes various institutions. The girls' Gymnasiums were privately- founded. Dr. CeciUa Wendt, upon whom the degree of Doctor of Philosophy was conferred by Vienna University, and who took the state examination for secondary school teachers in mathematics, physics, and German, was the first woman appointed as teacher in a Gymnasium, being appointed in the Vienna Gymna- sium for girls. Since 1871, women have been appointed in the postal and telegraph service. Like most of the subordinate state officials, they receive poor pay, and dare not marry. The women telegraph operators in the central office in Vienna are paid 30 guldens ($14.46) a month. "The woman telegraph operator can lay no claims to the pleasures of existence." "These girls starve spiritually as well as physically." ^ During the past twenty-eight years salaries have not been increased. Every two years a two-week vacation is granted. Since 1876 there has existed a relief society for women postal and telegraph employees, 1 See Dokumente der Frauen {Documents concerning Women) ; No- vember 15, 1899. 1 64 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT The woman stenographer, to-day so much sought after in business offices, was in 1842 absolutely ex- cluded from the courses in Gabelsberger stenography^ by the Ministry of PubHc Instruction. In the courts of chancery {Advokatenkanzleien) women stenographers are paid 20 to 30 guldens ($9.64 to $14.46) a month. They are given the same pay in the stores and ofi&ces where they are expected to use typewriters. They are regarded as subordinates, though frequently they are thorough speciaUsts and masters of languages. In the goverrmiental service the women subordinates that work by the day (1.50 guldens, — 73 cents) have no hope for advancement or pension. The first woman chief of a government office has been appointed to the sanitary department of the Ministry of the Labor De- partment, in which there is also a woman librarian. It is not easy to imagine the deplorable condition of workingwomen when women public school teachers and women office clerks are expected to live on a monthly salary of $9 . 64 to $ 1 4 . 46 . The Vienna inquiry into the condition of workingwomen in 1896 disclosed frightfully miserable conditions among workingwomen. Since then, especially through the efforts of the Socialists, the conditions have been somewhat improved. In Vienna, efforts to organize women into trade- unions have been made, — especially among the book- 1 The German system of stenography. [Tr.] THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 1 65 binders, hat makers, and tailors. Outside Vienna, organization has been effected chiefly among the women textile workers in Silesia, as well as among the women employees of the state tobacco factories. The most thorough organization of women laborers is found in northern and western^Bohemia among the glassworkers and bead makers. In Styria, Salzburg, Tyrol, and Carinthia the organization of women is found only in isolated cases. Everywhere the organization of women is made dif&cult by domestic misery, which consumes the energy, time, and interest of the women. The organ- ized Social-Democratic women laborers of German Austria have a permanent representation in the "Wom- en's Imperial Committee." Of the 50,000 women organized in trade-unions, 5000 belong to the Social- Democratic party. The Magazine for Workingwomen (Arbeiterinnenzeitung) has 13,400 subscribers. Women industrial inspectors have proved themselves efficient. It is to be expected as a result of the wretched eco- nomic conditions of the workingwomen that prostitu- tion with its incidental earnings should be widespread in German Austria. Vienna is the refuge of those seek- ing work and seclusion {Verschwiegenheit). The num- ber of iUicit births in Vienna is, as in Paris, one third of the total number of births. For these and other reasons the "General Woman's Club of Austria" {Allgemeine Osterreiche Frauenverein) , founded in 1893 l66 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT under the leadership of Miss Augusta f ickert, has fre- quently concerned itself with the question of prostitu- tion, of woman's wages, and of the official regulation of prostitution, — always being opposed to the last. The International Federation for the Abolition of the Ofl5- cial Regulation of Prostitution {internationale aboli- nistische Foderation) was, however, not represented in German Austria before 1903 ; the Austrian branch of this organization being established in 1907 in Vienna. The middle-class women are doing much as leaders of the charitable, industrial, educational, and woman's suffrage societies to raise the status of woman in Austria. The most prominent members of these societies are : Augusta Fickert, Marianne Hainisch, Mrs. v. Sprung, Miss Herzfelder, v. Wolfring, Mrs. v. Listrow, Rosa Maireder, Maria Lang (editor of the excellent Doku- mente der Frauen, which, unfortunately, were discon- tinued in 1902), Mrs. Schwietland, Elsie Federn (the superintendent of the settlement in the laborers' dis- trict in North Vienna), Mrs. Jella Hertzka, (Mrs.) Dr. Goldmann, superintendent of the Cottage Lyceum, and others. These women frequently cooperate with the leaders of the Socialistic woman's rights movement, Mrs. Schlesinger, Mrs. Popp, and others. The disunion of the two forces of the movement is much less marked in Austria than in Germany, the circumstances much more THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 1 67 resembling those in Italy. In these lands it is expected that the woman's rights movement will profit greatly through the growth of Socialism. This is explained by the fact that the Austrian Liberals are not equal to the assaults of the Conservatives. Universal equal suffrage, which does not as yet exist in Austria, has its most en- thusiastic advocates among the Socialists. With the Austrian Socialists, universal suffrage means woman's suffrage also.^ During the Liberal era two rights were granted to the Austrian women T since 1849 the women taxpayers vote by proxy in municipal elections, and since 1861 for the local legislatures {Provinciallandtagen) ?■ In Lower Austria the Landtag in 1888 deprived them of this right, and in 1889 an attempt was made to deprive them of their municipal suffrage. But the women con- cerned successfully petitioned that [they be left in pos- session of their active municipal suffrage. Since 1873 the Austrian women owners of large estates vote also for the Imperial Parliament through proxy. The Austrian women, supported by the Socialist deputies, Pernerstorfer, Kronawetter, Adler, and others, have on several occasions demanded the passive suffrage in the election of school boards and poor-law guardians ; they 1 See the resolutions of the party sessions in Graz, 1900; in Vienna, 1903 ; and of the first, second, and third conferences of the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, in 1904, 1906, and igo8. * Except in Illyria, Carinthia, and Lower Austria. 1 68 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT have also demanded a reform of the law of organization, so that women can be admitted to political organiza- tions. To the present these efforts have been fruitless. When universal suffrage was granted in 1906 (creating the fifth class of voters), the women were disregarded. In the pre\aous year a Woman's Suffrage Committee had been established with headquarters in Vienna. It is endeavoring especially to secure the repeal of para- graph 30 of the law regulating organizations and pubhc meetings. This law (Uke that of Prussia and Bavaria previous to 1908) excludes women from political organi- zation, thus making the forming of a woman's suffrage society impossible. For this reason Austria cannot join the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance. During the consideration of the new municipal elec- tion laws in Troppau (Austrian Silesia), it was proposed to withdraw the right of suffrage from the women tax- payers. They resisted the proposal energetically. At present the matter is before the supreme court. In Voralberg the unmarried women taxpayers were also given the right to vote in elections of the Landtag. The legal status of the Austrian woman is similar to that of the French woman : the wife is under the guardian- ship of her husband ; the property law provides for the amalgamation of property (not joint property holding, as in France). But the wife does not have control of her earnings and savings, as in Germany under the THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 1 69 Civil Code. The father alone has legal authority over the children. Here the names of two women must be mentioned : Bertha v. Suttner, one of the founders of the peace movement, and Marie v. Ebner-Eschenbach, the great- est living woman writer in the German language. Both are Austrians; and their country may well be proud of them. In Austria the authorities are more favorably dis- posed toward the woman's rights movement than in Germany, for example. HUNGARY ^ Total population : 19,254,559. Women : 9,672,407. Men: 9,582,152. Federation of Hungarian Women's Clubs. Woman's Suffrage League. At first the Hungarian woman's rights movement was restricted to the advancement of girls' education. The attainment of national independence gave the women greater ambition ; since 1867 they have striven for the establishment of higher institutions of learning for girls. In 1868 Mrs. V. Veres with twenty- two other women founded the "Society for the Advancement of Girls' 1 For political and practical reasons Hungary will be discussed at this point. lyo THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT Education." In 1869, the first class in a high school for girls was formed in Budapest. An esteemed scholar, P. Gyulai, undertook the superintendence of the institu- tion. Similar schools were founded in the provinces. In 1876 the Budapest model school was completed; in 1878 it was turned over to a woman superintendent, Mrs. V. Janisch. A seminary for women teachers was established, a special building being erected for the pur- pose. Then the admission of women to the university was agitated. A special committee for this purpose was formed with Dr. Coloman v. Csicky as chairman. In the meantime the " Society" gave domestic economy courses and courses of instruction to adults (in its girls' high school). The Minister of Public Instruction, v. Wlassics, secured the imperial decree of November 18, 1895, by which women were admitted to the universities of Klausenburg and Budapest (to the philosophical and medical faculties). It was now necessary to pre- pare women for the entrance examinations {Abituri- entenexamen) . This was undertaken by the "General Hungarian Woman's Club" {Allgemeine ungarische Frauenverein). With the aid of Dr. Beothy, a lecturer at the University of Budapest, the club formulated a programme that was accepted by the Minister of Public Instruction. By the rescript of July 18, 1896, he authorized the establishment of a girls' gjminasium in Budapest. It is evident that such reforms, when in THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 171 the hands of intelligent authorities, are put into working order as easily as a letter passes through the mails. In the professional callings we find 15 women drug- gists, ID women doctors, and one woman architect. Erica Paulus, who has chosen the calling of architect (which elsewhere in Europe has hardly been opened to women), is a Transylvanian. Among other things she has been given the supervision of the masonry, the glass- work, the roofing, and the interior decoration of the buildings of the Evangelical-Reformed College in Klausenburg. A second woman architect, trained in the Budapest technical school, is a builder in Besztercze. Higher education of women was promoted in the cities, the home industries of the Hungarian rural dis- tricts were fostered. This was taken up by the " Rural Woman's Industry Society" {Landes-Frauenindus- trieverein). Aprons, carpets, textile fabrics, slippers, tobacco pouches, whip handles, and ornamental chests are made artistically according to antique models (this movement is analogous to that in Scandinavia). Large expositions aroused the interest of the public in favor of the national products, for the disposal of which the women of the society have labored with enthusiasm. These home industries give employment to about 750- 000 women (and 40,000 men). Hungary is preeminently an agricultural country and its wages are low. The promotion of home indus- 172 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT try therefore had a great economic importance, for Hungary is a center of traflSc in girls. A great number of these poor ignorant country girls, reared in oriental stupor, congregate in Budapest from all parts of Hun- gary and the Balkan States, to be bartered to the brothels of South America as " Madjarli and Hungara." ^ An address that Miss Coote of the " International Vigi- lance Society" delivered in Budapest resulted in the founding of the "Society for Combating the White Slave Trade." The committee was composed of Countess Czaky, Baroness Wenckheim, Dr. Ludwig Gruber (royal public prosecutor). Professor Vambery, and others. The recent Draconic regulation of prosti- tution in Pest (1906) caused the Federation of Hun- garian Women's Clubs to oppose the official regu- lation of prostitution, and to form a department of morals, which is to be regarded as the Hungarian branch of the International Federation for the Abolition of the Official Regulation of Prostitution. Since then, public opinion concerning the question has been aroused ; the laws against the white slave traffic have been made more stringent and are being more rigidly enforced. A new development in Hungary is the woman's suf- frage movement (since 1904), represented in the "Fem- inist Society" (Feministenverein) . During the past five years the society has carried on a vigorous propaganda 1 Dokumente der Frauen, June i, 1901. THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES 1 73 in Budapest and various cities in the provinces (in Budapest also with the aid of foreign women speakers) ; recently the society has also roused the countrywomen in favor of the movement. Woman's suffrage is op- posed by the Clericals and the Social-Democrats , who favor only male suffrage in the impending introduc- tion of universal suffrage.^ On March 10, 1908, a dele- gation of woman's suffrage advocates went to the Parlia- ment. During the suffrage debates the women held public meetings. From the work of A. v. Maclay, Le droit des femmes au travail, I take the following statements : According to the industrial statistics of 1900 there were 1,819,517 women in Hungary engaged in agriculture. Industry, mining, and transportation engaged 242,951 ; state and municipal service, and the liberal callings engaged 36,870 women. There were 109,739 women day la- borers ; 350,693 domestic servants; 24,476 women pur- sued undefined or unknown callings ; 83,537 women lived on incomes from their property. Since 1890 the number of women engaged in all the callings has in- creased more rapidly than the number of men (26.3 to 27.9 per cent being the average increase of the women engaged in gainful pursuits). In 1900 the women formed 21 per cent of the industrial population. They were engaged chiefly in the manufacture of pottery * The proposed law grants the suffrage even to male illiterates. 174 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT (29 per cent), bent- wood furniture (46 per cent), matches (58 per cent), clothing (59 per cent), textiles (60 per cent). In paper making and bookbinding 68 per cent of the laborers are women. In the state mints 25 per cent of the employees are women; the state tobacco factories employ 16,720 women, these being 94 per cent of the total number of employees. Of those engaged in commerce 23 per cent are women. The number of women engaged in the civil service (as private secretaries) and in the liberal callings has in- creased even more than the number of women engaged in industry. The women engaged in oflSce work have organized. In 1901 the number of women public school teachers was 6529 (there being 22,840 men), i.e. 22.22 per cent were women. In the best public schools there are more women teachers than men, the proportion being 62 to 48 ; in the girls' high schools there are 273 women teachers to 145 men teachers. In 1903 the railroads employed 511 women; in 1898 the postal service employed 4516 women; in 1899 the telephone system employed 207 women (and 81 men). These women employees, unlike those of Austria, are permitted to marry. CHAPTER II THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES In the Romance countries the woman's rights move- ment is hampered by Romance customs and by the Catholic reUgion. The number of women in these countries is in many cases smaller than the number of men. In general, the girls are married at an early age, almost always through the negotiations of the parents. The education of women is in some respects very de- ficient. FRANCE Total population : 38,466,924. Women : 19,346,369. Men: 18,922,651. Federation of French Women's Clubs. Woman's Suffrage League. The European woman's rights movement was born in France ; it is a child of the Revolution of 1789. When a whole country enjoys freedom, equality, and frater- nity, woman can no longer remain in bondage. The 175 176 THE MODERN WOMAN 's RIGHTS MOVEMENT Declaration of the Rights of Man apply to Woman also. The European woman's rights movement is based on purely logical principles; not, as in the United States, on the practical exercise of woman's right to vote. This purely theoretical origin is not denied by the advocates of the woman's rights movement in France. It ought to be mentioned that the principles of the woman's rights movement were brought from France to England by Mary Wollstonecraft, and were stated in her pam- phlet, A Vindication of the Rights of Women. But enthusiastic Mary Wollstonecraft did not form a school in England, and the organized English woman's rights movement did not cast its lot with this revolu- tionist. What Mary Wollstonecraft did for England, Olympe de Gouges did for France in 1789 ; at that time she dedicated to the Queen her little book. The Declara- tion of the RigJUs of Women {La declaration des droits des femmes). It happened that The Declaration of the Rights of Man {La declaration des droits de Vhomme) of 1789 referred only to the men. The National Assembly recognized only male voters, and refused the petition of October 28, 1789, in which a number of Parisian women demanded universal suffrage in the election of national representatives. Nothing is more peculiar than the attitude of the men advocates of liberty toward the women advocates of liberty. At that time woman's struggle for liberty had representatives in all THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES 1 77 social groups. In the aristocratic circles there was Madame de Stael, who as a republican (her father was Swiss) never doubted the equality of the sexes ; but by her actions showed her belief in woman's right to secure the highest culture and to have political influence. Madame de Stael's social position and her wealth en- abled her to spread these views of woman's rights ; she was never dependent on the men advocates of freedom. Madame Roland was typical of the educated republican bourgeoisie. She participated in the revolutionary drama and was a "political woman." On the basis of historical documents it can be asserted that the men advocates of freedom have not forgiven her. The intelligent people of the lower classes are repre- sented by Olympe de Gouges and Theroigne de Meri- court. Both played a political role ; both were woman's rights advocates ; of both it was said that they had for- gotten the virtues of their sex, — modesty and submis- siveness. The men of freedom still thought that the home offered their wives all the freedom they needed. The populace finally made demonstrations through woman's clubs. These clubs were closed in 1793 by the Committee of Public Safety because the clubs disturbed "public peace." The public peace of 1793 ! What an idyl ! In short, the regime of liberty, equality, and fraternity regarded woman as unfree, unequal, and treated her very unfraternally. What harmony be- 178 THE MODERN WOMAN' S RIGHTS MOVEMENT tween theory and practice ! In fact, the Revolution even withdrew rights that the women formerly pos- sessed. For example, the old regime gave a noble- woman, as a landowner, all the rights of a feudal lord. She levied troops, raised taxes, and administered justice. During the old regime in France there were women peers ; women were now and then active in diplomacy. The abbesses exercised the same feudal power as the abbots ; they had unlimited power over their convents. The women owners of large feudal lands met with the provincial estates, — for instance, Madame de Sevigne in the Estates General of Brittany, where there was autonomy in the provincial administration. In the gilds the women masters exercised their professional right as voters. All of these rights ended with the old regime ; beside the politically free man stood the po- litically unfree woman. Napoleon confirmed this lack of freedom in the Civil and Criminal Codes, Napo- leon's attitude toward all women (excepting his mother, Madame Mere) was such as we still find among the men in Southern Italy, in Spain, and in the Orient. His sisters and Josephine Beauharnais, the Creole, could not give him a more just opinion of women. His fierce hatred for Madame de Stael indicates his attitude toward the woman's rights representatives. The great Napoleon did not like intellectual women. The Code Napoleon places the wife completely under THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES 1 79 the guardianship of the husband. Without him she can undertake no legal transaction. The property law requires joint property holding, excepting real estate (but most of the women are neither landowners nor owners of houses). The married woman has had inde- pendent control of her earnings and savings only since the enactment of the law of July 13, 1907. Only the husband has legal authority over the children. Such a legal status of woman is found in other codes. But the following pro\dsions are peculiar to the Code Napoleon : If a husband kills his wife for committing adultery, the murder is "excusable." An iUicit mother cannot file a paternity suit. In practice, however, the courts in a roundabout way give the illicit mother an opportunity to file an action for damages. No other code, above all no other Germanic or Slavic code,^ has been disgraced by such paragraphs. In the first of the designated paragraphs we hear the Corsican, a cousin of the Moor of Venice ; in the second we hear the military emperor, and general of an unbridled, un- disciplined troop of soldiers. No one will be astonished to learn that this same lawgiver in 180 1 supplemented the Code with a despotic state regulation of prostitution. What became of the woman's rights movement during this arbitrary military regime ? Full of fear and anxi- 1 Later the Code Napoleon infected other countries, but such horrors originated spontaneously nowhere else. l8o THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT ety, the woman's rights advocates concealed their views. The Restoration was scarcely a better time for advocating woman's rights. The philosopher of the epoch, de Bonald, spoke very pompously against the equality of the sexes, "Man and woman 'are not and never will be equal." It was not until the July Revo- lution of 1830 and the February Revolution of 1848 that the question of woman's rights could gain a favorable hearing. The Saint Simonians, the Fourierists, and George Sand preached the rights of man and the rights of woman. During the February Revolution the women were found, just as in 1789, in the front ranks of the Socialists. The French woman's rights movement is closely connected with both political movements. Every time a sacrifice of Republicans and Democrats was demanded, women were among the banished and deported : Jeanne Deroin in 1848, Louise Michel, in 1851 and 1871. Marie Deraismes, belonging to the wealthy Parisian middle class, appeared in the sixties as a public speaker. She was a woman's rights advocate. However, in a still greater degree she was a tribune of the people, a republican and a politician. Marie Deraismes and her excellent political adherent, Leon Richer, were the founders of the organized French woman's rights move- ment. As early as 1876 they organized the "Society for the Amelioration of the Condition of Woman and for THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES l8l Demanding Woman's Rights"; in 1878 they called the first French woman's rights congress. The following features characterize the modern French woman's rights movement : It is largely re- stricted to Paris ; in the provinces there are only weak and isolated beginnings; even the Parisian woman's rights organizations are not nmnerous, the greatest hav- ing 400 members. Thanks to the republican and social- ist movements, which for thirty years have controlled France, the woman's rights movement is for political reasons supported by the men to a degree not noticeable in any other country. The republican majority in the Chamber of Deputies, the republican press, and republican Uterature effectively promote the woman's rights movement. The Federation of French Women's Clubs, founded in 1901, and reputed to have 73,000 members, is at present promoting the movement by the systematic organization of provincial divisions. Less kindly disposed — sometimes indifferent and hostile — are the Church, the Catholic circles, the nobility, so- ciety, and the "liberal " capitalistic bourgeoisie. A sharp division between the woman's rights movements of the middle class and the movement of the Socialists, such as exists, for example, in Germany, does not exist in France. A large part of the bourgeoisie (not the great capitalists) are socialistically inclined. On the basis of principle the Republicans and Sociahsts cannot deny 1 82 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT the justice of the woman's rights movement. Hence everything now depends on the opportuneness of the demands of the women. The French woman has still much to demand. How- ever enlightened, however advanced the Frenchman may regard himself, he has not yet reached the point where he will favor woman's suffrage ; what the Na- tional Assembly denied in 1789, the Republic of 1870 has also withheld. Nevertheless conditions have im- proved, in so far as measures in favor of woman's suf- frage and the reform of the civil rights of woman have since 1848 been repeatedly introduced and supported by petitions.^ As for the civil rights of woman, — the principles of the Code Napoleon, the minority of the wife, and the husband's authority over her are still unchanged. However, a few minor concessions have been made : To-day a woman can be a witness to a civil transaction, e.g. a marriage contract. A married woman can open a savings bank account in her maiden name; and, as in Belgium, her husband can make it impossible for her to withdraw the money ! A wife's earnings now belong to her. The severe law concerning adultery by the wife still exists, and affiliation cases are still prohibited. That is not exactly liberal. Attempts to secure reforms of the civil law are being made by various women's clubs, the Group of Women » In the years 1848, 1851, 1871, 1874, 1882, 1885. THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES 1 83 Students {Le groupe d^ etudes feministes) (Madame Oddo Deflou), and by the committee on legal matters of the Federation of French Women's Clubs (Madame d'Ab- badie). In both the legal and the political fields the French women have hitherto (in spite of the Republic) achieved very little. In educational matters, however, the re- publican government has decidedly favored the women. Here the wishes of the women harmonized with the republican hatred for the priests. What was done perhaps not for the women, was done to spite the Church, i - Elementary education has been obligatory since 1882. In 1 904- 1 905 there were 2,715,452 girls in the elemen- tary schools, and 2,726,944 boys. State high schools, or lycees, for girls have existed since 1880. The pro- gramme of these schools is not that of the German Gymnasiums, but that of a German high school for girls (foreign languages, however, are elective). In the last two years (in which the ages of the girls are 16 to 18 years) the curriculum is that of a seminary for women teachers. In 1904-1905 these institutions were at- tended by 22,000 girls, as compared with 100,000 boys. The French woman's rights movement has as yet not succeeded in establishing Gymnasiums for girls; at present, efforts are being made to introduce Gymnasium courses in the girls' lycees. The admission of girls to 184 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT the boys' lycees, which has occurred in Germany and in Italy, has not even been suggested in France. To the present, the preparation of girls for the universities has been carried on privately. The right to study in the universities has never been withheld from women. From the beginning, women could take the Abiturientenexamen (the university en- trance examinations) with the young men before an examination commission. All departments are open to women. The number of women university students in France is 3609; the male students number 38,288. Women school teachers control the whole public school system for girls. In the French schools for girls most of the teachers are women; the superintendents are also women. The ecclesiastical educational system, — which still exists in secular guise, — is naturally, so far as the education of girls is concerned, entirely in the hands of women. The salaries of the secular women teachers in the first three classses of the elementary schools are equal to those of the men. The women teachers in the lycees (agregees) are trained in the vSemi- nary of Sevres and in the universities. Their salaries are lower than those of the men. In 1907 the first woman teacher in the French higher institutions of learning was appointed, — Madame Curie, who holds the chair of physics in the Sorbonne, in Paris. In the provincial universities women are lecturers on modem THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES 185 languages. There are no women preachers in France. Dr. jur. Jeanne Chauvin was the first woman lawyer, being admitted to the bar in 1899. To-day women lawyers are practicing in Paris and in Toulouse. In the government service there are women postal clerks, telegraph clerks, and telephone clerks, — with an average daily wage of 3 francs (60 cents). Only the subordinate positions are open to women. The same is true of the women employed in the railroad offices. Women have been admitted as clerks in some of the administrative departments of the government and in the public poor-law administration. Women are em- ployed as inspectors of schools, as factory inspectors, and as poor-law administrators. There is a woman member of each of the following councils: the Superior Council of Education, the Superior Council of Labor, and the Superior Council of Public Assistance (Conseil Superior d' Education, Conseil Superior du Travail, Conseil Superior de V Assistance Piiblique). The first woman court interpreter was appointed in the Parisian Court of Appeals in 1909. The French woman is an excellent business woman. However, the women employed in commercial estab- lishments, being organized as yet to a small extent, earn no more than women laborers, — 70 to 80 francs ($14 to $16) a month. In general, greater demands are made of them in regard to personal appearance and dress. 1 86 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT There is a law requiring that chairs be furnished during working hours. There is a consumers' league in Paris which probably will efifect reforms in the laboring condi- tions of women. The women in the industries, of whom there are about 900,000, have an average wage of 2 francs (50 cents) a day. Hardly 30,000 are organ- ized into trade-unions ; all women tobacco workers are organized. As elsewhere, the French ready-made clothing industry is the most wretched home industry. A part of the French middle-class women oppose legis- lation for the protection of women workers on the ground of "equality of rights for the sexes." ^ This attitude has been occasioned by the contrast between the typographers and the women typesetters ; the men being aided in the struggle by the prohibition of night work for women. It is easy to explain the rash and un- justifiable generalization made on the basis of this ex- ceptional case. The women that made the generaliza- tion and oppose legislation for the protection of women laborers belong to the bourgeois class. There are about 1,500,000 women engaged in agriculture, the average wage being i franc 50 (about 37 cents). Many of these women earn i franc to i franc 20 (20 to 24 cents) a day. In Paris, women have been cab drivers and chauffeurs since 1907. In 1901 women formed 35 per cent of the population engaged in the professions and the ' See the resolutions of the two women's congresses, Paris, 1900. THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES 1 87 industries (6,805,000 women; 12,911,000 men: total, 19,716,000). There are three parties in the French woman's rightSL, movement. The Catholic {le feminisme chretien), the moderate (predominantly Protestant), and the radical (almost entirely socialistic). The Catholic party works entirely independently; the two others often cooper- ate, and are represented in the National Council of Women (Conseil national des femnies), while the feminisme chretien is not represented. The views of the Catholic party are as follows : "No one denies that man- is stronger than woman. But this means merely a physical superiority. On the basis of this superiority man dare not despise woman and regard her as morally inferior to him. But from the Christian point of view God gave man authority over woman. This does not signify any intellectual superiority, but is simply a fact of hierarchy." ^ The feminisme chretien advocates : A thorough education for girls according to Catholic principles; a reform of the marriage law (the wife should control her earnings, separate property holding should be established) ; the same moral standard for both sexes (abolition of the official regulation of prosti- tution) ; the same penalty for adultery for both sexes (however, there should be no divorce) ; the authority of the mother {autorite maritale) should be maintained, • Le mouvement femittislc, Countess Marie de Villermont. 1 88 THE MODERN WOMAN* S RIGHTS MOVEMENT for only in this way can peace prevail in the family. "A high-minded woman will never wish to rule. It is her wish to sacrifice herself, to admire, to lean on the arm of a strong man that protects her." ^ In the moderate group (President, Miss Sara Monod), these ideas have few advocates. Protestantism, v/hich is strongly represented in this party, has a natural incUnation toward the development of individuality. This party is more concerned with the woman that does not find the arm of the "strong man" to lean on, or who detected him leaning upon her. This party is entirely opposed to the husband's authority over the wife and to the dogma of obhgatory admiration and sacrifice. The leaders of the party are Madame Bonne- vial, Madame Auclert, and others. During the five years' leadership of Madame Marguerite Durand, the " Fronde" was the meeting place of the party. The radicals demand: absolute coeducation; anti- military instruction in history; schools that prepare girls for motherhood; the admission of women to government positions; equal pay for both sexes; oflS- cial regulation of the work of domestic servants; the abohtion of the husband's authority; municipal and national suffrage for women. A member of the radical party presented herself in 1908 as a candidate in the Parisian elections. In November, 1908, women were 1 Le feminisme, Emile Ollivier. THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES 189 granted passive suffrage for the arbitration courts for trade disputes (they already possessed active suffrage). The founding of the National Council of French Women (Conseil national des femmes franqaise) has aided the woman's rights movement considerably. Stimu- lated by the progress made in other countries, the French women have systematically begun their work. They have organized two sections in the provinces (Touraine and Normandy) ; they have promoted the organization of women into trade-unions; they have studied the marriage laws ; and have organized a woman's suffrage department. Since 1907 the woman's magazine, La Franqaise, published weekly, has done effective work for the cause. The place of publication (49 rue Laffite, Paris) is also a public meeting place for the leaders of the woman's rights movements. La Franqaise arouses interest in the cause of woman's rights among women teachers and office clerks in the provinces. Recently the management of the magazine has been converted to the cause of woman's suffrage. In the spring of 1909 the French Woman's Suffrage Society {Union franqaise pour le soufrage des femmes) was organized under the presidency of Madame Schmall (a native of England). Madame Schmall is also to be regarded as the originator of the law of July 13, 1907, which pertains to the earnings of the wife. The Union has joined the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance. In the House of Deputies 190 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT there is a group in favor of woman's rights. The French woman's rights movement seems to be spreading rapidly. Emile de Morsier organized the French movement favoring the aboUtion of the oflScial regulation of prosti- tution. Through this movement an extraparliamen- tary commission (i 903-1 907) was induced to recognize the evil of the existing ofhcial regulation of prostitution. This is the first step toward abohtion. BELGIUM Total population: 6,815,054. Women : 3,416,057. Men : 3,398,997. Federation of Belgian Women's Clubs. Woman's Suffrage League. It is very difficult for the woman's rights movement to thrive in Belgium. Not that the movement is un- necessary there ; on the contrary, the legal status of woman is regulated by the Code Napoleon, hence there is decided need for reform. The number of women exceeds that of the men ; hence part of the girls cannot marry. Industry is highly developed. The question of wages is a vital question for women laborers. Accord- ingly there are reasons enough for instituting an or- ganized woman's rights movement in Belgium. But every agitation for this purpose is hampered by the THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES I9I following social factors : Catholicism (Belgium is 99 per cent Catholic), ClericaHsm in Parliament, and the indifference of the rich bourgeoisie. The woman's rights movement has very few adherents in the third estate, and it is exactly the women of this estate that ought to be the natural supporters of the movement. In the fourth estate, in which there are a great many Socialists, the woman's rights movement is identical with Socialism. Since the legal status of woman is determined by the Code Napoleon, we need not comment upon it here. By a law of 1900, the wife is empowered to deposit money in a savings bank without the consent of her husband; the limit of her deposit being 3000 francs ($600). The wife also controls her earnings. If, however, she draws more than 100 francs {$26) a month from the savings bank, the husha^id may protest. Women are now admitted to family councils; they can act as guardians; they can act as witnesses to a marriage. Affihation cases were made legal in 1906. On Decem- ber 19, 1908, women were given active and passive suffrage in arbitration courts for labor disputes. The Belgium secondary school system is exceptional because the government has established a rather large number of girls' high schools. However, these schools do not prepare for the university entrance examinations (Abiturientenexamen) . Women contemplating entering 192 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT the university, must prepare for these examinations privately. This was done by Miss Marie Popelin, of Brussels, who wished to study law. The universities of Brussels, Ghent, and Liege have been open to women since 1 886. Hence Miss Popelin could execute her plans ; in 1888 she received the degree of Doctor of Laws. She made an attempt in 1 888-1 889 to secure admission to the bar as a practicing lawyer, but the Brussels Court of Appeals decided the case against her.^ Miss Marie Popelin is the leader of the middle- class woman's rights movement in Belgium. She is in charge of the Woman's Rights League {Ligue du droit des femmes), founded in 1890. With the support of Mrs. Denis, Mrs. Parent, and Mrs. Fontaine, Miss Popelin organized, in 1897, an international woman's congress in Brussels. Many representatives of foreign countries attended. One of the German representatives, Mrs. Anna Simpson, was astonished by the indifference of the people of Brussels. In her report she says: "Where were the women of Brussels during the days of the Con- gress ? They did not attend, for the middle class is not much interested in our cause. It was especially for this class that the Congress was held." Dr. Popelin * Miss Chauvin made a similar request of the French Chamber of Deputies; as we have seen, her request was granted. Dr. Popelin did not make her request of the Belgian Chamber of Deputies, which had not a Republican majority. Dr. Popelin may have considered such a step hopeless. THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES 1 93 is also president of the league that has since 1908 taken up the struggle against the official regulation of prosti- tution. The schools and convents are the chief fields of activ- ity for the middle-class Belgian women engaged in non- domestic callings. As yet there are only a few women doctors. One of these, Mrs. Derscheid-Delcour, has been appointed as chief physician at the Brussels Orphans' Home. Mrs. Delcour graduated in 1893 at the University of Berlin summa cum laude; in 1895 she was awarded the gold medal in the surgical sciences in a prize contest for the students of the Belgian imiversities. In Belgium 268,337 women are engaged in the indus- tries. The Socialist party has recognized the organiza- tions of these women ; it was instrumental in organiz- ing 250,000 women into trade-unions. Elsewhere this would be impossible.^ Madame Vandervelde, the wife of the Socialist mem- ber of ParUament, and Madame Gatti de Gammond, the publisher of the Cahiers feministes, were the leaders of the Socialist woman's rights movement, which is or- ganized throughout the country in committees, councils, and societies. Madame Gatti de Gammond died in 1905, and her publication, the Cahiers feministes, was 1 Since iSgg special socialistic workingwomen's congresses have been held. 194 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT discontinued. The secretary of the Federation of So- ciaHst Women {Federation de femmes socialistes) is Madame Tilmans. Vooruit, of Ghent, publishes a woman's magazine : De Stem der Vrouw. The women are demanding the right to vote. The Belgian women possessed municipal suffrage till 1830. They were deprived of this right by the Constitution of 1 83 1. A measure favoring imiversal suffrage (for men and women) was introduced into Parliament in 1894. This bill, however, provided also for plural vot- ing, by which the property-owning and the educated classes were given one or two additional votes. The Socialists opposed this, and demanded that each person have one vote {un homme, un vote). The Clerical majority then repHed that it would not bring the bill to a vote. In this way the Clericals remained assured of a majority. For tactical purposes the Socialists adopted the ex- pression — un homme, un vote. It harmonized with their principles and ideals. At a meeting of the party in which the matter was discussed, it was shown that imi- versal suffrage would be detrimental to the party's interests ; for the Socialists were convinced that wom- an's suffrage would certainly insure a majority for the Clericals. Hence, in meeting, the women were per- suaded to withdraw their demand for woman's suffrage on the grounds of opportuneness, and in the meantime to THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES 1 95 work for the inauguration of universal male suffrage with- out the plural vote} In the Fronde, Audree Tery summarized the situa- tion in the following dialogue : — The man. Emancipate yourself and I will enfranchise you. The woman. Give me the franchise and I shall eman- cipate myself. The man. Be free, and you shall have freedom. In this manner, concludes Audree Tery, this dialogue can be continued indefinitely. Recently the middle-class women have begun to show an interest in woman's suffrage. A woman's suffrage organization was formed in Brussels in 1 908 ; one in Ghent, in 1909. Together they have organized the Woman's Suffrage League, which has affiliated with the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance. , Woman's lack of rights and her powerlessness in pub- He Hfe are shown by the fact that in Antwerp, in 1908, public aid to the unemployed was granted only to men, — to unmarried as well as to married men. As for the unmarried women, they were left to shift for them- selves. 1 See the action of the Socialists in Sweden and in Hungary. 196 THE MODERN WOMAN 's RIGHTS MOVEMENT ITALY Total population : 32,449,754. Women: about 16,190,000. Men : about 16,260,000. Federation of Italian Women's Clubs. Woman's Suffrage League. National unification raised Italy to the rank of a great power. Italy's political position as a great power, her modern parliamentary life, and the Liberal and Socialist majority in her Parliament give Italy a position that Spain, for example, does not possess in any way. Cathol- icism, Clericahsm, and Roman custom are no match for these modern liberal powers, and are therefore unable to hinder the woman's rights movement in the same degree as do these influences in Spain. However, the Italian woman in general is still entirely dependent on the man (see the discussion in Alaremo's Una Donna), and in the unenUghtened classes woman's feeUng of inferiority is impressed upon her by the Church, the law, the family, and by custom. Naturally the woman attempts, as in Spain, to take revenge in the sexual field. In Italy there is no strict morality among married men. Moreover, the opposition to divorce in Italy comes largely from the women, who, accustomed to being deceived in matrimony, fear that if they are di- vorced they will he left without means of support. " Boys THE ROAIANCE COUNTRIES 1 97 make love to girls, — to mere unguided children without any will of their own, — and when these boys marry, be they ever so young, they have already had a wealth of experience that has taught them to regard woman dis- dainfully — with a sort of cynical authority. Even love and respect for the innocent young wife is unable to eradicate from the young husband the impressions of immorality and bad examples. The wife suffers from a hardly perceptible, but unceasing depression of mind. Innocently, without suspicion, uninformed as to her husband's past, the wife persists in her beUef in his manly superiority imtil this belief has become a fixed habit of thought, and then even a cruel revelation can- not take him from her." ^ In southern Italy, — especially in Sicily, — Arabian oriental conceptions of woman still prevail. During her whole life woman is a grown-up child. No woman, not even the most insignificant woman laborer, can be on the street without an escort. On the other hand, the boys are emancipated very early. With pity and arro- gance the sons look down on the mother, who must be accompanied in the street by her sons. "Close intellectual relations between man and woman cannot as yet be developed, owing to the gener- ally low education of woman, to her subordination, and to her intellectual bondage. While still in the schools * Else Hasse, Ncuc Bahnen. 1 98 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT the boy is trained for political life. The average Italian woman participates in poUtics even less than the Ger- man woman; her influence is purely moral. If the ItaUan woman wishes to accept any ofl5ce in a society, she must have the consent of her husband attested by a notary. Just as in ancient times, the non-professional interests of the husband are, in great part, elsewhere than at home. The opportunity daily to discuss political and other current questions with men companions is fovmd by the German man in the smaller cities while taking his evening pint of beer. The Italian man finds this opportunity sometimes in the cafe, sometimes in the public places, where every evening the men congre- gate for hours. So the educated man in Italy (even more than in Germany) has no need of the intellectual quahties of his wife. Moreover, his need for an edu- cated wife is the less because his misguided precocity prevents him from acquiring anything but an essentially general education. The restricted intellectual rela- tionship between husband and wife is explained partly by the fact that the cicisheo ^ still exists. This relation ought to be, and generally is, Platonic and pubHcly known. The wife permits her friend (the cicisheo) to escort her to the theater and elsewhere in a carriage; the husband also escorts a woman friend. So husband and wife share the inwardly moral unsoimdness of the * The recognized gallant of a married woman. [Tr.] THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES 1 99 medieval service of love (Minnedienst) . At any rate this custom reveals the fact that after the honeymoon the husband and wife do not have overmuch to say to each other. In this way there takes place, to a certain extent, an open relinquishment of the postulate that, in accordance with the external indissolubility of married life, there ought to be permanent intellectual bonds be- tween man and wife, — a postulate that is the source of the most serious conscience struggles, but which has caused the great moral development of the northern woman." ^ Naturally, under such circumstances, the woman's rights movement has done practically nothing for the masses. In the circles of the nobility the movement, with the consent of the clergy, has until recently con- fined itself to philanthropy (the forming of associa- tions and insurance societies, the founding of homes, asylums, etc.) and to the higher education of girls.^ In a private audience the Pope has expressed himself in favor of women's engaging in university studies (except theology), but he was opposed to woman's suffrage. The daughters of the educated, liberal (but often poor) bourgeoisie are driven by want and con- viction to acquire a higher education and to engage * Marianne Weber, Zentralhlall. * But only the enlightened clergy — those living in Rome — con- sent to the higher education of girls. 200 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT in academic callings. The material difl5culties are not great. As in France, the government has during the past thirty-five years promoted all educational meas- ures that would take from the clergy its power over youth. Elementary education is public and obligatory. The laws are enforced rather strictly. Coeducation no- where exists. The number of women teachers is 62,643. The secondary school system is still largely in the hands of the Catholic reUgious orders. There are about 100,000 girls and nuns enrolled in these church schools ; only 25,000 girls are in the secondary state and private schools (other than the Catholic schools), which cannot give instruction as cheaply as the re- ligious schools. The efforts of the state in this field are not to be criticized: it has given women every educational opportunity. Girls wishing to study in the universities are admitted to the boys' classical schools (ginnasii) and to the boys' technical schools. This experiment in coeducation during the plastic age of youth has not even been undertaken by France. To be sure, at present the girls sit together on the front seats, and when entering and leaving class they have the school porter as bodyguard. In spite of all fears to the contrary, coeducation has been a success in northern Italy (Milan), as well as in southern Italy (Naples). THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES 201 The universities have never been closed to women. In recent years 300 women have attended the univer- sities and have graduated. During the Renaissance there were many women teachers in Italy. This tradition has been revived; at present there are 10 women university teachers. Dr. jur. Therese Labriola (whose mother is a German) is a lecturer in the philoso- phy of law at Rome. Dr. med. Rina Monti is a uni- versity lecturer in anatomy at Pa via. There are many practicing women doctors in Italy. Dr. med. Maria Montessori (a delegate to the Inter- national Congress of Women in Berlin in 1896) is a physician in the Roman hospitals. The Minister of PubHc Instruction has authorized her to deliver a course of lectures on the treatment of imbecile chil- dren to a class of women teachers in the elementary schools. The legal profession still remains closed to women, although Dr. jur. Laidi Poet has succeeded in being admitted to the bar in Turin. In government service (in 1901) there were 1000 women telephone employees, 183 women telegraph clerks, and 161 women office clerks. These positions are much sought after by men. The number of women employed in commerce is 18,000; the total number of persons employed in commerce being 57,087. Recently women have been appointed as factory inspectors. 202 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT The beginnings of the modern woman's rights move- ment coincide with the' political upheavals that oc- curred between 1859 and 1870. When the Kingdom of Italy had been established, Jessie White Mario demanded a reform of the legal, poHtical, and economic status of woman. Whatever legal concessions have been made to women are due, as in France, to the Liberal parliamentary majority. Since 1877, women have been able to act as wit- nesses in civil suits. Women (even married women) can be guardians. The property laws provide for separation of property. Even in cases of joint property holding, the wife controls her earnings and savings. The husband can give her a general authorization {allgenieinautorisation) , thus giving her the full status of a legal person before the law. These laws are the most radical reforms to which the Code Napoleon has ever been subjected, — reforms which the French did not venture to enact. The Liberal majority made an attempt in 1877 to emancipate the women poUtically. But the attempt failed. Bills providing for municipal woman's suffrage were introduced and rejected in 1880, 1883, and 1888. However, since 1890, women have been eligible as poor-law guardians. The eHte among the Itahan men loyally supported the women in their struggle for emancipation. Since 1881 the women have organized THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES 203 clubs. At first these were unsuccessful. Free and courageous women were in the minority. In Rome the woman's rights movement was at first exclusively benevolent. In Milan and Turin, on the other hand, there were woman's rights advocates (under the leadership of Dr. med. Paoline Schiff and Emilia Mariani). The leadership of the national movement fell to the more active, more educated, and economically stronger northern Italy. Here also the movement of the workingwomen had progressed to the ^stage of organization, as, for example, in the case of the Lom- bard women workers in the rice fields. There are 1,371,426 women laborers in Italy. Their condition is wretched. In agriculture, as well as in the industries, they are given the rough, poorly paid work to do. They are exploited to the extreme. Women straw plaiters have been offered 20 centimes, even as little as 10 centimes (4 to 2 cents), for twelve hours' work. The average daily wage for women is 80 centimes to i franc (16 to 20 cents). The maximum is I franc 50 centimes (30 cents). The law has fixed the maximum working day for women at twelve hours, and prohibits women under twenty years of age from engaging in work that is dangerous and injurious to health. There are maternity funds for women in confinement, financial aid being given them for four weeks after the birth of the child. Under all these 204 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT circumstances the organization of women is exceedingly difficult. Even the Socialists have neglected the organ- ization of workingworaen. Socialist propaganda among women agricultural laborers was begun in 1901, In Bologna, in the autumn of 1902, there was held a meeting of the representatives of 800 agricultural organizations (hav- ing a total membership of 150,000 men and women agricultural laborers). The constitution of the society is characteristic; many of its clauses are primitive and pathetic. This society is intended to be an edu- cational and moral organization. Women members are exhorted "to live rightly, and to be virtuous and kind-hearted mothers, women, and daughters." ^ It is to be hoped that the task of the women will be made easier through the efforts of the society's male mem- bers to make themselves virtuous and kind-hearted fathers, husbands, and sons. Or are moral duties, in this case also, meant only for woman? The movement favoring the abolition of the official regulation of prostitution was introduced into Italy by Mrs. Butler. A congress in favor of aboHtion was held in 1898 in Genoa. Recently, thanks to the efiforts of Dr. Agnes MacLaren and Miss Buchner, the movement has been revived, and urged upon the Catholic clergy. The Itahan branch of the Inter- 1 Dokumente der Frauen, June i, igoi. THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES 205 national Federation for the Abolition of the Official Regulation of Prostitution was founded in 1908. In the same year was held in Rome the successful Con- gress of the Federation of Women's Clubs. This Con- gress, representing the nobility, the middle class, and workingwomen, brought the woman's suffrage question to the attention of the pubhc. A number of woman's suffrage societies had been organized previously, in Rome as well as in the provinces. They formed the National Woman's Suffrage League, which, in 1906, joined the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance. Through the discussions in the women's clubs, woman's suffrage became a topic of public interest. The Am- sterdam Report [of the Congress of the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance] says : " The women of the aristocracy wish to vote because they are intelligent; they feel humiliated because their coachman or chauffeur is able to vote. The workingwomen demand the right to vote, that they may improve their conditions of labor and be able to support their children better." A parliamentary commission for the consideration of woman's suffrage was established in 1908. In the meantime the existence of this commission enables the President of the Ministry to dispose of the various proposed measures with the explanation that such matters will not be considered until the commission has expressed itself on the whole question. Women have 206 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT active and passive suffrage for the arbitration courts for labor disputes. SPAIN ^ Total population : 18,813,493. Women: 9,558,896., Men: 9,272,597. No federation of women's clubs. No woman's suffrage league. Whoever has traveled in Spain knows that it is a country still living, as it were, in the seventeenth cen- tury, — nay in the Middle Ages. The fact has mani- fold consequences for woman. In all cases progress is hindered. Woman is under the yoke of the priest- hood, and of a Catholicism generally bigoted. The Church teaches woman that she is regarded as the cause of carnal desire and of the fall of man. By law, woman is under the guardianship of man. Custom forbids the "respectable" woman to walk on the street without a man escort. The Spanish woman regards herself as a person of the second order, a necessary adjunct to man. Such a fundamental hmniliation and subordination is opposed to human nature. As the Spanish woman has no power of open opposition, she resorts to cunning. By instinct she is > See Stanton, The Woman's Rights Movement in Europe. THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES 207 conscious of the power of her sex; this she uses and abuses. A woman's rights advocate is filled with horror, quite as much as with pity, when she sees this mixture of bigotry, coquetry, submissiveness, cunning, and hate that is engendered in woman by such tyranny and lack of progress. The Spanish woman of the lower classes receives no training for any special calling; she is a mediocre laborer. She acts as beast of burden, carries heavy burdens on her shoulders, carries water, tills the fields, and spUts wood. She is employed as an industrial laborer chiefly in the manufacture of cigars and lace. "The wages of women," says Professor Posada,^ "are incredibly low," being but lo cents a day. As tailors, women make a scanty living, for many of the Spanish women do their own tailoring. The mantilla makes the work of milliners in general superfluous. In com- mercial caUings women are still novices. Recently there has been talk of beginning the organization of women into trade-unions. Women are employed in large numbers as teachers; teaching being their sole non-domestic calling. Ele- mentary instruction has been obligatory since 1870, however, only in theory. In 1889 28 per cent of the women were ilUterate. In many cases the girls of the lower classes do not attend school at all. When ' El Feminismo, i8gg. 208 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT they do attend, they learn very Httle; for owing to the lack of seminaries the training of women teachers is generally quite inadequate. A reform of the central seminary of women teachers, in Madrid, took place in 1884 ; this reform was also a model for the seminaries in the provinces. The secondary schools for girls are convent schools. In France there are complaints that these schools are inadequate. What, then, can be expected of the Spanish schools ! The curriculum in- cludes only French, singing, dancing, drawing, and needlework. But the "Society for Female Education" is striving to secure a reform of the education for girls. Preparation for entrance to the university must be secured privately. The number of women seeking entrance to universities is small. Most of them, so far as I know, are medical students. However, the Spanish women have a brilliant past in the field of higher education. Donna Galinda was the Latin pro- fessor of Queen Isabella. Isabella Losa and Sigea Aloisia of Toledo were renowned for their knowledge of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; Sigea Aloisia corre- sponded with the Pope in Arabic and Syriac. Isabel de Rosores even preached in the Cathedral of Barcelona. In the hterature of the present time Spanish women are renowned. Of first rank is EmiUa Pardo Bazan, who is called the "Spanish Zola." She is a countess and an only daughter, two circumstances that facili- THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES 209 tated her emancipation and, together with her talent, assured her success. She characterizes herself as "a mixture of mysticism and UberaHsm." At the age of seven she wrote her first verses. Her best book portrayed a "liberal monk," Father Feque. Pascual Loper, a novel, was a great success. She then went to Paris to study naturalism. Here she became acquainted with Zola, Goncourt, Daudet, and others. A study of Francis of Assisi led her again to the study of mysticism. In her recent novels hberaUsm is mingled with idealism. Emilia Pardo Bazan is by conviction a woman's rights advocate. In the Madrid Atheneum she filled with great success the position of Professor of French Literature. At the pedagogical congress in Madrid, in 1899, she gave a report on Woman, her Education, and her Rights. In Spain there are a number of well-known women journalists, authors, and poets. Dr. Posada enumer- ates a number of woman's rights publications on pages 200-202 of his book. El Feminismo. Concepcion Arenal was a prominent Spanish woman and woman's rights advocate. She devoted herself to work among prisoners, and wrote a valuable hand- book dealing with her work. She felt the oppression of her sex very keenly. Concerning woman's status, which man has forced upon her, Concepcion Arenal p 2IO THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT expressed herself as follows: "Man despises all women that do not belong to his family; he oppresses every woman that he does not love or protect. As a laborer, he takes from her the best paid positions ; as a thinker, he forbids the mental training of woman; as a lover, he can be faithless to her without being punished by law; as a husband, he can leave her without being guilty before the law." The wife is legally under the guardianship of her husband; she has no authority over her children. The property laws provide for joint property holding. In spite of these conditions Concepcion Arenal did not give up all hope. "Women," said she, "are begin- ning to take interest in education, and have organized a society for the higher education of girls." The pedagogical congresses in Madrid (1882 and 1889) promoted the intellectual emancipation of women. Catalina d'Alcala, delegate to the International Con- gress of Women in Chicago in 1893, closed her report with the words, "We are emerging from the period of darkness." However, he who has wandered through Spanish cathedrals knows that this darkness is still very dense ! Nevertheless, the woman's sujffrage move- ment has begun : the women laborers are agitating in favor of a new law of association. A number of women teachers and women authors have petitioned for the right to vote. In March, 1908, during the THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES 211 discussion of a new law concerning municipal adminis- tration, an amendment in favor of woman's suffrage was introduced, but was rejected by a vote of 65 to 35. The Senate is said to be more favorable to woman's suffrage than is the Chamber of Deputies. The fact that women of the aristocracy have op- posed divorce, and that women of all classes have opposed the enactment of laws restricting religious orders, is made to operate against the poUtical eman- cipation of women. A deputy in the Cortez, Senor Pi y Arsuaga, who introduced the measure in favor of the right of women taxpayers to vote in municipal elections, argued that the suffrage of a woman who is the head of a family seems more reasonable to him than the suffrage of a young man, twenty-five years old, who represents no corresponding interests. PORTUGAL Total population : 5,672,237, Women : 2,583,535. Men: 2,520,602. No federation of women's clubs. No woman's suflrage league. Portugal is smaller than Spain ; its finances are in better condition ; therefore the compulsory education law (introduced in 1896) is better enforced. As yet 212 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT there are no public high schools for girls ; but there are a number of private schools that prepare girls for the university entrance examinations {Abiturientenexa- men). The universities admit women. Women doc- tors practice in the larger cities. The women laborers are ehgaged chiefly in the textile industry ; their wages are about two thirds of those of the men. THE LATIN-AMERICAN REPUBLICS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA ^ The condition prevailing in Mexico and Central America is one of patriarchal family life, the husband being the "master" of the wife. There are large fam- ilies of ten or twelve children. The life of most of the women without property consists of "endless routine and domestic tyranny" ; the hfe of the property-owning women is one of frivolous coquetry and indolence. There is no higher education for women ; there are no high ideals. The education of girls is generally re- garded as unnecessary. There are public elementary schools for girls, — with women teachers. The higher education of girls is carried on by convent schools, and comprises domestic * See the Report of the International Suffrage Congress, Washington, 1902. THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES 213 science, sewing, dancing, and singing. In the Mexican public high schools for girls, modem subjects and lit- erature are taught; the work is chiefly memorizing. Technical schools for girls are unknown. Women do not attend the universities. Women teachers in Mexico are paid good salaries, — 250 francs ($50) a month. Women are engaged in commerce only in their own business estabUshments ; and then in small retail businesses. The rest of the workingwomen are en- gaged in agriculture, domestic service, washing, and sewing. Their wages are from 40 to 50 per cent lower than those of men. The legal status of women is similar to that of the French women. In Mexico only does the wife control her earnings. Divorce is not recognized by law, though separation is. By means of foreign teachers the initiative of the people has been slightly aroused. It will take long for this stimulus to reach the majority of the people. SOUTH AMERICA ^ In South America there are the same "patriarchal" forms of family life, the same external restrictions for woman. She must have an escort on the streets, even though the escort be only a small boy. ' See the Report of the International Suffrage Congress, Washington, 1902. 214 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT Just as in Central America, the occupations of the women of the lower and middle class are agriculture, domestic service, washing, sewing, and retail business. But woman's educational opportunities in South Amer- ica are greater, although through public opinion every- thing possible is done to prevent women from desiring an education and admission to a liberal calUng. Ele- mentary education is compulsory (often in coeduca- tional schools). Secondary education is in the hands of convents. In Brazil, ChiU, Venezuela, Argentine Re- public, Paraguay, and Colombia, the universities have been opened to women. As yet there are no women preachers or lawyers, although several women have studied law. Women practice as physicians, obstetrics still being their special field. The beginnings of a woman's rights movement exist in Chili. The Chilean women learn readily and will- ingly. They have proved their worth in business and in the Uberal callings. They have competed success- fully for government positions; they have founded trade-unions and cooperative societies; many women are tramway conductors, etc. In all the South Amer- ican repubUcs women have distinguished themselves as poets and authors. In the Argentine RepubUc there is a Federation of Woman's Clubs, which, in 1901, joined the International Coimcil of Women. CHAPTER in THE SLAVIC AND BALKAN STATES In the Slavic countries there is a lack of an ancient, deeply rooted culture like that of western Europe. Everywhere the oriental viewpoint has had its effect on the status of woman. In general the standards of life are low; therefore, the wages of the women are especially wretched. Political conditions are in part very unstable, — in some cases wholly antique. All of these circumstances greatly impede the progress of the woman's rights movement. RUSSIA Total population : 94,206,195. Women: 47,772,455. Men : 46,433,740. Federation of Russian Women's Clubs.^ National Woman's Suffrage League. The Russian woman's rights movement is forced by circumstances to concern itself chiefly with educa- ' This has just been organized. 215 2l6 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT tional and industrial problems. All efiforts beyond these limits are, as a matter of course, regarded as revolutionary. Such efforts are a part of the forbidden "political movement"; therefore they are dangerous and practically hopeless. Some peculiarities of the Russian woman's rights movement are : its individual- ity, its independence of the momentary tendencies of the government, and the companionable cooperation of men and women. All three characteristics are ac- counted for by the absolute government that prevails in Russia, in spite of its Duma. Under this regime the organization of societies and the holding of meetings are made exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. Individual initiative therefore works in solitude ; discussion or the expression of opinions is not very feasible. When individual initiative ceases, progress usually ceases also. Corporate activity, such as educates women adherents, did not exist formerly in Russia. The lack of united action wastes much force, time, and money. Unconsciously people com- pete with each other. Without wishing to do so, people neglect important fields. The absolute regime regards all striving for an education as revolutionary. The educational institutions for women are wholly in the hands of the government. These institutions are tol- erated; but a mere frown from above puts an end to their existence. THE SLAVIC AND BALKAN STATES 217 It is the absolute regime that makes comrades of men and women struggling for emancipation. The oppres- sion endured by both sexes is in fact the same. The government has not always been an enemy of enlightenment, as it is to-day. The first steps of the woman's rights movement were made through the in- fluence of the rulers. Although polygamy did not exist in Russia, the country could not free itself from certain oriental influences. Hence the women of the property- owning class formerly lived in the harem (called terem). The women were shut off from the world ; they had no education, often no rearing whatever; they were the victims of deadly ennui, ecstatic piety, lingering diseases, and drunkenness. With a strong hand Peter the Great reformed the condition of Russian women. The terem was abolished ; the Russian woman was permitted to see the world. In rough, uncivilized surroundings, in the midst of a brutal, sensuous people, woman's release was not in all cases a gain for moraUty. It is impossible to become a woman of western Europe upon demand. Catherine II saw that there must be a preparation for this emancipation. She created the Institute de demoiselles for girls of the upper classes. The instruction, borrowed from France, remained superficial enough; the women acquired a knowledge of French, a few ac- complishments, polished manners, and an aristocratic 2l8 THE MODERN WOMAN' S RIGHTS MOVEMENT bearing. For all that, it was then an achievement to educate young Russian women according to the stand- ards of western Europe. The superficiality of the Institutka was recognized in the middle of the nineteenth century. Alexander II, the Tsarina, and her aunt, Helene Pavlovna, favored reforms. The emancipator of the serfs could also liberate women from their in- tellectual bondage. Thus with the protection of the highest power, the first public lycevun for girls was estabhshed in 1857 in Russia. This was a day school for girls of all classes. What an innovation ! To-day there are 350 of these lyceums, having over 10,000 women students. The curriculums resemble those of the German high schools for girls. None of these lyceums (except the human- istic lyceum for girls in Moscow), are equivalent to the GermsLn Gymnasiums or Real gymnasiums, nor even to the Oberrealschulen or Rcalschulen. This explains and jus- tifies the refusal of the German universities to regard the leaving certificates of the Russian lyceums as equiv- alent to the Ahiturienten certificate of the German schools. The compulsory studies in the girls' lyceums are: Russian, French, religion, history, geography, geometry, algebra, a few natural sciences, dancing, and singing. The optional studies are German, English, Latin, music, and sewing. The lyceums of the large cities make foreign languages compulsory alsoj but THE SLAVIC AND BALKAN STATES 219 these institutions are in the minority. In the natural sciences and in mathematics "much depends on the teacher." A Russian woman wishing to study in the imiversity must pass an entrance examination in Latin. The first efforts to secure the higher education of women were made by a number of professors of the University of St. Petersburg in 1861. They opened courses for the instruction of adult women in the town hall. Simultaneously the Minister of War admitted a number of women to the St. Petersburg School of Medicine, this school being under his control. However, the reaction began already in 1862. In- struction in the School of Medicine, as well as in the town hall, was discontinued. Then began the first exodus of Russian women students to Germany and Switzerland. But in St. Petersburg, in 1867, there was formed a society, under the presidency of Mrs. Conradi, to secure the reopening of the course for adult women. The society appealed to the first con- gress of Russian naturalists and physicians. This con- gress sent a petition, with the signatures of influential men, to the Minister of Public Instruction. In two years Mrs. Conradi was informed that the Minister would grant a two-year course for men and women in Russian literature and the natural sciences. The so- ciety accepted what was offered. It was Uttle enough. Moreover, the society had to defray the cost of instruc- 220 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT tion ; but it was denied the right to give examinations and confer degrees. All the teachers, however, taught without pay. In 1885 the society erected its own building in which to give its courses. The instruction was again discontinued in 1886. Once more the Rus- sian women flocked to foreign countries. In 1889 the courses were again opened (Swiss influence on Russian youth was feared). The number of those enrolled in the courses was limited to 600 (of these only 3 per cent could be unorthodox, i.e. Jewish). These courses are still given in St. Petersburg. Recently the Council of Ministers empowered the Minister of PubHc Instruc- tion to forbid women to attend university lectures; but those who have already been admitted, and find it impossible to attend other higher institutions of learn- ing for girls, have been allowed to complete their course in the university. The present number of women hearers in Russian universities is 2130. A Russian woman doctor was admitted as a lecturer by the Uni- versity of Moscow, but her appointment was not con- firmed by the Minister of Public Instruction. She appealed thereupon to the Senate, declaring that the Russian laws nowhere prohibited women from acting as teachers in the universities; moreover, her medical degree gave her full power to do so. The decision of the Senate is still pending. ■■;» '-'• ' A recent law opens to women the calling of architect THE SLAVIC AND BALKAN STATES 221 and of engineer. The work done on the Trans-Siberian Railroad by the woman engineer has given better satis- faction than any of the other work. A bill providing for the admission of women to the legal profession has been introduced but has not yet become law. The Russian women medical students shared the vicissitudes of Russian university life for women. After 1862 they studied in Switzerland, where Miss Suslowa, in 1867, was the first woman to be given the doctor's degree in Zurich. However, since the lack of doctors is very marked on the vast Russian plains, the govern- ment in 1872 opened special courses for women medical students in St, Petersburg. (In another institution courses were given for midwives and for women regi- mental surgeons.) The women completing the courses in St. Petersburg were not granted the doctor's degree, however. The Russian women earned the doctor's degree in the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) ; for ten years after this war women graduates of the St. Peters- burg medical courses were granted degrees. Then these courses were closed in 1887. They were opened again in 1898. Under these difficult circumstances the Rus- sian women secured their higher education. ] In the elementary schools, for every 1000 women inhabitants there are only 13. i women public school teachers. Of the 2,000,000 public school children, only 650,000 are girls. The number of illiterates in Russia 22 2 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT varies from 70 to 80 per cent. The elementary school course in the country is only three years (ft is five years in the cities). The number of women public school teachers is 27,000 (as compared with 40,000 men teachers). An attempt has been made by the women village school teachers to arouse the women agricultural laborers from their stupor. Organization of women laborers has been attempted in the cities. For the present the task seems superhuman.^ When graduating from the lyceum the young girl is given her teaching diploma, which permits her to teach in the four lower classes in the girls' lyceums. Those wishing to teach in the higher classes must take a special examination in a imiversity. The higher classes in the girls' lyceums are taught chiefly by men teachers. When a Russian woman teacher marries she need not relinquish her position. In Russia the women doctors have a vast field of work. For every 200,000 inhabitants there is only one doctor ! However, in St. Petersburg there is one doc- 1 The following statistics are significant : Between January i and July 1, 1908, Russia showed an increase in the consumption of alcoholic liquors. The total amount of spirits consumed was 40,887,509 vedros (i vedro is 3.25 gallons), which is an increase of 600,185 vedros over the amount con- sumed during the same months of the preceding year. These figures cor- respond also to the government's income from its monopoly on spirits; this was 327,795,312 rubles (a ruble is worth 51.5 cents), an increase of 3i74S)836 rubles over the same months of the preceding year. THE SLAVIC AND BALKAN STATES 223 tor for every 10,000 inhabitants. According to the most recent statistics there are 545 women doctors in Russia. Of these, 8 have ceased to practice, 245 have cflScial positions, and 292 have a private practice. Of the 132 women doctors in St. Petersburg, 35 are em- ployed in hospitals, 14 in the sanitary department of the city; 7 are school physicians, 5 are assistants in clinics and laboratories, 2 are superintendents of ma- ternity hospitals, 2 have charge of foundling asylums, 5 have private hospitals, and the rest engage in private practice. Of the 413 women doctors not in St. Peters- burg, 173 have ofl5cial positions, the others have a pri- vate practice. The local governments (zemstvos) have appointed 26 women doctors in the larger cities, 21 in the smaller, and 55 in the rural districts. There are 18 women doc- tors employed in private hospitals on country estates, 8 in hospitals for Mohammedan women, 16 in schools, 9 in factories, 4 are employed by railroads, 4 by the Red Cross Society, etc. The practice of the woman doctor in the country is naturally the most difficult and the least remunerative. Therefore, it is willingly given over to the women. Thanks to individual abil- ity, the Russian woman doctor is highly respected. There are 400 women druggists in Russia. Their training for the calling is received by practical work (this is true of the men druggists also). According to 2 24 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT the last statistics (1897), there were 126,016 women en- gaged in the Uberal professions. There are a number of women professors in the state universities. Women engage in commercial callings. The schools of commerce for women were favored by Witte in his capacity of Minister of Finance. They have since been placed imder the control of the Minister of Instruction and Religion. This will restrict the freedom of in- struction. Instruction in agriculture for women has not yet been established. Commerce engages 299,403 women; agriculture and fisheries, 2,086,169. Women have been appointed as factory inspectors since 1900. The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Communication employ women in limited numbers, without entithng them to pensions. The government of the province of Moscow has appointed women to municipal offices, and has appointed them as fire insur- ance agents. The zemstvo of Kiew had done this pre- viously; but suddenly it discharged them from the municipal offices. For the past nine years an institution founded by the Princes Liwin has trained women as managers of prisons.^ The names of two prominent Russian women must be mentioned : Sonja Kowalewska, the winner of a contest in mathematics, and Madame Sklodowska-Ciuie, the 1 See the very interesting article Frauenbewegung {The Woman's Rights Movement), by Berta Kes, Moscow. THE SLAVIC AND BALKAN STATES 225 discoverer of radium. Both prove that women can excel in scientific work. It must be emphasized that the woman student in Russia must often struggle against terrible want. Whoever has studied in Swiss, German, or French universities knows the Russian-Polish stu- dents who in many cases must get along for the whole year with a couple of ten ruble bills (about ten dollars). They are wonderfully unassuming; they possess inex- haustible enthusiasm. Many Russian women begin their university careers poorly prepared. To unfortunate, divorced, widowed, or destitute women the "University" appears to be a golden goal, a promised land. Of the privations that these women endure the people of western Europe have no conception. In Russia the facts are better known. Wealthy women endow all educational institutions for girls with relief funds and with loan and stipend funds. Restaurants and homes for university women have been established. The " Society for the Support of Univer- sity Women" in Moscow has done its utmost to relieve the misery of the women students.^ The economic misery of the industrial and agricultural women (who are almost wholly unorgani.':cd) is some- what worse than that of the university women. The statements concerning women's wages in Vienna might give some idea of the misery of the Russian women. In 1 See Bcrta Kes, Fraucnbcwegung. Q 226 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT Bialystock, which has the best socialistic organization of women, the women textile workers earn about i8 cents a day; under favorable circumstances $1.25 to $1.50 a week. A skillful woman tobacco worker will earn 323^ cents a day. The average daily wages for Russian women laborers are 18 to 20 cents. Hence it is not astonishing that in the South American houses of ill-fame there are so many Russian girls. The agents in the white slave trade need not make very extravagant promises of "good wages" to find willing followers.^ A workingwomen's club has existed since 1897 in St, Petersburg. There are 982,098 women en- gaged in industry and mining; 1,673,605 in domestic service (there being 1,586,450 men domestic servants). Of the women domestic servants 53,283 are illiterate (of the men only 2172 !). In 1885 the women formed 30 per cent of the laboring population ; in 1900 the number had increased to 44 per cent. Of the total number of criminals in Russia 10 per cent are women. The legal status of the Russian woman is favorable in so far as the property law provides for property rights. The Russian married woman controls not only her prop- erty, but also her earnings and her savings. As survival of village communism and the feudal system, the right to vote is restricted to taxpayers and to landowners. > See Documents Concerning Women {Dokumente der Frauen), April 15, 1900. THE SLAVIC AND BALKAN STATES 227 In the rural districts the wife votes as "head of the family, " if her husband is absent or dead. Then she is also given her share of the village land. She votes in person. In the cities the women that own houses and pay taxes vote by proxy. The women owners of large estates (as in Austria) vote also for the provincial as- semblies. Although constitutional liberties have a precarious existence in Russia, they have now and then been beneficial to women. With great efifort, and in the face of great dangers, woman's suffrage societies were formed in various parts of the Empire. They united into a national Woman's Suffrage League. The brave Russian dele- gates were present in Copenhagen and in Amsterdam. They belonged to all ranks of society and were adherents to the progressive political parties. Since the dissolu- tion of the first Duma (June 9, 1906) the work of the woman's suffrage advocates has been made very diffi- cult; in the rural districts especially all initiative has been crippled. In Moscow and St. Petersburg the work is continued by organizations having about 1000 members ; 10,000 pamphlets have been distributed, lec- tures have been held, a newspaper has been established, and a committee has been organized which maintains a continuous communication with the Duma. The best established center of the Russian woman's rights movement is the Woman's Club in St. Peters- 228 THE MODERN WOMAN' S RIGHTS MOVEMENT burg. Through the tenacious efforts of the leading women of the club, — Mrs. v. Philosophow, (Mrs.) Dr. med. Schabanoff , and others, — the government granted them, in the latter part of December, 1908, the right to hold the first national congress of women. (The stipulation was made that foreign women should not participate, and that a federation of women's clubs should not be formed.) The discussions concerned education, labor problems, and politics. Publicity was much restricted; police surveillance was rigid; addresses on the foreign woman's suffrage movement were prohibited. Nevertheless, this progressive dec- laration was made : Only the right to vote can secure for the Russian women a thorough education and the right to work. Moreover, the Congress favored : better marriage laws (a wife cannot secure a passport without the consent of her husband), the abolition of the ofl&cial regulation of prostitution, the abolition of the death penalty, the struggle against drunkenness, etc. The Congress was opened by the Lord Mayor of St. Peters- burg and was held in the St. Petersburg town hall. This was done in a sense of obligation to the women school teachers of St. Petersburg and to those women who had endeared themselves to the people through their activity in hospitals and asylums. The Lord Mayor stated that these activities were appreciated by the municipal officers and by all municipal institutions. THE SLAVIC AND BALKAN STATES 229 Although the Congress was opened with praise for the women, it ended with an intentional insult to the highly talented and deserving leader, Mrs. v. Philo- sophow. Mr. Purischkewitch, the reactionary deputy of the Duma, wrote a letter in which he expressed his pleasure at the adjournment of her "congress of prosti- tutes" {Bordellkongress) . Mrs. v. Philosophow sur- rendered this letter and another to the courts, which sentenced the offender to a month's imprisonment, against which he appealed. After this Congress has worked over the whole field of the woman's rights move- ment, a special congress on the education of women will be held in the autumn of 1909.^ Since the Revolution of 1905 the women of the prov- inces have been astir. It has been reported that the Mohammedan women of the Caucasus are discarding their veils, that the Russian women in the rural dis- tricts are petitioning for greater privileges, etc. An organized woman's rights movement has originated in the Baltic Provinces ; its organ is the Baltic Women's Review (Baltische Frauenrundschau) , the publisher being a woman, E. Schiitze, Riga. • I am indebted to Mrs. Eudokimoff, of St. Petersburg, for an English translation of the resolutions, the address of the Lord Mayor, and the proceedings against the deputy of the Duma; also for a biography of Mrs. V. Philosophow. 230 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT CZECHISH BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA Total population : about 5,500,000. The women predominate numerically. No federation of women's clubs. No woman's suffrage league. The woman's rights movement is strongly supported among the Czechs. Woman is the best apostle of nationalism ; the educated woman is the most valuable ally. In the national propaganda woman takes her place beside the man. The names of the Czechish women patriots are on the lips of everybody. Had the Liberals of German Austria known equally well how to inspire their women with liberalism and Germanism, their cause would to-day be more firmly rooted. In inexpensive but well-organized boarding schools the Czechish girls (especially country girls, the daughters of landowners and tenants) are being educated along national lines. An institute such as the "Wesna" ^ in Briinn is a center of national propaganda. Prague, like Briinn, has a Czechish Gymnasium for girls as well as the German Gymnasium. There is also a Czechish University besides the German University. The first woman to be given the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Czechish university was Fraulein Babor. The industrial conditions in Czechish Bohemia and 1 Springtime. THE SLAVIC AND BALKAN STATES 23 1 in Moravia differ very little from those in Galicia. The lot of the workingwomen, especially in the coal mining districts, is wretched. According to a local club doctor (Kassenarzt),^ life is made up of hunger, whiskey, and lashes. Although paragraph 30 of the Austrian law of asso- ciation iVereinsgesetz) prevents the Czechish women from forming political associations, the women of Bo- hemia, especially of Prague, show the most active politi- cal interest. The women owners of large estates in Bo- hemia voted until 1906 for members of the imperial Parliament. When universal suffrage was granted to the Austrian men, the voting rights of this privileged minority were withdrawn. The government's resolu- tion, providing for an early introduction of a woman's suffrage measure, has not yet been carried out. The suffrage conditions for the Bohemian Landtag (provincial legislature) are different. Taxpayers, office- holders, doctors, and teachers vote for this body; the women, of course, voting by proxy. The same is true in the Bohemian municipal elections. In Prague only are the women deprived of the suffrage. The Prague woman's suffrage committee, organized in 1905, has proved irrefutably that the women in Prague are legally entitled to the suffrage for the Bohemian Landtag. In the Landtag election of 1907 the women presented a ' A doctor employed by a workingmen's association. [Tr.) 232 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT candidate, Miss Tumova, who received a considerable number of votes, but was defeated by the most promi- nent candidate (the mayor). However, this campaign aroused an active interest in woman's suffrage. In 1909 Miss Tumova was again a candidate. The pro- posed reform of the election laws for the Bohemian Landtag (1908) (which provides for universal suffrage, although not equal suffrage) would disfranchise the women outside Prague. The women are opposing the law by indignation meetings and deputations. GALICIA Total population : about 7,000,000. Poles : about 3,500,000. Ruthenians: about 3,500,000. The women predominate numerically. No federation of women's clubs. No woman's suffrage league. The conditions prevailing in Galicia are unspeakably pathetic, — medieval, oriental, and atrocious. Who- ever has read Emil Franzo's works is famiUar with these conditions. The Vienna official inqioiry into the indus- trial conditions of women led to a similar inquiry in Lem- berg. This showed that most of the women cannot 1 Dr. Schirmacher treats Russian Poland here with Galicia, which is Austrian Poland. [Tr.] THE SLAVIC AND BALKAN STATES 233 live on their earnings. The lowest wages are those of the women engaged in the ready-made clothing indus- try, — 2 to 23/^ guldens ($.96 to $1.10) a month as be- ginners; 8 to 10 guldens ($3.85 to $4.82) later. The wages (including board and room) of servant girls living with their employers are 20 to 25 cents a day. The skilled seamstress that sews linen garments can earn 40 cents a day if she works sixteen hours. As a beginner, a milliner earns 2 to 4 guldens ($.96 to $1.93) a month, later 10 guldens ($4.82). In the mitten industry (a home industry) a week's hard work brings 6 to 8 guldens ($2.89 to $3.88). In laundries women working 14 hours earn 80 kreuzer (30 cents) a day with- out board. In printing works and in bookbinderies women are employed as assistants ; for 9}^ hours' work a day they are paid a monthly wage of from 2 to 14 and 15 guldens ($.96 to $7.23). In the bookbinderies women sometimes receive 16 guldens ($7.71) a month. In Lemberg, as in Vienna, women are employed as brickmakers and as bricklayers' assistants, working 10 to II hours a day ; their wages are 40 to 60 kreuzer (19 to 29 cents) a day. No attempt to improve these con- ditions through organizations has yet been made. The official inquiry thus far has confined itself to the Christian women laborers. What miseries might not be concealed in the ghettos ! An industrial women's movement in Galicia is not to 234 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT be thought of as yet. There is a migration of the women from the flat rural districts to the cities ; i.e. into the nets of the white slave agents. Women earning lo, 15, or 20 cents a day are easily lured by promises of higher wages. The ignorance of the lower classes (Ruthenians and Poles) is, according to the ideas of western Europe, immeasurable. In 1897 336,000 children between six and twelve years (in a total of about 923,000) had never attended school. Of 4164 men teachers, 139 had no qualifications whatever ! Of the 4159 women teachers 974 had no qualifications! The minimum salary is 500 kronen ($101.50). The women teachers in 1909 demanded that they be regarded on an equality with the men teachers by the provincial school board. There are Gymnasiums for girls in Cracow, Lemberg, and Przemysl. Women are admitted to the universities of Cracow and Lemberg. In one of the imiversities (Mrs.) Dr. Dazynska is a lecturer on po- litical economy. In Cracow there is a woman's club. Propaganda is being organized throughout the land. A society to oppose the ofiicial regulation of prosti- tution and to improve moral conditions was organized in 1 908. The Galician woman taxpayer votes in munici- pal affairs ; the women owners of large estates vote for members of the Landtag. (Mrs.) Dr. Dazynska and Mrs. Kutschalska-Reinschmidt of Cracow are cham- pions of the woman's rights movement in Galicia. THE SLAVIC AND BALKAN STATES 23$ Mrs. Kutschalska lives during parts of the year in Warsaw. She publishes the magazine Ster. In Rus- sian Poland her activities are more restricted because the forming of organizations is made difficult. In spite of this the " Equal Rights Society of Polish Women " has organized local societies in Kaew, Radom, Lublin, and other cities. The formation of a federation of Polish women's clubs has been planned. In Warsaw the Polish branch of the International Federation for the Abolition of Prostitution was organized in 1907. An asylum for women teachers, a loan-fund for women teachers, and a commission for industrial women are the external evidences of the activities of the Polish woman's rights movement in Warsaw. The field of labor for the educated woman is especially limited in Poland. Excluded from government serv- ice, many educated Polish women flock into the teach- ing profession ; there they have restricted advantages. The University of Warsaw has been opened to women. THE SLOVENE WOMAn'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT* Total population : 1,176,672. The women preponderate numerically. The Slovene woman's rights movement is still in- cipient; it was stimulated by Zofka Kvedcr's "The 1 Dokumente der Frauen, November, 15, 1901. 236 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT Mystery of Woman" (Mysteriuni der Fran). Zofka Kveder's motto is : "To see, to know, to understand. — Woman is a human being." Zofka Kveder hopes to transform the magazine Slovenka into a woman's rights review. A South Slavic Social-Democratic movement is attempting to organize trade-unions among the women. The women lace makers have been or- ganized. Seventy per cent of all women laborers can- not live on their earnings. In agricultural work they earn 70 hellers (14 cents) a day. In the ready-made clothing industry they are paid 30 hellers (6 cents) for making 36 buttonholes, i krone 20 hellers (25 cents) for making one dozen shirts. SERVIA Total population : 2,850,000. The number of women is somewhat greater than that of the men. Servian Federation of Women's Clubs. Servia has been free from Turkish control hardly forty-five years. Among the people the oriental con- ception of woman prevails along with patriarchal fam- ily conditions. The woman's rights movement is well organized ; it is predominantly national, philanthropic, and educational. Elementary education is obligatory, and is supported THE SLAVIC AND BALKAN STATES 237 by the "National Society for Public Education" {Nationalen Verein jiir V olksbildung) . The girls and women of the lower classes are engaged chiefly with do- mestic duties; in addition they work in the fields or work at excellent home industries. These home in- dustries were developed as a means of hvelihood by the efforts of Mrs. E. Subotisch, the organizer of the Ser- vian woman's rights movement. The Servian women are rarely domestic servants (under Turkish rule they were not permitted to serve the enemy) ; most of the domestic servants are Hungarians and Austrians. All educational opportunities are open to the women of the middle class. In all of the more important cities there are public as well as private high schools for girls. The boys' Gymnasiums admit girls. The university has been open to women for twenty-one years ; women are enrolled in all departments ; recently law has attracted many. For medical training the women, Uke the men, go to foreign countries (France, Switzerland). Servia has 1020 women teachers in the elementary schools (the salary being 720 to 2000 francs — $144 to $500 — a year, with lodging) ; there are 65 women teachers in the secondary schools (the salary being 1500 to 3000 francs, — $300 to $600). To the present no woman has been appointed as a university professor. There are six women doctors, the first having entered the profession 30 years ago ; there are two women dentists ; 238 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT but as yet there are no women druggists. There are no women lawyers. There is a woman engineer in the serv- ice of the government. In the liberal arts there are three well-known women artists, seven women authors, and ten women poets. There are many women engaged in commercial callings, as office clerks, cashiers, bookkeepers, and saleswomen. Women are also employed by banks and insurance companies. "A woman merchant is given extensive credit," is stated in the report of the secretary of the Federation. In the postal and telegraph service 108 women are employed (the salaries varying from 700 to 1260 francs, — $140 to $252). There are 127 women in the tele- phone service (the salaries varying from 360 to 960 francs, — $72 to $192). Servia is just establishing large factories ; the number of women laborers is still small ; 1604 are organized. Prostitution is ofl&cially regulated in Servia; its recruits are chiefly foreign women. Each vaudeville singer, barmaid, etc., is ex officio placed under control. The oldest woman's club is the "Belgrade Woman's Club," foimded in 1875 ; it has 34 branches. It main- tains a school for poor girls, a school for weavers in Pirot, and a students' kitchen {studentenkiiche) . The "Society of Servian Sisters" and the "Society of Queen Lubitza" are patriotic societies for maintaining and THE SLAVIC AND BALKAN STATES 239 strengthening the Servian element in Turkey, Old Ser- via, and Macedonia. The "Society of Mothers" takes care of abandoned children. The "Housekeep- ing Society" trains domestic servants. The Servian women's clubs within the Kingdom have 5000 mem- bers ; in the Servian colonies without the Kingdom they have 14,000 members. The property laws provide for joint property holding. The wife controls her earnings and savings only when this is stipulated in the marriage contract. In 1909, the Federation of Servian Women's Clubs inserted woman's suffrage in its programme, and joined the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance. In the struggle for national existence the Servian woman demonstrated her worth, and effected a recog- nition of her right to an education. BULGARIA. Total population : 4,035,586. Women: 1,978,457. Men: 2,057,111. Federation of Bulgarian Women's Clubs. Like Servia, Bulgaria was freed from Turkish control about forty years ago. The liberation caused very little change in the life of the peasant women. But it opened new educational opportunities for the middle classes. 240 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT The elementary schools naturally provide for the girls also. (In 1905-1906 there were 1800 men teachers and 800 women teachers in the villages; in the cities 415 men and 355 women.) High schools for girls have been estabUshed, but not all of them prepare for the Abi- turientenexamen. The first women entered the uni- versity of Sofia in 1900. There are now about icxs women students. Since 1907, through the work of a reactionary ministry, the university has excluded women ; married women teachers have been discharged. Women attend the schools of commerce, the technical schools, and the agricultural schools. Women are active as doctors (there being 56), midwives, journaUsts, and authors. The men and women teachers are organized jointly. Women are employed by the state in the postal and tele- graph service. The wages of these women, like those of the women laborers, are lower than those of the men. There is a factory law that protects women laborers and children working in the factories. The trade-unions are socialistic and have men and women members. The laws regulating the legal status of woman have been in- fluenced by German laws. The wife controls her earn- ings. PoUtically the Bulgarian woman has no rights. The Federation of Bulgarian Women's Clubs was organized in 1899; in 1908 it joined the International Covmcil of Women. Woman's suffrage occupies the THE SLAVIC AND BALKAN STATES 24 1 first place on the programme of the Federation ; in 1908 it joined the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance. The Bulgarian women, too, have recognized woman's suffrage as the key to all other woman's rights. To the present time their demands have been supported by radicals and democrats (who are not very influential). A meeting of the Federation in 1908 demanded : 1. Active and passive suffrage for women in school administration and municipal councils. 2. The reopening of the University to women. (This has been granted.) 3. The increase of the salaries of women teachers. (They are paid 10 per cent less than the men teachers.) 4. The same curriculums for the boys' and girls' schools. 5. An enlargement of woman's field of labor. 6. Better protection to women and children working in factories. The President of the Federation is the wife of the President of the Ministry, Malinoff. Because the Fed- eration, led by Mrs. Malinoff, did not oppose the reac- tionary measures of the Ministry (of Stambolavitch), Mrs. Anna Carima, who had been President of the Federation to 1906, organized the "League of Progres- sive Women." This League demands equal rights for the sexes. It admits only confirmed woman's rights R 242 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT advocates (men and women). It will request the po- litical emancipation of women in a petition which it intends to present to the National Parliament, which must be called after Bulgaria has been converted into a kingdom. In July (1909) the Progressive League will hold a meeting to draft its constitution. RUMANIA Total population : 6,585,534. No federation of women's clubs. No woman's suffrage league. The status of the Rumanian women is similar to that of the Servian and Bulgarian women ; but the legal pro- fession has been opened to the Bulgarian women. A discussion of Rumania must be omitted, since my efforts to secure reliable information have been unsuccessful. GREECE ^ Total population : 2,433,806. Women : 1,1 66,990. Men: 1,266,816. Federation of Greek Women. No woman's suffrage league. The Greek woman's rights movement concerns itself for the time being with philanthropy and education. 1 Greek conditions are analogous to conditions prevailing in Slavic countries ; hence Greece will be treated here. Greece was liberated from Turkish control in 1827. THE SLAVIC AND BALKAN STATES 243 Its guiding spirit is Madame Kallirhoe Parren (who acted as delegate in Chicago in 1893, and in Paris in 1900). Madame Parren succeeded in 1896 in organizing a Federation of Greek Women, which has belonged to the International Council of Women since 1908. The presi- dency of the Federation was accepted by Queen Olga. The Federation has five sections : 1. The national section. This acts as a patriotic woman's club. In 1897 it rendered invaluable assistance in the Turco-Greek War, erecting four hospitals on the border and one in Athens. The nurses belonged to the best families ; the work was superintended by Dr. med. Marie Kalapothaki and Dr. med. Bassiliades. 2. The educational section. This section establishes kindergartens ; it has opened a seminary for kindergart- ners, and courses for women teachers of gymnastics.^ 3. The section for the establishment of domestic economy schools and continuation schools. This sec- tion is attempting to enlarge the non-domestic field of women and at the same time to prepare women better for their domestic calling. The efforts of this section are quite in harmony with the spirit of the times. The Greek woman's struggle for existence is exceedingly ' There are elementary schools for boys and girls. The secondary schools for girls are private. The first of these was founded by Dr. Hill and his wife, who were Americans. Preparation for entrance to the uni- versity is optional and is carried on privately. Athens University has admitted women since 1891. 244 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT difficult ; she must face a backwardness of public opin- ion such as was overcome in northern Europe long ago. This section has also founded a home for workingwomen. 4. The hygiene section. Under the leadership of Dr. Kalapothaki this section has organized an orthopedic and gynecological clinic. The section also gives courses on the care of children, and provides for the care of women in confinement. 5. The philanthropic section. This provides respect- able but needy girls with trousseaus (Austeuern). Mrs. Parren has for eighteen years been editor of a woman's magazine in Athens. (Miss) Dr. mcd. Pana- jotatu has since 1908 been a lecturer in bacteriology at Athens University. At her inaugural lecture the stu- dents made a hostile demonstration. Miss Bassiliades acts as physician in the women's penitentiary. Miss Lascaridis and Miss lonidis are respected artists ; Mrs. v. Kapnist represents woman in literature, especially in poetry. Mrs. Parren has written several dramatic works (some advocating woman's rights), which have been presented in Athens, Smyrna, Constantinople, and Alexandria. Mrs. Parren is a director of the society of dramatists. Government positions are still closed to women. As late as 1909, after great difficulties, the first women telephone clerks were appointed. CHAPTER IV THE ORIENT AND THE FAR EAST In the Orient and the Far East woman is almost with- out exception a plaything or a beast of burden ; and to a degree that would incense us Europeans. In the un- civilized coimtries, and in the countries of non-European civilization, the majority of the women are insufficiently nourished ; in all cases more poorly than the men. Early marriages enervate the women. They are old at thirty ; this is especially true of the lower classes. Among us, to be sure, such cases occur also ; unfortunately with- out sufficient censure being given when necessary. But we have aboHshed polygamy and the harem. Both still exist almost undisturbed in the Orient and the Far East. TURKEY AND EGYPT Total population : 34,000,000. A federation of women's clubs has just been founded in each country. In all the Mohammedan countries the wealthy woman lives in the harem with her slaves. The woman of the lower classes, however, is guarded or restricted no more 245 246 THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT than with us. Apparently the Turkish and the Arabian women of the lower classes have an unrestrained exist- ence. But because they are subject to the absolute authority of their husbands, their life is in most cases that of a beast of burden. They work hard and inces- santly. For the Mohammedan of the lower classes polygamy is economically a useful institution : four women are four laborers that earn more than they con- sume. Domestic service offers workingwomen in the Orient the broadest field of labor. The women slaves in the harems^ are usually well treated, and they have suf- ficient to live on. They associate with women shop- keepers, women dancers, midwives, hairdressers, mani- curists, pedicures, etc. These are in the pay of the wives of the wealthy. Thanks to this army of spies, a Turk- ish woman is informed, without leaving her harem, of every step of her husband. The oppression that all women must endure, and the general fear of the infidelity of husbands, have created among oriental women an esprit de corps that is un- known to European women. Among the upper classes polygamy is being abolished because the country is im- poverished and the large estates have been squandered ; moreover, each wife is now demanding her own house- hold, whereas formerly the wives all lived together. 1 The English have abolished slavery in Egypt. THE ORIENT AND THE FAR EAST 247 Through the influence of the European women edu- cators, an emancipation movement has been started among the younger generation of women in Constan- tinople. Many fathers, often through vanity, have given their daughters a European education. Ele- mentary schools, secondary schools, and technical schools have existed in Turkey and Egypt since 1839. The women graduates of these schools are now oppos- ing oriental marriage and life in the harem. At present this is causing tragic conflicts.^ To the present, two Turkish women have spoken publicly at international congresses of women. Selma Riza, sister of the "Young Turkish" General, Ahmed Riza, spoke in Paris in 1900, and Mrs. Hairie Ben-Aid spoke in Berlin in 1904. The Mohammedan women have a legal supporter of their demands in Kassim Amin Bey, counselor of the Court of Appeals in Cairo. In his pamphlet on the wo- man's rights question he proposes the following pro- gramme : — Legal prohibition of polygamy. Woman's right to file a divorce suit. (Hitherto a woman is divorced if her husband, even without cause, says three times consecutively : " You are divorced.") ' See Conseil des Femmes, October, 1002, for the romanlic "DCscn- chant^es" of P. Loti, and Hussein Rachimi's " Vcrlicbtcr Bey." 248 THE MODERN WOMAN's RIGHTS MOVEMENT Woman's freedom to choose her husband. The training of women in independent thought and action. A thorough education for woman. In 1 9 10 a congress of Mohammedan women will be held in Cairo. I may add that the Koran, the Mohammedan code of laws, gives a married woman the full status of a legal person before the law, and full civil ability. It recog- nizes separation of property as legal, and grants the wife the right to control and to dispose of her property. Hence the Koran is more liberal than the Code Na- poleon or the German Civil Code. Whether the re- strictions of the harem make the exercise of these rights impossible in practice, I am unable to say. European schools, as well as the newly founded Universites popidaires, are in Turkey and in Egypt the centers of enlightenment among the Mohammedans. The European women doctors in Constantinople, Alex- andria, and Cairo are all disseminators of modem cul- ture. A woman la-^yer practices in the Cairo court, and has been admitted to the lawyers' society. The Young Turk movement and the reform of Tur- key on a constitutional basis found hearty support among the women. They expressed themselves orally and in writing in favor of the liberal ideas ; they spoke in public and held pubhc meetings ; they attempted to THE ORIENT AND THE FAR EAST 249 appear in public without veils, and to attend the theater in order to see a patriotic play ; they sent a delegation to the Young Turk committee requesting the right to occupy the spectators' gallery in Parliament ; and, finally, they organized the Women's Progress Society, which comprises women of all nationalities but con- cerns itself only with philanthropy and education. As a consequence, the government is said to have resolved to erect a humanistic Gymnasium for girls in Constanti- nople. The leader of the Young Turks, the present President of the Chamber of Deputies, is, as a result of his long stay in Paris, naturally convinced of the superi- ority of harem life and legal polygamy (when compared with occidental practices).^ The freedom of action of the Mohammedan women, especially in the provinces, might be much hampered by traditional obstacles. Nevertheless, the restrictions placed on the Moham- medan woman have been abolished, as is proved by the following : — In Constantinople there has been founded a "Young Turkish Woman's League " that proposes to bring about the same great revolutionary changes in the intellectual life of woman that have already been introduced into the political life of man. Knowledge and its benefits must in the future be made accessible to the Turkish women. This is to be done openly. Formerly all 1 Compare La crisc dc Vorienl, by Ahmed Riza. 250 THE MODERN WOAIAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT Strivings of the Turkish women were carried on in secret. The women revolutionists were anxiously guarded; as far as possible, information concerning their move- ments was secured before they left their homes. The Turkish women wish to prove that they, as well as the women of other countries, have human rights. When the constitution of the "Young Turkish Woman's League" was being drawn up, Enver Bey was present. He was thoroughly in favor of the demands of the new woman's rights movement. The "Young Turkish Woman's League" is under the protection of Princess Refia Sultana, daughter of the Sultan. Princess Refia, a young woman of twenty-one years of age, has striven since her eighteenth year to acquire a knowledge of the sciences. She speaks several languages. The enthu- siasm of the Young Turkish women is great. Many of them appear on the streets without veils, — a thing that no prominent Turkish woman could do formerly. Women of all classes have joined the League. The committee daily receives requests for admisson to membership. BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA Total population: 1,591,036. The men preponderate numerically. Bosnia and Herzego\ina, being Mohammedan coun- tries, have harems and the restricted views of harem THE ORIENT AND THE FAR EAST 25 1 life. Naturally, a woman's rights movement is not to be thought of. Polygamy and patriarchal life are characteristic. Into this Mohammedan country the Austrian govern- ment has sent women disseminators of the culture of western Europe/ — the Bosnian district women doc- tors. The first of these was Dr. Feodora Krajevska in Dolna Tuszla, now in Serajewo. Now she has sev- eral women colleagues. The women doctors wear uni- forms, — a black coat, a black overcoat with crimson facings and with two stars on the collar. PERSIA Total population : about 9,500,000. In Persia hardly a beginning of the woman's rights movement exists. The Report ^ that I have before me closes thus: "The Persian woman lives, as it were, a negative life, but does not seem to strive for a change in her condition." Certainly not. Like the Turkish and the Arabian woman, she is bound by the Koran. Her educational opportunities are even less (there are very few European schools, governesses, and women doc- tors in Persia). Her field of activity is restricted to agriculture, domestic service, tailoring, and occa- ' Sec the analogous action of the English in India. * Report of the International Suffrage Congress, Washington, 190a. 252 THE MODERN WOMAN S RIGHTS MOVEMENT sionally, teaching. However, she is said to be quite skillful in the management of her financial affairs. As far as I know, the Persian woman took no part in the constitutional struggle of 1908-1909. INDIA Total population : 300,000,000. The Indian woman's rights movement originated through the efforts of the English. The movement is as necessary and as diflScult as the movement in China. The Indian religions teach that woman should be de- spised. "A cow is worth more than a thousand women." The birth of a girl is a misfortune: "May the tree grow in the forest, but may no daughter be born to me." ^ Formerly it was permissible to drown newborn girls ; the English government had to abolish this barbarity (as it abolished the suttee). The Indian woman Uves in her apartment, the zenana ; here the mother-in-law wields the scepter over the daughters-in-law, the grand- children, and the women servants. The small girl learns to cook and to embroider; anything beyond that is iniquitous : woman has no brain. The girls that are educated in England must upon their return 1 Mag der Baum wohl wachsen in dent Walde, Aber keine Tochter mir geboren werden. THE ORIENT AND THE FAR EAST 253 again don the veil and adjust themselves to native con- ditions. At the age of five or six the little girls are en- gaged, sometimes to young men of ten or twelve years, sometimes to men of forty or fifty. The marriage takes place several years later. Sometimes a man has more than one wife. The wife waits on her husband while he is eating; she eats what remains. If the wife bears a son, she is reinstated. If she is widowed, she must fast and constantly oflfer apologies for existing. The widows and orphans were the first natives to become interested in the higher education of women. This was due to economic and social condi- tions. India was the cradle of mankind. Even the highest civilizations still bear indelible marks of the dreadful barbarities that have just been mentioned. The Indian woman has rebelled against her miserable condition. The English women considered it possible to bring health, hope, and legal aid to the women of the zenana, through women doctors, women missionaries, and women lawyers. Hence in 1866 zenana missions were organized by English women doctors and missionaries. Native women were soon studying medicine in order to bring an end to the superstitions of the zenana. Dr. Clara Swain came to India in 1869 as the first woman medical missionary. As early as i872-if rn*^ .UMruu;n. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angdes This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Amotci t) i .It NOV A I im % A' . 1(^1 iWi rij(7i 315 >- ^OF-CAtlFdff^ .A\^t L 006 448 201 1 5 ^./f tr £n A\lOSANCflfj> '^'^DNVSOl^ ■^aMINIHttV' V0illV3J0> iiriiii ;. -.^^ w: AA 000 981 875 8 w^ •. AjclOSANCflfj^ |, ^OF-CAUFOJ?^ ^OFCAtlfO«i^ ^^WMNIVERJ/^ %iiaAIN0-3WV^ A^lUBRARYOr 5 i «i-^ ^ Vc/. 5j^EUNIVERiy^ ^lOSAJlCFlf' -jjOFCAUFOi?^ ^ ^«fUNIVER5/^ ^-lOSANCFl^ ^\%% 'QUJIIVJ JV) ' ^,.0F•CA1IF0)?^ ^v^^ :=^i