In Greece the educated women are leading the crusade. The principal of a
girls' college in Athens said recently: "It is true and beyond dispute
that the Greece of to-day owes its rapid progress to its women."
While Greek women cannot vote, they take an active part in political life.
During campaigns they make speeches for their husbands and brothers, and
at other times traverse the country expounding the doctrines of the party
they espouse. They resemble the English political woman of the style of
Mrs. Humphrey Ward's "Marcella," a type scarcely to be found in any other
country.
Even into slumbering Turkey, land of harems, Greek women are carrying
modern ideas of education. There is a Greek girls' school in
Constantinople; and, principally through Greek influence, Turkish women
are studying European languages, reading foreign books, and looking toward
the great world where women can be the comrades, friends, and equals of
men, instead of their playthings and slaves.
All through the Orient the conditions of Turkey are practically
reproduced. In spite of the abolition of the suttee, the poor widows of
India have a mournful lot. It is only the most daring of Chinese mothers
who would leave her little daughter's feet unbound. A few Japanese women
rebel at giving up home and children simply because milord has tired of
his wife; but to most the thought of opposing the customs of centuries is
still remote.
Even Asiatic women, nevertheless, are progressing. Some come to America
for the education their own continent cannot furnish. A Chinese woman
doctor recently lectured on her country all through the United States; and
Japanese women are found in our colleges.