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THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO
SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
TORONTO
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
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1912
_All rights reserved_
COPYRIGHT, 1912,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1912.
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
"Unterdrueckung ist gegen die menschliche Natur"
"Oppression is opposed to human nature"
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
Hitherto there has been no English book giving a history of the woman's
rights movement in all countries of the world. English and American
readers will therefore welcome the appearance of an English edition of Dr.
Schirmacher's "Die moderne Frauenbewegung." Since Dr. Schirmacher is a
German woman's rights advocate, actively engaged in propaganda, 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 interested in
her point of view.
In the chapter on the United States I have added, with Dr. Schirmacher's
consent, a number of translator's footnotes, showing what bearings the
elections of November, 1910, and October, 1911, have had on the woman's
rights question. An index, also, has been added.
BOULDER, COLORADO,
November, 1911.
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.[1] 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_ 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 Caucasian 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 Alliance.
In many lands, even in those inhabited by the white race, there are,
however, only very feeble beginnings of the woman's rights movement. In
the Orient, the Far East, and in Africa, woman's condition 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 originated with the middle
classes. This is a purely historical fact which in itself in no way
implies any antagonism 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 movement is also a workingwomen's movement, or whether the
workingwomen's movement is also a woman's rights movement or socialism,
depends therefore in every particular case on national and historical
circumstances.
The international organization of the woman's rights movement is as
follows: the International Council of Women consists of the presiding
officers 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.[2] To a National Council may belong all those woman's clubs of
a country which unite in carrying out a certain general programme. The
programmes as well as the organizations 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 conditions. 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 councils), Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria, Norway,
Hungary, etc.
As yet there are no statistics of the women represented in the
International Council. Its membership is estimated at seven or eight
millions. The National Council admits only clubs,--not individuals,--the
chairmen of the various National Councils forming the International
Council of Women solely in their capacity of presiding officers.
This International Council of Women is the permanent body promoting the
organized international woman's rights movement. It was organized in
Washington in 1888.
The woman's suffrage movement, a separate phase of the woman's rights
movement, has likewise organized 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 been able in all cases to insert
woman's suffrage in their programmes. The International Council did
sanction this point, however, June 9, 1904, in Berlin.
A few days previously there had been organized as the International
Woman's Suffrage Alliance, likewise in Berlin, woman's suffrage leagues
representing eight different countries. The leagues which joined the
Alliance represented the United States, Victoria, England, Germany,
Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Since then the woman's
suffrage movement 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, Australia, South Africa, Canada, Great Britain,
Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Russia,
Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria, Italy, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Servia,
and Iceland). 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 enjoy 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
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 incompleteness, harshness, and one-sidedness of
every circle of man's activity (_Maennerwelt_) from which woman is
excluded.
A just and happy relationship of the sexes is dependent upon mutuality,
coordination, and the complementary 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 welcome any corrections and
authoritative information of a supplementary nature.[3]
THE AUTHORESS.
PARIS, JUNE 3, 1909.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
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 110
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
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 MORAVIA 230
GALICIA 232
THE SLOVENE WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT 235
SERVIA 236
BULGARIA 239
RUMANIA 242
GREECE 242
IV. THE ORIENT AND THE FAR EAST
TURKEY AND EGYPT 245
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 250
PERSIA 251
INDIA 252
CHINA 256
JAPAN AND KOREA 260
CONCLUSION 263
INDEX 267
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.[4]
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 (1774-1783) that matured
the woman's rights movement. In the name of "freedom" 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 municipal and state affairs had hitherto been exercised
by all "free-born citizens" or all "taxpayers" and "heads of families,"
the state constitutions being based on the principle: _no taxation without
representation_.
Among these "free-born citizens," "taxpayers," and "heads of families"
there were naturally many women who were consequently both voters and
active citizens. 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 colonies, 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 an expressed constitutional
recognition of their rights as citizens failed.
These proceedings gave to the woman's rights movement of the United States
a political character from the very beginning. Since then the American
women have labored untiringly for their political emancipation. The
anti-slavery movement gave them an excellent opportunity to participate in
public affairs.
Since the women had had experience of oppression and slavery, and since
they, like negroes, were struggling 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 equality 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 "monstrous" that a woman should
speak from a public platform. Against Abby Kelly, who at that time was
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 intoxicated 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 thundered," thus the
proceedings were described by Lucy Stone, the woman's rights advocate.
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
decline 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 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
permitted 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
Elizabeth 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 account of the meeting 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 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 Stanton 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 withdrew their signatures. I felt very much
humiliated, so much the more, since I knew _that 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 Alliance, was in early life a
teacher in Rochester, New 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 newcomers gave an
impetus to the woman's suffrage movement among American women. They were
greatly surprised to find that in republics also political freedom 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.[5] In this way all power of the
individual states to abridge the political 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
political 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 numerous and influential woman's clubs (with almost a
million members) and among college women the College Equal Suffrage
League, the movement extending 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 woman 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 Constitution repeat this expression. The
objects of the Constitution 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 ourselves and our
posterity.
All of these six points concern and interest women as much as men.
Supplementary to this is the "Declaration 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
Happiness,"
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 pamphlets,
which are issued as the "Political Equality Series" by the American
Woman's Suffrage Association. 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 politics 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, provided for, nor
protected.
2. "Many men are at home so seldom in the evening that their wives
could quietly concern themselves with political matters without
being missed at all. And such men, seconded by bachelors, clamor
most about the 'dissolution of the family' through politics.
3. "The children do not remain small indefinitely; they grow up and
hence leave the mother. It may be true that the mother, instead of
participating in political affairs, prefers to sew flannel shirts
for the heathen, or prefers 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: 1. _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 elements.
Moreover, the right to vote is not restricted to the men "of good repute"
either, etc., etc.
The American women can obtain the political franchise by two methods: 1.
At the hands of every individual legislature (which would occasion 52
separate legislative acts,--48 states and 4 territories). 2. Through the
adoption of a sixteenth amendment to the national Constitution by
Congress.[6] Let us consider the first method. The franchise
qualifications in the United States are generally the following: male sex,
twenty-one years of age, American citizenship (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),[7] 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 Republicans 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 politics. 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 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
Theodore 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 government 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 suffrage;
the last two supporting motions in favor of the movement. Theodore
Roosevelt, in 1899, as Assemblyman 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 extension of woman's right to vote must
bring about."
In order to attain their end,--political emancipation,--the American women
use the following means of agitation: petitions, the submission of
legislative bills, meetings, demonstrations, the distribution of
pamphlets, deputations to the legislatures of the individual states and to
the Congressional House of Representatives, 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 office). The states in question are
Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho. Wyoming and Utah inaugurated woman's
suffrage in 1869 and 1870, respectively, 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,[8] in South Dakota,[9] Oregon,[9] and Nebraska it seems assured. In
Kansas, since 1887, women have possessed active and passive suffrage in
municipal elections. In the State of Illinois they are about to secure
it.[10] 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 workingwomen, 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
public finances have been more economically administered, intemperance and
immorality have been more energetically combated, candidates with immoral
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 electors, and thus
exercise an influence in the national presidential elections. It is the
woman with good average abilities that is most frequently the successful
candidate in political campaigns.
But as yet the number of women who devote themselves to a political life
is not large. The women in Colorado seem to have a special ability for
this. Without any consideration for party affiliations 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 establishment 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.[11]
Because the English anti-woman's suffrage advocate, Mrs. Humphry Ward,
expressed the familiar 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 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 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 gambling. The
enfranchised women, who had a right to vote in the little town of
Caldwell, had supported a mayor who was determined to take measures
against gambling. The barkeepers, topers, gamblers, and ne'er-do-wells
were against him. The women presented the magistrate with a petition,
which was read together with the signatures. "During the reading 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 barkeepers and the gamblers got the worst of it and
disappeared from the town hall. An old municipal judge said, "When have
our mothers ever _demanded_ anything before?"[12] 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
population) in Wyoming, voted" (7000 votes out of 23,000). "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 traffic, no disturbance
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 America has had with
universal suffrage[13] as such, the woman's rights movement had suffered
also and has been retarded; 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 throughout 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 legislature). This took place in 1908 in
Rhode Island, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois,
South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma[14], 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 popular vote.[15] A very active woman's
suffrage campaign in the State of Oregon (1906) failed, owing to the
opposition of the friends of the liquor interests and the brothels.[16] 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
demonstration of February 22, 1909, in Boston.
The woman's suffrage societies of the various states are formed into a
national league: the National Woman's Suffrage Association, with about
100,000 members. The President is the Reverend Anna Shaw. This Association
has recently drawn up an enormous petition to Congress in order to secure
woman's suffrage through federal law, and has established headquarters 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 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 disposed, and disregard party interests in
order to accept the measure of their female colleague." From which we
conclude that the women legislators strive especially for measures which
are for the general good.[17]
In the United States there is also an "Association Opposed to Woman's
Suffrage." Its chief supporters are found among the saloon-keepers, the
habitual drunkards, 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."[18]
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 intellectual 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 1821 the first institution for the
higher education of women, Troy Seminary, was founded with hopes for state
aid. In 1833, Oberlin College, the first coeducational college, was opened
with the express purpose "of giving all the privileges of higher education
to the unjustly condemned 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 Biblical
passage, "_and he shall rule over thee_," had not been correctly
translated by the men. In 1865 with the founding of Vassar College, the
first woman's college was established. To-day both sexes have the same
educational opportunities in the United States. The four oldest
universities (Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Johns Hopkins), established on
the English model, still exclude women, and do not grant them academic
degrees. However, the latter point is of comparatively minor importance
in its relation to the _educational_ opportunities 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 number 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 (professors 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 subordinate positions.[19]
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 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 public may be successful; she must have a knowledge of
business in order to administer the property of her institution
satisfactorily 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 ability 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 public funds, are
all coeducational. The existence of non-coeducational colleges and
universities in addition to state institutions is regarded as a guarantee
of personal freedom in matters 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 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-blind 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 establishment
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; in the city of Portland a woman was
appointed as inspector 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 themselves
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
Blackwell having done so as early as 1846. Only the University 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.[20] A large
number of women lawyers, preachers, and doctors are married. In 1900 the
total number of women in the professions (exclusive of teaching) was
16,000. In 1900, 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).[21]
Most of the technical schools admit women. There are fifty-three women
architects. The Woman's Building of the World's Exposition in Chicago
(1893) was designed by Sophia Haydn and erected under her supervision. 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 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 produced 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, shareholders, stock-brokers, and commercial travelers. About
1000 women are now engaged in these occupations. As office 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 bookkeepers, 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 police 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 difference 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 opportunity 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
"incidentals," 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
amateurs. The latter make the existence of the former almost impossible.
Such a competition is unknown to men in industrial work. Mrs. v. Vorst[22]
proposes a solution--to make the industrial amateurs become special
artisans by means of a longer apprenticeship, thus relieving the
industrial slaves from injurious competition.
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 employees and not domestic servants, (1) because work in
their own home is not paid for (the general disregard of housework drives
the women striving for independence away from the house); (2) because of
the absence 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 Jackson,
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 difficult to
live on these wages than would the woman employed in the factory. As
pocket-money, however, 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 1891 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 (1
per cent, while 10 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 restore them
to their 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 politically 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
workingmen_, and while the women were refused organization forty years
ago, the Federation of Labor is to-day paying trades-union organizers to
induce women to become members of trades-unions. The introduction of 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 official 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 political 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
which possesses no property.[23] Above all, this encouragement 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[24] the factories and the
homes of laborers in the Southern States are extremely unsatisfactory.
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, 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
voluntary act of the employers.
In agriculture women find a profitable field of activity. 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, cranberries, and cucumbers in
various regions, and have cultivated the famous asparagus of Oyster Bay
and the "Improved New York Strawberries." In 1900, there were 980,025
women engaged in agriculture (as compared 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
afford 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 made "joint property holding" legal, as a result
of which the wife has no independent control of her personal 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 police
control 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,
declared 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, police matrons are employed. The law protects 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 membership is composed of those men and women who
are 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, tramways, police stations, cab drivers, etc. This
Union, as well as the "Social Purity League," is a firm advocate of
woman's suffrage.
The emancipation of the American women is promoted through sports. If on
the one hand they appreciate an elaborate toilette, on the other hand they
recognize the advantages of bloomers, the walking skirt, and the divided
skirt. In these costumes they play basketball, polo, tennis, and take
gymnastic exercise, fence, and row. The woman's colleges are centers of
athletic life. There the girls now play football in male costume, the
public being excluded. In all large cities there are 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 instructive is the survey of laws concerning
women and children in the _woman's suffrage states_, published by Mrs. C.
Waugh McCullock, a woman lawyer, of Chicago. The wife disposes of her
wages and her dowry (in Wyoming, 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
circumstances. 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 overseers. 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 under 14 years of age may work in the mines.
Pornographic 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 affairs.
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 demonstrated that whoever possesses the
right to vote is esteemed 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
unfortunate 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.
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 responsibilities 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
_roundabout 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 natural 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,
economy 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
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 inclination toward adopting "masculine"
habits. But he certainly would be more conscientious and more moral if
woman no longer assumed these virtues vicariously for him. Woman must make
her demands of man. For that she must be _free_.[25]
AUSTRALIA[26]
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 the more to be regretted since this
federation of republics 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, Australia had been a penal colony. Since then,--after the
discovery of the first gold fields,--a multitude of fortune-seekers,
gold-miners, and adventurers 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 conditions 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 determined 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 inhabitants 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 life narrow
and restricted.
Because Australia to-day has only about five million inhabitants, the
country is confronted only in a limited way with the problem of dealing
with congested masses of people, a condition which is favorable to all
social experimentation. 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 approximately the same. Mrs. M. Donohue, one of the delegates from
Australia, declared at the London Woman's Suffrage Congress that her
country had brought about "the greatest happiness for the greatest
number."
Naturally, the Australian governments had originally a series of material
problems to solve, real problems of existence, as, for example, to find a
satisfactory agricultural policy in a predominantly farming and
cattle-raising country. When the economic basis of the country 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
Napoleon; a country which has no divine right of kings, 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
tolerate the dogma of woman's inferiority. Between 1871 and 1880, the
school systems of the various colonies were regulated by a series of laws.
Elementary instruction, which is free and obligatory, is given in public
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 continent about 20,000 teachers are employed (9,000 men and 11,000
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.[27]
The number of students in the universities is as follows: in Sidney, 1054
(of whom 142 are women); 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.[28] 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 Australia, and Victoria) 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
inspectors. But the salaries and wages in Australia are not always the
same for both sexes. Thus, for example, in South Australia the male head
masters of the public schools draw salaries of 110 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 particular. In
Tasmania[29] (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 Tasmania, was the official
representative of the Australian government at the International Woman's
Suffrage Congress held in Amsterdam in 1908.
The official yearbook of the Australian Federation gives the following
industrial statistics for 1901: state and municipal office holders, 41,235
women (69,399 men); domestic servants, 150,201 women (50,335 men);
commerce, 34,514 women (188,144 men); transportation, 3429 women (118,730
men); industry, 75,570 women (350,596 men); agriculture and forestry,
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 number 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 Queensland).
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
thirteen years cannot be employed in the factories. Socialistic
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 legal status of the
Australian women. During the past fifty years this law has undergone many
modifications. 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 prejudicial 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 municipal 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.[30] 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
parliamentary officers on an equality with men. Here was a curious
thing--the women of the four conservative colonies voted for the members
of the Federal Parliament but could not vote for the state legislature.
On the basis of the documents dealing with Victoria I shall give a more
detailed account of the history of woman's suffrage in this colony. The
greatest statesman of Victoria, George Higinbotham, in 1873 introduced the
first woman's suffrage bill before Parliament. 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 Society" in Victoria. The movement
then spread rapidly, and in 1891 thirty thousand women petitioned
Parliament 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
enlarged 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 emancipated. Since 1893, the year of the
emancipation 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 predictions were made when this "unprecedented"
measure 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 indicated a lively interest in public affairs.
"Woman's suffrage has not caused family dissensions. It has frequently
happened that whole families have voted for the same candidate. In other
cases different members of one family voted for different candidates. But
this has not disturbed domestic tranquillity, 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 wife and to the husband upon the same
grounds.
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.
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 enlightened 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
enlargement 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.
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 dependent children.
6. A maximum working week of 52 hours for children 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 inspectors 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
stringent 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 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 uniformity 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;
3. because for this reason the political parties expect no special
advantage from the women, and it is difficult to secure the
support of the great party papers for the women candidates;
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 candidature 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_,[31]--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 concerning woman's suffrage.
"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 wish 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 Jouffroy 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 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 Suffrage 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
modern woman's rights movement. England is a European country, an old
country 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 militarism (two
of the greatest obstacles to all woman's rights movements), the English
women have not as yet attained 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.[32] 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 substituted in the election law. When this
disfranchisement 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 retrograde step.
The political struggles of general concern during the 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 pamphlet 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
_Encyclopaedia 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 representation
without injury." Certainly from such an arrangement the "representatives"
will suffer no injury. That select group of intellectual women who trained
themselves 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 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 rejected by a vote of 196 to 73.
Thereupon there were formed for systematic propaganda, woman's suffrage
societies in London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, and Bristol; these
cities are still the center of the movement. The new election law gave
women a further advantage--the expression _male_ person was replaced with
the generic word "man."[33] 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 interpret this expression in favor of
women. The attempt to do this was now made. A number 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, Scotland, and Wales.
Between 1870 and 1884, the political organization of the women was
strengthened; the women of the aristocracy (Lady Amberly, Lady Anne
Gore-Langton, and others) were won over to the cause of woman's suffrage.
A "Central Committee for Woman's Suffrage" was formed, and a number of
excellent women speakers (Biggs, Maclaren, Becker, Fawcett, Craigen,
Kingsley, Tod, and others) spoke throughout the country. A further success
was achieved when the Parliament of the Isle of Man[34] (House of Keys)
gave qualified women the right to vote.
In 1884, the property qualification was again reduced 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 million 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
Federation," which supported the Liberals in a similar manner. The next
attempt to secure woman's suffrage was made in 1897, but it was
unsuccessful. During the Boer War woman's suffrage receded into the
background, and not until March 14, 1904, was a woman's suffrage bill
again introduced; this bill did not become law. At that time the woman's
suffrage movement was lifeless, and in a thoroughly hopeless condition.
All the usual means of propaganda had been exhausted,--meetings,
petitions, and personal work during campaigns made no impressions either
on the members of Parliament, the government, or on public opinion. It was
no longer possible to educe arguments _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 representatives of the woman's suffrage movement were not
determined 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 Political Union, whose
members are known by the name of suffragettes. This transference of
leadership took place during the autumn of 1905.
The suffragettes then adopted militant tactics, making the government
their point of attack. This was 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 declared 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 livelihood are as dependent upon the laws as are
those of the men. A _liberal_ government and _liberal_ members of
Parliament ought to be liberal towards women and grant them the suffrage.
Many of these ministers and many members of Parliament owe their political
careers, their election, and their influence to the practical 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 suffrage bills introduced since 1870 (13 in
number) proves that it is hopeless to have such bills introduced by
private 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. 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 (especially significant are those of June 13 and 21, 1908); the
employment of first-class speakers, who make concise, 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 pounds, _i.e._
$250,000); the publication of a well-managed periodical, _Votes for
Women_.[35]
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 Cabinet speak,--when will you give women the right to vote?
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 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 tumult 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 political offenders
and to punish them as such.
The woman's suffrage advocates, who ask the Cabinet 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 English 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.[36]
The suffragettes give the government conclusive proof of their political
power when they oppose Liberal 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 political question in
England. All along the people and the press are giving greater support to
the suffragettes who have the courage 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 Conservative 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
supported chiefly by the aristocratic circles). They declare that woman
does not need the right to vote since she exercises an "enormous indirect
influence"; that woman does not _wish_ the right to vote; that her
subordination 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, recently established the
fact that the newly formed Association has a considerably smaller number
of prominent names among its members _than the organization formed two
years ago_, which soon came to an inglorious 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 public 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."[37] 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; and the woman's suffrage advocates have "the
spiritual certainty" that moves mountains. Let no one believe 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 necessary and they act accordingly
because it is their duty. Such movements have always been successful.
Women do not possess the right to vote in parliamentary 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.[38] The right of single or married
women to hold office (passive suffrage)[39] has prevailed in England and
Wales 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.[40] 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 administrators. In 1875 the first
unmarried woman was elected to that office, the first married woman in
1881. In the discharge of their duties in both classes of offices the
women have acted admirably. Nevertheless, the reactionary 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 councils 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 is expressly stated_.[41] 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 offices (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)[42] failed, owing to the
opposition of the House of Lords.
The law of 1907,[43] 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 merely vote for these
officers.[44] 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 circumstances. Whoever investigates the struggle of the
women to secure their rights in the local government and studies the
attitude of the men toward these exceedingly just demands will comprehend
the exasperating circumstances under which the women are to-day struggling
for the right to vote in the English parliamentary elections. In questions
of power and of gaining a livelihood [_Macht- und Brotfragen_] the
nobility of man can really not be depended upon.
The woman's suffrage movement has led to the consummation of a number of
legal reforms: the property laws now legalize the separation of the
property of husband and wife[45]; 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 wife cannot demand any
pay in 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.[46]
The women that have labored so untiringly in political 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' public day
schools, most of them being day schools. They 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 (including 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 difficulty by the women. At
first a number of women requested the privilege of attending lectures in
the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Since these universities are
resident colleges, it was necessary to provide 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 Holloway College have been established for
women. These institutions correspond 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 final examination, called "tripos," embraces three
subjects; it corresponds to the German _Oberlehrerexamen_,--examinations
given to candidates for the position of teachers in the _Gymnasiums_, the
_Realgymnasiums_, _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 women tutors and professors.
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 corresponding 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 women's colleges are centers of sport,--incidentally 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 expressed 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 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 admission 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 Germany 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 callings 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 being paid $2000, with
board and lodging; the principals $2500).
The _well-paid_ civil offices 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 public schools and 18 women inspectors;
the male inspector-general is paid 1000 pounds sterling annually, the
woman inspector-general 500 pounds. In the secondary schools there are 20
male inspectors and 3 women inspectors with annual salaries of 400 to 800
pounds, and 300 pounds respectively. 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 inspectors 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 increase 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 week; the
woman telegraph operator begins with 16 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 bookbinders,
stockbrokers, bills of exchange agents, auditors, 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[47] 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 exploration in
the interior of Africa). In London, the number of women engaged in
gainful pursuits is naturally 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 appearance. The
women have organized the Shop Assistants' 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 apartment houses for workingwomen,--the
_Sloane Garden Houses_, and the apartments for women in Chenies Street and
in York Street. Women teachers, designers, artists, bookkeepers, cashiers,
secretaries and stenographers obtain room and board here at varying rates.
There are bedrooms (with two beds) for 4-1/2 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 somewhat higher: 6 pence for breakfast, 9 pence for
luncheon, 1 shilling for dinner; which is about 55 cents a day for board.
For suites of two to four rooms $15 to $30 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--fortunately--independent in spirit, these institutions lack the
scholastic, monastic, or tutelary characteristics that are unfortunately
found in many similar institutions on the continent.
Very few of the English women have become industrial entrepreneurs.
However, they have directed their attention to agriculture as a means of
earning a livelihood and have organized agricultural schools for women.
Here the women engage especially in poultry raising, vegetable and fruit
growing, which in England are very lucrative; England annually imports 41
million pounds' worth of milk, eggs, poultry, vegetables, and fruits. The
councils of London, Berkshire, Essex, and Kent counties support the
Horticultural College for women in Swanley, Kent, which was founded
privately by wealthy and influential persons. In England 100,000 women are
engaged in agriculture. The demand for trained women gardeners to-day
still exceeds the supply. Trained women gardeners are frequently engaged
for a long term of years to teach untrained gardeners. Women are employed
in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew and in Edinburgh. Holloway College
has a woman gardener. 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 requires two years. The _Agricultural Association
for Women_, founded by Lady Warwick, 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 established 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 industrial population (and it is predominantly urban) has
increased significantly. Every industrialization means a pauperization to
a certain extent. It produces the 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 English
laboring population is estimated at 4,000,000 people, among whom the
trade-union movement has made considerable 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 number of these are in the textile
industries (almost 100,000). The total number of women laborers in this
industry is 800,000.
MEN WOMEN
(SHIL. A WEEK) (SHIL. A WEEK)
Cotton Industry 29.6 18.8
Woolen Industry 26.1 13.1
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[48]
In the textile industry, in which women are better organized than
elsewhere (there being 96,000), there existed in 1906 the preceding
difference between the wages of men and women (see table, p. 84).
The organization of women laborers was first advocated 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 slight degree, and in addition are burdened with
housework; while the male laborer is free when the factory closes. In
almost all industries 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 organized 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
extreme 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 women 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 practice 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 fixing 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 protection of women
laborers, published by the Belgian department of labor,[49] 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.