to vote; many of them intimate that through this right they expect to
secure an increase in wages. Naturally the wishes of women laborers
possessing the franchise will be considered very differently from the
wishes of those not possessing this right. Proof of this has been given
by the American woman's suffrage states. Previous to the debates on
woman's suffrage in Parliament in 1904, a deputation of workingwomen from
the potteries in Staffordshire presented the members of Parliament from
that district with a petition having 4000 signatures, requesting the
introduction of a woman's suffrage bill, so that women might not continue
to be excluded from all well-paid positions on account of their political
inferiority. On this occasion the Hon. Mr. A. L. Emmott (member of
Parliament from the Oldham district) declared that the salary of the women
employees in the postal savings banks had been reduced from 65 pounds
(with an annual increase of 3 pounds) to 55 pounds (with an annual
increase of 2 pounds, 10 shillings). _This would have been impossible if
women had had the right to vote._ Domestic servants are as yet organized
only to a small extent, but they are well trained; they number 1,331,000.
In none of the Anglo-Saxon countries of the world is there a schism
between the woman's rights movements of the middle class and the
Social-Democrats, such as is found in Germany. In each of the Anglo-Saxon
countries there is a Socialist, and even an Anarchist party, but these
parties do not antagonize the woman's rights movement. The republican
constitutions in America,--the more democratic institutions of
society,--in general moderate the acute opposition. The absence of
historical obstacles has a conciliating influence everywhere in these
countries. In England, where history, monarchy, and traditional class
antagonism seem to give socialism favorable conditions of growth,
socialism has for a long time been hampered by the trade-unions. In other
words, the English workingmen, the first to organize in Europe, had
already improved their condition greatly when the socialistic propaganda
commenced in England. In their trade-unions they confined themselves to
the economic field; they avoided mixing economics with politics; they
worked with both parties, they steered clear of class hatred, and it was
difficult to influence them with the speculative ultimate aims of social
democracy. It has been only in the last decade that social-democracy has
made any progress in England; therefore in the woman's rights movement
middle-class women and workingwomen work together peaceably.
Of all the women in Europe the English women first became conscious of
their duty toward the lower classes. In this atmosphere,--clubs and homes
for working girls, and the London "College for Working
Women,"--institutions such as we on the continent know only in isolated
cases flourished readily. These institutions devote their attention to the
girls of the lower ranks of society.
The oldest club is the "Soho Club and Home for Working Girls" in Soho
Square, London, founded in 1880 by the Hon. Maude Stanley. It is open from
seven in the morning to ten at night and _also on Sunday_. Tea can be
obtained for 2-1/2 pence (5 cents), and dinner for 6-1/2 pence (13 cents).
The admission fee is 1 shilling, the annual dues are 8 shillings. The
members have a library at their disposal, and they publish a club
magazine, _The London Girls' Club Union Magazine_. Members of such clubs
(including those outside London) have formed themselves into a union. The
members of the committee--composed of wealthy and influential
women--concern themselves personally with the affairs of the clubs, giving
not only their money, but their time and influence. The "College for
Working Women" has existed in Fitzroy Square for more than 25 years. Here
are taught English, French, history, geography, drawing, arithmetic,
reading, writing, singing, cooking, sewing, wood turning, and other
subjects. The quarterly fee is 1 shilling (for use of the library,
attending lectures, etc.), the fees for the courses range from 1 shilling
and 3 pence to 2 shillings and 6 pence (31 to 62 cents) quarterly. A
commission gives examinations. The institution grants scholarships and
gives prizes. The number of such clubs in the whole of Great Britain is
estimated at 800.
The English woman is developing a considerable activity in the
sociological field. Florence Nightingale, who organized a regular hospital
service on the field of battle during the Crimean War (1854), upon her
return to England took steps to secure the training of educated women for
the nursing profession, in which the English nurse has been the model. The
most important Training College for nurses not connected with religious
orders is in Henrietta Street, in London. Still this distinguished
profession, which is represented in the International Red Cross Society,
has not yet attained state registration of nurses,--_i.e._ an officially
prescribed course of study concluding with a state examination.
The English midwives are vehemently complaining because the new Midwives
Act will be deliberated on by a commission having no midwife as a member.
The superintendent of the London Institute for Midwives has protested
against this on behalf of 26,000 midwives.
Another woman, Octavia Hill, participated in the official inquiry of the
living conditions of the London East End, which led to a systematic
campaign against the slums. This work is at present continued in London by
31 or more women sanitary officers. They supplement the work of the
factory inspectors, since they inspect the conditions under which women
home-workers live. In the whole country there are more than 80 such women
sanitary officers.
The home-workers are mostly women. Half of the 900,000 or more English
women engaged in the manufacture of ready-made clothing are permitted to
work at home. Their wages are wretchedly low. The government, which pays
the _men_ of the Woolwich Arsenal trade-union wages, is one of the worst
exploiters of women (who do not have the right to vote); in the Army
Clothing Works the government employs women either directly or indirectly
(as home-workers through sweaters).[50]
The urgent need of widening woman's field of labor and improving her
conditions of labor is clearly stated in a lecture which Miss B. L.
Hutchins delivered before the Royal Statistical Society. According to the
census of 1901 there were 1,070,000 more women than men in Great Britain.
In 1901, of every 1000 persons 516 were women (in 1841, only 511 were
women). The longevity of women is higher than that of men (47.77 to
44.13). When the old age pensions were introduced, 135 women to every 100
men applied for aid. Only half of the adult women (5,700,000) are provided
for through marriage, and then only for 20 to 30 years of their lives.
Previous to marriage, and afterward, most of the women are dependent on
their own work for a living. Because English women know from experience
that their conditions of labor can be improved only through the exercise
of the suffrage, they have adopted their "militant tactics."
In the field of poor-relief England again has taken the lead, inasmuch as
she has permitted women to fill honorary posts in the municipal
administration of the poor-law. At the present time 1162 women are engaged
in this work, 147 of whom are rural district councillors.
The chief reform efforts of the women were directed to the care of
children and to the workhouses, through which channels private aid reaches
the recipient. Still, among 22,000 guardians of the poor the number of
women hardly reaches 1000. The old prejudice against women asserted itself
even in this field. A "Society for Promoting the Return of Women as
Poor-law Guardians" is endeavoring to hasten reform.[51]
The Englishman has the valuable characteristic of forming organizations
that strive to achieve very definite, though often temporary, ends, thus
giving private initiative great flexibility. Such an organization, with a
limited purpose, is the "Woman's Cooperative Gild," founded in 1883. Its
purpose is to promote the cooperative movement (as far as consumption is
concerned) among women, and to show them their enormous social and
economic power as _consumers_. Women are the chief purchasers, as they
purchase the housekeeping supplies. It is to their interest to purchase
through the cooperative associations that exclude the middlemen, and at
the end of the year pay a dividend to the members of the associations.
These associations can exercise an important social influence inasmuch as
they create model conditions of labor for their employees (short working
day, high wages, early closing of the shops, no work on Sundays or
holidays, opportunity to sit down during working hours, insurance against
sickness, old age insurance, sanitary conditions of labor, etc.). The Gild
organizes women into cooperative societies, and by theoretical as well as
practical studies informs the women of the advantages of the cooperative
system. The movement to-day numbers 26,000 members.
In England a marked increase in the use of alcoholic liquors among women
was noticed; whereupon legal and medical measures were taken to curb the
evil. The most effective measure would be an attack on the drunkenness of
the husband, which destroys the home.
The official report of the first English school for mothers, located in
St. Pancras, London, has just appeared. This report shows that the
experiment has been entirely successful. Of all measures to decrease the
death rate among children, the establishment of schools for mothers is the
best. During the course of instruction the young married women were
recommended to organize mothers' clubs in order to secure the necessaries
of life more cheaply. The school for mothers also attempts to give the
young mothers nourishing meals, which can be furnished for the low sum of
2-3/4 pence (about 6 cents).
In the field of morals English women have achieved a success which might
well excite the envy of other countries; viz. the repeal of the law of
1869 concerning the state regulation of prostitution. The law had hardly
been accepted by an accidental majority when public opinion, under the
leadership of members of Parliament, doctors, and preachers, protested
against the measure. Nothing made such an impression as the public
appearance of a woman on behalf of the repeal of this measure concerning
women. In spite of all scorn, all feigned and frequently malicious
pretensions not to comprehend her, in spite of all attempts, frequently
brutal, to browbeat her,--Josephine Butler from 1870 to 1886 unswervingly
supported the view that the regulation was to be condemned from the legal,
sanitary, and moral viewpoint. Through the tireless work of Mrs. Butler
and her faithful associates, Parliament in 1886 repealed the act providing
for the regulation of prostitution. Since 1875, Mrs. Butler has organized
internationally the struggle against the official regulation of
prostitution. On December 30, 1906, death came to the noble woman.
Conditions in England are an evidence of how much more difficult it is for
the woman's rights movement to make progress in _old_ countries than in
new. Traditions are deeply rooted, customs are firmly established, the
whole weight of the past is blocking the wheels of progress. In countries
with older civilization the woman's question is entirely a question of
force.[52]
CANADA
Total population: 5,372,600.
Women: 2,619,578.
Men: 2,751,473.
Canadian Federation of Women's Clubs.
Canadian Woman's Suffrage Association.
Politically Canada belongs to England, geographically it is a part of
North America. The Canadian women take a keen interest in the woman's
rights movement of the United States, which is setting them an excellent
example. The last congress of the "International Council of Women" met in
Toronto, Canada, under the presidency of Lady Aberdeen, the present
president and the wife of the former governor-general of Canada. Canada is
a large, young, agricultural country with large families and primitive
needs. Therefore the progress of the woman's rights movement is less
marked in Canada than in the United States and England. Throughout Canada
the workingwoman is paid less than the workingman, partly because she is
more poorly trained, partly because she is kept in subordinate positions,
partly because, in order to find work at all, she must offer her services
for less money. Even when teaching, or doing piecework, woman is paid less
than man. In Canada there is as yet no political woman's rights movement
strong enough to rectify this injustice by means of organizations and laws
as has been done in Australia. As yet there are no women preachers in
Canada. Women lawyers are confronted both with popular prejudice and legal
obstacles. The study and practice of medicine is made very difficult for
women, especially in Quebec and Montreal. In New Brunswick and Ontario as
well as in the northwest provinces there is a more liberal attitude toward
women's pursuit of higher education. No Canadian university excludes women
entirely, but not a few of the higher institutions of learning refuse
women admission to certain courses and refuse to grant certain degrees.
The prevailing property laws in the eastern part of Canada legalize joint
property holding (and we know what that means for woman); in the western
part there is separation of property rights or at least separate control
over earnings, the wife having full control of her wages. The male
Canadian, when twenty-one years old, becomes a voter and has full
political rights.[53] But the Canadian woman has only restricted suffrage
rights. Unmarried women that are taxpayers exercise only active suffrage
in _municipal and school elections_. Each province has its own laws
regulating these conditions of suffrage.
The Copenhagen Congress (1906) of the International Woman's Suffrage
Alliance promoted the cause of woman's suffrage in Canada very
considerably. At a public meeting in which the Canadian delegate, Mrs.
MacDonald Denison, gave a report of the work of the International
Congress, a resolution favoring woman's suffrage was adopted, and this was
used very effectively in propaganda. This propaganda was carried on among
women's clubs, students' clubs, debating clubs, etc. The intellectual
elite is to-day in favor of woman's suffrage. In 1907 the Canadian Woman's
Suffrage Association, supported by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union,
the Women Teachers, the Medical Alumnae, the Progressive Thought
Association, the Toronto Local Council of Women, and the Progressive Club,
sent a delegation to the Mayor and Council of the city of Toronto to
express their support of a resolution which the Council had drawn up
favoring the right of married women to vote in municipal elections. Thus
supported, the resolution was presented to the authorized commission, but
here it was weakened by an amendment (granting the suffrage only to
married women _owning property_). The author of this amendment, a member
of the Toronto City Council, received his reward for this kindness to the
women in the form of a defeat at the next election.
Organizations favoring woman's suffrage have been founded throughout the
country (Halifax, Nova Scotia; St. John, New Brunswick). Woman's suffrage
advocates speak in mass meetings and in men's clubs, etc.[54]
A demand for woman's suffrage, made by the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union, was answered evasively by the Prime Minister, Sir Wilfred
Laurier,--the provincial parliaments must take the matter up first, then
the Dominion Parliament can consider it. In the spring of 1909 the City
Council of Toronto sent a petition favoring woman's suffrage to the
Canadian Parliament, and at the same time 1000 woman's suffrage advocates
called on the Prime Minister. The 1909 Congress of the International
Woman's Suffrage Alliance will undoubtedly help the Canadian woman's
suffrage movement.
SOUTH AFRICA
_Natal and Cape Colony_[55]
Total population: 1,830,063.
_Transvaal_
Total population: 1,354,200.
Woman's Suffrage Association for all three countries.
In South Africa, Natal was the leader in the woman's rights movement. In
1902, through the work of Mr. and Mrs. Ancketill, the Woman's Equal
Suffrage League was organized, which endeavored primarily to interest and
educate its members. Later, in 1904, public propaganda was begun. In June
a petition was presented to the Lower House by Mr. Ancketill. When he
presented the matter in the form of a motion, it was not put to a vote,
owing to the newness of the subject. The agricultural population opposes
woman's suffrage; the urban population favors it. The woman's rights
movement is made difficult in South Africa by the following circumstances:
An enervating climate "that makes people languidly content with things as
they are." The lack of educated and independent women (women teachers are
state employees); the lack of a numerous class of workingwomen; difficult
housekeeping, owing to the untrustworthiness of the natives as domestic
servants; the peculiar position of men as taxpayers (men only pay a poll
tax) and as arms bearers (all men must serve in the army).[56]
In Cape Colony similar conditions prevail. The Women's Enfranchisement
League was formed in 1907; and in July, 1907, there took place the first
woman's suffrage debate in Parliament. The woman's suffrage societies of
Natal, Cape Colony, and the Transvaal have formed an association and have
joined the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance. In Natal and Cape
Colony women taxpayers exercise the right to vote in municipal affairs.
The regulation of the suffrage qualifications for the Federal Parliament
is being considered. The South African delegates in London (1909)
expressed the fear that women would not be given the federal suffrage.
THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES
_Sweden_
Total population: 5,377,713.
Women: 2,751,257.
Men: 2,626,456.
_Finland_
Total population: 2,712,562.
Women: 1,370,480.
Men: 1,342,082.
_Norway_
Total population: 2,240,860.
Women: 1,155,169.
Men: 1,085,691.
_Denmark_
Total population: 2,588,919.
Women: 1,331,154.
Men: 1,257,765.
Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark will be grouped together since they
are so closely connected by race and culture; repetition will thereby be
avoided, and clearness promoted.
All four countries have the advantage of having a population largely
agricultural,--a population scattered in small groups. Clearly, the
problem of dealing with congested masses of people is here absent.
Everywhere there is an eagerness for education. The educational average is
high. The position of woman is one of freedom, for here have been kept
alive the old Germanic traditions which we [the Germans] know only from
reading Caesar or Tacitus. An external factor in hastening the solution of
the question of woman's rights was the very unusual numerical superiority
of women. The foreign wars, which took the majority of the men away from
home for long periods of time,--first in the Middle Ages, and then again
in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,--and the fact that the
Scandinavian countries themselves were afflicted with wars only to a small
extent, explain the freedom of the Scandinavian women. Like the English
women, they had for centuries not known the significance of war for woman.
In the absence of the men, women continued the transaction of business and
industrial enterprises. In the name of the feudal law and as heads of
families they administered affairs, exercising rights that were elsewhere
denied to women.
SWEDEN
Total population: 5,377,213.
Women: 2,751,257.
Men: 2,626,456.
Swedish Association of Women's Clubs.
Woman's Suffrage Society.
In Sweden the woman's rights movement is closely connected with that of
the United States. The founder of the Swedish woman's rights movement was
Frederika Bremer, who in 1845 visited the United States, studying the
conditions of the women there. Upon her return she encouraged the Swedish
women through her novel _Hertha_ to emancipate themselves. This took place
in 1856. The government, being unable to disregard the free traditions of
the past, was thoroughly in favor of the demands of the woman's rights
movement. As early as 1700, women owning property exercised the right of
voting in the election of ministers. In 1843 this right had been extended
to all women taxpayers. In 1845 the daughter's right of inheritance had
been made equal to that of the son's. In 1853 was begun the custom of
appointing women teachers in the small rural schools; in 1859 women were
admitted as teachers in all public institutions of learning. Since 1861
women have been eligible as dentists, regimental surgeons, and organists
(but not as preachers). In 1862 every unmarried woman or widow over
twenty-one years of age, and paying a tax of 500 crowns (about $135), was
granted active suffrage in municipal affairs. The municipal electors,
inasmuch as they elect the members of the _Landsthing_ (county council)
and the members of the town councils, exercise a political influence, for
the members of the _Landsthing_ and the town councils elect the members of
the two Chambers of the _Riksdag_, the national legislative body. On
February 10, 1909, all taxpaying women (unmarried, widowed, and married)
were granted the _passive_ suffrage (except for the office of county
councillor). Here is a curious fact,--married women that do _not_ possess
the right to vote in municipal affairs can still hold office!
In 1866 the art academies were opened to women, in 1870, the universities;
later women were permitted to enter the postal and telegraph service. In
peculiar contrast to these reforms are the old regulations concerning the
guardianship of women,[57] which has been especially supported by the
nobility and conservatives, and has been used chiefly to maintain the
subordination of married women.
Against this condition the "Association to Advocate the Right of Married
Women to Possess Property" has struggled since 1873. It secured, in 1874,
the right of women to make a marriage contract providing for the
separation of property.[58] This association now undertook the political
education of the women voters in municipal elections; hitherto they had
made little use of their right to vote (in 1887, of 62,362 women having
the right to vote only 4844 voted). Thanks to the propaganda of this
association, participation in elections is to-day quite general. The
introduction of coeducation in the secondary schools is also due to the
activity of this association, supported by Professor Wallis, who had
investigated coeducation in the United States. But in the field of
secondary education there is still much to be done for Swedish
women,--their salaries as teachers are lower than those of men; in
matters of advancement and pensions women are discriminated against,
though they are expected to possess professional training and ability
equal to that of the men.
In 1889 the Baroness of Adlersparre succeeded, through untiring
propaganda, in securing for women admission to school and poor-law
administration. To the baroness is due also the revival of needlework as
an applied art, as well as the revival of agricultural instruction for
women. All of these ideas she had expressed since 1859 in her magazine
_For the Home_ (_Fuers Heim_).
Since 1884 the center of the Swedish woman's rights movement has been the
"Frederika Bremer League," founded by the Baroness of Adlersparre. This is
a sort of "Woman's Institute," and undertakes inquiries, collects data,
secures employment, organizes members of trades and professions, fixes
minimum wages, organizes petitions, gives advice, offers leadership, gives
stipends; in short, in various ways it centralizes the Swedish women's
rights movement. In 1896 the "Association to Advocate the Right of Married
Women to Possess Property" affiliated with the "Frederika Bremer League."
The following are the facts concerning the work of educated women in
Sweden: The number of elementary school teachers is about double that of
the men (in 1899 there were 9950 women as compared with 5322 men). The
salaries of the women are everywhere lower than those of the men. In 1908
there were 12,000 women teachers in the elementary schools, their annual
salary being 1400 crowns ($375) or more.
There are 35 women doctors in Sweden, most of whom practice in Stockholm.
The Swedish midwives are well trained. Nursing is a respected calling for
educated women; also kinesiatrics (hygienic gymnastics), the latter being
lucrative as well.
The first woman Doctor of Philosophy was Ellen Fries, who received the
degree in 1883. Sonja Kowalewska was a professor in mathematics in the
free University of Stockholm. Ellen Key is also a teacher, her field being
sociology.
In Sweden there are two women university lecturers; one in law, the other
in physics. As yet there are no women lawyers and preachers. The
legislative act of February, 1909, which secures for women their
appointment in all _state_ institutions (educational, scientific,
artistic, and industrial), will greatly improve woman's professional
prospects.
Sweden is not a land of large manufactories; hence there is no problem
arising from the presence of large masses of industrial laborers. Since
1865 the wages of the agricultural laborers have risen 85 per cent for
women and 65 per cent for men. There are 242,914 women engaged in
agriculture, 57,053 in industry,--3400 of the latter being organized.
There are 15,376 women employed in commerce; they are throughout paid
lower wages than the men (400 to 1200 crowns, _i.e._ $107 to $321).
The organization of the workingwomen is not connected with the woman's
rights movement; it is affiliated with the workingmen's movement. In this
field Ellen Key has been quite active as a national educator. She is a
supporter of the laws for the protection of women laborers, and on this
point she has frequently met opposition among the woman's rights advocates
of Sweden (an opposition similar to that offered by the English Federation
for Freedom of Labor Defense). In 1907 an exposition of home-work was held
in Stockholm, similar to the German expositions.
The right to vote in national elections[59] in Sweden is exercised by
landowners and taxpayers; however, only by men. Therefore there is a
Swedish National Woman's Suffrage Society, which in recent years has grown
very considerably, having over 10,000 members. In the autumn of 1906 a
delegation from the society was received by the Prime Minister and the
King, who, however, could hold out no promise of a government measure
favoring woman's suffrage. The society then tried to influence the
Parliament with an enormous petition having 142,188 signatures. This
petition was presented February 6, 1907.
In 1906 and 1907 the Labor party and the Liberal party inserted woman's
suffrage into their platforms and presented bills favoring the measure.
Twice (in 1907 and 1908) Parliament rejected the clause providing for
woman's suffrage. On February 13, 1909, the Swedish males were granted
universal suffrage (active and passive) in national elections; at the same
time Parliament tried to appease the women by granting them the passive
suffrage in municipal elections. In the spring of 1909 the bill concerning
woman's right to vote in national elections (Staaf Bill) was accepted by
the Constitutional Commission by a vote of 11 to 9; the Lower House also
accepted it, but it was rejected by the Upper House.
The political successes of the Norwegian women have a stimulating effect
on Sweden.
Prohibition has influential advocates in Sweden, and supporters in
Parliament. At the request of the Swedish women's clubs, police matrons
were appointed to cooperate with the police regulating prostitution in
Stockholm, Helsingborg, Trelleborg, and Malmoe. At the present time a
commission is considering future plans for police regulation of
prostitution in Sweden.
In Sweden, where there are about half a million organized adherents to
the cause of temperance, there are 77 daily papers that consistently print
matter pertaining to temperance. Not only these 77 papers, most of whose
editors are Good Templars, but at least 13 other dailies refuse all
advertisements of alcoholic liquors.[60] In Norway, where similar
conditions prevail, there are a quarter of a million temperance advocates,
and about 40 daily papers that favor the cause.
FINLAND
Total population: 2,712,562.
Women: 1,370,480.
Men: 1,342,082.
No league of Finnish women's clubs.
No woman's suffrage league.
The discussion of the Finnish woman's rights movement will follow that of
Sweden, for Finland was till 1809 politically a part of Sweden; the
cultural tie still exists.
In Finland also, the woman's rights movement is of literary
origin,--Adelaide Enrooth and Frederika Runeburg preached the gospel of
woman's emancipation to an intellectual elite. Through the influence of
Bjoernson, Ibsen, and Strindberg the discussion of the "social lie"
(_Gesellschaftsluege_) became general. In the eighties of the last
century, the ideas and criticisms were turned into deeds and reforms.
Above all a thorough education for woman was demanded. Since 1883,
coeducational schools have been established through private funds in all
cities of the country. These institutions have received state aid since
1891. They are secondary schools, having the curriculums of German
_Realschulen_ and _Gymnasiums_.[61] Not only is the student body composed
of _boys_ and _girls_, but the direction and instruction in these schools
are divided equally between _women_ and _men_; thereby the predominance of
the men is counteracted. Even before the establishment of these schools
women had privately prepared themselves for the _Abiturientenexamen_
(examinations taken when leaving the secondary schools), and had entered
the University of Helsingfors. In 1870 the first woman entered the
University; in 1873 the second; in 1885 two more followed. To-day, 478
women are registered in Helsingfors. Most of these women are devoting
themselves to the teaching profession, which is more favorable to women in
Finland than in Sweden. The first woman doctor, Rosina Hickel, has been
practicing in Helsingfors since 1879. The number of women doctors has
since risen to 20.
In Finland any reputable person can plead before the court; but there are
no professional women lawyers and no women preachers. However, there are
women architects and women factory inspectors. Since 1864, women have been
employed in the postal service; since 1869, in the telegraph service and
in the railway offices. Here they draw the same salary as the men, when
acting in the same capacity. Commercial callings have been opened to
women, and there is a demand for women as office clerks.
The statistical yearbook for Finland does not give separate statistics
concerning workingwomen. The total number of laborers in 1906 was 113,578.
Perhaps one tenth of these were women,--engaged chiefly in the textile and
paper industries, and in the manufacture of provisions and ready-made
clothing. There are few married women engaged in industrial work. Women
are admitted to membership in the trade-unions.
In a monograph on women engaged in the ready-made clothing industry[62]
are found the following facts (established by official investigation of
621 establishments employing 3205 women laborers): 97.7 per cent of the
women were unmarried, and 2.3 per cent married; the minimum wages were 10
cents a day; the maximum, $1.50; the women laborers living with their
parents or relatives numbered 1358; the sanitary conditions were bad.
Home industry in Finland (as well as in Sweden and Norway) has recently
shown a striking growth. It was on the point of succumbing to the cheap
factory products. In order to perpetuate the industry, schools for
housewives were established in connection with the public high schools in
the rural districts. In these schools were taught, in addition to domestic
science and agriculture, various domestic handicrafts that offered the
women a pleasant and useful activity during the long winters. Not being
carried on intensively, these handicrafts could never lead to exploitation
and overwork.
In 1864 the guardianship of men over unmarried women was abolished.
Married women are still under the guardianship of their husbands. Since
1889, the wife has been able to secure a separation of property by means
of a contract. She has control of her earnings when joint property holding
prevails. The unmarried women taxpayers and landowners have been voters in
municipal elections since 1865. In the rural districts they have also had
the right to hold local administrative offices. Just as in Sweden, they
have the right to participate in the election of ministers; and since 1891
and 1893 they have had active and passive suffrage in regard to school
boards and poor-law administration.
Taking advantage of the collapse of Russia in the Far East, Finland--in
May, 1906--established universal active and passive suffrage for all male
and female citizens over twenty-four years of age. She was the first
European country to take this step. On March 15, 1907, the Finnish women
exercised for the first time the right of suffrage in state elections.
Nineteen women were elected to the Parliament (comprising 200
representatives). The women belonged to all parties, but most of them were
adherents of the Old-Finnish party (having 6 representatives) and of the
Socialist party (having 9 representatives). Ten of the women
representatives were either married or were widows. They belonged quite as
much to the cultured, property-owning class as to the masses. This
Parliament was dissolved in April, 1908. In the new elections of July, 25
women were elected as representatives. Here again most of the elected
women belonged to the Old-Finnish party (with 6 representatives) and to
the Socialists (with 13 representatives). Nine of the women
representatives are married. Of the husbands of these women one is a
doctor, one a clergyman, one a workingman, two are farmers, etc. Of the
unmarried women representatives six are teachers, two are tailors, two are
editors of women's newspapers, four are traveling lecturers, one is a
factory inspector, and there is one Doctor of Philosophy.
In both parliaments the women presented numerous measures, some of general
concern, others bearing on woman's rights.[63] Some of the measures
provided for: the improvement of the legal status of illicit children,
parental authority, the protection of maternity, the abolition of the
husband's guardianship over the wife, the better protection of children,
the protection of the woman on the street, the abolition of the regulation
of prostitution, and the raising of the age of consent.
This list of measures indicates that the Finnish laws regulating marriage
are still antiquated, and that the political emancipation of woman did not
immediately effect her release from legal bondage. One of the Finnish
woman's advocates said, "Our short experience has taught us that we may
still have a hard fight for equal rights."
Not only the antiquated marriage laws are inconsistent with the national
political rights of women; in the municipal election laws, too, woman is
treated unjustly. Married women do not exercise the right of suffrage, and
widows and unmarried women possess the passive suffrage only in the
election of poor-law administrators and school boards. Two woman's
suffrage organizations--_Unionen_ and _Finsk Kvinnoforening_--have
existed since 1906; they have no party affiliations. Two new woman's
suffrage societies--_Swenska Kinnoforbundet_ and _Naitluetto_
(Young-Finnish)--are party organizations.
The bill concerning the abolition of the official regulation of
prostitution has meanwhile become law, replacing the former
unsatisfactory, and for Finland, exceptional law. The law corresponding to
the English Vagrancy Act (supplement to paragraph 45 of the Finnish Civil
Code) provides that "whoever accosts a woman in public places for immoral
purposes shall pay a fine of $50."
On October 31, 1907, the manufacture, importation, sale, or storing of
alcoholic liquors in any form whatever was prohibited by law. In recent
years the Finnish woman temperance lecturer, Trigg Helenius, has carried
on a successful international propaganda.
External and internal difficulties have to the present made impossible the
formation of Finnish women's clubs and a federation of the women voters.
NORWAY
Total population: 2,240,860.
Women: 1,155,169.
Men: 1,085,691.
League of Norwegian Women's Clubs.
Woman's Suffrage Association.
In recent years the Norwegian woman's rights movement has made marked
progress. Just as in the other Scandinavian countries, women were freed as
early as the middle of the nineteenth century from the most burdensome
legal restrictions by a liberal majority in Parliament. In 1854 the
daughters were given the same right of inheritance as the sons, and male
guardianship for unmarried women was abolished. However, the real woman's
rights movement, like that of Sweden and Finland, began in the eighties of
the last century. Aasta Hansteen, Clara Collett, Bjoernson, and Ibsen had
prepared public opinion for the emancipation of women. Like Frederika
Bremer, Aasta Hansteen had emigrated to America owing to the prejudices of
her countrymen; and, again like Frederika Bremer, she returned to her
native land and could rejoice over the progress of the movement which she
had instigated. In 1884 the Norwegian Woman's League was founded. It has
since 1886 published a semimonthly woman's suffrage magazine, _Nylaende_.
In 1887 the Norwegian woman's rights movement won the same victory that
Mrs. Butler had won in England in 1886: the official regulation of
prostitution was abolished (neither in Sweden nor in Denmark has a similar
reform been secured thus far). As early as 1882 several university
faculties had admitted women, and in 1884 women were given the legal
right to secure an academic training, and they were declared eligible to
receive all scholarships and all academic degrees. In 1904 a law was
enacted admitting women to a number of public offices. Paragraph 12 of the
Constitution excludes them from the office of minister in the Cabinet;
they are excluded from consulships on international grounds, from military
offices by the nature of the offices, and from the theological field
through the backwardness of the Norwegian clergy. But they were admitted
to the teaching and legal professions, and to some of the administrative
departments of the government. The law made no discrimination between
married and unmarried women. It is believed that the women can decide best
for themselves whether or not they can combine the work of an
administrative office with their domestic duties.
Hitherto the teaching profession had presented difficulties for women.
Fewer women than men were appointed; the women were given the subordinate
positions and paid lower salaries. The women had energetically protested
against these conditions since the passing of the law of 1904; in 1908
they succeeded in having the magistrate of Christiania raise the initial
salary of women teachers in the elementary schools from 900 crowns ($241)
to 1100 crowns ($295), and the maximum salary from 1500 crowns ($402) to
1700 crowns ($455). In Christiania the women also demanded that women
teachers be given the position of head master; there were many women in
the profession,--2900 in the elementary schools, and 736 in the secondary
schools.
The women shop assistants' trade-union in an open meeting in Christiania
has demanded equal pay for equal work.
By a law passed in May, 1908, women employees in the postal service were
given the same pay as the men employees. As a result of this the women
telegraph operators, supported by the Norwegian Woman's Suffrage
Association, drew up a petition requesting the same concession as was made
the women postal employees, and presented the petition to the government
and the Storthing. This movement favoring an increase of wages was
strongly supported by the woman's suffrage movement.
The women taxpayers (including married women) have possessed active and
passive suffrage in municipal affairs since 1901. The property
qualification requires that a tax of 300 crowns ($80) must be paid in the
rural districts, and 400 crowns ($107) in cities. In 1902 women exercised
the suffrage in municipal affairs for the first time; in Christiania 6
women were elected to municipal offices.
The Norwegian League of Women's Clubs and the woman's suffrage
associations protested to the government and to the Parliament because
suffrage in the national elections had been withheld from the women. The
separation of Sweden and Norway (1906), which concerned the women greatly,
but in which they could exercise no voice, was a striking proof of woman's
powerlessness in civil affairs. Hence the Norwegian Woman's Suffrage
League instituted a woman's ballot, in which 19,000 votes were cast in
favor of separation, none being cast against it.
In 1907 six election bills favorable to woman's suffrage were presented to
the Storthing; and June 10, 1907, _women taxpayers were granted active and
passive suffrage in municipal elections_ (affecting about 300,000 women;
200,000 are still not enfranchised). This right of suffrage is accorded to
married women. The next general elections will take place in 1909.
Since the Norwegian men have active and passive suffrage in parliamentary
elections, the women also made their demands to the Storthing. The
Ministry resolved, in pursuance of this demand, to present the Storthing
with the requisite constitutional amendment (Article 52). The Storthing
requested that before the next municipal elections (1910) the Ministry
present a satisfactory bill providing for woman's suffrage in municipal
elections. At the present time 142 women are city councilors (122 in the
cities). In the autumn of 1909 women will for the first time participate
in the parliamentary elections.
At two congresses of the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance
(Amsterdam, in 1908; and London, in 1909), Norway was officially
represented by the wife of the Minister of State, Qvam.
The emancipation of women legally and in the professions had preceded
their political emancipation. Norwegian women first practiced as dentists
in 1872; since 1884, women have been druggists and have practiced
medicine. They practice in all large cities. There are 38 women engaged as
physicians for the courts, as school physicians, as university assistants
in museums and laboratories, and as sanitary officers. Since 1904 there
have been two women lawyers. _Cand. jur._ Elisa Sam was the first woman to
profit by this reform. The first woman university professor was Mrs.
Matilda Schjott in Christiania; to-day there are three such professors.
There are 37 women architects. In 1888 married women were given the right
to make marriage contracts providing for separate property holding. Even
where there is joint property holding, the wife controls her earnings.
In Norway the law protects the illegitimate mother and her child better
than elsewhere. The Norwegian law regards and punishes as accomplices in
infanticide all those that drive a woman to such a step,--the illicit
father, the parents, the guardians, and employers, who desert a woman in
such circumstances and put her out into the street. Since 1891, women have
been eligible to hold office as poor-law administrators; since 1899 they
can be members of school boards. The number of workingwomen is 67,000. Of
these 2000 are organized.
DENMARK
Total population: 2,588,919.
Women: 1,331,154.
Men: 1,257,765.
Federation of Danish Women's Clubs.
Woman's Suffrage League.
The origin of the woman's rights movement in Denmark is also literary,--to
Frederika Bremer in Sweden, Aasta Hansteen and Clara Collett in Norway,
must be added as emancipators, Mathilda Fibiger and Pauline Worm in
Denmark. The writings of both of these women in favor of
emancipation,--"Clara Raphael's Letters" and "Sensible People,"--date back
as far as 1848; they were inspired by the liberal ideas prevailing in
Germany previous to the "March Revolution." An _organized_ woman's rights
movement did not come into being until twenty-five years later. A liberal
parliamentary majority in Denmark abolished, in 1857, male guardianship
over unmarried women; and in 1859 established the equal inheritance
rights of daughters, thus following the example of Sweden and Norway. It
was necessary first to secure the support of public opinion through a
literary discussion of woman's rights. This was carried on between 1868
and 1880 by Georg Brandes, who translated John Stuart Mill's _The
Subjection of Women_, and by Bjoernson and Ibsen. In 1871 Representative
Bajer and his wife organized the first woman's rights society, the "Danish
Woman's Club," which rapidly spread throughout Denmark. At first the Club
endeavored to secure a more thorough education for women, and therefore
labored for the improvement of the girls' high schools, and for the
institution of coeducational schools. In 1876 it secured the admission of
women to the University of Copenhagen.
In the teaching profession women are employed in greater numbers, and are
better paid than in Sweden at the present time. There are 3003 women
elementary school teachers and 2240 women teachers in the high schools. As
yet there are no women lecturers or professors in the university.[64]
Since 1860, women have filled subordinate positions in the postal and
telegraph services, and since 1889 they have also filled the higher
positions; there are in all 1500 women employees. The subordinate
positions in the national and local administrations are to a certain
extent open to them. The number of women engaged in industrial pursuits is
47,617; the number of domestic servants, 89,000. The domestic servants are
organized only to a limited extent (800 being organized). The women in the
industries are better organized,--chiefly in the same trade-unions as the
men. In 1899 the women comprised one fifth of the total number of
organized laborers; since then this proportion has increased considerably.
The average wages of the women domestic servants are 20 crowns ($5.36) a
month; the average wages of the workingwomen are from 2 to 2.5 crowns (53
to 67 cents) a day.
Since 1880 the wife can secure separate property holding rights through a
marriage contract. Where joint property holding prevails, the wife
controls her own earnings and savings. In 1888 municipal suffrage was
demanded by the "Danish Woman's Club," but the _Rigsdag_ rejected the
measure. Since then the question has occupied much attention. In 1906 the
Congress of the Woman's International Suffrage Alliance performed
excellent propaganda work. New woman's suffrage societies were organized,
and the older societies were enlarged.[65] In the meantime the bill
concerning municipal suffrage was being sent from one House to the other.
Finally, on February 26, 1908, it was adopted by the Upper House, on April
14 by the Lower House, and on April 20 signed by the King. All taxpayers,
twenty-five years of age, were permitted to vote. All classes of
women--widows, unmarried, and married women--were enfranchised. They have
active and passive suffrage. In March, 1909, they exercised both rights
for the first time. The participation in the election was general; six
women were elected in Copenhagen. The women are now demanding the suffrage
in national affairs. Immediately after the victory of 1908 the Woman's
Suffrage League organized strong demonstrations in forty cities in favor
of this demand.
Here it must be mentioned that the women in Iceland were granted, in the
autumn of 1907, active and passive suffrage in municipal affairs. In
January, 1908, they participated in the elections for the first time. In
Reikiavik, the capital, 2850 people voted, 1220 of whom were women. Four
women were elected to the city council, one polling the highest number of
votes. In 1909, the Icelandic Woman's Suffrage League joined the
International Woman's Suffrage Alliance. A number of Icelandic woman's
suffrage societies in Canada have affiliated with the Canadian Woman's
Suffrage League.
On March 30, 1906, official regulation of prostitution was abolished in
Denmark; but a new law of similar character was enacted providing for
stringent measures.
THE NETHERLANDS
Total population: 5,673,237.
Women: 2,583,535.
Men 2,520,602.
Federation of the Netherlands Women's Clubs.
Woman's Suffrage League.
Although women are in a numerical superiority in the Netherlands, it is
much less difficult for them to find non-domestic employment than it is
for the German women, for instance. The Netherlands has large colonies and
therefore a good market for its male workers. The educated Dutchman is
kindly disposed toward the woman's rights movement, and in the educated
circles the wife really enjoys rights equal to those of the husband, which
is less frequently the case among the lower classes. The marriage laws are
based on the Code Napoleon, which, however, was considerably altered in
1838. The guardianship of the husband over the wife still prevails.
According to paragraph 160 of the Civil Code the husband controls the
personal property that the wife acquires; but he administers her real
estate only with the wife's consent. According to paragraph 163 of the
Civil Code the wife cannot give away, sell, mortgage, or acquire anything
independently. She can do those things only with her husband's written
consent. No marriage contract can annul _this_ requirement; but the wife
can stipulate the independent control of her income. According to
paragraph 1637 of the Civil Code the wife is permitted to control for _the
benefit of the family_ the money that she earns while fulfilling a labor
contract. Affiliation cases, it is true, are recognized by law, but under
considerable restrictions.
The first sign of the woman's rights movement manifested itself in the
Netherlands in 1846. At that time a woman appeared in public for the first
time as a speaker. She was the Countess Mahrenholtz-Buelow, who introduced
kindergartens (_Froebelsystem_) into the Netherlands.
In 1857 elementary education was made compulsory in the Netherlands. At
that time this instruction was free, undenominational, and under the
control of the state; but in 1889 it was partly given over into
denominational and private hands. The secondary schools for girls are
partly municipal, partly private. Most of the elementary schools are
coeducational; in the secondary schools the sexes are segregated; in the
higher institutions of learning coeducation prevails, the right of girls
to attend being granted as a matter of course. Girls were admitted to the
high schools also without any opposition. These measures were due to
Minister Thorbecke. Thirty years ago the first woman registered at the
University of Leyden. Women study and are granted degrees in all
departments of the universities of Leyden, Utrecht, Groeningen, and
Amsterdam. In the elementary, secondary, and higher institutions of
learning, there are fewer women teachers than men, and the salary of the
women teachers is lower. Women are now being appointed as science teachers
in boys' schools also. The government is planning measures opposed to
having married women as teachers and as employees in the postal service.
The women's clubs are vigorously protesting against this. Women serve as
examination commissioners and as members of school boards, though in small
numbers. The city school boards rely almost entirely upon women for
supervising the instruction in needlework. Since 1904 two women were
appointed as state school inspectors, with salaries only sufficient for
maintenance.
In the Netherlands there are 20 women doctors (31 including those in the
colonies), 57 women druggists, 5 women lawyers, and one woman lecturer in
the University of Groeningen. There are three women preachers in the
Liberal "League of Protestants." Since 1899 4 women have been factory
inspectors; 2, prison superintendents; 2, superintendents of rural
schools. Thirty-four are in the courts for the protection of wards. Women
participate in the care of the poor and the care of dependent children.
The care of dependent children is in the hands of a national society, _Pro
juventute_, which aided in securing juvenile courts in the Netherlands.
Especially useful in the education and support of workingwomen has been
the Tessel Benefit Society (_Tessel Schadeverein_), which is national in
its organization.
It will be well to state here that the appointment of women factory
inspectors was secured in a rather original manner. In 1898 a national
exhibition of commodities produced by women was held in the Hague. In a
conspicuous place the women placed an empty picture frame with this
inscription: "The Women Inspectors of all These Commodities Produced by
Women." This hastened results.
The shop assistants of both sexes organized themselves conjointly in
Amsterdam in 1898. There are two organizations of domestic servants. The
Dutch woman's rights advocates proved by investigation that for the same
work the workingwomen--because they were women--were paid 50 per cent less
than men. The "Workingwomen's Information Bureau," which was made into a
permanent institution as a result of the exhibition of 1898, has been
concerning itself with the protection of workingwomen and with their
organization. The women organizers belong to the middle class. The
Socialist party in the Netherlands has been organizing workingwomen into
trade-unions. In this the party has encountered the same difficulties as
exist elsewhere; to the present time it can point only to small successes.
Two of the Socialist woman's rights advocates are Henrietta Roland and
Roosje Vos. Henrietta Roland is of middle-class parentage, being the
daughter of a lawyer; she is the wife of an artist of repute. Roosje Vos,
on the contrary, comes from the lower classes. Both of these women played
an important part in the strike of 1903. They organized the "United
Garment Workers' Union."
In spite of the fact that a woman can be ruler of the Netherlands, the
Dutch women possess only an insignificant right of suffrage. In the dike
associations they have a right to vote if they are taxpayers or own
property adjoining the dikes. In June, 1908, the Lutheran Synod gave women
the same right to vote in church affairs as the men possess. The
Evangelical Synod, on the other hand, rejected a similar measure as well
as one providing for the ordaining of women preachers. An attempt to
secure municipal suffrage for women failed, and resulted in the enactment
of reactionary laws.
In 1883 Dr. Aletta Jacobs (the first woman doctor in the Netherlands),
acting on the advice of the well-known jurist--and later Minister--van
Houten, requested an Amsterdam magistrate to enter her name on the list of
municipal electors. As a taxpayer she was entitled to this right. At the
same time she requested Parliament to grant her the suffrage in national
elections. Both requests were summarily refused. In order to make such
requests impossible in the future, parliament inserted the word "male" in
the election law.[66] These occurrences aroused in the Dutch women an
interest in political affairs; and in 1894 they organized a "Woman's
Suffrage Society," which soon spread to all parts of the country. The
Liberals, Radicals, Liberal Democrats, and Socialists admitted women
members to their political clubs and frequently consulted the women
concerning the selection of candidates. The clubs of the Conservative and
Clerical parties have refused to admit women. At the general meeting in
1906 a part of the members of the "Woman's Suffrage Society" separated
from the organization and formed the "Woman's Suffrage League" (the _Bond
voor Vrouwenkiesrecht_,--the older organization was called _Vereeniging
voor Vrouenkiesrecht_). Both carry on an energetic propaganda in the
entire country, the older organization being the more radical. In 1908 the
older organization made all necessary preparations for the Amsterdam
Congress of the Woman's Suffrage Alliance, which resulted in a large
increase in its membership (from 3500 to 6000), and resulted, furthermore,
in the founding of a Men's League for Woman's Suffrage (modeled after the
English organization). The question of woman's suffrage has aroused a
lively interest throughout the Netherlands; even the _Bond_ increased its
membership during the winter of 1908 and 1909 from 1500 to 3500.
In September, 1908, there were two great demonstrations in the Hague in
favor of _universal_ suffrage for both men and women. The right to vote in
Holland is based on the payment of a property tax or ground rent;
therefore numerous proposals in favor of widening the suffrage had been
made previously. When a liberal ministry came into power in 1905, it
undertook a reform of the suffrage laws; in 1907 the Committee on the
Constitution, by a vote of six out of seven, recommended that Parliament
grant active and passive suffrage to men and women. But with the fall of
the Liberal ministry fell the hope of having this measure enacted, for
there is nothing to be expected from the present government, composed of
Catholic and Protestant Conservatives. As has already been stated,
propaganda is in the meantime being carried on with increasing vigor, and
in Java a woman's suffrage society has also been organized. A noted
jurist, who is a member of the Dutch _Bond voor Vrouwenkiesrecht_, has
just issued a pamphlet in which he proves the necessity of granting
woman's suffrage: "Man makes the laws. Wherever the interests of the
unmarried or the married woman are in conflict with the interests of man,
the rights of the woman will be set aside. This is injurious to man,
woman, and child, and it blocks progress. The remedy is to be found only
in woman's suffrage. The granting of woman's suffrage is an urgent demand
of justice."
SWITZERLAND[67]
Total population: 3,313,817.
Women: about 1,700,000.
Men: about 1,616,000.
Federation of Swiss Women's Clubs.
Woman's Suffrage League.
Switzerland's existence and welfare depend on the harmony of the German,
the French, and the Italian elements of the population. Switzerland is
accustomed to considering three racial elements; out of three different
demands it produces one acceptable compromise. Naturally the Swiss woman's
rights movement has steadily developed in the most peaceful manner. No
literary manifesto, no declaration of principles of freedom is at the root
of this movement. It is supported by public opinion, which is gradually
being educated to the level of the demands of the movement. The woman's
rights movement began in Switzerland as late as 1880; in 1885 the Swiss
woman's club movement was started. The Federation of Women's Clubs is made
up of cantonal women's clubs in Zurich, Berne, Geneva, St. Gallen, Basel,
Lausanne, Neuchatel, and in other cities, as well as of intercantonal
clubs, such as the "Swiss Public Utility Woman's Club" (_Schweizer
Gemeinnuetziger Verein_), "la Fraternite," the "Intercantonal Committee of
Federated Women," etc. Recently a Catholic woman's league was formed.
Since 50 per cent of the Swiss women remain unmarried, the woman's rights
movement is a social necessity. In the field of education the authorities
have been favorable to women in every way. In nine cantons the elementary
schools are coeducational. There are public institutions for higher
learning for girls in all cities. In German Switzerland (Zurich,
Winterthur, St. Gallen, Berne) girls are admitted to the higher
institutions of learning for boys, or they can prepare themselves in the
girls' schools for the examination required for entrance to the
universities (_Matura_). There are 18 seminaries that admit girls only;
the seminaries in Kuessnacht, Rorschach, and Croie are coeducational.
Women teachers are not appointed in the elementary schools of the cantons
of Glarus and Appenzell-Outer-Rhodes. On the other hand in the cantons of
Geneva, Neuchatel, and Ticino 59 to 66 per cent of the teachers in the
elementary schools are women. They are given lower salaries than the men.
The canton of Zurich pays (by law) equal wages to its men and women
teachers, but the additional salary paid by the municipalities and rural
districts to the men teachers is greater than that paid to the women. In
its elementary schools the canton of Vaud employs 500 women teachers, some
of whom are married. The Swiss universities have been open to women since
the early sixties of the nineteenth century. As in France, the native
women use this right far less than foreign women, especially Russians and
Germans. The total number of women studying in the Swiss universities is
about 700. Most of the Swiss women that have studied in the universities
enter the teaching profession. Women are frequently employed as teachers
in high schools, as clerks, and as librarians. Sometimes these positions
are filled by foreign women.
The first woman lecturer in a university in which German is the language
used has been employed in Berne since 1898. She is Dr. Anna Tumarkin, a
native Russian, having the right to teach in universities aesthetics and
the history of modern philosophy. In 1909 she was appointed professor. In
each of the universities of Zurich, Berne, and Geneva, a woman has been
appointed as university lecturer. Women doctors practice in all of the
larger cities. There are twelve in Zurich. The city council of Zurich has
decided to furnish free assistance to women during confinement, and to
establish a municipal maternity hospital. In Zurich there has been
established for women a hospital entirely under the control of women; the
chief physician is Frau Dr. Heim. The practice of law has been open to
women in the canton of Zurich since 1899, and in the canton of Geneva
since 1904. Miss Anna Mackenroth, _Dr. jur._, a native German, was the
first Swiss woman lawyer. Miss Nelly Favre was the second. Miss Dr.
Bruestlein was refused admission to the bar in Berne. Miss Favre was the
first woman to plead before the Federal Court in Berne, the capital. As
yet there are no women preachers in Switzerland. In Lausanne there is a
woman engineer. In the field of technical schools for Swiss women, much
remains to be done. The commercial education of women is also neglected by
the state, while the professional training of men is everywhere promoted.
Women are employed in the postal and telegraph service. The Swiss hotel
system offers remunerative positions and thoroughly respectable callings
to women of good family. In 1900 the number of women laborers was 233,912;
they are engaged chiefly in the textile and ready-made clothing
industries, in lacemaking, cabinetmaking, and the manufacture of food
products, pottery, perfumes, watches and clocks, jewelry, embroidery, and
brushes.[68] Owing to French influence, laws for the protection of women
laborers are opposed, especially in Geneva. The inspection of factories is
largely in the hands of men. Home industry is a blessing in certain
regions, a curse in others. This depends on the intensity of the work and
on the degree of industrialism. The trade-union movement is still very
weak among women laborers. According to the canton the movement has a
purely economic or a socialist-political character. Only a few
organizations of workingwomen belong to the Swiss Federation of Women's
Clubs. Since 1891 the men's trade-unions have admitted women. The first
women factory inspectors were appointed in 1908. According to the census
of August 9, 1905, 92,136 persons in Switzerland are engaged in home
industry; this number is 28.3 per cent of the total number of persons
(325,022) engaged in these industries. The foremost of the home
industries is the manufacture of embroidery, engaging a total of 65,595
persons, of whom 53.5 per cent work at home. The next important home
industries are silk-cloth weaving, engaging 12,478 persons (41 per cent of
the total employed); watch making, engaging 12,071 persons in home
industry (or 23.7 per cent of the total); silk-ribbon weaving, engaging
7557 persons (or 51.9 per cent of the total). The highest percentage of
home workers is found among the straw plaiters (78.8 per cent); then
follow the military uniform tailors (60.1 per cent), the embroidery makers
(53.5 per cent), the wood carvers and ivory carvers (52 per cent), the
silk-ribbon weavers (51.9 per cent), and the ready-made clothing workers
(49.3 per cent). The International Association for Labor Legislation, as
everybody knows, is trying to ascertain whether an international
regulation of labor conditions is possible in the embroidery-making
industry. The statistics just given indicate the importance of this
investigation for Switzerland. The statistics of the home industries of
Switzerland will be found in the ninth issue of the second volume of the
Swiss Statistical Review (_Zeitschrift fuer Schweizerische Statistik_).
The new Swiss law for the protection of women laborers has produced a
number of genuine improvements for the workingwomen. A maximum working
day of 10 hours and a working week of 60 hours have been established.
Women can work overtime not more than 60 days a year; they are then paid
at least 25 per cent extra. The most significant innovation is the legal
regulation of _vacations_. Every laborer that is not doing piecework or
being paid by the hour must, after one year of continuous service for the
same firm, be granted six consecutive days of vacation with full pay;
after two years of continuous service for the same firm the laborer must
be given eight days; after three years of service ten days; and after the
fourth year twelve days annually. A violation of this law renders the
offending employer liable to a fine of 200 to 300 francs ($40 to $60).
In 1912 a new civil code will come into force. Its composition has been
influenced by the German Civil Code. The government, however, regarded the
"Swiss Federation of Women's Clubs" as the representative of the women,
and charged a member of the code commission to put himself into
communication with the executive committee of the Federation and to
express the wishes of the Federation at the deliberations of the
committee. This is better than nothing, but still insufficient. When the
civil code had been adopted, every male elector was given a copy; the
women's clubs secured copies only after prolonged effort.
The property laws in the new Swiss Civil Code provide for joint property
holding,--not separation of property rights. However, even with joint
property holding the wife's earnings and savings belong to her (a
provision which the German cantons opposed). On the other hand,
affiliation cases are admissible (the French cantons opposed them). The
wife has the full status of a legal person before the law and full civil
ability, and _shares parental authority with the father_. French
Switzerland (through the influence of the Code Napoleon) opposes the
pecuniary responsibility of the illegal father toward the mother and
child. Official regulation of prostitution has been abolished in all the
cantons except Geneva; several years ago a measure to introduce it again
was rejected by the people of the Canton Zurich by a vote of 40,000 to
18,000. Geneva is the headquarters of the International Federation for the
Abolition of the Official Regulation of Prostitution. In 1909 the
abolition of the official regulation of prostitution was again demanded in
the city council.
By a vote of the people the Canton Vaud accepted a measure prohibiting the
manufacture, storage, and sale of absinthe.
Recently the Swiss women have presented a petition requesting that an
illicit mother be granted the right to call herself "Frau" and use this
designation (Mrs.) before her name. The benevolent purpose of this
movement is self-evident. Through this measure the illicit mother is
placed in a position enabling her openly to devote herself to the rearing
of her child. With this purpose in view, not less than 10,000 women have
signed a petition to the Swiss Federal Council, requesting that a law be
enacted compelling registrars to use the title "Frau" (Mrs.) when
requested to do so by the person concerned. Thirty-four women's clubs have
collectively declared in favor of this petition.
Women exercise the right of municipal suffrage only in those localities
whose male population is absent at work during a large part of the year
(as in Russia). Women can be elected as members of school boards and as
poor-law administrators in the Canton Zurich; as members of school boards
in the Canton Neuchatel. The question of granting women the right to vote
in church affairs has long been advocated in the Canton Geneva by the
Reverend Thomas Mueller, a member of the Consistory of the National
Protestant Church, and by Herr Locher, Chief of the Department of Public
Instruction of the Canton Zurich. In the Canton Geneva, where there is
separation of church and state, agitation in favor of the reform is being
carried on. The women in the Canton Vaud have exercised the right to vote
in the _Eglise libre_ since 1899, and in the _Eglise nationale_ since
1908. Since 1909, women have exercised the right to vote in the _Eglise
evangelique libre_ of Geneva. The woman's suffrage movement was really
started by the renowned Professor Hilty, of Berne, who declared himself
(in the Swiss Year Book of 1897) in _favor_ of woman's suffrage. The first
society concerning itself exclusively with woman's suffrage originated in
Geneva (_Association pour le suffrage feminin_). Later other organizations
were formed in Lausanne, Chaux de Fonds, Neuenburg, and Olten. The Woman's
Reading Circle of Berne had, since 1906, demanded political rights for
women, and the Zurich Society for the Reform of Education for Girls had
worked in favor of woman's suffrage. On May 12, 1908, these seven
societies organized themselves into the National Woman's Suffrage League,
and in June affiliated with the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance.
The Report of the International Woman's Suffrage Congress, Amsterdam,
1908, explains in a very lucid manner the political backwardness of the
Swiss women: Switzerland regards itself as the model democracy; time has
been required to make it clear that politically the women of this model
state still have everything to achieve. The meeting of the Committee of
the International Council of Women in Geneva (September, 1908)
accomplished much for the movement.
The Swiss Woman's Public Utility Association, which had refused to join
the Swiss Federation of Women's Clubs because the Federation concerned
itself with political affairs (the Public Utility Association wishing to
restrict itself to public utilities only), was given this instructive
answer by Professor Hilty: "Public utility and politics are not mutually
exclusive; an educated woman that wishes to make a living without
troubling herself about politics is incomprehensible to me. The women
ought to take Carlyle's words to heart: 'We are not here to submit to
everything, but also to oppose, carefully to watch, and to win.'"
GERMANY
Total population: 61,720,529.
Women: 31,259,429.
Men: 30,461,100.
German Federation of Women's Clubs.
Woman's Suffrage League.
In no European country has the woman's rights movement been confronted
with more unfavorable conditions; nowhere has it been more persistently
opposed. In recent times the women of no other country have lived through
conditions of war such as the German women underwent during the Thirty
Years' War and from 1807 to 1812. Such violence leaves a deep imprint on
the character of a nation.
Moreover, it has been the fate of no other civilized nation to owe its
political existence to a war triumphantly fought out in less than one
generation. Every war, every accentuation and promotion of militarism is a
weakening of the forces of civilization and of woman's influence. "German
masculinity is still so young," I once heard somebody say.
A reinforcement of the woman's rights movement by a large Liberal majority
in the national assemblies, such as we find in England, France, and Italy,
is not to be thought of in Germany. The theories of the rights of man and
of citizens were never applied by German Liberalism to woman in a broad
sense, and the Socialist party is not yet in the majority. The political
training of the German man has in many respects not yet been extended to
include the principles of the American Declaration of Independence or the
French Declaration of the Rights of Man; his respect for individual
liberty has not yet been developed as in England; therefore he is much
harder to win over to the cause of "woman's rights."
Hence the struggle against the official regulation of prostitution has
been left chiefly to the German women; whereas in England and in France
the physicians, lawyers, and members of Parliament have been the chief
supporters of abolition. I am reminded also of the inexpressibly long and
difficult struggle that we women had to carry on in order to secure the
admission of women to the universities; the establishment of high schools
for girls; and the improvement of the opportunities given to women
teachers. In no other country were women teachers for girls wronged to
such an extent as in Germany. The results of the last industrial census
(1907) give to the demands of the woman's rights movement an invaluable
support: _Germany has nine and a half million married women, i.e._ only
one half of all adult women (over 18 years of age) are married. In
Germany, too, marriage is not a lifelong "means of support" for woman, or
a "means of support" for the whole number of women. Therefore the demands
of woman for a complete professional and industrial training and freedom
to choose her calling appear in the history of our time with a tremendous
weight, a weight that the founders of the movement hardly anticipated.
The German woman's rights movement originated during the troublous times
immediately preceding the Revolution of 1848. The founders--Augusta
Schmidt, Louise Otto-Peters, Henrietta Goldschmidt, Ottilie v. Steyber,
Lina Morgenstern--were "forty-eighters"; they believed in the right of
woman to an education, to work, and to choose her calling, and as a
citizen to participate directly in public life. Only the first three of
these demands are contained in the programme of the "German General
Woman's Club" (founded in 1865 by four of these women, natives of Leipzig,
on the anniversary of the battle of Leipzig). At that time woman's right
to vote was put aside as something utopian. The founders of the woman's
rights movement, however, from the very first included in their programme
the question of women industrial laborers, and attacked the question in a
practical way by organizing a society for the education of workingwomen.
The energies of the middle-class women were at this time very naturally
absorbed by their own affairs. They suffered want, material as well as
intellectual. Therefore it was a matter of securing a livelihood for
middle-class women no longer provided for at home. This was the first duty
of a woman's rights movement originating with the middle class.
Of special service in the field of education and the liberal
professions[69] were the efforts of Augusta Schmidt, Henrietta
Goldschmidt, Marie Loeper-Housselle, Helena Lang, Maria Lischnewska, and
Mrs. Kettler. Kindergartens were established; also courses for the
instruction of adult women, for women principals of high schools, for
women in the _Gymnasiums_ and _Realgymnasiums_. Moreover, the admission of
women to the universities was secured; the General Association of German
Women Teachers was founded, also the Prussian Association of Women Public
School Teachers, and high schools for girls. The Prussian law of 1908 for
the reform of girls' high schools (providing for the education of girls
over 12 years,--_Realgymnasiums_ or _Gymnasiums_ for girls from 12 to 16
years, women's colleges for women from 16 to 18 years) was enacted under
pressure from the German woman's rights movement. Both the state and city
must now do more for the education of girls. The academically trained
women teachers in the high schools are given consideration when the
appointments of principals and teachers for the advanced classes are made.
The women teachers have organized themselves and are demanding salaries
equal to those of the men teachers. At the present time girls are admitted
to the boys' schools (_Gymnasiums_, _Realgymnasiums_, etc.) in Baden,
Hessen, the Imperial Provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, Oldenburg, and
Wurttemberg. The German Federation of Women's Clubs and the convention of
the delegates of the Rhenish cities and towns have made the same demands
for Prussia.
The Prussian Association of Women Public School Teachers is demanding that
women teachers be appointed as principals, and is resisting with all its
power the threatened injustice to women in the adjustment of salaries. The
universities in Baden and Wurttemberg were the first to admit women; then
followed the universities in Hessen, Bavaria, Saxony, the Imperial
Provinces, and finally,--in 1908,--Prussia. The number of women enrolled
in Berlin University is 400.
About 50 women doctors are practicing in Germany; as yet there are no
women preachers, but there are 5 women lawyers, one of whom in 1908
pleaded the case of an indicted youth before the Altona juvenile court.
Although there are only a few women lawyers in Germany, women are now
permitted to act as counsel for the defendant, there being 60 such women
counselors in Bavaria. Recently (1908) even Bavaria refused women
admission to the civil service.
In the autumn there was appointed the first woman lecturer in a higher
institution of learning,--this taking place in the Mannheim School of
Commerce. Within the last five years many new callings have been opened to
women: they are librarians (of municipal, club, and private libraries) and
have organized themselves into the Association of Women Librarians; they
are assistants in laboratories, clinics, and hospitals; they make
scientific drawings, and some have specialized in microscopic drawing;
during the season for the manufacture of beet sugar, women are employed as
chemists in the sugar factories; there is a woman architect in Berlin, and
a woman engineer in Hamburg. Women factory inspectors have performed
satisfactory service in all the states of the Empire. But the future field
of work for the German women is the sociological field. State, municipal,
and private aid is demanded by the prevailing destitution. At the present
time women work in the sociological field without pay. In the future much
of this work must be performed by the _professional_ sociological women
workers. In about 100 cities women are guardians of the poor. There are
103 women superintendents of orphan asylums; women are sought by the
authorities as guardians. Women's cooperation as members of school
committees and deputations promotes the organized woman's rights movement.
The first woman inspector of dwellings has been appointed in Hessen.
Nurses are demanding that state examinations be made requisite for those
wishing to become nurses; some cities of Germany have appointed women as
nurses for infant children. In Hessen and Ostmark [the eastern part of
Prussia], women are district administrators. There is an especially great
demand for women to care for dependent children and to work in the
juvenile courts; this will lead to the appointment of paid probation
officers. In southern Germany, women police matrons are employed; in
Prussia there are women doctors employed in the police courts. There are
also women school physicians. Since 1908, trained women have entered the
midwives' profession.
When the German General Woman's Club was formed in 1865, there was no
German Empire; Berlin had not yet become the capital of the Empire. But
since Berlin has become the seat of the Imperial Parliament, Berlin very
naturally has become the center of the woman's rights movement. This
occurred through the establishment of the magazine _Frauenwohl_ [_Woman's
Welfare_] in 1888, by Mrs. Cauer. In this manner the younger and more
radical woman's rights movement was begun. The women that organized the
movement had interested themselves in the educational field. The radicals
now entered the sociological and political fields. Women making radical
demands allied themselves with Mrs. Cauer; they befriended her, and
cooperated with her. This is an undisputed fact, though some of these
women later left Mrs. Cauer and allied themselves with either the
"Conservatives" or the "Socialists."
In the organization of trade-unions for women not exclusively of the
middle class, Minna Cauer led the way. In 1889, with the aid of Mr. Julius
Meyer and Mr. Silberstein, she organized the "Commercial and Industrial
Benevolent Society for Women Employees." The society has now 24,000
members. State insurance for private employees is now (1909) a question of
the day.
Jeannette Schwerin founded the information bureau of the Ethical Culture
Society, which furnished girls and women assistants for social work. At
the same time Jeannette Schwerin demanded that women be permitted to act
as poor-law guardians. The agitation in public meetings and legislative
assemblies against the Civil Code was instituted by Dr. Anita Augsburg and
Mrs. Stritt.
The opposition to state regulation of prostitution was begun by the
"radical" Hanna Bieber-Boehm and Anna Pappritz. Lily v. Gikycki was the
first to speak publicly concerning the civic duty of women. The Woman's
Suffrage Society was organized in 1901 by Mrs. Cauer, Dr. Augsburg, Miss
Heymann, and Dr. Schirmacher.
In 1894 the radical section of the "German Federation of Women's Clubs"
proposed that women's trade-unions be admitted to the Federation. This
radical section had often given offense to the "Conservatives"--in the
Federation, for instance--by the proposal of this measure; but the
radicals in this way have stimulated the movement. As early as 1904 the
Berlin Congress of the International Council of Women had shown that the
Federation, being composed chiefly of conservative elements, should adopt
in its programme all the demands of the radicals, including woman's
suffrage. The differences between the Radicals and the Conservatives are
differences of personality rather than of principles. The radicals move to
the time of _allegro_; the conservatives to the time of _andante_. In all
public movements there is usually the same antagonism; it occurred also in
the English and the American woman's rights movements.
In no other country (with the exception of Belgium and Hungary) is the
schism between the woman's rights movement of the middle class and the
woman's rights movement of the Socialists so marked as in Germany. At the
International Woman's Congress of 1896 (which was held through the
influence of Mrs. Lina Morgenstern and Mrs. Cauer) two Social Democrats,
Lily Braun and Clara Zetkin, declared that they never would cooperate with
the middle-class women. This attitude of the Social Democrats is the
result of historical circumstances. The law against the German Socialists
has increased their antagonism to the middle class. Nevertheless, this
harsh statement by Lily Braun and Clara Zetkin was unnecessary. It has
just been stated that the founders of the German woman's rights movement
had included the demands of the workingwomen in their programme, and that
the Radicals (by whom the congress of 1896 had been called, and who for
years had been engaged in politics and in the organization of
trade-unions) had in 1894 demanded the admission of women's labor
organizations to the Federation of Women's Clubs. Hence an alignment of
the two movements would have been exceedingly fortunate. However, a part
of the Socialists, laying stress on ultimate aims, regard "class hatred"
as their chief means of agitation, and are therefore on principle opposed
to any peaceful cooperation with the middle class. A part of the women
Socialist leaders are devoting themselves to the organization of
workingwomen,--a task that is as difficult in Germany as elsewhere. Almost
everywhere in Germany women laborers are paid less than men laborers. The
average daily wage is 2 marks (50 cents), but there are many workingwomen
that receive less. In the ready-made clothing industry there are weekly
wages of 6 to 9 marks ($1.50 to $2.25). At the last congress of home
workers, held at Berlin, further evidence of starvation in the home
industries was educed. But for these wages the German woman's rights
movement is not to be held responsible.
In the social-political field the woman's rights advocates hold many
advanced views. Almost without exception they are advocating legislation
for the protection of the workingwomen; they have stimulated the
organization of the "Home-workers' Association" in Berlin; they urged the
workingwomen to seek admission to the Hirsch-Duncker Trades Unions (the
German national association of trade-unions); they have established a
magazine for workingwomen, and have organized a league for the
consideration of the interests of workingwomen. In 1907 Germany had
137,000 organized workingwomen and female domestic servants.[70] Most of
these belong to the socialistic trade-unions. The maximum workday for
women is fixed at ten hours. The protection of maternity is promoted by
the state as well as by women's clubs.
Peculiar to Germany is the denominational schism in the woman's rights
movement. The precedent for this was established by the "German
Evangelical Woman's League," founded in 1899, with Paula Mueller, of
Hanover, as President. The organization of the League was due to the
feeling that "it is a sin to witness with indifference how women that wish
to know nothing of Biblical Christianity represent all the German women."
The organization opposes equality of rights between man and woman; but in
1908 it joined the Federation of Women's Clubs. In 1903 a "Catholic
Woman's League" was formed, but it has not joined the Federation. There
has also been formed a "Society of Jewish Women." We representatives of
the interdenominational woman's rights movement deplore this
denominational disunion. These organizations are important because they
make accessible groups of people that otherwise could not be reached by
us.
Another characteristic of the German woman's rights movement is its
extensive and thorough organization. The smallest cities are to-day
visited by women speakers. Our "unity of spirit,"--praised so frequently,
and now and then ridiculed,--is our chief power in the midst of specially
difficult conditions in which we must work. With tenacity and patience we
have slowly overcome unusual difficulties,--to the present without any
help worth mentioning from the men.
In the Civil Code of 1900 the most important demands of the women were not
given just consideration. To be sure, woman is legally competent, but the
property laws make joint property holding legal (wives control their
earnings and savings), and the mother has no parental authority. Relative
to the impending revision of the criminal law, the women made their
demands as early as 1908 in a general meeting of the Federation of Women's
Clubs, when a three days' discussion took place. Since 1897 the women have
progressed considerably in their knowledge of law. The German women
strongly advocate the establishment of juvenile courts such as the United
States are now introducing. The Federation also demands that women be
permitted to act as magistrates, jurors, lawyers, and judges.
In the struggle against official regulation of prostitution the women were
supported in the Prussian Landtag by Deputy Muensterberg, of Dantzig.
Prussia established a more humane regulation of prostitution, but as yet
has not appointed the extraparliamentary commission for the study of the
control of prostitution, a measure that was demanded by the women. The
most significant recent event is the admission of women to political
organizations and meetings by the Imperial Law of May 15, 1908. Thereby
the German women were admitted to political life. The Woman's Suffrage
Society--founded in 1902, and in 1904 converted into a League--was able
previous to 1908 to expand only in the South German states (excluding
Bavaria). By this Imperial Law the northern states of the Empire were
opened, and a National Woman's Suffrage Society was formed in Prussia, in
Bavaria, and in Mecklenburg. As early as 1906, after the dissolution of
the Reichstag, the women took an active part in the campaign, a right
granted them by the _Vereinsrecht_ (Law of Association). In Prussia,
Saxony, and Oldenburg the women worked for universal suffrage for women in
Landtag elections. Since 1908 the political woman's rights movement has
been of first importance in Germany. As the women taxpayers in a number of
states can exercise municipal suffrage by proxy, and the women owners of
large estates in Saxony and Prussia can exercise the suffrage in elections
for the Diet of the Circle (_Kreistag_) by proxy, an effort is being made
to attract these women to the cause of woman's suffrage.
In 1908 the Protestant women of the Imperial Provinces (Alsace and
Lorraine) were granted the right to vote in church elections, a right that
had been granted to the women of the German congregations in Paris as
early as 1907[71].
LUXEMBURG
Total population: 246,455.
Women: 120,235.
Men: 126,220.
No federation of women's clubs.
No woman's suffrage league.
The woman's rights movement in Luxemburg originated in December, 1905,
with the organization of the "Society for Women's Interests" (_Verein fuer
Fraueninteressen_), which has worked admirably. The society has 300
members, and is in good financial condition. Throughout the country it is
now carrying on successful propaganda in the interest of higher education
for girls and in the interest of women in the industries. In Luxemburg,
after girls have graduated from a convent, they have no further
educational facilities. The society has established a department for
legal protection, and an employment agency; it has published an inquiry
into the living conditions in the capital.
In the capital city there is a woman member of the poor-law commission;
ten women are guardians of the poor; one woman is a school commissioner;
and there is a woman inspector of the municipal hospital. The society is
well supported by the liberal elements of the government and the public.
Its chief object must be the establishment of a secular school that will
prepare women for entrance to the universities.
GERMAN AUSTRIA
Total population: about 7,000,000.
Women: about 3,750,000.
Men: about 3,250,000.
Federation of Austrian Women's Clubs.
No woman's suffrage league.
The Austrian woman's rights movement is based primarily on economic
conditions. More than 50 per cent of the women in Austria are engaged in
non-domestic callings. This percentage is a strong argument against the
theory that woman's sphere is merely domestic. Unfortunately this
non-domestic service of the Austrian women is seldom very remunerative.
Austria itself is a country of low wages. This condition is due to a
continuous influx of Slavic workers, to large agricultural provinces, to
the tenacious survivals of feudalism, etc. Therefore women's wages and
salaries are lower than in western Europe, and low living expenses do not
prevail everywhere (Vienna is one of the most expensive cities to live
in). The "Women's Industrial School Society," founded in 1851, attempted
to raise the industrial ability of the girls of the middle class. In
accordance with the views of the time, needlework was taught. Free schools
for the instruction of adults were established in Vienna. The economic
misery following the war of 1866 led to the organization of the "Woman's
Industrial Society," which enlarged woman's sphere of activity as did the
Lette-Society in Berlin. Since 1868 the woman's rights movement has
secured adherents from the best educated middle-class women,--namely,
women teachers. In that year the Catholic women teachers organized a
"Catholic Women Teachers' Society." In 1869 was organized the
interdenominational "Austrian Women Teachers' Society." This society has
performed excellent service. The women teachers, who since 1869 had been
given positions in the public schools, were paid less than the men
teachers having the same training and doing the same work. Therefore the
women teachers presented themselves to the provincial legislatures,
demanded an increase in salary, and, in spite of the opposition of the
male teachers, secured the increase by the law of 1891. In 1876 a society
devoted its efforts to the improvement of the girls' high schools, which
had been greatly neglected. In 1885 the women writers and the women
artists organized, their male colleagues having refused to admit women to
the existing professional societies. In 1888 the women music teachers
likewise organized themselves. At the same time the question of higher
education for women was agitated. In Vienna a "lyceum" class--the first of
its kind--was opened to prepare girls for entrance to the universities
(_Abiturientenexamen_). Admission to the boys' high schools was refused to
girls in Vienna, but was granted in the provinces (Troppau, and
Maehrisch-Schoenberg). Girls were at all times admitted as outsiders
(_Extraneae_) to the examinations held on leaving college
(_Abiturientenexamen_). In this way many girls passed the "leaving"
examination before they began their studies in Switzerland. Until 1896 the
Austrian universities remained closed to women. The law faculties do not
as yet admit women. The women's clubs are striving to secure this reform.
Those women that had studied medicine in Switzerland previous to 1896, and
wished to practice in Austria, required special imperial permission, which
was never withheld from them in their noble struggle.
In this way Dr. Kerschbaumer began her practice as an oculist in
Salzburg. However, the Countess Possanner, M.D., after passing the Swiss
state examination, also took the Austrian examination. She is now
practicing in Vienna.
As the Austrian doctors have active and passive suffrage in the election
to the Board of Physicians (_Aerztekammer_)[72] Dr. Possanner also
requested this right. Her request was refused by the magistrate in Vienna
because, _as a woman_, she did not have the suffrage in municipal
elections, and the suffrage for the Board of Physicians could be exercised
only by those doctors that were municipal electors.[73] Thereupon Dr.
Possanner appealed her case to the government, to the Minister of the
Interior, and finally to the administrative court. The court decided in
favor of the petition. It must be emphasized, however, that the Board of
Physicians favored the request from the beginning.
Women preachers and women lawyers are as yet unknown in Austria. As in
former times, the teaching profession is still the chief sphere of
activity for the middle-class women of German Austria. According to the
law of 1869 they can be appointed not only as teachers in the elementary
schools for girls, but also as teachers of the lower classes in the boys'
schools. Their not being municipal voters has two results: if the
municipality is seeking votes, it appoints men teachers that are
"favorably disposed"; if the municipality is politically opposed to the
male teachers, it appoints women teachers in preference. But to be the
plaything of political whims is not a very worthy condition to be in. If
women teachers marry, they need not withdraw from the service (except in
the province of Styria). More than 10 per cent of the women teachers in
the whole of Austria are married, more than 2 per cent are widows. The
women comprise about one fourth of the total number of elementary school
teachers, of whom there are 9000. Their annual salaries vary from 200 to
1600 guldens ($96.40 to $771.20). The ordinary salary of 200 guldens is so
insufficient that many elementary school teachers actually starve. The
competition of the nuns is feared by the whole body of secular school
teachers. In Tyrol instruction in the elementary schools is still almost
wholly in the hands of the religious orders. The sisters work for little
pay; they have a community life and consume the resources of the dead
hand.
Of the secondary schools for girls some are ecclesiastic, some are
municipal, and some private. The lyceums give a very good education
(mathematics is obligatory), but as yet there are no ordinary secondary
schools whose leaving examinations are equivalent to the
_Abiturientenexamen_ of the _Gymnasiums_. The "Academic Woman's Club" in
Vienna is demanding this reform, and the Federation of Austrian Women's
Clubs is demanding the development of the municipal girls' schools into
_Realschulen_. The state subsidizes various institutions. The girls'
_Gymnasiums_ were privately founded. Dr. Cecilia Wendt, upon whom the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy was conferred by Vienna University, and who
took the state examination for secondary school teachers in mathematics,
physics, and German, was the first woman appointed as teacher in a
_Gymnasium_, being appointed in the Vienna _Gymnasium_ for girls. Since
1871, women have been appointed in the postal and telegraph service. Like
most of the subordinate state officials, they receive poor pay, and dare
not marry. The women telegraph operators in the central office in Vienna
are paid 30 guldens ($14.46) a month. "The woman telegraph operator can
lay no claims to the pleasures of existence." "These girls starve
spiritually as well as physically."[74] During the past twenty-eight years
salaries have not been increased. Every two years a two-week vacation is
granted. Since 1876 there has existed a relief society for women postal
and telegraph employees.
The woman stenographer, to-day so much sought after in business offices,
was in 1842 _absolutely excluded_ from the courses in Gabelsberger
stenography[75] by the Ministry of Public Instruction. In the courts of
chancery (_Advokatenkanzleien_) women stenographers are paid 20 to 30
guldens ($9.64 to $14.46) a month. They are given the same pay in the
stores and offices where they are expected to use typewriters. They are
regarded as subordinates, though frequently they are thorough specialists
and masters of languages. In the governmental service the women
subordinates that work by the day (1.50 guldens,--73 cents) have no hope
for advancement or pension. The first woman chief of a government office
has been appointed to the sanitary department of the Ministry of the Labor
Department, in which there is also a woman librarian.
It is not easy to imagine the deplorable condition of workingwomen when
women public school teachers and women office clerks are expected to live
on a monthly salary of $9.64 to $14.46. The Vienna inquiry into the
condition of workingwomen in 1896 disclosed frightfully miserable
conditions among workingwomen. Since then, especially through the efforts
of the Socialists, the conditions have been somewhat improved.
In Vienna, efforts to organize women into trade-unions have been
made,--especially among the bookbinders, hat makers, and tailors. Outside
Vienna, organization has been effected chiefly among the women textile
workers in Silesia, as well as among the women employees of the state
tobacco factories. The most thorough organization of women laborers is
found in northern and western Bohemia among the glassworkers and bead
makers. In Styria, Salzburg, Tyrol, and Carinthia the organization of
women is found only in isolated cases. Everywhere the organization of
women is made difficult by domestic misery, which consumes the energy,
time, and interest of the women. The organized Social-Democratic women
laborers of German Austria have a permanent representation in the "Women's
Imperial Committee." Of the 50,000 women organized in trade-unions, 5000
belong to the Social-Democratic party. The _Magazine for Workingwomen_
(_Arbeiterinnenzeitung_) has 13,400 subscribers. Women industrial
inspectors have proved themselves efficient.
It is to be expected as a result of the wretched economic conditions of
the workingwomen that prostitution with its incidental earnings should be
widespread in German Austria. Vienna is the refuge of those seeking work
and seclusion (_Verschwiegenheit_). The number of illicit births in Vienna
is, as in Paris, one third of the total number of births. For these and
other reasons the "General Woman's Club of Austria" (_Allgemeine
Oesterreiche Frauenverein_), founded in 1893 under the leadership of Miss
Augusta Fickert, has frequently concerned itself with the question of
prostitution, of woman's wages, and of the official regulation of
prostitution,--always being opposed to the last. The International
Federation for the Abolition of the Official Regulation of Prostitution
(_internationale abolinistische Foederation_) was, however, not represented
in German Austria before 1903; the Austrian branch of this organization
being established in 1907 in Vienna.
The middle-class women are doing much as leaders of the charitable,
industrial, educational, and woman's suffrage societies to raise the
status of woman in Austria. The most prominent members of these societies
are: Augusta Fickert, Marianne Hainisch, Mrs. v. Sprung, Miss Herzfelder,
v. Wolfring, Mrs. v. Listrow, Rosa Maireder, Maria Lang (editor of the
excellent _Dokumente der Frauen_, which, unfortunately, were discontinued
in 1902), Mrs. Schwietland, Elsie Federn (the superintendent of the
settlement in the laborers' district in North Vienna), Mrs. Jella Hertzka,
(Mrs.) Dr. Goldmann, superintendent of the Cottage Lyceum, and others.
These women frequently cooperate with the leaders of the Socialistic
woman's rights movement, Mrs. Schlesinger, Mrs. Popp, and others. The
disunion of the two forces of the movement is much less marked in Austria
than in Germany, the circumstances much more resembling those in Italy.
In these lands it is expected that the woman's rights movement will profit
greatly through the growth of Socialism. This is explained by the fact
that the Austrian Liberals are not equal to the assaults of the
Conservatives. Universal equal suffrage, which does not as yet exist in
Austria, has its most enthusiastic advocates among the Socialists. With
the Austrian Socialists, universal suffrage means woman's suffrage
also.[76]
During the Liberal era two rights were granted to the Austrian women:
since 1849 the women taxpayers vote by proxy in municipal elections, and
since 1861 for the local legislatures (_Provinciallandtagen_).[77] In
Lower Austria the _Landtag_ in 1888 deprived them of this right, and in
1889 an attempt was made to deprive them of their municipal suffrage. But
the women concerned successfully petitioned that they be left in
possession of their active municipal suffrage. Since 1873 the Austrian
women owners of large estates vote also for the Imperial Parliament
through proxy. The Austrian women, supported by the Socialist deputies,
Pernerstorfer, Kronawetter, Adler, and others, have on several occasions
demanded the passive suffrage in the election of school boards and
poor-law guardians; they have also demanded a reform of the law of
organization, so that women can be admitted to political organizations. To
the present these efforts have been fruitless. When universal suffrage was
granted in 1906 (creating the fifth class of voters), the women were
disregarded. In the previous year a Woman's Suffrage Committee had been
established with headquarters in Vienna. It is endeavoring especially to
secure the repeal of paragraph 30 of the law regulating organizations and
public meetings. This law (like that of Prussia and Bavaria previous to
1908) excludes women from political organization, thus making the forming
of a woman's suffrage society impossible. For this reason Austria cannot
join the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance.
During the consideration of the new municipal election laws in Troppau
(Austrian Silesia), it was proposed to withdraw the right of suffrage from
the women taxpayers. They resisted the proposal energetically. At present
the matter is before the supreme court. In Voralberg the unmarried women
taxpayers were also given the right to vote in elections of the _Landtag_.
The legal status of the Austrian woman is similar to that of the French
woman: the wife is under the guardianship of her husband; the property law
provides for the amalgamation of property (not joint property holding, as
in France). But the wife does not have control of her earnings and
savings, as in Germany under the Civil Code. The father alone has legal
authority over the children.
Here the names of two women must be mentioned: Bertha v. Suttner, one of
the founders of the peace movement, and Marie v. Ebner-Eschenbach, the
greatest living woman writer in the German language. Both are Austrians;
and their country may well be proud of them.
In Austria the authorities are more favorably disposed toward the woman's
rights movement than in Germany, for example.
HUNGARY[78]
Total population: 19,254,559.
Women: 9,672,407.
Men: 9,582,152.
Federation of Hungarian Women's Clubs.
Woman's Suffrage League.
At first the Hungarian woman's rights movement was restricted to the
advancement of girls' education. The attainment of national independence
gave the women greater ambition; since 1867 they have striven for the
establishment of higher institutions of learning for girls. In 1868 Mrs.
v. Veres with twenty-two other women founded the "Society for the
Advancement of Girls' Education." In 1869, the first class in a high
school for girls was formed in Budapest. An esteemed scholar, P. Gyulai,
undertook the superintendence of the institution. Similar schools were
founded in the provinces. In 1876 the Budapest model school was completed;
in 1878 it was turned over to a woman superintendent, Mrs. v. Janisch. A
seminary for women teachers was established, a special building being
erected for the purpose. Then the admission of women to the university was
agitated. A special committee for this purpose was formed with Dr. Coloman
v. Csicky as chairman. In the meantime the "Society" gave domestic economy
courses and courses of instruction to adults (in its girls' high school).
The Minister of Public Instruction, v. Wlassics, secured the imperial
decree of November 18, 1895, by which women were admitted to the
universities of Klausenburg and Budapest (to the philosophical and medical
faculties). It was now necessary to prepare women for the entrance
examinations (_Abiturientenexamen_). This was undertaken by the "General
Hungarian Woman's Club" (_Allgemeine ungarische Frauenverein_). With the
aid of Dr. Beothy, a lecturer at the University of Budapest, the club
formulated a programme that was accepted by the Minister of Public
Instruction. By the rescript of July 18, 1896, he authorized the
establishment of a girls' gymnasium in Budapest. It is evident that such
reforms, when in the hands of _intelligent_ authorities, are put into
working order as easily as a letter passes through the mails.
In the professional callings we find 15 women druggists, 10 women doctors,
and one woman architect. Erica Paulus, who has chosen the calling of
architect (which elsewhere in Europe has hardly been opened to women), is
a Transylvanian. Among other things she has been given the supervision of
the masonry, the glasswork, the roofing, and the interior decoration of
the buildings of the Evangelical-Reformed College in Klausenburg. A second
woman architect, trained in the Budapest technical school, is a builder in
Besztercze.
Higher education of women was promoted in the cities, the home industries
of the Hungarian rural districts were fostered. This was taken up by the
"Rural Woman's Industry Society" (_Landes-Frauenindustrieverein_). Aprons,
carpets, textile fabrics, slippers, tobacco pouches, whip handles, and
ornamental chests are made artistically according to antique models (this
movement is analogous to that in Scandinavia). Large expositions aroused
the interest of the public in favor of the national products, for the
disposal of which the women of the society have labored with enthusiasm.
These home industries give employment to about 750,000 women (and 40,000
men).
Hungary is preeminently an agricultural country and its wages are low. The
promotion of home industry therefore had a great economic importance, for
Hungary is a center of traffic in girls. A great number of these poor
ignorant country girls, reared in oriental stupor, congregate in Budapest
from all parts of Hungary and the Balkan States, to be bartered to the
brothels of South America as "Madjarli and Hungara."[79] An address that
Miss Coote of the "International Vigilance Society" delivered in Budapest
resulted in the founding of the "Society for Combating the White Slave
Trade." The committee was composed of Countess Czaky, Baroness Wenckheim,
Dr. Ludwig Gruber (royal public prosecutor), Professor Vambery, and
others. The recent Draconic regulation of prostitution in Pest (1906)
caused the Federation of Hungarian Women's Clubs to oppose the official
regulation of prostitution, and to form a department of morals, which is
to be regarded as the Hungarian branch of the International Federation for
the Abolition of the Official Regulation of Prostitution. Since then,
public opinion concerning the question has been aroused; the laws against
the white slave traffic have been made more stringent and are being more
rigidly enforced.
A new development in Hungary is the woman's suffrage movement (since
1904), represented in the "Feminist Society" (_Feministenverein_). During
the past five years the society has carried on a vigorous propaganda in
Budapest and various cities in the provinces (in Budapest also with the
aid of foreign women speakers); recently the society has also roused the
countrywomen in favor of the movement. Woman's suffrage is opposed by the
Clericals and the _Social-Democrats_, who favor only male suffrage in the
impending introduction of universal suffrage[80]. On March 10, 1908, a
delegation of woman's suffrage advocates went to the Parliament. During
the suffrage debates the women held public meetings.
From the work of A. v. Maclay, _Le droit des femmes au travail_, I take
the following statements: According to the industrial statistics of 1900
there were 1,819,517 women in Hungary engaged in agriculture. Industry,
mining, and transportation engaged 242,951; state and municipal service,
and the liberal callings engaged 36,870 women. There were 109,739 women
day laborers; 350,693 domestic servants; 24,476 women pursued undefined or
unknown callings; 83,537 women lived on incomes from their property. Since
1890 the number of women engaged in all the callings has increased more
rapidly than the number of men (26.3 to 27.9 per cent being the average
increase of the women engaged in gainful pursuits). In 1900 the women
formed 21 per cent of the industrial population. They were engaged chiefly
in the manufacture of pottery (29 per cent), bent-wood furniture (46 per
cent), matches (58 per cent), clothing (59 per cent), textiles (60 per
cent). In paper making and bookbinding 68 per cent of the laborers are
women. In the state mints 25 per cent of the employees are women; the
state tobacco factories employ 16,720 women, these being 94 per cent of
the total number of employees. Of those engaged in commerce 23 per cent
are women.
The number of women engaged in the civil service (as private secretaries)
and in the liberal callings has increased even more than the number of
women engaged in industry. The women engaged in office work have
organized. In 1901 the number of women public school teachers was 6529
(there being 22,840 men), _i.e._ 22.22 per cent were women. In the best
public schools there are more women teachers than men, the proportion
being 62 to 48; in the girls' high schools there are 273 women teachers to
145 men teachers. In 1903 the railroads employed 511 women; in 1898 the
postal service employed 4516 women; in 1899 the telephone system employed
207 women (and 81 men). These women employees, unlike those of Austria,
are permitted to marry.