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, Neuchâtel, and in other cities, as well as of intercantonal
clubs, such as the "Swiss Public Utility Woman's Club" (_Schweizer
Gemeinnütziger Verein_), "la Fraternité," 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 Küssnacht, 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, Neuchâtel, 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 æsthetics 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.
Brüstlein 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 für 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 Neuchâtel. The question of granting women the right to vote
in church affairs has long been advocated in the Canton Geneva by the
Reverend Thomas Müller, 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 _Église libre_ since 1899, and in the _Église nationale_ since
1908. Since 1909, women have exercised the right to vote in the _Église
évangélique 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 coöperation 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
coöperated 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-Böhm 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 coöperate 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 coöperation 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 Müller, 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 Münsterberg, 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 für
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
Mährisch-Schönberg). 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 (_Ärztekammer_)[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
Österreiche 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 Föderation_) 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 coöperate 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. Béothy, 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 preëminently 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 Vambéry, 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.




CHAPTER II

THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES


In the Romance countries the woman's rights movement is hampered by
Romance customs and by the Catholic religion. The number of women in these
countries is in many cases smaller than the number of men. In general, the
girls are married at an early age, almost always through the negotiations
of the parents. The education of women is in some respects very deficient.


FRANCE

  Total population: 38,466,924.
  Women:            19,346,369.
  Men:              18,922,651.

  Federation of French Women's Clubs.
  Woman's Suffrage League.

The European woman's rights movement was born in France; it is a child of
the Revolution of 1789. When a whole country enjoys freedom, equality, and
fraternity, woman can no longer remain in bondage. The Declaration of the
Rights of Man apply to Woman also. The European woman's rights movement is
based on purely logical principles; not, as in the United States, on the
practical exercise of woman's right to vote. This purely theoretical
origin is not denied by the advocates of the woman's rights movement in
France. It ought to be mentioned that the principles of the woman's rights
movement were brought from France to England by Mary Wollstonecraft, and
were stated in her pamphlet, _A Vindication of the Rights of Women_. But
enthusiastic Mary Wollstonecraft did not form a school in England, and the
organized English woman's rights movement did not cast its lot with this
revolutionist. What Mary Wollstonecraft did for England, Olympe de Gouges
did for France in 1789; at that time she dedicated to the Queen her little
book, _The Declaration of the Rights of Women_ (_La declaration des droits
des femmes_). It happened that The Declaration of the Rights of Man (_La
declaration des droits de l'homme_) of 1789 referred only to the men. The
National Assembly recognized only male voters, and refused the petition of
October 28, 1789, in which a number of Parisian women demanded universal
suffrage in the election of national representatives. Nothing is more
peculiar than the attitude of the men advocates of liberty toward the
women advocates of liberty. At that time woman's struggle for liberty had
representatives in all social groups. In the aristocratic circles there
was Madame de Stael, who as a republican (her father was Swiss) never
doubted the equality of the sexes; but by her actions showed her belief in
woman's right to secure the highest culture and to have political
influence. Madame de Stael's social position and her wealth enabled her to
spread these views of woman's rights; she was never dependent on the men
advocates of freedom. Madame Roland was typical of the educated republican
bourgeoisie. She participated in the revolutionary drama and was a
"political woman." On the basis of historical documents it can be asserted
that the men advocates of freedom have not forgiven her.

The intelligent people of the lower classes are represented by Olympe de
Gouges and Théroigne de Mericourt. Both played a political rôle; both
were woman's rights advocates; of both it was said that they had forgotten
the virtues of their sex,--modesty and submissiveness. The men of freedom
still thought that the home offered their wives all the freedom they
needed. The populace finally made demonstrations through woman's clubs.
These clubs were closed in 1793 by the Committee of Public Safety because
the clubs disturbed "public peace." The public peace of 1793! What an
idyl! In short, the régime of liberty, equality, and fraternity regarded
woman as unfree, unequal, and treated her very unfraternally. What harmony
between theory and practice! In fact, the Revolution even withdrew rights
that the women formerly possessed. For example, the old régime gave a
noblewoman, as a landowner, all the rights of a feudal lord. She levied
troops, raised taxes, and administered justice. During the old régime in
France there were women peers; women were now and then active in
diplomacy. The abbesses exercised the same feudal power as the abbots;
they had unlimited power over their convents. The women owners of large
feudal lands met with the _provincial estates_,--for instance, Madame de
Sévigné in the _Estates General_ of Brittany, where there was autonomy in
the provincial administration. In the gilds the women masters exercised
their professional right as voters. All of these rights ended with the old
régime; beside the politically free man stood the politically unfree
woman. Napoleon confirmed this lack of freedom in the Civil and Criminal
Codes. Napoleon's attitude toward all women (excepting his mother, _Madame
Mère_) was such as we still find among the men in Southern Italy, in
Spain, and in the Orient. His sisters and Josephine Beauharnais, the
creole, could not give him a more just opinion of women. His fierce hatred
for Madame de Stael indicates his attitude toward the woman's rights
representatives. The great Napoleon did not like intellectual women.

The Code Napoleon places the wife completely under the guardianship of
the husband. Without him she can undertake no legal transaction. The
property law requires joint property holding, excepting real estate (but
most of the women are neither landowners nor owners of houses). The
married woman has had independent control of her earnings and savings only
since the enactment of the law of July 13, 1907. Only the husband has
legal authority over the children. Such a legal status of woman is found
in other codes. But the following provisions are peculiar to the Code
Napoleon: If a husband kills his wife for committing adultery, the murder
is "excusable." An illicit mother cannot file a paternity suit. In
practice, however, the courts in a roundabout way give the illicit mother
an opportunity to file an action for damages.

No other code, above all no other Germanic or Slavic code,[81] has been
disgraced by such paragraphs. In the first of the designated paragraphs we
hear the Corsican, a cousin of the Moor of Venice; in the second we hear
the military emperor, and general of an unbridled, undisciplined troop of
soldiers. No one will be astonished to learn that this same lawgiver in
1801 supplemented the Code with a despotic state regulation of
prostitution. What became of the woman's rights movement during this
arbitrary military régime? Full of fear and anxiety, the woman's rights
advocates concealed their views. The Restoration was scarcely a better
time for advocating woman's rights. The philosopher of the epoch, de
Bonald, spoke very pompously against the equality of the sexes, "Man and
woman are not and never will be equal." It was not until the July
Revolution of 1830 and the February Revolution of 1848 that the question
of woman's rights could gain a favorable hearing. The Saint Simonians, the
Fourierists, and George Sand preached the rights of man and the rights of
woman. During the February Revolution the women were found, just as in
1789, in the front ranks of the Socialists. The French woman's rights
movement is closely connected with both political movements. Every time a
sacrifice of Republicans and Democrats was demanded, women were among the
banished and deported: Jeanne Deroin in 1848, Louise Michel, in 1851 and
1871.

Marie Deraismes, belonging to the wealthy Parisian middle class, appeared
in the sixties as a public speaker. She was a woman's rights advocate.
However, in a still greater degree she was a tribune of the people, a
republican and a politician. Marie Deraismes and her excellent political
adherent, Léon Richer, were the founders of the organized French woman's
rights movement. As early as 1876 they organized the "Society for the
Amelioration of the Condition of Woman and for Demanding Woman's Rights";
in 1878 they called the first French woman's rights congress.

The following features characterize the modern French woman's rights
movement: It is largely restricted to Paris; in the provinces there are
only weak and isolated beginnings; even the Parisian woman's rights
organizations are not numerous, the greatest having 400 members. Thanks to
the republican and socialist movements, which for thirty years have
controlled France, the woman's rights movement is for political reasons
supported by the men to a degree not noticeable in any other country. The
republican majority in the Chamber of Deputies, the republican press, and
republican literature effectively promote the woman's rights movement. The
Federation of French Women's Clubs, founded in 1901, and reputed to have
73,000 members, is at present promoting the movement by the systematic
organization of provincial divisions. Less kindly disposed--sometimes
indifferent and hostile--are the Church, the Catholic circles, the
nobility, society, and the "liberal" capitalistic bourgeoisie. A sharp
division between the woman's rights movements of the middle class and the
movement of the Socialists, such as exists, for example, in Germany, does
not exist in France. A large part of the bourgeoisie (not the great
capitalists) are socialistically inclined. On the basis of principle the
Republicans and Socialists cannot deny the justice of the woman's rights
movement. Hence everything now depends on the _opportuneness_ of the
demands of the women.

The French woman has still much to demand. However enlightened, however
advanced the Frenchman may regard himself, he has not yet reached the
point where he will favor woman's suffrage; what the National Assembly
denied in 1789, the Republic of 1870 has also withheld. Nevertheless
conditions have improved, in so far as measures in favor of woman's
suffrage and the reform of the civil rights of woman have since 1848 been
repeatedly introduced and supported by petitions.[82] As for the civil
rights of woman,--the principles of the Code Napoleon, the minority of the
wife, and the husband's authority over her are still unchanged. However, a
few minor concessions have been made: To-day a woman can be a witness to a
civil transaction, _e.g._ a marriage contract. A married woman can open a
savings bank account in her maiden name; and, as in Belgium, her husband
can make it impossible for her to withdraw the money! A wife's earnings
now belong to her. The severe law concerning adultery by the wife still
exists, and affiliation cases are still prohibited. That is not exactly
liberal.

Attempts to secure reforms of the civil law are being made by various
women's clubs, the Group of Women Students (_Le groupe d'études
féministes_) (Madame Oddo Deflou), and by the committee on legal matters
of the Federation of French Women's Clubs (Madame d'Abbadie).

In both the legal and the political fields the French women have hitherto
(in spite of the Republic) achieved very little. In educational matters,
however, the republican government has decidedly favored the women. Here
the wishes of the women harmonized with the republican hatred for the
priests. What was done perhaps not for the women, was done to spite the
Church.

Elementary education has been obligatory since 1882. In 1904-1905 there
were 2,715,452 girls in the elementary schools, and 2,726,944 boys. State
high schools, or _lycées_, for girls have existed since 1880. The
programme of these schools is not that of the German _Gymnasiums_, but
that of a German high school for girls (foreign languages, however, are
elective). In the last two years (in which the ages of the girls are 16 to
18 years) the curriculum is that of a seminary for women teachers. In
1904-1905 these institutions were attended by 22,000 girls, as compared
with 100,000 boys. The French woman's rights movement has as yet not
succeeded in establishing _Gymnasiums_ for girls; at present, efforts are
being made to introduce _Gymnasium_ courses in the girls' _lycées_. The
admission of girls to the boys' _lycées_, which has occurred in Germany
and in Italy, has not even been suggested in France. To the present, the
preparation of girls for the universities has been carried on privately.

The right to study in the universities has never been withheld from women.
From the beginning, women could take the _Abiturientenexamen_ (the
university entrance examinations) with the young men before an examination
commission. All departments are open to women. The number of women
university students in France is 3609; the male students number 38,288.
Women school teachers control the whole public school system for girls. In
the French schools for girls most of the teachers are women; the
superintendents are also women. The ecclesiastical educational
system,--which still exists in secular guise,--is naturally, so far as the
education of girls is concerned, entirely in the hands of women. The
salaries of the secular women teachers in the first three classes of the
elementary schools are equal to those of the men. The women teachers in
the _lycées_ (_agrégées_) are trained in the Seminary of Sèvres and in the
universities. Their salaries are lower than those of the men. In 1907 the
first woman teacher in the French higher institutions of learning was
appointed,--Madame Curie, who holds the chair of physics in the Sorbonne,
in Paris. In the provincial universities women are lecturers on modern
languages. There are no women preachers in France. _Dr. jur._ Jeanne
Chauvin was the first woman lawyer, being admitted to the bar in 1899.
To-day women lawyers are practicing in Paris and in Toulouse.

In the government service there are women postal clerks, telegraph clerks,
and telephone clerks,--with an average daily wage of 3 francs (60 cents).
Only the subordinate positions are open to women. The same is true of the
women employed in the railroad offices. Women have been admitted as clerks
in some of the administrative departments of the government and in the
public poor-law administration. Women are employed as inspectors of
schools, as factory inspectors, and as poor-law administrators. There is a
woman member of each of the following councils: the Superior Council of
Education, the Superior Council of Labor, and the Superior Council of
Public Assistance (_Conseil Superior d'Education_, _Conseil Superior du
Travail_, _Conseil Superior de l'Assistance Publique_). The first woman
court interpreter was appointed in the Parisian Court of Appeals in 1909.

The French woman is an excellent business woman. However, the women
employed in commercial establishments, being organized as yet to a small
extent, earn no more than women laborers,--70 to 80 francs ($14 to $16) a
month. In general, greater demands are made of them in regard to personal
appearance and dress. There is a law requiring that chairs be furnished
during working hours. There is a consumers' league in Paris which probably
will effect reforms in the laboring conditions of women. The women in the
industries, of whom there are about 900,000, have an average wage of 2
francs (50 cents) a day. Hardly 30,000 are organized into trade-unions;
all women tobacco workers are organized. As elsewhere, the French
ready-made clothing industry is the most wretched home industry. A part of
the French middle-class women oppose legislation for the protection of
women workers on the ground of "equality of rights for the sexes."[83]
This attitude has been occasioned by the contrast between the typographers
and the women typesetters; the men being aided in the struggle by the
prohibition of night work for women. It is easy to explain the rash and
unjustifiable generalization made on the basis of this exceptional case.
The women that made the generalization and oppose legislation for the
protection of women laborers belong to the bourgeois class. There are
about 1,500,000 women engaged in agriculture, the average wage being 1
franc 50 (about 37 cents). Many of these women earn 1 franc to 1 franc 20
(20 to 24 cents) a day. In Paris, women have been cab drivers and
chauffeurs since 1907. In 1901 women formed 35 per cent of the population
engaged in the professions and the industries (6,805,000 women;
12,911,000 men: total, 19,716,000).

There are three parties in the French woman's rights movement. The
Catholic (_le féminisme chrétien_), the moderate (predominantly
Protestant), and the radical (almost entirely socialistic). The Catholic
party works entirely independently; the two others often coöperate, and
are represented in the National Council of Women (_Conseil national des
femmes_), while the _féminisme chrétien_ is not represented. The views of
the Catholic party are as follows: "No one denies that man is stronger
than woman. But this means merely a physical superiority. On the basis of
this superiority man dare not despise woman and regard her as morally
inferior to him. But from the Christian point of view God gave man
authority over woman. This does not signify any intellectual superiority,
but is simply a fact of hierarchy."[84] The _féminisme chrétien_
advocates: A thorough education for girls according to Catholic
principles; a reform of the marriage law (the wife should control her
earnings, separate property holding should be established); the same moral
standard for both sexes (abolition of the official regulation of
prostitution); the same penalty for adultery for both sexes (however,
there should be no divorce); the authority of the mother (_autorité
maritale_) should be maintained, for only in this way can peace prevail
in the family. "A high-minded woman will never wish to rule. It is her
wish to sacrifice herself, to admire, to lean on the arm of a strong man
that protects her."[85]

In the moderate group (President, Miss Sara Monod), these ideas have few
advocates. Protestantism, which is strongly represented in this party, has
a natural inclination toward the development of individuality. This party
is more concerned with the woman that does not find the arm of the "strong
man" to lean on, or who detected him leaning upon her. This party is
entirely opposed to the husband's authority over the wife and to the dogma
of obligatory admiration and sacrifice. The leaders of the party are
Madame Bonnevial, Madame Auclert, and others. During the five years'
leadership of Madame Marguerite Durand, the "Fronde" was the meeting place
of the party.

The radicals demand: absolute coeducation; anti-military instruction in
history; schools that prepare girls for motherhood; the admission of women
to government positions; equal pay for both sexes; official regulation of
the work of domestic servants; the abolition of the husband's authority;
municipal and national suffrage for women. A member of the radical party
presented herself in 1908 as a candidate in the Parisian elections. In
November, 1908, women were granted passive suffrage for the arbitration
courts for trade disputes (they already possessed active suffrage).

The founding of the National Council of French Women (_Conseil national
des femmes française_) has aided the woman's rights movement considerably.
Stimulated by the progress made in other countries, the French women have
systematically begun their work. They have organized two sections in the
provinces (Touraine and Normandy); they have promoted the organization of
women into trade-unions; they have studied the marriage laws; and have
organized a woman's suffrage department. Since 1907 the woman's magazine,
_La Française_, published weekly, has done effective work for the cause.
The place of publication (49 rue Laffite, Paris) is also a public meeting
place for the leaders of the woman's rights movements. _La Française_
arouses interest in the cause of woman's rights among women teachers and
office clerks in the provinces. Recently the management of the magazine
has been converted to the cause of woman's suffrage. In the spring of 1909
the French Woman's Suffrage Society (_Union française pour le souffrage
des femmes_) was organized under the presidency of Madame Schmall (a
native of England). Madame Schmall is also to be regarded as the
originator of the law of July 13, 1907, which pertains to the earnings of
the wife. The _Union_ has joined the International Woman's Suffrage
Alliance. In the House of Deputies there is a group in favor of woman's
rights. The French woman's rights movement seems to be spreading rapidly.

Émile de Morsier organized the French movement favoring the abolition of
the official regulation of prostitution. Through this movement an
extraparliamentary commission (1903-1907) was induced to recognize the
evil of the existing official regulation of prostitution. This is the
first step toward abolition.


BELGIUM

  Total population: 6,815,054.
  Women:            3,416,057.
  Men:              3,398,997.

  Federation of Belgian Women's Clubs.
  Woman's Suffrage League.

It is very difficult for the woman's rights movement to thrive in Belgium.
Not that the movement is unnecessary there; on the contrary, the legal
status of woman is regulated by the Code Napoleon, hence there is decided
need for reform. The number of women exceeds that of the men; hence part
of the girls cannot marry. Industry is highly developed. The question of
wages is a vital question for women laborers. Accordingly there are
reasons enough for instituting an organized woman's rights movement in
Belgium. But every agitation for this purpose is hampered by the
following social factors: Catholicism (Belgium is 99 per cent Catholic),
Clericalism in Parliament, and the indifference of the rich bourgeoisie.

The woman's rights movement has very few adherents in the third estate,
and it is exactly the women of this estate that ought to be the natural
supporters of the movement. In the fourth estate, in which there are a
great many Socialists, the woman's rights movement is identical with
Socialism.

Since the legal status of woman is determined by the Code Napoleon, we
need not comment upon it here. By a law of 1900, the wife is empowered to
deposit money in a savings bank without the consent of her husband; the
limit of her deposit being 3000 francs ($600). The wife also controls her
earnings. If, however, _she draws more than 100 francs_ (_$20_) _a month
from the savings bank, the husband may protest_. Women are now admitted to
family councils; they can act as guardians; they can act as witnesses to a
marriage. Affiliation cases were made legal in 1906. On December 19, 1908,
women were given active and passive suffrage in arbitration courts for
labor disputes.

The Belgium secondary school system is exceptional because the government
has established a rather large number of girls' high schools. However,
these schools do not prepare for the university entrance examinations
(_Abiturientenexamen_). Women contemplating entering the university, must
prepare for these examinations privately. This was done by Miss Marie
Popelin, of Brussels, who wished to study law. The universities of
Brussels, Ghent, and Liège have been open to women since 1886. Hence Miss
Popelin could execute her plans; in 1888 she received the degree of Doctor
of Laws. She made an attempt in 1888-1889 to secure admission to the bar
as a practicing lawyer, but the Brussels Court of Appeals decided the case
against her.[86]

Miss Marie Popelin is the leader of the middle-class woman's rights
movement in Belgium. She is in charge of the Woman's Rights League (_Ligue
du droit des femmes_), founded in 1890. With the support of Mrs. Denis,
Mrs. Parent, and Mrs. Fontaine, Miss Popelin organized, in 1897, an
international woman's congress in Brussels. Many representatives of
foreign countries attended. One of the German representatives, Mrs. Anna
Simpson, was astonished by the indifference of the people of Brussels. In
her report she says: "Where were the women of Brussels during the days of
the Congress? They did not attend, for the middle class is not much
interested in our cause. It was especially for this class that the
Congress was held." Dr. Popelin is also president of the league that has
since 1908 taken up the struggle against the official regulation of
prostitution.

The schools and convents are the chief fields of activity for the
middle-class Belgian women engaged in non-domestic callings. As yet there
are only a few women doctors. One of these, Mrs. Derscheid-Delcour, has
been appointed as chief physician at the Brussels Orphans' Home. Mrs.
Delcour graduated in 1893 at the University of Berlin _summa cum laude_;
in 1895 she was awarded the gold medal in the surgical sciences in a prize
contest for the students of the Belgian universities.

In Belgium 268,337 women are engaged in the industries. The Socialist
party has recognized the organizations of these women; it was instrumental
in organizing 250,000 women into trade-unions. Elsewhere this would be
impossible.[87]

Madame Vandervelde, the wife of the Socialist member of Parliament, and
Madame Gatti de Gammond, the publisher of the _Cahiers feministes_, were
the leaders of the Socialist woman's rights movement, which is organized
throughout the country in committees, councils, and societies. Madame
Gatti de Gammond died in 1905, and her publication, the _Cahiers
feministes_, was discontinued. The secretary of the Federation of
Socialist Women (_Fédération de femmes socialistes_) is Madame Tilmans.
Vooruit, of Ghent, publishes a woman's magazine: _De Stem der Vrouw_.

The women are demanding the right to vote. The Belgian women possessed
municipal suffrage till 1830. They were deprived of this right by the
Constitution of 1831. A measure favoring universal suffrage (for men and
women) was introduced into Parliament in 1894. This bill, however,
provided also for plural voting, by which the property-owning and the
educated classes were given one or two additional votes. The Socialists
opposed this, and demanded that each person have one vote (_un homme, un
vote_). The Clerical majority then replied that it would not bring the
bill to a vote. In this way the Clericals remained assured of a majority.

For tactical purposes the Socialists adopted the expression--_un homme, un
vote_. It harmonized with their principles and ideals. At a meeting of the
party in which the matter was discussed, it was shown that universal
suffrage would be detrimental to the party's interests; for the Socialists
were convinced that woman's suffrage would certainly insure a majority for
the Clericals. Hence, in meeting, the women were persuaded to withdraw
their demand for woman's suffrage on the grounds of opportuneness, and _in
the meantime to work for the inauguration of universal male suffrage
without the plural vote_.[88]

In the _Fronde_, Audrée Téry summarized the situation in the following
dialogue:--

     _The man._ Emancipate yourself and I will enfranchise you.

     _The woman._ Give me the franchise and I shall emancipate myself.

     _The man._ Be free, and you shall have freedom.

In this manner, concludes Audrée Téry, this dialogue can be continued
indefinitely.

Recently the middle-class women have begun to show an interest in woman's
suffrage. A woman's suffrage organization was formed in Brussels in 1908;
one in Ghent, in 1909. Together they have organized the Woman's Suffrage
League, which has affiliated with the International Woman's Suffrage
Alliance.

Woman's lack of rights and her powerlessness in public life are shown by
the fact that in Antwerp, in 1908, public aid to the unemployed was
granted only to men,--to unmarried as well as to married men. As for the
unmarried women, they were left to shift for themselves.


ITALY

  Total population: 32,449,754.
  Women: about      16,190,000.
  Men: about        16,260,000.

  Federation of Italian Women's Clubs.
  Woman's Suffrage League.

National unification raised Italy to the rank of a great power. Italy's
political position as a great power, her modern parliamentary life, and
the Liberal and Socialist majority in her Parliament give Italy a position
that Spain, for example, does not possess in any way. Catholicism,
Clericalism, and Roman custom are no match for these modern liberal
powers, and are therefore unable to hinder the woman's rights movement in
the same degree as do these influences in Spain. However, the Italian
woman in general is still entirely dependent on the man (see the
discussion in Alaremo's _Una Donna_), and in the unenlightened classes
woman's feeling of inferiority is impressed upon her by the Church, the
law, the family, and by custom. Naturally the woman attempts, as in Spain,
to take revenge in the sexual field.

In Italy there is no strict morality among married men. Moreover, the
opposition to divorce in Italy comes largely from the women, who,
accustomed to being deceived in matrimony, fear that if they are divorced
they _will be left without means of support_. "Boys make love to
girls,--to mere unguided children without any will of their own,--and when
these boys marry, be they ever so young, they have already had a wealth of
experience that has taught them to regard woman disdainfully--with a sort
of cynical authority. Even love and respect for the innocent young wife is
unable to eradicate from the young husband the impressions of immorality
and bad examples. The wife suffers from a hardly perceptible, but
unceasing depression of mind. Innocently, without suspicion, uninformed as
to her husband's past, the wife persists in her belief in his manly
superiority until this belief has become a fixed habit of thought, and
then even a cruel revelation cannot take him from her."[89]

In southern Italy,--especially in Sicily,--Arabian oriental conceptions of
woman still prevail. During her whole life woman is a grown-up child. No
woman, not even the most insignificant woman laborer, can be on the street
without an escort. On the other hand, the boys are emancipated very early.
With pity and arrogance the sons look down on the mother, who must be
accompanied in the street by her sons.

"Close intellectual relations between man and woman cannot as yet be
developed, owing to the generally low education of woman, to her
subordination, and to her intellectual bondage. While still in the
schools the boy is trained for political life. The average Italian woman
participates in politics even less than the German woman; her influence is
purely moral. If the Italian woman wishes to accept any office in a
society, she must have the consent of her husband attested by a notary.
Just as in ancient times, the non-professional interests of the husband
are, in great part, elsewhere than at home. The opportunity daily to
discuss political and other current questions with men companions is found
by the German man in the smaller cities while taking his evening pint of
beer. The Italian man finds this opportunity sometimes in the café,
sometimes in the public places, where every evening the men congregate for
hours. So the educated man in Italy (even more than in Germany) has no
need of the intellectual qualities of his wife. Moreover, his need for an
educated wife is the less because his misguided precocity prevents him
from acquiring anything but an essentially general education. The
restricted intellectual relationship between husband and wife is explained
partly by the fact that the _cicisbeo_[90] still exists. This relation
ought to be, and generally is, Platonic and publicly known. The wife
permits her friend (the _cicisbeo_) to escort her to the theater and
elsewhere in a carriage; the husband also escorts a woman friend. So
husband and wife share the inwardly moral unsoundness of the medieval
service of love (_Minnedienst_). At any rate this custom reveals the fact
that after the honeymoon the husband and wife do not have overmuch to say
to each other. In this way there takes place, to a certain extent, an open
relinquishment of the postulate that, in accordance with the external
indissolubility of married life, there ought to be permanent intellectual
bonds between man and wife,--a postulate that is the source of the most
serious conscience struggles, but which has caused the great moral
development of the northern woman."[91]

Naturally, under such circumstances, the woman's rights movement has done
practically nothing for the masses. In the circles of the nobility the
movement, with the consent of the clergy, has until recently confined
itself to philanthropy (the forming of associations and insurance
societies, the founding of homes, asylums, etc.) and to the higher
education of girls.[92] In a private audience the Pope has expressed
himself in _favor_ of women's engaging in university studies (except
theology), but he was _opposed_ to woman's suffrage. The daughters of the
educated, liberal (but often poor) bourgeoisie are driven by want and
conviction to acquire a higher education and to engage in academic
callings. The material difficulties are not great. As in France, the
government has during the past thirty-five years promoted all educational
measures that would take from the clergy its power over youth.

Elementary education is public and obligatory. The laws are enforced
rather strictly. Coeducation nowhere exists. The number of women teachers
is 62,643.

The secondary school system is still largely in the hands of the Catholic
religious orders. There are about 100,000 girls and nuns enrolled in these
church schools; only 25,000 girls are in the secondary state and private
schools (other than the Catholic schools), which cannot give instruction
as _cheaply_ as the religious schools. The efforts of the state in this
field are not to be criticized: it has given women every educational
opportunity. Girls wishing to study in the universities are admitted to
the boys' classical schools (_ginnasii_) and to the boys' technical
schools. This experiment in coeducation during the plastic age of youth
has not even been undertaken by France. To be sure, at present the girls
sit together on the front seats, and when entering and leaving class they
have the school porter as bodyguard. In spite of all fears to the
contrary, coeducation has been a success in northern Italy (Milan), as
well as in southern Italy (Naples).

The universities have never been closed to women. In recent years 300
women have attended the universities and have graduated. During the
Renaissance there were many women teachers in Italy. This tradition has
been revived; at present there are 10 women university teachers. _Dr.
jur._ Therese Labriola (whose mother is a German) is a lecturer in the
philosophy of law at Rome. _Dr. med._ Rina Monti is a university lecturer
in anatomy at Pavia.

There are many practicing women doctors in Italy. _Dr. med._ Maria
Montessori (a delegate to the International Congress of Women in Berlin in
1896) is a physician in the Roman hospitals. The Minister of Public
Instruction has authorized her to deliver a course of lectures on the
treatment of imbecile children to a class of women teachers in the
elementary schools. The legal profession still remains closed to women,
although _Dr. jur._ Laidi Poët has succeeded in being admitted to the bar
in Turin.

In government service (in 1901) there were 1000 women telephone employees,
183 women telegraph clerks, and 161 women office clerks. These positions
are much sought after by men. The number of women employed in commerce is
18,000; the total number of persons employed in commerce being 57,087.
Recently women have been appointed as factory inspectors.

The beginnings of the modern woman's rights movement coincide with the
political upheavals that occurred between 1859 and 1870. When the Kingdom
of Italy had been established, Jessie White Mario demanded a reform of the
legal, political, and economic status of woman. Whatever legal concessions
have been made to women are due, as in France, to the Liberal
parliamentary majority.

Since 1877, women have been able to act as witnesses in civil suits. Women
(even married women) can be guardians. The property laws provide for
separation of property. Even in cases of joint property holding, the wife
controls her earnings and savings. The husband can give her a general
authorization (_allgemeinautorisation_), thus giving her the full status
of a legal person before the law. These laws are the most radical reforms
to which the Code Napoleon has ever been subjected,--reforms which the
French did not venture to enact.

The Liberal majority made an attempt in 1877 to emancipate the women
politically. But the attempt failed. Bills providing for municipal woman's
suffrage were introduced and rejected in 1880, 1883, and 1888. However,
since 1890, women have been eligible as poor-law guardians. The élite
among the Italian men loyally supported the women in their struggle for
emancipation. Since 1881 the women have organized clubs. At first these
were unsuccessful. Free and courageous women were in the minority. In Rome
the woman's rights movement was at first exclusively benevolent. In Milan
and Turin, on the other hand, there were woman's rights advocates (under
the leadership of _Dr. med._ Paoline Schiff and Emilia Mariani). The
leadership of the national movement fell to the more active, more
educated, and economically stronger northern Italy. Here also the movement
of the workingwomen had progressed to the stage of organization, as, for
example, in the case of the Lombard women workers in the rice fields.

There are 1,371,426 women laborers in Italy. Their condition is wretched.
In agriculture, as well as in the industries, they are given the rough,
_poorly paid_ work to do. They are exploited to the extreme. Women straw
plaiters have been offered 20 centimes, even as little as 10 centimes (4
to 2 cents), for twelve hours' work. The average daily wage for women is
80 centimes to 1 franc (16 to 20 cents). The maximum is 1 franc 50
centimes (30 cents). The law has fixed the maximum working day for women
at twelve hours, and prohibits women under twenty years of age from
engaging in work that is dangerous and injurious to health. There are
maternity funds for women in confinement, financial aid being given them
for four weeks after the birth of the child. Under all these
circumstances the organization of women is exceedingly difficult. Even the
Socialists have neglected the organization of workingwomen.

Socialist propaganda among women agricultural laborers was begun in 1901.
In Bologna, in the autumn of 1902, there was held a meeting of the
representatives of 800 agricultural organizations (having a total
membership of 150,000 men and women agricultural laborers). The
constitution of the society is characteristic; many of its clauses are
primitive and pathetic. This society is intended to be an educational and
moral organization. Women members are exhorted "to live rightly, and to be
virtuous and kind-hearted mothers, women, and daughters."[93] It is to be
hoped that the task of the women will be made easier through the efforts
of the society's male members to make themselves virtuous and kind-hearted
fathers, husbands, and sons. Or are moral duties, in this case also, meant
only for woman?

The movement favoring the abolition of the official regulation of
prostitution was introduced into Italy by Mrs. Butler. A congress in favor
of abolition was held in 1898 in Genoa. Recently, thanks to the efforts of
Dr. Agnes MacLaren and Miss Buchner, the movement has been revived, and
urged upon the Catholic clergy. The Italian branch of the International
Federation for the Abolition of the Official Regulation of Prostitution
was founded in 1908. In the same year was held in Rome the successful
Congress of the Federation of Women's Clubs. This Congress, representing
the nobility, the middle class, and workingwomen, brought the woman's
suffrage question to the attention of the public. A number of woman's
suffrage societies had been organized previously, in Rome as well as in
the provinces. They formed the National Woman's Suffrage League, which, in
1906, joined the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance. Through the
discussions in the women's clubs, woman's suffrage became a topic of
public interest. The Amsterdam Report [of the Congress of the
International Woman's Suffrage Alliance] says: "The women of the
aristocracy wish to vote because they are intelligent; they feel
humiliated because their coachman or chauffeur is able to vote. The
workingwomen demand the right to vote, that they may improve their
conditions of labor and be able to support their children better." A
parliamentary commission for the consideration of woman's suffrage was
established in 1908. In the meantime the existence of this commission
enables the President of the Ministry to dispose of the various proposed
measures with the explanation that such matters will not be considered
_until the commission has expressed itself on the whole question_. Women
have active and passive suffrage for the arbitration courts for labor
disputes.


SPAIN[94]

  Total population: 18,813,493.
  Women:             9,558,896.
  Men:               9,272,597.

  No federation of women's clubs.
  No woman's suffrage league.

Whoever has traveled in Spain knows that it is a country still living, as
it were, in the seventeenth century,--nay in the Middle Ages. The fact has
manifold consequences for woman. In all cases progress is hindered. Woman
is under the yoke of the priesthood, and of a Catholicism generally
bigoted. The Church teaches woman that she is regarded as the cause of
carnal desire and of the fall of man. By law, woman is under the
guardianship of man. Custom forbids the "respectable" woman to walk on the
street without a man escort. The Spanish woman regards herself as a person
of the second order, a necessary adjunct to man. Such a fundamental
humiliation and subordination is opposed to human nature. As the Spanish
woman has no power of open opposition, she resorts to cunning. By instinct
she is conscious of the power of her sex; this she uses and abuses. A
woman's rights advocate is filled with horror, quite as much as with pity,
when she sees this mixture of bigotry, coquetry, submissiveness, cunning,
and hate that is engendered in woman by such tyranny and lack of progress.

The Spanish woman of the lower classes receives no training for any
special calling; she is a mediocre laborer. She acts as beast of burden,
carries heavy burdens on her shoulders, carries water, tills the fields,
and splits wood. She is employed as an industrial laborer chiefly in the
manufacture of cigars and lace. "The wages of women," says Professor
Posada,[95] "are incredibly low," being but 10 cents a day. As tailors,
women make a scanty living, for many of the Spanish women do their own
tailoring. The mantilla makes the work of milliners in general
superfluous. In commercial callings women are still novices. Recently
there has been talk of beginning the organization of women into
trade-unions.

Women are employed in large numbers as teachers; teaching being their sole
non-domestic calling. Elementary instruction has been obligatory since
1870, however, only in theory. In 1889 28 per cent of the women were
illiterate. In many cases the girls of the lower classes do not attend
school at all. When they do attend, they learn very little; for owing to
the lack of seminaries the training of women teachers is generally quite
inadequate. A reform of the central seminary of women teachers, in Madrid,
took place in 1884; this reform was also a model for the seminaries in the
provinces. The secondary schools for girls are convent schools. In France
there are complaints that these schools are inadequate. What, then, can be
expected of the Spanish schools! The curriculum includes only French,
singing, dancing, drawing, and needlework. But the "Society for Female
Education" is striving to secure a reform of the education for girls.

Preparation for entrance to the university must be secured privately. The
number of women seeking entrance to universities is small. Most of them,
so far as I know, are medical students. However, the Spanish women have a
brilliant past in the field of higher education. Donna Galinda was the
Latin professor of Queen Isabella. Isabella Losa and Sigea Aloisia of
Toledo were renowned for their knowledge of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew;
Sigea Aloisia corresponded with the Pope in Arabic and Syriac. Isabel de
Rosores even preached in the Cathedral of Barcelona.

In the literature of the present time Spanish women are renowned. Of first
rank is Emilia Pardo Bazan, who is called the "Spanish Zola." She is a
countess and an only daughter, two circumstances that facilitated her
emancipation and, together with her talent, assured her success. She
characterizes herself as "a mixture of mysticism and liberalism." At the
age of seven she wrote her first verses. Her best book portrayed a
"liberal monk," Father Fequë. _Pascual Loper_, a novel, was a great
success. She then went to Paris to study naturalism. Here she became
acquainted with Zola, Goncourt, Daudet, and others. A study of Francis of
Assisi led her again to the study of mysticism. In her recent novels
liberalism is mingled with idealism.

Emilia Pardo Bazan is by conviction a woman's rights advocate. In the
Madrid Atheneum she filled with great success the position of Professor of
French Literature. At the pedagogical congress in Madrid, in 1899, she
gave a report on _Woman, her Education, and her Rights_.

In Spain there are a number of well-known women journalists, authors, and
poets. Dr. Posada enumerates a number of woman's rights publications on
pages 200-202 of his book, _El Feminismo_.

Concepcion Arenal was a prominent Spanish woman and woman's rights
advocate. She devoted herself to work among prisoners, and wrote a
valuable handbook dealing with her work. She felt the oppression of her
sex very keenly. Concerning woman's status, which man has forced upon her,
Concepcion Arenal expressed herself as follows: "Man despises all women
that do not belong to his family; he oppresses every woman that he does
not love or protect. As a laborer, he takes from her the best paid
positions; as a thinker, he forbids the mental training of woman; as a
lover, he can be faithless to her without being punished by law; as a
husband, he can leave her without being guilty before the law."

The wife is legally under the guardianship of her husband; she has no
authority over her children. The property laws provide for joint property
holding.

In spite of these conditions Concepcion Arenal did not give up all hope.
"Women," said she, "are beginning to take interest in education, and have
organized a society for the higher education of girls." The pedagogical
congresses in Madrid (1882 and 1889) promoted the intellectual
emancipation of women. Catalina d'Alcala, delegate to the International
Congress of Women in Chicago in 1893, closed her report with the words,
"We are emerging from the period of darkness." However, he who has
wandered through Spanish cathedrals knows that this darkness is still very
dense! Nevertheless, the woman's suffrage movement has begun: the women
laborers are agitating in favor of a new law of association. A number of
women teachers and women authors have petitioned for the right to vote. In
March, 1908, during the discussion of a new law concerning municipal
administration, an amendment in favor of woman's suffrage was introduced,
but was rejected by a vote of 65 to 35. The Senate is said to be more
favorable to woman's suffrage than is the Chamber of Deputies.

The fact that women of the aristocracy have opposed divorce, and that
women of all classes have opposed the enactment of laws restricting
religious orders, is made to operate against the political emancipation of
women. A deputy in the Cortez, Senor Pi y Arsuaga, who introduced the
measure in favor of the right of women taxpayers to vote in municipal
elections, argued that the suffrage of a woman who is the head of a family
seems more reasonable to him than the suffrage of a young man, twenty-five
years old, who represents no corresponding interests.


PORTUGAL

  Total population: 5,672,237.
  Women:            2,583,535.
  Men:              2,520,602.

  No federation of women's clubs.
  No woman's suffrage league.

Portugal is smaller than Spain; its finances are in better condition;
therefore the compulsory education law (introduced in 1896) is better
enforced. As yet there are no public high schools for girls; but there
are a number of private schools that prepare girls for the university
entrance examinations (_Abiturientenexamen_). The universities admit
women. Women doctors practice in the larger cities. The women laborers are
engaged chiefly in the textile industry; their wages are about two thirds
of those of the men.


THE LATIN-AMERICAN REPUBLICS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA

MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA[96]

The condition prevailing in Mexico and Central America is one of
patriarchal family life, the husband being the "master" of the wife. There
are large families of ten or twelve children. The life of most of the
women without property consists of "endless routine and domestic tyranny";
the life of the property-owning women is one of frivolous coquetry and
indolence. There is no higher education for women; there are no high
ideals. The education of girls is generally regarded as unnecessary.

There are public elementary schools for girls,--with women teachers. The
higher education of girls is carried on by convent schools, and comprises
domestic science, sewing, dancing, and singing. In the Mexican public
high schools for girls, modern subjects and literature are taught; the
work is chiefly memorizing. Technical schools for girls are unknown. Women
do not attend the universities. Women teachers in Mexico are paid good
salaries,--250 francs ($50) a month.

Women are engaged in commerce only in their own business establishments;
and then in small retail businesses. The rest of the workingwomen are
engaged in agriculture, domestic service, washing, and sewing. Their wages
are from 40 to 50 per cent lower than those of men. The legal status of
women is similar to that of the French women. In Mexico only does the wife
control her earnings. Divorce is not recognized by law, though separation
is. By means of foreign teachers the initiative of the people has been
slightly aroused. It will take long for this stimulus to reach the
majority of the people.


SOUTH AMERICA[97]

In South America there are the same "patriarchal" forms of family life,
the same external restrictions for woman. She must have an escort on the
streets, even though the escort be only a small boy.

Just as in Central America, the occupations of the women of the lower and
middle class are agriculture, domestic service, washing, sewing, and
retail business. But woman's educational opportunities in South America
are greater, although through public opinion everything possible is done
to prevent women from desiring an education and admission to a liberal
calling. Elementary education is compulsory (often in coeducational
schools). Secondary education is in the hands of convents. In Brazil,
Chili, Venezuela, Argentine Republic, Paraguay, and Colombia, the
universities have been opened to women. As yet there are no women
preachers or lawyers, although several women have studied law. Women
practice as physicians, obstetrics still being their special field.

The beginnings of a woman's rights movement exist in Chili. The Chilean
women learn readily and willingly. They have proved their worth in
business and in the liberal callings. They have competed successfully for
government positions; they have founded trade-unions and coöperative
societies; many women are tramway conductors, etc. In all the South
American republics women have distinguished themselves as poets and
authors. In the Argentine Republic there is a Federation of Woman's Clubs,
which, in 1901, joined the International Council of Women.




CHAPTER III

THE SLAVIC AND BALKAN STATES


In the Slavic countries there is a lack of an ancient, deeply rooted
culture like that of western Europe. Everywhere the oriental viewpoint has
had its effect on the status of woman. In general the standards of life
are low; therefore, the wages of the women are especially wretched.
Political conditions are in part very unstable,--in some cases wholly
antique. All of these circumstances greatly impede the progress of the
woman's rights movement.


RUSSIA

  Total population: 94,206,195.
  Women:            47,772,455.
  Men:              46,433,740.

  Federation of Russian Women's Clubs.[98]
  National Woman's Suffrage League.

The Russian woman's rights movement is forced by circumstances to concern
itself chiefly with educational and industrial problems. All efforts
beyond these limits are, as a matter of course, regarded as revolutionary.
Such efforts are a part of the forbidden "political movement"; therefore
they are dangerous and practically hopeless. Some peculiarities of the
Russian woman's rights movement are: its individuality, its independence
of the momentary tendencies of the government, and the companionable
coöperation of men and women. All three characteristics are accounted for
by the absolute government that prevails in Russia, in spite of its Duma.

Under this régime the organization of societies and the holding of
meetings are made exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. Individual
initiative therefore works in solitude; discussion or the expression of
opinions is not very feasible. When individual initiative ceases, progress
usually ceases also. Corporate activity, such as educates women adherents,
did not exist formerly in Russia. The lack of united action wastes much
force, time, and money. Unconsciously people compete with each other.
Without wishing to do so, people neglect important fields. The absolute
régime regards all striving for an education as revolutionary. The
educational institutions for women are wholly in the hands of the
government. These institutions are tolerated; but a mere frown from above
puts an end to their existence.

It is the absolute régime that makes comrades of men and women struggling
for emancipation. The oppression endured by both sexes is in fact the
same.

The government has not always been an enemy of enlightenment, as it is
to-day. The first steps of the woman's rights movement were made through
the influence of the rulers. Although polygamy did not exist in Russia,
the country could not free itself from certain oriental influences. Hence
the women of the property-owning class formerly lived in the harem (called
_terem_). The women were shut off from the world; they had no education,
often no rearing whatever; they were the victims of deadly ennui, ecstatic
piety, lingering diseases, and drunkenness.

With a strong hand Peter the Great reformed the condition of Russian
women. The _terem_ was abolished; the Russian woman was permitted to see
the world. In rough, uncivilized surroundings, in the midst of a brutal,
sensuous people, woman's release was not in all cases a gain for morality.
It is impossible to become a woman of western Europe upon demand.

Catherine II saw that there must be a preparation for this emancipation.
She created the _Institute de demoiselles_ for girls of the upper classes.
The instruction, borrowed from France, remained superficial enough; the
women acquired a knowledge of French, a few _accomplishments_, polished
manners, and an aristocratic bearing. For all that, it was then an
achievement to educate young Russian women according to the standards of
western Europe. The superficiality of the _Institutka_ was recognized in
the middle of the nineteenth century. Alexander II, the Tsarina, and her
aunt, Helene Pavlovna, favored reforms. The emancipator of the serfs could
also liberate women from their intellectual bondage.

Thus with the protection of the highest power, the first public lyceum for
girls was established in 1857 in Russia. This was a day school for girls
of _all_ classes. What an innovation! To-day there are 350 of these
lyceums, having over 10,000 women students. The curriculums resemble those
of the German high schools for girls. None of these lyceums (except the
humanistic lyceum for girls in Moscow), are equivalent to the German
_Gymnasiums_ or _Realgymnasiums_, nor even to the _Oberrealschulen_ or
_Realschulen_. This explains and justifies the refusal of the German
universities to regard the leaving certificates of the Russian lyceums as
equivalent to the _Abiturienten_ certificate of the German schools. The
compulsory studies in the girls' lyceums are: Russian, French, religion,
history, geography, geometry, algebra, a few natural sciences, dancing,
and singing. The optional studies are German, English, Latin, music, and
sewing. The lyceums of the large cities make foreign languages compulsory
also; but these institutions are in the minority. In the natural sciences
and in mathematics "much depends on the teacher." A Russian woman wishing
to study in the university must pass an entrance examination in Latin.

The first efforts to secure the higher education of women were made by a
number of professors of the University of St. Petersburg in 1861. They
opened courses for the instruction of adult women in the town hall.
Simultaneously the Minister of War admitted a number of women to the St.
Petersburg School of Medicine, this school being under his control.

However, the reaction began already in 1862. Instruction in the School of
Medicine, as well as in the town hall, was discontinued. Then began the
first exodus of Russian women students to Germany and Switzerland. But in
St. Petersburg, in 1867, there was formed a society, under the presidency
of Mrs. Conradi, to secure the reopening of the course for adult women.
The society appealed to the first congress of Russian naturalists and
physicians. This congress sent a petition, with the signatures of
influential men, to the Minister of Public Instruction. In two years Mrs.
Conradi was informed that the Minister would grant a two-year course for
men and women in Russian literature and the natural sciences. The society
accepted what was offered. It was little enough. Moreover, the society had
to defray the cost of instruction; but it was denied the right to give
examinations and confer degrees. All the teachers, however, taught without
pay. In 1885 the society erected its own building in which to give its
courses. The instruction was again discontinued in 1886. Once more the
Russian women flocked to foreign countries. In 1889 the courses were again
opened (Swiss influence on Russian youth was feared). The number of those
enrolled in the courses was limited to 600 (of these only 3 per cent could
be unorthodox, _i.e._ Jewish). These courses are still given in St.
Petersburg. Recently the Council of Ministers empowered the Minister of
Public Instruction to forbid women to attend university lectures; but
those who have already been admitted, and find it impossible to attend
other higher institutions of learning for girls, have been allowed to
complete their course in the university. The present number of women
hearers in Russian universities is 2130. A Russian woman doctor was
admitted as a lecturer by the University of Moscow, but her appointment
was not confirmed by the Minister of Public Instruction. She appealed
thereupon to the Senate, declaring that the Russian laws nowhere
prohibited women from acting as teachers in the universities; moreover,
her medical degree gave her full power to do so. The decision of the
Senate is still pending.

A recent law opens to women the calling of architect and of engineer. The
work done on the Trans-Siberian Railroad by the woman engineer has given
better satisfaction than any of the other work. A bill providing for the
admission of women to the legal profession has been introduced but has not
yet become law.

The Russian women medical students shared the vicissitudes of Russian
university life for women. After 1862 they studied in Switzerland, where
Miss Suslowa, in 1867, was the first woman to be given the doctor's degree
in Zurich. However, since the lack of doctors is very marked on the vast
Russian plains, the government in 1872 opened special courses for women
medical students in St. Petersburg. (In another institution courses were
given for midwives and for women regimental surgeons.) The women
completing the courses in St. Petersburg were not granted the doctor's
degree, however. The Russian women earned the doctor's degree in the
Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878); for ten years after this war women
graduates of the St. Petersburg medical courses were granted degrees. Then
these courses were closed in 1887. They were opened again in 1898. Under
these difficult circumstances the Russian women secured their higher
education.

In the elementary schools, for every 1000 women inhabitants there are only
13.1 women public school teachers. Of the 2,000,000 public school
children, only 650,000 are girls. The number of illiterates in Russia
varies from 70 to 80 per cent. The elementary school course in the country
is only three years (it is five years in the cities).

The number of women public school teachers is 27,000 (as compared with
40,000 men teachers). An attempt has been made by the women village school
teachers to arouse the women agricultural laborers from their stupor.
Organization of women laborers has been attempted in the cities. For the
present the task seems superhuman.[99]

When graduating from the lyceum the young girl is given her _teaching
diploma_, which permits her to teach in the four lower classes in the
girls' lyceums. Those wishing to teach in the higher classes must take a
special examination in a university. The higher classes in the girls'
lyceums are taught chiefly by men teachers. When a Russian woman teacher
marries she need not relinquish her position.

In Russia the women doctors have a vast field of work. For every 200,000
inhabitants there is only one doctor! However, in St. Petersburg there is
one doctor for every 10,000 inhabitants. According to the most recent
statistics there are 545 women doctors in Russia. Of these, 8 have ceased
to practice, 245 have official positions, and 292 have a private practice.
Of the 132 women doctors in St. Petersburg, 35 are employed in hospitals,
14 in the sanitary department of the city; 7 are school physicians, 5 are
assistants in clinics and laboratories, 2 are superintendents of maternity
hospitals, 2 have charge of foundling asylums, 5 have private hospitals,
and the rest engage in private practice. Of the 413 women doctors not in
St. Petersburg, 173 have official positions, the others have a private
practice.

The local governments (_zemstvos_) have appointed 26 women doctors in the
larger cities, 21 in the smaller, and 55 in the rural districts. There are
18 women doctors employed in private hospitals on country estates, 8 in
hospitals for Mohammedan women, 16 in schools, 9 in factories, 4 are
employed by railroads, 4 by the Red Cross Society, etc. The practice of
the woman doctor in the country is naturally the most difficult and the
least remunerative. Therefore, it is willingly given over to the women.
Thanks to individual ability, the Russian woman doctor is highly
respected.

There are 400 women druggists in Russia. Their training for the calling is
received by practical work (this is true of the men druggists also).
According to the last statistics (1897), there were 126,016 women engaged
in the liberal professions. There are a number of women professors in the
state universities.

Women engage in commercial callings. The schools of commerce for women
were favored by Witte in his capacity of Minister of Finance. They have
since been placed under the control of the Minister of Instruction and
Religion. This will restrict the freedom of instruction. Instruction in
agriculture for women has not yet been established. Commerce engages
299,403 women; agriculture and fisheries, 2,086,169.

Women have been appointed as factory inspectors since 1900. The Ministry
of Justice and the Ministry of Communication employ women in limited
numbers, without entitling them to pensions. The government of the
province of Moscow has appointed women to municipal offices, and has
appointed them as fire insurance agents. The _zemstvo_ of Kiew had done
this previously; but suddenly it discharged them from the municipal
offices. For the past nine years an institution founded by the Princes
Liwin has trained women as managers of prisons.[100]

The names of two prominent Russian women must be mentioned: Sonja
Kowalewska, the winner of a contest in mathematics, and Madame
Sklodowska-Curie, the discoverer of radium. Both prove that women can
excel in scientific work. It must be emphasized that the woman student in
Russia must often struggle against terrible want. Whoever has studied in
Swiss, German, or French universities knows the Russian-Polish students
who in many cases must get along for the whole year with a couple of ten
ruble bills (about ten dollars). They are wonderfully unassuming; they
possess inexhaustible enthusiasm.

Many Russian women begin their university careers poorly prepared. To
unfortunate, divorced, widowed, or destitute women the "University"
appears to be a golden goal, a promised land. Of the privations that these
women endure the people of western Europe have no conception. In Russia
the facts are better known. Wealthy women endow all educational
institutions for girls with relief funds and with loan and stipend funds.
Restaurants and homes for university women have been established. The
"Society for the Support of University Women" in Moscow has done its
utmost to relieve the misery of the women students.[101]

The economic misery of the industrial and agricultural women (who are
almost wholly unorganized) is somewhat worse than that of the university
women. The statements concerning women's wages in Vienna might give some
idea of the misery of the Russian women. In Bialystock, which has the
best socialistic organization of women, the women textile workers earn
about 18 cents a day; under favorable circumstances $1.25 to $1.50 a week.
A skillful woman tobacco worker will earn 32-1/2 cents a day. The average
daily wages for Russian women laborers are 18 to 20 cents.

Hence it is not astonishing that in the South American houses of ill-fame
there are so many Russian girls. The agents in the white slave trade need
not make very extravagant promises of "good wages" to find willing
followers.[102] A workingwomen's club has existed since 1897 in St.
Petersburg. There are 982,098 women engaged in industry and mining;
1,673,605 in domestic service (there being 1,586,450 men domestic
servants). Of the women domestic servants 53,283 are illiterate (of the
men only 2172!). In 1885 the women formed 30 per cent of the laboring
population; in 1900 the number had increased to 44 per cent. Of the total
number of criminals in Russia 10 per cent are women.

The legal status of the Russian woman is favorable in so far as the
property law provides for property rights. The Russian married woman
controls not only her property, but also her earnings and her savings. As
survival of village communism and the feudal system, the right to vote is
restricted to taxpayers and to landowners. In the rural districts the
wife votes as "head of the family," if her husband is absent or dead. Then
she is also given her share of the village land. She votes in person. In
the cities the women that own houses and pay taxes vote by proxy. The
women owners of large estates (as in Austria) vote also for the provincial
assemblies. Although constitutional liberties have a precarious existence
in Russia, they have now and then been beneficial to women.

With great effort, and in the face of great dangers, woman's suffrage
societies were formed in various parts of the Empire. They united into a
national Woman's Suffrage League. The brave Russian delegates were present
in Copenhagen and in Amsterdam. They belonged to all ranks of society and
were adherents to the progressive political parties. Since the dissolution
of the first Duma (June 9, 1906) the work of the woman's suffrage
advocates has been made very difficult; in the rural districts especially
all initiative has been crippled. In Moscow and St. Petersburg the work is
continued by organizations having about 1000 members; 10,000 pamphlets
have been distributed, lectures have been held, a newspaper has been
established, and a committee has been organized which maintains a
continuous communication with the Duma.

The best established center of the Russian woman's rights movement is the
Woman's Club in St. Petersburg. Through the tenacious efforts of the
leading women of the club,--Mrs. v. Philosophow, (Mrs.) _Dr. med._
Schabanoff, and others,--the government granted them, in the latter part
of December, 1908, the right to hold the first national congress of women.
(The stipulation was made that foreign women should not participate, and
that a federation of women's clubs should not be formed.) The discussions
concerned education, labor problems, and politics. Publicity was much
restricted; police surveillance was rigid; addresses on the foreign
woman's suffrage movement were prohibited. Nevertheless, this progressive
declaration was made: Only the right to vote can secure for the Russian
women a thorough education and the right to work. Moreover, the Congress
favored: better marriage laws (a wife cannot secure a passport without the
consent of her husband), the abolition of the official regulation of
prostitution, the abolition of the death penalty, the struggle against
drunkenness, etc. The Congress was opened by the Lord Mayor of St.
Petersburg and was held in the St. Petersburg town hall. This was done in
a sense of obligation to the women school teachers of St. Petersburg and
to those women who had endeared themselves to the people through their
activity in hospitals and asylums. The Lord Mayor stated that these
activities were appreciated by the municipal officers and by all municipal
institutions.

Although the Congress was opened with praise for the women, it ended with
an intentional insult to the highly talented and deserving leader, Mrs. v.
Philosophow. Mr. Purischkewitch, the reactionary deputy of the Duma, wrote
a letter in which he expressed his pleasure at the adjournment of her
"congress of prostitutes" (_Bordellkongress_). Mrs. v. Philosophow
surrendered this letter and another to the courts, which sentenced the
offender to a month's imprisonment, against which he appealed. After this
Congress has worked over the whole field of the woman's rights movement, a
special congress on the education of women will be held in the autumn of
1909.[103]

Since the Revolution of 1905 the women of the provinces have been astir.
It has been reported that the Mohammedan women of the Caucasus are
discarding their veils, that the Russian women in the rural districts are
petitioning for greater privileges, etc. An organized woman's rights
movement has originated in the Baltic Provinces; its organ is the _Baltic
Women's Review_ (_Baltische Frauenrundschau_), the publisher being a
woman, E. Schütze, Riga.


CZECHISH BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA

  Total population: about 5,500,000.

  The women predominate numerically.

  No federation of women's clubs.
  No woman's suffrage league.

The woman's rights movement is strongly supported among the Czechs. Woman
is the best apostle of nationalism; the educated woman is the most
valuable ally. In the national propaganda woman takes her place beside the
man. The names of the Czechish women patriots are on the lips of
everybody. Had the Liberals of German Austria known equally well how to
inspire their women with liberalism and Germanism, their cause would
to-day be more firmly rooted.

In inexpensive but well-organized boarding schools the Czechish girls
(especially country girls, the daughters of landowners and tenants) are
being educated along national lines. An institute such as the
"_Wesna_"[104] in Brünn is a center of national propaganda. Prague, like
Brünn, has a Czechish _Gymnasium_ for girls as well as the German
_Gymnasium_. There is also a Czechish University besides the German
University. The first woman to be given the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
at the Czechish university was Fräulein Babor.

The industrial conditions in Czechish Bohemia and in Moravia differ very
little from those in Galicia. The lot of the workingwomen, especially in
the coal mining districts, is wretched. According to a local club doctor
(_Kassenarzt_),[105] life is made up of hunger, whiskey, and lashes.

Although paragraph 30, of the Austrian law of association
(_Vereinsgesetz_) prevents the Czechish women from forming political
associations, the women of Bohemia, especially of Prague, show the most
active political interest. The women owners of large estates in Bohemia
voted until 1906 for members of the imperial Parliament. When universal
suffrage was granted to the Austrian men, the voting rights of this
privileged minority were withdrawn. The government's resolution, providing
for an early introduction of a woman's suffrage measure, has not yet been
carried out.

The suffrage conditions for the Bohemian _Landtag_ (provincial
legislature) are different. Taxpayers, office-holders, doctors, and
teachers vote for this body; the women, of course, voting by proxy. The
same is true in the Bohemian municipal elections. In Prague only are the
women deprived of the suffrage. The Prague woman's suffrage committee,
organized in 1905, has proved irrefutably that the women in Prague are
legally entitled to the suffrage for the Bohemian _Landtag_. In the
_Landtag_ election of 1907 the women presented a candidate, Miss Tumova,
who received a considerable number of votes, but was defeated by the most
prominent candidate (the mayor). However, this campaign aroused an active
interest in woman's suffrage. In 1909 Miss Tumova was again a candidate.
The proposed reform of the election laws for the Bohemian _Landtag_ (1908)
(which provides for universal suffrage, although not equal suffrage) would
disfranchise the women outside Prague. The women are opposing the law by
indignation meetings and deputations.


GALICIA[106]

  Total population: about 7,000,000.
  Poles: about            3,500,000.
  Ruthenians: about       3,500,000.

  The women predominate numerically.

  No federation of women's clubs.
  No woman's suffrage league.

The conditions prevailing in Galicia are unspeakably pathetic,--medieval,
oriental, and atrocious. Whoever has read Emil Franzo's works is familiar
with these conditions. The Vienna official inquiry into the industrial
conditions of women led to a similar inquiry in Lemberg. This showed that
most of the women _cannot_ live on their earnings. The lowest wages are
those of the women engaged in the ready-made clothing industry,--2 to
2-1/2 guldens ($.96 to $1.10) a _month_ as beginners; 8 to 10 guldens
($3.85 to $4.82) later. The wages (including board and room) of servant
girls living with their employers are 20 to 25 cents a day. The skilled
seamstress that sews linen garments can earn 40 cents a day if she works
sixteen hours.

As a beginner, a milliner earns 2 to 4 guldens ($.96 to $1.93) a _month_,
later 10 guldens ($4.82). In the mitten industry (a home industry) a
week's hard work brings 6 to 8 guldens ($2.89 to $3.88). In laundries
women working 14 hours earn 80 kreuzer (30 cents) a day without board. In
printing works and in bookbinderies women are employed as assistants; for
9-1/2 hours' work a day they are paid a _monthly_ wage of from 2 to 14 and
15 guldens ($.96 to $7.23). In the bookbinderies women sometimes receive
16 guldens ($7.71) a month.

In Lemberg, as in Vienna, women are employed as brickmakers and as
bricklayers' assistants, working 10 to 11 hours a day; their wages are 40
to 60 kreuzer (19 to 29 cents) a day. No attempt to improve these
conditions through organizations has yet been made. The official inquiry
thus far has confined itself to the Christian women laborers. What
miseries might not be concealed in the ghettos!

An industrial women's movement in Galicia is not to be thought of as yet.
There is a migration of the women from the flat rural districts to the
cities; _i.e._ into the nets of the white slave agents. Women earning 10,
15, or 20 cents a day are easily lured by promises of higher wages. The
ignorance of the lower classes (Ruthenians and Poles) is, according to the
ideas of western Europe, immeasurable. In 1897 336,000 children between
six and twelve years (in a total of about 923,000) had _never attended
school_. Of 4164 men teachers, 139 had no qualifications whatever! Of the
4159 women teachers 974 had no qualifications! The minimum salary is 500
kronen ($101.50). The women teachers in 1909 demanded that they be
regarded on an equality with the men teachers by the provincial school
board. There are _Gymnasiums_ for girls in Cracow, Lemberg, and Przemysl.
Women are admitted to the universities of Cracow and Lemberg. In one of
the universities (Mrs.) Dr. Dazynska is a lecturer on political economy.
In Cracow there is a woman's club. Propaganda is being organized
throughout the land.

A society to oppose the official regulation of prostitution and to improve
moral conditions was organized in 1908. The Galician woman taxpayer votes
in municipal affairs; the women owners of large estates vote for members
of the _Landtag_. (Mrs.) Dr. Dazynska and Mrs. Kutschalska-Reinschmidt of
Cracow are champions of the woman's rights movement in Galicia. Mrs.
Kutschalska lives during parts of the year in Warsaw. She publishes the
magazine _Ster_. In Russian Poland her activities are more restricted
because the forming of organizations is made difficult. In spite of this
the "Equal Rights Society of Polish Women" has organized local societies
in Kiew, Radom, Lublin, and other cities. The formation of a federation of
Polish women's clubs has been planned. In Warsaw the Polish branch of the
International Federation for the Abolition of Prostitution was organized
in 1907. An asylum for women teachers, a loan-fund for women teachers, and
a commission for industrial women are the external evidences of the
activities of the Polish woman's rights movement in Warsaw.

The field of labor for the educated woman is especially limited in Poland.
Excluded from government service, many educated Polish women flock into
the teaching profession; there they have restricted advantages. The
University of Warsaw has been opened to women.


THE SLOVENE WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT[107]

  Total population: 1,176,672.

  The women preponderate numerically.

The Slovene woman's rights movement is still incipient; it was stimulated
by Zofka Kveder's "The Mystery of Woman" (_Mysterium der Frau_). Zofka
Kveder's motto is: "To see, to know, to understand.--Woman is a human
being." Zofka Kveder hopes to transform the magazine _Slovenka_ into a
woman's rights review. A South Slavic Social-Democratic movement is
attempting to organize trade-unions among the women. The women lace makers
have been organized. Seventy per cent of all women laborers cannot live on
their earnings. In agricultural work they earn 70 hellers (14 cents) a
day. In the ready-made clothing industry they are paid 30 hellers (6
cents) for making 36 buttonholes, 1 krone 20 hellers (25 cents) for making
one dozen shirts.


SERVIA

  Total population: 2,850,000.

  The number of women is somewhat greater than that of the men.

  Servian Federation of Women's Clubs.

Servia has been free from Turkish control hardly forty-five years. Among
the people the oriental conception of woman prevails along with
patriarchal family conditions. The woman's rights movement is well
organized; it is predominantly national, philanthropic, and educational.

Elementary education is obligatory, and is supported by the "National
Society for Public Education" (_Nationalen Verein für Volksbildung_). The
girls and women of the lower classes are engaged chiefly with domestic
duties; in addition they work in the fields or work at excellent home
industries. These home industries were developed as a means of livelihood
by the efforts of Mrs. E. Subotisch, the organizer of the Servian woman's
rights movement. The Servian women are rarely domestic servants (under
Turkish rule they were not permitted to serve the enemy); most of the
domestic servants are Hungarians and Austrians.

All educational opportunities are open to the women of the middle class.
In all of the more important cities there are public as well as private
high schools for girls. The boys' _Gymnasiums_ admit girls. The university
has been open to women for twenty-one years; women are enrolled in all
departments; recently law has attracted many. For medical training the
women, like the men, go to foreign countries (France, Switzerland).

Servia has 1020 women teachers in the elementary schools (the salary being
720 to 2000 francs--$144 to $500--a year, with lodging); there are 65
women teachers in the secondary schools (the salary being 1500 to 3000
francs,--$300 to $600). To the present no woman has been appointed as a
university professor. There are six women doctors, the first having
entered the profession 30 years ago; there are two women dentists; but as
yet there are no women druggists. There are no women lawyers. There is a
woman engineer in the service of the government. In the liberal arts there
are three well-known women artists, seven women authors, and ten women
poets.

There are many women engaged in commercial callings, as office clerks,
cashiers, bookkeepers, and saleswomen. Women are also employed by banks
and insurance companies. "A woman merchant is given extensive credit," is
stated in the report of the secretary of the Federation.

In the postal and telegraph service 108 women are employed (the salaries
varying from 700 to 1260 francs,--$140 to $252). There are 127 women in
the telephone service (the salaries varying from 360 to 960 francs,--$72
to $192). Servia is just establishing large factories; the number of women
laborers is still small; 1604 are organized.

Prostitution is officially regulated in Servia; its recruits are chiefly
foreign women. Each vaudeville singer, barmaid, etc., is _ex officio_
placed under control.

The oldest woman's club is the "Belgrade Woman's Club," founded in 1875;
it has 34 branches. It maintains a school for poor girls, a school for
weavers in Pirot, and a students' kitchen (_studentenküche_). The "Society
of Servian Sisters" and the "Society of Queen Lubitza" are patriotic
societies for maintaining and strengthening the Servian element in
Turkey, Old Servia, and Macedonia. The "Society of Mothers" takes care of
abandoned children. The "Housekeeping Society" trains domestic servants.
The Servian women's clubs within the Kingdom have 5000 members; in the
Servian colonies without the Kingdom they have 14,000 members.

The property laws provide for joint property holding. The wife controls
her earnings and savings only when this is stipulated in the marriage
contract.

In 1909, the Federation of Servian Women's Clubs inserted woman's suffrage
in its programme, and joined the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance.

In the struggle for national existence the Servian woman demonstrated her
worth, and effected a recognition of her right to an education.


BULGARIA

  Total population: 4,035,586.
  Women:            1,978,457.
  Men:              2,057,111.

  Federation of Bulgarian Women's Clubs.

Like Servia, Bulgaria was freed from Turkish control about forty years
ago. The liberation caused very little change in the life of the peasant
women. But it opened new educational opportunities for the middle
classes. The elementary schools naturally provide for the girls also. (In
1905-1906 there were 1800 men teachers and 800 women teachers in the
villages; in the cities 415 men and 355 women.) High schools for girls
have been established, but not all of them prepare for the
_Abiturientenexamen_. The first women entered the university of Sofia in
1900. There are now about 100 women students. Since 1907, through the work
of a reactionary ministry, the university has excluded women; married
women teachers have been discharged. Women attend the schools of commerce,
the technical schools, and the agricultural schools. Women are active as
doctors (there being 56), midwives, journalists, and authors.

The men and women teachers are organized jointly. Women are employed by
the state in the postal and telegraph service. The wages of these women,
like those of the women laborers, are lower than those of the men. There
is a factory law that protects women laborers and children working in the
factories. The trade-unions are socialistic and have men and women
members. The laws regulating the legal status of woman have been
influenced by German laws. The wife controls her earnings. Politically the
Bulgarian woman has no rights.

The Federation of Bulgarian Women's Clubs was organized in 1899; in 1908
it joined the International Council of Women. Woman's suffrage occupies
the first place on the programme of the Federation; in 1908 it joined the
International Woman's Suffrage Affiance.

The Bulgarian women, too, have recognized woman's suffrage as the key to
all other woman's rights. To the present time their demands have been
supported by radicals and democrats (who are not very influential).

A meeting of the Federation in 1908 demanded:

     1. Active and passive suffrage for women in school administration and
        municipal councils.

     2. The reopening of the University to women. (This has been granted.)

     3. The increase of the salaries of women teachers. (They are paid 10
        per cent less than the men teachers.)

     4. The same curriculums for the boys' and girls' schools.

     5. An enlargement of woman's field of labor.

     6. Better protection to women and children working in factories.

The President of the Federation is the wife of the President of the
Ministry, Malinoff. Because the Federation, led by Mrs. Malinoff, did not
oppose the reactionary measures of the Ministry (of Stambolavitch), Mrs.
Anna Carima, who had been President of the Federation to 1906, organized
the "League of Progressive Women." This League demands equal rights for
the sexes. It admits only confirmed woman's rights advocates (men and
women). It will request the political emancipation of women in a petition
which it intends to present to the National Parliament, which must be
called after Bulgaria has been converted into a kingdom. In July (1909)
the Progressive League will hold a meeting to draft its constitution.


RUMANIA

  Total population: 6,585,534.

  No federation of women's clubs.
  No woman's suffrage league.

The status of the Rumanian women is similar to that of the Servian and
Bulgarian women; but the legal profession has been opened to the Bulgarian
women. A discussion of Rumania must be omitted, since my efforts to secure
reliable information have been unsuccessful.


GREECE[108]

  Total population: 2,433,806.
  Women:            1,166,990.
  Men:              1,266,816.

  Federation of Greek Women.
  No woman's suffrage league.

The Greek woman's rights movement concerns itself for the time being with
philanthropy and education. Its guiding spirit is Madame Kallirhoe Parren
(who acted as delegate in Chicago in 1893, and in Paris in 1900). Madame
Parren succeeded in 1896 in organizing a Federation of Greek Women, which
has belonged to the International Council of Women since 1908. The
presidency of the Federation was accepted by Queen Olga.

The Federation has five sections:

1. The national section. This acts as a patriotic woman's club. In 1897 it
rendered invaluable assistance in the Turco-Greek War, erecting four
hospitals on the border and one in Athens. The nurses belonged to the best
families; the work was superintended by _Dr. med._ Marie Kalapothaki and
_Dr. med._ Bassiliades.

2. The educational section. This section establishes kindergartens; it has
opened a seminary for kindergartners, and courses for women teachers of
gymnastics.[109]

3. The section for the establishment of domestic economy schools and
continuation schools. This section is attempting to enlarge the
non-domestic field of women and at the same time to prepare women better
for their domestic calling. The efforts of this section are quite in
harmony with the spirit of the times. The Greek woman's struggle for
existence is exceedingly difficult; she must face a backwardness of
public opinion such as was overcome in northern Europe long ago. This
section has also founded a home for workingwomen.

4. The hygiene section. Under the leadership of Dr. Kalapothaki this
section has organized an orthopedic and gynecological clinic. The section
also gives courses on the care of children, and provides for the care of
women in confinement.

5. The philanthropic section. This provides respectable but needy girls
with trousseaus (_Austeuern_).

Mrs. Parren has for eighteen years been editor of a woman's magazine in
Athens. (Miss) _Dr. med._ Panajotatu has since 1908 been a lecturer in
bacteriology at Athens University. At her inaugural lecture the students
made a hostile demonstration. Miss Bassiliades acts as physician in the
women's penitentiary. Miss Lascaridis and Miss Ionidis are respected
artists; Mrs. v. Kapnist represents woman in literature, especially in
poetry. Mrs. Parren has written several dramatic works (some advocating
woman's rights), which have been presented in Athens, Smyrna,
Constantinople, and Alexandria. Mrs. Parren is a director of the society
of dramatists.

Government positions are still closed to women. As late as 1909, after
great difficulties, the first women telephone clerks were appointed.




CHAPTER IV

THE ORIENT AND THE FAR EAST


In the Orient and the Far East woman is almost without exception a
plaything or a beast of burden; and to a degree that would incense us
Europeans. In the uncivilized countries, and in the countries of
non-European civilization, the majority of the women are insufficiently
nourished; in all cases more poorly than the men. Early marriages enervate
the women. They are old at thirty; this is especially true of the lower
classes. Among us, to be sure, such cases occur also; unfortunately
without sufficient censure being given when necessary. But we have
abolished polygamy and the harem. Both still exist almost undisturbed in
the Orient and the Far East.


TURKEY AND EGYPT

  Total population: 34,000,000.

  A federation of women's clubs has just been founded in each country.

In all the Mohammedan countries the wealthy woman lives in the harem with
her slaves. The woman of the lower classes, however, is guarded or
restricted no more than with us. Apparently the Turkish and the Arabian
women of the lower classes have an unrestrained existence. But because
they are subject to the absolute authority of their husbands, their life
is in most cases that of a beast of burden. They work hard and
incessantly. For the Mohammedan of the lower classes polygamy is
economically a useful institution: four women are four laborers that earn
more than they consume.

Domestic service offers workingwomen in the Orient the broadest field of
labor. The women slaves in the harems[110] are usually well treated, and
they have sufficient to live on. They associate with women shopkeepers,
women dancers, midwives, hairdressers, manicurists, pedicures, etc. These
are in the pay of the wives of the wealthy. Thanks to this army of spies,
a Turkish woman is informed, without leaving her harem, of every step of
her husband.

The oppression that all women must endure, and the general fear of the
infidelity of husbands, have created among oriental women an _esprit de
corps_ that is unknown to European women. Among the upper classes polygamy
is being abolished because the country is impoverished and the large
estates have been squandered; moreover, each wife is now demanding her own
household, whereas formerly the wives all lived together.

Through the influence of the European women educators, an emancipation
movement has been started among the younger generation of women in
Constantinople. Many fathers, often through vanity, have given their
daughters a European education. Elementary schools, secondary schools, and
technical schools have existed in Turkey and Egypt since 1839. The women
graduates of these schools are now opposing oriental marriage and life in
the harem. At present this is causing tragic conflicts.[111]

To the present, two Turkish women have spoken publicly at international
congresses of women. Selma Riza, sister of the "Young Turkish" General,
Ahmed Riza, spoke in Paris in 1900, and Mrs. Haïrie Ben-Aid spoke in
Berlin in 1904.

The Mohammedan women have a legal supporter of their demands in Kassim
Amin Bey, counselor of the Court of Appeals in Cairo. In his pamphlet on
the woman's rights question he proposes the following programme:--

     Legal prohibition of polygamy.

     Woman's right to file a divorce suit. (Hitherto a woman is divorced
     if her husband, even without cause, says thee times consecutively
     "You are divorced.")

     Woman's freedom to choose her husband.

     The training of women in independent thought and action.

     A thorough education for woman.

In 1910 a congress of Mohammedan women will be held in Cairo.

I may add that the Koran, the Mohammedan code of laws, gives a married
woman the full status of a legal person before the law, and full civil
ability. It recognizes separation of property as legal, and grants the
wife the right to control and to dispose of her property. Hence the Koran
is more liberal than the Code Napoleon or the German Civil Code. Whether
the restrictions of the harem make the exercise of these rights impossible
in practice, I am unable to say.

European schools, as well as the newly founded _Universités populaires_,
are in Turkey and in Egypt the centers of enlightenment among the
Mohammedans. The European women doctors in Constantinople, Alexandria, and
Cairo are all disseminators of modern culture. A woman lawyer practices in
the Cairo court, and has been admitted to the lawyers' society.

The Young Turk movement and the reform of Turkey on a constitutional basis
found hearty support among the women. They expressed themselves orally and
in writing in favor of the liberal ideas; they spoke in public and held
public meetings; they attempted to appear in public without veils, and to
attend the theater in order to see a patriotic play; they sent a
delegation to the Young Turk committee requesting the right to occupy the
spectators' gallery in Parliament; and, finally, they organized the
Women's Progress Society, which comprises women of all nationalities but
concerns itself only with philanthropy and education. As a consequence,
the government is said to have resolved to erect a humanistic _Gymnasium_
for girls in Constantinople. The leader of the Young Turks, the present
President of the Chamber of Deputies, is, as a result of his long stay in
Paris, naturally convinced of the superiority of harem life and legal
polygamy (when compared with occidental practices).[112] The freedom of
action of the Mohammedan women, especially in the provinces, might be much
hampered by traditional obstacles. Nevertheless, the restrictions placed
on the Mohammedan woman have been abolished, as is proved by the
following:--

In Constantinople there has been founded a "Young Turkish Woman's League"
that proposes to bring about the same great revolutionary changes in the
intellectual life of woman that have already been introduced into the
political life of man. Knowledge and its benefits must in the future be
made accessible to the Turkish women. This is to be done openly. Formerly
all strivings of the Turkish women were carried on in secret. The women
revolutionists were anxiously guarded; as far as possible, information
concerning their movements was secured before they left their homes. The
Turkish women wish to prove that they, as well as the women of other
countries, have human rights. When the constitution of the "Young Turkish
Woman's League" was being drawn up, Enver Bey was present. He was
thoroughly in favor of the demands of the new woman's rights movement. The
"Young Turkish Woman's League" is under the protection of Princess Refià
Sultana, daughter of the Sultan. Princess Refià, a young woman of
twenty-one years of age, has striven since her eighteenth year to acquire
a knowledge of the sciences. She speaks several languages. The enthusiasm
of the Young Turkish women is great. Many of them appear on the streets
without veils,--a thing that no prominent Turkish woman could do formerly.
Women of all classes have joined the League. The committee daily receives
requests for admission to membership.


BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

  Total population: 1,591,036.

  The men preponderate numerically.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, being Mohammedan countries, have harems and the
restricted views of harem life. Naturally, a woman's rights movement is
not to be thought of. Polygamy and patriarchal life are characteristic.

Into this Mohammedan country the Austrian government has sent women
disseminators of the culture of western Europe,[113]--the Bosnian district
women doctors. The first of these was Dr. Feodora Krajevska in Dolna
Tuszla, now in Serajewo. Now she has several women colleagues. The women
doctors wear uniforms,--a black coat, a black overcoat with crimson
facings and with two stars on the collar.


PERSIA

  Total population: about 9,500,000.

In Persia hardly a beginning of the woman's rights movement exists. The
Report[114] that I have before me closes thus: "The Persian woman lives,
as it were, a negative life, but does not seem to strive for a change in
her condition." Certainly not. Like the Turkish and the Arabian woman, she
is bound by the Koran. Her educational opportunities are even less (there
are very few European schools, governesses, and women doctors in Persia).
Her field of activity is restricted to agriculture, domestic service,
tailoring, and occasionally, teaching. However, she is said to be quite
skillful in the management of her financial affairs. As far as I know, the
Persian woman took no part in the constitutional struggle of 1908-1909.


INDIA

  Total population: 300,000,000.

The Indian woman's rights movement originated through the efforts of the
English. The movement is as necessary and as difficult as the movement in
China. The Indian religions teach that woman should be despised. "A cow is
worth more than a thousand women." The birth of a girl is a misfortune:
"May the tree grow in the forest, but may no daughter be born to me."[115]

Formerly it was permissible to drown newborn girls; the English government
had to abolish this barbarity (as it abolished the suttee). The Indian
woman lives in her apartment, the zenana; here the mother-in-law wields
the scepter over the daughters-in-law, the grandchildren, and the women
servants. The small girl learns to cook and to embroider; anything beyond
that is iniquitous: woman has no brain. The girls that are educated in
England must upon their return again don the veil and adjust themselves
to native conditions. At the age of five or six the little girls are
engaged, sometimes to young men of ten or twelve years, sometimes to men
of forty or fifty. The marriage takes place several years later. Sometimes
a man has more than one wife. The wife waits on her husband while he is
eating; she eats what remains.

If the wife bears a son, she is reinstated. If she is widowed, she must
fast and constantly offer apologies for existing. The widows and orphans
were the first natives to become interested in the higher education of
women. This was due to economic and social conditions.

India was the cradle of mankind. Even the highest civilizations still bear
indelible marks of the dreadful barbarities that have just been mentioned.
The Indian woman has rebelled against her miserable condition. The English
women considered it possible to bring health, hope, and legal aid to the
women of the zenana, through women doctors, women missionaries, and women
lawyers. Hence in 1866 zenana missions were organized by English women
doctors and missionaries. Native women were soon studying medicine in
order to bring an end to the superstitions of the zenana. Dr. Clara Swain
came to India in 1869 as the first woman medical missionary. As early as
1872-1873 the first hospital for women was founded; in 1885, through the
work of Lady Dufferin, there originated the Indian National League for
Giving Medical Aid to Women (_Nationalverband für ärztliche Frauenhilfe in
Indien_).

Native women have studied law in order to represent their sex in the
courts. Their chief motive was to secure an opportunity of conferring with
the women in the zenana, a privilege not granted the male lawyer. The
first Indian woman lawyer, Cornelia Sorabija, was admitted to the bar in
Poona. Even in England the women have not yet been granted this privilege.
This is easily explained. The Indian women cannot be clients of men
lawyers; what men lawyers cannot take, they generously leave to the women
lawyers.

India has 300,000,000 people; hence these meager beginnings of a woman's
rights movement are infinitesimal when compared with the vast work that
remains undone.[116] The educated Indian woman is participating in the
nationalist movement that is now being directed against English rule.
Brahmanism hinders the Indian woman in making use of the educational
opportunities offered by the English government. Brahmanism and its
priests nourish in woman a feeling of humility and the fear that she will
lose her caste through contact with Europeans and infidels. The Parsee
women and the Mohammedan women do not have this fear. The Parsee women
(Pundita Ramabai, for example) have played a leading part in the
emancipation of their sex in India. But the Mohammedan women of India are
reached by the movement only with difficulty. By the Hindoo of the old
régime, woman is kept in great ignorance and superstition; her education
is limited to a small stock of aphorisms and rules of etiquette; her life
in the zenana is largely one of idleness. "Ennui almost causes them to
lose their minds" is a statement based on the reports of missionaries.

There are modern schools for girls in all large cities (Calcutta, Madras,
Bombay, etc.). The status of the native woman has been Europeanized to the
greatest extent in Bengal. The best educated of the native women of all
classes are the dancing girls (_bayadères_); unfortunately they are not
"virtuous women" (_honnêtes femmes_), hence education among women has been
in ill repute.

A congress of women was held in Calcutta in 1906 with a woman as chairman;
this congress discussed the condition of Indian women. At the medical
congress of 1909, in Bombay, Hindoo women doctors spoke effectively. The
women doctors have formed the Association of Medical Women in India. In
Madras there is published the _Indian Ladies' Magazine_.[117]


CHINA[118]

  Total population: 426,000,000.

The Chinese woman of the lower classes has the same status as the
Mohammedan woman,--ostensible freedom of movement, and hard work. The
women of the property owning classes, however, must remain in the house;
here, entertaining one another, they live and eat, apart from the men. As
woman is not considered in the Chinese worship of ancestors, her birth is
as unwished for as that of the Indian woman. Among the poor the birth of a
daughter is an economic misfortune. Who will provide for her? Hence in the
three most densely populated provinces the murder of girl babies is quite
common. In many cases mothers kill their little girls to deliver them from
the misery of later life. The father, husband, and the mother-in-law are
the masters of the Chinese woman. She can possess property only when she
is a widow (see the much more liberal provisions of the Koran).

The earnings of the Chinese wife belong to her husband. But in case of a
dispute in this matter, no court would decide in the husband's favor, for
he is supposed to be "the bread winner" of the family. Polygamy is
customary; but the Chinese may have only _one_ legitimate wife (while the
Mohammedan may have four). The concubine has the status of a _hetaera_;
she travels with the man, keeps his accounts, etc. The Chinese woman of
the property owning class lives, in contrast to the Hindoo woman, a life
filled with domestic duties. She makes all the clothes for the family;
even the most wealthy women embroider. Frequently the wife succeeds in
becoming the adviser of the husband. A widow is not despised; she can
remarry. The women of the lower classes engage in agriculture, domestic
service, the retail business, all kinds of agencies and commission
businesses, factory work (to a small extent), medical science (practiced
in a purely experimental way), and midwifery; they carry burdens and
assist in the loading and unloading of ships. Women's wages are one half
or three fourths of those of the men.

The lives of the Chinese women, especially among the lower classes, are so
wretched that mothers believe they are doing a good deed when they
strangle their little girls, or place them on the doorstep where they will
be gathered up by the wagon that collects the corpses of children. Many
married women commit suicide. "The suffering of the women in this dark
land is indescribable," says an American woman missionary. Those Chinese
women that believe in the transmigration of souls hope "in the next world
to be anything but a woman."

Foreign women doctors, like the women missionaries, are bringing a little
cheer into these sad places. Most of these women are English or American.
The beginning of a real woman's rights movement is the work of the
Anti-Foot-Binding societies, which are opposing the binding of women's
feet. This reform is securing supporters among men and women.

For seventeen years there has existed a school for Chinese women. This was
founded by Kang You Wei, the first Chinese to demand that both sexes
should have the same rights. The women that have devoted themselves during
these seventeen years to the emancipation of their sex must often face
martyrdom. Tsin King, the founder of a semimonthly magazine for women, and
of a modern school for girls, met death on the scaffold in 1907 during a
political persecution directed against all progressive elements.

Another woman's rights advocate, Miss Sin Peng Sie, donated 200,000 taëls
(a taël is equivalent to 72.9 cents) for the erection of a _Gymnasium_ for
girls in her native city, 100,000 taëls to endow a pedagogical magazine,
and 50,000 taëls for the support of minor schools for girls. Still another
woman's rights advocate, Wu Fang Lan, resisted every attempt to bind her
feet in the traditional manner. There exists a woman's league, through
whose efforts the government, in 1908, prohibited the binding of the feet
of little girls.

In recent years the _women's magazines_ have increased in number. Four
large publications, devoted solely to women's interests, are published in
Canton; five are published in Shanghai, and about as many in every other
large city. The new system of education (adopted in 1905) grants women
freedom. Girls' schools have been opened everywhere; in the large cities
there are girls' secondary schools in which the Chinese classics, foreign
languages, and other cultural subjects are taught. In Tien Tsin there is a
seminary for women teachers.

Sie Tou Fa, a prominent Chinese administrative official (who is also a
governor and a lawyer), recently delivered a lecture in Paris on the
status of the Chinese woman. This lecture contradicts the statements made
above. Among other things he declared that China has produced too many
distinguished women (in the political as well as in other fields) for law
and public opinion to restrict the freedom of woman. "The Chinese admits
superiority, with all its consequences, as soon as he sees it; and this,
whether it is shown by man or woman."[119] According to him there can be
no woman's rights movement in China, because man does not oppress woman!
He declares that the progress of women in China since 1905 is a
manifestation of patriotism, not of feminism. According to our
experiences the opinions of Sie Tou Fa are attributable to a peculiarly
masculine way of observing things.


JAPAN AND KOREA[120]

  Total population: 46,732,876.
  Women:            23,131,236.
  Men:              23,601,640.

Previous to the thirteenth century the Japanese woman, when compared with
the other women of the Far East, occupied a specially favored
position,--as wife and mother, as scholar, author, and counselor in
business and political affairs. All these rights were lost during the
civil wars waged in the period between the thirteenth and seventeenth
centuries. War and militarism are the sworn enemies of woman's rights. A
further cause of the Japanese woman's loss of rights was the strong
influence of Chinese civilization, embodied in the teachings of Confucius.

The Japanese woman was expected to be obedient; her virtues became passive
and negative. In the seaports and chief cities, European influence has
during the last fifty years caused changes in the dress, general bearing,
and social customs of the Japanese. During the past thirty years these
changes have been furthered by the government. While Japan was rising to
the rank of a great world power, she was also providing an excellent
educational system for women. The movement began with the erection of
girls' schools. The Empress is the patroness of an "Imperial Educational
Society," a "Secondary School for Girls," and "Educational Institute for
the Daughters of Nobles," and of a "Seminary for Women Teachers." All of
these institutions are in Tokio. Women formed in 1898 13 per cent of the
total number of teachers.

Japanese women of wealth and women of the nobility support these
educational efforts; they also support the "Charity Bazaar Society," the
Orphans' Home, and the Red Cross Society. The Red Cross Society trained an
excellent corps of nurses, as the Russo-Japanese War demonstrated.

Women are employed as government officials in the railroad offices; they
are also employed in banks. Japanese women study medicine, pharmacy, and
midwifery in special institutions,[121] which have hundreds of women
enrolled. Many women attend commercial and technical schools. Women are
engaged in industry,--at very low wages, to be sure; but this fact enables
Japan to compete successfully for markets. The number of women in industry
exceeds that of the men; in 1900 there were 181,692 women and 100,962 men
industrially engaged. In the textile industry 95 per cent of the laborers
are women. Women also outnumber the men in home industries. Women's
average daily wages are 12-1/2 cents. Women remain active in commerce and
industry, for the workers are recruited from the lower classes, and they
have been better able to withstand Chinese influence. Chinese law (based
on the teachings of Confucius) still prevails with all its harshness for
the Japanese woman.

The taxpaying Japanese becomes a voter at the age of twenty-five. The
Japanese woman has no political rights. Hence a petition has been
presented to Parliament requesting that women be granted the right to form
organizations and to hold meetings. Parliament favored the measure. But
the government is still hesitating, hence a new petition has been sent to
Parliament.

The modern woman's rights movement in Japan is supported by the following
organizations: two societies favoring woman's education, the associations
for hygiene, and the society favoring dress reform. The _Women's Union_
and the _League of Women_ can be regarded as political organizations.
There are Japanese women authors and journalists.

Since Korea has belonged to Japan, changes have begun there also. The
Korean women have neither a first name nor a family name. According to
circumstances they are called daughter of A. B., wife of A., etc. It is a
sign of the time and also of the awakening of woman's self-reliance that
the government of Korea has been presented with a petition, signed by many
women, requesting that these conditions be abolished and that women be
granted the right to have their own names.

       *       *       *       *       *

We have completed our journey round the world,--from Japan to the United
States is only a short distance, and the intellectual relations between
the two countries are quite intimate. Few oriental people seem more
susceptible to European culture than the Japanese. But whatever woman's
rights movement there is in non-European countries, it owes its origin
almost without exception to the activity of educated occidentals,--to the
men and women teachers, educators, doctors, and missionaries. Here is an
excellent field for our activities; here is a duty that we dare not forget
in the midst of our own struggles. For we cannot estimate the noble work
and uplifting power that the world loses in those countries where women
are merely playthings and beasts of burden.


CONCLUSION

In the greater part of the world woman is a slave and a beast of burden.
In these countries she rules only in exceptional cases--and then through
cunning. Equality of rights is not recognized; neither is the right of
woman to act on her own responsibility. Even in most countries of European
civilization woman is not free or of age. In these countries, too, she
exists merely as a sexual being. Woman is free and is regarded as a human
being only in a very small part of the civilized world. Even in these
places we see daily tenacious survivals of the old barbarity and tyranny.
Hence it is not true that woman is the "weaker," the "protected," the
"loved," and the "revered" sex. In most cases she is the overworked,
exploited, and (even when living in luxury) the oppressed sex. These
circumstances dwarf woman's humanity, and limit the development of her
individuality, her freedom, and her responsibility. These conditions are
opposed by the woman's rights movement. The movement hopes to secure the
happiness of woman, of man, of the child, and of the world by establishing
the equal rights of the sexes. These rights are based on the recognition
of equality of merit; they provide for responsibility of action. Most men
do not understand this ideal; they oppose it with unconscious egotism.

This book has given an accurate account of the _means_ by which men oppose
woman's rights: scoffing, ridicule, insinuation; and finally, when
prejudice, stubbornness, and selfishness can no longer resist the force
of truth, the argument that they do not wish to grant us our rights. There
is little encouragement in this; but it shall not perplex us. Man, by
opposing woman, caused the struggle between the sexes. Only equality of
rights can bring peace. _Woman_ is already certain of her equality. _Man_
will learn by experience that renunciation can be "manly," that business
can be "feminine," and that all "privilege" is obnoxious. The emancipation
of woman is synonymous with the education of man.

Educating is always a slow process; but it inspires limitless hope. When
"ideas" have once seized the masses, these ideas become an irresistible
force. This is irrefutably proved by the strong growth of our movement
since 1904 in all countries of European civilization, and by the awakening
of women even in the depths of oriental civilization. The events of the
past five years justify us in entertaining great hopes.




Footnotes:

[1] I have discussed the theoretical side in a pamphlet of "The German
Public Utility Association" (_Deutscher Gemeinnütziger Verein_), Prague,
1918 Palackykai.

[2] The presiding officers of the International Council to the present
time were: Mrs. Wright Sewall and Lady Aberdeen. This year, June, 1909,
Lady Aberdeen was reëlected.

[3] The report of the International Woman's Suffrage Congress, London,
May, 1909, had not yet appeared, and the reader is therefore referred to
it.

[4] Their inferiority in numbers (in Australia and in the western states
of the United States) has, however, often served their cause in just the
same way.

[5] "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be
denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of
race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

[6] Composed of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

[7] In many states by two consecutive legislatures.

[8] On November 8, 1910, an amendment providing for woman's suffrage was
adopted by the voters of Washington. [Tr.]

[9] On November 8, 1910, both South Dakota and Oregon rejected amendments
providing for woman's suffrage. [Tr.]

[10] In October, 1911, California adopted woman's suffrage by popular
vote. [Tr.]

[11] This "Conference on the Care of Dependent Children" was called by
President Roosevelt, and met, January 25 and 26, 1909, in the White House.
Two hundred and twenty men and women,--experts in the care of children,
from every state in the Union,--met, and proposed, among other things, the
establishment of a Federal Child's Bureau. Thus far Congress has done
nothing to carry out the proposal. (_Charities and the Commons_, Vol. XXI,
643, 644; 766-768; 968-990.) [Tr.]

[12] The "mothers" hold special congresses in the United States to discuss
educational and public questions. (Mothers' Congresses.)

[13] Here universal male suffrage is meant. [Tr.]

[14] In November, 1910, an amendment in favor of woman's suffrage was
defeated by a referendum vote in Oklahoma. [Tr.]

[15] The amendment passed the Senate and was adopted in November, 1910, by
popular vote. [Tr.]

[16] In November, 1910, a woman's suffrage amendment was again defeated,
as was the amendment prohibiting the sale of liquor. [Tr.]

[17] In November, 1910, four women were elected to the House of
Representatives of the Colorado legislature. [Tr.]

[18] Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, in collaboration with Susan B. Anthony, has
written a _History of Woman's Suffrage_ which deals with the subject so
far as the United States are concerned. [Tr.]

[19] Equal pay has been established by law in the states having woman's
suffrage.

[20] It is worth mentioning that in the Spanish-American War Miss McGee
filled the position of assistant surgeon in the medical department, doing
so with distinction.

[21] A. v. Máday, _Le droit des femmes au travail_, Paris, Giardet et
Briere.

[22] In her book, _L'ouvrière aux États-Unis_, Paris, Juven, 1904.

[23] Those who cannot pay an annual tax of two dollars.

[24] In _L'ouvrière aux États-Unis_.

[25] The organ of the National American Woman's Suffrage Association is
_Progress_ and is published in Warren, Ohio. There, one can also secure
_Perhaps_ and _Do you Know_, two valuable propaganda pamphlets written by
Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt. Other literature on woman's suffrage can be
obtained from the same source.

[26] Although New Zealand is not politically a part of the Australian
Federation, it will for convenience be treated here as such.

[27] The theological degrees are granted only in England.

[28] Report of the International Woman's Suffrage Conference, Washington,
1902.

[29] Report of the National Council of Women, 1908.

[30] _Woman Suffrage in Australia_, by Vida Goldstein.

[31] Both published in Rotterdam, 92 Kruiskade, International Woman's
Suffrage Alliance.

[32] Consult Helen Blackburn, _History of Woman's Suffrage in England_.

[33] See the excellent little work of Mrs. C. C. Stopes, "The Sphere of
'Man' in the British Constitution," _Votes for Women_, London, 4 Clement's
Inn.

[34] In the Irish Sea, between Ireland and Scotland, having a population
of 29,272 women and 25,486 men.

[35] 4 Clement's Inn, Strand, London, W.C.

[36] See E. Robin's novel, _The Convert_.

[37] By Lawrence Housman, Feb. 11, 18, and 26, 1909.

[38] See E. C. Wolstenholme Elmy, _Women's Franchise, the Need of the
Hour_.

[39] Wolstenholme Elmy, _ibid._

[40] This right is possessed by women in Scotland and Ireland also.

[41] This is in direct conflict with the statute (13 Vict., c. 21, sec. 4)
providing that women enjoy all those rights from which they are not
expressly excluded.

[42] London, like other capital cities, is regulated by a separate set of
laws.

[43] Applying to England and Wales.

[44] The right to vote is a condition necessary for the holding of office.

[45] See the Married Women's Property Acts of 1870 and 1883.

[46] See the article by Mr. Pethick Lawrence in _Votes for Women_, March
3, 1909.

[47] London, S.W., 92 Victoria Street.

[48] Valuable information concerning women in the industries is given in
the programme of April 4, 1909, of the London Congress of the
International Woman's Suffrage Alliance.

[49] Ansiaux, _La réglementation du travail des femmes_.

[50] See Mrs. Pethick Lawrence, "Women and Administration," _Votes for
Women_, March 12, 1909.

[51] See the article of Alice Salmon, _Zentralblatt_.

[52] For a survey of English conditions affecting women we recommend _The
Women's Charter of Rights and Liberties_, by Lady McLaren, 1909, London.

[53] In Canada there are municipal elections, provincial parliamentary
elections, and elections for the Dominion Parliament.

[54] See the Report of the Woman's Suffrage Alliance Congress, Amsterdam,
1908.

[55] See the Report of the International Women's Suffrage Alliance,
Amsterdam, 1908.

[56] The last two arguments are easily refuted.

[57] Woman never reaches her majority; she must always have a male
representative.

[58] The husband still remains the guardian of the wife. To-day the wife
controls her personal earnings, but merely as long as they are in cash;
whatever she _buys_ with them falls into the control of the husband.

[59] See the Report of the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance
Congress, Amsterdam, 1908.

[60] See the supplement, "Opposed to Alcoholism," in _One People, One
School_, for April, 1909.

[61] A _Realschule_ teaches no classics, but is a scientific school
emphasizing manual training. A _Gymnasium_ prepares for the university,
making the classics an essential part of the curriculum. [Tr.]

[62] By Vera Hillt, _Statistics of Labor_, VI, Helsingfors, 1908.

[63] See the complete list of measures in _Jus Suffragi_, September 15,
1908. This is the organ of the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance.

[64] In 1904 women were declared eligible by an official ordinance to hold
university offices.

[65] It might be well to mention _Dansk Kvindesamfund, Politisk
Kvindeforening, Landsforbund, Valgretsforeningen of 1908_ (a Christian
association of men and women).

[66] Compare similar proceedings in the United States and England.

[67] Since Switzerland contains a preponderance of the Germanic element,
it will be considered with the Germanic countries.

[68] In Geneva and Lausanne the men exerted every effort to exclude women
from the typographical trade. The prohibition of night work made this
easy. The same result will follow in the railroad and postal service.
Therefore in the Swiss woman's rights movement there are some that are
opposed to laws for the protection of women laborers.

[69] Industrial training was promoted chiefly by the "Lette-House,"
founded in Berlin in 1865 by President Lette and his wife.

[70] In Germany there are one million domestic servants.

[71] For information concerning the German woman's rights movement we
recommend _The Memorandum-book of the Woman's Rights Movement_ (_Das
Merkbuch der Frauenbewegung_), B. G. Teubner, Leipzig.

[72] A body having advisory powers in matters relating to the medical
profession and to sanitary measures. [Tr.]

[73] The question was decided by the administrative court in _one_ special
case. Compare the case of Jacobs, Amsterdam.

[74] See _Dokumente der Frauen_ (_Documents concerning Women_); November
15, 1899.

[75] The German system of stenography. [Tr.]

[76] See the resolutions of the party sessions in Graz, 1900; in Vienna,
1903; and of the first, second, and third conferences of the International
Woman's Suffrage Alliance, in 1904, 1906, and 1908.

[77] Except in Illyria, Carinthia, and Lower Austria.

[78] For political and practical reasons Hungary will be discussed at this
point.

[79] _Dokumente der Frauen_, June 1, 1901.

[80] The proposed law grants the suffrage even to male illiterates.

[81] Later the Code Napoleon infected other countries, but such horrors
originated spontaneously nowhere else.

[82] In the years 1848, 1851, 1871, 1874, 1882, 1885.

[83] See the resolutions of the two women's congresses, Paris, 1900.

[84] _Le mouvement féministe_, Countess Marie de Villermont.

[85] _Le féminisme_, Emile Ollivier.

[86] Miss Chauvin made a similar request of the French Chamber of
Deputies; as we have seen, her request was granted. Dr. Popelin did not
make her request of the Belgian Chamber of Deputies, which had not a
Republican majority. Dr. Popelin may have considered such a step hopeless.

[87] Since 1899 special socialistic workingwomen's congresses have been
held.

[88] See the action of the Socialists in Sweden and in Hungary.

[89] Else Hasse, _Neue Bahnen_.

[90] The recognized gallant of a married woman. [Tr.]

[91] Marianne Weber, _Zentralblatt_.

[92] But only the enlightened clergy--those living in Rome--consent to the
higher education of girls.

[93] _Dokumente der Frauen_, June 1, 1901.

[94] See Stanton, _The Woman's Rights Movement in Europe_.

[95] _El Feminismo_, 1899.

[96] See the Report of the International Suffrage Congress, Washington,
1902.

[97] See the Report of the International Suffrage Congress, Washington,
1902.

[98] This has just been organized.

[99] The following statistics are significant: Between January 1 and July
1, 1908, Russia showed an increase in the consumption of alcoholic
liquors. The total amount of spirits consumed was 40,887,509 _vedros_ (1
_vedro_ is 3.25 gallons), which is an increase of 600,185 _vedros_ over
the amount consumed during the same months of the preceding year. These
figures correspond also to the government's income from its monopoly on
spirits; this was 327,795,312 rubles (a ruble is worth 51.5 cents), an
increase of 3,745,836 rubles over the same months of the preceding year.

[100] See the very interesting article _Frauenbewegung_ (_The Woman's
Rights Movement_), by Berta Kes, Moscow.

[101] See Berta Kes, _Frauenbewegung_.

[102] See _Documents Concerning Women_ (_Dokumente der Frauen_), April 15,
1900.

[103] I am indebted to Mrs. Eudokimoff, of St. Petersburg, for an English
translation of the resolutions, the address of the Lord Mayor, and the
proceedings against the deputy of the Duma; also for a biography of Mrs.
v. Philosophow.

[104] Springtime.

[105] A doctor employed by a workingmen's association. [Tr.]

[106] Dr. Schirmacher treats Russian Poland here with Galicia, which is
Austrian Poland. [Tr.]

[107] _Dokumente der Frauen_, November, 15, 1901.

[108] Greek conditions are analogous to conditions prevailing in Slavic
countries; hence Greece will be treated here. Greece was liberated from
Turkish control in 1827.

[109] There are elementary schools for boys and girls. The secondary
schools for girls are private. The first of these was founded by Dr. Hill
and his wife, who were Americans. Preparation for entrance to the
university is optional and is carried on privately. Athens University has
admitted women since 1891.

[110] The English have abolished slavery in Egypt.

[111] See _Conseil des Femmes_, October, 1902, for the romantic
"Désenchantées" of P. Loti, and Hussein Rachimi's "Verliebter Bey."

[112] Compare _La crise de l'orient_, by Ahmed Riza.

[113] See the analogous action of the English in India.

[114] Report of the International Suffrage Congress, Washington, 1902.

[115]
      _Mag der Baum wohl wachsen in dem Walde,
      Aber keine Tochter mir geboren werden._

[116] India still retains the official regulation of prostitution (which
was abolished in England in 1886). Here again, militarism is playing a
decisive part in blocking this reform.

[117] In Bangkok, in Farther India (Siam), there is a woman's club with
the Siamese Princess as President.

[118] Report of the International Suffrage Conference, Washington, 1902.

[119] "_Le Chinois admet la supériorité, avec toutes ses conséquences, dès
qu'il la constate, qu'elle se révèle chez un homme ou chez une femme._"

[120] Report of the International Suffrage Conference, Washington, 1902.

[121] The University of Tokio is still closed to women. Women attend the
Woman's University, founded in 1901 by N. Naruse.




INDEX


  Abbans, Count Jouffroy d', 57.

  Aberdeen, Lady, xi, note 1, 96.

  Actresses' Franchise League, 68.

  Adams, Mr. Alva, 22, 23.

  Adler, 167.

  Adlersparre, Baroness of, 106.

  Age of consent, in woman's suffrage states of the United States, 39.
    in Australia, 53, 54.

  Agricultural Association for Women, 83.

  Agriculturists, women,
    in the United States, 36.
    in Great Britain, 82-84.
    in Sweden, 108.
    in France, 186.
    in Italy, 203, 204.

  Alcala, Catalina d', 210.

  Alexander II, 218.

  Alexandra House, 82.

  Aloisia, Sigea, 208.

  Amberly, Lady, 62.

  American Commission, report on European prostitution, 37.

  American Federation of Labor, favors woman's suffrage, 10.
    forms organizations of workingwomen, 33.

  American Woman's Suffrage Association, 12.

  American women,
    activities of, at Constitutional Convention (1787), 2-4.
    means of agitation used by, 15, 16.
    and political life, 18.
    and the protection of youth, 18 and note 1.
    and state legislative offices, 22, 23 and note 1.
    members of city councils, 22.
    in the Colorado legislature, 22, 23 and note 1.
    and education, 23-27.
    excluded by certain universities, 24.
    and the teaching profession, 25.
    students in higher institutions of learning, 26.
    suffrage of, in school affairs, 27.
    increase of women students, 27.
    admitted to technical schools, 29.
    legal status of, 36, 37.
    and sports, 38, 39.

  Amsterdam, xiii.

  Ancketill, Mr., 100.

  Ancketill, Mrs., 100.

  Anstie, Dr., 77.

  Anthony, Susan B., the Napoleon of the woman's suffrage movement, 7.
    various facts concerning, 7, 8.
    joint author of a _History of Woman's Suffrage_, 23, note 2.

  Anti-Foot-Binding Societies, 258.

  Anti-Slavery Congress, 5, 6.

  Arenal, Concepcion, 209, 210.

  Argentine Republic, 214.

  Arsuaga, Pi y, 211.

  Artists' Suffrage League, 68.

  Asquith, Mr., 66.

  Association Opposed to Woman's Suffrage (in the United States), 23.

  Auclert, Madame, 188.

  Augsburg, Dr. Anita, 151.

  Australia, member of the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, xiii.
    conditions in, 42 and ff.

  Australian universities, 45, 46.

  Australian Women's Political Association, 54.

  Austria, represented in The International Woman's Suffrage Alliance,
      xiii; _see also_ German Austria.

  Austrian Women Teachers' Society, 159.


  Bajer, 123.

  _Baltic Women's Review_, 229.

  Bassiliades, Dr., 243, 244.

  _Bayadères_, 255.

  Bazan, Emilia Pardo, 208, 209.

  Beauharnais, Josephine, 178.

  Becker, 63.

  Belgium, represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance,
      xiii.
    conditions in, 190, 191.

  Ben-Aid, Mrs. Haïrie, 247.

  Béothy, Dr., 170.

  Beresford-Hope, Mrs., 71.

  Bey, Kassim Amin, 247.

  Bieber-Böhm, Hanna, 151.

  Biggs, 63.

  Birmingham, 61.

  Björnson, 110, 117, 123.

  Blackburn, Helen, 59, note 1.

  Blackwell, Elizabeth, 28, 29.

  Blackwell, Emily, 29.

  Blake, Jex, 77.

  Boer War, 64.

  Bohemia, conditions in, 230-232.

  Boise, Idaho, 21.

  Bonald, de, 180.

  Bonnevial, Madame, 188.

  Bosnia, conditions in, 250.

  Boston, 22, 27, 38.

  Brabanzon House, 82.

  Brahmanism, 254.

  Brandes, George, 123.

  Braun, Lily, 152.

  Bremer, Frederika, 103;
    _see also_ Fredericka Bremer League.

  Bristol, 61.

  Brüstlein, Miss Dr., 136.

  Buchner, Miss, 204.

  Bulgaria, represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance,
      xiii.
    conditions in, 239-242.

  Butler, Mrs. Josephine, 95, 204.


  Cabinet, British, and woman's suffrage, 65, 67.

  _Cahiers feministes_, 193.

  California, woman's suffrage amendment adopted by, 17, note 1.
    efforts of women of, to secure the suffrage, 21.

  Cambridge University, 75, 76.

  Canada, represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance,
      xiii.
    woman's rights movement in, 96 and ff.

  Carima, Mrs., 241.

  Carinthia, _see_ Slovene Woman's Rights Movement.

  Carniola, _see_ Slovene Woman's Rights Movement.

  Catharine II, 217.

  Catholic Woman's League, 154.

  Catholic Women Teachers' Society, 159.

  Catt, Mrs. Carrie Chapman, xiii, 42.

  Cauer, Mrs., 150, 151, 152.

  Cave, Miss, 78.

  Central America, conditions in, 212, 213.

  Central Committee for Woman's Suffrage (England), 63.

  Central states (of the United States), 35.

  Chauvin, Jeanne, 185.

  Chicago, 40.

  Child labor, in United States, 35.

  Children,
    "Conference on the Care of Dependent Children," 18 and note 1.
    National Child Labor Committee, 35.
    laws protecting, in Australia, 54.
    _see also_ Laws protecting women and children.

  Children, authority over,
    in Colorado, 19, 20.
    in thirty-eight of the United States, 37.
    in Australia, 49, 55.
    in England, 74.
    in Finland, 115.
    in German Austria, 169.
    in Switzerland, 140.
    in France, 179.
    in Spain, 210.

  Chili, 214.

  China, conditions in, 256-260.

  Cincinnati, 30, 37.

  Clergy, English, 6.

  Cleveland, President, 15.

  Clough, Anne, 75.

  Cobden, Mrs., 71.

  Code Napoleon, absence of, in Australia, 44.
    in the Netherlands, 126.
    in France, 178, 179.
    in Belgium, 191.
    in Italy, 202.

  Coeducation,
    in the United States, 24, 25.
    in Australia, 45, 46.
    in Scotland, 75.
    in Sweden, 105.
    in the Netherlands, 127.
    in Switzerland, 134, 135.
    in Germany, 147.
    in Italy, 200.

  College Equal Suffrage League, 10.

  Collett, Clara, 117.

  Colorado, woman's suffrage in, 16.
    activities and rights of women in, 19, 20.
    vote of immoral women in, 18, 19.
    women in legislature of, 22, 23 and note 1.
    conditions of women and children in, 39, 40.

  Columbia University, 24.

  "Conference on the Care of Dependent Children," 18 and note 1.

  Confucius, 260.

  Conradi, Mrs., 219.

  Conservative and Unionist Women's Franchise Association, 68.

  _Convert, The_ (novel), 67, note 1.

  Coote, Miss, 172.

  Copenhagen, xiii.

  Court of Appeals, 71.

  Craigen, 63.

  Creighton, Mrs. Louise, 69.

  Curie, Madame, 84, 224.

  Czaky, 172.


  Davies, Emily, 75.

  Dazynska, Dr., 234.

  _De Stem der Vrouw_, 194.

  Declaration of Independence, Woman's, 6, 7, 11.
    "The Declaration of the Rights of Women," 176.

  Deflou, Madame Oddo, 182.

  Denison, Mrs. Macdonald, 98.

  Denmark, represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance,
      xiii.
    conditions in, 122-126.

  Dennis, Mrs., 192.

  Denver, Colorado, 18, 19.

  Deraismes, Marie, 180.

  Deroin, Jeanne, 180.

  Derscheid-Delcour, Mrs., 193.

  Despard, Mrs., 68.

  Disraeli, 61.

  Divorce laws,
    in woman's suffrage states, 39.
    in Australia, 49, 52, 55.
    in England, 74.
    in Mexico and Central America, 213.
    in Turkey and Egypt, 247.

  Dobson, Mrs., 47.

  Doctors, women,
    in the United States, 28, 29.
    in Australia, 46.
    in Great Britain, 77.
    in Sweden, 104, 107.
    in Finland, 111.
    in Norway, 121.
    in the Netherlands, 128, 130, 131.
    in Switzerland, 136.
    in Germany, 148.
    in German Austria, 160, 161.
    in Hungary, 171.
    in Belgium, 193.
    in Italy, 201.
    in Portugal, 212.
    in Russia, 220, 221, 222, 223.
    in Servia, 237.
    in Bulgaria, 240.
    in Rumania, 242.
    in Bosnia, 251.
    in Persia, 251.
    in India, 253.

  _Dokumente der Frauen_, 166.

  Donohue, Mrs. M., 44.

  _Do You Know?_ (pamphlet), 42.

  Drummond, Mrs., 66.

  Dufferin, Lady, 254.

  Durand, Madame Marguerite, 188.


  Ebner-Eschenbach, Marie v., 169.

  Education, women and,
    in the United States, 23-27, 39.
    in Australia, 45, 46.
    in Great Britain, 74 and ff.
    in Canada, 97.
    in Sweden, 104, 106, 107.
    in Finland, 111.
    in Norway, 117-119.
    in Denmark, 123.
    in the Netherlands, 127, 128.
    in Switzerland, 134-136.
    in Germany, 146-148.
    in Luxemburg, 157, 158.
    in German Austria, 159, 160, 161-163.
    in Hungary, 169-171.
    in France, 183, 184.
    in Belgium, 191-193.
    in Italy, 199-201.
    in Spain, 207, 208.
    in Portugal, 212.
    in Mexico and Central America, 212.
    in South America, 214.
    in Russia, 217-222, 225.
    in Czechish Bohemia and Moravia,230.
    in Servia, 236, 237.
    in Bulgaria, 240.
    in Greece, 243.
    in Turkey and Egypt, 247, 248.
    in India, 255.
    in China, 259.
    in Japan, 261.

  Education Act, 71.

  Egypt, conditions in, 245-250.

  _El Feminismo_, 209.

  Elmy, E. C. Wolstenholme, 70, notes 1 and 2.

  _Encyclopedia Britannica_, 60.

  England, represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance,
      xii;
    _see_ Great Britain.

  English Constitution, 72.

  Enrooth, Adelaide, 110.

  Eudokimoff, Mrs., 229, note 1.


  Factory inspectors, women,
    in the Netherlands, 128, 129.
    in Switzerland, 137.
    in Germany, 149.
    in France, 185.
    in Italy, 201.
    in Russia, 224.

  Far East, conditions in the, 245-265.

  Favre, Miss Nellie, 136.

  Fawcett, 63, 69.

  February Revolution (1848), 180.

  Federal Child's Bureau, proposed in the United States, 18 and note 1.

  Federation of French Women's Clubs, 181, 183.

  Federation of Labor, 10.

  Federn, Elsie, 166.

  _Féminisme chrétien, le_, 187.

  "Feminist Society," 172.

  Fibiger, Matilda, 122.

  Fickert, Augusta, 166.

  Fifteenth Amendment, women and the, 9.

  Finland,
    represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, xiii.
    conditions in, 110-116.

  Fontaine, Mrs., 192.

  Fourierists, 180.

  France,
    represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, xiii;
    conditions in, 175 and ff.

  _Frauenwohl_ (magazine), 150.

  "Frederika Bremer League," 106.

  French Revolution, and the woman's rights movement, 175-178.

  French Woman's Suffrage Society, the, 189.

  Fries, Ellen, 107.

  "Fronde," the, 188.


  Galicia, conditions in, 232-235.

  Galinda, Donna, 208.

  Gammond, Madame Gatti de, 193.

  Garfield, President, 15.

  Garrison, William Lloyd, 6.

  Geneva, University of, 29.

  German Austria, conditions in, 158 and ff.

  German Evangelical Woman's League, 154.

  Germanic countries, modern woman's rights movement in, 1-174.

  Germany,
    represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, xiii.
    conditions in, 143-145.

  Gikycki, Lily v., 151.

  Girton College, 75.

  Goldmann, (Mrs.) Dr., 166.

  Goldschmidt, Henrietta, 145, 146.

  Goldstein, Vida, 49, note 1, 54, 56.

  Gore-Langton, Lady Anne, 62.

  Gouges, Olympe de, 176, 177.

  Great Britain,
    represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, xiii.
    conditions in, 58 and ff.

  Greece, conditions in, 242-244.

  Grimke, Angelina, 5.

  Group of Women Students, the, in France, 182, 183.

  Gruber, Dr. Ludwig, 172.

  Gyulai, P., 170.


  Hainisch, Marianne, 166.

  Hansteen, Aasta, 117.

  Harem, 245.

  Harper, Ida Husted, 23, note 2.

  Harvard University, 24.

  Hayden, Sophia, 29.

  Hayes, President, 15.

  Hein, Frau Dr., 136.

  Helenius, Trigg, 116.

  Hertzka, Mrs. Jella, 166.

  Herzegovina, conditions in, 250.

  Herzfelder, Miss, 166.

  Heymann, Miss, 151.

  Hickel, Rosina, 111.

  Higinbotham, George, 50.

  Hill, Octavia, 91.

  Hirsch-Duncker Trades Union, 153.

  _History of Woman's Suffrage_, by Harper and Anthony, 23, note 1.
    referred to, 37.

  Holloway College, 75, 83.

  House of Commons, attitude toward woman's suffrage, 65.

  Housmann, Lawrence, 69.

  Hungarian Woman's Club, 170.

  Hungary,
    represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, xiii.
    conditions in, 169 and ff.

  Hutchins, Mrs. B. L., 92.


  Ibsen, 110, 117, 123.

  Iceland, represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance,
      xiii.

  Idaho,
    woman's suffrage in, 16.
    activities and influence of women in, 20, 21.
    establishes lectureship in domestic science, 27.
    condition of women and children in, 39, 40.

  Illinois,
    and woman's suffrage, 6, 21.
    women jurors in, 28.

  India, conditions in, 252-255.

  _Indian Ladies' Magazine_, 255.

  Inspectors of schools, _see_ School inspectors (women).

  Institute de demoiselles, 217.

  International Council of Women, x-xii.

  International Federation for the Abolition of the Official Regulation
      of Prostitution,
    headquarters of, 140.
    Austrian branch of, 166.
    Hungarian branch of, 172.
    Italian branch of, 204, 205.
    Polish branch of, 235.

  International Vigilance Society, 172.

  International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, the, various facts concerning,
      x, xii, xiii.

  Ionades, Miss, 244.

  Iowa, 21.

  Ireland, 68; _see_ Great Britain.

  Isle of Man, 63.

  Italy,
    represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, xiii.
    conditions in, 196-199.


  Jackson, Miss, 32.

  Jacobs, Dr. Aletta, 130.

  Japan, conditions in, 260-262.

  Java, woman's suffrage society in, 132.

  Johns Hopkins University, 24.

  Jones, Miss, 29, 30.

  Journalists, women,
    in the United States, 28.
    in Great Britain, 81.
    in Spain, 209.
    in Bulgaria, 240.

  July Revolution (1830), 180.

  Juvenile courts,
    in Australia, 54.
    advocated in Germany, 155.


  Kalapothaki, Marie, 243.

  Kang You Wei, 258.

  Kansas,
    municipal woman's suffrage in, 16, 20.
    efforts of women of, to secure full suffrage rights, 21.

  Kapnist, Mrs. v., 244.

  Keller, Helen, 27.

  Kelly, Abby, 4, 5.

  Kenney, Annie, 66.

  Kerschbaumer, Dr., 160, 161.

  Kettler, Mrs., 146.

  Key, Ellen, 107, 108.

  Kingsley, 63.

  Koran, 248, 251.

  Korea, conditions in, 262, 263.

  Kowalewska, Sonja, 107, 224.

  Krajevska, Feodora, 251.

  Kronauwetter, 167.

  Kutschalska-Reinschmidt, Mrs., 234, 235.

  Kveder, Zofka, 235, 236.


  Labriola, Therese, 201.

  _La Française_, 189.

  Lang, Helena, 146.

  Lang, Maria, 166.

  Lascaridis, Miss, 244.

  Lawrence, Mr. Pethick, 66, 74,
    note 1, 92, note 1.

  Lawrence, Mrs., Pethick, 66.

  Laws protecting women and children,
    in the United States, 39, 40.
    in Australia, 48, 52-54.
    in Great Britain, 86, 87.
    in Finland, 115.
    in Norway, 121, 122.
    in Switzerland, 138, 140, 141.
    in Germany, 154.
    lack of, in France, 179.

  Lawyers, women,
    in the United States, 27.
    in Australia, 54.
    absence of, in Great Britain, 77.
    in Canada, 97.
    in Sweden, 107.
    in Finland, 112.
    in Norway, 121.
    in Switzerland, 136.
    in Germany, 148.
    in German Austria, 161.
    in France, 185.
    in Belgium, 192.
    in India, 253, 254.

  League for Freedom of Labor Defense, 86.

  Lee, Mrs. Mary, 53.

  Lincoln, Abraham, 15.

  Lindsey, Judge, 18.

  Lischnewska, Maria, 146.

  Listrow, Mrs. v., 166.

  Local Self-government Act for England and Wales, 72.

  Loeper-Houselle, Marie, 146.

  London, xiii, 61, 81.

  London, University of, 77.

  London College for Workingwomen, 89, 90.

  _London Girls' Club Union Magazine_, 90.

  Lords, House of, 72.

  Losa, Isabella, 208.

  Luxemburg, conditions in, 157.


  McCullock, Mrs. C. Waugh, 39.

  McGee, Miss, 29, note 1.

  Mackenroth, Miss Anna, 136.

  MacLaren, Agnes, 204.

  MacLaren, 63, 96, note 1.

  Maclay, A. v., 173.

  _Madame Mère_, 178.

  Mahrenholtz-Bülow, Countess, 127.

  Maine, 21.

  Maireder, Rosa, 166.

  Malinoff, Mrs., 241.

  Manchester, 61, 62.

  Mariani, Emilia, 203.

  Mario, Jessie White, 202.

  Massachusetts, 21.

  Meath, Countess of, 82.

  Men's League for Woman's Suffrage, 68.

  Men's League Opposing Woman's Suffrage, 68.

  Mericourt, Théroigne de, 177.

  Mexico, conditions in, 212, 213.

  Meyer, Mr. Julius, 150.

  Michel, Louise, 180.

  Mill, John Stuart, 60, 61, 123.

  Miller, Paula, 154.

  Minnesota, 21.

  Mohammedan countries, _see_ Turkey, Egypt, Persia, Bosnia, and
      Herzegovina.

  Monod, Miss Sara, 188.

  Montessori, Maria, 201.

  Monti, Rina, 201.

  Moravia, conditions in, 230-232.

  Morgenstern, Lina, 145, 152.

  Morsier, Emile de, 190.

  Mothers, school for, 94, 95.

  Mothers' congresses, in the United States, 20, note 1.

  Mott, Lucretia, 5, 6.

  Münsterberg, Deputy, 156.

  _Mystery of Woman, The_, 236.


  Napoleon, 178, 179.

  Napoleonic Code, _see_ Code Napoleon.

  National American Woman's Suffrage Association, 22, 42, note 1.

  National Anti-slavery Society, 6.

  National Child Labor Committee, 35.

  National Council, xi, xii.

  National Council of French Women, 189.

  National Council of Women (in Australia), 47, note 1.

  National Trades Union League, 10.

  National Union of Woman's Suffrage Societies, 64.

  National Woman's Antisuffrage Association, 68.

  National Woman's Social and Political Union, 64.

  Nebraska, 16, 21.

  Netherlands, the,
    represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, xiii.
    conditions in, 126.

  New Hampshire, 21.

  Newnham College, 75.

  New York, 21.

  New Zealand, 42, note 2; _see_ Australia.

  Nightingale, Florence, 91.

  Night labor, of women, in the United States, 36.

  North America, the cradle of the woman's rights movement, 2.

  Northern states (of the United States), 35.


  Oberlin College, 24.

  Ohio, 27.

  Oklahoma, 21, and note 2.

  Olga, Queen of Greece, 243.

  Oregon, outlook for woman's suffrage in, 16.
    woman's suffrage amendment (1910) defeated in, 16, note 2; 22, note 2.
    opposition to woman's suffrage in, 22.
    failure of woman's suffrage campaign (1906) in, 22.

  Orient, the, conditions in, 245-265.

  Otto-Peters, Louise, 145.

  Oxford University, 75, 76.


  Panajuta, Miss, 244.

  Pankhurst, Miss, 66.

  Pankhurst, Mrs., 66.

  Pappritz, Anna, 151.

  Parent, Mrs., 192.

  Parental authority, _see_ Children, authority over.

  Parliament,
    act of, bearing on woman's suffrage, 62.
    obligation of members of, to the woman's suffrage movement, 65.
    women deputations and, 66, 67.

  Parren, Madame Killirhoe, 243, 244.

  Parsee women, 255.

  Patents, taken out by women in the United States, 30.

  Paterson, Mrs., 85.

  Paulus, Erica, 171.

  Pavlovna, Helene, 218.

  Pease, Elizabeth, 5, 6.

  Pennsylvania, 21, 27.

  _Perhaps_ (pamphlet), 42.

  Pernerstorfer, 167.

  Persia, conditions in, 251, 252.

  Peter the Great, 217.

  Petzold, Miss v., 78.

  Philosophow, Mrs. v., 228, 229.

  "Physical Force Fallacy, The," 69.

  Poët, Laidi, 201.

  Police matrons, in the United States, 37.

  Political Equality League, in Australia, 55.

  Political Equality League (Chicago), 40.

  "Political Equality Series," 12, 33.

  Popelin, Miss Marie, 192.

  Popp, Mrs., 166.

  Pornography,
    prohibited in woman's suffrage states of the United States, 40.
    suppressed in Australia, 54.

  Portland, 27.

  Portugal, conditions in, 211, 212.

  Posada, Professor, 207, 208.

  Possauer, Dr., 161.

  Poster, F. Laurie, 40.

  Preachers, women,
    in the United States, 28.
    in Australia, 46.
    in Great Britain, 78.
    in Canada, 97.
    in Sweden, 104, 107.
    in the Netherlands, 128.
    in German Austria, 161.
    in France, 185.

  "Primrose League," 63.

  Prohibition movement,
    in Sweden, 109, 110.
    in Finland, 116.

  _Progress_, 42.

  Prostitution, laws concerning,
    in the United States, 37.
    in woman's suffrage states, 39.
    in England, 95.
    in Finland, 115, 116.
    in Norway, 117.
    in Denmark, 126.
    in Switzerland, 140.
    in Germany, 144, 155, 156.
    in German Austria, 165, 166.
    in Hungary, 172.
    in France, 190.
    in Italy, 204, 205.
    in Galicia, 234.
    in Servia, 238.
    in India, 254, note 1.

  Purischkewitch, Mr., 229.

  Putnam, Mary, 77.


  Quakers, in the United States, 4.

  Qualification of Women Act, 72.

  Qvam, Mrs., 121.


  Ramabai, Pundita, 255.

  Red Cross Society, 91, 261.

  Refia, Princess, 250.

  Rhode Island, 21.

  Richer, Leon, 180.

  Riza, Selma, 247.

  Robin, E., 67, note 1.

  Roland, Henrietta, 130.

  Roland, Madame, 177.

  Romance countries, conditions in, 175.

  Rookwood pottery, 30.

  Roosevelt, Theodore,
    and woman's suffrage, 15.
    calls "Conference on the Care of Dependent Children," 18, note 1.
    involved in conflict with American women, 34.

  Rose, Ernestine, 8.

  Rosores, Isabel de, 208.

  Rumania, conditions in, 242-244.

  Runeburg, Frederika, 110.

  Rural Woman's Industrial Society, 171.

  Russia,
    represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, xiii.
    conditions in, 215 and ff.


  Saint Simonians, 180.

  Salaries, women's compared with men's,
    in the United States, 25 and note 1, 31.
    in woman's suffrage states, 39.
    in Australia, 46, 47, 55.
    in Great Britain, 78-80, 85.
    in Canada, 97.
    in Sweden, 105, 107, 108.
    in Norway, 118, 119.
    in the Netherlands, 128.
    in Switzerland, 135.
    in Germany, 147.
    in German Austria, 159.
    in France, 184.
    in Portugal, 212.
    in Bulgaria, 240.

  Salic Law, absence of,
    in Australia, 44.
    in England, 58.

  Salt Lake City, Utah, 21.

  Sand, George, 180.

  Sandhurst, Lady, 71.

  Scandinavian countries, conditions in, 102, 103.

  Schabanoff, Mrs., 228.

  Schiff, Paoline, 203.

  Schirmacher, Dr., 151.

  Schlesinger, Mrs., 166.

  Schmall, Madame, 189.

  Schmidt, Augusta, 145, 146.

  School inspectors, women,
    appointment of, agitated in the United States, 27.
    in Great Britain, 79.
    in France, 185.

  Schütze, E., 229.

  Schwerin, Jeanette, 151.

  Schwietland, Mrs., 166.

  Scotland, 68; _see also_ Great Britain.

  Seddon, Mrs., 51, 52.

  Servia,
    represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, xiii.
    conditions in, 236, 239.

  Sévigné, Madame de, 178.

  Sewall, Mrs. Wright, xi, note 1.

  Sex, the sexes,
    relationship of the sexes, xiv.
    woman's use of her sex, as a weapon, 40-42.

  Shaw, Rev. Anna Howard,
    challenges Mrs. Humphrey Ward, 18.
    Denver elections investigated by, 18.
    president of the National Woman's Suffrage Association, 22.
    a woman's rights advocate with theological training, 28.
    on the legal status of woman, 36, 37.

  Sheldon, Mrs. French, 80.

  Siam, 255, note 1.

  Sie, Tou Fa, 259.

  Silberstein, Mr., 150.

  Simcox, Miss, 85.

  Simpson, Mrs. Anna, 192.

  Sin, Miss Peng Sie, 258.

  Slavic countries, conditions in, 215 and ff.

  Sloane Garden Houses, 81.

  Slovene woman's rights movement, 235, 236.

  _Slovenka_, 236.

  "Social Purity League," 37, 38.

  Social secretaries, 35.

  Society for Jewish Women, 154.

  Society for the Amelioration of the Condition of Woman and for Demanding
      Woman's Rights, 180.

  Soho Club and Home for Working Girls, 90.

  Somersville Hall, 75.

  Sorabija, Cornelia, 254.

  South Africa,
    represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, xiii.
    conditions in, 100, 101.

  South America, conditions in, 213, 214.

  South Dakota, 16 and note 2, 21.

  Southern States, conditions in, 35.

  Spain, conditions in, 206, 207.

  Sprung, Mrs. v., 166.

  Stael, Madame de, 177, 178.

  Stanley, Hon. Maude, 90.

  Stanton, Elizabeth Cady,
    refused admission to anti-slavery congress, 5, 6.
    introduces woman's suffrage resolution, 7.

  Steyber, Ottilie v., 145.

  Stone, Lucy, 5, 24.

  Stopes, Mrs. C. C., 62, note 1.

  Strindberg, 110.

  Stritt, Mrs., 151.

  Styria, _see_ Slovene woman's rights movement.

  Suffragettes, English,
    influence of, in the United States, 21.
    importance of, 58.
    tactics, influence, and activities of, 65-70.
    support given to, 69.

  Suslowa, Miss, 221.

  Suttner, Bertha v., 169.

  Swain, Dr. Clara, 253.

  Sweden,
    represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, xiii.
    conditions in, 103-110.

  Switzerland,
    represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, xiii.
    conditions in, 133-134.


  Tasmania, _see_ Australia.

  Teachers, women,
    in the United States, 25.
    in Australia, 46, 47.
    in Great Britain, 76, 81.
    in Sweden, 104, 106, 107.
    in Finland, 111.
    in Norway, 118, 119.
    in Denmark, 123.
    in the Netherlands, 128.
    in Switzerland, 135.
    in Germany, 147.
    in German Austria, 161, 162.
    in Hungary, 174.
    in France, 184.
    in Italy, 200, 201.
    in Spain, 207, 208.
    in Mexico and Central America, 212, 213.
    in Russia, 221, 222.
    in Galicia, 234.
    in Servia, 237.
    in Bulgaria, 240.
    in Persia, 251, 252.

  _Terem_, 217.

  Téry, Audrée, 195.

  Tessel Benefit Society (_Schadeverein_), 129.

  Thorbecke, Minister, 138.

  Tilmans, Madame, 194.

  Tod, 63.

  Trade-unions, women in,
    in the United States, 32, 33.
    in Great Britain, 84-88.
    in Sweden, 108.
    in Finland, 112.
    in Norway, 122.
    in the Netherlands, 129, 130.
    in Switzerland, 137.
    in Germany, 150, 153, 154.
    in German Austria, 159, 160, 164, 165.
    in France, 185, 186.
    in Belgium, 193.
    in Italy, 203, 204.
    in Russia, 222, 225.
    in the Slovene countries, 236.
    in Bulgaria, 240.

  Trinity College, 76.

  Troy Seminary, 24.

  Tsin King, 258.

  Tumova, Miss, 232.

  Turkey, conditions in, 245-250.

  Turmarkin, Dr. Anna, 135, 136.

  Tuszla, Dolna, 251.


  United States,
    Represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, xii, xiii.
    conditions in, 2-42.
    _See also_ American Women.

  United States, Constitution of,
    leaves suffrage matters to the various states, 3.
    not opposed to woman's suffrage, 10.
    preamble to, 10.

  United States, women in,
    leaders in modern woman's rights movement, x.
    oppose slavery, 4.
    attitude toward negro suffrage, 9.
    methods of obtaining the franchise, 13-15.

  Universities, state, in the United States, 26.

  Utah,
    woman's suffrage in, 16.
    work of women in, 19.
    condition of women and children in, 39, 40.


  Vambéry, Professor, 172.

  Vandervelde, Madame, 193.

  Vassar College, 24.

  Veres, Mrs. v., 169.

  Victoria, represented in the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance,
      xii;
    _see also_ Australia.

  Vooruit, 194.

  Vorst, Mrs. v., her book referred to, 31, 35.

  Vos, Roosje, 130.

  _Votes for Women_, English woman's suffrage organ, referred to, 62,
      note 1, 66, 69.


  Wachtmeister, Countess, 52.

  Wales, _see_ Great Britain.

  Wallis, Professor, 105.

  War of Independence (1774-1783), relation of, to woman's rights
      movement, 2.

  Ward, Mrs. Humphry,
    opposed to woman's suffrage, 18.
    in debate, 69.

  Warren, Ohio, 42.

  Warwick, Lady, 83.

  Washington, State of, woman's suffrage secured in, 16, note 1, 21,
      22, and note 1.

  Webb, Mrs. Sidney, 69.

  Wenckheim, Baroness, 172.

  Wendt, Dr, Cecilia, 163.

  West Australia, _see_ Australia.

  White slave trade,
    in Australia, 54.
    in Hungary, 172.

  _Why does the Working-woman need the Right to Vote?_ (pamphlet), 33.

  Willard, Frances E., 38.

  Wisconsin, 21.

  Wolfring, v., 166.

  Wollstonecraft, Mary, 176.

  Woman's Coöperative Gild, 93, 94.

  Woman's Equal Suffrage League (Natal), 100.

  Woman's Freedom League, 68.

  Woman's Industrial Society, 159.

  Woman's Institute, 80.

  _Woman's Journal_, 34, 35.

  Woman's rights movement, the modern,
    definition, leadership in, origins, ix, x.
    international organization of, xi, xii.
    chief demands of, xiii, xiv.
    characteristics, in Germanic and Romance countries compared, 1, 2.
    in Germanic-Protestant countries, 1, 2.
    the cradle of, 2.
    and American War of Independence, 2.
    character of, in the United States, 4 and ff.
    in Australia, 42 and ff.
    in Great Britain, 58 and ff.
    in Canada, 96 and ff.
    in South Africa, 100 and ff.
    in the Scandinavian countries, 103 and ff.
    in the Netherlands, 126 and ff.
    in Switzerland, 133 and ff.
    in Germany, 144 and ff.
    in German Austria, 158 and ff.
    in Europe, 175.
    in France, 176 and ff.
    in Belgium, 191 and ff.
    in Italy, 199 and ff.
    in Spain, 210, 211.
    in South America, 214.
    in Russia, 215 and ff.
    in Bohemia, 230-232.
    in Servia, 236-239.
    in Bulgaria, 240-242.
    in Turkey and Egypt, 247-250.
    in Persia, 251.
    in India, 252-255.
    in China, 258-260.
    in Japan, 262.
    in Korea, 263.
    _See also_ Woman's suffrage movement.

  Woman's Rights Movement (periodical), 20, 21.

  Woman's Suffrage Alliance, _see_ International Woman's Suffrage Alliance.

  _Woman's Suffrage in Australia_ (pamphlet), 56.

  _Woman's Suffrage in New Zealand_, (pamphlet), 56.

  Woman's suffrage movement,
    organized internationally, xii, xiii.
    in the United States, 2-23.
    in Australia, 49-58.
    in England, 58-74.
    in Canada, 98, 99.
    in South Africa, 100, 101.
    in Sweden, 104, 108, 109.
    in Finland, 114-116.
    in Norway, 119-121.
    in Denmark, 124, 125.
    in Iceland, 125.
    in the Netherlands, 130-133.
    in Switzerland, 141-143.
    in Germany, 153-157.
    in German Austria, 166-169.
    in Hungary, 172, 173.
    in France, 188 and ff.
    in Belgium, 194, 195.
    in Italy, 202 and ff.
    in Russia, 227-229.
    in Czechish Bohemia and Moravia, 231, 232.
    in Japan, 262.

  Woman's suffrage states (United States),
    and educational matters, 27.
    women jurors in, 28.
    laws concerning women and children in, 39, 40.

  Women, _see also_ Agriculturists, American women, Coeducation, Divorce
      laws, Doctors, Children (authority over), Education, Factory
      inspectors, Journalists, Laws protecting women and children,
      Lawyers, Patents, Preachers, Salaries, Sex, Teachers, Trade-unions,
      Working-day.

  Women in the professions and the industries,
    in the United States, 25-36.
    in Australia, 46-48.
    in Great Britain, 77-95.
    in Canada, 97.
    in Sweden, 104-108.
    in Finland, 111-113.
    in Norway, 117-121.
    in Denmark, 123-124.
    in the Netherlands, 128-131.
    in Switzerland, 135-139.
    in Germany, 147-150.
    in Luxemburg, 157, 158.
    in Hungary, 171-174.
    in France, 185-187.
    in Belgium, 193.
    in Italy, 200-204.
    in Portugal, 212.
    in Mexico and Central America, 212, 213.
    in South America, 214.
    in Russia, 220-226.
    in Czechish Bohemia and Moravia, 230, 231.
    in Galicia, 232, 233, 235.
    in the Slovene countries, 236.
    in Servia, 237, 238.
    in Greece, 243, 244.
    in Persia, 251, 252.
    in Japan, 261, 262.

  Women, legal status of,
    in the United States, 36, 37.
    in Australia, 49.
    in England, 73, 74.
    in Canada, 97, 98.
    in Sweden, 105, 106.
    in Finland, 113.
    in Denmark, 122, 123, 124.
    in the Netherlands, 126, 127.
    in Switzerland, 140.
    in Germany, 155.
    in German Austria, 168, 169.
    in France, 178, 179, 182.
    in Belgium, 191.
    in Italy, 202.
    in Spain, 210.
    in Mexico and Central America, 213.
    in Russia, 226, 227.
    in Servia, 239.
    in Bulgaria, 240.
    according to the Koran, 248.
    in China, 256, 257.

  Women's Charter of Rights and Liberties, the, 96, note 1.

  Women's clubs, _see under_ the Woman's rights movement of the various
      countries.

  Women's colleges,
    in the United States, 24.
    in Great Britain, 75-77.

  Women's Enfranchisement League (in Cape Colony), 101.

  _Women's Franchise, the Need of the Hour_, 70, note 1.

  Women's Liberal Federation, 63.

  Working-day for women,
    in the United States, 35.
    in woman's suffrage states, 39.
    in Australia, 48.
    in Switzerland, 139.
    in Germany, 154.
    in Italy, 203.

  Workingwoman's movement, not antagonistic to woman's rights movement, x.

  World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union,
    formation of, x.
    facts concerning, 38.
    advocates woman's suffrage, 38.

  Worm, Pauline, 122.

  Writers' League, 68.

  Wu, Fang Lan, 258.

  Wyoming,
    woman's suffrage in, 16.
    elections in, 20.
    legal status of women in, 39, 40.


  Yale University, 24.

  Young Turkish Woman's League, 249, 250.

  Young Turk movement, women and, 248, 249.


  Zenana, 250, 253.

  Zetkin, Clara, 152.




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Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

Punctuation has been corrected without note.

The following misprints have been corrected:
  "Cubs" corrected to "Clubs" (page 133)
  "classses" corrected to "classes" (page 184)
  "admisson" corrected to "admission" (page 250)
  "1 4" corrected to "184" (page 270)

Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and
hyphenation have been retained from the original.