c. 21) declares that in all laws the masculine expression also includes

the feminine, _unless the contrary is expressly stated_, the friends of woman's suffrage believed they could interpret this expression in favor of women. The attempt to do this was now made. A number of qualified women demanded that they be registered with the voters; they were determined to have recourse to the law if the government commission refused to register their votes. At this time the first public meeting of women in England was held in the famous "Free Trade Hall" in Manchester. But the courts and the Supreme Court interpreted the law _against_ the women,--"they are disqualified neither intellectually nor morally, but _legally_." Then a methodical propaganda by means of public meetings was begun; the first victory was won as early as 1869,--the women taxpayers were given the right to vote in municipal affairs in England, Scotland, and Wales.

Between 1870 and 1884, the political organization of the women was strengthened; the women of the aristocracy (Lady Amberly, Lady Anne Gore-Langton, and others) were won over to the cause of woman's suffrage. A "Central Committee for Woman's Suffrage" was formed, and a number of excellent women speakers (Biggs, Maclaren, Becker, Fawcett, Craigen, Kingsley, Tod, and others) spoke throughout the country. A further success was achieved when the Parliament of the Isle of Man[34] (House of Keys) gave qualified women the right to vote.

In 1884, the property qualification was again reduced through a new election law; the friends of woman's suffrage took advantage of this opportunity to present a motion in Parliament favoring woman's suffrage, in support of which the following statements were made: "Two million men, many of whom are ignorant and uneducated, and possess only a small plot of ground, are to be given political rights. On what principle is the same right withheld from 300,000 women who are educated and who are landowners?" This motion was lost also. In 1885 the English women, in order to make their influence felt in political affairs, formed the "Primrose League," which supported the Conservative candidates in the election campaigns; and in 1887 was formed the "Women's Liberal Federation," which supported the Liberals in a similar manner. The next attempt to secure woman's suffrage was made in 1897, but it was unsuccessful. During the Boer War woman's suffrage receded into the background, and not until March 14, 1904, was a woman's suffrage bill again introduced; this bill did not become law. At that time the woman's suffrage movement was lifeless, and in a thoroughly hopeless condition. All the usual means of propaganda had been exhausted,--meetings, petitions, and personal work during campaigns made no impressions either on the members of Parliament, the government, or on public opinion. It was no longer possible to educe arguments _against_ the right of _qualified_ women to vote (it was not a question of universal suffrage, but, just as in the case of the men, it was a matter of granting the franchise to women holding property in their own name and earning their own living). Governments, however, wish to be _coerced_ into granting the franchise, and the representatives of the woman's suffrage movement were not determined enough to exercise the necessary coercion. Therefore, the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies transferred the leadership of the movement to the National Women's Social and Political Union, whose members are known by the name of suffragettes. This transference of leadership took place during the autumn of 1905.

The suffragettes then adopted militant tactics, making the government their point of attack. This was a good stroke, for since 1905 England has had a Liberal Cabinet, and several of the ministers and over 400 of the 600 members of the House of Commons have declared themselves as friends of woman's suffrage. "Then why don't you grant us our political freedom?" asked the suffragettes.

The women are heads of families, they pay rent and taxes, just as the men. All their conditions of livelihood are as dependent upon the laws as are those of the men. A _liberal_ government and _liberal_ members of Parliament ought to be liberal towards women and grant them the suffrage. Many of these ministers and many members of Parliament owe their political careers, their election, and their influence to the practical campaign activities of women or to the woman's suffrage movement, which they supported in order to enlarge their political influence. They have made use of the woman's suffrage movement and now wish to do nothing in return. The fate of all woman's suffrage bills introduced since 1870 (13 in number) proves that it is hopeless to have such bills introduced by private members. _Women must turn their hopes to a bill introduced by the government._ The present Liberal government needs only to treat the matter seriously; then a woman's suffrage bill will be passed.

But the government has not treated the matter seriously; hence the suffragettes have declared war. It is their determination to fight every ministry which is not kindly disposed toward the suffrage movement.

The struggle is carried on by the following means: organization of societies; meetings throughout the country; street parades and open air meetings (especially significant are those of June 13 and 21, 1908); the employment of first-class speakers, who make concise, clear, ingenious, and stirring speeches; the raising of large sums of money (20,000 pounds, _i.e._ $100,000 annually; there is a reserve fund of 50,000 pounds, _i.e._ $250,000); the publication of a well-managed periodical, _Votes for Women_.[35]

The leaders are Mrs. and Miss Pankhurst, Mrs. Drummond, Annie Kenney, Mr. and Mrs. Pethick Lawrence. These and the most determined of their associates undertake to send deputations to the Liberal Prime Minister, Mr. Asquith, and to ask the question in all public meetings in which members of the Cabinet speak,--when will you give women the right to vote?

The deputations go to Parliament _because women, as taxpayers, have the right to speak to the Prime Minister_, who continually receives deputations of men. Since the Prime Minister does not wish to grant women the right to vote, the deputations of women are prevented from entering the Houses of Parliament by strong squads of police, both mounted and on foot; and if the women do not desist from their attempt to make known to the Prime Minister the resolutions of their meeting, they are arrested for the disturbance of the peace, the interruption of traffic, or the instigation of tumult and riot; they are arraigned in the _police court_ and are sentenced to imprisonment in the ordinary prisons. The Liberal government stubbornly refuses to regard these women as political offenders and to punish them as such.

The woman's suffrage advocates, who ask the Cabinet members questions in public meetings, direct their questions to both friends and opponents of woman's suffrage. For, they inquire, of what use are our friends to us if they do nothing for us? The members of the English Cabinet have a joint responsibility for their political programme. If the friends of woman's suffrage treat the matter seriously, they must either convert their colleagues or resign. As long as they do not do that, they are merely playing with woman's suffrage and the women think it necessary to "heckle" them. The women who ask the questions are often ejected from the meetings in a very rough way.[36]

The suffragettes give the government conclusive proof of their political power when they oppose Liberal candidates at all by-elections and contribute to the defeat of the candidates or cause a reduction of their votes. To the present this has occurred in fourteen cases. It is due to the success of these tactics that the whole world is to-day speaking about woman's suffrage, which has become a burning political question in England. All along the people and the press are giving greater support to the suffragettes who have the courage to brave the horrors of the London prison, and there become acquainted with the distress of the poor, the destitute, and the helpless.

During the last three or four years of the activity of the suffragettes a great number of woman's suffrage organizations were founded: The Woman's Freedom League (Mrs. Despard), The Men's League for Woman's Suffrage, The Artists' Suffrage League, The Conservative and Unionist Women's Franchise Association, The Actresses' Franchise League, The Writers' League, etc. Scotland and Ireland have their own woman's suffrage associations.

In opposition there have been formed the National Women's Antisuffrage Association and a Men's League for Opposing Woman's Suffrage (those are supported chiefly by the aristocratic circles). They declare that woman does not need the right to vote since she exercises an "enormous indirect influence"; that woman does not _wish_ the right to vote; that her subordination is based on natural law since brute force rules the world; woman's suffrage would result in England's destruction, if a majority of women voters (England has a majority of women) were permitted to decide questions concerning the army and navy.

The leader of the suffragettes, Mrs. Fawcett, recently established the fact that the newly formed Association has a considerably smaller number of prominent names among its members _than the organization formed two years ago_, which soon came to an inglorious end. She emphasized the fact that the two important women, who at that time still favored the antisuffrage movement,--Mrs. Louise Creighton and Mrs. Sidney Webb,--have since gone over to the suffrage advocates. On the occasion of Mrs. Fawcett's public debate with Mrs. Humphry Ward, the leader of the antisuffragists (in February, 1909), it happened that 235 of those present favored woman's suffrage and 74 were opposed.

The argument against the brute force statement was treated in three excellent articles in _Votes for Women_ under the title "The Physical Force Fallacy."[37] The most influential of the English women, together with the women in the industries, the students of both sexes, the workingwomen,--in short, the intellectual and professional women are in favor of the suffragettes; and the woman's suffrage advocates have "the spiritual certainty" that moves mountains. Let no one believe that the appeals made on the streets, the parades of the women as sandwich-men, or the noisy publicity of their tactics are gladly indulged in by the women. These actions are entirely opposed to woman's nature. But the women have recognized that these tactics are necessary and they act accordingly because it is their duty. Such movements have always been successful.

Women do not possess the right to vote in parliamentary elections; but, if taxpayers, they can vote in municipal affairs in the whole of Great Britain and Ireland. The _married_ women of England and Wales have a restricted right of suffrage, however: they are "persons" and therefore voters in parochial elections, in the election of poor-law administrators, and of urban and rural district councillors; but they are not regarded as "persons" and are not voters in elections for the borough and county councils. In one single case, in the County of London, by the law of 1900, married women were given almost the same rights as those exercised by married women in Scotland and Ireland.[38] The right of single or married women to hold office (passive suffrage)[39] has prevailed in England and Wales since 1869 in respect to the offices of guardians of the poor, overseers, waywardens, churchwardens,--and since 1870 (Education Act) in respect to school boards.[40] At the very first school elections women were elected, which induced women to have themselves presented also as candidates for the offices of poor-law administrators. In 1875 the first unmarried woman was elected to that office, the first married woman in 1881. In the discharge of their duties in both classes of offices the women have acted admirably. Nevertheless, the reactionary Education Act of June, 1903, took away from the women the right to hold office as members of school boards in the County of London. They can still secure administrative offices by governmental appointment, but no longer by an election. In 1888 were created the county councils for England and Wales; the county councils were at the same time organs for the self-governing municipalities. Since this law, like those of 1869 and 1870, did not specially exclude women from the right to hold office, two women, Mrs. Cobden and Lady Sandhurst, presented themselves as candidates for the office of county councillors of London. They were elected. Thereupon Mrs. Beresford-Hope, whom Lady Sandhurst had defeated, contested the legality of the election. In 1889, the Court of Appeals declared that women were eligible to public office only _when this is expressly stated_.[41] This decision of the Court, which was in conflict with the English Constitution, also brought about the loss of the right of the women of Scotland and Ireland to hold office as county councillors.

As a result of this judicial decision, when the new Local Self-government Act for England and Wales was enacted (1894), it was necessary expressly to state the eligibility of women (unmarried and married) to hold the minor local offices (parish, urban, rural district councillors, poor-law guardians, etc.). Article 22, however (in spite of historical precedents), excluded women from the office of justice of the peace. In 1894 the same thing occurred in Scotland, and in 1898 in Ireland.

In 1899, the attempt to secure the eligibility of women to the metropolitan borough councils (for London only)[42] failed, owing to the opposition of the House of Lords.

The law of 1907,[43] known as the _Qualification of Women Act_, grants unmarried women the right to hold office in the borough and county councils (councillor, alderman, mayor). Married women have this right only in the County of London; elsewhere they can merely vote for these officers.[44] On the occasion of the first elections under this act twelve women presented themselves as candidates; six were elected (one as mayor); hitherto the women had been elected only in small places, and then owing to exceptional circumstances. Whoever investigates the struggle of the women to secure their rights in the local government and studies the attitude of the men toward these exceedingly just demands will comprehend the exasperating circumstances under which the women are to-day struggling for the right to vote in the English parliamentary elections. In questions of power and of gaining a livelihood [_Macht- und Brotfragen_] the nobility of man can really not be depended upon.

The woman's suffrage movement has led to the consummation of a number of legal reforms: the property laws now legalize the separation of the property of husband and wife[45]; in the United Kingdom the wife administers her own property and disposes of it, and has full control over her earnings. The remainder of the laws regulating marriage are still rather rigorous,--in England at least; the wife has no _hereditary right_ to her husband's property. If she economizes in the administration of the household, the savings belong to the husband. The wife cannot demand any pay in money for performing her domestic duties; the mere expenses of maintenance are sufficient remuneration, etc. In normal cases the _father_ alone has authority over the children. It is made very difficult for a woman to secure a divorce, etc.[46]

The women that have labored so untiringly in political affairs have very naturally made it a point to promote the educational opportunities of their sex. Since 1870, the elementary school system has been regulated by the school boards, which have introduced obligatory public instruction. In these institutions the boys and girls are segregated (except in the rural districts). On an average there is one male teacher to every three women teachers in these institutions. The secondary schools are private, as in Australia. Hence it was not necessary for the English women to wrest every concession from a reluctant government (as was the case in Germany); but private initiative, combined with the devotion of private individuals, made possible in a few years the full reorganization of England's institutions of learning for girls. This reorganization began in 1868 and led to the following results: the establishment of higher institutions of learning in all English cities (these are called girls' public day schools, most of them being day schools. They are governed by committees consisting of the founders, the principals, and the qualified advisers). Latin and mathematics are obligatory studies in the curriculum. The schools are in close relationship with Oxford and Cambridge universities, the universities inspecting the schools and supervising the various examinations (including the examinations of the students upon leaving the schools). In England these schools are for girls only; in Scotland, girls attend similar schools which are coeducational. The number of women teachers is estimated at 8000.

Admission to the universities was secured with difficulty by the women. At first a number of women requested the privilege of attending lectures in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Since these universities are resident colleges, it was necessary to provide boarding places for women. This was done in 1869 and 1870 in both places, through the work of Miss Emily Davies and Miss Anna Clough. Both of these beginnings developed into the women's colleges of Girton and Newnham. Since then, St. Margaret's Hall, Somersville Hall, and Holloway College have been established for women. These institutions correspond to the German philosophical faculties [the colleges of literature and liberal arts in the United States]. An entrance examination is necessary for admission. The course of study is three years. The final examination, called "tripos," embraces three subjects; it corresponds to the German _Oberlehrerexamen_,--examinations given to candidates for the position of teachers in the _Gymnasiums_, the _Realgymnasiums_, _Oberrealgymnasiums_, etc. Theology, medicine, and law cannot be studied in these woman's colleges (any more than in the American woman's colleges). Part of the teachers live in the woman's college buildings; part of them belong to the faculties of Oxford and Cambridge. The former are women tutors and professors.

The English colleges for women are maintained by private funds. Many women not wishing to take the "tripos" examination or to become teachers attend the university to acquire a higher education. Others prepare themselves for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, or Doctor of Philosophy. These examinations are accepted by Oxford and Cambridge universities, but the women are not granted the corresponding titles, because the use of such titles would make the women _Fellows_ of the University, which would entitle them to the use of the university gardens and parks, and to live in one of the colleges. All other universities in England, Scotland, and Ireland, with the exception of Trinity College, Dublin, admit women to all departments, accepting their examinations and granting them academic degrees.

The women's colleges are centers of sport,--incidentally they possess their own fire department. To arouse an interest in political affairs and to develop facility in speaking, debating clubs have been organized. More than 1300 women have graduated from Cambridge, and more than 1200 from the University of London. When Mary Putnam wished to study medicine in 1868, she had to go to Paris. Jex Blake, who attempted the same thing in Edinburgh in 1869, was driven out by the students. She went to London and was there at first given instruction by the noble Dr. Anstie. As early as 1870 there was formed in London a special School of Medicine for women, to which a hospital for women was later attached, being directed and supported entirely by women physicians. To-day, 553 women doctors are practicing in Great Britain. Of these 538 have expressed themselves in favor of, and 15 against, woman's suffrage. In England, women were first permitted to take the public examination in dental surgery as late as 1908; while the Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Irish Royal Colleges of Surgeons had admitted them long before. Women can study law in England, but as yet they have not been admitted to the bar. If this privilege were granted to women, they would have to affiliate with the London lawyers' associations, such as the _Inner Temple_, the _Middle Temple_, _Gray's Inn_, etc. Members of these organizations must several times a month attend the dinners or banquets of the lawyers. These corporate customs of the English Bar are said to exclude women from the legal profession just as similar customs have excluded them from tutorships and professorships in Oxford and Cambridge.

In spite of this, Miss Cave recently sought admission to _Gray's Inn_, but was refused _because she was a woman_. She appealed her case to the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, but they declared that they had no jurisdiction; the matter will be pursued further. The first woman preacher in England, a native of Germany, Miss v. Petzold, studied theology in Germany and graduated there. After her trial sermon in Leicester she was elected in preference to her male competitors. Later she accepted a call to Chicago. The Congregationalists have four women preachers; the Salvation Army over 3000. Except in those callings where personal ability is determinative, the salaries of English women are lower than those of the men. The women have a large field for their efforts in the public schools (where there are three women teachers to one man teacher). In the secondary schools for girls, instruction and control are entirely in the hands of women; their salaries are quite sufficient (the minimum being 100 pounds sterling, about $500). As we have seen, the higher institutions of learning also offer the women well-paid positions (the tutors being paid $2000, with board and lodging; the principals $2500).

The _well-paid_ civil offices are reserved for the men. Although there are more women teachers and more female students in the schools than males, there are 244 male inspectors of public schools and 18 women inspectors; the male inspector-general is paid 1000 pounds sterling annually, the woman inspector-general 500 pounds. In the secondary schools there are 20 male inspectors and 3 women inspectors with annual salaries of 400 to 800 pounds, and 300 pounds respectively. The women teachers of the elementary schools (of whom there are approximately 111,000) draw on an average two thirds the salary of the men teachers, though they have the same training and do the same amount of work.

In spite of the fact that there are two million women engaged in industry, there are 900 male factory inspectors and hardly 60 female factory inspectors. Here again the men are paid 1000 pounds and the women only 500 pounds a year. In the postal and telegraph service the same injustice exists: the men begin with a minimum wage of 20 shillings a week, while the women are paid 14 shillings; the men increase their salaries to 62 shillings a week; the women to 30 shillings. The male telegraph operator begins with 18 shillings and is finally given 65 shillings a week; the woman telegraph operator begins with 16 and reaches 40 shillings. The male clerks of the second division of the civil service are paid 250 pounds and the women 100 annually. In 1908, the number of women employees in the postal and telegraph service of Great Britain was 13,259; the number of women supernumeraries, 30,476: total number, 43,735. The highest positions (heads of departments, staff officers) have been attained by 4 women and by 178 men.

In recent years many new callings have been opened to women living in the cities. They are engaged in the manufacture of confectionery. Prominent and wealthy women have established businesses of their own, in which fine confections are produced,--in many cases by destitute, nervous, and overworked women music teachers. Women are active as bookbinders, stockbrokers, bills of exchange agents, auditors, teachers of domestic economy, instructors in gymnastics, ladies' guides, wardrobe dealers (the costly robes of the women of fashion are sold on commission through agents), paperers and decorators, etc.

The Woman's Institute[47] has published a complete handbook on the occupations of women. This book does not omit the occupation of explorer, in which Mrs. French Sheldon has distinguished herself (by exploration in the interior of Africa). In London, the number of women engaged in gainful pursuits is naturally very large, many of the women being alone in the world. The women journalists and authoresses in London have been numerous enough to organize a club of their own,--the Writers' Club, in the Strand. The number of women employed in commercial houses is very large,--450,000. The weekly wages, especially the wages of the saleswomen in the shops, are often quite moderate, 20 to 25 shillings where exceptional demands are made as to attractive dress and appearance. The women have organized the Shop Assistants' Union. For women with this weekly wage the securing of good rooms and board at a reasonable price is a vital question. There are three apartment houses for workingwomen,--the _Sloane Garden Houses_, and the apartments for women in Chenies Street and in York Street. Women teachers, designers, artists, bookkeepers, cashiers, secretaries and stenographers obtain room and board here at varying rates. There are bedrooms (with two beds) for 4-1/2 to 5 shillings a week for each person, furnished rooms for 10 to 14 shillings. The dining room is a restaurant. Only the evening meal, dinner (served from 6 to 7), is served to all at once. This meal costs 10 pence (20 cents). In Chenies Street living expenses are somewhat higher: 6 pence for breakfast, 9 pence for luncheon, 1 shilling for dinner; which is about 55 cents a day for board. For suites of two to four rooms $15 to $30 a month is charged. The _Alexandra House_ in Kensington offers women artists similar privileges; the _Brabanzon House_ (under the protection of the Countess of Meath) accommodates employees of the shops only. Since the English women are--fortunately--independent in spirit, these institutions lack the scholastic, monastic, or tutelary characteristics that are unfortunately found in many similar institutions on the continent.

Very few of the English women have become industrial entrepreneurs. However, they have directed their attention to agriculture as a means of earning a livelihood and have organized agricultural schools for women. Here the women engage especially in poultry raising, vegetable and fruit growing, which in England are very lucrative; England annually imports 41 million pounds' worth of milk, eggs, poultry, vegetables, and fruits. The councils of London, Berkshire, Essex, and Kent counties support the Horticultural College for women in Swanley, Kent, which was founded privately by wealthy and influential persons. In England 100,000 women are engaged in agriculture. The demand for trained women gardeners to-day still exceeds the supply. Trained women gardeners are frequently engaged for a long term of years to teach untrained gardeners. Women are employed in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew and in Edinburgh. Holloway College has a woman gardener. In 1898 a model farm for women was founded by Lady Warwick in Reading. The institution began with twelve women students, who cultivated two acres of land. Within a year the number of students was quadrupled; and then eleven acres were cultivated instead of two.

The woman that wishes to learn stock feeding and dairying is sent to a special farm. The course requires two years. The _Agricultural Association for Women_, founded by Lady Warwick, aids the women agriculturists and finds positions for the pupils. In Great Britain there are eight public schools in which women can learn agriculture and gardening. Many county councils have established courses in gardening, to which women are admitted.

Agriculture is encouraged in England because the migration from the country to the city has increased extraordinarily. Agriculture is restricted in favor of stock raising, which gives employment to fewer laborers than agriculture. In spite of the great increase in population, the number of agriculturists has steadily decreased since 1851. On the other hand, the industrial population (and it is predominantly urban) has increased significantly. Every industrialization means a pauperization to a certain extent. It produces the army of unskilled laborers, the victims of the sweating system, who in a destitute condition are left to eke out their wretched existence in the "East Ends" of the large cities. There is no corresponding misery in the country districts. A marked industrialization therefore causes a degree of general pauperism such as is unknown in the agricultural regions of western Europe. The pursuit of gardening among women has a social-political significance. The English laboring population is estimated at 4,000,000 people, among whom the trade-union movement has made considerable progress. The English trade-union statistics of 1904 show 148 trade-unions having women members. There are all together 125,094 female members, _i.e._ 6.7 per cent of all organized laborers. The greatest number of these are in the textile industries (almost 100,000). The total number of women laborers in this industry is 800,000.

MEN WOMEN (SHIL. A WEEK) (SHIL. A WEEK)

Cotton Industry 29.6 18.8 Woolen Industry 26.1 13.1 Lace Industry 39.6 13.5 Woven Goods Industry 31.5 14.3 Linen Industry 22.4 10.9 Jute Industry 21.7 13.5[48]

In the textile industry, in which women are better organized than elsewhere (there being 96,000), there existed in 1906 the preceding difference between the wages of men and women (see table, p. 84).

The organization of women laborers was first advocated by Mrs. Paterson and Miss Simcox at the trade-union congress held in Glasgow in 1875. But this organization is confronted with the same difficulties as exist elsewhere: the women believe that they are engaged in non-domestic work only temporarily; therefore they are interested in the improvement of labor only to a slight degree, and in addition are burdened with housework; while the male laborer is free when the factory closes. In almost all industries women are paid lower wages than men,--partly because those who are poorly equipped are given the lower grades of work and are not given an opportunity to do the more difficult work; partly, too, because _they are women, i.e._ people of the second order. Weekly wages of 5 to 7 shillings are common. Naturally, the workingwoman who is all alone in the world cannot exist on such a sum. In _one_ industry only the women are given the same pay as the men for doing the same work,--this is the textile industry in Lancashire. Since 1847 this industry has been protected by a law prohibiting night work for women. In this industry men and women laborers are organized in the same trade-union. The standard of living of the whole body of workers is very high. There can be no doubt that the legislation for the protection of the laborers of this industry, in which the exploitation of women and children had been carried to the extreme previous to 1847, has caused the raising of the general standard of living. Without the intervention of law, exploitation would have been pursued further in this industry. So the English women have before them an example of the salutary effect of legislation for the protection of the laborers in the textile industries. Nevertheless, there is in England a faction among the woman's rights advocates which vigorously resists every movement for the protection of women laborers; it has organized itself into the "League for Freedom of Labor Defense." It acts on the principle that every law for the protection of women laborers signifies an unjustifiable tutelage; that the workingwomen should defend themselves through the organization of trade-unions; that the laws for the protection of women laborers decrease women's opportunities for work and drive them from their positions, which are filled by men (who can work at night).

These fears are based purely on theory. In practice they are realized only in entirely isolated cases. The truth is that legislation for the protection of women laborers (prohibition of night work and the fixing of a maximum number of work hours a day) is entirely favorable to an overwhelming majority of workingwomen. It protects them against a degree of exploitation that they could not resist unaided because _the majority of them are not organized_, and have no power to organize themselves; they will secure this power only through laws protecting women laborers. A comparative international study of laws for the protection of women laborers, published by the Belgian department of labor,[49] shows that the number of women laborers has nowhere decreased, and that wages have not declined as a result.

Concerning this point Mrs. Sidney Webb says: "In most cases women _cannot_ be replaced by men, either because the men are not sufficiently dextrous or because their labor is too expensive. What employer will pay a man 20 to 30 shillings a week when a woman can accomplish just as much for 5 to 12 shillings a week?" We shall return to this subject in discussing France.

Those women that are members of trade-unions persistently demand the right to vote; many of them intimate that through this right they expect to secure an increase in wages. Naturally the wishes of women laborers possessing the franchise will be considered very differently from the wishes of those not possessing this right. Proof of this has been given by the American woman's suffrage states. Previous to the debates on woman's suffrage in Parliament in 1904, a deputation of workingwomen from the potteries in Staffordshire presented the members of Parliament from that district with a petition having 4000 signatures, requesting the introduction of a woman's suffrage bill, so that women might not continue to be excluded from all well-paid positions on account of their political inferiority. On this occasion the Hon. Mr. A. L. Emmott (member of Parliament from the Oldham district) declared that the salary of the women employees in the postal savings banks had been reduced from 65 pounds (with an annual increase of 3 pounds) to 55 pounds (with an annual increase of 2 pounds, 10 shillings). _This would have been impossible if women had had the right to vote._ Domestic servants are as yet organized only to a small extent, but they are well trained; they number 1,331,000.

In none of the Anglo-Saxon countries of the world is there a schism between the woman's rights movements of the middle class and the Social-Democrats, such as is found in Germany. In each of the Anglo-Saxon countries there is a Socialist, and even an Anarchist party, but these parties do not antagonize the woman's rights movement. The republican constitutions in America,--the more democratic institutions of society,--in general moderate the acute opposition. The absence of historical obstacles has a conciliating influence everywhere in these countries. In England, where history, monarchy, and traditional class antagonism seem to give socialism favorable conditions of growth, socialism has for a long time been hampered by the trade-unions. In other words, the English workingmen, the first to organize in Europe, had already improved their condition greatly when the socialistic propaganda commenced in England. In their trade-unions they confined themselves to the economic field; they avoided mixing economics with politics; they worked with both parties, they steered clear of class hatred, and it was difficult to influence them with the speculative ultimate aims of social democracy. It has been only in the last decade that social-democracy has made any progress in England; therefore in the woman's rights movement middle-class women and workingwomen work together peaceably.

Of all the women in Europe the English women first became conscious of their duty toward the lower classes. In this atmosphere,--clubs and homes for working girls, and the London "College for Working Women,"--institutions such as we on the continent know only in isolated cases flourished readily. These institutions devote their attention to the girls of the lower ranks of society.

The oldest club is the "Soho Club and Home for Working Girls" in Soho Square, London, founded in 1880 by the Hon. Maude Stanley. It is open from seven in the morning to ten at night and _also on Sunday_. Tea can be obtained for 2-1/2 pence (5 cents), and dinner for 6-1/2 pence (13 cents). The admission fee is 1 shilling, the annual dues are 8 shillings. The members have a library at their disposal, and they publish a club magazine, _The London Girls' Club Union Magazine_. Members of such clubs (including those outside London) have formed themselves into a union. The members of the committee--composed of wealthy and influential women--concern themselves personally with the affairs of the clubs, giving not only their money, but their time and influence. The "College for Working Women" has existed in Fitzroy Square for more than 25 years. Here are taught English, French, history, geography, drawing, arithmetic, reading, writing, singing, cooking, sewing, wood turning, and other subjects. The quarterly fee is 1 shilling (for use of the library, attending lectures, etc.), the fees for the courses range from 1 shilling and 3 pence to 2 shillings and 6 pence (31 to 62 cents) quarterly. A commission gives examinations. The institution grants scholarships and gives prizes. The number of such clubs in the whole of Great Britain is estimated at 800.

The English woman is developing a considerable activity in the sociological field. Florence Nightingale, who organized a regular hospital service on the field of battle during the Crimean War (1854), upon her return to England took steps to secure the training of educated women for the nursing profession, in which the English nurse has been the model. The most important Training College for nurses not connected with religious orders is in Henrietta Street, in London. Still this distinguished profession, which is represented in the International Red Cross Society, has not yet attained state registration of nurses,--_i.e._ an officially prescribed course of study concluding with a state examination.

The English midwives are vehemently complaining because the new Midwives Act will be deliberated on by a commission having no midwife as a member. The superintendent of the London Institute for Midwives has protested against this on behalf of 26,000 midwives.

Another woman, Octavia Hill, participated in the official inquiry of the living conditions of the London East End, which led to a systematic campaign against the slums. This work is at present continued in London by 31 or more women sanitary officers. They supplement the work of the factory inspectors, since they inspect the conditions under which women home-workers live. In the whole country there are more than 80 such women sanitary officers.

The home-workers are mostly women. Half of the 900,000 or more English women engaged in the manufacture of ready-made clothing are permitted to work at home. Their wages are wretchedly low. The government, which pays the _men_ of the Woolwich Arsenal trade-union wages, is one of the worst exploiters of women (who do not have the right to vote); in the Army Clothing Works the government employs women either directly or indirectly (as home-workers through sweaters).[50]

The urgent need of widening woman's field of labor and improving her conditions of labor is clearly stated in a lecture which Miss B. L. Hutchins delivered before the Royal Statistical Society. According to the census of 1901 there were 1,070,000 more women than men in Great Britain. In 1901, of every 1000 persons 516 were women (in 1841, only 511 were women). The longevity of women is higher than that of men (47.77 to 44.13). When the old age pensions were introduced, 135 women to every 100 men applied for aid. Only half of the adult women (5,700,000) are provided for through marriage, and then only for 20 to 30 years of their lives. Previous to marriage, and afterward, most of the women are dependent on their own work for a living. Because English women know from experience that their conditions of labor can be improved only through the exercise of the suffrage, they have adopted their "militant tactics."

In the field of poor-relief England again has taken the lead, inasmuch as she has permitted women to fill honorary posts in the municipal administration of the poor-law. At the present time 1162 women are engaged in this work, 147 of whom are rural district councillors.

The chief reform efforts of the women were directed to the care of children and to the workhouses, through which channels private aid reaches the recipient. Still, among 22,000 guardians of the poor the number of women hardly reaches 1000. The old prejudice against women asserted itself even in this field. A "Society for Promoting the Return of Women as Poor-law Guardians" is endeavoring to hasten reform.[51]

The Englishman has the valuable characteristic of forming organizations that strive to achieve very definite, though often temporary, ends, thus giving private initiative great flexibility. Such an organization, with a limited purpose, is the "Woman's Cooperative Gild," founded in 1883. Its purpose is to promote the cooperative movement (as far as consumption is concerned) among women, and to show them their enormous social and economic power as _consumers_. Women are the chief purchasers, as they purchase the housekeeping supplies. It is to their interest to purchase through the cooperative associations that exclude the middlemen, and at the end of the year pay a dividend to the members of the associations. These associations can exercise an important social influence inasmuch as they create model conditions of labor for their employees (short working day, high wages, early closing of the shops, no work on Sundays or holidays, opportunity to sit down during working hours, insurance against sickness, old age insurance, sanitary conditions of labor, etc.). The Gild organizes women into cooperative societies, and by theoretical as well as practical studies informs the women of the advantages of the cooperative system. The movement to-day numbers 26,000 members.

In England a marked increase in the use of alcoholic liquors among women was noticed; whereupon legal and medical measures were taken to curb the evil. The most effective measure would be an attack on the drunkenness of the husband, which destroys the home.

The official report of the first English school for mothers, located in St. Pancras, London, has just appeared. This report shows that the experiment has been entirely successful. Of all measures to decrease the death rate among children, the establishment of schools for mothers is the best. During the course of instruction the young married women were recommended to organize mothers' clubs in order to secure the necessaries of life more cheaply. The school for mothers also attempts to give the young mothers nourishing meals, which can be furnished for the low sum of 2-3/4 pence (about 6 cents).

In the field of morals English women have achieved a success which might well excite the envy of other countries; viz. the repeal of the law of 1869 concerning the state regulation of prostitution. The law had hardly been accepted by an accidental majority when public opinion, under the leadership of members of Parliament, doctors, and preachers, protested against the measure. Nothing made such an impression as the public appearance of a woman on behalf of the repeal of this measure concerning women. In spite of all scorn, all feigned and frequently malicious pretensions not to comprehend her, in spite of all attempts, frequently brutal, to browbeat her,--Josephine Butler from 1870 to 1886 unswervingly supported the view that the regulation was to be condemned from the legal, sanitary, and moral viewpoint. Through the tireless work of Mrs. Butler and her faithful associates, Parliament in 1886 repealed the act providing for the regulation of prostitution. Since 1875, Mrs. Butler has organized internationally the struggle against the official regulation of prostitution. On December 30, 1906, death came to the noble woman.

Conditions in England are an evidence of how much more difficult it is for the woman's rights movement to make progress in _old_ countries than in new. Traditions are deeply rooted, customs are firmly established, the whole weight of the past is blocking the wheels of progress. In countries with older civilization the woman's question is entirely a question of force.[52]

CANADA

Total population: 5,372,600. Women: 2,619,578. Men: 2,751,473.

Canadian Federation of Women's Clubs. Canadian Woman's Suffrage Association.

Politically Canada belongs to England, geographically it is a part of North America. The Canadian women take a keen interest in the woman's rights movement of the United States, which is setting them an excellent example. The last congress of the "International Council of Women" met in Toronto, Canada, under the presidency of Lady Aberdeen, the present president and the wife of the former governor-general of Canada. Canada is a large, young, agricultural country with large families and primitive needs. Therefore the progress of the woman's rights movement is less marked in Canada than in the United States and England. Throughout Canada the workingwoman is paid less than the workingman, partly because she is more poorly trained, partly because she is kept in subordinate positions, partly because, in order to find work at all, she must offer her services for less money. Even when teaching, or doing piecework, woman is paid less than man. In Canada there is as yet no political woman's rights movement strong enough to rectify this injustice by means of organizations and laws as has been done in Australia. As yet there are no women preachers in Canada. Women lawyers are confronted both with popular prejudice and legal obstacles. The study and practice of medicine is made very difficult for women, especially in Quebec and Montreal. In New Brunswick and Ontario as well as in the northwest provinces there is a more liberal attitude toward women's pursuit of higher education. No Canadian university excludes women entirely, but not a few of the higher institutions of learning refuse women admission to certain courses and refuse to grant certain degrees. The prevailing property laws in the eastern part of Canada legalize joint property holding (and we know what that means for woman); in the western part there is separation of property rights or at least separate control over earnings, the wife having full control of her wages. The male Canadian, when twenty-one years old, becomes a voter and has full political rights.[53] But the Canadian woman has only restricted suffrage rights. Unmarried women that are taxpayers exercise only active suffrage in _municipal and school elections_. Each province has its own laws regulating these conditions of suffrage.

The Copenhagen Congress (1906) of the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance promoted the cause of woman's suffrage in Canada very considerably. At a public meeting in which the Canadian delegate, Mrs. MacDonald Denison, gave a report of the work of the International Congress, a resolution favoring woman's suffrage was adopted, and this was used very effectively in propaganda. This propaganda was carried on among women's clubs, students' clubs, debating clubs, etc. The intellectual elite is to-day in favor of woman's suffrage. In 1907 the Canadian Woman's Suffrage Association, supported by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the Women Teachers, the Medical Alumnae, the Progressive Thought Association, the Toronto Local Council of Women, and the Progressive Club, sent a delegation to the Mayor and Council of the city of Toronto to express their support of a resolution which the Council had drawn up favoring the right of married women to vote in municipal elections. Thus supported, the resolution was presented to the authorized commission, but here it was weakened by an amendment (granting the suffrage only to married women _owning property_). The author of this amendment, a member of the Toronto City Council, received his reward for this kindness to the women in the form of a defeat at the next election.

Organizations favoring woman's suffrage have been founded throughout the country (Halifax, Nova Scotia; St. John, New Brunswick). Woman's suffrage advocates speak in mass meetings and in men's clubs, etc.[54]

A demand for woman's suffrage, made by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, was answered evasively by the Prime Minister, Sir Wilfred Laurier,--the provincial parliaments must take the matter up first, then the Dominion Parliament can consider it. In the spring of 1909 the City Council of Toronto sent a petition favoring woman's suffrage to the Canadian Parliament, and at the same time 1000 woman's suffrage advocates called on the Prime Minister. The 1909 Congress of the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance will undoubtedly help the Canadian woman's suffrage movement.

SOUTH AFRICA

_Natal and Cape Colony_[55] Total population: 1,830,063. _Transvaal_ Total population: 1,354,200.

Woman's Suffrage Association for all three countries.

In South Africa, Natal was the leader in the woman's rights movement. In 1902, through the work of Mr. and Mrs. Ancketill, the Woman's Equal Suffrage League was organized, which endeavored primarily to interest and educate its members. Later, in 1904, public propaganda was begun. In June a petition was presented to the Lower House by Mr. Ancketill. When he presented the matter in the form of a motion, it was not put to a vote, owing to the newness of the subject. The agricultural population opposes woman's suffrage; the urban population favors it. The woman's rights movement is made difficult in South Africa by the following circumstances: An enervating climate "that makes people languidly content with things as they are." The lack of educated and independent women (women teachers are state employees); the lack of a numerous class of workingwomen; difficult housekeeping, owing to the untrustworthiness of the natives as domestic servants; the peculiar position of men as taxpayers (men only pay a poll tax) and as arms bearers (all men must serve in the army).[56]

In Cape Colony similar conditions prevail. The Women's Enfranchisement League was formed in 1907; and in July, 1907, there took place the first woman's suffrage debate in Parliament. The woman's suffrage societies of Natal, Cape Colony, and the Transvaal have formed an association and have joined the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance. In Natal and Cape Colony women taxpayers exercise the right to vote in municipal affairs. The regulation of the suffrage qualifications for the Federal Parliament is being considered. The South African delegates in London (1909) expressed the fear that women would not be given the federal suffrage.

THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES

_Sweden_ Total population: 5,377,713. Women: 2,751,257. Men: 2,626,456.

_Finland_ Total population: 2,712,562. Women: 1,370,480. Men: 1,342,082.

_Norway_ Total population: 2,240,860. Women: 1,155,169. Men: 1,085,691.

_Denmark_ Total population: 2,588,919. Women: 1,331,154. Men: 1,257,765.

Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark will be grouped together since they are so closely connected by race and culture; repetition will thereby be avoided, and clearness promoted.

All four countries have the advantage of having a population largely agricultural,--a population scattered in small groups. Clearly, the problem of dealing with congested masses of people is here absent. Everywhere there is an eagerness for education. The educational average is high. The position of woman is one of freedom, for here have been kept alive the old Germanic traditions which we [the Germans] know only from reading Caesar or Tacitus. An external factor in hastening the solution of the question of woman's rights was the very unusual numerical superiority of women. The foreign wars, which took the majority of the men away from home for long periods of time,--first in the Middle Ages, and then again in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,--and the fact that the Scandinavian countries themselves were afflicted with wars only to a small extent, explain the freedom of the Scandinavian women. Like the English women, they had for centuries not known the significance of war for woman. In the absence of the men, women continued the transaction of business and industrial enterprises. In the name of the feudal law and as heads of families they administered affairs, exercising rights that were elsewhere denied to women.

SWEDEN

Total population: 5,377,213. Women: 2,751,257. Men: 2,626,456.

Swedish Association of Women's Clubs. Woman's Suffrage Society.

In Sweden the woman's rights movement is closely connected with that of the United States. The founder of the Swedish woman's rights movement was Frederika Bremer, who in 1845 visited the United States, studying the conditions of the women there. Upon her return she encouraged the Swedish women through her novel _Hertha_ to emancipate themselves. This took place in 1856. The government, being unable to disregard the free traditions of the past, was thoroughly in favor of the demands of the woman's rights movement. As early as 1700, women owning property exercised the right of voting in the election of ministers. In 1843 this right had been extended to all women taxpayers. In 1845 the daughter's right of inheritance had been made equal to that of the son's. In 1853 was begun the custom of appointing women teachers in the small rural schools; in 1859 women were admitted as teachers in all public institutions of learning. Since 1861 women have been eligible as dentists, regimental surgeons, and organists (but not as preachers). In 1862 every unmarried woman or widow over twenty-one years of age, and paying a tax of 500 crowns (about $135), was granted active suffrage in municipal affairs. The municipal electors, inasmuch as they elect the members of the _Landsthing_ (county council) and the members of the town councils, exercise a political influence, for the members of the _Landsthing_ and the town councils elect the members of the two Chambers of the _Riksdag_, the national legislative body. On February 10, 1909, all taxpaying women (unmarried, widowed, and married) were granted the _passive_ suffrage (except for the office of county councillor). Here is a curious fact,--married women that do _not_ possess the right to vote in municipal affairs can still hold office!

In 1866 the art academies were opened to women, in 1870, the universities; later women were permitted to enter the postal and telegraph service. In peculiar contrast to these reforms are the old regulations concerning the guardianship of women,[57] which has been especially supported by the nobility and conservatives, and has been used chiefly to maintain the subordination of married women.

Against this condition the "Association to Advocate the Right of Married Women to Possess Property" has struggled since 1873. It secured, in 1874, the right of women to make a marriage contract providing for the separation of property.[58] This association now undertook the political education of the women voters in municipal elections; hitherto they had made little use of their right to vote (in 1887, of 62,362 women having the right to vote only 4844 voted). Thanks to the propaganda of this association, participation in elections is to-day quite general. The introduction of coeducation in the secondary schools is also due to the activity of this association, supported by Professor Wallis, who had investigated coeducation in the United States. But in the field of secondary education there is still much to be done for Swedish women,--their salaries as teachers are lower than those of men; in matters of advancement and pensions women are discriminated against, though they are expected to possess professional training and ability equal to that of the men.

In 1889 the Baroness of Adlersparre succeeded, through untiring propaganda, in securing for women admission to school and poor-law administration. To the baroness is due also the revival of needlework as an applied art, as well as the revival of agricultural instruction for women. All of these ideas she had expressed since 1859 in her magazine _For the Home_ (_Fuers Heim_).

Since 1884 the center of the Swedish woman's rights movement has been the "Frederika Bremer League," founded by the Baroness of Adlersparre. This is a sort of "Woman's Institute," and undertakes inquiries, collects data, secures employment, organizes members of trades and professions, fixes minimum wages, organizes petitions, gives advice, offers leadership, gives stipends; in short, in various ways it centralizes the Swedish women's rights movement. In 1896 the "Association to Advocate the Right of Married Women to Possess Property" affiliated with the "Frederika Bremer League."

The following are the facts concerning the work of educated women in Sweden: The number of elementary school teachers is about double that of the men (in 1899 there were 9950 women as compared with 5322 men). The salaries of the women are everywhere lower than those of the men. In 1908 there were 12,000 women teachers in the elementary schools, their annual salary being 1400 crowns ($375) or more.

There are 35 women doctors in Sweden, most of whom practice in Stockholm. The Swedish midwives are well trained. Nursing is a respected calling for educated women; also kinesiatrics (hygienic gymnastics), the latter being lucrative as well.

The first woman Doctor of Philosophy was Ellen Fries, who received the degree in 1883. Sonja Kowalewska was a professor in mathematics in the free University of Stockholm. Ellen Key is also a teacher, her field being sociology.

In Sweden there are two women university lecturers; one in law, the other in physics. As yet there are no women lawyers and preachers. The legislative act of February, 1909, which secures for women their appointment in all _state_ institutions (educational, scientific, artistic, and industrial), will greatly improve woman's professional prospects.

Sweden is not a land of large manufactories; hence there is no problem arising from the presence of large masses of industrial laborers. Since 1865 the wages of the agricultural laborers have risen 85 per cent for women and 65 per cent for men. There are 242,914 women engaged in agriculture, 57,053 in industry,--3400 of the latter being organized. There are 15,376 women employed in commerce; they are throughout paid lower wages than the men (400 to 1200 crowns, _i.e._ $107 to $321).

The organization of the workingwomen is not connected with the woman's rights movement; it is affiliated with the workingmen's movement. In this field Ellen Key has been quite active as a national educator. She is a supporter of the laws for the protection of women laborers, and on this point she has frequently met opposition among the woman's rights advocates of Sweden (an opposition similar to that offered by the English Federation for Freedom of Labor Defense). In 1907 an exposition of home-work was held in Stockholm, similar to the German expositions.

The right to vote in national elections[59] in Sweden is exercised by landowners and taxpayers; however, only by men. Therefore there is a Swedish National Woman's Suffrage Society, which in recent years has grown very considerably, having over 10,000 members. In the autumn of 1906 a delegation from the society was received by the Prime Minister and the King, who, however, could hold out no promise of a government measure favoring woman's suffrage. The society then tried to influence the Parliament with an enormous petition having 142,188 signatures. This petition was presented February 6, 1907.

In 1906 and 1907 the Labor party and the Liberal party inserted woman's suffrage into their platforms and presented bills favoring the measure. Twice (in 1907 and 1908) Parliament rejected the clause providing for woman's suffrage. On February 13, 1909, the Swedish males were granted universal suffrage (active and passive) in national elections; at the same time Parliament tried to appease the women by granting them the passive suffrage in municipal elections. In the spring of 1909 the bill concerning woman's right to vote in national elections (Staaf Bill) was accepted by the Constitutional Commission by a vote of 11 to 9; the Lower House also accepted it, but it was rejected by the Upper House.

The political successes of the Norwegian women have a stimulating effect on Sweden.

Prohibition has influential advocates in Sweden, and supporters in Parliament. At the request of the Swedish women's clubs, police matrons were appointed to cooperate with the police regulating prostitution in Stockholm, Helsingborg, Trelleborg, and Malmoe. At the present time a commission is considering future plans for police regulation of prostitution in Sweden.

In Sweden, where there are about half a million organized adherents to the cause of temperance, there are 77 daily papers that consistently print matter pertaining to temperance. Not only these 77 papers, most of whose editors are Good Templars, but at least 13 other dailies refuse all advertisements of alcoholic liquors.[60] In Norway, where similar conditions prevail, there are a quarter of a million temperance advocates, and about 40 daily papers that favor the cause.

FINLAND

Total population: 2,712,562. Women: 1,370,480. Men: 1,342,082.

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

The discussion of the Finnish woman's rights movement will follow that of Sweden, for Finland was till 1809 politically a part of Sweden; the cultural tie still exists.

In Finland also, the woman's rights movement is of literary origin,--Adelaide Enrooth and Frederika Runeburg preached the gospel of woman's emancipation to an intellectual elite. Through the influence of Bjoernson, Ibsen, and Strindberg the discussion of the "social lie" (_Gesellschaftsluege_) became general. In the eighties of the last century, the ideas and criticisms were turned into deeds and reforms. Above all a thorough education for woman was demanded. Since 1883, coeducational schools have been established through private funds in all cities of the country. These institutions have received state aid since 1891. They are secondary schools, having the curriculums of German _Realschulen_ and _Gymnasiums_.[61] Not only is the student body composed of _boys_ and _girls_, but the direction and instruction in these schools are divided equally between _women_ and _men_; thereby the predominance of the men is counteracted. Even before the establishment of these schools women had privately prepared themselves for the _Abiturientenexamen_ (examinations taken when leaving the secondary schools), and had entered the University of Helsingfors. In 1870 the first woman entered the University; in 1873 the second; in 1885 two more followed. To-day, 478 women are registered in Helsingfors. Most of these women are devoting themselves to the teaching profession, which is more favorable to women in Finland than in Sweden. The first woman doctor, Rosina Hickel, has been practicing in Helsingfors since 1879. The number of women doctors has since risen to 20.

In Finland any reputable person can plead before the court; but there are no professional women lawyers and no women preachers. However, there are women architects and women factory inspectors. Since 1864, women have been employed in the postal service; since 1869, in the telegraph service and in the railway offices. Here they draw the same salary as the men, when acting in the same capacity. Commercial callings have been opened to women, and there is a demand for women as office clerks.

The statistical yearbook for Finland does not give separate statistics concerning workingwomen. The total number of laborers in 1906 was 113,578. Perhaps one tenth of these were women,--engaged chiefly in the textile and paper industries, and in the manufacture of provisions and ready-made clothing. There are few married women engaged in industrial work. Women are admitted to membership in the trade-unions.

In a monograph on women engaged in the ready-made clothing industry[62] are found the following facts (established by official investigation of 621 establishments employing 3205 women laborers): 97.7 per cent of the women were unmarried, and 2.3 per cent married; the minimum wages were 10 cents a day; the maximum, $1.50; the women laborers living with their parents or relatives numbered 1358; the sanitary conditions were bad.

Home industry in Finland (as well as in Sweden and Norway) has recently shown a striking growth. It was on the point of succumbing to the cheap factory products. In order to perpetuate the industry, schools for housewives were established in connection with the public high schools in the rural districts. In these schools were taught, in addition to domestic science and agriculture, various domestic handicrafts that offered the women a pleasant and useful activity during the long winters. Not being carried on intensively, these handicrafts could never lead to exploitation and overwork.

In 1864 the guardianship of men over unmarried women was abolished. Married women are still under the guardianship of their husbands. Since 1889, the wife has been able to secure a separation of property by means of a contract. She has control of her earnings when joint property holding prevails. The unmarried women taxpayers and landowners have been voters in municipal elections since 1865. In the rural districts they have also had the right to hold local administrative offices. Just as in Sweden, they have the right to participate in the election of ministers; and since 1891 and 1893 they have had active and passive suffrage in regard to school boards and poor-law administration.

Taking advantage of the collapse of Russia in the Far East, Finland--in May, 1906--established universal active and passive suffrage for all male and female citizens over twenty-four years of age. She was the first European country to take this step. On March 15, 1907, the Finnish women exercised for the first time the right of suffrage in state elections. Nineteen women were elected to the Parliament (comprising 200 representatives). The women belonged to all parties, but most of them were adherents of the Old-Finnish party (having 6 representatives) and of the Socialist party (having 9 representatives). Ten of the women representatives were either married or were widows. They belonged quite as much to the cultured, property-owning class as to the masses. This Parliament was dissolved in April, 1908. In the new elections of July, 25 women were elected as representatives. Here again most of the elected women belonged to the Old-Finnish party (with 6 representatives) and to the Socialists (with 13 representatives). Nine of the women representatives are married. Of the husbands of these women one is a doctor, one a clergyman, one a workingman, two are farmers, etc. Of the unmarried women representatives six are teachers, two are tailors, two are editors of women's newspapers, four are traveling lecturers, one is a factory inspector, and there is one Doctor of Philosophy.

In both parliaments the women presented numerous measures, some of general concern, others bearing on woman's rights.[63] Some of the measures provided for: the improvement of the legal status of illicit children, parental authority, the protection of maternity, the abolition of the husband's guardianship over the wife, the better protection of children, the protection of the woman on the street, the abolition of the regulation of prostitution, and the raising of the age of consent.

This list of measures indicates that the Finnish laws regulating marriage are still antiquated, and that the political emancipation of woman did not immediately effect her release from legal bondage. One of the Finnish woman's advocates said, "Our short experience has taught us that we may still have a hard fight for equal rights."

Not only the antiquated marriage laws are inconsistent with the national political rights of women; in the municipal election laws, too, woman is treated unjustly. Married women do not exercise the right of suffrage, and widows and unmarried women possess the passive suffrage only in the election of poor-law administrators and school boards. Two woman's suffrage organizations--_Unionen_ and _Finsk Kvinnoforening_--have existed since 1906; they have no party affiliations. Two new woman's suffrage societies--_Swenska Kinnoforbundet_ and _Naitluetto_ (Young-Finnish)--are party organizations.

The bill concerning the abolition of the official regulation of prostitution has meanwhile become law, replacing the former unsatisfactory, and for Finland, exceptional law. The law corresponding to the English Vagrancy Act (supplement to paragraph 45 of the Finnish Civil Code) provides that "whoever accosts a woman in public places for immoral purposes shall pay a fine of $50."

On October 31, 1907, the manufacture, importation, sale, or storing of alcoholic liquors in any form whatever was prohibited by law. In recent years the Finnish woman temperance lecturer, Trigg Helenius, has carried on a successful international propaganda.

External and internal difficulties have to the present made impossible the formation of Finnish women's clubs and a federation of the women voters.

NORWAY

Total population: 2,240,860. Women: 1,155,169. Men: 1,085,691.

League of Norwegian Women's Clubs. Woman's Suffrage Association.

In recent years the Norwegian woman's rights movement has made marked progress. Just as in the other Scandinavian countries, women were freed as early as the middle of the nineteenth century from the most burdensome legal restrictions by a liberal majority in Parliament. In 1854 the daughters were given the same right of inheritance as the sons, and male guardianship for unmarried women was abolished. However, the real woman's rights movement, like that of Sweden and Finland, began in the eighties of the last century. Aasta Hansteen, Clara Collett, Bjoernson, and Ibsen had prepared public opinion for the emancipation of women. Like Frederika Bremer, Aasta Hansteen had emigrated to America owing to the prejudices of her countrymen; and, again like Frederika Bremer, she returned to her native land and could rejoice over the progress of the movement which she had instigated. In 1884 the Norwegian Woman's League was founded. It has since 1886 published a semimonthly woman's suffrage magazine, _Nylaende_. In 1887 the Norwegian woman's rights movement won the same victory that Mrs. Butler had won in England in 1886: the official regulation of prostitution was abolished (neither in Sweden nor in Denmark has a similar reform been secured thus far). As early as 1882 several university faculties had admitted women, and in 1884 women were given the legal right to secure an academic training, and they were declared eligible to receive all scholarships and all academic degrees. In 1904 a law was enacted admitting women to a number of public offices. Paragraph 12 of the Constitution excludes them from the office of minister in the Cabinet; they are excluded from consulships on international grounds, from military offices by the nature of the offices, and from the theological field through the backwardness of the Norwegian clergy. But they were admitted to the teaching and legal professions, and to some of the administrative departments of the government. The law made no discrimination between married and unmarried women. It is believed that the women can decide best for themselves whether or not they can combine the work of an administrative office with their domestic duties.

Hitherto the teaching profession had presented difficulties for women. Fewer women than men were appointed; the women were given the subordinate positions and paid lower salaries. The women had energetically protested against these conditions since the passing of the law of 1904; in 1908 they succeeded in having the magistrate of Christiania raise the initial salary of women teachers in the elementary schools from 900 crowns ($241) to 1100 crowns ($295), and the maximum salary from 1500 crowns ($402) to 1700 crowns ($455). In Christiania the women also demanded that women teachers be given the position of head master; there were many women in the profession,--2900 in the elementary schools, and 736 in the secondary schools.

The women shop assistants' trade-union in an open meeting in Christiania has demanded equal pay for equal work.

By a law passed in May, 1908, women employees in the postal service were given the same pay as the men employees. As a result of this the women telegraph operators, supported by the Norwegian Woman's Suffrage Association, drew up a petition requesting the same concession as was made the women postal employees, and presented the petition to the government and the Storthing. This movement favoring an increase of wages was strongly supported by the woman's suffrage movement.

The women taxpayers (including married women) have possessed active and passive suffrage in municipal affairs since 1901. The property qualification requires that a tax of 300 crowns ($80) must be paid in the rural districts, and 400 crowns ($107) in cities. In 1902 women exercised the suffrage in municipal affairs for the first time; in Christiania 6 women were elected to municipal offices.

The Norwegian League of Women's Clubs and the woman's suffrage associations protested to the government and to the Parliament because suffrage in the national elections had been withheld from the women. The separation of Sweden and Norway (1906), which concerned the women greatly, but in which they could exercise no voice, was a striking proof of woman's powerlessness in civil affairs. Hence the Norwegian Woman's Suffrage League instituted a woman's ballot, in which 19,000 votes were cast in favor of separation, none being cast against it.

In 1907 six election bills favorable to woman's suffrage were presented to the Storthing; and June 10, 1907, _women taxpayers were granted active and passive suffrage in municipal elections_ (affecting about 300,000 women; 200,000 are still not enfranchised). This right of suffrage is accorded to married women. The next general elections will take place in 1909.

Since the Norwegian men have active and passive suffrage in parliamentary elections, the women also made their demands to the Storthing. The Ministry resolved, in pursuance of this demand, to present the Storthing with the requisite constitutional amendment (Article 52). The Storthing requested that before the next municipal elections (1910) the Ministry present a satisfactory bill providing for woman's suffrage in municipal elections. At the present time 142 women are city councilors (122 in the cities). In the autumn of 1909 women will for the first time participate in the parliamentary elections.

At two congresses of the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance (Amsterdam, in 1908; and London, in 1909), Norway was officially represented by the wife of the Minister of State, Qvam.

The emancipation of women legally and in the professions had preceded their political emancipation. Norwegian women first practiced as dentists in 1872; since 1884, women have been druggists and have practiced medicine. They practice in all large cities. There are 38 women engaged as physicians for the courts, as school physicians, as university assistants in museums and laboratories, and as sanitary officers. Since 1904 there have been two women lawyers. _Cand. jur._ Elisa Sam was the first woman to profit by this reform. The first woman university professor was Mrs. Matilda Schjott in Christiania; to-day there are three such professors. There are 37 women architects. In 1888 married women were given the right to make marriage contracts providing for separate property holding. Even where there is joint property holding, the wife controls her earnings.

In Norway the law protects the illegitimate mother and her child better than elsewhere. The Norwegian law regards and punishes as accomplices in infanticide all those that drive a woman to such a step,--the illicit father, the parents, the guardians, and employers, who desert a woman in such circumstances and put her out into the street. Since 1891, women have been eligible to hold office as poor-law administrators; since 1899 they can be members of school boards. The number of workingwomen is 67,000. Of these 2000 are organized.

DENMARK

Total population: 2,588,919. Women: 1,331,154. Men: 1,257,765.

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

The origin of the woman's rights movement in Denmark is also literary,--to Frederika Bremer in Sweden, Aasta Hansteen and Clara Collett in Norway, must be added as emancipators, Mathilda Fibiger and Pauline Worm in Denmark. The writings of both of these women in favor of emancipation,--"Clara Raphael's Letters" and "Sensible People,"--date back as far as 1848; they were inspired by the liberal ideas prevailing in Germany previous to the "March Revolution." An _organized_ woman's rights movement did not come into being until twenty-five years later. A liberal parliamentary majority in Denmark abolished, in 1857, male guardianship over unmarried women; and in 1859 established the equal inheritance rights of daughters, thus following the example of Sweden and Norway. It was necessary first to secure the support of public opinion through a literary discussion of woman's rights. This was carried on between 1868 and 1880 by Georg Brandes, who translated John Stuart Mill's _The Subjection of Women_, and by Bjoernson and Ibsen. In 1871 Representative Bajer and his wife organized the first woman's rights society, the "Danish Woman's Club," which rapidly spread throughout Denmark. At first the Club endeavored to secure a more thorough education for women, and therefore labored for the improvement of the girls' high schools, and for the institution of coeducational schools. In 1876 it secured the admission of women to the University of Copenhagen.

In the teaching profession women are employed in greater numbers, and are better paid than in Sweden at the present time. There are 3003 women elementary school teachers and 2240 women teachers in the high schools. As yet there are no women lecturers or professors in the university.[64] Since 1860, women have filled subordinate positions in the postal and telegraph services, and since 1889 they have also filled the higher positions; there are in all 1500 women employees. The subordinate positions in the national and local administrations are to a certain extent open to them. The number of women engaged in industrial pursuits is 47,617; the number of domestic servants, 89,000. The domestic servants are organized only to a limited extent (800 being organized). The women in the industries are better organized,--chiefly in the same trade-unions as the men. In 1899 the women comprised one fifth of the total number of organized laborers; since then this proportion has increased considerably. The average wages of the women domestic servants are 20 crowns ($5.36) a month; the average wages of the workingwomen are from 2 to 2.5 crowns (53 to 67 cents) a day.

Since 1880 the wife can secure separate property holding rights through a marriage contract. Where joint property holding prevails, the wife controls her own earnings and savings. In 1888 municipal suffrage was demanded by the "Danish Woman's Club," but the _Rigsdag_ rejected the measure. Since then the question has occupied much attention. In 1906 the Congress of the Woman's International Suffrage Alliance performed excellent propaganda work. New woman's suffrage societies were organized, and the older societies were enlarged.[65] In the meantime the bill concerning municipal suffrage was being sent from one House to the other. Finally, on February 26, 1908, it was adopted by the Upper House, on April 14 by the Lower House, and on April 20 signed by the King. All taxpayers, twenty-five years of age, were permitted to vote. All classes of women--widows, unmarried, and married women--were enfranchised. They have active and passive suffrage. In March, 1909, they exercised both rights for the first time. The participation in the election was general; six women were elected in Copenhagen. The women are now demanding the suffrage in national affairs. Immediately after the victory of 1908 the Woman's Suffrage League organized strong demonstrations in forty cities in favor of this demand.

Here it must be mentioned that the women in Iceland were granted, in the autumn of 1907, active and passive suffrage in municipal affairs. In January, 1908, they participated in the elections for the first time. In Reikiavik, the capital, 2850 people voted, 1220 of whom were women. Four women were elected to the city council, one polling the highest number of votes. In 1909, the Icelandic Woman's Suffrage League joined the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance. A number of Icelandic woman's suffrage societies in Canada have affiliated with the Canadian Woman's Suffrage League.

On March 30, 1906, official regulation of prostitution was abolished in Denmark; but a new law of similar character was enacted providing for stringent measures.

THE NETHERLANDS

Total population: 5,673,237. Women: 2,583,535. Men 2,520,602.

Federation of the Netherlands Women's Clubs. Woman's Suffrage League.

Although women are in a numerical superiority in the Netherlands, it is much less difficult for them to find non-domestic employment than it is for the German women, for instance. The Netherlands has large colonies and therefore a good market for its male workers. The educated Dutchman is kindly disposed toward the woman's rights movement, and in the educated circles the wife really enjoys rights equal to those of the husband, which is less frequently the case among the lower classes. The marriage laws are based on the Code Napoleon, which, however, was considerably altered in 1838. The guardianship of the husband over the wife still prevails. According to paragraph 160 of the Civil Code the husband controls the personal property that the wife acquires; but he administers her real estate only with the wife's consent. According to paragraph 163 of the Civil Code the wife cannot give away, sell, mortgage, or acquire anything independently. She can do those things only with her husband's written consent. No marriage contract can annul _this_ requirement; but the wife can stipulate the independent control of her income. According to paragraph 1637 of the Civil Code the wife is permitted to control for _the benefit of the family_ the money that she earns while fulfilling a labor contract. Affiliation cases, it is true, are recognized by law, but under considerable restrictions.

The first sign of the woman's rights movement manifested itself in the Netherlands in 1846. At that time a woman appeared in public for the first time as a speaker. She was the Countess Mahrenholtz-Buelow, who introduced kindergartens (_Froebelsystem_) into the Netherlands.

In 1857 elementary education was made compulsory in the Netherlands. At that time this instruction was free, undenominational, and under the control of the state; but in 1889 it was partly given over into denominational and private hands. The secondary schools for girls are partly municipal, partly private. Most of the elementary schools are coeducational; in the secondary schools the sexes are segregated; in the higher institutions of learning coeducation prevails, the right of girls to attend being granted as a matter of course. Girls were admitted to the high schools also without any opposition. These measures were due to Minister Thorbecke. Thirty years ago the first woman registered at the University of Leyden. Women study and are granted degrees in all departments of the universities of Leyden, Utrecht, Groeningen, and Amsterdam. In the elementary, secondary, and higher institutions of learning, there are fewer women teachers than men, and the salary of the women teachers is lower. Women are now being appointed as science teachers in boys' schools also. The government is planning measures opposed to having married women as teachers and as employees in the postal service. The women's clubs are vigorously protesting against this. Women serve as examination commissioners and as members of school boards, though in small numbers. The city school boards rely almost entirely upon women for supervising the instruction in needlework. Since 1904 two women were appointed as state school inspectors, with salaries only sufficient for maintenance.

In the Netherlands there are 20 women doctors (31 including those in the colonies), 57 women druggists, 5 women lawyers, and one woman lecturer in the University of Groeningen. There are three women preachers in the Liberal "League of Protestants." Since 1899 4 women have been factory inspectors; 2, prison superintendents; 2, superintendents of rural schools. Thirty-four are in the courts for the protection of wards. Women participate in the care of the poor and the care of dependent children. The care of dependent children is in the hands of a national society, _Pro juventute_, which aided in securing juvenile courts in the Netherlands. Especially useful in the education and support of workingwomen has been the Tessel Benefit Society (_Tessel Schadeverein_), which is national in its organization.

It will be well to state here that the appointment of women factory inspectors was secured in a rather original manner. In 1898 a national exhibition of commodities produced by women was held in the Hague. In a conspicuous place the women placed an empty picture frame with this inscription: "The Women Inspectors of all These Commodities Produced by Women." This hastened results.

The shop assistants of both sexes organized themselves conjointly in Amsterdam in 1898. There are two organizations of domestic servants. The Dutch woman's rights advocates proved by investigation that for the same work the workingwomen--because they were women--were paid 50 per cent less than men. The "Workingwomen's Information Bureau," which was made into a permanent institution as a result of the exhibition of 1898, has been concerning itself with the protection of workingwomen and with their organization. The women organizers belong to the middle class. The Socialist party in the Netherlands has been organizing workingwomen into trade-unions. In this the party has encountered the same difficulties as exist elsewhere; to the present time it can point only to small successes. Two of the Socialist woman's rights advocates are Henrietta Roland and Roosje Vos. Henrietta Roland is of middle-class parentage, being the daughter of a lawyer; she is the wife of an artist of repute. Roosje Vos, on the contrary, comes from the lower classes. Both of these women played an important part in the strike of 1903. They organized the "United Garment Workers' Union."

In spite of the fact that a woman can be ruler of the Netherlands, the Dutch women possess only an insignificant right of suffrage. In the dike associations they have a right to vote if they are taxpayers or own property adjoining the dikes. In June, 1908, the Lutheran Synod gave women the same right to vote in church affairs as the men possess. The Evangelical Synod, on the other hand, rejected a similar measure as well as one providing for the ordaining of women preachers. An attempt to secure municipal suffrage for women failed, and resulted in the enactment of reactionary laws.

In 1883 Dr. Aletta Jacobs (the first woman doctor in the Netherlands), acting on the advice of the well-known jurist--and later Minister--van Houten, requested an Amsterdam magistrate to enter her name on the list of municipal electors. As a taxpayer she was entitled to this right. At the same time she requested Parliament to grant her the suffrage in national elections. Both requests were summarily refused. In order to make such requests impossible in the future, parliament inserted the word "male" in the election law.[66] These occurrences aroused in the Dutch women an interest in political affairs; and in 1894 they organized a "Woman's Suffrage Society," which soon spread to all parts of the country. The Liberals, Radicals, Liberal Democrats, and Socialists admitted women members to their political clubs and frequently consulted the women concerning the selection of candidates. The clubs of the Conservative and Clerical parties have refused to admit women. At the general meeting in 1906 a part of the members of the "Woman's Suffrage Society" separated from the organization and formed the "Woman's Suffrage League" (the _Bond voor Vrouwenkiesrecht_,--the older organization was called _Vereeniging voor Vrouenkiesrecht_). Both carry on an energetic propaganda in the entire country, the older organization being the more radical. In 1908 the older organization made all necessary preparations for the Amsterdam Congress of the Woman's Suffrage Alliance, which resulted in a large increase in its membership (from 3500 to 6000), and resulted, furthermore, in the founding of a Men's League for Woman's Suffrage (modeled after the English organization). The question of woman's suffrage has aroused a lively interest throughout the Netherlands; even the _Bond_ increased its membership during the winter of 1908 and 1909 from 1500 to 3500.

In September, 1908, there were two great demonstrations in the Hague in favor of _universal_ suffrage for both men and women. The right to vote in Holland is based on the payment of a property tax or ground rent; therefore numerous proposals in favor of widening the suffrage had been made previously. When a liberal ministry came into power in 1905, it undertook a reform of the suffrage laws; in 1907 the Committee on the Constitution, by a vote of six out of seven, recommended that Parliament grant active and passive suffrage to men and women. But with the fall of the Liberal ministry fell the hope of having this measure enacted, for there is nothing to be expected from the present government, composed of Catholic and Protestant Conservatives. As has already been stated, propaganda is in the meantime being carried on with increasing vigor, and in Java a woman's suffrage society has also been organized. A noted jurist, who is a member of the Dutch _Bond voor Vrouwenkiesrecht_, has just issued a pamphlet in which he proves the necessity of granting woman's suffrage: "Man makes the laws. Wherever the interests of the unmarried or the married woman are in conflict with the interests of man, the rights of the woman will be set aside. This is injurious to man, woman, and child, and it blocks progress. The remedy is to be found only in woman's suffrage. The granting of woman's suffrage is an urgent demand of justice."

SWITZERLAND[67]

Total population: 3,313,817. Women: about 1,700,000. Men: about 1,616,000.

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

Switzerland's existence and welfare depend on the harmony of the German, the French, and the Italian elements of the population. Switzerland is accustomed to considering three racial elements; out of three different demands it produces one acceptable compromise. Naturally the Swiss woman's rights movement has steadily developed in the most peaceful manner. No literary manifesto, no declaration of principles of freedom is at the root of this movement. It is supported by public opinion, which is gradually being educated to the level of the demands of the movement. The woman's rights movement began in Switzerland as late as 1880; in 1885 the Swiss woman's club movement was started. The Federation of Women's Clubs is made up of cantonal women's clubs in Zurich, Berne, Geneva, St. Gallen, Basel, Lausanne, Neuchatel, and in other cities, as well as of intercantonal clubs, such as the "Swiss Public Utility Woman's Club" (_Schweizer Gemeinnuetziger Verein_), "la Fraternite," the "Intercantonal Committee of Federated Women," etc. Recently a Catholic woman's league was formed. Since 50 per cent of the Swiss women remain unmarried, the woman's rights movement is a social necessity. In the field of education the authorities have been favorable to women in every way. In nine cantons the elementary schools are coeducational. There are public institutions for higher learning for girls in all cities. In German Switzerland (Zurich, Winterthur, St. Gallen, Berne) girls are admitted to the higher institutions of learning for boys, or they can prepare themselves in the girls' schools for the examination required for entrance to the universities (_Matura_). There are 18 seminaries that admit girls only; the seminaries in Kuessnacht, Rorschach, and Croie are coeducational. Women teachers are not appointed in the elementary schools of the cantons of Glarus and Appenzell-Outer-Rhodes. On the other hand in the cantons of Geneva, Neuchatel, and Ticino 59 to 66 per cent of the teachers in the elementary schools are women. They are given lower salaries than the men. The canton of Zurich pays (by law) equal wages to its men and women teachers, but the additional salary paid by the municipalities and rural districts to the men teachers is greater than that paid to the women. In its elementary schools the canton of Vaud employs 500 women teachers, some of whom are married. The Swiss universities have been open to women since the early sixties of the nineteenth century. As in France, the native women use this right far less than foreign women, especially Russians and Germans. The total number of women studying in the Swiss universities is about 700. Most of the Swiss women that have studied in the universities enter the teaching profession. Women are frequently employed as teachers in high schools, as clerks, and as librarians. Sometimes these positions are filled by foreign women.

The first woman lecturer in a university in which German is the language used has been employed in Berne since 1898. She is Dr. Anna Tumarkin, a native Russian, having the right to teach in universities aesthetics and the history of modern philosophy. In 1909 she was appointed professor. In each of the universities of Zurich, Berne, and Geneva, a woman has been appointed as university lecturer. Women doctors practice in all of the larger cities. There are twelve in Zurich. The city council of Zurich has decided to furnish free assistance to women during confinement, and to establish a municipal maternity hospital. In Zurich there has been established for women a hospital entirely under the control of women; the chief physician is Frau Dr. Heim. The practice of law has been open to women in the canton of Zurich since 1899, and in the canton of Geneva since 1904. Miss Anna Mackenroth, _Dr. jur._, a native German, was the first Swiss woman lawyer. Miss Nelly Favre was the second. Miss Dr. Bruestlein was refused admission to the bar in Berne. Miss Favre was the first woman to plead before the Federal Court in Berne, the capital. As yet there are no women preachers in Switzerland. In Lausanne there is a woman engineer. In the field of technical schools for Swiss women, much remains to be done. The commercial education of women is also neglected by the state, while the professional training of men is everywhere promoted. Women are employed in the postal and telegraph service. The Swiss hotel system offers remunerative positions and thoroughly respectable callings to women of good family. In 1900 the number of women laborers was 233,912; they are engaged chiefly in the textile and ready-made clothing industries, in lacemaking, cabinetmaking, and the manufacture of food products, pottery, perfumes, watches and clocks, jewelry, embroidery, and brushes.[68] Owing to French influence, laws for the protection of women laborers are opposed, especially in Geneva. The inspection of factories is largely in the hands of men. Home industry is a blessing in certain regions, a curse in others. This depends on the intensity of the work and on the degree of industrialism. The trade-union movement is still very weak among women laborers. According to the canton the movement has a purely economic or a socialist-political character. Only a few organizations of workingwomen belong to the Swiss Federation of Women's Clubs. Since 1891 the men's trade-unions have admitted women. The first women factory inspectors were appointed in 1908. According to the census of August 9, 1905, 92,136 persons in Switzerland are engaged in home industry; this number is 28.3 per cent of the total number of persons (325,022) engaged in these industries. The foremost of the home industries is the manufacture of embroidery, engaging a total of 65,595 persons, of whom 53.5 per cent work at home. The next important home industries are silk-cloth weaving, engaging 12,478 persons (41 per cent of the total employed); watch making, engaging 12,071 persons in home industry (or 23.7 per cent of the total); silk-ribbon weaving, engaging 7557 persons (or 51.9 per cent of the total). The highest percentage of home workers is found among the straw plaiters (78.8 per cent); then follow the military uniform tailors (60.1 per cent), the embroidery makers (53.5 per cent), the wood carvers and ivory carvers (52 per cent), the silk-ribbon weavers (51.9 per cent), and the ready-made clothing workers (49.3 per cent). The International Association for Labor Legislation, as everybody knows, is trying to ascertain whether an international regulation of labor conditions is possible in the embroidery-making industry. The statistics just given indicate the importance of this investigation for Switzerland. The statistics of the home industries of Switzerland will be found in the ninth issue of the second volume of the Swiss Statistical Review (_Zeitschrift fuer Schweizerische Statistik_).

The new Swiss law for the protection of women laborers has produced a number of genuine improvements for the workingwomen. A maximum working day of 10 hours and a working week of 60 hours have been established. Women can work overtime not more than 60 days a year; they are then paid at least 25 per cent extra. The most significant innovation is the legal regulation of _vacations_. Every laborer that is not doing piecework or being paid by the hour must, after one year of continuous service for the same firm, be granted six consecutive days of vacation with full pay; after two years of continuous service for the same firm the laborer must be given eight days; after three years of service ten days; and after the fourth year twelve days annually. A violation of this law renders the offending employer liable to a fine of 200 to 300 francs ($40 to $60).

In 1912 a new civil code will come into force. Its composition has been influenced by the German Civil Code. The government, however, regarded the "Swiss Federation of Women's Clubs" as the representative of the women, and charged a member of the code commission to put himself into communication with the executive committee of the Federation and to express the wishes of the Federation at the deliberations of the committee. This is better than nothing, but still insufficient. When the civil code had been adopted, every male elector was given a copy; the women's clubs secured copies only after prolonged effort.

The property laws in the new Swiss Civil Code provide for joint property holding,--not separation of property rights. However, even with joint property holding the wife's earnings and savings belong to her (a provision which the German cantons opposed). On the other hand, affiliation cases are admissible (the French cantons opposed them). The wife has the full status of a legal person before the law and full civil ability, and _shares parental authority with the father_. French Switzerland (through the influence of the Code Napoleon) opposes the pecuniary responsibility of the illegal father toward the mother and child. Official regulation of prostitution has been abolished in all the cantons except Geneva; several years ago a measure to introduce it again was rejected by the people of the Canton Zurich by a vote of 40,000 to 18,000. Geneva is the headquarters of the International Federation for the Abolition of the Official Regulation of Prostitution. In 1909 the abolition of the official regulation of prostitution was again demanded in the city council.

By a vote of the people the Canton Vaud accepted a measure prohibiting the manufacture, storage, and sale of absinthe.

Recently the Swiss women have presented a petition requesting that an illicit mother be granted the right to call herself "Frau" and use this designation (Mrs.) before her name. The benevolent purpose of this movement is self-evident. Through this measure the illicit mother is placed in a position enabling her openly to devote herself to the rearing of her child. With this purpose in view, not less than 10,000 women have signed a petition to the Swiss Federal Council, requesting that a law be enacted compelling registrars to use the title "Frau" (Mrs.) when requested to do so by the person concerned. Thirty-four women's clubs have collectively declared in favor of this petition.

Women exercise the right of municipal suffrage only in those localities whose male population is absent at work during a large part of the year (as in Russia). Women can be elected as members of school boards and as poor-law administrators in the Canton Zurich; as members of school boards in the Canton Neuchatel. The question of granting women the right to vote in church affairs has long been advocated in the Canton Geneva by the Reverend Thomas Mueller, a member of the Consistory of the National Protestant Church, and by Herr Locher, Chief of the Department of Public Instruction of the Canton Zurich. In the Canton Geneva, where there is separation of church and state, agitation in favor of the reform is being carried on. The women in the Canton Vaud have exercised the right to vote in the _Eglise libre_ since 1899, and in the _Eglise nationale_ since 1908. Since 1909, women have exercised the right to vote in the _Eglise evangelique libre_ of Geneva. The woman's suffrage movement was really started by the renowned Professor Hilty, of Berne, who declared himself (in the Swiss Year Book of 1897) in _favor_ of woman's suffrage. The first society concerning itself exclusively with woman's suffrage originated in Geneva (_Association pour le suffrage feminin_). Later other organizations were formed in Lausanne, Chaux de Fonds, Neuenburg, and Olten. The Woman's Reading Circle of Berne had, since 1906, demanded political rights for women, and the Zurich Society for the Reform of Education for Girls had worked in favor of woman's suffrage. On May 12, 1908, these seven societies organized themselves into the National Woman's Suffrage League, and in June affiliated with the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance. The Report of the International Woman's Suffrage Congress, Amsterdam, 1908, explains in a very lucid manner the political backwardness of the Swiss women: Switzerland regards itself as the model democracy; time has been required to make it clear that politically the women of this model state still have everything to achieve. The meeting of the Committee of the International Council of Women in Geneva (September, 1908) accomplished much for the movement.

The Swiss Woman's Public Utility Association, which had refused to join the Swiss Federation of Women's Clubs because the Federation concerned itself with political affairs (the Public Utility Association wishing to restrict itself to public utilities only), was given this instructive answer by Professor Hilty: "Public utility and politics are not mutually exclusive; an educated woman that wishes to make a living without troubling herself about politics is incomprehensible to me. The women ought to take Carlyle's words to heart: 'We are not here to submit to everything, but also to oppose, carefully to watch, and to win.'"

GERMANY

Total population: 61,720,529. Women: 31,259,429. Men: 30,461,100.

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

In no European country has the woman's rights movement been confronted with more unfavorable conditions; nowhere has it been more persistently opposed. In recent times the women of no other country have lived through conditions of war such as the German women underwent during the Thirty Years' War and from 1807 to 1812. Such violence leaves a deep imprint on the character of a nation.

Moreover, it has been the fate of no other civilized nation to owe its political existence to a war triumphantly fought out in less than one generation. Every war, every accentuation and promotion of militarism is a weakening of the forces of civilization and of woman's influence. "German masculinity is still so young," I once heard somebody say.

A reinforcement of the woman's rights movement by a large Liberal majority in the national assemblies, such as we find in England, France, and Italy, is not to be thought of in Germany. The theories of the rights of man and of citizens were never applied by German Liberalism to woman in a broad sense, and the Socialist party is not yet in the majority. The political training of the German man has in many respects not yet been extended to include the principles of the American Declaration of Independence or the French Declaration of the Rights of Man; his respect for individual liberty has not yet been developed as in England; therefore he is much harder to win over to the cause of "woman's rights."

Hence the struggle against the official regulation of prostitution has been left chiefly to the German women; whereas in England and in France the physicians, lawyers, and members of Parliament have been the chief supporters of abolition. I am reminded also of the inexpressibly long and difficult struggle that we women had to carry on in order to secure the admission of women to the universities; the establishment of high schools for girls; and the improvement of the opportunities given to women teachers. In no other country were women teachers for girls wronged to such an extent as in Germany. The results of the last industrial census (1907) give to the demands of the woman's rights movement an invaluable support: _Germany has nine and a half million married women, i.e._ only one half of all adult women (over 18 years of age) are married. In Germany, too, marriage is not a lifelong "means of support" for woman, or a "means of support" for the whole number of women. Therefore the demands of woman for a complete professional and industrial training and freedom to choose her calling appear in the history of our time with a tremendous weight, a weight that the founders of the movement hardly anticipated.

The German woman's rights movement originated during the troublous times immediately preceding the Revolution of 1848. The founders--Augusta Schmidt, Louise Otto-Peters, Henrietta Goldschmidt, Ottilie v. Steyber, Lina Morgenstern--were "forty-eighters"; they believed in the right of woman to an education, to work, and to choose her calling, and as a citizen to participate directly in public life. Only the first three of these demands are contained in the programme of the "German General Woman's Club" (founded in 1865 by four of these women, natives of Leipzig, on the anniversary of the battle of Leipzig). At that time woman's right to vote was put aside as something utopian. The founders of the woman's rights movement, however, from the very first included in their programme the question of women industrial laborers, and attacked the question in a practical way by organizing a society for the education of workingwomen. The energies of the middle-class women were at this time very naturally absorbed by their own affairs. They suffered want, material as well as intellectual. Therefore it was a matter of securing a livelihood for middle-class women no longer provided for at home. This was the first duty of a woman's rights movement originating with the middle class.

Of special service in the field of education and the liberal professions[69] were the efforts of Augusta Schmidt, Henrietta Goldschmidt, Marie Loeper-Housselle, Helena Lang, Maria Lischnewska, and Mrs. Kettler. Kindergartens were established; also courses for the instruction of adult women, for women principals of high schools, for women in the _Gymnasiums_ and _Realgymnasiums_. Moreover, the admission of women to the universities was secured; the General Association of German Women Teachers was founded, also the Prussian Association of Women Public School Teachers, and high schools for girls. The Prussian law of 1908 for the reform of girls' high schools (providing for the education of girls over 12 years,--_Realgymnasiums_ or _Gymnasiums_ for girls from 12 to 16 years, women's colleges for women from 16 to 18 years) was enacted under pressure from the German woman's rights movement. Both the state and city must now do more for the education of girls. The academically trained women teachers in the high schools are given consideration when the appointments of principals and teachers for the advanced classes are made. The women teachers have organized themselves and are demanding salaries equal to those of the men teachers. At the present time girls are admitted to the boys' schools (_Gymnasiums_, _Realgymnasiums_, etc.) in Baden, Hessen, the Imperial Provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, Oldenburg, and Wurttemberg. The German Federation of Women's Clubs and the convention of the delegates of the Rhenish cities and towns have made the same demands for Prussia.

The Prussian Association of Women Public School Teachers is demanding that women teachers be appointed as principals, and is resisting with all its power the threatened injustice to women in the adjustment of salaries. The universities in Baden and Wurttemberg were the first to admit women; then followed the universities in Hessen, Bavaria, Saxony, the Imperial Provinces, and finally,--in 1908,--Prussia. The number of women enrolled in Berlin University is 400.

About 50 women doctors are practicing in Germany; as yet there are no women preachers, but there are 5 women lawyers, one of whom in 1908 pleaded the case of an indicted youth before the Altona juvenile court. Although there are only a few women lawyers in Germany, women are now permitted to act as counsel for the defendant, there being 60 such women counselors in Bavaria. Recently (1908) even Bavaria refused women admission to the civil service.

In the autumn there was appointed the first woman lecturer in a higher institution of learning,--this taking place in the Mannheim School of Commerce. Within the last five years many new callings have been opened to women: they are librarians (of municipal, club, and private libraries) and have organized themselves into the Association of Women Librarians; they are assistants in laboratories, clinics, and hospitals; they make scientific drawings, and some have specialized in microscopic drawing; during the season for the manufacture of beet sugar, women are employed as chemists in the sugar factories; there is a woman architect in Berlin, and a woman engineer in Hamburg. Women factory inspectors have performed satisfactory service in all the states of the Empire. But the future field of work for the German women is the sociological field. State, municipal, and private aid is demanded by the prevailing destitution. At the present time women work in the sociological field without pay. In the future much of this work must be performed by the _professional_ sociological women workers. In about 100 cities women are guardians of the poor. There are 103 women superintendents of orphan asylums; women are sought by the authorities as guardians. Women's cooperation as members of school committees and deputations promotes the organized woman's rights movement. The first woman inspector of dwellings has been appointed in Hessen. Nurses are demanding that state examinations be made requisite for those wishing to become nurses; some cities of Germany have appointed women as nurses for infant children. In Hessen and Ostmark [the eastern part of Prussia], women are district administrators. There is an especially great demand for women to care for dependent children and to work in the juvenile courts; this will lead to the appointment of paid probation officers. In southern Germany, women police matrons are employed; in Prussia there are women doctors employed in the police courts. There are also women school physicians. Since 1908, trained women have entered the midwives' profession.

When the German General Woman's Club was formed in 1865, there was no German Empire; Berlin had not yet become the capital of the Empire. But since Berlin has become the seat of the Imperial Parliament, Berlin very naturally has become the center of the woman's rights movement. This occurred through the establishment of the magazine _Frauenwohl_ [_Woman's Welfare_] in 1888, by Mrs. Cauer. In this manner the younger and more radical woman's rights movement was begun. The women that organized the movement had interested themselves in the educational field. The radicals now entered the sociological and political fields. Women making radical demands allied themselves with Mrs. Cauer; they befriended her, and cooperated with her. This is an undisputed fact, though some of these women later left Mrs. Cauer and allied themselves with either the "Conservatives" or the "Socialists."

In the organization of trade-unions for women not exclusively of the middle class, Minna Cauer led the way. In 1889, with the aid of Mr. Julius Meyer and Mr. Silberstein, she organized the "Commercial and Industrial Benevolent Society for Women Employees." The society has now 24,000 members. State insurance for private employees is now (1909) a question of the day.

Jeannette Schwerin founded the information bureau of the Ethical Culture Society, which furnished girls and women assistants for social work. At the same time Jeannette Schwerin demanded that women be permitted to act as poor-law guardians. The agitation in public meetings and legislative assemblies against the Civil Code was instituted by Dr. Anita Augsburg and Mrs. Stritt.

The opposition to state regulation of prostitution was begun by the "radical" Hanna Bieber-Boehm and Anna Pappritz. Lily v. Gikycki was the first to speak publicly concerning the civic duty of women. The Woman's Suffrage Society was organized in 1901 by Mrs. Cauer, Dr. Augsburg, Miss Heymann, and Dr. Schirmacher.

In 1894 the radical section of the "German Federation of Women's Clubs" proposed that women's trade-unions be admitted to the Federation. This radical section had often given offense to the "Conservatives"--in the Federation, for instance--by the proposal of this measure; but the radicals in this way have stimulated the movement. As early as 1904 the Berlin Congress of the International Council of Women had shown that the Federation, being composed chiefly of conservative elements, should adopt in its programme all the demands of the radicals, including woman's suffrage. The differences between the Radicals and the Conservatives are differences of personality rather than of principles. The radicals move to the time of _allegro_; the conservatives to the time of _andante_. In all public movements there is usually the same antagonism; it occurred also in the English and the American woman's rights movements.

In no other country (with the exception of Belgium and Hungary) is the schism between the woman's rights movement of the middle class and the woman's rights movement of the Socialists so marked as in Germany. At the International Woman's Congress of 1896 (which was held through the influence of Mrs. Lina Morgenstern and Mrs. Cauer) two Social Democrats, Lily Braun and Clara Zetkin, declared that they never would cooperate with the middle-class women. This attitude of the Social Democrats is the result of historical circumstances. The law against the German Socialists has increased their antagonism to the middle class. Nevertheless, this harsh statement by Lily Braun and Clara Zetkin was unnecessary. It has just been stated that the founders of the German woman's rights movement had included the demands of the workingwomen in their programme, and that the Radicals (by whom the congress of 1896 had been called, and who for years had been engaged in politics and in the organization of trade-unions) had in 1894 demanded the admission of women's labor organizations to the Federation of Women's Clubs. Hence an alignment of the two movements would have been exceedingly fortunate. However, a part of the Socialists, laying stress on ultimate aims, regard "class hatred" as their chief means of agitation, and are therefore on principle opposed to any peaceful cooperation with the middle class. A part of the women Socialist leaders are devoting themselves to the organization of workingwomen,--a task that is as difficult in Germany as elsewhere. Almost everywhere in Germany women laborers are paid less than men laborers. The average daily wage is 2 marks (50 cents), but there are many workingwomen that receive less. In the ready-made clothing industry there are weekly wages of 6 to 9 marks ($1.50 to $2.25). At the last congress of home workers, held at Berlin, further evidence of starvation in the home industries was educed. But for these wages the German woman's rights movement is not to be held responsible.

In the social-political field the woman's rights advocates hold many advanced views. Almost without exception they are advocating legislation for the protection of the workingwomen; they have stimulated the organization of the "Home-workers' Association" in Berlin; they urged the workingwomen to seek admission to the Hirsch-Duncker Trades Unions (the German national association of trade-unions); they have established a magazine for workingwomen, and have organized a league for the consideration of the interests of workingwomen. In 1907 Germany had 137,000 organized workingwomen and female domestic servants.[70] Most of these belong to the socialistic trade-unions. The maximum workday for women is fixed at ten hours. The protection of maternity is promoted by the state as well as by women's clubs.

Peculiar to Germany is the denominational schism in the woman's rights movement. The precedent for this was established by the "German Evangelical Woman's League," founded in 1899, with Paula Mueller, of Hanover, as President. The organization of the League was due to the feeling that "it is a sin to witness with indifference how women that wish to know nothing of Biblical Christianity represent all the German women." The organization opposes equality of rights between man and woman; but in 1908 it joined the Federation of Women's Clubs. In 1903 a "Catholic Woman's League" was formed, but it has not joined the Federation. There has also been formed a "Society of Jewish Women." We representatives of the interdenominational woman's rights movement deplore this denominational disunion. These organizations are important because they make accessible groups of people that otherwise could not be reached by us.

Another characteristic of the German woman's rights movement is its extensive and thorough organization. The smallest cities are to-day visited by women speakers. Our "unity of spirit,"--praised so frequently, and now and then ridiculed,--is our chief power in the midst of specially difficult conditions in which we must work. With tenacity and patience we have slowly overcome unusual difficulties,--to the present without any help worth mentioning from the men.

In the Civil Code of 1900 the most important demands of the women were not given just consideration. To be sure, woman is legally competent, but the property laws make joint property holding legal (wives control their earnings and savings), and the mother has no parental authority. Relative to the impending revision of the criminal law, the women made their demands as early as 1908 in a general meeting of the Federation of Women's Clubs, when a three days' discussion took place. Since 1897 the women have progressed considerably in their knowledge of law. The German women strongly advocate the establishment of juvenile courts such as the United States are now introducing. The Federation also demands that women be permitted to act as magistrates, jurors, lawyers, and judges.

In the struggle against official regulation of prostitution the women were supported in the Prussian Landtag by Deputy Muensterberg, of Dantzig. Prussia established a more humane regulation of prostitution, but as yet has not appointed the extraparliamentary commission for the study of the control of prostitution, a measure that was demanded by the women. The most significant recent event is the admission of women to political organizations and meetings by the Imperial Law of May 15, 1908. Thereby the German women were admitted to political life. The Woman's Suffrage Society--founded in 1902, and in 1904 converted into a League--was able previous to 1908 to expand only in the South German states (excluding Bavaria). By this Imperial Law the northern states of the Empire were opened, and a National Woman's Suffrage Society was formed in Prussia, in Bavaria, and in Mecklenburg. As early as 1906, after the dissolution of the Reichstag, the women took an active part in the campaign, a right granted them by the _Vereinsrecht_ (Law of Association). In Prussia, Saxony, and Oldenburg the women worked for universal suffrage for women in Landtag elections. Since 1908 the political woman's rights movement has been of first importance in Germany. As the women taxpayers in a number of states can exercise municipal suffrage by proxy, and the women owners of large estates in Saxony and Prussia can exercise the suffrage in elections for the Diet of the Circle (_Kreistag_) by proxy, an effort is being made to attract these women to the cause of woman's suffrage.

In 1908 the Protestant women of the Imperial Provinces (Alsace and Lorraine) were granted the right to vote in church elections, a right that had been granted to the women of the German congregations in Paris as early as 1907[71].

LUXEMBURG

Total population: 246,455. Women: 120,235. Men: 126,220.

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

The woman's rights movement in Luxemburg originated in December, 1905, with the organization of the "Society for Women's Interests" (_Verein fuer Fraueninteressen_), which has worked admirably. The society has 300 members, and is in good financial condition. Throughout the country it is now carrying on successful propaganda in the interest of higher education for girls and in the interest of women in the industries. In Luxemburg, after girls have graduated from a convent, they have no further educational facilities. The society has established a department for legal protection, and an employment agency; it has published an inquiry into the living conditions in the capital.

In the capital city there is a woman member of the poor-law commission; ten women are guardians of the poor; one woman is a school commissioner; and there is a woman inspector of the municipal hospital. The society is well supported by the liberal elements of the government and the public. Its chief object must be the establishment of a secular school that will prepare women for entrance to the universities.

GERMAN AUSTRIA

Total population: about 7,000,000. Women: about 3,750,000. Men: about 3,250,000.

Federation of Austrian Women's Clubs. No woman's suffrage league.

The Austrian woman's rights movement is based primarily on economic conditions. More than 50 per cent of the women in Austria are engaged in non-domestic callings. This percentage is a strong argument against the theory that woman's sphere is merely domestic. Unfortunately this non-domestic service of the Austrian women is seldom very remunerative. Austria itself is a country of low wages. This condition is due to a continuous influx of Slavic workers, to large agricultural provinces, to the tenacious survivals of feudalism, etc. Therefore women's wages and salaries are lower than in western Europe, and low living expenses do not prevail everywhere (Vienna is one of the most expensive cities to live in). The "Women's Industrial School Society," founded in 1851, attempted to raise the industrial ability of the girls of the middle class. In accordance with the views of the time, needlework was taught. Free schools for the instruction of adults were established in Vienna. The economic misery following the war of 1866 led to the organization of the "Woman's Industrial Society," which enlarged woman's sphere of activity as did the Lette-Society in Berlin. Since 1868 the woman's rights movement has secured adherents from the best educated middle-class women,--namely, women teachers. In that year the Catholic women teachers organized a "Catholic Women Teachers' Society." In 1869 was organized the interdenominational "Austrian Women Teachers' Society." This society has performed excellent service. The women teachers, who since 1869 had been given positions in the public schools, were paid less than the men teachers having the same training and doing the same work. Therefore the women teachers presented themselves to the provincial legislatures, demanded an increase in salary, and, in spite of the opposition of the male teachers, secured the increase by the law of 1891. In 1876 a society devoted its efforts to the improvement of the girls' high schools, which had been greatly neglected. In 1885 the women writers and the women artists organized, their male colleagues having refused to admit women to the existing professional societies. In 1888 the women music teachers likewise organized themselves. At the same time the question of higher education for women was agitated. In Vienna a "lyceum" class--the first of its kind--was opened to prepare girls for entrance to the universities (_Abiturientenexamen_). Admission to the boys' high schools was refused to girls in Vienna, but was granted in the provinces (Troppau, and Maehrisch-Schoenberg). Girls were at all times admitted as outsiders (_Extraneae_) to the examinations held on leaving college (_Abiturientenexamen_). In this way many girls passed the "leaving" examination before they began their studies in Switzerland. Until 1896 the Austrian universities remained closed to women. The law faculties do not as yet admit women. The women's clubs are striving to secure this reform. Those women that had studied medicine in Switzerland previous to 1896, and wished to practice in Austria, required special imperial permission, which was never withheld from them in their noble struggle.

In this way Dr. Kerschbaumer began her practice as an oculist in Salzburg. However, the Countess Possanner, M.D., after passing the Swiss state examination, also took the Austrian examination. She is now practicing in Vienna.

As the Austrian doctors have active and passive suffrage in the election to the Board of Physicians (_Aerztekammer_)[72] Dr. Possanner also requested this right. Her request was refused by the magistrate in Vienna because, _as a woman_, she did not have the suffrage in municipal elections, and the suffrage for the Board of Physicians could be exercised only by those doctors that were municipal electors.[73] Thereupon Dr. Possanner appealed her case to the government, to the Minister of the Interior, and finally to the administrative court. The court decided in favor of the petition. It must be emphasized, however, that the Board of Physicians favored the request from the beginning.

Women preachers and women lawyers are as yet unknown in Austria. As in former times, the teaching profession is still the chief sphere of activity for the middle-class women of German Austria. According to the law of 1869 they can be appointed not only as teachers in the elementary schools for girls, but also as teachers of the lower classes in the boys' schools. Their not being municipal voters has two results: if the municipality is seeking votes, it appoints men teachers that are "favorably disposed"; if the municipality is politically opposed to the male teachers, it appoints women teachers in preference. But to be the plaything of political whims is not a very worthy condition to be in. If women teachers marry, they need not withdraw from the service (except in the province of Styria). More than 10 per cent of the women teachers in the whole of Austria are married, more than 2 per cent are widows. The women comprise about one fourth of the total number of elementary school teachers, of whom there are 9000. Their annual salaries vary from 200 to 1600 guldens ($96.40 to $771.20). The ordinary salary of 200 guldens is so insufficient that many elementary school teachers actually starve. The competition of the nuns is feared by the whole body of secular school teachers. In Tyrol instruction in the elementary schools is still almost wholly in the hands of the religious orders. The sisters work for little pay; they have a community life and consume the resources of the dead hand.

Of the secondary schools for girls some are ecclesiastic, some are municipal, and some private. The lyceums give a very good education (mathematics is obligatory), but as yet there are no ordinary secondary schools whose leaving examinations are equivalent to the _Abiturientenexamen_ of the _Gymnasiums_. The "Academic Woman's Club" in Vienna is demanding this reform, and the Federation of Austrian Women's Clubs is demanding the development of the municipal girls' schools into _Realschulen_. The state subsidizes various institutions. The girls' _Gymnasiums_ were privately founded. Dr. Cecilia Wendt, upon whom the degree of Doctor of Philosophy was conferred by Vienna University, and who took the state examination for secondary school teachers in mathematics, physics, and German, was the first woman appointed as teacher in a _Gymnasium_, being appointed in the Vienna _Gymnasium_ for girls. Since 1871, women have been appointed in the postal and telegraph service. Like most of the subordinate state officials, they receive poor pay, and dare not marry. The women telegraph operators in the central office in Vienna are paid 30 guldens ($14.46) a month. "The woman telegraph operator can lay no claims to the pleasures of existence." "These girls starve spiritually as well as physically."[74] During the past twenty-eight years salaries have not been increased. Every two years a two-week vacation is granted. Since 1876 there has existed a relief society for women postal and telegraph employees.

The woman stenographer, to-day so much sought after in business offices, was in 1842 _absolutely excluded_ from the courses in Gabelsberger stenography[75] by the Ministry of Public Instruction. In the courts of chancery (_Advokatenkanzleien_) women stenographers are paid 20 to 30 guldens ($9.64 to $14.46) a month. They are given the same pay in the stores and offices where they are expected to use typewriters. They are regarded as subordinates, though frequently they are thorough specialists and masters of languages. In the governmental service the women subordinates that work by the day (1.50 guldens,--73 cents) have no hope for advancement or pension. The first woman chief of a government office has been appointed to the sanitary department of the Ministry of the Labor Department, in which there is also a woman librarian.

It is not easy to imagine the deplorable condition of workingwomen when women public school teachers and women office clerks are expected to live on a monthly salary of $9.64 to $14.46. The Vienna inquiry into the condition of workingwomen in 1896 disclosed frightfully miserable conditions among workingwomen. Since then, especially through the efforts of the Socialists, the conditions have been somewhat improved.

In Vienna, efforts to organize women into trade-unions have been made,--especially among the bookbinders, hat makers, and tailors. Outside Vienna, organization has been effected chiefly among the women textile workers in Silesia, as well as among the women employees of the state tobacco factories. The most thorough organization of women laborers is found in northern and western Bohemia among the glassworkers and bead makers. In Styria, Salzburg, Tyrol, and Carinthia the organization of women is found only in isolated cases. Everywhere the organization of women is made difficult by domestic misery, which consumes the energy, time, and interest of the women. The organized Social-Democratic women laborers of German Austria have a permanent representation in the "Women's Imperial Committee." Of the 50,000 women organized in trade-unions, 5000 belong to the Social-Democratic party. The _Magazine for Workingwomen_ (_Arbeiterinnenzeitung_) has 13,400 subscribers. Women industrial inspectors have proved themselves efficient.

It is to be expected as a result of the wretched economic conditions of the workingwomen that prostitution with its incidental earnings should be widespread in German Austria. Vienna is the refuge of those seeking work and seclusion (_Verschwiegenheit_). The number of illicit births in Vienna is, as in Paris, one third of the total number of births. For these and other reasons the "General Woman's Club of Austria" (_Allgemeine Oesterreiche Frauenverein_), founded in 1893 under the leadership of Miss Augusta Fickert, has frequently concerned itself with the question of prostitution, of woman's wages, and of the official regulation of prostitution,--always being opposed to the last. The International Federation for the Abolition of the Official Regulation of Prostitution (_internationale abolinistische Foederation_) was, however, not represented in German Austria before 1903; the Austrian branch of this organization being established in 1907 in Vienna.

The middle-class women are doing much as leaders of the charitable, industrial, educational, and woman's suffrage societies to raise the status of woman in Austria. The most prominent members of these societies are: Augusta Fickert, Marianne Hainisch, Mrs. v. Sprung, Miss Herzfelder, v. Wolfring, Mrs. v. Listrow, Rosa Maireder, Maria Lang (editor of the excellent _Dokumente der Frauen_, which, unfortunately, were discontinued in 1902), Mrs. Schwietland, Elsie Federn (the superintendent of the settlement in the laborers' district in North Vienna), Mrs. Jella Hertzka, (Mrs.) Dr. Goldmann, superintendent of the Cottage Lyceum, and others.

These women frequently cooperate with the leaders of the Socialistic woman's rights movement, Mrs. Schlesinger, Mrs. Popp, and others. The disunion of the two forces of the movement is much less marked in Austria than in Germany, the circumstances much more resembling those in Italy. In these lands it is expected that the woman's rights movement will profit greatly through the growth of Socialism. This is explained by the fact that the Austrian Liberals are not equal to the assaults of the Conservatives. Universal equal suffrage, which does not as yet exist in Austria, has its most enthusiastic advocates among the Socialists. With the Austrian Socialists, universal suffrage means woman's suffrage also.[76]

During the Liberal era two rights were granted to the Austrian women: since 1849 the women taxpayers vote by proxy in municipal elections, and since 1861 for the local legislatures (_Provinciallandtagen_).[77] In Lower Austria the _Landtag_ in 1888 deprived them of this right, and in 1889 an attempt was made to deprive them of their municipal suffrage. But the women concerned successfully petitioned that they be left in possession of their active municipal suffrage. Since 1873 the Austrian women owners of large estates vote also for the Imperial Parliament through proxy. The Austrian women, supported by the Socialist deputies, Pernerstorfer, Kronawetter, Adler, and others, have on several occasions demanded the passive suffrage in the election of school boards and poor-law guardians; they have also demanded a reform of the law of organization, so that women can be admitted to political organizations. To the present these efforts have been fruitless. When universal suffrage was granted in 1906 (creating the fifth class of voters), the women were disregarded. In the previous year a Woman's Suffrage Committee had been established with headquarters in Vienna. It is endeavoring especially to secure the repeal of paragraph 30 of the law regulating organizations and public meetings. This law (like that of Prussia and Bavaria previous to 1908) excludes women from political organization, thus making the forming of a woman's suffrage society impossible. For this reason Austria cannot join the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance.

During the consideration of the new municipal election laws in Troppau (Austrian Silesia), it was proposed to withdraw the right of suffrage from the women taxpayers. They resisted the proposal energetically. At present the matter is before the supreme court. In Voralberg the unmarried women taxpayers were also given the right to vote in elections of the _Landtag_. The legal status of the Austrian woman is similar to that of the French woman: the wife is under the guardianship of her husband; the property law provides for the amalgamation of property (not joint property holding, as in France). But the wife does not have control of her earnings and savings, as in Germany under the Civil Code. The father alone has legal authority over the children.

Here the names of two women must be mentioned: Bertha v. Suttner, one of the founders of the peace movement, and Marie v. Ebner-Eschenbach, the greatest living woman writer in the German language. Both are Austrians; and their country may well be proud of them.

In Austria the authorities are more favorably disposed toward the woman's rights movement than in Germany, for example.

HUNGARY[78]

Total population: 19,254,559. Women: 9,672,407. Men: 9,582,152.

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

At first the Hungarian woman's rights movement was restricted to the advancement of girls' education. The attainment of national independence gave the women greater ambition; since 1867 they have striven for the establishment of higher institutions of learning for girls. In 1868 Mrs.