A Short History of Women's Rights Part 27

HUSBAND AND WIFE: Wife controls own earnings, but cannot sell or enc.u.mber her separate property without husband's consent. Husband is legal guardian and must provide. Dower and curtesy prevail.

DIVORCE: Absolute for adultery, impotence, imprisonment in penitentiary, conviction of an infamous offence before marriage, desertion for three years, pregnancy of wife at time of marriage or prost.i.tution before without knowledge of husband, in favour of wife when husband was notoriously a licentious person before marriage without her knowledge.

Limited for cruelty, reasonable apprehension of bodily hurt, desertion, habitual drunkenness.

LABOUR LAWS: No Sunday labour. No child under 12 may work in factory or mill and no child under 14 shall be employed during school session. No child under 15 may be employed in any mendicant, acrobatic, immoral, or dangerous occupation, nor in any place where liquor is sold. Seats must be provided for female employees. No female may work in mine.

SUFFRAGE, POLITICAL CONDITION, INDUSTRIAL AND PROFESSIONAL STATUS: No suffrage. Women cannot be notaries. 26 women in ministry, 4 dentists, 4 journalists, 4 lawyers, 18 doctors, 4 professors, 9 saloon keepers, 2 bankers, 3 commercial travellers, 2 carpenters, etc.

_Wisconsin_

AGE OF LEGAL CONSENT: 18.

POPULATION: Male 1,067,562; female 1,001,480.

HUSBAND AND WIFE: Wife controls own earnings. a.s.signment of wages of husband must have wife's written consent. Wife controls separate property absolutely. Dower and curtesy prevail. Husband is guardian of children and must provide.

DIVORCE: Absolute for impotence, adultery, sentence to imprisonment for three years prior to marriage. Limited or absolute for desertion for one year, cruelty, habitual drunkenness, neglect to provide, conduct of husband rendering it improper or unsafe for wife to live with him.

LABOUR LAWS: Female labour confined to eight hours per day. No child under 14 may work in factory, workshop, bowling alley, or mine. Children between 14 and 16 must get permission from juvenile judge. No child under 16 shall be employed on dangerous machinery. None under 14 shall take part in theatrical or circus exhibition as musician unless accompanied on tours by parent or guardian. Authorities shall in all cases determine whether occupation is dangerous or immoral for children under 14. No Sunday labour.

SUFFRAGE, POLITICAL CONDITION, INDUSTRIAL AND PROFESSIONAL STATUS: Women have school suffrage. They may be notaries. 65 women in ministry, 24 dentists, 32 journalists, 23 lawyers, 154 doctors, 12 professors, 143 saloon keepers, 2 bankers, 27 commercial travellers, 9 carpenters, etc.

_Wyoming_

AGE OF LEGAL CONSENT: 21.

POPULATION: Male 58,184; female 34,347.

HUSBAND AND WIFE: Wife controls own earnings and separate property absolutely. Neither dower nor curtesy prevail. Husband and wife have same rights of mutual inheritance. Husband is legal guardian of children, but there is no penalty if he does not provide.

DIVORCE: Absolute for adultery, impotence, conviction for felony, desertion for one year, habitual drunkenness, extreme cruelty, neglect to provide for one year, intolerable indignities, vagrancy of husband, conviction of felony prior to marriage unknown to other party, pregnancy of wife at time of marriage unknown to husband.

No limited divorce.

LABOUR LAWS: No female shall work in mine. Acrobatic, mendicant, dangerous, or immoral occupations forbidden to children under 14. No Sunday labour. Seats must be provided for female employees.

SUFFRAGE, POLITICAL CONDITION, INDUSTRIAL AND PROFESSIONAL STATUS: Full suffrage. Women are eligible for all offices. 2 women in ministry, 2 journalists, 12 doctors, 1 professor, no saloon keepers, lawyers, or dentists, 2 carpenters, etc.

In studying these tables, it should be remembered that new laws are being made constantly; and that the census of 1910 will give figures which as soon as they appear must supersede those of 1900.

SOURCES

I. The Statutes of the Several States, from earliest times to the present day. Published by Authority.

II. All newspapers and periodicals.

III. The Census Reports, especially the various separate reports such as that on "Marriage and Divorce"; and the Reports of the Commissioner of Labour.

IV. The History of Woman Suffrage: edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Ida Husted Harper, 4 vols.

[First two published by Fowler and Wells, New York, 1881 and 1882; last two by Susan B. Anthony, Rochester, 1887 and 1902.]

V. The Encyclopedia of Social Reforms: edited by William D.P. Bliss, with the Co-operation of many Specialists. Funk and Wagnalls, New York and London, 1898.

NOTES:

[410] See, for example, the account in the _New York Tribune_, Sept. 8, 9, and 12, 1853, of what happened at the Women's Rights Convention at that time.

[411] In 1900 there were 7399 female physicians and surgeons in the United States, and 808 female dentists.

[412] In 1900 there were 1049 women lawyers in the United States. The above statements are from Bliss, _Encyc_., p. 1291.

[413] In 1900 there were 3405 women clergy in the United States.

[414] In 1900 there were 2193 women journalists in the United States.

This does not, of course, include women reporters and the like.

CHAPTER IX

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

It is twenty-three centuries since Plato gave to the world his magnificent treatise on the State. The dream of the Greek philosopher of equal rights for all intelligent citizens, among whom he includes women, has in large part been realised; but much is yet wanting to bring society to the standard of the Ideal Republic. In not a few States of the world the conditions affecting property rights are inequitable; in all but very few States woman is still barred from the field of politics and from the legitimate rights of citizenship; and the day seems far distant when the States possessing a representative government will be prepared to accept the woman citizen as eligible for administrative positions.

It will, therefore, be my purpose in this chapter first to consider five of the most serious objections to the granting of equal suffrage, that is to say, to the concession to women of full citizens' rights under the law. It will be found that these objections are based on a presumed inferiority of women to men in various respects. I shall give consideration next in order to the question of the inferiority or superiority of one s.e.x over the other. In view, furthermore, of the new ferment in thought in modern society, it will be useful to a.n.a.lyse certain habits of mind and to indicate the necessity for a readjustment of old beliefs in the light of recent evolution. I shall conclude my history with a suggestion for definite reforms which, I believe, must be brought about, whether equal suffrage is granted or not, before women can attain their maximum of efficiency.

The opposition to the granting of equal suffrage is, as I have said, based mainly upon five cla.s.ses of contentions:

I. The theological.

II. The physiological.

III. The social or political.

IV. The intellectual.

V. The moral.

A consideration and an a.n.a.lysis of these five cla.s.ses of objections will const.i.tute a summary of the relations of woman to the community, and may also serve as a guide or suggestion to the possibility of a legitimate development, in the near future, of her rights as a citizen.

I. The theological argument is based upon the distinctly evil conception of woman, presented in _Genesis_, as the cause of misery in this world and upon the subordinate position a.s.signed to her by Paul and Peter.

Christ himself has left us no teachings on the subject. The Hebrew and Oriental creed of woman's sphere permeated the West as Christianity expanded and forced to extinction the Roman principle of equality. Only within fifty years, has the female s.e.x regained the rights enjoyed by women under the law of the Empire seventeen centuries ago. The Apostolic theory of complete subordination gained strength with each succeeding age. I have already cited instances of ecclesiastical vehemence. As a final example I may recall that when, early in the nineteenth century, chloroform was first used to help women in childbirth, a number of Protestant divines denounced the practice as a sin against the Creator, who had expressly commanded that woman should bring forth in sorrow and tribulation. Yet times have so far changed within two decades that the theological argument is practically obsolete among Protestants, although it is still influential in the Roman Catholic Church, which holds fast to the doctrine laid down by the Apostles. We may say, however, that of all the objections, the theological has, in practice, the least weight among the bulk of the population. The word _obey_ in the clerical formula _love, honour, and obey_ provokes a smile.

II. The physiological argument is more powerful. Its supporters a.s.sert that the const.i.tution of woman is too delicate, too finely wrought to compete with man in his chosen fields. The physiological argument makes its appearance most persistently in the statement that woman should have no vote because she could not defend her property or her country in time of war. In reply to this some partisans of equal suffrage have thought it necessary to prove that women are physically equal in all respects to men. But the issues between nations which in the centuries past it had been believed could be adjusted only by war, by being fought out (not, of course, to any logical conclusion, but to a result which showed simply that one party was stronger than the other), are now, in the great majority of cases, determined by the more reasonable, the more civilised, method of arbitration.