The History of Woman Suffrage Volume IV Part 123

A married woman who contributes by the efforts of her own labor or otherwise toward the support, maintenance and education of her minor child, shall have the same and equal power, control and authority over her said child, and the same and equal right to the custody and services, as are now possessed by her husband who is the father of such minor child.

The best legal authorities are undecided as to whether labor within the household ent.i.tles the mother to this equal guardianship or whether it must be performed outside the home. The father is held to be the only person ent.i.tled to sue for the earnings of a minor child, and as no legal means are provided for enforcing the above law it is practically of no effect.

The law says, "As her baron or lord, the husband is bound to provide his wife with shelter, food, clothing and medicine;" also:

If any husband or father neglect to maintain his wife or children, it is lawful for any alderman, justice of the peace or magistrate, upon information made before him, under oath or affirmation, by the wife or children, or by any other person, to issue his warrant for the arrest of the man, and bind him over with one sufficient surety to appear at the next Court of Quarter Sessions, there to answer the said charge.

If he is found to be of sufficient ability to pay such sum as the court thinks reasonable and proper, it makes an order for the comfortable support of wife or children, or both, the sum not to exceed the amount of $100 per month. The man is to be committed to jail until he complies with the order of the court, or gives security for the payment of the sum. After three months'

imprisonment, if the court find him unable to pay or give security, it may discharge him.

In 1887 the "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 16 years. The penalty is a fine not exceeding $1,000, and imprisonment by separate and solitary confinement at labor, or simple imprisonment, not exceeding fifteen years. No minimum penalty is named.

SUFFRAGE: Women possess no form of suffrage.

OFFICE HOLDING:[419] The State const.i.tution of 1873 made women eligible for all school offices, but they have had great difficulty in securing any of these. Out of 16,094 school directors in the State only thirty-two are women. In Philadelphia a Board of Public Education, appointed by the courts, co-operates with the school directors. This board consists of forty-one members, only three being women. In the entire State, six women are reported to be now filling the offices of county and city school superintendent and a.s.sistant superintendent.

In seventeen years but sixty-seven women (in twelve counties) have been appointed members of the Boards of Public Charities.

In 1899 a law was pa.s.sed recognizing Accounting as a profession, and Miss Mary B. Niles is now a Certified Public Accountant and Auditor.

There have been women on the Civil Service Examining Board for nurses, matrons, etc., but there are none at present.

To Pennsylvania belongs the honor of appointing the first woman in a hospital for the insane with exclusive charge--Dr. Alice Bennett, Norristown Asylum, in 1880. Now all of the six State hospitals for the insane employ women physicians. In Philadelphia there are five hospitals under the exclusive control of women.

Women have entire charge of the female prisoners in the Philadelphia County jail. Police matrons are on duty at many of the station houses in cities of the first and second cla.s.s, sixteen in Philadelphia.

Committees of women, officially appointed, visit all the public inst.i.tutions of Philadelphia and Montgomery counties.

Dr. Frances C. Van Gasken served several years as health inspector, the only woman to fill such an office in Philadelphia.

Six women are employed as State factory inspectors and receive the same salary as the men inspectors.

Within the past ten years a large number of women have become city librarians through appointment by the Common Councils.

Mrs. Margaret Center Klingelsmith, LL.B., is librarian of the State University Law School, but has been refused admission to the Academy of Law (Bar a.s.sociation) of Philadelphia, although there is a strong sentiment in her favor led by George E. Nitzsche, registrar of the Law School.

OCCUPATIONS: The only prohibited industry is mining. No professions are legally forbidden to women.

In 1884 a graduate of the Law Department of the University of Pennsylvania, Mrs. Carrie Burnham Kilgore, made the fight for the admission of women to the bar and was herself finally admitted to practice in the courts of Philadelphia. Judges William S. Pierce, William N. Ashman and Thomas K. Finletter advocated this advanced step.

There are 150 women physicians in Philadelphia alone.

EDUCATION: The Woman's Medical College of Philadelphia, Clara Marshall, M. D., dean, was incorporated in 1850.[420] The idea of its establishment originated with Dr. Bartholomew Fussell, a member of the Society of Friends. Its foundation was made possible through the effective work of Dr. Joseph S. Longsh.o.r.e in securing a charter from the Legislature. Dr. Hannah Myers Longsh.o.r.e was a member of the first graduating cla.s.s, a pioneer among women physicians, and through her skill and devotion won high rank in her profession.[421] In 1867 the name was changed by decree of court from Female Medical College to Woman's Medical College. It is the oldest and largest medical school for women in the world, and has nearly 1,000 alumnae, including students from nineteen foreign countries. The management is entirely in the hands of women.

In 1861 the Woman's Hospital was founded, mainly through the efforts of Dr. Ann Preston, to afford women the clinical opportunities denied by practically all the existing hospitals. It is now one of the largest in Philadelphia.

During the past twenty years a number of educational inst.i.tutions have been opened to women. Of the forty colleges and universities in the State, just one-half are co-educational; three are for women alone; two Catholic, one military and fourteen others are for men alone. Of the sixteen theological seminaries, only one, the Unitarian at Meadville, admits women. They have the full privileges of the Colleges of Pharmacy and Dentistry in Philadelphia.

The princ.i.p.al inst.i.tutions closed to women are the Jefferson Medical, Hahnemann Medical, Medico-Chirurgical, Franklin and Marshall, Haverford, Lafayette, Moravian, Muhlenberg, St. Vincent, Washington and Jefferson, Waynesburg, Lehigh and most of the departments of the Western University.

In the University of Pennsylvania (State) women are admitted on equal terms with men to the post-graduate department; as candidates for the Master of Arts degree; and to the four years' course in biology, leading to the degree of B. S. They may take special courses in pedagogy, music and interior decoration (in the Department of Architecture) but no degree. The Medical, Dental and Veterinary Departments are entirely closed to them. Of the large departments, Law is the only one which is fully, freely and heartily open to women on exactly the same terms as to men, and it confers the degree of LL. B.

upon both alike. There are no women on the faculty, but Prof. Sara Yorke Stevenson, the distinguished archoaelogist, is secretary of the Department of Archaeology and Paleontology and curator of the Egyptian and Mediterranean Section.

The Drexel Inst.i.tute, founded and endowed by Anthony J. Drexel, was opened in December, 1891. Instruction is given in the arts, sciences and industries. All the departments are open to women on the same terms as to men. Booker T. Washington has a free scholarship for a pupil, and one is held by the Carlisle Indian School.

Bryn Mawr, non-sectarian, but founded by Joseph W. Taylor, M. D., a member of the Society of Friends, was opened in 1885. It stands at the head of the women's colleges of the world, and ranks with the best colleges for men. Miss M. Carey Thomas, Ph. D., LL. D., is president.

Notwithstanding these splendid educational advantages, as late as 1891 there was no opportunity in the Philadelphia public schools for a girl to prepare for college or for a business office. In 1893 the present superintendent, Edward Brooks, reorganized the Girls' High School, arranging a four years' cla.s.sical course and a three years' business course.

There are in the public schools 9,360 men and 19,469 women teachers.

The average monthly salary of the men is $42.69; of the women, $38.45.

In Philadelphia the average for men is $121.93; for women, $67.61. In this city, by decree of the board of education, the highest positions are closed to women.

Pennsylvania is rich in women's clubs, 117 belonging to the State Federation. The three largest are the New Century, with 600 members; Civic, 500; New Century Guild (workingwomen), 400--all in Philadelphia. Most of the clubs have civic departments. The suffrage societies have full membership in the State Federation of Clubs. The Civic and Legal Education Society of Philadelphia, composed of men and women, has lecture courses on national, State and munic.i.p.al government and a practical knowledge of law. A study cla.s.s of munic.i.p.al law is conducted by Mrs. Margaret Center Klingelsmith, the law librarian of the State University.

FOOTNOTES:

[412] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Lucretia Longsh.o.r.e Blankenburg of Philadelphia, who has been president of the State Suffrage a.s.sociation since 1892.

[413] See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. I, p. 67.

[414] Officers in 1884: President, Mary Grew, vice presidents, John K.

Wildman, Ellen M. Child, Pa.s.smore Williamson, corresponding secretary, Florence A. Burleigh, recording secretary, Anna Shoemaker, treasurer, Annie Heac.o.c.k, executive committee, Mary S. Hillborn, Martha B. Earle, Sarah H. Peirce, Gertrude K. Peirce, Joshua Peirce, Leslie Miller, Maria P. Miller, Harriet Purvis, Caroline L. Broomall, Deborah Pennock, J. E. Case, Matilda Hindman, Dr. Hiram Corson.

[415] These meetings have been held in Chester, West Chester, Lancaster, Reading, Lewistown, Oxford, Kennett Square, Norristown, Scranton, Pittsburg, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Chester and Columbia.

[416] For an account of the Citizens' Suffrage a.s.sociation, Edward M.

Davis, president, see Vol. III, p. 461.

[417] At the annual meeting of October, 1900, the following were elected: President, Miss Jane Campbell; vice-presidents, Miss Eliza Heac.o.c.k and Miss Elizabeth Dornan; corresponding secretary, Miss Katherine J. Campbell; recording secretary, Mrs. Olive Pond Amies; treasurer, Mrs. Mary F. Kenderdine. Sixteen delegates were elected to represent the society at the State convention.

[418] Among the men and women who have been especially helpful to the cause of woman suffrage since 1884, besides those already mentioned, are Robert Purvis, John M. Broomall, Edward M. Davis, Drs. Hannah E.

Longsh.o.r.e, Jane V. Myers, Jane K. Garver; Mesdames Rachel Foster Avery, Emma J. Bartol, Eliza Sproat Turner, Elizabeth B. Pa.s.smore, J.

L. Koethen, Jr., Helen Mosher James, Charlotte L. Peirce, Ellen C. H.

Ogden, Mary E. Mumford, Elizabeth Smith, J. M. Harsh, J. W. Scheel, H.

C. Perkins, Hanna M. Harlan, Misses Julia T. Foster, M. Adeline Thomson, Susan G. Appleton, Julia A. Myers, L. M. Mather, Lucy E.

Anthony.

[419] William and Hannah Penn were both Proprietary Governors of the colony, William from the time of its settlement in 1682 until 1712, when he was stricken with illness. Hannah then took up the affairs and administered as governor until William's death in 1717, and after that time until her son became of age.

Sidney Fisher, in his account of the Pennsylvania colony, says that this is the only instance in history where a woman has acted as Proprietary Governor. Hannah Penn was skilful in her management and retained the confidence of the people through financial and political embarra.s.sments.

[420] See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. I, p. 389.

[421] Drs. Joseph and Hannah Myers Longsh.o.r.e were the uncle and mother of Mrs. Lucretia L. Blankenburg. [Eds.