The Modern Woman's Rights Movement Part 1

The Modern Woman's Rights Movement.

by Kaethe Schirmacher.

PREFACE

The first edition of this book appeared in 1905. That edition is exhausted,--an evidence of the great present-day interest in the woman's rights movement. This new edition takes into account the developments since 1905, contains the recent statistical data, and gives an account of the woman's suffrage movement which has been especially characteristic of these later years. Wherever the statistical data have been left unchanged, either there have been no new censuses or the new results were not available.

The facts contained in this volume do not require of me any prefatory observations on the theoretical justification of the woman's rights movement.[1] From the remotest time man has tried to rule her who ought to be comrade and colleague to him. By virtue of the law of might he generally succeeded. Every protest against this law of might was a "woman's rights movement."

History contains many such protests. The _modern_ woman's rights movement is the first organized and international protest of this kind. Therefore it is a movement full of success and promise. Leadership in this movement has fallen to the women of the Caucasian race, among whom the women of the United States have been foremost. At their instigation were formed the World's Christian Temperance Union, the International Council of Women, and the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance.

In many lands, even in those inhabited by the white race, there are, however, only very feeble beginnings of the woman's rights movement. In the Orient, the Far East, and in Africa, woman's condition of bondage is still almost entirely unbroken. Nevertheless, in these regions of the world, too, woman's day is dawning in such a way that we look for developments more confidently than ever before.

In all countries the woman's rights movement originated with the middle cla.s.ses. This is a purely historical fact which in itself in no way implies any antagonism between the woman's rights movement and the workingwomen's movement. There is no such antagonism either in Australia, or in England, or in the United States. On the contrary, the middle cla.s.s and non-middle cla.s.s movements are sharply separated in those countries whose social democracy uses cla.s.s-hatred as propaganda. Whether the woman's rights movement is also a workingwomen's movement, or whether the workingwomen's movement is also a woman's rights movement or socialism, depends therefore in every particular case on national and historical circ.u.mstances.

The international organization of the woman's rights movement is as follows: the International Council of Women consists of the presiding officers of the various National Councils of Women. Of these latter there are to-day twenty-seven; but the Servian League of Woman's Clubs has not yet joined.[2] To a National Council may belong all those woman's clubs of a country which unite in carrying out a certain general programme. The programmes as well as the organizations are national in their nature, but they all agree in their general characteristics, since the woman's rights movement is indeed an international movement and arose in all countries from the same general conditions. The first National Council was organized in the United States in 1888. This was followed by organizations in Canada, Germany, Sweden, England, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia (with five councils), Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria, Norway, Hungary, etc.

As yet there are no statistics of the women represented in the International Council. Its membership is estimated at seven or eight millions. The National Council admits only clubs,--not individuals,--the chairmen of the various National Councils forming the International Council of Women solely in their capacity of presiding officers.

This International Council of Women is the permanent body promoting the organized international woman's rights movement. It was organized in Washington in 1888.

The woman's suffrage movement, a separate phase of the woman's rights movement, has likewise organized itself internationally,--though independently. Woman's suffrage is the most radical demand made by organized women, and is hence advocated in all countries by the "radical"

woman's rights advocates. The greater part of the membership of the National Councils have therefore not been able in all cases to insert woman's suffrage in their programmes. The International Council did sanction this point, however, June 9, 1904, in Berlin.

A few days previously there had been organized as the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, likewise in Berlin, woman's suffrage leagues representing eight different countries. The leagues which joined the Alliance represented the United States, Victoria, England, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Since then the woman's suffrage movement has been the most flourishing part of the woman's rights movement. The International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, which was pledged to hold a second congress only at the end of five years, has already held three congresses between 1905 and 1909 (1906, Copenhagen; 1908, Amsterdam; 1909, London), and has extended its membership to twenty-one countries (the United States, Australia, South Africa, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Russia, Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria, Italy, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Servia, and Iceland). The first president is Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt.

The chief demands of the woman's rights movement are the same in all countries. These demands are four in number.

1. In the field of education and instruction: to enjoy the same educational opportunities as those of man.

2. In the field of labor: freedom to choose any occupation, and equal pay for the same work.

3. In the field of civil law: the wife should be given the full status of a legal person before the law, and full civil ability. In criminal law: the repeal of all regulations discriminating against women. The legal responsibility of man in s.e.xual matters. In public law: woman's suffrage.

4. In the social field: recognition of the high value of woman's domestic and social work, and the incompleteness, harshness, and one-sidedness of every circle of man's activity (_Mannerwelt_) from which woman is excluded.

A just and happy relationship of the s.e.xes is dependent upon mutuality, coordination, and the complementary relations of man and woman,--not upon the subordination of woman and the predominance of man. Woman, in her peculiar sphere, is entirely the equal of man in his. The origin of the international woman's rights movement is found in the world-wide disregard of this elementary truth.

The subject which I have treated in this book is a very broad one, the material much scattered and daily changing. It is therefore hardly possible that my statements should not have deficiencies on the one hand, and errors on the other. I shall indeed welcome any corrections and authoritative information of a supplementary nature.[3]

THE AUTh.o.r.eSS.

PARIS, JUNE 3, 1909.

THE MODERN WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT

CHAPTER I

THE GERMANIC COUNTRIES

The woman's rights movement is more strongly organized and has penetrated society more thoroughly in all the Germanic countries than in the Romance countries. There are many causes for this: woman's greater freedom of activity in the Germanic countries; the predominance of the Protestant religion, which does not oppose the demands of the woman's rights movement with the same united organization as does the Catholic Church; the more vigorous training in self-reliance and responsibility which is customarily given to women in Germanic-Protestant countries; the more significant superiority in numbers of women in Germanic countries, which has forced women to adopt business or professional callings other than domestic.[4]

The woman's rights movement in the Germanic-Protestant countries has been promoted by _moral_ and _economic_ factors.

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Total population: 91,972,267.

Women: about 45,000,000.

Men: about 47,000,000.

The General Federation of Women's Clubs.

The National American Woman's Suffrage a.s.sociation.

North America is the cradle of the woman's rights movement. It was the War of Independence of the colonies against England (1774-1783) that matured the woman's rights movement. In the name of "freedom" our cause entered the history of the world.

In these troubled times the American women had by energetic activities and unyielding suffering entirely fulfilled their duty as citizens, and at the Convention in Philadelphia, in 1787, they demanded as citizens the right to vote. The Const.i.tution of the United States was being drawn up at that time, and by 1789 had been ratified by the thirteen states then existing.

In nine of these states (Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, North and South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island) the right to vote in munic.i.p.al and state affairs had hitherto been exercised by all "free-born citizens" or all "taxpayers" and "heads of families,"

the state const.i.tutions being based on the principle: _no taxation without representation_.

Among these "free-born citizens," "taxpayers," and "heads of families"

there were naturally many women who were consequently both voters and active citizens. So woman's right to vote in the above-named states was practically established _before_ 1783. Only the states of Virginia and New York had restricted the suffrage to males in 1699 and 1777, Ma.s.sachusetts and New Hampshire following their example in 1780 and 1784.

In view of this retrograde movement American women attempted at the Convention in Philadelphia to secure a recognition of their civil rights through the Const.i.tution of the whole federation of states. But the Convention refused this request; just as before, it left the conditions of suffrage to be determined by the individual states. To be sure, in the draft of the Const.i.tution the Convention _in no way opposed_ woman's suffrage. But the nine states which formerly, as colonies, had practically given women the right to vote, had in the meantime abrogated this right through the insertion of the word "man" in their election laws, and the first attempt of the American women to secure an expressed const.i.tutional recognition of their rights as citizens failed.

These proceedings gave to the woman's rights movement of the United States a political character from the very beginning. Since then the American women have labored untiringly for their political emanc.i.p.ation. The anti-slavery movement gave them an excellent opportunity to partic.i.p.ate in public affairs.

Since the women had had experience of oppression and slavery, and since they, like negroes, were struggling for the recognition of their "human rights," they were amongst the most zealous opponents of "slavery," and belonged to the most enthusiastic defenders of "freedom" and "justice."

Among the Quakers, who played a very prominent part in the anti-slavery movement, man and woman had the same rights in all respects in the home and church. When the first anti-slavery society was formed in Boston in 1832, twelve women immediately became members.

The principle of the equality of the s.e.xes, which the Quakers held, was opposed by the majority of the population, who held to the Puritanic principle of woman's subordination to man. In consequence of this principle it was at that time considered "monstrous" that a woman should speak from a public platform. Against Abby Kelly, who at that time was one of the best anti-slavery speakers, a sermon was preached from the pulpit from the text: "This Jezebel has come into the midst of us." She was called a "hyena"; it was related that she had been intoxicated in a saloon, etc. When her political a.s.sociate, Angelina Grimke, held an anti-slavery meeting in Pennsylvania Hall (Philadelphia) in 1837, the hall was set on fire, and in 1838 in the chamber of the House of Representatives in Ma.s.sachusetts a mob threatened to take her life. "The mob howled, the press hissed, and the pulpit thundered," thus the proceedings were described by Lucy Stone, the woman's rights advocate.

Even the educated cla.s.ses shared the prejudice against woman. To them she was a "human being of the second order." The following is an ill.u.s.tration of this:

In 1840 Abby Kelly was elected to a committee. She was urged, however, to decline the election. "If you regard me as incompetent, then I shall leave." "Oh, no, not exactly that," was the answer. "Well, what is it then?" "But you are a woman...." "That is no reason; therefore I remain."

In the same year an anti-slavery congress was held in England. A number of American champions of the cause went to London,--among them three women, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Elizabeth Pease. They were accompanied by their husbands and came as delegates of the "National Anti-slavery Society." Since the Congress was dominated by the English clergy, who persisted in their belief in the "inferiority" of woman, the three American women, being creatures without political rights, were not permitted to perform their duties as delegates, but were directed to leave the convention hall and to occupy places in the spectators' gallery. But the n.o.ble William Lloyd Garrison silently registered a protest by sitting with the women in the gallery.

This procedure clearly indicated to the American women what their next duty should be, and once when Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton came from the gallery to the hotel Mrs. Stanton said, "The first thing which we must do upon our return is to call a convention to discuss the slavery of woman."

This plan, however, was not executed till eight years later. At that time Elizabeth Cady Stanton, on the occasion of a visit from Lucretia Mott, summoned a number of acquaintances to her home in Seneca Falls, New York.