The Modern Woman's Rights Movement Part 7

NORWAY

Total population: 2,240,860.

Women: 1,155,169.

Men: 1,085,691.

League of Norwegian Women's Clubs.

Woman's Suffrage a.s.sociation.

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, Bjornson, and Ibsen had prepared public opinion for the emanc.i.p.ation 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 prost.i.tution 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 Const.i.tution 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 pa.s.sing 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 a.s.sistants' trade-union in an open meeting in Christiania has demanded equal pay for equal work.

By a law pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sociation, drew up a pet.i.tion requesting the same concession as was made the women postal employees, and presented the pet.i.tion 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 pa.s.sive suffrage in munic.i.p.al 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 munic.i.p.al affairs for the first time; in Christiania 6 women were elected to munic.i.p.al offices.

The Norwegian League of Women's Clubs and the woman's suffrage a.s.sociations 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 inst.i.tuted 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 pa.s.sive suffrage in munic.i.p.al 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 pa.s.sive 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 const.i.tutional amendment (Article 52). The Storthing requested that before the next munic.i.p.al elections (1910) the Ministry present a satisfactory bill providing for woman's suffrage in munic.i.p.al 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 partic.i.p.ate 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 emanc.i.p.ation of women legally and in the professions had preceded their political emanc.i.p.ation. 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 a.s.sistants 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 circ.u.mstances 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 emanc.i.p.ators, Mathilda Fibiger and Pauline Worm in Denmark. The writings of both of these women in favor of emanc.i.p.ation,--"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 Bjornson 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 inst.i.tution 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 munic.i.p.al 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 munic.i.p.al 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 cla.s.ses of women--widows, unmarried, and married women--were enfranchised. They have active and pa.s.sive suffrage. In March, 1909, they exercised both rights for the first time. The partic.i.p.ation 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 pa.s.sive suffrage in munic.i.p.al affairs. In January, 1908, they partic.i.p.ated 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 prost.i.tution 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 cla.s.ses. 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-Bulow, who introduced kindergartens (_Frobelsystem_) 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 munic.i.p.al, partly private. Most of the elementary schools are coeducational; in the secondary schools the s.e.xes are segregated; in the higher inst.i.tutions 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, Groningen, and Amsterdam. In the elementary, secondary, and higher inst.i.tutions 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 Groningen. 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 partic.i.p.ate 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 a.s.sistants of both s.e.xes 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 inst.i.tution 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 cla.s.s. 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-cla.s.s 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 cla.s.ses. 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 a.s.sociations 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 munic.i.p.al 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 munic.i.p.al electors. As a taxpayer she was ent.i.tled 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 Const.i.tution, by a vote of six out of seven, recommended that Parliament grant active and pa.s.sive 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.