BELGIUM
It is very difficult for the woman’s rights movement to thrive in Belgium. Not that the movement is unnecessary there; on the contrary, the legal status of woman is regulated by the Code Napoleon, hence there is decided need for reform. The number of women exceeds that of the men; hence part of the girls cannot marry. Industry is highly developed. The question of wages is a vital question for women laborers. Accordingly there are reasons enough for instituting an organized woman’s rights movement in Belgium. But every agitation for this purpose is hampered by thefollowing social factors: Catholicism (Belgium is 99 per cent Catholic), Clericalism in Parliament, and the indifference of the rich bourgeoisie.
The woman’s rights movement has very few adherents in the third estate, and it is exactly the women of this estate that ought to be the natural supporters of the movement. In the fourth estate, in which there are a great many Socialists, the woman’s rights movement is identical with Socialism.
Since the legal status of woman is determined by the Code Napoleon, we need not comment upon it here. By a law of 1900, the wife is empowered to deposit money in a savings bank without the consent of her husband; the limit of her deposit being 3000 francs ($600). The wife also controls her earnings. If, however,she draws more than 100 francs($20)a month from the savings bank, the husband may protest. Women are now admitted to family councils; they can act as guardians; they can act as witnesses to a marriage. Affiliation cases were made legal in 1906. On December 19, 1908, women were given active and passive suffrage in arbitration courts for labor disputes.
The Belgium secondary school system is exceptional because the government has established a rather large number of girls’ high schools. However, these schools do not prepare for the university entrance examinations (Abiturientenexamen). Women contemplating enteringthe university, must prepare for these examinations privately. This was done by Miss Marie Popelin, of Brussels, who wished to study law. The universities of Brussels, Ghent, and Liège have been open to women since 1886. Hence Miss Popelin could execute her plans; in 1888 she received the degree of Doctor of Laws. She made an attempt in 1888-1889 to secure admission to the bar as a practicing lawyer, but the Brussels Court of Appeals decided the case against her.[86]
Miss Marie Popelin is the leader of the middle-class woman’s rights movement in Belgium. She is in charge of the Woman’s Rights League (Ligue du droit des femmes), founded in 1890. With the support of Mrs. Denis, Mrs. Parent, and Mrs. Fontaine, Miss Popelin organized, in 1897, an international woman’s congress in Brussels. Many representatives of foreign countries attended. One of the German representatives, Mrs. Anna Simpson, was astonished by the indifference of the people of Brussels. In her report she says: “Where were the women of Brussels during the days of the Congress? They did not attend, for the middle class is not much interested in our cause. It was especially for this class that the Congress was held.†Dr. Popelinis also president of the league that has since 1908 taken up the struggle against the official regulation of prostitution.
The schools and convents are the chief fields of activity for the middle-class Belgian women engaged in non-domestic callings. As yet there are only a few women doctors. One of these, Mrs. Derscheid-Delcour, has been appointed as chief physician at the Brussels Orphans’ Home. Mrs. Delcour graduated in 1893 at the University of Berlinsumma cum laude; in 1895 she was awarded the gold medal in the surgical sciences in a prize contest for the students of the Belgian universities.
In Belgium 268,337 women are engaged in the industries. The Socialist party has recognized the organizations of these women; it was instrumental in organizing 250,000 women into trade-unions. Elsewhere this would be impossible.[87]
Madame Vandervelde, the wife of the Socialist member of Parliament, and Madame Gatti de Gammond, the publisher of theCahiers feministes, were the leaders of the Socialist woman’s rights movement, which is organized throughout the country in committees, councils, and societies. Madame Gatti de Gammond died in 1905, and her publication, theCahiers feministes, wasdiscontinued. The secretary of the Federation of Socialist Women (Fédération de femmes socialistes) is Madame Tilmans. Vooruit, of Ghent, publishes a woman’s magazine:De Stem der Vrouw.
The women are demanding the right to vote. The Belgian women possessed municipal suffrage till 1830. They were deprived of this right by the Constitution of 1831. A measure favoring universal suffrage (for men and women) was introduced into Parliament in 1894. This bill, however, provided also for plural voting, by which the property-owning and the educated classes were given one or two additional votes. The Socialists opposed this, and demanded that each person have one vote (un homme, un vote). The Clerical majority then replied that it would not bring the bill to a vote. In this way the Clericals remained assured of a majority.
For tactical purposes the Socialists adopted the expression—un homme, un vote. It harmonized with their principles and ideals. At a meeting of the party in which the matter was discussed, it was shown that universal suffrage would be detrimental to the party’s interests; for the Socialists were convinced that woman’s suffrage would certainly insure a majority for the Clericals. Hence, in meeting, the women were persuaded to withdraw their demand for woman’s suffrage on the grounds of opportuneness, andin the meantime towork for the inauguration of universal male suffrage without the plural vote.[88]
In theFronde, Audrée Téry summarized the situation in the following dialogue:—
The man.Emancipate yourself and I will enfranchise you.
The woman.Give me the franchise and I shall emancipate myself.
The man.Be free, and you shall have freedom.
In this manner, concludes Audrée Téry, this dialogue can be continued indefinitely.
Recently the middle-class women have begun to show an interest in woman’s suffrage. A woman’s suffrage organization was formed in Brussels in 1908; one in Ghent, in 1909. Together they have organized the Woman’s Suffrage League, which has affiliated with the International Woman’s Suffrage Alliance.
Woman’s lack of rights and her powerlessness in public life are shown by the fact that in Antwerp, in 1908, public aid to the unemployed was granted only to men,—to unmarried as well as to married men. As for the unmarried women, they were left to shift for themselves.
ITALY
National unification raised Italy to the rank of a great power. Italy’s political position as a great power, her modern parliamentary life, and the Liberal and Socialist majority in her Parliament give Italy a position that Spain, for example, does not possess in any way. Catholicism, Clericalism, and Roman custom are no match for these modern liberal powers, and are therefore unable to hinder the woman’s rights movement in the same degree as do these influences in Spain. However, the Italian woman in general is still entirely dependent on the man (see the discussion in Alaremo’sUna Donna), and in the unenlightened classes woman’s feeling of inferiority is impressed upon her by the Church, the law, the family, and by custom. Naturally the woman attempts, as in Spain, to take revenge in the sexual field.
In Italy there is no strict morality among married men. Moreover, the opposition to divorce in Italy comes largely from the women, who, accustomed to being deceived in matrimony, fear that if they are divorced theywill be left without means of support. “Boysmake love to girls,—to mere unguided children without any will of their own,—and when these boys marry, be they ever so young, they have already had a wealth of experience that has taught them to regard woman disdainfully—with a sort of cynical authority. Even love and respect for the innocent young wife is unable to eradicate from the young husband the impressions of immorality and bad examples. The wife suffers from a hardly perceptible, but unceasing depression of mind. Innocently, without suspicion, uninformed as to her husband’s past, the wife persists in her belief in his manly superiority until this belief has become a fixed habit of thought, and then even a cruel revelation cannot take him from her.â€[89]
In southern Italy,—especially in Sicily,—Arabian oriental conceptions of woman still prevail. During her whole life woman is a grown-up child. No woman, not even the most insignificant woman laborer, can be on the street without an escort. On the other hand, the boys are emancipated very early. With pity and arrogance the sons look down on the mother, who must be accompanied in the street by her sons.
“Close intellectual relations between man and woman cannot as yet be developed, owing to the generally low education of woman, to her subordination, and to her intellectual bondage. While still in the schoolsthe boy is trained for political life. The average Italian woman participates in politics even less than the German woman; her influence is purely moral. If the Italian woman wishes to accept any office in a society, she must have the consent of her husband attested by a notary. Just as in ancient times, the non-professional interests of the husband are, in great part, elsewhere than at home. The opportunity daily to discuss political and other current questions with men companions is found by the German man in the smaller cities while taking his evening pint of beer. The Italian man finds this opportunity sometimes in the café, sometimes in the public places, where every evening the men congregate for hours. So the educated man in Italy (even more than in Germany) has no need of the intellectual qualities of his wife. Moreover, his need for an educated wife is the less because his misguided precocity prevents him from acquiring anything but an essentially general education. The restricted intellectual relationship between husband and wife is explained partly by the fact that thecicisbeo[90]still exists. This relation ought to be, and generally is, Platonic and publicly known. The wife permits her friend (thecicisbeo) to escort her to the theater and elsewhere in a carriage; the husband also escorts a woman friend. So husband and wife share the inwardly moral unsoundness of themedieval service of love (Minnedienst). At any rate this custom reveals the fact that after the honeymoon the husband and wife do not have overmuch to say to each other. In this way there takes place, to a certain extent, an open relinquishment of the postulate that, in accordance with the external indissolubility of married life, there ought to be permanent intellectual bonds between man and wife,—a postulate that is the source of the most serious conscience struggles, but which has caused the great moral development of the northern woman.â€[91]
Naturally, under such circumstances, the woman’s rights movement has done practically nothing for the masses. In the circles of the nobility the movement, with the consent of the clergy, has until recently confined itself to philanthropy (the forming of associations and insurance societies, the founding of homes, asylums, etc.) and to the higher education of girls.[92]In a private audience the Pope has expressed himself infavorof women’s engaging in university studies (except theology), but he wasopposedto woman’s suffrage. The daughters of the educated, liberal (but often poor) bourgeoisie are driven by want and conviction to acquire a higher education and to engagein academic callings. The material difficulties are not great. As in France, the government has during the past thirty-five years promoted all educational measures that would take from the clergy its power over youth.
Elementary education is public and obligatory. The laws are enforced rather strictly. Coeducation nowhere exists. The number of women teachers is 62,643.
The secondary school system is still largely in the hands of the Catholic religious orders. There are about 100,000 girls and nuns enrolled in these church schools; only 25,000 girls are in the secondary state and private schools (other than the Catholic schools), which cannot give instruction ascheaplyas the religious schools. The efforts of the state in this field are not to be criticized: it has given women every educational opportunity. Girls wishing to study in the universities are admitted to the boys’ classical schools (ginnasii) and to the boys’ technical schools. This experiment in coeducation during the plastic age of youth has not even been undertaken by France. To be sure, at present the girls sit together on the front seats, and when entering and leaving class they have the school porter as bodyguard. In spite of all fears to the contrary, coeducation has been a success in northern Italy (Milan), as well as in southern Italy (Naples).
The universities have never been closed to women. In recent years 300 women have attended the universities and have graduated. During the Renaissance there were many women teachers in Italy. This tradition has been revived; at present there are 10 women university teachers.Dr. jur.Therese Labriola (whose mother is a German) is a lecturer in the philosophy of law at Rome.Dr. med.Rina Monti is a university lecturer in anatomy at Pavia.
There are many practicing women doctors in Italy.Dr. med.Maria Montessori (a delegate to the International Congress of Women in Berlin in 1896) is a physician in the Roman hospitals. The Minister of Public Instruction has authorized her to deliver a course of lectures on the treatment of imbecile children to a class of women teachers in the elementary schools. The legal profession still remains closed to women, althoughDr. jur.Laidi Poët has succeeded in being admitted to the bar in Turin.
In government service (in 1901) there were 1000 women telephone employees, 183 women telegraph clerks, and 161 women office clerks. These positions are much sought after by men. The number of women employed in commerce is 18,000; the total number of persons employed in commerce being 57,087. Recently women have been appointed as factory inspectors.
The beginnings of the modern woman’s rights movement coincide with the political upheavals that occurred between 1859 and 1870. When the Kingdom of Italy had been established, Jessie White Mario demanded a reform of the legal, political, and economic status of woman. Whatever legal concessions have been made to women are due, as in France, to the Liberal parliamentary majority.
Since 1877, women have been able to act as witnesses in civil suits. Women (even married women) can be guardians. The property laws provide for separation of property. Even in cases of joint property holding, the wife controls her earnings and savings. The husband can give her a general authorization (allgemeinautorisation), thus giving her the full status of a legal person before the law. These laws are the most radical reforms to which the Code Napoleon has ever been subjected,—reforms which the French did not venture to enact.
The Liberal majority made an attempt in 1877 to emancipate the women politically. But the attempt failed. Bills providing for municipal woman’s suffrage were introduced and rejected in 1880, 1883, and 1888. However, since 1890, women have been eligible as poor-law guardians. The élite among the Italian men loyally supported the women in their struggle for emancipation. Since 1881 the women have organizedclubs. At first these were unsuccessful. Free and courageous women were in the minority. In Rome the woman’s rights movement was at first exclusively benevolent. In Milan and Turin, on the other hand, there were woman’s rights advocates (under the leadership ofDr. med.Paoline Schiff and Emilia Mariani). The leadership of the national movement fell to the more active, more educated, and economically stronger northern Italy. Here also the movement of the workingwomen had progressed to the stage of organization, as, for example, in the case of the Lombard women workers in the rice fields.
There are 1,371,426 women laborers in Italy. Their condition is wretched. In agriculture, as well as in the industries, they are given the rough,poorly paidwork to do. They are exploited to the extreme. Women straw plaiters have been offered 20 centimes, even as little as 10 centimes (4 to 2 cents), for twelve hours’ work. The average daily wage for women is 80 centimes to 1 franc (16 to 20 cents). The maximum is 1 franc 50 centimes (30 cents). The law has fixed the maximum working day for women at twelve hours, and prohibits women under twenty years of age from engaging in work that is dangerous and injurious to health. There are maternity funds for women in confinement, financial aid being given them for four weeks after the birth of the child. Under all thesecircumstances the organization of women is exceedingly difficult. Even the Socialists have neglected the organization of workingwomen.
Socialist propaganda among women agricultural laborers was begun in 1901. In Bologna, in the autumn of 1902, there was held a meeting of the representatives of 800 agricultural organizations (having a total membership of 150,000 men and women agricultural laborers). The constitution of the society is characteristic; many of its clauses are primitive and pathetic. This society is intended to be an educational and moral organization. Women members are exhorted “to live rightly, and to be virtuous and kind-hearted mothers, women, and daughters.â€[93]It is to be hoped that the task of the women will be made easier through the efforts of the society’s male members to make themselves virtuous and kind-hearted fathers, husbands, and sons. Or are moral duties, in this case also, meant only for woman?
The movement favoring the abolition of the official regulation of prostitution was introduced into Italy by Mrs. Butler. A congress in favor of abolition was held in 1898 in Genoa. Recently, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Agnes MacLaren and Miss Buchner, the movement has been revived, and urged upon the Catholic clergy. The Italian branch of theInternational Federation for the Abolition of the Official Regulation of Prostitution was founded in 1908. In the same year was held in Rome the successful Congress of the Federation of Women’s Clubs. This Congress, representing the nobility, the middle class, and workingwomen, brought the woman’s suffrage question to the attention of the public. A number of woman’s suffrage societies had been organized previously, in Rome as well as in the provinces. They formed the National Woman’s Suffrage League, which, in 1906, joined the International Woman’s Suffrage Alliance. Through the discussions in the women’s clubs, woman’s suffrage became a topic of public interest. The Amsterdam Report [of the Congress of the International Woman’s Suffrage Alliance] says: “The women of the aristocracy wish to vote because they are intelligent; they feel humiliated because their coachman or chauffeur is able to vote. The workingwomen demand the right to vote, that they may improve their conditions of labor and be able to support their children better.†A parliamentary commission for the consideration of woman’s suffrage was established in 1908. In the meantime the existence of this commission enables the President of the Ministry to dispose of the various proposed measures with the explanation that such matters will not be considereduntil the commission has expressed itself on the whole question. Women haveactive and passive suffrage for the arbitration courts for labor disputes.
SPAIN[94]
Whoever has traveled in Spain knows that it is a country still living, as it were, in the seventeenth century,—nay in the Middle Ages. The fact has manifold consequences for woman. In all cases progress is hindered. Woman is under the yoke of the priesthood, and of a Catholicism generally bigoted. The Church teaches woman that she is regarded as the cause of carnal desire and of the fall of man. By law, woman is under the guardianship of man. Custom forbids the “respectable†woman to walk on the street without a man escort. The Spanish woman regards herself as a person of the second order, a necessary adjunct to man. Such a fundamental humiliation and subordination is opposed to human nature. As the Spanish woman has no power of open opposition, she resorts to cunning. By instinct she isconscious of the power of her sex; this she uses and abuses. A woman’s rights advocate is filled with horror, quite as much as with pity, when she sees this mixture of bigotry, coquetry, submissiveness, cunning, and hate that is engendered in woman by such tyranny and lack of progress.
The Spanish woman of the lower classes receives no training for any special calling; she is a mediocre laborer. She acts as beast of burden, carries heavy burdens on her shoulders, carries water, tills the fields, and splits wood. She is employed as an industrial laborer chiefly in the manufacture of cigars and lace. “The wages of women,†says Professor Posada,[95]“are incredibly low,†being but 10 cents a day. As tailors, women make a scanty living, for many of the Spanish women do their own tailoring. The mantilla makes the work of milliners in general superfluous. In commercial callings women are still novices. Recently there has been talk of beginning the organization of women into trade-unions.
Women are employed in large numbers as teachers; teaching being their sole non-domestic calling. Elementary instruction has been obligatory since 1870, however, only in theory. In 1889 28 per cent of the women were illiterate. In many cases the girls of the lower classes do not attend school at all. Whenthey do attend, they learn very little; for owing to the lack of seminaries the training of women teachers is generally quite inadequate. A reform of the central seminary of women teachers, in Madrid, took place in 1884; this reform was also a model for the seminaries in the provinces. The secondary schools for girls are convent schools. In France there are complaints that these schools are inadequate. What, then, can be expected of the Spanish schools! The curriculum includes only French, singing, dancing, drawing, and needlework. But the “Society for Female Education†is striving to secure a reform of the education for girls.
Preparation for entrance to the university must be secured privately. The number of women seeking entrance to universities is small. Most of them, so far as I know, are medical students. However, the Spanish women have a brilliant past in the field of higher education. Donna Galinda was the Latin professor of Queen Isabella. Isabella Losa and Sigea Aloisia of Toledo were renowned for their knowledge of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; Sigea Aloisia corresponded with the Pope in Arabic and Syriac. Isabel de Rosores even preached in the Cathedral of Barcelona.
In the literature of the present time Spanish women are renowned. Of first rank is Emilia Pardo Bazan, who is called the “Spanish Zola.†She is a countess and an only daughter, two circumstances thatfacilitated her emancipation and, together with her talent, assured her success. She characterizes herself as “a mixture of mysticism and liberalism.†At the age of seven she wrote her first verses. Her best book portrayed a “liberal monk,†Father Fequë.Pascual Loper, a novel, was a great success. She then went to Paris to study naturalism. Here she became acquainted with Zola, Goncourt, Daudet, and others. A study of Francis of Assisi led her again to the study of mysticism. In her recent novels liberalism is mingled with idealism.
Emilia Pardo Bazan is by conviction a woman’s rights advocate. In the Madrid Atheneum she filled with great success the position of Professor of French Literature. At the pedagogical congress in Madrid, in 1899, she gave a report onWoman, her Education, and her Rights.
In Spain there are a number of well-known women journalists, authors, and poets. Dr. Posada enumerates a number of woman’s rights publications on pages 200-202 of his book,El Feminismo.
Concepcion Arenal was a prominent Spanish woman and woman’s rights advocate. She devoted herself to work among prisoners, and wrote a valuable handbook dealing with her work. She felt the oppression of her sex very keenly. Concerning woman’s status, which man has forced upon her, Concepcion Arenalexpressed herself as follows: “Man despises all women that do not belong to his family; he oppresses every woman that he does not love or protect. As a laborer, he takes from her the best paid positions; as a thinker, he forbids the mental training of woman; as a lover, he can be faithless to her without being punished by law; as a husband, he can leave her without being guilty before the law.â€
The wife is legally under the guardianship of her husband; she has no authority over her children. The property laws provide for joint property holding.
In spite of these conditions Concepcion Arenal did not give up all hope. “Women,†said she, “are beginning to take interest in education, and have organized a society for the higher education of girls.†The pedagogical congresses in Madrid (1882 and 1889) promoted the intellectual emancipation of women. Catalina d’Alcala, delegate to the International Congress of Women in Chicago in 1893, closed her report with the words, “We are emerging from the period of darkness.†However, he who has wandered through Spanish cathedrals knows that this darkness is still very dense! Nevertheless, the woman’s suffrage movement has begun: the women laborers are agitating in favor of a new law of association. A number of women teachers and women authors have petitioned for the right to vote. In March, 1908, during thediscussion of a new law concerning municipal administration, an amendment in favor of woman’s suffrage was introduced, but was rejected by a vote of 65 to 35. The Senate is said to be more favorable to woman’s suffrage than is the Chamber of Deputies.
The fact that women of the aristocracy have opposed divorce, and that women of all classes have opposed the enactment of laws restricting religious orders, is made to operate against the political emancipation of women. A deputy in the Cortez, Senor Pi y Arsuaga, who introduced the measure in favor of the right of women taxpayers to vote in municipal elections, argued that the suffrage of a woman who is the head of a family seems more reasonable to him than the suffrage of a young man, twenty-five years old, who represents no corresponding interests.
PORTUGAL
Portugal is smaller than Spain; its finances are in better condition; therefore the compulsory education law (introduced in 1896) is better enforced. As yetthere are no public high schools for girls; but there are a number of private schools that prepare girls for the university entrance examinations (Abiturientenexamen). The universities admit women. Women doctors practice in the larger cities. The women laborers are engaged chiefly in the textile industry; their wages are about two thirds of those of the men.
THE LATIN-AMERICAN REPUBLICS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA
MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA[96]
The condition prevailing in Mexico and Central America is one of patriarchal family life, the husband being the “master†of the wife. There are large families of ten or twelve children. The life of most of the women without property consists of “endless routine and domestic tyrannyâ€; the life of the property-owning women is one of frivolous coquetry and indolence. There is no higher education for women; there are no high ideals. The education of girls is generally regarded as unnecessary.
There are public elementary schools for girls,—with women teachers. The higher education of girls is carried on by convent schools, and comprises domesticscience, sewing, dancing, and singing. In the Mexican public high schools for girls, modern subjects and literature are taught; the work is chiefly memorizing. Technical schools for girls are unknown. Women do not attend the universities. Women teachers in Mexico are paid good salaries,—250 francs ($50) a month.
Women are engaged in commerce only in their own business establishments; and then in small retail businesses. The rest of the workingwomen are engaged in agriculture, domestic service, washing, and sewing. Their wages are from 40 to 50 per cent lower than those of men. The legal status of women is similar to that of the French women. In Mexico only does the wife control her earnings. Divorce is not recognized by law, though separation is. By means of foreign teachers the initiative of the people has been slightly aroused. It will take long for this stimulus to reach the majority of the people.
SOUTH AMERICA[97]
In South America there are the same “patriarchal†forms of family life, the same external restrictions for woman. She must have an escort on the streets, even though the escort be only a small boy.
Just as in Central America, the occupations of the women of the lower and middle class are agriculture, domestic service, washing, sewing, and retail business. But woman’s educational opportunities in South America are greater, although through public opinion everything possible is done to prevent women from desiring an education and admission to a liberal calling. Elementary education is compulsory (often in coeducational schools). Secondary education is in the hands of convents. In Brazil, Chili, Venezuela, Argentine Republic, Paraguay, and Colombia, the universities have been opened to women. As yet there are no women preachers or lawyers, although several women have studied law. Women practice as physicians, obstetrics still being their special field.
The beginnings of a woman’s rights movement exist in Chili. The Chilean women learn readily and willingly. They have proved their worth in business and in the liberal callings. They have competed successfully for government positions; they have founded trade-unions and coöperative societies; many women are tramway conductors, etc. In all the South American republics women have distinguished themselves as poets and authors. In the Argentine Republic there is a Federation of Woman’s Clubs, which, in 1901, joined the International Council of Women.
In the Slavic countries there is a lack of an ancient, deeply rooted culture like that of western Europe. Everywhere the oriental viewpoint has had its effect on the status of woman. In general the standards of life are low; therefore, the wages of the women are especially wretched. Political conditions are in part very unstable,—in some cases wholly antique. All of these circumstances greatly impede the progress of the woman’s rights movement.
RUSSIA
The Russian woman’s rights movement is forced by circumstances to concern itself chiefly witheducational and industrial problems. All efforts beyond these limits are, as a matter of course, regarded as revolutionary. Such efforts are a part of the forbidden “political movementâ€; therefore they are dangerous and practically hopeless. Some peculiarities of the Russian woman’s rights movement are: its individuality, its independence of the momentary tendencies of the government, and the companionable coöperation of men and women. All three characteristics are accounted for by the absolute government that prevails in Russia, in spite of its Duma.
Under this régime the organization of societies and the holding of meetings are made exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. Individual initiative therefore works in solitude; discussion or the expression of opinions is not very feasible. When individual initiative ceases, progress usually ceases also. Corporate activity, such as educates women adherents, did not exist formerly in Russia. The lack of united action wastes much force, time, and money. Unconsciously people compete with each other. Without wishing to do so, people neglect important fields. The absolute régime regards all striving for an education as revolutionary. The educational institutions for women are wholly in the hands of the government. These institutions are tolerated; but a mere frown from above puts an end to their existence.
It is the absolute régime that makes comrades of men and women struggling for emancipation. The oppression endured by both sexes is in fact the same.
The government has not always been an enemy of enlightenment, as it is to-day. The first steps of the woman’s rights movement were made through the influence of the rulers. Although polygamy did not exist in Russia, the country could not free itself from certain oriental influences. Hence the women of the property-owning class formerly lived in the harem (calledterem). The women were shut off from the world; they had no education, often no rearing whatever; they were the victims of deadly ennui, ecstatic piety, lingering diseases, and drunkenness.
With a strong hand Peter the Great reformed the condition of Russian women. Theteremwas abolished; the Russian woman was permitted to see the world. In rough, uncivilized surroundings, in the midst of a brutal, sensuous people, woman’s release was not in all cases a gain for morality. It is impossible to become a woman of western Europe upon demand.
Catherine II saw that there must be a preparation for this emancipation. She created theInstitute de demoisellesfor girls of the upper classes. The instruction, borrowed from France, remained superficial enough; the women acquired a knowledge of French, a fewaccomplishments, polished manners, and an aristocraticbearing. For all that, it was then an achievement to educate young Russian women according to the standards of western Europe. The superficiality of theInstitutkawas recognized in the middle of the nineteenth century. Alexander II, the Tsarina, and her aunt, Helene Pavlovna, favored reforms. The emancipator of the serfs could also liberate women from their intellectual bondage.
Thus with the protection of the highest power, the first public lyceum for girls was established in 1857 in Russia. This was a day school for girls ofallclasses. What an innovation! To-day there are 350 of these lyceums, having over 10,000 women students. The curriculums resemble those of the German high schools for girls. None of these lyceums (except the humanistic lyceum for girls in Moscow), are equivalent to the GermanGymnasiumsorRealgymnasiums, nor even to theOberrealschulenorRealschulen. This explains and justifies the refusal of the German universities to regard the leaving certificates of the Russian lyceums as equivalent to theAbiturientencertificate of the German schools. The compulsory studies in the girls’ lyceums are: Russian, French, religion, history, geography, geometry, algebra, a few natural sciences, dancing, and singing. The optional studies are German, English, Latin, music, and sewing. The lyceums of the large cities make foreign languages compulsory also; butthese institutions are in the minority. In the natural sciences and in mathematics “much depends on the teacher.†A Russian woman wishing to study in the university must pass an entrance examination in Latin.
The first efforts to secure the higher education of women were made by a number of professors of the University of St. Petersburg in 1861. They opened courses for the instruction of adult women in the town hall. Simultaneously the Minister of War admitted a number of women to the St. Petersburg School of Medicine, this school being under his control.
However, the reaction began already in 1862. Instruction in the School of Medicine, as well as in the town hall, was discontinued. Then began the first exodus of Russian women students to Germany and Switzerland. But in St. Petersburg, in 1867, there was formed a society, under the presidency of Mrs. Conradi, to secure the reopening of the course for adult women. The society appealed to the first congress of Russian naturalists and physicians. This congress sent a petition, with the signatures of influential men, to the Minister of Public Instruction. In two years Mrs. Conradi was informed that the Minister would grant a two-year course for men and women in Russian literature and the natural sciences. The society accepted what was offered. It was little enough. Moreover, the society had to defray the cost of instruction;but it was denied the right to give examinations and confer degrees. All the teachers, however, taught without pay. In 1885 the society erected its own building in which to give its courses. The instruction was again discontinued in 1886. Once more the Russian women flocked to foreign countries. In 1889 the courses were again opened (Swiss influence on Russian youth was feared). The number of those enrolled in the courses was limited to 600 (of these only 3 per cent could be unorthodox,i.e.Jewish). These courses are still given in St. Petersburg. Recently the Council of Ministers empowered the Minister of Public Instruction to forbid women to attend university lectures; but those who have already been admitted, and find it impossible to attend other higher institutions of learning for girls, have been allowed to complete their course in the university. The present number of women hearers in Russian universities is 2130. A Russian woman doctor was admitted as a lecturer by the University of Moscow, but her appointment was not confirmed by the Minister of Public Instruction. She appealed thereupon to the Senate, declaring that the Russian laws nowhere prohibited women from acting as teachers in the universities; moreover, her medical degree gave her full power to do so. The decision of the Senate is still pending.
A recent law opens to women the calling of architectand of engineer. The work done on the Trans-Siberian Railroad by the woman engineer has given better satisfaction than any of the other work. A bill providing for the admission of women to the legal profession has been introduced but has not yet become law.
The Russian women medical students shared the vicissitudes of Russian university life for women. After 1862 they studied in Switzerland, where Miss Suslowa, in 1867, was the first woman to be given the doctor’s degree in Zurich. However, since the lack of doctors is very marked on the vast Russian plains, the government in 1872 opened special courses for women medical students in St. Petersburg. (In another institution courses were given for midwives and for women regimental surgeons.) The women completing the courses in St. Petersburg were not granted the doctor’s degree, however. The Russian women earned the doctor’s degree in the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878); for ten years after this war women graduates of the St. Petersburg medical courses were granted degrees. Then these courses were closed in 1887. They were opened again in 1898. Under these difficult circumstances the Russian women secured their higher education.
In the elementary schools, for every 1000 women inhabitants there are only 13.1 women public school teachers. Of the 2,000,000 public school children, only 650,000 are girls. The number of illiterates in Russiavaries from 70 to 80 per cent. The elementary school course in the country is only three years (it is five years in the cities).
The number of women public school teachers is 27,000 (as compared with 40,000 men teachers). An attempt has been made by the women village school teachers to arouse the women agricultural laborers from their stupor. Organization of women laborers has been attempted in the cities. For the present the task seems superhuman.[99]
When graduating from the lyceum the young girl is given herteaching diploma, which permits her to teach in the four lower classes in the girls’ lyceums. Those wishing to teach in the higher classes must take a special examination in a university. The higher classes in the girls’ lyceums are taught chiefly by men teachers. When a Russian woman teacher marries she need not relinquish her position.
In Russia the women doctors have a vast field of work. For every 200,000 inhabitants there is only one doctor! However, in St. Petersburg there is onedoctor for every 10,000 inhabitants. According to the most recent statistics there are 545 women doctors in Russia. Of these, 8 have ceased to practice, 245 have official positions, and 292 have a private practice. Of the 132 women doctors in St. Petersburg, 35 are employed in hospitals, 14 in the sanitary department of the city; 7 are school physicians, 5 are assistants in clinics and laboratories, 2 are superintendents of maternity hospitals, 2 have charge of foundling asylums, 5 have private hospitals, and the rest engage in private practice. Of the 413 women doctors not in St. Petersburg, 173 have official positions, the others have a private practice.
The local governments (zemstvos) have appointed 26 women doctors in the larger cities, 21 in the smaller, and 55 in the rural districts. There are 18 women doctors employed in private hospitals on country estates, 8 in hospitals for Mohammedan women, 16 in schools, 9 in factories, 4 are employed by railroads, 4 by the Red Cross Society, etc. The practice of the woman doctor in the country is naturally the most difficult and the least remunerative. Therefore, it is willingly given over to the women. Thanks to individual ability, the Russian woman doctor is highly respected.
There are 400 women druggists in Russia. Their training for the calling is received by practical work (this is true of the men druggists also). According tothe last statistics (1897), there were 126,016 women engaged in the liberal professions. There are a number of women professors in the state universities.
Women engage in commercial callings. The schools of commerce for women were favored by Witte in his capacity of Minister of Finance. They have since been placed under the control of the Minister of Instruction and Religion. This will restrict the freedom of instruction. Instruction in agriculture for women has not yet been established. Commerce engages 299,403 women; agriculture and fisheries, 2,086,169.
Women have been appointed as factory inspectors since 1900. The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Communication employ women in limited numbers, without entitling them to pensions. The government of the province of Moscow has appointed women to municipal offices, and has appointed them as fire insurance agents. Thezemstvoof Kiew had done this previously; but suddenly it discharged them from the municipal offices. For the past nine years an institution founded by the Princes Liwin has trained women as managers of prisons.[100]
The names of two prominent Russian women must be mentioned: Sonja Kowalewska, the winner of a contest in mathematics, and Madame Sklodowska-Curie, thediscoverer of radium. Both prove that women can excel in scientific work. It must be emphasized that the woman student in Russia must often struggle against terrible want. Whoever has studied in Swiss, German, or French universities knows the Russian-Polish students who in many cases must get along for the whole year with a couple of ten ruble bills (about ten dollars). They are wonderfully unassuming; they possess inexhaustible enthusiasm.
Many Russian women begin their university careers poorly prepared. To unfortunate, divorced, widowed, or destitute women the “University†appears to be a golden goal, a promised land. Of the privations that these women endure the people of western Europe have no conception. In Russia the facts are better known. Wealthy women endow all educational institutions for girls with relief funds and with loan and stipend funds. Restaurants and homes for university women have been established. The “Society for the Support of University Women†in Moscow has done its utmost to relieve the misery of the women students.[101]
The economic misery of the industrial and agricultural women (who are almost wholly unorganized) is somewhat worse than that of the university women. The statements concerning women’s wages in Vienna might give some idea of the misery of the Russian women. InBialystock, which has the best socialistic organization of women, the women textile workers earn about 18 cents a day; under favorable circumstances $1.25 to $1.50 a week. A skillful woman tobacco worker will earn 32½ cents a day. The average daily wages for Russian women laborers are 18 to 20 cents.
Hence it is not astonishing that in the South American houses of ill-fame there are so many Russian girls. The agents in the white slave trade need not make very extravagant promises of “good wages†to find willing followers.[102]A workingwomen’s club has existed since 1897 in St. Petersburg. There are 982,098 women engaged in industry and mining; 1,673,605 in domestic service (there being 1,586,450 men domestic servants). Of the women domestic servants 53,283 are illiterate (of the men only 2172!). In 1885 the women formed 30 per cent of the laboring population; in 1900 the number had increased to 44 per cent. Of the total number of criminals in Russia 10 per cent are women.
The legal status of the Russian woman is favorable in so far as the property law provides for property rights. The Russian married woman controls not only her property, but also her earnings and her savings. As survival of village communism and the feudal system, the right to vote is restricted to taxpayers and to landowners.In the rural districts the wife votes as “head of the family,†if her husband is absent or dead. Then she is also given her share of the village land. She votes in person. In the cities the women that own houses and pay taxes vote by proxy. The women owners of large estates (as in Austria) vote also for the provincial assemblies. Although constitutional liberties have a precarious existence in Russia, they have now and then been beneficial to women.
With great effort, and in the face of great dangers, woman’s suffrage societies were formed in various parts of the Empire. They united into a national Woman’s Suffrage League. The brave Russian delegates were present in Copenhagen and in Amsterdam. They belonged to all ranks of society and were adherents to the progressive political parties. Since the dissolution of the first Duma (June 9, 1906) the work of the woman’s suffrage advocates has been made very difficult; in the rural districts especially all initiative has been crippled. In Moscow and St. Petersburg the work is continued by organizations having about 1000 members; 10,000 pamphlets have been distributed, lectures have been held, a newspaper has been established, and a committee has been organized which maintains a continuous communication with the Duma.
The best established center of the Russian woman’s rights movement is the Woman’s Club in St. Petersburg.Through the tenacious efforts of the leading women of the club,—Mrs. v. Philosophow, (Mrs.)Dr. med.Schabanoff, and others,—the government granted them, in the latter part of December, 1908, the right to hold the first national congress of women. (The stipulation was made that foreign women should not participate, and that a federation of women’s clubs should not be formed.) The discussions concerned education, labor problems, and politics. Publicity was much restricted; police surveillance was rigid; addresses on the foreign woman’s suffrage movement were prohibited. Nevertheless, this progressive declaration was made: Only the right to vote can secure for the Russian women a thorough education and the right to work. Moreover, the Congress favored: better marriage laws (a wife cannot secure a passport without the consent of her husband), the abolition of the official regulation of prostitution, the abolition of the death penalty, the struggle against drunkenness, etc. The Congress was opened by the Lord Mayor of St. Petersburg and was held in the St. Petersburg town hall. This was done in a sense of obligation to the women school teachers of St. Petersburg and to those women who had endeared themselves to the people through their activity in hospitals and asylums. The Lord Mayor stated that these activities were appreciated by the municipal officers and by all municipal institutions.
Although the Congress was opened with praise for the women, it ended with an intentional insult to the highly talented and deserving leader, Mrs. v. Philosophow. Mr. Purischkewitch, the reactionary deputy of the Duma, wrote a letter in which he expressed his pleasure at the adjournment of her “congress of prostitutes†(Bordellkongress). Mrs. v. Philosophow surrendered this letter and another to the courts, which sentenced the offender to a month’s imprisonment, against which he appealed. After this Congress has worked over the whole field of the woman’s rights movement, a special congress on the education of women will be held in the autumn of 1909.[103]
Since the Revolution of 1905 the women of the provinces have been astir. It has been reported that the Mohammedan women of the Caucasus are discarding their veils, that the Russian women in the rural districts are petitioning for greater privileges, etc. An organized woman’s rights movement has originated in the Baltic Provinces; its organ is theBaltic Women’s Review(Baltische Frauenrundschau), the publisher being a woman, E. Schütze, Riga.
CZECHISH BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA
The woman’s rights movement is strongly supported among the Czechs. Woman is the best apostle of nationalism; the educated woman is the most valuable ally. In the national propaganda woman takes her place beside the man. The names of the Czechish women patriots are on the lips of everybody. Had the Liberals of German Austria known equally well how to inspire their women with liberalism and Germanism, their cause would to-day be more firmly rooted.
In inexpensive but well-organized boarding schools the Czechish girls (especially country girls, the daughters of landowners and tenants) are being educated along national lines. An institute such as the “Wesnaâ€[104]in Brünn is a center of national propaganda. Prague, like Brünn, has a CzechishGymnasiumfor girls as well as the GermanGymnasium. There is also a Czechish University besides the German University. The first woman to be given the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Czechish university was Fräulein Babor.
The industrial conditions in Czechish Bohemia andin Moravia differ very little from those in Galicia. The lot of the workingwomen, especially in the coal mining districts, is wretched. According to a local club doctor (Kassenarzt),[105]life is made up of hunger, whiskey, and lashes.
Although paragraph 30, of the Austrian law of association (Vereinsgesetz) prevents the Czechish women from forming political associations, the women of Bohemia, especially of Prague, show the most active political interest. The women owners of large estates in Bohemia voted until 1906 for members of the imperial Parliament. When universal suffrage was granted to the Austrian men, the voting rights of this privileged minority were withdrawn. The government’s resolution, providing for an early introduction of a woman’s suffrage measure, has not yet been carried out.
The suffrage conditions for the BohemianLandtag(provincial legislature) are different. Taxpayers, office-holders, doctors, and teachers vote for this body; the women, of course, voting by proxy. The same is true in the Bohemian municipal elections. In Prague only are the women deprived of the suffrage. The Prague woman’s suffrage committee, organized in 1905, has proved irrefutably that the women in Prague are legally entitled to the suffrage for the BohemianLandtag. In theLandtagelection of 1907 the women presented acandidate, Miss Tumova, who received a considerable number of votes, but was defeated by the most prominent candidate (the mayor). However, this campaign aroused an active interest in woman’s suffrage. In 1909 Miss Tumova was again a candidate. The proposed reform of the election laws for the BohemianLandtag(1908) (which provides for universal suffrage, although not equal suffrage) would disfranchise the women outside Prague. The women are opposing the law by indignation meetings and deputations.
GALICIA[106]
The conditions prevailing in Galicia are unspeakably pathetic,—medieval, oriental, and atrocious. Whoever has read Emil Franzo’s works is familiar with these conditions. The Vienna official inquiry into the industrial conditions of women led to a similar inquiry in Lemberg. This showed that most of the womencannotlive on their earnings. The lowest wages are those of the women engaged in the ready-made clothing industry,—2 to 2½ guldens ($.96 to $1.10) amonthas beginners; 8 to 10 guldens ($3.85 to $4.82) later. The wages (including board and room) of servant girls living with their employers are 20 to 25 cents a day. The skilled seamstress that sews linen garments can earn 40 cents a day if she works sixteen hours.
As a beginner, a milliner earns 2 to 4 guldens ($.96 to $1.93) amonth, later 10 guldens ($4.82). In the mitten industry (a home industry) a week’s hard work brings 6 to 8 guldens ($2.89 to $3.88). In laundries women working 14 hours earn 80 kreuzer (30 cents) a day without board. In printing works and in bookbinderies women are employed as assistants; for 9½ hours’ work a day they are paid amonthlywage of from 2 to 14 and 15 guldens ($.96 to $7.23). In the bookbinderies women sometimes receive 16 guldens ($7.71) a month.
In Lemberg, as in Vienna, women are employed as brickmakers and as bricklayers’ assistants, working 10 to 11 hours a day; their wages are 40 to 60 kreuzer (19 to 29 cents) a day. No attempt to improve these conditions through organizations has yet been made. The official inquiry thus far has confined itself to the Christian women laborers. What miseries might not be concealed in the ghettos!
An industrial women’s movement in Galicia is not tobe thought of as yet. There is a migration of the women from the flat rural districts to the cities;i.e.into the nets of the white slave agents. Women earning 10, 15, or 20 cents a day are easily lured by promises of higher wages. The ignorance of the lower classes (Ruthenians and Poles) is, according to the ideas of western Europe, immeasurable. In 1897 336,000 children between six and twelve years (in a total of about 923,000) hadnever attended school. Of 4164 men teachers, 139 had no qualifications whatever! Of the 4159 women teachers 974 had no qualifications! The minimum salary is 500 kronen ($101.50). The women teachers in 1909 demanded that they be regarded on an equality with the men teachers by the provincial school board. There areGymnasiumsfor girls in Cracow, Lemberg, and Przemysl. Women are admitted to the universities of Cracow and Lemberg. In one of the universities (Mrs.) Dr. Dazynska is a lecturer on political economy. In Cracow there is a woman’s club. Propaganda is being organized throughout the land.
A society to oppose the official regulation of prostitution and to improve moral conditions was organized in 1908. The Galician woman taxpayer votes in municipal affairs; the women owners of large estates vote for members of theLandtag. (Mrs.) Dr. Dazynska and Mrs. Kutschalska-Reinschmidt of Cracow are champions of the woman’s rights movement in Galicia.Mrs. Kutschalska lives during parts of the year in Warsaw. She publishes the magazineSter. In Russian Poland her activities are more restricted because the forming of organizations is made difficult. In spite of this the “Equal Rights Society of Polish Women†has organized local societies in Kiew, Radom, Lublin, and other cities. The formation of a federation of Polish women’s clubs has been planned. In Warsaw the Polish branch of the International Federation for the Abolition of Prostitution was organized in 1907. An asylum for women teachers, a loan-fund for women teachers, and a commission for industrial women are the external evidences of the activities of the Polish woman’s rights movement in Warsaw.
The field of labor for the educated woman is especially limited in Poland. Excluded from government service, many educated Polish women flock into the teaching profession; there they have restricted advantages. The University of Warsaw has been opened to women.
THE SLOVENE WOMAN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT[107]
The Slovene woman’s rights movement is still incipient; it was stimulated by Zofka Kveder’s “TheMystery of Woman†(Mysterium der Frau). Zofka Kveder’s motto is: “To see, to know, to understand.—Woman is a human being.†Zofka Kveder hopes to transform the magazineSlovenkainto a woman’s rights review. A South Slavic Social-Democratic movement is attempting to organize trade-unions among the women. The women lace makers have been organized. Seventy per cent of all women laborers cannot live on their earnings. In agricultural work they earn 70 hellers (14 cents) a day. In the ready-made clothing industry they are paid 30 hellers (6 cents) for making 36 buttonholes, 1 krone 20 hellers (25 cents) for making one dozen shirts.
SERVIA
Servia has been free from Turkish control hardly forty-five years. Among the people the oriental conception of woman prevails along with patriarchal family conditions. The woman’s rights movement is well organized; it is predominantly national, philanthropic, and educational.
Elementary education is obligatory, and is supportedby the “National Society for Public Education†(Nationalen Verein für Volksbildung). The girls and women of the lower classes are engaged chiefly with domestic duties; in addition they work in the fields or work at excellent home industries. These home industries were developed as a means of livelihood by the efforts of Mrs. E. Subotisch, the organizer of the Servian woman’s rights movement. The Servian women are rarely domestic servants (under Turkish rule they were not permitted to serve the enemy); most of the domestic servants are Hungarians and Austrians.
All educational opportunities are open to the women of the middle class. In all of the more important cities there are public as well as private high schools for girls. The boys’Gymnasiumsadmit girls. The university has been open to women for twenty-one years; women are enrolled in all departments; recently law has attracted many. For medical training the women, like the men, go to foreign countries (France, Switzerland).
Servia has 1020 women teachers in the elementary schools (the salary being 720 to 2000 francs—$144 to $500—a year, with lodging); there are 65 women teachers in the secondary schools (the salary being 1500 to 3000 francs,—$300 to $600). To the present no woman has been appointed as a university professor. There are six women doctors, the first having entered the profession 30 years ago; there are two women dentists;but as yet there are no women druggists. There are no women lawyers. There is a woman engineer in the service of the government. In the liberal arts there are three well-known women artists, seven women authors, and ten women poets.
There are many women engaged in commercial callings, as office clerks, cashiers, bookkeepers, and saleswomen. Women are also employed by banks and insurance companies. “A woman merchant is given extensive credit,†is stated in the report of the secretary of the Federation.
In the postal and telegraph service 108 women are employed (the salaries varying from 700 to 1260 francs,—$140 to $252). There are 127 women in the telephone service (the salaries varying from 360 to 960 francs,—$72 to $192). Servia is just establishing large factories; the number of women laborers is still small; 1604 are organized.
Prostitution is officially regulated in Servia; its recruits are chiefly foreign women. Each vaudeville singer, barmaid, etc., isex officioplaced under control.
The oldest woman’s club is the “Belgrade Woman’s Club,†founded in 1875; it has 34 branches. It maintains a school for poor girls, a school for weavers in Pirot, and a students’ kitchen (studentenküche). The “Society of Servian Sisters†and the “Society of Queen Lubitza†are patriotic societies for maintaining andstrengthening the Servian element in Turkey, Old Servia, and Macedonia. The “Society of Mothers†takes care of abandoned children. The “Housekeeping Society†trains domestic servants. The Servian women’s clubs within the Kingdom have 5000 members; in the Servian colonies without the Kingdom they have 14,000 members.
The property laws provide for joint property holding. The wife controls her earnings and savings only when this is stipulated in the marriage contract.
In 1909, the Federation of Servian Women’s Clubs inserted woman’s suffrage in its programme, and joined the International Woman’s Suffrage Alliance.
In the struggle for national existence the Servian woman demonstrated her worth, and effected a recognition of her right to an education.
BULGARIA
Like Servia, Bulgaria was freed from Turkish control about forty years ago. The liberation caused very little change in the life of the peasant women. But it opened new educational opportunities for the middle classes.The elementary schools naturally provide for the girls also. (In 1905-1906 there were 1800 men teachers and 800 women teachers in the villages; in the cities 415 men and 355 women.) High schools for girls have been established, but not all of them prepare for theAbiturientenexamen. The first women entered the university of Sofia in 1900. There are now about 100 women students. Since 1907, through the work of a reactionary ministry, the university has excluded women; married women teachers have been discharged. Women attend the schools of commerce, the technical schools, and the agricultural schools. Women are active as doctors (there being 56), midwives, journalists, and authors.