In none of the Anglo-Saxon countries of the world is there a schism between the woman’s rights movements of the middle class and the Social-Democrats, such as is found in Germany. In each of the Anglo-Saxon countries there is a Socialist, and even an Anarchist party, but these parties do not antagonize the woman’s rights movement. The republican constitutions in America,—the more democratic institutionsof society,—in general moderate the acute opposition. The absence of historical obstacles has a conciliating influence everywhere in these countries. In England, where history, monarchy, and traditional class antagonism seem to give socialism favorable conditions of growth, socialism has for a long time been hampered by the trade-unions. In other words, the English workingmen, the first to organize in Europe, had already improved their condition greatly when the socialistic propaganda commenced in England. In their trade-unions they confined themselves to the economic field; they avoided mixing economics with politics; they worked with both parties, they steered clear of class hatred, and it was difficult to influence them with the speculative ultimate aims of social democracy. It has been only in the last decade that social-democracy has made any progress in England; therefore in the woman’s rights movement middle-class women and workingwomen work together peaceably.
Of all the women in Europe the English women first became conscious of their duty toward the lower classes. In this atmosphere,—clubs and homes for working girls, and the London “College for Working Women,”—institutions such as we on the continent know only in isolated cases flourished readily. These institutions devote their attention to the girls of the lower ranks of society.
The oldest club is the “Soho Club and Home for Working Girls” in Soho Square, London, founded in 1880 by the Hon. Maude Stanley. It is open from seven in the morning to ten at night andalso on Sunday. Tea can be obtained for 2½ pence (5 cents), and dinner for 6½ pence (13 cents). The admission fee is 1 shilling, the annual dues are 8 shillings. The members have a library at their disposal, and they publish a club magazine,The London Girls’ Club Union Magazine. Members of such clubs (including those outside London) have formed themselves into a union. The members of the committee—composed of wealthy and influential women—concern themselves personally with the affairs of the clubs, giving not only their money, but their time and influence. The “College for Working Women” has existed in Fitzroy Square for more than 25 years. Here are taught English, French, history, geography, drawing, arithmetic, reading, writing, singing, cooking, sewing, wood turning, and other subjects. The quarterly fee is 1 shilling (for use of the library, attending lectures, etc.), the fees for the courses range from 1 shilling and 3 pence to 2 shillings and 6 pence (31 to 62 cents) quarterly. A commission gives examinations. The institution grants scholarships and gives prizes. The number of such clubs in the whole of Great Britain is estimated at 800.
The English woman is developing a considerableactivity in the sociological field. Florence Nightingale, who organized a regular hospital service on the field of battle during the Crimean War (1854), upon her return to England took steps to secure the training of educated women for the nursing profession, in which the English nurse has been the model. The most important Training College for nurses not connected with religious orders is in Henrietta Street, in London. Still this distinguished profession, which is represented in the International Red Cross Society, has not yet attained state registration of nurses,—i.e.an officially prescribed course of study concluding with a state examination.
The English midwives are vehemently complaining because the new Midwives Act will be deliberated on by a commission having no midwife as a member. The superintendent of the London Institute for Midwives has protested against this on behalf of 26,000 midwives.
Another woman, Octavia Hill, participated in the official inquiry of the living conditions of the London East End, which led to a systematic campaign against the slums. This work is at present continued in London by 31 or more women sanitary officers. They supplement the work of the factory inspectors, since they inspect the conditions under which women home-workers live. In the whole country there are more than 80 such women sanitary officers.
The home-workers are mostly women. Half of the 900,000 or more English women engaged in the manufacture of ready-made clothing are permitted to work at home. Their wages are wretchedly low. The government, which pays themenof the Woolwich Arsenal trade-union wages, is one of the worst exploiters of women (who do not have the right to vote); in the Army Clothing Works the government employs women either directly or indirectly (as home-workers through sweaters).[50]
The urgent need of widening woman’s field of labor and improving her conditions of labor is clearly stated in a lecture which Miss B. L. Hutchins delivered before the Royal Statistical Society. According to the census of 1901 there were 1,070,000 more women than men in Great Britain. In 1901, of every 1000 persons 516 were women (in 1841, only 511 were women). The longevity of women is higher than that of men (47.77 to 44.13). When the old age pensions were introduced, 135 women to every 100 men applied for aid. Only half of the adult women (5,700,000) are provided for through marriage, and then only for 20 to 30 years of their lives. Previous to marriage, and afterward, most of the women are dependent on their own work for a living. Because English women know from experience that their conditionsof labor can be improved only through the exercise of the suffrage, they have adopted their “militant tactics.”
In the field of poor-relief England again has taken the lead, inasmuch as she has permitted women to fill honorary posts in the municipal administration of the poor-law. At the present time 1162 women are engaged in this work, 147 of whom are rural district councillors.
The chief reform efforts of the women were directed to the care of children and to the workhouses, through which channels private aid reaches the recipient. Still, among 22,000 guardians of the poor the number of women hardly reaches 1000. The old prejudice against women asserted itself even in this field. A “Society for Promoting the Return of Women as Poor-law Guardians” is endeavoring to hasten reform.[51]
The Englishman has the valuable characteristic of forming organizations that strive to achieve very definite, though often temporary, ends, thus giving private initiative great flexibility. Such an organization, with a limited purpose, is the “Woman’s Coöperative Gild,” founded in 1883. Its purpose is to promote the coöperative movement (as far as consumption is concerned) among women, and to show them their enormous social and economic power asconsumers. Women are the chief purchasers, as they purchase the housekeepingsupplies. It is to their interest to purchase through the coöperative associations that exclude the middlemen, and at the end of the year pay a dividend to the members of the associations. These associations can exercise an important social influence inasmuch as they create model conditions of labor for their employees (short working day, high wages, early closing of the shops, no work on Sundays or holidays, opportunity to sit down during working hours, insurance against sickness, old age insurance, sanitary conditions of labor, etc.). The Gild organizes women into coöperative societies, and by theoretical as well as practical studies informs the women of the advantages of the coöperative system. The movement to-day numbers 26,000 members.
In England a marked increase in the use of alcoholic liquors among women was noticed; whereupon legal and medical measures were taken to curb the evil. The most effective measure would be an attack on the drunkenness of the husband, which destroys the home.
The official report of the first English school for mothers, located in St. Pancras, London, has just appeared. This report shows that the experiment has been entirely successful. Of all measures to decrease the death rate among children, the establishment of schools for mothers is the best. During the course of instruction the young married women wererecommended to organize mothers’ clubs in order to secure the necessaries of life more cheaply. The school for mothers also attempts to give the young mothers nourishing meals, which can be furnished for the low sum of 2¾ pence (about 6 cents).
In the field of morals English women have achieved a success which might well excite the envy of other countries; viz. the repeal of the law of 1869 concerning the state regulation of prostitution. The law had hardly been accepted by an accidental majority when public opinion, under the leadership of members of Parliament, doctors, and preachers, protested against the measure. Nothing made such an impression as the public appearance of a woman on behalf of the repeal of this measure concerning women. In spite of all scorn, all feigned and frequently malicious pretensions not to comprehend her, in spite of all attempts, frequently brutal, to browbeat her,—Josephine Butler from 1870 to 1886 unswervingly supported the view that the regulation was to be condemned from the legal, sanitary, and moral viewpoint. Through the tireless work of Mrs. Butler and her faithful associates, Parliament in 1886 repealed the act providing for the regulation of prostitution. Since 1875, Mrs. Butler has organized internationally the struggle against the official regulation of prostitution. On December 30, 1906, death came to the noble woman.
Conditions in England are an evidence of how much more difficult it is for the woman’s rights movement to make progress inoldcountries than in new. Traditions are deeply rooted, customs are firmly established, the whole weight of the past is blocking the wheels of progress. In countries with older civilization the woman’s question is entirely a question of force.[52]
CANADA
Politically Canada belongs to England, geographically it is a part of North America. The Canadian women take a keen interest in the woman’s rights movement of the United States, which is setting them an excellent example. The last congress of the “International Council of Women” met in Toronto, Canada, under the presidency of Lady Aberdeen, the present president and the wife of the former governor-general of Canada. Canada is a large, young, agricultural country with large families and primitive needs. Therefore theprogress of the woman’s rights movement is less marked in Canada than in the United States and England. Throughout Canada the workingwoman is paid less than the workingman, partly because she is more poorly trained, partly because she is kept in subordinate positions, partly because, in order to find work at all, she must offer her services for less money. Even when teaching, or doing piecework, woman is paid less than man. In Canada there is as yet no political woman’s rights movement strong enough to rectify this injustice by means of organizations and laws as has been done in Australia. As yet there are no women preachers in Canada. Women lawyers are confronted both with popular prejudice and legal obstacles. The study and practice of medicine is made very difficult for women, especially in Quebec and Montreal. In New Brunswick and Ontario as well as in the northwest provinces there is a more liberal attitude toward women’s pursuit of higher education. No Canadian university excludes women entirely, but not a few of the higher institutions of learning refuse women admission to certain courses and refuse to grant certain degrees. The prevailing property laws in the eastern part of Canada legalize joint property holding (and we know what that means for woman); in the western part there is separation of property rights or at least separate control over earnings, the wife having full control of her wages. The maleCanadian, when twenty-one years old, becomes a voter and has full political rights.[53]But the Canadian woman has only restricted suffrage rights. Unmarried women that are taxpayers exercise only active suffrage inmunicipal and school elections. Each province has its own laws regulating these conditions of suffrage.
The Copenhagen Congress (1906) of the International Woman’s Suffrage Alliance promoted the cause of woman’s suffrage in Canada very considerably. At a public meeting in which the Canadian delegate, Mrs. MacDonald Denison, gave a report of the work of the International Congress, a resolution favoring woman’s suffrage was adopted, and this was used very effectively in propaganda. This propaganda was carried on among women’s clubs, students’ clubs, debating clubs, etc. The intellectual élite is to-day in favor of woman’s suffrage. In 1907 the Canadian Woman’s Suffrage Association, supported by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, the Women Teachers, the Medical Alumnæ, the Progressive Thought Association, the Toronto Local Council of Women, and the Progressive Club, sent a delegation to the Mayor and Council of the city of Toronto to express their support of a resolution which the Council had drawn up favoring the right of married women to vote in municipal elections.Thus supported, the resolution was presented to the authorized commission, but here it was weakened by an amendment (granting the suffrage only to married womenowning property). The author of this amendment, a member of the Toronto City Council, received his reward for this kindness to the women in the form of a defeat at the next election.
Organizations favoring woman’s suffrage have been founded throughout the country (Halifax, Nova Scotia; St. John, New Brunswick). Woman’s suffrage advocates speak in mass meetings and in men’s clubs, etc.[54]
A demand for woman’s suffrage, made by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, was answered evasively by the Prime Minister, Sir Wilfred Laurier,—the provincial parliaments must take the matter up first, then the Dominion Parliament can consider it. In the spring of 1909 the City Council of Toronto sent a petition favoring woman’s suffrage to the Canadian Parliament, and at the same time 1000 woman’s suffrage advocates called on the Prime Minister. The 1909 Congress of the International Woman’s Suffrage Alliance will undoubtedly help the Canadian woman’s suffrage movement.
SOUTH AFRICA
In South Africa, Natal was the leader in the woman’s rights movement. In 1902, through the work of Mr. and Mrs. Ancketill, the Woman’s Equal Suffrage League was organized, which endeavored primarily to interest and educate its members. Later, in 1904, public propaganda was begun. In June a petition was presented to the Lower House by Mr. Ancketill. When he presented the matter in the form of a motion, it was not put to a vote, owing to the newness of the subject. The agricultural population opposes woman’s suffrage; the urban population favors it. The woman’s rights movement is made difficult in South Africa by the following circumstances: An enervating climate “that makes people languidly content with things as they are.” The lack of educated and independent women (women teachers are state employees); the lack of a numerous class of workingwomen; difficult housekeeping, owing to the untrustworthiness of the natives as domesticservants; the peculiar position of men as taxpayers (men only pay a poll tax) and as arms bearers (all men must serve in the army).[56]
In Cape Colony similar conditions prevail. The Women’s Enfranchisement League was formed in 1907; and in July, 1907, there took place the first woman’s suffrage debate in Parliament. The woman’s suffrage societies of Natal, Cape Colony, and the Transvaal have formed an association and have joined the International Woman’s Suffrage Alliance. In Natal and Cape Colony women taxpayers exercise the right to vote in municipal affairs. The regulation of the suffrage qualifications for the Federal Parliament is being considered. The South African delegates in London (1909) expressed the fear that women would not be given the federal suffrage.
THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES
Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark will be grouped together since they are so closely connected by race and culture; repetition will thereby be avoided, and clearness promoted.
All four countries have the advantage of having a population largely agricultural,—a population scattered in small groups. Clearly, the problem of dealing with congested masses of people is here absent. Everywhere there is an eagerness for education. The educational average is high. The position of woman is one of freedom, for here have been kept alive the old Germanic traditions which we [the Germans] know only from reading Cæsar or Tacitus. An external factor in hastening the solution of the question of woman’s rights was the very unusual numerical superiority of women. The foreign wars, which took the majority of the men away from home for long periods of time,—first in the Middle Ages, and then again in theseventeenth and eighteenth centuries,—and the fact that the Scandinavian countries themselves were afflicted with wars only to a small extent, explain the freedom of the Scandinavian women. Like the English women, they had for centuries not known the significance of war for woman. In the absence of the men, women continued the transaction of business and industrial enterprises. In the name of the feudal law and as heads of families they administered affairs, exercising rights that were elsewhere denied to women.
SWEDEN
In Sweden the woman’s rights movement is closely connected with that of the United States. The founder of the Swedish woman’s rights movement was Frederika Bremer, who in 1845 visited the United States, studying the conditions of the women there. Upon her return she encouraged the Swedish women through her novelHerthato emancipate themselves. This took place in 1856. The government, being unable to disregard the free traditions of the past, was thoroughlyin favor of the demands of the woman’s rights movement. As early as 1700, women owning property exercised the right of voting in the election of ministers. In 1843 this right had been extended to all women taxpayers. In 1845 the daughter’s right of inheritance had been made equal to that of the son’s. In 1853 was begun the custom of appointing women teachers in the small rural schools; in 1859 women were admitted as teachers in all public institutions of learning. Since 1861 women have been eligible as dentists, regimental surgeons, and organists (but not as preachers). In 1862 every unmarried woman or widow over twenty-one years of age, and paying a tax of 500 crowns (about $135), was granted active suffrage in municipal affairs. The municipal electors, inasmuch as they elect the members of theLandsthing(county council) and the members of the town councils, exercise a political influence, for the members of theLandsthingand the town councils elect the members of the two Chambers of theRiksdag, the national legislative body. On February 10, 1909, all taxpaying women (unmarried, widowed, and married) were granted thepassivesuffrage (except for the office of county councillor). Here is a curious fact,—married women that donotpossess the right to vote in municipal affairs can still hold office!
In 1866 the art academies were opened to women, in 1870, the universities; later women were permitted toenter the postal and telegraph service. In peculiar contrast to these reforms are the old regulations concerning the guardianship of women,[57]which has been especially supported by the nobility and conservatives, and has been used chiefly to maintain the subordination of married women.
Against this condition the “Association to Advocate the Right of Married Women to Possess Property” has struggled since 1873. It secured, in 1874, the right of women to make a marriage contract providing for the separation of property.[58]This association now undertook the political education of the women voters in municipal elections; hitherto they had made little use of their right to vote (in 1887, of 62,362 women having the right to vote only 4844 voted). Thanks to the propaganda of this association, participation in elections is to-day quite general. The introduction of coeducation in the secondary schools is also due to the activity of this association, supported by Professor Wallis, who had investigated coeducation in the United States. But in the field of secondary education there is still much to be done for Swedish women,—their salaries as teachers are lower than those of men; inmatters of advancement and pensions women are discriminated against, though they are expected to possess professional training and ability equal to that of the men.
In 1889 the Baroness of Adlersparre succeeded, through untiring propaganda, in securing for women admission to school and poor-law administration. To the baroness is due also the revival of needlework as an applied art, as well as the revival of agricultural instruction for women. All of these ideas she had expressed since 1859 in her magazineFor the Home(Fürs Heim).
Since 1884 the center of the Swedish woman’s rights movement has been the “Frederika Bremer League,” founded by the Baroness of Adlersparre. This is a sort of “Woman’s Institute,” and undertakes inquiries, collects data, secures employment, organizes members of trades and professions, fixes minimum wages, organizes petitions, gives advice, offers leadership, gives stipends; in short, in various ways it centralizes the Swedish Women’s rights movement. In 1896 the “Association to Advocate the Right of Married Women to Possess Property” affiliated with the “Frederika Bremer League.”
The following are the facts concerning the work of educated women in Sweden: The number of elementary school teachers is about double that of the men (in1899 there were 9950 women as compared with 5322 men). The salaries of the women are everywhere lower than those of the men. In 1908 there were 12,000 women teachers in the elementary schools, their annual salary being 1400 crowns ($375) or more.
There are 35 women doctors in Sweden, most of whom practice in Stockholm. The Swedish midwives are well trained. Nursing is a respected calling for educated women; also kinesiatrics (hygienic gymnastics), the latter being lucrative as well.
The first woman Doctor of Philosophy was Ellen Fries, who received the degree in 1883. Sonja Kowalewska was a professor in mathematics in the free University of Stockholm. Ellen Key is also a teacher, her field being sociology.
In Sweden there are two women university lecturers; one in law, the other in physics. As yet there are no women lawyers and preachers. The legislative act of February, 1909, which secures for women their appointment in allstateinstitutions (educational, scientific, artistic, and industrial), will greatly improve woman’s professional prospects.
Sweden is not a land of large manufactories; hence there is no problem arising from the presence of large masses of industrial laborers. Since 1865 the wages of the agricultural laborers have risen 85 per cent for women and 65 per cent for men. There are 242,914women engaged in agriculture, 57,053 in industry,—3400 of the latter being organized. There are 15,376 women employed in commerce; they are throughout paid lower wages than the men (400 to 1200 crowns,i.e.$107 to $321).
The organization of the workingwomen is not connected with the woman’s rights movement; it is affiliated with the workingmen’s movement. In this field Ellen Key has been quite active as a national educator. She is a supporter of the laws for the protection of women laborers, and on this point she has frequently met opposition among the woman’s rights advocates of Sweden (an opposition similar to that offered by the English Federation for Freedom of Labor Defense). In 1907 an exposition of home-work was held in Stockholm, similar to the German expositions.
The right to vote in national elections[59]in Sweden is exercised by landowners and taxpayers; however, only by men. Therefore there is a Swedish National Woman’s Suffrage Society, which in recent years has grown very considerably, having over 10,000 members. In the autumn of 1906 a delegation from the society was received by the Prime Minister and the King, who, however, could hold out no promise of a government measure favoring woman’s suffrage. The society thentried to influence the Parliament with an enormous petition having 142,188 signatures. This petition was presented February 6, 1907.
In 1906 and 1907 the Labor party and the Liberal party inserted woman’s suffrage into their platforms and presented bills favoring the measure. Twice (in 1907 and 1908) Parliament rejected the clause providing for woman’s suffrage. On February 13, 1909, the Swedish males were granted universal suffrage (active and passive) in national elections; at the same time Parliament tried to appease the women by granting them the passive suffrage in municipal elections. In the spring of 1909 the bill concerning woman’s right to vote in national elections (Staaf Bill) was accepted by the Constitutional Commission by a vote of 11 to 9; the Lower House also accepted it, but it was rejected by the Upper House.
The political successes of the Norwegian women have a stimulating effect on Sweden.
Prohibition has influential advocates in Sweden, and supporters in Parliament. At the request of the Swedish women’s clubs, police matrons were appointed to coöperate with the police regulating prostitution in Stockholm, Helsingborg, Trelleborg, and Malmö. At the present time a commission is considering future plans for police regulation of prostitution in Sweden.
In Sweden, where there are about half a million organizedadherents to the cause of temperance, there are 77 daily papers that consistently print matter pertaining to temperance. Not only these 77 papers, most of whose editors are Good Templars, but at least 13 other dailies refuse all advertisements of alcoholic liquors.[60]In Norway, where similar conditions prevail, there are a quarter of a million temperance advocates, and about 40 daily papers that favor the cause.
FINLAND
The discussion of the Finnish woman’s rights movement will follow that of Sweden, for Finland was till 1809 politically a part of Sweden; the cultural tie still exists.
In Finland also, the woman’s rights movement is of literary origin,—Adelaide Enrooth and Frederika Runeburg preached the gospel of woman’s emancipation to an intellectual élite. Through the influence of Björnson, Ibsen, and Strindberg the discussion of the “social lie” (Gesellschaftslüge) became general. Inthe eighties of the last century, the ideas and criticisms were turned into deeds and reforms. Above all a thorough education for woman was demanded. Since 1883, coeducational schools have been established through private funds in all cities of the country. These institutions have received state aid since 1891. They are secondary schools, having the curriculums of GermanRealschulenandGymnasiums.[61]Not only is the student body composed ofboysandgirls, but the direction and instruction in these schools are divided equally betweenwomenandmen; thereby the predominance of the men is counteracted. Even before the establishment of these schools women had privately prepared themselves for theAbiturientenexamen(examinations taken when leaving the secondary schools), and had entered the University of Helsingfors. In 1870 the first woman entered the University; in 1873 the second; in 1885 two more followed. To-day, 478 women are registered in Helsingfors. Most of these women are devoting themselves to the teaching profession, which is more favorable to women in Finland than in Sweden. The first woman doctor, Rosina Hickel, has been practicing in Helsingfors since 1879. The number of women doctors has since risen to 20.
In Finland any reputable person can plead before the court; but there are no professional women lawyers and no women preachers. However, there are women architects and women factory inspectors. Since 1864, women have been employed in the postal service; since 1869, in the telegraph service and in the railway offices. Here they draw the same salary as the men, when acting in the same capacity. Commercial callings have been opened to women, and there is a demand for women as office clerks.
The statistical yearbook for Finland does not give separate statistics concerning workingwomen. The total number of laborers in 1906 was 113,578. Perhaps one tenth of these were women,—engaged chiefly in the textile and paper industries, and in the manufacture of provisions and ready-made clothing. There are few married women engaged in industrial work. Women are admitted to membership in the trade-unions.
In a monograph on women engaged in the ready-made clothing industry[62]are found the following facts (established by official investigation of 621 establishments employing 3205 women laborers): 97.7 per cent of the women were unmarried, and 2.3 per cent married; the minimum wages were 10 cents a day; the maximum, $1.50; the women laborers living with their parents orrelatives numbered 1358; the sanitary conditions were bad.
Home industry in Finland (as well as in Sweden and Norway) has recently shown a striking growth. It was on the point of succumbing to the cheap factory products. In order to perpetuate the industry, schools for housewives were established in connection with the public high schools in the rural districts. In these schools were taught, in addition to domestic science and agriculture, various domestic handicrafts that offered the women a pleasant and useful activity during the long winters. Not being carried on intensively, these handicrafts could never lead to exploitation and overwork.
In 1864 the guardianship of men over unmarried women was abolished. Married women are still under the guardianship of their husbands. Since 1889, the wife has been able to secure a separation of property by means of a contract. She has control of her earnings when joint property holding prevails. The unmarried women taxpayers and landowners have been voters in municipal elections since 1865. In the rural districts they have also had the right to hold local administrative offices. Just as in Sweden, they have the right to participate in the election of ministers; and since 1891 and 1893 they have had active and passive suffrage in regard to school boards and poor-law administration.
Taking advantage of the collapse of Russia in the Far East, Finland—in May, 1906—established universal active and passive suffrage for all male and female citizens over twenty-four years of age. She was the first European country to take this step. On March 15, 1907, the Finnish women exercised for the first time the right of suffrage in state elections. Nineteen women were elected to the Parliament (comprising 200 representatives). The women belonged to all parties, but most of them were adherents of the Old-Finnish party (having 6 representatives) and of the Socialist party (having 9 representatives). Ten of the women representatives were either married or were widows. They belonged quite as much to the cultured, property-owning class as to the masses. This Parliament was dissolved in April, 1908. In the new elections of July, 25 women were elected as representatives. Here again most of the elected women belonged to the Old-Finnish party (with 6 representatives) and to the Socialists (with 13 representatives). Nine of the women representatives are married. Of the husbands of these women one is a doctor, one a clergyman, one a workingman, two are farmers, etc. Of the unmarried women representatives six are teachers, two are tailors, two are editors of women’s newspapers, four are traveling lecturers, one is a factory inspector, and there is one Doctor of Philosophy.
In both parliaments the women presented numerous measures, some of general concern, others bearing on woman’s rights.[63]Some of the measures provided for: the improvement of the legal status of illicit children, parental authority, the protection of maternity, the abolition of the husband’s guardianship over the wife, the better protection of children, the protection of the woman on the street, the abolition of the regulation of prostitution, and the raising of the age of consent.
This list of measures indicates that the Finnish laws regulating marriage are still antiquated, and that the political emancipation of woman did not immediately effect her release from legal bondage. One of the Finnish woman’s advocates said, “Our short experience has taught us that we may still have a hard fight for equal rights.”
Not only the antiquated marriage laws are inconsistent with the national political rights of women; in the municipal election laws, too, woman is treated unjustly. Married women do not exercise the right of suffrage, and widows and unmarried women possess the passive suffrage only in the election of poor-law administrators and school boards. Two woman’s suffrage organizations—UnionenandFinskKvinnoforening—have existed since 1906; they have no party affiliations. Two new woman’s suffrage societies—Swenska KinnoforbundetandNaitlütto(Young-Finnish)—are party organizations.
The bill concerning the abolition of the official regulation of prostitution has meanwhile become law, replacing the former unsatisfactory, and for Finland, exceptional law. The law corresponding to the English Vagrancy Act (supplement to paragraph 45 of the Finnish Civil Code) provides that “whoever accosts a woman in public places for immoral purposes shall pay a fine of $50.”
On October 31, 1907, the manufacture, importation, sale, or storing of alcoholic liquors in any form whatever was prohibited by law. In recent years the Finnish woman temperance lecturer, Trigg Helenius, has carried on a successful international propaganda.
External and internal difficulties have to the present made impossible the formation of Finnish women’s clubs and a federation of the women voters.
NORWAY
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, Björnson, and Ibsen had prepared public opinion for the emancipation 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 prostitution 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 rightto 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 Constitution 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 passing 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 1700crowns ($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 assistants’ trade-union in an open meeting in Christiania has demanded equal pay for equal work.
By a law passed 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 Association, drew up a petition requesting the same concession as was made the women postal employees, and presented the petition 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 passive suffrage in municipal 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 municipal affairs for the first time; in Christiania 6 women were elected to municipal offices.
The Norwegian League of Women’s Clubs and thewoman’s suffrage associations 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 instituted 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 passive suffrage in municipal 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 passive 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 constitutional amendment (Article 52). The Storthing requested that before the next municipal elections (1910) the Ministry present a satisfactory bill providing for woman’s suffrage in municipal 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 participate 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 emancipation of women legally and in the professions had preceded their political emancipation. 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 assistants 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,—theillicit father, the parents, the guardians, and employers, who desert a woman in such circumstances 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
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 emancipators, Mathilda Fibiger and Pauline Worm in Denmark. The writings of both of these women in favor of emancipation,—“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.” Anorganizedwoman’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 unmarriedwomen; 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’sThe Subjection of Women, and by Björnson 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 institution 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 municipal suffrage was demanded by the “Danish Woman’s Club,” but theRigsdagrejected 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 concerningmunicipal 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 classes of women—widows, unmarried, and married women—were enfranchised. They have active and passive suffrage. In March, 1909, they exercised both rights for the first time. The participation 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 passive suffrage in municipal affairs. In January, 1908, they participated 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 prostitution was abolished in Denmark; but a new law of similar character was enacted providing for stringent measures.
THE NETHERLANDS
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 classes. 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. Accordingto 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 annulthisrequirement; 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 forthe benefit of the familythe 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-Bülow, who introduced kindergartens (Fröbelsystem) 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 municipal, partly private. Most of the elementary schools are coeducational; in the secondary schools the sexes are segregated; in the higher institutions of learning coeducation prevails, the right of girls to attend being granted as a matterof 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, Gröningen, and Amsterdam. In the elementary, secondary, and higher institutions 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 Gröningen. 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 participate 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 assistants of both sexes 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 institution as a result of the exhibition of 1898, has been concerning itself withthe protection of workingwomen and with their organization. The women organizers belong to the middle class. 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-class 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 classes. 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 associations 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 municipal suffrage for women failed, and resulted in the enactment of reactionary laws.
In 1883 Dr. Aletta Jacobs (the first woman doctorin 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 municipal electors. As a taxpayer she was entitled 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” (theBond voor Vrouwenkiesrecht,—the older organization was calledVereeniging voor Vrouenkiesrecht). Both carry on an energetic propaganda in the entire country, the older organization being the more radical. In 1908 the older organization madeall 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 theBondincreased 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 ofuniversalsuffrage 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 Constitution, by a vote of six out of seven, recommended that Parliament grant active and passive 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 notedjurist, who is a member of the DutchBond 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]
Switzerland’s existence and welfare depend on the harmony of the German, the French, and the Italian elements of the population. Switzerland is accustomed to considering three racial elements; out of three different demands it produces one acceptable compromise. Naturally the Swiss woman’s rights movement has steadily developed in the most peacefulmanner. No literary manifesto, no declaration of principles of freedom is at the root of this movement. It is supported by public opinion, which is gradually being educated to the level of the demands of the movement. The woman’s rights movement began in Switzerland as late as 1880; in 1885 the Swiss woman’s club movement was started. The Federation of Women’s Clubs is made up of cantonal women’s clubs in Zurich, Berne, Geneva, St. Gallen, Basel, Lausanne, Neuchâtel, and in other cities, as well as of intercantonal clubs, such as the “Swiss Public Utility Woman’s Club” (Schweizer Gemeinnütziger Verein), “la Fraternité,” the “Intercantonal Committee of Federated Women,” etc. Recently a Catholic woman’s league was formed. Since 50 per cent of the Swiss women remain unmarried, the woman’s rights movement is a social necessity. In the field of education the authorities have been favorable to women in every way. In nine cantons the elementary schools are coeducational. There are public institutions for higher learning for girls in all cities. In German Switzerland (Zurich, Winterthur, St. Gallen, Berne) girls are admitted to the higher institutions of learning for boys, or they can prepare themselves in the girls’ schools for the examination required for entrance to the universities (Matura). There are 18 seminaries that admit girls only; the seminaries in Küssnacht,Rorshach, and Croie are coeducational. Women teachers are not appointed in the elementary schools of the cantons of Glarus and Appenzell-Outer-Rhodes. On the other hand in the cantons of Geneva, Neuchâtel, and Ticino 59 to 66 per cent of the teachers in the elementary schools are women. They are given lower salaries than the men. The canton of Zurich pays (by law) equal wages to its men and women teachers, but the additional salary paid by the municipalities and rural districts to the men teachers is greater than that paid to the women. In its elementary schools the canton of Vaud employs 500 women teachers, some of whom are married. The Swiss universities have been open to women since the early sixties of the nineteenth century. As in France, the native women use this right far less than foreign women, especially Russians and Germans. The total number of women studying in the Swiss universities is about 700. Most of the Swiss women that have studied in the universities enter the teaching profession. Women are frequently employed as teachers in high schools, as clerks, and as librarians. Sometimes these positions are filled by foreign women.
The first woman lecturer in a university in which German is the language used has been employed in Berne since 1898. She is Dr. Anna Tumarkin, a native Russian, having the right to teach in universitiesæsthetics and the history of modern philosophy. In 1909 she was appointed professor. In each of the universities of Zurich, Berne, and Geneva, a woman has been appointed as university lecturer. Women doctors practice in all of the larger cities. There are twelve in Zurich. The city council of Zurich has decided to furnish free assistance to women during confinement, and to establish a municipal maternity hospital. In Zurich there has been established for women a hospital entirely under the control of women; the chief physician is Frau Dr. Heim. The practice of law has been open to women in the canton of Zurich since 1899, and in the canton of Geneva since 1904. Miss Anna Mackenroth,Dr. jur., a native German, was the first Swiss woman lawyer. Miss Nelly Favre was the second. Miss Dr. Brüstlein was refused admission to the bar in Berne. Miss Favre was the first woman to plead before the Federal Court in Berne, the capital. As yet there are no women preachers in Switzerland. In Lausanne there is a woman engineer. In the field of technical schools for Swiss women, much remains to be done. The commercial education of women is also neglected by the state, while the professional training of men is everywhere promoted. Women are employed in the postal and telegraph service. The Swiss hotel system offers remunerative positions and thoroughly respectablecallings to women of good family. In 1900 the number of women laborers was 233,912; they are engaged chiefly in the textile and ready-made clothing industries, in lacemaking, cabinetmaking, and the manufacture of food products, pottery, perfumes, watches and clocks, jewelry, embroidery, and brushes.[68]Owing to French influence, laws for the protection of women laborers are opposed, especially in Geneva. The inspection of factories is largely in the hands of men. Home industry is a blessing in certain regions, a curse in others. This depends on the intensity of the work and on the degree of industrialism. The trade-union movement is still very weak among women laborers. According to the canton the movement has a purely economic or a socialist-political character. Only a few organizations of workingwomen belong to the Swiss Federation of Women’s Clubs. Since 1891 the men’s trade-unions have admitted women. The first women factory inspectors were appointed in 1908. According to the census of August 9, 1905, 92,136 persons in Switzerland are engaged in home industry; this number is 28.3 per cent of the total number of persons (325,022) engaged in these industries. The foremostof the home industries is the manufacture of embroidery, engaging a total of 65,595 persons, of whom 53.5 per cent work at home. The next important home industries are silk-cloth weaving, engaging 12,478 persons (41 per cent of the total employed); watch making, engaging 12,071 persons in home industry (or 23.7 per cent of the total); silk-ribbon weaving, engaging 7557 persons (or 51.9 per cent of the total). The highest percentage of home workers is found among the straw plaiters (78.8 per cent); then follow the military uniform tailors (60.1 per cent), the embroidery makers (53.5 per cent), the wood carvers and ivory carvers (52 per cent), the silk-ribbon weavers (51.9 per cent), and the ready-made clothing workers (49.3 per cent). The International Association for Labor Legislation, as everybody knows, is trying to ascertain whether an international regulation of labor conditions is possible in the embroidery-making industry. The statistics just given indicate the importance of this investigation for Switzerland. The statistics of the home industries of Switzerland will be found in the ninth issue of the second volume of the Swiss Statistical Review (Zeitschrift für Schweizerische Statistik).
The new Swiss law for the protection of women laborers has produced a number of genuine improvements for the workingwomen. A maximum workingday of 10 hours and a working week of 60 hours have been established. Women can work overtime not more than 60 days a year; they are then paid at least 25 per cent extra. The most significant innovation is the legal regulation ofvacations. Every laborer that is not doing piecework or being paid by the hour must, after one year of continuous service for the same firm, be granted six consecutive days of vacation with full pay; after two years of continuous service for the same firm the laborer must be given eight days; after three years of service ten days; and after the fourth year twelve days annually. A violation of this law renders the offending employer liable to a fine of 200 to 300 francs ($40 to $60).