Part VReadings for Women
CHAPTER LXVFOR WOMEN
It would be absurd, in the full stream of the 20th century, to imagine that any of the articles in the new edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica can be either beyond the comprehension of women or unlikely to interest women. And since any method of selection is also a method of elimination, it may be illogical to suggest that any one class of articles especially merits their attention. But the difficulty is purely formal. For perhaps the greatest victory of the feminist movement lies in the demonstrated proposition that women can, in one field after another, establish their equality with men, without losing any of their superiority in the exercise of those arts to which they were formerly restricted. And this chapter, therefore, after describing the articles which relate to the present political and economic position of women, naturally turns to subjects such as domestic science and the adornment of the home, which in all ages and all countries have been considered to be the special province of women.
Women Contributors
If the question of women’s ability to do a full share of the world’s work any longer admitted of argument, there would be no more vivid way of coming to an appreciation of the versatility and range as well as the high quality of women’s intellectual capacity than by looking at the contributions by women to the Britannica itself. First in mass, and first in practical value as because it vastly increases the usefulness of the entire book, is the Index volume with its 975 pages, its 500,000 index entries, its classified list of articles covering nearly 70 pages and its list of contributors and their principal signed articles. This volume was the work of a large and carefully organized staff under the supervision of Miss Janet Hogarth (now Mrs. W. L. Courtney). The following is a partial alphabetical list of women contributors to the Britannica with the more important articles they wrote:
This remarkable list shows that women have contributed to the Britannica on subjects so varied as astronomy, medieval literature, medicine, sociology, linguistics, literary biography, art criticism, law and politics, political science and sociology, musical instruments, education, the Bible and ecclesiastical history, and philosophy.
Woman’s Advance
It may be noted as indicating the advance of women during the last century and a half that in the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which was published in 1771, the article on women consisted of the following eight words “Woman,—the female of man—seeHomo.” In the present 11th edition, published nearly a century and a half later, one single article entitledWomenin volume 28, beginning on page 782, is equivalent in its contents to 22 pages of this Guide.
What woman has accomplished in scholarship, literature, art and science has been done very largely in the last hundred years. In authorship and, to a greater degree, on the stage her activity dates back a little further. In Shakespeare’s time all women’s parts on the stage were taken by boys. In fact as the Britannica tells us (Vol. 8, p. 521) in the days of Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare “No woman might appear at a playhouse, unless masked.”
It is only in comparatively recent times that the real “emancipation” of woman began; and this explains why the list of women famous in history is so much longer than any of the other lists given in this part of the Guide. Through earlier periods women attained power only by birth, by marriage, or by being “queens uncrowned,” but none the less powerful on that account, like Aspasia, Nell Gwyn, Jane Shore and the Pompadour.
There can be no question that during most of the world’s history, woman’sonly place was in the home. And it is certain that no matter how far her emancipation may be carried the home will beasphere for her. Her relation to her husband and her children, her right to a share of his property and of theirs—and to her own—as now more liberally granted and interpreted by law, are outlined in the Britannica. The status of women in early times is described in the article in the Britannica on women. It is, with variations in different places, everywhere a story of dependence. Even in Roman law a woman was completely dependent. If married she and her property passed into the power of her husband; if unmarried she was (unless a vestal virgin) under the perpetual tutelage of her father during his life, and after his death of her agnates, that is, of those of kinsmen by blood or adoption who would have been under the power of the common ancestor had he lived. Under English civil law a girl can contract a valid marriage at 12, a boy at 14. Under the common law “the father was entitled as against the mother to the custody of a legitimate child up to the age of sixteen, and could only forfeit such right by misconduct.” But the Court of Chancery sometimes “took a less rigid view of the paternal rights and looked more to the interest of the child, and consequently in some cases to the extension of the mother’s right at common law. Legislation has tended in the same direction.” In England women are still under two remarkable disabilities: “the exclusion of female heirs from intestate succession unless in the absence of a male heir; and the fact that a husband could obtain a divorce for the adultery of his wife, while a wife could only obtain it for her husband’s adultery if coupled with some other cause, such as cruelty or desertion.”
The Legal Status of American Women
In the United States the legal and political status of woman varies largely with the laws of the different states. For example, as is well known, in certain states women have the same right as men to the ballot. Wyoming (1869) and Colorado (1893) were the first women’s suffrage states. In more than half the states, roughly everywhere except in the South and a few eastern states, she has the right to vote for the members of school boards and has a general school suffrage. In Louisiana since 1898 women tax-payers may vote on questions of tax levies. As regards property rights, in the state of New York, a woman in possession of property, who marries, has the unqualified use, irrespective of the wishes of her husband, of her property. That is, she owns and can spend as she pleases the whole of the income of her property, while, on the other hand, her husband is compelled by law to give her a certain proportion of his income. In other states, Mississippi, notably, the laws as regard property of married women are precisely the same as that for married men. If the husband is compelled to give a certain proportion of his income to his wife, she is compelled to give the same proportion of her income to him. This is true in several states, Michigan, for example, except that married women cannot usually convey property without the husband’s permission. In the state of New York a married woman making her will has a right to dispose of her property as she pleases; whereas in other states, Missouri for instance, the law prescribes that at least one-half shall go to her husband, if there are no children. In other words, in no two states of the Union is the legal and political status of woman the same. It is often important, and in these days always a matter of interest, for a woman to know just what her legal position is in the state in which she lives. This information the Britannica gives.
What a mother can do for her children she may learn from the Britannica articlesindicated in the chapters of this GuideFor Childrenand in the chapterFor Teachers. Similarly she will find assistance in choosing, building or furnishing a house from the chaptersFor Builders and Architects,For Designers,For Manufacturers of Furniture, etc.
Such articles asLace,Embroidery,Carpets,Tapestry,Furniture,Painting,Sculpture,Jewelry,Plate, particularly as they are all remarkably well illustrated, will be of great value either for the general formation of taste or for giving definite information about a particular style. For the adornment of “the House Beautiful” the Britannica is, however, valuable not merely because of the information it contains. The set on India paper, compact, slender and graceful, handsomely bound in leather, and contained in one of the “period” bookcases designed especially for the books, is in itself an adornment and an ornament for any library or drawing room. For the country home with flower or vegetable gardens the articleHorticulture(Vol. 13, p. 741) will be found full of helpful information, both in its general treatment, and in the gardeners’ calendar for the United States, which tells in the most practical fashion what to do each month in the garden.
Home Making
For the transformation of a house, well-situated, well-built, well-furnished, well-decorated into a home,—forhome-making,—any course of study in the Britannica should be helpful to a woman, by broadening her sympathies and her knowledge and by making a more interesting and better-informed companion to her husband, a more competent hostess to his and her guests, and a wiser mother to her children. But home-making is an art and not a science—or, if the modern woman will forgive the use of so old-fashioned a phrase, it is a spiritual grace rather than an intellectual achievement—and even a Guide to readings in the Britannica cannot give an exact formula for it.
Domestic Science
But there is a science whose field is the home and whose formulas are definite, and this “domestic science” may be learned from the Britannica. Of primary interest is the articleDietetics(Vol. 8, p. 214), equivalent in length to 25 pages of this Guide. It is by the late Dr. Wilbur Olin Atwater, professor of chemistry, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, who was special agent of the U. S. Department of Agriculture in charge of nutrition investigations, and R. D. Milner, formerly of the same Department. It contains 6 valuable tables: I. Percentage Composition of some Common Food Materials (64 in all); II. Digestibility (or Availability) of Nutrients in Different Classes of Food Materials (22 in all); III. Estimates of Heats of Combustion and of Fuel Value of Nutrients in Ordinary Mixed Diet; IV. Quantities of Available Nutrients and Energy in Daily Food Consumption of Persons in Different Circumstances; V. Standards for Dietaries—Available Nutrients and Energy per Man per Day; and VI. Amounts of Nutrients and Energy Furnished for one Shilling in Food Materials at Ordinary Prices (22 food materials, at 44 different prices). The topics of the article are:
Food and its functions—refuse, water, mineral matter, protein, including albuminoids and gelatinoids, fats, carbohydrates.
Conversion of food into body-material and of food and body-material into heat, muscular energy, etc., with results obtained from Dr. Atwater’s famous experiments with men in the “respiration calorimeter,” from measurement and analysis of food and drink, and from measurement of energy expended as heat and as external muscular work.
Composition of food materials.
Digestibility or availability of foods.
Full value of food.
Food consumption.
Quantities of nutrients needed—tentative estimates of the average daily amounts required.
Hygienic economy of food: Eat what agrees with you and use foods which give needed nutriment, but do not burden the body with superfluous material. The importance of good cooking, neatness and cleanliness.
Pecuniary economy of food.
Read also the articleNutrition(Vol. 19, p. 920, equivalent to 25 pages of this Guide), by Dr. D. N. Paton, professor of physiology, University of Glasgow, and Dr. E. P. Cathcart, lecturer in chemical physiology, University of Glasgow. This article considers “the mode of digestion, the utilization and the elimination of the end products of the three great constituents, proteins, carbohydrates and fats,” discussing in detail:
Chemistry of Digestion—digestion in the mouth, stomach and the intestines; bile.
Mode of Formation of Digestive Secretions—the salivary and gastric glands, secretion in the pancreas, intestinal juice.
Mechanism of the Alimentary Canal—mastication, swallowing, stomach movements, intestinal movements, etc.
Absorption by the mouth, stomach and intestines.
Changes in the cells—proteins, carbohydrates, fats, fasting, muscular work, internal secretions, pancreas.
Excretion—urea, ammonia, sulphur, phosphorus, etc.
Cookery
There is much very practical information for the housewife in the articleCookery(Vol. 7, p. 74), besides the interesting historical sketch. Cookery, says this article, as an art “is only remotely connected with the mere necessities of nutrition or the science of dietetics. Mere hunger, though the best sauce, will not produce cookery, which is the art of sauces.” Oriental, Greek and Roman cookery, at least as we know them from literature, aimed at luxury, rich and rare foods, cost and show. After the Renaissance, the history of modern cookery began with Italy, and from Italy Catherine de’ Medici brought “Italian cooks to Paris and introduced there a cultured simplicity which was unknown in France before.”Forks and spoons were “Italian neatnesses” unknown in England until the early part of the 17th century; their use “marked an epoch in the progress of dining, and consequently of cookery.” French cookery advanced under Louis XIV and XV; received an apparent set back from the French Revolution—which, however, marked the rise of Parisian restaurants; but revived with brilliancy early in the 19th century, so that now “French cooking is admittedly the ideal of culinary art, directly we leave the plain roast and boiled. And the spread of cosmopolitan hotels and restaurants over England, America and the European continent, has largely accustomed the whole civilized world to the Parisian type.”
The article closes with eminently useful “notes on broiling, roasting, baking, boiling, stewing and frying.”
The articleFood(Vol. 10, p. 611) describes particularly the best foods for infants and children; foods for adults are treated inNutrition,Dietetics, already mentioned, and in the articleVegetarianism(Vol. 27, p. 967). Other articles of importance to the cook are:
Food Preservation(Vol. 10, p. 612), by Otto Hehner, English public analyst, formerly president of the Society of Public Analysts; and the same authority’s article onAdulteration(Vol. 1, p. 218), which deals with legislation against adulteration, and discusses arsenic in foods, preservatives such as formaldehyde and salicylic acid, boracic preservatives,—colouring matter in food, metallic impurities; American laws against adulteration; German laws; particular articlesadulterated—milk, condensed milk, cream, butter, margarine, cheese, lard, oils, flour and bread, sugar, marmalade, jams, tea, coffee, chocolate, cocoa, wine, beer, non-alcoholic drinks, vinegar, spirits, drugs. See the chapterFor Manufacturers of Foods.
The following is an alphabetical list of the principal articles on foods and beverages:
Costume and Ornament
Turning sharply from the useful to the ornamental—from the kitchen to the boudoir—the woman who uses the Britannica will find in it not merely the interesting information to which clues are given in the chapter for the jeweller and in the section on embroidery (Ch. 66) but many other articles about costume and dress, with illustrations which make the text far clearer and more valuable. With the constant turns of Fashion’s wheel, dress, and especially women’s dress, is always reverting to an earlier style or to a more primitive and semi-barbaric style of the present day—now Empire styles, Robespierre collars, close-fitting gowns of the pseudo-Greek style of the Napoleonic era, and now a quasi-folk style, Bulgarian, or Oriental, and again a hint of the ecclesiastical surplice, dalmatic, stole, or collar. The result is that the study of the styles of the past, especially when properly illustrated, may be not only interesting but actually valuable to a woman planning a new gown or a “novel” ornament for head or throat.
The articleCostume(Vol. 7, p. 224), equivalent in length to 80 pages of this Guide, is written by T. A. Joyce of the Department of Ethnography, British Museum; by Stanley Arthur Cook, editor for the Palestine Exploration Fund, on Egyptian and Semitic costume; by Henry Stuart Jones, late director of the British School at Rome, on Aegean, Greek and Roman costume; by Oswald Barron, late editor of theAncestor, on medieval and modern costume; and by W. Alison Phillips, author ofModern Europe, etc. Its 51 illustrations are chosen with great care from original sources, tombs, wall-paintings, seals, statues and statuettes, brasses, and portraits of many periods, and they are supplemented by illustrations in other articles:—Aegean Civilization(Vol. 1, p. 245), see Plate III, Fig. 7 and Plate IV, Fig. 7, for multiple or flounced skirts and basques—like those of theearly ’80’s—with short overskirt scalloped high on either side;Greek Art, Figs. 2, 3, 21, 40, 42, 75;Terracotta(Vol. 26, p. 653), see both plates and especially Fig. 4 of Tanagra and other figurines;Roman Art(Vol. 23, p. 474), see Figs. 11, 12, 16, 24, 28;Brasses, Monumental(Vol. 4, p. 434), see all illustrations;Illuminated Manuscripts(Vol. 14, p. 312), see Plates III and V;Painting(Vol. 20, p. 459), see Figs. 7, 10, 11, 14, 25, 27;Lace(Vol. 16, p. 37), see Figs. 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18, 33;Miniatures(Vol. 18, p. 523), see both plates. One of the most interesting sources for the text of the articleCostumeis in the writings of satirists, who from period to period have praised the simplicity and frugality of the preceding generation and bewailed the extravagance in style and material of dress during the satirists’ own day.
Besides this general article on costume there is special treatment of Chinese costume in the articleChina(Vol. 6, p. 173) and a section on costume in the articleIndia(Vol. 14, p. 417), equivalent to 18 pages of this Guide, written by Col. Charles Grant, formerly inspector of military education in India, illustrated with 16 pen-and-ink drawings by J. Lockwood Kipling, who is best-known to most people as the father of Rudyard Kipling, and the illustrator ofKim, his son’s story of native life in India. On Celtic dress see the articleClan(Vol. 6, p. 421); on that of the Hittites the articleHittites(Vol. 13, p. 537); on modern Egyptian the articleEgypt(Vol. 9, p. 31), on Persian, the articlePersia(Vol. 21, p. 193), etc.
And see the following articles on costume and similar topics:
Biographical Study
A study of the lives of great women will interest any one, and if this study is pursued by means of the Britannica the reader will have the double advantage of getting full and authoritative material presented in the most attractive and excellent style. From the lists that follow of articles on women in the Britannica, interesting groups may easily be chosen, such as:
Famous American Women:—Anne Hutchinson,Alice and Phoebe Cary,Margaret O’Neill Eaton,Margaret Fuller, theGrimkésisters,Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Women of Ancient Times:—Acca Larentia,Lucretia,Agrippina,Artemisia,Aspasia,Cleopatra,Cornelia,Faustina,Messallina,Virginia,Erinna,Corinna,Sappho,Hypatia,Zenobia.
Heroines of Fiction in History: compare Kingsley’sHypatiawith the real woman, Ware’sZenobiawith the queen as she is represented by a historian in the Britannica;the women of Dumas and of Scott in their historical novels and their originals as seen in the Britannica, for instance Mary Queen of Scots as portrayed by Sir Walter inThe Abbotand by Swinburne in the Britannica, Elizabeth and Amy Robsart inKenilworthand in the Britannica, Catherine de’ Medici inChicot the Jesterand in fact; or the women of Shakespeare’s historical plays as compared with their true place in history.
Women in American political reform:—Amelia B. Bloomer,Susan B. Anthony,Elizabeth Cady Stanton,Lucretia MottandLucy Blackwell Stone.
The following is a partial list of articles in the Britannica dealing with Women, who may, for convenience, be booked under the broad head ofHistoryas distinct from Literature, the Arts and Science:—
Quite as long and much more impressive is the list of women who have producedliterature—excluding the heroines of mythology and literature—on whom there are separate articles in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Although women have appeared on the stage only in the last two centuries the list of actresses and singers on whom there are articles in the Britannica is a long one. A partial list in alphabetical order follows:
Both in Great Britain and in the United States the great social reform movements of the last century numbered among their most able advocates brilliant and devoted women. This is true of temperance, abolition of slavery, prison reform, the treatment of the insane and defectives, and nearly every branch which this Guide has enumerated, especially in Part 4, where there is a general outline of these reforms. For the part played by women see the biographies of the women just mentioned and, among many others,Jane Addams,Clara Barton,Baroness Burdett-Coutts,Dorothea Lynde Dix,Emily Faithful,Elizabeth Fry,OctaviaandMiranda Hill,Mary A. LivermoreandLucretia Mott. More particularly the following list of names of women connected with educational progress will supplement what has been said in the chapter of this GuideFor Teachersand in the part of the Guide dealing with advances in education and educational problems in the chapterQuestions of the Day:
And see also the articlesCo-educationand articles on different colleges for women, e.g.,Mount Holyoke,Vassar,Bryn Mawr,Smith, etc. One who wishes to realize the extent of feminine talent or genius should read the lives in the Britannica of the sculptorHarriet Hosmerand of women painters includingCecilia Beaux,Rosa Bonheur,Artemisia Gentileschi,Kate Greenway,Angelica Kauffmann,Teresa SchwartzeandMme. Vigée-Lebrun. But the reader who is eager rather to know whether woman’s intellectual powers—not her talent and her genius—compare favourably with those of the male, will find material in the biographical sketches of the physicistMme. Curie; the geologistMary Anning; the travelersIsabella Bird BishopandAlexandrina Tinné; the biologistsMarianne NorthandEleanor Ormerod; the American ethnologistAlice C. Fletcher; and above all—since mathematics has always been considered above the capacity of women—the mathematiciansMaria Gaetana AgnesiandSophie Kovalevskyand the astronomersAgnes Mary Clerke,Maria Cunitz,Caroline Herschel,Maria MitchellandMary Somerville.
It is pertinent to add that the present 11th edition of the Britannica indicates the advance of women not only by embodying their collaboration to an unprecedented extent and devoting an unprecedented amount of its space to biographies of women, but by the circumstance that it has, to a far larger extent than any previous edition, been purchased by women.