When a German woman residing in a Western city, but recently arrived in America from the midst of the conservative social circles of her native land, described American women at large asfurchtbar frei und furchtbar fromm[frightfully free and frightfully pious], she unintentionally paid a compliment to our feminine civilization. The accusation of piety calls for no rebuttal; and that of freedom was caused by the confounding, as was natural in European thought, of innocent simplicity with recklessness of deportment. The social manners of American women of the present is a subject of philosophy rather than history; but the fact of the freedom of intercourse between the sexes may be touched upon, since, however strange and reprobatory it may seem to European eyes, it is as much a national "institution" as our form of government itself, while its causes lie in the story of the past.
The opening of the vast treasures of the West, and the marvellous development of that section, had effect upon the direction of feminine thought and effort in various channels. Though the leaps of that part of our country into prominence had made of such places as Chicago and St. Louis, as well as lesser but still important cities of the West, a potent influence in the development of material interests long before the century had entered upon its ninth decade, until that time they had won but little power as social influences. They were fast taking their places as powers in this direction also, however, and before long Chicago at least came to be recognized as a stalwart rival to New York, the acknowledged leader of the East in things social. Then, because of the lusty strength incidental to the vigorous youth of the junior members of our commonwealth, Western ideas and influences began to be felt in the East and to modify the conditions that existed in Eastern society.
The simplicity [freedom] of which the German woman complained is in truth one of the finest, as of the most characteristic, traits of our social system in its regulation of intercourse between the sexes, and it was well that the East, which was beginning to pay too much attention to the ultraconservative ideas of the Old World in this respect, should find a counter influence within the borders of its own land. Even more important, however, was the hearty acceptance by the West--far broader than that of the East--of the theory of woman's place in affairs; though the woman worker had been accepted and even honored in the East, it was not until the West had made her a matter of course that she was universally regarded as entirely within the proper sphere of femininity. Up to that time she had been looked upon as the creature of circumstances, to disappear when the conditions of her existence were altered, rather than as an established fact; but the last decade of the century swept away such remaining cobwebs of tradition and for all time made the woman worker a recognized fact as well as factor in the totality of our social system.
As the century drew to its close, increasingly prominent and determined became the position of the woman worker. Her sphere of action became rapidly enlarged; she grew to be a power as well as an influence. She was no longer of necessity the subordinate worker; often she claimed and obtained a place at the head of affairs, even if as yet these were rarely "of great pith and moment." The woman worker rapidly developed into the woman of business. She began to rival the men in enterprise, even although she rarely contended with them in their traditional fields. Yet even this latter rule was not universal in application; the nineteenth century had not yielded its latest breath before it had seen the appearance of women as commercial travellers, as agents of various descriptions, and in many departments contending with the men for supremacy in fields that had hitherto been considered necessarily confined to cultivation by the sterner sex.
The close of that century also saw women entering into rivalry with the men in learned professions. Female practitioners of medicine, such as Dr. Mary Walker, had been known for some time, and the last few years have seen, even in the most conservative States, women admitted to the bar, following in the footsteps of Mrs. Belva Lockwood, to contend with their male rivals in forensic eloquence and subtleties. The professorial chairs of such institutions of learning as Vassar College, the forerunner of the many splendid educational centres for female training that have sprung up throughout our land, were filled for the most part by women, themselves the product of those educational institutions; and even some of the universities hitherto confined to the education of the male youth of our land opened their doors to women, while coeducation already had its notable strongholds. Everywhere there was granted, and gladly granted, to womanhood all that it asked in concerted demand; "Woman's Rights," as far as claimed by the consensus of womanly thought, had won all that its advocates could desire in the matter of recognition.
The change came with wonderful suddenness; yet it was so natural in its workings, and the national mind had so long been prepared for it, that it bore with it no sense of strangeness. Such a personality as that of Mrs. Hetty Green, for example, the richest woman in America, financier and woman of affairs, holding directing interests in many large corporations, fostering and guiding some of the greatest enterprises in the world of finance, and doing all of her own responsibility and unaided by advice--such a personality as this would have seemed incredible fifty years ago, but to-day is hardly worthy of more than passing note. The entrance of women into the sphere of business, competing with men upon their own ground, matching their wits against those of their masculine competitors and remaining unworsted in the struggle, excites no remark but is accepted as a thing entirely natural to the conditions of modern life. Yet in its youth the century whose age beheld these things would have maintained, even with acrimony, that they were undesirable impossibilities.
Even some of the extreme demands of the radicals in such matters were granted, at least experimentally, with results which showed the wisdom of the more moderate advocates of "Woman's Rights." A town in Kansas, that stronghold of extreme experiments, placed the whole internal government mayoralty, town council, and all like offices in the hands of its women. This was about 1897; and the century had not yet drawn its last gasps when the aforesaid town was found to be bankrupt, while its affairs generally were in such hopeless confusion that the men were, at the next election, hastily called in to repair, as far as possible, the devastation which had been wrought. But if women could not find success in the administration of civic government, they none the less proved themselves, in more than one notable instance, admirable organizers and administrators in other spheres. It suffices to recall the name of Frances Elizabeth Willard to show what can be accomplished by an able woman working upon lines which her education and sexual traditions fit her to pursue. Miss Willard left behind her noble monuments in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, of which she was president from 1879 un til her death, and the World's Christian Temperance Union, founded by her in 1883, and of which she was made president in 1888. She did other work for her sex and humanity in general, and in her educational and journalistic career she proved her abilities and her administrative powers; but these were best and most nobly shown in the fostering of the great temperance movements in whose success she was the most influential factor. Nor is it only by the womanhood of America that the name of Frances Willard is held in honor or will be eternally remembered, though it was in her exposition of some of the highest qualities peculiar to that womanhood that she won her most enduring claim to honor and remembrance.
Another woman's name which before the close of the century had taken place among the foremost of organizers and administrators in work helpful to humanity is that of Clara Barton. Miss Barton served a long apprenticeship in her work before she became its recognized leader on American soil. During the Civil War she did relief work upon the battlefields, succoring with her own hands many a stricken soldier and saving him from a lingering death. Even thus early she displayed her talent for organization by forming a "bureau of information," where inquiries could be made and information lodged concerning missing men. (It was, however, to the Rev. William A. Crocker, a chaplain in the Confederate service, that the original idea of such a bureau, as well as its foundation and administration, were due.) Later, Miss Barton became associated with the International Red Cross Society, and as one of its members did noble work during the Franco-Prussian War. In 1881 she became president of the American Red Cross Society, the organization of which was mainly due to her personal efforts, and its success to her prestige and direction. Under her administration great good has been done by the Society to suffering humanity, her efforts in this direction not being confined to times of war. Such catastrophes as the Russian famine of 1892 and the Armenian massacres of 1896 won prompt aid from the Red Cross, while not only was relief sent to the suffering Cubans in 1898, but during the subsequent war Miss Barton took personal charge of the hospital service of her Society. Even the Boer War gave her opportunity for humane work, which was eagerly embraced.
If it must be acknowledged that the sex has not as yet, even in world-inclusion, shown itself the equal of its rivals in the matter of literature, it has yet done some work that will live. In poetry it has given us a Sappho, a Vittoria Colonna, an Elizabeth Barrett Browning; in fiction, a George Eliot, a George Sand, a Madame de Stae'l; in the graver departments of letters, a Harriet Martineau. Neither America in particular nor the present age in general has added to this important list, but in Frances Hodgson Burnett our womanhood has at least given to the present one of its best novelists, and there are on the roll of women writers several who have done work that ranks above the average of the literary production of the day.
Perhaps one of the most characteristic advances of the century at its close was the recognition among womanhood of duties of a nature till then unacknowledged save by a few, who had made no disciples. There had always been many, to the praise of womanhood be it said, who had been foremost in almsgiving and aid to the needy; indeed, the personal calls of charity had been left almost entirely in the hands of woman as the traditional and natural dispenser of alms. But it was not until the latter days of our civilization, as we now know it, that women became publicly and recognizedly the leaders in the great charitable movements; it was even not until that time that women, in individual guise, became known as philanthropists. Especially is the fact of a rich woman, such as Miss Helen Gould, being prominently identified with benevolent work a product of our own time. There may have been in the past many who gave, and that liberally, but they did not identify themselves and their lives with their charities; they did not give themselves as well as their money. It is less the pecuniary generosity of Miss Gould to worthy objects than her personal identification therewith, her gift of part of her life to such objects, that is worthy of commemoration; and in her way she stands a type of the later American woman. When she gave the munificent sum of one hundred thousand dollars--but a portion of her total contribution--to the work of the hospital service at the beginning of the war with Spain, she did something, yet hardly achieved rivalry with a certain widow of Scriptural fame; but when, at Camp Wikoff, she nursed with her own hands the sick soldiers of her country she brought to her gift of money the far finer gift of her own personality, and thus added to the former in infinite degree. It is well for our country that we can claim that such as she are but types.
It is one of the rightful boasts of America that, although she has been vehemently accused of making the "Almighty Dollar" her one god, she has always been ready with generous response to the call of need. It mattered not whence that call came; Ireland, Russia, India, Cuba were alike recipients of her bounty, full to overflowing, when they raised their voices in anguish. That the answer to the cry for help was so quick, so hearty, so satisfying, was in large degree the work of our womanhood, whose ears were ever attuned to the voice of suffering. This was so almost from the birth of America as a nation; but only of late has the answer from our women to such cries for help been organized and, therefore, really effective. This apart, however, it may be claimed that one of the enduring attributes of American womanhood--more so than of any other race--is its generosity and response to the call of humanity, uncaring for race or creed or any outward circumstance. Many of the organized efforts in this wise of later days have been but the expressions of the national spirit of generosity, first finding congenial direction and resultful methods. It is no new thing that American womanhood should give of its substance to the cause of humanity; the newness lies entirely in the more concentrated methods of such gift, directed along the most effective lines and thus escaping that diffusion and waste which is common to unorganized effort. That this result has been reached we owe chiefly to the leaders among the woman's movement in this direction toward the close of the past century.
The present era of American womanhood, indeed, may be classified as supremely that of concentration. Throughout our country are constantly springing up women's societies having definite aims and purposes, and the effort which was formerly diffused, and therefore unavailing, now tends from a consolidated source to a clearly discerned end. Whether for purposes of amelioration of sex-position or of general beneficence, women have learned the power which lies in concentration of effort and have penetrated the secret of the most effectual putting forth of the strength which lies in them. Organization among women is a thing of the last few decades, but already it has assumed such proportions that feminine influence, not individually but collectively asserted, sways the destinies of our nation in more ways than are perceptible to the casual observer. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union, for example, was strong enough to procure the abolishment of the army canteen, even against the influence of the most powerful men in the army itself. That Congress, as a body, was in favor of the action is a belief which would find few thoughtful supporters; yet Congress gave the Temperance Union the legislation it desired, and that with but little opposition. In seeking the cause for this we touch the secret of the great power which is admittedly swayed by our feminine organizations, a power far greater than that belonging to any cognate ones of masculine membership. The secret is this: because of the purity and height of their aims, the councils of the women of our country have as ally that greatest of all influences, public opinion. Moreover, this public opinion always looks to the great end in view and but little to the wisdom of the proposed means to that end; therefore, it supports any movement which tends toward an amelioration of public morality, as in the example cited, even where the movement takes a direction which is too radical to effect its proper ends. Therefore, the womanhood of our country, as organized and concentrated, holds to-day in its hands a power which it must exercise with discretion and moderation, or there will result from its unregulated exertion chaos and cataclysm; yet a power which, properly exerted, will tend ever to the positing of higher standards of morality and nobler goals of power, and generally to the upward as well as the onward march of our nation and kind.
There is in all this access of power and influence a danger which it is well to recognize and face,--the danger of hysteria. This is in many respects a hysterical age, and neither sex can claim immunity from this dread disease. There are many organizations and movements, masculine as well as feminine, which have their birth and tendency in nothing else than hysteria, and there are others, admirable in inception and purpose, of which the conduct is governed largely by this emotional influence. The feminine sex is far more prone to unthinking enthusiasm than is the masculine, and they have given proof of this in many instances. Often, beginning some new movement with admirable and definite aims, our womanhood allows itself to be carried beyond its legitimate purpose by the urging of undisciplined emotion, and thus brings its proper aim and purpose into disrepute among those who judge of a theory by the sub-theories of its disciples. A minor example of this error may be found in the support accorded the axe-wielding termagant by women of pure aims but misdirected energies and enthusiasms. That a crusade such as that led by Carrie Nation could result in nothing but disrepute and scorn for the tenets they cherished was beyond their scope of vision; all that they could see was the attempted end. In the disregard of the character of means so that the end be good lies a peril which, if not subdued, may bring to naught all the noblest efforts of our womanhood in the twentieth century. Unless the tendency to hysteria be eliminated, the result cannot be that which the effort deserves.
Perhaps the most defined and significant feminine movement which flowered it had long before blossomed at the death of the past century is that which is generally termed "the higher education of women." While this movement is not peculiar to America, it is in this country that it first gave signs of florescence and has taken deepest root. Over the length and breadth of the land are constantly springing up new educational centres which are devoted to the culture of young women. When Vassar began its career, it was, as Girton in England, looked upon as a most doubtful experiment, both as to its permanency and the merit of its aims; now it is but one of an ever-increasing many, while coeducation is now an established rule in many of our greatest institutions of learning. There are still dissentients from the theory of classical and scientific education for women, and it is somewhat singular that the movement should have obtained full headway at the very time when there has been sharp and sustained attack upon university education for men as an aid to future career; but in neither case can the opponents of liberal education be said to have prevailed in argument. That errors have been made in the progress of the movement for broader feminine culture cannot be successfully denied; occasionally, as in the adoption of the purely masculine badges of cap and gown, cause has been given for more or less good-natured ridicule and charge of fashion rather than earnestness in the movement. Nor can the introduction of athletic contests into the female curriculum be heartily defended; not only are such contests abrogative of the most cherished theories of feminine culture, but they are not productive of respect from the enemies of the movement. The remarkable spectacle has been presented of "championship" games of basketball which ended in fights between the adverse collegiates that recall the days when a baseball match was merely the preliminary to a battle between the partisans of the respective clubs, led by the players. Gracefully to accept defeat is not the nature of womankind, and struggles for physical mastery among them are subversive of all that is most admirable in the feminine nature. Nevertheless, all these things are but excrescences and not germane to the main theory, and they will doubtless correct themselves by the constant self-evidence of their absurdity or evil tendencies. The promoters of the movement did not look to an aping of masculine garb and pursuits as the end or even means of their purposes, and their original aim will emerge from the mists and shine clear and bright in its height and singleness. That aim was that woman should be placed upon a level with man in all that is most desirable as a foundation for a career, and no one can dispute its excellence of theory. The methods of obtaining the best results in that purpose may be debated and, it is possible, the conclusion reached that not yet have the guides of the army of feminine culture found the shortest and least-encumbered path to their goal, but that the goal will in time be reached by the easiest and best way does not admit of a doubt; in this case at least, though with some difference of application, may be quoted the old French proverb:Ce que femme veut, Dieu veut.
That the future of our country depends, as its past has largely depended, upon its women is but a truism; it is something more, however, that we can look forward with calm confidence to that future as upheld by American womanhood. To-day the American woman stands but on the threshold of her career. Behind her are noble traditions, fraught with lesson, with admonition, and in some cases with warning; before her are the coming centuries, pregnant with possibility, to be made her own. Every step that she takes is a determination of her destined path; even though the step be temporarily in advance, if it leads to no worthy goal it is force wasted, and worse.
She must needs face responsibility, without which she would be but the toy which she rightfully refuses to be considered; yet the responsibility which lies on her shoulders should make her thoughtful and grave to meet and outface many problems of existence, to the solution of which she must in largest part contribute by her dealings with them. She is free with the noblest of freedoms; she has the liberty tobeas well as todo, and the former is the greater thing. That which she does is but the reflex of that which she is, and the latter is the determining factor in the result of civilization. It is for her to direct the steps of progress, less in material matters than in spiritual direction; the legislation which is enacted in the halls of our legislatures is but the consequence of the influence and even the teachings of the home, and the face of the land is ever turned in the direction toward which its women set their countenances. There lies before us grave peril in questions of social nature, and it is our women who will determine whether the peril is to prove fatal to the best interests of civilization or but a "stepping-stone to higher things."
The story of American womanhood in the past shows deep cause for pride in those who can boast kinship to that womanhood, and the future will not blur the blazon of the past.