CHAPTER II

THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES

In the Romance countries the woman’s rights movement is hampered by Romance customs and by the Catholic religion. The number of women in these countries is in many cases smaller than the number of men. In general, the girls are married at an early age, almost always through the negotiations of the parents. The education of women is in some respects very deficient.

FRANCE

Total population:38,466,924.
Women:19,346,369.
Men:18,922,651.
Federation of French Women’s Clubs.
Woman’s Suffrage League.

The European woman’s rights movement was born in France; it is a child of the Revolution of 1789. When a whole country enjoys freedom, equality, and fraternity, woman can no longer remain in bondage. The Declaration of the Rights of Man apply to Woman also. The European woman’s rights movement is based on purely logical principles; not, as in the United States, on the practical exercise of woman’s right to vote. This purely theoretical origin is not denied by the advocates of the woman’s rights movement in France. It ought to be mentioned that the principles of the woman’s rights movement were brought from France to England by Mary Wollstonecraft, and were stated in her pamphlet, A Vindication of the Rights of Women. But enthusiastic Mary Wollstonecraft did not form a school in England, and the organized English woman’s rights movement did not cast its lot with this revolutionist. What Mary Wollstonecraft did for England, Olympe de Gouges did for France in 1789; at that time she dedicated to the Queen her little book, The Declaration of the Rights of Women (La declaration des droits des femmes). It happened that The Declaration of the Rights of Man (La declaration des droits de l’homme) of 1789 referred only to the men. The National Assembly recognized only male voters, and refused the petition of October 28, 1789, in which a number of Parisian women demanded universal suffrage in the election of national representatives. Nothing is more peculiar than the attitude of the men advocates of liberty toward the women advocates of liberty. At that time woman’s struggle for liberty had representatives in all social groups. In the aristocratic circles there was Madame de Stael, who as a republican (her father was Swiss) never doubted the equality of the sexes; but by her actions showed her belief in woman’s right to secure the highest culture and to have political influence. Madame de Stael’s social position and her wealth enabled her to spread these views of woman’s rights; she was never dependent on the men advocates of freedom. Madame Roland was typical of the educated republican bourgeoisie. She participated in the revolutionary drama and was a “political woman.” On the basis of historical documents it can be asserted that the men advocates of freedom have not forgiven her.

The intelligent people of the lower classes are represented by Olympe de Gouges and Théroīgne de Mericourt. Both played a political rôle; both were woman’s rights advocates; of both it was said that they had forgotten the virtues of their sex,—modesty and submissiveness. The men of freedom still thought that the home offered their wives all the freedom they needed. The populace finally made demonstrations through woman’s clubs. These clubs were closed in 1793 by the Committee of Public Safety because the clubs disturbed “public peace.” The public peace of 1793! What an idyl! In short, the régime of liberty, equality, and fraternity regarded woman as unfree, unequal, and treated her very unfraternally. What harmony between theory and practice! In fact, the Revolution even withdrew rights that the women formerly possessed. For example, the old régime gave a noblewoman, as a landowner, all the rights of a feudal lord. She levied troops, raised taxes, and administered justice. During the old régime in France there were women peers; women were now and then active in diplomacy. The abbesses exercised the same feudal power as the abbots; they had unlimited power over their convents. The women owners of large feudal lands met with the provincial estates,—for instance, Madame de Sévigné in the Estates General of Brittany, where there was autonomy in the provincial administration. In the gilds the women masters exercised their professional right as voters. All of these rights ended with the old régime; beside the politically free man stood the politically unfree woman. Napoleon confirmed this lack of freedom in the Civil and Criminal Codes. Napoleon’s attitude toward all women (excepting his mother, Madame Mère) was such as we still find among the men in Southern Italy, in Spain, and in the Orient. His sisters and Josephine Beauharnais, the creole, could not give him a more just opinion of women. His fierce hatred for Madame de Stael indicates his attitude toward the woman’s rights representatives. The great Napoleon did not like intellectual women.

The Code Napoleon places the wife completely under the guardianship of the husband. Without him she can undertake no legal transaction. The property law requires joint property holding, excepting real estate (but most of the women are neither landowners nor owners of houses). The married woman has had independent control of her earnings and savings only since the enactment of the law of July 13, 1907. Only the husband has legal authority over the children. Such a legal status of woman is found in other codes. But the following provisions are peculiar to the Code Napoleon: If a husband kills his wife for committing adultery, the murder is “excusable.” An illicit mother cannot file a paternity suit. In practice, however, the courts in a roundabout way give the illicit mother an opportunity to file an action for damages.

No other code, above all no other Germanic or Slavic code,[81] has been disgraced by such paragraphs. In the first of the designated paragraphs we hear the Corsican, a cousin of the Moor of Venice; in the second we hear the military emperor, and general of an unbridled, undisciplined troop of soldiers. No one will be astonished to learn that this same lawgiver in 1801 supplemented the Code with a despotic state regulation of prostitution. What became of the woman’s rights movement during this arbitrary military régime? Full of fear and anxiety, the woman’s rights advocates concealed their views. The Restoration was scarcely a better time for advocating woman’s rights. The philosopher of the epoch, de Bonald, spoke very pompously against the equality of the sexes, “Man and woman are not and never will be equal.” It was not until the July Revolution of 1830 and the February Revolution of 1848 that the question of woman’s rights could gain a favorable hearing. The Saint Simonians, the Fourierists, and George Sand preached the rights of man and the rights of woman. During the February Revolution the women were found, just as in 1789, in the front ranks of the Socialists. The French woman’s rights movement is closely connected with both political movements. Every time a sacrifice of Republicans and Democrats was demanded, women were among the banished and deported: Jeanne Deroin in 1848, Louise Michel, in 1851 and 1871.

Marie Deraismes, belonging to the wealthy Parisian middle class, appeared in the sixties as a public speaker. She was a woman’s rights advocate. However, in a still greater degree she was a tribune of the people, a republican and a politician. Marie Deraismes and her excellent political adherent, Léon Richer, were the founders of the organized French woman’s rights movement. As early as 1876 they organized the “Society for the Amelioration of the Condition of Woman and for Demanding Woman’s Rights”; in 1878 they called the first French woman’s rights congress.

The following features characterize the modern French woman’s rights movement: It is largely restricted to Paris; in the provinces there are only weak and isolated beginnings; even the Parisian woman’s rights organizations are not numerous, the greatest having 400 members. Thanks to the republican and socialist movements, which for thirty years have controlled France, the woman’s rights movement is for political reasons supported by the men to a degree not noticeable in any other country. The republican majority in the Chamber of Deputies, the republican press, and republican literature effectively promote the woman’s rights movement. The Federation of French Women’s Clubs, founded in 1901, and reputed to have 73,000 members, is at present promoting the movement by the systematic organization of provincial divisions. Less kindly disposed—sometimes indifferent and hostile—are the Church, the Catholic circles, the nobility, society, and the “liberal” capitalistic bourgeoisie. A sharp division between the woman’s rights movements of the middle class and the movement of the Socialists, such as exists, for example, in Germany, does not exist in France. A large part of the bourgeoisie (not the great capitalists) are socialistically inclined. On the basis of principle the Republicans and Socialists cannot deny the justice of the woman’s rights movement. Hence everything now depends on the opportuneness of the demands of the women.

The French woman has still much to demand. However enlightened, however advanced the Frenchman may regard himself, he has not yet reached the point where he will favor woman’s suffrage; what the National Assembly denied in 1789, the Republic of 1870 has also withheld. Nevertheless conditions have improved, in so far as measures in favor of woman’s suffrage and the reform of the civil rights of woman have since 1848 been repeatedly introduced and supported by petitions.[82] As for the civil rights of woman,—the principles of the Code Napoleon, the minority of the wife, and the husband’s authority over her are still unchanged. However, a few minor concessions have been made: To-day a woman can be a witness to a civil transaction, e.g. a marriage contract. A married woman can open a savings bank account in her maiden name; and, as in Belgium, her husband can make it impossible for her to withdraw the money! A wife’s earnings now belong to her. The severe law concerning adultery by the wife still exists, and affiliation cases are still prohibited. That is not exactly liberal.

Attempts to secure reforms of the civil law are being made by various women’s clubs, the Group of Women Students (Le groupe d’études féministes) (Madame Oddo Deflou), and by the committee on legal matters of the Federation of French Women’s Clubs (Madame d’Abbadie).

In both the legal and the political fields the French women have hitherto (in spite of the Republic) achieved very little. In educational matters, however, the republican government has decidedly favored the women. Here the wishes of the women harmonized with the republican hatred for the priests. What was done perhaps not for the women, was done to spite the Church.

Elementary education has been obligatory since 1882. In 1904-1905 there were 2,715,452 girls in the elementary schools, and 2,726,944 boys. State high schools, or lycées, for girls have existed since 1880. The programme of these schools is not that of the German Gymnasiums, but that of a German high school for girls (foreign languages, however, are elective). In the last two years (in which the ages of the girls are 16 to 18 years) the curriculum is that of a seminary for women teachers. In 1904-1905 these institutions were attended by 22,000 girls, as compared with 100,000 boys. The French woman’s rights movement has as yet not succeeded in establishing Gymnasiums for girls; at present, efforts are being made to introduce Gymnasium courses in the girls’ lycées. The admission of girls to the boys’ lycées, which has occurred in Germany and in Italy, has not even been suggested in France. To the present, the preparation of girls for the universities has been carried on privately.

The right to study in the universities has never been withheld from women. From the beginning, women could take the Abiturientenexamen (the university entrance examinations) with the young men before an examination commission. All departments are open to women. The number of women university students in France is 3609; the male students number 38,288. Women school teachers control the whole public school system for girls. In the French schools for girls most of the teachers are women; the superintendents are also women. The ecclesiastical educational system,—which still exists in secular guise,—is naturally, so far as the education of girls is concerned, entirely in the hands of women. The salaries of the secular women teachers in the first three classes of the elementary schools are equal to those of the men. The women teachers in the lycées (agrégées) are trained in the Seminary of Sèvres and in the universities. Their salaries are lower than those of the men. In 1907 the first woman teacher in the French higher institutions of learning was appointed,—Madame Curie, who holds the chair of physics in the Sorbonne, in Paris. In the provincial universities women are lecturers on modern languages. There are no women preachers in France. Dr. jur. Jeanne Chauvin was the first woman lawyer, being admitted to the bar in 1899. To-day women lawyers are practicing in Paris and in Toulouse.

In the government service there are women postal clerks, telegraph clerks, and telephone clerks,—with an average daily wage of 3 francs (60 cents). Only the subordinate positions are open to women. The same is true of the women employed in the railroad offices. Women have been admitted as clerks in some of the administrative departments of the government and in the public poor-law administration. Women are employed as inspectors of schools, as factory inspectors, and as poor-law administrators. There is a woman member of each of the following councils: the Superior Council of Education, the Superior Council of Labor, and the Superior Council of Public Assistance (Conseil Superior d’Education, Conseil Superior du Travail, Conseil Superior de l’Assistance Publique). The first woman court interpreter was appointed in the Parisian Court of Appeals in 1909.

The French woman is an excellent business woman. However, the women employed in commercial establishments, being organized as yet to a small extent, earn no more than women laborers,—70 to 80 francs ($14 to $16) a month. In general, greater demands are made of them in regard to personal appearance and dress. There is a law requiring that chairs be furnished during working hours. There is a consumers’ league in Paris which probably will effect reforms in the laboring conditions of women. The women in the industries, of whom there are about 900,000, have an average wage of 2 francs (50 cents) a day. Hardly 30,000 are organized into trade-unions; all women tobacco workers are organized. As elsewhere, the French ready-made clothing industry is the most wretched home industry. A part of the French middle-class women oppose legislation for the protection of women workers on the ground of “equality of rights for the sexes.”[83] This attitude has been occasioned by the contrast between the typographers and the women typesetters; the men being aided in the struggle by the prohibition of night work for women. It is easy to explain the rash and unjustifiable generalization made on the basis of this exceptional case. The women that made the generalization and oppose legislation for the protection of women laborers belong to the bourgeois class. There are about 1,500,000 women engaged in agriculture, the average wage being 1 franc 50 (about 37 cents). Many of these women earn 1 franc to 1 franc 20 (20 to 24 cents) a day. In Paris, women have been cab drivers and chauffeurs since 1907. In 1901 women formed 35 per cent of the population engaged in the professions and the industries (6,805,000 women; 12,911,000 men: total, 19,716,000).

There are three parties in the French woman’s rights movement. The Catholic (le féminisme chrétien), the moderate (predominantly Protestant), and the radical (almost entirely socialistic). The Catholic party works entirely independently; the two others often coöperate, and are represented in the National Council of Women (Conseil national des femmes), while the féminisme chrétien is not represented. The views of the Catholic party are as follows: “No one denies that man is stronger than woman. But this means merely a physical superiority. On the basis of this superiority man dare not despise woman and regard her as morally inferior to him. But from the Christian point of view God gave man authority over woman. This does not signify any intellectual superiority, but is simply a fact of hierarchy.”[84] The féminisme chrétien advocates: A thorough education for girls according to Catholic principles; a reform of the marriage law (the wife should control her earnings, separate property holding should be established); the same moral standard for both sexes (abolition of the official regulation of prostitution); the same penalty for adultery for both sexes (however, there should be no divorce); the authority of the mother (autorité maritale) should be maintained, for only in this way can peace prevail in the family. “A high-minded woman will never wish to rule. It is her wish to sacrifice herself, to admire, to lean on the arm of a strong man that protects her.”[85]

In the moderate group (President, Miss Sara Monod), these ideas have few advocates. Protestantism, which is strongly represented in this party, has a natural inclination toward the development of individuality. This party is more concerned with the woman that does not find the arm of the “strong man” to lean on, or who detected him leaning upon her. This party is entirely opposed to the husband’s authority over the wife and to the dogma of obligatory admiration and sacrifice. The leaders of the party are Madame Bonnevial, Madame Auclert, and others. During the five years’ leadership of Madame Marguerite Durand, the “Fronde” was the meeting place of the party.

The radicals demand: absolute coeducation; anti-military instruction in history; schools that prepare girls for motherhood; the admission of women to government positions; equal pay for both sexes; official regulation of the work of domestic servants; the abolition of the husband’s authority; municipal and national suffrage for women. A member of the radical party presented herself in 1908 as a candidate in the Parisian elections. In November, 1908, women were granted passive suffrage for the arbitration courts for trade disputes (they already possessed active suffrage).

The founding of the National Council of French Women (Conseil national des femmes française) has aided the woman’s rights movement considerably. Stimulated by the progress made in other countries, the French women have systematically begun their work. They have organized two sections in the provinces (Touraine and Normandy); they have promoted the organization of women into trade-unions; they have studied the marriage laws; and have organized a woman’s suffrage department. Since 1907 the woman’s magazine, La Française, published weekly, has done effective work for the cause. The place of publication (49 rue Laffite, Paris) is also a public meeting place for the leaders of the woman’s rights movements. La Française arouses interest in the cause of woman’s rights among women teachers and office clerks in the provinces. Recently the management of the magazine has been converted to the cause of woman’s suffrage. In the spring of 1909 the French Woman’s Suffrage Society (Union française pour le souffrage des femmes) was organized under the presidency of Madame Schmall (a native of England). Madame Schmall is also to be regarded as the originator of the law of July 13, 1907, which pertains to the earnings of the wife. The Union has joined the International Woman’s Suffrage Alliance. In the House of Deputies there is a group in favor of woman’s rights. The French woman’s rights movement seems to be spreading rapidly.

Émile de Morsier organized the French movement favoring the abolition of the official regulation of prostitution. Through this movement an extraparliamentary commission (1903-1907) was induced to recognize the evil of the existing official regulation of prostitution. This is the first step toward abolition.

BELGIUM

Total population:6,815,054.
Women:3,416,057.
Men:3,398,997.
Federation of Belgian Women’s Clubs.
Woman’s Suffrage League.

It is very difficult for the woman’s rights movement to thrive in Belgium. Not that the movement is unnecessary there; on the contrary, the legal status of woman is regulated by the Code Napoleon, hence there is decided need for reform. The number of women exceeds that of the men; hence part of the girls cannot marry. Industry is highly developed. The question of wages is a vital question for women laborers. Accordingly there are reasons enough for instituting an organized woman’s rights movement in Belgium. But every agitation for this purpose is hampered by the following social factors: Catholicism (Belgium is 99 per cent Catholic), Clericalism in Parliament, and the indifference of the rich bourgeoisie.

The woman’s rights movement has very few adherents in the third estate, and it is exactly the women of this estate that ought to be the natural supporters of the movement. In the fourth estate, in which there are a great many Socialists, the woman’s rights movement is identical with Socialism.

Since the legal status of woman is determined by the Code Napoleon, we need not comment upon it here. By a law of 1900, the wife is empowered to deposit money in a savings bank without the consent of her husband; the limit of her deposit being 3000 francs ($600). The wife also controls her earnings. If, however, she draws more than 100 francs ($20) a month from the savings bank, the husband may protest. Women are now admitted to family councils; they can act as guardians; they can act as witnesses to a marriage. Affiliation cases were made legal in 1906. On December 19, 1908, women were given active and passive suffrage in arbitration courts for labor disputes.

The Belgium secondary school system is exceptional because the government has established a rather large number of girls’ high schools. However, these schools do not prepare for the university entrance examinations (Abiturientenexamen). Women contemplating entering the university, must prepare for these examinations privately. This was done by Miss Marie Popelin, of Brussels, who wished to study law. The universities of Brussels, Ghent, and Liège have been open to women since 1886. Hence Miss Popelin could execute her plans; in 1888 she received the degree of Doctor of Laws. She made an attempt in 1888-1889 to secure admission to the bar as a practicing lawyer, but the Brussels Court of Appeals decided the case against her.[86]

Miss Marie Popelin is the leader of the middle-class woman’s rights movement in Belgium. She is in charge of the Woman’s Rights League (Ligue du droit des femmes), founded in 1890. With the support of Mrs. Denis, Mrs. Parent, and Mrs. Fontaine, Miss Popelin organized, in 1897, an international woman’s congress in Brussels. Many representatives of foreign countries attended. One of the German representatives, Mrs. Anna Simpson, was astonished by the indifference of the people of Brussels. In her report she says: “Where were the women of Brussels during the days of the Congress? They did not attend, for the middle class is not much interested in our cause. It was especially for this class that the Congress was held.” Dr. Popelin is also president of the league that has since 1908 taken up the struggle against the official regulation of prostitution.

The schools and convents are the chief fields of activity for the middle-class Belgian women engaged in non-domestic callings. As yet there are only a few women doctors. One of these, Mrs. Derscheid-Delcour, has been appointed as chief physician at the Brussels Orphans’ Home. Mrs. Delcour graduated in 1893 at the University of Berlin summa cum laude; in 1895 she was awarded the gold medal in the surgical sciences in a prize contest for the students of the Belgian universities.

In Belgium 268,337 women are engaged in the industries. The Socialist party has recognized the organizations of these women; it was instrumental in organizing 250,000 women into trade-unions. Elsewhere this would be impossible.[87]

Madame Vandervelde, the wife of the Socialist member of Parliament, and Madame Gatti de Gammond, the publisher of the Cahiers feministes, were the leaders of the Socialist woman’s rights movement, which is organized throughout the country in committees, councils, and societies. Madame Gatti de Gammond died in 1905, and her publication, the Cahiers feministes, was discontinued. The secretary of the Federation of Socialist Women (Fédération de femmes socialistes) is Madame Tilmans. Vooruit, of Ghent, publishes a woman’s magazine: De Stem der Vrouw.

The women are demanding the right to vote. The Belgian women possessed municipal suffrage till 1830. They were deprived of this right by the Constitution of 1831. A measure favoring universal suffrage (for men and women) was introduced into Parliament in 1894. This bill, however, provided also for plural voting, by which the property-owning and the educated classes were given one or two additional votes. The Socialists opposed this, and demanded that each person have one vote (un homme, un vote). The Clerical majority then replied that it would not bring the bill to a vote. In this way the Clericals remained assured of a majority.

For tactical purposes the Socialists adopted the expression—un homme, un vote. It harmonized with their principles and ideals. At a meeting of the party in which the matter was discussed, it was shown that universal suffrage would be detrimental to the party’s interests; for the Socialists were convinced that woman’s suffrage would certainly insure a majority for the Clericals. Hence, in meeting, the women were persuaded to withdraw their demand for woman’s suffrage on the grounds of opportuneness, and in the meantime to work for the inauguration of universal male suffrage without the plural vote.[88]

In the Fronde, Audrée Téry summarized the situation in the following dialogue:—

The man. Emancipate yourself and I will enfranchise you.

The woman. Give me the franchise and I shall emancipate myself.

The man. Be free, and you shall have freedom.

In this manner, concludes Audrée Téry, this dialogue can be continued indefinitely.

Recently the middle-class women have begun to show an interest in woman’s suffrage. A woman’s suffrage organization was formed in Brussels in 1908; one in Ghent, in 1909. Together they have organized the Woman’s Suffrage League, which has affiliated with the International Woman’s Suffrage Alliance.

Woman’s lack of rights and her powerlessness in public life are shown by the fact that in Antwerp, in 1908, public aid to the unemployed was granted only to men,—to unmarried as well as to married men. As for the unmarried women, they were left to shift for themselves.

ITALY

Total population:32,449,754.
Women: about16,190,000.
Men: about16,260,000.
Federation of Italian Women’s Clubs.
Woman’s Suffrage League.

National unification raised Italy to the rank of a great power. Italy’s political position as a great power, her modern parliamentary life, and the Liberal and Socialist majority in her Parliament give Italy a position that Spain, for example, does not possess in any way. Catholicism, Clericalism, and Roman custom are no match for these modern liberal powers, and are therefore unable to hinder the woman’s rights movement in the same degree as do these influences in Spain. However, the Italian woman in general is still entirely dependent on the man (see the discussion in Alaremo’s Una Donna), and in the unenlightened classes woman’s feeling of inferiority is impressed upon her by the Church, the law, the family, and by custom. Naturally the woman attempts, as in Spain, to take revenge in the sexual field.

In Italy there is no strict morality among married men. Moreover, the opposition to divorce in Italy comes largely from the women, who, accustomed to being deceived in matrimony, fear that if they are divorced they will be left without means of support. “Boys make love to girls,—to mere unguided children without any will of their own,—and when these boys marry, be they ever so young, they have already had a wealth of experience that has taught them to regard woman disdainfully—with a sort of cynical authority. Even love and respect for the innocent young wife is unable to eradicate from the young husband the impressions of immorality and bad examples. The wife suffers from a hardly perceptible, but unceasing depression of mind. Innocently, without suspicion, uninformed as to her husband’s past, the wife persists in her belief in his manly superiority until this belief has become a fixed habit of thought, and then even a cruel revelation cannot take him from her.”[89]

In southern Italy,—especially in Sicily,—Arabian oriental conceptions of woman still prevail. During her whole life woman is a grown-up child. No woman, not even the most insignificant woman laborer, can be on the street without an escort. On the other hand, the boys are emancipated very early. With pity and arrogance the sons look down on the mother, who must be accompanied in the street by her sons.

“Close intellectual relations between man and woman cannot as yet be developed, owing to the generally low education of woman, to her subordination, and to her intellectual bondage. While still in the schools the boy is trained for political life. The average Italian woman participates in politics even less than the German woman; her influence is purely moral. If the Italian woman wishes to accept any office in a society, she must have the consent of her husband attested by a notary. Just as in ancient times, the non-professional interests of the husband are, in great part, elsewhere than at home. The opportunity daily to discuss political and other current questions with men companions is found by the German man in the smaller cities while taking his evening pint of beer. The Italian man finds this opportunity sometimes in the café, sometimes in the public places, where every evening the men congregate for hours. So the educated man in Italy (even more than in Germany) has no need of the intellectual qualities of his wife. Moreover, his need for an educated wife is the less because his misguided precocity prevents him from acquiring anything but an essentially general education. The restricted intellectual relationship between husband and wife is explained partly by the fact that the cicisbeo[90] still exists. This relation ought to be, and generally is, Platonic and publicly known. The wife permits her friend (the cicisbeo) to escort her to the theater and elsewhere in a carriage; the husband also escorts a woman friend. So husband and wife share the inwardly moral unsoundness of the medieval service of love (Minnedienst). At any rate this custom reveals the fact that after the honeymoon the husband and wife do not have overmuch to say to each other. In this way there takes place, to a certain extent, an open relinquishment of the postulate that, in accordance with the external indissolubility of married life, there ought to be permanent intellectual bonds between man and wife,—a postulate that is the source of the most serious conscience struggles, but which has caused the great moral development of the northern woman.”[91]

Naturally, under such circumstances, the woman’s rights movement has done practically nothing for the masses. In the circles of the nobility the movement, with the consent of the clergy, has until recently confined itself to philanthropy (the forming of associations and insurance societies, the founding of homes, asylums, etc.) and to the higher education of girls.[92] In a private audience the Pope has expressed himself in favor of women’s engaging in university studies (except theology), but he was opposed to woman’s suffrage. The daughters of the educated, liberal (but often poor) bourgeoisie are driven by want and conviction to acquire a higher education and to engage in academic callings. The material difficulties are not great. As in France, the government has during the past thirty-five years promoted all educational measures that would take from the clergy its power over youth.

Elementary education is public and obligatory. The laws are enforced rather strictly. Coeducation nowhere exists. The number of women teachers is 62,643.

The secondary school system is still largely in the hands of the Catholic religious orders. There are about 100,000 girls and nuns enrolled in these church schools; only 25,000 girls are in the secondary state and private schools (other than the Catholic schools), which cannot give instruction as cheaply as the religious schools. The efforts of the state in this field are not to be criticized: it has given women every educational opportunity. Girls wishing to study in the universities are admitted to the boys’ classical schools (ginnasii) and to the boys’ technical schools. This experiment in coeducation during the plastic age of youth has not even been undertaken by France. To be sure, at present the girls sit together on the front seats, and when entering and leaving class they have the school porter as bodyguard. In spite of all fears to the contrary, coeducation has been a success in northern Italy (Milan), as well as in southern Italy (Naples).

The universities have never been closed to women. In recent years 300 women have attended the universities and have graduated. During the Renaissance there were many women teachers in Italy. This tradition has been revived; at present there are 10 women university teachers. Dr. jur. Therese Labriola (whose mother is a German) is a lecturer in the philosophy of law at Rome. Dr. med. Rina Monti is a university lecturer in anatomy at Pavia.

There are many practicing women doctors in Italy. Dr. med. Maria Montessori (a delegate to the International Congress of Women in Berlin in 1896) is a physician in the Roman hospitals. The Minister of Public Instruction has authorized her to deliver a course of lectures on the treatment of imbecile children to a class of women teachers in the elementary schools. The legal profession still remains closed to women, although Dr. jur. Laidi Poët has succeeded in being admitted to the bar in Turin.

In government service (in 1901) there were 1000 women telephone employees, 183 women telegraph clerks, and 161 women office clerks. These positions are much sought after by men. The number of women employed in commerce is 18,000; the total number of persons employed in commerce being 57,087. Recently women have been appointed as factory inspectors.

The beginnings of the modern woman’s rights movement coincide with the political upheavals that occurred between 1859 and 1870. When the Kingdom of Italy had been established, Jessie White Mario demanded a reform of the legal, political, and economic status of woman. Whatever legal concessions have been made to women are due, as in France, to the Liberal parliamentary majority.

Since 1877, women have been able to act as witnesses in civil suits. Women (even married women) can be guardians. The property laws provide for separation of property. Even in cases of joint property holding, the wife controls her earnings and savings. The husband can give her a general authorization (allgemeinautorisation), thus giving her the full status of a legal person before the law. These laws are the most radical reforms to which the Code Napoleon has ever been subjected,—reforms which the French did not venture to enact.

The Liberal majority made an attempt in 1877 to emancipate the women politically. But the attempt failed. Bills providing for municipal woman’s suffrage were introduced and rejected in 1880, 1883, and 1888. However, since 1890, women have been eligible as poor-law guardians. The élite among the Italian men loyally supported the women in their struggle for emancipation. Since 1881 the women have organized clubs. At first these were unsuccessful. Free and courageous women were in the minority. In Rome the woman’s rights movement was at first exclusively benevolent. In Milan and Turin, on the other hand, there were woman’s rights advocates (under the leadership of Dr. med. Paoline Schiff and Emilia Mariani). The leadership of the national movement fell to the more active, more educated, and economically stronger northern Italy. Here also the movement of the workingwomen had progressed to the stage of organization, as, for example, in the case of the Lombard women workers in the rice fields.

There are 1,371,426 women laborers in Italy. Their condition is wretched. In agriculture, as well as in the industries, they are given the rough, poorly paid work to do. They are exploited to the extreme. Women straw plaiters have been offered 20 centimes, even as little as 10 centimes (4 to 2 cents), for twelve hours’ work. The average daily wage for women is 80 centimes to 1 franc (16 to 20 cents). The maximum is 1 franc 50 centimes (30 cents). The law has fixed the maximum working day for women at twelve hours, and prohibits women under twenty years of age from engaging in work that is dangerous and injurious to health. There are maternity funds for women in confinement, financial aid being given them for four weeks after the birth of the child. Under all these circumstances the organization of women is exceedingly difficult. Even the Socialists have neglected the organization of workingwomen.

Socialist propaganda among women agricultural laborers was begun in 1901. In Bologna, in the autumn of 1902, there was held a meeting of the representatives of 800 agricultural organizations (having a total membership of 150,000 men and women agricultural laborers). The constitution of the society is characteristic; many of its clauses are primitive and pathetic. This society is intended to be an educational and moral organization. Women members are exhorted “to live rightly, and to be virtuous and kind-hearted mothers, women, and daughters.”[93] It is to be hoped that the task of the women will be made easier through the efforts of the society’s male members to make themselves virtuous and kind-hearted fathers, husbands, and sons. Or are moral duties, in this case also, meant only for woman?

The movement favoring the abolition of the official regulation of prostitution was introduced into Italy by Mrs. Butler. A congress in favor of abolition was held in 1898 in Genoa. Recently, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Agnes MacLaren and Miss Buchner, the movement has been revived, and urged upon the Catholic clergy. The Italian branch of the International Federation for the Abolition of the Official Regulation of Prostitution was founded in 1908. In the same year was held in Rome the successful Congress of the Federation of Women’s Clubs. This Congress, representing the nobility, the middle class, and workingwomen, brought the woman’s suffrage question to the attention of the public. A number of woman’s suffrage societies had been organized previously, in Rome as well as in the provinces. They formed the National Woman’s Suffrage League, which, in 1906, joined the International Woman’s Suffrage Alliance. Through the discussions in the women’s clubs, woman’s suffrage became a topic of public interest. The Amsterdam Report [of the Congress of the International Woman’s Suffrage Alliance] says: “The women of the aristocracy wish to vote because they are intelligent; they feel humiliated because their coachman or chauffeur is able to vote. The workingwomen demand the right to vote, that they may improve their conditions of labor and be able to support their children better.” A parliamentary commission for the consideration of woman’s suffrage was established in 1908. In the meantime the existence of this commission enables the President of the Ministry to dispose of the various proposed measures with the explanation that such matters will not be considered until the commission has expressed itself on the whole question. Women have active and passive suffrage for the arbitration courts for labor disputes.

SPAIN[94]

Total population:18,813,493.
Women:9,558,896.
Men:9,272,597.
No federation of women’s clubs.
No woman’s suffrage league.

Whoever has traveled in Spain knows that it is a country still living, as it were, in the seventeenth century,—nay in the Middle Ages. The fact has manifold consequences for woman. In all cases progress is hindered. Woman is under the yoke of the priesthood, and of a Catholicism generally bigoted. The Church teaches woman that she is regarded as the cause of carnal desire and of the fall of man. By law, woman is under the guardianship of man. Custom forbids the “respectable” woman to walk on the street without a man escort. The Spanish woman regards herself as a person of the second order, a necessary adjunct to man. Such a fundamental humiliation and subordination is opposed to human nature. As the Spanish woman has no power of open opposition, she resorts to cunning. By instinct she is conscious of the power of her sex; this she uses and abuses. A woman’s rights advocate is filled with horror, quite as much as with pity, when she sees this mixture of bigotry, coquetry, submissiveness, cunning, and hate that is engendered in woman by such tyranny and lack of progress.

The Spanish woman of the lower classes receives no training for any special calling; she is a mediocre laborer. She acts as beast of burden, carries heavy burdens on her shoulders, carries water, tills the fields, and splits wood. She is employed as an industrial laborer chiefly in the manufacture of cigars and lace. “The wages of women,” says Professor Posada,[95] “are incredibly low,” being but 10 cents a day. As tailors, women make a scanty living, for many of the Spanish women do their own tailoring. The mantilla makes the work of milliners in general superfluous. In commercial callings women are still novices. Recently there has been talk of beginning the organization of women into trade-unions.

Women are employed in large numbers as teachers; teaching being their sole non-domestic calling. Elementary instruction has been obligatory since 1870, however, only in theory. In 1889 28 per cent of the women were illiterate. In many cases the girls of the lower classes do not attend school at all. When they do attend, they learn very little; for owing to the lack of seminaries the training of women teachers is generally quite inadequate. A reform of the central seminary of women teachers, in Madrid, took place in 1884; this reform was also a model for the seminaries in the provinces. The secondary schools for girls are convent schools. In France there are complaints that these schools are inadequate. What, then, can be expected of the Spanish schools! The curriculum includes only French, singing, dancing, drawing, and needlework. But the “Society for Female Education” is striving to secure a reform of the education for girls.

Preparation for entrance to the university must be secured privately. The number of women seeking entrance to universities is small. Most of them, so far as I know, are medical students. However, the Spanish women have a brilliant past in the field of higher education. Donna Galinda was the Latin professor of Queen Isabella. Isabella Losa and Sigea Aloisia of Toledo were renowned for their knowledge of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; Sigea Aloisia corresponded with the Pope in Arabic and Syriac. Isabel de Rosores even preached in the Cathedral of Barcelona.

In the literature of the present time Spanish women are renowned. Of first rank is Emilia Pardo Bazan, who is called the “Spanish Zola.” She is a countess and an only daughter, two circumstances that facilitated her emancipation and, together with her talent, assured her success. She characterizes herself as “a mixture of mysticism and liberalism.” At the age of seven she wrote her first verses. Her best book portrayed a “liberal monk,” Father Fequë. Pascual Loper, a novel, was a great success. She then went to Paris to study naturalism. Here she became acquainted with Zola, Goncourt, Daudet, and others. A study of Francis of Assisi led her again to the study of mysticism. In her recent novels liberalism is mingled with idealism.

Emilia Pardo Bazan is by conviction a woman’s rights advocate. In the Madrid Atheneum she filled with great success the position of Professor of French Literature. At the pedagogical congress in Madrid, in 1899, she gave a report on Woman, her Education, and her Rights.

In Spain there are a number of well-known women journalists, authors, and poets. Dr. Posada enumerates a number of woman’s rights publications on pages 200-202 of his book, El Feminismo.

Concepcion Arenal was a prominent Spanish woman and woman’s rights advocate. She devoted herself to work among prisoners, and wrote a valuable handbook dealing with her work. She felt the oppression of her sex very keenly. Concerning woman’s status, which man has forced upon her, Concepcion Arenal expressed herself as follows: “Man despises all women that do not belong to his family; he oppresses every woman that he does not love or protect. As a laborer, he takes from her the best paid positions; as a thinker, he forbids the mental training of woman; as a lover, he can be faithless to her without being punished by law; as a husband, he can leave her without being guilty before the law.”

The wife is legally under the guardianship of her husband; she has no authority over her children. The property laws provide for joint property holding.

In spite of these conditions Concepcion Arenal did not give up all hope. “Women,” said she, “are beginning to take interest in education, and have organized a society for the higher education of girls.” The pedagogical congresses in Madrid (1882 and 1889) promoted the intellectual emancipation of women. Catalina d’Alcala, delegate to the International Congress of Women in Chicago in 1893, closed her report with the words, “We are emerging from the period of darkness.” However, he who has wandered through Spanish cathedrals knows that this darkness is still very dense! Nevertheless, the woman’s suffrage movement has begun: the women laborers are agitating in favor of a new law of association. A number of women teachers and women authors have petitioned for the right to vote. In March, 1908, during the discussion of a new law concerning municipal administration, an amendment in favor of woman’s suffrage was introduced, but was rejected by a vote of 65 to 35. The Senate is said to be more favorable to woman’s suffrage than is the Chamber of Deputies.

The fact that women of the aristocracy have opposed divorce, and that women of all classes have opposed the enactment of laws restricting religious orders, is made to operate against the political emancipation of women. A deputy in the Cortez, Senor Pi y Arsuaga, who introduced the measure in favor of the right of women taxpayers to vote in municipal elections, argued that the suffrage of a woman who is the head of a family seems more reasonable to him than the suffrage of a young man, twenty-five years old, who represents no corresponding interests.

PORTUGAL

Total population:5,672,237.
Women:2,583,535.
Men:2,520,602.
No federation of women’s clubs.
No woman’s suffrage league.

Portugal is smaller than Spain; its finances are in better condition; therefore the compulsory education law (introduced in 1896) is better enforced. As yet there are no public high schools for girls; but there are a number of private schools that prepare girls for the university entrance examinations (Abiturientenexamen). The universities admit women. Women doctors practice in the larger cities. The women laborers are engaged chiefly in the textile industry; their wages are about two thirds of those of the men.

THE LATIN-AMERICAN REPUBLICS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA

MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA[96]

The condition prevailing in Mexico and Central America is one of patriarchal family life, the husband being the “master” of the wife. There are large families of ten or twelve children. The life of most of the women without property consists of “endless routine and domestic tyranny”; the life of the property-owning women is one of frivolous coquetry and indolence. There is no higher education for women; there are no high ideals. The education of girls is generally regarded as unnecessary.

There are public elementary schools for girls,—with women teachers. The higher education of girls is carried on by convent schools, and comprises domestic science, sewing, dancing, and singing. In the Mexican public high schools for girls, modern subjects and literature are taught; the work is chiefly memorizing. Technical schools for girls are unknown. Women do not attend the universities. Women teachers in Mexico are paid good salaries,—250 francs ($50) a month.

Women are engaged in commerce only in their own business establishments; and then in small retail businesses. The rest of the workingwomen are engaged in agriculture, domestic service, washing, and sewing. Their wages are from 40 to 50 per cent lower than those of men. The legal status of women is similar to that of the French women. In Mexico only does the wife control her earnings. Divorce is not recognized by law, though separation is. By means of foreign teachers the initiative of the people has been slightly aroused. It will take long for this stimulus to reach the majority of the people.

SOUTH AMERICA[97]

In South America there are the same “patriarchal” forms of family life, the same external restrictions for woman. She must have an escort on the streets, even though the escort be only a small boy.

Just as in Central America, the occupations of the women of the lower and middle class are agriculture, domestic service, washing, sewing, and retail business. But woman’s educational opportunities in South America are greater, although through public opinion everything possible is done to prevent women from desiring an education and admission to a liberal calling. Elementary education is compulsory (often in coeducational schools). Secondary education is in the hands of convents. In Brazil, Chili, Venezuela, Argentine Republic, Paraguay, and Colombia, the universities have been opened to women. As yet there are no women preachers or lawyers, although several women have studied law. Women practice as physicians, obstetrics still being their special field.

The beginnings of a woman’s rights movement exist in Chili. The Chilean women learn readily and willingly. They have proved their worth in business and in the liberal callings. They have competed successfully for government positions; they have founded trade-unions and coöperative societies; many women are tramway conductors, etc. In all the South American republics women have distinguished themselves as poets and authors. In the Argentine Republic there is a Federation of Woman’s Clubs, which, in 1901, joined the International Council of Women.