The Modern Woman's Rights Movement: A Historical Survey

by Käthe Schirmacher

CHAPTER III

THE SLAVIC AND BALKAN STATES

In the Slavic countries there is a lack of an ancient, deeply rooted culture like that of western Europe. Everywhere the oriental viewpoint has had its effect on the status of woman. In general the standards of life are low; therefore, the wages of the women are especially wretched. Political conditions are in part very unstable,—in some cases wholly antique. All of these circumstances greatly impede the progress of the woman’s rights movement.

RUSSIA

Total population:	94,206,195.
Women:	47,772,455.
Men:	46,433,740.

Federation of Russian Women’s Clubs.[98] National woman’s Suffrage League.

The Russian woman’s rights movement is forced by circumstances to concern itself chiefly with educational and industrial problems. All efforts beyond these limits are, as a matter of course, regarded as revolutionary. Such efforts are a part of the forbidden “political movement”; therefore they are dangerous and practically hopeless. Some peculiarities of the Russian woman’s rights movement are: its individuality, its independence of the momentary tendencies of the government, and the companionable coöperation of men and women. All three characteristics are accounted for by the absolute government that prevails in Russia, in spite of its Duma.

Under this régime the organization of societies and the holding of meetings are made exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. Individual initiative therefore works in solitude; discussion or the expression of opinions is not very feasible. When individual initiative ceases, progress usually ceases also. Corporate activity, such as educates women adherents, did not exist formerly in Russia. The lack of united action wastes much force, time, and money. Unconsciously people compete with each other. Without wishing to do so, people neglect important fields. The absolute régime regards all striving for an education as revolutionary. The educational institutions for women are wholly in the hands of the government. These institutions are tolerated; but a mere frown from above puts an end to their existence.

It is the absolute régime that makes comrades of men and women struggling for emancipation. The oppression endured by both sexes is in fact the same.

The government has not always been an enemy of enlightenment, as it is to-day. The first steps of the woman’s rights movement were made through the influence of the rulers. Although polygamy did not exist in Russia, the country could not free itself from certain oriental influences. Hence the women of the property-owning class formerly lived in the harem (called terem). The women were shut off from the world; they had no education, often no rearing whatever; they were the victims of deadly ennui, ecstatic piety, lingering diseases, and drunkenness.

With a strong hand Peter the Great reformed the condition of Russian women. The terem was abolished; the Russian woman was permitted to see the world. In rough, uncivilized surroundings, in the midst of a brutal, sensuous people, woman’s release was not in all cases a gain for morality. It is impossible to become a woman of western Europe upon demand.

Catherine II saw that there must be a preparation for this emancipation. She created the Institute de demoiselles for girls of the upper classes. The instruction, borrowed from France, remained superficial enough; the women acquired a knowledge of French, a few accomplishments, polished manners, and an aristocratic bearing. For all that, it was then an achievement to educate young Russian women according to the standards of western Europe. The superficiality of the Institutka was recognized in the middle of the nineteenth century. Alexander II, the Tsarina, and her aunt, Helene Pavlovna, favored reforms. The emancipator of the serfs could also liberate women from their intellectual bondage.

Thus with the protection of the highest power, the first public lyceum for girls was established in 1857 in Russia. This was a day school for girls of all classes. What an innovation! To-day there are 350 of these lyceums, having over 10,000 women students. The curriculums resemble those of the German high schools for girls. None of these lyceums (except the humanistic lyceum for girls in Moscow), are equivalent to the German Gymnasiums or Realgymnasiums, nor even to the Oberrealschulen or Realschulen. This explains and justifies the refusal of the German universities to regard the leaving certificates of the Russian lyceums as equivalent to the Abiturienten certificate of the German schools. The compulsory studies in the girls’ lyceums are: Russian, French, religion, history, geography, geometry, algebra, a few natural sciences, dancing, and singing. The optional studies are German, English, Latin, music, and sewing. The lyceums of the large cities make foreign languages compulsory also; but these institutions are in the minority. In the natural sciences and in mathematics “much depends on the teacher.” A Russian woman wishing to study in the university must pass an entrance examination in Latin.

The first efforts to secure the higher education of women were made by a number of professors of the University of St. Petersburg in 1861. They opened courses for the instruction of adult women in the town hall. Simultaneously the Minister of War admitted a number of women to the St. Petersburg School of Medicine, this school being under his control.

However, the reaction began already in 1862. Instruction in the School of Medicine, as well as in the town hall, was discontinued. Then began the first exodus of Russian women students to Germany and Switzerland. But in St. Petersburg, in 1867, there was formed a society, under the presidency of Mrs. Conradi, to secure the reopening of the course for adult women. The society appealed to the first congress of Russian naturalists and physicians. This congress sent a petition, with the signatures of influential men, to the Minister of Public Instruction. In two years Mrs. Conradi was informed that the Minister would grant a two-year course for men and women in Russian literature and the natural sciences. The society accepted what was offered. It was little enough. Moreover, the society had to defray the cost of instruction; but it was denied the right to give examinations and confer degrees. All the teachers, however, taught without pay. In 1885 the society erected its own building in which to give its courses. The instruction was again discontinued in 1886. Once more the Russian women flocked to foreign countries. In 1889 the courses were again opened (Swiss influence on Russian youth was feared). The number of those enrolled in the courses was limited to 600 (of these only 3 per cent could be unorthodox, i.e. Jewish). These courses are still given in St. Petersburg. Recently the Council of Ministers empowered the Minister of Public Instruction to forbid women to attend university lectures; but those who have already been admitted, and find it impossible to attend other higher institutions of learning for girls, have been allowed to complete their course in the university. The present number of women hearers in Russian universities is 2130. A Russian woman doctor was admitted as a lecturer by the University of Moscow, but her appointment was not confirmed by the Minister of Public Instruction. She appealed thereupon to the Senate, declaring that the Russian laws nowhere prohibited women from acting as teachers in the universities; moreover, her medical degree gave her full power to do so. The decision of the Senate is still pending.

A recent law opens to women the calling of architect and of engineer. The work done on the Trans-Siberian Railroad by the woman engineer has given better satisfaction than any of the other work. A bill providing for the admission of women to the legal profession has been introduced but has not yet become law.

The Russian women medical students shared the vicissitudes of Russian university life for women. After 1862 they studied in Switzerland, where Miss Suslowa, in 1867, was the first woman to be given the doctor’s degree in Zurich. However, since the lack of doctors is very marked on the vast Russian plains, the government in 1872 opened special courses for women medical students in St. Petersburg. (In another institution courses were given for midwives and for women regimental surgeons.) The women completing the courses in St. Petersburg were not granted the doctor’s degree, however. The Russian women earned the doctor’s degree in the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878); for ten years after this war women graduates of the St. Petersburg medical courses were granted degrees. Then these courses were closed in 1887. They were opened again in 1898. Under these difficult circumstances the Russian women secured their higher education.

In the elementary schools, for every 1000 women inhabitants there are only 13.1 women public school teachers. Of the 2,000,000 public school children, only 650,000 are girls. The number of illiterates in Russia varies from 70 to 80 per cent. The elementary school course in the country is only three years (it is five years in the cities).

The number of women public school teachers is 27,000 (as compared with 40,000 men teachers). An attempt has been made by the women village school teachers to arouse the women agricultural laborers from their stupor. Organization of women laborers has been attempted in the cities. For the present the task seems superhuman.[99]

When graduating from the lyceum the young girl is given her teaching diploma, which permits her to teach in the four lower classes in the girls’ lyceums. Those wishing to teach in the higher classes must take a special examination in a university. The higher classes in the girls’ lyceums are taught chiefly by men teachers. When a Russian woman teacher marries she need not relinquish her position.

In Russia the women doctors have a vast field of work. For every 200,000 inhabitants there is only one doctor! However, in St. Petersburg there is one doctor for every 10,000 inhabitants. According to the most recent statistics there are 545 women doctors in Russia. Of these, 8 have ceased to practice, 245 have official positions, and 292 have a private practice. Of the 132 women doctors in St. Petersburg, 35 are employed in hospitals, 14 in the sanitary department of the city; 7 are school physicians, 5 are assistants in clinics and laboratories, 2 are superintendents of maternity hospitals, 2 have charge of foundling asylums, 5 have private hospitals, and the rest engage in private practice. Of the 413 women doctors not in St. Petersburg, 173 have official positions, the others have a private practice.

The local governments (zemstvos) have appointed 26 women doctors in the larger cities, 21 in the smaller, and 55 in the rural districts. There are 18 women doctors employed in private hospitals on country estates, 8 in hospitals for Mohammedan women, 16 in schools, 9 in factories, 4 are employed by railroads, 4 by the Red Cross Society, etc. The practice of the woman doctor in the country is naturally the most difficult and the least remunerative. Therefore, it is willingly given over to the women. Thanks to individual ability, the Russian woman doctor is highly respected.

There are 400 women druggists in Russia. Their training for the calling is received by practical work (this is true of the men druggists also). According to the last statistics (1897), there were 126,016 women engaged in the liberal professions. There are a number of women professors in the state universities.

Women engage in commercial callings. The schools of commerce for women were favored by Witte in his capacity of Minister of Finance. They have since been placed under the control of the Minister of Instruction and Religion. This will restrict the freedom of instruction. Instruction in agriculture for women has not yet been established. Commerce engages 299,403 women; agriculture and fisheries, 2,086,169.

Women have been appointed as factory inspectors since 1900. The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Communication employ women in limited numbers, without entitling them to pensions. The government of the province of Moscow has appointed women to municipal offices, and has appointed them as fire insurance agents. The zemstvo of Kiew had done this previously; but suddenly it discharged them from the municipal offices. For the past nine years an institution founded by the Princes Liwin has trained women as managers of prisons.[100]

The names of two prominent Russian women must be mentioned: Sonja Kowalewska, the winner of a contest in mathematics, and Madame Sklodowska-Curie, the discoverer of radium. Both prove that women can excel in scientific work. It must be emphasized that the woman student in Russia must often struggle against terrible want. Whoever has studied in Swiss, German, or French universities knows the Russian-Polish students who in many cases must get along for the whole year with a couple of ten ruble bills (about ten dollars). They are wonderfully unassuming; they possess inexhaustible enthusiasm.

Many Russian women begin their university careers poorly prepared. To unfortunate, divorced, widowed, or destitute women the “University” appears to be a golden goal, a promised land. Of the privations that these women endure the people of western Europe have no conception. In Russia the facts are better known. Wealthy women endow all educational institutions for girls with relief funds and with loan and stipend funds. Restaurants and homes for university women have been established. The “Society for the Support of University Women” in Moscow has done its utmost to relieve the misery of the women students.[101]

The economic misery of the industrial and agricultural women (who are almost wholly unorganized) is somewhat worse than that of the university women. The statements concerning women’s wages in Vienna might give some idea of the misery of the Russian women. In Bialystock, which has the best socialistic organization of women, the women textile workers earn about 18 cents a day; under favorable circumstances $1.25 to $1.50 a week. A skillful woman tobacco worker will earn 32½ cents a day. The average daily wages for Russian women laborers are 18 to 20 cents.

Hence it is not astonishing that in the South American houses of ill-fame there are so many Russian girls. The agents in the white slave trade need not make very extravagant promises of “good wages” to find willing followers.[102] A workingwomen’s club has existed since 1897 in St. Petersburg. There are 982,098 women engaged in industry and mining; 1,673,605 in domestic service (there being 1,586,450 men domestic servants). Of the women domestic servants 53,283 are illiterate (of the men only 2172!). In 1885 the women formed 30 per cent of the laboring population; in 1900 the number had increased to 44 per cent. Of the total number of criminals in Russia 10 per cent are women.

The legal status of the Russian woman is favorable in so far as the property law provides for property rights. The Russian married woman controls not only her property, but also her earnings and her savings. As survival of village communism and the feudal system, the right to vote is restricted to taxpayers and to landowners. In the rural districts the wife votes as “head of the family,” if her husband is absent or dead. Then she is also given her share of the village land. She votes in person. In the cities the women that own houses and pay taxes vote by proxy. The women owners of large estates (as in Austria) vote also for the provincial assemblies. Although constitutional liberties have a precarious existence in Russia, they have now and then been beneficial to women.

With great effort, and in the face of great dangers, woman’s suffrage societies were formed in various parts of the Empire. They united into a national Woman’s Suffrage League. The brave Russian delegates were present in Copenhagen and in Amsterdam. They belonged to all ranks of society and were adherents to the progressive political parties. Since the dissolution of the first Duma (June 9, 1906) the work of the woman’s suffrage advocates has been made very difficult; in the rural districts especially all initiative has been crippled. In Moscow and St. Petersburg the work is continued by organizations having about 1000 members; 10,000 pamphlets have been distributed, lectures have been held, a newspaper has been established, and a committee has been organized which maintains a continuous communication with the Duma.

The best established center of the Russian woman’s rights movement is the Woman’s Club in St. Petersburg. Through the tenacious efforts of the leading women of the club,—Mrs. v. Philosophow, (Mrs.) Dr. med. Schabanoff, and others,—the government granted them, in the latter part of December, 1908, the right to hold the first national congress of women. (The stipulation was made that foreign women should not participate, and that a federation of women’s clubs should not be formed.) The discussions concerned education, labor problems, and politics. Publicity was much restricted; police surveillance was rigid; addresses on the foreign woman’s suffrage movement were prohibited. Nevertheless, this progressive declaration was made: Only the right to vote can secure for the Russian women a thorough education and the right to work. Moreover, the Congress favored: better marriage laws (a wife cannot secure a passport without the consent of her husband), the abolition of the official regulation of prostitution, the abolition of the death penalty, the struggle against drunkenness, etc. The Congress was opened by the Lord Mayor of St. Petersburg and was held in the St. Petersburg town hall. This was done in a sense of obligation to the women school teachers of St. Petersburg and to those women who had endeared themselves to the people through their activity in hospitals and asylums. The Lord Mayor stated that these activities were appreciated by the municipal officers and by all municipal institutions.

Although the Congress was opened with praise for the women, it ended with an intentional insult to the highly talented and deserving leader, Mrs. v. Philosophow. Mr. Purischkewitch, the reactionary deputy of the Duma, wrote a letter in which he expressed his pleasure at the adjournment of her “congress of prostitutes” (Bordellkongress). Mrs. v. Philosophow surrendered this letter and another to the courts, which sentenced the offender to a month’s imprisonment, against which he appealed. After this Congress has worked over the whole field of the woman’s rights movement, a special congress on the education of women will be held in the autumn of 1909.[103]

Since the Revolution of 1905 the women of the provinces have been astir. It has been reported that the Mohammedan women of the Caucasus are discarding their veils, that the Russian women in the rural districts are petitioning for greater privileges, etc. An organized woman’s rights movement has originated in the Baltic Provinces; its organ is the Baltic Women’s Review (Baltische Frauenrundschau), the publisher being a woman, E. Schütze, Riga.

CZECHISH BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA

Total population: about 5,500,000. The women predominate numerically. No federation of women’s clubs. No woman’s suffrage league.

The woman’s rights movement is strongly supported among the Czechs. Woman is the best apostle of nationalism; the educated woman is the most valuable ally. In the national propaganda woman takes her place beside the man. The names of the Czechish women patriots are on the lips of everybody. Had the Liberals of German Austria known equally well how to inspire their women with liberalism and Germanism, their cause would to-day be more firmly rooted.

In inexpensive but well-organized boarding schools the Czechish girls (especially country girls, the daughters of landowners and tenants) are being educated along national lines. An institute such as the “Wesna”[104] in Brünn is a center of national propaganda. Prague, like Brünn, has a Czechish Gymnasium for girls as well as the German Gymnasium. There is also a Czechish University besides the German University. The first woman to be given the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Czechish university was Fräulein Babor.

The industrial conditions in Czechish Bohemia and in Moravia differ very little from those in Galicia. The lot of the workingwomen, especially in the coal mining districts, is wretched. According to a local club doctor (Kassenarzt),[105] life is made up of hunger, whiskey, and lashes.

Although paragraph 30, of the Austrian law of association (Vereinsgesetz) prevents the Czechish women from forming political associations, the women of Bohemia, especially of Prague, show the most active political interest. The women owners of large estates in Bohemia voted until 1906 for members of the imperial Parliament. When universal suffrage was granted to the Austrian men, the voting rights of this privileged minority were withdrawn. The government’s resolution, providing for an early introduction of a woman’s suffrage measure, has not yet been carried out.

The suffrage conditions for the Bohemian Landtag (provincial legislature) are different. Taxpayers, office-holders, doctors, and teachers vote for this body; the women, of course, voting by proxy. The same is true in the Bohemian municipal elections. In Prague only are the women deprived of the suffrage. The Prague woman’s suffrage committee, organized in 1905, has proved irrefutably that the women in Prague are legally entitled to the suffrage for the Bohemian Landtag. In the Landtag election of 1907 the women presented a candidate, Miss Tumova, who received a considerable number of votes, but was defeated by the most prominent candidate (the mayor). However, this campaign aroused an active interest in woman’s suffrage. In 1909 Miss Tumova was again a candidate. The proposed reform of the election laws for the Bohemian Landtag (1908) (which provides for universal suffrage, although not equal suffrage) would disfranchise the women outside Prague. The women are opposing the law by indignation meetings and deputations.

GALICIA[106]

Total population: about	7,000,000.
Poles: about	3,500,000.
Ruthenians: about	3,500,000.

The women predominate numerically. No federation of women’s clubs. No woman’s suffrage league.

The conditions prevailing in Galicia are unspeakably pathetic,—medieval, oriental, and atrocious. Whoever has read Emil Franzo’s works is familiar with these conditions. The Vienna official inquiry into the industrial conditions of women led to a similar inquiry in Lemberg. This showed that most of the women cannot live on their earnings. The lowest wages are those of the women engaged in the ready-made clothing industry,—2 to 2½ guldens ($.96 to $1.10) a month as beginners; 8 to 10 guldens ($3.85 to $4.82) later. The wages (including board and room) of servant girls living with their employers are 20 to 25 cents a day. The skilled seamstress that sews linen garments can earn 40 cents a day if she works sixteen hours.

As a beginner, a milliner earns 2 to 4 guldens ($.96 to $1.93) a month, later 10 guldens ($4.82). In the mitten industry (a home industry) a week’s hard work brings 6 to 8 guldens ($2.89 to $3.88). In laundries women working 14 hours earn 80 kreuzer (30 cents) a day without board. In printing works and in bookbinderies women are employed as assistants; for 9½ hours’ work a day they are paid a monthly wage of from 2 to 14 and 15 guldens ($.96 to $7.23). In the bookbinderies women sometimes receive 16 guldens ($7.71) a month.

In Lemberg, as in Vienna, women are employed as brickmakers and as bricklayers’ assistants, working 10 to 11 hours a day; their wages are 40 to 60 kreuzer (19 to 29 cents) a day. No attempt to improve these conditions through organizations has yet been made. The official inquiry thus far has confined itself to the Christian women laborers. What miseries might not be concealed in the ghettos!

An industrial women’s movement in Galicia is not to be thought of as yet. There is a migration of the women from the flat rural districts to the cities; i.e. into the nets of the white slave agents. Women earning 10, 15, or 20 cents a day are easily lured by promises of higher wages. The ignorance of the lower classes (Ruthenians and Poles) is, according to the ideas of western Europe, immeasurable. In 1897 336,000 children between six and twelve years (in a total of about 923,000) had never attended school. Of 4164 men teachers, 139 had no qualifications whatever! Of the 4159 women teachers 974 had no qualifications! The minimum salary is 500 kronen ($101.50). The women teachers in 1909 demanded that they be regarded on an equality with the men teachers by the provincial school board. There are Gymnasiums for girls in Cracow, Lemberg, and Przemysl. Women are admitted to the universities of Cracow and Lemberg. In one of the universities (Mrs.) Dr. Dazynska is a lecturer on political economy. In Cracow there is a woman’s club. Propaganda is being organized throughout the land.

A society to oppose the official regulation of prostitution and to improve moral conditions was organized in 1908. The Galician woman taxpayer votes in municipal affairs; the women owners of large estates vote for members of the Landtag. (Mrs.) Dr. Dazynska and Mrs. Kutschalska-Reinschmidt of Cracow are champions of the woman’s rights movement in Galicia. Mrs. Kutschalska lives during parts of the year in Warsaw. She publishes the magazine Ster. In Russian Poland her activities are more restricted because the forming of organizations is made difficult. In spite of this the “Equal Rights Society of Polish Women” has organized local societies in Kiew, Radom, Lublin, and other cities. The formation of a federation of Polish women’s clubs has been planned. In Warsaw the Polish branch of the International Federation for the Abolition of Prostitution was organized in 1907. An asylum for women teachers, a loan-fund for women teachers, and a commission for industrial women are the external evidences of the activities of the Polish woman’s rights movement in Warsaw.

The field of labor for the educated woman is especially limited in Poland. Excluded from government service, many educated Polish women flock into the teaching profession; there they have restricted advantages. The University of Warsaw has been opened to women.

THE SLOVENE WOMAN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT[107]

Total population: 1,176,672. The women preponderate numerically.

The Slovene woman’s rights movement is still incipient; it was stimulated by Zofka Kveder’s “The Mystery of Woman” (Mysterium der Frau). Zofka Kveder’s motto is: “To see, to know, to understand.—Woman is a human being.” Zofka Kveder hopes to transform the magazine Slovenka into a woman’s rights review. A South Slavic Social-Democratic movement is attempting to organize trade-unions among the women. The women lace makers have been organized. Seventy per cent of all women laborers cannot live on their earnings. In agricultural work they earn 70 hellers (14 cents) a day. In the ready-made clothing industry they are paid 30 hellers (6 cents) for making 36 buttonholes, 1 krone 20 hellers (25 cents) for making one dozen shirts.

SERVIA

Total population: 2,850,000. The number of women is somewhat greater than that of the men. Servian Federation of Women’s Clubs.

Servia has been free from Turkish control hardly forty-five years. Among the people the oriental conception of woman prevails along with patriarchal family conditions. The woman’s rights movement is well organized; it is predominantly national, philanthropic, and educational.

Elementary education is obligatory, and is supported by the “National Society for Public Education” (Nationalen Verein für Volksbildung). The girls and women of the lower classes are engaged chiefly with domestic duties; in addition they work in the fields or work at excellent home industries. These home industries were developed as a means of livelihood by the efforts of Mrs. E. Subotisch, the organizer of the Servian woman’s rights movement. The Servian women are rarely domestic servants (under Turkish rule they were not permitted to serve the enemy); most of the domestic servants are Hungarians and Austrians.

All educational opportunities are open to the women of the middle class. In all of the more important cities there are public as well as private high schools for girls. The boys’ Gymnasiums admit girls. The university has been open to women for twenty-one years; women are enrolled in all departments; recently law has attracted many. For medical training the women, like the men, go to foreign countries (France, Switzerland).

Servia has 1020 women teachers in the elementary schools (the salary being 720 to 2000 francs—$144 to $500—a year, with lodging); there are 65 women teachers in the secondary schools (the salary being 1500 to 3000 francs,—$300 to $600). To the present no woman has been appointed as a university professor. There are six women doctors, the first having entered the profession 30 years ago; there are two women dentists; but as yet there are no women druggists. There are no women lawyers. There is a woman engineer in the service of the government. In the liberal arts there are three well-known women artists, seven women authors, and ten women poets.

There are many women engaged in commercial callings, as office clerks, cashiers, bookkeepers, and saleswomen. Women are also employed by banks and insurance companies. “A woman merchant is given extensive credit,” is stated in the report of the secretary of the Federation.

In the postal and telegraph service 108 women are employed (the salaries varying from 700 to 1260 francs,—$140 to $252). There are 127 women in the telephone service (the salaries varying from 360 to 960 francs,—$72 to $192). Servia is just establishing large factories; the number of women laborers is still small; 1604 are organized.

Prostitution is officially regulated in Servia; its recruits are chiefly foreign women. Each vaudeville singer, barmaid, etc., is ex officio placed under control.

The oldest woman’s club is the “Belgrade Woman’s Club,” founded in 1875; it has 34 branches. It maintains a school for poor girls, a school for weavers in Pirot, and a students’ kitchen (studentenküche). The “Society of Servian Sisters” and the “Society of Queen Lubitza” are patriotic societies for maintaining and strengthening the Servian element in Turkey, Old Servia, and Macedonia. The “Society of Mothers” takes care of abandoned children. The “Housekeeping Society” trains domestic servants. The Servian women’s clubs within the Kingdom have 5000 members; in the Servian colonies without the Kingdom they have 14,000 members.

The property laws provide for joint property holding. The wife controls her earnings and savings only when this is stipulated in the marriage contract.

In 1909, the Federation of Servian Women’s Clubs inserted woman’s suffrage in its programme, and joined the International Woman’s Suffrage Alliance.

In the struggle for national existence the Servian woman demonstrated her worth, and effected a recognition of her right to an education.

BULGARIA

Total population:	4,035,586.
Women:	1,978,457.
Men:	2,057,111.

Federation of Bulgarian Women’s Clubs.

Like Servia, Bulgaria was freed from Turkish control about forty years ago. The liberation caused very little change in the life of the peasant women. But it opened new educational opportunities for the middle classes. The elementary schools naturally provide for the girls also. (In 1905-1906 there were 1800 men teachers and 800 women teachers in the villages; in the cities 415 men and 355 women.) High schools for girls have been established, but not all of them prepare for the Abiturientenexamen. The first women entered the university of Sofia in 1900. There are now about 100 women students. Since 1907, through the work of a reactionary ministry, the university has excluded women; married women teachers have been discharged. Women attend the schools of commerce, the technical schools, and the agricultural schools. Women are active as doctors (there being 56), midwives, journalists, and authors.

The men and women teachers are organized jointly. Women are employed by the state in the postal and telegraph service. The wages of these women, like those of the women laborers, are lower than those of the men. There is a factory law that protects women laborers and children working in the factories. The trade-unions are socialistic and have men and women members. The laws regulating the legal status of woman have been influenced by German laws. The wife controls her earnings. Politically the Bulgarian woman has no rights.

The Federation of Bulgarian Women’s Clubs was organized in 1899; in 1908 it joined the International Council of Women. Woman’s suffrage occupies the first place on the programme of the Federation; in 1908 it joined the International Woman’s Suffrage Affiance.

The Bulgarian women, too, have recognized woman’s suffrage as the key to all other woman’s rights. To the present time their demands have been supported by radicals and democrats (who are not very influential).

A meeting of the Federation in 1908 demanded:

1. Active and passive suffrage for women in school administration and municipal councils.

2. The reopening of the University to women. (This has been granted.)

3. The increase of the salaries of women teachers. (They are paid 10 per cent less than the men teachers.)

4. The same curriculums for the boys’ and girls’ schools.

5. An enlargement of woman’s field of labor.

6. Better protection to women and children working in factories.

The President of the Federation is the wife of the President of the Ministry, Malinoff. Because the Federation, led by Mrs. Malinoff, did not oppose the reactionary measures of the Ministry (of Stambolavitch), Mrs. Anna Carima, who had been President of the Federation to 1906, organized the “League of Progressive Women.” This League demands equal rights for the sexes. It admits only confirmed woman’s rights advocates (men and women). It will request the political emancipation of women in a petition which it intends to present to the National Parliament, which must be called after Bulgaria has been converted into a kingdom. In July (1909) the Progressive League will hold a meeting to draft its constitution.

RUMANIA

Total population: 6,585,534. No federation of women’s clubs. No woman’s suffrage league.

The status of the Rumanian women is similar to that of the Servian and Bulgarian women; but the legal profession has been opened to the Bulgarian women. A discussion of Rumania must be omitted, since my efforts to secure reliable information have been unsuccessful.

GREECE[108]

Total population:	2,433,806.
Women:	1,166,990.
Men:	1,266,816.

Federation of Greek Women. No woman’s suffrage league.

The Greek woman’s rights movement concerns itself for the time being with philanthropy and education. Its guiding spirit is Madame Kallirhoe Parren (who acted as delegate in Chicago in 1893, and in Paris in 1900). Madame Parren succeeded in 1896 in organizing a Federation of Greek Women, which has belonged to the International Council of Women since 1908. The presidency of the Federation was accepted by Queen Olga.

The Federation has five sections:

1. The national section. This acts as a patriotic woman’s club. In 1897 it rendered invaluable assistance in the Turco-Greek War, erecting four hospitals on the border and one in Athens. The nurses belonged to the best families; the work was superintended by Dr. med. Marie Kalapothaki and Dr. med. Bassiliades.

2. The educational section. This section establishes kindergartens; it has opened a seminary for kindergartners, and courses for women teachers of gymnastics.[109]

3. The section for the establishment of domestic economy schools and continuation schools. This section is attempting to enlarge the non-domestic field of women and at the same time to prepare women better for their domestic calling. The efforts of this section are quite in harmony with the spirit of the times. The Greek woman’s struggle for existence is exceedingly difficult; she must face a backwardness of public opinion such as was overcome in northern Europe long ago. This section has also founded a home for workingwomen.

4. The hygiene section. Under the leadership of Dr. Kalapothaki this section has organized an orthopedic and gynecological clinic. The section also gives courses on the care of children, and provides for the care of women in confinement.

5. The philanthropic section. This provides respectable but needy girls with trousseaus (Austeuern).

Mrs. Parren has for eighteen years been editor of a woman’s magazine in Athens. (Miss) Dr. med. Panajotatu has since 1908 been a lecturer in bacteriology at Athens University. At her inaugural lecture the students made a hostile demonstration. Miss Bassiliades acts as physician in the women’s penitentiary. Miss Lascaridis and Miss Ionidis are respected artists; Mrs. v. Kapnist represents woman in literature, especially in poetry. Mrs. Parren has written several dramatic works (some advocating woman’s rights), which have been presented in Athens, Smyrna, Constantinople, and Alexandria. Mrs. Parren is a director of the society of dramatists.

Government positions are still closed to women. As late as 1909, after great difficulties, the first women telephone clerks were appointed.

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