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