In the lesser foreign countries exhibits of art and needlework, though sometimes questionably under the head of higher education, were thus entered by the so-called colleges. And while these could not be measured by the same standard as the English and American women's college work it was, however, valuable and instructive as showing the emancipation and progress of women in lands where until within a few years her opportunities have been most restricted and as presenting the liberal spirit toward her which now animates the civilized world. Especially in Japan and Mexico the women's displays were novel and interesting.
I am glad to pay tribute to the department work of the Woman's
College, Baltimore, and to the advanced special work of Bryn
Mawr.
As to what advancement was shown in the progress of women, I would emphatically answer that advancement was unmistakably apparent in every line of women's educational work—advancement not alone along old lines, but along new as well. One of the greatest steps forward made by woman in the last eleven years, since the Columbian Exposition, has been the throwing open to her of the doors of nearly all of the old established men's colleges, giving her in every country, in every State, and in nearly every large town almost the same free and easy access to learning enjoyed by her brothers. Coeducation and coeducational institutions have rendered it possible for every woman desirous of self-improvement to find the highest advantages immediately at hand, only waiting for her to help herself.
Domestic science and household economics are new sciences developed under the active interest of college women in the last twenty-three years. Their real hold upon the public, however, and their enlarged avenue for bettering the home, the food, the health of the nation, and consequently its usefulness, happiness, and prosperity has come within the last eleven years.
In all lines of art, from the fine arts of painting and sculpture to the practical and useful work of design in its multifold forms, women's advance is almost phenomenal. In the sciences of astronomy, medicine, physics, and psychology she has been far from inactive during the last half decade. In teaching, in all its branches from kindergarten and primary work through all the grades of intrauniversity training to specialization in various lines, she has achieved her most striking success. In the future her usefulness will be more and more increased in this her beloved profession. The number of women teachers is rapidly increasing, while the number of men is decreasing, and more and more women's college graduates are employed in the various chairs of colleges and universities.
While the educational exhibits at St. Louis gave, in a general way, a complete presentation of women's part in the progress of the world, there was far less shown of the work of foreign women than was desired in order to make a really satisfactory and just comparative estimate of the relative advance of the women of our own country and those abroad. In fact, the exhibits of foreign women were too limited to allow of any comparison between the two.
Women's work in art, in school organization and management—exemplified in the control of the great women's colleges—her achievements in teaching, in research (historical and scientific), in medicine unmistakably show that she is able to do and is doing unusual and far more capable work than she has ever done previously. Her pronounced success in serious literature, as well as in lighter literature, would alone demonstrate this.
The work of women at this exposition differed from that of the past in having extended into many new lines, whereas in quality it is greatly superior to anything they have ever before accomplished. A few years ago the scientific and professional woman was the exception, to-day she is the rule. Either working alone or assisting some great man, woman is found everywhere. To cite instances, I refer to the able assistance Mrs. Hedrick, a Vassar alumna, gives to Professor Newcomb in his calculations on the moon; to the brilliant aid rendered by the wealthy and gifted young American girl of Leland Stanford and Johns Hopkins, Dr. Annie G. Lyle, to the famous Dr. Theodore Escherich, of Vienna University, in his important expert medical researches, which have resulted in the famous scarlet-fever serum, the discovery of Doctor Moser with the help of Doctor Lyle. As we have said, women's work has not only grown in extent, but in variety, in complexity, in greater thoroughness and ambition, and especially in the greater appreciation it receives from the world.
Woman's splendidly accomplished successes as seen at the World's Fair give impulse to her efforts in every line. Assured of sympathy, encouragement is imparted to other women to take up science, teaching, the professions. Formerly almost insurmountable obstacles were encountered by women. To-day the open door to triumph, according to her ability, along almost every line is hers. In primary education, in all university training, in economic arts, in all sanitary studies, in philanthropic work, and in much of the practical part of medicine the Louisiana Purchase Exposition showed women's efforts in a varied light of helpfulness and suggestion for the future.
The juxtaposition of man's and woman's work was suggestive to men, and at the same time will incite women to more and better endeavors along new lines. It will enable her to acquire more scientific ways and a better preparation for the business world. It will teach her a saving of energy and greater self-reliance.