Woman's work in municipalities

by Mary Ritter Beard

And this little illogically sexed miss replied: “It does not follow that every member of a family is mad because two are.”

There is perhaps nothing a man does with such good will and in which good will counts for so little as his struggle to be fair to womankind. He often succeeds admirably when they are not his own. Freedom of opportunity, the development of the individual common fair play, all, all find shipwreck against convention and instinct when it is the wife or the daughter.

Women have not been either kind or considerate in the matter. Quite an appreciable number have wholly ceased to cry aloud about their rights or wrongs and have quietly prepared themselves for holding higher positions of trust. In rashly independent cities like Chicago, or sexless ones like Boston, they are holding them freely. They are calmly, almost judicially, inspecting factories and collecting statistics of child labor. They are inspecting tenements, garbage, streets and schools. They are sitting unmoved and silent upon boards of all sorts, almost as if they were useful and comfortable there. They are getting parks placed and playgrounds graded and drinking cups sterilized and foods purified and milk renovated and babies fed—officially. The fact of this wider employment of women in the higher municipal duties marks a certain state of growth and an emergence from crudity.

When a municipality has arrived at the stage when it really wants the best return for its money it always has employed some of the pottering sex. It does not get sentimental and expect or want any perfection. It has entirely discarded the “ministering angel—thou” attitude. It assumes that under a true democracy a part of the people who pay its taxes may have a not unreasonable wish to take an active part in its administration, and when it can get such people—fairly faithful, often amply efficient and willing—it takes them where they stand.

For five years the city of Los Angeles has had a municipal nurse. It is only justice to her to say that she neither knew nor intended it. But when three women who knew the ardent need of such a person appeared before the supervisors and asked for one they forgot to be logical and used their common-sense.

There are trained women in San Francisco who are ready today to conduct school inspection after the manner in which it has been done in New York and with like wonderful results could they be sure—not of money reward—but of simple recognition and authority. For herein is the ultimate triumph of man. He has loved to have womankind work for so long that at last she has learned her abiding task, the famous “work that is never done”—to work for love.

The hour must come when women will occupy in proportion all these higher municipal posts. They will be found ready as soon as the men are found who are ready to give them their opportunity. It is not contended that they will be better or wiser, but that they will take a more intelligent and lasting interest and that there will always be certain things where children are concerned which they will know more and care more about than men.

The chief good will come finally in the chance for freedom and for growth under a democracy where a few mistakes are counted of less moment than lack of fair play.

The prediction that women would be found in all manner of offices has come true. The following is an incomplete list of offices which women have held or are now holding:[^[54]]

Mayor.
City Treasurer.
County Treasurer.
City Comptroller.
City Recorder.
Auditor.
City Clerk.
County Clerk.
Judges	Juvenile Court.
	Of the Peace.
	Deputy Probate.
	Police Magistrate.
City Attorney.
Deputy Clerk of the U. S. District Courts.
Sheriff.
Health officer.
Medical	City chemist.
	City bacteriologist.
	City physician and quarantine officer.
	Head of hospital.
	School inspector and physician.
Police.
Police Matron.
Civil Service Commissioner.
City Factory Inspector.
City Market Inspector.
Street Inspector.
Superintendent of Public Buildings.
Members of special commissions	Library.
	Recreation.
	Civic Improvement.
	Welfare.
	Municipal Housekeeping.
	Vice.
	Charter.
Members of school boards.
School Superintendent (495 in 1912 were women).
City Commissioner.
Alderman.
Members of election boards and clerks of election.
Fire Inspector.
Commissioner of Corrections.
Examining Inspector for Bureau of Municipal Investigation and Inspection.
Advisory Council to Mayors.
Confidential Secretary to the Mayor.