Woman’s status in the laws of the forty-eight states belonging to the United States of America has been treated by Rose Falls Bres in the valuable book “The Law and the Woman,” published in 1917 at New York.
The great movement for Women Suffrage found of course likewise its historians. Four of the most prominent leaders and best authorities: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Ida Husted Harper combined for the difficult task of collecting, sifting, and putting together the immense mass of material. Their “History of Woman Suffrage,” published in five huge volumes, is not only a noble record, but at the same time a magnificent monument to women’s courage, indefatigability and perseverance.
A considerable number of women have also contributed to the literature about suffrage, social culture, labor questions, and kindred subjects. Anna G. Spencer produced the book “Woman’s Share in Social Culture”; Charlotte P. Gilman devoted a volume to “Home” and a second volume to “Woman and Economics”; Alice M. Earle described “Childlife in Colonial Times”; Ellen Key gave a study of “Love and Marriage”; Mary Eastman published “Woman’s Work in America”; Olive Schreiner wrote “Woman and Labor,” and Elisabeth Butler “Woman in the Trades.” To Jane Addams the world is indebted for several well written works, among them: “Democracy and Social Ethics”; “The Spirit of Youth”; “An Ancient Evil and a New Conscience,” and “New Ideals of Peace.” She gave a record of her great settlement work in Chicago in her delightful book “Twenty Years at Hull House.”
For many centuries the Germans have been known as great writers, poets and philosophers. Perhaps no other nation has contributed so much to the world’s literature. Before the unfortunate year of 1914 the annual output of Germany in works of science, art, philosophy, technics and fiction far surpassed that of any other country, even that of France, Great Britain and America combined.
In these contributions German women have a conspicuous share. Their great interest in this line of activity can be traced back to the early days of the Middle Ages, when nuns like Hroswitha glorified the deeds of great emperors, or, like the Abbess of Hohenburg, undertook the bold enterprise of compiling a cyclopædia of general knowledge.
Germany had also the first periodicals for women, the earliest dating back to 1644, much read and patronized by the members of the gentle sex. Its title “Frauenzimmer-Gesprächspiele” (“Playful discussion for ladies”) indicates that it was devoted exclusively to matters of the “eternal feminine.”
A similar periodical was “Die vernünftigen Tadlerinnen” (“The reasonable fault-finders”), edited by Johann Christoph Gottsched, professor of philosophy and poetry at the University at Leipzig. The most faithful of his assistants and collaborators was his wife, known in German literature as Louise Adelgunde Gottschedin. To the “Deutsche Schaubühne,” likewise published by her husband, she contributed several translations of French Dramas and five comedies of her own, which are still of interest as they illustrate the manners of the time, the middle of the 18th Century.
Meta Moller, the wife of the famous poet Klopstock, Friedericke C. Neuber, and Rahel Levin, the wife of the historian Varnhagen von Ense, made similar use of their great literary abilities. The salon of Mrs. Varnhagen in Berlin from 1814 to 1830 was the meeting place for the most celebrated intellects of Germany, among them Humboldt, Fichte, Schleiermacher, von Kleist, and Heinrich Heine.
The great poetess Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (1797–1848) wrote a most powerful novel, “Die Judenbuche”, which is based on the belief that murderers are forced by a mysterious power to return to the scene of their crimes.