The father always has been entitled to the custody and control of the minor children with power to appoint a guardian by will; but a law was passed the present year (1901) which gives the father and mother equal rights of guardianship, and on the death of the father makes the mother the legal guardian.
If a husband neglect to support his wife he may be committed to the workhouse or county jail and sentenced to hard labor not more than sixty days, unless he can show good cause why he is unable to furnish such support, or unless he can give a bond. If he neglect to comply with his bond the selectmen of the town shall immediately furnish support to the extent provided for in such bond. (1895.)
In 1887 the "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 14 years, and in 1895 this was increased to 16. The penalty is imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than three years.
Suffrage: The School Suffrage Law of 1893 allows all women citizens who have arrived at the age of majority, and have resided one year in the State and six months in the town, to vote at any meeting held for election of school trustees or for any educational purpose.
At the first election after the passage of this Act, 4,471 women voted in the State. Since then the number has gradually decreased for several reasons. Women soon learned that their vote amounted to but little because of the fact that Connecticut has a minority representation upon its school boards. This practically eliminates contest in the election of school officers, for it often occurs that only the exact number of candidates to be elected are placed in nomination. In cities men are frequently placed on school boards to pay political debts or as an opening for further advancement, therefore it has been found almost impossible to secure the nomination of women. This, of course, decreases their interest in the election. In several marked instances, however, where some question of importance has arisen, women have registered and voted in large numbers.
Willimantic offers a good illustration. All the schools in the town of Windham, of which Willimantic is a borough, were under the district system. For some time the largest school district had been unwisely managed through the influence of one man, who controlled enough votes to insure his retention as chairman year after year. In June, 1895, when he had entirely forfeited confidence, Mrs. Ella L. Bennett, president, and other wide awake members of the Equal Rights Club, determined he should no longer hold this office. The best citizens assured the women that their fears of his re-election were groundless, but they kept on in their efforts and secured the attendance of fifty women at the district meeting, where he was defeated by about twenty votes.
The level-headed ones saw that consolidation of all the school districts was absolutely necessary. Before the election in October the women did valiant work in agitating this question. Previous to this not more than 200 women ever had voted; but now the number registered reached 1,129, and on election day, although the rain fell in torrents and rivers of water ran down the streets, 975 cast their ballots. The Equal Rights Club conducted the election so far as the women were concerned, assisted in preparing ballots, kept a check-list and sent carriages where it seemed necessary. Every little while, all day long, could be heard from the hall where the voting was going on, "Fall back, ladies, fall back and give the men a chance." At the noon hour a crowd of male voters saw a line of women coming down the street and, seizing a ladder, they set it against a window over the stairway, scrambled up and thus got into the hall and headed off the women until the men had voted. The measure for consolidation was carried.
In Hartford the question of consolidation of districts has twice come before the people since women voted, and in both instances they cast a large number of ballots. In several districts in this city women have shown much interest in the annual meetings. One woman has served three years upon a district committee very acceptably, and it is due to the efforts and votes of women that wise management has been sustained and a good principal kept in office.
In his report of 1896, Secretary Charles D. Hine of the State Board of Education, after speaking in unmeasured terms of the efficient service rendered by women as school visitors, on boards of education and on town and district committees, says:
The returns indicate that women are not anxious to vote upon educational matters alone. If men were reluctantly permitted as a great favor to vote for agent of the town-deposit fund, they would not swarm to the polls. The exciting interests of State elections are important and varied enough to allure 85 per cent. of the male voters to the polls, but in many districts it is difficult to obtain enough of them to transact the business of the annual meeting. In the largest district in the State, school meetings have been held and considerable sums of money voted, with less than a dozen men present. Woman can not be adjudged peculiarly lacking in interest because they are not found voting in large numbers on one question and one set of officers.[199]