In 1873 the Legislature enacted that women should be eligible to any office the appointment or election to which is or shall be vested in the Governor or General Assembly.
In 1881 it was enacted that women should be eligible to any office under the general or special school laws of the State.
Notwithstanding these liberal provisions there is scarcely one of the Northern States where so few women have served in office. There never has been even a woman candidate for that of State Superintendent. Many years ago there were a few county superintendents but none now fill that office and not half a dozen women ever have sat on local school boards. These are appointed by the Common Council in all the towns and cities except Indianapolis. On one occasion its Local Council of Women nominated two of its members for school trustees, but both were defeated. Women themselves were not allowed to vote, but their interest brought out an unusually large number of men.[253] At present not one woman is known to be filling any school office.
The law of 1873 includes the boards of all penal and benevolent institutions, State Librarian, custodians of public buildings, and many minor offices, but women have found it practically impossible to secure any of these. The explanation for this probably lies in the fact that Indiana is a pivotal State in politics and the parties are so evenly divided that the elections are equally apt to be carried by either party. It thus becomes vitally necessary to utilize every office for political purposes and none can be spared to persons without votes. For a number of years the two parties elected women as State Librarian, and they gave much satisfaction, although several times the political pressure has been so great that the office has had to be given to men.[254]
A number of times bills have been presented to require the Governor to put a representation of women on the boards of all State institutions where women and children are confined, but they never have been carried.
In 1873 the first State prison in the United States exclusively for women was opened in Indianapolis, but the management was vested in a board of men with a visiting board of women and a woman superintendent. In 1877 a bill was passed placing the entire management of this Woman's Reformatory in the hands of women. An Industrial School for Girls is now under the same supervision.[255]
In 1889 an act of the Legislature established the State Board of Charities and Corrections and provided that two of its six trustees should be women. It exercises supervision over the State penal and benevolent institutions. In 1899 a legislative act required that on petition of fifteen citizens of any county the Circuit Judge must appoint a board to exercise the same supervision over its institutions, to consist of four men and two women.
The only other women serving on State boards are one for the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home at Knightstown and one for the Home for Feeble-minded Youth at Ft. Wayne.[256]
The State Board of Charities and Corrections has made great effort to secure women physicians at all State Institutions and, though there is no law authorizing it, there is now one at each of the four Hospitals for the Insane, and at the Woman's Prison and Girls' Industrial School. One was appointed for the Home for Feeble-minded but a man now holds the position.
Almost every State, county and city office has women deputies, assistants or stenographers. It is said that one-third of the employes in the State House are women. Many serve as notaries public, and a number as court stenographers.