A short history of women's rights from the days of Augustus to the present time. With special reference to England and the United States

A Short History

of

Womerfs Rights

Eugene A. Hacker

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY

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University of California.

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A Short History of
Women's Rights

From the Days of Augustus to the Present

Time. With Special Reference to

England and the United States

By

Eugene A, Hecker

Master in the Roxbury Latin School
Author of " The Teaching of Latin in Secondary Schools"

G. P. Putnam's Sons

New York and London
Cbe Itnicfterbocker press
1911

Copyright, igio

BY

EUGENE A. HECKER

Vbe Knfcfierbocker pres*» l^ew fiocft

MY MOTHER

I.

PREFACE

WHILE making some researches in the evolu-
tion of women's rights, I was impressed
by the fact that no one had ever, as far as I could
discover, attempted to give a succinct account of
the matter for English-speaking nations. Indeed,
I do not believe that any writer in any country
has essayed such a task except Laboulaye; and
his Recherches sur la Condition Civile et Politique
des Femmes, published in 1843, leaves much to
be desired to one who is interested in the subject
to-day.

I have, therefore, made an effort to fill a lack.
This purpose has been strengthened as I have
reflected on the great amount of confused informa-
tion which is absorbed by those who have no
time to make investigations for themselves.
Accordingly, in order to present an accurate his-
torical review, I have cited my authorities for
all statements regarding which any question could
be raised. This is particularly so in the chapters
which deal with the condition of women under
Roman Law, under the early Christian Church,
and under Canon Law. In all these instances I
have gone directly to primary soiurces, have
investigated them myself, and have admitted

VI

Preface

no second-hand evidence. In connection with
women's rights in England and in the United
States I have either consulted the statutes or
studied the commentaries of jurists, like Messrs.
Pollock and Maitland, whose authority cannot
be doubted. To such I have given the exact
references whenever they have been used. In
preparing the chapter on the progress of women's
rights in the United States I derived great
assistance from the very exhaustive History of
Woman Suffrage, edited by Miss Susan B.
Anthony, Mrs. Ida H. Harper, and others to
whose imselfish labours we are for ever indebted.
From their volumes I have drawn freely; but I
have not given each specific reference.

The tabulation of the laws of the several States
which I have given naturally cannot be entirely
adequate, because the laws are being changed
constantly. It is often difficult to procure the
latest revised statutes. However, these laws are
recent enough to illustrate the evolution of wo-
men's rights.

Finally, this volimie was written in no hope that
all readers would agree with the author, who is
zealous in his cause. His purpose will be gained
if he induces the reader to reflect for himself on
the problem in the light of its historical develop-
ment.

E. A. H.

Cambridge, Mass., 1910.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGB

Women's Rights under Roman Law . . i

chapter ii
Women and the Early Christian Church . 52

chapter iii

Rights of Women as Modified by the

Christian Emperors .... 65

chapter iv
Women among the Germanic Peoples . 77

chapter v

Digression on the Later History of Roman

Law . 100

chapter vi

The Canon Law and the Attitude of the

Roman Catholic Church . . .106

viii Contents

CHAPTER VII

PAGE

History of Women's Rights in England . 120

CHAPTER viii

Women's Rights in the United States . .150

chapter ix
General Considerations . • . . 236

Index 289

A Short History of Women's Rights

A Short History of
Women's Rights

CHAPTER I

women's rights under ROMAN LAW, FROM
AUGUSTUS TO JUSTINIAN — 2"] B.C. TO
527 A.D.

THE age of legal capability for the Roman
woman was after the twelfth year, at which
period she was permitted to make a will. ^ ouardian-
However, she was by no means allowed ^^^'

to do so entirely on her own account, but only
under supervision.^ This superintendence was
vested in the father or, if he was dead, in a guard-
ian^; if the woman was married, the power be-
longed to the husband. The consent of such
supervision, whether of father, husband, or

^ Paulus, iii, 4a, i.

»Ulpian, Tit., xx, 16. Galus, li, 112.

3 Male relatives on the father's side — agnati — were guardians
in such cases; these failing, the judge of the supreme court
(praetor) assigned one. See Ulpian, Tit., xi, 3, 4, and 24.
Gaius, i, 185, and iii, 10. Libertae (freed women) took as guar-
dians their former masters.

I

2 History of Women's Rights

guardian, was essential, as Ulpian informs us,*
under these circumstances: if the woman entered
into any legal action, obligation, or civil contract;
if she wished her freedwoman to cohabit with
another's slave; if she desired to free a slave; if
she sold any things mancipi, that is, such as
estates on Italian soil, houses, rights of road or
aqueduct, slaves, and beasts of burden. Through-
out her life a woman was supposed to remain
absolutely under the power ^ of father, husband, or
guardian, and to do nothing without their consent.
In ancient times, indeed, this authority was so
great that the father and husband could, after
calling a family council, put the woman to death
without public trial. ^ The reason that women
were so subjected to guardianship was "on account
of their imsteadiness of character, "^ "the weak-
ness of the sex," and their "ignorance of legal
matters." s Under certain circumstances, how-
ever, women became sui iuris or entirely in-
dependent: I. By the birth of three children
(a freedwoman by four)^; II. By becoming a
Vestal Virgin, of whom there were but six 7; III.
By a formal emancipation, which took place

« Ulpian, Tit, xi, 27.

» The power of_the father was called potestas; that of the hus-
band, manus.

a Aulus Gellius, x, 23. Cf. Suetonius, Tiberius, 35.

* Gaius, i, 144.
•Ulpian, Tit., xi, i.

• Ulpian, Tit., xi, 28a. Gaius, i, 194. Paulus, iv, 9, 1-9.
1 Gaius, i, 145. Ulpian, Tit., x, 5.

Rights under Roman Law 3

rarely, and then often only with a view of trans-
ferring the power from one guardian to another. ^
Even when sui iuris a woman could not acquire
power over any one, not even over her own child-
ren ="; for these an agnate — a male relative on the
father's side — was appointed guardian, and the
mother was obliged to render him and her child-
ren an account of any property which she had
managed for them.^ On the other 'hand, her
children were bound to support her/

So much for the laws on the subject. They
seem rigorous enough, and in early times were

doubtless executed with strictness. A Digression on

marked feature, however, of the Roman * ^re^pJTt for
character, a peculiarity which at once ^°"«°

strikes the student of their history as compared
with that of the Greeks, was their great respect
for the home and the materfamilias. The stories
of Lucretia, Cloelia, Virginia, Cornelia, Arria,
and the like, familiar to every Roman schoolboy,
must have raised greatly the esteem in which
women were held. As Rome became a world
power, the Romans likewise grew in breadth of
view, in equity, and in tolerance. The political

I Gaius, i, 137. For an example see Pliny, Letters, viii, 18. Cf.
Spartianus. Didius lulianus, 8: filiam suam, potitus imperio,
dato patrimonio, emancipaverat. See also Dio, 73, 7 (Xiphilin).

If emancipated children insulted or injured their parents,
they lost their independence — Codex, 8, 49 (50), i.

^ Ulpian, Tit., viii, ya.

3 Paulus, i, 4, 4: Mater, quae filiorum suorum rebus inter-
venit, actione negotiorum gestorum et ipsis et eorum tutoribus
tenebitur. 4 Ulpian in Dig., 25, 3, 5.

4 History of Women's Rights

influence wielded by women ' was as great during
the first three centuries after Christ as it has ever
been at any period of the worid's history; and the
powers of a Livia, an Agrippina, a Plotina, did not
fail to show pointedly what a woman could do.
In the early days of the Republic women who
touched wine were severely pimished and male
relatives were accustomed solemnly to kiss them,
if haply they might discover the odour of drink on
their breath. =* Valerius Maximus tells us that

«For Livia's great influence over Augustus see Seneca, de
Clementia, i, 9, 6. Tacitus, Annals, i, 3, 4, and 5, and ii, 34.
Dio, 55, 14-21, and 56, 47.

Agrippina dominated Claudius — Tacitus, Annals, xii, 37.
Dio, 60, 33. Caenis, the concubine of Vespasian, amassed great
wealth and sold public offices right and left — Dio, 65, 14. Plo-
tina, wife of Trajan, engineered Hadrian's succession — Eutro-
pius, viii, 6. Dio, 69, i. A concubine formed the conspiracy
which overthrew Commodus — Herodian, i, 16-17. The plotting
of Maesa put Heliogabalus on the throne — Capitolinus, Macri-
nus, 9-10. Alexander Severus was ruled by his mother Mam-
maea — Lampridius, Alex. Severus, 14; Herodian, vi, i, i and 9.
Gallienus invited women to his cabinet meetings — Trebellius
PoUio, Gallienus, 16. The wives of governors took such a strenu-
ous part in politics and army matters that it caused the Senate
grave concern — see examples in Tacitus, Annals, iii, 33 and 34,
and iv, 20; also i, 69, and ii, 55; id. Hist., iii, 69. Velleius Pater-
culus, ii, 74 (Fulvia).

Of course, no woman ever had a right to vote; but neither did
anybody else, since the Roman govenmient had become an
absolute despotism. The first woman on the throne was Pul-
cheria, who, in 450 a.d., was proclaimed Empress of the East,
succeeding her brother, Theodosius II. But she soon took a
husband and made him Emperor. She had been practically sole
ruler since 414.

» Plutarch, Roman Questions, 6. Aulus Gellius, x, 23. Athen-
aeus, X, 56.

Rights under Roman Law 5

Egnatius Mecenas, a Roman knight, beat his
wife to death for drinking wine. ^ Cato the Censor
(234-149 B.C.) dilated with joy on the fact that a
woman could be condemned to death by her hus-
band for adultery without a public trial, whereas
men were allowed any number of infidelities
without censure. ^ The senator Metellus (131 B.C.)
lamented that Nature had made it necessary to
have women. ^

The boorish cynicism of a Cato and a Metellus
— though it never expressed the real feelings of the
majority of Romans — gave way, however, under
the Empire to a generous expression of the equality
of the sexes in the realms of morality and of
intellect. "I know what you may say," writes
Seneca to Marcia,^ **'You have forgotten that
you are consoling a woman; you cite examples of
fortitude on the part of men. * But who said that
Nature had acted scurvily with the characters of
women and had contracted their virtues into a
narrow sphere? Equal force, believe me, is
possessed by them; equal capability for what is

* Valerius Maximus, vi, 3, 9. For this he was not even blamed,
but rather received praise for the excellent example.

* Aulus Gellius, x, 23. A woman in the Menaechmi of Plautus,
iv, 6, I, complains justly of this double standard of morality:

Nam si vir scortum duxit clam uxorem suam,
Id si rescivit uxor, impune est viro.
Uxor viro si clam domo egressa est foras,
Viro fit causa, exigitur matrimonio.
Utinam lex esset eadem quae uxori est viro!

3 Aulus Gellius, i, 6.

4 De Consolatione ad Marciam, xvi, i.

6 " History of Women's Rights

honorable, if they so wish." The Emperor Marcus
Aurelius gratefully recalls that from his mother he
learned piety and generosity, and to refrain not
only from doing ill, but even from thinking it,
and simplicity of life, far removed from the
ostentatious display of wealth. ' The passionate
attachment of men like Quintilian and Pliny to
their wives exhibits an equality based on love that
would do honoiu- to the most Christian households.^
All Roman historians speak with great admiration
of the many heroic deeds performed by women
and are fond of citing conspicuous examples of
conjugal affection.^ The masterly and sym-

» Commentaries, A, Y.

» Quintilian, Instit. Oral., vi, I, 5. Pliny, Letters, vi, 4 and 7,
and vii, 5.

3 Great admiration expressed for Paulina, wife of Seneca, who
opened her veins to accompany her husband in death — Tacitus,
Annals, xv, 63, 64. Story of Arria and Paetus — Pliny, Letters,
iii, 16. Martial, i, 13. The famous instance of Epponina,
under Vespasian, and her attachment to her condemned hus-
band— Tacitus, Hist., iv, 67. Tacitus mentions that many
ladies accompanied their husbands to exile and death — Annals,
xvi, 10, II. Numerous instances are related by Pliny of tender
and happy marriages, terminated only by death — see, e.g.. Let-
ters, viii, 5. Pliny the elder tells how M. Lepidus died of regret
for his wife after being divorced from her — N. H., vii, 36. Val-
erius Maximus devotes a whole chapter to Conjugal Love —
iv, 6. But the best examples of deep affection are seen in tomb
inscriptions — e. g., CIL i, 1103, viii, 8123, ii, 3596, v, i, 3496, v, 2,
7066, X, 8192, vi, 3, 15696, 15317, and 17690. Man and wife
are often represented with arms thrown about one another's
shoulders to signify 1;hat they were united in death as in life.
The poet Statius remarks that "to love a wife when she is living
is pleasure; to love her when dead, a solemn duty" (Silvae,

Rights under Roman Law 7

pathetic delineation of Dido in the Aeneid shows
how deeply a Roman could appreciate the charac-
ter of a noble woman. In the numerous provisions
for the public education at the state's expense
girls were given the same opportunities and
privileges as boys ; there were five thousand boys
and girls educated by Trajan alone. '

Such are a few examples of the growth of respect
for women; and we should naturally conclude
that, as time progressed, the unjust Decay of the
laws of guardianship would no longer power of the
be executed to the letter, even though
the hard statutes were not formally expunged.
This was the case during the first three centuries
after Christ, as is patent from many sources. It
is to be borne in mind that because a law is on the
books, does not mean necessarily that it is en-
forced. A law is no stronger than public opinion.
Of this anomaly there are plenty of instances even
to-day — the Blue Laws of Massachusetts, for
example. "That women of mature age should be
under guardianship," writes the great jurist
Gaius^ in the second century, "seems to have no
valid reason as foundation. For what is com-
monly believed, to the effect that on account of
unsteadiness of character they are generally

in prooemio) . Yet some theologians would have us believe that
conjugal love and fidelity is an invention of Christianity.

^ Pliny, Panegyricus, 26. For other instances see Capitoli-
nus, Anton. Pius, 8; Lampridius, Alex. Severus, 57; Spartianus,
Hadrian, 7, 8, 9; Capitolinus, M. Anton. Phil., 11.

* Gains, i, 190.

8 History of Women's Rights

hoodwinked, and that, therefore, it is right for
them to be governed by the authority of a guardian,
seems rather specious than true. As a matter of
fact, women of mature age do manage their
own affairs, and in certain cases the guardian
interposes his authority as a mere formality;
frequently, indeed, he is forced by the supreme
judge to lend his authority against his will.'*
Ulpian, too, hints at the really slight power of the
guardian in his day, that is, the first three decades
of the third century. "In the case of male and
female wards under age, the guardians both
manage their affairs and interpose their authority ;
but in the case of mature women they merely
interpose their authority." ^ The woman had, in
practice, become free to manage her property as
she wished; the function of the legal guardian
was simply to see to it that no one should attempt
a fraud against her. Adequately to observe the
decay of the vassalage of women, we must in-
vestigate the story of their rights in all its forms;
and the position of women in marriage will next
occupy our attention.

As in all Southern countries where women
mature early, the Roman girl usually married

» Ulpian, Tit. xi, 25. Cf. Frag, iur Rom. Vatic. (Huschke,
325): Divi Diocletianus et Constantius Aureliae Pontiae: Actor
rei forum sequi debet et mulier quoque facere procuratorem
sine tutoris auctoritate non prohibetur. So Papinian, lib. xv,
Responsorum (Huschke, 327). I shall discuss these matters
at greater length when I treat of women and the management of
their property.

Rights under Roman Law 9

young; twelve years were required by custom
for her to reach the marriageable age. ^ In the
earlier period a woman was acquired women and
as wife in three different ways: I. By manage.
coemptio — a mock sale to her husband^; II. By
confarreatio — a solemn marriage with peculiar
sacred rites to qualify men and women and their
children for certain priesthoods^; III. By usus^
or acquisition by prescription. A woman became
a man's legal wife by usus if he had lived with
her one full year and if, during that time, she had
not been absent from him for more than three
successive nights. ^

All these forms, however, had either been
abolished by law or had fallen into desuetude
during the second century of our era, as is evident
from Gaius.^ A man could marry even if not
present personally; a woman could not.^ The
woman*s parents or guardians were accustomed
to arrange a match for her,^ as they still do in
many parts of Europe. Yet the power of the

' Dio, 54, 16. Pomponius in Dig., 23, 2, 4.
^Gaius, i, 113.

3 Ulpian, Tit., ix, i: Farreo convenit uxor in manum certis
verbis et testibus X praesentibus et soUemni sacrificio facto, in
quo panis quoque farreus adhibetur. Cf. Gaius, i, 112.

4 Aulus Gellius, iii, 2, 12. Gaius, i, iii.
s Gaius, i, no and in.

^ Paulus, ii, xix, 8.

7 Pliny, Letters, i, 14, will furnish an example; cf. id. vi, 26, to
Servianus: Gaudeo et gratulor, quod Fusco Salinatori filiam
tuam destinasti. Note the way in which Julius Caesar arranged
a match for his daughter — Suetonius, Divus Julius, 21.

10 History of Women's Rights

father to coerce his daughter was limited. Her
consent was important. "A marriage cannot
exist," remarks Paulus, "unless all parties con-
sent.**' Julianus writes also that the daughter
must give her permission %• yet the statement
of Ulpian which immediately follows in the
Digest shows that she had not complete free will
in the matter: "It is understood that she who
does not oppose the wishes of her father gives
consent. But a daughter is allowed to object
only in case her father chooses for her a man of
im worthy or disgraceful character." ^ The son
had an advantage here, because he could never
be forced into a marriage against his will. ^ The
consent of the father was always necessary for a
valid marriage, s He could not by will compel
his daughter to marry a certain person.^ After
she was married, he still retained power over her,
unless she became independent by the birth of
three children; but this was largely to protect her
and represent her in court against her husband if
necessity should arise. ^ A father was not per-

* Paulus in Dig., 23, 2, 2: Nuptiae consistere non possunt,
nisi consentiunt omnes, id est, qui coeunt quorumque in potestate
sunt.

» Julianus in Dig., 23, i, 11.
3 Ulpian in Dig., 23, i, 12.

* Paulus in Dig., 23, i, 13. Terentius Clemens in Dig., 23,
2,21.

» Paulus, ii, 19, 2.

* Ulpian, 24, 17.

' Cf. Ulpian, Tit., vi, 6: Divortio facto, si quidem sui iuris sit
mulier, ipsa habet rei uxoriae actionem, id est, dotis repetitionem;

Rights under Roman Law ii

mitted to break up a harmonious^ marriage;
he could not get back his daughter's dowry with-
out her consent, ^ nor force her to return to her
husband after a divorce ^i and he was punished
with loss of citizenship if he made a match for a
widowed daughter before the legal time of mourn-
ing for her husband had expired. "* A daughter
passed completely out of the power of her father
only if she became sui iuris by the birth of three
children or if she became a Vestal, or again if she
married a special priest of Jupiter (Flamen Dialis),
in which case, however, she passed completely
into the power of her husband. Under all cir-
cumstances a daughter must not only show respect
for her father, but also furnish him with the
necessaries of life if he needed them. ^

Under the Empire no such thing as a "breach
of promise" suit was permitted, although in the

quodsi in potestate patris sit, pater adiuncta filiae persona habet
actionem.

The technical recognition of the father's power was still strong.
Cf. Pliny, Panegyricus, 38: Tu quidem, Caesar . . . intui-
tus, opinor, vim legemque naturae, quae semper in dicione paren-
tum esse liberos iussit. The same writer, on requesting Trajan
to give citizenship to the children of a certain freedman, is care-
ful to add the specification that they are to remain in their fath-
er's power — see Pliny to Trajan, xi (vi).

^ Paulus, vi, 15. Codex, v, 4, 11, and 17, 5.

* Paulus, in Dig., 23, 3, 28. Codex, v, 13, i, and 18, i.
3 Codex, V, 17, 5.

* Salvius Julianus: Frag. Perp. Ed.: Pars Prima, vii — under
"De is qui notantur infamia."

5 Codex, 8, 46 (47), 5.

12 History of Women's Rights

days of the Republic the party who broke a pro-
mise to marry had been liable to a suit for dam-
- Breach of ages.^ But this had now disappeared,
Promise." ^^^ ^.^j^^j. ^^^^y, ^^^j^ hresk off the

betrothal at pleasure without prejudice.^ What-
ever gifts had been given might be demanded
back.^ The engagement had to be formally
broken off before either party could enter into mar-
riage or betrothal with another ; otherwise he or she
lost civil status. 4 While an engagement lasted,
the man could bring an action for damages against
any one who insulted or injured his fiancee. ^

The Roman marriage was a purely civil con-
tract based on consent.^ The definition given by
Husband and ^hc law was a noblc one. "Marriage is
w"«- the union of a man and a woman and

a partnership of all life; a mutual sharing of laws
human and divine." ^ The power of the husband
over the wife was called manus; and the wife
stood in the same position as a daughter.^ No
husband was allowed to have a concubine.'^ He
was boimd to support his wife adequately, look

» Aulus Gellius, iv, 4.

» Juvenal, vi, 200-203. Gaius in Dig., 24, 2, 2. Ulpian, ibid.,
23, I, 10. Codex, V, 17, 2, and v, i, i.
3 Codex, V, 3, 2.

* Dig., 3, 2, I.

* Ulpian in Dig., 47, 10, 24.

6 Cf. Alexander Severas in Codex, viii, 38, 2: Liberamatrimonia
esse antiquitus placuit, etc. Also Codex, v, 4, 8 and 14.

7 Modestinus in Dig., xxiii, 2,1.
•Gaius, ii, 159.

9 Paulus, ii, XX, i.

Rights under Roman Law 13

out for her interests, ^ and strictly to avenge
any insult or injury offered her%- any abusive
treatment of the wife by the husband was pun-
ished by an action for damages. ^ A wife was
compelled by law to go into solemn mourning
for a space of ten months upon the death of a
husband. 4 During the period of mourning she
was to abstain from social banquets, jewels, and
crimson and white garments. ^ If she did not do
so, she lost civil status. The emperor Gordian,
in the year 238, remitted these laws so far as
solemn clothing and other external signs of
mourning above enumerated were concerned. ^
But a husband was not compelled to do any legal
mourning for the death of his wife. ^

The wife was, as I have said, in the power of
her husband. Originally, no doubt, this power
was absolute ; the husband could even put his wife
to death without a public trial. But the world
was progressing, and that during the first three
centuries after Christ the power of the husband
was reduced in practice to absolute nullity I shall

* Note the rescript of Alexander Severus to a certain Aquila
(Codex, ii, i8, 13) : Quod in uxorem tuam aegram erogasti, non a
socero repetere, sed adfectioni tuae debes expendere.

« See, e.g., Dig., 47, 10, and Ulpian, ibid., 48, 14, 27.

3 Cf. Gaius, i, 141 : In summa admonendi sumus, adversus eos,
quos in mancipio habemus, nihil nobis contumeliose facere licere;
alioquin iniuriarum (actione) tenebimur.

4Paulus, i, 21, 13.

sPaulus, i, 21, 14.

6 Codex, ii, 11, 15.

1 Paulus in Dig., iii, 2, 9.

14 History of Women's Rights

make clear in the following pages. I shall,
accordingly, first investigate the rights of the wife
over her dowry, that is, the right of managing her
own property.

Even from earUest times it is clear that the
wife had complete control of her dowry. The
henpecked husband who is afraid of offending his
wealthy wife is a not uncommon figure in the
comedies of Plautus and Terence; and Cato the
Censor growled in his usual amiable manner at
the fact that wives even in his day controlled com-
pletely their own property. ^ The attitude of the
Roman law on the subject is clearly expressed.
"It is for the good of the state that women have
their dowries inviolate." ^ "The dowry is always
and everywhere a chief concern; for it is for the
public good that dowries be retained for women,
since it is highly necessary that they be dowered
in order to bring forth offspring and replenish the
state with children. " ^ " It is just that the income
of the dowry belong to the husband; for inas-
much as it is he who stands the burdens of the
married state, it is fair that he also acquire the
interest. "4 "Nevertheless, the dowry belongs

* Aulus Gellius, xvii, 6, speech of Cato: Principio vobis mulier
magnam dotem adtulit; turn magnam pecuniam recipit, quam.in
viri potestatem non committit, earn pecuniam viro mutuam dat;
postea, ubi irata facta est, servum recepticum sectari atque
flagitare virum iubet.

* Paulus in Dig., 23, 3, 2.

3 Pomponius in Dig., 24, 3, i.

* Ulpian in Dig., 23, 3, 7.

Rights under Roman Law 15

to the woman, even though it is in the goods of the
husband."^ "A husband is not permitted to
alienate his wife's estate against her will." ^ A
wife could use her dowry during marriage to
support herself, if necessary, or her kindred,
to buy a suitable estate, to help an exiled parent,
or to assist a needy husband, brother, or sister.
The numerous accounts in various authors of
the first three centuries after Christ confirm
the statement that the woman's power over
her dowry was absolute. ^ Then as now, a man
might put his property in his wife's name to
escape his creditors, "• — a useless proceeding, if
she had not had complete control of her own
property.

When the woman died, her dowry, if it had been
given by the father {dos profecticia) returned to the
latter; but if any one else had given it {dos adven-
ticia), the dowry remained with the husband, unless
the donor had expressly stipulated that it was
to be returned to himself at the woman's death
{dos recepticia).^ In the case of a dowry of the
first kind, the husband might retain what he had

I Tryfoninus in Dig., 23, 3, 75.

^ Gains, ii, 63. Paulus, ii, 216.

3 E.g. Juvenal, vi, 136-141. Martial, viii, 12,

^Apuleius Apologia, 523: Pleraque tamen rei familiaris in
nomen uxoris callidissima fraude confert, etc. ; id., 545, 546 proves
further the power of the wife: ea condicione factam coniunc-
tionem, si nullis a me susceptis liberis vita demigrasset, ut dos
omnis, etc. — evidently the woman was dictating the jiisposal
of her dowry.

5 Ulpian, Tit., vi, 3, 4, and 5. Codex, v, 18, 4.

1 6 History of Women's Rights

expended for his wife's funeral. ^ The dowry was
confiscated to the state if the woman was convicted
of l^e majeste, violence against the state, or
murder. =* If she suffered punishment involving
loss of civil status under any other law which did
not assess the penalty of confiscation, the husband
acquired the dowry just as if she were dead.
Banishment operated as no impediment; if the
woman wished to leave her husband under these
circumstances, her father could recover the dowry. ^
A further confirmation of the power of the wife
over her property is the law that prohibited gifts
between husband and wife; obviously, a woman
could not be said to have the power of making
a gift if she had no right of property of her own.
The object of the law mentioned was to prevent
the husband and wife from receiving any lasting
damage to his or her property by giving of it
under the impulse of conjugal affection. ^ This
statute acted powerfully to prevent a husband
from wheedling a wife out of her goods ; and in case
the latter happened to be of a grasping disposition
the law was a protection to the husband and
hence to the children, his heirs, for whose interests
the Roman law constantly provided.

' Ulpian in Dig., xi, 7, 16; ibid., Papinian, 17; ibid., Julianus,
18. Paulus, i, xxi, 11.

' Ulpian in Dig., 48, 20, 3.

3 Ulpian in Dig., 48, 20, 5.

4 Ulpian in Dig., 24 i, i: Moribus apud nos receptum~est,
ne inter virum et uxorem donationes valerent. hoc autem re-
ceptum est, ne mutuo amore invicem spoliarentur, donationibus
non temperantes, sed profusa erga se facilitate.

Rights under Roman Law 17

Gifts between husband and wife were never-
theless valid under certain conditions. It was
permissible to make a present of clothing and to
bestow various tokens of affection, such as orna-
ments. The husband could present his wife with
enough money to rebuild a house of hers which
had burned.^ The Emperor Marcus Aurelius
permitted a wife to give her husband the sum
necessary to obtain public office or to become a
senator or knight or to give public games. =* A
gift was also legal if made by the husband in
apprehension that death might soon overtake
him; if, for instance, he was very sick or was
setting out to war, or to exile, or on a dangerous
journey. ^ The point in all gifts was, that neither
party should become richer by the donation. ^

Some further considerations of the relation of
husband and wife will aid in setting forth the
high opinion which Roman law entertained of
marriage and its constant effort to protect the
wife as much as possible. A wife could not be
held in a criminal action if she committed theft
against her husband. The various statements
of the jurists make the matter clear. Thus
Paulus^: "A special action for the recovery of

^ Paulus in Dig., 24, i, 14.

» Gaius in Dig., 24, i, 42; ibid., Licinius Rufus, 41 ; Ulpian, Tit.
vii, I. Martial, vii, 64 — et post hoc dominae munere f actus
eques.

3 Paulus, ii, xxiii, i.

4 Cf. Paulus, ii, xxiii, 2.

s Paulus in Dig., 25, 2, i. Codex, v, 21, 2.
a

i8 History of Women's Rights

property removed [rerum amotarum iiidicium] has
been introduced against her who was a wife, be-
cause it has been decided that it is not possible
to bring a criminal action for theft against her
[quia non placuit cum ea furti agere posse]. Some
— as Nerva Cassius — think she cannot even com-
mit theft, on the ground that the partnership in
life made her mistress, as it were. Others — like
Sabinus and Proculus — hold that the wife can
commit theft, just as a daughter may against her
father, but that there can be no criminal action
by established law." "As a mark of respect
to the married state, an action involving disgrace
for the wife is refused." ^ "Therefore she will be
held for theft if she touches the same things after
being divorced. So, too, if her slave commits
theft, we can sue her on the charge. But it is
possible to bring an action for theft even against
a wife, if she has stolen from him whose heirs we
are or before she married us; nevertheless, as a
mark of respect we say that in each case a formal
claim for restitution alone is admissible, but not
an action for theft. "^ "If any one lends help or
advice to a wife who is filching the property of
her husband, he shall be held for theft. If he
commits theft with her, he shall be held for theft,
although the woman herself is not held."^

' Gaius in Dig., 25, 2, 2.

2 Paulus in Dig., 25, 2, 3.

3 Ulpian in Dig., 47, 2, 52. The respect shown for family
relations may be seen also from the fact that a son could com-
plain— de facto matris queri — if he believed that his mother had

Rights under Roman Law 19

A husband who did not avenge the murder of
his wife lost all claims to her dowry, which was
then confiscated to the state; this by order of the
Emperor Severus.^

The laws on adultery are rather more lenient to
the woman than to the man. In the first place,
the Roman law insisted that it was unfair for a
husband to demand chastity on the part of his
wife if he himself was guilty of infidelity or did not
set her an example of good conduct,^ — a maxim
which present day lawyers may reflect upon with
profit. A father was permitted to put to death

brought in supposititious offspring to defraud him of some of
his inheritance; but he was strictly forbidden to bring her into
court with a public and criminal action — Macer in Dig., 48, 2,
1 1 : sed ream earn lege Cornelia facere permissum ei non est.

^ Ulpian in Dig., 48, 14, 27.

^Ulpian in Dig., 48, 5, 14 (13): ludex adulterii ante oculos
habere debet et inquirere, an maritus pudice vivens mulieri
quoque bonos mores colendi auctor fuerit. periniquum enim videtur
esse, ut pudicitiam vir ab uxore exigat, quam ipse non exhibeat.
Cf. Seneca, Ep., 94: Scis improbum esse qui ab uxore pudicitiam
exigit, ipse alienarum corruptor uxorum. Scis ut illi nil cum
adultero, sic nihil tibi esse debere cum pellice. Antoninus
Pius gave a husband a bill for adultery against his wife "Pro-
vided it is established that by your life you give her an ex-
ample of fidelity. It would be unjust that a husband should
demand a fidelity which he does not himself keep" — quoted by St.
Augustine, de Conj. Adult., ii, ch. 8. In view of these explicit
statements it is difficult to see what the Church Father Lactantius
meant by asserting {de Vero Cultu, 23) : Non enim, sicut iuris pub-
lici ratio est, sola mulier adultera est, quae habet alium; maritus
autem, etiamsi plures habeat, a crimine adulterii solutus est.
Perhaps this deliberate distortion of the truth was another one
of the libels against pagan Rome of which the pious Fathers are
so fond "for the good of the Church."

20r History of Women's Rights

his daughter and her paramour if she was still in
his power and if he caught her in the act at his
own house or that of his son-in-law ; otherwise he
could not. ^ He must, however, put both man and
woman to death at once, when caught in the act;
to reserve punishment to a later date was unlawful.
The husband was not permitted to kill his wife;
he might kill her paramour if the latter was a man
of low estate, such as an actor, slave, or freed-
man, or had been convicted on some crim-
inal charge involving loss of citizenship.^ The
reason that the father was given the power
which was denied the husband was that the
latter's resentment would be more likely to blind
his power of judging dispassionately the merits
of the case. 3 If now the husband forgot himself
and slew his wife, he was banished for life if of
noble birth, and condemned to perpetual hard
labour if of more humble rank.^ He must at once
divorce a wife guilty of adultery; otherwise he
was punished as a pander, and that meant loss
of citizenship, s Women convicted of adultery
were, when not put to death, punished by the
loss of half their dowry, a third part of their
other goods, and relegation to an island; guilty

' Papinian in Dig., 48, 5, 21 (20) ; ibid., Ulpian, 24 (23). Paulus,
ii, xxvi.

» Macer in Dig., 48, 5, 25 (24).

3 Papinian in Dig., 48, 5, 23 (22).

4 Papinian in Dig., 48, 5, 39 (38); ibid., Marcianus, 48, 8, i.

s Paulus, ii, xxvi. Macer in Dig., 48, 5, 25 (24), ibid., Ulpian,
48, 5. 30 (29).

Rights under Roman Law 21

men suffered the loss of half of their possessions
and similar relegation to an island ; but the guilty
parties were never confined in the same place. ^
We have mention also in several writers of some
curious and vicious punishments that might be
inflicted on men guilty of adultery. =^

Now, all this seems rigorous enough; but, as I
have already remarked, we must beware of im-
agining that a statute is enforced simply because
it stands in the code. As a matter of fact, public
sentiment had grown so humane in the first three
centuries after Christ that it did not for a moment
tolerate that a father should kill his daughter,
no matter how guilty she was; and in all our
records of that period no instance occurs. As to
husbands, we have repeated complaints in the
literature of the day that they had grown so
complaisant towards erring wives that they could
not be induced to prosecute them.^ A typical in-
stance is related by Pliny. ^ Pliny was summoned
by the Emperor Trajan to attend a council where,
among other cases, that of a certain Gallitta was
discussed. She had married a military tribune
and had committed adultery with a common
captain {centurio). Trajan sent the captain into

^ Paulus, ii, xxvi.

» Juvenal, x. 317 ; quosdam moechos et mugilis intrat. Cf.
Catullus, 15, 19.

3 See, e.g., Capitolinus, Anton. Pius, 3. Spartianus, Sept.
Severus, 18. Pliny, Panegyricus, 83: multis illustribus dedecori
fuit aut inconsultius uxor assumpta aut retenta patientius, etc.

4 Pliny, Letters, vi, 31.

22 History of Women's Rights

exile. The husband took no measures against
his wife, but went on Hving with her. Only by-
coercion was he finally induced to prosecute.
Pliny informs us that the guilty woman had to be
condemned, even against the will of her accuser.

A woman guilty of incest received no punish-
ment, but the guilty man was deported to an
island.* If the incest involved adultery, the
woman was of course held on that charge.

We come now to a matter where the growing

freedom of women reached its highest point — the

matter of divorce. Here again we have

Divorce. ^

to note the progress of toleration and hu-
manitarianism. In the early days of the Republic
the family tie was rarely severed. Valerius Maxi-
mus tells us ^ of a quaint custom of the olden days,
to the effect that "whenever any quarrel arose
between husband and wife, they would proceed
to the chapel of the goddess Viriplaca ["Reconciler
of Husbands"], which is on the Palatine, and
there they would mutually express their feelings;
then, laying aside their anger, they returned home
reconciled." During these days a woman could
never herself take the initiative in divorce; the
husband was all-powerful. The first divorce
of which we have any record took place in the
year 231 B.C., when Spurius Carvilius Ruga put
away his wife for sterility. Public opinion cen-
sured him severely for it "because people thought

* Paulus, ii, xxvi, 15.

' Valerius Maximus, ii, I, 6.

Rights under Roman Law 23

that not even the desire for children ought to have
been preferred to conjugal fidelity and affection." '
As the Empire extended and Rome became more
worldly and corrupt, the reasons for divorce be-
came more trivial. Sempronius Sophus divorced
his wife because she had attended some public
games without his knowledge.^ Cicero, who
was a lofty moralist — on paper, — put away his
wife Terentia in order to marry a rich young
ward and get her money if he could. Maecenas,
the great prime-minister of Augustus, sent away
and took back his wife repeatedly at caprice —
perhaps he believed that variety is the spice of
life. But during all this time the husband alone
could annul marriage.-*

Gradually, however, the status of women changed
and they were given greater and greater liberty.
Inasmuch as Roman marriage was a civil con-
tract based on consent, strict justice had to allow
that on this basis either party to the contract
might annul the marriage at his or her pleasure.
The result was that during the first three centuries
after Christ the wife had absolute freedom to take
the initiative and send her husband a divorce
whenever and for whatever reason she wished.

^ Aulus Gellius, xvii, 21, 44. Valerius Maximus, ii, i, 4.
Plutarch, Roman Questions, 14.

' Valerius Maximus, vi, 3, 12.

3 "If you should catch your wife in adultery, you would put
her to death with impunity; she, on her part, would not dare to
touch you with her finger; and it is not right that she should" —
Speech of Cato the Censor, quoted by Aulus Gellius, x, 23.

24 History of Women's Rights

The proof of this fact is positively established not
only from the statements of the jurists, but also
from numberless accounts in the other writers of
the day. » Divorce became, at least among the
higher strata of society, extraordinarily frequent.
That a lady of the Upper Four Hundred should
have been content with only one husband was
deemed worthy of special mention on her tomb ; the
word univira (a woman of one husband) may
still be read on certain inscriptions. The satirists
are fond of dwelling on the license allowed to
women in the case of divorce. Martial, for in-
stance,* says that one Theselina married ten hus-
bands in one month. Still, allowing for the natural
exaggeration of satirists, we are yet reasonably sure
that divorce had reached great heights in the upper
classes. Whether it was as bad among the middle
classes is very improbable. There was one kind
of marriage which, originally at least, did not
admit of dissolution. ^ This was the solemn
marriage by confarreatto, already described, which

^ E. g., Marcellus in Dig., 24, 3, 38: Maevia Titio repudium
misit, etc.; ibid., Africanus, 24, 3, 34: Titia divortium a Seio
fecit, etc. Martial, x, 41 : Mense novo lani veterem, Proculeia,
maritum Deseris, atque iubes res sibi habere suas. Apuleius,
Apologia, 547: utramvis habens culpam mulier, quae aut tarn
intolerabilis fuit ut repudiaretur aut tarn insolens ut repudiaret.

Novellae, 140, i: Antiquitus quidem licebat sine periculo
tales [i. e., those of incompatible temperament] ab invicem
separari secundum communem voluntatem et consensum.

* Martial, vi, 7.

3 Aulus Gellius, x, 15: Matrimonium flaminis nisi morte dirimi
ius non est.

Rights under Roman Law 25

qualified the husband and wife for the special
priesthood of Jupiter. Women soon grew to
value their freedom too highly to enter it; as
early as 23 a.d. the Senate had to relax some of the
rigour of the old laws on the matter as a special
inducement for women to consent to enter this
union. ^

We may now observe what became of the wife's
property after divorce and what her rights were
under such circumstances. If it was the husband
who had taken the initiative and had sent his wife
a divorce, and if the divorce was not the fault of
the woman, she at once had an action in law for
complete recovery of her dowry; on her own re-
sponsibility if she was sui iuris, otherwise with
the help of her father.'' But even the woman still
under guardianship could act by herself if her
father was too sick or infirm or if she had no other
agent to act for her. ^ For the offence of adultery
a husband had to pay back the dowry at once;
for lesser guilt he might return it in instalments
at intervals of six months. ^ If, now, the divorce
was clearly the fault of the woman, her husband
could retain certain parts of the dowry in these
proportions: for adultery, a sixth part for each
of the children up to one half of the whole; for
lighter offences, an eighth part ; if the husband had

' Tacitus, Annals, iv, i6.

^Ulpian, vi, 6; id. in Dig., 24, 3, 2. Pauli fragmentum in
Boethiixommentario ad Topica, 2, 4, 19.

3 Paulus in Dig. ii, 3, 41.

4 Ulpian, vi, 13.

26 History of Women's Rights

gone to expense or had inctirred civil obligations
for his wife's benefit or if she had removed any
of his property, he could recover the amount.'

A year and six months must elapse after a
divorce before the woman was allowed to marry-
again. =* If at the time of the divorce she was
pregnant, her husband was obliged to support her
offspring, provided that within thirty days after
the separation she informed him of her condition. ^
She could sue her former husband for damages if
he insulted her.^ Whether the children should
stay with the mother or father was left to the
discretion of the judge. ^

The married woman had, as I have shown,
complete disposal of her own property. Let us
Property sec ncxt what rights those women had
JJidows and over their possessions who were widows

single women, or SpinstcrS.

Roman Law constantly strove to protect the
children and laid it down as a maxim that the
property of their parents belonged to them.'

* Ulpian, vi, 9-17, and vii, 2-3. Pauli frag, in Boethii comm.
ad Top., ii, 4, 19.

' Ulpian, xiv: feminis lex lulia a morte viri anni tribuit
vacationem, a divortio sex mensum; lex autem Papia a morte
viri biennii, a repudio anni et sex mensum.

3 Ulpian in Dig., 25, 3, i. Paulus, ii, xxiv, 5.

* Ulpian in Dig., 25, 4, 8.
s Codex, V, 24, I.

^ Codex, vi, 60, i : Res, quae ex matris successione fuerint ad
filios devolutae, ita sint in parentum potestate, ut fruendi
dumtaxat habeant facultatem, dominio videlicet earum ad liberos
pertinente.

Rights under Roman Law 2^

A widow could not therefore, except by special
permission from the emperor,^ be the legal
guardian of her children, but must ask the court to
appoint one upon the death of her husband. *
This was to prevent possible mismanagement and
because "to undertake the legal defence of others
is the office of men." ^ But she was permitted to
asstmie complete charge of her children's property
during their minority and enjoy the usufruct;
only she must render an account of the goods
when the children arrived at maturity.'* We
have many instances of women who managed their
children's patrimony and did it exceedingly well.
''You managed our patrimony in such wise," writes
Seneca to his mother, ^ ''that you exerted yourself
as if it were yours and yet abstained from it as if
it belonged to others."^ Agricola, father-in-law of
Tacitus, had such confidence in his wife's business
ability that he made her co-heir with his daughter
and the Emperor Domitian.^ A mother could
get an injunction to restrain extravagance on

'Neratius in Dig., 26, i, 18.

» Codex, V, 35, I.

3 Codex, ii, 12, 18: alienam suscipere defensionem virile offi-
cium est . . . filio itaque tuo, si pupillus est, tutorem pete.

" Ulpian, Tit. viii, 7a. Paulus, i, 4, 4.

s ad Helviam matrem de consoL, xiv, 3.

^ Other instances of women trustees will be found in Apuleius,
Apologia 516; Paulus in Dig., iii, 5, 23 (24): avia nepotis sui
negotia gessit, etc.; ibid., Marcellus, 46, 3, 48: Titia cum
propter dotem bona mariti possideret, omnia pro domina egit,
reditus exegit, etc.

7 Tacitus, Agricola, 43.

28 History of Women's Rights

the part of her children.^ Women could not
adopt. '

i Married women, spinsters, and widows had as
much freedom as men in disposing of property
by will. If there were children, the Roman law
put certain limitations on the testator's powers,
whether man or woman. By the Falcidian Law
no one was allowed to divert more than three
fourths of his estate from his (or her) natural
heirs. ^ But for any adequate cause a woman
could disinherit her children completely; and
there are many instances of this extant both in the
Law Books and in the literature of the day.'*
I Single women had grown absolutely unshackled
and even their guardians had become a mere
formality, as the words of Gaius, already quoted
(page 8) prove. That they had complete dis-
posal of their property is proved furthermore
by the numerous complaints in Roman authors
about the sycophants who flattered and toadied the
wealthy ladies with an eye to being remembered
in their wills. ^ For it is evident that if these

^ Frag. iur. Rom. Vat., 282.
» Ulpian, viii, 7a.

3 Gaius, ii, 227. Digest, 35, 2.

4 E.g. Pliny, Letters, w, i. Codex, iii, 28, 19; id., iii, 28, 28.
Cf. Codex, iii, 29, i, and 29, 7; and Paulus in Dig., v, 2, 19. Note
the extreme anxiety of the son of Prudentilla about her money
as given by Apuleius, Apologia, 517. The estate of a mother
who died intestate went to her children, not to her husband;
the latter could only enjoy the interest until they arrived at
maturity — Codex, vi, 60, i; Modestinus in Dig., 38, 17, 4.

« E.g., Juvenal, iv, 18-21. Pliny, Letters, ii, 20.

Rights under Roman Law 29

women had not had the power freely to dispose of
their own property, there would have been no
point in paying them such assiduous court. The
legal age of maturity was now twenty-five for
both male and female.

Women engaged freely in all business pursuits.
We find them in all kinds of retail trade and com-
merce,^ as members of guilds,^ in medi-
cine,^ innkeeping,"* in vaudeville^; there gaged in
were even female barbers^ and chari- business

pursuits.

oteers. ' Examples of women who toiled
for a living with their own hands are indeed very
old, as the widow, described by Homer, who
worked for a scanty wage to support her father-
less children, or the wreathmaker, mentioned by
Aristophanes.^ But such was the case only with
women of the lower classes ; the lady of high birth
acted through her agents.^

^ Digest, xiv, i and 3 and 8 — on the actio exercitoria and in-
stitoria. Cf. Codex, iv, 25, 4: et si a muliere magister navis prae-
positus fuerit, etc. ^ CIL, xiv, 326.

3 Martial, xi, 71. Apuleius, Metam., v, 10. Soranus, i, i, ch.
I and 2. Galen, vii, 414 (cf. xiii, 341).

"E.g. Suetonius, Nero, 27.

sCarmina Priapea, 18 and 27. Ulpian, xiii, i. The Roman
drama had now degenerated into mere vaudeville, mostly lasciv-
ious dancing. Senators and their children were forbidden to
marry any woman who had herself or whose father or mother
had been on the stage. ^ Martial, ii, 17, i.

7 Petronius, Sat., 45: Titus noster . . . habet et mulierem es-
sedariam. This would not be strange, when we reflect that under
Domitian noble ladies even fought in the arena.

8 Thesmophoriazusae, 443-459.

9 See Cicero, pro Caecina, 5, for an account of these business
agents for women.

30 ^ History of Women's Rights

When so many women were engaged in business,
occasions for lawsuits would naturally arise; we
The right of ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ what power the woman
women to had to suc. It was a standing maxim
of the law that a woman by herself
could not conduct a case in court. ^ She had to
act through her agent, if she was independent,
otherwise through her guardian. The supreme
judge at Rome and the governor in a province
assigned an attorney to those who had no agent or
guardian.* But in this case again custom and
the law were at variance. Various considerations
will make it clear that women who sued had, in
practice, complete disposal of the matter. I. — ^A
woman who was still under the power of her father
must, according to law, sue with him as her agent
or appoint an agent to act with him. Neverthe-
less, a father could do nothing without the consent
of his daughter. 3 Obviously, then, so far as the
power of the father was concerned, a woman had
practically the management of her suit. II. — The
husband had no power. If he tried to browbeat
her as to what to do, she could send him a divorce,
a privilege which she had at her beck and call,

* Paulus, ii, xi; id. in Dig., i6, i, i; Aulus Gellius, v, 19; Pom-
ponius in Dig., 48, 2, i : non est permissum mulieri publico iudicio
quemquam reum facere.

« Ulpian in Dig., i, 16, 9. Salvius Julianus, Pars Prima, vi:
si non habebunt advocatum, ego dabo. Alexander Severus
(222-235 A.D.) gave pensions to those advocates in the pro-
vinces who pleaded free of charge — Lampridius, Alex. Severus, 44.

3 Cf . Paulus in Dig., 23, 3, 28. Codex, v, 13, i, and 18, i.
Ulpian in Dig., iii, 3, 8.

Rights under Roman Law 31

as we have seen; and then she could force him to
give her any guardian she wanted. ^ III . — That the
authority of other guardians was in practice a
mere formality, I have already proved (pp. 7 and 8) .

From these considerations it is clear that the
woman's wishes were supreme in. the conduct of
any suit. Moreover, the law expressly states that
women may appoint whatever attorneys or agents
they desire, without asking the consent of their
legal guardians "'l and thus they were at liberty to
select a man who would manage things as they
might direct. There were cases where even the
strict letter of the law permitted women to lay
an action on their own responsibility alone: if,
when a suit for recovery of dowry was brought,
the father was absent or hindered by infirmities 3;
if the woman sued or was sued to get or render an
account of property managed in trust "•; to avenge
the death of a parent or children, or of patron or
patroness and their children s; to lay bare any
matter pertaining to the public grain supply^;
and to disclose cases of treason."^

We read of many cases of women pleading

' Gains, i, 137.

* Frag. iur. Rom. Vat,, 325; id., 327 (from Papinian): mulieres
quoque et sine tutoris auctoritate procuratorem facere posse.

3 Ulpian in Dig., iii, 3, 8; ibid., Paulus, iii, 3, 41.

4 Ulpian in Dig., iii, 5, 3.

s Pomponius in Dig., 48, 2, i; ibid., Papinian, 48, 2, 2 — who
adds that she could also do so in a case regarding the will of a
mother or father's freedman.

^ Marcianus in Dig., 48, 2, 13.

7 Papinian in Dig., 48, 4, 8.

32 History of Women's .Rights

publicly and bringing suit. Indeed, according
to Juvenal — who is, however, a pessimist by pro-
fession— the ladies found legal proceed-
wom"n p!ead- ings SO interesting that bringing suit
ing in public became a passion with them as strong as

and suing. ^ °

it had once been among the Athenians.
Thus Juvenal ^• "There is almost no case in
which a woman would n't bring suit. Manilia
prosecutes, when she is n't a defendant. They
draw up briefs quite by themselves, and are ready
to cite principles and authorities to Celsus [a
celebrated lawyer of that time]." Of pleading in
public one of the celebrated instances was that of
Hortensia, daughter of the great orator Quintus
Hortensius, Cicero's rival. On an occasion when
matrons had been burdened with heavy taxes and
none [of their husbands would fight the measiu-e,
Hortensia pleaded the case publicly with great
success. All writers speak of her action and the
eloquence of her speech with great admiration.^
We hear also of a certain Gaia Afrania, wife of a
Senator; she always conducted her case herself
before the supreme judge, "not because there was
any lack of lawyers," adds her respectable and
scandalised historian,^ "but because she had more
than enough of impudence."

Quintilian mentions several cases of women

» Juvenal, vi, 242-245.

» Valerius Maximus, viii, 3, 3. Appian, B.C., W, 32 ff. Quin-
tilian, i, 1,6.

» Valerius Maximus, viii, 3, 2.

Rights under Roman Law 33

being sued ^ ; Pliny tells how he acted as attorney
for some^; and the Law Books will supply any one
curious in the matter with abundant examples. ^
A quotation from Pliny ^ will give an idea of the
kind of suit a woman might bring, and the great in-
terest aroused thereby: "Attia Viriola, a woman of
illustrious birth and married to a former supreme
judge, was disinherited by her eighty-year-old
father within eleven days after he had brought
Attia a stepmother. Attia was trying to regain
her share of her father's estate. One hundred and
eighty jurors sat in judgment. The tribunal was
crowded, and from the higher part of the court
both men and women strained over the railings in
their eagerness to hear (which was difficult), and
to see (which was easy)."

There were many legal qualifications designed
to help women evade the strict letter of the law
when this, if enforced absolutely, would partiality of
work injustice. Ignorance of the law, theiawto
if there was no criminal offence involving '^omen.
good morals, was particularly accepted in the case
of women * ' on account of the weakness of the sex. ' ' ^
A typical instance of the growth of the desire to
help women, protect them as much as possible,

» Quintilian, ix, 2, 20 and 34.

» E.g., Pliny, Letters, i, 5, and iv, 17.

3 E.g., Huschke, pp. 796, 797, 803, 807, 809, 810, 856, 857, 858.
Or instances such as that mentioned in Digest, 48, 2, 18, where a
sister brings an action to prove her brother's will a forgery.

4 Pliny, Letters, vi, 33.

5 Paulus in Dig., 22, 6, 9.

3

34 History of Women's Rights

and stretch the laws in their favour, may be taken
from the senatorial decree known as the Senatus
Consultum Velleianum.' This was an order
forbidding f emales^to become siireties or defendants
for any one in a contract. But at the end of the
first century of our era the Senate voted that the
law be emended to help women and to give them
special privileges in every class of contract. "We
must praise the farsightedness of that illustrious
order," comments the great jurist Ulpian,* "be-
cause it brought aid to women on account of the
weakness of the sex, exposed, as it is, to many
mishaps of this sort."

The rights of women to inherit under Roman
law deserve some mention. Here again we may
Rights of wo- note a steady growth of justice. Some
men to inherit, ggj^gj.^2 cxamplcs will make this clearer,
before I treat of the specific powers of inheritance.
I. — In the year 169 B.C. the Tribune Quintus
Voconius Saxa had a law passed which restricted
greatly the rights of women to inherit . ^ According
to Dio^ no woman was, by this statute, permitted
to receive more than 25,000 sesterces — 1250
dollars. In the second century after Christ, this
law had fallen into complete desuetude. ^ II. — By

^ Fully treated in Dig., 16, i, and Paulus, ii, xi.
"Ulpian in Dig., 16, i, 2.

3 Aulus Gellius, xvii, 6. St. Augustine, de Civit. Dei, iii, 21:
nam tunc, id est inter secundum et postremum bellum Car-
thaginiense, lata est etiam ilia lex Voconia, ne quis heredem
feminam faceret, nee unicam filiam.

4 Dio, 56, 10.

s Aulus Gellius, xx, i, 23. According to Dio, 56, 10, it was

Rights under Roman Law 35

the Falcidian Law, passed in the latter part of
the first century B.C., no citizen was allowed to
divert more than three fourths of his estate from
his natural heirs.' The Romans felt strongly
against any man who disinherited his children
without very good reason; the will of such a
parent was called inofficiosum, "made without
a proper feeling of duty," and the disinherited
children had an action at law to recover their
proper share. ^ A daughter was considered a
natural heir no less than a son and had equal
privileges in succession 3; and so women were
bound to receive some inheritance at least. III. —
It is a sad commentary on Christian rulers that for
many ages they allowed the crimes of the father
to be visited upon his children and by their bills
of attainder confiscated to the state the goods
of condemned offenders. Now, the Roman law
stated positively that ''the crime or punishment

Augustus who in the year 9 a.d. gave women permission to in-
herit any amount.

* Fully treated in Dig., 35, 2. Also in Gaius, ii, 227, and
Paulus, iii, viii, 1-3, and iv, 3, 3, and 5 and 6.

» Paulus, iv. Tit. v, i. Cases in which "Complaints of Un-
dutiful Will" were the issue will be found, e.g., in Codex, iii,
28, I and 19 and 28; id., iii, 29, i and 7.

aUlpian in Dig., 38, 16, i: suos heredes accipere debemus
filios filias sive naturales sive adoptivos. Instances of daughters
being left heiresses of whole estates may be found, e.g., in Dig.,-
28, 2, 19: cum quidam filiam ex asse heredem scripsisset
filioque, quem in potestate habebat, decern legasset, etc. Or
the example mentioned by Scaevola in Dig., 41, 9, 3: Duae
filiae intestate patri heres exstiterunt, etc.

36 History of Women's Rights

of a father can inflict no stigma on his child. ' * ' So
far as the goods of the father were concerned, the
property of three kinds of criminals escheated to
the crown: (i) those who committed smcide
while under indictment for some crime, ^ (2)
forgers,^ (3) those guilty of high treason. '^ Yet
it seems reasonable to doubt whether these laws
were very often carried out strictly to the letter.
For example, the law did indeed hold that the
estate of a party guilty of treason was confiscated
to the state ^; but even here it was expressly
ordained that the goods of the condemned man's
freedmen be reserved for his children.^ More-
over, in actual practice we can find few instances
where the law was executed in its literal severity
even imder the worst tyrants. It was Julius
Caesar who first set the splendid example of
allowing to the children of his dead foes full
enjoyment of their patrimonies.' Succeeding

^ Callistratus in Dig., 48, 19, 26: crimen vel poena paterna
nuUam maculam filio infligere potest, namque unusquisque ex
suo admisso sorti subicitur nee alieni criminis successor consti-
tuitur; idque divi fratres Hierapolitanis rescripserunt. "No-
thing is more unjust," writes Seneca (de Ira, ii, 34, 3), "than
that any one should become the heir of the odiimi excited by his
father."

=* Paulus, V, xii, i.

3 Paulus, V, xii, 12.

4Ulpian in Dig., 48, 4, 11.

sUlpian in Dig., 48, 4, 11.

^ Hermogenianus in Dig., 48, 4, 9.

7 Sulla had not only deprived the children of the proscribed of
all their estates, but had also debarred them from aspiring to any
political office — see Velleius Paterculus, ii, 28.

Rights under Roman Law 37

emperors followed the precedent.^ Tyrants like
Tiberius and Nero, strangely enough, in a majority
of cases overruled the Senate when it proposed
to confiscate the goods of those condemned for
treason, and allowed the children a large part
or all of the paternal estate.^ Hadrian gave
the children of proscribed offenders the twelfth
part of their father's goods. ^ Antoninus Pius
gave them all.'^ There was a strong public feeling
against bills of attainder and this sentiment is
voiced by all writers of the Empire. The law
forbade wives to suffer any loss for any fault of
their husbands. ^

Since we have now noticed that women could
inherit any amount, that they were bound to
receive something under their fathers' wills, and
that the guilt of their kin could inflict no prejudice
upon them in the way of bills of attainder in-
volving physical injury or civil status and, in
practice, little loss so far as inheriting property

^ For examples of the clemency of Augustus see Suetonius,
div. Aug., 33 and 51 and 67; Seneca, de Ira, iii, 23, 4 ff., and
40, 2; Velleius Paterculus, ii, 86, 87.

* For Tiberius see, e.g., Tacitus, Annals, iv — case of Silius;
id.. Annals, iii, 17, 18 — case of Piso. For Nero, note Tacitus,
Annals, xiii, 43 — case of Publius Suilius. Clemency of Claudius
mentioned in Dio, 60, 15, 16; of Vitellius in Tacitus, Hist., ii, 62.

3 Spartianus, Had., 18.

4 Capitolinus, Anton. Pius, 7. See also the anecdote of Aure-
lian in Vopiscus, Aurelian, 23.

5 Codex, iv, 12, 2, rescript of Diocletian: ob maritorum culpam
uxores inquietari leges vetant. proinde rationalis noster, si res
quae a fisco occupatae sunt dominii tui esse probaveris, ius
publicum sequetur.

38 History of Women's Rights

was concerned, we may pass to a contemplation of
the specific legal rights of inheritance of women.
If women were to be disinherited, it was siifficient
to mention them in an aggregate ; but males must
be mentioned specifically.' If, however, they
were disinherited in an aggregate {inter ceteros)y
some legacy had to be left them that they might
not seem to have been passed over through
f orgetfulness. ^ I shall not concern myself par-
ticularly with testate succession, because here
obviously the will of the testator could dispose
as he wished, except in so far as he was limited
by the Falcidian Law. The matter of intestate
succession may well claim our attention; for
therein we shall see what powers of inheritance
were given the female sex. The general principles
are explained by Gaius (iii, 1-38); and these
principles followed, in the main, the law as laid
down in the Twelve Tables (451 B.C.). According
to these, the estates of those who died intestate
belonged first of all to the children who were in
the power of the deceased at the time of his death ;
there was no distinction of sex; the daughters
were entitled to precisely the same amount as
the sons.^ If the children of the testator had
died, the grandson or granddaughter through the
son succeeded; or the great-grandson or great-

» Gaius, ii, 129 and 132.

' Gaius, ii, 132.

3 Codex, iii, 36, 1 1 : Inter filios ac filias bona intestatorum
parentium pro virilibus portionibus aequo iure dividi oportere
explorati iuris est.

Rights under Roman Law 39

granddaughter through the grandson. If a son
and a daughter were alive, as well as grandsons
and granddaughters through the son, they were
all equally called to the estate. The estate was
not divided per capita, but among families as a
whole; for example, if of two sons one only was
alive, but the other had left children, the testator's
surviving son received one half of the patrimony
and his grandchildren through his other son the
other half, to be divided among them severally. If,
then, there were six grandchildren, each received
one twelfth of the estate.

Here the powers of women to inherit stopped.
Beyond the tie of consanguinitaSy that is, that of
daughter to father, or granddaughter through a
son J the female line must at once turn aside, and
had no powers ; the estate descended to the agnatic
that is, male relatives on the father's side. Hence
a mother was shut out by a brother of the deceased
or by that brother's children. If there were no
agnatiy the goods were given to the gentiles , male
relatives of the clan bearing the same name.
In fact, under this regime we may say that of the
female line the daughter alone was sure of in-
heriting something.

In the days of the Empire some attempts were
made to be more just. It was enacted^ that all
the children should be called to the estate, whether
they had been under the power of the testator
at the time of his death or not ; and female relatives

* Gaius, iii, 25-31.

40 History of Women's Rights

were now allowed to come in for their share '*in
the third degree," that is, if there was neither a
child or an agnate surviving. This was not
much of an improvement; and the principle of
agnate succession is the only point in which
Roman law failed to give to women those
equal rights which it allowed them in other
cases.

There is no point on which Roman law laid
more stress than that the children, both male and
Protection of ^^^^1^» wcrc to be Constantly protected
property of and must rcccive their legal share of
their father's or mother's goods. After a
husband's divorce or death his wife could, indeed,
enjoy possession of the property and the usufruct;
but the principal had to be conserved intact for
the children until they arrived at maturity. In
the same way a father was obliged to keep un-
touched for the children whatever had been left
them by the mother on her decease ^ ; and he must
also leave them that part, at least, of his own
property prescribed by the Falcidian Law. A
case — and it was common enough in real life —
such as that described by Dickens in David
Copperfield, where, by the English law, a second
husband acquired absolute right over his wife's
property and shut out her son, would have been

^ See, e.g., Codex, vi, 60, i: Res, quae ex matris successione
fuerint ad filios devolutae, ita sint in parentum potestate, ut
fruendi dumtaxat habeant facultatem, dominio videlicet eorum
ad liberos pertinente.

Rights under Roman Law 41

impossible under Roman law. Neither husband
nor wife could succeed to one another's intestate
estate absolutely unless there were no children,
parents, or other relatives living.^

Rape of a woman was punished by death;
accessories to the crime merited the same penalty.^
Indecent exposure before a virgin met _ . ,

^ Punishment of

with punishment out of course.^ Kid- crimes against
napping was penalised by hard labour in women,
the mines or by crucifixion in the case of those
of humble birth, and by confiscation of half the
goods and by perpetual exile in the case of a
noble. -♦ Temporary exile was visited upon those
guilty of abortion themselves 5; if it was caused
through the agency of another, the agent, even
though he or she did so without evil intent, was
punished by hard labour in the mines, if of humble
birth, and by relegation to an island and confisca-
tion of part of their goods, if of noble rank.^ If

« For all this, see Codex, v, 9, 5, and vi, 18, i.

' Paulus, V, 4, 14, who adds that exile was the penalty if the
crime had not been completely carried out. It would seem also
that ravished women had the option of deciding whether their
seducers should marry them or be put to death — see the viti-
atarum elecUones as mentioned by Tacitus, Dial, de Oral., 35.
According to Ruffus, 40, a soldier who did violence to a girl
had his nostrils cut off, besides being forced to give the injured
woman a third part of his goods: militi, qui puellae vim adtulerit
et stupraverit, nares abscinduntur, data puellae tertia militis
facultatum parte.

3 Paulus, v, 4, 21.

< By the lex Fabia. Paulus, v, 30 B. Digest, 48, 15; 17, 2, 51.

s Ulpian in Dig., 48, 8, 8; ibid., Tryphoninus, 48, 19, 39.

« Paulus, v, 23, 14; id. in Dig., 48, 19, 38.

42 History of Women's Rights

the victim died, the person who caused the
abortion was put to death.*

The rights of women to an education were not
questioned. That Sulpicia could pubHsh amatory
Rights of wo- poenis in honour of her husband and
men to an receivc culogics from writers like Mar-
tial ^ shows that she and ladies like her
occupied somewhat the same position as Olympia
Morata and Tarquinia Molza later in Italy during
the Renaissance, or like some of the celebrated
Frenchwomen, such as Madame de Stael. Seneca
addresses a Dialogue on Consolation to one Marcia ;
such an idea would have made the hair of any
Athenian gentleman in the time of Socrates stand
on end. Aspasia was obliged to be a courtesan in
order to become educated and to frequent culti-
vated society 3; Sulpicia was a noble matron in
good standing. The world had not stood still
since Socrates had requested some one to take
Xanthippe home, lest he be burdened by her
sympathy in his last moments. Pains were taken
that the Roman girl of wealth should have special
tutors.^ "Pompeius Satuminus recently read me
some letters," writes Pliny ^ to one of his corre-

* Paulus, supra cit.

» Martial, x, 35, and x, 38.

3 Sappho, Telesilla, and Corinna belong to an earlier period,
when the Oriental idea of seclusion for women had not yet be-
come firmly fixed in Greece. Women like Agallis of Corcyra,
who wrote on grammar (Athenaeus, i, 25) and lived in a much
later age, doubtless belonged to the hetaerae class.

4 See, e.g., Pliny, Letters, v, 16.
« Pliny, Letter s, i, 16.

Rights under Roman Law 43

spondents, "which he insisted had been written
by his wife. I believed that Plautus or Terence
was being read in prose. Whether they are really
his wife's, as he maintains; or his own, which he
denies ; he deserves equal honour, either because he
composes them, or because he has made his wife,
whom he married when a mere girl, so learned
and polished.'* The enthusiasm of the ladies for
literature is attested by Persius.'

According to Juvenal, who, as an orthodox
satirist, was not fond of the weaker sex, women
sometimes became over-educated. He growls
as follows*: "That woman is a worse nuisance
than usual who, as soon as she goes to bed, praises
Vergil; makes excuses for doomed Dido; pits bards
against one another and compares them; and
weighs Homer and Maro in the balance. Teachers
of literature give way, professors are vanquished,
the whole mob is hushed, and no lawyer or auc-
tioneer will speak, nor any other woman." The
prospect of a learned wife filled the orthodox
Roman with peculiar horror. ^ No Roman woman
ever became a public professor as did Hypatia or,

' Persius, i, 4-5 : Ne mihi Polydamas et Troiades Labeonem
praetulerint ? "Are you afraid that Polydamas and the Trojan
Ladies will prefer Labeo to me ? " ^The Trojan Ladies, of course,
stand for the aristocratic classes, Colonial Dames, so to speak,
who were fond of tracing their descent back to Troy just as
Americans like to discover that their ancestors came over ir
the Mayflower.

' Juvenal, vi, 434-440.

3 Cf. Martial, ii, 90: sit mihi vema satur, sit non doctissima
coniunx.

44 History of Women's Rights

ages later, Bitisia Gozzadina, who, in the thirteenth
century, became doctor of canon and civil law at
the University of Bologna.

I have been speaking of women of the wealthier
classes; but the poor were not neglected. As far
back as the time of the Twelve Tables — 450 B.C.
— parents of moderate means were accustomed to
club together and hire a schoolroom and a teacher
who would instruct the children, girls no less than
boys, in at least the proverbial three R's. Virginia
was on her way to such a school when she en-
coimtered the passionate gaze of Appius Claudius.
Such grammar schools, which boys and girls
attended together, flourished under the Empire as
they had under the Republic' They were not
connected with the state, being supported by the
contributions of individual parents. To the end
we cannot say that there was a definite scheme
of pubHc education for girls at the state's expense
as there was for boys.^ Still, the emperors did
something. Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius,
Marcus Aurelius, and Alexander Severus, for
example, regularly supplied girls and boys with

' The famous verses of Martial:

Quid tibi nobiscum, ludi scelerate magister?
Invisum pueris virginibusque caput!

" Vespasian (69-79 a.d.) started free public education by ap-
pointing Quintilian Professor of Rhetoric subsidised by the state.
Succeeding emperors enlarged upon it; but especially Alexander
Severus (222-235 a.d.), who instituted salaries for teachers of
rhetoric, literature, medicine, mechanics, and architecture in
Rome and the provinces, and had poor boys attend the lectures
free of charge — see Lampridius, Alex. Severus, 44.

Rights under Roman Law 45

education at public expense %• under Trajan there
were 5000 children so honoured. Public-spirited
citizens were also accustomed to contribute
liberally to the same cause; Pliny on one occasion^
gave the equivalent of $25,000 for the support
and instruction of indigent boys and girls.

It may not be out of place to speak briefly of the
Vestal Virgins, the six priestesses of Vesta, who are
the only instances in pagan antiquity of ^^^
anything like the nuns of the Christians.
The Vestals took a vow of perpetual chastity. ^
They passed completely out of the power of their
parents and became entirely independent. They
could not receive the inheritance of any person
who died intestate, and no one could become heir
to a Vestal who died intestate. They were
allowed to be witnesses in court in public trials,
a privilege denied other women. Peculiar honour
was accorded them and they were regularly
appointed the custodians of the wills of the
emperors. ^

The position of women in slavery merits some
attention, in view of the huge multitudes that

^ Pliny, Paneg., 26. Spartianus, Hadrian, 7, 8-9. Capito-
linus, Anton. Pius 8; id. M. Anton. Phil. 11. Lampridius, ^/ex,
Severus, 57.

' Pliny, Letters, vii, 18. The sum was 500,000 sesterces.

3 Any infringement of this vow was punished by burial alive —
for instances, see Suetonius, Domitian, 8; Herodian, iv, 6, 4:
Pliny, Letters, iv, 11; Dio, 77, 16 (Xiphilin), Their paramours
were beaten to death.

4 A full account of the Vestals will be found in Aulus Gellius,
i, 12.

46 History of Women's Rights

were held in bondage. Roman law acknow-
ledged no legal rights on the part of slaves.'
Female slaves '^^^ master had absolute power of life
and death . ^ They were exposed to every
whim of master or mistress without redress.^ If
some one other than their owner harmed them,
they might obtain satisfaction through their
master and for his benefit ; but the penalty for the
aggressor was only pecuniary. ^ A slave's evidence
was never admitted except under torture. ^ If
a master was killed, every slave of his household
and even his freedmen and freedwomen were put to
torture, although the culprit may already have
been discovered, in order to ascertain the instigator
of the plot and his remotest accessories.^

The earlier history of Rome leaves no doubt
that before the Republic fell these laws were
carried out with inhuman severity. With the
growth of Rome into a world power and the con-
sequent rise of humanitarianism^ a strong public

* Quintilian, vii, 3, 27: ad servum nulla lex pertinet. On the
rare instances when a slave could inform against his master in
a public court, see Hermogenianus in Dig., v, i, 53.

* Gains, i, 52 ff.

3 Gains, iii, 222. Cf. Juvenal vi, 219-223, and 474-495.

4Gaius, iii, 222. Salvius Julianus, Pars Secunda, xv. Auluj;
Gellius, XX, I.

s Paulus, V, 16.

^ Paulus, iii, v, 5 ff. Pliny, Letters, viii, 14. Tacitus, Annals^
xiii, 32.

' Valerius Maximus, vi, 8, in a chapter entitled de fide ser-
vorum speaks with great admiration of instances of fidelity on the
part of slaves. Seneca ate with his — Epist. 47, 13. Martial
laments the death of a favourite^slave girl — v, 34 and 37. Dio

Rights under Roman Law 47

feeling against gratuitous cruelty towards slaves
sprang up. This may be illustrated by an
event which happened in the reign of Nero, in the
year 58, when a riot ensued out of sympathy for
some slaves who had been condemned en masse
after their master had been assassinated by one of
them.^ Measures were gradually introduced for
alleviating the hardships and cruelties of slavery.
Claudius (41-54 a.d.) ordained^ that since sick
and infirm slaves were being exposed on an island
in the Tiber sacred to Aesculapius, because their
masters did not wish to bother about attending
them, all those who were so exposed were to be set
free if they recovered and never to be returned into
the power of their masters ; and if any owner pre-
ferred to put a slave to death rather than expose
him, he was to be held for murder. Gentlemen
began to speak with contempt of a master or
mistress who maltreated slaves. ^ Hadrian (117-
138 A.D.) modified the old laws to a remarkable
degree: he forbade slaves to be put to death by
their masters and commanded them to be tried b}''

(62, 27 — Xiphilin) notes the heroic conduct of Epicharis, a
freedwoman, who was included in a conspiracy against Nero;
but she revealed none of its secrets, though tortured in every way
by Tigellinus. The pages of Pliny are full of the spirit of kind-
liness to slaves.

^ See Tacitus, Annals, xiv, 42 ff.

' Suetonius, Claudius, 25. Dio, 60, 29 (Xiphilin).

3 See, e.g., Seneca, de Clem., i, 18, i and 2 — especially the
anecdote of Vedius Pollio (mentioned also by Dio, 54, 23).
The interesting letter of Pliny, viii, 16; and cf. iii, 14, and v, 19.
Juvenal, vi, 219-223.

48 History of Women's Rights

regularly appointed judges; he brought it about
that a slave, whether male or female, was not to be
sold to a slave-dealer or trainer for public shows
without due cause; he did away with ergastula
or workhouses, in which slaves guilty of offences
were forced to work off their penalties in chains
and were confined to filthy dungeons; and he
modified the law previously existing to the extent
that if a master was killed in his own house, the
inquisition by torture could not be extended to
the whole household, but to those only who, by
proximity to the deed, could have noticed it.'
Gaius observes ^ that for slaves to be in complete
subjection to masters who have power of life and
death is an institution common to all nations.
*'But at this time," he continues, "it is permitted
neither to Roman citizens nor any other men who
are under the sway of the Roman people to vent
their wrath against slaves beyond measiu-e and
without reason. In fact, by a decree of the
sainted Antoninus (138-161 a.d.) a master who
without cause kills his slave is ordered to be held
no less than he who kills another's slave. ^ An
excessive severity on the part of masters is also
checked by a constitution of the same prince.
On being consulted by certain governors about
those slaves who rush for refuge to the shrines of

^ Spartianus, Hadrian, 18.

» Gaius, i, 52 ff. Cf. Ulpian in Dig., i, 12, i and 8.

3 The punishment for this was pecuniary damages equal to
twice the highest value of a slave during the year in which he
was killed.

Rights under Roman Law 49

the gods or the statues of emperors, he ordered
that if the cruelty of masters seemed intolerable
they should be compelled to sell their slaves.*'
Severus ordained that the city prefect should
prevent slaves from being prostituted. ^ Aurelian
gave his slaves who had transgressed to be heard
according to the laws by public judges. ^ Tacitus
procured a decree that slaves were not to be put
to inquisitorial torture in a case affecting a master's
life, not even if the charge was high treason. ^ So
much for the laws that mitigated slavery under
the Empire. They were not ideal ; but they would
in more respects than one compare favourably
with the similar legislation that was in force, prior
to the Civil War, in the American Slave States.

SOURCES

I. lurisprudentiae Anteiustinianae quae Supersunt. ed. Ph.
Eduardus Huschke. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1886 (fifth edition).

II. Codex lustinianus. Recensuit Paulus Krueger. Berolini
apud Weidmannos, 1877.

Corpus luris Civilis: Institutiones recognovit Paulus
Krueger; Digesta recognovit Theodorus Mommsen. Berolini
apud Weidmannos, 1882.

Novellae: Corpus luris Civilis. Volumen Tertium recognovit
Rudolfus Schoell; Opus Schoellii morte interceptum absolvit
G. KroU. Berolini apud Weidmannos, 1895.

III. The Fragments of the Perpetual Edict of Salvius Juli-
anus. Edited by Bryan Walker. Cambridge University
Press, 1877.

^ Ulpian in Dig., i, 12, 8: hoc quoque officium praefecto urbi
a divo Severe datum est, ut mancipia tueatur ne prostituantur.

2 Vopiscus, Aurelian, 49.

3 Vopiscus, Tacitus, 9.

4

50 History of Women's Rights

IV. Pomponii de Origine luris Fragmentum: recognovit
Fridericus Osannus. Gissae, apud lo. Rickerum, 1848.

V. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, Consilio et Auctoritate
Academiae Litterarum Regiae Borussicae editum. Berolini
apud Georgium Reimerum (begun in 1863).

VI. Valerii Ma:.imi Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilium
Libri Novem: cum lulii Paridis et lanvarii Nepotiani Epitomis:
iterum recensuit Carolus Kempf. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1888.

VII. Cassii Dionis Cocceiani Rerum Romanarum libri
octaginta: ab Immanuele Bekkero Recogniti. Lipsiae, apud
Weidmannos, 1849.

VIII. C. Suetoni Tranquilli quae Supersunt Omnia: recen-
suit Carolus L. Roth. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1898.

IX. A. Persii Flacci, D. lunii luvenalis, Sulpiciae Saturae;
recognovit Otto lahn. Editio altera curam agente Francisco
Duecheler. Berolini, apud Weidmannos, 1886.

X. Eutropi Breviarium ab Urbe Condita: recognovit Fran-
ciscus Ruehl. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1897.

XI. Herodiani ab Excessu Divi Marci libri octo: ab Im-
manuele Bekkero recogniti. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1855.

XII. A. Gellii Noctium Atticarum libri XX: edidit Carolus
Hosius. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1903.

XIII. Petronii Saturae et Liber Priapeorum: quartum edidit
Franciscus Buecheler: adiectae sunt Varronis et Senecae Saturae
similesque Reliquiae. Berolini, apud Weidmannos, 1904.

XIV. M. Valerii Martialis Epigrammaton libri: recognovit
Walther Gilbert. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1896.

XV. Comelii Taciti Libri qui Supersunt: quartum recognovit
Carolus Halm. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1901.

XVI. C. Vellei Paterculi ex Historiae Romanae libris duobus
quae supersunt: edidit Carolus Halm. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1876.

XVII. L. Annaei Senecae Opera quae Supersunt: recognovit
Fridericus Haase. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1898.

XVIII. Athenaei Naucratitae Deipnosophistarum libri XV:
recensuit Georgius Kaibel. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1887.

XIX. Lucii Apulei Metamorphoseon libri XI. Apologia et
Florida. Recensuit J. van der Vliet. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1897.

XX. C. Plini Caecili Secundi Epistularum libri novem,
Epistularum ad Traianum liber. Panegyricus. Recognovit
C. F. W. Mueller. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1903.

Rights under Roman Law 51

XXI. Scriptores Historiae Augustae: edidit Hermannus
Peter. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1888.

XXII. M. Fabii Quintiliani Institutionis Oratoriae libri XII:
recensuit Eduardus Bonnell. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1905.

XXIII. Marci Antonini Commentariorum libri XII: iterum
recensuit loannes Stich. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1903.

XXIV. C. Plinii Secundi Naturalis Historiae libri XXXVII:
recognovit Ludovicus lanus. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1854.

XXV. XII Panegyrici Latini: recensuit Aemilius Baehrens.
Lipsiae (Teubner), 1874.

XXVI. Plutarchi Scripta Moralia, Graece etLatine: Parisiis,
editore Ambrosio F. Didot, 1841.

Plutarchi Vitae Parallelae: iterum recognovit Carolus Sin-
tennis. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1884.

XXVII. Ammiani Marcellini Rerum Gestarum libri qui
supersunt: recensuit V. Gardthausen. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1875.

XXVIII. Poetae Latini Minores: recensuit Aemilius Baeh-
rens. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1883.

CHAPTER II

WOMEN AND THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH

MEANWHILE a new world force, destined to
overthrow the old order of things, was
growing slowly to maturity and spreading out its
might until eventually it fought its way to pre-
eminence. I have traced the rights of women
imder the regime of pagan Rome; I shall inquire
next into the position of women tmder Christianity.
We must first note the attitude of the early
Christians towards women in general; for that
attitude will naturally be reflected in any laws
made after the Church has become supreme and
is combined with and directs the State. That
will demand a special chapter on Canon Law ; but
in the present chapter I propose to show how
women were regarded by the Christians in the
centuries which were the formative period of the
Church.

The direct words of Christ so far as they relate
to women and as we have them in the Gospels con-
cern themselves wholly to bring about purity in
the relation of the sexes. "Ye have heard that it
was said, Thou shalt not commit adultery; but I
say imto you, that every one that looketh on a

52

In the Early Christian Church 53

woman to lust after her hath committed adultery
with her already in his heart." ^ His commands
on the subject of divorce are positive and un-
equivocal: "It was said also, Whosoever shall put
away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce-
ment; but I say unto you, that every one that
putteth away his wife, saving for the cause of
fornication, maketh her an adultress; and whoso-
ever shall marry her when she is put away, com-
mitteth adultery."^ Christ was content to lay
down great ethical principles, not minute regula-
tions. Of any inferiority on the part of women
he says nothing, nor does be concern himself with
giving any directions about their social or legal
rights. He blessed the marriage at Cana; and
to the woman taken in adultery he showed his
usual clemency. For the rest, his relations with
women have an atmosphere of rare sympathy,
gentleness, and charm.

But as soon as we leave the Gospels and read
the Apostles we are in a different sphere. The
Apostles were for the most part men of humble
position, and their whole lives were directed by
inherited beliefs which were distinctly Jewish and
Oriental or Greek; not Western. In the Orient
woman has from the dawn of history to the present
day occupied a position exceedingly low. Indeed,
in Mohammedan countries she is regarded merely

^ Matthew 5, 27 ff.

'Matthew 5, 31 ff.; id. 19, 3 ff. Mark 10, 2-12. Luke
16, 18.

54 History of Women's Rights

as> a tool for the man's sensual passions and she
is not allowed to have even a soul. In Greece
women were confined to their houses, were un-
educated, and had few public rights and less moral
latitude; their husbands had imlimited license.^
The Jewish ideal is by no means a lofty one and
cannot for a moment compare with the honour ac-
corded the Roman matron under the Empire. Ac-
cording to Genesis a woman is the cause of all the
woes of mankind. Ecclesiasticus declares that the
badness of men is better than the goodness of
women. =* In Leviticus^ we read that the period of
purification customary after the birth of a child is
to be twice as long in the case of a female as in a

^ Plutarch lived in the second century a.d. ; but he has inherited
the Greek point of view and advises a wife to bear with meek-
ness the infidelities of the husband — see Praecep. Coniug., i6.
His words are often curiously similar to those of the Apostles,
e.g., Coniug. Praecep., 33: "The husband shall rule the wife not
as if master of a chattel, but as the soul does the body." Id.
37; "Wives who are sensible will be silent when their husbands
are angry and vent their passion; when their husbands are
silent, then let them speak to them and mollify them." How-
ever, like the Apostles, he enjoins upon husbands to honour their
wives; his essay on the "Virtues of Women" — ywaiKwp iperai —
is an affectionate tribute to their worth.

Some of the respectable Puritan gentlemen at Rome also
held that a wife be content to be a humble admirer of her hus-
band (e.g., Pliny, Paneg., 83, hoc efficiebat, quod mariti minores
erant . . . nam uxori sufficit obsequii gloria, etc.). But
Roman law insisted that what was morally right for the man
was equally so for the woman; just as it compelled a husband
himself to observe chastity, if he expected it from his wife.

' Ecclesiasticus 42, 14.

3 Leviticus xii, 1-5.

In the Early Christian Church 55

male. The inferiority of women was strongly felt ;
and this conception would be doubly operative on
men of humble station who never travelled, who
had received little education, and whose ideas were
naturally bounded by the horizon of their native
localities. We are to remember also that the East
is the home of asceticism, a conviction alien to
the Western mind. There is no parallel in Western
Europe to St. Simeon Stylites.

We would, therefore, expect to find in the teach-
ings of the Apostles an expression of Jewish, i.e.,
Eastern ideals on the subject of women ; and we do
so find them. Following the express commands of
Christ, they exhorted to sexual purity and reiter-
ated his injunctions on the matter of divorce.
They went much farther and began to legislate on
more'minute details. Paul allows second marriages
to women ^; but thinks it better for a widow to
remain as she is."* It is better to marry than to
bum; yet would he prefer that men and women
should remain in celibacy.^ The power of the
father to arrange a marriage for his daughter was,
under Roman law, limited by her consent; but
the words of Paul make it clear that it was now to
be a Christian precept that a father could determine
on his own responsibility whether his daughter
should remain a virgin. "* Wives are to be in sub-
jection to their husbands, and "let the wife see that

^ Romans 7, 2-4.
* Corinthians i, 7, 39.

3 Corinthians i, 7, i ff,

4 Corinthians i, 7, 37.

56 History of Women's Rights

she fear her husband. " ^ Woman is the weaker
vessel ' ; she is to be silent in church ; if she desires
to learn anything, she should ask her husband
at home.^ Furthermore: "I permit not a woman
to teach, nor to have dominion over a man,
but to be in quietness. For Adam was first
formed, then Eve; and Adam was not beguiled,
but the woman being beguiled hath fallen into
transgression; but she shall be saved through
childbearing, if they continue in faith and love
and sanctification with sobriety. ""* The apparel
of women also evoked legislation from the Apostles.
Women were to pray with their heads veiled "for
the man is not of the woman, but the woman for
the man." ^ Jewels, precious metal, and costly
garments were unbecoming the modest woman. ^

In this early stage of Christianity we may al-
ready distinguish three conceptions that were quite
foreign to the Roman jurist : I. The inferiority
and weakness of women was evident from the
time of Eve and it was an act of God that punished
all womankind for Eve's transgression. Woman
had been man's evil genius. II. She was to be
submissive to father or husband and not bring
her will in opposition to theirs. III. She must
not be prominent in public, she must consider her

^ Ephesians 5, 22 and 33.
« Peter i, 3, 7.

3 Corinthians i, 14, 34.

4 Timothy i, 2, 12-15.
s Corinthians i, 11, 8.

^ Timothy i, 2, 9. Peter i, 3.

In the Early Christian Church 57

conduct and apparel minutely, and she was
exhorted to remain a virgin, as being thus in a
more exalted position. At the same time insistence
was placed on the fact that a virgin, wife, and
widow must be given due honour and respect,
must be provided for, and allowed her share in
taking part in those interests of the community
which were considered her sphere.

If, now, we examine the writings of the Church
Fathers, we shall see these ideas elaborated with
all the vehemence of religious zeal.

The general opinions of the Fathers regarding
women present a curious mixture. They are fond
of descanting on the fact that woman is responsible
for all the woes of mankind and that her very
presence is dangerous. At the same time they
pay glowing tribute to women in particular. St.
Jerome held that women were naturally weaker,
physically and morally, than men.^ The same
saint proves that all evils spring from women ^;
and in another passage he opines that marriage
is indeed a lottery and the vices of women are
too great to make it worth while. ^ "The sex is

^ Abelard, Ep., 9, in vol. 178, p. 325, of Migne: Beatus Hier-
onymus . . . tanto magis necessarium amorem huius
studii (i.e. the Scriptures) censuit, quanto eas naturaliter in-
iirmiriores et carne debiliores esse conspexit. Cf. St. Paul of
Nolan, Letters, 23, § 135 — Migne 61, p. 273: Hi enim (i.e. evil
spirits) petulantius infirmiora vasa pertentant, sicut non
Adam, sed Evam coluber aggressus est.

* Adversus lovianum, i, 48 — Migne, vol. 23, p. 278.

3 Adversus lovianum, i, 28 — Migne, vol. 23, pp. 249-250:
Qui enim ducit uxorem, in ambiguo est, utrum odiosam an ama-

58 History of Women's Rights

practiced in deceiving," observes St. Maximus.^
St. Augustine disputes subtly whether woman is
the image of God as well as man. He says no,
and proves it thus^: The Apostle commands
that a man should not veil his head, because he
is the image of God ; but the woman must veil hers,
according to the same Apostle; therefore the
woman is not the image of God. "For this
reason, again," continues the Saint, "the Apostle
says *A woman is not permitted to teach, nor
to have dominion over her husband.'" Bishop
Marbodius calls woman a "pleasant evil, at once
a honeycomb and a poison" and indicts the sex,^

bilem ducat. Si odiosam duxerit, ferri non potest. Si amabilem,
amor illius inferno et arenti terrae et incendio comparatur.
He quotes the Old Testament, especially Pr. 30, 16, to support
his views.

^ S. Maximi Episcopi Taurinensis — Homilia 53, i — Migne,
vol. 57. P- 350.

^ Augustinus: Quaest. ex vet. Test., 21 : an mulier imago Dei sit

. . . unde et Apostolus, Vir quidem, inquit, non debet
velare caput, cum sit imago et gloria Dei; mulier autem, inquit,
velet caput. Quare ? Quia non est imago Dei. Unde denuo dicit
Apostolus: Mulieri autem docere non permittitur, neque dominari
in virum. Migne, vol. 35, p. 2228.

3 Migne, vol. 171, pp. 1698-1699:

Femina dulce malum, pariter favus atque venenum,
Melle linens gladium cor confodit et sapientum.
Quis suasit primo vetitum gustare parenti ?
Femina. Quis patrem natas vitiare coegit?
Femina. Quis f ortem spoliatum crine peremit ?
Femina. Quis iusti sacrum caput ense recidit ?
Femina. — etc., ad lib.

However, in another poem he acknowledges that there is
nothing more beautiful than a good woman:

In the Early Christian Church 59

something on the order of Juvenal or Jonathan
Swift, by citing the cases of Eve, the daughters of
Lot, DeHlah, Herodias, Clytemnestra, and Progne.
The way in which women were regarded as at once
a blessing and a curse is well illustrated also in a
distich of Sedulius: *'A woman alone has been
responsible for opening the gates of death ; a
woman alone has been the cause of a return to
life." ^

That women should be in subjection, in accord-
ance with the dictum of Paul, the Church Fathers
assert emphatically. "How can it be said of a
woman that she is the image of God," exclaims
St. Augustine,^ "when it is evident that she is
subject to the rule of her husband and has no
authority! Why, she can not teach, nor be a
witness, nor give security, nor act in court; how
much the more can she not govern ! ' ' Women are
commanded again and again not to perform any
of the functions of men and to yield a ready

In cunctis quae dante Deo concessa videntur
Usibus humanis, nil pulchrius esse putamus,
Nil melius muliere bona, etc.

* Migne, vol. 80, p. 307. The sentiment is more fully de-
veloped in another poem — Migne, vol. 80, p. 307 :

Femina causa fuit humanae perditionis;

Qua reparatur homo, femina causa fuit.
Femina causa fuit cur homo ruit a paradiso;

Qua redit ad vitam, femina causa fuit.
Femina prima parens exosa, maligna, superba;

Femina virgo parens casta, benigna, pia.

' Quaest. ex vet. Test., 45: Migne, vol. 35, p. 2244.

6o History of Women's Rights

and unquestioning obedience to their husbands.'
The Fathers also insist that marriage without a
paternal parent's consent is fornication. =^

Marriage was looked upon as a necessary evil,
permitted, indeed, as a concession to the weak-
ness of mankind, but to be avoided if possible.
"Celibacy is to be preferred to marriage," says
St. Augustine. 3 "Celibacy is the life of the
angels," remarks St. Ambrose. "* "Celibacy is a
spiritual kind of marriage," according to St.
Optatus.s "Happy he," says .TertuUian,^ "who
lives like Paul ! ' ' The same saint paints a lugubri-
ous picture of marriage and the "bitter pleasure of
children" (liber or um amarissima voluptate) who
are burdens and just as likely as not will turn out
criminals. ' ' Why did the Lord cry woe unto those
that are pregnant and give suck, unless it was to
call attention to the fact that children will be a

'E.g., Tertullian, de virg. vel., 9. St. Paul of Nolan, letter
23, § 135 — Migne, 61, p. 273. Id., letter 26, vol. 61, p. 732
of Migne. Cf. Augustine, letter 262, § 5 — Migne, 33, p.
1079.

* Basilius, ad Amphil., c. 42 : Matrimonia sine iis, qui potestatem
habent, fornicationes sunt.

Ambrose says: Honorantur parentes Rebeccae muneribus,
consulitur puella non de sponsalibus, ilia enim expectat iudicium
parentum; non est enim virginalis pudoris eligere maritum.

3 Virginitas praeferenda coniugio — August., vol. 44, p. 142 of
Migne. The Council of Trent, eleven centuries later, in its
twenty-fourth session, re-echoed this sentiment and anathem-
atised any one who should deny it.

4 Migne, vol. 16, p. 342.

5 Id., II, p. 1074.

^ Tertullian ad uxorem, i, 3.

In the Early Christian Church 6i

hindrance on the day of judgment?"' When
such views were entertained of marriage, it need
ilot seem remarkable that TertulHan and St. Paul
of Nolan, like Tolstoy to-day, discovered the
blessings of a celibate life after they were mar-
ried, and ran away from their wives. ^ Jerome
finds marriage useful chiefly because it produces
virgins. 3

As for second marriages, the Montanist and the
Novatian sects condemned them absolutely, on
the ground that if God has removed a wife or
husband he has thereby signified his will to end
the marrying of the parties ; TertulHan calls second
marriage a species of prostitution. "* Jerome ex-
presses the more tolerant and orthodox view:
"What then? Do we condemn second marriages?
Not at all ; but we praise single ones. Do we cast
the twice-married from the Church? Far from it;
but we exhort the once-married to continence. In
Noah's ark there were not only clean, but also
unclean animals." ^

^ Id. ad uxorem, i, 5. See also Gregory of Nyassa, de Virg.,
iii, on the evils of matrimony.

'V. TertulHan, ad uxorem. For Paul of Nolan, see Migne,
vol. 61, p. 22.

sLaudo nuptias, laudo conlugium, sed quia mihi virgines
generant.

* Ad uxorem f i, 7 and 9: non aliud dicendum erit secundum
matrimonium quam species stupri.

s Jerome, EpisL, 123. See also id., Epistola de viduitate ser-
vanda, Migne 22, p. 550, and the Epist. de monogamia, Migne,
22, p. 1046. Ambrose, de viduis liber unus, Migne, 16, p. 234.
Cf. Alanus de Insulis in Migne, vol. 210, p. 194: Vidua ad
secundas nuptias non transeat.

62 History of Women's Rights

As the Fathers were very well aware of the
subtle influence of dress on the sexual passions,
we have a vast number of minute regulations di-
recting virgins, matrons, and widows to be clothed
simply and without ornament; virgins were to be
veiled. ^ TertuUian, with that keen logic of which
the Church has always been proud in her sons,
argues that inasmuch as God has not made crimson
or green sheep it does not behoove women to
wear colours that He has not produced in animals
naturally. ^ St. Augustine forbids nuns to bathe
more than once a month, unless imder extreme
necessity. ^

As soon as the Church begins to exercise an
influence upon law, we shall expect to see the legal
position of women changed in accordance with
certain general principles outlined above, viz: I,
That inasmuch as Adam was formed before
Eve and as women are the weaker vessels, they
should confine themselves to those duties only
which society has, from time immemorial, assigned

^ See, e.g., St. Cyprian, de hahitu virginum. TertuUian,
de virginihus velandis and de cuUu feminarum. Treatises on the
way widows should dress were written, among others, by St.
Paul of Nolan, Epist. 23, §§ 133-135 — Migne 61; Augustine,
St. Fulgentius Rusp., St. Paulinus Aquil., and St. Petrus
Damianus.

" De cuUu feminarum, i, 8.

3 Lavacrum etiam corporum ususque balneorum non sit assid-
uus, sed eo quo solet intervallo temporis tribuatur, hoc est,
semel in mense. Nisi infirmitatis necessitas cogat, corpus
saepius non lavandum — Augustine, de monialibus, Migne,
vol. 33, page 963.

In the Early Christian Church 63

them as their peculiar sphere. II. They should
be meek, and not oppose father or husband; and
to these they should go for advice on all matters.
III. All license, such as the Roman woman's
right of taking the initiative in a divorce, must
never be tolerated. IV. They should never
transgress the bounds of strictest decorum in
conduct and dress, lest they seduce men ; and they
must never be conspicuous in public or attempt to
perform public functions. V. They are to be given
due honour and are to be cared for properly.

The legal rights of women would be affected,
moreover, by a difference in the spirit of the law.
The Roman jurist derived his whole sanction from
reason and never allowed religious considerations,
as such, to influence him when legislating on
women. He recognised that laws are not im-
mutable, but must be changed to fit the growth
of equity and tolerance. No previous authority
was valid to him if reason suggested that the
authority's dictum had outlived its usefulness and
must be adapted to larger ideas. It never occurred
to him to make the inferiority of woman an act of
God. On the other hand, the Church referred
everything to one unchanging authoritative source,
the Gospels and the writings of the Apostles ; faith
and authority took the place of reason; and any
attempt to question the injunctions of the Bible
was regarded as an act of impiety, to be pun-
ished accordingly. And as the various regula-
tions about women had now a divine sanction,

64 History of Women's Rights

the permanence of these convictions was doubly
assured.

SOURCES

I. The Bible.

II. Patrologia Latina: edidit J. P. Migne. Parisiis. 221
volumes (finished 1864).

CHAPTER III

RIGHTS OF WOMEN AS MODIFIED BY THE CHRISTIAN
EMPERORS

CHRISTIANITY became the state religion
♦ under Constantine, who issued the Edict of
Milan, giving toleration to the Christians, in
the year 313. The emperors from Constantine
through Justinian (527-565) modified the various
laws pertaining to the rights of women in various
ways. To the enactments of Justinian, who caused
the whole body of the Roman law to be collected,
I intend to give special attention. We must not,
as yet, expect to find the strict views of the Church
Fathers carried out in any severe degree. On
the contrary the old Roman law was still so
powerful that it was for the most part beyond the
control of ecclesiasts. Justinian was an ardent
admirer of it and could not escape from its pre-
vailing spirit. Canon law had not yet developed.
When the old Roman civilisation in Italy has
succumbed completely to its barbarian conquerors;
when the East has been definitely sundered from
the West ; when the Church has risen supreme,
has won temporal power, and has developed
canon law into a force equal to the civil law, —
s 65

66 History of Women's Rights

then finally we shall expect to see the legal rights
of women changed in accordance with two new
worid forces — the Roman Catholic Church and the
Germanic nations. I shall now discuss legislation
having to do with my subject under the Christian
emperors from Constantine (306-337) through the
reign of Justinian (527-565).

The power of husband and wife to uivorce at will
and for any cause, which we have seen obtained
Divorce: undcr the old Roman law, was confined
rescript of to Certain causes only by Theodosius and

Theodosius . . - \ *t»<

and Valentmian(449 A.D.). These emperors

vaientinian. asscrtcd vigorously that^ the dissolu-
tion of the marriage tie should be made more
difficult, especially out of regard to the children.
Pursuant to this idea the power of divorce was
given for the following reasons alone: adultery,
murder, treason, sacrilege, robbery; unchaste
conduct of a husband with a woman not his wife
and vice-versa; if a wife attended public games
without her husband's permission; and extreme
physical violence of either party. A woman who
sent her husband a bill of divorce for any other
reason forfeited her dowry and all ante-nuptial
gifts and could not marry again for five years,
under penalty of losing all civil rights. Her pro-
perty accrued to her husband to be kept in trust for
the children.

Justinian made more minute regulations on the
subject of divorce. To the valid causes for

' Codex, V, 17, 8 contains this rescript in full.

Modified by the Christian Emperors 67

divorce as laid down by Theodosius and Valen-
tinian he added impotence ; if a separation was ob-
tained on this ground, the husband might justinian on
retain ante-nuptial gifts/ Abortion divorce,
committed by the wife or bathing with other men
than her husband or inveigling other men to be her
paramours — these offences on the part of the wife
gave her husband the right of divorce. ^ Captivity
of either party for a prolonged period of time was
always a valid reason. Justinian added also^
that a man who dismissed his wife without any of
the legal causes mentioned above existing or who
was himself guilty of any of these offences must
give to his wife one fourth of his property up to
a sum not to exceed one hundred librae of gold,
if he owned property worth four hundred librae
or more ; if he had less, one fourth of all he possessed
was forfeit. The same penalties held for the wife
who presumed to dismiss her husband without the
offences legally recognised existing. The forfeited
money was at the free disposal of the blameless
party if there were no children ; these being extant,
the property must be preserved intact for their
inheritance and merely the usufruct could be
enjoyed by the trustees. A woman who secured
a divorce through a fault of her husband had
always to wait at least a year before marrying
again propter seminis confusionemJ

^ Codex, V, 17, 10.
"Codex, V, 17, II.
3 Id.
^Novellae, 22, 18.

68 History of Women's Rights

Justin, the nephew and successor of Justinian,
reaffirmed the right to divorce by mutual consent,
Justin ^^^^ abrogating the laws of his pre-

vokes decrees dcccssors. ^ Justinian had ordained
of Justinian, ^-^q^ if husband and wife separated by-
mutual consent, they were to be forced to spend the
rest of their lives in a convent and forfeit to it
one third of their goods. ^ Justin, then, made
the pious efforts of his uncle naught. Nothing
can more clearly illustrate than his decree how
small a power the Church still possessed to mould
the tenor of the law; for such a thing as divorce
by mutual consent, without any necessary reason,
was a serious misdemeanour in the eyes of the
Church Fathers, who passed upon it their severest
censures.

On the subject of adultery Justinian enacted
that if the husband was the guilty party, the dowry
Aduite " ^^^ marriage donations must be given
his wife; but the rest of his property
accrued to his relatives, both in ascending and de-
scending lines, to the third degree; these failing, his

^ Novellae, 140, i : Antiquitus quidem licebat sine periculo
tales (i. e., those of incompatible temperament) ab invicem sepa-
rari secundum communem voluntatem et consensum hoc agentes,
sicut et plurimae tunc leges extarent hoc dicentes et bona gratia
sic procedentem solutionem nuptiarum patria vocitantes voce.
Postea vero divae memoriae nostro patri .... legem
sancivit prohibens cum consensu coniugia solvi. . . . Haec
igitur aliena nostris iudicantes temporibus in praesenti sacram
constituimus legem, per quam sancimus licere ut antiquitus
consensu coniugum solutiones nuptiarum fieri.

"Novellae, 134, ii.

Modified by the Christian Emperors 69

goods were confiscated to the royal purse. ^ A
woman guilty of adultery was at once sent to a
monastery. After a space of two years her hus-
band could take her back again, if he so wished,
without prejudice. If he did not so desire, or if
he died, the woman was shorn and forced to spend
the rest of her life in a nunnery ; two thirds of her
property were given to her relatives in descending
line, the other third to the monastery ; if there were
no descendants, ascendants got one third and
the monastery two thirds; relatives failing, the
monastery took all ; and in all cases goods inserted
in the dowry contract were to be kept for the
husband.^

The legislation of the earlier Christian emperors
on second marriages reflects the various second mar-
feelings of the Church Fathers on the "«««s-
subject. Under the old law, people could marry
as often as they wished without any penalties. ^
But we have seen that among some of the Church-
men second marriages were held in peculiar ab-
horrence, and third nuptials were regarded as a
hideous sin; while the orthodox clergy, like St.
Augustine and St. Jerome, permitted second and
third marriages, but damned them with faint
praise and urged Christians to be content with

» Novellae, 134, 10.

' Novellae, 134, 10.

3 Novellae, 22 (praefatio): Antiquitas equidem non satis
aliquid de prioribus aut secundis perscrutabatur nuptiis, sed
licebat et patribus et matribus et ad plures venire nuptias et
lucro nuUo privari, et causa erat in simplicitate confusa.

70 History of Women*s Rights

one venture. Public opinion, custom, and the in-
fluence of the old Roman law were too powerful
to allow Christian monarchs to become fanatical
on the subject ^ ; but certain stricter regula-
tions were introduced by the pious Gratian,
Valentinian, and Theodosius, in the
Gratian^vaN ycars 380, 38 1, and 382.^ As under
entinian, and ^j^g qJ^j laws, anv widow who married

Theodosius. •'

again before the legal time of mourning
— a year — had expired, became infamous and lost
both cast and all claims to the goods of her
deceased husband. She was furthermore not
permitted to give a second husband more than one
third of her property nor leave him more than one
third by will; and she could receive no intestate
succession beyond the third degree. A woman
who proceeded to a second marriage after the
legal period of mourning, must make over at once
to the children of the first marriage all the property
which her former husband had given or left to her.
As to her own personal property, she was allowed
to possess it and enjoy the income while she lived,
but not to alienate it or leave it by will to any one
except the children of the first marriage. As
I have before remarked, Roman law constantly
had the interest of the children at heart. ^ If

' The language of some of them is pretty strong, however —
matre iam secundis nuptiis funestata — Codex, v, 9, 3 (Gratian,
Valentinian, Theodosius).

" For these see Codex, v, 9, i and 2 and 3.

' Cf. Codex, V, 9, 4. Nos enim hac lege id praecipue custodi-

Modified by the Christian Emperors 71

there was no issue of the first marriage, then the
woman had free control. A mother acquired full
right — as the old Senatus consultum Tertullianum
had decreed — to the property of a son or daughter
who died childless ' ; but if she married a second
time, and her son or daughter died without leaving
children or grandchildren, she was expelled from
all succession and distant relatives acquired the
property.^

Justinian changed these enactments to a pro-
nounced degree. "We are not making laws
that are too bitter against women justinian mod-
who marry a second time,'* he remarks, ^ lawTto^a *ieat
"and we do not want to lead them, degree,

in consequence of such action, to the harsh
necessity, unworthy of our age, of abstaining
from a chaste second marriage and descend-
ing to illegitimate connections." He ordained,
therefore, that the law mentioned above be
annulled and that mothers should have abso-
lutely unrestricted rights of inheritance to a
deceased child's property along with the latter's
brothers and sisters; and second marriage was

endum esse decrevimus, ut ex quocumque coniugio suscepti
filii patrum suorum sponsalicias retineant facultates.

' Codex, vi, 56, 5.

'Novellae, ii, 3: ex absurditate legis, licet praemoriantur filii
omnes, non relinquentes filios aut nepotes, nihilominus sup-
plicium manet, et non succedit eis mater, sed expellitur ab
eorum inhumane successione . . . sed succedunt quidem
illis aliqui ex longa cognatione.

3 Novellae, ii, 3.

72 History of Women's Rights

never to create any prejudice. * In the earlier part
of his reign Justinian also forbade husband or
wife to leave one another property under the
stipulation that the surviving partner must not
marry again ^; but later, when his zeal for reform
had become more pronounced and fanatical, he
revoked this and gave the conditioned party the
option either of enjoying the property by remainmg
unmarried or of forfeiting it by a second union. ^
Constantine ordained, ^ in the year 336, that
if an engagement was broken by the death
Breaking of of onc of the Contracting parties and
engagements. ^ ^-^^ Qsculum^ had taken place, half
of j whatever donations had been given was
to be handed over to the surviving party and
half to the heirs of the deceased; but if the
solemn osculum had not yet taken place, all
gifts went to the heirs of the deceased. There
was also a law that if either party broke the engage-
ment to enter monastic life, the man who did so
lost all that he had given by way of earnest
money for the marriage contract (arrarum nomine) ;
if it was the woman who took the initiative, she
was compelled to return twice the amount of any
sums she had received. This was changed by

* Novellae ii, 3.

» Codex, vi, 40, 2 and 3.

3 Novellae, 22, 44: unde sancimus, si quis prohibuerit ad aliud
venire matrimonium, etc.

4 Codex, V, 3, 16.

sThe osculum was a sort of "donation on account of
marriage" made on the day of the formal engagement.

Modified by the Christian Emperors 73

Justinian, who enacted that those who broke
an engagement to enter monastic Hfe should
merely return or receive whatever donations had
been made. ^ Constantine and his successors abro-
gated the old time Julian laws, which had inflicted
certain penalties — such as limited rights of in-
heritance— on men and women who did not marry. ^
I have already pointed out that gifts between
husband and wife were illegal and I have explained
the reasons. Justinian allowed the hus- ^,

Changes in

band to make donations to his wife, in the law of
such wise, however, that all chance of ^"*^'

intent to defraud might be absent. ^ He ordained
also that if husband or wife left the married state
to embrace a celibate life, each party was to keep
his or her own property as per marriage contract
or as each would legitimately in the case of the
other's death. ^ If any one, after vowing the
monastic life, returned to the world, his or her

» Codex, i, 3, 54 (56).

» Codex, viii, 57 (58), i and 2. Cf. Codex, viii, 58 (59), I and 2.

» Codex, V, 3, 10.

4 Codex, i, 3, 54 (56). Gregory of Tours informs us that ac-
cording to the Council of Nicaea — 325 a.d. — a wife who left
her husband, to whom she was happily married, to enter a nun-
nery incurred excommunication. He means probably: if she
went without her husband's consent. Greg. 9, 33: Tunc ego
accedens ad monasterium canonum Nicaenorum decreta relegi,
in quibus continetur: quia si quae reliquerit virum et thorum, in
quo bene vexit, spreverit, dicens quia non sit ei portio in ilia
caelestis regni gloria qui fuerit coniugio copulatus, anathema
sit. (Note of editor: Videtur esse canon 14 concilii Grangensis,
quod concilium veteres Nicaeno subiungere solebant; idque
indicat titulus in veteribus scriptis.)

74 History of Women's Rights

goods were forfeit to the monastery which he or
she had left. ^

The consent of the father or, if he was dead, of
near relatives was emphatically declared necessary
Various en- by the Christian emperors for a marriage
actments on and the woman had practically no will

marriage. . , , ^ < ./• i •

of her own although, if several suitors
were proposed to her, she might be requested to
name which one she preferred.^ Marriage with
a Jew was treated as adultery. ^ Women who
belonged to heretical sects were to have no
privileges. ^ Justinus and Justinian abrogated the
old law which forbade senators to marry freed-
women or any woman who had herself or whose
parents had followed the stage. Actresses were
now permitted, on giving up their profession, to
claim all the rights of other free women; and a
senator could marry such or even a freedwoman
without prejudice. ^

Under the old law, as we have seen, a son and a
daughter had equal rights to intestate succession ;
in ^^^ beyond the relationship of daughter
the laws of in- to father or sister to brother women had
hentance. ^^ rights to intcstatc succcssion unless
there were no agnates, that is, male relatives on
the father's side. Thus, an aunt would not be
called to the estate of a nephew who died childless,

^ Codex, i, 3, 54 (56).

» Codex, V, 4, 20, and 5, 18.

' Codex, i, 9, 6.

< Novellae, cix, i.

s Codex, V, 4, 23 and 28.

Modified by the Christian Emperors 75

but the uncle was regularly admitted. So, too, a
nephew was admitted to the intestate succession
of an uncle, who died without issue, but the niece
was shut out. All this was changed by Justinian,
who gave women the same rights of inheritance
as men under such conditions.^ If the children
were tmorthodox, they were to have absolutely no
share of either parent's goods. ^

The Christian emperors permitted widows to be
guardians over their children if they women as
promised on oath not to marry again guardians,
and gave security against fraud. ^ Justinian for-
bade women to act by themselves in in suits,
any legal matters. ^

Arcadius and Honorius (397 A.D.) enacted some
particularly savage bills of attainder, which were
in painful contrast to the clemency Bius of
of their pagan predecessors. Those attainder,
guilty of high treason were decapitated and their
goods escheated to the crown. "To the sons of
such a man [i.e., one condemned for high treason],"
write these amiable Christians, ^ "we allow their
lives out of special royal mercy — for they ought
really to be put to death along with their fathers —
but they are to receive no inheritances. Let them
be paupers forever ; let the infamy of their father
ever follow them ; they may never aspire to office ;

' Codex, vi, 58, 14.
' Codex, i, 5, 19.

3 Codex, V, 35, 2 and 3.

4 Codex, ii, 55, 6.
s Codex, ix, 8, 5.

76 History of Women's Rights

in their lasting poverty let death be a relief and
life a punishment. Finally, any one who tries to
intercede for these with us is also to be infamous." '
However, to the daughters of the condemned these
emperors graciously granted one fourth of their
mother's but not any of their father's goods. In
the case of crimes other than high treason the
children or grandchildren were allowed one half of
the estate.^ Constantine decreed that a wife's
property was not to be affected by the condem-
nation of her husband. 3

Ravishers of women, even of slaves and freed-
women, were punished by Justinian with death;
^^ ^ but in the case of freebom women only

did the property of the guilty man and
his abettors become forfeit to the outraged victim.
A woman no longer had the privilege of demand-
ing her assailant in marriage.'*

SOURCES

Roman Law as cited in Chapter I, especially the Novellae of
Justinian.

* This law was evidently lasting, for it is quoted with approval
by Pope Innocent III, in the year 1199 — see Friedberg, Corpus
luris Canonici, vol. ii, p. 782.

' Codex, ix, 49, 10.

3 Codex, V, 16, 24.

4 For all these enactments see Codex, i, 3, 53 (54), and ix, 13.

CHAPTER IV

WOMEN AMONG THE GERMANIC PEOPLES

A SECOND world force had now come into its
own. The new power was the Germanic
peoples, those wandering tribes who, after shatter-
ing the Roman Empire, were destined to form
the modem nations of Europe and to find in
Christianity the religion most admirably adapted
to fill their spiritual needs and shape their ideals.
In the year 476 the barbarian Odoacer ascended
the throne of the Caesars. He still pretended to
govern by virtue of the authority delegated to him
by Zeno, emperor at Constantinople ; but the rup-
ture between East and West was becoming final
and after the reign of Justinian (527-565) it was
practically complete. Henceforth the eastern
empire had little or nothing to do with western
Europe and subsisted as an independent monarchy
until Constantinople was taken by the Turks in
1453. I shall not concern myself with it any
longer.

In western Europe, then, new races with new

ideals were forming the nations that to-day are

England, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and

Austria. It is interesting to note what some of

• 77

78 History of Women's Rights

these barbarians thought about women and what
place they assigned them.

Our eariiest authorities on the subject are
Julius Caesar and Tacitus. Caesar informs us^
Julius Caesar's ^^at among the Gauls marriage was a
account. ^g^ Tccognized institution. The hus-

band contributed of his own goods the same
amount that his wife brought by way of dowry;
the combined property and its income were enjoyed
on equal terms by husband and wife. If husband
or wife died, all the property became the posses-
sion of the surviving partner. Yet the husband
had full power of life and death over his wife as
over his children; and if, upon the decease of a
noble, there were suspicions regarding the manner
of his death, his wife was put to inquisitorial
torture and was burnt at the stake when adjudged
guilty of murder. Among the Germans women
seem to have been held in somewhat greater re-
spect. German matrons were esteemed as prophet-
esses and no battle was entered upon unless they
had first consulted the lots and given assurance
that the fight would be successful.^ As for the
British, who were not a Germanic people, Caesar
says that they practiced polygamy and near
relatives were accustomed to have wives in
common. 2

Tacitus wrote a centiiry and a half after Julius

* de Bell. Gall., vi, 19.
» Id., i, 50.
3 Id., V, 14.

Women among Germanic Peoples 79

Caesar, when the tribes had become better known
to the Romans; hence we get from him more de-
tailed information. From him we The account
learn that both the Sitones — a people of Tacitus,
of northern Germany — and the British often be-
stowed the royal power on women, a circumstance
which aroused the strong contempt of Tacitus,
who was in this respect of a conservative mind.'
The Romans had, indeed, good reason to remember
with sorrow the valiant Boadicea, queen of the
Britons. ^ Regarding the Germans Tacitus wrote
a whole book in which he idealises that nation as
a contrast to the lax morality of civilised Rome,
much as Rousseau in the eighteenth century
extolled the virtues of savages in a state of nature.
What Tacitus says in regard to lofty morals we
shall do well to take with a pinch of salt; but
we may with more safety trust his accuracy
when he depicts national customs. From Tacitus
we learn that the Germans believed something
divine resided in women 3; hence their respect for
them as prophetesses. ^ One Velaeda by her

^ Agricola, i6. Germania, 45: Suionibus Sitonum gentes
continuantur. Cetera similes, uno differunt, quod femina domi-
natur; in tantum non modo a libertate, sed etiam a servitute de-
generant. No woman ever reigned alone as queen of the Roman
Empire until 450 a.d., when Pulcheria, sister of Theodosius II,
ascended the throne of the East; but she soon took the senator
Marcian in marriage and made him king.

^ Agricola, 16.

3 Germania, 8.

4 Procopius, de hello Vandalico, ii, 8, observes the same thing
among the Maurousians, or Moors, in northern Africa: ivSpa yd.p

8o History of Women's Rights

soothsaying ruled the tribe of Bnicteri completely '
and was regarded as a goddess, * as were many
others.^ The German warrior fought his best
that he might protect and please his wife.'* The
standard of conjugal fidelity was strict^ ; men were
content with one wife, although high nobles were
sometimes allowed several wives as an increase
to the family prestige. ^ The dowry was brought
not by the wife to the husband, but to the wife
by the husband — evidently a survival of the
custom of wife purchase ; but the wife was accus-
tomed to present her husband with arms and the
accoutrements of war. ^ She was reminded that
she took her husband for better and worse, to be
a faithful partner in joy and sorrow until death. ^
A woman guilty of adultery was shorn and her
husband drove her naked through the village
with blows. ^

We see, then, that by no means all of these
barbarian nations had the same standards in
regard to women. Of written laws there were

fiaPTeieaOai ip rip edvei roirip oi dipxs, dXXi 'yvvoLKet <r(f>l(n Kdroxoi
iK 5iJ TITOS lepovpylas yivSfxevai irpoiXiyovo'i rd iffd/xepa, tup TrdXot
XP'ri<^TripLo}p oidepbs ij<r<Tov.

* Tacitus, Hist., iv, 6i, and v, 24.

' Id., Germania, 8.

3 Ibid., 8.

4 Ibid., 7.

5 Ibid., 17.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid., 18.

8 Ibid., 18 and 19.
'Ibid., 19.

Women among Germanic Peoples 8i

none as yet. But contact with the civihsation
of Rome had its effect; and when Goths, Bur-
gundians, Franks, and Lombards had xhe written
founded new states on the ruins of the laws of the
western Roman Empire, the national
laws of the Germanic tribes began to be collected
and put into writing at the close of the fifth cent-
ury. Between the fifth and the ninth centuries we
get the Visigothic, Burgundian, Salic, Ripuarian,
Alemannic, Lombardian, Bavarian, Frisian, Saxon,
and Thuringian law books. They are written in
medieval Latin and are not elaborated on a scien-
tific basis. Three distinct influences are to be
seen in them: (i) native race customs, ideals, and
traditions; (2) Christianity; (3) the Roman civil
law, which was felt more or less in all, but especi-
ally in the case of the Visigoths; as was natural,
since this people had been brought into closest
touch with Rome. Inasmuch as the barbarians
allowed all peoples conquered by them to be tried
under their own laws, the old Roman civil law
was still potent in all its strength in cases affecting
a Roman. Let us endeavour to glean what we
can from the barbarian codes on the matter of
women's rights.

The woman was always to be under guardianship
among the Germanic peoples and could never be
independent under any conditions. Per-

, 111 1 ti t Guardianship.

haps we should rather call the power
(mundium) wielded by father, brother, husband, or
other male relative a protectorate ; for in those early

S2 History of Women's Rights

days among rude peoples any legal action might
involve fighting to prove the merits of one's case,
and the woman would therefore constantly need a
champion to assert her rights in the lists. Thus the
woman was under the perpetual guardianship of a
male relative and must do nothing without his con-
sent, under penalty of losing her property. ^ Her
guardian arranged her marriage for her as he
wished, provided only that he chose a free man
for her husband^; if the woman, whether virgin
or widow, married without his consent, she lost
all power to inherit the goods of her relatives^;
and her husband was forced to pay to her kin a
recompense amounting to 600 solidi among the
Saxons, 186 among the Burgundians."*

' Liutprand, i, 5: Si filiae aut sorores contra voluntatem patris
aut fratris egerint, potestatem habet pater aut frater iudicandi
res suas quomodo aut qualiter voluerit.

'Leges Liutprandi, vi, 119: si quis filiam suam aut sororem
alii sponsare voluerit, habeat potestatem dandi cui voluerit,
libero tamen homini. Lex Wisigothorum, iii, i, 7 and 8.

3 Leges Liutprandi, vi, 119. Lex Angliorum et Werinorum,
X, 2: si libera femina sine voluntate patris aut tutoris cuilibet
nupserit, perdat omnem substantiam quam habuit vel habere
debuit. Reply of a bishop quoted by Gregory of Tours, 9, 33:
quia sine consilio parentum earn coniugio copulas ti, non erit
uxor tua. But the law of the Visigoths (iii, i, 8, and 2, 8) merely
deprived her of succession to the estate of her parents.

4 Lex Saxonum, vi, 2 : Si autem sine voluntate parentum, puella
tamen consentiente, ducta fuerit (uxorem ducturus) bis ccc
solidos parentibus eius componat. Lex Burgundionum : Add.,
14. cf. Edictum Rotharis, 188: si puella libera aut vidua sine
voluntate parentum ad maritum ambulaverit, liberum tamen,
tunc maritus, qui eam acceperit uxorem, componat pro anagrip
solidos XX et propter faidam alios XX.

Women among Germanic Peoples 83

The feeling of caste was very strong; a woman
must not marry below her station.^ By a law
of the Visigoths she who tried to marry
her own slave was to be burned alive ^ ; a"w««-
if she attempted it with another's bondman, she
merited one hundred lashes. ^ The dowry was a
fixed institution as among the Romans; but the
bridegroom regularly paid a large sum to the father
or guardian of the woman. This wittemon was
regarded as the price paid for the parental au-
thority {mundium) and amounted among the
Saxons to 300 solidi.^ As a matter of fact this
custom practically amounted to the intended
husband giving the dowry to his future wife. The
husband was also allowed to present his wife with
a donation (morgengahe) on the morning after the

^By a law of the Alemanni (2"t7.,57),if two sisters were heiresses
to a father's estate and one married a vassal (colonus) of the King
or Church and the other became the wife of a free man equal
to her in rank, the latter only was allowed to hold her father's
land, although the rest of the goods were divided equally.

' Lex Wisigothorum, iii, 2, 2.

3 Ibid., iii, 2, 3.

4 Lex Saxonum, vi, i : uxorem ducturus CCC solidos det parenti-
bus eius. See also the lex Burgundionum, 66, i and 2 and 3.
In the case of a widow who married again the gift of the hus-
band was called reiphe or reippus and very solemn ceremonies
belonged to the giving of it according to the Salic law. Tit.,
47: si, ut fieri adsolet, homo moriens viduam dimiserit et cam
quis in coniugium voluerit accipere, antequam earn accipiat
Tunginus aut Centenarius Mallum indicent, et in ipso Malic
scutum habere debet, et tres homines vel caussas mandare. Et
tunc ille, qui viduam accipere vult, cum tribus testibus qui
adprobare debent, tres solidos aeque pensantes, et denarium
habere debet, etc.

84 History of Women's Rights

wedding; the amount was limited by King Liut-
prand to not more than one fourth of all his goods. '
Breaking an engagement after the solemn be-
trothal had been entered into was a serious
business. The Visigoths refused to allow one party
to break an engagement without the consent of
the other; and if a woman, being already engaged,
went over to another man without her parent's
or fiance's leave, both she and the man who took
her were handed over as slaves to the original
fiance. ^ The other barbarians were content to
inflict a money fine for breach of promise.^

The woman on marrying passed into the power
of her husband "according to the Sacred Scrip-
Powerofthe turcs," and the husband thereupon ac-
husband. quired the lordship of all her property . '^
The law still protected the wife in some ways.
The Visigoths gave the father the right of demand-
ing and preserving for his daughter her dowry. ^
The Ripuarians ordained that whatever the hus-

^ Leges Liutprandi, ii, i.

" Lex Wisigothonim, iii, I, 2 and 3, and iii, 6, 3.

3 E.g., 62 solidi by the Salic law, Tit., 70. See also Lex
Baiu variorum. Tit., vii, 15 and 16 and 17. Lex Alemannorum,

52, I ; 53; 54.

4 Lex Burgundionum, Add. primum, xiii: quaecunque mulier
Burgundia vel Romana voluntate sua ad maritum ambulaverit,
iubemus ut maritus ipse de facultate ipsius mulieris, sicut in
earn habet potestatem, ita et de rebus suis habeat.

Lex Wisigothorum, iv, 2, 15: Vir qui uxorem suam secundum
sacram scripturam habet in potestate, similiter et in servis suis
potestatem habebit, et omnia quae cum servis uxoris suae vel
suis in expeditione acquisivit, in sua potestate permaneant.

5 Lex Wisigothorum, iii. Tit. i , 6.

Womeft among Germanic Peoples 85

band had given his wife by written agreement
must remain inviolate. ^ King Liutprand made
the presence of two or three of the woman's male
relatives necessary at any sale involving her goods,
to see to it that her consent to the sale had not
been forced.^

On the subject of divorce the regulations of the
several peoples are various ; but the commands of
the New Testament are alike strongly felt
in all; and we may expect to find divorce
limited by severe restrictions. ^ The Burgundians
allowed it only for adultery or grave crimes, such
as violating tombs. If a wife presumed to dismiss
her husband for any other cause, she was put to
death {necetur in luto) ; to a husband who sent his
wife a divorce without these specific reasons exist-
ing the law was more indulgent, allowing him to
preserve his life by paying to his injured wife twice
the amount that he had originally given her
parents for her, and twelve solidi in addition ; and
in case he attempted to prove her guilty of one of
the charges mentioned above and she was ad-
judged innocent, he forfeited all his goods to her
and was forced to leave his home."* The Visigoths

' Lex Ripuariorum, 37, i.
* Leges Liutprandi, iv, 4.

3 That is, for the common people. Kings have always had a
little way of doing as they pleased. See the anecdote of King
Cusupald in Paulus' Hisi. Langobard, i, 21: secunda autem (sc.
filia Wacchonis) dicta est Walderada, quae sociata est Cusupald,
alio regi Francorum, quam ipse odio habens uni ex suis, qui
dicebatur Garipald, in coniugium tradidit.

4 For all this see Lex Burgundionum, 34, 1-4.

86 History of Women's Rights

were equally strict ; the husband who dismissed his
wife on insufficient legal grounds lost all power
over her and must return all her goods; his own
must be preserved for the children; if there were
none, the wife acquired his property. A woman
who married a divorced man while his first wife
was living, was condemned for adultery and
accordingly handed over to the first wife to be
disposed of as the latter wished; exile, stripes, and
slavery were the lot of a man who took another
wife while his first partner was still alive. ' The
Alemanni and the Bavarians, who were more
remote from Italy and hence from the Church,
were influenced more by their own customs and
allowed a pecuniary recompense to take the place
of the harsher enactments. ^

Adultery was not only a legal cause for divorce,
but also a grave crime. All the barbarian peoples
are agreed in so regarding it, but their
penalties vary according as they were
more or less affected by proximity to Italy, where
the power of the Church was naturally strongest.
The Ripuarians, the Bavarians, and the Alemanni
preferred a money fine ranging from fifty to two
hundred solidiJ Among the Visigoths the guilty
party was usually bound over in servitude to the
injured person to be disposed of as the latter

' For all these, see Lex Wisigothorum, iii, 6, i and 2.

' Capitula Addita ad Legem Alemannomm, 30. Lex Baiu-
variorum, vii, 14.

3 Lex Ripuariorum, Tit., 35. Lex Baiuvariorum, vii. Lex
Alemannomm, 51, i.

Women among Germanic Peoples 87

wished.^ Sometimes the law was harsher to
women than to men; thus, according to a decree
of Liutprand, ^ a husband who told his wife to
commit adultery or who did so himself paid a
mulct of fifty solidi to the wife's male relatives;
but if the wife consented to or hid the deed, she
was put to death. The laws all agree that the
killing of adulterers taken in the act could not be
regarded as murder.

It is always to be remembered that although the
statutes were severe enough, yet during this period,
as indeed throughout all history, they x^e church
were defied with impunity. Charle- indulgent
magne, for example, the most Christian ^^^^ *"^^*
monarch, had a large number of concubines and
divorced a wife who did not please him; yet his
biographer Einhard, pious monk as he was, has no
word of censure for his monarch's irregularities 2;
and policy prevented the Church from thimdering
at a king who so valiantly crushed the heretics, her
enemies. Bishop Gregory of Tours tells us with-
out a hint of being shocked that Clothacharius,
King of the Franks, had many concubines. ^ Con-

^ Lex Wisigothonim, iii, 6, I and 2, and iii, 4, i.
" Leges Liutprandi, vi, 130.

3 Einhard, Vita Kar. Mag., 17: Deinde cum matris hortatu
filiam Desiderii regis Langobardorum duxisset uxorem, incertum
qua de causa, post annum eam repudiavit et Hildigardam de
gente Suaborum praecipuae nobilitatis feminam in matrimonium
duxit. . . . Habuit et alias tres filias . . . duas de
Fastrada uxore . . . tertiam de concubina quadam . . .
defuncta Fastrada . . . tres habuit concubinas.

4 Gregory of Tours, 4, 3.

88 History of Women's Rights

cubinage was, in fact, the regular thing/ But
neither in that age, nor later in the case of Louis
XIV, nor in our own day in the case of Leopold of
Belgium has the Church had a word of reproach
for monarchs who broke with impunity moral laws
on which she claims always to have insisted with-
out compromise.

In accordance with the commands of Scripture

neither the divorced man nor the divorced woman

could marry again during the lifetime

emamage. ^^ ^^^ other party. To do so was to

commit adultery, for which the usual penalties
went into effect.

A woman's property would consist of any or
all of these:

Property rights I- Her sharc of the property of
and powers, parents or brothers and sisters.

II. Her dowry and whatever nuptial do-
nations (morgengabe) her husband had given her,
and whatever she had earned together with her
husband.

There could be no account of single women's
property or disposal of what they earned, because
in the half-civilised state of things which then
obtained there was no such thing as women
engaging in business ; indeed, not even men of any
pretension did so; war was their work. The
immarried woman was content to sit by the fire

^ The concubines of Theodoric — Jordanes, de orig. acti
busgue Get., 58. Huga, king of the Franks, had a filium quern ex
concubina genuit — Widukind, Res Gest. Sax., i, 9.

Women among Germanic Peoples 89

and spin under the guardianship and support of a
male relative. Often she would enter a convent.
I shall first discuss the laws of inheritance as
affecting women, in order to note what property-
she was allowed to acquire. In this connection
it is well to bear in mind a difference between
Roman and Germanic law. The former viewed
an inheritance as consisting always of a totality
of all goods, whether of money, land, movables,
cattle, dress, or what not. But among the
Germanic peoples land, money, ornaments, and the
like were regarded as so many distinct articles of
inheritance, to some of which women might have
legal claims of succession, but not necessarily to
all. This is most emphatically shown in the case
of land. Of all the barbarian peoples, the Ripu-
arians alone allowed women the right to succeed
to land. ^ Among other nations a daughter or
sister or mother, whoever happened to be the
nearest heir, would get the money, slaves, etc.,
but the nearest male kin would get the land.^
Only if male kin were lacking to the fifth degree
— an improbable contingency — did alodial in-
heritance ''pass from the lance to the spindle."^

^ Lex Ripuariorum, Tit., 48. Lex Angliorum et Werinorum,
vi — de alodihus, i: hereditatem defuncti filius, non filia susci-
piat. Salic Law, Tit., 62: de alodis, 6: de terra vero Salica in
mulierem nulla portio hereditatis transit, sed hoc virilis sexus
adquirat, hoc est, filii in ipsa hereditate succedunt. Lex Saxo-
num, vii, i: Pater aut mater defuncti filio, non filiae heredi-
tatem relinquit.

=» Cf. Lex Angliorum et Werinorum, vi: de alodihus.

3 Ibid., vi, 8: post quintam autem {sc. generationem) filia ex

90 History of Women's Rights

In respect to all other things a daughter was co-
heir with a son to the estate of a father or mother.
According to the Salic and Ripuarian law this
would be one order of succession ^ :

I. Children of the deceased.
II. These failing, surviving mother or father
of deceased.

III. These failing, brother or sister of deceased.

IV. These failing, sister of mother of deceased.
V. These failing, sister of father of deceased.

VI. These failing, male relatives on father's side.

It will be observed that in such a succession these
laws are more partial to women relatives than the
Roman law; an aunt, for example, is called before
an uncle. An uncle would certainly exclude an
aunt under the Roman law; but most of the
Germanic codes allowed them an equal succession. ^
Nevertheless, when women did inherit under
the former, they acquired the land also. More-
over, the woman among the Germanic nations
must always be under guardianship; and whereas
under the Empire the power of the guardian was
in practice reduced to nullity, as I have shown,
among the barbarians it was extremely powerful,
because to assert one's rights often involved
fighting in the lists to determine the judgment

toto, sive de patris sive de matris parte, in hereditatem succedat,
et tunc demum hereditas ad fusum a lancea transeat.

' Lex Salica, Tit., 62. Lex Ripuariorum, Tit.y 56.

3 Cf. Lex Wisigothorum, iv, 2, 7 and 9.

Women among Germanic Peoples 91

of God. It was a settled conviction among the
Germanic peoples that God would give the victory
to the rightful claimant. As women could not
fight, a champion or guardian was a necessity.
This was not true in Roman courts, which preferred
to settle litigation by juristic reasoning and be-
lieved, like Napoleon, that God, when appealed to
in a fight, was generally on the side of the party
who had the better artillery.

Children inherited not only the estate but also
the friendships and enmities of their fathers, which
it was their duty to take up. Hereditary feuds
were a usual thing. ' King Liutprand ordained,^
however, that if a daughter alone survived, the
feud was to be brought to an end and an agreement
effected.

Some of the nations seem to have provided
that children must not be disinherited except for
very strong reasons; for example, the law of the
Visigoths^ forbids more than one third of their
estate being alienated by mother or father,
grandmother or grandfather. The Alemanni per-
mitted a free man to leave all his property to the
Church and his heirs had no redress 4; but the
Bavarians compelled him before entering monastic
life to distribute among his children their pro-
portionate parts. 5

* Tacitus, Germania, 21.

* Legis Liutprandi, ii, 7.

3 Lex Wisigothorum, iv, 5, i.

* Lex Alemannonim, Tit., i.
s Lex Baiuvariomm, Tit., i.

92 History of Women's Rights

We may pass now to the property rights of the
married woman. The relation of her husband
Property of ^^ the dowry I have already explained,
the married The dowry was conceived as being
ultimately for the children; only when
there were no children, grandchildren, or great-
grandchildren did the woman have licence to dis-
pose of the dowry as she wished: this was the law
among the Visigoths.' The dowry, then, was
to revert to the children or grandchildren at the
death of the wife ; if there were none such, to the
parents or relatives who had given her in marriage ;
these failing, it escheated to the Crown — so
according to Rotharis.^ By the laws of the
Visigoths ^ when the wife died, her husband con-
tinued in charge of the property; but, as under the
Roman law, he had to preserve it entire for the
children, though he might enjoy the usufruct.
When a son or daughter married, their father must
at once give them their share of their mother's
goods, although he could still receive the income
of one third of the portion. If son or daughter
did not marry, they received one half their share
on becoming twenty years of age; their father
might claim the interest of the other half while
he lived ; but at his death he must leave it to them.
When a woman left no children, her father or near-
est male kin usually demanded the dowry back. ^

^ Lex Wisigothonim, iv, 2, 20.

=»Edictum Rotharis, i, 121. 3 Lex Wisigothonim, iv, 2, 13.
* Cf. Capitula addita ad legem Alemannorum, 29. Lex
Saxonum, viii, 2.

Women among Germanic Peoples 93

When the husband died, his estate did not go to
his wife, but to his children or other relatives.^
If, however, any property had been earned by the,
joint labour of husband and wife, the latter had a
right to one half among the Westf alians ; to one
third among the Ripuarians ; to nothing among the
Ostf alians.^ Children remained in the power of
their mother if she so desired and provided she
remained a widow. A mother usually had the
enjoyment of her dowry until her death, when she
must leave it to her children or to the donor or
nearest relative. ^ If the husband died without
issue, some nations allowed the wife a certain
succession to her husband's goods, provided that
she did not marry again. Thus, the Burgundians
gave her under such conditions one third of her
husband's estate to be left to his heirs, however, at
her death. 4 The Bavarians, too, under the same
conditions allowed her one half of her husband's
goods 5 and even if there was issue, granted her
the right to the interest of as much as one child
received.^

A widow who married again lost the privilege

' Cf. lex Wisigothorum, iv, 2, ii: maritus et uxor tunc sibi
hereditario iure succedant, quando muUa affinitas usque ad
septimum gradum de propinquis eorum vel parentibus inveniri
poterit. See also Lex Burgundionum, 14, i.

' Lex Saxonum, ix. Lex Ripuariorum, 37, 2.

3 Lex Saxonum, viii. Lex Wisigothorum, iv, 3, 3. Lex Bur-
gundionum 85, I, and 62, I.

"Lex Burgundionum, 42, i; 62, i; 74, i.

s Lex Baiu variorum, xiv, 9, i.

^ Ibid., xiv, 6.

94 History of Women's Rights

of guardianship over her children, who thereupon
passed to a male relative of the first husband. As
to the dowry of the prior union the woman must
make it over at once to her children according to
some laws or, according to others, might receive
the usufruct during life and leave it to the children
of the first marriage at her death. Any right to the
property of her first husband she of course lost. ^
When there was no issue of the first marriage
then the dowry and nuptial donations could
usually follow her to a second union.

Criminal law among these half civilised
nations could not but be a crude affair. Their
Criminal law civiHsatiou was iu a state of flux, and
pertaining to immediate practical convenience was
the only guide. They were content to
fix the penalties for such outrages as murder, rape,
insult, assault, and the like in money; the Visigoths
alone were more stringent in a case of rape,
adding 200 lashes and slavery to the ravisher of
a free woman who had accomplished his purpose. ^
Some enactments which may well strike us as
peculiar deserve notice. For example, among the
Saxons the theft of a horse or an ox or anything
worth three solidi merited death; but murder
was atoned for by pecuniary damages.^ Among

' For all this, see Lex Burgundionum, 24 and 62 and 74. Lex
Wisigothorum, iv, Tit. 3. Lex Baiuvariorum, 14. Lex Aleman-
norum, 55 and 56.

" Lex Wisigothorum, iii, 3, i.

3 Lex Saxonum, iv. In the early days when the Great West
of the United States was just being opened up and when society

Women among Germanic Peoples 95

the Burgundians, if a man stole horses or cattle
and his wife did not at once disclose the deed,
she and her children who were over fourteen were
bound over in slavery to the outraged party "be-
cause it hath often been ascertained, that these
women are the confederates of their husbands in
crime."'

The most minute regulations prevailed on the
subject of injury to women. Under the Salic law^
for instance, if a free man struck a free women on
the fingers or hand, he had to pay fifteen solidi;
if he struck her arm, thirty solidi; if above her
elbow, thirty-five solidi; if he hit her breast, forty-
five solidi. The penalties for murdering a free
woman were also elaborated on the basis of her
value to the state as a bearer of children. By the
same Salic law^ injury to a pregnant woman
resulting in her death merited a fine of seven
hundred solidi; but two hundred was deemed
sufficient for murder of one after her time
for bearing children had passed. Similarly, for
killing a free woman after she had begun to
have children the transgressor paid six hundred
solidi; but for murdering an unmarried free-
bom girl only two hundred. The murder
of a free women was punished usually by a fine

there was in a very crude state, a horse thief was regularly hanged;
but murder was hardly a fault.

^ Lex Burgundionum, 47, i and 2. The guilty man was put
to death.

"Lex Salica, Tit., 23.

3 Id., Tit., 28.

96 History of Women's Rights

(wergeld) equal to twice the amount demanded
for a free man "because," as the law of the Ba-
varians has it, ^ "a woman can not defend herself
with arms. But if, in the boldness of her heart
(per audaciam cordis sui), she shall have resisted
and fought like a man, there shall not be a double
penalty, but only the recompense usual for a man
[i6o solidiy Fines were not paid to the state,
but to the injuried parties or, if these did not
survive, to the nearest kin. If the fine could not
be paid, then might death be meted to the guilty. =*
Another peculiar feature of the Germanic law
was the appeal to God to decide a moot point by
various ordeals. For example, by the laws of the
Angles and Werini, if a woman was accused of
murdering her husband, she would ask a male
relative to assert her innocence by a solemn oath^
or, if necessary, by fighting for her as her champion
in the lists. God was supposed to give the victory
to the champion who defended an innocent party.

* Lex Baiuvariorum, Tit., xiii, 2.

* Cf. lex Salica, Tit., 61 — a very curious account of formalities
to be observed in such a case.

3 It was deemed sufficient for a male relative, say, the father,
to assert the innocence of the woman under solemn oath: for
it was thought that he would be unwilling to do this if he knew
the woman was guilty and so incur eternal Hell -fire as a punish-
ment for perjury. An example of this solemn ceremony is
told interestingly by Gregory of Tours, 5, 33. A woman at
Paris was charged by her husband's relatives with adultery and
was demanded to be put to death. Her father took a solemn
oath that she was innocent. Far from being content with this,
the husband's kin began a fight and the matter ended in a whole-
sale butchery at the church of St. Dionysius.

Women among Germanic Peoples 97

If she could find no champion, she was permitted to
walk barefoot over nine red-hot ploughshares^;
and if she was innocent, God would not, of course,
allow her to suffer any injury in the act.

Perhaps a word on the status of women in
slavery among the Germanic nations will not be
out of place. The new nations looked women in
upon a slave as a chattel, much as the slavery.
Romans did. If a wrong was done a slave woman,
her master received a recompense from the
aggressor, but she did not, for to hold property
was denied her. But we may well believe that the
great value which the Church put on chastity
and conjugal fidelity rendered the slave woman
less exposed to the brutal passions of her lord
than had been the case under the Empire. Thus,
by a law of King Liutprand, a master who com-
mitted adultery with the wife of a slave was
compelled to free both^; and the Visigoths^ in-
flicted fifty lashes and a fine of twenty solidi upon
the man who used violence to another man's slave
woman.

On comparing the position of women under
Roman law and under the Germanic nations, as
we have observed them thus far, we should note
first of all that under the latter women benefited
chiefly by the insistence of the Church on the value

' Lex Angliorum et Werinorum, xiv: aut si campionem non
habuerit, ipsa ad novem vomeres ignitos examinanda mittatur.
* Leges Liutprandi, vi, 140.
3 Lex Wisigothorum, iii, 4, 16.
7

98 History of Women's Rights

of chastity in both sexes. That in those days the
passions of men were difficult to restrain in practice
does not invalidate the real service done the
world by the ideal that was insisted upon,^ an
ideal which was certainly not held in pagan
antiquity except by a few great minds. Although
the social position of woman was thus improved,
the character of the age and the sentiments of the
Bible which I have already quoted made her status
far inferior to her condition under Roman law so
far as her legal rights were concerned. In a
period^ when the assertion of one's rights con-
stantly demanded fighting, the woman was forced
to rely on the male to champion her; the Church,
in accordance with the dicta of the Apostles, en-
couraged and indeed commanded her to confine
herself to the duties of the household, to leave legal
matters to men, and to be guided by their advice ;
and thus she was prevented from asserting herself
out of regard for the strong public opinion on the
subject, which was quite alien to the sentiments
of the old Roman law. Henceforward also we
are to have law based on old customs and theology, ^
not on practical convenience or scientific reasoning.

^ See the interesting story of the girl who slew Duke Amalo,
as narrated by Gregory of Tours, 9, 27.

^ The bloody nature of the times is depicted naively by Greg-
ory, Bishop of Tours, who wrote the history of the Franks.
See, e.g., the stories of Ingeltrudis, Rigunthis, Waddo, Amalo,
etc., in Book 9. Gregory was born in 539.

3 Corpus luris Canonici (Friedberg), vol. i, p. i, Distinctio
Prima : ius naturae est quod in lege et evangelio continetur. j

Women among Germanic Peoples 99

SOURCES

I. Corpus luris Germanici Antiqui: edidit Ferd. Walter.
Berolini — impensis G. Reimeri, 1824. 3 vols.

II. C. lulii Caesaris Commentarii de Bello Gallico: re-
cognovit Geo. Long. Novi Eboraci apud Harperos Fratres.
1883.

III. Cornelii Taciti libri qui supersunt: quartum recognovit
Carolus Halm. Lipsiae (Teubner), 1901.

IV. Sancti Georgii Florentii Gregorii, Episcopi Turonensis,
Historiae Ecclesiasticae Francorum libri decern: edidit J.
Guadet et N. R. Taranne. Parisiis, apud Julium Renouard et
Socios, 1838.

V. lordanis de Origine Actibusque Getorum: edidit Alfred
Holder. Freiburg und Tubingen; Verlagsbuchhandlung von J.
C. B. Mohr.

VI. Widukindi Rerum Gestarum Saxonicarum libri tres.
Accedit libellus de Origine Gentis Suevorum. Editio quarta:
post Georgium Waitz recognovit Karolus A. Kehr. Hannoverae
et Lipsiae Impensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, 1904.

VII. Procopii Caesariensis opera omnia: recognovit Jacobus
Haury. Lipsiae. (Teubner). 1905.

VIII. Einhardi Vita Karoli Magni. Editio quinta. Post
G. H. Pertz recensuit G. Waitz. Hannoverae et Lipsiae, 1905.

IX. Pauli Historia Langobardorum: edidit Georg Waitz.
Hannoverae, impensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, 1878.

CHAPTER V

DIGRESSION ON THE LATER HISTORY OF
ROMAN LAW

WITH Charlemagne, who was crowned Em-
peror by the Pope in the year 800, began
the definite union of Church and State and the
Church's temporal power. Henceforth for seven
centuries, until the Reformation, we shall have
to reckon with canon law as a supreme force in
determining the question of the position of
women. A brief survey of the later history of
the old Roman Law will not be out of place in
order to note what influence, if any, it continued
to exert down the ages.

The body of the Roman law, compiled by
order of Justinian (527-565 A.D.), was intended
primarily for the eastern empire; but when, in the
year 535, the Emperor conquered the western
Goths, who then ruled Italy, he ordered his laws
taught in the school of jurisprudence at Rome
and practiced in the courts. I have already re-
marked that the barbarians who overran Italy
allowed the vanquished the right to be judged in
most cases by their own code. But the splendid
fabric of the Roman law was too elaborate a

100

Later History of Roman Law loi

system to win the attentive study of a rude
people ; the Church had its own canons, the people
their own ancestral customs ; and until the twelfth
century no development of the Roman Civil Code
took place. Finally, during the twelfth century,
the great school at Bologna renewed the study
with vigour, and Italy at the present day derives
the basic principles of its civil law from the Corpus
of Justinian. Practically the same story holds
true of France, ^ of Spain, and of the Netherlands,
all of whom have been influenced particularly by
the great jurists of the sixteenth century who were
simply carrying further the torch that had been
lit so enthusiastically at Bologna in the twelfth
century.

As to Germany,'' when that unhappy country
had been separated from France and Italy after
the Treaty of Verdun in 843, Carlo vingian law and
the ancient German law books fell into disuse.
The law again rested on unwritten customs, on
the decisions of the judges and their assessors, and
on agreements of the interested parties (feudal
services and tenures). Not till the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries was any record made of
the rules of law which had arisen; many laws of
cities on various matters and in various provinces
were recorded by public authority; and thus

* French customary law began to be written in the thirteenth
century and was greatly affected by the Roman law.

' The succeeding paragraphs are a summary of the account by
the learned Professor Mackeldey, who has investigated Roman
law with the most minute diligence.

102 History of Women's Rights

originated the so-called law books of the Middle
Ages, the private labours of experienced men, who
set forth the legal principles which were recognised
in all Germany, or at least in certain parts of it.
There were no law schools as yet, and scientific
compilation of German law was not even thought
of. After the University of Bologna had revived
the study of Roman law in Italy, the Italian
universities attracted the German youth, who on
their return would labour to introduce what they
had learned. Their efforts were seconded by the
clergy, through the close connection with canon
law which was in force in Germany. German
emperors and territorial lords also favoured Roman
law because they saw how well suited it was to
absolutism; they liked to engage jurists trained
in Italy, especially if they were doctors of both
canon and Roman law. Nor did the German
people object. From the fourteenth century
many schools of jurisprudence were established
on Italian models.

At present, the law of Justinian has only such
force as is received by usage or as it has acquired by
recognition. I. The Roman law forms in Ger-
many the principal law in some branches, that is,
it is in so far its basis that the German law is
only an addition or modification of it. In other
branches it is only supplementary, that is, it is
merely subsidiary to the German law. II. Only
the glossed parts and passages of Justinian's
law collection have binding force in Germany.

Later History of Roman Law 103

III. Only those glossed passages are binding
which contain the latest rule of law. Conse-
quently the historical materials contained in them,
though always of great importance for discovering
the latest law, have not binding force. IV. Those
precepts of the Roman law which relate to Roman
manners and institutions unknown in Germany are
inapplicable here, though glossed. V. The Ro-
man law has but slight application to such objects
and transactions as were unknown to the Romans
and are of purely Germanic origin. VI. With
the limitations above enumerated the Roman law
has been adopted as a whole and not in detached
parts.

In England Roman law has had practically
no effect. In the year 1149 a Lombard jurist,
Vacarius, lectured on it at Oxford ; but there were
no results. Canon law is, of course, a force to be
reckoned with in Britain as on the Continent.

Before we enter the question of women's rights
during the Middle Ages, we must take a general
survey of the character of that period; for obvi-
ously we cannot understand its legislation without
some idea of the background of social, political,
and intellectual life. In the first place, then, the
Church was everywhere triumphant and its
ideals governed legislation completely on such
matters as marriage. The civil law of Rome, as
drawn up first by the epitomisers and later studied
more carefully at Bologna, served to indicate

104 History of Women's Rights

general principles in cases to which canon law
did not apply ; but there was little jurisdiction in
which the powers ecclesiastical could not contrive
to take a hand. At the same time Germanic
ideals and customs continued a powerful force.
For a long time after the partition of the vast
empire of Charlemagne government was in a state
of chaos and transition from which eventually the
various distinct states arose. A struggle between
kings and nobles for supremacy dragged along
for many generations; and as during that contest
each feudal lord was master in his own domain,
there was no consistent code of laws for all coun-
tries or, indeed, for the same country. Yet the
character of the age determined in a general way
the spirit that dictated all laws. Society rested
on a military and aristocratic basis, and when
the ability to wield arms is essential to maintain
one's rights, the position of women will be affected
by that fact. Beginning with the twelfth century
city life began to exert a political influence; and
this, again, did not fail to have an effect on the
status of women. Of any participation of wo-
men in intellectual life there could be no question
until the Renaissance, although we do meet here
and there with isolated exceptions, a few ladies of
high degree like Roswitha of Gandersheim and
Hadwig, Duchess of Swabia, niece of Otto the
Great, and Heloise. The learning was exclusively
scholastic, and from any share in that women were
barred. When people are kept in ignorance, there

Later History of Roman Law 105

is less inducement for them to believe that they
have any rights or to assert them if they do
think so.

We shall do well to bear in mind, in noting the
laws relative to women, that theory is one thing
and practice quite another. Hence, although the
doctrines of the Church on various matters touch-
ing the female sex were characterised by the
greatest purity, we shall see that in practice they
were not strictly executed. Religion does in fact
play a less considerable part in regulating the
daily acts of men than theologians are inclined to
believe. If anything proves this, it is the history of
that foulest stain on Christian nations — prostitu-
tion. We might expect that since the Roman
Catholic Church insists so on chastity the level
of this virtue would certainly be higher in countries
which are almost exclusively Catholic, like Spain
and Italy, than in Protestant lands; but no one
who has ever travelled in Spain or Italy fails to
recognise that the conduct of men is as lamenta-
bly low in these as in England, Germany, or the
United States.

With this brief introduction I shall proceed next
to explain the position of women under the canon
law, a code which affected all countries of Europe
equally until the Reformation; and in connection
with this I shall give some idea of the attitude of
the Roman Catholic Church towards women and
women's rights at the present day.

CHAPTER VI

THE CANON LAW AND THE ATTITUDE OF THE
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

THE canon law reaffirms woman's subjection to
man in no uncertain terms. The wife must
The canon be submissivc and obedient to her hus-
Ihlsubfec^on ^and.^ She must never, under penalty
of women, of cxcommunication, cut off her hair,
because "God has given it to her as a veil and
as a sign of her subjection." ^ A woman who
assumed men's garments was accursed 3; it will be
remembered that the breaking of this law was
one of the charges which brought Joan of Arc
to the stake. However learned and holy, woman

^ Augustine quoted by Gratian, Causa, 33, Quaest. 5, chapters
12-16 — Friedberg, i, pp. 1254, 1255. Ambrose and Jerome on
the same matter, ibid., c. 15 and 17, Friedberg, i, p. 1255.
Gratian, Causa ^^o, Quaest. 5, c. 7 — Friedberg, i, p. 1106: Feminae
dum maritantur, ideo velantur, ut noverint se semper viris suis
subditas esse et humiles.

^ Gratian, Distinctio, 30, c. 2 — Friedberg, i, p. 107: Quecumque
mulier, religioni iudicans convenire, comam sibi amputaverit
quam Deus ad velamen eius et ad memoriam subiectionis illi
dedit, tanquam resolvens ius subiectionis, anathema sit. Cf.
Gratian, Causa, 15, Quaest. 3 — Friedberg, i, p. 750.

3 Gratian, Dist., 30, c. 6, Friedberg, i, p. 108. See also Deu-
teronomy xxii, 5.

106

The Canon Law 107

must never presume to teach men publicly.'
She was not allowed to bring a criminal action
except in cases of high treason or to avenge the
death of near relatives.'' Parents could dedicate
a daughter to God while she was yet an infant;
and this parental vow bound her to the nunnery
when she was mature, whether she was willing or
not. 3 Virgins or widows who had once consecrated
themselves to God might not marry under pain of
excommunication. 4 Parents could not prevent a
daughter from taking vows, if she so wished, after
she had attained the age of twelve. ^

The most important effect of the canon law
was on marriage, which was now a sac- women and
rament and had its sanction not in ™ under
the laws of men, but in the express de-

canon law.

^ Gratian, Dist., 23, c. 29 — Friedberg, i, p. 86: Mulier, quamvis
docta et sancta, viros in conventu docere non praesumat.
* Id., Causa, 15, Quaest. 3 — Friedberg, i, p. 750.

3 Id., Causa, 20, Quaest. i, c. 2 — Friedberg, i, pp. 843-844,
quoting Gregory to Augustine, the Bishop of the Angles: Ad-
didistis adhuc, quod si pater vel mater filium filiamve intra septa
monasterii in infantiae annis sub regulari tradiderunt disciplina,
utrum liceat eis, postquam ad pubertatis inoleverint annos,
egredi, et matrimonio copulari. Hoc omnino devitamus, quia
nefas est ut oblatis a parentibus Deo filiis voluptatis frena re-
laxentur. Id., c. 4 — Fried., i, p. 844: quoting Isidore — quicumque
a parentibus propriis in monasterio fuerit delegatus, noverit se
ibi perpetuo mansurum. Nam Anna Samuel puerum suum
natum et ablactatum Deo pietate obtulit. Id., c. 7 — Fried., i,
pp. 844-845.

4 Gratian, DisL, 27, c. 4 et 9, and Disk, 28, c. 12 — Friedberg, i,
pp. 99 and 104. Id., Causa, 27, Quaest. 1, c.i and 7 — Friedberg,
i, pp. 1047 and 1050.

5 Gratian, Causa, 20, Quaest. 2, c. 2 — Friedberg, i, pp. 847-848,

io8 History of Women's Rights

crees of God. Hence even engagements acquired
a sacred character unknown to the Roman law;
and when a betrothal had once been entered into,
it could be broken only in case one or both
of the contracting parties desired to enter a
monastery.^ Free consent of both man and
woman was necessary for matrimony. =" There
must also be a dowry and a public ceremony.^
The legitimate wife is thus defined ^i ''A chaste
virgin, betrothed in chastity, dowered according to
law, given to her betrothed by her parents, and
received from the hands of the bridesmaids [a
paranimphis accipienda]; she is to be taken
according to the laws and the Gospel and the
marriage ceremony must be public; all the days
of her life — tmless by consent for brief periods to

^ Cf. Council of Trent, Session 24, "On the Sacrament of
Matrimony," Canon 6: "If anyone shall say that matrimony
contracted but not consummated is not dissolved by the solemn
profession of religion by one of the parties married: let him be
anathema."

Gratian, Causa, 27, Qimest. ii, c. 28 — Fried., i, p. 1071. Id., c.
46. 47. 50, 51— Fried., i, pp. 1076, 1077, 1078.

2 Gratian, Causa, 30, Quaest. 2 — Fried., i, p. 11 00; Ubi non est
consensus utriusque, non est coniugium. Ergo qui pueris dant
puellas in cunabulis et e converso, nihil faciunt, nisi uterque
puerorum postquam venerit ad tempus discretionis consentiat,
etiamsi pater et mater hoc fecerint et voluerint. Id. Causa, 31,
Quaest. 2 — Fried., i, 1112-1114: sine libera voluntate nulla est
copulanda alicui.

3 Gratian, Causa, 30, Quaest. 5, c. 6 — Friedberg, i, p. 1106: Nul-
lum sine dote fiat coniugium; iuxta possibilitatem fiat dos, nee
sine publicis nuptiis quisquam nubere vel uxorem ducere prae-
sumat.

4 Gratian, Causa, 30, Quaest. 5, c. 4 — Friedberg, i, p. 1105.

The Canon Law / 109

devote to worship — she is never to be separated
from her husband ; for the cause of adultery she is
to be dismissed, but while she lives her husband
may marry no other." The blessing of the priest
was necessary. About every form connected with
the marriage service the Church threw its halo of
mystery and- symbol to emphasise the sacred
character of the union. Thus^: '* Women are
veiled during the marriage ceremony for this
reason, that they may know they are lowly and
in subjection to their husbands. ... A ring is
given by the bridegroom to his betrothed either
as a sign of mutual love or rather that their hearts
may be bound together by this pledge. For this
reason, too, the ring is worn on the fourth finger,
because there is a certain vein in that finger which
they say reaches to the heart."

Clandestine marriages were forbidden,^ but the
Church always presumed everything it could in
favour of marriage and its indissolubility, clandestine
Thus, Gratian remarks^: "Clandestine """"^g^^-
marriages are, to be sure, contrary to law; never-
theless, they can not be dissolved." The reason
for forbidding them was perfectly reasonable:
one party might change his or her mind and there
would be no positive proof that a marriage had
taken place, so that a grave injury might be in-
flicted on an innocent partner by an unscrupulous

* Gratian, Causa, 30, Quaest. 5, c. 7 — Friedberg, i, p. 1106.

* Id., c. I — Friedberg, i, p. 1104.
» Id., c. 8 — Friedberg, i, p. 1107.

no History of Women's Rights

one who desired to dissolve the union. ^ Yet the
marriage by consent alone without any of the
ceremonies or the blessing of the priest was
perfectly valid, though not "according to law"
(legitimum) , and could not be dissolved.^ Not
until the great Coimcil of Trent in 1563 was this
changed. At that time all marriages were de-
clared invalid unless they had been contracted in
the presence of a priest and two or three witnesses. ^
The Church is seen in its fairest light in its
provisions to protect the wife from sexual brutality
Protection to o^ the part of her husband, and it
women. dcscrvcs high praise for its stand on
such matters. 4 Various other laws show the same
regard for the interests of women. A man who was
entering priestly office could not cast off his wife
and leave her destitute, but must provide living
and raiment for her.^ Neither husband nor wife
could embrace the celibate life nor devote them-
selves to continence without the consent of the
other. ^ A man who cohabited with a woman as his

» Gratian, Causa, 30, Quaest. 5, c. 9 — Friedberg, i, p. 1107.

2 Gratian, Causa, 28, Quaest. \,c. 17 — Friedberg, i, p. 1089: illo-
rum vero coniugia, qui contemptis omnibus illis solempnitatibus
solo affectu aliquam sibi in coniugem copulant, huiuscemodi
coniugium non legitimum, sed ratum tantummodo esse creditur.

3 Sessio xxiv, cap. i — De Reformatione Matrimonii.

"See Gratian, Dist., v, c. 4 — Friedberg, i, p. 8, e. g., . . .
ita ut morte lex sacra feriat, si quis vir ad menstruam mulierem
accedat.

s Gratian, Dist., 31, c. 11 — Friedberg, i, p. 114.

<> Gratian, Causa, 27, Quaest. 2, c. 18-22, and 24-26 — Fried-
berg i, pp. 1 067-1 070.

The Canon Law iii

concubine, even though she was of servile condition
or questionable character, could not dismiss her
and marry another saving for adultery.^ Slaves
were now allowed to contract marriages and
masters were not permitted to dissolve them.^

It has always been and still is the boast of the
Roman Catholic Church that it has been the
supreme protector of women on account
of its stand on divorce. Says Cardinal
Gibbons^: "Christian wives and mothers, what
gratitude you owe to the Catholic Church for the
honorable position you now hold in society! If
you are no longer regarded as the slave, but the
equal, of your husbands ; if you are no longer the
toy of his caprice, and liable to be discarded at any
moment ; but if you are recognised as the mistress
and queen of your household, you owe your eman-
cipation to the Church. You are especially in-
debted for your liberty to the Popes who rose up
in all the majesty of their spiritual power to vin-
dicate the rights of injured wives against the lust-
ful tyranny of their husbands." In view of such a
claim I may be justified in entering a somewhat
more detailed account of this subject.

On the subject of divorce the Roman Catholic

Church took the decided position which it continues

to maintain at the present day. Marriage when

' Gratian, Dist., 34, c. 4 — Fried berg, i, p. 126. Id., Causa, 29,
Quaest. i — Friedberg, i, p. 1092. Id., Causa, 29, Quaest. 2, c. 2.

2 Id., Causa, 29, Quaest. 2, c. i and 8.

3 "Divorce," by James Cardinal Gibbons, in the Century,
May, 1909.

112 History of Women's Rights

entered upon under all the conditions demanded
by the Church for a valid union is indissoluble.^
A separation "from bed and board" {quoad
thorum seu quoad cohahitationem) is allowed
for various causes, such as excessive cruelty, for
a determinate or an indeterminate period; but
there is no absolute divorce even for adultery.
For this cause a separation may, indeed, take
place, but the bond of matrimony is not dissolved
thereby and neither the innocent nor the guilty
party may marry again during the lifetime of the
other partner.

All this seems pretty rigorous; but in actual
practice the Church makes its protection of the
wife void in certain instances by its insistence on
two special doctrines: "diriment impediments"
and "dispensations." In former times, there was
a third cause for the dissolution of marriage —
"spiritual fornication."

By the doctrine of " diriment impediments" the
Pope or a duly constituted representative of his
can declare that a marriage has been null and void
from the very beginning because of some impedi-
ment defined in the canon law. Canon IV of the
twenty-fourth session of the Council of Trent
anathematises any one who shall say that the
Church cannot constitute impediments dissolving
marriage, or that she has erred in constituting

^ For this and what immediately follows, see Session 24, of
the Council of Trent "On the Sacrament of Matrimony" and
also the Catholic Encyclopedia under "Divorce."

The Canon Law 113

them. The impediments which can annul mar-
riage and leave the parties free to marry again
are chiefly affinity and consanguinity. Affinity
"is a relationship arising from the carnal inter-
course of a man and a woman, sufficient for the
generation of children, whereby the man becomes
related to the woman's blood relatives and the
woman to the man's." ^ Consanguinity is ** blood
relationship or the natural bond between persons
descended from the same stock" and is a "diriment
impediment" to the fourth degree. The minute
and far-fetched subtleties which the Church has
employed in the interpretation of these relation-
ships make escape from the marital tie feasible for
the man who is eager to disencumber himself of
his life's partner.

The Church furthermore grants a decree of
nullity for "spiritual kinship" which exists, for
example, when a man marries a woman whose
father stood as his godfather at baptism.^
Moreover, the Church regards as dissoluble the
marriage of all unbaptised persons; it is divided
on the question of the validity of baptisms not
administered by itself. A Catholic husband,

^ For this and the following, see the Catholic Encyclopedia
under "Affinity," "Consanguinity," and "Diriment Impedi-
ment."

^ Even if a man and a woman have merely promised that they
will become husband and wife a quasi affinity has been estab-
lished; and one who has been engaged once or twice will have a
hard time to avoid the hosts of relatives he or she has won by
his or her thoughtlessness.

114 History of Women's Rights

whose wife has not been baptised or has been
baptised by a non-Roman, can have his mar-
riage declared null and void and may marry
again.

Under the canon law, even more resources are
open for the man who is tired of his wife; by
the doctrine, namely, of "spiritual fornication."
Adultery is, of course, recognised as the cause that
admits a separation. But the canon law remarks
that idolatry and all harmful superstition — by
which is meant any doctrine that does not agree
with that of the Church — is fornication; that
avarice is also idolatry and hence fornication ; that
in fact no vice can be separated from idolatry
and hence all vices can be classed as fornication;
so that if a husband only tried a little bit, he
could without much trouble find some "vice" in
his wife that would entitle him to a separation. '

When all these fail, recourse can be had to a
dispensation. The Church reserves the right to
give dispensations for all impediments. Canon III
of the twenty-fourth session of Trent says: "If

^ Gratian, Causa, 28, Quaest, i, c. 5 — Friedberg, i, pp. 1080-1081 :
Licite dimittitur uxor que virum suum cogere querit ad malum.
Idolatria, quam secuntur infideles, et quelibet noxia superstitio
fornicatio est. Dominus autem permisit causa fornicationis
uxorem dimitti. Sed quia dimisit et non iussit, dedit Apostolo
locum monendi, ut qui voluerit non dimittat uxorem infidelem,
quo sic fortassis possit fidelis fieri. Si infidelitas fornicatio est,
et idolatria infidelitas, et avaritia idolatria, non est dubitandum
et avaritiam fornicationem esse. Quis ergo iam quamlibet
illicitam concupiscentiam potest recte a fornicationis genere
separare, si avaritia fornicatio est ?

The Canon Law 115

anyone shall say, that only those degrees of
consanguinity and affinity which are set down in
Leviticus [xviii, 6 ff.] can hinder matrimony from
being contracted, and dissolve it when contracted ;
and that the Church can not dispense in some of
those degrees, or ordain that others may hinder
and dissolve it; let him be anathema."

History is full of instances to prove that the
great and wealthy have been able at all times,
by working one or more of these doctrines, to
reduce the theory of the Roman Church to
nullity in practice. Thus in our own times
Alfonso XII of Spain was allowed to marry his first
cousin and the Duke of Aosta, his own niece.
Let us take some conspicuous instances of marital
injustice and see whether the popes did rise "in
all the majesty of their spiritual power" to protect
the injured wives. The case of Louis XII of
France will at once occur. That monarch, having
fallen in love with Anne of Brittany, suddenly
discovered that his wife was his fourth cousin,
that she was deformed, and that her father had
been his godfather; and for this the Bishop of
Rome gave him a dispensation and his legitimate
wife was sent away. The wife of Louis XIV, to
take another instance, never heard a word of
censure directed by the Pope against her spouse
for committing adultery successively with Louise
de la Valliere and Madame de Montespan, by
both of whom he had illegitimate children. I
have already mentioned that Charlemagne and

ii6 History of Women's Rights

the Prankish kings kept numerous concubines.
In our own day the late Leopold of Belgium defied
every law of conjugal fidelity for forty years; but
a cardinal gave him extreme unction and nothing
was ever done to give his lawful wife some com-
fort. The Catholic clergy occasionally point with
pride to a case like that of Philip Augustus of
Prance as a case in point where the Pope pro-
tected an injured wife; but they forget that the
matrimonial relations of Philip's contemporary,
John of England, were considerably more rotten
and never received any censure. The fact is,
Philip was questioning the Pope's political au-
tocracy; and that accounts for the discrimina-
tion against him. The Holy See has never
allowed its morality to interfere with its policy
imtil absolutely necessary.

Questions such as those of inheritance belong
properly to civil law; but the canon law claimed
to be heard in any case into which any
spiritual interest could be foisted. Thus
in the year 1199 Innocent III enacted that chil-
dren of heretics be deprived of all their offending
parents' goods "since in many cases even accord-
ing to divine decree children are punished in this
world on account of their parents." '

'Friedberg, ii, pp. 782 and 783: Quum enim secundum legiti-
mas sanctiones, etc.

Lea, in his History of Confession and Indulgences, ii. p. 87,
quotes Zanchini, Tract, de Haeret., cap. 33, to the effect that
goods of a heretic were confiscated and disabilities inflicted on
two generations of descendants.

The Canon Law 117

The attitude of the Roman Catholic Church
towards women's rights at the present day is
practically the same as it has been for
eighteen centuries. It still insists on the tude towards
subiection of the woman to the man, and '^°^^^ ^^ t^®

•' present day.

it is bitterly hostile to woman suffrage.
This position is so well illustrated by an article
of the Rev. David Barry in the Roman Catholic
paper, the Dublin Irish Ecclesiastical Review, that
I cannot do better than quote some of it. "It
seems plain enough," he says, "that allowing
women the right of suffrage is incompatible with
the high Catholic ideal of the unity of domestic
life. Even those who do not hold the high and
rigid ideal of the unity of the family that the
Catholic Church clings to must recognise some
authority in the family, as in every other society.
Is this authority the conjoint privilege of husband
and wife? If so, which of them is to yield, if a
difference of opinion arises? Surely the most
uncompromising suffragette must admit that the
wife ought to give way in such a case. That is to
say, every one will admit that the wife's domestic
authority is subordinate to that of her husband.
But is she to be accorded an autonomy in outside
affairs that is denied her in the home? Her
authority is subject to her husband's in domestic
matters — her special sphere ; is it to be considered
co-ordinate with his in regulating the affairs of the
State? Furthermore, there is an argument that
applies universally, even in the case of those

ii8 History of Women's Rights

women who are not subject to the care and pro-
tection of a husband, and even, I do not hesitate
to say, where the matters to be decided on would
come specially within their cognisance, and where
their judgment would, therefore, be more reliable
than that of men. It is this, that in the noise and
turmoil of party politics, or in the narrow, but
rancorous arena of local factions, it must needs
fare ill with what may be called the passive vir-
tues of humility, patience, meekness, forbearance,
and self -repression. These are looked on by the
Chiirch as the special prerogative and endowment
of the female soul. . . . But these virtues would
soon become sullied and tarnished in the dust
and turmoil of a contested election; and their
absence would soon be disagreeably in evidence
in the character of women, who are, at the same
time, almost constitutionally debarred from pre-
eminence in the more robust virtues for which
the soul of man is specially adapted."

Cardinal Gibbons, in a letter to the National
League for the Civic Education of Women — an
anti-suffrage organisation — said that "woman
suffrage, if realised, would be the death-blow of
domestic life and happiness" (Nov. 2, 1909).

Rev. William Humphrey, S. J., in his Christian
Marriage, chap. 16, remarks that woman is "the
subordinate equal of man" — whatever that means.

Of these views I shall have something to say in my
concluding chapter. I shall merely remark here, in
passing, that in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho,

The Canon Law 119

and Australia women have voted for years. They
have not been "sullied" in the ''rancorous arena
of local factions" ; they are shown absolute respect
at the polls; wives have voted differently from
their husbands with no interruption of domestic
happiness; and it has even been suggested that
marriage should be a real partnership and that
the woman should have as much to say as the
man. The latest reports from Idaho say that all
is still quiet. But that such things should work
out so excellently in actual practice when, accord-
ing to all monkish theories, they ought to cause
endless confusion, is something beyond the peculiar
type of mind which the Roman Catholic Church
produces. If facts do not agree with her theories,
so much the worse for the facts.

SOURCES

I. Corpus luris Canonici: recognovit Aemilius Friedberg.
Lipsiae (Tauchnitz) Pars Prior, 1879. Pars Secunda, 1881.

II. Sacrosanctum Concilium Tridentinum, additis Declara-
tionibus Cardinalium, Concilii Interpretum, ex ultima recogni-
tione Joannis Gallemart, etc. Coloniae Agrippinae, apud
Franciscum Metternich, Bibliopolam. MDCCXXVII.

III. The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York, Robert Ap-
pleton Company, 1909-1910. (Published with the Imprimatur
of Archbishop Farley.)

IV. Various articles by Catholic prelates, due references to
which are given as they occur.

CHAPTER VII

HISTORY OF women's RIGHTS IN ENGLAND

SINCE I have now given a brief summary of
the canon law, which until the Reformation
marked the general principles that guided the
laws of all Europe on the subject of women, I
propose next to consider more particularly the
history of women's rights in England; for the
institutions of England, being the basis of our
own, will necessarily be more pertinent to us than
those of Continental countries, to which I shall
not devote more than a passing comment here and
there. My inquiry will naturally fall into certain
well-defined parts. The status of the unmarried
woman is different from that of her married sister
and will, accordingly, demand separate considera-
tion. The rights of women, again, are to be
viewed both from the legal and the social stand-
point. Their legal rights include those of a
private nature, such as the disposal of property,
and public rights, such as suffrage, sitting on a
jury, or holding office. Under social rights are
included the right to an education, to earn a living,
and the like. Let us glance first at the history of
the legal rights of single women.

Women's Rights in England 121

From very early times the law has continued
to put the single woman of mature age on practi-
cally a par with men so far as private gi^gig
rights are concerned. She could hold women: Poi-

° lock and

land, make a will or contract, could sue Maitiand i,

and be sued, all of her own initiative; she ^^' 482-485.

needed no guardian. She could herself, if a widow,

be guardian of her own children. In the case of

inheritance, however, women have to pouockand

within extremely recent times been Maitiand, h,

260-313.
treated less generously than men. The siackstone,

male sex has been preferred in an in- "' ^^' '^*
inheritance; males excluded females of equal de-
gree; or, in the words of Blackstone: "In collateral
inheritances the male stock shall be preferred to
the female; that is, kindred derived from the
blood of the male ancestors, however remote,
shall be admitted before those from the blood of
the female, however near; unless where the lands
have, in fact, descended from a female. Thus the
relations on the father's side are admitted in
infinitum before those on the mother's side are
admitted at all." Blackstone justly remarks
that this harsh enactment of the laws of England
was quite unknown to the Roman law "wherein
brethren and sisters were allowed to succeed to
equal portions of the inheritance." As an ex-
ample, suppose we look for the heir of John Stiles,
deceased. The order of succession would be:

I. The eldest son, Matthew Stiles, or his issue.

II. If his line is extinct, then Gilbert Stiles

122 History of Women's Rights

and the other sons, respectively, in order of birth,
or their issue.

III. In default of these, all the daughters to-
gether, Margarite and Charlotte Stiles, or their
issue.

IV. On the failure of the descendants of
John Stiles himself, the issue of Geoffrey and Lucy
Stiles, his parents, is called in, viz.: first, Francis
Stiles, the eldest brother of the whole blood, or
his issue.

V. Then Oliver Stiles, and the other whole
brothers, respectively, in order of birth, or their
issue.

I VI. Then the sisters of the whole blood all
together, Bridget and Alice Stiles, or their issue.

And so on. It will be noted that females of
equal degree inherited together; and that a
daughter excluded a brother of the dead man.
Men themselves, if younger sons, have suffered
what seems to us a grave injustice in the preva-
lence of the right of primogeniture, whereby, if
there are two or more males in equal degree, the
eldest only can inherit. This law might work for
the benefit of certain females ; thus, the daughter,
granddaughter, or great-granddaughter of an eldest
son will succeed before the younger son.

To public rights, such as sitting on a jury' or

* If a woman sentenced to execution declared she was preg-
nant, a jury of twelve matrons could be appointed on a writ
de ventre inspiciendo to determine the truth of the matter; for
she could not be executed if the infant was alive in the womb.
The same jury determined the case of a widow who feigned her-

Women's Rights in England 123

holding offices of state, women never were ad-
mitted; that is a question that has become
prominent only in the twentieth century and will
demand consideration in its proper place.

Unlike the Roman law, English law allows
parents to disinherit children completely, if they so
desire, without being under any compul- po^g^ ^^
sion to leave them a part of their goods. parents.
As to legal power over children, the mother,
as such, is entitled to none, says Blackstone,^
but only to reverence and respect. Now, how-
ever, by the statute 2 and 3 Vict., c. 54, commonly
called Talfourd's Act, an order may be made on
petition to the court of chancery giving mothers
access to their children and, if such children are
within the age of seven years, for delivery of them
to their mother until they attain that age. But
no woman who has been convicted of adultery is
entitled to the benefit of the act. The father
has legal power up to the time when his children
come of age; then it ceases. Until that time,
his consent is necessary to a valid marriage; he
may receive the profit of a child's estate, but only
as guardian or trustee, and must render an account
when the child attains his majority; and he may
have the benefit of his children's labour while they
live with him.

self with child in order to exclude the next heir and when she
was suspected of trying to palm off a supposititious birth. But
from all other jury duties women have always been excluded
"on account of the weakness of the sex" — propter defectum sexus,
^Blackstone, i, ch. i6.

124 History of Women's Rights

We are ready now to observe the status of
women in marriage. The question of their legal
„ u ^ ^ rights in this relation offers the most

Husband and ^

wife. Pollock illuminating insight into their condi-

and Maitland, .. • ii • i i- i • .

ii. 399-436. tions m the various epochs of history.
Biackstone, i, Matrimony is a state over which the
Bryce, pp. Church has always asserted special juris-
818.830. diction. By the middle of the twelfth
century it was law in England that to it belonged
this prerogative. The ecclesiastical court, for
example, pronounced in a given case whether
there had been a valid marriage or not ; the tem-
poral court took this decision as one of the bases
for determining a matter of inheritance, whether
a woman was entitled to dower, and the like. The
general precepts laid down by canon law in the
case of a wife have already been noted. These
rules need now to be supplemented by an account
of the position of women in marriage imder the
common law.

Under the older common law the husband was
very much lord of all he surveyed and even
more. An old enactment thus describes a hus-
band's duty^: "He shall treat and govern the
aforesaid A well and decently, and shall not inflict
nor cause to be inflicted any injury upon the
aforesaid A except in so far as he may lawfully

* Reg, Brev. Orig., f. 89: quod ipse praefatam A bene et honeste
tractabit et gubernabit, ac damnum vel malum aliquod eidem
A de corpore suo, aliter quam ad virum suum ex causa regiminis
et castigationis uxoris suae licite et rationabiliter pertinet, non
faciet nee fieri procvurabit.

Women's Rights in England 125

and reasonably do so in accordance with the
right of a hitshand to correct and chastise his wife.^^
Blackstone, who wrote in 1763, has this to say on
the husband's power to chastise his wife: "The
husband also, by the old law, might give his wife
moderate correction. For, as he is to answer for
her misbehaviour, the law thought it reasonable to
intrust him with this power of restraining her,
by domestic chastisement, in the same moderation
that a man is allowed to correct his apprentices or
children, for whom the master or parent is also
liable in some cases to answer. But this power
of correction was confined within reasonable
bounds, and the husband was prohibited from
using any violence to his wife aliter quam ad
virum, ex causa regiminis et castigationis uxor is
suae, licite et rationabiliter pertinet. ^ The civil law
gave the husband the same, or a larger, authority
over his wife ; allowing him for some misdemeanours
flagellis et fustibus acriter verherare uxorem [to give
his wife a severe beating with whips and clubs] ;
for others, only modicam castigationem adhibere
[to apply moderate correction]. But with us
in the politer reign of Charles the Second, this
power of correction began to be doubted ; and aj
wife may now have security of the peace against
her husband, or, in return, a husband against his
wife. Yet the lower rank of people, who were
always fond of the old common law, still claim and

' " Except in so far as he may lawfully and reasonably do so
in order to correct and chastise his wife."

126 History of Women's Rights

exert their ancient privilege; and the courts of
law will still permit a husband to restrain a wife
of her liberty, in case of any gross misbehaviour."
Doubtless what Mr. Weller, Sr., describes as the
"amiable weakness" of wife-beating was not
necessarily confined to the "lower rank." For
instance, some of the courtly gentlemen of the
reign of Queen Anne were probably not averse to
exercising their old-time prerogative. Says Sir
Richard Steele {Spectator, 479): "I can not deny
but there are Perverse Jades that fall to Men's
Lots, with whom it requires more than common
Proficiency in Philosophy to be able to live.
When these are joined to men of warm Spirits,
without Temper or Learning, they are frequently
corrected with Stripes; but one of our famous
Lawyers is of opinion. That this ought to be used
sparingly." The law was, indeed, even worse than
might appear from the words of Blackstone. The
wife who feared unreasonable violence could, to be
sure, bind her husband to keep the peace ; but she
had no action against him. A husband who
killed his wife was guilty of murder, but the wife
who slew her husband was adjudged guilty of
petty treason; and whereas the man would be
merely drawn and hanged, the woman, until
the reign of George III, was drawn and burnt
alive. ^

^ The learned commentator Christian adds a few more cases
where formerly the criminal law was harshly prejudiced against
women. Thus: "By the Common Law, all women were denied

Women's Rights in England 127

The right of a husband to restrain a wife's liberty
may not be said to have become completely
obsolete imtil the case of Reg. v. Jackson in 1891. '
Wife-beating is still a flagrantly common offence
in England.

Turning now to the question of the wifes
property in marriage, we shall be forced to believe
that Blackstone was an optimist of ^^^.^
unusual magnitude when he wrote that perty in
the female sex was "so great a favourite °^*'"^se.
of the laws of England." Not to weary the reader
by minute details, I cannot do better than give
Messrs. Pollock and Maitland's excellent summary
of the final shape taken by the common law —
a glaring piece of injustice, worthy of careful
reading, and in complete accord with Apostolic
injunctions : '* I. In the lands of which the wife is
tenant in fee, whether they belonged to her at the
date of the marriage or came to her during the
marriage, the husband has an estate which will
endure during the marriage, and this he can
alienate without her concurrence. If a child is
bom of the marriage, thenceforth the husband
as ' tenant by courtesy' has an estate which will

the benefit of clergy; and till the j and 4 W. and M.,c.g [William
and Mary] they received sentence of death and might have been
executed for the first offence in simple larceny, bigamy, man-
slaughter, etc., however learned they were, merely because their
sex precluded the possibility of their taking holy orders ; though a
man who could read was for the same crime subject only to
burning in the hand and a few months' imprisonment."
* I Q. B. p. 671 — in the Court of Appeal.

128 History of Women's Rights

endure for the whole of his life, and this he can
alienate without the wife's concurrence. The
husband by himself has no greater power of
alienation than is here stated; he cannot confer
an estate which will endure after the end of the
marriage or (as the case may be) after his own
death. The wife has during the marriage no
power to alienate her land without her husband's
concurrence. The only process by which the fee
can be alienated is a fine to which both husband
and wife are parties and to which she gives her
assent after a separate examination.

"II. A widow is entitled to enjoy for her life
under the name of dower one third of any land
of which the husband was seised in fee at any time
during the marriage. The result of this is that
during the marriage the husband cannot alienate
his own land so as to bar his wife's right of dower,
unless this is done with her concurrence, and her
concurrence is ineffectual unless the conveyance
is made by fine.'' [This inconvenience for an un-
scrupulous husband was evaded in modem con-
veyancy by a device of extreme ingenuity finally
perfected only in the eighteenth century. Pro-
fessor James Bryce remarks (p. 820): "As this
right (i.e., the right of dower) interfered with the
husband's power of freely disposing of his own
land, the lawyers at once set about to find means
of evading it, and found these partly in legal pro-
cesses by which the wife, her consent being ascer-
tained by the courts, parted with her right, partly

Women's Rights in England 129

by an ingenious device whereby lands could be
conveyed to a husband without the right of dower
attaching to them, partly by giving the wife a
so-called jointure which barred her claim."]

**III. Our law institutes no community, even
of movables, between husband and wife. What-
ever movables the wife has at the date of the
marriage become the husband's, and the husband
is entitled to take possession of and thereby to make
his own whatever movables she becomes entitled
to during the marriage, and without her con-
currence he can sue for all debts that are due her.
On his death, however, she becomes entitled to all
movables and debts that are outstanding, or (as
the phrase goes) have not been ' reduced into pos-
session.' What the husband gets possession of is
simply his; he can freely dispose of it inter vivos
or by will. In the main, for this purpose as for
other purposes, a 'term of years' is treated as a
chattel, but under an exceptional rule the husband,
though he can alienate his wife's 'chattel real*
inter vivos, cannot dispose of it by his will. If he
has not alienated it inter vivos, it will be hers if she
survives him. If he survives her, he is entitled to
her * chattels real ' and is also entitled to be made
the administrator of her estate. In that capacity
he has a right to whatever movables or debts have
not yet been 'reduced into possession' and, when
the debts have been paid, he keeps these goods as
his own. If she dies in his lifetime, she can have
no other intestate successor. Without his consent

130 History of Women's Rights

she can make no will, and any consent that he
may have given is revocable at any time before
the will is proved.

' * IV. Our common law — but we have seen
that this rule is not very old — assured no share of
the husband's personality to the widow. He can,
even by his will, give all of it away from her except
her necessary clothes, and with that exception his
creditors can take all of it. A further exception,
of which there is not much to be read, is made
of jewels, trinkets, and ornaments of the person,
under the name of paraphernalia. The husband
may sell or give these away in his lifetime, and even
after his death they may be taken for his debts;
but he cannot give them away by will. If the
husband dies during the wife's life and dies intestate
she is entitled to a third, or, if there be no living
descendant of the husband, to one half of his
personality [but see the note of Bryce, above].
But this is a case of pure intestate succession ; she
only has a share of what is left after payment of
her husband's debts.

"V. During the marriage the husband is in
effect liable to the whole extent of his property for
debts incurred or wrongs committed by his wife
before the marriage, also for wrongs committed
during the marriage. The action is against him
and her as co-defendants. If the marriage is'
dissolved by his death, she is liable, his estate is
not. If the marriage is dissolved by her death,
he is liable as her administrator, but only to the

Women's Rights in England 131

extent of the property which he takes in that
character." [Mr. Ashton, in his very interesting
book, p. 31, quotes a peculiar note from a Parish
Register in the reign of Queen Anne to this effect :
"John Bridmore and Anne Sellwood, both of
Chiltern all Saints, were married October 17, 17 14.
The aforesaid Anne Sellwood was married in her
Smock, without any clothes or headgier on."
"This is not uncommon, " remarks Mr. Ashton,
''the object being, according to a vulgar error, to
exempt the husband from the payment of any
debts his wife may have contracted in her ante-
nuptial condition. This error seems to have
been founded on a misconception of the law, as it
is laid down 'the husband is liable for the wife's
debts, because he acquires an absolute interest in
the personal estate of his wife.' An unlearned
person from this might conclude, and not un-
reasonably, that if his wife had no estate whatever
he could not incur any liability."]

"VI. During the marriage the wife cannot
contract on her own behalf. She can contract as
her husband's agent and has a certain power of
pledging his credit in the purchase of necessaries.
At the end of the Middle Ages it is very doubtful
how far this power is to be explained by an
'implied agency.' The tendency of more recent
times has been to allow her no power that cannot
be thus explained, except in the exceptional case
of desertion."

A perusal of these laws shows that they are

132 History of Women's Rights

immensely inferior to the Roman law, which not
only gave the wife full control of her property,
but protected her from coercion and bullying on
the part of the husband. The amendment of these
injustices has been very recent indeed. Successive
statutes in 1870, 1874, ^^^ 1882 ^ finally abrogated
the law which gave the husband full ownership of
his wife's property by the mere act of marriage.
Beginning with the year 1857, too, enlightenment
in England had progressed to such a remarkable
degree that certain acts were passed forbidding
a husband to seize his wife's earnings and neglect
her^; and she was actually allowed to keep her
own wages after the desertion of her lord. Before
that time he might desert his wife repeatedly,
and rettmi from time to time to take away her
earnings and sell everything she had acquired.
An act in 1886 (49 and 50 Vict., c. 52) gave magis-
trates the power to order a husband to pay his
wife a weekly sum, not exceeding two pounds, for
her support and that of the children if it appeared
to the magistrates that the deserting husband had

^ Married Women'' s Property Act, 45 and 46 V., c. 75 — Aug.
18, 1882.

* Note this incident, from the Westminister Review, October,
1856: "A lady whose husband had been unsuccessful in busi-
ness established herself as a milliner in Manchester. After some
years of toil she realised sufficient for the family to live upon com-
fortably, the husband having done nothing meanwhile. They
lived for a time in easy circumstances after she gave up business
and then the husband died, bequeathing all his wife's earnings to
his own illegitimate children. At the age of 62 she was compelled,
in order to gain her bread, to return to business."

Women's Rights in England 133

the means of maintaining her, but was unwilling
to do so. Still, the husband can at any time
terminate his desertion and force his wife to take
him back on penalty of losing all rights to such
maintenance. There was frantic opposition to
all of these revolutionary enactments and many
prophets arose crying woe; but the acts finally
passed and England still lives.

Until the Reformation divorce was regulated
by the canon law in accordance with the principles
which I have explained. After the Divorce.
Reformation the matter at once assumed Authorities
a different aspect because all Protestants an/noward!
agreed in denying that marriage is a ".3-117.
sacrament. Scotland in this as in other respects
has been more liberal than England ; as early as
1573 desertion as well as adultery had become
grounds for divorce. But in England the force of
the canon law continued. In Blackstone's day
there were still, as under the canon law, only
two kinds of separation. Complete dissolution
of the marriage tie {a vinculo matrimonii) took
place only on a declaration of the Ecclesiastical
Court that on account of some canonical im-
pediment, like consanguinity, the marriage was
null and void from the beginning. Separation
"from bed and board" {a mensa et thoro) simply
gave the parties permission no longer to Hve
together and was allowed for adultery or some
other grave offences, like intolerable cruelty or
a chronic disease. However, some time before

134 History of Women's Rights

Blackstone's day it had become the habit to get
a dissolution of marriage a vinculo matrimonii for
adultery by Act of Parliament ; but the legal pro-
cess was so tedious, minute, and expensive that only
the very rich could afford the luxury. ^ In the case
of a separation a mensa et thoro alimony was allowed
the wife for her support out of her husband's es-
tate at the discretion of the ecclesiastical judges.

The initiative in divorce by Act of Parliament
was usually taken by the husband; not until 1801
did a woman have the temerity so to assert her
rights. The fact is, ever since the dawn of history
society has, with its usual double standard of
morality for men and women, insisted that while
the husband must never tolerate infidelity on the
part of the wife, the wife should bear with meek-
ness the adulteries of her husband. Plutarch
in his Conjugal Precepts so advises a wife ; and this
pious frame of mind has continued down the
centuries to the present day. Devout old Jeremy
Taylor in his Holy Living — a book which is read
by few, but praised by many — thus counsels the
suffering wife'': *'But if, after all the fair deport-
ments and innocent chaste compliances, the hus-
band be morose and ungentle, let the wife dis-
course thus : 'If, while I do my duty, my husband
neglects me, what will he do if I neglect him?'
And if she thinks to be separated by reason of her

^ For a full account of the elaborate machinery see Chitty's
note to Blackstone, vol. i, p. 441, of Sharswood's edition.
* Holy Living, ch. 3, section i : Rules for Married Persons.

Women's Rights in England 135

husband's unchaste life, let her consider that the
man will be incurably ruined, and her rivals
could wish nothing more than that they might
possess him alone." Dr. Samuel Johnson ably
seconded the holy Jeremy's advice by declaring
that there is a boundless difference between the
infidelity of the man and that of the woman. In
the husband's case "the man imposes no bastards
upon his wife." Therefore, ''wise married women
don't trouble themselves about infidelity in their
husbands." ^ Until very recent times not only men
but also women have been unanimous in cotmsel-
ling abject submission to and humble adoration of
the husband. A single example out of hundreds
will serve excellently as a pattern. In 1821 a
"Lady of Distinction" writes to a "Relation
Shortly after Her Marriage" as follows ^• "The
most perfect and implicit faith in the superiority
of a husband's judgment, and the most absolute
obedience to his desires, is not only the conduct
that will insure the greatest success, but will give
the most entire satisfaction. It will take from
you a thousand cares, which would have answered
to no purpose ; it will relieve you from a weight of
thought that would be very painful, and in no
way profitable. ... It has its origin in reason,

^ Boswell, vii, 288. Perhaps if the venerable Samuel had had
the statistics of venereal disease given by adulterous husbands
to wives and children he might not have been so sure of his
contention.

' Quoted by Professor Thomas in the American Magazine ^
July, 1909.

136 History of Women's Rights

in justice, in nature, and in the law of God. . . .
I have told you how you may, and how people
who are married do, get a likeness of countenance ;
and in that I have done it. You will understand
me, that by often looking at your husband's face,
by smiling on the occasions on which he does, by
frowning on those things which make him frown,
and by viewing all things in the light in which you
perceive he does, you will acquire that likeness of
countenance which it is an honour to possess, be-
cause it is a testimony of love. . . . When your
temper and your thoughts are formed upon those
of your husband, according to the plan which I have
laid down, you will perceive that you have no will,
no pleasure, but what is also his. This is the
character the wife of prudence would be apt to
assume ; she would make herself the mirror, to show,
unaltered, and without aggravation, diminution,
or distortion, the thoughts, the sentiments, and
the resolutions of her husband. She would have
no particular design, no opinion, no thought, no
passion, no approbation, no dislike, but what
should be conformable to his own judgment. . . .
I would have her judgment seem the reflecting
mirror to his determination; and her form the
shadow of his body, conforming itself to his
several positions, and following it in all its move-
ments. ... I would not have you silent; nay,
when trifles are the subject, talk as much as any
of them ; but distinguish when the discotirse turns
upon things of importance."

Women's Rights in England 137

It is not strange, therefore, that no woman
protested publicly against a husband's infidelity
until 1 80 1. Up to 1840 there were but three cases
of a woman's taking the initiative in divorce,
namely, in 1801, 1831, and 1840; and in each case
the man's adultery was aggravated by other
offences. In two other suits the Lords rejected
the petition of the wife, although the misconduct
of the husband was clearly proved. But redress
was still by the elaborate machinery of Act of
Parliament and hence a luxury only for the
wealthy until 1857, when a special Court for
Divorce and Matrimonial Causes was established. ^
Nevertheless, the law as it stands to-day is not of
a character to excite admiration or to prove the
existence of the proverbial ''British Fair Play."
A husband can obtain a divorce upon proof of his
wife's infidelity; but the wife can get it only by
proving, in addition to the husband's adultery,
either that it was aggravated by bigamy or incest
or that it was accompanied by cruelty or by two
years' desertion. Misconduct by the husband
bars him from obtaining a divorce. The court is
empowered to regulate at its discretion the pro-
perty rights of divorced people and the custody of
the children. ^ All attempts have failed to make the
law recognise that the misconduct of the husband
shall be regarded equally as culpable as the wife's.

» See 20 and 21 V., c. 85 — Aug. 28, 1857.
» See 7 Edw., c. 12 — Aug. 9, 1907 — Matrimonial Causes Act,
which also gives the court discretion in alimony.

138 History of Women's Rights

We may pause a moment to glance at the

provisions made by the criminal law for protecting

women. The offence that most closely

Rape and the • rr^-,

age of legal touchcs womcn IS rape. The punish-
consent. nicnt of this in Blackstone's day was
death ' ; but in the next century the death penalty
was repealed and transportation for life substi-
tuted. ^ The saddest blot on a presumably
Christian civilisation connected with this matter
is the so-called "age of legal consent." Under the
older Common Law this was ten or twelve; in 1885
it was thirteen^ at which period a girl was supposed
to be at an age to know what she was doing. But
in the year 1885 Mr. Stead told the London public
very plainly those hideous truths about crimes
against young girls which everybody knew very
well had been going on for centuries, but which
no one ever before had dared to assert. The
result was that Parliament raised the "age of
legal consent" to sixteen^ where it now stands.^

^ Blackstone, iv, ch. 15.

^/^and^ v., c. 56, s. 3.

3 The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885, 48 and 49 V. c.
69, section 5: "Any person who (i) unlawfully and carnally knows
or attempts to have unlawful carnal knowledge of any giri being
of or above the age of thirteen years and under the age of sixteen,
or (2) unlawfully and carnally knows or attempts to have carnal
knowledge of any female idiot or imbecile woman or girl under
circumstances which do not amount to rape, but which prove
that the offender knew at the time of the commission of the of-
fence that the woman or girl was an idiot or imbecile, shall be
guilty of a misdemeanour, and being convicted thereof shall be
liable at the discretion of the Court to be imprisoned for any
term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour."

Women's Rights in England 139

The idea that any girl of this age is sufficiently
mature to know what she is doing by consenting
to the lust of scoundrels is a fine commentary on
the acuteness of the legal intellect and the high
moral convictions of legislators.

The rights of women to a higher education is
distinctly a movement of the last half of the nine-
teenth century. It is true that through-
out history there are many examples rights to an
of remarkably well-educated women — education.
Lady Jane Grey, for example, or Queen Elizabeth,
or Olympia Morata, in Italy, she who in the golden
period of the Renaissance became a professor at
sixteen and wrote dialogues in Greek after the
manner of Plato. But on looking closely into these
instances we shall find first that these ladies were
of noble rank and only thanks to their lofty posi-
tion had access to knowledge; and secondly that
they stand out as isolated cases — the great masses
of women never dreamM beyond the traditional
Kleider, Kuche, Kinder, and Kirche. That an
elementary education, consisting of reading, writ-
ing, and simple arithmetic, was offered them
freely by hospital, monastery, and the like
schools even as early as Chaucer — this we know;
nevertheless, beyond that they were not supposed
to aspire. So very recently, indeed, have women

Section 4: "Any one who unlawfully and carnally knows any
girl under the age of thirteen shall be guilty of felony, and being
convicted thereof shall be liable to be kept in penal servitude for
life." Any one who merely attempts it can be imprisoned for
any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour.

140 History of Women's Rights

secured the rights to a higher education that
many thousands to-day can easily recall the
intensely bitter attacks which were directed
against colleges like Wellesley and Bryn Mawr in
their inception. Until the middle of the nine-
teenth century the whole education — what there
was of it — of a girl was arranged primarily with a
view to capture a husband and, once having him
secure, to be his loving slave, to dwell with adoring
rapture on his superior learning, and to be humbly
grateful if her liege deigned from time to time to
throw his spouse some scraps of knowledge which
might be safely administered without danger of
making her think for herself. These facts no one
can well deny; but a few instances of prevalent
opinion, in addition to those which I have already
quoted, will afford the amusement of concrete
examples.

Mrs. Chapone, in the eighteenth century,
advised her niece to avoid the study of classics
and science lest she "excite envy in one sex and
jealousy in the other." Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu laments thus: "There is hardly a
creature in the world more despicable and more
liable to imiversal ridicule than a learned woman,"
and "folly is reckoned so much our proper sphere,
we are sooner pardoned any excesses of that than
the least pretensions to reading and good sense."
Pursuant to the prevailing sentiment on the
education of women, the subjects which they
studied and the books which they were allowed

Women's Rights in England 141

to read were carefully regulated. As to their
reading, it was confined to romantic tales whereof
the exceeding insipidity could not awaken any
symptom of intelligence. Lyly dedicated his
Euphues to the "Ladies and Gentlewomen of
England'* and Sidney's Arcadia owed its vast
success to its female readers.

The subjects studied followed the orthodox
views. Beginning with the reign of Queen Anne
boarding-schools for girls became very numerous.
At these schools "yoimg Gentlewomen" were
"soberly educated" and "taught all sorts of
learning fit for young Gentlewomen." The
"learning fit for young Gentlewomen" comprised
"the Needle, Dancing, and the French tongue; a
little Music on the Harpsichord or Spinet, to read,
write, and cast accounts in a small way." Danc-
ing was the all-important study, since this was
the surest route to their Promised Land, matri-
mony. The study of French consisted in learning
parrot-like a modicum of that language pronounced
according to the fancy of the speaker. As, how-
ever, the young beau probably did not know any
more himself, the end justified the means. Studies
like history, when pursued, were taken in homoeo-
pathic doses from small compendiums ; and it was
adequate to know that Charlemagne lived some-
where in Europe about a thousand or so years ago.
Yet even this was rather advanced work and
exposed the woman to be damned by the report
that she was educated. Ability to cook was not

142 History of Women's Rights

despised and pastry schools were not uncommon.
Thus in the time of Queen Anne appears this:
"To all Young Ladies: at Edw. Kidder's Pastry-
School in little Lincoln's Inn Fields are taught all
Sorts of Pastry and Cookery, Dutch hollow works,
and Butter Works," etc.

At last in the first decades of the nineteenth
^century the civilised world began slowly to take
some thought of women's higher education and
to wake up to the fact that because a certain
system has been in vogue since created man does
not necessarily mean that it is the right one; a
very heretical and revolutionary idea, which has
always been and still is ably opposed by that great
host of people who have steadily maintained that
when men and women once begin to think for
themselves society must inevitably run to ruin.
In 1843 there was established a certain Governesses'
Benevolent Institution. This was in its inception
a society to afford relief to governesses, i.e.,
women engaged in tutoring, who might be tem-
porarily in straits, and to raise annuities for those
who were past doing work. Obviously this would
suggest the question of what a competent govern-
ess was; and this in turn led to the demand for a
diploma as a warrant of efficiency. That called
attention to the extreme ignorance of the members
of the profession ; and it was soon felt that classes
of instruction were needed. A sum of money
was accordingly collected in 1846 and given
the Institution for that purpose. Some eminent

Women's Rights in England 143

professors of King's College volunteered to lecture ;
and so, on a small scale to be sure, began what
is now Queen's College, the first college for women
in England, incorporated by Royal Charter in
1853. In 1849 Bedford College for women had
been founded in London through the unselfish
labours of Mrs. Reid ; but it did not receive its
charter until 1869. Within a decade Cheltenham,
Girton, Newnham, and other colleges for women
had arisen. Eight of the ten men's universities
of Great Britain now allow examinations and
degrees to women also; Oxford and Cambridge
do not.

Since then women's right to any higher educa-
tion which they may wish to embrace has been
permanently assured. As early as 1868 women in the
Edinburgh opened its courses in phar- professions,
macy to women. In 1895 there were already
264 duly qualified female physicians in Great
Britain. In many schools they are allowed to
study with men, as at the College of Physicians
and Surgeons at Edinburgh ; there are four medical
schools for women only. We find women now
actively engaged in agriculture, apiculture, poultry-
keeping, horticulture; in library work and index-
ing; in stenography; in all trades and professions.
The year 1893 witnessed the first appointment of
women as factory inspectors, two being chosen
that year in London and in Glasgow. Notting-
ham had chosen women as sanitary inspectors in
1892. Thus in about two decades woman has ,

144 History of Women's Rights

advanced farther than in the combined ages which
preceded. Before these very modem move-
ments we may say that the stage was the only
profession which had offered them any opportunity
of earning their Hving in a dignified way. It
seems that a Mrs. Coleman, in 1656, was the
first female to act on the stage in England ; before
that, all female parts had been taken by boys
or yoimg men. A Mrs. Sanderson played Des-
demona in 1660 at the Clare Market Theatre. In
1 66 1, as we may see from Pepys' Diary (Feb. 12,
1 661), an actress was still a novelty; but within
a few decades there were already many famous
ones.

We have seen that now woman has obtained
practically all rights on a par with men. There
are still grave injustices, as in divorce;
frag" in E^ng- but thc battle is substantially won. One
land. right still remains for her to win, the

right, namely, to vote, not merely on issues such
as education — this privilege she has had for some
time — but on all political questions ; and connected
with this is the right to hold political office. We
may fittingly close this chapter by a review of the
history of the agitation for woman suffrage.
I In the year 1797 Charles Fox remarked: "It
has never been suggested in all the theories and
projects of the most absurd speculation, that it
would be advisable to extend the elective suffrage
to the female sex." Yet five years before Mary
WoUstonecraft had published her Vindication 0}

\

V

Women's Rights in England 145

the Rights of Women. Presently the writings of
Harriet Martineau upon political economy proved
that women could really think on politics.

We may say that the general public first began
to think seriously on the matter after the epoch-
making Reform Act of 1832. This celebrated
measure admitted £10 householders to the right
to vote and carefully excluded females; yet it
marked a new era in the awakening of civic
consciousness : women had taken active part in the
attendant campaigns; and the very fact that
"male persons" needed now to be so specifically
designated in the bill, whereas hitherto "persons"
and "freeholders" had been deemed sufficient,
attests the recognition of a new factor in
political life.

In 1865 John Stuart Mill was elected to Parlia-
ment. That able thinker had written on The
Subjection of Women and was ready to champion
their rights. A petition was prepared under the
direction of women like Mrs. Bodichon and Miss
Davies; and' in 1867 Mill proposed in Parliament
that the word man be omitted from the People's
Bill and person substituted. The amendment
was rejected, 196 to 83.

Nevertheless, the agitation was continued. The
next year constitutional lawyers like Mr. Chis-
holm Anstey decided that women might be le-
gally entitled to vote; and 5000 of them applied
to be registered. In a test case brought before the
Court of Common Pleas the verdict was adverse,

146 History of Women's Rights

on the ground that it was contrary to usage for
women to vote. The fight went on. Mr. Jacob
Bright in 1870 introduced a "Bill to Remove the
Electoral Disabilities of Women" and lost. In
1884 Mr. William Woodall tried again; he lost
also, largely through the efforts of Gladstone ; and
the same statesman was instrumental in killing
another bill in 1892, when Mr. A. J. Balfour urged
its passage.

At the present day women in England cannot
vote on great questions of imiversal state policy
nor can they hold great offices of state. Yet their
gains have been enormous, as I shall next de-
monstrate; and in this connection I shall also
glance briefly at their vast strides in the colonies.

In 1850 Ontario gave all women school suffrage.
In 1867 New South Wales gave them municipal
suffrage. In 1869 England granted mimicipal
suffrage to single women and widows; Victoria
gave it to all women, married or single. In
England in 1870 the Education Act, by which
school boards were created, gave women the
same rights as men, both as regards electing and
being elected. In 1871 West Australia gave them
municipal suffrage; in 1878 New Zealand gave
school suffrage. In 1880 South Australia gave
municipal suffrage. In 1881 widows and single
women obtained municipal suffrage in Scotland
and Parliamentary suffrage on the Isle of Man.
Municipal suffrage was given by Ontario and
Tasmania in 1884 and by New Zealand and New

Women's Rights in England 147

Brunswick in 1886; by Nova Scotia and Manitoba
in 1887. In 1888 England gave women county-
suffrage and British Columbia and the North- West
Territory gave them municipal suffrage. In 1889
county suffrage was given the women of Scotland
and mimicipal suffrage to single women and
widows in the Province of Quebec. In 1893 New
Zealand gave full suffrage. In 1894 parish and
district suffrage was given in England to women
married and single, with power to elect and to be
elected to parish and district councils. In 1895
South Australia gave full state suffrage to all
women. In 1898 the women of Ireland were
given the right to vote for all officers except
members of Parliament. In 1900 West Australia
granted full state suffrage to all. In 1902 full
national suffrage was given all the women in
federated Australia and full state suffrage to those
of New South Wales. In 1903 Tasmania gave
full state suffrage; in 1905 Queensland did the
same; in 1908 Victoria followed. In 1907 England
made women eligible as mayors, aldermen, and
county and town councillors. In London, for ex-
ample, at the present time women can vote for
the 28 borough councils and 31 boards of guardians
of the London City Council; they can also be
themselves elected to these; be members of the
central unemployed body or of the 23 district
committees, and can be co-opted to all other
bodies, like the local pension committees. Wo-
men can be aldermen of the Council ; and there is

148 History of Women's Rights

nothing to prevent one from holding even the
office of chairman.

At the present moment the question of com-
plete political stiff rage has been brought ' to the
front as a vital and national issue in England
through the formation of the Women's Social
and Political Union under the aggressive leadership
of women like Mrs. and Miss Pankhurst, Mrs.
Snowden, Miss Davies, Lady Grove, and a host of
others.

SOURCES

I. The English Statutes. Published by Authority during
the Various Reigns.

II. Studies in History and Jurisprudence: by James Bryce.
Oxford University Press, 1901. Pages 782-859 on "Marriage
and Divorce."

III. History of English Law: by Frederick Pollock and
Frederic Maitland. 2 vols. Cambridge University Press,
1898 — second edition.

IV. Commentaries on the Laws of England: by Sir William
Blackstone. With notes selected from the editions of Archbold,
Christian, Coleridge, etc., and additional notes by George
Sharswood, of the University of Pennsylvania. 2 vols. Philadel-
phia, i860 — Childs and Peterson, 602 Arch Street.

v. A History of Matrimonial Institutions, chiefly in England
and the United States: by George Elliott Howard. 4 vols. The
University of Chicago Press, 1904.

VI. Social England: edited by H. D. Traill. 6 vols. G. P.
Putnam's Sons, 1901.

VII. Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, taken from
original sources: by John Ash ton. London, Chatto and Windus,
1897.

VIII. The Renaissance of Girls' Education in England: by
Alice Zimmern. London, A. D. Innes and Co., 1898.

IX. Progress in Women's Education in the British Empire:

Women's Rights in England 149

edited by the Countess of Warwick. Being the Report of the
Education Section, Victorian Era Exhibition, 1897. Long-
mans, Green, & Co., 1898.

X. Current Literature from the Earliest Times to the Present
Day, references to which are noted as they occur.

CHAPTER VIII
women's rights in the united states

IT has been my aim, in this short history of the
growth of women's rights, to depict for the
most part the strictly legal aspect of the matter;
but from time to time I have interposed some
typical illustration of public opinion, in order to
bring into greater prominence the ferment that
was going on or the misery which existed behind
the scenes. A history of legal processes might
otherwise, from the coldness of the laws, give
few hints of the conflicts of human passion which
combined to set those processes in motion. Before
I present the history of the progress of women's
rights in the United States, I shall place before
the reader some extracts which are typical and
truly representative of the opposition which from
the beginning of the agitation to the present day
has voiced itself in all ranks of life. Let the
reader bear carefully in mind that from 1837 to the
beginning of the twentieth century such abuse
as that which I shall quote as typical was hurled
from ten thousand throats of men and women
unceasingly; that Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony,
and Mrs. Gage were hissed, insulted, and offered

150

In the United States 151

physical violence by mobs in New York^ and
Boston to an extent inconceivable in this age ; and
that the marvellously unselfish labour of such
women as these whom I have mentioned and of
men like Wendell Phillips is alone responsible
for the improvement in the legal status of
women, which I propose to trace in detail. Some
expressions of the popular attitude follow:

From a speech of the Rev. Knox-Little at the
Church of St. Clements in Philadelphia -in 1880:
VGod made himself to be bom of a wo-

/ . - ., . r -1 Examples of

man to sanctify ^the virtue of endurance; opposition to
loving submission is an attribute of a ''rSwl!
/woman; men are logical, but women,
I lacking this quality, have an intricacy of thought.
[{There are those who think women can be taught
logic ; this is a mistake. They can never by any
power of education arrive at the same mental status
as that enjoyed by men, but they have a quickness
of apprehension, which is usually called leaping
at conclusions, that is astonishing. There, then,
we have distinctive traits of a woman, namely,
endurance, loving submission, and quickness of
apprehension. Wifehood is the crowning glory
of a woman. In it she is bound for all time. To
her husband she owes the duty of imqualified
obedience. There is no crime which a man can
commit which justifies his wife in leaving him or

* See, for example, the account in the New York Tribune^
Sept. 8, 9, and 12, 1853, of what happened at the Women's
Rights Convention at that time.

152 History of Women's Rights'

applying for that monstrous thing, divorce. It is
her duty to subject herself to him always, and no
crime that he can commit can justify her lack
of obedience. If he be a bad or wicked man, she
may gently remonstrate with him, but refuse him
never. Let divorce be anathema; curse it; curse
this accursed thing, divorce; curse it, curse it!
Think of the blessedness of having children. I am
the father of many children and there have been
those who have ventured to pity me. * Keep your
pity for yourself,* I have replied, 'they never cost
me a single pang.' In this matter let woman
exercise that endurance and loving submission
which, with intricacy of thought, are their only
characteristics."

From the Philadelphia Public Ledger and Daily
'Transcript, July 20, 1848 : "Our Philadelphia ladies
not only possess beauty, but they are celebrated
for discretion, modesty, and imfeigned diffidence,
as well as wit, vivacity, and good nature. Who
ever heard of a Philadelphia lady setting up for a
reformer or standing out for woman's rights, or as-
sisting to man the election groimds [sic], raise a regi-
ment, command a legion, or address a jury? Our
ladies glow with a higher ambition. They soar to
rule the hearts of their worshippers, and secure
obedience by the sceptre of affection. . . . But all
women are not as reasonable as ours of Philadel-
phia. The Boston ladies contend for the rights
of women. The New York girls aspire to mount
the rostrum, to do all the voting, and, we suppose,

In the United States 153

all the fighting, too. . . . Our Philadelphia girls
object to fighting and holding ofiice. They prefer
the baby- jumper to the study of Coke and Lyttle-
ton, and the ball-room to the Palo Alto battle.
They object to having a George Sand for President
of the United States; a Corinna for Governor; a
Fanny Wright for Mayor; or a Mrs. Partington for
Postmaster. . . . Women have enough influence
over human affairs without being politicians.
. . . A woman is nobody. A wife is every-
thing. A pretty girl is equal to ten thousand
men, and a mother is, next to God, all powerful.
. . . The ladies of Philadelphia, therefore, under
the influence of the most 'sober second thoughts*
are resolved to maintain their rights as Wives,
Belles, Virgins, and Mothers, and not as Women."
From the "Editor's Table" of Harper's New
Monthly Magazine^ November, 1853: "Woman's
Rights, or the movement that goes under that
name, may seem to some too trifling in itself and
too much connected with ludicrous associations
to be made the subject of serious arguments.
If nothing else, however, should give it conse-
quence, it would demand our earnest attention
from its intimate connection with all the rad-
ical and infldel movements of the day. A strange
affinity seems to bind them all together. . . .
But not to dwell on this remarkable connection —
the claim of 'woman's rights' presents not only
the common radical notion which underlies the
whole class, but also a peculiar enormity of its

154 History of Women's Rights

own; in some respects more boldly infidel, or
defiant both of nature and revelation, than that
which characterises any kindred measure. It is
avowedly opposed to the most time-honoured pro-
prieties of social life; it is opposed to nature;
it is opposed to revelation. . . . This unblushing
female Socialism defies alike apostles and prophets.
In this respect no kindred movement is so de-
cidedly infidel, so rancorously and avowedly anti-
biblical.

"It is equally opposed to nature and the estab-
lished order of society founded upon it. We do
not intend to go into any physiological argument.
There is one broad striking fact in the constitution
of the human species which ought to set the
question at rest for ever. This is the fact of
maternity. . . . From this there arise, in the first
place, physical impediments which, during the best
part of the female life, are absolutely insurmount-
able, except at a sacrifice of almost everything that
distinguishes the civilized human from the animal,
or beastly, and savage state. As a secondary, yet
inevitably resulting consequence, there come
domestic and social hindrances which still more
completely draw the line between the male
and female duties. . . . Every attempt to break
through them, therefore, must be pronounced as
unnatural as it is irreligious and profane. . . .
The most serious importance of this modern
* woman's rights ' doctrine is derived from its
direct bearing upon the marriage institution. The

In the United States 155

blindest must see that such a change as is proposed
in the relations and life of the sexes cannot leave
either marriage or the family in their present state.
It must vitally affect, and in time wholly sever,
that oneness which has ever been at the founda-
tion of the marriage idea, from the primitive
declaration in Genesis to the latest decision of the
common law. This idea gone — and it is totally
at war with the modem theory of * woman*s rights*
— marriage is reduced to the nature of a contract
simply. . . . That which has no higher sanction
than the will of the contracting parties, must, of
course, be at any time revocable by the same
authority that first created it. That which makes
no change in the personal relations, the personal
rights, the personal duties, is not the holy marriage
union, but the unholy alliance of concubinage."

In a speech of Senator George G. Vest, of
Missouri, in the United States Senate, January 25,
1887, these: "I now propose to read from a pam-
phlet sent to me by a lady. . . . She says to her
own sex: *After all, men work for women; or, if
they think they do not, it would leave them but
sorry satisfaction to abandon them to such ex-
istence as they could arrange without us.'

" Oh, how true that is, how true!"

In 1890 a bill was introduced in the New York
Senate to lower the "age of consent" — the age at
which a girl may legally consent to sexual inter-
course— from 16 to 14. It failed. In 1892 the
brothel keepers tried again in the Assembly. The

156 History of Women's Rights

bill was about to be carried by universal consent
when the chairman of the Judiciary Committee,
feeling the importance of the measure, called for
the individual yeas and nays, in order that the
constituents of the representatives might know
how their legislators voted. The bill thereupon
collapsed. In 1889 a motion was made in the
Kansas Senate to lower the age of consent from
18 to 12. But the public heard of it; protests
flowed in ; and under the pressure of these the law
Was allowed to remain as it was.

Such are some typical examples of the warfare of
the opposition to all that pertains to advancing
the status of women. As I review the progress
of their rights, let the reader recollect that this
opposition was always present, violent, loud, and
often scurrilous.

In tracing the history of women^s rights in the
United States my plan will be this : I shall first give
a general review of the various movements con-
nected with the subject; and I shall then lay
before the reader a series of tables, wherein may
be seen at a glance the status of women to-day in
the various States.

In our coimtry, as in England, single women
have at all times had practically the same legal
_. , rights as men; but by no means the

Single women. ° • ' •'

same political, social, educational, or
professional privileges; as will appear more con-
clusively later on.

In the United States 157

We may say that the history of the agitation for
women's rights began with the visit of Frances
Wright to the United States in 1820.
Frances Wright was a Scotchwoman, born agitation for
at Dundee in 1797, and early exhibited women's

' ^' ^ -^ rights.

a keen intellect on all the subjects which
concern political and social reform. For several
years after 1820 she resided here and strove to
make men and women think anew on old tradi-
tional beliefs — more particularly on theology,
slavery, and the social degradation of women.
The venomous denunciations of press and pulpit
attested the success of her efforts.*^ In 1832
Lydia Maria Child published her History of
Woman, a resume of the status of women; and
this was followed by numerous works and articles,
such as Margaret Fuller's The Great Lawsuit, or
Man vs. Woman: Woman vs. Man, and Eliza
Farnham's Woman and her Era. Various women
lectured; such as Ernestine L. Rose — a PoHsh
woman, banished for asserting her liberty. The
question of women's rights received a powerful
impetus at this period from the vast number of
women who were engaged in the anti-slavery
agitation. Any research into the validity of
slavery perforce led the investigators to inquire
into the justice of the enforced status of women;
and the two causes were early united. Women
like Angelina and Sarah Grimke and Lucretia
Mott were pioneers in numerous anti-slavery
conventions. But as soon as they dared to

158 History of Women's Rights

address meetings in which men were present, a
tempest was precipitated; and in 1840, at the
annual meeting of the Anti-Slavery Association,
the men refused to serve on any committee in
which any woman had a part; although it had
been largely the contributions of women which
were sustaining the cause. Affairs reached a
climax in London, in 1840, at the World's Anti-
Slavery Convention. Delegates from all anti-
slavery organisations were invited to take part;
and several American societies sent women to
represent them. These ladies were promptly de-
nied any share in the proceedings by the English
members, thanks mainly to the opposition of the
clergy, who recollected with pious satisfaction that
St. Paul permitted not a woman to teach .ly There-
upon Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
determined to hold a women's rights convention
as soon as they returned to America; and thus
a World's Anti-Slavery Convention begat an
issue equally large.

Accordingly, the first Women's Rights Con-
vention was held at Seneca Falls, New York,
July 19-20, 1848. It was organised by divorced
i wives J childless women, and sour old maids y the
gallant newspapers declared; that is, by Mrs.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mrs. Lucretia Mott,
Mrs. McClintock, and other fearless women, who
not only lived the purest and most unselfish of
domestic lives, but brought up many children
besides. Great crowds attended. A Declaration

In the United States 159

oj Sentiments was moved and adopted ; and as this
exhibits the temper of the convention and illus-
trates the then prevailing status of women very
clearly, I shall quote it:

DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS

**When, in the course of human events, it
becomes necessary for one portion of the family
of man to assume among the people of the earth a
position different from that which they have
hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of
nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent
respect to the opinions of mankind requires that
they should declare the causes which impel them
to such a course.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that
all men and women are created equal; that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain in-
alienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these
rights governments are instituted, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed.
Whenever any form of government becomes de-
structive of those ends, it is the right of those who
suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist
upon the institution of a new government, laying
its foundation on such principles, and organising
its powers in such form, as to them shall seem
most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments

i6o History of Women's Rights

long established should not be changed for light
or transient causes; and accordingly all experience
hath shown that mankind are more disposed to
suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right
themselves by abolishing the forms to which they
were accustomed. But when a long train of
abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the
same object, evinces a design to reduce them
under absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw
off such government, and to provide new guards
for their future security. Such has been the
patient sufferance of the women under this govern-
ment, and such is now the necessity which con-
strains them to demand the equal station to which
they are entitled.

"The history of mankind is a history of repeated
injuries and usurpations on the part ,of man
toward woman, having in direct objecrthe estab-
lishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove
this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

"He has never permitted her to exercise her
inalienable right to the elective franchise.

"He has compelled her to submit to laws, in
the formation of which she had no voice.

"He has withheld from her rights which are
given to the most ignorant and degraded men —
both natives and foreigners.

"Having deprived her of this first right of a
citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her
without representation in the halls of legislation,
he has oppressed her on all sides.

In the United States i6i

*'He has made her, if married, in the eye of the
law, civilly dead.

"He has taken from her all right in property,
even to the wages she earns.

"He has made her, morally, an irresponsible
being, as she can commit many crimes with
imptmity, provided they be done in the presence
of her husband. In the covenant of marriage,
she is compelled to promise obedience to her hus-
band, he becoming, to all intents and purposes,
her master — the law giving him power to deprive
her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement.
: "He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to
what shall be the proper causes, and, in case of
separation, to whom the guardianship of the child-
ren shall be given, as to be wholly regardless
of the happiness of women — the law in all cases
going upon a false supposition of the supremacy
of man, and giving all power into his hands.

"After depriving her of all rights as a married
woman, if single, and the owner of property, he has
taxed her to support a government which recog-
nises her only when her property can be made
profitable to it.

"He has monopolised nearly all the profitable
employments, and from those she is permitted to
follow she receives but a scanty remuneration.
He closes against her all the avenues of wealth and
distinction which he considers' most honourable to
himself. As a teacher of theology, medicine, or
law, she is not known.

i62 History of Women's Rights

"He has denied her the facilities for obtaining
a thorough education, all colleges being closed
against her.

"He allows her in church, as well as state,
but a subordinate position, claiming Apostolic
authority for her exclusion from the ministry, and,
with some exceptions, from any public participa-
tion in the affairs of the church.

"He has created a false public sentiment by
giving to the world a different code of morals for
men and women, by which moral delinquencies
which exclude women from society are not only
tolerated, but deemed of little account in man.

"He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah
himself, claiming it as his right to assign for her
a sphere of action, when that belongs to her con-
science and to her God.

"He has endeavoured, in every^ way that he
could, to destroy her confidence in her own powers,
to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing
to lead a dependent and abject life.

"Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement
of one half the people of this country, their social
and religious degradation ; in view of the unjust
laws above mentioned, and because women do feel
themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently
deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that
they have immediate admission to all the rights
and privileges which belong to them as citizens
of the United States.

"In entering upon the great work before us,

In the United States 163

we anticipate no small amount of misconception,
misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use
every instrumentality within our power to effect
our object. We shall employ agents, circulate
tracts, petition the State and National legislatures,
and endeavour to enlist the pulpit and press in
our behalf. We hope this Convention will be
followed by a series of Conventions embracing
every part of the cjountry."

Such was the defiance of the Women's Rights
Convention in 1848; other conventions were
held, as at Rochester, in 1853, and at Albany in
1854; the movement extended quickly to other
States and touched the quick of public opinion.
It bore its first good fruits in New York in 1848,
when the Property Bill was passed. This law,
amended in i860, and entitled "An Act Concerning
the Rights and Liabilities of Husband and Wife"
(March 20, i860), emancipated completely the
wife, gave her full control of her own property,
allowed her to engage in all civil contracts or
business on her own responsibility, rendered her
joint guardian of her children with her husband,
and granted both husband and wife a one-third
share of one another's property in case of the
decease of either partner.

Thus New York became the pioneer. The
movement spread, as I have mentioned, with
amazing rapidity; but it was not so uniformly
successful. Conventions were held, for example,

i64 History of Women's Rights

in Ohio, at Salem, April 19-20, 1850; at Akron,
May 28-29, 1851; at Massillon on May 2^, 1852.
Nevertheless, in 1857, the Legislature of Ohio
passed a bill enacting that no married man should
dispose of any personal property without having
first obtained the consent of his wife ; the wife was
empowered, in case of a violation of this law, to
commence a civil suit in her own name for the
recovery of the property ; and any married woman
whose husband deserted her or neglected to pro-
vide for his family was to be entitled to his wages
and to those of her minor children. A bill to
extend suffrage to women was defeated, by a vote
of 44 to 44 ; the petition praying for its enactment
had received 10,000 signatures.

The course of events as it has been described
in New York and Ohio, is practically the same
in the case of the other States. The Civil War
relegated these issues to a secondary place; but
during that momentous conflict the heroism of
Clara Barton on the.Jiattlefield and of thousands
of women like her paved the way for a reassertion
of the rights of woman in the light of her un-
questioned exertions and unselfish labours for her
country in its crisis.^ After the war, attention
began to be concentrated more on the right to vote.
By the Fourteenth Amendment the franchise was
at once given to negroes; but the insertion of the
word male effectually barred any national recog-
nition of woman's right to vote. A vigorous effort
was made by the suffrage leaders to have male

In the United States 165

stricken from the amendment; but the effort was
futile. Legislators thought that the black man's
vote ought to be secured first; as the New York
Tribune (Dec. 12, 1866) puts it snugly: "We want
to see the ballot put in the hands of the black
without one day's delay added to the long post-
ponement of his just claim. When that is done,
we shall be ready to take up the next question'*
(i. e., woman's rights).

The first Women's Rights Convention after the
Civil War had been held in New York City, May
10, 1866, and had presented an address to Con-
gress. Such was the dauntless courage of the
leaders, that Mrs. Stanton offered herself as a
candidate for Congress at the November elections,
in order to test the constitutional rights of a
woman to run for office. She received twenty-
four votes.

Six years later, on November i, 1872, Miss
Susan B. Anthony did a far more audacious
thing. She went to the polls and asked to be
registered. The two Republican members of the
board were won over by her exposition of the
Fourteenth Amendment and agreed to receive
her name, against the advice of their Democratic
colleague and a United States supervisor. Follow-
ing Miss Anthony's example, some fifty other
women of Rochester registered. Fourteen voted
and were at once arrested under the enforcement
act of Congress of May 31, 1870 {section 19). The
case of Miss Anthony was argued ably by her

i66 History of Women's Rights

attorney; but she was adjudged guilty. A nolle
prosequi was entered for the women who voted
with her.

Immediately after the decision in her case,
the inspectors who had registered the women were
put on trial because they ''did knowingly and
willfully register as a voter of said District one
Susan B. Anthony, she, said Susan B. Anthony,
then and there not being entitled to be registered
as a voter of said District in that she, said Susan
B. Anthony, was then and there a person of the
female sex, contrary to the form of the statute of
the United States of America in such case made and
provided, and against the peace of the United
States of America and their dignity." The de-
fendants were ordered to pay each a fine of
twenty-five dollars and the costs of the prosecution ;
but the sentence was revoked and an unconditional
pardon given them by President Grant, in an order
dated March 3, 1874. Miss Anthony was forced
to pay her fine, in spite of an appeal to Congress.

Such were the stirring times when the agitation
for women's rights was first brought to the fore
as a national issue. Within a few years, various
States, like New York and Kansas, put the ques-
tion of equal suffrage for women before its voters ;
they in general rejected the measure. At present
there are four States which give women complete
suffrage and right to vote on all questions with the
same privileges as men, viz., Wyoming (1869),
Colorado (1893), Utah (1896), and Idaho (1896).

In the United States 167

In 1838 Kentucky gave school suffrage to widows
with children of school age; in 1861 Kansas gave
it to all women. School suffrage was granted all
women in 1875 by Michigan and Minnesota, in
1876 by Colorado, in 1878 by New Hampshire and
Oregon, in 1879 by Massachusetts, in 1880 by
New York and Vermont, in 1883 by Nebraska,
in 1887 by North and South Dakota, Montana,
Arizona, and New Jersey. Kansas gave municipal
suffrage in 1887; and Montana gave tax-paying
women the right to vote upon all questions sub-
mitted to the tax-payers. In 189 1 Illinois granted
school suffrage, as did Connecticut in 1893. Iowa
gave bond suffrage in 1894. In 1898 Minnesota
gave women the right to vote for library trustees,
Delaware gave school suffrage to tax-paying
women, and Louisiana gave tax-paying women
the right to vote upon all questions submitted to
the tax-payers. Wisconsin gave school suffrage
in 1900. In 1 90 1 New York gave tax-paying
women in all towns and villages of the State the
right to vote on questions of local taxation; and
the Kansas Legislature voted down almost unani-
mously a proposal to repeal municipal suffrage.
In 1903 Kansas gave bond suffrage; and in 1907
the new State of Oklahoma continued school
suffrage. In 1908 Michigan gave all women who
pay taxes the right to vote upon questions of local
taxation and the granting of franchises.

The history of the ''age of legal consent" has
an importance which through prudery and a wilful

i68 History of Women's Rights

ignorance of facts the public has never fully re-
alised. I shall have considerable to say of it
later. It will suffice for the moment
legal to remark that until the decade pre-

consent. ceding 1898 the old Common Law
period of ten, sometimes twelve, years was the
basis of "age of consent" legislation in most States
and in the Territories under the jurisdiction of
the national government. In 1885 the age in
Delaware was seven.

The Puritans, burning with an unquenchable

zeal for liberty, fled to America in order to build

a land of freedom and strike off the

nings of high- shackles of despotism. After they were

er education comfortably scttlcd, they forthwith pro-

for women. ^ > ^ x-

ceeded, with fine humour, to expel mis-
tress Anne Hutchinson for venturing to speak
in public, to hang superfluous old women for
being witches, and to refuse women the right to an
education. In 1684, when a question arose about
admitting girls to the Hopkins School of New
Haven, it was decided that "all girls be excluded
as improper and inconsistent with such a grammar
school as ye law enjoins and as in the Designs
of this settlement." "But," remarks Professor
Thomas, "certain small girls whose manners seem
to have been neglected and who had the natural
curiosity of their sex, sat on the schoolhouse steps
and heard the boys recite, or learned to read and
construe sentences from their brothers at home,
and were occasionally admitted to school."

In the United States 169

In the course of the next century the world
moved a Httle; and in 1789, when the pubhc
school system was established in Boston, girls
were admitted from April to October; but until
1825 they were allowed to attend primary schools
only. In 1790 Gloucester voted that "two hours,
or a proportional part of that time, be devoted to
the instruction of females." In 1793 Plymouth
accorded girls one hour of instruction daily.

The first female seminary in the United States'
was opened by the Moravians at Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania, in 1749. It was unique. In 1803,
of 48 academies or higher schools fitting for college
in Massachusetts, only three were for girls, al-
though a few others admitted both boys and girls.

The first instance of government aid for the
systematic education of women occurred in New
York, in 18 19. This was due to the influence of a
remarkable woman. Mrs. Emma Willard had be-
gun teaching in Connecticut and by extraordinary
diligence mastered not only the usual subjects of
the curriculum, but in addition botany, chemistry,
mineralogy, astronomy, and the higher mathema-
tics. She had, moreover, striven always to in-
troduce new subjects and new methods into her
school, and with such success that Governor
Clinton, of New York, invited her to that State
and procured her a government subsidy. Her
school was established first at Watervliet, but
soon moved to Troy. This seminary was the first
girls' school in which the higher mathematics

I70 History of Women's Rights

formed a part of the course; and the first public
examination of a girl in geometry, in 1829, raised
a storm of ridicule and indignation — the clergy, as
usual, prophesying the speedy dissolution of all
family bonds and therefore, as they continued
with remorseless logic, of the state itself. But
Mrs. Willard continued her ways in spite of clerical
disapproval and by-and-by projected a system
of normal schools for the higher education of
teachers, and even suggested women as superin-
tendents of public schools. New York survived
and does not even remember the names of the
patriots who fought a lonely woman so valiantly.

The first female seminary to approach college
rank was Mt. Holyoke, which was opened by
Mary Lyon at South Hadley, Mass., in 1836.
Vassar, the next, dates from 1865; and Radcliffe,
the much-abused "Harvard Annex," was insti-
tuted in 1879. These were the first colleges
exclusively for women. Oberlin College had
from its foundation, in 1833, admitted men and
women on equal terms; although it took pains to
express its hearty disapproval of those women
who, after graduation, had the temerity to advo-
cate political rights for women — rights which
that same Oberlin insisted should be given the
negro at once. In 1858, when Sarah Burger and
other women applied for admission to the Uni-
versity of Michigan, their request was refused.

It was hard enough for women to assert their
rights to a higher education ; to enter a profession

In the United States 171

was almost impossible. Nevertheless, it was done.
The pioneer in medicine was Harriet K. Hunt who
practised in Boston from 1822 to 1872 ^. ^

^ ' First women

without a diploma; but in 1853 the in

Woman's Medical College of Pennsyl- '^^^'^'•
vania conferred upon her the degree of Doctor of
Medicine. The first woman to receive a diploma
from a college after completing the regular course
was Elizabeth Blackwell, who attained that distinc-
tion at Geneva, New York, in 1848. The first ade-
quate woman's medical institution was Miss
Blackwell's New York Infirmary, chartered in 1854.
In 1863, Dr. Zakrzewska, in co-operation with
Lucy Goddard and Ednah D. Cheney, established
the New England Hospital for Women and Child-
ren, which aimed to provide women the medical
aid of competent physicians of their own sex, to
assist educated women in the practical study of
medicine, and to train nurses for the care of the
sick. ^

In law, it would seem that Mistress Brut
practised in Baltimore as early as 1647; but after
her the first woman lawyer in the United

In law.

States was Arabella A. Mansfield, of Mt.
Pleasant, Iowa. She was admitted to the bar in
1864. By 1879 women were allowed to plead
before the Supreme Court of the United States. ="

' In 1900 there were 7399 female physicians and surgeons in
the United States, and 808 female dentists.

* In 1900 there were 1049 women lawyers in the United
States. The above statements are from Bliss, Encyc, p. 1291.

172 History of Women's Rights

Coming now to the consideration of the ministry,
the first woman to attempt to assert a right to
In the that profession was Anne Hutchinson,

ministry. ^^ Boston, in 1 634. She was promptly
banished. Among the Friends and the Shakers
women like Lucretia Mott and Anne Lee preached ;
and among the primitive Methodists and similar
bodies women were always permitted to exhort;
but the first regularly ordained woman in the
United States appears to have been Rev. Antoinette
Brown Blackwell, of the Congregational Church,
who was ordained in 1852. In 1864 Rev. Olympia
Brown settled as pastor of the parish at Weymouth
Landing, in Massachusetts; and the Legislature
acknowledged marriages solemnised by women as
legal. Phebe Hanaford, Mary H. Graves, and
Lorenza Haynes were the first Massachusetts
women to be ordained preachers of the Gos-
pel; the latter was at one time chaplain of the
Maine House of Representatives. The best
known woman in the ministry at the present
day is Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, a Methodist
minister, president of the National American
Woman's Suffrage Association.'

Women have from very early times been ex-
ceedingly active in newspaper work. Anna Frank-
As newspaper Hn printed the first newspaper in Rhode
editors. Island, in 1732; she was made official
printer to the colony. When the founder of the
Mercury, of Philadelphia, died in 1742, his widow,

* In 1900 there were 3405 women clergy in the United States.

In the United States 173

Mrs. Cornelia Bradford, carried it on for many-
years with great success, just as Mrs. Zenger con-
tinued the New York Weekly Journal — the second
newspaper started in New York — for years after
the death of her husband. Anna K. Greene
estabHshed the Maryland Gazette, the first paper
in that colony, in 1767. Penelope Russell printed
The Censor in Boston, in 177 1. In fact, there was
hardly a colony in which women were not actively
engaged in printing.\x<A.fter the Revolution they
were still more active. Mrs. Anne Royal edited
The Huntress for a quarter of a century. Margaret
Fuller ran The Dial, in Boston, in 1840 and
numbered Emerson and William Channing among
her contributors. From 1840 to 1849 the mill
girls of Lowell edited the Lowell Offering. These
are but a few examples of what women have done
in newspaper work. How very influential they
are to-day every one knows who is familiar with
the articles and editorial work appearing in
newspapers and magazines; and that women are
very zealous reporters many people can attest
with considerable vigour.^

The enormous part which women now play in
industry and in all economic production is a
concomitant of the factory system, spe- women in
cialised industry, and all that makes industry,
a highly elaborated and complex society. Be-

*In 1900 there were 2193 women journalists in the United
States. This does not, of course, include women reporters
and the like.

174 History of Women's Rights

fore the introduction of machine industry, and in
the simple society of the colonial days, women
were no less a highly important factor in economic
production; but not as wage earners. Their im-
portance lay in the fact that spinning, weaving,
brewing, cheese and butter making, and the like
were matters attended to by each household to
supply its own wants ; and this was considered the
peculiar sphere of the housewife. In 1840 Harriet
Martineau found only seven employments open
to women in the United States, viz., teaching,
needlework, keeping boarders, working in cotton
mills and in book binderies, type-setting, and
household service.

I shall now present a series of fifty tables, by
means of which the reader may see at a glance the
status of women in all the States to-day. For con-
venience, I shall arrange the views alphabetically.

TABLES SHOWING THE PRESENT STATUS OF WOMEN
IN THE UNITED STATES.

The right of "dower,'* as used in these tables,
refers to the widow's right, under the Common
Law, to the possession, for her life-time, of one
third of the real estate of which her husband was
possessed in fee-simple during the marriage.

"Curtesy" is the right of the husband after his
wife's death to the life use of his wife's real estate,
sometimes dependent on the birth of children,
sometimes not; and usually the absolute right to
her whole personal estate.

In the United States 175

It must be remembered that the enforcement
of certain laws, particularly in regard to child
labour, is extremely lax in many States. It will
be noted also that an unscrupulous employer
could find loopholes in some of the statutes.
The reader can observe these things for himself
in his particular State.

Alabama

Age OF Legal Consent : 14.

Population: Male 916,764; female 911,933.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings and has full control of own property ; but she
cannot mortgage her real and personal property
or alienate it without husband's consent. Mar-
ried women may execute will without concurrence
of husband and may bar latter's right of curtesy.
Husband may appoint guardian for children by
will; but wife has custody of them until they are
fourteen. If a wife commits a crime in partner-
ship with her husband she cannot be punished
(except for murder and treason). Husband is
not required by law to support the family.

Divorce: Absolute divorce is granted for
incurable impotence, adultery, desertion for two
years, imprisonment for two years or more, crimes
against nature, habitual drunkenness after mar-
riage ; in f avotu- of husband if wife was pregnant
at time of marriage without his knowledge or
agency, in favour of wife for physical violence on

176 History of Women's Rights

part of husband endangering life or health, or
when there is reasonable apprehension of such
violence.

Limited divorce is granted for cruelty in either
of the parties or any other cause which would
justify absolute divorce, if the party desires only
a divorce from bed and board.

Labour Laws : Women not allowed to work in
mines. Children under 12 not permitted to work
in any factory. All employers of women must
provide seats and must allow women to rest
when not actively engaged.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: There is no suf-
frage. Women not eligible for any elective office ;
they may be notaries public. There are 18 wo-
men in the ministry, 12 journalists, i dentist, 3
lawyers, 16 doctors, 3 professors, 2 bankers, 5
saloon keepers, 4 commercial travellers, 11 car-
penters, etc.

Arizona

Age of Legal Consent: 17.

Population: Male 71,795; female 51,136.

Husband and Wife : Husband controls wife*s
earnings. Wife has control of property which
she had before marriage. Wife may contract
debts for necessaries for herself and children upon
credit of husband. She may sue and be sued and
make contracts in her own name as regards her

In the United States 177

separate property, but must sue jointly with
husband for personal injuries, and damages re-
covered are community property and in his con-
trol. Father is legal guardian of minor children;
at his death mother becomes guardian as long as
she remains unmarried.

Divorce: Absolute divorce for excesses, cru-
elty, or outrage, adultery, impotence, conviction
for a felony, desertion for one year, neglect of
husband to provide for one year, habitual in-
temperance; in favour of husband if wife was
pregnant at time of marriage without his know-
ledge or agency.

There is no limited divorce; but when the
husband wilfully abandons his wife, she can main-
tain an action against him for permanent main-
tenance and support.

Labour Laws : No woman or minor may work
or give any exhibition in a saloon.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: Women 21 years old
or more who are mothers or guardians of a child
of school age are eligible to the office of school
trustee and may vote for such officers. There
are 12 women in the ministry, i dentist, 2 jour-
nalists, 4 lawyers, 4 doctors, 628 saloon keepers,
2 bankers, etc.

Arkansas

Age of Legal Consent : 16.

Population: Male 675,312; female 636,252.

178 History of Women's Rights

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings. Dower exists, but not curtesy. Wife may
sell or transfer her separate real estate without
husband's consent. Father is legal guardian of
children, but cannot apprentice them or create
testamentary guardianship for them without
wife's consent. At husband's death wife may
be guardian of persons of children, but not of
their property, unless derived from her.

Divorce: Absolute or limited divorce for
impotence, wilful desertion for a year, when hus-
band or wife had a former wife or husband living
at the time of the marriage sought to be set aside,
conviction for felony or other infamous crime,
habitual drunkenness for one year, intolerable
indignities, and adultery subsequent to marriage.

Labour Laws: Labour contracts of married
women, approved by their husbands, are legal
and binding. No woman may work in a mine.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: No suffrage. 13
women are ministers, 6 journalists, 9 lawyers, 39
doctors, 3 professors, 3 'saloon keepers, 9 com-
mercial travellers, etc.

California

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population: Male 820,531 ; female 664,522.

Husband and Wife: Wife controls own earn-
ings. Wife may dispose of separate property
without husband's consent. In torts of a personal

In the United States 179

nature she must sue jointly with her husband.
Husband is guardian of minor children; wife be-
comes so at his death. Husband must provide
for family. If husband has no property or is
disabled, wife must support him and the family
out of her property or earnings.

Divorce: Absolute divorce for adultery, ex-
treme cruelty, wilful desertion for one year, wil-
ful neglect for one year, habitual intemperance
for one year, conviction for felony.

There are no statutory provisions for limited
divorce. But when the wife has any cause for
action as provided in the code, she may, without
applying for a divorce, maintain an action against
her husband for permanent support and main-
tenance of herself or of herself and children.

Labour Laws : Sex shall be no disqualification
for entering any business, vocation, or profes-
sion. Children under 16 may not be let out for
acrobatic performances or any exhibition endan-
gering life or morals. Any one who sends a minor
under the age of 18 to a saloon, gambling house, or
brothel, is guilty of a misdemeanour. One day of
rest each week must be given all employees.

StTFFRAGE, POLITICAL CONDITION, INDUSTRIAL

AND Professional Status: No suffrage. May
be elected school trustees. May be notaries
public. There are 201 women in the ministry,
52 dentists, 116 journalists, 60 lawyers, 522 doc-
tors, 8 professors, 129 saloon keepers, 9 bankers,
23 commercial travellers, etc.

i8o History of Women's Rights
Colorado

Age of Legal Consent: i8.

Population: Male 295,332; female 244,368.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings. No assignment of wages by a married
man is valid without the consent of his wife.
Neither dower nor curtesy obtains. Husband
and wife have same rights in making wills. Wife
can sue and be sued as if unmarried. She is joint
guardian of children with husband and has equal
powers. Husband must support family.

Divorce: Absolute divorce for impotence,
when husband or wife had a wife or husband living
at time of marriage, adultery subsequent to mar-
riage, wilful desertion for one year, cruelty (in-
cluding the infliction of mental suffering as well
as physical violence), neglect to provide for one
year, habitual drunkenness for one year, convic-
tion for felony.

There is no limited divorce.

Labour Laws: Eight hours the usual day's
work. Children under 12 may not work in mines;
none under 14 may exhibit in saloons, variety
theatres, or any place endangering morals. No
female help may be sent to any place of bad re-
pute. Children under 14 may not be employed
in mills or factories. No woman may work un-
derground in a mine. All employers of women
must provide seats.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial

In the United States i8i

AND Professional Status: Full suffrage. Wo-
men are eligible to all offices; lo have served
in the Legislature. There are 39 women in the
ministry, 23 dentists, 28 journalists, 17 lawyers,
172 doctors, 4 professors, 17 saloon keepers, 12
bankers, 8 commercial travellers, etc.

Connecticut

Acfe OF Legal Consent: 16.

Population: Male 454,294; female 454,126.

Husband and Wife: Wife controls own earn-
ings. No dower or curtesy. Survivor gets one
third of property. Wife controls own property.
Wife and husband joint guardians of children with
equal powers. Husband must support family.

Divorce: Absolute divorce for adultery,
fraudulent contract, wilful desertion for three
years with total neglect of duty, seven years'
absence when absent party is not heard from dur-
ing that period, habitual intemperance, intoler-
able cruelty, sentence to imprisonment for life,
any infamous crime involving a violation of con-
jugal duty and punishable by imprisonment.
^ There is no limited divorce.

Labour Laws: No child under 12 may give
exhibition endangering limbs or morals. Em-
ployers of females may not send them to any place
of bad repute. Eight hours is a day's work.
Women employees must have seats to rest. No
woman shall be forced to labour more than ten
hours a day.

i82 History of Women's Rights

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: Women have school
suffrage and may be elected school trustees.
There are 45 women in the ministry, 6 dentists,
122 doctors, I professor, 28 saloon keepers, 4 bank-
ers, 13 commercial travellers, 14 carpenters, etc.

Delaware

Age of Legal Consent: 18.

Population: Male 94,158; female 90,577.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings. If there is a child or lawful issue of a child
living, widow has a life interest in one third of the
real estate and one third absolutely of the personal
property. If there is no child nor the descendant
of a child living, widow has a life interest in one
half of the real estate and one half absolutely of
the personal estate. If there are neither descend-
ants nor kin of husband, she gets the entire real
estate for her life, and all the personal estate
absolutely. Father is legal guardian of children
and he alone may appoint a guardian at his death.
Husband must support family.

Divorce: Absolute divorce for adultery, de-
sertion for three years, habitual drunkenness, impo-
tence, extreme cruelty, conviction for felony,
prociirement of marriage by fraud for want of
age, wilful neglect to provide for three years.

Limited divorce may be decreed, in the dis-
cretion of the court, for the last two causes
mentioned.

In the United States 183

Labour Laws : All female employees must be
provided with seats. Sunday labour forbidden.
No minor under 15 may be let out for any gym-
nastic or other exhibition endangering body or
morals. Separate lunch, wash-rooms, etc., for
all women employees; the rooms must be kept
reasonably heated. Using indecent or profane
language towards a female employee is a mis-
demeanour. The governor must appoint a female
factory inspector who shall see that these laws
are enforced. Children under 14 may not work
in mills and factories; and no child under 16 shall
be forced to labour more than nine hours daily.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: Women in Milford,
Townsend, Wyoming, and Newark who pay a
property tax may vote for Town Commissioners.
All such women in the State may vote for school
trustees. There are 4 women in the ministry, 3
dentists, i journalist, i lawyer, 7 doctors, 8 saloon
keepers, i commercial traveller, 2 carpenters, etc.

District of Columbia

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population: Male 132,004; female 146,714.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings and property, may be sued and sue, carry
on business, etc., as if unmarried. Husband and
wife are equal guardians of children. Husband
must furnish reasonable support if he have pro-
perty. Both dower and curtesy obtain.

i84 History of Women's Right

Divorce: Absolute divorce for bigamy, in-
sanity at time of marriage, impotence, adultery,
habitual drunkenness for three years, cruel treat-
ment endangering life or health.

Limited divorce for drunkenness, cruelty, and
desertion.

In case of absolute divorce, only the innocent
party may remarry; but the divorced parties may
marry each other again.

Labour Laws: No child under 14 may be
let out for any public exhibition endangering
body or morals. Seats must be provided for
women employees. Employment agencies must
not send applicants to places of bad repute.
Children under 14 may not be employed in
any factory, hotel, etc.; but judge of juvenile
court may give dispensation to child between 12
and 14. No girl under 16 may be bootblack or
sell papers or any other wares publicly.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status : No stiffrage. Women
may be notaries public and members of Board of
Education. 17 women in the ministry, 7 dentists,
38 journalists, 23 lawyers, 56 doctors, 18 saloon
keepers, i banker, 7 commercial travellers, 2
carpenters, etc.

Florida

Age of Legal Consent: 16 (but 10 practically,
as penalty above 10 is insignificant).

In the United States 185

Population: Male 275,246; female 253,296.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings and owns separate estate ; but cannot transfer
her real or personal property without husband's
consent. Dower prevails, but not curtesy. Wife
may make a will as if unmarried. Husband is
legal guardian of children. Husband must sup-
port family.

Divorce: Absolute divorce for impotence,
where the parties are within the degrees prohibited
by the law, adultery, bigamy, extreme cruelty,
habitual indulgence in violent and ungovernable
temper, habitual intemperance, desertion for one
year, if husband or wife has obtained a divorce
elsewhere and if the applicant has been a citizen
of Florida for two years.

There is no limited divorce. But the wife may
claim alimony, without applying for a divorce,
for any of these causes except bigamy.

Labour Laws: Ten hours legal day*s work.
Employers of women must provide seats. No
child imder 14 may be let out for any public ex-
hibition endangering body or morals. Sunday
labour forbidden. No child imder 12 may be em-
ployed in any factory, or any place where in-
toxicating liquor is sold; and no child under 12
may labour more than nine hours a day.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: No suffrage. Wo-
men may be notaries public. 19 women in the
ministry, i dentist, 9 journalists, 4 lawyers, 21

i86 History of Women's Rights

doctors, I banker, 3 commercial travellers, 6 car-
penters, etc.

Georgia

Age of Legal Consent: 10.

Population: Male 1,103,201 ; female 1,113,130.

Husband and Wife: Wife controls own earn-
ings and own property. Dower prevails, but not
curtesy. Husband is legal guardian of children
and at his death may appoint a guardian to the
exclusion of his wife. Husband must support
family.

Divorce: Absolute divorce for intermarriage
within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity
and affinity, mental incapacity at time of marriage,
impotence at time of marriage, force, menace,
duress, or fraud in obtaining marriage, pregnancy
of wife at time of marriage unknown to husband,
adultery, wilful desertion for three years, convic-
tion for an offence involving imprisonment for two
years or longer.

Absolute or limited divorce for cruelty or habit-
ual intoxication. Limited divorce for any ground
held siifficient in English courts prior to May 4,
1784.

Labour Laws: No boss or other superior in
any factory shall inflict corporal punishment on
minor labourers. Seats must be provided for
female employees. Sunday labour forbidden. No
minors may be employed in barrooms. To let

In the United States 187

out children for gymnastic exhibition or any in-
decent exhibition is a misdemeanour. Children
under 12 may not work in factories. No child
under 14 may work between 7 p.m. and 6 A.M.
Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: No suffrage. 33
women in the ministry, 2 dentists, 37 journalists,
6 lawyers, 43 doctors, 4 professors, 2 saloon
keepers, 4 bankers, 9 commercial travellers, 10
carpenters, etc.

Idaho

Age of Legal Consent: 18.

Population: Male 93,367; female 68,405.

Husband and Wife: Husband controls wife's
earnings. Wife can secure control of own prop-
erty only by going into court and showing that
her husband is mismanaging it. Husband is legal
guardian of the children.

Divorce: Absolute divorce for adultery, ex-
treme cruelty, wilful desertion for one year, wil-
ful neglect for one year, habitual intemperance
for one year, conviction of felony, permanent
insanity.

There is no limited divorce.

Labour Laws: No Simday labour. Children
under 14 may not work in mine, factory, hotel,
or be messenger; no child under 16 shall work
more than nine hours per day ; nor be let out for
any exhibition or vocation which endangers health

i88 History of Women's Rights

or morals ; nor ever be sent to any immoral resort
or serve or handle intoxicating liquors.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status : Full suffrage. Wo-
men are eligible to all offices. 7 women are in
the ministry, 4 journalists, 2 lawyers, 15 doctors,
I saloon keeper, i commercial traveller, i car-
penter, etc.

Illinois

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population: Male 2,472,782; female 2,348,768.

Husband and Wife: Wife controls own earn-
ings. Dower prevails. Wife has full disposal of
property, can sue, etc., as if unmarried. Wife
and husband are equal guardians of children.
Wife is entitled to support suited to her condition
in life; husband is entitled to same support out
of her individual property. They are jointly
liable for family expenses.

Divorce: Absolute divorce for impotence,
bigamy, adultery, wilful desertion for two years,
habitual drunkenness for two years, attempt to
murder, extreme and repeated cruelty, conviction
for felony or other infamous crime.

No limited divorce; but married women living
separate through no fault of their own have an
action in equity for reasonable maintenance, if
they so desire.

Labour Laws : No Sunday labour. No minor

In the United States 189

shall be allowed to sell indecent literature, etc.,
nor be let out as acrobat or mendicant or for any
immoral occupation. Eight hours a legal day's
work. No person shall be debarred from any
occupation or profession on accoimt of sex; but
females shall not be required to work on streets or
roads or serve on juries. No child under 14 to be
employed in any place where intoxicating liquors
are sold or in factory or bowling alley; and shall
not labour more than eight hours. No child under
16 shall engage in occupations dangerous to life or
morals; and no female under 16 shall engage in
any employment which requires her to stand con-
stantly. Seats must be provided for all female
employees. No woman shall work more than
ten hours a day in stores and factories.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status : Women have school
suffrage and are eligible to all school offices and can
be notaries public. There are 292 women in the
ministry, 117 dentists, 240 journalists, 113 lawyers,
820 doctors, 31 professors, 196 saloon keepers, 8
bankers, loi commercial travellers, 24 carpenters,
etc.

Indiana

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population: Males 1,285,404; females
1,231,058.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings. No dower or curtesy. Wife may sue in her

iQO _ History of Women's Rights

own name for injiiries, etc. Neither husband nor
wife can alienate their separate real estate with-
out each other's consent. A wife can act as
executor or administrator of an estate only with
her husband's consent. No married woman can
become a surety for any person. Husband is
guardian of children.

Divorce: Absolute for adultery, impotency,
desertion for two years, cruel and inhuman treat-
ment, habitual drunkenness, neglect of husband
to provide for two years, conviction of an infa-
mous crime.

Limited divorce for adultery, desertion or
neglect for six months, habitual cruelty or constant
strife, gross and wanton neglect of conjugal duty
for six months.

Labour Laws : No child under 12 may work in
a mine. Children under 15 may not be let out for
acrobatic or any immoral exhibition or to work in
any place where liquor is sold. Seats must be
provided for female employees. Eight hours a
legal day's work. No female under 18 may
work more than ten hours a day in any factory,
laundry, renovating works, bakery, or printing
office ; no woman shall be employed in any factory
between 10 p.m and 6 a.m. Suitable dressing
rooms must be provided and not less than sixty
minutes given for the noonday meal. Sweat-
shops under strict supervision of a State inspector.
No woman may work in a mine. No Sunday
labour.

In the United States 191

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: No suffrage. Wo-
men may be notaries public. 130 women in the
ministry, 34 dentists, 79 journalists, 40 lawyers,
195 doctors, 6 professors, 2^] saloon keepers, 2
bankers, 44 commercial travellers, 7 carpenters,
etc.

Indian Territory

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population: Male 208,952; female 183,108.

Husband and Wife: Husband controls wife's
earnings. Dower is in force and curtesy. Wo-
man controls separate estate absolutely in practice ;
for though at common law any money or property
given her husband for investment becomes his,
by statute it does not. Husband and wife are
equal guardians of children.

Divorce: Absolute or limited for impotence,
wilful desertion for one year, bigamy, convic-
tion for felony or other infamous crime,
habitual drunkenness for one year, cruel treat-
ment endangering life, intolerable indignities,
adultery, incurable insanity subsequent to mar-
riage.

Labour Laws: No Sunday labour.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: No suffrage. 6
women in ministry, i dentist, 4 journalists, 13
doctors, 4 professors, i banker, etc.

192 History of Women's Rights
Iowa

Age of Legal Consent: 15.

Population: Male 1,156,849; female 1,075,004.

Husband and Wife: Wife controls own earn-
ings. Any assignment of wages must have writ-
ten consent of both husband and wife. No dower
or curtesy ; surviving husband or wife is entitled to
one third in fee simple of both real and personal
estate of other at his or her death. Wife controls
own property, can sue, etc., as if single. Husband
and wife are equal guardians of children. Sup-
port and education of family is chargeable equally
on husband's and wife's property.

Divorce: Absolute for adultery, wilful deser-
tion for two years, conviction of felony after mar-
riage, habitual drunkenness, inhuman treatment
endangering life, pregnancy of wife at time of
marriage by another man, unless the husband
have an illegitimate child living imknown to wife.

No limited divorce.

Annulment for prohibited degrees, impotence,
bigamy, insanity or idiocy at time of marriage.

Labour Laws: No female may be employed
in any place where intoxicating liquors are sold.
Seats must be provided for female employees.
Children imder 16 not to assist in operating
dangerous machinery. No Sunday labour. No
person under 14 may work in a factory, mine,
laundry, slaughter-house, store where more than
eight persons are employed; no child under 16

In the United States 193

shall be employed in any vocation endangering
life or morals, nor shall work more than ten hours
a day.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: Women have bond
suffrage and can vote on increase of taxes. They
may serve as school trustees and superintendents.
117 women in ministry, 52 dentists, 74 journalists,
53 lawyers, 260 doctors, 2^] professors, 8 saloon
keepers, 11 bankers, 34 commercial travellers, 7
carpenters, etc.

Kansas

Age of Legal Consent: 18.

Population: Male 768,716; female 701,779.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings. Husband and wife are equal guardians of
children. Wife controls her separate property, can
sue, etc., as if unmarried. Neither husband nor
wife can convey or encumber real estate without
consent of other ; nor dispose by will of more than
one half of the separate property without other's
consent. If there are no children, the surviving
husband or wife takes all the property, real and
personal; if there are children, one half. Hus-
band must support family.

Divorce: Absolute for bigamy, desertion for
one year, adultery, impotency, when wife at
time of marriage was pregnant by another than
her husband, extreme cruelty, fraudulent contract,

Z3

194 History of Women's Rights

habitual drunkenness, gross neglect of duty, con-
viction and imprisonment for felony subsequent
to marriage.

No limited divorce ; but wife may obtain alimony
without divorce for any causes above mentioned.

Labour Laws : People employing children un-
der 14 in acrobatic or mendicant occupations
are guilty of a misdemeanour. No Sunday labour.
Seats must be provided for female employees.
No child under 14 may work in coal mine, nor
in any factory or packing house. No child imder
16 may work at any occupation endangering
body or morals.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: Women have mu-
nicipal, school, and bond suffrage. 63 women
in ministry, 21 dentists, 39 journalists, 43 lawyers,
190 doctors, 21 professors, 9 saloon keepers, 7
bankers, 20 commercial travellers, 19 carpenters,
etc.

Kentucky

Age of Legal Consent: 12.

Population : Male i ,090,227 ; female 1,056,947.

Husband and Wife: Husband controls wife's
earnings. Curtesy and dower are equalised.
After the death of either husband or wife, the
survivor is given a life interest in one third of the
realty of the deceased and an absolute estate in
one half of the personalty. Wife controls her

In the United States 195

personal property, but cannot dispose of real
estate without husband's consent; the husband
can convey real estate without his wife's signature,
but it is subject to her dower. Husband is legal
guardian of children. He must furnish support
according to his condition, but if he has only his
wages there is no law to punish him for non-
support.

i Divorce: Absolute to both husband and wife
for impotence or inability to copulate and for
living apart for five consecutive years without
any cohabitation. Also to the party not in fault
for desertion for one year, adultery, condemnation
for felony, concealment of any loathsome disease
at time of marriage or contracting it afterwards,
force, duress, or fraud in obtaining marriage,
uniting with any creed or religious society re-
quiring a renunciation of the marriage covenant
or forbidding husband and wife to cohabit. To
the wife, when not in like fault, for confirmed
drunkenness of husband leading to neglect to
provide, habitual behaviour by husband for six
months indicating aversion to wife and causing
her imhappiness, physical injury or attempt at
it. To the husband for wife's pregnancy at time
of marriage imknown to him, adultery of wife, or
such conduct as proves her to be unchaste with-
out proof of adultery, and habitual drunkenness
of wife.

Limited divorce for any of these causes or any
other cause as the court may deem siiificient.

196 History of Women's Rights

Labour Laws : Forbidden to let or employ any
children under 16 in any acrobatic or mendicant
or immoral occupations. No Sunday labour. No
child under 14 shall work in factory, mill, or mine
imless said child shall have no other means of
support. No child under 16 shall work more
than ten hours per day. Seats and suitable
dressing-rooms must be provided for female
employees.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: In the country dis-
tricts any widow having a child of school age and
any widow or spinster having a ward of school age
may vote for school trustees and school taxes.
In Louisville, five third-class, and twenty or more
fourth-class cities no woman has any vote. Wo-
men may be notaries public. 39 women in minis-
try, 4 dentists, 21 journalists, 16 lawyers, 98
doctors, 5 professors, 35 saloon keepers, 3 bankers,
20 commercial travellers, 9 carpenters, etc.

Louisiana

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population: Male 694,733; female 686,892.

Husband and Wife: Husband controls wife's
earnings. Wife cannot appear in court without
her husband's consent, and needs this consent in
all matters connected with her separate estate.
She may make her will without the authority of
her husband. No woman can be a witness to a

In the United States 197

testament. No married woman can be executor
without husband's consent. The dowry is given
to the husband, for him to enjoy as long as the
marriage shall last. Husband is legal guardian
of children.

Divorce: Absolute or limited for adultery,
condemnation to an infamous punishment, habit-
ual and intolerable intemperance, insupportable
excess or outrages, public defamation on the
part of one of the married persons toward the
other, desertion, attempted murder, proof of
guilt of husband or wife who has fled from justice
when charged with an infamous offence.

Labour Laws : No female to be employed in
any place where liquor is sold. No Sunday labour.
No child under 15 to engage in any acrobatic or
theatrical public exhibition. Seats must be pro-
vided for female employees, who are also to have
at least thirty minutes for lunch. No girl under 14
may be employed in any mill or factory; and no
woman shall be worked more than ten hours a
day. Seats, suitable dressing-rooms, and stairs
must be provided. An inspector, male or female,
is appointed.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: Tax-paying women
can vote on all questions of taxation. 14 women
in ministry, 4 dentists, 21 journalists, 8 lawyers,
25 doctors, 16 professors, 31 saloon keepers, 2
bankers', 18 commercial travellers, 9 carpenters,
etc.

198 History of Women's Rights
Maine

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population: Male 350,995; female 343,471.

Husband and Wife: Wife controls own earn-
ings and has full control of separate property.
Wife and husband are equal guardians of children.
If there is no will, the interest of the husband or
wife in the real estate of the other is the same —
one third absolutely, if there is issue living, one
half if there is no issue, the whole if there is
neither issue nor kindred.

Divorce: Absolute for adultery, impotence,
extreme cruelty, desertion for three years, gross
and confirmed habits of intoxication whether from
liquors or drugs, cruel and abusive treatment,
wilful neglect to provide.

No limited divorce.

Labour Laws: Ten hours a day the legal
limit for female employees. No child under
14 may work in a factory. No Sunday labour.
No child under 16 may be employed in any
acrobatic, mendicant, immoral, or dangerous
occupation.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: No suffrage. Wo-
men can be justices of the peace, town clerks, and
registers of probate. They cannot be notaries
public. 39 women in ministry, 4 dentists, 33
journalists, 4 lawyers, 67 doctors, i professor, 3
bankers, 5 carpenters, etc.

In the United States 199

Maryland

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population: Male 589,275; female 598,769.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings. No assignment of wages to be made with-
out consent of both husband and wife. Wife
controls separate property absolutely. Inheritance
of property is the same for widow and widower.
Husband is legal guardian of children and must
support family.

Divorce: Absolute for impotence, any cause
which by the laws of the State renders a mar-
riage null and void ah initio, adultery, desertion
for three years, illicit sexual intercourse of the woman
before marriage unknown to husband {hut the wife
caftnot ohtain a divorce from her hushand if he has
heen guilty of such an offence). Limited divorce
for cruelty, excessively vicious conduct, or de-
sertion. In all cases where an absolute divorce is
granted for adultery or abandonment, the court
may decree that the guilty party shall not con-
tract marriage with any other person during the
lifetime of the other party. Annulment is given
for bigamy or marriage within the prohibited
degrees of consanguinity and affinity.

Labour Laws: Seats must be provided for
female employees. No Simday labour. No child
under 14 may be employed in any mendicant or
acrobatic occupation. No child under 8 may be
employed in peddling. Women may not be wait-

200 History of Women's Rights

resses in any place where liquor is sold. Children
under 12 may not be employed in any business
except in the counties, from June i to Oct. 15.
Ten hours a legal day's work.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: No suffrage. Wo-
men serve as notaries public. 35 women in
ministry, 6 dentists, 23 journalists, 6 lawyers, 87
doctors, 4 professors, 2 bankers, 13 commercial
travellers, 10 carpenters, etc.

Massachusetts

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population: Male 1,367,474; female 1,437,872.

Husband and Wife: Wife controls own earn-
ings and has control of her separate property sub-
ject only to the husband's interests. She can
be executor, make contracts, etc., as if unmarried.
The husband is legal guardian of minor children;
he may dispose of them and may appoint a
guardian at his death. Husband must support
family. In distributing the estate, no distinc-
tion is made between real and personal property.
The surviving husband or wife takes one third,
if deceased leaves children or their descendants;
5000 dollars and one half of the remaining estate
if the deceased leaves no issue; and the whole, if
deceased leaves no kin. This is taken absolutely
and not for life. Curtesy and dower exist; but
the old-time curtesy is cut down to a life-interest

In the United States 201

in one third, the same as dower; and in order to be
entitled to dower or curtesy, the surviving hus-
band or wife must elect to take it in preference to
the above provisions.

! Divorce: Absolute for adultery, impotency,
utter desertion for three years, gross and confirmed
habits of intoxication, cruel and abusive treat-
ment, wilful neglect to provide, sentence to im-
prisonment for five years.

No limited divorce.

Labour Laws : No Sunday labour. Ten hours
a legal day's work. No woman to labour between
10 P.M. and 6 a.m. in any manufacturing establish-
ment, nor between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. in any textile
works. No child under 14 and no illiterate under
16 and over 14 may be employed in any factory
or mercantile establishment. No child under 14
may be employed between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m., or
during the time when the public schools are in
session. Seats must be provided for females.
No woman or young person shall be required to
work more than six hours without thirty minutes
for lunch. No child under 15 may engage in any
gymnastic or theatrical exhibition.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status : Women have school
suffrage. They may be justices of the peace.
188 women in ministry, 38 dentists, 180 journal-
ists, 47 lawyers, 729 doctors, 38 professors, 8
saloon keepers, 3 bankers, 73 commercial travel-
lers, 31 carpenters, etc.

202 History of Women's Rights
Michigan

Age of Legal Consent: i6.

Population : Male i ,248,905 ; female i, 172,077.

Husband and Wife: Husband controls wife's
earnings. Dower prevails, but not curtesy.
When the wife has separate real estate, she con-
trols it as if single. The husband cannot give
full title to his real estate unless the wife joins so
as to cut off her dower. Father is guardian of the
children. Husband must support.

Divorce: Absolute for adultery, impotence,
imprisonment for three years, desertion for two
years, habitual drimkenness, if husband or wife
has obtained a divorce in another State.

Limited or absolute divorce at the discretion
of the court for extreme cruelty, desertion for two
years, neglect to provide.

Labour Laws : No female may be employed in
any place where liquor is sold. Seats must be
provided for female employees. Ten hours a
legal day's work. No Sunday labour. No child
under 16 may take part in any acrobatic or men-
dicant or dangerous or immoral occupation, nor
shall any minor be given obscene literature to
sell. No female under 21 may be employed in
any occupation endangering life, health, or morals.
At least forty-five minutes must be allowed for
lunch.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: All women who

In the United States 203

pay taxes may vote upon questions of local
taxation and the granting of franchises. Parents
and guardians have also school suffrage. Wo-
men serve as notaries public. 105 women in
ministry, 17 dentists, 81 journalists, 2"] lawyers,
270 doctors, 26 professors, 23 saloon keepers, 13
bankers, 53 commercial travellers, 32 carpenters,
etc.

Minnesota

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population: Male 932,490; female 818,904.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings, but cannot convey or encumber her separate
real estate without husband's consent. No dower
or curtesy. If either husband or wife die in-
testate, the survivor, if there is issue living, is
entitled to the homestead for life and one third
of the rest of the estate in fee simple. If there
are no descendants, the entire estate goes abso-
lutely to the survivor. Husband is guardian of
children and must support family.

Divorce: Absolute for adultery, impotency,
cruel and inhuman treatment, sentence to im-
prisonment after marriage, wilful desertion for
one year, habitual drunkenness for one year.

Limited divorce — to wife only — for cruel and
inhuman treatment, on part of husband, or such
conduct as may make it unsafe and improper for
her to cohabit with him, desertion and neglect to
provide.

204 History of Women's Rights

Labour Laws: Children between 8 and i8 must
be sent to school during whole period schools are
in session, except in cases of unusual poverty.
Ten hours a legal day's work. Seats must be pro-
vided for female employees. No Sunday labour.
No child under i8 may engage in any occupation
between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m. ; nor in any mendicant,
acrobatic, immoral, or dangerous business. No
child under 14 may work in factory or mine.
A female factory inspector must be appointed.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status : Women have school
suffrage and may vote for library trustees. 80
women in ministry, 18 dentists, 75 journalists,
21 lawyers, 199 doctors, 16 professors, 17 saloon
keepers, 10 bankers, 46 commercial travellers, 8
carpenters, etc.

Mississippi

Age of Legal Consent: 10.

Population: Male 781,451; female 769,819.

Husband and Wife: Husband controls wife's
earnings. He manages her separate property,
but must give an account of it annually. No
dower or curtesy. If husband or wife dies in-
testate, the entire estate goes to the survivor; if
there is issue, surviving husband or wife has a
child's share of the estate. Each has equal rights
in making a will. Father is legal guardian of
children, but cannot deprive mother of custody
of their persons. Husband must support.

In the United States 205

Divorce: Absolute for marriage within pro-
hibited degrees, natural impotence, adultery,
sentence to the penitentiary, wilful desertion for
two years, habitual drunkenness or excessive use
of drugs, habitually cruel treatment, pregnancy of
wife at time of marriage unknown to husband,
bigamy, insanity, or idiocy when party applying
did not know of it.

No limited divorce. The court may decree
that the guilty party must not marry again.

Labour Laws : No Simday labour. There are
no other laws.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status : A woman as a free-
holder or lease-holder may vote at a county
election to decide as to the adoption or non-
adoption of a law permitting stock to run at
large. If a widow and the head of a family, she
may vote on leasing certain portions of land in the
township which are set apart for school purposes.
Widows in country districts may also vote for
school trustees. Women cannot be notaries
public. 13 women in ministry, 2 dentists, 19
journalists, 4 lawyers, 16 doctors, 3 professors,
I saloon keeper, 3 bankers, 9 commercial travel-
lers, 13 carpenters, etc.

Missouri

Age of Legal Consent: 18.

Population: Male 1,595,710; female 1,510,955.

Husband and Wife: Wife controls own

2o6 History of Women's Rights

earnings. Her separate property is liable for
debts contracted by the husband for necessaries
for the family. Wife can sue and be sued, make
contracts, etc., in her own name. She may hold
real property under three different tenures: an
equitable separate estate created by certain techni-
cal words in the conveyance, and this she can dis-
pose of without husband's consent ; a legal separate
estate, which she cannot convey without his
joinder ; and a common law estate in fee, of which
the husband is entitled to the rents and profits.
Dower and curtesy prevail. Husband is guardian
of children and must support.

Divorce: Absolute for impotence, bigamy,
adultery, desertion for one year, conviction for
felony or infamous crime, habitual dnmkenness
for one year, cruel treatment endangering life
or intolerable indignities, vagrancy of husband,
pregnancy of wife at time of marriage unknown
to husband.

No limited divorce.

Labour Laws : Seats must be provided for fe-
male employees. No woman may be employed
in any place where liquor is served except wife,
daughter, mother, or sister of owner. No child
under 14 to engage in any acrobatic, mendicant,
dangerous, or immoral occupation. No Simday
labour. No female may work underground in a
mine. Children between 8 and 14 must go to
school. No child under 14 may work in any
theatre, concert hall, factory; but this applies

In the United States 207

only to cities with 10,000 or more inhabitants.
No female may labour more than 54 hours a week.
Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: No suffrage. Wo-
men may be notaries public. 138 women in
ministry, 32 dentists, 87 journalists, 61 lawyers,
303 doctors, 17 professors, 44 saloon keepers,
30 bankers, 37 commercial travellers, 15 carpen-
ters, etc.

Montana

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population: Male 149,842; female 93,487.

Husband and Wife: Wife controls own earn-
ings. There is dower, but not curtesy. Wife
controls separate property. Husband is guardian
of children and must furnish support; but wife
must help, if necessary. Her personal property is
subject to debts incurred for family expenses.

Divorce: Absolute for adultery, extreme
cruelty, wilful desertion, wilful neglect, habitual
intemperance, conviction of felony.

No limited divorce ; but wife may have an action
for permanent maintenance, at discretion of court,
even though absolute divorce is denied.

Labour Laws: Children under 16 may not be
employed in mines. Children between 8 and 14
must go to school. No child under 16 may take
part in any acrobatic, mendicant, or wandering
occupation. No Sunday laboiu*. No child imder

2o8 History of Women's Rights

1 6 may work in mill, factory, railroad, in any
place where machinery is operated, or in any
messenger company.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: Women may vote
for school trustees. Those owning property may
vote on all questions submitted to \ tax-payers.
They cannot be notaries public. 22 women in
ministry, 3 dentists, 6 journalists, 3 lawyers, 16
doctors, 7 saloon keepers, 2 commercial travellers,
2 carpenters, etc.

Nehrasha

Age of Legal Consent: 18.

Population : Male 564,592 ; female 501 ,708.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings and separate property. Both dower and
curtesy prevail; but wife can mortgage or sell
her real estate without husband's consent and
without regard for his right of curtesy. He can
do the same with his separate property, but sub-
ject to her dower. Husband and wife are equal
guardians of the children. Husband must provide ;
but wife's separate property can be levied on
for necessaries furnished the family, if husband
has no property. Wife is not "next of kin" and
cannot sue, for example, for damages to a minor
child, even though she is divorced and has custody
of children.

Divorce: Absolute for adultery, impotence,

In the United States 209

imprisonment for three years, desertion for two
years, habitual drunkenness, imprisonment for
life, extreme cruelty, neglect to provide.

Limited divorce also for last three causes. An-
nulment for bigamy, when one party is white
and other has one fourth or more negro blood,
insanity or idiocy at time of marriage, consan-
guinity, obtaining marriage by fraud or force,
when there has been no subsequent cohabitation.

Labour Laws: Children must go to school
between 7 and 15. Ten hours a legal day's la-
bour. Sunday labour forbidden. Females to be em-
ployed between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Seats must be
provided. No child imder 14 may be employed
in any place where liquor is sold, factory, hotel,
laundry, messenger work. No child under 14
may be employed at all during school term.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: Women who are
mothers of children of school age or who are as-
sessed on real or personal property have school
suffrage ; but they cannot vote for State or county
superintendents or coimty supervisors. Women
act as notaries public. 95 women in ministry,
16 dentists, 35 journalists, 23 lawyers, 134 doctors,
II professors, 10 saloon keepers, 15 commercial
travellers, 12 carpenters, etc.

Nevada

Age of Legal Consent: 14.
14

210 History of Women's Rights

Population: Male 25,603; female 16,732.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings. She may control her separate property,
if a list of it is filed with the county recorder, but
imless it is kept constantly inventoried and re-
corded, it becomes community property. The
community property, both real and personal, is
under absolute control of husband and at wife's
death it all belongs to him. On death of the hus-
band, wife is entitled to half of it. A wife's
earnings are hers if her husband has allowed her
to appropriate them to her own use, when they
are regarded as a gift from him to her. Hus-
band is legal guardian of children. Husband
must provide; but there is no penalty if he does
not.

Divorce: Absolute for impotence, adultery
since marriage remaining imforgiven, wilful de-
sertion for one year, conviction for felony or
infamous crime, habitual dnmkenness which in-
capacitates party from contributing his or her
share to support of family, extreme cruelty, wil-
ful neglect to provide for one year.

No limited divorce.

Labour Laws: There are none dealing with
women and children.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: No suffrage. Wo-
men cannot serve as notaries public. 2 women in
ministry, 4 dentists, i journalist, i lawyer, 6
doctors, 5 saloon keepers.

In the United States 211

New Hampshire

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population : Male 205 ,379 ; female 206,209.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings. Dower and curtesy prevail. Wife can
sue and be sued and make contracts without hus-
band's consent. Husband is legal guardian of
children, and must provide.

Divorce: Absolute for impotence, adultery,
extreme cruelty, imprisonment for one year,
treatment seriously injuring health or endanger-
ing reason, absence for three years without being
heard from, habitual drunkenness for three years,
joining any religious sect which believes relation
of husband and wife unlawful, desertion for three
years with neglect to provide.

No limited divorce.

Labour Laws : No child imder 12 may be em-
ployed in any factory, nor any child under 14
while schools are in session. Nine hours and forty
minutes the legal limit for female labour per day.
No child imder 14 shall engage in any acrobatic
exhibition or in the selling of obscene literature.
No Sunday laboiu*. Seats must be provided for
female employees. No female may sell or serve
liquor.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status : Women have school
suffrage. They may be notaries public. 25
women in ministry, 3 dentists, 12 journalists, 2

212 History of Women's Rights

lawyers, 6i doctors, 3 professors, 9 saloon keepers,
6 commercial travellers, 5 carpenters, etc.

New Jersey

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population: Male 941,760; female 941,909.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings. Dower and curtesy prevail. She has full
disposal of her personal property by will; but
must get husband's consent to convey or encum-
ber her separate estate. Husband is guardian of
children. Husband must furnish support; but
wife must contribute, if he is unable.

Divorce: Absolute for bigamy, marriage
within prohibited degrees, adultery, wilful de-
sertion for two years, impotence.

Limited divorce for extreme cruelty.

In case of desertion and neglect to provide,
wife has an action for support.

Labour Laws: Seats must be provided for
female employees. Hours for labour must be
from 7 A.M. to 12 M. and from i p.m to 6 p.m., ex-
cept in fruit canning and glass factories. Sunday
labour forbidden. No child under 18 may engage
in any acrobatic, immoral, or mendicant occupa-
tion. No child imder 15 may engage in any voca-
tion unless he or she shall have attended school
within twelve months immediately preceding. No
child under 14 may work in a factory. No female

In the United States 213

employee shall be sent to any place of bad
repute.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: Women in villages
and country districts have school suffrage. They
may be notaries public. ^7 women in ministry,
19 dentists, 45 journalists, 23 lawyers, 176 doctors,
4 professors, 208 saloon keepers, 4 bankers, 11
commercial travellers, 12 carpenters, etc.

New Mexico

Age of Legal Consent : 14.

Population: Male 104,228; female 91,082.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings. Curtesy prevails. Neither husband nor
wife can convey real property without consent
of other. Husband is legal guardian of children,
but is not required by law to support the family.

Divorce: Absolute for adultery, cruel treat-
ment, desertion, impotency, neglect to provide,
habitual drimkenness, conviction for felony and
imprisonment subsequent to marriage, pregnancy
of wife at time of marriage unknown to husband.

No limited divorce. But when husband and
wife have permanently separated, wife has an ac-
tion for support.

Labour Laws : No Sunday labour. There are
no other laws relating to women and children.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
and Professional Status: No suffrage. Wo-

214 History of Women's Rights

men may be notaries public. lo women in min-
istry, 2 dentists, 5 doctors, 3 professors, 2 saloon
keepers, i commercial traveller, 3 carpenters, etc.

New York

Age of Legal Consent: 18. (Trials may be
held privately, and it is almost impossible to secure
a conviction.)

Population: Male 3,614,780; female 3,654,1 14.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings. Dower and curtesy prevail. Wife holds
separate property free from control of husband.
Both husband and wife can make wills without
knowledge or consent of other. Wife can mort-
gage or convey her whole estate without husband's
consent ; he can do this with his personal property ;
but not with his real estate. Husband and wife
are equal guardians of the children. Husband
must provide.

Divorce: Absolute for adultery only.

Limited for cruelty, conduct rendering cohabi-
tation unsafe or improper, desertion, neglect to
provide.

Court refuses to allow party guilty of adultery
to marry again, but may modify this after five
years if conduct of defendant has been imiformly
good. Adultery is now a crime in New York.

Labour Laws : No child under 16 may take part
in any acrobatic, mendicant, theatrical, wander-
ing, dangerous, or immoral occupation. Children

In the United States 215

must attend school between 8 and 16. No child
under 14 may be employed in any occupation
during school term. Eight hours a day's work.
Seat§ must be provided for female employees.
No child under 14 may work in a factory. Female
labour is confined between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m., and
must not exceed 10 hours. No girl under 16
shall sell papers or periodicals in any public place.
Female employment agencies may not send ap-
plicant to any place of bad repute.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: Tax-paying women
in towns and villages may vote on questions of
local taxation. Parents and widows with children
have school suffrage in towns and villages. Wo-
men may be notaries public. 511 women in
ministry, 108 dentists, 365 journalists, 124 lawyers,
103 commercial travellers, 925 doctors, 49 profes-
sors, 348 saloon keepers, 81 bankers, 84 carpen-
ters, etc.

North Carolina

Age of Legal Consent: 14.

Population: Male 938,677; female 955,133.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings. Dower and curtesy prevail. Wife con-
trols separate property. Wife is not bound by a
contract imless husband joins in writing. In
actions against her he must be served with
the suit. Wife cannot be sole trader without

2i6 History of Women's Rights

husband's written consent. Husband is legal
guardian of children, and must provide.

Divorce: Absolute for adultery, impotence,
pregnancy of wife at time of marriage unknown to
husband.

Limited for desertion, turning partner mali-
ciously out of doors, cruel treatment endangering
life, intolerable indignities, habitual drunkenness.

Wife has an action for separate maintenance
if husband neglects to provide or is a drunkard
or spendthrift.

Labour Laws: No Sunday labour. No child
under 12 may be employed in factory, except
oyster canning concerns which pay for opening
oysters by the bushel. No person under 18 shall
be required to labour more than 66 hours per
week. No child under 12 shall work in a mine.
No boy or girl under 14 shall work in a factory
between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
and Professional Status: No suffrage. Wo-
men cannot be notaries public. 25 women in
ministry, 6 journalists, 22 doctors, 2 professors,
2 saloon keepers, 3 bankers, 4 commercial travel-
lers, 6 carpenters, etc.

North Dakota

Age of Legal Consent: 18.

Population: Male 177,493; female 141,653.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-

c
UNIV

■""^n the United States 217

ings and separate property absolutely. Dower
and curtesy do not prevail; if husband or wife dies
intestate, survivor takes one half of the estate, if
there is only one child living or the lawful issue
of one child; if there are more, survivor gets one
third. If husband is unable to support family,
wife must maintain him and the children. Hus-
band is guardian of children.

Divorce: Absolute for adultery, extreme cru-
elty, wilful desertion for one year, wilful neg-
lect for one year, habitual intemperance for one
year, conviction of felony.

No limited divorce.

Labour Laws: Children under 12 may not
work in mines, factories, or workshops. Children
must go to school between 8 and 14, unless they
have already been taught adequately and poverty
compels them to work. No Sunday labour. No
woman under 18 shall labour more then ten hours
per day.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status : Women have school
suffrage and are eligible to all school offices. They
may be notaries public. 15 women in ministry,
5 dentists, 2 journalists, 6 lawyers, 15 doctors,
I professor, i commercial traveller, 4 carpenters,
etc.

Ohio

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population: Male 2,102,655 ; female 2,054,890.

2i8 History of Women's Rights

Husband and Wife : Husband controls wife's
earnings, but wife controls separate property.
Either husband or wife on the death of the other
is entitled to one third of the real estate for life.
Husband is legal guardian of children, and must
provide; but if he is unable, wife must assist.

Divorce: Absolute for bigamy, desertion for
three years, adultery, impotence, extreme cruelty,
fraudulent contract, any gross neglect of duty,
habitual drunkenness for three years, imprison-
ment in penitentiary, procurement of divorce in
another State. No limited divorce; but wife has
an action for alimony without divorce for adul-
tery, any gross neglect of duty, desertion, separa-
tion on account of ill treatment by husband,
habitual drunkenness, sentence and imprisonment
in penitentiary.

Labour Laws: No child under 14 may work in
a mine. Children must go to school between 8
and 14. Seats and suitable toilet rooms must be
provided for female employees. No child under
14 may be employed in any establishment or
take part in any acrobatic, mendicant, dangerous,
or immoral vocation. Hours for girls under 18
confined between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m., nor may they
work more than ten hours per day. No Sunday
labour. No labour agency shall send any female to
an immoral resort.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: Women may vote
for members of boards of education, but not for

In the United States 219

State commissioner nor on bonds and appropria-
tions. They cannot be notaries. 206 women in
ministry, 40 dentists, 151 journalists, 66 lawyers,
451 doctors, 26 professors, 337 saloon keepers,
15 bankers, 62 commercial travellers, 31 car-
penters, etc.

Oklahoma

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population: Male 214,359; female 182,972.

Husband and Wife: Wife controls own earn-
ings and separate property absolutely. If hus-
band or wife dies intestate, leaving one child or
lawful issue of child, survivor receives one third of
the estate; otherwise one half. If there are no
kin, survivor takes all. Husband is guardian of
children, and is expected to provide; but law as-
signs no penalty if he does not.

Divorce: Absolute for bigamy, desertion for
one year, impotence, pregnancy of wife at time
of marriage by other than husband, extreme
cruelty, fraudulent contract, habitual drunken-
ness, gross neglect of duty, conviction and im-
prisonment for felony after marriage.

Wife may have an action for separate main-
tenance for any of these causes without applying
for divorce.

Labour Laws: No children under 15 may be
employed in any occupation injurious to body or
morals. No Sunday labour. Ten hours per day
legal labour for children under 14.

220 History of Women's Rights

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status : Women may vote
for school trustees. They may be notaries
public. 29 women in ministry, i dentist, 5
journalists, 5 lawyers, 26 doctors, i professor, 4
commercial travellers, 3 carpenters, etc.

Oregon

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population: Male 232,985; female 183,972.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings. By registering as a sole trader, she can
carry on business in her own name. Civil disabil-
ities are same for husband and wife except as to
voting and holding office. If husband or wife
dies intestate, and there are no descendants living,
survivor takes whole estate. If there is issue
living, the widow receives one half of husband's
real estate and one half of his personal property.
The widower takes a life interest in all the wife's
real estate, whether there are children or not,
and all her personal property absolutely if there
are no descendants living; otherwise one half.
Husband and wife are equal guardians of child-
ren. Husband must provide.

Divorce: Absolute for impotency, adultery,
conviction for felony, habitual drunkenness for
one year, wilful desertion for one year, cruel treat-
ment or indignities making life burdensome.

No limited divorce. Annulment if either party
is one fourth negro or Mongolian blood.

In the United States 221

Labour Laws: No Sunday labour. No child
under 14 shall work in factory, mill, mine, tele-
graph, telephone, or public messenger service;
and no child under 14 shall be employed at all
during school session. Attendance at school com-
pulsory between 8 and 14. Hours of work for
children under 16 to be confined between 7 a.m.
and 6 p.m. Seats must be provided for female
employees. Ten hours a day the legal limit for
female labour.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
and Professional Status: Women having
property in school districts have school suffrage
and may be elected school trustees. They may
be notaries. 40 women in ministry, 15 dentists,
17 journalists, 8 lawyers, 82 doctors, 7 professors,
5 saloon keepers, 10 bankers, 18 commercial travel-
lers, 7 carpenters, etc.

Pennsylvania

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population : Male 3,204,541 ; female 3,097,574.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings. Dower and curtesy prevail. Wife cannot
mortgage separate estate without husband's con-
sent; cannot sue or be sued or contract without
his consent; and in order to carry on business in
her own name must secure special permission
from the court. Husband is legal guardian of
children, and must provide.

Divorce: Absolute for impotence, bigamy,

222 History of Women^s Rights

adultery, desertion for two years, cruelty or intoler-
able indignities, marriage within prohibited degrees
of consanguinity or affinity, fraud, conviction for
felony for more than two years, limacy for ten
years.

Limited divorce for desertion, turning wife
out of doors, cruelty, adultery.

Labour Laws: Seats must be provided for
female employees. Employment of females in
mines forbidden. Children under i8 may not
engage in any mendicant occupations; those
under 15 may not exhibit in any place where
liquor is sold nor take part in any acrobatic or im-
moral vocation. Sunday labour forbidden. No
female may work in bakery or macaroni or other
establishment more than twelve hours per day.
Children must go to school between 8 and 16.
No child under 16 may work in any anthracite
coal mine. No child under 14 shall be employed
in any establishment. One hour must be allowed
for lunch. No employment bureau shall send
any female to an immoral resort.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: No suffrage. 290
women in ministry, 73 dentists, 125 journalists,
73 lawyers, 601 doctors, 38 professors, 183 saloon
keepers, 17 bankers, 44 commercial travellers, 40
carpenters, etc.

Rhode Island

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population: Male 210,516; female 218,040.

In the United States 223

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings and separate estate, subject to husband's
right to curtesy. Curtesy and dower both pre-
vail. Husband is legal guardian of children and
must provide.

Divorce: Absolute or limited for marriages
originally void by law, conviction for crime in-
volving loss of civil status, when either party
may be presumed to be naturally dead from ab-
sence, etc., impotence, adultery, desertion for any
time at discretion of court, continued drunkenness,
neglect to provide, any gross misbehaviour.

Labour Laws: No child under 13 may be em-
ployed except during vacation. No child under
15 may be employed unless he or she has school
certificate. No child under 14 to work in factory.
Hours of labour for children under 16 confined be-
tween 6 A.M. and 8 p.m. Seats must be provided
for all female employees. No child under 16 shall
be employed in any acrobatic, mendicant, dan-
gerous, or immoral occupation. Hours for female
labotir confined to ten. Sunday labour forbidden.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: No suffrage. 24
women in ministry, 5 dentists, 7 journalists, 3
lawyers, 56 doctors, 2 saloon keepers, 5 commercial
travellers, 6 carpenters, etc.

South Carolina

Age of Legal Consent: 14.

Population: Male 664,895; female 675,421.

224 History of Women's Rights

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings and separate estate absolutely. Dower pre-
vails, but not curtesy. Husband is legal guardian
of children, and is required to provide, but law as
it stands offers many loopholes.

Divorce: There are no divorce laws in South
Carolina.

Labour Laws: Seats must be provided for
female employees. Sunday labour forbidden. No
child under 12 to work in factory, mill, or textile
establishment, except in cases of extreme poverty
duly attested ; all such labour to be confined be-
tween 6 A.M. and 8 p.m.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: No suffrage. Wo-
men cannot be notaries. 17 women in ministry,
I dentist, 6 journalists, 3 lawyers, 17 doctors, 13
professors, 3 saloon keepers, 2 commercial trav-
ellers, 13 carpenters, etc.

South Dakota

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population: Male 216,164; female 185,406.

Husband and Wife: Wife controls own earn-
ings and controls separate estate. Joint real
estate can be conveyed only by signature of both
husband and wife, but husband can dispose of
joint personal property without wife's consent.
In order to control her separate property, wife
must keep it recorded in the office of the county

In the United States 225

register. No dower and no curtesy. Survivor
gets one half of estate, if there is one child or
issue of child; otherwise one third; unless there
are neither children nor kin, when survivor takes
all. On the death of an unmarried child, father
inherits all its property. If he is dead and there
are no other children, mother succeeds; but if
there are brothers and sisters, she inherits a child's
share. Husband is guardian and must support;
but if he is infirm, wife must do so.

Divorce: Absolute for adultery, extreme
cruelty, wilful desertion or neglect or habit-
ual intemperance for one year, conviction of
felony.

No limited divorce.

Party guilty of adultery cannot marry an}"
other, except the innocent party, until death of
latter.

Labour Laws: Sunday labour forbidden. No
woman under 18 may labour more than ten hours
a day. No child under 15 may work in mine,
hotel, laundry, factory, elevator, bowliag alley,
or any place where liquor is sold. No child
under 15 shall be employed at all while schools are
in session.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: Women can vote
for school trustees. They may be notaries. 29
women in ministry, 3 dentists, 4 journalists, 12
lawyers, 24 doctors, 7 professors, 3 saloon keepers,
3 commercial travellers, etc.
15

226 History of Women's Rights
Tennessee

Age of Legal Consent: i8.

Population: Male 1,021,224; female 999,392.

Husband and Wife : Husband controls wife's
earnings, and wife can do nothing with her separate
estate without his consent. Dower and curtesy
prevail. Husband has right to all rents and pro-
fits of wife's estate. No law requires husband to
provide. Husband is guardian of children.

Divorce: Absolute for impotence, bigamy,
adultery, desertion for two years, conviction for
felony, attempted murder, pregnancy of woman
at time of marriage without knowledge of hus-
band, habitual drunkenness.

Limited for wife only for cruel treatment by
husband or intolerable indignities, and desertion
or refusal to provide.

Party guilty of adultery cannot marry person
with whom adultery has been committed during
life of former partner.

Labour Laws : No Simday labour. No child
under 14 may be employed in factory, workshop,
or mine. Seats must be provided for female
employees. Hours for labour of women confined
to 60 per week.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
and Professional Status: No suffrage. 30
women in ministry, i dentist, 19 journalists, 14
lawyers, 48 doctors, 9 professors, 6 saloon keepers, 4
bankers, 16 commercial travellers, 6 carpenters, etc.

In the United States 227

Texas

Age of Legal Consent: 15.

Population : Male i ,578,900 ; female i ,469,810.

Husband and Wife : Husband controls wife's
earnings and wife can do nothing with her separate
property without his consent. No dower or curtesy.
Husband and wife succeed equally to each other's
estate. Husband is guardian of children and may
be required to provide out of his wife's estate.

Divorce: Absolute for excesses or outrages;
in favour of husband when wife is taken in adultery
or has deserted him for three years ; in favour of
wife, if husband has deserted her for three years
or has abandoned her and lives in adultery with
another woman. In favour of either husband or
wife on conviction for felony.

No limited divorce.

Labour Laws : No Sunday laboiir. No child
under 12 may be employed in any establishment
using machinery. No females shall be employed
in any place where liquor is sold except immediate
members of owner's family.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: No suffrage. Wo-
men can be notaries. 50 women in ministry,
12 dentists, 51 journalists, 17 lawyers, 100 doctors,
3 professors, 26 saloon keepers, 18 bankers, 29
commercial travellers, 12 carpenters, etc.

Utah

Age of Legal Consent: 18.

228 History of Women's Rights

Population: Male 141,687; female 135,062.

Husband and Wife: Wife controls own earn-
ings. No dower or curtesy. Husband and wife
succeed equally to each other's estate at death.
Woman controls separate estate absolutely.
Husband is legal guardian of children. There is
no penalty for non-support.

Divorce : Absolute for impotence, adultery, de-
sertion for one year, neglect to provide, habitual
drunkenness, conviction of felony, cruel treatment
causing bodily injury or mental distress, perma-
nent insanity.

No limited divorce; but wife has an action for
separate maintenance in case of desertion or
neglect to provide on part of husband.

Labour Laws : No females may work in mines.
No Sunday labour.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status : Full suffrage ; there-
fore all offices are open to women. 20 women
in ministry, 5 dentists, 7 journalists, i lawyer,
34 doctors, 2 saloon keepers, i banker, 3 com-
mercial travellers, i carpenter, etc.

Vermont

Age of Legal Consent: 16.

Population: Males 175,138; females 168,503.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings and controls separate property. No dower
or ciurtesy. Husband and wife have same powers

In the United States 229

of mutual inheritance, except that widower does
not take his wife's personal property. Husband
is guardian of children and must support.

Divorce: Absolute or limited for adultery,
sentence to hard labour, intolerable severity, de-
sertion for three years, neglect to provide, absence
for seven years without being heard from.

Labour Laws: No child under 16 to be em-
ployed after 8 p.m. No child tmder 12 may
work in mill, factory, railroad, quarry, or mes-
senger service. No female shall be employed in
barrooms. No Simday labour.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status : Women have school
suffrage. They may be notaries. 17 women in
ministry, 3 dentists, 15 journalists, 21 doctors,
I professor, 2 saloon keepers, 11 commercial
travellers, 3 carpenters, etc.

Virginia

Age of Legal Consent: 14.

Population: Male 925,897; female 928,287.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings and separate property absolutely. Dower
and curtesy prevail. Husband is guardian of
children and must support.

Divorce: Absolute for adultery, impotence,
sentence to penitentiary, conviction of an in-
famous offence prior to marriage without know-
ledge of other party, desertion for three years,

230 History of Women's Rights

pregnancy of wife at time of marriage or previous
prostitution without knowledge of husband.

Limited for cruelty, reasonable apprehension of
bodily hurt, desertion.

Labour Laws: Seats must be provided for
female employees. Hours of female labour con-
fined to ten. No child under 12 may work in
factory or mine; no child imder 14 shall work be-
tween 6 P.M. and 7 A.M. No child under 14 shall
be hired for any mendicant, acrobatic, dangerous,
or immoral occupation. No Simday labour. !

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: No suffrage. 37
women in ministry, i dentist, 12 journalists, 7
lawyers, 32 doctors, 20 professors, 19 saloon
keepers, 13 commercial travellers, 9 carpenters, etc.

Washington

Age of Legal Consent: 18.

Population : Male 304, 1 78 ; female 2 13,925.

Husband AND Wife: Wife controls own earn-
ings and controls separate estate; but control of
community property is vested absolutely in the
husband; this includes everything acquired after
marriage by the joint or separate efforts of either.
Husband and wife have equal rights of inherit-
ance to one another's estate; but are not equal
guardians of the children, as husband can ex-
clude wife by will. Support of the family is
chargeable upon the property of both husband or
wife, or either of them. No dower or curtesy.

In the United States 231

Divorce: Absolute for any cause deemed by
court sufficient, when court is satisfied that parties
can no longer live together, fraudulent contract,
adultery, impotence, desertion for one year,
cruel treatment, habitual drunkenness, neglect
to provide, imprisonment.

No limited divorce.

Labour Laws : No female may be employed in
a mine. Every profession and occupation open
to women, but they may not hold public office.
No Sunday labour. Females shall not be employed
in any place where liquor is sold. Seats must be
provided for female employees. Hours limited to
ten. No child under 14 shall labour in factory,
mill, or workshop except at discretion of juvenile
judge. Children must go to school between 8
and 15.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status : Women have school
and bond suffrage, but cannot vote for State
or coimty superintendents. 38 women in minis-
try, 7 dentists, 13 journalists, 13 lawyers, 62
doctors, 3 professors, 8 saloon keepers, i banker,
8 commercial travellers, etc.

West Virginia

Age of Legal Consent: 14.
Population : Male 499,242 ; female 459,558.
Husband and Wife: Wife controls own earn-
ings, but cannot sell or encumber her separate

232 History of Women's Rights

property without husband's consent. Husband is
legal guardian and must provide. Dower and
curtesy prevail.

Divorce: Absolute for adultery, impotence,
imprisonment in penitentiary, conviction of an
infamous offence before marriage, desertion for
three years, pregnancy of wife at time of marriage
or prostitution before without knowledge of hus-
band, in favour of wife when husband was notori-
ously a licentious person before marriage without
her knowledge.

Limited for cruelty, reasonable apprehension of
bodily hurt, desertion, habitual drunkenness.

Labour Laws : No Simday labour. No child
tmder 12 may work in factory or mill and no child
under 14 shall be employed during school session.
No child under 15 may be employed in any
mendicant, acrobatic, immoral, or dangerous oc-
cupation, nor in any place where liquor is sold.
Seats must be provided for female employees.
No female may work in mine.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status: No suffrage. Wo-
men cannot be notaries. 26 women in ministry,
4 dentists, 4 journalists, 4 lawyers, 18 doctors, 4
professors, 9 saloon keepers, 2 bankers, 3 com-
mercial travellers, 2 carpenters, etc.

Wisconsin

Age of Legal Consent: 18.

Population : Male i ,067,562 ; female i ,001 ,480.

In the United States 233

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings. Assignment of wages of husband must
have wife's written consent. Wife controls sep-
arate property absolutely. Dower and curtesy
prevail. Husband is guardian of children and
must provide.

Divorce: Absolute for impotence, adultery,
sentence to imprisonment for three years prior to
marriage. Limited or absolute for desertion for
one year, cruelty, habitual drunkenness, neglect
to provide, conduct of husband rendering it im-
proper or unsafe for wife to live with him.

Labour Laws : Female labour confined to eight
hours per day. No child imder 14 may work in
factory, workshop, bowling alley, or mine. Child-
ren between 14 and 16 must get permission from
juvenile judge. No child under 16 shall be em-
ployed on dangerous machinery. None under
14 shall take part in theatrical or circus exhibi-
tion as musician unless accompanied on tours
by parent or guardian. Authorities shall in all
cases determine whether occupation is dangerous
or immoral for children xmder 14. No Simday
labour.

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
AND Professional Status : Women have school
suffrage. They may be notaries. 65 women in
ministry, 24 dentists, 32 jotimalists, 23 law-
yers, 154 doctors, 12 professors, 143 saloon
keepers, 2 bankers, 2^] commercial travellers, 9
carpenters, etc.

234 History of Women's Rights

Wyoming

Age of Legal Consent: 21.

Population : Male 58 , 1 84 ; female 34 ,347.

Husband and Wife : Wife controls own earn-
ings and separate property absolutely. Neither
dower nor curtesy prevail. Husband and wife
have same rights of mutual inheritance. Hus-
band is legal guardian of children, but there is no
penalty if he does not provide.

Divorce: Absolute for adultery, impotence,
conviction for felony, desertion for one year,
habitual dnmkenness, extreme cruelty, neglect
to provide for one year, intolerable indignities,
vagrancy of husband, conviction of felony prior
to marriage tmknown to other party, pregnancy
of wife at time of marriage unknown to husband.

No limited divorce.

Labour Laws : No female shall work in mine.
Acrobatic, mendicant, dangerous, or immoral
occupations forbidden to children under 14. No
Sunday labour. Seats must be provided for female
employees. ■

Suffrage, Political Condition, Industrial
and Professional Status: Full suffrage. Wo-
men are eligible for all offices. 2 women in
ministry, 2 journalists, 12 doctors, i professor,
no saloon keepers, lawyers, or dentists, 2 car-
penters, etc.

In studying these tables, it should be remem-
bered that new laws are being made constantly;

In the United States 235

and that the census of 1910 will give figures which
as soon as they appear must supersede those of
1900.

SOURCES

I. The Statutes of the Several States, from earliest times to
the present day. Published by Authority.

II. All newspapers and periodicals.

III. The Census Reports, especially the various separate re-
ports such as that on "Marriage and Divorce"; and the Re-
ports of the Commissioner of Labour.

IV. The History of Woman Suffrage: edited by Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and
Ida Husted Harper, 4 vols. [First two published by Fowler and
Wells, New York, 1881 and 1882; last two by Susan B. Anthony,
Rochester, 1887 and 1902.]

V. The Encyclopedia of Social Reforms: edited by William
D. P. Bliss, with the Co-operation of many Specialists. Funk
and Wagnalls, New York and London, 1898.

CHAPTER IX

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

IT is twenty-three centuries since Plato gave to
the world his magnificent treatise on the
State. The dream of the Greek philosopher of
equal rights for all intelligent citizens, among
whom he includes women, has in large part been
realised ; but much is yet wanting to bring society
to the standard of the Ideal Republic. In not a
few States of the world the conditions affecting
property rights are inequitable; in all but very
few States woman is still barred from the field of
politics and from the legitimate rights of citizen-
ship; and the day seems far distant when the
States possessing a representative government will
be prepared to accept the woman citizen as eligible
for administrative positions.

It will, therefore, be my purpose in this chapter
first to consider five of the most serious objec-
tions to the granting of equal suffrage, that is to
say, to the concession to women of full citizens'
rights under the law. It will be found that these
objections are based on a presumed inferiority of
women to men in various respects. I shall give
consideration next in order to the question of the

236

General Considerations 237

inferiority or superiority of one sex over the other.
In view, furthermore, of the new ferment in
thought in modern society, it will be useful to
analyse certain habits of mind and to indicate the
necessity for a readjustment of old beliefs in
the light of recent evolution. I shall conclude
my history with a suggestion for definite reforms
which, I believe, must be brought about, whether
equal suffrage is granted or not, before women can
attain their maximum of efficiency.

The opposition to the granting of equal suf-
frage is, as I have said, based mainly upon five
classes of contentions :
I. The theological.
II. The physiological.

III. The social or political.

IV. The intellectual.
V. The moral.

A consideration and an analysis of these five
classes of objections will constitute a summary of
the relations of woman to the community, and
may also serve as a guide or suggestion to the
possibility of a legitimate development, in the
near future, of her rights as a citizen.
1— I. The theological argument is based upon
the distinctly evil conception of woman, presented
in Genesis, as the cause of misery in this world
and upon the subordinate position assigned to her
by Paul and Peter, j Christ himself has left us
no teachings on the'' subject. The Hebrew and
Oriental creed of woman's sphere permeated the

238 History of Women's Rights

West as Christianity expanded and forced to
extinction the Roman principle of equaHty. Only
within fifty years, has the female sex regained the
rights enjoyed by women under the law of the
Empire seventeen centuries ago. The Apostolic
theory of complete subordination gained strength
with each succeeding age. I have already cited
instances of ecclesiastical vehemence. As a final
example I may recall that when, early in the
nineteenth century, chloroform was first used
to help women in childbirth, a number of Pro-
testant divines denounced the practice as a sin
against the Creator, who had expressly com-
manded that woman should bring forth in sorrow
and tribulation. Yet times have so far changed
within two decades that the theological argument
is practically obsolete among Protestants, al-
though it is still influential in the Roman Catholic
Church, which holds fast to the doctrine laid
down by the Apostles. We may say, however,
that of all the objections, the theological has, in
practice, the least weight among the bulk of the
population. The word obey in the clerical formula
lovCj honour, and obey provokes a smile.

II. The physiological argument is more power-
ful. Its supporters assert that the constitution
of woman is too delicate, too finely wrought to
compete with man in his chosen fields. The
physiological argument makes its appearance most
persistently in the statement that woman should
have no vote because she could not defend her

General Considerations 239

property or her country in time of war. In reply
to this some partisans of equal suffrage have
thought it necessary to prove that women are
physically equal in all respects to men. But the
issues between nations which in the centuries
past it had been believed could be adjusted only
by war, by being fought out (not, of course,
to any logical conclusion, but to a result which
showed simply that one party was stronger than
the other), are now, in the great majority of cases,
determined by the more reasonable, the more
civilised, method of arbitration.

As a matter of fact, the cause of woman*s rights
will suffer no harm by a frank admission that
women are not, in general, the peers of men in
brute force. The very nature of the female sex,
subjected, as it is, to functional strains from which
the male is free, is sufficient to invalidate such a
claim. A refutation of the physiological objec-
tion to equal suffrage is, however, not hard to
find. Even in war, as it is practised to-day,
physical force is of little significance compared
with strategy which is a product of the intellect.
In a naval battle for instance, ships no longer en-
gage at close range, where it is possible for the crew
of one to board the opposing ship and engage in
hand to hand conflict with the enemy; machinery
turns the guns and even loads them; the whole
fight is simply a contest between trained gunners,
who must depend for success on cool mathematical
computation.

240 History of Women's Rights

Nevertheless, it is true that under stress or the
need of making a liveUhood women in many in-
stances do show physical endurance equal to that
of men. Women who are expert ballet dancers
and those who are skilled acrobats can hardly
be termed physiological weaklings. In Berlin,
you may see women staggering along with huge
loads on their backs ; in Munich, women are street-
cleaners and hod-carriers; on the island of Capri,
the trunk of the tourist is lifted by two men onto
the shoulder of a woman^ who carries it up the
steep road to the village. In this country many
women are forced to do hard bodily labour ten
hours a day in sweat-shops. In all countries
and in all ages there have been examples of wo-
men who, disguised as men, have fought side by
side with the male and with equal efficiency. The
case of Joan of Arc will at once occur to the
reader; and those who are curious about this
subject may, by consulting the records of our
Civil War, find exciting material in the story of
"Belle Boyd," "Frank Miller," and "Major
Cushman." '

Doubtless women are stronger physically than
they were a half-century ago, when it was con-
sidered unladylike to exercise. If you will read
the novels of that time, you will find that the
heroine faints on the slightest provocation or
weeps copiously, like Amelia in Vanity Fair,

»See an excellent article on "The American Woman" by
Miss Ida M. Tarbell, in the American Magazine for April, 191c.

General Considerations 241

whenever the situation demands a grain of will-
power or of common-sense. But to-day women
seldom faint or weep in literature ; they play tennis
or row. When, in 1844, Pauline Wright Davis
lectured on physiology before women in America
and displayed the manikin, some of her auditors
dropped their veils, some ran from the room, and
some actually became unconscious, because their
sense of delicacy was put to so sharp a test.

It should be borne in mind, in connection with
the contention that the privileges of a citizen
ought to be accorded only to those persons who
are physically capable of helping to defend the
community by force, that no such principle is ap-
plied in fixing the existing qualifications for male
citizenship. A large number of the voters of
every community are, on the ground either of
advanced years or of invalidism, physically dis-
qualified for service as soldiers, sailors, or police-
men. This group of citizens includes a very large
proportion of the thinking power of the com-
munity. No intelligently directed state would,
however, be prepared to deprive itself of the coun-
sels, of the active political co-operation, and of the
service from time to time in the responsibility of
office, of men of the type of Gladstone (at the age
of seventy-five), of John Stuart Mill (always a
physical weakling), of Washington (serving as
President after he was sixty) , on the ground that
these citizens were no longer capable of carrying
muskets in the ranks.

x6

242 History of Women's Rights

Any classification of citizens, any privileges
extended to voters, ought, of course, to be arrived
at on a consistent and impartial principle.

Further, under the conditions obtaining in
this twentieth century, governments, whether of
nations, of states, or of cities, are carried on not
by force but by opinion. In the earlier history
of mankind, each family was called upon to main-
tain its existence by physical force. The families
the members of which (female as well as male)
were not strong enough to fight for their existence
were crushed out. Far into the later centuries,
issues between individuals were adjusted by the
decision of arms. Up to within a very recent
date, it may be admitted that issues between
nations could be settled only by war. It is, how-
ever, at this time the accepted principle of re-
presentative government in all communities that
matters of policy are determined by the expression
of opinion, that is by means of the votes given by
the majority of its citizens. It is by intelligence
and not by brute force that the world is now being
ruled, and with the growth of intelligence and a
better understanding of the principles of govern-
ment, it is in order not only on the groimds of
justice but for the best interests of the state to
widen the foundations of representative govern-
ment, so as to make available for voting and for
official responsibilities all the intelligence that is
comprised within the community. This is in my
judgment the most conclusive reply to the objec-

General Considerations 243

tion that the physical weakness of woman unfits
h^i^or citizenship.

III. According to the social or political argu-
ment, if woman is given equal rights with man,
the basis of family life, and hence the foundation
of the state itself, is undermined, as a house
divided against itself cannot stand. It is said
that (i) there must be some one authority in a
household and that this should be the man; (2)
woman will neglect the home if she is left free to
enter politics or a profession; (3) politics will
degrade her; (4) when independent and self-
asserting she will lose her influence over man;
and (5) most women do not want to vote or to
enter politics.

It is astonishing with what vehemence men will
base arguments on pure theory and speculation,
while they wilfully close their eyes to any facts
which may contradict their assumptions. It is
inconceivable to a certain type of mind that a
husband and wife can differ on political questions
and may yet maintain an even harmony, while
their love abates not one whit. In the four States
where women vote — Wyoming, Colorado, Utah,
and Idaho — there is no more divorce than in
other States; and any one who has travelled in
these communities can attest that no domestic
unhappiness results from the suffrage. Nor does
it in New Zealand.

It is said that there must be some one supreme
authority; but this depends on the view taken of

244 History of Women's Rights

marriage. Under the old Common Law, the
personality of the wife was merged completely
in that of her husband; marriage was an absolute
despotism. Under the Canon Law, woman is
man's obedient and unquestioning subject; mar-
riage is a benevolent despotism. To-day people
are more inclined to look upon matrimony as a
partnership of equal duties, rights, and privileges.
Sophocles argued in one of his tragedies that
children belong entirely to the father, that the
mother can assert no valid claim for anything.
Lawyers have found this logic excellent; and the
records V are full of instances of children being
taken from a hard-working mother in order to be
handed over to a drunken father who wants their
wages for his support. It is no longer so in most
states. Civilisation has advanced so far, that the
pains of bringing forth and raising children are
acknowledged to give the mother a right almost
equal to that of the father to determine all that
concerns the child. There is some reason, there-
fore, for believing that she should have a voice
also in passing upon laws which may make or
undo for ever the welfare of the boys and girls for
whom she struggles during the years that they
are growing to manhood and womanhood. Men
are for the greater part so engrossed in business
that on certain questions they are far less com-
petent to be "authorities" than women. Against
stupid pedagogy, against red-tape, against the
policy that morality must never interfere with

General Considerations 245

business principles, against civic dirtiness, against
brothel and saloon, women are more active than
men, because they see more clearly how vitally
the interests of their children are affected by these
evil conditions. Wherever women vote, these
questions are to the fore.

Closely connected with the "one authority'*
argument is the old contention, so often resorted
to and relied upon, that women, if they are per-
mitted to vote, will neglect the home, and that,
if the professions are opened to them, they will
find these too absorbingly attractive. Much
weight should, however, be given to the great
power of the domestic instinct implanted in the
nature of woman. In the States where women
vote and are eligible for political offices, there
are fewer unmarried women in proportion to the
population than in States where they have no such
rights. The great leaders of the woman suffrage
movement from Mrs. Stanton to Mrs. Snowden
have in their home circle led lives as beautiful
and have raised families as large and as well
equipped morally and intellectually as those who
are content to sit by the fire and spin.

Thus far I have argued from the orthodox view,
that matrimony ought to be the goal of every
woman's ambition. But if a woman wishes to
remain single and devote herself exclusively to
the realisation of some ideal, it is hard to see
why she should not. Men who take this course
are eulogised for their noble self-sacrifice in

246 History of Women's Rights

immolating themselves for the advancement of
the cause of civilisation; women who do precisely
the same thing are sometimes unthinkingly spoken
of in terms of contempt or with that complacent
pity which is far worse. It is difficult for us to
realise adequately what talented women like
Rosa Bonheur had to undergo because of this
curious attitude of humanity.

"The home is woman's sphere." This shib-
boleth is the logical result of the attitude men-
tioned. Doubtless, the home is woman's sphere-
but the home includes all that pertains to it — V
city, politics and taxes, laws relating to the protec-
tion of minors, municipal rottenness which may
corrupt children, schools and playgrounds and
museums which may educate them. Few doc-
trines have been productive of more pain than the
*' woman's sphere" argument. It is this which
has, for a thousand years, made the unmarried
woman, the Old Maid, the butt of the contemptible
jibes of Christian society, whereof you will find
no parallel in pagan antiquity. Dramatic writers
have held her up to ridicule on the stage on ac-
count of the peculiarities of character which are
naturally acquired when a person is isolated from
participation in the activities of life. It is the
doctrine which has made women glad to marry
drunkards and rakes, to bring forth children
tainted with the sins of their fathers, and to suffer
hell on earth rather than incur the ridicule of the
Christian gentleman who may, without incurring

General Considerations 247

the protest of society, remain unmarried and sow
an unlimited quantity of wild oats. It is this doc-
trine which was indirectly responsible for the
hanging and burning of eccentric old women on
the charge that they were witches. As men found
a divine sanction for keeping women in subjection,
so in those days of superstition did they blaspheme
their Creator by digging out of the Old Testament,
as a justification for their brutality, the text,
"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.**

"Politics will degrade women" — this naive
confession that politics are rotten is a fairly
strong argument that some good influence is
needed to make them cleaner. Generally speak-
ing, it is difiicult to imagine how politics could be
made any worse. If a woman cannot go to the
polls or hold office without being insulted by
rowdies, her vote will be potent to elect officials
who should be able to secure for the community a
standard of reasonable civilisation. There is no
case in which more sentimentality is wasted.
Lovely woman is urged not to allow her beauty,
her gentleness, her tender submissiveness to be-
come the butt of the lounger at the street comer;
and in most instances lovely woman, like the
celebrated Maitre Corbeau, is cajoled effectively.
Meanwhile the brothel and the sweat-shop con-
tinue on their prosperous way. By a curious
inconsistency, man will permit woman to help
him out of a political dilemma and will then
suavely remark that suffrage will degrade her.

248 History of Women's Rights

During the Civil War, Anna Dickinson by her
remarkable lecture entitled, "The National
Crisis" saved New Hampshire and Connecticut
for the Republicans; Anna Carroll not only gave
such a crushing rejoinder to Breckinridge's se-
cession speech that the government printed and
distributed it, but she also, as is now generally
believed, planned the campaign which led to the
fall of Forts Henry and Donelson and opened
the Mississippi to Vicksburg. How many men
realise these facts?

The theory that politics degrade women will
not find much support in such States as Colorado
and Wyoming. Here, where equal suffrage ob-
tains, women have been treated with uniform
courtesy at the polls ; they have even been elected
to legislatures with no diminution of their woman-
liness ; and the House of Wyoming long ago made
a special resolution of its approval of equal rights
and attested the beneficial results that have fol-
lowed the extension of the suffrage to women.'
Judge Lindsey of Colorado has said that his
election, and consequent power to work out his
great reforms in juvenile delinquency, was due to
the backing of women at a time when men, for

' In 1893. "Be it resolved by the Second Legislature of the
State of Wyoming:

" That the possession and exercise of suffrage by the women of
"Wyoming for the past quarter of a century has wrought no
harm and has done great good in many ways ; that it has largely
aided in banishing crime, pauperism, and vice from this State,
and that without any violent and oppressive legislation," etc.

General Considerations 249

** business reasons," were averse to extend their
aid. "No one would dare to propose its repeal
[i.e., the repeal of equal suffrage], and if left to
the men of the State any proposition to revoke the
rights bestowed on women would be overwhelm-
ingly defeated." Experience in Colorado and
elsewhere has shown that any important moral
issue will bring out the women voters in great
force; but after election they are content to re-
sume their domestic duties; and they have shown
no great desire for political office. '

^ Women in Colorado have been of greatest service in estab-
lishing the following laws :

I — Establishing a State Home for dependent children, three
of the five members of the board to be women.

2 — Requiring that at least three of the six members of the
county visitors shall be women.

3 — Making mothers joint guardians of their children with the
fathers.

4 — Raising the age of protection for girls to i8 years.

5 — Establishing a State Industrial School for girls. There had
long been one for boys, but the women could not get one for
girls until they had the vote.

6 — Removing the emblems from the Australian ballots.
This is a little, indirect step toward educational qualifications
for voting.

7 — Establishing the indeterminate sentence for prisoners.

8 — Requiring one physician on the board of the Insane Asylum
to be a woman.

9 — Establishing truant schools.

10 — Making better provision for the care of the feeble-minded.

II — ^For tree preservation.

12 — For the inspection of private eleemosynary institutions by
the State Board of Charities.

13 — Various steps toward prevention of cruelty to animals.

14 — Providing that foreign life and accident insurance com-
panies, when sued, must pay the costs.

250 History of Women's Rights

Before I leave the discussion as to whether
politics degrade women, it will not be out of
place to consider the question whether certain
women may not, if they have a vote, degrade
politics. Of such women there are two classes —
the immoral and the merely ignorant. As to
the former, much fear has been expressed that they
would be the very agents for unscrupulous poli-
ticians to use at the polls. Exact data on this

15 — Establishing a juvenile court.

16 — Making education compulsory for all children between
the ages of 8 and 16, except those who are ill or those who are
14 and have completed the eighth grade, or those whose parents
need their help and support.

17 — Making the mother and father joint heirs of a deceased
child.

18 — Providing for union high schools.

19 — Establishing a State travelling library commission.

20 — Providing that any person employing a child under 14
in any mine, mill, or factory be punished by imprisonment in
addition to a fine.

21 — Requiring the joint signature of the husband and wife to
a mortgage of a homestead.

22 — Forbidding the insuring of the lives of children under 10.

23 — Forbidding children of 16 or under to work more than six
hours a day in any mill, factory, or other occupation that may
be unhealthful.

24 — Making it a criminal offence to contribute to the de-
linquency of children — the parental responsibility act.

25 — Making it a misdemeanour to fail to support aged or in-
firm parents.

26 — Providing that no woman shall work more than eight
hours a day at work requiring her to be on her feet.

27 — Restricting the time for shooting doves.

28 — Abolishing the binding out of girls committed to the In-
dustrial School until the age of 21.

29 — A pure food law in harmony with the national law.

General Considerations 251

matter are not available. I shall content myself
with quoting a statement by Mrs. Ida Husted
Harper ' :

"That 'immoral' class," said Mrs. Harper, "is
a bogey that has never materialised in States
where women have the suffrage. Those women
don't vote. Indeed, Denver's experience has
been interesting in that respect. When equal
suffrage was first granted, women of that class
were compelled by the police to register. It was
a question of doing as the police said, of course,
or being arrested. The women did not want to
vote. They don't go under their real names ; they
have no fixed residence, and so on. Anyway,
the last thing they wanted was to be registered
voters.

"But the corrupt political element needed their
vote, and were after it, through the police. These
women actually appealed to a large woman's
political club to use its influence to keep the police
from forcing them to register. A committee was
appointed; it was found that the story was true;
coercion was stopped, and the women's vote
turned out the chief of police who attempted it.
There is now no coercion, and this class simply
pays no attention to politics at all."

The doubling of the number of ignorant voters
by giving all women alike the ballot would be a
more serious affair. A remedy for that, however,
lies in making an educational test a necessary

' In the Boston Herald for June 4, 19 10.

252 History of Women's Rights

qualification for all voters. In this connec-
tion the remarks of Mr. G. H. Putnam are sug-
gestive^: "If I were a citizen of Massachusetts
or of any State which, like Massachusetts, pos-
sesses such educational qualification, I should be
an active worker for the cause of equal suffrage.
As a citizen of New York who has during the last
fifty years done his share of work in the attempt
to improve municipal conditions, I am forced to
the conclusion that it will be wiser to endure for
a further period the inconsistency, the stupidity,
and the injustice of the disfranchisement of thou-
sands of intelligent women voters rather than to
accept the burden of an increase in the mass
of unintelligent voters. The first step toward
'equal suffrage' will, in my judgment, be a fight
for an educational qualification for all voters."

Those who maintain that when women are in-
dependent and self-asserting, they will lose their
influence over men, assume that we view things
to-day as they did a century ago and that the
thoughts of men are not widened with the pro-
gress of the suns. The woman who can share the
aspirations, the thoughts, the complete life of a
man, who can understand his work thoroughly
and support him with the sympathy bom of
perfect comprehension, will exert a far vaster in-
fluence over him than the milk-and-water ideal
who was advised "to smile when her husband
smiled, to frown when he frowned, and to be

» Quoted in the New York Times of Jan. 9, 1910. "

General Considerations 253

discreetly silent when the conversation turned on
subjects of importance." It is a good thing for
women to be self-asserting and independent.
There is and always has been a class of men who,
like Mr. Murdstone, are amenable to justice and
reason only when they know that their proposed
victim can at any time break the chains with
which they would bind her.

This brings us to the last of the social or political
arguments, viz., ''Most women do not want to
vote."' Precisely the same argument has been
used by slave owners from time immemorial
— the slaves do not wish to be free. As Pro-
fessor Thomas writes^: "Certainly the negroes
of Virginia did not greatly desire freedom before
the idea was developed by agitation from the
outside, and many of them resented this outside
interference. 'In general, in the whole western
Sahara desert, slaves are as much astonished
to be told that their relation to their owners is
wrong and that they ought to break it, as
boys amongst us would be to be told that
their relation to their fathers was wrong and
ought to be broken.' And it is reported from
eastern Borneo that a white man could hire no
natives for wages. ' They thought it degrading to
work for wages, but if he would buy them, they
would work for him.' " It is akin to the old

» See, for example, Lyman Abbott in the Outlook for Feb. 19,
1910.

* American Magazine, July, 1909.

254 History of Women's Rights

contention of despots that when their subjects
are fit for freedom, they will make them free;
but nobody has ever seen such a time.

Reform of evil conditions does not come from
below; leaders with visions of the future must
point the way. I once heard of a very respectable
lady of Boston who exclaimed indignantly against
certain proposed changes in child labour laws in
North Carolina, where she owned shares in a cot-
ton mill. She maintained that the children who
worked at the looms ten hours a day expressed
no discontent; it kept them off the streets; and
the operators, in the kindness of their hearts, had
actually had the looms made especially to ac-
commodate conveniently the diminutive size of
the little workers. Some people might, with
great profit to themselves, read Plato's superb
allegory of the men in the cave.

The fact that various women's associations have
been instituted in opposition to the extension of
woman suffrage — as in Boston and New York —
is no argument for depriving all women of the
franchise. If the women who compose these
societies do not care to vote, they do not need to ;
but they have no right to deprive of their rights
those who do so desire. It is said that good
women will not go to the polls; yet there are
in every large city hundreds of respectable males
who disdain to vote. A woman is more likely to
have a sense of duty to vote than a man. It is
the old cry, "Don't disturb the old order of things.

General Considerations 255

If you make us think for ourselves, we shall be so
unhappy." So Galileo was brought to trial,
so Anne Hutchinson was banished; and so per-
secuted they the prophets before them.

IV. Another argument that is made much of
is the intellectual inferiority of woman. For ages
women were allowed no higher education than
reading, writing, and simple arithmetic, often
not even these; yet Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
George Sand, George Eliot, Harriet Martineau,
Jane Austen, and some scores of others did work
which showed them to be the peers of any minds
of their day. And if no woman can justly
claim to have attained an eminence such as that
of Shakespeare in letters or of Darwin in science,
we may question whether Shakespeare would have
been Shakespeare or Darwin Darwin if the society
which surrounded them had insisted that it was
a sin for them to use their minds and that they
should not presume to meddle with knowledge.
When a girl for the first time in America took a
public examination in geometry, in 1829, men
wagged their heads gravely and prophesied the
speedy dissolution of family and state.

To the list of women whose service for their
fellows would have been lost if the old-time bar-
riers had been maintained, may be added the name
of the late Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi. Mary
Putnam secured her preliminary medical educa-
tion in the early '6o's, and found herself keenly
troubled and dissatisfied at the inadequacy of the

256 History of Women's Rights

facilities extended to women for the study of
medicine. She insisted that if women practi-
tioners were to be, as she expressed it, "turned
loose" upon the community with license to prac-
tise, they should, not only as a matter of justice
to themselves but of protection for the women
and children whose lives they would have in their
hands, be properly qualified.

At the time in question, the medical profession
took the ground that women might enjoy the
benefit of a little medical education but they were
denied the facilities for any thorough training or
for any research work. Mary Putnam secured
her graduate degree from the great medical school
of the University of Paris, being the first woman
who had been admitted to the school since the
fourteenth century. Returning after six years
of thorough training, she did much during the
remaining years of her life to secure and to main-
tain for women physicians the highest possible
standard of training and of practice. It was
natural that with this experience of the require-
ment of equal facilities for women in her own
work, she should always have been a believer in
the extension of equal facilities for any citizen*s
work for which, after experience, women might
be found qualified. She was, therefore, an ardent
advocate of equal suffrage.

One needs but recall the admirable intellectual
work of women to-day to wonder at the imbecility
of those who assert that women are intellectually

General Considerations 257

the inferiors of men. Madame 'Curie in science,
Miss Tarbell in political and economic history,
Miss Jane Addams in sociological writings and
practice, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw in the
ministry, Mrs. Hetty Green in business, are a
few examples of women whose mental ability
ought to bring a blush to the Old Guard. Mrs.
Harriman and Mrs. Sage, who manage properties
of many millions, are denied the privilege of
voting in regard to the expenditure of their taxes ;
but every ignorant immigrant can cast a vote,
thanks to the doctrine that the political acumen
of a man, however degraded, is superior to that
of a woman, however great her genius — an ad-
mirable obedience to the saw in Ecclesiasticus
that the badness of men is better than the good-
ness of women. Let me quote again from Profes-
sor Thomas: "The men have said that women
are not intelligent enough to vote, but the women
have replied that more of honesty than of intelli-
gence is needed in politics at present, and that
women certainly do not represent the most ignor-
ant portion of the population. They claim that
voting is a relatively simple matter anyway, that
political freedom *is nothing but the control of
those who do make politics their business by those
who do not,' and that they have enough intelli-
gence 'to decide whether they are properly gov-
erned, and whom they will be governed by.'
They point out also that already, without the
ballot, they are instructing men how to vote and

X7

258 History of Women's Rights

teaching them how to mn a city ; that women have
to journey to the legislature at every session to
instruct members and committees at legislative
hearings, and that it is absurd that women who
are capable of instructing men how to vote should
not be allowed to vote themselves. To the sug-
gestion that they would vote like their husbands
and that so there would be no change in the po-
litical situation, women admit that they would
sometimes vote like their husbands, because their
husbands sometimes vote right; but ex-Chief-
Justice Fisher of Wyoming says: 'When the
Republicans nominate a bad man and the Demo-
crats a good one, the Republican women do not
hesitate a moment to "scratch" the bad and sub-
stitute the good. It is just so with the Democrats ;
hence we almost always have a mixture of office-
holders. I have seen the effects of female suffrage,
and, instead of being a means of encouragement
to fraud and corruption, it tends greatly to purify
elections and to promote better government.'
Now, 'scratching' is the most difficult feature of
the art of voting, and if women have mastered
this, they are doing very well. Furthermore, the
English suffragettes have completely outgeneralled
the professional politicians. They discovered
that no cause can get recognition in politics unless
it is brought to the attention, and that John Bull
in particular will not begin to pay attention ' until
you stand on your head to talk to him.' They
regretted to do this, but in doing it they secured

General Considerations 259

the attention and interest of all England. They
then followed a relentless policy of opposing the
election of any candidate of the party in power.
The Liberal men had been playing with the Liberal
women, promising support and then laughing the
matter off. But they are now reduced to an
appeal to the maternal instinct of the women.
They say it is unloving of them to oppose their
own kind. Politics is a poor game, but this is
politics."

V. The last objection I would call the moral.
It embraces such arguments as, that woman is too
impulsive, too easily swayed by her emotions to
hold responsible positions, that the world is very
evil and slippery, and that she must therefore
constantly have man to protect her — a pious duty,
which he avows solemnly it has ever been his
special delight to perform. The preceding pages
are a commentary on the manner in which man
has discharged this duty. In Delaware, for in-
stance, the age of legal consent was until 1889
seven years. The institution of Chivalry, to take
another example, is usually praised for the high
estimation and protection it secured for women;
yet any one who has read its literature knows
that, in practice, it did nothing of the sort. The
noble lord who was so gallant to his lady love
— ^who, by the way, was frequently the wife of an-
other man — had very little scruple about se-
ducing a maid of low degree. The same gallantry
is conspicuous in the Letters of Lord Chesterfield,

26o History of Women's Rights

beneath whose unctuous courtesy the beast of
sensuality is always leering.

In the past the main function of woman out-
side of the rearing of children has been to satisfy
the carnal appetite of man, to prepare his food,
to minister to his physical comfort; she was
barred from participation in the intellectual.
In order to hold her to these bonds a Divine Sanc-
tion was sought. The Mohammedan foimd it in
the Koran; the Christian, in the Bible — just as
slavery was justified repeatedly from the story
of Ham, just as the Stuarts and the Bourbons be-
lieved firmly that they were the special favourites
of God.

Strangely enough, men who are so sensitive
about the moral welfare of women will visit a
dance hall where women are degraded nightly,
and will allow their daughters to marry "re-
formed" rakes. Men will not permit any men-
tion of sexual matters in their homes, and will
let their children get their information on the
street; and all for the very simple reason that
they are afraid the truth will hurt, will make
people think. Men have been remarkably sensi-
tive about having women speak in public for their
rights ; but they watch with zest a woman scream-
ing nonsense on the stage.

It is quite possible that many women are swayed
too easily by their emotions. We must recollect,
however, that for some thousands of years woman
has been carefully drilled to believe that she is an

General Considerations 261

emotional creature. If a dozen people conspire
to tell a man that he is looking badly, it is not
unlikely that he will feel ill. Certainly Florence
Nightingale and Clara Barton exhibited no lack
of firmness on the shambles of battlefields; and
there are few men living who cannot recall in-
stances of women who have, in the face of disaster
and evil fortune, shown a steady perseverance and
will-power in earning a living for themselves and
their children that men have not surpassed.

Having in the preceding pages considered the
five capital objections to the concession of equal
suffrage, I shall now, in accordance with my plan,
say something of the much-mooted question of
the superiority or inferiority of one sex to the other.
It might be concluded from the foregoing account
that I see little difference in the aptitudes and
powers of the sexes physically, morally, or in-
tellectually. That does not necessarily follow.
It is possible to conceive of each sex as the com-
plement of the other; and between complements
there can be no question either of superiority or
of inferiority. The great historian of European
Morals has analysed the constitutional differ-
ences of the sexes as he conceived them ; and I may
quote his remarks as pertinent to my theme.
Lecky writes as follows ^ :

"Physically, men have the indisputable super-

* History of European Morals, vol. ii, pp. 379 and following.
New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1869.

262 History of Women's Rights

iority in strength, and women in beauty. In-
tellectually, a certain inferiority of the female sex
can hardly be denied when we remember how
almost exclusively the foremost places in every
department of science, literature, and art have
been occupied by men, how infinitesimally small
is the number of women who have shown in any
form the very highest order of genius, how many
of the greatest men have achieved their greatness
in defiance of the most adverse circumstances,
and][how completely women have failed in obtain-
ing the first position, even in music or painting,
for the cultivation of which their circumstances
would appear most propitious. It is as impossible
to find a female Raphael, or a female Handel, as a
female Shakespeare or Newton. Women are in-
tellectually more desultory and volatile than men ;
they are more occupied with particular instances
than with general principles; they judge rather
by intuitive perceptions than by deliberate rea-
soning or past experience. They are, however,
usually superior to men in nimbleness and rapidity
of thought, and in the gift of tact or the power of
seizing speedily and faithfully the finer inflections
of feeling, and they have therefore often attained
very great eminence as conversationalists, as letter-
writers, as actresses, and as novelists.

"Morally, the general superiority of women over
men is, I think, unquestionable. If we take the
somewhat coarse and inadequate criterion of po-
lice statistics, we find that, while the male and

General Considerations 263

female populations are nearly the same in number,
the crimes committed by men are usually rather
more than five times as numerous as those com-
mitted by women; and although it may be justly
observed that men, as the stronger sex, and the
sex upon whom the burden of supporting the
family is thrown, have more temptations than
women, it must be remembered, on the other hand,
that extreme poverty which verges upon starv-
ation is most common among women, whose
means of livelihood are most restricted, and whose
earnings are smallest and most precarious. Self-
sacrifice is the most conspicuous element of a
virtuous and religious character, and it is certainly
far less common among men than among women,
whose whole lives are usually spent in yielding to
the will and consulting the pleasures of another.
There are two great departments of virtue: the
impulsive, or that which springs spontaneously
from the emotions, and the deliberative, or that
which is performed in obedience to the sense of
duty; and in both of these I imagine women are
superior to men. Their sensibility is greater,
they are more chaste both in thought and act, more
tender to the erring, more compassionate to the
suffering, more affectionate to all about them. . . .
In active courage women are inferior to men. In
the courage of endurance they are commonly
their superiors. ... In the ethic of intellect
they are decidedly inferior. To repeat an expres-
sion I have already employed, women very rarely

264 History of Women's Rights

love truth, though they love passionately what
they call 'the truth' or opinions they have re-
ceived from others, and hate vehemently those
who differ from them. They are little capable of
impartiality or doubt; their thinking is chiefly a
mode of feeling; though very generous in their
acts, they are rarely generous in their opinions.
. . . They are less capable than men of per-
ceiving qualifying circumstances, of admitting
the existence of elements of good in systems to
which they are opposed, of distinguishing the
personal character of an opponent from the
opinions he maintains. Men lean most to justice,
and women to mercy. Men are most addicted
to intemperance and brutality, women to frivolity
and jealousy. Men excel in energy, self-reliance,
perseverance, and magnanimity, women in hu-
mility, gentleness, modesty, and endurance. . . .
Their religious or devotional realisations are in-
contestably more vivid. . . . But though more
intense, the sympathies of women are commonly
less wide than those of men. Their imaginations
individualise more, their affections are, in con-
sequence, concentrated rather on leaders than on
causes. ... In politics, their enthusiasm is
more naturally loyalty than patriotism. In his-
tory, they are even more inclined than men to
I dwell exclusively upon biographical incidents or
j characteristics as distinguished from the march
of general causes."

Experience, by which alone mankind has ever

General Considerations 265

learned or can learn, will show how far the char-
acteristics enumerated by Lecky are innate and
how far they have been acquired in the course of
ages by certain habits of belief and education.

The securing of citizens' rights for woman will
of necessity depend on the attitude of society.
There may be numerous laws for her relief on the
statute books; but if society frowns on her ap-
pearance in court, it will be only in exceptional
cases that she will appeal to the courts. To one
who is familiar with the records of daily life a
himdred years ago there is little doubt that con-
jugal infidelity on the part of the husband was
more flagrant then than it is to-day; but there
were infinitely fewer divorces. The reason for
this is simply that public sentiment on the sub-
ject has changed. A century ago, a divorced
woman could do nothing; the wife was exhorted
to bear her husband's faults with meekness;
and the expansion of industry had not yet opened
to her that opportunity of making her own living
which she now possesses in a hundred ways.
Women were entirely dependent on men ; and the
men knew it. To-day they are not so sure.

The old conception of woman's position was
subjection, based on mental and physical inferi-
ority and supported by Biblical arguments. The
newer conception is that of a complement, in
which neither inferiority nor superiority finds
place. The old conception was based, like every

266 History of Women's Rights

institution of the times, on fear. Men were
warned against heresy by being reminded of the
tortures of hell fire; against crime by appealing
to their dread of the gallows. Between the death
of Anne and the reign of George III one hundred
and eighty-eight capital offences were added to
the penal code; and crime at once increased to an
amazing degree. In a system that is founded on
fear, when once that fear is removed — as it
inevitably will be with the growth of enlighten-
ment— there remains no basis of action, no in-
centive to good. It has been tried for centuries
and has yielded only Star Chambers and Spanish
Inquisitions. It is time that we try a new method.
An appeal to the sense of fair play, an appeal
to the sense of duty and of natural affection
may yield immeasurably superior results. It has
been my experience and personal observation
that the standard of honour in our non-sectarian
schools, where the fair play spirit is most in-
sisted on, is vastly greater than it was in the old
sectarian institutions where boys were told morn-
ing, noon, and night that they would go to hell
if they did not behave.

The new spirit is not going to be accepted at
once by society. There must first be some wail-
ing and much gnashing of teeth ; and the monster,
custom, which all sense doth eat, will still for a
time be antagonistic as it has been in the past.
" In no society has life ever been completely con-
trolled by the reason," remarks Professor Thomas,

General Considerations 267

"but mainly by the instincts and the habits and
the customs growing out of these. Speaking in
a general way, it may be said that all conduct
both of men and animals tends to be right rather
than wrong. They do not know why they be-
have in such and such ways, but their ancestors
behaved in those ways and survival is the guaranty
that the behaviour was good. We must admit
that within the scope of their lives the animals
behave with almost unerring propriety. Their
behaviour is simple and unvarying, but they
make fewer mistakes than ourselves. The diffi-
culty in their condition is, that having little
power of changing their behavioiu- they have little
chance of improvement. Now, in hiiman socie-
ties, and already among gregarious animals, one
of the main conditions of survival was common
sentiment and behaviour. So long as defence of
life and preying on outsiders were main concerns
of society, unanimity and conformity had the
same value which still attaches to military disci-
pline in warfare and to team work in our sports.
Morality therefore became identified with uni-
formity. It was actually better to work upon
some system, however bad, than to work on none
at all, and early society had no place for the dis-
senter. Changes did take place, for man had the
power of communicating his experiences through
speech and the same power of imitation which
we show in the adoption of fashions, but these
changes took place with almost imperceptible

268 History of Women's Rights

slowness, or if they did not, those who proposed
them were considered sinners and punished with
death or obloquy.

''And it has never made any difference how
bad the existing order of things might be. Those
who attempted to reform it were always viewed
with suspicion. Consequently our practices usu-
ally run some decades or centuries behind our
theories and history is even full of cases where
the theory was thoroughly dead from the stand-
point of reason before it began to do its work
in society. A determined attitude of resistance
to change may therefore be classed almost with
the instincts, for it is not a response to the reason
alone, but is very powerfully bound up with the
emotions which have their seat in the spinal
cord.

*'It is true that this adhesion to custom is more
absolute and astonishing in the lower races and
in the less educated classes, but it would be diffi-
cult to point out a single case in history where a
new doctrine has not been met with bitter re-
sistance. We justly regard learning and freedom
of thought and investigation as precious, and we
popularly think of Luther and the Reformation as
standing at the beginning of the movement to-
ward these, but Luther himself had no faith in
'the light of reason' and he hated as heartily as
any papal dogmatist the 'new learning' of Eras-
mus and Hutten. . . . We are even forced to
realise that the law of habit continues to do

General Considerations 269

its perfect work in a strangely resentful or
apathetic manner even when there is no moral
issue at stake. ... Up to the year 18 16, the
best device for the application of electricity to
telegraphy had involved a separate wire for each
letter of the alphabet, but in that year Francis
Ronalds constructed a successful line making
use of a single wire. Realising the importance of
his invention, he attempted to get the British
government to take it up, but was informed that
'telegraphs of any kind are now wholly unneces-
sary, and no other than the one in use will be
adopted.' "

The reader will doubtless be able to add from
his own experience and observation examples
which will support Professor Thomas's admirable
account of the power of custom. Among many
barbarous tribes certain foods, like eggs, are
taboo; no one knows why they should not be eaten ;
but tradition says their use produces bad results,
and one who presumes to taste them is put to
death. To-day, we believe ourselves rather highly
civilised; but the least observation of society
must compel us to acknowledge that taboo is
still a vital power in a multitude of matters.

There is a still more forcible opposition to a re-
casting of the status of women by those men who
have beheld no complete regeneration of society
through the extension of the franchise in four
of our States. Curiously oblivious of the fact
that partial regeneration through the instru-

270 History of Women's Rights

mentality of women is something attained, they
take this as a working argument for the useless-
ness of extending the suffrage. They point to
other evils that have followed and tell you that if
this is the result of the emancipation of women,
they will have none of it. For example, there
can be no doubt that one may see from time to
time the pseudo-intellectual woman. She affects
an interest in literature, attends lectures on
Browning and Emerson, shows an academic in-
terest in slum, work, and presents, on the whole, a
selfishness or an egotism which repels. There
never has been a revolution in society, however
beneficial eventually, which did not bring at
least some evil in its train. I cannot do better
in this connection than to quote Lord Macaulay's
splendid words (from the essay on Milton): "If
it were possible that a people, brought up under
an intolerant and arbitrary system, could subvert
that system without acts of cruelty and folly,
half the objections to despotic power would be
removed. We should, in that case, be compelled
to acknowledge that it at least produces no per-
nicious effects on the intellectual and moral char-
acter of a people. We deplore the outrages which
accompany revolutions. But the more violent
the outrages, the more assured we feel that a
revolution was necessary. The violence of these
outrages will always be proportioned to the fero-
city and ignorance of the people; and the ferocity
and ignorance of the people will be proportioned

General Considerations 271

to the oppression and degradation under which
they have been accustomed to Hve. Thus it was
in our civil war. The rulers in the church and
state reaped only what they had sown. They
had prohibited free discussion — they had done
their best to keep the people unacquainted with
their duties and their rights. The retribution was
just and natural. If they suffered from popular
ignorance, it was because they had themselves
taken away the key to knowledge. If they were
assailed with blind fury, it was because they had
exacted an equally blind submission.

**It is the character of such revolutions that we
always see the worst of them at first. Till men
have been for some time free, they know not how
to use their freedom. The natives of wine-coun-
tries are always sober. In climates where wine
is a rarity, intemperance aboimds. A newly-
liberated people may be compared to a northern
army encamped on the Rhine or the Xeres. It is
said that when soldiers in such a situation first
find themselves able to indulge without restraint
in such a rare and expensive luxury, nothing
is to be seen but intoxication. Soon, however,
plenty teaches discretion ; and after wine has been
for a few months their daily fare, they become
more temperate than they had ever been in their
own coimtry. In the same manner, the final and
permanent fruits of liberty are wisdom, modera-
tion, and mercy. Its immediate effects are often
atrocious crimes, conflicting errors, skepticism on

2^2 History of Women's Rights

points the most clear, dogmatism on points the
most mysterious. It is just at this crisis that
its enemies love to exhibit it. They pull down
the scaffolding from the half -finished edifice ; they
point to the flying dust, the falling bricks, the
comfortless rooms, the frightful irregularity of
the whole appearance ; and then ask in scorn where
the promised splendour and comfort are to be
found? If such miserable sophisms were to pre-
vail, there never would be a good house or a
good government in the world. . . . There is
only one cure for the evils which newly acquired
freedom produces — and that cure is freedom.
When a prisoner leaves his cell, he cannot bear
the light of day — he is unable to discriminate
colours or to recognise faces. But the remedy
is not to remand him into his dungeon, but to
accustom him to the rays of the sun. The
blaze of truth and liberty may at first dazzle
and bewilder nations which have become half-
blind in the house of bondage. But let them
gaze on, and they will soon be able to bear it.
In a few years men learn to reason. The ex-
treme violence of opinion subsides. Hostile the-
ories correct each other. The scattered elements
of truth cease to conflict, and begin to coalesce.
And at length a system of justice and order is
educed out of the chaos.

"Many politicians of our time are in the habit
of laying it doyn as a self-evident proposition,
that no people ought to be free till they are

General Considerations 273

fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy
of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to
go into the water till he had learnt to swim. If men
are to wait for liberty till they become wise and
good in slavery, they may indeed wait for ever."

The speedy dissolution of family and state was
prophesied by men when first a girl took a public
examination in geometry; whenever women have
been given complete control of their own prop-
erty; when they have been received into the pro-
fessions and industries; and now in like manner
people dread the condition of things that they
imagine might follow if women are given the right
to vote and to hold office. We may well believe,
with Lecky, that there are "certain eternal moral
landmarks which never can be removed." But
no matter what our views may be of the destinies,
characteristics, ftmctions, or limitations of the
sex, certain reforms are indispensable before wo-
man and, through her, family life can reach their
highest development. Of these reforms I shall
speak briefly and with them close my history.

I. The double standard of morality for the
sexes must gradually be abolished.^ Of all the

^ Note, for example, that in Maryland a man can get a divorce
if his wife has had sexual intercourse before marriage; but a wife
cannot get a divorce from her husband if he has been guilty of the
same thing. In Texas, adultery on the part of the wife entitles
the husband to a divorce; but the wife can obtain divorce from
her husband only if he has abandoned her and lived in adultery
with another woman.
z8

274 History of Women's Rights

sad commentaries on Christian nations none is so
pathetic or so tragical as the fact that for nineteen
centuries men have been tacitly and openly al-
lowed, at least before marriage, unrestrained
liberty to indulge in sexual vice and intemper-
ance, while one false step on the part of the wo-
man has condemned her to social obloquy and,
frequently, to a life on the street. This strange
system, a blasphemy against the Christ who
suffered death in order to purify the earth, has
had its defenders not merely among the un-
educated who do not think, but even among
the most acute intellects. The philosopher
Hume justifies it by commenting on the vastly
greater consequences attendant on vice in wo-
men than in men; divines like Jeremy Taylor
have encouraged it by urging women meekly
to bear the sins of their husbands. This sub-
ject is one of the great taboos in modem so-
ciety. Let me exhort the reader to go to
any physician and get from him the statistics
of gonorrhea and syphilis which he has met
in his practice; let him learn of the child-
ren bom blind and of wives rendered inva-
lid for life because their husbands once sowed
a crop of wild oats with the sanction of so-
ciety; let him read the Report of the Com-
mittee of Fifteen in New York (G. P. Putnam's
Sons, 1902) on The Social Evil, the records
of the Watch and Ward Society in Boston,
or the recent report of the special jury in

General Considerations 275

New York which investigated the "White Slave
Traffic." ^

The plain facts are not pleasant. A system
which has been in vogue from the beginning of
history cannot be changed in a decade; but the
desired state of things will be more speedily
achieved and immediate good will be accom-
plished by three reforms which may be begun at
once — have begun, in fact. In the first place, the
*'age of legal consent" should be uniformly
twenty-one. In most States to-day it is fourteen
or sixteen.^ To the ordinary mind it is a self-
evident proposition that a girl of those ages, the
slippery period of puberty, can but seldom realise
what she is doing when she submits herself to the
lust of scoundrels. But the minds of legislators
pass understanding; and when, a few years ago,
a woman in the Legislature of Colorado proposed
to have the age of consent raised from sixteen to
twenty -one, such a storm of protest came from her
male colleagues that the measure had to be aban-
doned. In the second place the public should be
made better acquainted with the facts of prosti-
tution. When people once realise thoroughly
what sickness and social ulcers result from the

* On Jan. 12, 1910, a bill was introduced in the House of
Representatives to check the "White Slave Traffic" by provid-
ing a penalty of ten years' imprisonment and a fine of five
thousand dollars for any one who engages in it.

2 In some it is even lower ; ten in Georgia and Mississippi for
example.

276 History of Women's Rights

presence in the city of New York of 100,000 de-
bauched women (and the estimate is conserva-
tive)— when they begin to reflect that their
children must grow up in such surroundings, then
perhaps they will question the expediency of the
double standard of morality and will insist that
what is wrong for a woman is wrong for a man.
It is a fact, to be borne carefully in mind, that
the vast majority of prostitutes begin their ca-
reer below the age of eighteen and usually at the
instigation of adult men, who take advantage of
their ignorance or of their poverty. If the miser-
able Thaw trial did nothing else, it at least once
more called public attention to conditions which
every intelligent man knows have existed for
years. Something can also be done by statute.
New York has made adultery a crime; and the
State of Washington requires a physical examina-
tion of the parties before marriage. In the third
place, physicians should take more pains to edu-
cate men to the knowledge that a continent life
is not a detriment to health — the contrary belief
being more widely spread than is usually suspected.
II. In the training of women, care should be
taken to impress upon them that they are not
toys or spoiled children, but fellow-citizens, de-
voted to the common task of advancing the ideals
of the nation to their goal.

The woman's cause is man's; they rise or sink
Together, dwarf 'd or godlike, bond or free:

General Considerations 2^]"]

If she be small, slight-natured, miserable,
How shall men grow?

Tennyson, The Princess,

A Being breathing thoughtful breath,
A Traveller between life and death ;
The reason firm, the temperate will,
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
A perfect Woman, nobly planned.
To warn, to comfort, and command;
And yet a Spirit still, and bright
With something of an angel light.

Wordsworth.

Towards a higher conception of their duties,
women are steadily advancing. It often happens
that the history of words will give a hint of the
progress of civilisation. Such a story is told by
the use of lady and woman. Not many decades
ago the use of the word woman in referring to
respectable members of the sex was interpreted
as a lack of courtesy. To-day, women prefer
to be called women.

III. Women should be given the full right to
enter any profession or business which they may
desire. As John Stuart Mill says:

"The proper sphere for any human being is
the highest sphere that being is capable of attain-
ing; and this cannot be ascertained without com-
plete liberty of choice."

"We are, as always, in a period of transition,"
remarks Mr. Bjorkman, ' "the old forms are

' In Collier's Weekly, Feb. 5, 1910.

278 History of Women's Rights

falling away from us on every side. Concerning
the new ones we are still uncertain and divided.
Whether woman shall vote or not, is not the main
issue. She will do so sooner or later if it suits
her. No, the imperative question confronting us
is this: What are we to do that her life once
more may be full and useful as it used to
be? That question cannot be answered by any-
body but herself. Furthermore, it can only be
answered on the basis of actual experience. And
urged onward by her never-failing power of in-
tuition, woman has for once taken to experiment-
ing. She has, if you please, become temporarily
catabolic. But it means merely that she is seek-
ing for new means to fulfil her nature, not for
ways of violating it. And the best thing — nay,
the only thing — man can do to help her is to stand
aside and keep his faith, both in her and in life.
Whether it be the franchise, or the running of
railroads, or public offices, that her eager hands
and still more eager soul should happen to reach
out for, he must give her free way. All she
wants is to find herself, and for this purpose
she must try everything that once was foreign
to her being: the trial over, she will instinctively
and unfailingly pick out the right new things
to do, and will do them."

The opening up of professions and industries to
woman has been of incalculable benefit to her.
Of old the unmarried woman could do little ex-
cept sit by the fire and spin or make clothing for

General Considerations 279

the South Sea Islanders. Her limited activities
caused a corresponding influence on her character.
People who have nothing to do will naturally
find an outlet for their superfluous energy in
gossip and all the petty things of life; if isolated
from a share in what the world is doing, they will
no less naturally develop eccentricities of character
and will grow old prematurely. To-day, by being
allowed a part in civic and national movements,
women can ''get out of themselves" — a powerful
therapeutic agent. Mrs. Ella Young, a woman of
sixty, was last year made Superintendent of the
great Public School System of Chicago. Fraulein
Anna Heinrichsdorff is the first woman in Ger-
many to get an engineer's diploma, very recently
bestowed upon her ; an "excellent " mark was given
Fraulein Heinrichsdorff in every part of her ex-
amination by the Berlin Polytechnic Institute.
Miss Jean Gordon, the only factory inspector
in Louisiana, is at present waging a strong fight
against the attempt to exempt ''first-class"
theatres from the child-labour law. Mrs. Nellie
Upham, of Colorado, is President and General
Manager of the Gold Divide Mining, Milling,
and Tunnel Company of Colorado and directs
300 workmen. These are a few examples out of
some thousands of what woman is doing. ^ And

^ Note what the women police of Chicago accomplished in
1909-1910. These women are fighting the agencies which
make for juvenile crime mostly and each officer has a speci-
fied "beat" to patrol. Last year their work amounted to the
following:

28o History of Women's Rights

yet there are men who do not believe she should
do anything but wash dishes and scrub.

Much more serious is the glaring discrepancy
in the wages paid to men and to women. For
doing precisely the same work as a man and often
doing it better, woman receives a much lower

Complaints of selling liquors to minors investigated 295

Complaints of selling tobacco to minors investigated. ... 52

Complaints of selling obscene postcards investigated 49

Complaints of poolrooms investigated 203

Complaints of dance halls investigated 92

Five and ten cent theatres visited If0i3

Penny arcades visited 67

Saloons visited 735

Relief visits 174

Cases referred to relief organisations 374

Legal aid cases referred 105

Referred to Visiting Nurses' Association 7

Housing cases referred 51

Applications for work referred 264

Placed in hospitals 103

Sent to dispensaries 192

Children placed in homes 240

Slot machines removed 223

Work found for men 57

Work found for women 81

Work found for boys 84

Work found for girls 90

Visits to ice-cream parlors 356

Visits to candy stores 805

VISITS TO COURTS

Juvenile 451

Municipal i ,809

Criminal 211

County 86

Grand Jury 26

Conferences with state or city officials 1 ,244

General Considerations 281

wage. The reasons are several and specious.
We are told that men have families to support,
that women do not have such expensive tastes
as men, that they are incapable of doing as much
as men, that by granting them equal wages one
of the inducements to marry is removed. These
arguments are generally used with the greatest
gravity by bachelors. If men have families to
support, women by the hundreds support brothers
and sisters and weak parents. That they are
incapable of doing as much sounds unconvincing

PROSECUTIONS

Cases of abandonment 99

Assault and battery 8

Contributing to delinquency and dependency of children 232

Crimes against children 12

Disorderly conduct 141

Immoral dancing 4

Intoxicating liquors 33

Juvenile Court cases 78

Larceny 4

Tobacco 10

Sale of cocaine 4

Other cases no

Total prosecutions 738

RESULTS

Convictions 311

Settled out of court lOO

Nolle pros, or nonsuit 52

Dismissed 93

Acquittals 50

Pending 92

Total complaints received 5.047

282 History of Women's Rights

to one who has seen the work of sweat-shops. The
argument that men have more expensive tastes
to satisfy is too feeble to deserve attention.
Finally, when men argue that women should be
forced to marry by giving them smaller wages,
they are simply reverting to the time-honoured
idea that the goal of every woman's ambition
should be fixed as matrimony. If the low wages
of women produced no further consequence, one
might dismiss the matter as not of essential im-
portance; but inadequate pay has been found too
frequently to be a direct cause of prostituition.
No girl can well keep body and soul together on
four dollars a week; and some business managers
have been known to inform their women employees
with frankness that a "gentleman friend" is a
necessary adjunct to a limited income.

The women who suffer most from low wages
are probably the teachers in our primary schools.
They start usually on a salary of about three
himdred and fifty dollars a year. For this each
teacher performs all the minute labour and bears
all the nervous strain of instructing sixty pupils
six and a half hours a day and of correcting dozens
of papers far into the night. And when crime
increases or the pupils are not universally suc-
cessful in business, the school teacher has the
added pleasure of getting blamed for it, being
told that she ought to have trained them better.
These facts lend some colour to Mark Twain's
sage reflection that God at first made idiots —

General Considerations 283

that was for practice; then he made school
boards.

One of the most interesting examples of recent
evolution in the industrial status of women is
the decision of the Supreme Court of Illinois in the
so-called Ritchie Case. The last Legislature of
Illinois passed a law limiting to ten hours the
working day of women in factories and stores.
Now, as far back as 1893, the Legislature had
passed a similar law limiting woman's labour to
eight hours; but the Supreme Court in 1895 de-
clared it unconstitutional on the ground that it
was an arbitrary and unreasonable interference
with the right of women to contract for the sale
of their labour. When, therefore, this year a
ten-hour bill was tried, W. C. Ritchie, who had
secured the nullification of the act of 1893, again
protested. The decision of the Court, rendered
April 21, 19 10, is an excellent proof of the great
advance made within two decades in the position
of women. Reversing completely its judgment of
1895, the Court left far behind it mere technicali-
ties of law and found a sanction for its change
of front in the experience of htmianity and of com-
mon sense. These are its conclusions:

**It is known to all men, and of what we know
as men we cannot profess to be ignorant as judges :

"That woman's physical structure and the per-
formance of maternal functions place her at a
great disadvantage in the battle of life.

"That while a man can work for more than ten

284 History of Women's Rights

hours a day without injury to himself, a woman,
especially when the burdens of motherhood are
upon her, cannot.

"That while a man can work standing upon
his feet for more than ten hours a day, day
after day, without injury to himself, a woman
cannot.

''That to require a woman to stand upon her
feet for more than ten hours in any one day and to
perform severe manual labour while thus standing
has the effect of impairing her health.

"And as weakly and sickly women cannot be
the mothers of vigorous children, it is of the great-
est importance to the public that the State take
such measures as may be necessary to protect
its women from the consequences produced by
long-continued manual labour in those occupations
which tend to break them down physically.

"It would seem obvious, therefore, that legisla-
tion which limits the number of hours which
women shall be permitted to work to ten hours in
a single day in such employments as are carried
on in mechanical establishments, factories, and
laundries would tend to preserve the health of
women and assure the production of vigorous
offspring by them and would conduce directly to
the health, morals, and general welfare of the
public, and that such legislation would fall clearly
within the police powers of the State."

IV. All phenomena that concern family life
should be carefully studied and their bearing on

General Considerations 285

the state ascertained as exactly as possible.
There is no subject, for example, from which such
wild conclusions are drawn as the matter of divorce.
The average moralist, but more particularly the
clergy, seeing the fairly astonishing increase in
divorce during the last decade, jimip to the con-
clusion that family life is decadent and immor-
ality flagrantly on the increase. They point to
the indubitable fact that a century ago divorces
were insignificant in nimiber; and they infer that
morality was then on a much higher level than it
is now. Such alarmists neglect certain elementary
facts. The flippant manner in which marriage
is treated by the Restoration dramatists and by
novelists of the i8th century, the callous sexual
morality revealed in diaries and in the conversa-
tions of men like Johnson alone are sufficient to
suggest the need of a readjustment of one's view
regarding the standard of morality in the past.
A century ago it was the duty of a gentleman to
drink to excess; and it was presumed that a guest
had not enjoyed his dinner unless he was at least
comfortably the worse for liquor. This view of
drunkenness is admirably depicted in Dickens's
Pickwick Papers^ where intoxication is treated
throughout as something merely humorous.

There were just as many unhappy marriages
formerly in proportion to the population as there
are to-day; but the wife was held effectually from
application for a divorce not only by rigid laws
but by the sentiment of society, which ostracised

286 History of Women's Rights

a divorced woman, and furthermore by her lack
of means and of opportunity for earning an in-
dependent Hvelihood. To-day women are not
inclined to tolerate a husband who is brutal or
debauched. Alarmists make a mistake when
they place too much emphasis on the seeming
triviality of the reasons, justifying their course,
which wives advance when applying for a separa-
tion. For example, the phrase "incompatibility
of temperament" is in a great number of cases
merely a euphemism for something much worse.
The clergy will coimsel a woman to bear with what
they call Christian resignation a husband ad-
dicted to drink or scarred by the diseases that
are a consequence of sin. Abstractly considered,
this may conceivably be good advice. But viewed
in a common-sense way it is the duty of a woman
to reflect on the consequences of conceiving child-
ren from such a man ; and the researches of physi-
cians will furnish her with incontrovertible facts
regarding the impaired health of the offspring of
such a union. A law which would permit of no
divorce under such conditions, instead of bene-
fiting the state, would injure it in its most
vital asset — ^healthy children, the coming citizens.
Doubtless the divorce laws in many States a^
too lax. But sweeping generalities based on
theory will not remedy matters. Divorce may
simply be a symptom, not a disease; a revolt
against unjust conditions ; and the way to do away
with divorce or reduce the frequency of it is to

General Considerations 287

remedy the evil social conditions which, in a
great many instances, are responsible.

The fact is, the institution of marriage is going

! through a crisis. The old view that marriage
is a complete merging of the wife in the husband
and that the latter is absolute monarch of his
home is being questioned. When a man with
this idea and a woman with a far different one
marry, there is likely to be a clash. Marriage

. as a real partnership based on equality of goods
and of interests finds an increasing number of
advocates. There is great reason to believe
that the issue will be only for the good and that
from doubt and revolt a more enduring ideal will

( arise, based on a sure foimdation of perfect
understanding.

INDEX

Adultery, under Roman Law,
19-22; laws modified by
Justinian, 68-69 ; among
Germanic peoples, 80, 86,
87; see also under various
States.

Age of Consent, under English
Law, 138-139; in the United
States, 155-156, 167-168,
275; see also under various
States.

Alabama, 175-176

Apostles, teachings about
women, 55-57

Arizona, 176-177

Arkansas, 177-178

Attainder, bills of, in Roman
Empire, 35-37; laws of Ar-
cadius, Honorius, and Con-
stantine, 75-76; of Pope
Innocent III, 116

B

Breach of Promise, under
Roman Law, 12; modifica-
tion by Constantine, 72;
by Justinian, 73

Business, women in, under
Roman Empire, 29; in Eng-
land, 143; in the United
19 289

States, 173-174; see also
under each State.

California, 178-180

Chastisement, right of hus-
band to chastise wife under
English Law, 125-127

Christ, teachings about
women, 52-53

Colorado, 1 80-1 81

Connecticut, 1 81-182

Consent of women to marriage,
under Roman Law, 10;
opinions of Church Fathers,
60; enactments of Christ-
ian Emperors, 74

Crimes against women, under
Roman Law, 41-42, 76;
among Germanic peoples,
94-97; under English Law,

138-139

Curtesy, defined, 174; under
English Law, 127-129; see
also under various States.

Custom, power of, 266-269

Delaware, 182-183
Discrepancy in wages paid to

women, 280-283
District of Columbia, 183-184

290

Index

Divorce, under Roman Law,
22-26; modified by Theo-
dosius and Valentinian, 66;
by Justinian, 67 ; by Justin,
68; among Germanic peo-
ples, 85-86, 88; under
Canon Law, 111-116; under
English Law, 133-137; gen-
eral considerations, 285-
287; see also under various
States.

Double standard of morality,
273-274

Dower, defined, 174; right of,
in English Law, 128; see
also under different States.

Dowry, under Roman Law,
14-16, 19; among ancient
Gauls, 78; among Germanic
peoples, 80, 83, 92

Education, rights of women to
an, under Roman Empire,
42-45; in England, 139-
143; in the United States,
168-170

Fathers of the Church, their
commands concerning
women, 57-63

Florida, 184-186

Georgia, 186-187

Gifts between husband and
wife, under Roman Law, 16-
17; changes by Justinian,
73-74

Guardian, decay of power of,
under Roman Law, 7-8

Guardians, women as, under
Roman Law, 3; laws modi-
fied by Justinian, 75; see
also under various States.

Guardianship under Roman
Law, 1-3; among Germanic
peoples, 81-82

H

Husband and wife, under
Roman Law, 12-22; among
Germanic peoples, 84-85 ;
under Canon Law, 106, no,
III; under English Law,
124-133; see also under
various States.

Idaho, 187-188

Illinois, 188-189; Ritchie case,
283-284

Indian Territory, 191

Indiana, 1 89-191

Inheritance rights of women,
under Roman Law, 34-40,
74; modified by Justinian,
75; among Germanic peo-
ples, 88-91; under English
Law, 121, 122, 128

Intellectual inferiority of
women, argument discussed,

255-259
Iowa, 192-193

Jewish ideas about women,
54-55

Index

291

Kansas, 193-194
Kentucky, 194-196

Lecky, analysis of character of

women, 261-264
Louisiana, 196-198

M

Macaulay on the effects of
freedom, 270-273

Maine, 198

Marriage, women in, under
Roman Law, 9-26; opinions
of Church Fathers, 60-61;
among ancient Gauls and
Germans, 78, 80; among
Germanic peoples, 83, 84;
under Canon Law, 1 07-1 10;
under English Law, 125-
133; modern changes in
views of, 287; see also imder
various States.

Maryland, 199-200

Massachusetts, 200-201

Michigan, 202-203

Minnesota, 203-204

Mississippi, 204-205

Missouri, 205-207

Montana, 207-208

Moral argument against suf-
frage, 259-261

N

Nebraska, 208-209
Nevada, 209-210
New Hampshire, 211-212
New Jersey, 212-213
New Mexico, 213-214

New York, 214-215
North Carolina, 215-216
North Dakota, 216-217

Ohio, 217-219

Oklahoma, 219-220

Old Maid, treatment of, by

Christians, 246-247
Oregon, 220-221

Partiality of Roman Law to
women, 19, 33, 34

Pennsylvania, 221-222

Physiological argument against
suffrage, 238-243

Political or social argument
'against suffrage, 243-255

Power of father, under Roman
Law, 2, 10, 20, 21, 30, 35;
under early Christians, 55,
60; among Germanic peo-
ples, 81, 84, 91; under
English Law, 123

Professions, women in, in Eng-
land, 143-144; in United
States, 171-173, and see
under various ^States; need
of opening all, to women,
277-280

Property rights of married
women, under Roman Law,
14-16; among Germanic
peoples, 84, 88, 92-94; under
English Law, 127-133; of
widows and single women,
under Roman Law, 26-29;
among Germanic peoples,
88, 93-94; under English

292

Index

Property rights — Continued

Law, 121 ; in the United

States, 156
Protection of property of

children under Roman Law,

40-41

Respect for women, among
Romans, 3-7 ; among
ancient Germans, 79-80

Rhode Island, 222-223

Ritchie case in Illmois, 283-
284

Roman Catholic Church, atti-
tude to women, 87-88, 98,
I 06-1 19

Second marriages, opinions of
Church Fathers concerning,
61; Legislation of Christian
Emperors, 69-72
Slaves, women, under Roman
Law, 46-49; among Ger-
manic peoples, 97; under
Canon Law, in
South Carolina, 223-224
South Dakota, 224-225
Suffrage, woman, in England,
144-148; in the United

States, 151-155. 157-167;
see also under various States.
Suits, women engaging in,
under Roman Law, 30-33

Tennessee, 226

Texas, 227

Theological argument against

women's rights, 237-238
Training of women for higher

ideals, 276-277

U

Utah, 227-228

Vermont, 228-229
Vestal Virgins, 45
Virginia, 229-230

W

Washington, 230-231
West Virginia, 231-232
Wisconsin, 232-233
Women: see under Divorce,

Dowry, Marriage, Husband

and Wife, etc.
Wyoming, 234

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Household Economics

A Course of Lectures in the School of Economics of
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8vo. Gilt Top. Revised Edition. $1.^0
Contents: Introduction, The Statics of Dynamics of
Household Economy, The House, The Building of the
House, Organism of the House, Decoration, Furnishing,
Household Industries, The Nutrition of the Household, Food
and Its Preparation, Cleaning and Its Processes, Household
Service, Organized Living, Appendix, Supplementary Bibli-
ography, Index.

" A truly remarkable book . . . the author evinces
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. . The book should be read in every intelligent household
where the author's living voice cannot be heard."

New York Observer.

New YorK G. P. Putnam's Sons London

By James Albert Woodburn

(Professor of American History and Politics, Indiana University)

The American Republic and Its Government.

An Analysis of the Government of the United
States, with a Consideration of its Funda-
mental Principles and of its Relations to the
States and Territories. Octavo (by mail,
$2 20) net, %2 00

**A sounder or more useful commentary has never before
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Hazeltine in the N, Y. Sun.

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Political Parties and Party Problems in the
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a Consideration o ' Certain Party Problems in
their Relations to .Political Morality. Octavo
(by mail, %2 20) . . . net, $2 00

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** The best summary at present available ot the
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Jniversity of Kansas.

American Political History

1763=1876
By Alexander Johnston

Edited and Supplemented by

James Albert Woodburn

Professor of History and Political Science, Indiana Unl«

versity; Author of '* The American Republic,"

*• Political Parties and Party Problems

inthe United States," etc.

In two parts ^ each complete in itself and indexed^ Ocatvo,
Eachy net $2.00

1. The Revolution, the Constitution, and the Growth
of Nationality. 1 763-1 832,

2. The Slavery Controversy, Secession, Civil War,
and Reconstruction. 1 820-1 876.

These volumes present the principal features in the political history
of the United States from the opening of the American Revolution to
the close of the era of the Reconstruction. They give in more con-
venient form the series of articles on "American Political History " con-
tributed to Lalor's "Cyclopedia of Political Science, Political Economy,
and Political History," by the late Professor Alexander Johnston.

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United States, have a continuity and unity of purpose ; introduced,
arranged and supplemented as they have been by Professor Woodburn
(who contributes a very necessary chapter on the Monroe Doctrine) they
present a complete and well-balanced history of the politics of the United
^X.'aXe.^.^'' —Hartford Courant.

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
New York London

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