8. The Condition of Women

8. The Condition of Women

The Condition of Women As a child, I took great delight, like all other children, in listening to marvelous tales. Who does not enjoy legends like the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata Purana, the Ramayana, the Adbhuta Ramayana, the Jaimini, the Ashvamedha, and other such ancient literary works popular in our country?1 And who does not ¤nd them inspiring and yearn for the strength to perform similar great deeds? But few are they, children or adults, who do not come to realize, to their disappointment, that such great deeds are beyond their capacity, in view of their lack of strength, general ignorance, and powerlessness; and, besides, that the tales themselves are but imaginary. If we are so delighted and eager to read imaginary tales and marvels, why should we not be eager to read accounts of real events? Seven years ago I had not the slightest inkling that I would really be able to witness strength such as that of Haihayarjuna, who could block the force of great rivers; and to witness goddesses like Sita, who possess similar strength and slay unconquerable demons like Ravana with a hundred or a thousand heads.2 But, happily, in the course of time I was able to witness such wonderful things and now have the opportunity to present at least a brief account of them to my countrymen and -women.

Some months ago I chanced to see the book Society in America, written by the famous and scholarly Englishwoman Harriet Martineau. After visiting America in 1840 and observing the society here, she wrote the book upon her return home.3 While describing the condition of the native women, she said: "They (the women in this country) receive no higher education at all, moreover, all avenues of acquiring it are blocked for them. The highest reach of their education consists of singing, playing musical instruments, a little reading and writing, and needlework. They enjoy no social or political freedom. Should they suffer the misfortune of widowhood or poverty, they have no recourse but to undertake work like sewing, cooking, domestic service, or similar lowly work; or to marry or remarry against their will. The laws of this country take no cognizance of women's existence at all. Women are mere prisoners of men, like slaves. There is no exception to this in political matters and in the eyes of the law, only in social life might there be an exception, though a very rare one."4 Harriet Martineau has recorded many such observations in her book; but although very important, they cannot be cited here for lack of time and space. The one sentence, that

"women are mere prisoners of men, like slaves," clearly reveals the pitiable and dreadful plight of native women about ¤fty years ago. The courage, powers of endurance, and unceasing effort which enabled these women to lift themselves out of this condition can be adequately described only by Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning, descended upon our earth; a mortal like me, with her limited intellect, cannot do them justice.

Thus far, kind and philanthropic people have accomplished great deeds (like the abolition of slavery, and promotion of the temperance movement) in the face of terrible adversity; but the emancipation of women was a task far more dif- ¤cult than them all. Because it is obvious that to purchase slaves like livestock, make them work without wages, and block their worldly and spiritual progress is very reprehensible and cruel. It is also evident that vices like drinking cause physical and mental ruin. The harm done by these things is immediately visible to all; but the harm done by the slavery of women is generally not noticed. Like a mysterious heart disease, it remains invisible even as it continues to destroy the heart of human society. Most people think that women are living not in slavery, but in a state natural to them. The belief that women are not oppressed, and that their condition need not be any different from the present one, is so deeply entrenched in everybody's mind that it is impossible for anybody to even imagine how wretched their condition really is. What is worse, even women themselves believe that their condition is as it should be. In the past, when African Negroes were slaves in America, many of them held similar beliefs: "We may be enslaved, but this alone is our source of happiness; we are low and abject compared to everybody else, and we are utterly dependent on our master, who has the power of life and death over us." In this belief, they silently endured even the worst kind of humiliation. This state of mind is the ultimate in slavery. One cannot even begin to imagine how evil is slavery, which destroys self-respect and the desire for freedom—the two boons that God has given to humanity.

How true is the claim of many Western scholars that a civilization should be judged by the condition of its women! Women are inherently physically weaker than men, and possess innate powers of endurance; men therefore ¤nd it very easy to wrest their natural rights and reduce them to a state that suits the men.

But, from a moral point of view, physical might is not real strength, nor is it a sign of nobility of character to deprive the weak of their rights. Even among the barbaric or semibarbaric people of the past and present, physical strength is seen to be generally supreme. "Might is right" is their creed; if, in accordance with it and in complete disregard of the principles of justice, one who has physical strength captures another's kingdom, he becomes the king. From this very morality has arisen the ancient and even current practice of revering brave warriors as if they were divine beings. It is the followers of this very morality who ¤nd war more palatable than peace. For them, what can be accomplished by the use

168 The Peoples of the United States

of arms and physical strength is both an established dictum and justice. But, as a country advances in knowledge and civility, brute strength declines in importance and intellectual strength comes to be recognized as superior; and people begin to accord a higher status to venerable customs and common wisdom than to the pompous scriptural precepts of self-proclaimed scholars. Such people do not regard it as justice to grasp the property and rights of others just because they are weaker. For them justice means protecting the weak, forgiving those who harm them instead of retaliating, and being modest rather than arrogant about their natural strength. Thus, as people progress and expand their knowledge, they naturally develop greater innate civility and better morals. For the same reason, the tradition which believes in exercising arbitrary power over women on the grounds of their weakness is considered barbaric; and as men gain wisdom and progress further, they begin to disregard women's lack of strength, to honor their good qualities, and elevate them to a high state. Their low opinion of women and of other such matters undergoes a change and gives way to respect. Thus, one can accurately assess a country's progress from the condition of its women.

According to the natives, the social condition of England and of the Americans who have emigrated from that country is absolutely the best, because their women are honored everywhere and because they treat men and women as equals. And those who profess the Christian religion claim that women acquired a high status because of that religion, since the people of other religions do not respect their women at all; and also that when a community embraces Christianity, its women begin to progress immediately. Both these claims contain a great deal of truth, but also a great deal of falsehood, as will be apparent after some thought. The condition of women is not identical among all the communities which call themselves Christian. All peoples, like the Russians, Italians,

Greeks, French, Swiss, Finnish, English, and Americans, are Christians; but there is a wide difference in the condition of their women. To claim to be the follower of a religion and to actually practice that religion are two very different things.

Almost all the people in this country call themselves Christians, but not all of them practice the teachings of Christ. The doctrine which Christ taught and the practices He propounded did not differentiate between men and women; but that egalitarian view is not acceptable to everyone here. When it comes to recognizing women's worth and treating them accordingly, people show through their conduct that they regard as acceptable the doctrine of Christ, St. Paul,

Moses, or even Satan, although they all claim that they ¤nd the Christian doctrine acceptable. The doctrine of Christ, and that of St. Paul who conformed to it, states that there is no difference between men and women in Christ, but that all are the children of God; whereas most of the doctrines prevailing in this country consider women to be inferior to men. Women do not have the right to The Condition of Women 169

climb onto the pulpit and preach like men, or to conduct religious services and rites; they have to take a vow of obedience to their husbands during the wedding ceremony; (male) preachers maintain that a husband has supremacy over his wife. This falsi¤es the claim of all self-styled Christians, that their religion is the cause of the freedom, high standing, and honor enjoyed by the women of England and of this country. The religion which has led to women's high state should properly be called, by these adherents of different denominations, not "our" religion but simply "the holy doctrine" or "the doctrine of Christ" (which is not the prevailing form of Christianity). The prevailing form of Christianity continues to change according to the inclination of popular opinion. From olden times, the religious heads of different denominations have followed the tradition of shaping religion in the manner of kneading a ball of wax and molding it into the shapes which appeal to them and to popular opinion. What different shapes these clergymen have given to the Christian religion and how they have changed its essence is clearly seen from the history of the native slaves and women.

The sect known as Quakers, which was founded about two hundred years ago, does not discriminate in this fashion, at least in matters of religion. According to them, God loves men and women equally. God sends a call to people according to their worth, whether they be men or women; therefore they believe that a man or a woman who has received a call from God should preach. But in other matters even Quakers considered women to be inferior to men. In the year 1840, the World Anti-Slavery Convention was held in London, and was attended by Lucretia Mott and many other eminent women as delegates of the American

Anti-Slavery Society. The meeting, attended by many Quakers, was presided over by one Joseph Sturge, a famous Quaker gentleman. Even in a meeting devoted to such an altruistic cause, he refused to grant the status of delegate to the women who had dedicated themselves totally to the service of the Anti-Slavery

Society, sometimes at the risk of their own lives.5 The reason advanced was the "British tradition."

The other day (in May 1888), there was a Methodist meeting of the clergy and laity in New York City, to which many local Methodist societies had sent their representatives, including ¤ve well-known women. But they did not receive due recognition at the meeting, the reason being none other than that they were women. One thing worth remembering here is that two-thirds of the Methodists are women, and that on their support depends the livelihood of most of their clergy and the charitable works of the denomination. The same thing applies to other denominations. When it comes to religious and charitable works, the task of collecting money for them falls to the women's lot. After completing their housework or the paid work they have undertaken to earn their livelihood, they do sewing and embroidery and make beautiful articles; go from door to door and plead with people; and collect money and other things for charity and phi170 The Peoples of the United States

lanthropy through all such possible means, thus getting together large sums of money. But then, how to disburse this money is decided upon by men; and the presidents, vice presidents, and other members of the committees appointed for managing the charitable works are all men. All those doing secretarial and other slow, tiresome work are bound to be women. This is the fairness of the Methodists—how beautiful it looks in the clear sunlight of the nineteenth century reform! Among the Christian sects, except for the Congregationalists, Quakers,

Unitarians, Universalists, a progressive branch of the Methodists, and such others, women lack the freedom to preach in church, the only reason being that they are women!6 In his Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul says in one place, "Let your women keep silent in the churches." Therefore women—who may be pure, educated, effective as speakers, possessed of other excellent qualities, and much more capable than male preachers, but whose only fault is that they are women— are ordered by men to shut their mouths and sit quietly even if they have received a call from God to preach.

It is not yet sixty years since the condition of native women started to improve, but even within such a short time they have begun to taste many excellent fruits of their industry and persistent effort. Even at the time when Harriet

Martineau wrote about these women that they were men's slaves, and that there was no exception to this rule in political matters or in the eyes of the law, there were one or two women who had already noticed the disrespect shown to their sex and attempted to bring this injustice to the notice of American society. A hundred years ago, the sister of the famous Robert Lee in the State of Virginia and the wife of John Adams in the State of Massachusetts told government of- ¤cials clearly that they would not pay taxes because they had no right to vote in political matters.7 But nobody paid much attention to those things at the time.

Later, in 1830, an opinion began to be created in this country in favor of abolishing slavery; since that time the matter of improving the condition of women has also taken shape. In 1832 William Lloyd Garrison ¤rst established the AntiSlavery Society. He, Wendell Phillips, and many other eminent speakers gave hundreds and thousands of speeches propounding the injustice of enslaving Negro men and women. The arguments they advanced against the slavery of Africans were also applicable to the slavery of women. Realizing this, some brave and adventurous women started delivering speeches in public meetings, espousing the cause of their sex along with that of the Negro slaves.

The year 1832 should be called a golden year.8 That year the chains of the slaves received a severe blow, and began to break. Similarly, ignorance, which was the root cause of the slavery and inferior status of women, began to decline.

In this auspicious year a very famous college, known as Oberlin College, was founded in the town of Oberlin in the State of Ohio. The founders of the college made a rule to generously impart education to all who were interested, without The Condition of Women 171

judging their suitability by criteria such as skin color—whether black, white, yellow, or any other—or sex.9 Not many years have passed since the condition of native women began to improve, but the Sun of their good fortune has begun to acquire greater brilliance with every passing day. Favorable signs are visible that within a few years they will obtain all the rights that men enjoy, and that this nation of the United States will become a full-®edged democratic nation.

Every day women are making great strides in social and political matters. The topic to be discussed in this chapter is the matters in which they have made strides during the last ¤fty years or so, how society has bene¤ted from this progress, and their current state.

Education Education, which is the root cause of progress, began to be made available to native women in a small way about sixty years ago.10 It is almost a hundred years since the Englishwoman Mary Wollstonecraft said publicly that women of England should receive an education.11 In the year 1789 this woman openly claimed that the lack of education was the biggest obstacle to women's advancement in England at the time, and that it was not proper to prevent women from studying. In 1799 a woman named Hannah More wrote several books to publicly express her opinion that it was appropriate for women to be educated.12 In 1809 a gentleman called Sidney Smith presented before the people his favorable opinion of women's education, through his books.13 The two decades from 1789 to 1809 may be called the preface to the history of Western women's education.

During these twenty years, the desire for a wide dissemination of women's education took root in the hearts of many men and women, and gained strength day by day.

In 1819 the American woman Emma Willard made the ¤rst attempt to make education available to her countrywomen.14 That year she presented an address to the Senate of New York State with a request to establish a female seminary.

The history of American women's higher education can be said to have started from this date. However, women's higher education itself did not start at this time. Until 1831 almost all the supporters of women's education said that women should get only a general education, because higher education would not only not bene¤t them, but would destroy their natural modesty, beauty, and usefulness to society, and make them arrogant, careless, and thoughtless. In 1832 Oberlin College in Ohio made higher education available to women along with men.

The founders of Oberlin College set the world an excellent example by dismissing the prevalent, barbaric belief about women's inferiority. The city of Boston, capital of the State of Massachusetts, is famous as an old center of learning in the United States; and Boston scholars are popularly believed to be most superior

172 The Peoples of the United States

and pioneers in matters of progress and public welfare. But not a single high school for girls was established in Boston until the year 1878. It was only a hundred and twenty-¤ve years after the establishment and advancement of Harvard

College (at Cambridge, Massachusetts), regarded as the jewel in the crown of America's best universities, that permission was granted for Boston girls to enter even the most inferior schools. If, keeping this in mind, one analyzes the history of native women's education (which started very recently), one is amazed at the feats achieved by women in the sphere of education in such a short time.

Now, one should not assume that the general progress in female education in the United States, which one sees today, was achieved without meeting obstacles.15 As soon as women began to read a new book, or declared their intention to learn a new branch of knowledge, they would immediately be subjected to curses, censure, criticism, wrinkled noses, and meaningful glances everywhere

—from newspapers, preachers' pulpits, the mouths of public speakers, declarations of religious meetings, and from the eyes and tongues of neighbors; and this continues even now. Only a cause which was naturally pure and had the support of eternal truth could hope to endure such a shower of stones and thunderbolts, and still survive to this day. During the last ¤fty years, female education has been considered in all possible ways and tested by all kinds of big and small religious leaders, medical doctors, scientists, philosophers, male teachers, college presidents, newspaper editors, and leaders of public opinion to see whether it is in accordance with the gospel, the science of anatomy, philosophy, popular custom, economics, etc., and whether it would be bene¤cial or detrimental to the nation. Then they found it dif¤cult to challenge the truth, and therefore declared very reluctantly that women may be given some education.

There is a State called Colorado in the western part of the United States, in which a solid, stony, immovable range of mountains known as the Rockies has spread across the land of America since time immemorial. It seems impossible to break through it in order to cut a road and cross it. How would a river, almost a tiny stream, possess the strength to penetrate the mountain? But behold the marvel! The Arkansas River started quietly to make a way through the Rocky

Mountains. Its unshakable resolve must have caused regret and surprise to the sea, the lakes, and the rivers of the plains; and the sky-high range of the Rockies must have pitied it. The smaller mountains must have censured and condemned it for this risky venture. But the Arkansas River ignored them all. It was only a small, weak rivulet, but its resolve was strong enough to lift even the mountains in its path and ®ing them away. With persistent effort and strong resolve it defeated even the Rocky Mountains. The tiny Arkansas clashed against that impenetrable, unbreakable stone range and carved out a way for itself right through the Rocky Mountains! Bravo, Arkansas! And bravo, American women! Even though weak like this rivulet, and lacking the support of Scriptures, money,

The Condition of Women 173

popular opinion, or religious tradition, they clashed, only on the strength of persistent effort and resolve, against thousands of obstacles a hundred times more dif¤cult, more impenetrable and unbreakable than the Rockies, bored tunnels right through them and cut a trail for themselves. I say once again, bravo American women!

The arguments against female education which were advanced and accepted by all, not just twenty-¤ve but even ten years ago, are beginning to fade now.

That educated women will become arrogant, neglect housework and the care of children, be unable to cook; that they lack the necessary physical, mental, and spiritual strength to study hard, pass college examinations, and complete their education in good health; that men will have to sit at home if women get educated and enter the professions or get jobs; that men will lose their livelihood; that the world will see an apocalypse—all such objections are now dead, and their corpses are being buried in deep graves. The ghosts of one or two of these objections still appear occasionally before the people and terrify the fainthearted; but, lacking bones and muscles, brains and life, [these specters] soon dissolve into nothingness and disappear!

The foremost among the institutions for women's higher education in the United States now (in 1888) are the colleges; below them rank the four secondary arrangements: (1) clubs for the promotion of education, (2) lectures, (3) correspondence societies, and (4) university examinations. The details of colleges offering higher and professional education to women in 1886 are as follows:

Colleges for women only

Coeducational colleges

Other institutions admitting women Agricultural and mechanical

Scienti¤c

Medical

Total

Women registered in institutions for 27,143 women only Women registered in coeducational 8,833 institutions Total women in higher education 35,976 In addition, most schools offering middle-level education admit girls. They include 117 state-run teacher-training colleges and 36 independent (privately established) teacher-training colleges, which have a combined strength of 27,185 female students.

174 The Peoples of the United States

The primary and general public schools as well as most state-run high schools provide coeducation.i Seventy years ago, primary schools for girls had not been set up, whereas men had free access to education. Men could not only study in primary schools, but could also get an excellent education and vocational training in high schools, colleges, and technical schools. Today women of the United

States are trying to equal men in education, in spite of popular opposition to female education and many other obstacles. This is cause for not a little surprise.

The census of 1880 shows that in that year, 8 percent of all men (i.e. White American men, excluding Negroes) in the United States were illiterate, while 11 percent of White American women were unable to read and write. This proves that women are not very far behind men in general education.

A truly large-hearted woman named Mrs. Emma Willard had appealed to the legislature of the State of New York for a subsidy to a middle school for women, called the Troy Seminary, established in 1821; but the government refused to support this good cause. Mrs. Willard then regretfully wrote: "Could I have died a martyr in the cause (of female education) and thus have insured its success, I should have blessed the fagot and hugged the stake." Hundreds of large-hearted women enthusiasts of education like Mrs. Willard, knowing that government and popular opinion would not support them, dedicated themselves body and soul to the cause of emancipating their sex, saying that they were prepared even to die, and that death in such a cause would mean immortality. Like the Arkansas River, their ¤rm resolve cut through impenetrable and unbreakable mountain ranges of great obstacles like the Rockies, and opened a safe path to women's education. Today women are provided with advanced education equal to that of men by many colleges (of which the coeducational ones are indicated by an asterisk): Oberlin College,* Vassar College, Michigan University,* Smith College,

Wellesley College, Harvard Annex, Ingham University, Bryn Mawr College, Cornell University,* and many others.16 This progress in women's education in the United States was achieved not through empty chatter, wishful thinking, and meaningless arguments, nor through lounging on soft beds with feather cushions. This golden age for the native women was ushered in by the women champions of education and some liberal-minded men by facing unpleasant allegations, enduring endless hardships, and making persistent efforts.

In the past, many people worried whether women would be able to manage the same education as men.17 In 1858, an American man named Matthew Vassar decided to found Vassar College for women, and consulted William Chambers, the famous, learned philanthropist of Edinburgh in Scotland, on the matter.18

Mr. Chambers expressed his astonishment and dismay at Mr. Vassar's plan, and gave him the excellent advice not to attempt to establish a girls' college because it was sure to embarrass and disappoint him, but instead to set up a school for the blind, deaf and dumb, or an asylum for the insane. Today the number of The Condition of Women 175

skeptical scholars like Mr. Chambers has declined considerably. On hearing that Michigan University gave women an excellent, rigorous education along with men, many institutions in different parts of Europe and the American South sent their representatives there to decide whether such an arrangement was bene¤cial or harmful, whether women's constitution was strong enough to stand the strain of such coeducation, and whether women's intellect could comprehend the profound knowledge imparted to men. Nowadays, perceptive men and women who have given the matter deep thought entertain no doubt whatsoever about the bene¤t of women's education and higher studies. The advantages of women's education to the United States and its contribution to social progress are reviewed below.

Before completing this section, I would like to cite two passages to show how public opinion regarded female education forty years ago and how it has changed since.19 In 1850 the in®uential leaders of public opinion said: "Culture for women should never develop into learning. Only an unwomanly woman could try to become learned, and she would try in vain, as she has not the mental ability of a man." The leaders of public opinion in the 1880s say: "The admission of women into schools heretofore exclusively open to men is the straw on the moving current to tell us what is coming. It is in accordance with the spirit of our institutions that women shall be treated as self-determining beings."

Fifty years ago, the United States had barely four or ¤ve institutions of higher education for women. Today, it is doubtful whether one can ¤nd four or ¤ve such institutions of academic excellence in the whole country which refuse admission to women to study along with men. There was a time when people labored under the absurd misapprehension that "learning was a very dangerous thing for women; it would draw them from their domestic duties, and, therefore, it would be very pernicious for the interests of the State and society."20 It was then that some farsighted, nonpartisan, and perceptive men and women embarked upon the great adventure of ®oating a small boat of their own opinion in the great river of popular opinion, and rowing against the current, said: "That women are capable of the highest culture, the generation to which Mrs. (Mary) Somerville and Mrs. (Elizabeth Barrett) Browning21 belong will hardly deny. All must admit that it would be a great gain if we could secure to every young woman who desires it an education as thorough, generous, and stimulating as our colleges afford to young men."ii Many avenues of acquiring an excellent education have recently been opened to women, and the above prediction is proving to be true. Nobody, except a halfbaked and inexperienced person, dares to claim that women's intelligence is not equal to that of men. Of the elite universities in America, Columbia and Johns

Hopkins have crossed the old traditional boundaries and allowed women to pass their thresholds and enter their portals. These universities have conferred their

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very highest degrees on two excellent women graduates—out of either generosity or lack of choice—and achieved a rare miracle which could be witnessed

"neither in the past, nor in the future."22 Harvard University at new Cambridge in the State of Massachusetts followed the model of old Cambridgeiii and denied women the nectar of knowledge which was gathered from the inexhaustible vessel of Goddess Saraswati, and which was served to men all the time. Therefore some industrious women attempted successfully to establish an independent college and obtained the nectar from the same inexhaustible vessel, if not inside

Harvard, then outside its portals.23

In the Eastern States, women have gained entry into the best universities, such as Michigan and Cornell; and women's colleges which vie with them, such as Wellesley, Smith, Vassar, and Bryn Mawr, have been and are still being founded.

In the Western States almost all the colleges and universities admit women as well as men, so that there is no need for establishing separate colleges.

Nowhere does one see evidence of higher education having impaired women's health or beauty. Let alone small or middle-level colleges, even colleges like Cornell, Vassar, Wellesley, Smith, and Bryn Mawr have thousands of young women in higher education. I have visited each of these places and spent a few days there to investigate these and other such matters, and I have become convinced that women are well able to cope with higher education. It does not impair their beauty, nor does it change their delicate, modest disposition and make them unnatural. Many women graduates of these colleges have married and are managing their domestic life very well. They do not neglect their children or housework because they are educated; nor have the husbands of these educated women suffered or been reduced to dire straits, or their homes ruined! I visited many women graduates of the said colleges, saw their homes, and made inquiries with their husbands. I was satis¤ed when the husbands repeatedly said that women should have a good education.

Two years ago Miss Alice Freeman was President of Wellesley College.24 Before she took up this position, the whole world believed that a woman would never be able to manage even a small school as its principal, let alone a college. But Alice Freeman accepted the presidency of a large college with six hundred young and promising women students and managed her duties extremely well, to the surprise of the whole world. Her learning was suitably honored by Columbia

University, which, after duly examining her, awarded her the Ph.D.—the highest of all university degrees. A skeptic was worried that this president of a large college, having spent a lifetime (thirty years) in education, would be lacking in the knowledge of domestic duties and would not ¤nd a husband. It is true that she is able to run a college or organize large meetings, be a good teacher, debate with renowned scholars on scienti¤c subjects—but what use is all this? If she cannot marry and manage her husband's home, what is the use of her education? But The Condition of Women 177

calm down, all ye skeptics! A learned woman like Alice Freeman could and did ¤nd a husband who is himself a scholar of no mean repute. Alice Freeman, the great Ph.D., is now an excellent housewife. She is knowledgeable about big matters related to the college, but also about small domestic matters. There is no doubt whatsoever that she is able to manage her household as well as a college with six hundred women students! Now if you ask me what happened to our leading skeptic and fault¤nder, let me just say, "One who doubts is doomed to destruction; for the doubter there is neither this world nor the next, nor even happiness," 25 and conclude this section.

Employment The history of women's education during the half century from 1828 to 1888 is quite extraordinary, interesting, and instructive.26 It has been mentioned above that about sixty years ago Mrs. Emma Willard presented an address to the Senate of New York State for a government subsidy to women's schools. Therein

Mrs. Willard clearly explained, in keeping with the prevalent popular belief, that higher education was not necessary for women, but that general education was essential. The learned Senators of New York disapproved even this moderate request, and refused any encouragement even to women's general education. A very learned statesman won immortal fame by saying that "learning was a very dangerous thing for women; it would draw them from their domestic duties, and, therefore, it would be very pernicious for the interests of the State and society."

Some were of the opinion that the study of mathematics and law would derange women's brains and make them ill, that a study of the sciences would make them lose faith in religion, that a knowledge of Greek would destroy their womanliness and make them unruly like men. Some said that no matter what else happened, educated women would deprive men of their employment; that men would be compelled to sit at home, mind the babies and sing them lullabies, or do the cooking, because educated women would grab their jobs. Other thoughtful men said that there was absolutely no fear that women would grab men's jobs because they simply lacked the brains to acquire scienti¤c knowledge and put it to use. A headache presupposes a head, and fear of an educated woman would arise only if she possessed the brains to acquire a good education; but where would women get the brains?iv There were other intelligent and experienced men who wondered how women would ¤nd the time for studies; and if they did, to what use they would put them.

There is hardly any point in discussing how far these doubts were real or imaginary. A hundred years ago women in the United States were not able to work as teachers in government schools because men believed that women lacked

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the strength to control rowdy children and discipline them. But in 1789 the male legislators of Massachusetts made a new law allowing women to be employed as teachers in the state-run public schools—whether to test women's ability to teach in schools or to get the job done at low salaries, it is dif¤cult to ascertain.

At that time women were unable to teach anything other than "A, B, C" and "1, 2, 3," because the kind, thoughtful, and learned men had, for fear of women's falling ill from studying too much, taken the precaution of drawing up a curriculum of the "ladies' courses." It is dif¤cult to say whether those who studied this curriculum were able to even write a short letter in grammatically correct language, let alone prepare children for higher studies or impart higher education themselves. In due course, women expanded their knowledge by studying at home, instead of giving up in fear when confronted by a mountain of obstacles and the Chinese Great Wall of popular opposition. When the status and in®uence of women teachers and their usefulness in imparting general education was widely recognized, some wise people favored giving them an education somewhat higher than the curriculum of the "ladies' courses" to help them to perform their job well. Even after women were able to get higher education, the positions of college teachers were not open to them until Michigan University opened the golden gates of its Temple of Saraswati and invited them, along with men, to worship at her throne. Ever since, women have had the opportunity to occupy the positions they are quali¤ed for, as teachers, professors, college presidents, and others (which had earlier been reserved for men), to give a good account of themselves and demonstrate the extent of their capability and intellectual strength. Now nobody doubts that women will be able to manage schools and train children properly. The triumvirate of local, state, and federal governments in the United States is so impressed by women's performance that it has entrusted women with the primary and middle-level education of almost all children. Now women teachers are beginning to handle higher education also.

In the country's public educational institutions (i.e., higher, middle, and lower grade schools and colleges) a total of 273,000 teachers impart education; 154,375 of them are women. In addition, there are women teachers in many private and public high schools, teaching mathematics, chemistry, botany, astronomy, anatomy, physics, and other dif¤cult scienti¤c and philosophical subjects, and performing their duties well. Some are college presidents or vice presidents, some are chiefs of all city schools, some are headmistresses, some deans and some teachers of moral science. Some are engaged in writing instructive books on politics, philosophy, history, and other dif¤cult subjects.

Some scholarly women are studying not only in the United States but also in the old universities of Europe, and earning praise from the learned people there.

Professor Maria Mitchell,27 professor of astronomy at Vassar College, has gained high pro¤ciency in astronomy just like the scholar Caroline Herschel;28 she has

The Condition of Women 179

discovered new planets, won praise and an excellent prize from the Government of Russia, and made her name immortal among Western astronomers. Professor

Jane M. Bancroft29 has written a thesis on the politics of France, entitled The Parliaments of Paris, which has been adjudged the best book on politics by great scholars at universities such as Johns Hopkins and Cornell. The famous Professor Louisa Reed Stowell of Michigan University has gained such pro¤ciency in microscopy that she has been made a member of the great Royal Microscopical

Society of London.30 Women scholars gain membership in all the well-known and in®uential scienti¤c societies in America today, as equals of their male colleagues.

If it had been prophesied to the learned but somewhat shortsighted Senators of New York sixty years ago that the following half century would witness women entering the academic ¤eld and achieving great feats, and that half the task of imparting education and moral instruction to the countless sons of the United States would be entrusted to women, it would have seemed utterly impossible not only to the politicians of New York but also to the whole world. The extent to which educated women have advanced national education in the United States after entering the Department of Education cannot be described or praised enough. To women goes the credit of making the great effort to start the kindergarten or "children's garden" method of education which today bene- ¤ts thousands of children, and which has put a stop to corporal punishment for the tender ones. Elizabeth Peabody and her students taught the kindergarten method to thousands of women; and wealthy ladies like Mrs. Shaw and Mrs.

Thompson provided ¤nancial assistance to teachers like Elizabeth Peabody and helped them with the proper means to put this method into practice. When the local government of Boston refused to grant premises or expenses for kindergarten education in its Department of Public Education, Mrs. Quincy Shaw, a wealthy and philanthropic lady of Boston, resolved to help in propagating kindergarten education in her city.31 She established many kindergarten schools in Boston in a spirit of charity, and has followed the practice of spending $36,000

(about Rs. 108,000) on their development every year continuously for the past twelve years. Now the government has realized the value of this educational method and granted permission to start it in all the public schools. The famous philanthropist of New York, Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, spends up to $67,000 every year on child education and vocational education.32 She spends most of her income on children's education and lives the simple life of a nun. It is because educated women like Elizabeth Peabody, Mrs. Shaw, and Mrs. Thompson have devoted their energies and money to this noble cause that the system of education in the United States has progressed thus far.

Educated women of the United States serve as teachers in two ways: one is to teach in educational institutions, and the second is to improve people's minds

180 The Peoples of the United States

by giving them a moral education through newspapers. Women have taken to the journalistic profession for the last twenty-¤ve years or so. The earlier practice, by and large, was for anybody to write whatever he wanted in the newspapers. There was no special restriction on the use of vulgar language in newspapers. Educated women did not approve of this, because the papers were read by young boys and even girls; therefore they began to bring all sections of the newspapers, one by one, under their purview. This practice still continues today, and is very bene¤cial. Every newspaper which has a women's section is very careful to avoid reports unfair to women or articles violating morality. Besides, these newspapers acquire a greater interest because of the sweet language and style used by women. Prominent newspapers such as the New York Herald, the Philadelphia Ledger, the Boston Transcript, the Boston Herald, and the Chicago InterOcean33 enjoy strong support from women journalists. Every reputed newspaper invariably has a women's section. Now vulgar language is usually not seen in newspapers. Women are able to discuss matters such as their own and their children's needs, what should be done for the bene¤t of children and society and which customs should be changed, the ideal school curriculum, the kind of laws necessary for ensuring equal justice for men and women, and so on. From the time of Creation, strong men, in the arrogance of their physical might, had lost their sense of duty and shut women's mouths. But they have opened now, not to the detriment of society but for its good, as people have realized.

Now women are no longer content to run only a section of a large newspaper, but have started independent newspapers themselves. There are hundreds of newspapers managed entirely by women. The Boston Woman's Journal, Chicago

Justicia, the Union Signal, Beatrice Women's Tribune, Women's Work for Women, Children's Work for Children, St. Nicholas, Women's Magazine, and many such papers and magazines are doing very useful work in improving social and political matters as well as public education. The weekly paper the Union Signal grew in a novel manner. It was started about seven years ago by four or ¤ve women with capital of $2,500. At that time temperance was not a popular subject—nor is it so today—but this paper was started by the of¤cials of the Woman's Temperance Union,34 and it was doubtful whether it would run. Even so, it seems to have become popular now. It now has capital of $50,000 and over 40,000 subscribers. The same women's union which runs this newspaper has started four or ¤ve other newspapers to spread the message of temperance. In 1888 this society published 52,000,000 printed pages' worth of material and provided great support to temperance in the United States. During the same year they received $93,000 for their work of printing. The future of the Boston Woman's Journal was also in doubt, because it supports the view that women should obtain the same political rights as men. Just as the people of the United States opposed women's education thirty years ago, they oppose women's political

The Condition of Women 181

rights today. But just as women, through ceaseless effort, changed public opinion with regard to education, they are resolved to change it also in this regard; and there are signs that their resolve will lead to success. In some places women are found to be even more suitable in the ¤eld of journalism than men. Now there is no need for pure-minded men, women, and children to unwillingly read shoddy newspapers for lack of an alternative.

The greatest bene¤t arising from women's entry into diverse professions comes from women doctors. Ignorant women are unable to protect their own health or that of their children. This ignorance is very harmful to mankind, which makes it essential for women to possess medical knowledge. But people of the United

States used to hold very strange beliefs in this regard. About thirty years ago, when a medical college for women was opened in Philadelphia, people persecuted its founders because they believed that women would be ruined by medical studies, lose their innate delicacy, and become useless for domestic work.

Lack of knowledge breeds strange beliefs. Half the people in the world hasten to deliver their opinion about something without getting adequate information

¤rst; this creates doubt in the minds of the other half. If only they would inform themselves adequately before giving their favorable or unfavorable opinion, it would prevent the untold harm which the world suffers—harm which results because new customs cannot be started or new innovations put into practice.

Now, thirty years after the founding of the Woman's Medical College, the people of the United States have realized that women doctors are very useful to society.

Today there are over one thousand licensed women doctors in the United States; their annual net income ranges from $100 to $50,000.35 Now women doctors are greatly appreciated everywhere, and people are thoroughly convinced that women are more skilful than men in treating patients.

Let me cite an example of the change in public opinion in this regard. About twenty years ago a famous society of male doctors, known as the Philadelphia

County Medical Society, had boycotted women doctors, and resolved not even to look at their faces. The reason they gave was that a woman's pure mind would be sullied by the study of medicine and she would engage in unnatural conduct; also, possessing brains lighter than a man's, she would be unable to gain mastery over a dif¤cult science such as medicine, and would be likely to destroy life on a large scale. While boycotting women doctors for the last-named reason, these brethren of ours seemed to have forgotten that they themselves were the elder brothers of Yamaraj, who was known to have killed many more people than

Yami ever did.36 In 1888 there are signs that the muddy brains of this County Medical Society have cleared up a great deal. They have not only withdrawn the boycott of women doctors but invited them humbly to accept membership in their famous society. Twenty-¤ve years ago, not even one or two well-known

182 The Peoples of the United States

medical societies had women members; now there may not be even one or two reputable medical societies which lack women members.

Whether or not women's brains function competently in dif¤cult scienti¤c subjects like medicine will become clear from the following anecdote. There is a prestigious medical society in the United States which gives substantial awards to doctors who write excellent essays on a topic speci¤ed by it. On one occasion, the society had invited essays on the topic, "The Question of Rest for Women during Menstruation."37 One of the essays, among the four or ¤ve written by candidates at the time of the examination, was adjudged to be the best, and it was resolved to give an award of $500 to the author. This author had cleverly signed with only initials rather than the full name. The society was deeply prejudiced against women doctors and had not imagined that women would write such dif¤cult papers. But after the prize was announced, it was discovered that the author was a woman, the famous Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi of New York. After realizing this, the partisan medical association found it very dif¤cult to admit that a woman had written such a good essay and was awarded the prize. But what could it do? Having already declared its decision, it was compelled to reluctantly give the prize to Dr. Jacobi.

New York City has a medical college known as the New York In¤rmary which is considered to be very prestigious among the best governmental or independent medical colleges in the United States.38 Needless to say, its founder is a woman doctor who is counted among the best doctors in the United States.

When Elizabeth Blackwell, founder of the New York In¤rmary, returned home in 1850 after studying medicine and obtaining medical experience in Europe, she saw the acute need for women's hospitals.39 In the large public hospitals under the supervision of reputable male doctors, women—who were thought to possess inferior brains—were not allowed to study how to treat patients, perform surgery, etc. In 1857 this industrious lady, together with her sister, founded her famous hospital, with a medical college attached to it. She was assisted by other equally industrious and altruistic women. Her example was followed by the women of Boston who founded the New England Hospital for Women and Children in 1862.40 Newly graduated women work here as well as in the New York

In¤rmary to gain valuable experience of medical practice by treating patients, performing surgical operations, etc., and by watching the other doctors. Our dear countrywoman Dr. Anandibai Joshee spent some time as an intern at this

New England Hospital, after graduating from Philadelphia. Following Boston, the women of Philadelphia established a hospital for women and children, attached to the women's medical college there; it also offers internships to newly graduated women doctors. Similarly there are the Chicago Hospital for Women and Children in the city of Chicago, the Paci¤c Hospital for Women and ChilThe Condition of Women 183

dren in the city of San Francisco, the Ohio Hospital in the city of Cincinnati, and the Northwestern Hospital in the city of Minneapolis. These seven excellent hospitals and colleges in the Northern States, established by women and also run by women, shine with extraordinary brilliance like the seven stars in the constellation of the Pleiades in the northern skies, and are a source of great happiness to the men and women who look to them with hope and expectancy. It is good news that the women of England are following the example of the women of the United States, by establishing colleges and teaching hospitals.

To date there are thirty-six medical colleges in this country, established only for women. Most of the teaching there is also conducted by women. Many women doctors work as teachers even in coeducational colleges. This proves that the prevalent belief in the United States, that medical education will ruin women, has undergone a change. After women started studying medicine, medical experts began to regard the human body and anatomy as sacred. Before women were admitted as students, anatomy lessons led to vulgar practices which have now ceased altogether, because the modesty and very praiseworthy morals of the women students made the male teachers and students ashamed of their vulgar behavior. Now the presence of women has improved the teaching style and language of anatomy to such an extent that people want to teach it even to young children of eight or ten.

Another useful profession undertaken by women is the practice of law.41 In the year 1868, Washington University in the city of St. Louis agreed to teach women law. In 1869 Arabella Mans¤eld became the ¤rst registered lawyer and began to practice law;42 since then most large universities have allowed women to study law in their schools. The doubt entertained by many as to women's ability to study a dif¤cult subject like law has almost completely vanished now. Their capability has been proven by their clear legal arguments, competence equal to that of famous male lawyers, and most of all, their modest conduct in the courts of law. There are hundreds of registered women lawyers in the United States, who work through small ¤rms as men do; there are twenty-one such ¤rms started by couples where both husband and wife are lawyers.

There were many who objected that it would be dif¤cult for women to protect their modesty and decorum in law courts where all kinds of cases, good and bad, would be tried. But the objectors should have realized that court cases involve not only men but also women. Although womankind does not produce as many culprits as mankind does (which is indeed praiseworthy and creditable to womankind), some of the culprits do happen to be women. Their true feelings can be better understood by a lawyer of their own sex than by a man. Every thinking person must realize how dif¤cult it is for a woman to be in a place which is full of men, without a single woman around. Moreover, it should not be dif¤cult for a respectable woman to go where respectable men are present—and men in the 184 The Peoples of the United States

position of judges and lawyers are bound to be respectable. The probability of getting due justice for women offenders increases with the advent of women lawyers. Be that as it may, experience shows that women lawyers of the United

States have not lost their natural modesty and dignity in any way. All the men in the law courts where women lawyers are present treat them with due respect; moreover, the rules which prohibit smoking, bad language, and improper conduct in the courtrooms are being more closely observed since women entered them. Nobody can assess women's pro¤ciency in law without seeing for themselves their work in the Supreme Court and other courts of the United States.

Men have been practicing law for hundreds of years in the United States, and women obtained the right to pass law examinations only twenty years ago. Within this short span of time, these brave women have caught up with highly reputed male lawyers. Women have not yet produced famous lawyers like O'Connell,

Curran, Webster, and Choate; but they may very well do so in the future.43 Besides, it is not as if all male lawyers are so famous.

Since 1868, a monthly legal journal called Legal News has been published in Chicago, edited by Myra Bradwell, president of the largest publishing house of legal books in the United States.44 The massive volume known as Bradwell's Appellate Court Reports, prepared under this lady's supervision, is very famous and is consulted by most lawyers. Another woman, named Catharine Waite, publishes the fortnightly Law Times of Chicago, which is also reputed among the legal community for its excellence. In 1886 the women graduates and students of law at Michigan University formed the "Equity Club" with the objective of establishing friendships among women lawyers not only in the United States but in all countries where women have the right to practice law, thus achieving the general advancement of women through mutual help. Although men have been practicing law for thousands of years, one has never heard of their having formed a similar association for the common good of the male sex, irrespective of the distinctions of class and nation. This is an excellent example of how women make good use of any power they acquire.

The fourth important profession which women have entered is preaching.

During the initial years after the founding of Christianity, Christian women had the same right to preach as men did. The rule at the time was that only a person—whether a man or a woman—who was chosen by God and endowed with this holy power should preach. The Christian doctrine preached by Christ is simple and its rules apply equally to men and women. The God of Christ imparts His Holy Spirit equally to men and women without distinction of sex. He is not partisan like man and does not entrust the task of preaching only to men.

He gives the right gifts to the right person, and distributes such gifts to men and women in many different ways. As regards qualities like civility, artistic skills, intelligence, and devotion, it cannot be said that some belong only to men and The Condition of Women 185

some to women as typical of their sex. But when the Christian religion came under the control of the Romans, who regarded women as inferior, they incorporated their own beliefs and prejudices into it. The Roman Catholic bishops and monks regarded women as an enemy like Satan; it was they and others like them who deprived women of their right to preach. Until recently, women with a divine call to preach had to refrain from speaking because of the restriction imposed upon them by partisan men, and had to listen quietly to what men said.

But the light of Reason in this nineteenth century has shown men their mistake.

Many nonpartisan bishops in most Christian countries have begun to say that women should have the right to preach. In the United States one hundred and sixty-¤ve women of different denominations are registered preachers. The people of this country are beginning to see that on many occasions women preachers are more easily able to evangelize than male preachers. This and other reasons have strengthened the public desire for more women preachers.

Stenography, that is shorthand writing, is another occupation taken up by women. They have become so skilful at it that these days great and famous newspaper editors and lawyers in the United States are eager to employ women stenographers in their of¤ces, and entrust them with great responsibilities. The women in this occupation earn much more than average women schoolteachers.

After learning the system of shorthand writing for a year or so and after completing a short apprenticeship, these women are able to copy down verbatim entire speeches made in law courts and in public meetings. For this work they earn wages ranging from ¤ve to twenty dollars per hour.

When the learned Englishwoman Harriet Martineau visited the United States in 1840, women here were free to engage in seven low-level jobs, namely: (1) teaching children the alphabet and mathematical tables, (2) tailoring, (3) running boardinghouses, (4) domestic service, (5) working as compositors in print shops, (6) folding pages and stitching them in book binderies, and (7) working as operatives in factories. But times have changed.45 Women have become educated, and those who are quali¤ed to do better jobs are no longer content with these. Although they do not receive much help or encouragement from the United

States federal and state governments, they develop their God-given imagination aided by a sharp intellect, ¤rm resolve, and hard work. The census of 1880 shows that the women of the United States were engaged in three hundred different occupations. In Massachusetts alone there were 251,158 women engaged in 284 different occupations, earning an annual income ranging from $150 to $3,000.

Some say that women are lacking in imagination because their brains are smaller, that all the inventions to date are men's. We say that women did not invent things because nobody gave them scope and encouragement to develop their inventiveness, and not because their brains are smaller. It has also happened that women have had new ideas, but, true to their natural generosity, have

186 The Peoples of the United States

allowed men to take the credit. For example, the sister of the famous European singer [sic] and musician Beethoven composed many excellent and extraordinarily melodious musical pieces, and allowed them to be made public under her brother's name.46 They have helped to immortalize Beethoven's fame, but very few know that the compositions were his sister's. Similarly Caroline Herschel, sister of the astronomer William Herschel, discovered several planets and provided able assistance to her brother in his astronomical observations with her extraordinary mathematical abilities.47 But Caroline Herschel, whose ceaseless efforts and sel®ess assistance made William Herschel famous, was not credited by the world with a share in her brother's success. One reason why women like

Beethoven's sister allowed their own inventions and discoveries to be made public under the names of their male kin or friends was their natural generosity; another reason was the barbaric belief in most countries in the past that it was shameful for women to attract notice either through an invention or any other act. We still hold this belief in our country. In the United States women's ideas are just beginning to receive a little encouragement. Even in such a short time they have made 1,935 inventions and discoveries which they have patented with the United States Government. They are not minor inventions, but ones of a kind which clearly displays women's deep scienti¤c knowledge. For example, in 1845 a woman invented a submarine telescope, another invented life jackets and rafts for seafarers, yet another constructed a steam generator. A woman made improvements in the steam engine of the locomotive, another found a way of reducing the sound of elevated railways, a third thought of a scheme to prevent the loss of standing crops due to ®ooding, and a fourth made a non-inductive electric cable. Women have made many useful machines for lifting grain onto barges, for winnowing grain, for harvesting ¤elds, etc. Thus there is no room for the charge that women are not inventive.

It must be known to many that in China and in some parts of India, women work as boatmen. It is not customary for women in the United States to work in this capacity, but they are likely to do so in the future. Of the numerous steamers on the large rivers Hudson and Mississippi, some have women navigators as captains who perform their duties ef¤ciently and systematically. It would be dif¤cult to ¤nd many occupations in the United States in which women are not engaged.

During the last forty years, when they have been allowed into different occupations, their means of earning a livelihood have multiplied. Of all the farmers in the United States, 7 percent are women who manage their own farms. Sixteen percent of the artisans are women; over 600,000 women support themselves through handicrafts. In addition, there are 60,000 women who are independent traders or their agents. Thousands of women are telegraphists, railway ticket clerks, and post of¤ce workers. About 1,370,000 women work as cooks and domestics.

The Condition of Women 187

Legal Rights It is both surprising and regrettable that for all the progress in the United

States, women have been granted very few legal rights.48 The social restrictions prevailing in the United States stem mainly from ancient English law, which in turn is founded on the Commandments of Moses and Roman law. Keeping this in mind enables one to solve the riddle as to why women are treated as greatly inferior in American law. In the new States in the West, there are several changes in laws pertaining to women; for example, the law stipulates that the house in which a married man lives with his wife should be treated as hers and not his.

But in most of the Eastern States a widow is not allowed to stay in her late husband's house for more than forty days after his death without paying rent! The compassionate and learned men in the State of Maine have taken pity on the grieving widow and allowed her to stay in her deceased husband's house for ninety days! These days many States have granted married women the right to dispose of their self-earned property according to their wishes. The law states that they do not have a right to money earned by doing work at home, such as tailoring, drawing, and painting, but only to money earned by gainful employment outside the home. In several States women have a full right to the movable and immovable property gifted by their father or brother, and married women have a right to a third of their deceased husband's movable assets. But in many

States they have no right to self-earned assets or those inherited from their father, and no share whatsoever in their husband's property.

In New York and many other States, a mother has no right over her minor children. A father may give guardianship of his children to whomever he wishes during his lifetime or through his last will and testament. Thus the husband has the right to give away the children his wife has borne, against her will. Only if he is of unsound mind or dies intestate does the mother obtain custody of her minor children. The children born to legally wedded couples are the father's children by law; the mother can claim no right to them. Only the children of unmarried women or prostitutes are regarded as their mother's. A couple of years ago, there was a respectable woman whose heartless husband tried to give away her tender babes against her wishes. The poor mother could not endure the separation from her own ®esh and blood. Then, in order to get guardianship of her children, she set aside her modesty and took a false oath in the court of law that they were not her husband's children. Only then did she get her children back. See how the laws of so-called civilized countries insult women's modesty, maternal love, and God-given natural rights! Though not quite human demons, the makers of these laws probably belong to the class of whom it has been said

"We know not who they may be!"49 Only in the three States of Kansas, New Jersey, and Iowa can mothers obtain custody of their children.

188 The Peoples of the United States

A few years ago, in Massachusetts and some other States, women did not have the right to be buried in graves next to their husband's; now this law has changed.

Immediately after getting married, a woman becomes her husband's prisoner.

The priest makes her take the vow of obedience to her husband. The movable and immovable property gifted by her father or brother, her jewelry, and such other possessions go into her husband's hands.v A few years ago a woman could not claim a right to the clothes she stood in, but now the law has forbidden husbands to sell or pawn their wives' dresses in order to ¤ll their own pockets.

The laws governing marriage and divorce differ widely throughout the United States, which causes a great deal of confusion in the social order. The good people of this country, especially the Woman's Temperance Union and its supporters, have been striving for a long time to ensure that laws regarding marriage should be just, and that they should be uniform throughout the country.

There is a law which entitles citizens of the United States to obtain justice in a court of law through a jury of twelve men who are their peers. But women do not have the right to trial by a jury of their own sex, who are their real peers.

Men—even though they be a hundred times more foolish than women, or riddled with vice—do not allow the legislature to lift a ¤nger without consulting them while enacting federal or state laws. But women—no matter how learned, intelligent, thoughtful, and moral—have no right to vote for the federal or state legislatures. This makes men far superior to women in the eyes of the law; therefore, if they as jurors try a case involving a woman, it does not mean that the woman defendant is tried by a jury of her peers. Except for the Territory of Wyoming, every other part of the United States has denied women this important right of an ordinary citizen, solely on the ground that they are women. Even so, these diligent women are trying to win political rights, and there are hopeful signs that their efforts will be crowned with success in the course of time.

Collective Effort and National Organizations When the democratic republic of the United States was founded, Benjamin

Franklin suggested that the national seal be inscribed with the motto "E pluribus unum" or "One out of many." Now one can see this motto on the national seal everywhere in the United States. Furthermore, we can see, hear, and experience it at every step in the actions of these people. The power of the United

States lies not in its artillery, cavalry, or vast army, but in the people's wisdom and in the truth of the motto "One out of many." When women were uneducated and generally inexperienced in worldly matters, they were ignorant of this truth, and therefore did not accomplish great things. With the increase in their education and knowledge, this eternal truth has awakened in their hearts and shines with greater brilliance with every passing day.

The Condition of Women 189

Though famous throughout the world for its progressiveness, the United States did not have a single important women's association ¤fty years ago. Women would just sit at home or gather at a neighbor's house to gossip, or do some sewing in aid of churches, priests, or the poor. Nobody even imagined that women were capable of doing anything more important than this. Women themselves, apart from men, had no idea of their real worth, capability, and mental powers.

Fifty years ago women supporters of education in England founded an association called the Bluestockings Club, with the aim of promoting general education.50 It became the laughingstock of the world at the time, and "Bluestockings" became a derogatory word. Self-styled modest women would quake and tremble at the thought of a women's association and of women attending its meetings to discuss educational advancement. Everybody thought it sinful for women to attend public meetings or to address them. But the light of this progressive century has dispelled the darkness of such a belief.

The learned American woman Frances Willard has said that this glorious nineteenth century has seen many wonderful scienti¤c discoveries; but the most wonderful of them all is Woman's discovery of herself. This is borne out by considering the history of women's collective effort during the last forty years to promote their own welfare and that of their society and country, by forming a number of associations. In 1848 a few courageous, progressive, and learned women like Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton established an important women's society to work for women's equal right to education and employment, as well as for their political rights.51 Women's collective effort can be said to have started from this date. From that time until 1869, perhaps a couple of small women's societies were established, but there is no record of their having done anything special to achieve national stature. No "National Convention of Women" had come into existence before 1858,52 not only in the United States but anywhere in the world. Until that time nobody imagined that women could establish a national association and manage all its work smoothly.

About 1860 signs of a terrible civil war became visible in the United States. A controversy arose between the Northern and Southern States over the slavery of Negroes, and it ®ared into enmity. In 1860–61 the Southern States declared war against the Northern States, and the terrible war which was fought between the two until 1865 devastated American families everywhere. Initially the Civil War caused untold misery, poverty, and suffering; however, they were immediately followed by great good, just as the deadly Poison was immediately followed by Nectar and other marvelous and brilliant Gems.53

President Lincoln became the leader of the Northern States, abolished African slavery, and called upon strong able-bodied American men to volunteer for the army to quell the Southern rebellion and protect the country's honor. When the brave Northern men went to war, honoring President Lincoln's call, they did not 190 The Peoples of the United States

have any uniforms (trousers, jackets, socks, etc.). Nor were there any organizations to supply these or other materials for war. When the war started and news came that the soldiers needed uniforms, the women of almost all the towns in the Northern States gathered in the churches and started sewing uniforms. Initially they supplied uniforms to last the soldiers for three months. This event showed the women the result of collective effort and its tremendous bene¤t to society and the nation.

A little later, the American Civil War assumed terrible proportions, and the ¤ghting spread everywhere. The Northern States established a committee called the Christian Commission, with the aim of providing spiritual solace to the soldiers by sending clergymen to the battle¤eld to preach to them and to administer the last rites. The task of collecting money for the expenses of the commission fell to the women's lot, while men occupied the positions of president, vice president, and so on. Women worked very hard to collect large sums of money, which they delivered to the commission, and with which the commission sent hundreds of clergymen to preach to the soldiers. The commission's intention was undoubtedly very praiseworthy; but the soldiers, wounded on the battle- ¤eld, dying of hunger and thirst, and suffering agonies, did not have much interest in listening to sermons. On the other hand, the clergymen who had gone there to ensure the soldiers' spiritual welfare did not know how to achieve their physical welfare by alleviating the suffering of their "temporal" bodies. The poor wounded soldier could not be blamed for not tolerating the chatter of the clergymen, who started preaching instead of providing physical aid when he was severely wounded in the arm or the leg. This made many people realize that it was necessary to create a separate organization to give physical aid to wounded soldiers, and that it was desirable for this organization to appoint women to nurse and look after them. This led to the establishment of the Sanitary Commission.

The very existence of this commission and its great achievements were impressive; but what astonished the world even more was the feat of the American women who supported it, supplied it with all the requisite equipment from beginning to end, and managed it. The commission sent not hundreds but thousands of male and female nursing staff to the battle¤eld. They made proper arrangements for the regular meals of the wounded soldiers of the allied army

(and also of some destitute enemy soldiers), set up hospitals on the battle¤eld, buried dead soldiers, and gave succor to the poor and the helpless. It was dif¤cult for the commission to ¤nd the large sums of money and supplies needed for these numerous tasks. The Government treasury had no money, and there was not a single person who possessed the wealth to ¤nance the commission's formidable expenditure, or at least the generosity to donate it. That was when the prominent women in the working subcommittee of the commission thought of The Condition of Women 191

a clever plan. Mary A. Livermore54 and a couple of other women proposed to put the plan into practice, and sent an appeal to many people in Illinois and other

States to inform them of their aims and their plan of action. Shortly, all the newspapers in the Northern States published the news that some industrious women of Chicago were proposing to hold a charity bazaar where articles gifted by generous people would be sold at a high price and the proceeds donated to the Sanitary Commission; and that those interested in supporting this admirable enterprise should send whatever they could to the address of a certain lady in Chicago.

The women organizers of the charity bazaar had estimated that, if properly managed, it would yield a pro¤t of at least $25,000. This made learned men and respectable newspaper editors laugh. They thought that not only did the women lack sense enough to earn $25,000, but they were sure to end up ruining the whole charity bazaar. Some sneered contemptuously and said that there would be a "potato parade" in Chicago on that day. But the brave and diligent women ignored public denunciation and ridicule, and started working day and night to make their effort a success. Women of Illinois and many other States sent clothes, novelties, many kinds of preserves and pickles, sweets, and numerous other things to Chicago. The bazaar opened on the appointed day. Some good farmers around Chicago, perhaps with the intention of teaching a lesson to the critics of those benevolent women, loaded their carts with vegetables, ®owers, potatoes, and other things and brought them to the bazaar with great fanfare. The intelligent women who had organized the bazaar had made excellent arrangements.

Thousands of people visited the bazaar with diverse motives, but were pleasantly surprised to see the excellent arrangements, the civility of the organizers, and similar things, and ended up making some purchases. After the bazaar was over, people discovered that the sale proceeds, after deducting all expenses, yielded a net pro¤t ¤ve times higher than the organizers' estimate. The hardworking women of the Sanitary Commission made a pro¤t of about $125,000 (about Rs.

375,000) and dispatched it for the commission's use. Many such bazaars were held after that in aid of the Sanitary Commission. The last two were held at New

York and Philadelphia, where the pro¤ts amounted to $1,000,000 (Rs. 3,000,000) and $1,200,000 (Rs. 3,600,000), respectively. It was women who thought of the idea of the bazaar, they who managed it from beginning to end, and they who made all the big and small articles which were sold. This capability, organizational ability, political insight, foresight, and perseverance astonished the men, who had arrogantly thought that they alone possessed these qualities and who had babbled that women had no capacity for practical work; while the good people who had recognized women's true worth applauded them.

The Sanitary Commission was a kind of national benevolent association, and it gave women the ¤rst opportunity to work alongside men, in high and low po192 The Peoples of the United States

sitions. The fetes and bazaars organized in aid of the commission yielded innumerable bene¤ts and allowed massive tasks to be undertaken and carried through to completion. All this made the women realize the truth that great aims can be achieved if many work together collectively, smoothly, and in an organized manner. It also showed the world what mighty deeds women are capable of when they are given the education, freedom, and opportunity to work. The famous and benevolent Englishwoman Florence Nightingale set aside the Englishstyle seclusion of women, went to the Crimean War, nursed wounded soldiers, made proper arrangements for patients on the battle¤eld, and set an excellent example for all the compassionate women of the world.55 How well Miss Nightingale's example was followed by the American women is shown by the American history of the years between 1860 and 1866. While the Civil War lasted, women of the Northern States managed not only their homes but also the jobs and tasks of men; they collected large sums of money and innumerable things required by charitable associations like the Christian and Sanitary Commissions. Moreover, thousands of them went to the battle¤eld and worked day and night to nurse and serve the tired and weary, wounded and half-dead soldiers.

At high noon or in the middle of the night, they went personally and in the nick of time to help wherever help was needed, even in the thick of battle, ignoring hunger, thirst, and physical discomforts. Hundreds of millionairesses left their wealthy homes and went into self-imposed exile to alleviate the suffering of their countrymen on the battle¤eld, and risked their lives doing a variety of good deeds; at times they lost their physical strength, movable and immovable property, and even their invaluable lives! Blessed indeed are these saintly, philanthropic matrons!

From 1865 to date, a number of women's organizations have been established in the United States, with many more to come. Not only in the United States but also in England, France, Germany, Finland, Norway, Italy, and other countries, local and national organizations have been set up, with a variety of aims. The reason for the existence of these women's national organizations was that women's innate capability was seen by the world through associations like the Civil

War Sanitary Commission; and that women recognized their own worth and strength, and realized that enormous tasks could be accomplished if many undertook an enterprise with a single aim and collective effort. Women then began to put this newly acquired knowledge to good use. During the last twenty-¤ve years or so, at least forty women's national organizations have been founded and are functioning very smoothly. After the end of the American Civil War and the dismantling of the Sanitary Commission, hundreds or even thousands of women's organizations, big and small, came into being. The words "women's organization," which women were ashamed to utter ¤fty years ago, have become universally acceptable today. Now it would be dif¤cult to ¤nd a town of a thousand

The Condition of Women 193

inhabitants which does not have at least one women's organization. In every town and city, one ¤nds a variety of women's organizations—for the Promotion of Education, Mutual Improvement, Aid to the Poor, Temperance, Protection of Orphans, Protection of Children, Rehabilitation of Fallen Women, Promotion of Music, Charity, Demand for Legal Rights, Social Progress, Advancement of Women, and so on. Hundreds of such women's organizations are ever ready to devote all their energies to good deeds, for the elevation of society and the nation. Fifty years ago women were ignorant and unable to appreciate the greatness of collective effort; so they did their religious and philanthropic work separately, and failed to achieve anything substantial. Now Ignorance has lost its sway and Reason has taken command. Women have realized the tremendous advantages of collective effort undertaken by many with a single goal in mind and after mutual consultation. Now women are equal partners with men in undertaking good works for national progress in the United States. I cannot describe these women's organizations in detail for lack of space, but let us consider the nature and salient achievements of some of them.vi In every country we see that women are the guardians of religion and morality. In all countries and all communities, women are the ones who protect their religion by their pure and pious conduct, charity, devotion to God, and total sacri¤ce of everything in defense of religion. During the last forty years, these invaluable qualities of women have been discovered in Christian countries, and women have been given the opportunity to conduct religious services independently in the light of their own conscience, which is of great bene¤t to the world.

About twenty-¤ve years ago, the ¤rst women's missionary society was founded in this country. Now most Christian denominations have established women's missionary societies of their own. Together these societies have a total of about 1,500,000 women as members; they pay over $2,000,000 (Rs. 6,000,000) annually as membership fees; and they utilize this money, through their representatives and presidents, for evangelical activities and for aid to the destitute. All these women's missionary societies taken together publish over 125,000 copies of evangelical newspapers and magazines, and distribute them widely. In addition, they publish and distribute numerous small religious tracts. The women of these societies organize 500,000 meetings per year, where they give religious sermons, read papers, and arrange lectures by famous and learned speakers. All the work of these societies and meetings is managed by the women themselves. All the of¤ceholders, such as president, vice president, secretaries, superintendents, speakers, preachers, treasurers, and editors of newspapers and magazines, are women; and they alone manage all the work. They are not content with doing charitable work themselves, but also take along their sons and daughters, from a very young age, to attend evangelical meetings; often they arrange meetings only for children, in order to inculcate in them a taste for charitable work. In 194 The Peoples of the United States

this manner they impress deeply on the tender, pure hearts of the children the truth that an endeavor undertaken collectively by many, with but a single thought, acquires great strength, and that mutual friendship and respect yield untold happiness. A very highly respected, learned American woman has said in her description of missionary societies that twenty-¤ve years ago it would have seemed much easier for the women of this country to ®y to the moon than to speak at public meetings, present papers, preside over meetings, deliver sermons, run newspapers, and so on.

Since this large body of missionary women came into existence, women have realized their own worth and strength. In the past, only male preachers went to evangelize in other countries as representatives of missionary societies. Only if they were married to missionary men could women serve abroad—without, however, the permission or leisure to preach. The general belief at the time was that women were not capable of preaching, let alone of traveling by themselves to far-off lands to evangelize. The orthodox Christian societies still do not ordain women as clergy; however, hundreds of unmarried or widowed women belonging to these societies, who are educated and devout, are ever ready to travel long distances, even alone, within their own country or abroad. Their aim is to emancipate the women there, both rich and poor, from the clutches of falsehood and ignorance. The domestic societies of missionary women bear the expenses of these evangelical women, ¤nance and manage the boys' and girls' schools they have started, and send them all the necessary supplies and aid.

Women's Clubs After women's missionary societies began to be established in this fashion, many learned and farsighted women developed a strong desire to start women's clubs. Although societies and clubs are generally similar, there is an important difference between them. A society is an association established with a single chief aim, and only those who subscribe to that aim can join it as members. A club is not established with a sole object; it assembles people of diverse beliefs, so that a single club can undertake different types of activities. Because of this diversity of opinions and ways of thinking among the members, each member gains a wide general knowledge from the numerous views expressed on any topic being discussed. Realizing that women need such wide knowledge, some diligent American women founded the ¤rst American women's club twenty years ago, under the name Sorosis.56 The word "Sorosis" is derived from the Greek and means an assembly or coming together of many. When the Sorosis

Club came into being, many expressed reservations about its usefulness, considering that women's missionary societies were already in existence. There was no prior model for this club. Although the founders of the Sorosis Club did not The Condition of Women 195

acknowledge a speci¤c aim, they had a grand design in mind. At the time, women did not have practical wisdom like men, nor did women of different views communicate with each other; therefore they remained narrow-minded (like frogs in a pond), and were prejudiced and ready to detect and criticize the faults of others. The founders of Sorosis knew that a familiarity with diverse opinions in large gatherings would dispel the prejudices born of ignorance, and that women would be able to act with a single aim and achieve great things.

The establishment of Sorosis showed everybody the numerous advantages of a club; and it soon assumed a variegated and universal character by promoting knowledge and friendship, undertaking charitable work, helping the destitute, and so on. The club surveyed the condition of orphaned and abandoned infants, and of infant asylums, in New York City, and published the information. The club also reformed existing infant asylums and earned credit for founding two new ones. It also surveyed the condition of women factory workers in New York

City, their treatment by the factory owners, and the reforms necessary in their condition; and presented these ¤ndings before the public, thus greatly bene¤ting the women workers. The club was the ¤rst to petition the management of New

York University and of Columbia University to admit women students along with men. Due to lack of space it is not possible to give a description of the hundreds of important and bene¤cial undertakings of this club. Sorosis prohibits a discussion of three topics: religion, politics, and women's political rights.

This has been done so as to prevent discord among the members while discussing religion and similar topics, because the club has been established mainly in order to disseminate knowledge to ladies and to engage in philanthropy. But this does not mean that its members have no interest in these topics. Numerous other clubs, such as the New England Woman's Club and the New Century Club, which are the "daughters" of Sorosis, not only discuss these topics but have vowed to propagate progressive ideas by inviting women of diverse opinions to address them and explain their views, without causing any disagreement.

Some useless fellows say that these women's societies and clubs are but an imitation of men's; but the women's societies and clubs which I saw in large numbers in the United States had no connection with men's. Women's missionary and temperance societies and clubs were founded and developed solely by women.57 Men usually establish clubs only with the intention of discussing politics, chatting, or amusing themselves by playing ball games. Men's clubs are not much inclined toward charity, promoting education, helping the destitute, comforting sufferers, and so on. Because these men's clubs do not allow ladies, they are infested with harmful and bad habits like drinking, using vulgar language, etc., as I have heard many people say. If this be true, I am happy and proud to say that women's clubs show not the least sign of imitating men's clubs.

Soon after the creation of the Sorosis Club, another very important club, 196 The Peoples of the United States

known as the Woman's Congress, was established. It makes strong efforts to promote women's education, and is therefore also known as the Society for the Advancement of Women.

Its members include women from many parts of the United States who are very learned, farsighted, experienced, and interested in education. There are many local branches of this club, and once every year the members meet at an appointed place. On this occasion scholarly women read well-reasoned and thoughtful papers on serious subjects such as politics, social reform, social conditions, education, arts, sciences, poetry, and history; and also deliver lectures.

This club enjoys great prominence because of the prestige, learning, and fame of its members.

There is another famous club, known as the New England Woman's Club, in Boston,58 which also aims to promote education, as is the case with the Woman's

Congress. These clubs for promoting education do not merely propagate book learning. As soon as they were founded, the members decided to undertake practical tasks after mutual consultations about the shortcomings of the female sex and the measures necessary to rectify them. They acquired practical knowledge, studied the management of other societies and associations, and made use of this in improving the conditions of the women toiling in different occupations and in alleviating their misery. They are still engaged in this task.

The New Century Club of Philadelphia is famous for its valuable qualities of progressiveness and philanthropy. Its efforts have led to the formation of the Working Woman's Guild, which has over seven hundred working women as its members. Only self-supporting women who work in factories, shops, etc., can become its members. For an hour or two every evening, classes on different subjects are held in its meeting hall. Hundreds of women are able to study subjects of their choice every day in about six different classes. Ordinarily every woman has some interest in cooking, sewing, embroidery, knitting, exercise, and so on; but the subjects of special interest among these members are poetry, history, and languages. These women have a special class, known as the "thinking class," in which they discuss abstruse subjects like philosophy. The intellectual capability and insight displayed by these women astonishes even highly educated audiences. Women who earn their livelihood through menial work are able to get an education, good company, and refuge in times of need, because some industrious and philanthropic women decided to establish this club. These days the example of the New Century Club has been followed by respectable, educated women in many other places, who have established organizations like the Working Woman's Guild for the advancement of working women and for the welfare and moral protection of misguided, destitute young women. Nobody will be able to assess the extent of the bene¤t of such clubs to working women and society at large.

The Condition of Women 197

Boston has the Woman's Educational and Industrial Union, which is managed by educated, experienced women of good families, who take turns visiting the union and supervising its working.59 Currently the union has four committees; more may be added as and when necessary. The Entertainment Committee holds weekly receptions for the members, their friends and well-wishers, which is open for anybody. In addition to the management, several knowledgeable ladies assist in whatever way they can by investigating the problems of the women who approach the union for shelter and help. The Industrial Department arranges to take in articles made by poor women wishing to work; it sells them at a good price, and passes the money on to the women. More than seven hundred women bring some homemade things. Last year this department sold goods worth $26,000

(Rs. 78,000). The Employment Committee arranges to ¤nd suitable wage work for poor women seeking a job, or for educated women seeking a teaching position. Attached to it is a lunchroom, where food and drinks can be bought at moderate prices. If women servants, workers, and others are made to work without due payment, they can lodge a complaint with the Protective Department, which obtains justice for such women. The Protective Department is not only famous throughout the city of Boston, but strikes terror among the unjust. On its behalf, famous, learned, and altruistic lawyers ¤ght poor women's cases free of charge in the courts of law. An iniquitous employer who refuses to pay due wages for work needs only to be told that a complaint would be ¤led before the Protective Department of Boston; that is enough to bring such persons back to their senses.

There are many other societies modeled on this one all over the United States, known as Woman's Exchanges. They are all run by women. Their objective is to help the poor, destitute women who work for a living, by selling their homemade goods at a fair price. In some places a boardinghouse is attached to the Exchange, to accommodate women visitors who come from other towns for work. These houses are under the supervision of respectable, in®uential women of the town.

The entire management of the Exchange is entrusted to women's societies, which are of great help to the working women of the United States.

The Young Women's Christian Association is an excellent philanthropic organization in this country. It has branches in almost all cities, and has hundreds and thousands of young women as members. It has been formed to achieve several praiseworthy and important aims (in which it has been very successful), such as explaining and propagating Christianity among young women, preaching to ignorant women and leading them on the right path, arranging for good and reasonably priced accommodation for self-supporting women, and making education available to anyone who is interested in learning languages, or in getting scienti¤c or vocational information.

In 1848 several active women held a Woman's Rights Convention at Seneca 198 The Peoples of the United States

Falls in the State of New York, as mentioned above. This was the very ¤rst association established for protecting women's rights; all other women's societies have come into being after following its example and with its assistance. The whole world ridiculed the convention when it was held. So-called gentlemen slung mud at the women who spoke on its behalf, and cursed them; the yellow newspapers drew cartoons of them; public leaders and opinion builders denounced and ostracized them; preachers honored them with epithets, such as "irreligious," "immoral," "heretical," "evil," "witches," "Satan's messengers"—epithets which served to expose their own breeding. But the women did not abandon their determination although the circumstances and public opinion were so unfavorable. They sacri¤ced their happiness, dedicated themselves with all their energies and wealth, and even shared the oppression of the women they helped, in order to continue their work for the abolition of women's slavery. Now the convention has become the National Woman Suffrage Association60 with branches in hundreds of places in the United States and headquarters in Boston. It publishes weekly, fortnightly, and monthly newspapers as well as books at several places.

The American Woman Suffrage Association publishes a famous weekly paper, the Woman's Journal, in Boston.61 Its example has been followed by women in England, Canada, Australia, France, Denmark, Finland, and other countries, with the establishment of similar societies.

The efforts of the National Convention for Woman's Rights in the United States have led to several changes and improvements in the laws pertaining to the women of this country. In the State of Kansas women have obtained all the important rights of representation in municipalities. In the Territory of Wyoming women have received all the political rights which men have,62 with a clearly bene¤cial effect. (Also in Canada, England,63 and the English territory in Australia, unmarried and widowed women have obtained rights in municipalities.) The efforts of these societies have succeeded in large measure, and there are favorable signs that they will be entirely successful in the near future. This important women's convention was founded forty years ago at Seneca Falls. It made a small breach in the ramparts of the impenetrable fortress of custom which society had erected around the female community in order to imprison them and block their progress; and it made a small path for women to escape this terrible fortress. Thousands of women are leaving the fortress in groups in order to reach freedom, and more will continue to do so. This convention has now become international. At the end of March 1888, women of about ten civilized countries had come to the city of Washington at the invitation of the American Woman Suffrage Association. At that time the association called a convention of the International Council of Women64 and resolved to establish branches in each member country. In some cases this resolution has already been carried out. This International Council of Women has been established not The Condition of Women 199

merely in order to obtain political rights for women. It has come into being in order to achieve very important and laudable aims, namely, to establish friendly relations among all kinds of women's societies everywhere in the world, to provide mutual help when necessary, to provide mutual encouragement, and to create friendship among women of all nations. More information about it is given at another place below, which is why nothing more is added here. There are many other important women's societies in this country, which are not mentioned here because information about all of them would take up considerable space. However, this essay will remain incomplete without at least a little information about the Woman's Temperance Union in this country, which I give below.

In November of last year (1887) the National Woman's Temperance Union of the United States held its fourteenth annual convention at the town of Nashville, in the State of Tennessee. The society's president had invited me to attend it. I traveled two thousand miles, all the way to Nashville, to see the great convention and the gathering of eminent women from all the States. For a whole week the city was crowded with women. About three hundred leading women had come there as representatives of the Woman's Temperance Unions of all the States in this country. Besides, many men and women had gathered there to see the convention.

The State of Tennessee is situated in the South of the country; and independence, education, and diligence are not seen among the women in these parts to the extent seen in the North. Some years ago, nobody there approved of a woman addressing a meeting, and nobody had even dreamt of the words "women's societies." The female sex has not advanced there as much as it should, nor are the means of higher education available to it. On the way to Nashville, I had occasion to stop at the city of Louisville in the State of Kentucky, and to address a meeting at the insistence of the people there. On that occasion, the minister of the church where I was to speak insisted on my sitting on the dais. It was my intention that if I was to sit on the dais, some of the eminent women of the town should also sit there with me. But the women said, "We have never done such a thing in our lives, how can we bring ourselves to do so now?" I said, "Ladies, you have never sat on the dais before, but what is the harm in making a beginning now? Just sit there with me once; if it bothers you in any way, don't do it again."

After much hesitation, ¤ve or six women agreed to sit on the dais, and stayed there until I ¤nished my speech. Needless to say, they came to no harm. Although women in the South do not live in seclusion, very few of them seem to possess the necessary independence and con¤dence to move about in society.

On hearing the above-mentioned news that the annual convention of the Woman's Temperance Union of the United States was to take place at Nashville, many people there made many kinds of speculations about it. Nobody really knew much about the society or how it worked. Many thought that it would be

200 The Peoples of the United States

some kind of playacting or spectacle produced by the unimaginative ideas of half-sane and half-crazed women. Many clergymen refused them permission to hold meetings in their churches on the grounds that it was an irreligious act, and that the women were engaging in unwomanly conduct in contravention of biblical injunctions. At last it was decided to hold the meetings in the hall of a public library. The local Woman's Temperance Union of Nashville exerted itself extremely hard to coax the local women to help with the convention. These generous women invited to their homes the women who had come from afar, and entertained them very hospitably.

The marvelous convention began on the morning of November 16. Seven hundred chairs had been arranged in a semicircle in the meeting hall; there was no room for more. All the walls of the hall were decorated with the ®ags of different States and the colorful banners of the Woman's Temperance Unions of each State, embroidered and inscribed with their mottos. The spot where the president and other prominent women were to sit was decorated with the StarSpangled Banner of the United States, ®ower bouquets, and green wreaths.

By nine in the morning, the meeting hall was ¤lled with the Woman's Union.

The audience also included a number of men. Then the president, Frances E.

Willard, called everybody to attention and started the meeting. On that occasion, some eminent women said excellent, absorbing prayers, sang sweet songs, gave touching advice, and Miss Frances made an unparalleled, absorbing, deeply meaningful and beautiful speech. A great poet should have been present to do justice to all these things.

Before the ¤rst day's meeting was concluded, many clergymen in town changed their minds and sent invitations to this unparalleled Woman's Union, insisting that they should oblige them by holding meetings in their churches, and making speeches. The men in the audience stopped ridiculing the Union and began to show respect for it. Then, throughout that week, prominent women in the Union went to half a dozen different places every morning, noon, and night, to make speeches and give advice; even so, the people were not content. During that week, people saw resolutions being passed in the meeting, reports of the previous year's activities being read out, and proceedings being conducted in an ef¤cient manner. The overall beauty and excellent management of all this would have made even the British Parliament and the United States Congress envious of this

Temperance Union. Those who witnessed, on that occasion, Miss Frances Willard's talent for public speaking, leadership, managerial skill, organizational capacity, and extraordinary knowledge of the old rules of parliament, undoubtedly thought that she was the very image of the three goddesses of Learning,

Statesmanship, and Government!

Many egotistical men probably think that women are not able to manage any task properly; but those who saw this Woman's Union and its well-organized

The Condition of Women 201

functioning at Nashville probably also thought that the two world-famous political assemblies, namely the American Congress and the British Parliament, which often show confusion and lack of organization, would pro¤t from following the example of the said Union.

On the evening of November 24, the convention was concluded. On that occasion, while bidding farewell to the women gathered there, prominent men and clergy of Nashville recounted how they had changed their minds about women and how the procedure and excellent organization of the society, its good advice and benevolent moral philosophy, surprised and gladdened them; and, with high praise and great respect, they bade the National Woman's Temperance Union of the United States farewell and invited it to come there again the following year.

The whole convention passed off happily. Never before had I seen such a marvelous, charming, and vast scene in my life; and it made me feel that my life was now ful¤lled.65 This great convention and this great Union cannot be compared to any association or convention other than the convention of the International

Council of Women at Washington, at the end of last March.66

Woman's Crusade The Demoness Liquor and her brother Tobacco had forced their way into people's houses and caused terrible devastation. Almost every single man began to give imaginary justi¤cations, such as "I am a man, I can do anything with impunity; liquor helps to ease tiredness; chewing and smoking tobacco relaxes the brain; it is scienti¤cally proven that a small drink, taken for medicinal purposes, or to help digestion, is perfectly harmless"; and began drinking and using intoxicants to his heart's content, and squandering money on them. Saloons, which are the gateways to hell and the causes of total ruin, sprang up everywhere. Their stained-glass windows and decorated doorways beckoned temptingly to men. Saloonkeepers, who ¤lled their pockets by exploiting others, invented thousands of ways to increase their business by luring the young and the old, the ignorant and the wise, in many different ways. Day by day, more and more men were caught in their noose, lost all they had, and forfeited their happiness, respectability, and sometimes life itself. Because of them, their poor wives and their tender newborn babes were reduced to misery. Thousands of devoted wives suffered inwardly as they watched their husbands being totally ruined by the vice. Millions of mothers were sick at heart as they saw their sons, dearer than their own lives, abandoning religion, morality, and happiness in this world and the next, and heading for eternal hell because of their addiction to liquor. Even so, all those poor women endured their agonies in silence. Scripture and custom—the two arbiters of society—have served women with an order to sit at home and put up with everything quietly; in obedience to this order

202 The Peoples of the United States

women have endured endless, intolerable agonies and mental suffering without as much as a whimper, until today.

But there is a limit to everything in this world. When oppressed too heavily, even a worm turns once in a while and prepares to ¤ght the enemy in self-defense.

It is not very surprising, then, that a time comes when human beings—even women, who are accustomed to enduring oppression patiently—are driven to put up resistance against oppression when the oppression reaches a limit. Such an occasion arose in the case of women in the State of Ohio, when they dispensed with their seclusion and silence, and resolved in order to protect their babes and their dear ones to ¤ght the saloonkeepers who had heartlessly caught their husbands and sons in their coils and dragged them away. Hundreds of wellborn, forbearing, and virtuous women girded themselves and assisted the crusade against saloonkeepers; and vowed not to return from the battle¤eld until they had defeated the enemy and protected their sons and their homes. In this war nobody slit another's throat or snatched a morsel of food from another's mouth through deceit; nobody's blood was spilt and nobody's heart was pierced by harsh words; nobody terri¤ed another with deadly weapons like guns, swords, or cannons. Even so the mention of this crusade made the liquor sellers and their partisans—those irreligious tormentors and plunderers of others' property— tremble; the crusaders' banner of peace made Satan quake; and their sweet, logical exhortations shook the foundations of Satan's citadels until they crumbled and fell. The Crusadesvii of the eleventh and twelfth centuries pale before the marvelous and unparalleled peaceful crusade of women in the nineteenth century. There can be no comparison between the two. Men's crusades, during the barbaric times of the past, were aimed at cutting people's throats, sprinkling the whole earth with human blood, and tarnishing the name of religion. The women's crusade of the nineteenth century was aimed at saving people's lives, rescuing them from Hell, and establishing happiness, peace, and joy in their homes.

Men's crusades of the eleventh and twelfth centuries destroyed millions of lives; the women's crusade of the nineteenth century employed the means to pull billions of people out of the jaws of death. Those barbaric crusades sullied the religion of Christ, the Angel of Peace; this modern crusade made that holy religion shine like burnished gold.

This marvelous crusade started on December 24, 1873.67 A man named Dio Lewis had come to the town of Hillsboro in the State of Ohio to make a speech.

On the evening of the twenty-fourth, he delivered a lecture on the subject "Our Girls" for the Lecture Association at Washington Court House, Ohio. On that occasion, he described the extent to which the human race was ruined by the use of liquor, other intoxicating drinks, tobacco, etc., and narrated his own experience. His mother, a devout and righteous woman, was deeply grieved at the harm caused in the world by this vice. Dio's father was addicted to liquor and had lost

The Condition of Women 203

everything. Mrs. Lewis, seeing her happiness and family life ruined, decided to save her husband; and she thought of a new solution to cure the townspeople of this vice. Taking some women friends along, she herself visited saloons which sold liquor and other intoxicants; prayed and preached there; and entreated their owners to give up the wretched and ruinous trade. Her efforts were eventually successful and all the saloonkeepers in the town closed down their saloons. After narrating this story, Dio Lewis said to the women in the audience that if they followed suit, their good efforts would also be successful, and that all the saloons there would be closed down within a week; and that, if the women wanted to undertake the deed, their leaders should indicate their consent. On hearing

Lewis's words, about ¤fty women stood up to show their consent for the undertaking. Then Lewis turned to the men opposed to drinking, who were sitting nearby, and asked how many of them would help the women if they undertook the deed, upon which about seventy men stood up. When it was thus decided to undertake this deed, it was resolved to call a meeting on the morning of Christmas Day, that is, December 25, for this great deed.

On Christmas Day at ten in the morning, a large gathering met at the Presbyterian church there, in accordance with the previous night's resolution. After a psalm was sung and the service held, Dio Lewis made an hour-long speech in which he narrated his mother's story, described how much strength women possess to undertake important tasks, and how their tolerance, diligence, and affectionate nature serve as useful means for accomplishing such tasks. All the people gathered there highly approved of Dio Lewis's suggestion and the Woman's Crusade68 was launched that very morning.

Like other societies, this crusade also made rules, elected a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer; all of them were women, needless to say. One committee of this women's society was sent to war. This was a committee of ¤fty-two women who took a vow to ¤ght to the ¤nish. A resolution was passed to form a Committee of Visitation which would present appeals at hotels and saloons to give up the evil trade and start another respectable business, and which would also offer prayers and sermons.69 A group of "backers" was set up to help the Committee of Visitation, in which thirty-seven men accepted the responsibility of providing ¤nancial aid to the women crusaders. After all these preparations were made, it was resolved that a subcommittee should be formed to write an appeal to be sent to all saloonkeepers.

The Committee of Visitation made Mrs. E. J. Thompson its leader and decided to attack the enemy. Mrs. Thompson describes the ¤rst battle as follows:70

On the morning of 25th December 1873, our "band" slowly and timidly approached the ¤rst-class saloon (as it was called) kept by Robert Ward, on High Street, a resort made famous by deeds, the memory of which nerved the heart and paled the cheek of some among us, as the seventy entered the open door of the . . . [saloon].

204 The Peoples of the United States

Doubtless he had learned of our approach, as he not only propped the heavy door open, but with the most perfect suavity of manner held it until the ladies all passed in; then, closing it, walked to his accustomed stand behind the bar.

Seizing the strange opportunity, the leader71 addressed him as follows: "Well, Mr. Ward, this must seem to you a strange audience! I suppose, however, that you understand the object of our visit?" Robert by this time began to perspire freely, and remarked that he would like to have a talk with Dio Lewis. Mrs. Thompson said: "Dr. Lewis has nothing whatever to do with the subject of our mission. As you look upon some of the faces before you, and observe the marks of sorrow, caused by the unholy business that you ply, you will ¤nd that it is no wonder we are here. We have come, however, not to threaten, not even to upbraid, but in the name of our Divine Friend and Savior, and in his spirit, to forgive, and to commend you to his pardon, if you will but agree to abandon a business that is so damaging to our hearts and to the peace of our homes!"

The hesitation and embarrassment of the famous saloon-keeper seemed to afford (as the leader thought) an opportunity for prayer; so, casting her eye around upon that never-to-be-forgotten group of earnest faces, she said, very softly: "Let us pray." Instantly all, even the poor liquor-seller himself, were upon their knees.

The scene that followed, in a most remarkable manner portrayed the spirit of our holy religion. Poor wives and mothers, who the day before would have crossed the street to avoid passing by a place so identi¤ed with their heartaches, their woes, and their deepest humiliation, in tearful pathos were now pleading with this deluded brother to accept the world's Redeemer as his own. Surely, "God is Love!"

The greatness of that otherworldly love and forgiveness cannot be suf¤ciently described. The prophecy of Dio Lewis came true. Thanks to the unceasing efforts of this marvelous Committee of Visitation, all the saloons in Hillsboro closed down within a week!

On hearing the report of the Hillsboro Crusade, women of many other places in the United States followed their example. But these crusades were not longlasting; therefore, some farsighted women decided to make a collective effort. In 1874 some of the successful women crusaders met at a summer camp at Chautauqua and established the Woman's Christian Temperance Union with the purpose of making continuous efforts to eradicate the vice of drinking. Soon it became a national association, thanks to the efforts of some good, diligent, and upright women; and assumed the name the National Woman's Temperance Union of the United States.

The administration of the Union is the very replica of that of the United States. It has four levels—local, county, state, and national—and an excellent system of administration. Each local union has a president, a vice president, a secretary, a treasurer, and a board of management as well as subcommittees appointed for speci¤c purposes. At each annual function the of¤cers are elected, and take of¤ce. Similarly, the of¤cers of the county are elected at the annual function of all the Unions in the county. In the same manner, the of¤cers of the stateand national-level Unions are elected annually. The Union has over 10,000

The Condition of Women 205

chapters in the United States, and about 250,000 women members. Although the local Union is autonomous, it has to surrender some of its very important rights to the county-level Union in order to gain strength, and maintain unity and friendship with other local Unions; likewise, the county-level Unions relinquish some important rights to the state-level Union, and the latter to the national

Union. This helps them to retain independence and unity, and strengthens them.

The management, organization, and rules and regulations of this Union are very praiseworthy, and marvelous like the national administration of the United

States. The many different capabilities possessed by the female sex had earlier been scattered among individuals and dissipated like vapor in the sky, being unregulated and ineffective. When they were collected together in this Union, they became activated in various ways like steam concentrated and controlled by a steam engine. Because of this Union, qualities like self-respect, execution, administration, and leadership, which were hitherto unknown to women, are growing in an extraordinary and wonderful manner among the women of the United States. Thanks to it, the harmful differences of opinion and class animosity among women of different opinions and classes have disappeared, and sincere friendship and sisterhood are growing in their place.

I have no hesitation in saying that this is the best and greatest of all the associations prevalent among all civilized countries. It would be rare to ¤nd a good deed which it had not undertaken, dif¤cult to cite any example of its motherly love being denied to anyone, and impossible to imagine that the virtues of bravery, seriousness, courage, and forgiveness can have reached perfection anywhere else, except in God. It is not that the women's missionary societies in this and other countries are insigni¤cant; they have spent millions of rupees and have been sel®essly engaged in the task of leading foreign people to the path of the holy religion, for which they cannot be praised enough. But there are denominational differences among these societies, which is why they lack unity and are unable to perform as many good deeds as the Temperance Union does. Women's

Christian societies include only so-called "evangelical" sects, and do not assist others. All other societies for the promotion of education and philanthropic works may be excellent and bene¤cial in their own ways, but cannot be compared to the union, because their numbers are small and their aims limited. But the aims of the Woman's Temperance Union are many and very important. It has no internal differences of opinion; here women—of all opinions, classes, and types—work together unitedly. It has successive local, state, national, and international levels; it has simple but strict rules which are excellent, acceptable to all, and easy for all to observe; it has extraordinary management, superior to the administration of any country and holding everything and everybody together.

Considering all these, one feels that this union is the crown of all the marvelous miracles on God's earth in the present age.

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The society now has about forty-¤ve departments, and its activities are as follows:

1. To send representatives and speakers from the Union to different places and to establish temperance unions.

2. To establish international women's temperance unions by sending women messengers to all nations, or by correspondence.

3. To promote temperance among immigrants who intend to settle in the United States.

4. To promote temperance, education, and morality among the newly freed Negroes in the Southern States.

5. To promote morality and temperance among young women.

6. To ensure children's progress by teaching them morality and temperance.

7. To explain to the people the harmful hereditary effects caused by the use of liquor and other intoxicants.

8. To impart health education and to explain to the people the close connection between health and temperance.

9. To consider the changes which are necessary in education and to work toward introducing in all public schools in the country scienti¤c education about the harm caused by liquor and intoxicants.

10. To work toward introducing the above-mentioned type of education in high schools and colleges, and to promote temperance among the young men and women studying there.

11. To give a good education to small children by establishing kindergarten schools for them, and to ensure their proper upbringing.

12. To work for the growth and progress of Sunday schools and to promote temperance through them.

13. To publish books, newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets to propagate temperance.

14. To prevent the publication of books, papers, etc., which are bad, vulgar, immoral, and which encourage the use of intoxicants.

15. To explain the many bene¤ts of temperance to laborers and manual workers.

16. To explain to women and children how to establish large societies, committees, and unions along parliamentary lines, and what their general and special rules are.

17. To establish temperance unions for men and women, manage them, and impart knowledge about their proper functioning.

18. To explain to the people the terrible harm caused by intoxicants, such as tobacco and opium, and their adverse effects on the human body.

19. To work toward preventing the use of liquor extract in medicines, and The Condition of Women 207

to prove through scienti¤c and chemical experiments that it is unnecessary to use medicines containing liquor extract.

20. To evangelize.

21. To read aloud the gospel in public places, and to explain to the people that the Holy Book condemns drinking.

22. To inquire after prisoners; to educate them about the bene¤ts of religion, morality, and temperance; to inquire after and assist prisoners in police lockups and inmates of destitute homes.

23. To promote temperance among workers on railroads and in railroad stations; to teach them religion and morality, and work toward their spiritual progress.

24. To teach religion and morality to sailors and to those serving in the navy and army, and to explain to them the bene¤ts of temperance.

25. To work toward abolishing the use of wine during Holy Communion in churches.

26. To work toward getting all Christian organizations to pray during their special prayer week for the success of the work of the Temperance Union.

27. To work toward increasing the purity of morals among the people.

28. To promote morality, religion, and temperance among Mormon women.

29. To work toward getting the people of the United States to observe the holy Sabbath by abstaining from trading and from committing ill deeds, and by spending time in devotion to God.

30. To visit respectable women in their homes and to promote temperance there with the help of small committees.

31. To give ®owers and cheerful gifts to the sick, the ailing, and the aged in clinics, hospitals, and other places.

32. To promote temperance at fairs and fetes, and to make all efforts to prevent the sale of liquor there.

33. To work toward banning the sale of liquor in the United States by sending appeals to the different state governments.

34. To make efforts to obtain for women political rights, such as the right to make laws, in order to assist them in their work of promoting morality and temperance.

35. To raise fallen women and put them on the proper path by giving them vocational training; to protect destitute women who are oppressed at their places of work and who may be in moral danger; to try to prevent the publication of obscene and vulgar books and pictures; and to make every effort to promote morality in society.

36. To work for the progress and increased usefulness of the clinic and hospital established in Chicago by the National Woman's Temperance Union

208 The Peoples of the United States

of the United States, and to train women doctors there through the teaching of temperance medicine.

37. To persuade the different heads of state to establish peace among all nations and to resolve disputes through third-party mediation rather than through war; and to work toward abolishing the cruel and demoniac practice of ¤ghting wars.

38. To assist benevolent societies in different cities and towns.

These are the thirty-eight chief tasks undertaken by the Woman's Temperance Union; in addition there are ¤ve or six minor tasks which are not mentioned here.

Subcommittees have been appointed in several places to undertake the activities of these forty-odd departments, and each subcommittee has a woman of- ¤cer to supervise it. Every year, this woman of¤cer has to submit brief information on the working of that particular department in every State and Territory to the chief of¤cer of the National Woman's Temperance Union. All such information is published in its general annual report. There is a rule which requires the members of each union to pay an annual fee of half a dollar (that is, about one and a half rupees) in order to defray its expenses in different places. In addition, the Union receives many large donations from a number of generous men and women.

Even a brief account of all the activities of the Union and the functioning of all its chapters would mean writing a separate book; so I will not make the attempt. All the activities of the Union are very important; but there is one which is the most important and must be mentioned here. In the United States all adults as well as children are trained in working collectively and unitedly, as mentioned above. It is customary in this country to establish societies for children as well as adults, in order to undertake some speci¤c activity. There are thousands of children's societies in this country—for the promotion of kindness to animals, education, philanthropy, religion, etc.; and hundreds of thousands of boys and girls are doing many kinds of good work. Among them are about 1,500 children's temperance unions established by the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union of the United States, with a membership of about 150,000 children, both boys and girls! They manage the work of their excellent unions very well with the help of their mothers and women teachers, and they have all taken the pledge never to drink. The Woman's Temperance Unions are working ceaselessly to inculcate in them the strength and ¤rm resolve to keep this vow.

Through these women's efforts, children are educated about temperance in Sunday schools, and 34,000 children in these schools have taken the pledge never to drink. These extraordinary, hardworking women have been trying incessantly

The Condition of Women 209

for seven years to get the thirty-seven state governments in the United States to introduce laws to provide scienti¤c education about temperance to children in public schools, and have got them implemented. Over 6,500,000 children receive a scienti¤c education about temperance in public schools in all these States. The scienti¤c education and information, with practical demonstrations, about the harmful effects on the human body of the consumption of liquor and other intoxicants, which are given to these millions of children, is bound to have some permanent, good effect on their minds. Realizing that advice given to adults who are addicted to drink is not going to have much effect, these wise, foresighted women have been exerting themselves ceaselessly to give a sound education to children, for the improvement of future generations.

For many years now, the state governments of Maine and Iowa have passed temperance laws to prohibit the brewing and sale of liquor; but the governments are helpless before the wickedness of the liquor sellers. A clandestine traf¤c in liquor still goes on there. About two years ago, the women of Kansas won the municipal franchise. The ¤rst important task for which they exercised their rights was to put a complete stop to the liquor traf¤c in the state. About half these women were members of the Woman's Temperance Union; they made efforts to prevent the clandestine traf¤c in liquor. What the men in the State of Maine, lacking the support of women, were unable to achieve in twenty-¤ve years, was accomplished by the people of the State of Kansas within almost two years, on the strength of the united power of men and women. Senator Ingalls, who represents Kansas in the United States Senate, says:72

Kansas has abolished the saloon. The open dram-shop traf¤c is as extinct as the sale of indulgences. A drunkard is a phenomenon. The bar-keeper has joined the troubadour, the crusader, and the mound-builder. The brewery, the distillery, and the bonded warehouse are known only to the archaeologist. It seems incredible that among a population of 1,700,000 people, extending from the Missouri River to Colorado, and from Nebraska to Oklahoma, there is not a place which the thirsty or hilarious wayfarer can enter, and, laying down a coin, demand his glass of beer. This does not imply that absolute drought prevails everywhere, or that "social irrigation" has entirely disappeared. But the habit of drinking is dying out.

Temptation being removed from the young and the in¤rm, they have been forti¤ed and redeemed. The liquor-seller, being proscribed, is an outlaw, and his vocation disreputable. Drinking, being stigmatized, is out of fashion, and the consumption of intoxicants has enormously decreased. Intelligent and conservative observers estimate the reduction at 90 per cent: it cannot be less than 75.

When the women of Kansas obtained political rights, some mischievous men of a town in the State elected a well-born young housewife as their mayor, in order to prove that women did not deserve political rights and were not capable of important political work. The very next day, the people who had elected her mayor realized that their assumption, that women were unable to carry on ad210 The Peoples of the United States

ministration or to implement laws, was wrong. Immediately upon assuming the of¤ce of mayor, the woman made a search for all the saloons, gambling dens, and other places of illegal activities, and closed them down. The good men and women of the town assisted her greatly in locating clandestine places. The townspeople are very happy with her administration, and she manages her duties in a proper and excellent manner. The members of the National Woman's Christian

Temperance Union of the United States used to think that women did not need political rights. But, during the past ¤fteen years, their intense efforts have not yielded the expected results; and they have realized that the lack of political rights is the sole reason. The liquor traders are almost all men, and they have invested millions of dollars in this trade. There are also many men who support them. All of them have political rights, and they vote against the women's efforts to introduce temperance laws. The law supports the majority vote. In the matter of making laws, women have no power, and men, especially liquor sellers and drinkers, enjoy political rights as well as ¤nancial advantage. Many men and women have begun to think that unless women obtain some political rights, they will not be able to defeat the demon of liquor. Therefore they are making unceasing efforts to obtain political rights for women.

The International Woman's Temperance Union has been established thanks to the vision and organizational ability of Miss Frances E. Willard, the respected president of the National Woman's Temperance Union of the United States, and with the help of her friends. Miss Willard had this idea in 1883. Later, all the plans regarding this Union were settled, the ideas about its functioning had matured, and then, in 1884, the International Woman's Temperance Union was established. Mrs. Mary Clement Leavitt,73 an adventurous, brave, and resolute woman, became its representative, and started on a journey around the world with the intention of establishing temperance unions everywhere. She went ¤rst to the island of Hawaii, then to countries like Australia, Japan, China, Ceylon,

India, Madagascar, and Africa, and established hundreds of temperance unions.

Now she intends to visit all the countries of Europe. When this single, unsupported, helpless woman started on this great enterprise, she had neither money nor a companion; but she was accompanied by her God and her strong resolve to do good. Wherever she goes, she receives the assistance she needs. Now Woman's Temperance Unions are being established in most of the civilized countries.

The women of England were also inspired by American women's enthusiasm and sense of duty. They have established a national union, called the British

Woman's Temperance Association, and it does a lot of good work. Canada also has a National Woman's Temperance Union; it is making intense efforts to prohibit the traf¤c in liquor in that country. Similar unions exist in the countries of Australia, the Hawaiian Islands, Madagascar, and Africa. My Indian sisters, why do you lag behind? Such a national union is essential in our country. The The Condition of Women 211

International Woman's Temperance Union proposes to send a strong appeal to all heads of nations, in which women of all nations plan to request them to stop the traf¤c in liquor and intoxicants. All our Indian women must sign this appeal; everybody must try to circulate the appeal and obtain signatures. May there be no Indian who refuses to assist in this great enterprise, directly or indirectly. This is our prayer to the Almighty.

Miss Frances E. Willard is now president of the International Woman's Temperance Union. Under her leadership, at least one million women are engaged in activities related to temperance, throughout the world. This Temperance Union is the "United Democratic State of Women." These women unite the whole world with a bond of friendship, with the sacred bond of their white ribbon,viii a symbol of peace and love. They promote among women of all nations the three precious virtues which are the source of all happiness: peace, love, and friendship. This great deed could not be done by men—men who have been kings and emperors; men who, for thousands of years, have been armed with weapons, have possessed bodily strength, and have been rulers of society. But it has been done by these women who were derided as ignorant and weak. O God, You are great indeed! You make people like these, who are shunned by the world, into the instruments which humble the conceit of the arrogant. In Your hands even a blade of grass becomes immeasurably powerful like a thunderbolt!

Notes in the Original Text i. In the year 1818, primary schools for girls as well as boys were established in the United States. During the seventy years since then, the native women have made great strides in the ¤eld of education; and now thousands of splendid, intelligent, educated women of this country shine forth like brilliant gems. But this should not lead anyone to suppose that all women here have the educational facilities which (all) men enjoy, and that women's colleges receive the same degree of generous public support that men's colleges do. The details of men's colleges in 1886 are as follows:74

Universities and colleges

Schools of Science

Schools of Theology

Schools of Law

Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmacy

Total

Total number of male students 78,185 The value of grounds, buildings, and apparatus of colleges for men is $62,356,638

(or Rs. 187,069,914); the productive funds of colleges for men are $57,782,303 (or 212 The Peoples of the United States

Rs. 173,346,909); and the income from productive funds is $3,271,991 (or Rs.

9,815,973).

A comparison of these ¤gures with the money invested in women's education reveals a wide disparity between the two. The colleges for women's higher education number 529; their buildings, grounds, and apparatus are valued at $9,635,282 (Rs. 28,905,846); their productive funds are valued at $2,376,619 (Rs.

7,129,857); and the income from productive funds is $136,801 (Rs. 410,403).

In 1886 the local, state, and federal governments made appropriations worth $1,690,275 (Rs. 5,070,825) for the support of the higher institutions of learning for men, but not even a single penny to support women's higher education! ii. Many years ago, the famous, learned president of the University of Michigan, James B. Angell, presented his above-mentioned opinion publicly. iii. Some years ago women could not get admission to Cambridge University in England. Now two women's colleges, Newnham and Girton, have been established at Cambridge, and provide a very good education. At Cambridge University women are now allowed to study as men's equals and to sit for examinations.

However, the university authorities still retain a residue of the barbarism of their ancestors. They allow women to study and sit for examinations, but deny degrees to the women who pass the examinations—although they have rightfully earned the degrees after years of hard work! Truly unparalleled is the generosity and culture of progressive English scholars, especially those at Cambridge! iv. Women's education in today's United States was beyond anybody's imagination ¤fty years ago. It has already been mentioned that a study of mathematics, law, sciences, Greek, and other subjects does not seem to have made women unhealthy, insane, or unruly, or transformed their womanliness and destroyed their love of domesticity and children. It is true that educated women have taken up diverse types of employment for livelihood, but that has not ruined the livelihood of men; on the contrary, the number of trades and industries in the United States has increased a hundredfold and ®ourished during the last ¤fty years, as has been shown in the section "Employment." v. American society still shows vestiges of its ancient barbaric condition, and it may be said that foremost among them is the excessive dependence of married women. American men are shameless, just like the men of our country. They say, "We support our households and feed our wives by our daily toil and the sweat of our brow." Men work for eight, ten, or at the most twelve hours a day; but women have to slog for sixteen or seventeen hours daily, to serve the menfolk, mind the children, and do household chores. The wives of laborers, of farmers, and of men in other occupations look after their homes and children

¤rst; in addition, they share their husbands' work equally and help them. In spite of all this, a wife has no right to the family income; whenever she needs a little

The Condition of Women 213

money for her expenses, she has to cajole her husband, supply satisfactory answers to a thousand questions he asks, and beg him for it. If he refuses to give her any money, she cannot claim a right to her hard-earned possessions, either by law or with the support of public opinion. Nor is this all. On the contrary, her husband tells everyone how much she is obliged to him; and society—male society—says, "Men work hard indeed to earn the money to feed and clothe their wives! Oh, how greatly they oblige their wives!" In the absence of a wife in the house, at least two or three servants would need to be employed to do the work which she does single-handedly; and they would need to be paid wages. Servants are not fed for doing nothing, nor can they be said to be obliged to their master.

But a wife, even if she does the work of ten servants, is under an obligation to her husband because he feeds her! vi. All the associations brie®y described here are independent, and have been established with different aims; however, such is the close connection among them that it would be dif¤cult to ¤nd an example of any one of them undertaking an important task without receiving direct or indirect help from the others.

Hence it is dif¤cult to attribute the success of a particular good deed to any single organization, with any degree of certainty. American women's associations do not harbor envy for one another if they fail to get sole credit for any achievement; moreover, each is ever ready to help the others and rejoices in the others' success, which is praiseworthy indeed. vii. A Crusade is a war fought in the name of the Cross. At the close of the eleventh century, Mohammedans conquered Jerusalem and prepared to occupy

Christian countries like Spain.75 The followers of Christianity then fought wars against the Mohammedans in defense of their religion; these wars are known as the Crusades. They continued until the thirteenth century a.d. viii. Women members of the Temperance Union—both the national union of the United States and the international union—wear its sign, the white ribbon, on their chest. It indicates that these women do the holy work of the Union with sincerity and love in their hearts, and that they love all humanity.

214 The Peoples of the United States

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