# Women of the West/New Mexico

A Few of the Eminent WOMEN of NEW MEXICO
Women of New Mexico By Maud Hancock Prichard (Educator. For three years member of New Mexico Normal University Faculty)
New Mexico—the land of "sunshine, silence, and adobe," the land of poco tiempo—is also a land of contrasts, of a happy intermingling of the old and the new. Youngest of the States of the Union—except one—yet within its bounds is found the oldest civilization on the continent, just as it was found when the first white man ventured into the vast unknown regions of New Spain in quest of riches for his Church and his King, and it is the only section of our great country where the Red Man has been left in possession of his lands and homes, and where he worships the gods of his fathers in the same way as for centuries past.
The history of New Mexico is replete with the achievements of this great Territory in the various wars of our Nation—sending more men (many of whom were Red Men) in proportion to its population than any other state or territory, but little or nothing is said of what the women did during those troublous times. No doubt the pioneer woman stood shoulder to shoulder in those times as did the Women's Council of Defense with the Men's Council during the World War.
However, in peace times, and after statehood was attained, is when accomplishments of the women of New Mexico have been outstanding. Almost coincident with the organization of the new State was the organization of the Federation of Women's Clubs by a group of women representing all parts of the State, which soon became a part of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. Since then other groups have founded other clubs, lodges, sororities, the League of Women Voters and Business and Professional Women's Federation.
New Mexico is exceptionally fortunate in the large number of women within its borders—found not only in cities but also in small towns, on ranches and in isolated places—who have brought to this western environment the training and culture acquired in the older states. With this background, there has developed a group of women of wonderful executive ability, with the foresight to plan and carry out constructive projects that have had much to do with the progress of the new State along lines that mean much for the social welfare of its citizens.
​Logically, the Federation of Women's Clubs has taken the lead in these plans, but since the organization of the other groups, they have all worked as one body for the completion of the projects. While the clubwomen were awake to the needed activities, they realized that such matters must be carried on as State work, so the legislative committee of the Federation became an important factor of their plans, to present the various needs for approval by the Legislature. At first the committee was received somewhat dubiously, members of the Legislature seeming to feel that it was more or less of a fad and rather doubting that women thought and planned seriously on State affairs, but as a committee from the Federation appeared at each successive session of the Legislature, and seemed to know what they wanted and how to present the matter in an intelligent manner, the attitude on the part of the law makers has become one of respect and interested attention, and the requests of the women's organizations have been granted and appropriations made, even at times when it seemed impossible to do so.
As a result of the constructive plans of the Federation, the State has the following departments and institutions (which probably would have been created eventually, but there is no doubt they were provided much sooner than they would have been otherwise) named in the order of their establishment: (a) State Child Welfare Bureau, with corresponding Board, which has since been placed coordinate with the State Bureau of Health—each with its separate director—under the State Public Welfare Board; (b) Girls' Welfare Home (reform school), with a board composed entirely of women; (c) Home and School for Mental Defectives, for which plans are now complete for construction of the first building unit, and which also has a board of women.
Also, plans were made in time so that New Mexico was among the six states that were ready to accept and make use of funds for maternity and infancy work as provided by Federal aid, which has meant much for welfare work in rural communities.
The Board of Regents of each of the State educational institutions has at least one woman as a member. We have had a woman as Secretary of State for the last three terms, each of whom has served for a short time as Acting-Governor in the absence of the Governor from the State. State Superintendent of Public Instruction is also a position occupied by a woman for the last three terms. Several women have served as members of the Legislature. A majority of the ​County Superintendents are women, as well as a number of other county officers, especially the clerks. Many of the county Boards of Education have women as members.
Most of the interest taken by women in the affairs of State is from the standpoint of economy and efficiency. One matter of congratulation is that in none of the above departments or institutions which the women have had a special part in creating, has partisan politics had any share or influence at any time.
Every town of any size has managed to secure a library—usually through the efforts of a group of women in the beginning—and even some places that are scarcely a dot on the map have a fair library started, in connection with which many a story of human interest might be told. Hand in hand with the other lines of work are the Scholarship Loan Funds which practically every club of every organization maintains, by which many girls have been enabled to continue their education.
Woman Suffrage and Jury Service in New Mexico By Jennie Fortune (Secretary of State)
The passage of the Nineteenth Amendment formally crystallized the high hopes of the nation's womanhood in their fight for the right to hold political office. Incidentally, the extension of the vote to women wrought a most marvelous and revolutionary change in the politics of New Mexico. In this State where the general tendency is to accept any modern change with caution, women are now appointed and elected to office in a manner hardly dreamed of a few years ago. That these women have made good, is neither unusual nor remarkably surprising. That some have made mistakes or are not especially qualified is also neither unusual nor need it be surprising. Especially since rarely, if ever, does merit enter as a prime prerequsite of a political aspirant, be that man or woman. The only astonishing thing is that woman should be expected to act any different from her male contemporary.
New Mexico has not yet recognized the right of women to sit on juries. It is a duty that undeniably should go with citizenship. Like men, however, she should have accorded to her the right of jury exemption, in the event that release from such service fills a more important or greater need.
​Though New Mexico has no constitutional bar to women sitting on juries, any attempt to institute a legislative act to qualify women for jury service is sure to meet with opposition from the women themselves, who primarily fear the enforced absence from home that such duty would entail. Nevertheless, in all probability, the privilege and duty of jury service will gradually be extended to the womanhood of this State. Such a change, to be sure, will be quite as revolutionary in the experience of the womanhood of New Mexico as was the newly acquired right of the exercise of the franchise.
And for the women of New Mexico it will be a most salutary experience. It will widen their scope of reasoning; it will give them a deeper insight into human emotions, human frailties and human motives; it will make real the law as daily applied, and above all, it will widen their vison and extend their sympathy and understanding in human affairs. And for all this, it will make them wiser citizens and better mothers.
Nor is the day long in coming, when, in the course of everyday affairs, men and women will meet as equals, each in sympathy with the other's qualities, not necessarily alike in each other, but just as the Lord intended, "eternally different"; but each seeking for the mutual advancement, achievement and betterment of that country under whose flag they choose to live.
NEW MEXICO