The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-06-30 00:00:00

WOMAN'S POSITION IN AMERICA.

In London on Monday a meeting was held in
Prince's Hall, Piccadilly, to hear addresses by Mrs.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Miss Susan B. Anthony
on the existing political condition of women in the
United States. The chair was taken by Mr. Jacob
Blight, M.P. Both ladies are said to be well known
in America as eloquent orators, firstly in the Anti-
Slavery movement and subsequently as the leaders of
the American Women's Suffrage Society.

Mr. Jacob Bright briefly introduced the speakers,
remarking that the subject was one of great interest,
the change in the position of women both here and in
America baying been in the last forty years a very
extraordinary one. He spoke of women's suffrage as
the greatest of the claims of women; and said that
although both in the United States and this country
that had not yet been accorded, still a series of
triumphs had been won which must in the end lead to
the much-desired result. Next pair would be rather
a critical time. The door would then be opened to
further voters, and the question would be whether the
claims of women would be rd mit ted or not.
Miss Anthony first addressed the meeting. She
said that forty years ago there were only four
vocations open to women in the States—teaching,
sewing, cooking, and factory work. They then pointed
out as a great example one woman who was a mer-
chant—she kept a crockery store. (Laughter.) They
also had one woman preacher and one woman phy-
sician, Miss Harriet K. Hunter, Boston, who had
been instructed privately, and who for years practised
without a diploma. There were now molly. women's
colleges and over 1,000 women practising with
diplomas, doing, as the speaker said, their full
quota of the work of curing or killing, as the cpe
might be—(laughter)—and what was more, hen!g
paid for it. (Renewed laughter.) The Rev. Olympia
Brown had for twenty years been preaching in only
three different parishes. In the last parish the con-
gregation had almost died away under male preaching.
The Rev. Olympia Brown went there and revived it.
She also was now getting a good salary. All the law
schools were now open to women, and many were
studying in them; and it had been decided in the
Supreme Court that a lawyer could not be denied ad-
mission on account of sex. In the State University of
Kansas the professor of Greek was a young woman.

Women in the States also were not only type-setters,
but editors and publishers of papers.

The speaker contended that whatever a man might
do to gain an honest livelihood with hand or brain a
woman may also do, and gave several instances of how
women had made their way in the States, some of
which, however, would be scarcely practicable in this
country. A young lady went to Horace Greeley,
and asked him for journalistic work, He advised
her to seek for home work. Nothing daunted, she
went round from newspaper to newspaper, until
at last the editor of the Net!) York, Times found
out what she was fitted for and made her a cattle
reporter—to attend and describe horse fairs, cattle
markets, and other similar meetings. Another young
woman, born in Canada, did not agree with the direc-
tions she received to "stay home and help her
mother." She saw the young men going West and
making their fortunes, and she determined to do the
same. With a very small capital she managed, by
running at first into debt, to buy a tract of land, which
speedily doubled in value; and by selling part of it
she paid off her debt and is now exceedingly well off.
In conclusion, the speaker said there were three
millions of self-supporting women now living in the
United States. What they must have was women's
suffrage, for they frequently found that the advantages
they gained one session were taken away from them
the next.

Mrs. Stanton then addressed the meeting, and ad-
mitted that she supposed there never was a nation of
men so chivalrous towards women as those of the
United States. Dealing with the social, educational,
and religious phase of the subject, she pointed out,
however, many instances in which women's rights
ware not yet fully admitted. In the course of an
eloquent address, she strongly advocated women's
suffrage, and expressed the opinion that before long
they would be able to look back upon the success of
their efforts.