Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1868-12-09
THE Suppressed Sex"

| Under this title the last number OF
the Westminster Review discusses
the question Of woman's work, wages
and opportunities. We copy a few
passages:
Miss Mitchell is as good an
| astronomer as any in America; and
| the professor Of mathematics at Anti
och, a woman taught without book
| the most abstTuse portions of her sci
enee with Il clearness which the best
male professors acknowledged could
not be surpassed. The writer has of
ten been in the recitation rooms, and
can testify that the girls in nowise
were inferior, in their performance
10 the young men; and at the Com
mencement the public essays read by
the female graduates dealt with sub
iects of general interest quite rs ably
as the oratiOns of the male graduates
Indeed, the uniform testimony of
these cOeducatiOnal colleges confirms
that of the examiners at Cambridge,
England, that if there has been any
difference between the examinations
of the Young men and young women,
it has been in lavOr of the latter.
The undeniable facts reported from
Cambridge have compelled the oppO-
nents of all such steps to shift their
ground. Forced to admit that woman
can pursue, with equal success, the
same studies with men, they now say ::
''Yes, but they are not proper studies
for woman: they do not fit her
for her true sphere; and cOnse-
Quentiy they unseX her. Now it
must be admitted that it would be a
strange anomaly i'm nature if this were
true. Women daily sit at the same
table with men, and partake OF the
same food nature has not provided
one kind of beef and mutton for wO-
men, and another kind for men; and
vet the same meat and bread are con-
verted by one sex into woman, by the
other into man. The two are not un-
seNed BY breathing the same air, or by
the same sunshine; and yet one frame
converts these TO long tresSes, the other
to long boards. 1t would be strange
indeed, if, by the small mental diet,
the same intellectual sun and atmos-
phere. women should be made to mas
culine or men effeminate. The fact
is. this is absolutely 4 phantom 1t
ought TO be at this date needless to af-
firm to English people that the broad
culture and profound psychological
penetration of George Eliot, the severe
scholarship of Elizabeth Browning,
the political insight of Harriet Mar
tineau, and thescience of Maria Mitch
ell, coeXists with the utmost woman
IL feeling and refinement.
We are not however, disposed TO
evade, but rather to rejoice in the fact
upon which is based much of the op-
position to the education OF woman IN
directions hitherto reserved for men
namely, that it must tend to extend
their occupations TO emplOyments
hitherto reserved mOnOpOliZed by
men. That there are occupations for
which men and women are respect
iveIy endowed we have no doubt; as
little do we doubt that nature has in
such cases set barriers which, though
they NAV be Ovealeaped by peculiar
natures in long intervals, neither sex
can destroy. Fortunately, however,
we are not without the means of
knowing the directions in which
the larger education which some WO-
men have managed to secure has
tended to widen their sphere OF en-
pIOyment. The age in which we live
has prevailed against our hereditary
theories, and many women have gain
ed strength to contend successfully
with the preiudiccs and sentimental
isms which still imprisOn the majOri-
ty of their sex. 1t is remarkable how
little of reactiOnary defiance has atten-
ded the movement of those who have
thus been liberated. They have not
only not sought to become sea cap
tains or military generals, but have
not even become lawyers or embassa-
dors. Politically they have been con-
tent to demand the franchise; while
theOnly profession before mOnOpOliZed
by men which they have invaded Is
that of medicine.
The "female physician" in our
judgment, represents so well the
and the safety of the
.wOman's rights" movement, that
we propose to devote some portion of
our present article TO reviewing the
present relation of that sex to the !
medical profession, and the more re-
cent steps by which it has been reach
ed. Before the female physician had
made her appearance it was cOnSer-
vative platitude that a wOman's place
was in the sick room. Conservatism,
however, means that she should be
here in the capacity of Mrs. Camp,
and had no idea that a DIR. Elizabeth
was disguised in a nurse
who relieved the physician of the
more disagreeable duties of the sick
room, without sharing his fees. New
so it was; whether derived
rom long experience, or natural gift,
n from both of these, woman has
a special inclination and
ibility for the study and practice of
At various times within
he past two centuries there had ap-
lCared, women who gained cminence
n special departments of medical
knowledge; and when seen in the
ccturc rooms Of Germany, Italy, or
france. through the mist of interven-
NJ generations, they seemed not
but somewhat imposing
igures, even to the eye Of medical