The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-10-12
A. A. w.
The Evening Session.
Continued from First Page.l

paper OF Miss Laura Clay, daughter OF Cassius
M. Clay Of Kentucky, first stating that Miss
Clay and her sister carry on their homestead
farm themselves The subject of the paper
was "Rights Of Women to Competition as La
borers"
MISS cLAY's PAPER.
Among all the claims pressed upon the world by
that universal stir called the Woman's movement,
there is none more vital and farreaching in its
sequences than that considered in these pages
Hitherto what have been called womanly employ
| ments have been such as could be carried on at
home, or such as have met with little competition
from men, either from the poor wages commanded,
or from the rksome conditions attendant But now it
proposed that women shall have the right to en-
Ter any and every occupation for which their
tastes or talents shall fit them. AS preliminary to
the consideration of this claim let observe how it
is at present denied Our attention will naturally
f1rst fail upon the law. And here as the laws of the
different states vary, and are constantly undergoing
change, must be understood as speaking of re-
strictons that existed not many years ago in all of
the states and still exist in Thus see that
women are not permitted to practice law in the
courts, and thereby they are excluded from pro
ssssion which eng iges hundreds of men in every
/ state ana whose profits are sometimes
Women are excluded from all offices IN the gift of
lS1he people. This again. thu ows women out of COM
4 -
petition with men for places that support hundreds
in every state.
Besides these positive restrictions put upon the
labor of women, the state puts negative ones much
more far-reaching and destructive. From the col
leges maintained in part or wholly by the state,
meant to fit boys II intelligent and profitable labor
gils are excluded thus tacitly claiming for boys
right of labor not extended to girls.
Again, though it is an axiom in political economy
that labor discouraged by whatever makes its prof
its uncertain insecure the laborer our laws by
the transparent legal fiction that husband and wife
are one, at fell swoop deprive wives of all direct
control of their earnings. Thank Ged this disgrace
to our civilization is rapidly passing from stat
ute books
Laws, however, are only the reflections of the
opinions of the societies governed by them, and in
social customs find the denial of equal rights to
labor the most difficult to overcome When wom-
anchd begins to observe the facts of grown up life
and to speculate upon what her part is to be in
the mysterious future, she soon observes marked
difference between the prospects of boys and girls.
For boys there is a boundless field for activity
Wealth. fame, adventure, learning, to be sought
and won by those who have the ability; and every
department Of effort boasts its heroes whose achieve
ments command the applause of the world and
stimulate youthful ambition. To train the minds
OF boys and to start them in life with advantage,
for many long centuries great institutions of learn
ing have been founded and richly endowed while to
give their boys the benefits Of the education thus
profered, families constantly make great sacrifices
Everything invites the boy to vigorous thought and
action, and every body expects it of him. But for
the girl life presents widely different aspect. In
stead of boundless scope for activity, life seems
| to narrow down to two probabilities,-she may
marry and go to housekeeping, she may become
an old maid and always live with other people.
True, she hears of women who teach and occasion
ally of women who write books for living; but it
requires no lively perception for the girl that
her parents and friends far from hoping for
like ftae for herself. What they seem to hope for
and expect of her is that she shall marry. But to
the child there seems to be no spur to ambition in
the prospect of marrage she hears no girl spoken
OF as too stupid to marry; or that another is to
marry well because she is so bright and etudious.
Her parents do not speak of sending her to college
to prepare her for her duties No particular mental
excellence seems to be demanded or even desired;
and while marriage is the only road open for her
any object Of ambition how she shall marry or
whether she shall remain single appears to be a
matter of chance rather than of deliberate choice
and achievement. its formative stage pas
siveness is cultivated in her mnd and even if in
the training that leaves her to drift like log that
training has left her little strength to resist the
rent in whic she finds herself.
1t is evident that this lack of education for
varied occupations has all the force of denial of
the right. But when women in spite of this adj
verse force attempt to enter employments hitherto
occupied by men, they find that society has other
checks to put upon them. 1t is no uncommon
thing for women to suffer loss OF social consdera-
tion because they have stepped out of the usual
round Of woman's work. call to mind Just now
two young ladies' of whose a. quaintances have
ceased to recognize them because they have ac-
cepted positions which, if held by their brothers,
would have been considered both honorable and
desirable
Moreover, social opinion is largely to blame for
the fact that the women employed by the State as
school teachers, clerks &C., are paid less for the
same work than men. But enough has been said Of
societys denial of woman's right to competition in
labor, any one can verify the statement from his
own observation. Let US go to consider what
reasons may be urged for giving to women educa-
tion and encouragement to enter every employ
ment to which their tastes OF abilities call them
The right of women to competition depends, in the
first place, upon their own need, and secondly up
on ths worlds need of them.
PtbpoGCN
themselves to sort of domestic labor, the
serious obstacle presents itself that home life no
longer supplies all women with self supporting
labor. hundred or more years ago, when women
spun and woye, and manufactured at homo many
other articles now made by machinery, the domestic
sphere supplied more than enough remunerative
work for the women. But machinery and mod IN
Improvements have changed all that; now there
many more women than are required to de domes-
tic work. They must adopt themselves to the
change, and learn other work, or become mere con
sumers in the community, while they endure all
the priyations and suiferings that idleness and
wasted energies entail.
What, then, shall guide them in seeking new ayo
cations? The worlds nee is no longer cortine them
to the spinning wheel and the loom, or even to the
sewing machine; but what it does need IS the best
worker in every place. In order however, to find
out who is the best worker. every place must be
open to eompetition and to answer both their own
necessities and the worlds need women must enter
as competitors.
What the exact results of this competition of won
with will be it is impossible to tell; it may
be some avocations Will be followed by both men
and women; some hitherto occupied solely by men
may be conceded almost entirely to women, as most
ftted and again. it scarcely be doubted that by
the combined efforts and talents Of men and women
new fields of labor will be opened, whose fruits
shall enrich the world Yet rich as the prizes may
be that the world shall gain by the labor of women
her greatest gain viii be in the development and
Improvement of women, themselves. For the sams
causes that have confined women to monotonous
toll in narrow sphere, through the long ages in
which our race has worked up its way to pres
ent degree of civilization have all along left inuri
| ous effects upon the mind and character of women
| themselves. Girs grow up. seeing all places of
| emolument and honor, all pursuits requiring long
and careful training and, until recently, all institu
tions of higher Learning filed by men; and as
opinions are more the result Of impressions
sciousy received than of direct instruction. it hap
| pens that women believe themselves incompetent in
all higher branches of thought. have had more
than one lady assure that she did not think
women's minds capable of taking a college course;
| and another that she used to think women had not
| sense enough to become physicians. cannot think
these opinions are rare since they were expressed
| to me by women who had had the best educational
| advantages of their day, and were themselves OF
more than average Intelligence. Thank God our
literary and medical colleges are fast disproving