The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-27

why They Are Outnumbered by Men In the
Same Field.


7. w. Hieeinson in Earper's Bazaar
We constantly hear great deal about the
pressure OF women fUo literature; but what sur
prises me is that this pressure is still 80 moder-
ate 1t shows that demand does not at once ere.
ate supply when we consider that women out
number men five to one in the profession OF
teaching, where the pay is exceedingly unequal,
while they fall far behind men in literature, the
only profession where the compensation has alb
solutely no reference to sex. An able editorial
in the Boston Daily Advertiser MAY 80 1861
has lately pointed out that of lS6 different con-
tributOrs during the last six months to our three
leading monthlies, there are 'l42 men, A
women, and one epicene, SAKE Holm A little
attention to arithmetic will, however, show that
SAKE Holm must have been counted as of one sex
or the other in this calculation, and probably
among the women.
Less than one-fourth of our magazine writer's
are therefore women-a result which will proba-
bly, cause some surprise; that is, of our first
class magazines for grown people; it Is probable
that to include children's magazines would vary
the figures. The proportion Of women writer's
is greatest, the Advertiser tells us, in the At
lantic Monthly, where sixteen of the fifty one
authors are women; it is least in the Century,
which has only eleven women out of seventy
six, although this disproportion is made greater
than usual by series of military papers. Now
it may be assumed with absolute certainty, L
think, that this inequality is not due in the
slightest degree to any discrimination against
women on the part of editors. The time for
that is long past; and should say that the dis
elimination was now quite as likely to be the
other way The consideration of preference as
to sex must be regarded as excluded; and it ic
safe to assume that women offer to the high class
magazines only one third as much matter, above
a certain grade, as is supplied by men.
What is the explanation! 1t lies, to my think
ing In two OF three very obvious facts which af-
feet the contribution of women to all higher arts.
One is the circumstance that women are less
driven than men by the immediate stimulus of
pecuniary necessity. Another is that marriage
and parentage, which only drive men to renewed
labors for external support, withdraw many
women from such labors during the prime of their
lives. Still another is that the small facilities for
higher education among women have greatly
hampered them in past years, and even to the
present day, although these obstacles are now
rapidly being removed. 1t is to be noted, more
later editorial in the Advertiser has shown.
the proportion of college graduates in
literature was formerly much greater than
now. OF the earlier generation Of
American writer's the only men who were not
college-bred were Irving Poe Cooper and Whit
tier-Bryant having begun collegiate course,
but discontinued it. But among authors living
or recently deceased the Advertiser finds far
longer list of non-coegiate literary men, includ-
ing Whipple, Fields, Trowbridge Bayard Taylor,
Stoddard Whitman, Parton, Egeeston, Harte,
Howelis James, Clemens. Aldrich, Stockton
Burroughs, Gable, Crawford Lathrop, Glider,
TIarrlS, carleton. None OF THESE mad regular
college course, and why, it may justly be asked,
are there not plenty of women to compete with
these? The great advance in popular education
outside the colege-which the Advertiser
thinks the cause of all this change. has certainly
reached women as much as men.
The answer is that there are such women, and
it is only that they are not yet so numerous as
writer's of equal grade in the other sex Mrs.
Stowe Mrs Helen jackson H. II. J, Miss Alcott,
Mrs. Whitney, Mrs Spofford, Mrs Howe Miss
Phelps, Miss Woolson, Mrs Foote, Miss Murfree,
Mrs. Thaxter, Miss Jewett Miss Woolsey Susan
Coolidge), Miss Preston, Miss Themselves
have as secure hold upon the magazines as if
they were men; tits only that there are not SO
many of them. The reason for this is to be
found mainly in the causes already named: a
less constant pecuniary pressure, the preoccupa-
ton of home life, and the fact that until re-
comfy the educational advantages Of women have
been less Even now the more highly educated
women are steadily drafted into the work of
teaching their backward sisters And when we
construe education itself in wider sense, it is
evident that many men upon the above list have
been just as essentially trained in literature at
the printers desk, or in the editorial chair, or
by studous years in foreign life, as if they had
passed through one Of our very inadequately
equipped colleges. All this kind of collateral
training is very much less common among
women. And, in conclusion. though the proper
ton of women writers is perhaps smaller than
one would expect in our magazines, it would
have been far smaller twenty-five years ago, and
the prospect Is that the next quarter of century
VIII see much greater advance The North
American Review had reached it's twenty seventh
year when the first woman, Madame Ca,deron
dc la Barca, was admitted therein as prose
writer On the safe subject of bees.