Huntsville gazette., 1890-01-25
IN WOMAN'S BEHALF.
woMANS GRIEVANCES.

Industrial ana OmcAl TOSiGlOHS
which Women are Excluded.
TIE question is asked, says HI. B.
Blackwell in the Woman's Journal:
.sIs there really, at the present time,
any position of responsibility, honor
and profit which woman who is COM
petent to fill with supreme ability, is
excluded from, or in which her compen-
sation is not equal to that given to
men?"
I answer. Yes. Women are thus ex-
cluded, not only by custom, but often by
law. Women Of ''sGpreme ability" are
ineligible to all State and National
offices, executive, legislative or judicial.
President, Congressman, judge. Gov.
ernor and legislator, down to the small.
est and most poorly-paid Government
official, women, as rule, are shut out
by constitution and statute. They can
not hold even municipal offices created
by the Legislature. True, in seventeen
States out of fortytwo, as a result of
thirty years agitation, women may vote
for school committees; in some States
they may serve on school or charity
boards without salaries). But with rare
exceptions, as in the case of Miss
Crocker, men monopolize all public po-
sitions of honor and profit. Last year
the Massachusetts Legislature put the
public institutions of Suffolk County
under the management of three "men."
An effort was made to amend the statI
ute by substituting the word persons"
and Mayor Hart signifed his intention,
if the word was SO changed, to appoint
one woman on the board. But the Leg
islature refused to make that change.
The salary was large and office-seekers
were numerous. Women will not be
permitted to hold such places until after
they are voters.
The unwritten law Of public opinion,
crystallized in custom, shuts women out
of flrst-class industrial positions. THERE'S
but one daily or weekly newspaper in
Boston, except the woman suffrage and
temperance papers, whose managing ed
itor is a woman. There is not college
or university in the State, except Wei
lesley "a woman's college), whose presi-
dent is woman. Women are not even
allowed to be professors of colleges for
men, or principals of Boston high
schools, they can not be presidents,
cashiers or tellers of banks, insurance
companies, railroad or manufacturing
corporations. Why not? There are
women of supreme" business ability.
There are thousands of women seeking
employment who have better qualifica-
tions than half the men who hold these
positions. Custom alone excludes them.
This is equally true of nine out of every
ten of all avocationS, and of ninety-nine
out of hundred of all first-class busi-
ness positions.
Even when women have got foot
hold, as in setting type, they are usually
paid less than the men who work in the
same offices by their side. In fact,
women who get equal pay with men for
equal work are so few as not to have
greatly ameliorated the average lot of
female wage-workers. Leaving the ex-
ceptional careers where nature confers
monopoly, as in the case of a soprano
voice or literary genius, and coming
down to the fair average of life," as
teacher, factory operative, clerk, sales
woman, or telegraph operator, woman
finds It far harder than a man to achieve
an independent industrial position, or
to obtain fair compensation. And the
oldest thing about it all is that women
themselves do not realize the disabili-
ties under which their sex labors. Ed
mund Quincy, after a liftime of work for
the slave, declined to work for wom-
an suffrage, because, he said, there is
no grievance. AS if it were no griev-
ance to the army of female school-teach-
ers that they are paid by Massachusetts
towns and cities less than one-third the
average salary paid to male teachers!
So long as these and other unjust dis
ordinations make it,industrially or 9TH
erwise, misfortune to be born wom
an, so long the woman question" will
clamor for settlement. And the only
cure for the evil is the ballot in woman's
hand.