Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1890-01-30
IN WOMAN ZEl4l1F'
WoMAN'S GRIEVANCES.

Industrial and OniciaI Positions from
Which Women are Excluded.
The question is asked, says II. 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?"
| answer, Yes. Women are thus ex-
cluded, not only by custom, but often by
law. Women of supreme 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 forty-two, as a result of
thirty years agitation, women may vote
for school committee; 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 stat
ute by substituting the word persons"
and Mayor Hart signiied his intention,
il the word was 50 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 is
but one daily or weekly newspaper in
Boston, except the woman suffrage and
temperance papers, whose managing ed
itor is woman. There is not college
or university in the State, except We'll
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 bust
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
Z same offices by their side. In fact
women who get equal pay with men fol
equal work are so few as not to have
greatly ameliorated the average lot o.
female wage-workers. Leaving the ex
ceptional careers where nature confers 9
monopoly, as in the case of 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, OF
to obtain fair compensation. And the
oldest thing about it all is that womer
themselves do not realize the disabili
ties under which their sex labors. Ed
mund Quincy, after liftime of work fol
/, the slave, declined to work for wonn
an suffrage, because, he said, there Ii
no grievance" AS if it were no griev
ance to the army of female school-teach
, ers that they are paid by Massachusett
towns and cities less than one-third tn
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 a won
, an, SO long the ''woman question" will
! clamor for settlement. And the onl
cure for the evil is the ballot in woman
hand.