The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-07-17
WOMAN'S GRIEVANCES.
While a Few are Real Many are
Imagmary-Secret Of the
Strong Right Arm.


ton, VINO had been one of the most
devoted and self sacrificing OF the
abolitionists. and who had stood faith
fully by women in their claim to a
place on the anti-slavery platform,
yet refused entirely, after slavery was
abolished, to take any part in the
woman suffrage movement, on the
ground that there vas mo real grew
ance.p
The assertion that there was no real
grievance is sufficiently refuted by
the fact that hundreds of grievances
have been actually corrected; hun
dreds of legislative bills in different
states of the Union, hundreds OF
events of social emancipation, show
that ogre has been made, and
that there was, therefore, progress to
be made. Against the few dozen EN-
Payments outside the family which
were fully opened to women when
slavery was abolished, there are now
mBny hundreds; for the United States
Commissioner of Labor, in his fourth
report, gives minute statistics OF 3S3
such employments, these being only
selected tout of the large number now
OPEN" Many of these have been h
fruits of distinct. laborious and grad
ual conquests from prejudice or self
ishness within a quarter OF q century.
And when we consider the laws for
women during the same time, all tend
ing in the direction of her greater free
dom and equality. it is perfectly in
contestable that there must have been
at some time grievances to right, else
why have they been righted
Now, when we turn and ask our-
selves why it is in that case these
eminent reformers were so needless of
these facts, it is not enough to say
that they were sh~ortsighted. That
goes without saying. But it is neces-
sary to say, on the other hand, that
there are often too sweeping claims
on the other side, and that many
grievances which are put down TO
within or wisdom are not due really to
that, but to the slow development of
inventions and methods, which still
give men the advantage, for reasons
now unquestiopable, but removable
by time. Every step in invention
helps to equalize the condition OF
sexes in respect to labor. Justas Car
lyle defines it a. the merit of gunpow-
der that it makes all men alike tall,
SD lnNGttlOA llhhCG ~ A0Ahct Al0cNA0S
alike strong; the girls finger accom-
plishes what the full strength of the
man was once taxed to perform.
Physical inventions thus have moral
weight. For a time the weaker arm
can be had more cheaply and is paid
less; and in the other departments,
where strength still holds good, "a
higher price is commanded. But
mind is always gaining on muscle, aud
the works that require N ain strength
are constantly being relatively mar
rowed.
Women are now employed where
they deal with the hardest materials
through the delicate manipulations of
machinery. 1t would be very unjust
to say that they formerly were not
employed in these ways because of
mere prejudice or custom, or because
they were not voters; these obstacles
may have entered in slightly. but not
extensively. The main reason was
that the progress of invention had not
yet reached that point where their
work could be made available. In
vention as well as philanthropic agi-
tation helped them, but invention did
the main work.
| am satisfied that injury is often
done by overstatement and by the as
sumption that the higher earnings of
men are due wholly to a prejudice. |
do not think that. as an able advocate
of the cause of woman has lately
stated, ''tiIe rule of sex exclusion is as
artificial and unjust as any other
form of industrial serfdom.n The
very instance he goes on to give re-
flutes his reasoning:-A man as nurse,
in Boston, without auy diploma, gets
50 for twelve hours work, and a
then go home. Woman as trained
nurse, after two years training in a
hospital and protected by a diploma,
only gets SO q day for unlimited
hours of service" But every II who
has had to do with nurses knows that
there are many cases where a male
nurse is absolutely necessary tor
strength of arm in handling a heavy
patient, so that he must be had at
any price, and, inasmuch as there are
very few such nurses to be had. they
simply control the market and dictate
their own terms.
BIN the list of 1872 professional nurses
in the last Boston directory accessible
TO Inc Q6S6) there appear the names of
only 6 men. Such a disparity proves,
in the first place, hat male nurses are
not enormously overpaid-for if they
were they would flock into the profess
sion; and it, moreover, shows very
good reason why they should be paid
a higher price, from the sheer diff
Guilty of getting them. The only sur
prise is that they do not ask $40 a day,
for one would think that they could
get it. The disparity of numbers is
universal; in the whole State of Massa-
chusetts there are only 1874 male nurses
and 1882 female nurses. (State Cen
sus of 1885, ii, 419.)
And all this has a bearing on the
most obvious instance OF inequality OF
payment-that of public school teach
ers. There are undoubtedly many in
stances where women are paid much
less than men for rendering precisely
the same service in teaching. But
these cases are now in the minority.
the grievance, though undoubted Il
of a different kind. 1t is that the
higher grades of school service are
now opened more to men than tC
women. This grows out of the sys
tenn of graded schools. In Massachu
sets, for instance, less than one-tentt
of the public school teachers are men
$50 out of S.S24l. but that one-tentl
hold the highest offices, and therefor
have higher pay. 1t is the general