The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-03-31
IN WOMAN'S BEHALF.
WOMEN IN THE PROFESSIONS.
Their Wonderful Progress Against the
Many obstacles ThroMn Hefnrr Ihenn

Their Wonderful Progress Against the
Many Obstacles Thrown Before Them.
1t is not SO very long ago that the
possible advent of women in the learn
ed professions was regarded as a Wis
ionary proposition, scarcely worth the
serious consideration of the people
who, as matter of ethics, were sturdi-
" opposed to such an innovation.
Within the memory of people whose
hair is not yet very gray regularly
qualified female physician, a woman
lawyer, n newspaper woman, were lit
orally unheard of. A few female
preachers had assembled the pulpit, Dor
rowing courage, it may be, from the
good old Quaker practice permitting
women to speak in meeting when
"the spirit moved" but these modern
ladies who boldly entered the pulpit on
the same plane as men, claiming an
equal right to appointments and sala-
ries and preferment, were looked upon
with distrust by their brothers of the
cloth.
To-day there is scarcely a calling or
profession of dignity in our country that
women are not free to enter, and in
which one or more members of the sex
have not already scored signal sue
cesses. Literature, art medicine, law,
science in all its branches, are a-futter
with petticoats. The predictions made
by old fogies who would fain have
stayed this tide of feminine advance
nlent have all fallen TO the ground.
The revolution has been a blood
less one; neither men nor women
have been uusexed by it, and in many
instances woman's wit. her more deli
cate perceptions and her very personal
ity have made her a very welcome coad-
jutor Especially is this the case in
medical practice, in certain lines of adj
vanced teaching and perhaps, it may
be added, in some exceptional cases in
newspaper work. 1t is a curious fact
that few single women enter upon a
professional career This is no doubt
in part due to the fact that many stu
dents who are on the way to it are cap
tured by some fellow student and per-
suaded to exchange the uncertainties
and trials of a business career for the
greater uncertainties of connubial life.
Co-education is the order of the day.
But more potent influence in exclud-
ing all but very small proportion of
young women from such callings is the
courage, the decision and the prepare
ton required. A woman may be fairly
well prepared while yet young, but the
courage and decision are usually the
birth of either mature years or of the
spur Of necessity. So it comes that
mothers and wives form the rank and
file, as well as the leaders, among pro-
fessional women, and the American
child still thrives, and home is still the |
most powerful factor in American civ |
iliZatio
If the professional women of cur
country were asked 20 recall the greatest |
problem that they have had to master. q |
curious fact would appear. 1t would |
not be the intellectual preparation in !
volved, although the most of them |
have studied hard; nor the labor conse- /
quent, although they are as rule dill |
gent and industrious. Nine out OF ten |
would declare that their greatest en- |
barrassment has been in framing the |
etiquette of their positions, for there is
yet no social code but woman's own
good judgment to determine the pre-
else social duties and relations of those
who follow a vocation which places
them side by side with men. 1t is i'm
possible to lay down any law of behav-
Tor in this difficult position, but it is
worthy of remark that no woman has
ever made Il genuine success in any pro-
fession which brought her into daily as
ISOLATION with men, who was not thor
oughly womanly. The masculine wom-
an who enters into rough comradeship
with men, or is ever on the aggressive
or defensive, may achieve notoriety and
have n certain following, but her posi-
ton is not an enviable one. She who
goes quietly and bravely about her
work, who meets diStrust or unkind re-
mark with faithful and diligent service,
who is dignified and self-respecting
without being aggressive, tactful with
out familiarity, wise without pretention,
feminine without frivolity, and who,
above all, manifests a kind DISPOSE
ton toward members of her own sex,
will rise on solid foundations and do
much to level prejudice against those
who will come after her.-San Francis
co Examiner