Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-08-05
Women and Progress.
TBy Lady Cook, nee Tennessee ClaHin.l


To many there might not at first blush
appear to jbe any. necessary connection
between women and progress, yet "a
slight study of the past is sufficient to
show that the position of the one is a
sure measure of that of the other. The
moral and political status ofany country
has always depended upon the position
held by women there. The nearer she
is TO the condition Of slave, the more
generally degraded is the whole nation;
thus the degree Of freedom is significant
Of a country's worth and durability
No people and no scheme Of progress
ever succeeded and became lasting
which did not include the advancement
of woman equally with man. s-.t
The oldest and best known nation of
antiquity was Egypt. !. In her day she
was the most polished and most civil
lied of people. Her learning, her
science, her military and political abil-
tiles, her handicrafts and mechanical
appliances, amaze the student of today.
He rubs his eyes and asks, Was this
really an ancient or modern country,
this land of nineteenth century con-
veniences, this home Of established
government hoary with antiquity and
of institutions venerable with age, this
preceptress and mother of art and
learning throughout the whole of the
=. =, -, II
She was the first to recognize the equal.
ity of the sexes. Her marriage con-
tracts prove that an Egyptian wife then
was in many respects in better posi-
ton than a wife in most European
countries now The medical profession
was chiefly practised by%women, and
thus we,fnd that the mortality Of moth
ers, of infants, and children, was sur
prisingly small. In that charming little
story "The Doctors of Hoyland," by
DIR. Conan Doyle, we have Il case where
a gifted and skilled lady practitioner
absolutely annihilated those common
prejudiees against female doctors, even
when entertained by sore male com
petitor, one DR.. Ripley, a country sur
geon of the old school. The fiction that
amuses and surprises the novel-reading
English of the tail-end Of the nineteenth
century, was a common matter of every
day fact, in Egypt more than four thou
sand years ago. Women also occupied.
conspicuous positions in the State
church. AS priestesses they ofliciated
in all its ceremonies and were most fire.
quently the vehicles of the divine
oracles, They. contributed largely to
the founding Of the national literature,
and even in Plato,s day the sacred
books of Isis were considered to be
about ten thousand years old. A Greek
sage, when in Egypt, having boasted of
the divine descent of the mushroom
royalty of his country, the high priest
rebuked him by exhibiting the statues
of 800 of his predecessors in that office
in one long unbroken line, all high
priests and all the sons of, men. What
other state in the world ever surpassed
this for good gOVernment-that IS, q
government most suitable to its people
or for@steady durability? But there,:
i'll that remote day, the wife was almost
as free as the husband and had similar
social rights. { Contrary TO all modern
usages of the East, she could dine in
public with him, and facetio1s painters
occasionally depicted her in, various
stages ofaintoxlcation.,i of u While monog-
amy was the rule, polygamy, though
exceptional was also lawful, and the
double system seems to have worked
well. The reformation Of Mahomet
excluded womenfromits system, denied
them education and civil rights, shut
them out from. It's churches and its i'm
mortal Paradise, and ranked them with
the lower animals. The result. was. a
rapid and fatal degradation of the race,
the national impoyerishment bothmen
tally and materially. The descendants
of learned, Wealthy, and high spirited
people, the mssst tdistipguihedS IN ancient
history, became the ignorant and feeble
fellaheen- of Egypt, than. whom. under
Turkish rule.sno anoradmiserable class
eyerse2isted. 4. ,y..rs e.-,:. .s...;s ,--.,..
In Greece the doctrine Of the natural
equality of the sexes was INDUCED III
only by. a few philosophers, particularly
by Plato. Education and free inter
course of Women were left to courte
sans. Toll and ,seolusion and abundant
ignorance formed.the condition of the
mothers and sisters of the citizens.
With Fiber masculine y1gor and
glory, Greece fell gradually atrophied,
because onehalf Of her had been, of set
purpose, intellectually and politically
paralyzed. Not long ago the wife of u
wealthy Greek peasant sought protee-
ton against the cruelty of her husband
He had bound her almost naked to a
stakein the street in cold weather, and
urged the passers-by to strike her,
chastising them when they refused.
The CouIt eNonerated the husband on
the ground fithe.wife' S :insubordina-
tion.u "We cannot afford, = it said, S'to
teach a woman TO disobey the COM
mands of her hu usband'' And Rome,
proud Rome, began nobly but
ended in degradation In her early
days her women could boast of numer-
Gus privileges Of which they were after