The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-05-18
THE DYING CENTURY
PASSED In. REVIEW
THE CHANGES WROUGHT IN
woMAN,s STATUS.
Her Place in Society Is Fixed Today
on a Higher Basis Than Ever Be-
fore, and the End of This Transfer
nation Is Not Yet.
From the Chicago Times. Herald.

From the Chicago Times Herald.
Before the time of Christ the philos-
ophy of Plato was to the effect that
woman is a disease" Even Paul,
apostle to the man of Galilee, wrote
of her in a way that has made him
least quoted of women among all New
Testament writer's. Within the pres
ent century Schopenhauer wrote: "The
eastern people have a better idea Of a
woman's position than we, with our
gallantry and our stupid feeling of
reverence, the most absolute proof Of
our German Christian ignorance"
Schopenhauer ascribed the position
of woman at the beginning of the
nineteenth century as due to the in
fluences of the Christian religion, ana
he looked upon the advance as some
thing that could not be forgiven or
that creed. Today a student of gov
ernments and of peoples is willing to
pass in judgment upon a race upon
the mere showing of the condition Of
the women. The world has seen n
great light, and that light has been
reflected from America, where the
state of woman is higher than any
where else in the world.
one mas Deen d SUCCESSFUL lOlleI III
the task first set before her." writes
the Frenhcman, De Varigny, of the
American woman. "She has main
tanned that which she created and has
extended and enlarged 1t by church
and school. In times of trouble. dur
ing the war of secession, woman's pa
triotism sustained mans courage. I'm
der all circumstances she has been his
companion and equal. AS such he has
respected her, and this respect, which
she inspired by her sacrifices and her
bravery at the beginning, and after
ward by her confidence In his protec-
ton, has Influenced American morals
and has deeply imbued them with the
feeling that respect for woman is for
man one of the first conditions Of
moral life"
CO-EDUCATION.
Co-education, perhaps, has done
more to make woman's position Sc
cure in America than has any other
one agency. In the schools, not for
getting her femininity. she has ranked
everywhere with the young men of
her age. Seeing these so out to the
worlds favored places in mans work,
she has been led to question why she,
too. might not have worldly ambi-
tions.
From taking degrees with these
young men in school, she has passed
by only a step to taking places with
him in the world.
Women of middle age have seen this
whole battle with conservatism, from
the time the movement was regarded
scarcely a profession in which women
today have not taken honors by the
side of men, competing with them,
les of repression.
In this the economist has risen with
the objection that in so doing woman
is perplexing civilization and adding
new burdens to society. For answer,
woman points to the fact that woman
kind equals mankind in numbers and
reiterates that whatever may be her
demoralizng effects upon the working
the consequences.
ENLARGED OPPORTUNITIES
No innovation in a hundred years
has marked humanity more strikingly
than has enlarged opportunity for wo-
man. 1t has forced upon every art
and craft recognition of her as ore
to reckoned with in the world. Today
the literary world of realism is crying
out against the young girl of the per-
iod-the girl who insists on reading
because of whom the author must
leave unwritten things that otherwise
he would write. In like measure she
Is troubling the book publishers and
the magazine editors. The law, al
most everywhere, has recognized her
political and property rights. A dozen
professions are open to her energies
and ambitions, and in her home she
has an unquestioned standing as a full
partner.
Though the American woman today
gets her fashion plates from France
she is looked to as the model that
finally shall Americanize Europe She
has been criticised in Great Britain
and on the continent as one capable
of taking care of herself, but behind
that criticism is a covert admiration
She has had a marked influence al
ready upon the condition of her Eng
lish cousin before the law.