Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1900-03-15
WOMAN AND THE CENTURY.
How the Past Hundred Nears Have
Advanced Her SeN.

Observation-Disclosures W lbNl WSIl~hhi'NW
American women, Elizabeth Cady
| Stanton, who remarked theic upward
progress; Jennie June Croly, who de-
scubed the effect upon club life; Helen
Narick Boswell, who voiced the atti-
tude Of the sex in politics. and Mrs G,
H. Gilbert, who wrote Of her fellow
worker ON the stage Mrs, Stanton
says;
TO the student of history n law OF
progress is apparent. steadily running
from century to century, gradually de-
Neloping the higher possibilities Of
the race The emancipation " woman
from the bondage OF the past has Gull
minated during the hast century In the
assertion OF her right to an equal
place on this planet, claiming the ST.
multaneous creation OF man and wo-
man, with an equal title deed to his
green earth and equal dominion over
every creeping thing thereon, accord
ing to the book of Genesis, claimed by
some to he the earliest record Of the
race.
Fifty years ago, like the daughters
OF Bclophehad in the scriptures, Num-
berS NNviii, woman brought her case
into court, with her own judges, advo-
Gates and witnesses. and made Il pop
ular appeal for her right to an equal
inheritance, The goddess OF justice,
/ W nip \, iy, hN Al Nf
man, said The women are right so
let 1t he, Open Sesame!' And gave
them the key to the schools. colleges.
trades and professions, In the face Of
leaders of church and state they
pushed back bolts and bars, walked
the wards of the hospital. entered the
courts of justice, eNpounded the COM
mands of God in the pulpit and ouos-
tions of government in legislative
halls, In vain did the men protest, as
they saw the power slipping from their
hands; vain were their thunderholts Of
denunciation. Women began to till an
equal place, gradually taking posses
sion of all the vantage points in the
world of thought and action. crowding
into the colleges ny the thousand,
pushing their way In the trades and
professions, becoming the NEST popu
lar orators, authors and actors, and
rapidly coming into competition with
the most distinguished musicians. sci
entiSts and philosophers, proving them.
selves the equal of man In every de
partnent whore they have had equal
opportunities for development.
Men and that class OF women
dubbed parasites by Olive Schrelner
are helpless to ron back this incoming
tide OF intelligence MS was Dame Part
5Snston in beating back the Atlantic
ocean.
1t is now too late for bishops, sen
ators, college presidents. professors
and fashionable women to set limits
10 the achievements and aggressions OF
Ewes daughters rhe wheels Of prog
less never move backward; until full
equality is accorded her everywhere,
until the canon and civil laws, bibles
and constitutions shall alike bow with
love and reverence to the mother of
the race
Mrs. Croly says:
70 women who were In the begin
ming, and who have watched the
growth and diversified development of
the modern club life among women of
all classes and degrees OF Intelligence.
nothing is more curious than the
eagerness with which old societies Of
semi-scientific semi-rcligious or
scmi-educational character. whose
members formed boards that met an
nnally, semi-annually or quarterly to
render mp accounts and report decline
or progress under the leadership Of
some more than commonly LIBERAL
minded pastor, and who In the begin
ming disavowed severely any sanction
OF the club idea, now claim the priW-
leges Of age and the later adoption Of
more social and progressive features
as their claim to precedence and the
honor OF being among the first to In
itate the curiously rapid socia pho-
nomena which now constitute the
club life of women.
AS late as 1860 there were no socl-
cites, secular or religious, former,
ocered and sustained wholly by wo-
men. There were here and there little
auxiliaries to bible and foreign mis-
sions, formed under the influence Of
the pastor Of church. and whose OBJ
ject was the gathering OF small contri-
buttons to be turned over to the fund
OF the parent society.
The word club in it's social sense
means cooperation on free and equal
terms, for any purpose approved by the
general body. II involves the power
OF independent action on the part Of in
diyiduals composing II. Such bodies
voluntarily submit to be governed by
laws which are self-made, because,
though restrictive, they are protective
to the best interests Of the whole. The
FIRST woman's club in this country