Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1900-03-15
WOMAN AND THE CENTURY.
now the Past Hundred Years Have
Advanced Her Sex.

American women. Elizabeth Cadv
Stanton, who remarked their inward
progress; Jennie June Croly. who de-
scribed the effect upon club life. HELEN
Varick Boswell, who voiced the alta
tude of the sex in politics. and Mrs q
Fl. Gilbert, who wrote of her fellow
worker on the stage Mrs. Stanton
says:
| TO the student of history a law of
progress is apparent, steadily running
from century to century, gradually de-
veloping the higher possibilities of
the race. The emancipation of woman
from the bondage of the past has cul-
minated during the last 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 this
green earth and equal dominion over
every creeping thing thereon, accord
ing to the book of Genesis, claimed by
some to be the earliest record of the
race.
Fifty years ago, like the daughters
of Belophehad in the scriptures, Num-
bers xviii, woman brought her case
into court, with her own judges, advo-
Gates and witnesses, and. made a pop
ular appeal for her right to an equal
inheritance. The goddess of Justice,
weighing the claims of man and wo-
man, said; "rhe women are right: so
let 1t be- 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. expounded the COM
mands of God in the pulpit and ques-
lions of government in legislative
halls. In vain did the men protest as
they saw the power slipping from their
hands; vain were their thunderbolts of
denunciation. Women began to fiji an
equal place. gradually taking possess
sion of all the vantage points in the
world of thought and action, crowding
into the colleges by the thousand.
pushing their way in the trades and
professions, becoming the most 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-
partment where they have had equal
opportunities for development.
Men and that class of women
dubbed parasites by Olive Schreiner
are helpless to roll back this incoming
tide of intelligence as was Dame Part
ington in beating back the Atlantic
ocean.
1t is now too late for bishops, SEN
ators, college presidents. professors
and fashionable women to set limits
to the achievements and aggressions OF
Ewes daughters The wheels of prog
ress 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
a semi-scientifc. contradictions or
semi-educational character. whose
members formed boards that met an
nually, semi-annually or quarterly to
render up 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 priy,-
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
itiate the curiously rapid social phe-
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
dlviduals composing It. Such bodies
voluntarily submit TO be governed by
laws which are self-made. because
though restrictive, they are protective
70 the best interests OF the whole. The
frst woman's club in this country
formed entirely by women organized
completely, with constitution and by
laws, and chartered by the state, was
Sorosis Of New York.
The existence Of thousands OF wo-
mans clubs throughout the length and