The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1908-06-21
Is Woman a Failure

4 newspaper WOman-gauBeu ItOlIi
her photograph, a woman in her
early maturity and good TO look
upon-has been writing an essay
for one of the magazines to eX-
hibit her professional sisters as
failures. Mrs. Mary O'Conner Newell
is the name of this critic. and her
contentious are fairly well set forth
in this excerpt:
Woman has failed to make good her
rratensions to consideration as an inde-
dsueudent leader and thinker IN JHe
professions aad IN business. Almost
nowhere In tne high places 90 we Hliu
women Very few are they among
phvsicians Of note. few among lawyers
and few as executive heads OF colleges
or holders Of PROFESSIONAL chairs lew
among the ranks Of editors ana III
the teaching and newspaper netqS li-es
I have had great opportunities, "haIeEef
MOI he the case today, As actresses
/ 81 saar, TO he made OF marred at the
will of the manager. as was eXemplhet
I i'm q recent noted case. They nave Idu
control of fortunes; they have had sway
/ i'm kitchens. they have always taught ;
/ they have always acLeu' YET men az
the great fnauCiers, COOKS, teachers
J managers of theaters. In no PROBES
/ sion are women independent FACTORS,
/ standing on their worth, Swapping thelr
| fingers at clamOr, as certain strong
J professional men do, whom 10 name
would be inyidious.
As the telegraphs editors used 10
saw, this is important if true. Some
of Mrs. Newelrs readers can cite
women in high places-as educators
as doctors. as workers in systema-
TIED charity, as organizers. as art
lists, as historians, as actors, as
fnanciers. For surely the present
brilliant president of Bryn Mawr
the women who have rivaled the
men as medical specialists, Miss
IJane Adams. Mrs. Eddy. Cecilia
Beaux. Mrs. George F. Watts, Mrs
Humphrey Ward, Miss Muhlbach
Mrs. Charlotte Cushman, and Mrs
Hettv Green have not only touched
but held the high places. II they
have been comparatively few com
pared with the whole number o.
woman workers. their male rivals
in greatness have likewise been few
in comnarison with the whole mum
Der of men workers.
But there is yet something il
what this young woman says. Rea(
this:
In mind. the business woman Away
figures 10 me as one Jlluhs lI lsecul -, 81
/, lon a high office--stool, stTalnllg ne, ne
y own and the OnlOOherS nerves Il--l--
as one sitting back comfortably IN al
7 | armchair, looking and feeling able
advise anyone on the question OF sue
cess. -
g della Sedia. with babe in arms, httl
e ones clustered about her knee, does an
woman attain the magnificent serenity
g the uoise of man, secure In the busl
= ness world which he has created aLJe
, his own image and likeness
. To our Judgment this is not a
, all surprising. How, indeed, coul'
the truth be otherwise? Man ha
, the initial advantage of being ex
7 pected to dominate. He is the &C
o customed boss in business. He ha
: had thousands of years of training
not intellectual training alone, bu
training of the spirit. And woman
o. only training has been in the on
field where even Mrs. Mary O'Conne
. Newell thinks her unapproached 10
8 serenity and poise, and, she Nigh
- have added. human loveliness.
o How long have occupations ger
# orally been open to women? Thi
% assavist and others like her shoul
- ask themselves that question. lie
y, them count it up. They will fin
that it reaches back scarcely tw
generations. Then let them cor
: slider the widening circle of comps
tent woman doctors, of resourcefl
, woman lawyers, of artistic woma
=, architects. of persuasive wOma
preachers. of noble woman worker
, for the general good, ike Mis-
= Adams. and of the not unworth
= successors of Jane Austin an
George Elliott. They viii not the
:. complain-they will marvel.
- The one thing which makes ma
= doubt as TO the stability of her ne
i. Dosition is her tendency to tru'
~ intuition rather than reason. PJ
- in terse English. it is the dispositio
to Jump at conclusions; and in muC
1, reading one could not find bette
:. Illustration of this tendency tina
i'm such an article as this on pr
fessional women by one Of tt
number.
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