Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-08-02
Dreams and Dreams.


Numbers of ambitious. clever earnest
young women are graduated from our
colleges and universities, young women
whose abilities call forth sincere recon-
mendation from their instructors, often
profound admiration. The aforesaid
recommendations frequently place them
at once in positions which seem, and are.
remarkably flattering to new-fiedged
B.A.. and hardly girl Of them. finding
herself SO early and SO easily established
in a college instructorship. but mentally
sees herself a student in a European
University within at least three years
time. Where is she actually to be found
at the end of ten years? Where she be-
gan. although earning possibly an addi-
tional two or three hundred dollars an
nually in recognition of exceptional
merit. or through promotion upon the res
ignation or death of a superior in the
same department. And there she will be
(minus a second raise Of salary at
the end Of ten years more unless some
fairy godmOther secure her passaS, 70
Europe or some lover persuade her to
transfer her field of research to love and
domestic science in an apartment house.
For the universally low salary results in
correspondingly low proportion of
vacancies in desirable positions. With
nothing to be gained by change, women
who have once secured what are adj
mittedly the best places to be hoped for
Dy the sex HOlQ On ~
and thus there is not room at the top"
That portion Of the top reserved for
women on the educational eminence has
very limited circumference. But sup
posing the existence of a desirable va
cancy. the teacher who was so ''promis-
ing" ten years before has small hope OF
reaching it, for she has gained little save
experience, in that time to make her more
desired by or better known to another
institution than in her first years of
teaching. OF course, SO long as no other
college seeks her. her own college need
not pay a great sum to keep her. and
the savings out of that sum do not
rapidly reach the proportions suggesting
study abroad. So she stands helpless at
the foot of the wall.
and administrators why they did not pay
their woman teachers as high salaries as
were given to men doing the same grade
Of work. The first and most conclusive
Of all their answers is invariably: Be
cause no other college does. Now. OF
course, that reply is not highly logical,
but 1t must be admitted that there is Il
finality about it which gives them dis
tinct advantage. However, having first
by this telling stroke made you fully I'M
derstand that there is absolutely no
money for you in the discussion, they
are generally willing. purely as an aca-
demic exercise in argument, to go on 10
explain why this female teachers salary
condition prevails. The reasons COM
monty given are these: Men are not
necessarily more successful in the class
room than women, but they are of more
value to n institution because they,
either by writing or successful research,
call attention to 1t, or they travel about.
giving lectures or attending educational
meetings. whereby their college is favor
ably advertised. or they are prominent in
the civic life of their own community. or
they are superior to women in managing
the machinery of the college itself; and
men have families to support.
Responsibilities.
1 am moved to answer the latter reason
first-to get it of my mind. L/nfSfvel
that any reasonable man will venture to
offer it to a woman even half way rea-
sonable, and men generally do back down
from 1t tolerably early in the discussion.
For the absurdity of it is even greater
than the injustice Of 1t, since it is a dis
tinction never drawn between one man
and another. and you do not fix the sal
airy even of your professor Of sociology
by your knowledge whether he is q
bachelor or supports his theory of eu-
genics by being the parent of ten vigor-
Gus and hungry children. But suppos
ing that mems salaries anywhere were
need of money. what right has any one
to assume that the financial responsible
ties of the professional woman are less
heavy or her needs less urgent? Few
women are teaching in colleges or else
where who have not broken-down par
ents to support. younger relatives to edu-
cate, family debts to pay for the sake OF
the family honor. OF these women many
are giving up a part of their savings.
some are giving all. 1 know one woman,
the recipient of "a good salary for a
woman" and counted "successful' by her
friends, who each September returns to
her position with less than the price Of
a months board in her purse. and this
by no means because she has wasted her
substance in riotous living And there