The Washington times., 1914-03-10
Mrs. Ellen Spenser Mussey Says
Fair Sex Is RivaIing Man
in All Other Professions as
Well.
Declares Practice Need Not
Keep a Woman From Being
a Good Homemaker and
Tells of Her Own Home Life.
By 7. R. HILDEBRAND.

cE0Sed to WOH1eH pTdCltltOHeTS, ma
opened wide opportunity fo
pomen lawyers.
Mems opposition to women ii
the professions has largely beel
overcome. The greatest prejudice
women nom face comes from thei
own sex.
Their sex needs professional
women most, and especially d.
women involved in legal tangle'
need women lawyers, for the SAM
reason that pomen already Otter
prefer women physicians.
These are some of the Strikin.
statements made by Mrs. EHe1
Spenser Mussey, formerly pic
president of the Board of Educa
tion, honorary dean of the Wash
ington College of Law, AID one o
the Capitals most prominent pro
fssSiondl Uomen.
New Field For Women.
Until two years ago. I told my
girl law students that the criminal
IL Ill
Mrs. Mussey. "All that has changed.
Women may talk freely now about
matters that in bygone days it was
not nice to mention.
There is a more potent reason
than that Personal investigation
has convinced me that women in
criminal cases cannot get justice un-
less there are women lawyers TO
defend them. This Is not the fault
Of men lawyers. But lust as women
often will not confide IN men physi-
clans. Just so they frequently refuse
to talk frankly with a man lawyer"
Mrs. Mussey cited a case that oc-
CURED In the Washington Police
Court a few days ago in which, she
said, the lawyer engaged to defend
a woman remarked. after talking
- IN her, .'Oh. well she is guilty; let
them send her up"
a woman lawyer heard of that
statement, and, struck by the injus-
tice of it. determined the woman
should be defended properly. It
turned out she was guilty. but she
told the woman lawyer mitigating
circumstances she had failed to dis
close to the man, and. as il was her
first offense, she was put on proba-
tioB and shows every sign of going
straight"
Headway In Other Lines.
Net only the women lawyer, but
women in all profess ons are making
marked headway in Mrs. Musseys
opinion.
Washington affords excellent proof
OF the openings for women in pro-
fesSional life There are such emf
ncnt women physicians as DR.. Ida
J. Heiberger and DR.. Alice Brosius.
There is Grace Temple, the artist
and decorator and in the Depart
Tnent OF Agr culture are two widely
known women. Mrs. Flora Patter-
s.n. an authority on plant life, and
Miss Anne Draper, an expert on laws
relating TO pure foods
Mrs. hussey is one of the most
conspicuous examples of women of
affair ment in this city. Aside from
her dlstingu shed service on the
Eoaro of Education. and her work
Washington College of Law. she has
established an cnviable legal repu-
tetIon
Won Glavey Case.
She was the thirtieth woman ad-
mitted to practice before the Su-
preme Court of the United States
The number was not unlucky be-
cause she won her first case before
that tribunal after hard hight. the
famous Glavey case, in VIII Ch the
Supreme Court settled the long
Inooted question OF whether a man
might draw two salaries from the
Government if he held two posi-
tons. The court upheld Mrs. Mus
seys contention that he could if he
performed adequate service in both
capacities.
Mrs. Mussey's attention was called
to statements in Edward Sanford
Martins recent book, The Unrest
of Women" in VIII ch the author
charged that, though woman had
gained a headway in the routine du-
ties OF the professions, she never had
made a name for herself beside the
men who stood at the top of those
professions.
How about Nine. Curie." flashed
back Mrs. Musscy. LAS for lawyers.
I can not name any women law ers
entitled TO rank with Daniel Web
today in that class.
Calls Comparison Unfair.
Neither is it fair TO make such a
compar son yet. 1t has only been
since the early seventies that women
were admitted to practice anywhere.
In less than half a century, they
have made wonderful progress, but,
naturally, they have not yet over
topped the men who have been at
the game for years"
Marrying and practIcing law, or
any other profession holds out no
complications for Mrs. Mussey.
1T is entirely a natural and nor
NAL thing for woman to practice
law or medicine and be 4 home
maker. She Will be q better W fe
for 1t, because she will have
ground OF inte lectual contact with
her husband.
Both my husband and / prac-
ficed law, and II was an ideal mar
rage relation. We had a common
ground of interest, much closer
than the woman whose husband
attends to business while she dis
ports in society.
In fact, mutual work will give
woman and man more time for
each others society than work for
enc AMI society for the other. In