The College, the Market, and the Court: or, Woman's relation to education, labor and lawDall, Caroline Wells Healey
History
The College, the Market, and the Court: or, Woman's relation to education, labor and law
Dall, Caroline Wells Healey
Women -- Education; Women -- Employment; Women -- Legal status, laws, etc.
A very important convention came together at Leipsic, in September,
1865. One hundred and fifty women assembled, pledged to assert the right
to labor, and to bridge the gulf between the compensations of the two
sexes. Madame Louise Otto Peters opened the conference in an able
speech. She stated that there were five millions of women in Germany,
who could each earn, if allowed, three thalers a week. A thousand women
might find employment as chemists, on salaries of one hundred and fifty
thalers a year, exclusive of board and lodging. Another thousand might
be employed as boot-closers. The foundation of industrial and
commercial schools was urged. The weak point of the speech, as reported,
appeared to be, that it took no cognizance of the fact, that an influx
of five millions of laborers must necessarily lower the current rate of
wages she proposed. I mention this convention in a legal connection,
believing that it was intended to remove some local legal barriers.
A petition from sixty women of Potter County, Penn., has just been
presented to the Legislature of that State, praying for the passage of
an act to enable widows, on the death of a husband, to control the
property acquired by joint labor, in the same manner as the husband does
on the death of the wife.
When Freeman Clarke was Comptroller of the United-States Currency, he
decided that a woman, not being a _citizen_, could not be a bank
director. I consider this logical and satisfactory. I wish more
decisions of this kind could be made. If the position that woman is not
a citizen were pushed to its extreme, it would become untenable, her
property could not be taxed, and the necessary remedy would be applied.
One bank remonstrated against the comptroller's decision, desiring to
retain the services of women "hitherto satisfactory." I see, by a
Washington paper, that another national bank desires leave to diminish
the number of its directors; so many of its shares being held by women,
that nine men could not be found to fill the office.
Now, let some bright women buy up, through a broker, all the shares of
such a bank, elect their own president and directors, and see what the
Government can do. The absurdity of such a position, practically, is
evident to all who know how business is done in our country towns.
SUFFRAGE.
Dr. Hunt and a few other women have continued their annual protests,
without intermission. In somewhat the same way have petitions recently
been sent to Congress in behalf of universal suffrage. We had no
expectation that any favorable reception would await such petitions; but
it was a duty to put them on record, if we could do it without
perplexing public business. What fate they met in Congress, you have so
recently heard, that I have no occasion to record it. Minnesota, New
York, and other States, have petitioned their Legislatures to the same
effect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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