The Modern Woman's Rights Movement Part 13

Since the Revolution of 1905 the women of the provinces have been astir.

It has been reported that the Mohammedan women of the Caucasus are discarding their veils, that the Russian women in the rural districts are pet.i.tioning for greater privileges, etc. An organized woman's rights movement has originated in the Baltic Provinces; its organ is the _Baltic Women's Review_ (_Baltische Frauenrundschau_), the publisher being a woman, E. Schutze, Riga.

CZECHISH BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA

Total population: about 5,500,000.

The women predominate numerically.

No federation of women's clubs.

No woman's suffrage league.

The woman's rights movement is strongly supported among the Czechs. Woman is the best apostle of nationalism; the educated woman is the most valuable ally. In the national propaganda woman takes her place beside the man. The names of the Czechish women patriots are on the lips of everybody. Had the Liberals of German Austria known equally well how to inspire their women with liberalism and Germanism, their cause would to-day be more firmly rooted.

In inexpensive but well-organized boarding schools the Czechish girls (especially country girls, the daughters of landowners and tenants) are being educated along national lines. An inst.i.tute such as the "_Wesna_"[104] in Brunn is a center of national propaganda. Prague, like Brunn, has a Czechish _Gymnasium_ for girls as well as the German _Gymnasium_. There is also a Czechish University besides the German University. The first woman to be given the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Czechish university was Fraulein Babor.

The industrial conditions in Czechish Bohemia and in Moravia differ very little from those in Galicia. The lot of the workingwomen, especially in the coal mining districts, is wretched. According to a local club doctor (_Ka.s.senarzt_),[105] life is made up of hunger, whiskey, and lashes.

Although paragraph 30, of the Austrian law of a.s.sociation (_Vereinsgesetz_) prevents the Czechish women from forming political a.s.sociations, the women of Bohemia, especially of Prague, show the most active political interest. The women owners of large estates in Bohemia voted until 1906 for members of the imperial Parliament. When universal suffrage was granted to the Austrian men, the voting rights of this privileged minority were withdrawn. The government's resolution, providing for an early introduction of a woman's suffrage measure, has not yet been carried out.

The suffrage conditions for the Bohemian _Landtag_ (provincial legislature) are different. Taxpayers, office-holders, doctors, and teachers vote for this body; the women, of course, voting by proxy. The same is true in the Bohemian munic.i.p.al elections. In Prague only are the women deprived of the suffrage. The Prague woman's suffrage committee, organized in 1905, has proved irrefutably that the women in Prague are legally ent.i.tled to the suffrage for the Bohemian _Landtag_. In the _Landtag_ election of 1907 the women presented a candidate, Miss Tumova, who received a considerable number of votes, but was defeated by the most prominent candidate (the mayor). However, this campaign aroused an active interest in woman's suffrage. In 1909 Miss Tumova was again a candidate.

The proposed reform of the election laws for the Bohemian _Landtag_ (1908) (which provides for universal suffrage, although not equal suffrage) would disfranchise the women outside Prague. The women are opposing the law by indignation meetings and deputations.

GALICIA[106]

Total population: about 7,000,000.

Poles: about 3,500,000.

Ruthenians: about 3,500,000.

The women predominate numerically.

No federation of women's clubs.

No woman's suffrage league.

The conditions prevailing in Galicia are unspeakably pathetic,--medieval, oriental, and atrocious. Whoever has read Emil Franzo's works is familiar with these conditions. The Vienna official inquiry into the industrial conditions of women led to a similar inquiry in Lemberg. This showed that most of the women _cannot_ live on their earnings. The lowest wages are those of the women engaged in the ready-made clothing industry,--2 to 2-1/2 guldens ($.96 to $1.10) a _month_ as beginners; 8 to 10 guldens ($3.85 to $4.82) later. The wages (including board and room) of servant girls living with their employers are 20 to 25 cents a day. The skilled seamstress that sews linen garments can earn 40 cents a day if she works sixteen hours.

As a beginner, a milliner earns 2 to 4 guldens ($.96 to $1.93) a _month_, later 10 guldens ($4.82). In the mitten industry (a home industry) a week's hard work brings 6 to 8 guldens ($2.89 to $3.88). In laundries women working 14 hours earn 80 kreuzer (30 cents) a day without board. In printing works and in bookbinderies women are employed as a.s.sistants; for 9-1/2 hours' work a day they are paid a _monthly_ wage of from 2 to 14 and 15 guldens ($.96 to $7.23). In the bookbinderies women sometimes receive 16 guldens ($7.71) a month.

In Lemberg, as in Vienna, women are employed as brickmakers and as bricklayers' a.s.sistants, working 10 to 11 hours a day; their wages are 40 to 60 kreuzer (19 to 29 cents) a day. No attempt to improve these conditions through organizations has yet been made. The official inquiry thus far has confined itself to the Christian women laborers. What miseries might not be concealed in the ghettos!

An industrial women's movement in Galicia is not to be thought of as yet.

There is a migration of the women from the flat rural districts to the cities; _i.e._ into the nets of the white slave agents. Women earning 10, 15, or 20 cents a day are easily lured by promises of higher wages. The ignorance of the lower cla.s.ses (Ruthenians and Poles) is, according to the ideas of western Europe, immeasurable. In 1897 336,000 children between six and twelve years (in a total of about 923,000) had _never attended school_. Of 4164 men teachers, 139 had no qualifications whatever! Of the 4159 women teachers 974 had no qualifications! The minimum salary is 500 kronen ($101.50). The women teachers in 1909 demanded that they be regarded on an equality with the men teachers by the provincial school board. There are _Gymnasiums_ for girls in Cracow, Lemberg, and Przemysl.

Women are admitted to the universities of Cracow and Lemberg. In one of the universities (Mrs.) Dr. Dazynska is a lecturer on political economy.

In Cracow there is a woman's club. Propaganda is being organized throughout the land.

A society to oppose the official regulation of prost.i.tution and to improve moral conditions was organized in 1908. The Galician woman taxpayer votes in munic.i.p.al affairs; the women owners of large estates vote for members of the _Landtag_. (Mrs.) Dr. Dazynska and Mrs. Kutschalska-Reinschmidt of Cracow are champions of the woman's rights movement in Galicia. Mrs.

Kutschalska lives during parts of the year in Warsaw. She publishes the magazine _Ster_. In Russian Poland her activities are more restricted because the forming of organizations is made difficult. In spite of this the "Equal Rights Society of Polish Women" has organized local societies in Kiew, Radom, Lublin, and other cities. The formation of a federation of Polish women's clubs has been planned. In Warsaw the Polish branch of the International Federation for the Abolition of Prost.i.tution was organized in 1907. An asylum for women teachers, a loan-fund for women teachers, and a commission for industrial women are the external evidences of the activities of the Polish woman's rights movement in Warsaw.

The field of labor for the educated woman is especially limited in Poland.

Excluded from government service, many educated Polish women flock into the teaching profession; there they have restricted advantages. The University of Warsaw has been opened to women.

THE SLOVENE WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT[107]

Total population: 1,176,672.

The women preponderate numerically.

The Slovene woman's rights movement is still incipient; it was stimulated by Zofka Kveder's "The Mystery of Woman" (_Mysterium der Frau_). Zofka Kveder's motto is: "To see, to know, to understand.--Woman is a human being." Zofka Kveder hopes to transform the magazine _Slovenka_ into a woman's rights review. A South Slavic Social-Democratic movement is attempting to organize trade-unions among the women. The women lace makers have been organized. Seventy per cent of all women laborers cannot live on their earnings. In agricultural work they earn 70 h.e.l.lers (14 cents) a day. In the ready-made clothing industry they are paid 30 h.e.l.lers (6 cents) for making 36 b.u.t.tonholes, 1 krone 20 h.e.l.lers (25 cents) for making one dozen s.h.i.+rts.

SERVIA

Total population: 2,850,000.

The number of women is somewhat greater than that of the men.

Servian Federation of Women's Clubs.

Servia has been free from Turkish control hardly forty-five years. Among the people the oriental conception of woman prevails along with patriarchal family conditions. The woman's rights movement is well organized; it is predominantly national, philanthropic, and educational.

Elementary education is obligatory, and is supported by the "National Society for Public Education" (_Nationalen Verein fur Volksbildung_). The girls and women of the lower cla.s.ses are engaged chiefly with domestic duties; in addition they work in the fields or work at excellent home industries. These home industries were developed as a means of livelihood by the efforts of Mrs. E. Subotisch, the organizer of the Servian woman's rights movement. The Servian women are rarely domestic servants (under Turkish rule they were not permitted to serve the enemy); most of the domestic servants are Hungarians and Austrians.

All educational opportunities are open to the women of the middle cla.s.s.

In all of the more important cities there are public as well as private high schools for girls. The boys' _Gymnasiums_ admit girls. The university has been open to women for twenty-one years; women are enrolled in all departments; recently law has attracted many. For medical training the women, like the men, go to foreign countries (France, Switzerland).

Servia has 1020 women teachers in the elementary schools (the salary being 720 to 2000 francs--$144 to $500--a year, with lodging); there are 65 women teachers in the secondary schools (the salary being 1500 to 3000 francs,--$300 to $600). To the present no woman has been appointed as a university professor. There are six women doctors, the first having entered the profession 30 years ago; there are two women dentists; but as yet there are no women druggists. There are no women lawyers. There is a woman engineer in the service of the government. In the liberal arts there are three well-known women artists, seven women authors, and ten women poets.

There are many women engaged in commercial callings, as office clerks, cas.h.i.+ers, bookkeepers, and saleswomen. Women are also employed by banks and insurance companies. "A woman merchant is given extensive credit," is stated in the report of the secretary of the Federation.

In the postal and telegraph service 108 women are employed (the salaries varying from 700 to 1260 francs,--$140 to $252). There are 127 women in the telephone service (the salaries varying from 360 to 960 francs,--$72 to $192). Servia is just establis.h.i.+ng large factories; the number of women laborers is still small; 1604 are organized.

Prost.i.tution is officially regulated in Servia; its recruits are chiefly foreign women. Each vaudeville singer, barmaid, etc., is _ex officio_ placed under control.

The oldest woman's club is the "Belgrade Woman's Club," founded in 1875; it has 34 branches. It maintains a school for poor girls, a school for weavers in Pirot, and a students' kitchen (_studentenkuche_). The "Society of Servian Sisters" and the "Society of Queen Lubitza" are patriotic societies for maintaining and strengthening the Servian element in Turkey, Old Servia, and Macedonia. The "Society of Mothers" takes care of abandoned children. The "Housekeeping Society" trains domestic servants.

The Servian women's clubs within the Kingdom have 5000 members; in the Servian colonies without the Kingdom they have 14,000 members.

The property laws provide for joint property holding. The wife controls her earnings and savings only when this is stipulated in the marriage contract.

In 1909, the Federation of Servian Women's Clubs inserted woman's suffrage in its programme, and joined the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance.

In the struggle for national existence the Servian woman demonstrated her worth, and effected a recognition of her right to an education.

BULGARIA

Total population: 4,035,586.