Women are eligible to all school offices (1873) and large numbers have served as county superintendents, members of city boards of education and directors of district schools. All the princ.i.p.al cities now have women on their school boards. In Chicago there are two at the present time. Ten counties have women for superintendents.
Miss Cora B. Hirtzell was appointed as a.s.sistant by C. S. Thornton, corporation counsel of Chicago, and served during his whole term of office.
Miss Mary M. Bartelme was appointed by Gov. John R. Tanner Public Guardian of Cook County, and is the only woman in the United States to fill such a position. Her duties are to look after the persons of minors and their small estates, when no one else will take the guardianship, and she has over 200 children under her care. She received the highest commendation from Judge Christian C. Kohlsaat, formerly of the Probate Court, and continues to hold office under his successor.
A decision of the Supreme Court permits a woman to be Master in Chancery, but only one ever was appointed.
Women may be official court reporters, but only two have been appointed. The office of a Judge being elective he naturally feels obliged to give these places to voters.
Women have been notaries public for over twenty years.
Miss Kate O"Connor was deputy clerk of Winnebago County for ten years, and Miss Rose Beatson was deputy county treasurer. Mrs. A. T. Ames was deputy sheriff of Boone County.
Frequently the position of State Librarian has been filled by a woman, and of late years that of postmaster in the House and the Senate. The librarian of the Southern Normal University at Carbondale is a woman.
Women have served as presidents of library boards in various places.
Women sit on the Board of Directors of the Illinois Farmers"
Inst.i.tute. One of the State Commissioners of Public Charities was a woman; but she resigned because of the introduction of politics into the board. A woman has served on the State Board of Health.
The Home for Juvenile Female Offenders was established in 1893. It is under the control of five trustees, two of whom are women. The superintendent also is a woman.
The Soldiers" Widows" Home was established by a law of 1895, which provided that of the five trustees three should be women and members of the State Woman"s Relief Corps. The entire board is now composed of women.
Chicago has three women deputy factory inspectors, and formerly had a chief inspector, Mrs. Florence Kelley, who served four years with great ability.
Miss Jane Addams of Hull House was appointed garbage inspector of the nineteenth ward of Chicago by Mayor George B. Swift. She served one year and was succeeded by Miss Amanda Johnson, also a resident of Hull House. Under their care this ward, which had been one of the most neglected in the city, became famous for cleanliness and order.
Volunteer a.s.sociations of women in Chicago did so much in this direction that some of their members finally took the civil service examinations for garbage inspectors or contractors and several received official positions. Among the most prominent of these is Mrs.
A. Emmagene Paul, who superintends a large force of men in the first ward of Chicago. As this is a down-town ward it is one of the hardest in the city to keep clean, but she performs the work to the satisfaction of all except "gang" politicians, who have made every possible effort to have Mayor Carter Harrison remove her.
Mrs. Bertha Honore Palmer of Chicago was appointed United States Commissioner at the Paris Exposition of 1900 by President McKinley, the only woman distinguished by any government with so important a position. Miss Addams was appointed a member of the Jury of International Awards, Department of Social Economics, for the same exposition. Her election as vice-president of this jury made her eligible to membership in the Group Jury, on which she also served.
This was a distinction conferred upon no other woman.
OCCUPATIONS: All occupations were opened to women by a statute of 1873, which declared also that they should not be required to work on streets or roads or serve upon juries.
They were not allowed to practice law until 1872, Mrs. Myra W.
Bradwell having been the first to make application in 1869.[246] Since that time ninety women have been admitted to the bar. Among those who have done noteworthy work is the daughter of Judge and Mrs. Bradwell, Mrs. Bessie Bradwell Helmer, who was chief editor of twenty volumes of the Appellate Court Reports and, since the death of her mother, has been president of the _Chicago Legal News_ Company, which issues the princ.i.p.al law publications of the State.
Mrs. Catharine V. Waite published the _Chicago Law Times_ for two years; Mrs. Marietta B. R. Shay wrote The Student"s Guide to Common Law Pleading; and Miss Ellen A. Martin organized the National Woman Lawyer"s League, and is its secretary. Women are members of the State and the Chicago Bar a.s.sociations and of the Chicago Law Inst.i.tute.
The World"s Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893, opened large fields of usefulness and power to women. Those of Illinois were especially conspicuous in the wonderful work done by their s.e.x during this World"s Fair. Its Board of Lady Managers was appointed under an Act of Congress to represent the special interests of women at the exposition, and Mrs. Bertha Honore Palmer was elected president. Mrs.
Ellen M. Henrotin of Chicago was vice-president and active superintendent of the Woman"s Branch of the World"s Congress Auxiliary.
A complete official report of nearly 1,000 pages of the Congress of Representative Women, the greatest a.s.semblage of women which ever had been held up to this date, was prepared by the Chairman of the Organization Committee, Mrs. May Wright Sewall of Indianapolis, who made several trips abroad in the interest of the Congress. To her great executive capacity and untiring efforts for three years, with those added of its secretary, Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery of Philadelphia, and the splendid co-operation of the committee of Chicago women--Miss Frances E. Willard. Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson, Dr. Julia Holmes Smith, Mrs. Lydia Avery c.o.o.nley, Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert and Mrs. William Thayer Brown--is due the fact that this Congress was the most conspicuous success of any held during the Exposition, with the exception of the Parliament of Religions. It convened May 15, 1893, and continued one week, during which eighty-one meetings were held in the different rooms of the Art Palace.
Twenty-seven countries and 126 organizations were represented by 528 delegates. According to official estimate the total attendance exceeded 150,000.[247]
EDUCATION: The law colleges never have been closed to women. Union College of Law was the first in the United States to graduate a woman, Mrs. Ada H. Kepley, in 1870.
Some of the medical schools are still bitterly opposed to admitting women. All the homeopathic colleges are open to them with the exception of the Chicago Homeopathic. At Harvey Medical College about half the students are women, and several of the full professorships are filled by them. Hahnemann College admits them but has no woman professor or instructor. In 1899 Dr. Julia Holmes Smith was elected dean of the National Medical College (Homeopathic) with no dissenting vote, and in 1900 she was re-elected. She is the only woman dean of a medical inst.i.tution composed of both s.e.xes. Women are received in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which is the medical department of the State University. Rush College, one of the largest of the allopathic inst.i.tutions, has just been opened to them. All of the colleges named above are in Chicago. Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson was the first woman admitted to the American Medical a.s.sociation.
The theological schools generally are closed to women. They are admitted to the full courses of the Garrett Biblical Inst.i.tute of the Northwestern University. Lombard University gives them the full privileges of its Divinity School (Universalist). In 1898 the Chicago Union Theological Seminary (Congregationalist) opened its doors to them. They may also enter the theological department of Chicago University, but its circular of information says: "Women students receive no encouragement to become ministers."
The State University and all of the other large universities and colleges in Illinois are open to women, although some of the minor inst.i.tutions are still closed.
There are in the public schools 6,973 men and 18,974 women teachers.
The average monthly salary of the men is $60.42; of the women, $53.27.
In the Chicago schools women receive the same pay as men for the same work, but the highly salaried positions are largely monopolized by men.
An incident which has no parallel deserves a place on these pages. In Chicago it was long the custom, whenever retrenchment of taxes became necessary, to cut down the salaries of the school teachers. In 1899 they could not get even what was legally due to them, and in 1900 the same condition prevailed.
Various reasons were given for the shortage of funds, but two of the teachers. Miss Margaret Haley and Miss Catharine Goggin, obtained information that the reason of the deficit was that some of the largest corporations in the State were not a.s.sessed for taxes. Without any backing they began an investigation. When proof positive was secured, through a long search of official records, they laid the case before the Teachers" Federation of 4,000 members, who authorized them to prosecute it to the end and supplied the necessary funds.
They went before the Board of Equalization with proofs that hundreds of millions of dollars of corporation property was not a.s.sessed for taxation; but the board refused absolutely to act. Then they filed a mandamus to compel it to do so, and brought the matter into the courts. Every legal, political and financial influence that could be secured in the State was used to fight these courageous women. They carried the case through the lower courts and into the Supreme Court, which confirmed their contention that these corporations should be taxed (Oct 24. 1901.)
The Union Traction Company and the Chicago Consolidated Traction Company, two of the greatest corporations which for years had been avoiding their legal taxes, applied to the United States Circuit Court for an injunction to restrain the State Board of Equalization from a.s.sessing them. They invoked the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Const.i.tution, which says that private property shall not be taken without due process of law. The injunction was refused.
This decision will increase the revenues of Chicago not less than $5,000,000 a year, unless some scheme is evolved for circ.u.mventing the law, which has not been enforced up to this time. (July, 1902.)
During the campaign of 1900 both Republican and Democratic clubs of women were formed. The Democratic Club of Chicago announced that it would be permanent, and at all times would oppose every legislative and congressional candidate who should be unfavorable to woman suffrage.
The Illinois Federation of Women"s Clubs has been a great educator. It was organized in 1894, and is composed of 225 clubs with a membership of 20,000. The Chicago Woman"s Club is one of the largest in the United States and does a vast amount of practical work.
Miss Frances E. Willard belonged to Illinois as well as to the world, and it was through her powerful influence that the great organization of the W. C. T. U. was first swung into line for the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women. By voice and pen she aided this cause for over twenty years.
Among other staunch supporters are Mrs. Lydia Avery c.o.o.nley-Ward, whose home and purse and pen are used for the benefit of woman suffrage; and her mother, Mrs. Susan Look Avery, who speaks and writes with the vigor of youth, although eighty-three years of age. Mrs.
Emily M. Gross is one of the large contributors.
Senator Miles B. Castle was chairman of the Illinois E. S. A.
executive committee for over twenty years, and edited and published the State organ, the _Suffragist_, for five years, supplying the deficit from his own pocket. The Rev. C. C. Harrah, now of Iowa, did valiant service for many years as chairman of the State advisory committee. He sent his leaflet, Jesus Christ the Emanc.i.p.ator of Woman, at his own expense to hundreds of ministers throughout the country, and it is still in use by the National a.s.sociation.
Mrs. Eva Munson Smith, vice-president of the State a.s.sociation, published a volume ent.i.tled Woman in Sacred Song, which contains poems written by 830, and 150 musical compositions by 50 different women.
Mrs. Carrie Ashton Johnson, secretary, compiled a popular Suffrage Dime Speaker. Miss Mary H. Krout, for ten years connected with the _Inter-Ocean_, never has failed to use her influence in favor of woman suffrage. Mrs. Fannie H. Rastall gave her services as editor-in-chief of the _Woman"s Forum_ for several years.
Sixteen years ago but one paper in Illinois had a woman"s department; now this is a feature of all, and 161 are regularly publishing suffrage matter furnished by the State press bureau.
FOOTNOTES:
[237] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Mary E. Holmes of Chicago, who has been officially connected with the State Equal Suffrage a.s.sociation since 1884.
[238] State conventions have been held as follows: Watseka, 1884; Geneseo, 1885; Sandwich, 1886; Galva, 1887; Rockford, 1888; Joliet, 1889; Moline, 1890; Kewanee, 1891; Aurora, 1892; Chicago (World"s Fair), 1893; Danville, 1894; Decatur, 1895; Harvey, 1896; Waukegan, 1897; Springfield, 1898; Barry, 1899. The twenty-seventh annual meeting took place in Edgewater, Oct. 11, 12, 1900.
[239] Among the officers for whom the Legislature has the power to allow women to vote are Presidential electors, members of the State Board of Equalization, clerk of the Appellate Court, county collector, county surveyor, members of the Board of a.s.sessors, sanitary district trustees, members of the Board of Review, all officers of cities, villages and towns (except police magistrates), supervisor, town clerk, a.s.sessor, collector and highway commissioner.
The Legislature has power also to permit women to vote on general questions submitted to the electors, besides voting in all annual and special town meetings.