The History of the Women's Suffrage: The Flame Ignites. Susan B. Anthony
State Department
Whether the number of women is increasing or decreasing is a disputed question. The Civil Service alone enables them to hold their places or to secure new ones against the tremendous pressure for the offices which is brought upon the appointing powers by the men who form the voting constituency of the country. Chiefs of the Divisions rarely call for a woman on the Civil Service list of eligibles.
Few women fill the highly salaried positions. One woman receives $2,500 as Portuguese translator; one, working in the U. S. Land Office at Lander, Wyoming, receives the same. One secured a $2,250 position in the Federal Postoffice Department but was soon reduced to an $1,800 place and her own given to a man. The salaries of women in general range from $900 to $1,600, not more than fifty receiving the latter sum, while many hundreds of men clerks receive $1,800. Clerkships under Civil Service rules are supposed to pay the same to men and women, but the latter rarely secure the better-paid ones. There are a large number of positions graded above clerkships and paying from $2,000 to $3,000 a year to which women are practically never appointed.
Occupations: No professions or occupations are forbidden to women. Two of the pioneer women physicians in the United States made name and fame in Washington—Dr. Caroline B. Winslow and Dr. Susan A. Edson—the latter the attending physician during the last illness of President James A. Garfield.
Education: Howard University, for white and colored students, is the only one which graduates women in medicine. In all of its ten departments, including law, it is co-educational. Columbian University (Baptist) opens its literary departments to women but excludes them from those of law and medicine, which are its strongest departments.217 They were admitted to the Medical School in 1884, but excluded in 1892 on the ground that the university could not afford to have professors for separate classes and that the buildings were too small for the increased number of students.
Mrs. Ellen S. Mussey and Miss Emma M. Gillett, in 1896, established the Washington College of Law for the legal education of women. Mrs. Mussey has been the dean since its organization and is the only woman dean of a law school in the country. The Hon. Edward F. Bingham, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the District, is president of the board of trustees, and leading members of the bar have used their influence to make the college a success. The curriculum is the same as obtains in the leading institutions. There are several men among the students. Mrs. Mussey is counsel for the Red Cross Society.
The American University (Methodist Episcopal), now being organized for post-graduate work, is to be co-educational.
The great Catholic Universities, here, as everywhere, are closed to women. Trinity College for Women (Roman Catholic) was dedicated Nov. 22, 1900. The necessity for this college became apparent from their many applications to enter the universities for men. It is the first institution founded by this church for the higher education of women such as is provided by the largest of the women's colleges in the United States.
There are in the public schools 155 men and 1,004 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $94.48; of the women, $64.31.
The introduction of Kindergartens into the public schools received the assistance of all the women's societies in the District. In 1898 a bill passed Congress appropriating $15,000 with which to make the experiment. This proving successful an annual appropriation of $25,000 was made.218
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Mrs. Clinton Smith, president, has secured the suppression of liquor selling in the café of the new Library of Congress, and a large number of most beneficent measures. In December, 1900, the national convention of the W. C. T. U. was held in Washington and among the strongest resolutions adopted were those declaring for woman suffrage and the abolishment of the army canteen. A bill for the latter purpose passed the House while the convention was in session, and soon afterwards passed the Senate.
The District Federation of Women's Clubs includes eleven affiliated organizations comprising nearly four thousand women.
Mrs. Julius C. Burrows (Mich.) is among the most prominent of the many women engaged in philanthropic work. Largely under her direction the Training School for Nurses connected with the Garfield Memorial Hospital has become one of the best in the country.
Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby has long owned and published the Woman's Tribune. Mrs. Mary S. Lockwood for a number of years has edited the American Magazine, the official organ of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood is associate editor of The Peacemaker.
Dr. Anita Newcombe McGee was the first woman in the United States commissioned as surgeon, with the rank of lieutenant and the privilege of wearing shoulder straps. She examined most of