Woman's work in municipalities. Mary Ritter Beard
have had to study the most intricate mechanical problems like municipal engineering. They have had to understand city taxation and budget making. They have had to educate those less interested to something approaching their own enthusiasm. Moreover they have had to work for the most part without political influence, which has meant that they have had to overcome the reluctance of public officials to take women seriously; they have had to understand and combat the political influence of contractors and business men of all kinds; they have had to enter political contests in order to place in office the kind of officials who had the wider vision; and they have had to watch without ceasing those very officials whom they have helped to elect to see that they carried out their campaign pledges. Sometimes it has happened that women have campaigned for a non-partisan ticket pledged to put through certain municipal health reforms and the ticket has been defeated at the polls. Under such circumstances they have had to renew their courage, maintain their organization, raise more funds and keep up the fight. Women who have experienced these political reverses have often become ardent suffragists, because they realized that the direct way to work for sanitary municipal housekeeping is through elected officials, and, having been unable to influence the votes of men, they have acquired the desire and determination to cast the necessary ballots themselves.
All these educational methods which women have used for their own development and for the instruction of voters, the political machinations with which they have had to deal, the necessity they have been under of “nagging” without mercy until they achieved their desired results, the sympathy and encouragement on the part of men, the coöperation of progressive officials, their ways of raising money, their means of perfecting organization, and their publicity enterprises will be illustrated in the pages that follow. Some of their failures to obtain the municipalization of certain proposals will also be recorded.
In spite of all the handicaps under which they have had to labor, women have steadily forged ahead in medical knowledge and skill. It was the munificent gift of a woman to Johns Hopkins on the condition that it admit women as medical students that forced open the doors of that institution to them. Now Dr. Louise Pearce of that university has been appointed assistant to Dr. Simon Flexner at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York. Women moreover hold high executive positions in the leading medical societies of the country today. Only within the last few years, however, have women been accepted anywhere as internes in hospitals and yet some municipalities, Jersey City for instance, have women physicians on the staffs of their city hospitals. Failing to get experience in other hospitals as internes, women have often established their own and they serve as superintendents, internes, consulting physicians in many such institutions.
Large contributions have been made by women for the founding of various types of hospitals, both private and public. In instance after instance, the first hospital to make its appearance in a town represents the hard work of the women of that town in the raising of money or in the education of public opinion to demand it.
Free dental clinics, dispensaries and women’s clinics for the dissemination of knowledge of sex hygiene are some of the more recent results of women’s interest and effort. The first hospital ambulance in Chicago was bought by a woman’s club. A long list could be given of the efforts of women to establish adequate public provision for the sick.
In 1910 it was reported at the Biennial of Women’s Clubs that 546 individual clubs had aided in the establishment of camps, sanatoria, tuberculosis clinics and hospitals; 452 had conducted open-air meetings for the improvement of health conditions; and 246 had placed wall cards in public places to convey information about public health ordinances.
The sale of Red Cross Christmas seals alone has produced marvelous results in increased hospital provision, the work of tuberculosis clinics, open-air schools, camps and sanatoria. Hundreds of women in various states act as agents for the sale of these stamps and they sit at their little tables in shops, post-offices and elsewhere day after day during Christmas week, raising money for health work. Emily Bissell of Delaware is responsible for the recent use of these stamps. As president of the Anti-Tuberculosis Society of Delaware, she writes: “All our work on tuberculosis has been done by women and men working together, and while the women’s clubs have done their part, the men, in their benefit societies, labor unions, Catholic and Jewish associations, etc., have all had their part, and it will be difficult to disentangle their activities from ours. All this is as it should be, but it makes data more difficult when restricted to either sex.”
Another example of effective and direct tuberculosis work is afforded by the Association of Tuberculosis Clinics of New York City which includes women on its board of directors and has, for its executive secretary, Miss F. Elizabeth Crowell. The importance of an association like this lies in its ideals for prevention and in its stimulation to the individual clinics composing its membership to increase their work among children and their family care. It is of comparatively little use to treat a single adult in a family and neglect the other members. Children may inherit the tendency to the disease or be infected before the adult member appears for treatment or the family’s mode of living may create the same disease for all its members. It is therefore very direct and effective work to make family care the basis of prevention. Partly as a result of the conferences held by this Association, “the Department of Health has enlarged and strengthened its clinical work, has reorganized its system of registration and has increased both the quantity and quality of its nursing service.”
In various ways, women have sought to control the spread of this dread disease. They did much to abolish the common drinking cup and have worked for the establishment of sanitary drinking fountains in public squares and sanitary faucets in public schools and public buildings. They have agitated against spitting in public places, and have seen their agitations rewarded with anti-spitting ordinances; and they have organized junior and other leagues to help with their enforcement. They have pressed upon the attention of the authorities the necessity for medical inspection in the schools and for open-air schools; and Mrs. Vanderbilt of New York has built some splendid open-air homes for tuberculous patients, which have served as models for later attempts to deal with the housing requirements for the permanent cure of tuberculosis.
Testimonials to the initiation and pressure by women along these lines, all of which are of the utmost importance in checking the ravages of tuberculosis, come from all quarters.
The Buffalo Federation of Clubs, the organized women of Minneapolis, the Women’s Municipal League of Boston, and the Civic Club of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, are among the groups that have insisted upon open-air schools for children either infected with the germs of tuberculosis or so anæmic that they might readily fall a prey to infection.
Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, superintendent of schools in Chicago, brought the open-air idea into the ordinary schools by seeing that properly devised window boards were installed so that school children might regularly study with open windows. This makes possible the wide extension of preventive health work, and her scheme is being extended to other cities.
Occupational Diseases
In addition to the communicable diseases there are occupational diseases some of which, like tuberculosis, are communicable, while others are not.
Women were behind the agitation for the abolition of poisonous matches—matches which produced sulphur poisoning for those who made them. In the official organ of the Federation of Clubs was found zealous advocacy of the Esch-Hughes law until its passage.
Occupational diseases are ills which are quite distinct in causation from fevers and other epidemics due to germs. Relatively little has been done in the United States toward the study and prevention of such diseases, however, and the recent quickening of consciences and interest in that direction is true of women as well as of men. The reports of Dr. Alice Hamilton on lead-poisoning and of Mrs. Lindon Bates on mercury poisoning are excellent contributions to the subject and are among the rare studies of occupational hygiene in this country.
The widespread interest in industrial accidents may well extend to the more subtle industrial diseases which may not be as sensational as cataclysmic events