What Eight Million Women Want

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What eight million women want

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Title: What eight million women want
Author: Rheta Childe Dorr
Release Date: May 1, 2004 [EBook #12226]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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WHAT EIGHT MILLION WOMEN WANT

[Illustration: CONVENTION OF OUR WOMEN AT HOTEL ASTOR, NEW YORK]
WHAT EIGHT MILLION WOMEN WANT
BY RHETA CHILDE DORR
1910.

TO THE AMERICAN REPRESENTATIVES OF THE EIGHT MILLION-- THE EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS-- THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED
Many of the chapters contained in this volume appeared as special articles in _Hampton's Magazine_, to the editor of which the author's thanks are due for permission to republish.
CONTENTS


CHAPTER
I INTRODUCTORY II FROM CULTURE CLUBS TO SOCIAL SERVICE III EUROPEAN WOMEN AND THE SALIC LAW IV AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE COMMON LAW V WOMAN'S DEMANDS ON THE RULERS OF INDUSTRY VI MAKING OVER THE FACTORY FROM THE INSIDE VII BREAKING THE GREAT TABOO VIII WOMAN'S HELPING HAND FOR THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER IX THE SERVANT IN HER HOUSE X VOTES FOR WOMEN XI IN CONCLUSION INDEX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
CONVENTION OF CLUB WOMEN AT HOTEL ASTOR, NEW YORK
CARPENTER SHOP, VACATION SCHOOL, PITTSBURGH
CAPTAIN BALL ON GIRL'S FIELD, WASHINGTON PARK, PITTSBURGH
STORY HOUR AT VACATION PLAYGROUND, CASTELAR SCHOOL YARD, LOS ANGELES, CAL.
MRS. SARAH PLATT DECKER
LADY ABERDEEN
A "WOMEN'S RIGHTS" MAP OF THE UNITED STATES
MISS EMILIE BULLOWA
MRS. FREDERICK NATHAN
MRS. J. BORDEN HARRIMAN
MISS ELIZABETH MALONEY
A DEPARTMENT STORE REST-ROOM FOR WOMEN
MISS MAUDE E. MINER
IN THE NIGHT COURT, NEW YORK
MISS SADIE AMERICAN
A TYPICAL DANCE HALL
AN UNTHOUGHT-OF PHASE OF THE SERVANT QUESTION
ANOTHER SERIOUS CONTRIBUTION TO THE SOCIAL QUESTION
THE SERVANT GIRL AND THE EMPLOYMENT AGENCY
SUFFRAGETTES IN LONDON ADVERTISING A MEETING
MRS. HARRIOT STANTON BLATCH
MEETING A RELEASED SUFFRAGETTE PRISONER
THE WOMEN'S TRADES PROCESSION TO THE ALBERT HALL MEETING, APRIL 27, 1909
HELEN HOY GREELEY
SUFFRAGETTES IN MADISON SQUARE
THE "QUIET WALK" OF THE NEW YORK SUFFRAGISTS, WHOM THE POLICE WOULD NOT PERMIT TO PARADE
SUFFRAGE DEMONSTRATION IN UNION SQUARE, NEW YORK

WHAT EIGHT MILLION WOMEN WANT


CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
For the audacity of the title of this book I offer no apology. I have had it pointed out, not altogether facetiously, that it is impossible to determine with accuracy what one woman, much less what any number of women, wants. I sympathize with the first half of the tradition. The desires, that is to say, the ideals, of an individual, man or woman, are not always easy to determine. The individual is complex and exceedingly prone to variation. The mass alone is consistent. The ideals of the mass of women are wrapped in mystery simply because no one has cared enough about them to inquire what they are.
Men, ardently, eternally, interested in Woman--one woman at a time--are almost never even faintly interested in women. Strangely, deliberately ignorant of women, they argue that their ignorance is justified by an innate unknowableness of the sex.
I am persuaded that the time is at hand when this sentimental, half contemptuous attitude of half the population towards the other half will have to be abandoned. I believe that the time has arrived when self-interest, if other motive be lacking, will compel society to examine the ideals of women. In support of this opinion I ask you to consider three facts, each one of which is so patent that it requires no argument.
The Census of 1900 reported nearly six million women in the United States engaged in wage earning outside their homes. Between 1890 and 1900 the number of women in industry increased faster than the number of men in industry. _It increased faster than the birth rate._ The number of women wage earners at the present date can only be estimated. Nine million would be a conservative guess. Nine million women who have forsaken the traditions of the hearth and are competing with men in the world of paid labor, means that women are rapidly passing from the domestic control of their fathers and their husbands. Surely this is the most important economic fact in the world to-day.
Within the past twenty years no less than nine hundred and fifty-four thousand divorces have been granted in the United States. Two thirds of these divorces were granted to aggrieved wives. In spite of the anathemas of the church, in the face of tradition and early precept, in defiance of social ostracism, accepting, in the vast majority of cases, the responsibility of self support, more than six hundred thousand women, in the short space of twenty years, repudiated