The Modern Woman's Rights Movement Part 14

Women: 1,978,457.

Men: 2,057,111.

Federation of Bulgarian Women's Clubs.

Like Servia, Bulgaria was freed from Turkish control about forty years ago. The liberation caused very little change in the life of the peasant women. But it opened new educational opportunities for the middle cla.s.ses. The elementary schools naturally provide for the girls also. (In 1905-1906 there were 1800 men teachers and 800 women teachers in the villages; in the cities 415 men and 355 women.) High schools for girls have been established, but not all of them prepare for the _Abiturientenexamen_. The first women entered the university of Sofia in 1900. There are now about 100 women students. Since 1907, through the work of a reactionary ministry, the university has excluded women; married women teachers have been discharged. Women attend the schools of commerce, the technical schools, and the agricultural schools. Women are active as doctors (there being 56), midwives, journalists, and authors.

The men and women teachers are organized jointly. Women are employed by the state in the postal and telegraph service. The wages of these women, like those of the women laborers, are lower than those of the men. There is a factory law that protects women laborers and children working in the factories. The trade-unions are socialistic and have men and women members. The laws regulating the legal status of woman have been influenced by German laws. The wife controls her earnings. Politically the Bulgarian woman has no rights.

The Federation of Bulgarian Women's Clubs was organized in 1899; in 1908 it joined the International Council of Women. Woman's suffrage occupies the first place on the programme of the Federation; in 1908 it joined the International Woman's Suffrage Affiance.

The Bulgarian women, too, have recognized woman's suffrage as the key to all other woman's rights. To the present time their demands have been supported by radicals and democrats (who are not very influential).

A meeting of the Federation in 1908 demanded:

1. Active and pa.s.sive suffrage for women in school administration and munic.i.p.al councils.

2. The reopening of the University to women. (This has been granted.)

3. The increase of the salaries of women teachers. (They are paid 10 per cent less than the men teachers.)

4. The same curriculums for the boys' and girls' schools.

5. An enlargement of woman's field of labor.

6. Better protection to women and children working in factories.

The President of the Federation is the wife of the President of the Ministry, Malinoff. Because the Federation, led by Mrs. Malinoff, did not oppose the reactionary measures of the Ministry (of Stambolavitch), Mrs.

Anna Carima, who had been President of the Federation to 1906, organized the "League of Progressive Women." This League demands equal rights for the s.e.xes. It admits only confirmed woman's rights advocates (men and women). It will request the political emanc.i.p.ation of women in a pet.i.tion which it intends to present to the National Parliament, which must be called after Bulgaria has been converted into a kingdom. In July (1909) the Progressive League will hold a meeting to draft its const.i.tution.

RUMANIA

Total population: 6,585,534.

No federation of women's clubs.

No woman's suffrage league.

The status of the Rumanian women is similar to that of the Servian and Bulgarian women; but the legal profession has been opened to the Bulgarian women. A discussion of Rumania must be omitted, since my efforts to secure reliable information have been unsuccessful.

GREECE[108]

Total population: 2,433,806.

Women: 1,166,990.

Men: 1,266,816.

Federation of Greek Women.

No woman's suffrage league.

The Greek woman's rights movement concerns itself for the time being with philanthropy and education. Its guiding spirit is Madame Kallirhoe Parren (who acted as delegate in Chicago in 1893, and in Paris in 1900). Madame Parren succeeded in 1896 in organizing a Federation of Greek Women, which has belonged to the International Council of Women since 1908. The presidency of the Federation was accepted by Queen Olga.

The Federation has five sections:

1. The national section. This acts as a patriotic woman's club. In 1897 it rendered invaluable a.s.sistance in the Turco-Greek War, erecting four hospitals on the border and one in Athens. The nurses belonged to the best families; the work was superintended by _Dr. med._ Marie Kalapothaki and _Dr. med._ Ba.s.siliades.

2. The educational section. This section establishes kindergartens; it has opened a seminary for kindergartners, and courses for women teachers of gymnastics.[109]

3. The section for the establishment of domestic economy schools and continuation schools. This section is attempting to enlarge the non-domestic field of women and at the same time to prepare women better for their domestic calling. The efforts of this section are quite in harmony with the spirit of the times. The Greek woman's struggle for existence is exceedingly difficult; she must face a backwardness of public opinion such as was overcome in northern Europe long ago. This section has also founded a home for workingwomen.

4. The hygiene section. Under the leaders.h.i.+p of Dr. Kalapothaki this section has organized an orthopedic and gynecological clinic. The section also gives courses on the care of children, and provides for the care of women in confinement.

5. The philanthropic section. This provides respectable but needy girls with trousseaus (_Austeuern_).

Mrs. Parren has for eighteen years been editor of a woman's magazine in Athens. (Miss) _Dr. med._ Panajotatu has since 1908 been a lecturer in bacteriology at Athens University. At her inaugural lecture the students made a hostile demonstration. Miss Ba.s.siliades acts as physician in the women's penitentiary. Miss Lascaridis and Miss Ionidis are respected artists; Mrs. v. Kapnist represents woman in literature, especially in poetry. Mrs. Parren has written several dramatic works (some advocating woman's rights), which have been presented in Athens, Smyrna, Constantinople, and Alexandria. Mrs. Parren is a director of the society of dramatists.

Government positions are still closed to women. As late as 1909, after great difficulties, the first women telephone clerks were appointed.

CHAPTER IV

THE ORIENT AND THE FAR EAST

In the Orient and the Far East woman is almost without exception a plaything or a beast of burden; and to a degree that would incense us Europeans. In the uncivilized countries, and in the countries of non-European civilization, the majority of the women are insufficiently nourished; in all cases more poorly than the men. Early marriages enervate the women. They are old at thirty; this is especially true of the lower cla.s.ses. Among us, to be sure, such cases occur also; unfortunately without sufficient censure being given when necessary. But we have abolished polygamy and the harem. Both still exist almost undisturbed in the Orient and the Far East.

TURKEY AND EGYPT

Total population: 34,000,000.

A federation of women's clubs has just been founded in each country.

In all the Mohammedan countries the wealthy woman lives in the harem with her slaves. The woman of the lower cla.s.ses, however, is guarded or restricted no more than with us. Apparently the Turkish and the Arabian women of the lower cla.s.ses have an unrestrained existence. But because they are subject to the absolute authority of their husbands, their life is in most cases that of a beast of burden. They work hard and incessantly. For the Mohammedan of the lower cla.s.ses polygamy is economically a useful inst.i.tution: four women are four laborers that earn more than they consume.

Domestic service offers workingwomen in the Orient the broadest field of labor. The women slaves in the harems[110] are usually well treated, and they have sufficient to live on. They a.s.sociate with women shopkeepers, women dancers, midwives, hairdressers, manicurists, pedicures, etc. These are in the pay of the wives of the wealthy. Thanks to this army of spies, a Turkish woman is informed, without leaving her harem, of every step of her husband.

The oppression that all women must endure, and the general fear of the infidelity of husbands, have created among oriental women an _esprit de corps_ that is unknown to European women. Among the upper cla.s.ses polygamy is being abolished because the country is impoverished and the large estates have been squandered; moreover, each wife is now demanding her own household, whereas formerly the wives all lived together.

Through the influence of the European women educators, an emanc.i.p.ation movement has been started among the younger generation of women in Constantinople. Many fathers, often through vanity, have given their daughters a European education. Elementary schools, secondary schools, and technical schools have existed in Turkey and Egypt since 1839. The women graduates of these schools are now opposing oriental marriage and life in the harem. At present this is causing tragic conflicts.[111]

To the present, two Turkish women have spoken publicly at international congresses of women. Selma Riza, sister of the "Young Turkish" General, Ahmed Riza, spoke in Paris in 1900, and Mrs. Harie Ben-Aid spoke in Berlin in 1904.

The Mohammedan women have a legal supporter of their demands in Ka.s.sim Amin Bey, counselor of the Court of Appeals in Cairo. In his pamphlet on the woman's rights question he proposes the following programme:--

Legal prohibition of polygamy.

Woman's right to file a divorce suit. (Hitherto a woman is divorced if her husband, even without cause, says thee times consecutively "You are divorced.")