The Englishwoman's Review of Social and Industrial Questions

1897

Janet Horowitz Murray, Myra Stark

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781138227163
• eBook ISBN: 9781315396521
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 19th Century History
• Index: History

The Englishwoman's Review, which published from 1866 to 1910, participated in and recorded a great change in the range of possibilities open to women. The ideal of the magazine was the idea of the emerging emancipated middle-class woman: economic independence from men, choice of occupation, participation in the male enterprises of commerce and government, access to higher education, admittance to the male professions, particularly medicine, and, of course, the power of suffrage equal to that of men.

First published in 1984, this twenty-ninth volume contains issues from 1897. With an informative introduction by Janet Horowitz Murray and Myra Stark, and an index compiled by Anna Clark, this set is an invaluable resource to those studying nineteenth and early twentieth-century feminism and the women's movement in Britain.

THE
ENGLISHWOMAN’S REVIEW.
(NEW SERIES.)

______________________

No. CCXXXIL—JANUARY 15TH, 1897.

______________________

ART. I.—CONGRESSES OF WOMEN IN 1896.

§ 1. GENEVA. § 2 BERLIN. § 3 MANCHESTER.

“THE collective interests of women have passed from the domain of theory to that of definite questions in education, law and economics,” such are the opening words of the circular issued by the Committee for the Congress on the interests of women in Switzerland which took place in Geneva in September. The words go far to explain one of the outcomes of an age of easy locomotion, the national and international conferences amongst women workers. The Conference in Paris in April presents no marked features, but the International Conference in Geneva and the International Conference in Berlin seem both to mark definite epochs in the movement in their respective countries.

§ 1.—The Conference which took place between September 8 and 12 in Geneva, indicated a growing sense of women’s needs throughout Switzerland. Its conclusions were all of a very moderate and practical character. The opening speech of M. Richard, a prominent member of the Government, was greeted with hearty applause. He at once explained that the effort now being made practically amounted to a regular social reform. The condition and needs of women are perhaps as insufficiently understood by themselves as they are by men ; hence the present opportunity for discussion would be welcomed as conducive to a mutual comprehension. Starting from the axiom that the condition of women is a gauge of the degree of civilisation, or of the moral value of a nation, it was all the more necessary, he contended, to do the utmost to amend the laws affecting the so-called weaker sex, but above all the speaker urged moderation, and the advisability of advancing slowly and surely. In his opinion the proper education of women was the chief point to be considered, and in it lay the key to the great feminine problem. The urgent need of making a livelihood—which through various circumstances is becoming so much more general all the world over, and markedly so in Switzerland—would surely hasten the desired reforms, and the speaker ended his able and wonderfully fair remarks by assuring the women present that they would not find even among their own sex stronger advocates than men—just, earnest, thoughtful men.

The two points thus indicated by Mr. Richard, education and remunerative occupation, occupied by far the largest part of the attention of the Congress, and some practical steps were proposed with a view to obtaining increased influence for women in schools, by giving them as teachers a training equivalent to that available for men, giving them equal salaries and a place on school-boards as inspectors. Also in the matter of industrial training resolutions were prepared to be brought before the governing authorities.

The Organising Committee for this pioneer Conference consisted of Mdlle. Camille Yidart, its energetic President ; Mr. E. Boos-Jegher (Chief of the Institute at Zurich), and Professor Louis Bridel (Professor of Law at Geneva), Vice – Presidents ; Madame Chaponnière-Chaix (of the Women’s Union of Geneva), Secretary; Madame E. Boos-Jegher (President of the Frauenbildungs Reform Society at Zurich), Madame Ryff (Secretary of the Women’s Committee in Berne), and Helen Muhnen (Member of the Women’s Committee in Berne).

§ 2. Of the great Conference in Berlin from September 19 to 26, it is difficult to speak in adequate terms. Our readers know already by the letter from Dr. Eliza Ichenhæuser how large were the audiences attracted, and how interested ; also how numerous the papers, far too numerous to be dwelt upon separately in these pages with any satisfactory detail ; we would rather inquire, therefore, what has been the general effect so far, what impression has this first great gathering together of women for the cause of women left on the German public. This can best be shown by the remarks which reach us direct from correspondents in different parts of the German Empire. Oar first quotation comes from Baden:

“The Conference has been a great succees, not so much as to actual positive results as yet, as to a great improvement in public opinion on these matters, so far as it shows itself in a wonderfully changed tone amongst men and in the newspapers. My own observation is that you may now talk to men freely, or at least very much more so, on the subject of women’s rights. There is a general feeling that more ought to be done for them in regard to education (University, &c.), and in many social questions. Political rights they will not hear of, and my impression is that the very idea of it is, as yet, so far removed from their minds, that they cannot even take it in.”

The impression conveyed by the above letter is corroborated by the remark of the Tagliche Rundschau (Berlin), which says : “The woman question is for us in Germany the most important part of the social question, but it can only be solved on national ground, not by international exercises in oratory (Redeturnieren). These festivals of talk will, however, become dangerous to the matter if, as at this Berlin Congress, extreme political aspirations are dragged into the discussion on the needs and rights of women.” Nevertheless, the same article admits that the Women’s Congress had shown, that women could speak in public earnestly upon earnest subjects, and had compelled a respectful attitude from men.

Another correspondent from the South of Germany writes :

“The newspapers are less prejudiced. The ‘Hamburger Correspondent’ is conservative and generally devoted to all that is ‘althergebracht’ and ‘solid’ as the Hamburgers say, and the very friendly spirit of its articles has been a surprise…. There is a decided stir in Germany, the Congress was conducted, from all accounts, in a most carefully business-like manner, and the organisation seems to have won the respect of all the foreign delegates.”

Apparently the Congress has also won respect amongst business men, for Frau Minna Cauer, waiting of her recent lecturing tour in Frauenbewegung says : “It was of special interest to me that on this occasion I have been asked, to lecture by men’s unions. The Merchants’ Unions (Kaufmännische Vereine) of Augsburg, Barmen, Frankfort, Eemscheid and Worms have addressed themselves to me. While the women’s unions of Barmen, Bonn, Dortmund, Cologne and Munich have also sent me requests”.

Furthermore a letter from Berlin itself sums up the general effects as follows :—

“The effect of the Women’s Congress has been much greater than could have been expected, it has created a mental attitude. People now, at last, in the remotest and most benighted regions of our country—not to mention the centres of life and activity — are at any rate talking of the Woman Question. I suppose there is just now no man or woman who has not suddenly taken up some sort of position with regard to the question. Formerly, in most circles, it was treated with indifference, if not with contempt. I have lived to see men and women, who formerly expressed only adverse opinions, become out and out friends of our cause. In this matter, too, it is mostly the newspapers which decide opinions, and our papers have devoted whole columns to reports of the proceedings and articles concerning them. Most of these contented themselves with reproducing the gist of the speeches—which was the best thing they could have done, from our point of view. Many commented very favourably, such as the Vossische Zeitung, which was formerly always adverse to our efforts, the Volkszeitung, the Berliner Tageblatt, the Post, the Lokalanzeiger, the Deutsche Warte and many others. The only really adverse criticisms came from the Anti-Semitic and a few Ultramontane papers. Of course Maximilian Harden—our masculine Laura Marholm — has in his Zukunft, made a convulsive effort to turn the matter into ridicule, but as the readers of Zukunft also read the daily papers, many of them, with whom I have talked, have discovered that their Maximilian, the would-be wit, is not so clever after all, and that the fault must be in his own eyes if he sees the types of an advancing culture as morbid developments and caricatures, and ridicules them as such. However, even he was obliged to insert in the Zukunft an article by Hedwig Dohm, which, of course — as every one who knows Hedwig Dohm must be aware—does full justice to our cause. Apart from this, every paper, whether for or against our cause in general, has, in connection with the Congress, emphasised the fact that the women’s question cannot now be got rid of by cheap facetiousness—that it is a serious thing, and that it is certainly not eccentric caricatures of women, but serious, mature, healthy women, in the prime of their life and strength, who advocate the cause with ‘high intelligence.’ The Universitätszeitung even says, ‘German women have shown that they have attained their majority’! At every meeting of our societies, ‘Frauenwohl,’ ‘Verein zur Besserung der Frauenkleidung’ (Dress Beform Union) ‘Jugendschutz’ the ‘Women Employées Union,’ and the Elementary Schoolmistresses Union, at least two journalists are present, sometimes four or more. Before the Congress this was seldom or never the case—I think only when we had invited a member of the Reichstag to make a speech. Since then, many who were to some extent our friends have become entirely so, and many adversaries partial friends ; nay, opponents who were such simply through ignorance of our aims, have, in some cases, become full adherents to our cause. Women have been invited to speak and lecture at meetings of workmen’s and students’ societies, which, as things are with us, is an unheard-of occurrence. Not only in Berlin, but in the provinces also, men have called upon women to speak, e.g., Frau Schwerin, Frau Cauer, Frau Prölss, Fräulein Natalie Milde, Frau Stritt, Fraulein Marie Baschke, &c. Men’s societies have arranged public meetings for the purpose. The principal discussion on these occasions has concerned the legal status of women in the Civil Code.

“It is to be hoped and expected that the frame of mind produced by the Congress will not be long in exercising some practical influence. This has already been the case in small matters, now others. The second Burgomaster of Berlin, Kirschner, was present at the Congress when I was speaking on ‘German Women in Elementary Schools.’ I mentioned, amid loud laughter from the audience, that the teaching of needlework in schools is at present supervised by men inspectors. In the next session of the Berlin Town Council the ap...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• No. CCXXXIL—JANUARY 15TH, 1897
• No. CCXXXIII.—April 15th, 1897
• No. CCXXXIV.—July 15th, 1897
• No. CCXXXV.—October 15th, 1897