What Eight Million Women Want

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