Selections from The Position of Women in Indian Life (1912)
Chapter I
THE WOMAN MOVEMENT
WHEN the final chronicle of the twentieth century comes to be written, probably the most remarkable feature in its annals will be the history of the development of woman. Far and wide throughout the world to-day a new energy is spreading amid the ranks of women of every class. Rich and poor, educated and ignorant, all alike feel the dawning of an era of fresh usefulness for their sex. From North and South, East and West the active impulse comes, and women of every land call to one another to join hands for the enlightenment and betterment of their sisters, that they all may help in the great forward movement of the world. This activity among women is a sign of good, for it is at one with an inclination towards a more universal brotherhood that is sweeping over mankind. Over the Atlantic the women of America recognized the same impulses as the women of Europe. Through England, France, and Germany, across the Continent it passed, gathering force as it sped, till the women of the East felt its summons, and are taking their part also in the fresh life which is dawning in this second decade of the twentieth century.
So widespread a feeling must be taken seriously. Above the strife and noisy extravagance of the public champions of the cause of women, there is a true and earnest endeavor which the thoughtful mind of either sex acknowledges and approves. Therefore, since no one can ignore the progress or the sincerity of the movement, we propose to give a very brief account of the history of woman throughout the world, to remind the women of India of the position in public affairs which their sex occupies to-day. Some of the actions of their sisters in other lands may seem to them worthy of adaptation; others may be pitfalls to be avoided. In either case the subject is one full of importance, alike to East and West.
In the earliest times of which we have any historical knowledge men and women were grouped together in hordes, and seem to have led a nomadic life, holding all their possessions in common. The primitive ancestors of Indo-European stock probably had their home in Asia, near the Hindu Kush Mountains, though later critics have assigned North-East Europe as their dwelling-place. There they spoke the same language and venerated the same gods. In primitive times woman would appear to have been fully equal, both mentally and physically, to man and observations made among savage races of the present day, who are presumably at a similar stage of civilization, also point to this conclusion, since we find among them little or no difference between the male and female, either in physique or brain-power. The next step in the advance of civilization was the banding together of hordes into tribes, and gradually the separate tribes, migrating in different directions, developed into various nations of the earth. Their common characteristics disappeared in time to a great extent, under the influence of changed surroundings, of which climate is the most important feature in the evolution of distinct nationality.
In the most primitive stage of human life there was no permanent union between man and woman. Afterwards the custom of marriage arose, out of which developed in turn the home, the family, the tribe, the nation. It was woman who reared the children, built the rude hut or tent in which the family lived, made what scanty clothing they possessed, fed the household, in short, performed the general domestic labour, and left man to do most of the work outside the home. Later on, when, the human race increasing, it was found incumbent to sow and plant, it was chiefly woman who at harvest-time gathered in the crops. Subsequently the nomadic life of the tent was abandoned for that of a fixed home, and her position improved, but she still remained the property of her husband, who had absolute right over her in every way. Such was woman's condition in primitive times.
But a gleam of brightness breaks upon the pages of her early history. Strangely enough, amid the bygone civilizations of the world, an era of glory dawned for woman, and we find in most nations a heroic age, when woman was worshipped and set in the highest place of honour. In the ancient literature of India, dating from centuries before European culture began, in the great epics of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, woman took distinguished part in her husband's work, aiding him with her love and counsel, accompanying him, like Sita and Draupadi, even into exile. She shared in the public ceremonies, and was accorded the highest rank and dignity.
This heroic age of woman differed considerably in date among the various nations. Earliest among the Egyptians, Hindus, and Hebrews, it did not reach Europe till about the Christian Era. Judaea had its golden age for women in the days of Miriam; also about the twelfth century B.C., when Deborah, the prophetess, arose, a mother in Israel, who dwelt under the palm-tree between Rama and Bethel in Mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judment. To this woman-judge of the Hebrews is due what is assuredly one of the most exultant battle-songs in all literature, the hymn of victory chanted by Deborah after Jael's slaughter of Sisera. So we find in ancient Jud a women as rulers, prophetesses, judges, warriors.
In early ages the Musalman woman of Arabia was permitted equal instruction with men. The social position she occupied when the power of Islam reached its meridian proves that she possessed rights similar to those enjoyed by men. The Prophet's own women - folk were very far from leading lives of idle seclusion. On the contrary, they were allowed great freedom. His first wife, Khadija, shared the changes and chances of his career for twenty-five years, and, after her death, Ayesha, his young wife, took prominent part as an active combatant at the Battle of the Camel. His daughter Fatima gained high distinction in political debate. His granddaughter Zainab was noted for her attainments both in public and private life. A life of empty idleness was no part of the Prophet's scheme of feminine existence. Moslem women held positions as sovereigns, teachers, theologians, and superintendents of religious communities, and, like Hindu women, were famous for learning, eloquence, and capacity to impart instruction. In the reign of the Sultan Bayazid I., women gave lectures in the mosques and schools to students of either sex, and in those days girls and boys were educated together. In the days of the Ommayads and of the first Abbasids, until the reign of Kadir b'Illah (A.D. 921), when progress in the Musalman world began to decline, women took prominent part in public life. Under Mansur, two of his women cousins went forth to the Byzantine Wars, clad in coats of mail. In the reign of Rashid-el-Mamun, ladies took part in poetic contests and learned discussions, while young Arab maidens fought on horseback and commanded regiments. The Empress Zubeida wife of Harun-al-Rashid, was renowned as a poetess, and with her money the great aqueduct at Mecca was constructed and the town of Alexandria rebuilt after its destruction by the Greeks. The category of Musalman women who similarly distinguished themselves in almost every art of peace and war is too long for quotation. It only ceases when the invasions of Tartar hordes and religious or dynastic struggles checked the onward march of civilization in the East, and in the general retrogression the cause of the Mahomedan woman suffered wellnigh total eclipse. In ancient Egypt women were the equals and comrades of their men-folk; the law conferred like privileges upon them; they were eligible for the priesthood and the throne.
Greece, too, from her Homeric Age has handed down types of noble, honoured womanhood, such as will live for ever in the pages of her literature. Penelope, Andromache, Clytemnestra, are names that will keep her memory green in the history of the world's women. Italy, also, in the early days of the Republic, has given mankind an ideal of the Roman matron, steadfast, brave, resolute as her husband, yet tender and loving withal. Among the Germans we find a time when, according to Tacitus, women were the chieftains of certain tribes, and excelled the men in valour and wisdom, so that, speaking of the Teutonic conception of women, he says: They hold that there is in her something Divine." Nor can Britain be omitted from the category of the lands that, thus early, honoured women, since she, too, had her Boadicea, that warlike Queen of ancient Britain, who herself drove her chariot against the invading Romans.
Yet this early liberty was but a phantom dawn of freedom for woman. It passed, and a period in each case followed when her progress was checked. Among the upper classes a frivolous, or purely passive existence, now fell to her lot: among the lower ranks, a degrading, soulless toil.
Not until medi val times does a fresh glimpse of sunshine flood her path. Through Europe, generally, the Middle Ages brought a revival of the honour formerly paid to woman. This was the time of chivalry, when the Knight-at-Arms devoted himself to the service of the poor and weak, when, under the influence of woman, the old love of brute force gave way before the nobler standard of right and duty. Every warrior, in taking upon himself the sacred vows of knighthood, swore, at the same time, an oath of allegiance to his Lady, and in his devotion to her there mingled the dim and holy adoration of the worshipper for his God. Surely never had European woman more power than in those centuries of chivalry!
Intellectually, woman had high distinction in the so-called Dark Ages, for we find lady-professors and doctors abounding on the Continent of Europe, and lecturing to students of both sexes. Various towns in Germany admitted women to trades, on a footing of perfect equality with men, and in France there were corporations of women-workers who had the monopoly of certain callings suitable to their sex. In the latter country, men and women voted equally in the management of the affairs of the different municipalities, and, after the Crusades, when wars for the protection of the Holy Sepulchre had decimated the ranks of the male population in France, women took up the administration of their lords' estates, proving themselves just and efficient in the highest degree. Thus, woman was the light of the Dark Ages of Europe.
But the inevitable reaction set in; for no sooner do we find a period of enlightenment, than, within a few centuries, we see her dejected again. This time it was due to the Renaissance, that passionate love of beauty in art, in literature, and above woman, which, spreading from Italy, infected France, England, and the larger part of Europe with its young enthusiasm. It was a great intellectual movement, this Revival of Learning, as men also named it, but the mad desire for freedom led to excess in all things, and woman, though outwardly deferred to as before, was no longer the inspirer of the purer worship of the Knights of the Middle Ages. Alongside intellectual refinement there grew up unbridled licentiousness, and in the sixteenth century we find the Court of Margu rite de Valois, sister of Francis I., one of the most immoral in history. In the seventeenth century, in France, woman was pre-eminent in intellectual culture, and we find her, as in Madame de Maintenon, the adviser of Kings and the educator of the young; in Mademoiselle de Scud ry and Madame de S vign , the personification of feminine intelligence.
In England, in the reign of Charles II., the reaction after the Reformation swung the pendulum over to the opposite extreme. As the old reverence for women departed, a frivolous, light, and inconsequent side of feminine nature developed, against which the satire of the time, in the epigram of Pope, directed its lash. In his second Epistle, dedicated To a Lady," those who will may read his opinion of the society woman of the day. Meantime, in spite of culture in the higher ranks, the lower classes, engaged solely in the deadening round of domestic toil, were still sunk in ignorance and apathy. Home-keeping youths have ever homely wits," and so it proved with the majority of women of lower rank in the eighteenth century in Europe. Not till the latter half of the nineteenth century, when again light dawned, in the shape of higher education, did woman once more lift up her head, and she seems now on the highroad to permanent freedom of development. It is to be noted that most of the Western nations, which have formally granted her the greatest liberty, are not (except America and Russia) of foremost rank as world-powers. In Finland, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, she is legally most emancipated. Finnish women may vote and sit in Parliament. In Norway women municipal franchise holders possess the parliamentary franchise. In Russia, which it has been said should be called the most Western of Eastern, instead of the most Eastern of Western nations, women have made marvellous progress, and have distinguished themselves in the political world. The Zemstvo and all the progressive political parties acknowledge the principle of absolute equality for men and women, and the latter are practising in most of the liberal professions. Many are doctors, several are engineers, while the number of literary aspirants increases daily at an almost alarming rate, for at the present time to be an authoress who has published a book is a hallmark for the Russian literary woman.
Each country has its own peculiar phase of the woman question. In England woman's general condition since feudal days has been one of social freedom, but where she has had to enter the labour-market in competition with men, she has sometimes suffered disadvantage. By degrees she has won her way through, till now most of the liberal professions, except the Law and the Church, are open to her, and the majority of other callings, except those for which her physical limitations manifestly unfit her. A few of the stages marking the Englishwoman's progress may be briefly noted. In 1870 the Married Women's Property Act was passed (amended 1882), by which a married woman is capable of acquiring, holding, and disposing, by will or otherwise, of any real or personal property, and may enter into any contract or carry on a trade. The Hindu woman has enjoyed these rights since the days of Manu, probably before the Christian Era. In 1894 qualified Englishwomen were granted permission to vote for District Councils, Boards of Guardians, London County Council, and Parish Council elections. They can be elected on County and Borough Councils, Education Committees, Boards of Guardians, District and Parish Councils. In 1907 women were allowed the privilege of being Aldermen and Mayors, but they cannot act as Justices of the Peace nor can they sit on juries, as they may do in America, Norway, and Finland where it is said that they fulfil their duties with extreme conscientiousness and impartiality.
During the latter half of the nineteenth century a great educational wave overflowed England and bore woman upwards on its crest. One of the chief reasons for this increased culture lay in the growing preponderance of the female sex both in England and throughout Europe which made it necessary for some to come forth from the more secluded life of the home to take their part in the struggle for existence. The rise of the middle classes was now an established fact. Industry was expanding on a wonderful scale. New machinery, novel modes of communication, were introduced; the whole face of the world underwent a marvellous transformation during the nineteenth century. Such a change in the methods of production as was brought about by inventions for spinning and weaving, and for the manufacture of the countless objects of daily use, now made by mechanical skill instead of by hand, left woman freer from domestic duties than she had ever been before, and gave her liberty to turn her energies to different pursuits. So she has progressed, little by little, till now she claims the right to stand by the side of man and earn her moral and material independence. English-women have not yet been admitted to the suffrage, and the attainment of this privilege a certain section of the female population is agitating to secure.
Though not permitted to play an immediate part in English politics, women here, even without the vote, are, as they can be if they choose in all countries of the world, a great indirect power. Particularly in English society do we find ladies taking up the cause of their husbands, fathers, and brothers, helping them to win their election-fights, charming the hearts of the constituents by their enthusiastic championship, and promoting the welfare of the poor and suffering by their appearance on public platforms. In England they have peculiarly ample opportunities for such influence, since there for many centuries social and political functions have been harmoniously interwoven. Those who would form an idea of the wide influence exercised by ladies of highest rank in England, will find a very thoughtful and interesting account of this phase of political life in some of Mrs. Humphry Ward's novels, and, in lighter vein, in Lady Randolph Churchill's witty and amusing Reminiscences."
But how has it fared with the woman of India through the long centuries since civilization dawned upon her land? We have seen that in the early ages of the world, while Northern Europe was yet steeped in barbarism, she enjoyed the highest public honour, and was a participant in all the wisdom and activities of her day. Neither should we omit to recall the fact that in ancient India the laws of Manu and of other Hindu lawgivers touching women's property rights, known as Stridhana, though introduced about 2,000 years ago, have hardly yet been the excelled by any laws in any country in the West. Mahomedan women also have long enjoyed their share in the property of their male relations, which is granted to them by their laws. But succeeding years in India checked woman's glory. Our land became a prey to external invasion and internal strife, and in the ceaseless struggle that was waged, the cause of learning, and with it that of woman, was forced to the wall. The arts of peace had no room to expand, and, with the constant warfare that devastated India in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, woman s interests and education fell into a depth of miserable neglect and suppression, from which they are only now recovering.
Fortunately there is no longer need to ask by what means woman may rise to a higher and nobler position. The woman of the East, like the woman of the West, may depend on this, that in the proper use of education lies the salvation of her sex. As long as she is ignorant, so long will she remain dejected, oppressed, incapable of sharing man's pursuits and ideals. But educate her, help her to organize her efforts, and she will respond to the changed environment. It is education and useful organizations that alone can give true freedom and enlightenment. By means of women's Associations woman has gained in Europe and America, and should acquire in the East, a broader outlook, wider interests, a more generally useful attitude to life than she has had in the past. High and low, rich and poor, all are shaking themselves free to a great extent from the lethargy and indifference which seemed in past ages to envelop them. The movement is confined to no one rank or creed, country or continent; its professed aim is the uplifting of the feminine mental and public status throughout the world. In this matter there can be no separation of the interests of the sexes. The good of woman is the good of man. Many famous men have recognized the importance to the race of the well-being of its womankind, and have agreed that it is by the character of its women that the standard of a nation's civilization is judged. In the word of Sheridan, the well-known dramatist: " Women govern us; let us render them perfect: the more they are enlightened, so much the more shall we be. On the cultivation of the mind of women depends the wisdom of men."
Only by education can a woman fit herself to be the companion and inspiring helpmate of her husband. Only by information can she gain the ability to direct her children's course and follow their careers with loving, intelligent sympathy. Therefore the women of every country should feel it their duty to seek the highest culture within their reach, that they may be in truth the moral and intellectual mothers of their children. The mother whose sons get beyond her in information generally loses a certain amount of influence over them. The bond between her and them cannot be so close and tender, unless she, by her training, has fitted herself to be their true comrade in things spiritual and mental, as well as things material.
That there is a dearth of female teachers in India no one can deny. At a meeting of the Legislative Council of the United Provinces, held in April last, Mr. De La Fosse, speaking on behalf of the Government as to the insufficiency of female teachers, said that the difficulty lay with the people themselves, who thought it beneath the dignity of the better class of Indian women to earn their living as teachers. We for our part have no hesitation in endorsing this view. No Government in the world is perfect, and we do not for a moment say that either the British Indian Government or that of any Native State is perfect. But it must be admitted that no Government, either native or foreign, can make improvements without the hearty cooperation of the people. Therefore, we appeal to the women of India, whether British subjects or subjects of Native Rulers, to help the cause of progress as much as lies in their power.
It is through good education, says Kant, that all the good in the world arises. An ideal feminine education, leading to a wider, freer life, is difficult to realize. It must be one that will prepare its pupils for all human duties-those of the household, as mother, daughter, wife, and those of the State, as useful members of the community. It must be practical as well as theoretical, physiological as well as psychological. India, with her long centuries of philosophic teaching, may find her methods somewhat prone to abstractions, but she should remember that pure intellect is not all. The education that unfits a girl for the practical duties of the home is a progression on totally wrong lines, since the majority of women will always be called upon to direct household tasks. Here, from the experience of England, the women of India may glean a warning. Beware of too literary an education! In Europe many women have directed their energies so zealously to the intellectual side, that the practical part of life is in danger of being neglected, and the result is the overcrowding of certain careers. There are many manual occupations affording light, pleasant, skilled employment for women, which we shall discuss in later chapters, but which at present are disregarded in favour of exclusively mental pursuits. Yet such callings, demanding the supple manipulation and refinement of taste which are woman's innate attributes, would be eminently suited to her. Moreover, some women are of a distinctly practical bent. They do not all incline to mental work, and would often be more happily engaged in something of an active tendency. Till lately, the fault in the average higher education of Englishwomen has been its unpractical nature, its failure to inculcate the organizing spirit, its neglect of physiology, its small care for imparting the principles of hygiene. Its success has arisen from the fact that the mental development, though advancing by leaps and bounds, has not been allowed to interfere with the physical well-being of the girl. The stature of the gentler sex has been increasing latterly in England to a noticeable extent, and the physique of the highly educated woman leaves little to be desired. The woman question in Europe and America differs fundamentally from the Indian one, because in Europe and America the surplus population of single women has rendered it imperative for many widows and unmarried women of the middle and lower classes to bestir themselves, and cease to be a burden upon their male relatives. The desire for a wider sphere of usefulness shows itself also among the well-to-do, for never was there a time when larger charitable schemes were set on foot, or more done to relieve the lot of the poor and suffering than now. What gentleness, pity, kindness there is in the world to-day, is due largely to woman, who has had the greatest share in stimulating the progress of humanity in this direction. Under her guidance the homeless are sheltered, the sick made whole, the weak ones strengthened, the fallen raised and cheered. The amount of honorary philanthropic work performed now is larger than it has ever been before. All this is the result of the broader education of women, and of their organizations.
The question may be asked, Is woman equal to the efforts required of her? Is she mentally and physically capable of profiting by an education as wide as that given to men? Here the women of India, if the experience of their own clever countrywomen be insufficient for them, may accept certain of the conclusions arrived at regarding their sex in Europe and America, where it is more and more acknowledged that the peculiarities of woman need prove no obstacle to her advance in most branches requiring intellect or manual skill. Woman's brain is not proportionately smaller than man's at birth, and observations among races at a low stage of civilization show that the female brain differs in size and weight far less from that of the male than it does among nations of higher culture, the deducible conclusion being that the long centuries of carelessness and ignorance through which woman has passed, may have prevented the normal evolution of her mental faculties. Though the average female brain is actually smaller than that of the male, yet, if it be compared with the total weight of the body, the female brain will be found relatively heavier. As the case stands, however, woman is generally inferior to man in mental capacity. Lombroso accords her only a small place in the history of genius, but it must not be forgotten that her peculiar training, in which the faculties of feeling and sentiment, rather than those of the understanding, have been fostered, has probably made her yield the foremost rank to man in science, poetry, philosophy, and the fine arts. Similarly, woman's physical education has been neglected through long centuries, and the laws of evolution have produced their inevitable result in the comparative inferiority of the feminine physique.
Those women who have been called upon to rule have proved themselves equal to the noble task. In India Razia Begum, daughter of the Sultan Altamsh, reigned at Delhi after the dethronement of her brother. Nurjehan, wife of Jehangir, was so admired by her husband that he made her the virtual ruler, and struck a coinage in her image. This Queen was not Lalla Rookh celebrated by Thomas Moore, as sometimes supposed. The present Begum of Bhopal may be cited as another successful Moslem lady-ruler. Ahalya Bai, who ruled over Holkar's State in the eighteenth century, may be taken as a model Hindu Queen. In England the greatest Empire the world has ever known has expanded beneath a woman's sway. Indeed, the number of successful Queens all over the world is quite remarkable, so that it cannot be urged that women have no talent for responsible work.
Most of the great agitations for the bettering of humanity have had a woman as their primary mover. In America, for instance, Harriet Beecher Stowe was the organizer of the famous struggle which ended in the abolition of slavery. In England Elizabeth Fry devoted years of unselfish toil to the improvement of the pestilential prisons in which her countrymen and women languished. Therefore women must be granted a capacity for social reform.
Where women have hitherto failed is in organization. This is as much the fault of their training as of their false pride, which prevents their seeking the co-operation of man. A woman's household duties call for an independence of action which develops individuality, but does not foster unity of spirit, to acquire which, at least during some generations to come, she must needs have man's co-operation.
Inaccuracy as to technical and scientific detail is another defect in women, which militates against their conduct of social and moral reform movements. Too much sentiment, too, is another weakness; a woman reasons from her heart, not from her head; hence many of her errors and difficulties. Energy misdirected by enthusiasm leads her to extremes, so that we find in her the noblest heights of virtue, and, on the other hand, as in the French Revolution, the most appalling depths of vice. Her energy, moreover, is apt to be of an evanescent quality. A woman's fitness comes by fits, says Shakespeare. These characteristics are, however, such as a practical, broad education may with time eradicate, and then, with her noble gifts of intuition, sympathy, earnestness, moral instinct, unselfishness, and tact, woman would seem to have a glorious prospect of usefulness and happiness before her. But in the meantime she cannot afford to do without the aid of man's business capacity.
The difficulty with regard to woman's education is how to construct a scheme by which she may, if called upon to do so, earn her livelihood or contribute actively to the betterment of her fellow-creatures, without unfitting herself for the all-important duties of wifehood and motherhood. This is a problem which is recognized as difficult of solution by modern scientists and educationalists, who see clearly that to employ woman in manual, or even intellectual, labour unsuited to her sex is a terribly wasteful method of carrying out the world's work. The ideal seems to be that women should seek out lines of development in which they may make the most of the special characteristics of their sex. They should abandon the old idea of following men along the beaten tracks marked out in the past, and they should try to devise occupations in which their own peculiar excellences may have full scope for exercise. The differences between the faculties of the sexes are fundamental. In some qualities man excels woman; in others woman surpasses man. The special qualities, says Dr. T. S. Clouston, are complementary. There is no question of comparison of worth; both are requisite for the welfare of the world. Eminent scientists declare that the past history of woman and the experience of the race should be taken into account before rushing blindly into any advanced scheme of feminine development; and, above all, it should be kept well in mind that to encourage the professional career to the exclusion of the domestic life is a movement on wrong lines. No doubt, it is a hard case to decide, and would appear to impose on woman the duties of a twofold education, the one fitting her for wifehood and motherhood, and the other rendering her capable, in case of necessity, of earning her livelihood outside the home circle. The only conclusion that can at present be arrived at is that extremes are dangerous, that no general rules can safely be laid down for woman's education, but that the needs of the individual should be carefully studied, and changes imposed only after diligent observation, and in a scientific spirit. There would appear, according to European and American educational authorities, no reason why girls' education should not at first proceed on a plan identical with that of boys, but only for a certain time. Afterwards it should be continued on a different system, which would take into account the psychological peculiarities of their sex.
In the State of Baroda there is compulsory primary education, with mixed vernacular schools, which both sexes attend up to a certain age. As stated in the Baroda Administration Report for 1908-9, the people of the Antyaj, or depressed classes, have derived considerable benefit from the compulsory primary education system. In the other higher girls' schools in Baroda such subjects as embroidery, drawing, cooking, plain needlework, etc., are taught, in addition to the usual curriculum. A boarding-house for girl-students in connection with the Female Training College has also been started, and a number of scholars have taken advantage of it.
The education of women is a cause which the Maharaja of Baroda has particularly at heart. At the annual general meeting of the Bombay Sanitary Association, held last April, the Maharaja spoke of the share that the people themselves, and especially the women, must take in their own uplifting, and he emphasized the fact that the training of women was the all-important object after which to strive. He said: Our only weapon is education-education of women, because it is their part to influence home-life, and to fashion future generations; and education of our ignorant masses in the simple teachings of elementary sanitation and hygiene . . . .It is insufficient to teach boys and girls how to read, write, and cipher. We must deal with their lives in their homes. For that purpose I appeal to the educated portion of the community, and to the natural leaders of the people, to set the example, and, by personal practice and precept, teach their backward neighbours how to lead hygienic lives. I advocate education.
The practical trend which education should take if it is to be of any real good to the nation is fully recognized by Queen Mary who believes firmly that the moral and physical well-being of her country is dependent on the proper education of its children, a task which is mainly in the hands of women. Her Majesty thinks that every girl's education ought to include some study of domestic science and domestic arts, by which a trained and experienced head of the household would take the place of the now often inefficient mistress. Women are too apt to proceed simply by rule of thumb, but it is hoped that the establishment of an institution, with the express purpose of training them in the science of the household, will do much to change old, irregular, traditional methods. A sum of 100,000 is being subscribed to endow a University of Domestic Science, which is to be provided with a staff of professors and lecturers on such subjects as chemistry, hygiene, economics, physiology. It is to be a residential University for women students, and its many influential patrons hope that Queen Mary's Hostel, as it is to be called, will prove one of the most effective monuments of this Coronation year.
The important role that Englishwomen have played in the furtherance of female education in India has perhaps been scarcely emphasized so strongly as it deserves. It is acknowledged that the largest number of lady graduates in India come from Bengal, and it is interesting to note that the earliest attempt to educate Hindu women in Bengal was not made by the State, but the entire credit is due to two Englishwomen, who, in 1819, more than a generation before the Indian Universities were established, first tried to elevate the condition of Indian women. The names of these ladies, Lady Amherst and Miss Cook, the two pioneers of female education in India, show what women can do to benefit members of their own sex, even though differing, from them in religion, race, and language.
The Indian ideal of womanhood differs from that prevalent in Europe and America, and, therefore, the methods of education to be adopted for our countrywomen will naturally differ accordingly. But the aim of all education should be to teach the pupil to apply her acquired knowledge to the pursuits of daily life, to fit her, not unfit her, for the position she will have to fill. It is systematic training alone- training begun in the most elementary stages of her development-which can accomplish this. The ideal which many Western thinkers now set before them, and the all-powerful factor which they hold education to be, are well and concisely set forth in the following words of one of England's most progressive writers, Mr. H. G. Wells:
We want to invigorate and reinvigorate education. We want to create a sustained effort to the perpetual tendency of all educational organizations towards classicalism., secondary issues, and the evasion of life.
We want to stimulate the expression of life through art and literature, and its exploration through research.
We want to make the best and finest thought accessible to every one, and more particularly to create and sustain an enormous free criticism, without which art, literature, and research alike degenerate into tradition or imposture.
Then all the other problems which are now so insoluble-destitution, disease, the difficulty of maintaining international peace-the scarcely faced possibility of making life generally and continually beautiful-become easy ...
In some of the following chapters we propose to deal with a few professions in which it would appear from the experience of England that women by better organization might carve out future for themselves in particular and for their sex in general. In this there need be no question of actual comparison with man, no thought of surpassing, or even of equalling, him. The highest aim of woman's education should be to fit her to work freely and bravely with man; or if not with him, then alongside him, for the benefit of the human race. The spiritual side of woman's nature is the complement of the material side of man's. Hitherto these faculties have often been separate, or even at variance. Who can tell what the combination of the two, working together in perfect harmony, may not achieve? Likewise in the adaptation of certain Western organizations to Eastern requirements the abstract nature of India may find the leaven of the practical nature of England prove beneficial to her people, and the coming age may see in their happy union the dawn of a brighter day. It would raise the position of Indian women in public life, and thus help the great forward movement in India which most cultured men and women there have at heart.
Chapter II
He that hath a trade hath an estate, and he that hath a calling hath a place of profit and honour. A ploughman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees."- Franklin
When so many callings are now attracting women's attention, it might not be amiss, before considering in detail the chief of the more novel professions open to them, to note briefly the general conclusions arrived at concerning their success or failure in such occupations as engage their activities at present.
First of all, it should be observed that the task of improving woman's position must be undertaken by woman herself. If she desires a higher and securer condition, she must work out her own salvation. So far women, even in the West, have not been resourceful enough in seeking out special lines for themselves. They have been too content to follow one track, so that Europe and America are swamped with poorly paid governesses and half-educated girl-clerks. For such want of originality their education is partly to blame. Their training has been far too abstract, too intellectual; it moves on a uniform plane, forgetting that feminine character is as diverse as the masculine, that some girls have a practical bent, others an artistic or intellectual tendency, which, if fostered, would produce good results. Even for the sake of the added enthusiasm with which anything off the beaten track can be pursued, it is worth while to look about for fresh spheres of action. Therefore, in our detailed discussion of the various professions we shall omit practically all account of the stereotyped ways in which an Indian woman may get a living, and pass on to consider other callings which she, by means of organization, might divert partially or entirely to her own profit.
In this connection, a great aid to women's work in India would be the establishment of a Central Society, with the object of studying the fluctuation of supply and demand in different occupations in various Indian Provinces, to collect information as to new and interesting lines available for women, and to raise the general level of efficiency, by giving precise details as to how a special training could be obtained by those who are unqualified. Such a Society could also use every effort to raise the standard of women's salaries, and might, in addition, act as a Registry to bring its clients into touch with suitable employers. Certain Associations in London give gratuitous advice about women's work, and even have loan funds for apprentices or training-fees, which are granted under conditions to those who desire to enter on a course of professional education, for which they have not the necessary means at their disposal. After employment has been obtained, these loans are repaid in instalments by the recipients. Another society for promoting the employment of gentlewomen has, as well as a free registry, a central depot for the sale of work, including garden and dairy produce of all kinds, and even jams, cakes, sweets, etc.
There is a quaint old Western saying, applicable alike to either sex of all nations, There are no foolish trades, only foolish people, and this brings us to the question of woman's capacity in the various branches in which she is engaged. Hitherto, for reasons not altogether due to her own fault, she has frequently been lacking in efficiency, the main cause being that the majority of women are not educated with any earnest intention of gaining a livelihood. In India matrimony is the goal of all, for which no serious preparation is deemed necessary. Even in the West, only a small minority expend any ingenuity in choosing out an original career for themselves, and pursue their training with the same zeal as that which the boy devotes to his apprenticeship, or to his course of professional study. This want of the definite purpose in women is the rock on which they have hitherto split. In England many methods have been adopted to remedy the evil, and to fit girls for their several walks in life. Such are Science and Art Classes; Technical Art Schools; classes of instruction in manual training, cookery, needlework, dressmaking, basket- making, lace-making, gardening, wood-carving, metalwork; lectures on such subjects as bee-keeping and poultry-rearing; Domestic Economy Schools, Day Trade Schools where girls are taught the latest method in dressmaking, up-holstery, photography, etc. In the latter schools the system resembles an apprenticeship, and, after a two years course, the pupils are supposed to be capable of taking a beginner's posts and commencing to earn a salary. Various scholarships are offered at these classes to assist the cleverer students. To the learner the result of the scientific method adopted in teaching the trades, is a thorough and more speedy mastery of the subject.
The question of salaries is a much-vexed theme, for there is no doubt that women's wages are, as a rule, smaller than would be paid to men for the same quality of work. The remedy, perhaps, lies in efficiency and proper organization, by which women may get the control of certain industries more in their own hands than they have ever clone, or tried to do, before. women have not as yet the faculty of banding together for the protection of their interests. They more apt to work individually, and accept the present conditions as incapable of improvement. But when it is found that they are able to execute really good work, and able also to combine to prevent the undue exploitation of their services, it is more likely that the higher salaries will be forthcoming.
Education, organization, specialization-the women of India who purpose entering on any career of usefulness, will find these three points essential to their success in life.
CHAPTER IV
HOME PROFESSIONS
"Is the liking for outside ornaments-for pictures, or statues, or furniture, or architectures moral quality? Yes, most surely, if a rightly set liking. Taste for any pictures or statues is not a moral quality, but taste for good ones is. . . . To teach taste is inevitably to form character. -Ruskin.
Among the callings open now to women in India, scarcely any are entirely under feminine control. The result is that woman, as a rule, seldom gets a chance to show her business capacity. Men are at the head of all branches of industry which employ women, and therefore, if even a small proportion of the 160,000,000 women in India are to earn a livelihood, which is to be anything more than a mere pittance, the key to success will lie in taking energetic measures to qualify Indian women, so as to enable them to co-operate with their fathers, brothers, and husbands. As long as man has the monopoly of the direction of every concern, it is only natural that woman's interests should not receive as much attention as they ought. But there is no reason why women should always be unable to cooperate with men. There are several branches of employment which would seem peculiarly their work. Their aim, then, should be to seek out those callings for which by nature and training they feel themselves best adapted, so that by combination and organization with men they may, in time, be so qualified as to be at least co-directors with them.
Why, for example, should the many branches of work connected with the home rest so largely in the hands of men? It was not always thus, for in primitive migratory times it was woman's task to carry the tent from place to place, and, later on, to build the hut in which the family dwelt. It seems a strange thing that nowadays only when the house is finished, when the architect has designed the plan, when the builders and workmen have done their part, when an army of upholsterers and other operatives have had their say, and the house is fully equipped from floor to ceiling, does woman step in and do her best to render it habitable. Granted that a man must build the house, but it is only the deft touch of a woman that can make that house a home. Taste, says W. R. Lowell, is the next gift to genius. We may go even farther and say that in many women it amounts to genius. Why, then, when her ingenuity and artistic skill in such domestic matters have been always admittedly superior to man's, should she not endeavour to push her way in this direction, and make an effort to get at least the decoration and furnishing of the home under her control? To promote such a scheme on a large scale would require considerable organization and capital. The technical and scientific knowledge possessed by Indian women would have to undergo a vast improvement, but the field affords great scope for their artistic and practical talent, and an almost unlimited outlet for labour of feminine brain and hand.
To start at the very beginning-the profession of DOMESTIC ARCHITECT is itself exceedingly interesting, and one which Indian women might, in part, very well take up. The oversight of the workmen would have to be left to men, nor could women very well climb the scaffolding to superintend the progress of the building, but the drawing of the plans and the details could easily be done by our women if they made it the subject of a course of professional study. There is, however, no need for women to undertake the entire architecture of the house. There is ample room for their talent in designing portions of the interior-such as useful wall-cupboards, mouldings, friezes, ornamental designs for doors and windows, and the general decorative details of construction. Such training as the architectural profession affords would also be invaluable to them in the decoration of public buildings - a department which might be left to a great extent in their hands. It is highly improbable that women will for a long time enjoy the public confidence sufficiently to succeed as architects, but there would seem to be no reason whatever to prevent them from prospering in some of the sections of this most interesting profession. In buildings devoted to charitable purposes, round Hindu temples and Moslem mosques, there is ample scope for women's talent. The artistic decoration of temples during great fairs is a business which in India would employ thousands of women.
In the trade of HOUSE DECORATING and FURNISHING a number of women should unite, each taking up a separate section. This is absolutely necessary to insure thoroughness, as the scope is so vast that no one woman could possibly master all its branches. Here, as in most other callings, specialization is the secret of success. The head of such an enterprise must be a person possessed of thorough business principles in combination with a knowledge and love of art. It is no easy thing to deal with the countless array of work- people whose services are necessary to equip the House Beautiful, nor is it a simple matter to please the idiosyncrasies of the clients, who in affairs relating to household furnishing are notoriously hard to manage. A woman, to be excellent in this way, requires a great knowledge of character, with that exquisite tact which feels unerringly the right moment when to act." The possession of such tact, however, has always been one of woman's chief assets, therefore this side of business ought to prove one in which she will be facile princeps.
The next general requisite, after business principles, is a training in the theoretical part of the work, in the history of architecture, and of furniture and design. For this there should be classes and lectures as well as private study. An artistic training in the various branches of textile design is in itself a separate career, and would employ thousands of women. When one looks at the infinite variety of design required for carpets, rugs, tapestries, linen, and house furnishings of all kinds, it is easy to recognize the vast field open to those women who are possessed of artistic talent and originality. Even in England the greater part of this work is at present executed by men; in India woman's share leaves much room for improvement.
Furniture-designing and carving is a trade in which there is a good opening for the skilled woman-worker. It is one in which both brain and hand are kept busy; and those who have a love of art will find it a most congenial employment. Much carving is of course done now by machinery, but hand-work is still highly prized, and, as an artistic product, is naturally far superior. The practical part of the upholstery trade is also highly suitable for women's fingers.
House-decorating is by no means an easy trade. There are many things to be learnt before even the elements of the business can be carried through successfully, but it is an occupation which has the charm of infinite variety, and one in which business capacity has wonderful room for exercise. Customers require good work as well as economical work; therefore the woman who can combine sharp commercial instincts with an artistic sense and the power of managing operatives is the one to prosper in house-decoration.
As regards the sale of upholstery and furniture, it is a branch eminently adapted to women, and one which, like house-decoration, requires considerable experience before proficiency can be attained. The different styles and periods of furniture must all be familiar, and, as has been said before, a knowledge of the history of architecture is necessary to carry out high class work. Connected with this section there is the trade in antique furniture, which might very well be added to the list of the woman- furnisher's enterprises. There is a rising demand, not for the brand-new products of the modern workshop, but for objects that have been mellowed by the hand of time. To make money in this line one must be able to recognize a genuine article when one sees it, and must have the faculty of striking a good bargain. Thus, many valuable old pieces of carving, silver, furniture, prints, coins, lace, crockery, intaglios, bronzes, engravings, etc., may be secured and sold at a handsome profit. The restoring and renovating of antique furniture is a very paying side of the trade, but great care should be taken not to encourage in any way the too prevalent practice of faking. To start a business in antiques, a woman would do best to take up one or two special lines only, which would teach her the details of the trade, the methods of treating with both seller and customer, and the policy of disposing quickly of the goods purchased. In this way, by gradually adding other classes of goods to the list, she might become an expert in art-dealing- a business in which large fortunes are to be gained. A peculiar temperament is necessary for such work, and a training not of one, two, or even three years, but constant, unceasing study of art-values in the particular branch which she may elect to take up. Here, again, specialization is recommended, though, of course, several branches may be combined. A woman art- dealer might work in several ways. She might buy generally to sell at a profit, or she might sell the work of artists on commission; or, having formed a connection among purchasers, she might obtain for them to order articles to suit their individual requirements. It is readily comprehensible that a keen critical faculty is absolutely indispensable in this profession; but, given the true collector's temperament, the occupation is most congenial and indeed, often of enthralling interest. Like most things connected with the artistic side of the home, it requires a hard business head as well as a love of the beautiful. Capital, of course, is a sine qua non, but to make a living a large business house is not necessary. A small establishment can be made to realize handsome profits. It is a pursuit which may be taken up as a hobby, and continued to great pecuniary advantage.
To descend from the decoration of the home to the less artistic sphere of culinary matters, there is one most striking fact which confronts us-that whereas it is woman who spends the greater part of her life in the kitchen, yet man, who is ignorant of most of the processes and occupations of that domain of housekeeping, is the very one who has to design the appliances for carrying out her work. The fault must have lain with woman her-self. She has not hitherto shown much inventive faculty. But it is a subject well worth her consideration. The man who first thought of inserting a small piece of indiarubber at the end of a tin case round a lead-pencil amassed a fortune. There is a golden harvest awaiting the clever housewife who can invent little labour-saving contrivances for the household, which may look so simple, yet have never before been put into practice.
Furniture-removing might also be undertaken as a department of the trade of house-furnishing, and other branches might be incorporated, as experience showed their suitability. If women combined to run an establishment such as this providing all things connected with the equipment of the home, they might either work it as a private concern, or it might be turned into a large co-operative store, similar to the English Societies registered on the Co-operative Union, in which the shares bear a fixed rate of interest, and the net profits, with a few reservations for bonuses to employees, contributions to reserve funds, etc., are divided among members and customers in proportion to the amount of goods purchased at the store.
Yet another pursuit may be included with all the foregoing-that of HOUSE and ESTATE AGENT. This is a calling which, though scarcely touched as yet by women, even in England, affords great possibilities for the exercise of the tact and talent of Indian women, and is certainly one in which their intimate knowledge of the working of the home will stand them in good stead. The first branch, in which a woman must enlist masculine co-operation, in order to gain experience, is that of rent-collecting. She must see that rents are collected regularly every month, choose new tenants, dismiss the old, keep houses in repair, pay rates and taxes for the landlord, and look after the entire interests of the property. To complete these duties efficiently, she must have a considerable knowledge of valuations, of book-keeping, of the laws referring to house-property, especially such as to deal with the sale of estates, leases of houses and ground, agreements between landlord and tenant, etc. She must be able to keep a register of houses and estates, must be acquainted with the work of building and decorating, that she may be able to keep a businesslike eye upon the repairs which may be necessary, and she must also know the value of furniture and fittings. This latter qualification is necessary in case of the letting of furnished houses, when she would have to estimate the value of the damage, if any, done by the temporary tenant.
In the work of rent-collecting the educated woman has a great opportunity of introducing improvements in housing and hygiene. If she has the entire control of a large property, she will find ample room to exercise her scientific knowledge of sanitation; and in her intercourse with the tenants, when these are of the poorer classes, she can do much to instil into them the principles of hygiene. To this end a course of study in sanitation is most helpful, and there is abundant information to be had nowadays in books and pamphlets on sanitary appliances.
The occupation is one that has the manifest advantage of requiring little capital for a start. Business initiative and tact in dealing with clients are the main requisites. There are dozens of Indian lady graduates who cannot possibly all expect to find posts as teachers and companions. In a country of purda our University women might with great advantage try their abilities in this direction. The illiterate Ghataki (female negotiator of Hindu marriages) has fairly ousted her male rival (Ghatak) by taking advantage of the purda system at Calcutta. The Ghataki now brings about more Hindu matrimonial alliances at the Indian capital than the Ghatak, who, until twenty years ago, had held for centuries the monopoly as agent of Cupid. If this proves anything, it shows that there is ample room for all sorts of women-workers behind the purda.
WOMEN'S INTERESTS
Philanthropy, like charity, must begin at home. From this centre our sympathies may extend in an ever-widening circle Lamb.
Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,
Ere the sorrow comes with years?
They are weeping in the play-time of others,
In the country of the free."
Many a heart in England was touched by the sad music of her verses, as it could never have been by the cold figures of a factory commissioner's report, and so we find the great movement urged forward for the improvement of children's position as workers. In various other ways women of Europe and America have used their influence, both publicly and privately, to stem social abuses. Indian women who desire that they, too, may not be behindhand in the record of unselfish work performed for the benefit of their fellow-beings, and especially for their poorer sisters, might well consider what feminine societies already exist, to serve them as groundwork on which to base some of their schemes of public service. All may not be suitable for transplantation to Eastern soil, but the leading ideas of a few might be transformed to suit Indian requirements.
One of the broadest associations for social amelioration and progress is the International Council of Women, which has as its great object the extension of a feeling of common humanity throughout the world. This council is a federation of National Councils of Women in most of the civilized countries of the globe, including the United States of America (whose women were the first to unite, in 1888, at Washington, in a National Council), Great Britain and Ireland, Canada, Australia (comprising the federations of New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia), Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria, Norway, Hungary, Belgium, and Argentina. Greece and Bulgaria are the latest recruits to the ranks. This huge organization, comprising about a million women, is non-political and non-religious, its aim being simply to act as a link between the women of various nationalities, and to afford them sympathy and suggestions in their work. No council which joins the association is in any way pledged to adopt different modes of work or organization, nor is it committed to any views held by the International Council or any of the affiliated national councils. Meetings are convened at intervals, which are attended by women representatives from all parts of the world, who are thus afforded an opportunity to confer upon matters of common interest to their sex in all its relations. In this way a valuable interchange of views is made possible, and the sentiment of good-fellowship maintained between people of widely different nationalities. Everywhere, in every land, as Mrs. May Wright-Sewall so well expressed it, at the International Congress of Women, held in Paris, 1900, there are unfortunate women, women utterly deserted, children who are poor, ill, and unhappy. And everywhere there exist societies to aid these unfortunates. . . . If I were asked: Is it possible that women belonging to different countries should meet in a universal and general cause? I should answer: It is not only possible, it is the final and eternal cause for which women exist. It is only because men, absorbed in their public and private business, cannot alone bear the burden of the sick, the poor, the destitute, the unfortunate, that women, who have to-day as yet no share in political life, find it easier to meet and cultivate the spirit of universal brother-hood.
One of the chief causes which the International Council of Women has at heart is the maintenance of peace, and to that end it formed a committee, composed of one member from each National Council. Each national council has a president, vice-president, treasurer, and executive committee-all ladies. Sectional committees, mainly of experts, are also appointed to collect information on various subjects affecting women's interests. In connection with the National Council of Women of Great Britain and Ireland these sectional committees meet quarterly, and report the results of their efforts to the executive officials. In Great Britain and Ireland the National Council of Women is the governing body of the National Union of Women Workers, whose efforts are described in other pages of this book, and which has done so much for the cause of the working women in England.
Mrs. May Sewall, in pointing out the influence that could be exercised by this International Council, emphasized one point out of many as an example. She said: Your discussion this afternoon, to which I have listened with the keenest interest, touched upon a situation which exists everywhere; the same question confronts us in all countries. In all countries there are deserted women and illegitimate children; well, perhaps it would be possible for this committee, formed of representatives of each nationality, to find some means of improving this sad state of affairs by studying it under all its aspects, and by appealing to the intelligence and goodwill of women of different lands.
The symbol of the Conference that year was two clasped hands, which were meant, she said, to signify two things: first, that men and women must walk hand-in-hand, since it is necessary that those who wish to advance upon the path of social progress should be agreed together, both men and women; and second, it signified that the hand of one nation must be clasped in that of another, so that in the twentieth century no civilized country should make war upon another.
Some other questions taken up by the Councils in England and America are the appointment of women on all state commissions in which of hygienic reform in household cookery, the securing of equal educational advantages and a similar industrial training for men and women, the advocacy of an equal standard of morality for men and women.
These, then, are a few of the aims of this great feminine federation. But it cannot truly be called an "International. Union unless women of every nation belong to it. Therefore the women of India might interest themselves in its work, which concerns matters to which no woman of intelligence can afford to be indifferent. A National Council of Women of India affiliated to the great International Council would probably do much to link the nations in the bond of a universal friendliness, and to span the gulf that still yawns between the East and West. Advancing civilization is doing much to lessen the breach. The bounds of space that formerly severed distant lands are being contracted each day by the marvellous inventions of mankind. With the fresh knowledge of each other that the peoples of the earth can thus easily gain, surely a mutual understanding should not now be so difficult of attainment as it was in days of yore! By their association in such an International Council, the women of every land may do their share in furthering that great day when the nations shall recognize the futility of war, the Great Illusion," and feel that their truest interests are served, not by storms of internecine strife, but by the civilizing hand of peace, a new order, whose advent shall usher in
A time when brotherhood shows stronger
Than the narrow bounds which now distract
the world;
When
the cannons roar and trumpets blare no longer,
And
the ironclad rusts, and battle flags are furled;
When the bars of creed and speech and race
which sever
Shall be fused in one humanity for ever.
The principles of such co-operation are especially capable of extension in India, where there should be co-operation in economic, as well as sociological organizations between British Provinces and the Native States. The influence of women might do much to break down the barriers of misunderstanding that often exist within their own country as well as outside it.
There are numerous societies whose special object it is to safeguard the interests of the English working woman. Several have been described in other chapters of this book. One of these, and perhaps the most important, is the Women's Industrial Council, described at length in Chapter XVI., which was founded in 1894, and has a separate department to watch over all legal matters affecting women's interests, and also to prepare official reports, Parliamentary bills, etc. The Council is constantly publishing information about women's work, and among its latest subjects of inquiry may be mentioned the industrial employment of married women and widows, regarded from an economic and sociological point of view.
The Industrial Sectional Committee of the National Union of Women Workers is another society which has been already dealt with elsewhere, also the National Anti-Sweating League to secure a minimum wage, and the Women's Trade Union League. In Scotland there is an important body, known as the Scottish Council for Women's Trades, with its headquarters in Glasgow, and having as its President the Countess of Aberdeen. Its object, like that of the Women's Industrial Council in London, is to watch over the interests of women and children in every trade in which they are employed. There are four departments of the Council's work: (1) An Inquiry Department, which examines into and reports particulars of women and children's employment; (2) an Organization Department, to further trade unions and combination among women, also insurance societies, to provide them with support during illness or unemployment; (3) a Parliamentary Bills Department, to further legislation in favour of women and children; (4) Women's Employments Committee, which supplies workers and those interested with particulars concerning openings available for women, and the conditions of labour in the different trades. Each of these departments is governed by a separate committee.
Breaches of the Factory Act and other measures for the protection of women and children are reported to the Council, which undertakes to submit such cases to the authorities. In this manner many measures of a sanitary and industrial nature have been furthered by the Council. The result of inquiries into various trades is published from time to time. For example, pamphlets have been issued on The Employment of Children, The Housing Problem in Glasgow, Summary of Factory and Workshop Act, The Problem of Home Work, Women Shop Assistants: how they Live and Work, Guide to Occupations for Girls (containing information on thirty-six trades), etc. Lectures on social and industrial problems are given by members of the Council.
Another English society which has as its object the promotion of legislation in favour of women and children is the Christian Social Union, which has made a study of labour conditions, and sends in reports to the Home Secretary upon the results. It has thus supplied details for and furthered Parliamentary legislation, and has given valuable information regarding work in such industries as laundering, fish-curing, brush-making, artificial flower manufacture and fruit preserving. The committee have also conducted an investigation into the employment of home or casual workers after childbirth, and into the hours and wages prevalent in the drapery, dressmaking, and millinery trades, where women are engaged.
The Industrial Law Committee was formed in 1898, and is an association of women created with the object of enforcing the observance of the law regarding industrial work. Lectures by inspectors of factories and sanitary inspectors are held throughout England before meetings of ladies, for the purpose of teaching social workers the provisions of factory and sanitary law. Offences against the law may be reported to the committee, and any other particulars regarding the employment of workers. These reports are sent in to the proper authorities for redress, and where an improvement in legislation is deemed desirable, it is brought before the public notice.
The British Association for Labour Legislation, with its headquarters in London, is the British section of the International Association for Labour Legislation (central office at Basle, Switzerland). This International Association has as its purpose the union of persons of every nationality who recognize the need for industrial legislation. It issues a periodical bulletin published in English, French, and German, giving an account of all that has been recently done in every country to promote labour legislation, a list of the laws passed, and the full text of such measures. Reports of labour congresses and the resolutions passed are also printed, and a list of the most recent literature dealing with labour. The society aims at promoting uniformity of conditions of labour in different countries, and every two years it convenes international congresses to discuss industrial problems in various lands. Individuals may belong to the association on payment of 5s. yearly subscription, while 10s. 6d. includes the receipt of the periodical bulletin, or labour magazine; societies may also become members on payment of one guinea. The association is non-party, and through its organized efforts labour treaties have been adopted, scientific work has been carried on by the international labour office, and statesmen and social workers have been enabled to study and follow the laws of other lands. Thus each country is able to benefit by the experience of others, and laws beneficial both to employers and employees can be passed without endangering national interests. Four new sections have been added to the association in the year 1910-11, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and South America, and a special British magazine entitled the World's Labour Laws has been started, as a companion to the bulletin. The international aspect of this new labour journal is well emphasized in its first number (May, 1911), which contains an article on recent legislation in the East, with reference to (1) the Japanese Factory Act, and (2) the new Indian Factory Act. The motto of this latest labour publication is Goethe's famous dictum: Das Gesetz nur kann uns Freiheit geben (The Law alone can give us Freedom). Some idea of the scope of the association may be formed from this year's report of the work of its five commissions, which dealt with (1) Finances and Business Affairs of the Association, (2) Industrial Poisons, (3) Home Work and Sweating, (4) Night Work of Young Persons, (5) Maximum Working Day. Other subjects were Equal Treatment of Foreign Workmen and Child Labour. Three Englishwomen contributed reports on several of these themes. Women's industries in most other countries were also well represented, though more frequently by male delegates, for although many distinguished ladies have given able support to the British and American sections, it does not appear that European women in general have as yet taken a very prominent part in the work. The last International Meeting took place at Lugano in September, 1910, but few of the sections sent women representatives to the conference, showing that even in Europe women's practical interest in labour matters still requires considerable stimulus. The Association has dealt at length with the question of women's employment in industrial occupations, and has promoted an international treaty by which the contracting States agreed to forbid the employment of women on night work. The advantage of joining such an important international association will doubtless appeal to Indian women when they begin to take a more active part in promoting the welfare of their working sisters than they do at present.
These are the chief societies in Great Britain which deal with labour legislation as it especially affects women. But it would hardly be fair to pass over such associations without a brief mention of another which would seem to have as its object the antithesis of those we have been discussing- i.e., the Freedom of Labour Defence, which exists to protect workers, and particularly women from restrictive enactments which might militate against their salaries and restrain their liberty in their private lives. According to this party, the protective laws, by prohibiting woman from free employment on a completely equal footing with men, place her in an inferior position and make her employment so irksome that employers consider the difference in men and women's salaries does not counterbalance the inconvenience caused by the restrictions placed on female labour. Now, in England this view is not generally held, chiefly because the idea that restrictive legislation would prove a bar to women's advancement has been found untrue, and especially so in the case of an industry which employs a vast number of female operatives-the Lancashire cotton trade. Formerly in this calling the women and children suffered under terrible hardships. Children toiled all day long in the mills; they were over-worked, ill-paid, corrupt in morals, physically degenerate. Women, also, were fearfully overworked. All were condemned to labour in factories dirty, ill-ventilated, insanitary. The hours of work were excessive. But now with the improved legislation, under the Factory and Sanitary Acts the hours during which women and children may be employed are limited, a definite standard of sanitary accommodation, temperature, ventilation, etc., is fixed, and various rules are laid down to guard women and children from employment in dangerous trades. With what result ? Not that women and children have been driven from the Lancashire factories, but that, proportionately to men, they are employed now in larger numbers, that in the textile trade unions women outnumber the men, that wages have gradually increased. Legislation has helped the women as well as the men to acquire more money, better health, greater skill, additional leisure. It has not militated against their relative position in the labour market. Protective legislation has not diminished the number of callings open to them. On the contrary, the number of trades in which women are employed has increased, and the result of better laws in England has been that the reduction of the working day has led to the employment of more women, to complete the tasks which the others, without regulation would have been compelled to finish over-time. On the other hand, in the two English occupations which are more unregulated than any others--domestic service and agriculture-women are growing scarcer every year. The conditions of labour in these two spheres in England are worth looking into, and the difficulties experienced here in the organization of domestic service should afford a valuable hint to India, for that is a branch which should not be neglected there.
The party who oppose legislation specially protective of women maintain that the right to work should be considered as one of the most precious interests of women. The present legislation is regarded by them as hurtful to women, from several points of view. It prohibits, they say, or strictly limits, their overtime work, it restricts the home-worker, who requires all the money she can obtain to keep body and soul together, and it regulates the labour of females in dangerous trades. Instead of imposing restrictions, they assert that the proper method of procedure would be to substitute better processes in the dangerous trades, to instruct the employee so that the risk to her would be practically removed, and to insist on proper precautions being observed by the employer. As far as liberty to work at dangerous trades is concerned, they declare that the health of the men employed in the manufacture of white lead, matches, etc., probably suffers quite as much as that of the women would. If no better processes can be invented, say the upholders of the women's equal right to work, then the hours of labour in those callings should be shortened, so as to minimize the risk, and at the same time, employees in those industries should be paid as much for their few hours labour as others gain by a whole day's work in less dangerous pursuits. Those industrial occupations which are really unsuited to the feminine organism will naturally, they assert, be avoided by them. For the rest, hard work is preferable to hunger or pauperism. The right to work means with women the right to live. Work in its various shapes and forms is their stock-in-trade. They ought to be encouraged to enter other branches, instead of being cramped in those departments to which they are admitted. The printing trade, they declare, is an example of the exclusion of women from a calling, which, as far as compositor's work is concerned, seems eminently suited for them, and yet there are only a few women in England engaged in it, and every effort has been made in the past to shut them out.
In answer to these objections, we would remark that the enactments against the employment of women on night work, have naturally an effect in excluding them from labour in connection with the daily papers. True, there is no great fatigue or very prolonged effort necessary, but the legal prohibition based on moral considerations rightly puts them out of the running. Women's health suffers more no doubt in other callings- such as laundry-work and street-hawking-than it would in the ordinary printing trade, but night-work with men printers must be viewed in a different light. In many other industries, too, where from the nature of the business there is inevitably a slack season followed by a rush, the restrictions placed on women's overtime work are frequently misunderstood.
The intention of the laws to protect women are good, but in practice they are considered by some to defeat their object. The limitations of hours of work for married women are also objected to by the Freedom of Labour party, who assert that there are women without children who require employment, and, moreover, that it is not guarding the interests of the coming generation to deprive the future mother of the good living which her extra earnings could procure for her. Every woman who has attained her majority, whether she be single or married, should have the right, they say, to decide herself on the hours and conditions of her labour. These are the chief arguments in favour of freedom of labour for women, whose advocates see in it an escape from want and suffering for the poor woman, and the promotion of the dignity of the so-called weaker sex. But the opposite party, who hold that woman's interests ought to be protected, are in the majority in England, and Mr. John Burns has in view a measure by which women shall be restrained by Act of Parliament from working in factories, workshops, etc., within ten or twelve weeks after child-birth. The present Factory Act imposes an interval of only four weeks as necessary.
There is another association, called the Stansfeld Trust, which makes it its object to further the position of woman under the law. Its principle is the legal equality of men and women, and it distributes to subscribers (societies and private individuals) reports on Bills before Parliament which affect the status of women or children, also on all educational methods laid before Parliament. Its secretary and treasurer are both ladies, also its scrutineer of Parliamentary Bills. The work of the latter is to study all bills immediately upon publication, and to report on those parts which concern the position of women and children. These reports are printed at once and sent out to subscribers, thus serving to keep those interested in questions affecting women au courant with what is going on, and enabling them to take direct measures if anything injurious to their interests should be attempted. The observance of an equal law of morality by both sexes is another aim of the trust, which owes its existence to a fund raised in memory of Sir James Stansfeld's great work in promoting the cause of women.
One of the best examples of an English association- the work of which is carried on by means of cordial co-operation between both men and women-is the National Society for the Prevention Of Cruelty to Children, which exists for the purpose of safeguarding the welfare of the children of English parents at home and abroad. The sole object of the Society, says the latest report (May 30, 1911), is that every child in the land shall live an endurable life. Surely there can be no more noble sphere of effort, especially for a woman, than to see that the young children of her country shall be enabled to exist without suffering oppression or wrong. In India, fortunately, the child born in wedlock is seldom treated cruelly by its parents; but to insure the safety of illegitimate offspring there is room for such a society there. No organization in England, it is stated in the annual report, owes more to the splendid work of women than does the Society. They act as Patrons, vice-presidents, as secretaries and members of committees, as collectors of funds by subscription or otherwise, as distributors of leaflets, as lecturers, and those who have taken up the cause have spared neither time, money, nor ability to make their endeavour a success. The result has been that, mainly through their efforts, the proportion of misery and cruelty in Great Britain has been sensibly diminished. In this year of the Coronation the Society makes a Special appeal to all British subjects who love their country and who love children to assist in advancing the principles, methods, and claims of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. On the score of humanity the furtherance of such an endeavour should appeal to women of every land, since the future of every country depends on the health, safety, and happiness of the younger generation. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was founded in 1884, and has as its official organ a journal, The Child s Guardian, in which a regular account is given of the work of the association. The organization of the Society is remarkably good. It has now a total of 201 branches and 1,231 district committees, and the Society does not intend to slacken its effort until it has representatives in every city, town, and village throughout the kingdom. Public meetings are held to bring the cause before the people and so stimulate fresh interest. A new feature has lately been started in the shape of meetings organized and addressed by ladies for the purpose of speaking to mothers on the educational principles of the Society, warning them against the use of highly inflammable clothing for their children, teaching them the way to rear healthy babies, and numerous ways by which to promote the welfare and comfort of their little ones. Numbers of working women attended these meetings, which, it is hoped, will be of great benefit in fostering an intelligent comprehension of the Society s aims and the duty that even the poor owe to their children. The women at Holloway Prison and the young men at two Borstal institutions have also been addressed by the director on the subject of the care and regard that should be observed towards the young. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children does not, however, confine its scope to England, for in these days, when the other side of the world has been brought within a few weeks' journey, a movement that only included England would be but a limited scheme. Therefore, the question of international federation has been successfully initiated to look after the interests of British children abroad, and to provide a central bureau in London, where persons from other countries who are interested in the cause of children may meet and discuss methods, legislation, and any other matters of common interest. Those who seek for instruction on the subject can readily find there an answer to their inquiries. The method of federation adopted might be usefully employed to link up the scattered parts of India, since without such a central bureau no thorough plan of organization could be carried through.
The Society is primarily one to enforce the Acts of Parliament for Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Its object is not so much the punishment of cruelty as its prevention. It is incorporated under a Royal Charter, and is non-political and non-sectarian. It is governed by branches formed of the subscribers of the districts. The branches appoint representatives to the council, the council elects an executive committee, and the executive committee appoints officers and transacts the whole administrative business of the society. Its mode of procedure is the same in all cases, and is as follows: anyone who knows of a case of ill-treatment of a child should communicate either with the director of the head office in London or with the nearest local inspector of the Society. An inspector is then sent to inquire into the circumstances, and in many instances a warning stops the cruelty without recourse to prosecution. When the ill-treatment is so aggravated and continued that legal measures become necessary, the Society undertakes the action, paying expenses and assuming the care of the children, who are afterwards boarded out in suitable homes at the Society's expense. Cases of cruelty may be reported by the general public, the police, other officials, and by the Society's inspectors. Numerous leaflets distributed from door to door, chiefly by women, explain what constitutes infringement of the Acts for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and supply information as to whom cases of ill-treatment may be reported, assuring the public that the informant's name will be kept private unless the complaint be proved a malicious one. The majority of the cases are not discovered by the inspectors, whose time is chiefly occupied in investigating cases reported by the public. The Society carries on its work without encroaching on the province of the police, and its inspectors are able to do by warning and supervision what no ordinary policeman could possibly undertake. The inspectors are often granted admission to houses where a policeman's visit would not be tolerated, to homes where parents are merely careless or ignorant in the upbringing of their little ones. Another important factor in the procedure is that prosecutions are only undertaken on advice from the legal stair of the central office. No personal or vindictive spirit can therefore enter into the case. In each instance a solicitor is instructed, and the decision remains with the magistrates. The Society also undertakes the investigation of cases where a parent refuses to support his children, and insists, by legal means if necessary, that a fixed amount be contributed out of the man's wages. The Society is not extravagantly managed, and numbers of voluntary workers greatly aid the financial as well as the moral side of its organization. It has no endowment, no State grant. There are no less than 11,000 lady collectors, and the report of the director for this year states that the whole Society is a triumphant exposition of the glory and beauty of woman's work. No restrictions surround its workers; they are found in all classes, they excel in noble deeds. The government of the Society is shared by women; on local committees, on the central executive, on the general administrative council-a democratic body, consisting of two representatives from each branch-they have rights of speech and of voting. This is as it should be in an organization that seeks to improve home life, to establish the right of the child to proper treatment at the hands of its parents.
Such a eulogy of women's work should be a wonderful incentive to Indian women to follow their Western sisters' good example. The effect of their intervention would no doubt be a tangible gain to their country in the shape of a perceptible increase in the sum-total of its happiness.
From: Her Highness the Maharani of Baroda and S. M. Mitra, The Position of Women in Indian Life. New York, Bombay, and Calcutta: Longmans, Green, 1912, 1-57 and 306-330.