THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.

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inferior; but with the advance of civilization, the diffusion of enlightenment, there is no excuse for this relic of barbarism to exist. Starting in the iron age, with the assumption that woman was an inferior, man has found it hard to acknowledge the value of brain power, of intellectual capacity, of inventive genius and artistic skill, unless coupled with brute or physical force. Having assigned woman an inferior place in a lower civilization, all the training, instruction, discipline and education which have since been accorded her have been carefully shaped and permeated by a spirit of authority which would tend to keep her there.

All through the ages there has been a system of repression, suppression and oppression practiced toward women that is incomprehensible. Often the little girl, who dares to express an opinion in opposition to her brother’s view of some juvenile sport, is met with the exasperating and insulting reminder of her inferiority, imperiously expressed, “Well, you are a girl. What do you know about it?” Should a girl in the youthful buoyancy of health, and full of latent life and energy, give expression to her exuberant spirits by gymnastic exercises or athletic sports, she suffers a sort of social outlawry, and is stigmatized as a “tomboy,” a hoyden, a romp, etc. Even in the family circle, if the conversation is turned upon educational or political topics, in which the young maiden takes great delight, and she ventures a remark or asks a question, she is politely, but none the less insultingly, assured, “Little girls are to be seen and not heard.” Under such adverse conditions have women been reared for generations. The repression and suppression of all her natural aspirations toward a healthy, intellectual womanhood have gone on and on, and when the woman ques­tion is under discussion, we are gravely told that woman is by nature wholly unfitted for, and incapable of occupying, a broader or more intellectual field of thought or action. What an outrage to common sense.

Both law and gospel have combined against woman to render her position in life unnatural and subservient. From her first hour of consciousness she has been cau­tioned, repressed, and finally oppressed by invidious distinctions and unjust discrim­inations against her. Up to within a few years colleges and universities have been closed against her; society has sneered at learned women; and if one possessed of inventive genius fashioned a new and useful device, even her nearest male relatives and friends advised her to patent it in the name of some man, as it would not be com­patible with womanly modesty to attain such notoriety as a patent to herself would bring.

Think of the opposition to women entering the ministry and the medical profes­sion, two vocations that one would think the whole world would accord her the right to enter, and hail with delight her administrations in such Divine work. Instead, how­ever, of encouragement, the pioneers in these fields of labor have had to struggle against fearful odds, meeting insult, derision and always the sneers and ridicule of tyrannical public opinion.

In my chosen profession of the law, the statutes of California, as in most states at that time (fifteen years ago), denied women the right of admission to the bar; and after a long and wearying contest with determined and able opponents, we secured an amendment removing the unjust discrimination. The Hastings College of Law, the Law Department of the State University, etc., closed their doors in our faces because we were women. Again, after a long and expensive legal contest, another victory was won for the women of California. But this experience only accentuates the fact that women everywhere have most unequal and disadvantageous opportunities in any given direction.

But some will say, “Those women who have distinguished themselves, who have evidenced great mental capacity, are exceptional cases.” We might reply: The number of men who have become noted for their brilliant intellectual attainments are but a fraction compared with the whole number of men in the world. But what a con­trast between the educational facilities and other advantages accorded to men and those that are extended (permitted would better express it) to women. The boy is taught