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The Evolution of Women and Their Possibilities
Miss Annie Golding
(Published in the `Christian Woman' section of the Proceedings of the Australasian Catholic Congress, Melbourne 1904)
The nineteenth century witnessed such a marked advance in the social, industrial, and intellectual evolution of woman that it is aptly termed the Women's Century. Though the tendency is to consider this development modern and extraordinary, it is in reality the crystallisation of a process of evolution that has advanced with that of man, though at times obscured, or temporarily Checked, by events such as the upheavals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The women of ancient Greece and Rome were enslaved, or treated as mere puppets, till the later Republic, when they enjoyed comparative equality with men. This aroused jealousy, and, under the Catos, a severe code of repression was inaugurated, that culminated in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius.
The Israelites, illumined by the spirit of the true God, placed them on a higher plane, honouring them for their purity and domestic virtues. In a measure, they recognised men and women mutually helped and inspired each other, though failing to note that God, in creating Eve out of a rib taken from Adam's side, indicated she was to be his companion, not his subordinate, to assist him in carrying out the Divine intention. Still, Jewish women attained eminence. Deborah was an honoured judge in Israel, and Judith delivered her people from the tyrant. She was hailed by Prince Ozias and the multitude as " The glory of Jerusalem and the joy of Israel."
In the Proverbs of Solomon (chap. 31, verse 31), it says: " Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates."
But it remained for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to place women in their true position, by the honour He paid to His Immaculate Mother, His love and devotion making her the guiding star for all women, and all ages. Women were His devoted followers, assisting and ministering to Him; last at His Cross, first to receive His message after the resurrection.
The women of ancient Briton enjoyed equality with men. Tacitus states: " The women are the most revered witnesses of each man's conduct, his most liberal supporters and applauders. The men go to their women folk for relief and encouragement. They even suppose somewhat of sanctity and prescience to be inherent in the female sex, and seek their counsel, and do not despise their responses."
At the marriage ceremony she was handed a spear to remind her she was to be the partner of his toil and danger, to suffer with him, and to dare alike in peace and war. In Anglo-Saxon times women attended the Witenagemot, and shared in the councils of the nation.
After the advent of Christianity, the Holy Roman Catholic Church, following the Divine example, honoured women, and placed them in exalted positions. They assisted in diffusing the truths of Christianity, suffered martyrdom, and were canonised. They founded and became heads of monasteries and religious guilds.
It is recorded in Spelman's Concilia Britannica that Queen and Abbesses signed with King and Abbots the charter to Eabba, the Abbess, granted by Wightred and his Queen, as also was Edgar's Charter, granted to the Abbey of Crowland in 961. Abbesses were also summoned to Parliament.
In 657 the Abbess Hilda founded the Whitby Monastery. Under her presidency, in 664, was held the Synod of Whitby. She was so learned in theology that she sent forth learned missionaries, and not less than five Bishops, thus giving a great impetus to the educational and spiritual movement of that time. She occupies an honoured niche in early English literature. This recognition by the Church was preserved down to the Norman period, when women's rights and privileges were assigned a secondary place, as they had to be protected in those troublous times by men's warlike prowess.
In the days of chivalry women were equal in social and trading guilds with men. It remained for the legal acumen and keener competition of more modern times to deprive women of the natural rights and trading privileges formerly enjoyed.
By legal enactment, married women's properties and rights became absorbed in those of their husbands. Legal disabilities were quickly followed by industrial disabilities, such as protecting industrial occupation from the competition of women ; and, as a natural corollary, they were debarred from professional and intellectual pursuits.
A still darker period followed during the Reformation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Monasteries were suppressed, Abbesses disappeared, and thus lost the right to sit in the Upper House. The exclusion of women from teaching followed. It was formulated "that to promote women to bear rule, superiority, dominion, or empire above any nation or city is repugnant to nature, contumely to God, contrarious to His revealed will and approved ordinance, and, finally, it is the subversion of good order, of all equity and justice." Women were speedily excluded from social, religious, and other guilds.
This was a long and serious check to the progress of women. Previously they had been eligible for many and even exalted positions. Those of Sheriff, Marshal, High Constable, High Stewards, Governors of Royal Castles, Justices of the Peace, Judges, and Members of Parliament had been at times held by women. They even presented to churches, and voted for Shire Knights.
Sir Edward Coke, by unjust and adverse decisions, deprived them. of every shred of such rights. He was specially fitted for work of a shady character. Even James I. pronounced him "to be the fittest engine for a tyrant that ever was in England." Thus, as without congenial soil, moisture and sunshine, the tiny acorn cannot develop into the mighty oak, was woman's intellectual development stunted, her sphere of usefulness fettered by harsh and unnatural limitations.
Correspondingly, the world suffered through want of the dual human influence. Only the masculine view was cultivated. In all lands property, military glory, and lust of power were the highest ideals. The humanising influences - sentiment, family love, and other domestic virtues - were relegated to an inferior place.
Notwithstanding these arbitrary restrictions, many women towered above men, serving as beacon lights to their more timorous and conventional sisters.
No paper on the progress of women could be complete if the name of Mary Wolstonecraft Godwin were omitted. She startled the stolid, conventional mind of her day by her Vindication of the Rights of Women, in which she stated : " There could be no morality without equality, no justice when its recipients were only of one sex." Mary Somerville proved women's intellect could shed light on the most abstruse questions.
George Eliot has been classed by Leslie Stephens as one of the foremost thinkers of modern times, and as having largely assisted in shaping modern thought and development. She threw the searchlight of realism into the hopelessness, apathy, ignorance, and squalid misery of English peasant life, thus rousing the conscience of middle and upper class England.
The self-sacrificing, herioc Sisters of Mercy set the first example of humanity at war. They recognised, where man could slay, women could go to heal. In this noble cause they dared hunger, cold, shot and shell.
Their example was followed by Florence Nightingale and her nurses. To-day part of the horrors of war is mitigated by the influence of women. Nursing whether in peace or war is now one of women's highest occupations.
Time will not permit the individualising of the earnest, noble women of Great Britain and other nations during this awakening, but to their efforts is largely due the emancipation of their sex.
With the spread of education, women more clearly perceived their disabilities. They realised that, though members of their sex had founded scholarships and colleges, they were denied admittance to those sacred precincts. In 1284, Lady Elizabeth, sister and coheir of Gilbert, Earl of Clare, founded Clare College, and in it Mrs. Tyldesley de Bosset founded three scholarships. In age this college ranks second, St. Peter's College, Cambridge, being first. The widow of the Earl of Pembroke founded Pembroke College in 1347 ; Margaret of Anjou founded Queen's College, 1448 ; Margaret, Countess of Richmond, founded Christ College in 1505 ; the mother of Henry VII, founded St. John's College in 1511. Trinity College was largely endowed in money and scholarships by women, and Queen Mary added 20 scholarships in 1516. Numerous other gifts were conferred, especially on Cambridge and Oxford, by women. Those two most renowned, and yet most conservative, colleges, oldest in foundation, are latest in granting full privileges to women. Through them, no women 'can compete for the Rhodes Scholarships.
The Women's Progressive Association of New South Wales' President wrote to Professor Parkin, asking that women be allowed to compete, but was infomed that they were for residential students; and, as these colleges only admitted male students to residence, women could not participate in the benefits of these scholarships.
America led the van in the higher education of women. With them women had shared toils, braved dangers, and led a freer, fuller life. Later ideals of rights and privileges were pioneered by Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, and Mrs. Cady Stanton. In 1803, out of 48 academies, only three were for women. The number has rapidly increased - infact, causing a complete reversal, as teaching in America is now mainly carried on by women. All social, industrial, commercial and professional paths are open to them. They practiced as docotrs and lawyers, even attaining the positions of magistrates and judges in some of the States.
This marvellous progress in America gave an impetus to the forward movement in Europe and Australia. All now enjoy the privilege of higher education, enter into industrial, commercial, and professional pursuits, except. the legal. The Benchers of Gray's Inn have just refused an application made by a lady law student to be admitted to the Bar. She appealed to the House of Lords, appearing in person ; she urged that there was no rule against the admission of women to the Inns of Court. They refused on the shifty plea that there was no precedent.
New South Wales, Tasmania, and Western Australia followed suit, and refused applications made by lady law students. Yet in Norway, France, America, and New Zealand women are admitted, and have won distinction. In medical circles, women are appointed to the highest positions in America, Great Britain, and other European countries, also New Zealand and South Australia. In New South Wales the Women's Progressive Association took the matter up with success. Women doctors have been appointed on the staffs of public institutions, the latest being an assistant medical officer to Callan Park Asylum, one to the Department of Public Instruction, and two as assistant demonstrators of anatomy to the Sydney University. The same association is moving in the cause of the women law students. There is urgent need for purification of the laws, and greater justice in their administration, and this will be materially assisted by the advent of women.
Women are advancing in art and journalistic literature in Southern Europe, especially in France and Italy, countries once so famous for their noble women. Spain is also arousing - Spain, whose Queen Isabella assisted in discovering the new world, and thus providing homes for millions then unborn. The great advance of the eighteenth century in the industrial and intellectual position of women needed security to ensure its permanence. What could give this security? Only one thing-"the vote." Recognising this, a world-wide agitation was set on foot. Four States of America have granted it. In Europe it is slowly gaining ground. In democratic Australia it is an accomplished fact. The Commonwealth has granted it. New South Wales, Western Australia, and Tasmania have conferred State adult suffrage. It only remains for Victoria and Queensland to do the same. Surely they will not place the stigma on their sisters of being less worthy, less fit to receive political emancipation than their sisters in the other States. The interests of women demand it. As the keystone solidifies the arch, so will that mighty lever, the vote, solidify the privileges already gained, right the wrongs that still exist. The women of the Commonwealth of Australia stand in the unique position of being citizens of the only nation in the world which has absolute adult suffrage, and thus a sceptre has been placed in their hands, the judicious wielding of which, guided by head and heart, can crush out greed, sectarian animosity, can uplift humanity, and place this bright, prosperous young nation in the forefront of the world.
Let the women of Australia realise their grave responsibilities, and still greater possibilities. Let them organise in the cause of home, of morality, of stability, and progress. Let their influence, radiating from the home, the school, and public life, permeate the nation, instilling ideals of honour, justice, truth and humanity. Then, indeed, will the day of the sweater, seducer, and oppressor have forever passed away.
Let them organise to bring about a cessation of unjust wars by conciliation and arbitration. How many leisured and cultured Catholic women can begin this divine work? Can they have a nobler mission? As women, according to an eminent authority, Dr. Blair, " when blessed with true gentleness, have the power of persuasion fraught with sweetness of instruction," men will follow, perhaps tardily at first, but follow they will; as the same writer also said: " The prevailing customs depend more than we are aware of, or are willing to allow, on the conduct of the women ; this is one of the things on which the greatest machine of human society turns." Referring to the influence of women on polishing the manners of men, he says: " How much it is to be regretted that women should ever sit down contented to polish when they are able to reform, to entertain where they might instruct." Another remarks: "As we call our first language our mother tongue, so we may justly call our first tempers our mother tempers."
Enfranchised women of Australia, rise to your responsibilities, to your potentialities ; enlist the sympathies and aid of your brothers of the Church ; ask Divine guidance, and go forward, never resting, never looking back, but working on till Australia demonstrates to the world what a living force for good enlightened, enfranchised women may become, and thus may cause older nations to shake off musty, conservative traditions that fetter progress. Then, instead of being ruled by the dead hand of the past, they will emerge into the glorious light of prosperity, peace, and freedom.
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