Mercer County, Illinois - Chapter 12: The Legal, Financial and Other Rights of Women, 1914

The oppression of women by the other sex is an illustration of the cruelty and tyranny of men. In the earlier stages of the human family, married women had no rights, legal or financial, that were recognized by men. The latter, bv reason of their superior physical strength, tyrannized over women and were cruel beyond expression. In the earlier stages of the human family the man could take the life of his wife with impunity. She was condemned to perform all of the drudgery and hard labor and she could not own or possess any property in her own right.

As the nomadic condition of tribes changed to that of a more permanent home, women's influences became greater and the husband treated her with more leniency and respect, and gradually the laws and customs of society became such that the husband could no longer take the life of his wife without being prosecuted as a criminal, but he still held her in bondage, largely, and she was still practically his slave, condemned to perform the greater part of the menial labor and largely to support the family.

By the boasted common law of England with the encomiums of Blackstone thereon, and which is still largely praised by the lawyers of the present day as the wisest and best laws ever devised, a woman had no right after marriage to earn or acquire property in her own right. If she owned any property when she was married, her personal property immediately passed to the possession of her husband; this included her money and all other personal property, except her wearing apparel; and if she owned any real estate, her husband immediately became entitled to the rents and profits of the same during the life of the wife. If a child was born to such marriage, the husband became entitled to the rents and profits of her real estate during his lifetime, although the wife might die the next day.

A married woman could neither sue nor be sued by the common law of England, and Blackstone says that a man could flog his wife and correct her by physical punishment. This boasted common law

The woman received very little education and was shut off from the colleges until recent times, and the churches joined largely in keeping women in absolute subjugation to the other sex. St. Paul ordered them to keep their heads covered in church and be silent, and suggested that they should obey their husbands, and the church ritual provided in the marriage ceremony the woman should promise to obey the man. All the old religions practically ignored woman, and until the Christian religion set aside the Jewish, she had no place in religious privileges and promises. Woman could do nothing but protest against this enslavement, and she had to submit quietly to all demands of her husband.

Among other things the husband, in case of separation of husband and wife, was entitled to the custody of the children even in tender years. However, in the courts of Illinois, the judge in a contest would almost always give the wife the custody of the children during the tender years of infancy, and public opinion was so strongly manifested against a man for whipping his wife that he was almost universally despised. Physical punishment of the wife came to be regarded as cruelty and she would be entitled to a divorce for repeated cruel treatment.

In 1 861 the Legislature of Illinois enacted what was usually known as "The Married Woman's Act," which provided that a married woman should possess, control and own personal property, that she could sue for the same, and that she could be sued for any indebtedness, or for what is legally known as a tort. She could receive and use the rents of her real estate, but until 1874 sne could not sell or convey her real property without her husband's joining in the deed with her, but by that act she could convey her real estate without her husband joining. The courts were still so adverse to the law that after the act of 1861 they construed it very strictly until the passage of the acts of 1867 and 1869, which were so strongly expressive of the married women's rights that the judges were compelled to construe the law more liberally. The law of 1869 also gave a married woman the right of her own earnings after marriage.

But women married or unmarried had not the right of franchise upon any question under the laws of Illinois until 1 891 , when they were permitted to vote for school offices, and subsequently by an act of the Illinois Legislature, women were eligible to act as school directors. In 191 3, by an act of the Legislature, women were empowered to vote, who had the same qualifications of residence and age as men were required to have, for all statutory offices - that is, all offices that are not provided for by the constitution of the state. After the passage of this act women voted at the next election for city and township officers and others, and on questions ot local option, but their right to vote was questioned, and it was decided by the Circuit Court in favor of the right in this regard. An appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of the state and the decision has just recently been announced sustaining the right of women to vote under this act of 191 3. This settles the question so far as to the right of women to vote for all statutory offices or upon all statutory questions on the same terms as men are entitled to vote. There had been for many years a spirited contest by many women for a change of the common law, and for a right to vote and to hold offices on equal term with the men.

The women of Mercer County, with the other women of the state, took a lively interest in this question, and in 1871 there was a literary society organized in the Congregational Church, Aledo, composed of women. During its existence, they secured a number of lecturers, among whom were Susan B. Anthonv, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Phoebe Cousins. These three women were strong "equal rights women." Miss Susan B. Anthony assisted the women of Aledo in organizing a woman's suffrage society, of which Mrs. Martha F. Mathews was made president and Miss Amanda D. Frazier, secretary. Soon after this organization was formed there was a national women's suffrage convention held in St. Louis, Missouri. Among the number of ladies who went from Aledo were Mrs. Martha F. Mathews, Mrs. Emeline Graham and Misses Matilda and Amanda Frazier. Miss Amanda Frazier served as secretary for that great body. Mrs. Martha Mathews is the only one now living of the women who were members of that society- Women were permitted by law to hold the office of county superintendent of schools and Miss West was about this time elected to fill that office in Knox County, and in 1873 Miss Amanda Frazier was elected in Mercer County. The latter made a very efficient superintendent of schools. It is universally conceded that she and Miss West had shown a capability for that office superior to that of many of the other sex who had filled the position. Since that time women have filled that office in different counties of the state, with eminent satisfaction and ability, but the political bosses have most generally combined to prevent them from being elected or nominated to fill the office, for the reason that they want a man nominated, who will have more influence in getting voters to support their nominees. Other women later were active upon this subject, but had no organization, and after women were empowered to vote at school elections there was much activity among the great number of the women in the county, not only in voting at the election for school officers, but in advocating a change of the law, so as to give them the right to vote upon all questions the same as was exercised under the law by men.

The right of women to hold any political or municipal office was not recognized until recently, except in a few countries where she could by the laws become a reigning sovereign, a queen, or a duchess, as the case might be. But where she simply had the title of queen, as the wife of the king, she was subject even to be put to death by the order of the king, as was the case in England by Henry VIII as late as the sixteenth century. He had two of his wives executed, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. Elizabeth, first queen of England, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, made a very brilliant record, and there was Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII, and Anne Stuart, daughter of James II, and her sister, Mary, who however, reigned jointly with her husband, William III, and subsequently Queen Victoria. Some of these women showed great ability.

There is no statute or law in Illinois by which a woman can hold any political office except that of school director, trustee, superintendent and notary public. There was a very thorough argument in a case in Illinois just decided, holding the validity of the law authorizing women to vote for all statutory offices, and the case was most thoroughly considered by the members of the Supreme Court. It was sustained by a bare majority of four out of seven judges, and Justice Cooke wrote a very lengthy, able, but ineffective dissenting opinion. The vote of the women in this first election under the law of 1913 put at rest the argument often made that women would not turn out to vote, because there was quite a heavy vote. On one question particularly - the saloon question, more generally known as the wet and dry question - they voted heavily. The vote of the women in a majority of the election precincts was against saloons, and in a great many of them decided the question for the drys. In Mercer County the one place where saloons were licensed was Keithsburg,

With reference to the education of women in Illinois, as well as in other places, there was quite a struggle for coeducation of the sexes in the colleges. In former years a woman could enter the great majority of the colleges, but in some of the states they were insulted and hooted and almost driven away from the school. Now nearly all colleges are open to women the same as to men, and it has come to be regarded necessary for women not only to have an education in music, good manners, etc., but in classics, sciences and domestic duties. Gradually laws for the better protection and elevation of women in the most of the foreign countries, and especiallv in the United States, and in the State of Illinois, have been passed. Such laws were passed and are now being enforced generally against what is called the white slave trade, the degradation of women; and the men are laboring as hard as the women to have such laws enforced. For the same purpose also laws have been enacted protecting young women from the social evil, all of which shows that men have become convinced of the real civilizing value of women, and are doing much to improve not only the laws which are necessary for their protection, but for their social and religious ideals, her real position in the familv and in societv, giving her more influence and power which she is exercising for the good of the home.

Among the other laws in Illinois have been those protecting her in various employments in which she was compelled or induced to labor too many hours, and under conditions which injured her health. In the first instance a law was held to be unconstitutional in the State of Illinois. In 1893 there was an act passed by the Legislature prohibiting the employment of women for more than eight hours of the twenty-four in any day, in shops and factories, and providing a penalty against the firm, company or corporation employing her for a longer period each day. Women were employed by a certain manufacturing firm in violation of that statute, and suit was brought and a fine of $5 imposed for a violation of the law by the Circuit Court. On appeal the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Circuit Court and held that the law was unconstitutional. (See Richie vs. the People, 155 111., page 98.) In 1909 the Legislature passed a similar statute prohibiting employment of women in factories for more than ten hours during any day. A suit was commenced against a manufacturing firm under this statute, and the lower court, following the decision made under the former statute, decided the law unconstitutional, and on appeal the Supreme Court reversed the deci- sion of the lower court, and held that the law was constitutional. This follows the ruling in several other states in which it was held that under the police power of the state, such statute was constitutional. The Illinois court in citing the latter case referred to the case decided in the 155 111., and cited the distinction in the wording of the former one prohibiting the employment for more than eight hours in the twenty-four hours, and the latter case prohibiting the employment for more than ten hours out of the twenty-four hours. Justice Hand, who wrote the opinion of the case, quoted with approbation what the Supreme Court of the United States had said, to wit : "Law is or ought to be a progressive science." There are many persons now both in the Legislature and in political conventions advocating a change of the Constitution, not only of the State of Illinois, but of the United States, giving women the right to vote upon all questions the same as is given to men.

The people of Mercer County were not, as will be seen, active participants in most of the foregoing matters, but they were affected by such matters, and took an interest in the proceedings of the courts in this and other states, and the growth and development of the law in favor of the enlargement of women's rights. Prior to the Civil war there were no avocations open to women in Mercer County, except the drudgery of housekeeping and manufacturing to a certain extent the cloth and garments for the family. Clerks and bookkeepers and salesmen in stores were confined entirely to the men arid teachers in the common schools were largely composed of men, being not more than one-tenth women. When the Civil war commenced the avocations were open to women as clerks, accountants, saleswomen, and largely as teachers in the common schools. They voluntarily also did much work on the farms and in other places that had been done by the men before they went into the army. After the close of the war the women continued in these avocations and as teachers in the common school. The order in which they stood to the other sex has changed, there being now only one male teacher to nine of women in the common schools, and women are found everywhere in the mercantile houses and other business places as accountants, cashiers and saleswomen, and in addition to that they are more numerous as stenographers than the other sex. They have thus been enabled to receive better pay for their services, and because of their employment in these vocations have become more independent. They do not receive, as a general thing, as much wage for their work as is given to the men who perform like services. It is alleged, however, that the reason that they do not receive as much for the same services as men, is on account of their physical and sexual constitutions. They are not able to endure as severe labor as the men, and they do not become as perfect and reliable in the performance of their work, as a general rule, as the other sex, because they cease to follow these vocations when they become married women, while the men, on the other hand, continue the same vocation after marriage and thereby become more proficient. But by reason of the employment to these avocations, women have become far more intelligent and independent and much better prepared to struggle with life than formerly.