afterwards, during the minority of such child, or for a less time." If the father abandon the family the mother becomes guardian, but she can not appoint one by will.
No law requires the husband to support wife or children.
The legal age for marriage is fourteen years for boys and twelve for girls.
By earnest pleading and continual petitioning during the past ten years women have secured the following: 1. The passage of a bill making women eligible as superintendents of county schools. 2. Police matrons in two cities — Memphis and Knoxville. 3. A law raising the "age of protection" for girls from 10 to 16 years (1893), but if over 12 the crime is only a misdemeanor. The penalty is, if under 12, "death by hanging, or, in the discretion of the jury, imprisonment in the penitentiary for life or for a period not less than ten years;" if over 12, "imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than three months nor more than ten years; provided no conviction shall be had on the unsupported testimony of the female . . . or if the female is a bawd, lewd or kept female." (1895.)
Suffrage: Women possess no form of suffrage.
Office Holding: Women are not eligible to any elective office except that of county superintendent of schools, which was provided for by special statute about 1890. They can not serve as school trustees.
For a number of years all the librarians and engrossing clerks of both Senate and House have been women. They can not set as notaries public.
Occupations: Women have engaged in the practice of law, but this was forbidden by a recent decision of the Supreme Court (1901). It was based on the ground that an attorney is a public officer, and as women are not legally entitled to hold public office they can not practice law.
Education: Degrees in law have been conferred upon several women at Vanderbilt University, for white students, and at Fiske University, for colored. All institutions of learning, except a few of a sectarian nature, are coeducational.
In the public schools there are 5,019 men and 4,195 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men (estimated) is $31.88; of the women, $26.18.
