sentatives. The laws are very liberal to women. All of the educational institutions, the professions, occupations and many of the offices are open to them. They are members of the Boards of Education, Municipal Relief Committees and Parochial Boards. About six hundred have received university degrees.
In Norway, since 1889, in towns women with children may vote for school inspectors and be eligible to the school boards. In rural communes they are eligible as inspectors, and women who pay a school tax may vote on all school questions and officers, while those who pay no tax but have children may vote on all questions not involving expenditures. In 1884 a Woman Suffrage Association was formed under the leadership of Miss Gina Krog for the purpose of securing the Municipal Franchise. In 1890 a bill for this purpose received 44 out of 114 votes in the Parliament. It was then made an issue by the Liberal party. In 1895 a vote on Local Option was granted to women. In 1898 the Radical party secured universal suffrage for men without property restrictions. They then came to the assistance of women and were joined by a large number of Conservatives.
In 1901 Municipal Suffrage was granted to all women who pay taxes on an income of 300 crowns ($71) in country districts and 400 in cities. If husband and wife together pay taxes on this amount both may vote. About 200,000 women thus became electors. Women are found in many offices, in most occupations and professions, and are admitted to all educational institutions.
Iceland, since 1882, grants Municipal Suffrage to tax-paying widows and spinsters; since 1886 all women have had a parish suffrage, which enables them to vote in the selection of the clergy, who have a prominent part in public affairs.
At the Cape of Good Hope women have a limited vote. In the tiny Island of Pitcairn, in the Southern Pacific, they have the same suffrage as men. This is doubtless true of many isolated localities whose records are little known. Among primitive peoples the government is generally in the hands of the most competent without regard to sex, and some of these are still under the reign of the Matriarchate, or the rule of mothers, to whom belong the property and the children. The early Spanish inhabitants of the North American continent placed much authority in the hands of women, and the same is true of the Indian tribes.
