WOMAN'S RIGHTS 701 works include ErzdJilungen (2 vols., Stuttgart, 1826-'7) ; Schiller's Leben (2 vols., 1830 ; new eds., 1845 and 1851) ; Cordelia (2 vols., Leipsic, 1840; 2d ed., 1845); and Literarischer Nach- lass (2 vols, 1848-'9; 2d ed., 1867). WOMAN'S RIGHTS, a question involving the political, industrial, educational, and general social status of women, and their legal rights and disabilities. It embraces topics treated under ALIMONY, DIVORCE, HUSBAKD AND WIFE, MAERIAGE, and MARRIAGE SETTLEMENTS, and a popular movement which demands for women the same public rights and opportunities that are enjoyed by male citizens. This movement began in the United States in the middle of the present century, in connection with the anti-slavery agitation, with which it at first identified itself. The first conventions were held at Seneca Falls and Rochester in 1848, under the auspices of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, Mrs. Stebbins, and Frederick Douglass. Among other early advocates of the cause were Lucretia Mott, Paulina Wright Davis, Ernestine L. Rose, Frances D. Gage, and Sarah Tyndale. In 1851 Susan B. Anthony presided at a convention in Syracuse, with the cooperation of Lucy Stone and Antoinette L. Brown. Annual conventions assembled at New York from 1852 till the outbreak of the civil war. In 1863 Miss Anthony organized the " Loyal Women's League." Among other subsequent bodies was the " American Suf- frage Association," chiefly in the New England states, of which Mary A. Livermore and Julia Ward Howe were the principal founders. The " National Woman's Suffrage Association " opened its ninth annual meeting in New York, May 10, 1876. Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage pro- posed a woman's declaration of independence for July 4, 1876. Mrs. Stanton was elected president for the ensuing year, and Lucretia Mott and others vice presidents, representing every state in the Union. The other officers were Miss Anthony, Laura Curtis Bullard, Lillie Devereux Blake, Ellen 0. Sargent, and Jane Graham Jones. The elective franchise and the right to sit on juries were granted to women in Wyoming territory, Dec. 10, 1869, and the former in Utah in 1870. The con- stitutional amendment for female suffrage was adopted in Iowa in 1876 by the house, and was barely defeated in the senate. In that state women have been for several years ap- pointed notaries public, and chosen directors in school districts and county superintendents of common schools. The legality of their tenure of the last office, being contested, was finally confirmed in 1876 by both branches of the legislature, with but few dissenting votes. The discussion of female political rights was recently revived in the legislature of New York. The many petitions lately presented to various legislative bodies included one by the women of the District of Columbia to the house of representatives on March 31, 1876, the centen- nial anniversary of an application said to have been made by Mrs. Abigail Adams to her hus- band, John Adams, urging him to shape the organic laws so as to enable women to protect their own rights. In several states women who pay school taxes are allowed to vote at school meetings. Illinois admits them by statute to the legal profession, and it is open to them in some other states. The state librarian of Michi- gan is now (1876) a woman, and in New York one was recently appointed commissioner of the state charities. Women were first ap- pointed to clerkships in the public departments at Washington under President Lincoln ; hun- dreds have since been employed there, and are found to be especially expert and accurate in handling money in the treasury. At several universities they are admitted as students and receive academical degrees. Elizabeth Black- well was in 1849 the first to receive the degree of M. D., conferred upon her by the medical school at Geneva, N. Y. In 1854 she and her sister Emily opened the New York in- firmary for women and children, greatly as- sisted by Mary Elizabeth Zakrzewska, the ori- ginator of the scheme ; the latter graduated at the medical school of Cleveland, and in 1863 founded a great institution at Boston, serving under her direction both as a hospital and a school. Antoinette L. Brown (Black well) was among the first to be ordained as a minister of religion, at Henrietta, N. Y. ; and many other women have chosen the clerical, medical, and legal professions, or excelled as lecturers. The American machinery of conventions for the promotion of reforms does not prevail in England; but owing to the larger prepon- derance of women employed there in hard labor and under adverse circumstances as gov- ernesses and in other callings, the movement is gaining ground in London and other cities. Mary Wollstonecraft, wife of William Godwin, was among the pioneers. Her " Vindication of the Rights of Women" (London, 1791) led Frances Wright to disseminate the same views in the United Staters. John Stuart Mill and his wife gave a powerful impulse to the cause in both hemispheres. On May 2, 1867, he moved an amendment to the reform bill in favor of female suffrage, on the ground that the con- stitution made taxation and representation co- existent, and that it had been granted in coun- ties and boroughs in previous eras. The amend- ment was rejected by 196 votes; but 76 favor- ed it, including Sir G. Bowyer and Prof. Faw- cett. In 1869 Russell Gurney, the recorder of London, put forward a bill, originally proposed by Mr. Locke King, for protecting the 800,000 wage-earning and other married women in their property. In 1870 it was adopted, but so much modified in the house of lords that women still remain incompetent to use, be- queath, or hold their own money. The ele- mentary education act of 1870 made women eligible to school boards ; and at the first elec- tion, toward the close of that year, Dr. Eliza- beth Anderson-Garrett, a well known advocate
