The Woman Question in Europe WORK
| Title | The Woman Question in Europe |
|---|---|
| Is same as work | The Woman Question in Europe |
| Author | Theodore Stanton |
| Reference | |
| Place | |
| Date | 1884 |
| Quotation | |
| Type | WORK |
| VIAF | |
| Notes | ['Source: https://archive.org/details/womanquestionine00stanrich \n\nPage 315-316:\n"In a footnote to the article on the woman\'s movement in Italy, Theodore Stanton writes of Mozzoni: Miss Mozzoni is one of the ablest and most active leaders of the women\'s movement in Italy. She is the author of several thoughtful publications on the various phases of the woman question, and is an eloquent orator, as I can vouch, having listened to her opening address at the Paris congress mentioned in the text. But her grandest oratorical effort was the speech delivered in February, 1881, at the Universal Suffrage Congress of Rome, when she offered and supported a resolution in favor of women\'s suffrage, which was carried by a large majority. (See the Free Religious Index, of Boston, May 19, 1881, where I gave a complete translation of this speech.) Miss Mozzoni wrote me from Milan in August, 1882; "Since 1878, when I published my little pamphlet on the \'Civil and Political Condition of Italian Women\' (Delle condizioni civili e solitiche delle Italiane) nothing has changed, except that the progress of socialism is slowly liberalizing public opinion on the woman question, and that the number of female students in the universities increases every year. The development of the higher education of women is checked by the difficulties attending their admission to the gymnasiums, which depends entirely upon the good-will of the professors. I had to make a vigorous personal effort in order to secure a place for girls in the Milan gymnasium. When it was perceived that my friends in the Chamber intended to interpellate the ministry on the subject, the authorities yielded, and to-day girls may pursue their studies at our State schools. During the year 1881-2 there were twenty-five female students at the Milanese School of Fine Arts, several of whom have shown remarkable talent. Public opinion in northern Italy is more advanced on the woman question than the actual situation would seem to warrant. Our women are very intelligent, and there is a tendency among them-especially at Milan-toward liberal ideas. The extraordinary density of the population in this portion of Italy will be for a long time to come a great impediment to their admission to industrial pursuits and public employments. The most insignificant post is sought after by scores of capable men who are very jealous of aspiring women. Public opinion does not rebuff women who seek employment, but it does not aid and encourage them. In a word, we advance slowly. People know that we are in the right, they recognize the justice of our claims, and hold us, who preach the new doctrine, in esteem. But the generation which governs to-day fought for liberty; it was not brought up in liberty. Since the unification of Italy, we have gained a point or two in the code. Divorce and affiliation stand high on the calendar of Parliament, though I am aware that they will not be passed without a long struggle. The Senate, the nobility, the clergy, the queen—who is very devout, very aristocratic and not very intelligent—hesitate at every reform measure. There will be another hard-fought battle over the proposed administrative suffrage, but I think we shall here come off victors. The League for the Promotion of Women\'s Interests (Legapromof rice degli interessi femminili), of which I have the honor to be president, was founded at Milan in 1881. It is a very active organization, and counts among its members senators, deputies, priests, professors of the university, distinguished writers of both sexes, and a large number of working-men and women."'] |
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