Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic]

BERTHA M. HONORÉ PALMER,

President Board of Lady Managers, World's Columbian Exposition; President Woman's Branch World's Congresses of 1893.

WORLD'S CONGRESS OF REPRESENTATIVE

WOMEN.

CHAPTER I.- THE INTRODUCTION.

SUMMARY AND COMMENT BY THE EDITOR-SELECTED PARAGRAPHS FROM THE FORMAL ADDRESSES AND IMPROMPTU SPEECHES DELIVERED AT THE MORNING AND EVENING SESSIONS OF THE GENERAL CONGRESS, MAY 15, 1893, BY CHARLES C. BONNEY, BERTHA HONORÉ PALMER, ELLEN M. HENROTIN, MAY WRIGHT SEWALL, THE COUNTESS OF ABERDEEN, FLORENCE FENWICK MILLER, JANE COBDEN UNWIN, HANNA BIEBER-BOEHM, IsaBELLE BOGELOT, MARGARET WINDEYER, AUGUSTA FOERSTER, BARONESS THORBORG-RAPPE, CALLIRRHOË PARREN, JOSEFA HUMPAL-ZEMAN, KAETHE SCHIRMACHER, KIRSTINE FREDERIKSEN, MRS. JOHN HARVIE, HULDA LUNDIN, DR. AUGUSTA STOWE GULLEN, MRS. FOSTER, MARY MCDONNELL, ELIZABETH M. TILLEY, LAURA ORMISTON CHANT, MARGARET V. PARKER, NICO BECK-MEYER AND MERI TOPPELIUS-EDITORIAL COMMENT - EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE CLOSING SESSION OF THE GENERAL CONGRESS BY MAY WRIGHT SEWALL.

THE

HE two volumes now given to the public contain an abridged record of the proceedings of a group of meetings probably among the most remarkable ever convened. This is not said in forgetfulness of the councils of Nice and Trent, of the pregnant interview between King John and his Barons, and of the first Continental Congress; but in the belief that with these, and with similar creedmaking, epoch-making assemblies, the World's Congress of Representative Women must be counted.

The addresses and discussions partially reproduced in these volumes have no mean degree of intrinsic value and interest; but only when they are read in the light that it is hoped will be thrown upon them by this introduction can

their entire significance and suggestiveness be understood. In this light, whether one considers its origin or its motive, its dramatis person@, or the character and the range of the topics discussed in it, it will appear that the World's Congress of Representative Women was not only an event in the social history of our country, but a mile-stone in the evolution of our race.

The preparations for the Congress, characterized by a remarkable unanimity of purpose among those engaged therein, were met by a corresponding unanimity of sympathy among those invited to participate in the programme, and in other ways to promote its success. Notwithstanding the prevailing sympathy, invitations were now and again answered with the questions, "Why hold a congress of representative women any more than a congress of representative men?" "Since women are to be permitted, nay, invited and solicited, to have a place on the committees of arrangements, the advisory councils, and the programmes of most if not all of the hundred other congresses to be held in behalf of as many different classes, subjects, and interests, why hold a separate, exclusive congress of women at all?"

The uniform reply to such queries was, in substance, that in all the other congresses women would appear, not in the rôle of women, so to speak, but in that of teacher, physician, preacher, author, stenographer, insurance agent, banker, archæologist, philanthropist, etc., to discuss, in company with men belonging to the same professions, engaged in the same businesses, and interested in the same themes, the questions pertaining to their respective professions and avocations.

It was admitted that by their presence and participation in these various congresses women would illustrate incidentally the changing attitude of the world toward themselves, as women; but it was urged that such incidental illustration would present most inadequately the revolu tion wrought in recent years in the world's conception of

woman's natural capabilities and her consequent just position, while it would fail utterly to record or commemorate the struggle through which some women (aided by some men) have won for all women the place conceded to them in modern life. The motive of the entire scheme of the Congress Auxiliary was to ascertain and exhibit the present status of the human race in respect to all important activi ties; to all great movements; to all fundamental interests. No interest can be more fundamental than that at once expressed and awakened by the questions: What is the relation of one-half of the race to the other half? to the whole? What is its part in the development of the whole and in the work of the world? As no question can be more fundamental than these, so none has been more persistently asked; and it must be added, that none has received more answers or more contradictory ones.

The importance attached to women's entertaining a proper conception of their powers, position, and scope can be inferred from the number of dissertations of all kindssermons, essays, tracts, lectures, and letters-that clergymen, teachers, scientists, and moralists have devoted to it; a number which, in comparison with that devoted to men's conception of their position and scope, seems disproportionate.

That women have been dissatisfied with the conceptions of their place in the divine economy enjoined upon them by men, that they have been discontented in the position. arbitrarily assigned to them, is evident from the changes in this conception and position conceded already, and from the efforts being made to secure further changes. Nay, it is evident that women are dissatisfied with any conception of themselves, with any position which implies their natural, necessary, and, therefore, perpetual subordination to men.

It is easy to say that the changes already made in the interpretation of woman, and in the laws, the customs and ideals concerning her, are but the modifications incidental to the general development and improvement of the human race.

« PreviousContinue »