WOMAN'S WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 205, 27 February 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD.

(Conducted by "ffiUM"). NOTES FROM LONDON. WOMEN'S WORK IN NEW ZEALAND. London, January 10. "Women's Work in New Zealand" is the title in a spirited article written by Lady Stout in yesterday's issue of the Standard, in reply to allegations made by various correspondents lately concerning the effect that the bestowal of votes on women has had on the general community of New Zealand. Twenty Acts for the protection of women and children that have been brought about by equal suffrage are cited by Lady Stout, and she denies with cutting vigor and enthusiasm silly assertions as to the secular system of education, "the increasing immorality in the community," "a dangerous Labor Government," etc*, dealing out to the statement, "With the exception of some influence on the question of New Zealand defence, the New Zealand woman has no right to meddle with Imperial affairs," the following:—"The New Zealand woman has as much right as the New Zealand man or the British elector to meddle in Imperial affairs, and her influence and example should shame the men of Britain and arouse them to the need of national service. The women of England are fighting for equality of citizenship, the protection of women and children in industrial and social life, l and the right to their children and their persons, which we in New Zealand have secured, and have the power to further extend by our votes." WOMEN TRADE UNIONISTS. There are almost a quarter of a million women members of trade unions in England. PRACTICAL EMPLOYMENT BUREAU. An employment bureau on new and, it appears, eminently practical lines, was recently opened in New York's congested foreign quarter by the head of the Sister"hood of Social Workers. There is here •.not only an extensive labor bureau to ensure work for mothers who must keep £heir homes together, but a nursery training school, where the women's, babies can be kept during the day, and where cjther children will be taken as nurses, and gWen lessons in all that is necessary 1 for them to know as children's nurses. I WOMEN PARISH COUNCILLORS.

,The Superior Consistory of the Lutheran Church of Alsace-Lorraine have re-1 cently decided to give women the right I to' vote for and serve as members of parish councils in that province, an &c-" tion that has aroused a veritable ants' nest of controversy in Germany, where the question of woman suffrage is being. fought, and where women will' ,;hail the decision as a distinctly good komen. It is interesting to note that • Alsace-Lorraine is only following the Lutheran Church in America in its reform, and that the Dutch Reformed Church contemplates the same departure. - VIENNESE WOMEN ARTISTS. 'After considerable agitation the Academy of Music, the universities, and the industrial and technological schools have one by one been open to women in Austria, and a Bill is now before the Reichsrath asking that women should be allowed to matriculate as ordinary scholars in the National Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Vienna. So far this is being opposed by some members of the committee, so that the outcome is uncertain. The principal of the Academy votes in favor of the passing of the measure. MEDICINE FOR WOMEN. A leader in the movement at Edinburgh University years ago for the medical training of women passed away last . Sunday in the person of Dr. Sophia Jex"lake, the founder of the Edinburgh : School of Medicine for Women and of !the Edinburgh Dispensary for Women and Children, author of various medical books, a brilliant medico, and a leader j whose memory all women doctors will cherish in these days of greater enlightenment.

Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the wellknown pioneer, who passed away not long ago, was Dr. Jex-Blake's first inspirer, when the latter, on a visit to America in 1866, decided to take up the profession of medicine. For a coupl» of years she took a regular course of study in Boston, then coming over te England to start work for a university degree here, following in the steps of the distinguished woman who is now Dr. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. This was in 1868. In 1865, after much hullabaloo, Dr. Garrett Anderson had succeeded in getting her name placed on the British Medical Register, an example Miss Jexißlake might have felt justified in following. The authorities, however, after this one bold step, finding that several other ladies wished to take up medicine, dxew back in a panic, with the dira result that practically every door was closed against the entrance of more women into the profession, so far as Great Britain was concerned. Under the Medical Act of 1858 no person could be put on the Register unless holding a license, dip-1 loma or. degree granted by a British examining board. None of the British medical schools, however, would admit a woman student to their public classes, and though the Society of Apothecaries had agreed to reeognise Miss Elizabeth Garrett's private studies, they afterwards resolved not to do so in the case of anyone else.

In 1869 Miss Jex-Blake applied in the first instance to the University of London, but was refused. Seeking for admissian to the medical classes of the University of Edinburgh, the same thing happened. However, several other ladies joined her, and the result of the united application was that regulations were passed "for the education of women in medicine in the University" in separate classes. Thus after seven months' discussion Miss Jex-Blake and her friends were at last admitted as medical students, and for a few months they pursued their studies quietly. But when the class lists were issued a good deal of illfeeling was provoked by the announcement that the female studdnts had attained a higher degree of success than the males, while the fact that more ladies were coming forward aroused against them a strong hostility in certain medical circles. Impediments of all kinds began to be thrown in their way, and when Miss Jex-Blake and her companions asked permission to study in the wards of the Edinburgh Infirmary the behaviour of some of the male students became extremely hostile, a guard of friendly men students actually having to form themselves together for some days to accompany the little band of women to and from their work. The result of continual agitations on the part of the men was, however, disastrous, for the lecturers at Surgeons' Hall passed a resolution which amounted to a total prohibition of the attendance of ladies at the classes, and, notwithstanding a petition signed by 9000 women praying that the female students should be allowed to complete their studies, the Senatus <le--1 cided by a majority not to take any Bteps in that direction. This decision was somewhat modified in January, 1872, when the University Court said that if the ladies would altogether give up the question of graduation, and be content with "certificates of proficiency," they would try to meet their views. But certificates of proficiency were not recognised by the Medical Act, and were.

therefore useless for the purposes of qualification. Legal action followed. The admission of ladies in the first'instance "was declared to have been illegal,, and Miss Jex-Blake and her little band of pioneers were called on to pay £844 by way of costs, as well as to face the realisation that they would now be re- i jected on all sides as medkos. In 1874 our heroine came to London, und took a leading part in establishing the London School of Medicine for Women, which was opened, and was in 1877 associated with the Royal Free Hospital, so that women were at iast enabled to secure both medical education and hospital experience. In the meantime Miss Jex-Blake obtained her M.D. from the University of Berne in 1877. In 1876 Mr. : Russell-Gurney's Bill, "enabling" the British examining bodies to extend their examinations and qualifications to women, became law. The King and Queen's College of Physicians, Dublin, was the first- to take advantage of the new Act, i and Dr. Jex-Blake became a licentiate of that college in 1877 and a member in 1880. She carried on a practice in Edinburgh for 19 years before she retired to Sussex, where last Sunday she passed, away. PERSONAL. Mrs. Geo. Stokes, who has been visiting her mother, Mrs. Humphries, left last night for her home in Auckland.