re 273 women teachers to
145 men teachers. In 1903 the railroads employed 511 women; in 1898 the
postal service employed 4516 women; in 1899 the telephone system employed
207 women (and 81 men). These women employees, unlike those of Austria,
are permitted to marry.

CHAPTER II

THE ROMANCE COUNTRIES

In the Romance countries the woman's rights movement is hampered by
Romance customs and by the Catholic religion. The number of women in these
countries is in many cases smaller than the number of men. In general, the
girls are married at an early age, almost always through the negotiations
of the parents. The education of women is in some respects very deficient.

FRANCE

Total population: 38,466,924.
Women: 19,346,369.
Men: 18,922,651.

Federation of French Women's Clubs.
Woman's Suffrage League.

The European woman's rights movement was born in France; it is a child of
the Revolution of 1789. When a whole country enjoys freedom, equality, and
fraternity, woman can no longer remain in bondage. The Declaration of the
Rights of Man apply to Woman also. The European woman's rights movement is
based on purely logical principles; not, as in the United States, on the
practical exercise of woman's right to vote. This purely theoretical
origin is not denied by the advocates of the woman's rights movement in
France. It ought to be mentioned that the principles of the woman's rights
movement were brought from France to England by Mary Wollstonecraft, and
were stated in her pamphlet, _A Vindication of the Rights of Women_. But
enthusiastic Mary Wollstonecraft did not form a school in England, and the
organized English woman's rights movement did not cast its lot with this
revolutionist. What Mary Wollstonecraft did for England, Olympe de Gouges
did for France in 1789; at that time she dedicated to the Queen her little
book, _The Declaration of the Rights of Women_ (_La declaration des droits
des femmes_). It happened that The Declaration of the Rights of Man (_La
declaration des droits de l'homme_) of 1789 referred only to the men. The
National Assembly recognized only male voters, and refused the petition of
October 28, 1789, in which a number of Parisian women demanded universal
suffrage in the election of national representatives. Nothing is more
peculiar than the attitude of the men advocates of liberty toward the
women advocates of liberty. At that time woman's struggle for