1887. It is frequently said in criticism that
women have School Suffrage in twenty-six States and Territories,
including the five mentioned above, but they do not make use of it in
large numbers. What this fragmentary suffrage includes, the
restrictions thrown around it and the obstacles placed in its way, are
described in the chapters of those States and Territories where it
prevails--Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky,
Massachusetts, Minnesota, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota,
New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South
Dakota, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin.

It will be seen that in New York women tax-payers in villages, and in
Louisiana and Montana all tax-paying women, may vote on questions
submitted for taxation, and an account is given of the first use which
women made of this privilege in Louisiana in 1899. In Iowa all women
may vote on the issuing of bonds. In Mississippi they have the merest
form of a franchise on a few matters connected with country schools
and the running at large of stock. In Arkansas they may sign a
petition against liquor selling within certain limits and their names
count for as much as men's. After a careful study of the situation the
wonder will not be that women do not exercise more largely these
grudgingly-given and closely-restricted privileges, but that in many
States they think it worth while to exercise them at all. In the four,
however, where they have the Full Suffrage, and in Kansas where they
have the Municipal, the official figures which have been carefully
tabulated will demonstrate beyond further controversy that where they
possess exactly the same electoral rights as men they use them in
even a larger proportion. These statistics answer conclusively the
question, "Do women want to vote?"

The information as to Office-Holding is necessarily somewhat desultory
as there is no record in any State of the women in office. This is
true even of those pertaining to the schools, and in very few cases
does the State Superintendent of Public Instruction know how many
women are serving as county superintendents and members of school
boards. The information on these points contained in the State
chapters was secured principally through personal investigation and by
an extended correspondence, and while it is believed to be entirely
correct so far as it goes, it does not by any means include the total
number of offices filled by women.