such law must be ratified by a majority of the
voters at a general election.

OFFICE HOLDING: There is no law authorizing women to hold any elective
office except such as pertains to schools, but they have been eligible
to these since 1869. Eighteen women have served as county
superintendents at the same time; nine are acting at present. They sit
on school boards in a number of cities.

In the Legislature women act as enrolling and engrossing clerks, and
as clerks and stenographers to committees. They are also found as
clerks, copyists and stenographers in the various elective and
appointive State, city and county offices.

In the State institutions they are employed as teachers, matrons,
bookkeepers, supervisors, State agents for placing dependent children,
etc. The Milwaukee Industrial School for Girls, supported partly by
public and partly by private funds, is the only institution managed
entirely by women.

There are no women physicians at any of the State institutions. One
woman was appointed county physician in Waukesha, and one or two have
been made city physicians.

The office of police matron was established by city ordinance in
Milwaukee in 1884. There is none in any other city.

Women act as notaries public and court commissioners.

Women could not sit on any State Boards until the Legislature of 1901
authorized the appointment of one woman on the Board of Regents for
the State University, and one on that of the State Normal School. It
also authorized the appointment of a woman State Factory Inspector.

OCCUPATIONS: No profession or occupation is legally forbidden to
women.

EDUCATION: In 1851 the regents of the State University took a stand in
favor of co-education. In 1866 an Act reorganizing the university
declared that in all its departments it should be opened to male and
female students; but owing to prejudices it was not until 1873 that
complete co-education was established, although women were graduated
in 1869. All institutions of learning are open alike to both sexes.

In the public schools there are 2,654 men and 9,811 women teachers.
The average monthly salary of the men is $41; of the women, $29.50.

FOOTNOTES:

[464] The History is indebted for most of the material in this chapter
to the Rev. Olympia Brown of Racine, president of the State Woman
Suffrage Association since 1884.

[465] The other officers at present are: Vice-presidents, Mrs. Ellen
A. Rose and Mrs. Madge Waters;