. They are members of the Boards of
Education, Municipal Relief Committees and Parochial Boards. About six
hundred have received university degrees.

In Norway, since 1889, in towns women with children may vote for
school inspectors and be eligible to the school boards. In rural
communes they are eligible as inspectors, and women who pay a school
tax may vote on all school questions and officers, while those who pay
no tax but have children may vote on all questions not involving
expenditures. In 1884 a Woman Suffrage Association was formed under
the leadership of Miss Gina Krog for the purpose of securing the
Municipal Franchise. In 1890 a bill for this purpose received 44 out
of 114 votes in the Parliament. It was then made an issue by the
Liberal party. In 1895 a vote on Local Option was granted to women. In
1898 the Radical party secured universal suffrage for men without
property restrictions. They then came to the assistance of women and
were joined by a large number of Conservatives. In 1901 Municipal
Suffrage was granted to all women who pay taxes on an income of 300
crowns ($71) in country districts and 400 in cities. If husband and
wife together pay taxes on this amount both may vote. About 200,000
women thus became electors. Women are found in many offices, in most
occupations and professions, and are admitted to all educational
institutions.

Iceland, since 1882, grants Municipal Suffrage to tax-paying widows
and spinsters; since 1886 all women have had a parish suffrage, which
enables them to vote in the selection of the clergy, who have a
prominent part in public affairs.

At the Cape of Good Hope women have a limited vote. In the tiny Island
of Pitcairn, in the Southern Pacific, they have the same suffrage as
men. This is doubtless true of many isolated localities whose records
are little known. Among primitive peoples the government is generally
in the hands of the most competent without regard to sex, and some of
these are still under the reign of the Matriarchate, or the rule of
mothers, to whom belong the property and the children. The early
Spanish inhabitants of the North American continent placed much
authority in the hands of women, and the same is true of the Indian
tribes.

CHAPTER LXXV.

NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS OF WOMEN.

The most conspicuous and significant movement which challenges
attention at the beginning of the new century is that toward
organization, and the three great c