Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/779

706 voters of the State of Kansas of a proposition to amend the constitution so as to admit of female suffrage. The vote on the adoption of the resolution stood 51 ayes and 31 noes in the House, and a tie in the Senate. Later in the same session, Hon. A. C. Pierce of Davis county introduced in the House a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the constitution which should confer the right of suffrage on any one over 21 years of age who had resided in the State six months. Mr. Hackney of Cowley county, introduced a like resolution in the Senate.

In December, 1881, Governor St. John appointed Mrs. Cora M. Downs one of the regents of the State University at Lawrence. In 1873, Mrs. Rice was elected to the office of county clerk of Harper county, and Miss Alice Junken to the office of recorder of deeds, in Davis county. In 1885 Miss Junken was reëlected by a majority of 500 over her competitor, Mrs. Fleming, while Trego county gave a unanimous vote for Miss Ada Clift as register of deeds.

In proportion to her population Kansas has as many women in the professions as any of the older States. We have lawyers, physicians, preachers and editors, and the number is constantly increasing. In Topeka there are eight practicing physicians, holding diplomas from medical colleges, and two or three who are not graduates. In the Woman's Medical College of Chicago, Kansas now has four representatives—Mrs. Sallie A. Goff of Lincoln, Miss Thomas of Olathe, Miss Cunningham of Garnett, and Miss Gilman of Pittsburg.

All female persons over the age of twenty-one years are entitled to vote at any school-district meeting on the same terms as men.

The right of a woman to hold any office, State (except member of the legislature), county, township or school-district, in the State of Kansas, is the same as that of a man. In 1882, six counties, viz., Chase, Cherokee, Greenwood, Labette, Pawnee, and Woodson, elected women as superintendents of public instruction.

Section 23, Article II., Constitution of Kansas, reads: "The legislature, in providing for the formation and regulation of schools, shall make no distinction between males and females."

Under the legislation based upon this clause of our constitution, males and females have equal privileges in all schools controlled by the State. The latest report of the State superintendent of public instruction shows that over one-half of the pupils of the Normal school, about two-fifths in the University, and nearly one-third in the Agricultural College, are females.

In the private institutions of learning, including both denominational and unsectarian, over one-half of the students are females who study in the same classes as the males, except in Washburn college which has a separate course for ladies.

Most of these institutions have one woman, or more, in their faculties. One-half of the faculty of the State University is composed of women. In the last report of the State superintendent is the following:

The ratio of female teachers is greater than ever before, some 69 per cent. of the entire number employed. It is, indeed, a matter of congratulation that the work of