Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/244

240 of 11,551 living men and women together with brief biographical sketches giving, as far as possible, birth, parentage, education, marriage and profession. Of these names 977 are women, a ratio of 1:11. Sixteen out of this number are well-known actresses and opera singers who are Americans neither by birth nor residence; six are ladies of social prominence, wives of distinguished men; and one is a deposed queen, which leaves 954 to be considered in this paper.

A careful study of these practically self-written biographies has revealed many interesting facts and tendencies. This is especially true so far as they answer two important questions: First, what professions seem to give the greatest opportunity for success; and second, what educational preparation seems most helpful and necessary. In the order of numbers, they stand as follows: Authors, including novelist, essayist, writer, poet, historian, 487; artists, including painter, sculptor, engraver, etcher, illustrator and architect, 103; educators, including lecturers, 91; journalists, including editor, critic and correspondent, 65; actresses, 59; musicians, 43; social reformers, including club-women and settlement workers, 27; physicians, 21; scientists, including naturalists, 17; ministers, including salvation army and missionary workers, 13; philanthropists, 12; librarians, 9; lawyers, 9; miscellaneous, 3. These figures, it will be seen, amount to five more than the whole number of persons classified, because that number of women are represented as actively engaged in more than one vocation.

The accompanying table shows both the number and the per cent, of those married in each profession, the average age, so far as given, and the general education as well as the particular colleges represented.

The tendency of successful women to marriage does not seem great, the per cent, being only 54. In every case, except the minister and lawyer, the table shows less than sixty per cent, married, and it seems probable that a large number of the women in these professions married before they entered professional life. The journalist comes next in the per cent, married, while the artist falls to 43 per cent., and the educator runs very little risk—if she considers it a risk—her chances of matrimony being only 26.3 per cent, or a little over one to four. The cause of this invites speculation. Is it merely disinclination on her part, or is it because she has less opportunity for meeting congenial men; or can it be that her acquisition of knowledge and possibly the instructive habit makes her less attractive to men? At any rate, success and matrimony do not seem to go hand in hand with the educator. It will doubtless cause surprise that the table shows only about half the successful actresses married. This may be due to their omitting the fact of their marriage, because they find it to their advantage professionally to be supposed unmarried, and it may possibly be due to the fact that they seem to unmarry with so much ease.