Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/68

 students, either at home with the eye of the Government on them, or abroad at foreign universities, starve and struggle together, their eyes on a common goal.

There is ample room for the devotion and the talents of women in the huge territories of the Czar. We are told that there is only one doctor for every 200,000 of the population, and only 13 women public school teachers for every 1000 women inhabitants. Only 650,000 of the total number of 2,000,000 school children in Russia are girls, and the number of illiterates in the empire is about 75 per cent.

Women in Russia have a wide field in which to exercise their labour. There are nearly 600 women doctors, 400 women druggists, a number of university professors, and about 30,000 public school teachers. Altogether there are about 126,000 women occupied in the liberal professions. Women may enter commercial callings of almost every kind. This engages about 300,000, whilst agriculture and fisheries employ 2,086,169. There are 982,098 women engaged in industry and mining, and domestic service employs 1,673,605. In 1900 the women formed 44 per cent. of the working population of Russia. For these interesting figures the writer is indebted to the careful research of Dr Kathe Shirmacher, whose book on the modern woman's movement