Page:Theresa Serber Malkiel - Woman of Yesterday and To-day.djvu/12

 on June 19th, 1848, was a natural sequel to woman's general advance. In the case of woman, history repeated itself. All through the advance of civilization people demanded and obtained political liberties as soon as they became a telling factor in the economic life of the country.

No sooner did the "Woman Question," woman's struggle upward, take root, than a number of women organized to demand greater civil and legal recognition and political rights for their sex. Their movement found many supporters in every part of the country. Old beliefs and traditions had to give way to new ideas. Since the development of industrialism narrowed the gulf between man's and woman's sphere, since women were granted a wider field of action they required greater civil and legal rights.

In line with this growing belief one State after another amended the Common Law granting married women the right to own property in their name, to collect their personally earned wages, to keep an inheritance, or will one to others, equal guardianship over the children and so forth.

The agitation for political rights failed, at least temporarily. It was inevitable that this should be so, in spite of all the sacrifices made and wonderful impetus given to it by its early champions. The time was not ripe for it. The majority of women were still behind the walls of their homes, their husbands remaining the sole intermediary between their women and the outside world. Failure stared the workers for suffrage in the face from the start, the declaration of Civil War caused the abandonment of all efforts in that direction for a time.

The leading Suffragists were also leading abolitionists. At the critical moment they gave their undivided attention to the black man's cause.