THE SUCCESSFUL WOMEX OF AMERICA. 



239 



THE SUCCESSFUL WOMEX OF AMEBIC 



By AMANDA CAROLYN NORTHROP, 



NEW YORK. 



T T is now half a century since a few women began with the most 

 *- insistent perseverance to demand a place in the political, pro- 

 fessional and economic world. The}^ made this demand on the ground 

 that woman's brain is equal to man's, and, given a fair chance, women 

 .could successfully compete with man in every field, except where phys- 

 ical strength and endurance were necessary. Man's opposition to this 

 demand, though at times bitter and determined, has been so far over- 

 come that to-day woman has every opportunity for gaining the best 

 educational and professional training, and has already taken her place 

 in the ranks of every profession except that of the armed defenders 

 of her country. Either with or without the consent of her brother, 

 she has got most of the things she has asked for, and some things 

 which she neither asked for nor wanted. She has accomplished much, 

 but her achievements are still looked upon with misgivings by many, 

 as is seen in the frequent discussions of 'The New Woman,' 'The 

 Unquiet Sex' and the 'Evils of the Higher Education.' In all these 

 discussions there is the constant comparison of the two sexes in abil- 

 ity, perseverance and poise. But since they entered the race w4th the 

 tremendous advantage of centuries of mental training and experience 

 on the side of the men, it is most unjust to draw comparisons. 



Putting therefore all comparisons entirely aside, it seemed worth 

 while to make a study, as far as was possible, of those women who 

 have achieved in public or professional life that measure of success 

 sufficient to give them a place among the successful men and women 

 of America, for the purpose of finding out in what lines of work the 

 greater probabilities of success lie, and what part educational training 

 seems to have had. 



The material used as a basis of this study is found in the latest 

 edition of 'AMio's Who in America.' It would be difficult to find any 

 two persons who would quite agree as to what constitutes success. 

 And this book admittedlv has sins of both omission and commission, 

 still it is probably as nearly complete as a book of this kind could 

 well be. The points considered will be found in the following table. 

 The blank spaces and small figures show the incompleteness of data 

 in many cases. The conclusions therefore are only tentative. 



The 1902 edition of 'Wlio's Who in America' contains the names 



