240 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of 11,551 living men and women together with brief biographical 

 sketches giving, as far as possible, birth, parentage, education, mar- 

 riage 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 pro- 

 fessions 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 nov- 

 elist, essayist, writer, poet, historian, 487 ; artists, including painter, 

 sculptor, engraver, etcher, illustrator and architect, 103; educators, 

 including lecturers, 91; journalists, including editor, critic and cor- 

 respondent, 65 ; actresses, 59 ; musicians, 43 ; social reformers, inclu- 

 ding 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 mar- 

 ried 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 con- 

 genial men ; or can it be that her acquisition of knowledge and pos- 

 sibly 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 advan- 

 tage professionally to be supposed unmarried, and it may possibly be 

 due to the fact that they seem to iinmarry with so much ease. 



