450 



The Review of Reviews. 



RUSSIAN WOMEN AND 

 FREEDOM. 



In the October issue of the Englishwoman 

 there is an able article, by L. P. Rastorgoueff, 

 on the Legal Rights of Russian Women. 



LEGAL POSITION RAISED. 



In the seventeenth century all who observed 

 Russian life at that time are agreed that women 

 continued to be treated with great cruelty, both 

 in the higher and in the lower classes. In the 

 time of Peter the Great, however, a gradual 

 change in their position became perceptible, and 

 the writer asks women not to forget how much 

 they owe to " the noble barbarian " who in- 

 sisted on introducing them into social life and 

 who raised them legally by abolishing forced 

 marriages. In the eighteenth century five 

 women, including Catherine the Great, ruled 

 over Russia — not without influence on the status 

 of women generally. No great practical results 

 were obtained by the women's movement in the 

 nineteenth century, yet the inner work of 

 women's emancipation was going on, and at the 

 beginning of the present century we have the 

 spectacle of women hand-in-hand with men in 

 the great struggle for liberty and progress, 

 which culminated in the revolution of 1906. 

 From that time the women's movement has 

 assumed a political character. The Women's 

 Union was formed in 1905 with the object of 

 obtaining for women equality of political 

 rights with men. The first and second Dumas 

 were dissolved without carrying any Electoral 

 Reform measure, and in the third, the 

 " obedient " Duma, the question of Woman 

 .Suffrage was never raised at all. 



MEN AND WOMEN STANDING SHOULDER TO 

 SHOULDER. 



Notwithstanding the backward state of Rus- 

 sian law as a whole, the present legal position 

 of Russian women compares well with women in 

 other European States. An outline is given of 

 the marriage laws, and it is shown that while 

 women, as regards personal position in the 

 family and in respect of property, are left by 

 law nearly the equal of men, .the law has used 

 all its weight to deprive both men and women 

 of political rights. In the long struggle for 

 these rights the woman has participated 

 shoulder lo shoulder with the man. The writer 

 concludes : — 



In llic old days of serfdom twenty-five per cent, of 

 the cases of rebellion apainst the overlord were women; 

 in the outbreaks of mutiny which occasionally took plate 

 among the serfs, not only were women frequenllv the 

 insligators, but they sometimes led the rebels acainst 



the bayonets of the soldiery. After one of these revolts, 

 suppressed by the military, no fewer than twenty-nine 

 women were punished by Dogging, and not one of them 

 begged for mercy. 



The same heroic spirit animated the women who took 

 part in the revolutionary movement of more recent 

 times. The thousands of unknown women and girls who 

 are dragging out their lives in e.vile — all these are 

 examples of the indomitable spirit which inspires the 

 women of Russia. When the time comes that the com- 

 bined efforts of Russian men and women will win the 

 struggle against the present political reaction, women 

 will most certainly receive their share in the fruits of 

 victory. 



MATHEMATICS FOR WOMEN. 



The Englishwoman for September contains 

 an article by Professor H. A. Strong on the 

 education of women. 



What is needed for women at the present 

 day, he writes, is a training which will cause 

 them to see the reasons of the different con- 

 clusions which they are so quick at drawing. 

 He admits that women's intuitions are com- 

 monly correct, but he would, nevertheless, like 

 women to be taught to think, and to think 

 logically and clearly. It is a mistake for them 

 to imagine they are unable to learn mathematics 

 and logic. He has met with girls who have 

 quite a remarkable power of solving mathe- 

 matical problems, and has invariably found that 

 they showed marked capacity in managing their 

 own business and in understanding the business 

 of other people. Girls should become compe- 

 tent mathematicians, and should study logic, 

 if they would vie with the women of France, 

 who are found indispensable in most business 

 houses. The Frenchwoman, he continues, 

 makes a point of understanding the business 

 of her employer or of her husband. Business 

 careers, however, can only be open to women 

 by the co-operation of men, but Professor 

 Strong thinks that when men find that there 

 are many women who can aid them in their life- 

 work, these services will be eagerly accepted. 

 The greater influence of women in France, he 

 says, is due to their greater capacity, resulting 

 from more practical training. 



The Professor is opposed to a crowded curri- 

 culum for girls. While appreciating the advan- 

 tages to be derived from a study of the classics 

 and of languages, he would drop some of these 

 to make rotjin for more mathematics and logic. 

 His anxiety being to .secure efficiency for the 

 future generation of women who have to earn 

 ilieir own livelihood, he appeals to parents and 

 to ihe authorities of girls' schools to see to 

 it that the pupils are not taught too many 

 subjects at once, hut rather few, and these 

 thoroughly. 



