living to earn for others dependent upon them, have found themselves up against a solid wall of sex prejudice. It has, in effect, been said to them, "It makes no difference what ability you may have nor how hard you may work, thus far you may go, and no farther-because you are a woman." There are some of us who have climbed to the top of that wall, and we are stretching out our hands to those who are still struggling after us; and we shall never be satisfied until it is beaten down forever. The question is, How is that to be done? Ever since the time of Adam one of man's favorite diversions has been marking out woman's sphere and warning her off his own preserves. The men of most of our country, like ourselves, were born to the old order of things. The great task before womankind today is to prove her right to any work which she claims by performing its duties efficiently; to ask recognition of the work of all women, because that is a part of humanity's progress; to secure representation of women in all lines in which they work, because that is a part of the task of breaking down sex prejudice. We must say to the world, "We want not only a brotherhood of men, but a sisterhood of women. We want an esprit de corps in our sex which recognizes the responsibility of every woman to do her part toward the advancement of the whole body of women workers." Most of you to whom I speak have the important duty intrusted to you of shaping the ideals of the young woman of our country. Teach her that no woman achieves man's respect who is a traitor to her own sex. Teach her that one who labors with a wholly selfish motive-who does not place above what may come to her personally from her efforts the welfare and the advancement of all of womankind-is an ingrate to the pioneers of the past who paved the way for her own achievement, and that she is a slacker in the battle for progress in the future. Teach her that, to do her full duty toward both man and woman, she must be, in the highest sense, her sister's keeper. PROFESSIONAL AND SOCIAL LOYALTIES MINA KERR, DEAN, MILWAUKEE-DOWNER COLLEGE, MILWAUKEE, WIS. Three great barriers in the lives of women have gone down within a month. The passage of the suffrage amendment, June 4, 1919, markt the fall of one barrier; the signing of the peace treaty, June 28, and, we hope, the end of war, another; and prohibition, July 1, a third. New doors of opportunity for accomplishment and service are opening before women. Two aspects of the professional and social loyalties which we must acknowledge as we enter these doors are my concern here. The first form of loyalty which we must practice is institutional loyalty, loyalty to the state, church, school, to educational and professional, civic and social organizations. Loyalty to the state in time of peace means casting our vote every time we have the right and privilege, and casting it with intelligent knowledge of candidates and issues. It means associating ourselves with the new League of Women Voters which purposes to train women to be good citizens and to unite them in the support of right legisla tion concerning public health, the work of women and children, education, and like matters about which women have special knowledge. Loyalty to the state means keeping track of state and city officials, of school boards, attending meetings, and seeing that the public interest is served by public officials. Loyalty to the state means being willing honestly to pay our property and income taxes, to carry our share of the expense of the business of the state. Most of us get from the state in protection, comfort, and general welfare far more than we ever pay for in taxes. Getting out of taxes is disloyalty. A part of our institutional loyalty should be directed toward the church. Many teachers and other professional women do not ally themselves with any church. The church has been and will ever be the institution of the Christianity which has been the great liberating and democratizing force in the history of humanity. We should belong to a church, give it our support in time and money, and so teach our students. Freely we have received, and freely we should give in institutional loyalty to the church. We may well cultivate in ourselves and our students a deeper and richer loyalty to our schools. The knowledge of the history of their development and of their vital relationship to the existence and growth of a democratic government should make us care about them and seek to serve them. Our schools are a precious possession and inheritance. How can we return to them some measure of what they have given each and all of us is the question we wish to put deep in the thought of our students as they go out to be men and women of active social influence. Other forms of organization must have our institutional loyalty. Why do we not make more effort to send our students into the teaching profession with a knowledge of what the National Education Association is and does, and with the expectation that, as a matter of course, they will be active members? We women owe a great debt to the Association of Collegiate Alumnae for what it has done the past thirty years in creating opportunities, conditions, and recognition for women, both as students and as faculty members, in the field of higher education. Are we giving it our loyalty and are we teaching our women students to be loyal to it? To many professional, civic, and social organizations do we owe our loyal payment of dues and support because of what these have given us, whether directly or indirectly. If we are to keep our self-respect and do our part as citizens, we must reckon with such institutional loyalties, professional and social, and by living them and teaching them pass them on to our students. The second form of loyalty is loyalty to persons. The world has long talkt about loyalty directed upward from below, loyalty to the king, loyalty to the superintendent of schools, to the president of a university or college, to the superior official. Loyalty from above downward precedes loyalty from below up. Loyalty begins at the top. I have a strong suspicion of the men and women in superior positions who berate those below them for lack of loyalty. Why have those in the superior positions not created loyalty? Loyalty is a reciprocal relationship. The way to begin is for a chief to be loyal to his subordinates, whether in business, industry, church, or education. When loyalty from above has been attained, loyalty from below may readily be developt. There are three great characteristics of such loyalty from above downward: 1. Reverence for the personality of others and trust in their ability. We must realize that members of our faculties and our students have knowledge, ability, initiative, if we give them field and freedom for action. We must renounce "the joy of controlling for the joy of releasing the powers of others." 2. Sincerity in our relations to others by word or action. We need to be what we seem and to seem what we are that there may be understanding of us as well as by us, that there may be confidence and cooperation. 3. Justice. Justice is a great part of our loyalty to those below us. Again, we must replace "the joy of controlling others" by the joy of dealing justly with others. Without justice there can be no loyalty. Such loyalty we women who are in administrative work must cultivate in ourselves toward our faculties and students. Loyalty and cooperation begin at the top. If we give right loyalty and cooperation, we shall get them in return, and so shall the largest work be accomplisht and the greatest service rendered. SECRETARY'S MINUTES CHICAGO MEETING OFFICERS President-KATHRYN S. MCLEAN, dean of women, Ohio Wesleyan University.... Delaware, Ohio School... Columbia, Mo. Geneva, N.Y. . Winona, Minn. FIRST SESSION-TUESDAY FORENOON, FEBRUARY 25, 9:30 O'CLOCK A conference of the Department of Deans of Women of the National Education Association was held on Tuesday forenoon, February 25, 1919, at 9:30 o'clock, in Recital Hall, Auditorium Hotel, Chicago, Ill. The meeting was called to order by Kathryn S. McLean, president. The general topic for the session was "Readjustment of Education of Women Following the War," and the following program was presented: Addresses of Welcome: Marion Talbot, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.; Mary Ross Potter, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. "Industrial and Economic Adjustment of Women Following the War"-Mary E. McDowell, University Settlement of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. "Women's Share in Social and Spiritual Readjustment"-Bertha Conde, student secretary, Young Women's Christian Association. "Some Phases of New Educational Leadership of Women"-Robert L. Kelly, executive secretary, American Council of Education, Washington, D.C. SECOND SESSION-TUESDAY NOON, FEBRUARY 25, 12:00 O'CLOCK Luncheon, Congress Hotel. Speakers S. P. Caben, specialist in higher education, Bureau of Education, Washington, D.C.; Sarah Louise Arnold, dean of Simmons College, Boston, Mass. THIRD SESSION-TUESDAY AFTERNOON, FEBRUARY 25, 2:00 O'CLOCK The session was called to order at 2:00 p.m. by the president, and the following program was presented: "Reconstruction and Reeducation of Wounded Soldiers"-H. L. Smith, Federal Board for Vocational Education, Washington, D.C. "Some Effects of the War on the Higher Education of Women"-Willystine Goodsell, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, N.Y. Address-Helen Bennett, Collegiate Bureau of Occupations, Chicago, Ill. FOURTH SESSION-WEDNESDAY FORENOON, FEBRUARY 26, 9:30 O'CLOCK The session was called to order at 9:30 a.m. by the president. The general topic for the session was "Practical Problems Having to Do with the Work of Deans of Women," and the following program was presented: "Relation of the Faculty and Especially the Dean of Women to the Student Government Association"-Katherine S. Alvord, dean, DePauw University, Greencastle, Ind. "How May the Freshman Be More Easily and Quickly Adjusted to College Life?"— F. Louise Nardin, dean of women, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. "The Work of a Dean of Girls and Its Relation to That of a Dean of Women" Eula W. Deaton, dean of girls, Austin High School, Chicago, Ill. FIFTH SESSION-WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, FEBRUARY 26, 2:00 O'CLOCK The session was called to order at 2:00 p.m. by the president, and the following program was presented: "Social Principles "-Florence M. Fitch, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. Report of committees and discussion. 'Possibility of a Quarterly Bulletin for Deans of Women"-Mina Kerr, dean, Milwaukee-Downer College, Milwaukee, Wis. "The Scoring of Rooms in Residence Halls"-Grace Greenwood, social director, Martha Cook Building, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. ANNE DUDLEY BLITZ, Secretary PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS SOME EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON THE HIGHER EDU- WILLYSTINE GOODSELL, TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK, N.Y. The subject which has been assigned to me is "Some Effects of the War in Women's Colleges." I shall speak, however, only briefly of the immediate effects of the world-conflict just ended and shall devote most of my attention to the question of the reorganization of our women's colleges to meet new conditions in part created by the war. Quite naturally the full effect and meaning of the world-war was not felt in American colleges and universities until the entrance of the United States into the struggle focust the attention of every thoughtful individual upon the immediate necessities and problems of a nation at war. The response of the women's colleges and their alumnae to the country's call was prompt and effective. You are all aware of the splendid organized efforts made by women students in our colleges the country over to further the program of the government with respect to food production and conservation, the selling of Liberty Loan Bonds, Red Cross and allied relief work, and education in the significance and aims of the war. Almost every college organized a central war council or war committee, similar to those of Bryn Mawr and Columbia, under whose direction war work was carried on very efficiently. During the past year 20,000 diplomas have been awarded by the United States Food Administration to college women for successful completion of government courses in food conservation. The program of war economy adopted in most of the colleges called for simplicity in social life and tabooed banquets and expensive parties. Vassar abolisht the Junior Prom and Class Day and adopted as a war slogan "No frills and frip-peries." At the University of Wisconsin a committee on student expenditure was organized for the purpose of inducing more simple entertainment and greater economy in personal expenditure. College women's war gardens deserve honorable mention. You have all heard of the agricultural training camp at Bedford, N.Y., which was composed very largely of Barnard College students and alumnae and which did yeoman's work in demonstrating to a doubtful public that college women could make a real success of farm work. At the University of Wisconsin two girls in charge of the war gardens engaged a booth in the city market at Madison and sold their produce for the benefit of the Red Cross. Quite commonly the students working in these college war gardens not only raised the produce but salted down, canned, and dried large quantities of food. It is interesting to learn that Mount Holyoke girls were able to raise in their college gardens 125 bushels of potatoes to the acre, whereas the normal yield in the state of Massachusetts is only 90 bushels. These and many other facts go to show that the adverse predictions made by divers skeptics concerning the effectiveness of girls' farm work have been largely disproved. Another form of organized war effort which deserves mention is the Relief Unit. These units were equipt and sent to France by Smith, Vassar, Barnard, and Wellesley, with Radcliffe cooperating. Perhaps the unit of which America has heard most is the Smith College group composed of twenty women representing a wide variety of training, from social work and medicine to driving motor cars and cobbling. These women undertook the rehabilitation of a district of sixteen devastated villages in France. |