female effort, far straiter
than those now laid down, if indeed any limitations, other than those
drawn by physical conditions can be said now to exist. As formerly in
educational circles, so now in those of affairs there was overcrowding
among the women who sought work; and just in time to relieve the stress
there was opened a new field of labor, peculiarly adapted to the
feminine nature and need, in the manipulation of the novel instrument of
record. Quickly was the field seized and cultivated by the eager women;
and it not only was itself rich in harvest, but it led into new and
hitherto uncultivated fields of effort, and from the time of the
acceptance of the typewriter as a necessity of business, the position of
women in the world of affairs was assured and established.

Before the nineteenth century had passed the eighth mile-stone of its
existence the foundation of Feminine Reconstruction had been laid in
enduring material, and each succeeding lustrum saw the edifice arise in
fairer and more definite proportions. So accustomed to the new status of
women did we soon become that we failed to recognize how radical was the
change which had taken place in the general conception of the sphere of
womanhood. The very fact that there was no definite and determined
movement looking to the desired end made for success. The woman worker
did not come with demand for equality of recognition, with parades and
conventions and speeches; she simply entered upon the field which she
desired to possess, and made it her own by right. Therefore that right
was instantaneously recognized, and there was tacit acceptance, which is
the most significant and enduring of all.

Meanwhile, the "reformers" among women had not been idle. In many
respects true reformation had taken place: legislation had from time to
time assured women of equal rights in property--in some respects had
even recoiled to the opposite extreme and had given to the married
woman, whose property was once entirely under the control of her
husband, immunity from just responsibilities and made her lot in this
respect far more enviable and secure than that of the man whose rights
she shared.

Though somewhat too radical in effect, the spirit of these things was
admirable, and women had cause for self-gratulation upon the success of
their efforts to be safeguarded and recognized in their just claims. Had
the efforts of the "reformers" stopped here there could have been but