attended the universities and have graduated. During the
Renaissance there were many women teachers in Italy. This tradition has
been revived; at present there are 10 women university teachers. _Dr.
jur._ Therese Labriola (whose mother is a German) is a lecturer in the
philosophy of law at Rome. _Dr. med._ Rina Monti is a university lecturer
in anatomy at Pavia.

There are many practicing women doctors in Italy. _Dr. med._ Maria
Montessori (a delegate to the International Congress of Women in Berlin in
1896) is a physician in the Roman hospitals. The Minister of Public
Instruction has authorized her to deliver a course of lectures on the
treatment of imbecile children to a class of women teachers in the
elementary schools. The legal profession still remains closed to women,
although _Dr. jur._ Laidi Poet has succeeded in being admitted to the bar
in Turin.

In government service (in 1901) there were 1000 women telephone employees,
183 women telegraph clerks, and 161 women office clerks. These positions
are much sought after by men. The number of women employed in commerce is
18,000; the total number of persons employed in commerce being 57,087.
Recently women have been appointed as factory inspectors.

The beginnings of the modern woman's rights movement coincide with the
political upheavals that occurred between 1859 and 1870. When the Kingdom
of Italy had been established, Jessie White Mario demanded a reform of the
legal, political, and economic status of woman. Whatever legal concessions
have been made to women are due, as in France, to the Liberal
parliamentary majority.

Since 1877, women have been able to act as witnesses in civil suits. Women
(even married women) can be guardians. The property laws provide for
separation of property. Even in cases of joint property holding, the wife
controls her earnings and savings. The husband can give her a general
authorization (_allgemeinautorisation_), thus giving her the full status
of a legal person before the law. These laws are the most radical reforms
to which the Code Napoleon has ever been subjected,--reforms which the
French did not venture to enact.

The Liberal majority made an attempt in 1877 to emancipate the women
politically. But the attempt failed. Bills providing for municipal woman's
suffrage were introduced and rejected in 1880, 1883, and 1888. However,
since 1890, women have been eligible as poor-law guardians. The elite
among the Italian men loyall