o force, women have been a
strong factor, giving their own signatures in its favor and in many
instances making house to house canvasses to obtain signers.

OFFICE HOLDING: Women are not eligible for any elective office. For
twenty-five years, however, they have held clerkships in both branches
of the General Assembly. In 1899 a bill to disqualify them from
holding these was defeated in the Lower House by a considerable
majority. But this same Legislature did not hesitate to declare women
not qualified to serve as notaries public, which they had been doing
for several years.

There are police matrons in Little Rock and Hot Springs.

For one year the "visiting committee" appointed by the School Board
was composed of three men and two women. The latter made a written
report, but the innovation was not repeated.

OCCUPATIONS: Women are not permitted to practice law. No other
profession or occupation is legally forbidden.

EDUCATION: All of the universities and colleges are coeducational,
even the Law and Medical Departments of the State University being
open to women.

In the public schools there are 4,515 men and 2,558 women teachers.
The average monthly salary of the men is $49.22, of the women,
$35.52.

FOOTNOTES:

[161] The History is indebted for the material for this chapter to
Miss Catherine Campbell Cunningham of Little Rock, one of the earliest
suffrage workers in the State.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

CALIFORNIA.[162]

The first woman suffrage meeting on the Pacific Coast was held in San
Francisco in May, 1869, and a State association was formed in January,
1870. From that date meetings were held regularly and a committee of
women did faithful work at the Legislature every session, securing
many changes in the laws to the advantage of women.[163]

At the annual meeting of the association in San Francisco in December,
1884, Mrs. Laura De Force Gordon succeeded Mrs. Clara S. Foltz as
president and held the office for the next ten years. During this time
she attended a number of national suffrage conventions in Washington
and delivered addresses in many parts of the United States.

In the political campaign of 1888 Mrs. Gordon and Mrs. Foltz were
employed as speakers by the Democratic Central Committee, and Miss
Addie L. Ballou by the Republican. The Populist and the Labor parties
selected women as delegates to their State conventions and placed them
on their tickets for various offices. Mrs. Lilli