ny minor offices, but women have found it practically impossible to
secure any of these. The explanation for this probably lies in the
fact that Indiana is a pivotal State in politics and the parties are
so evenly divided that the elections are equally apt to be carried by
either party. It thus becomes vitally necessary to utilize every
office for political purposes and none can be spared to persons
without votes. For a number of years the two parties elected women as
State Librarian, and they gave much satisfaction, although several
times the political pressure has been so great that the office has had
to be given to men.[254]

A number of times bills have been presented to require the Governor to
put a representation of women on the boards of all State institutions
where women and children are confined, but they never have been
carried.

In 1873 the first State prison in the United States exclusively for
women was opened in Indianapolis, but the management was vested in a
board of men with a visiting board of women and a woman
superintendent. In 1877 a bill was passed placing the entire
management of this Woman's Reformatory in the hands of women. An
Industrial School for Girls is now under the same supervision.[255]

In 1889 an act of the Legislature established the State Board of
Charities and Corrections and provided that two of its six trustees
should be women. It exercises supervision over the State penal and
benevolent institutions. In 1899 a legislative act required that on
petition of fifteen citizens of any county the Circuit Judge must
appoint a board to exercise the same supervision over its
institutions, to consist of four men and two women.

The only other women serving on State boards are one for the Soldiers'
and Sailors' Orphans' Home at Knightstown and one for the Home for
Feeble-minded Youth at Ft. Wayne.[256]

The State Board of Charities and Corrections has made great effort to
secure women physicians at all State Institutions and, though there is
no law authorizing it, there is now one at each of the four Hospitals
for the Insane, and at the Woman's Prison and Girls' Industrial
School. One was appointed for the Home for Feeble-minded but a man now
holds the position.

Almost every State, county and city office has women deputies,
assistants or stenographers. It is said that one-third of the employes
in the State House are women. Many serve as notaries public, and a
number as court stenogra