egislature passed what was known as "the blanket charter act,"
in which the substitution of "and" for "or" seemed so to affect the
right of women to the school ballot in cities of the fourth class as
to create a general disturbance. It resulted in an appeal to
Attorney-General Fred A. Maynard, who rendered an opinion sustaining
the suffrage of women in those cities.

In 1897 the main efforts of the association were directed toward
securing a bill to place women on boards of control of the State
Asylums for the Insane, and one to make mandatory the appointment of
women physicians to take charge of women patients in these asylums and
in the Home for the Feeble-Minded. These measures were both lost; but
on April 15 Governor Pingree appointed Jane M. Kinney to the Board of
Control of the Eastern Michigan Asylum for the Insane at Pontiac for a
term of six years, and after twenty days' delay the Senate confirmed
the appointment.

Interest was taken also in a bill requiring a police matron in towns
of 10,000 inhabitants or more, which this year became law.

In 1899 a bill was again introduced into the Legislature to make
mandatory the appointment of women physicians in asylums for the
insane, the Industrial Home for Girls, the Home for the Feeble-Minded,
the School for Deaf Mutes and the School for the Blind. This measure
had now enlisted the interest of the State Federation of Women's Clubs
and many other organizations of women, and thousands of petitions
were presented. Emma J. Rose led the work of the women's clubs in its
behalf. It passed the Legislature and became a law.

LAWS: In 1885 a law was enacted that manufacturers who employ women
must furnish seats for them; in 1889 that no girl under fifteen years
of age should be employed in factories or stores for a longer period
than fifty-four hours in a single week; in 1893 that no woman under
twenty-one should be employed in any manufacturing establishment
longer than sixty hours in any one week; in 1895 that no woman under
twenty-one should be allowed to clean machinery while in motion.[338]

A law enacted in 1897 prohibits the use of indecent, immoral, obscene
or insulting language in the presence of any woman or child, with a
penalty for its violation.

Dower but not curtesy obtains. The widow is entitled to the life use
of one-third of the real estate, and to one-third of the rents, issues
and profits of property not conveniently divisible, owned by her
husband.