t requires one of the three members to be a woman.

As far back as 1869 an appeal was made by the suffrage association
that women should be placed on all boards of management of
institutions in which women were confined as prisoners or cared for as
unfortunates. In partial response an Act was passed in 1870
establishing an Advisory Board of Female Visitors to the charitable,
penal and correctional institutions of the State. This board had no
powers of control, but had full rights of inspection at all times and
constituted an official channel for criticism and suggestions. It is
still in existence and is composed of seven representative women.

The association was not satisfied with a board of such limited powers
and in 1874 it memorialized the Legislature for an Act requiring that
women, in the proportion of at least three out of seven, should be
placed on the State Board of Charities and Correction, with equal
powers in all particulars. This petition was presented for three years
successively and special hearings granted to its advocates, but at
last was definitely refused. In 1891, however, two institutions, the
State Home and School for Dependent Children and the Rhode Island
School for the Deaf, were placed in charge of boards of control, to be
appointed by the Governor, to report to the Legislature and to
exercise full powers of supervision and management, "at least three of
whom shall be women."

In 1878 a meeting was held by the association to consider the need of
good and wise women in all places where unfortunate women are in
confinement, and the matter of placing police matrons in stations was
discussed. Agitation followed and the W. C. T. U., under the
enthusiastic lead of Mrs. J. K. Barney, adopted the matter as a
special work, the W. S. A. aiding in all possible ways. In March,
1881, the first police matron in the country (it is believed) was
appointed in Providence and installed as a regular officer. From this
beginning the movement spread until in 1893 an Act was passed by the
General Assembly, without a dissenting voice, requiring police matrons
in all cities, the nominations in each to be recommended by twenty
women residents in good standing.

The first agitation for women probation officers was started in a
meeting of the State Suffrage Association in 1892. The W. C. T. U. and
the leaders in rescue mission work in Providence continued the
movement, and in 1898 a woman was appointed in Providence t