ecretaries of Departments, and
they have always been men. Men have succeeded also in getting the
highly paid positions under civil service.

No law excludes women from the District offices. There are, of course,
no elections. Some officials are appointed by the President, some by
the Commissioners, and the Supreme Court of the District appoints the
Board of Education, three of whose members must be women. In 1920
President Wilson appointed Miss Kathryn Sellers, a member of the
District bar, to be Judge of the Juvenile Court. This was largely due
to the efforts of Justice William Hitz, of the District Supreme Court.
The President appointed also Mrs. Clara Sears Taylor a member of the
Rent Commission, created to consider rent problems growing out of the
war, and Miss Mabel T. Boardman as Commissioner of the District. The
Commissioners appointed two women trustees of the public library.
Formerly it was necessary to make an effort to get women on the boards
of charities, hospitals, etc., but now such places are seeking the
women. Within the past ten years many women graduates of the law
schools have been appointed as law clerks in various departments, War
Risk, Treasury, especially the income and customs divisions, and in
the Solicitor's office for the State Department. The Interior
Department appointed Miss Florence Etheridge, at one time president of
the D. C. State Equal Suffrage Association, probate attorney for the
Cherokee Indians. Miss Marie K. Saunders was the first woman appointed
patent examiner, as the result of a competitive examination, and she
has been advanced until the next step is that of principal examiner.
Women hold important positions as secretaries of committees at the
Capitol.

The Board of Commissioners appoint the Superintendent of Police and
under Major Raymond J. Pullman a Woman's Bureau was established in
1918, after several women had been serving on the force. Mrs. Marian
C. Spingarn was made director. When she left Washington the following
year Mrs. Mina C. Van Winkle was appointed and continues to hold the
position. To give her power she was made Detective Sergeant and in
1920 was promoted to a Lieutenancy, so that she might legally be in
command of a precinct where the Woman's Bureau is on the first floor
of the house of detention and the preventive and protective work for
women and children is directed. The functions of this bureau are very
wide and very important and the work of