WOMEN. All the females of the human species. All such females who have arrived at the age of puberty. Mukeria appeflatione etiam virgo viri poteme continetur. Dig. 50. 16. 13.
A woman by the fact of marriage invests herself with the nationality of her husband ; 13 Op. Att. Gen. 128 ; 14 id. 402 ; contra, 2 Knapp, P. C. 364. See Donnell..
Single or unmarried women have all the civil rights of men ; they may, therefore, enter into contracts or engagements; sue and be sued ; be trustees or guardians ; they may be witnesses, and may for that purpose attest all papers ; but they were, generally, not pos sessed of any political power ; and were not as citizens eligible to public office or en titled to vote ; Minor v. Happersett, 21 Wall. (U. S.) 162, 22 L. Ed. 627.
In Finland, Norway and Iceland all women have the full parliamentary vote on the same terms as men. In Sweden all women have the municipal or communal suffrage on the same terms as men, and in Denmark women who pay taxes or whose husbands have the municipal vote.
In Australia, New Zealand and the Isle of Man women have full parliamentary suf frage. England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales have given women municipal suffrage on the same terms as men. In eight provinces of Canada taxpaying widows and spinsters have the municipal franchise, and in Nova Scotia married women whose husbands are not vot ers are included.
In the United States women have the full suffrage in Wyoming since 1869, in Colorado since 1893, in Utah and Idaho since 1896, in Washington since 1910, in California since 1911, in Kansas, Oregon and Arizona since 1912, and in Alaska since 1913. The Illinois constitution permits the legislature to confer suffrage for any official whose election is not provided for in the constitution. An act passed thereunder which has been held con stitutional confers it on women.
School suffrage was granted to certain classes of women subject to various restric tions in Kentucky, 1838; Kansas, 1861; Mich igan and Minnesota, 1875 ; Colorado, 1876 ; New Hampshire, 1878 ; Massachusetts, 1879 ; Vermont, New York and Mississippi, 1880 ; Nebraska, 1883; Montana, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Dakota and Arizona, 1887; Oklahoma, 1890; Connecticut, 1893; Ohio, 1894 ; Delaware, 1898 ; Wisconsin, 1900.
Limited suffrage other than school is given to women taxpayers in Montana since 1897 on questions of special taxation and for school trustees; in Iowa, 1894, on issuing bonds or increasing the tax levy ; in Minnesota, 1898, for library trustees (in addition to school offi cers since 1875). In New York, 1901, tax paying women of towns and villages may vote upon propositions for special taxation, and in 1910 the law was amended to include the issuing of bonds. Women of towns and villages who have children of school age or who are assessed for over $50 may vote at district school meetings. In Michigan in 1893 women were given the municipal fran chise by act of the legislature which was held unconstitutional. In 1908, through a new constitution, taxpaying women were given a vote on all questions of special taxation, and the granting of franchises. Kansas in 1861 came into the Union with school suffrage in her constitution ; in 1887 she gave women municipal suffrage ; in 1912 full suffrage. In 1869 Wyoming, then just organized as a ter ritory, enfranchised women, and after twenty years a convention which met to form a con stitution for statehood adopted as its first clause: "Equal political rights for all male and female citizens." A woman was held not eligible as a candi date for admission to the bar ; Bebb v. Law Society, 50 W. N. (Eng.) 355. They have never been admitted as solicitors in England, though the Solicitor's Act does not prevent ; Odgers, C. L. 1431.
Some American courts, even without posi tive statutory enactment, have held women qualified to practice as attorneys ; In re Leach, 134 Ind. 665, 34 N. E. 641, 21 L. R. A. 701; In re Thomas, 16 Colo. 441, 27 Pac. 707, 13 L. R. A. 538. Others have reached this re sult only after such enactments ; Mass. Acts, 1882, c. 139 ; In re Robinson's Case, 131 Mass. 376. By statute women have been granted the right to practice before the United States Supreme Court ; U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901 ( Supp. 1911), § 255. See ATTORNEY.