a Louisiana woman may not go into a court of law, even though she may be
in business for herself and the action sought is in defense of her
business.

Nor does the Louisiana woman fare any better as a mother. Then, in fact,
her position is nothing short of humiliating. During her husband's
lifetime he is sole guardian of their children. At his death she may
become their guardian, but if she marries a second time--and the law
permits her to remarry, provided she waits ten months--she retains her
children only by the formal consent of her first husband's family. If
they dislike her, or disapprove of her second marriage, they may demand
the custody of the children.

It is true that many of these absurd laws in Louisiana are not now often
enforced. It is also true that in Louisiana and other states few men are
so unjust to their wives as to take advantage of unequal property
rights. Laws always lag behind the sense of justice which lives in man.
But the point is that unequal laws still remain on our statute books,
and they may be, and sometimes are, enforced.

Between these two extremes, Colorado and Louisiana, women have the other
forty-six States to choose. None of them offers perfect equality. Even
in Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah--the three States besides Colorado where
women vote--women are in such a minority that their votes are powerless
to remove all their disabilities. Very rarely have club women even so
much felicity as the New York State Federation, whose legislative
chairman, Miss Emilie Bullowa, reported that she was unable to find a
single unimportant inequality in the New York laws governing the
property rights of women.