unprotected, the lions in her way are these very facts. Added to this
natural disqualification, comes another,--in the lack of sympathy for
her needs, and in the prejudice which hedges about all her movements. In
every trade she has sought to enter, men have barred the way. In a
speech made before the House of Commons in 1873, Henry Fawcett drew
attention to the persistent resistance of men to any admission of women
on the same terms with themselves. He said:--

"We cannot forget that some years ago certain trade-unionists in
the potteries imperatively insisted that a certain rest for the arm
which they found almost essential to their work should not be used
by women engaged in the same employment. Not long since, the London
tailors, when on a strike, having never admitted a woman to their
union, attempted to coerce women from availing themselves of the
remunerative employment which was offered them in consequence of
the strike. But this jealousy of woman's labor has not been
entirely confined to workmen. The same feeling has extended itself
through every class of society. Last autumn a large number of
post-office clerks objected to the employment of women in the
Post-Office."

Driven by want, they had pressed into agricultural labor as well, and
found equal opposition there also. Mr. Fawcett in the same speech calls
attention to the fact of the non-admission of women to the Agricultural
Laborers' Union, on the ground that "the agricultural laborers of the
country do not wish to recognize the labor of women."

There is more or less reason for such feeling. It arises in part from
the newness of the occasion, since in the story of labor as a whole,
soon to be considered by us in detail, it is only the last fifty years