Wisconsin

AGE OF LEGAL CONSENT:  18.

POPULATION:  Male 1,067,562; female 1,001,480.

HUSBAND AND WIFE:  Wife controls own earnings.  Assignment of wages of husband must have wife’s written consent.  Wife controls separate property absolutely.  Dower and curtesy prevail.  Husband is guardian of children and must provide.

DIVORCE:  Absolute for impotence, adultery, sentence to imprisonment for three years prior to marriage.  Limited or absolute for desertion for one year, cruelty, habitual drunkenness, neglect to provide, conduct of husband rendering it improper or unsafe for wife to live with him.

LABOUR LAWS:  Female labour confined to eight hours per day.  No child under 14 may work in factory, workshop, bowling alley, or mine.  Children between 14 and 16 must get permission from juvenile judge.  No child under 16 shall be employed on dangerous machinery.  None under 14 shall take part in theatrical or circus exhibition as musician unless accompanied on tours by parent or guardian.  Authorities shall in all cases determine whether occupation is dangerous or immoral for children under 14.  No Sunday labour.

SUFFRAGE, POLITICAL CONDITION, INDUSTRIAL AND PROFESSIONAL STATUS:  Women have school suffrage.  They may be notaries. 65 women in ministry, 24 dentists, 32 journalists, 23 lawyers, 154 doctors, 12 professors, 143 saloon keepers, 2 bankers, 27 commercial travellers, 9 carpenters, etc.

Wyoming

AGE OF LEGAL CONSENT:  21.

POPULATION:  Male 58,184; female 34,347.

HUSBAND AND WIFE:  Wife controls own earnings and separate property absolutely.  Neither dower nor curtesy prevail.  Husband and wife have same rights of mutual inheritance.  Husband is legal guardian of children, but there is no penalty if he does not provide.

DIVORCE:  Absolute for adultery, impotence, conviction for felony, desertion for one year, habitual drunkenness, extreme cruelty, neglect to provide for one year, intolerable indignities, vagrancy of husband, conviction of felony prior to marriage unknown to other party, pregnancy of wife at time of marriage unknown to husband.

No limited divorce.

LABOUR LAWS:  No female shall work in mine.  Acrobatic, mendicant, dangerous, or immoral occupations forbidden to children under 14.  No Sunday labour.  Seats must be provided for female employees.

SUFFRAGE, POLITICAL CONDITION, INDUSTRIAL AND PROFESSIONAL STATUS:  Full suffrage.  Women are eligible for all offices. 2 women in ministry, 2 journalists, 12 doctors, 1 professor, no saloon keepers, lawyers, or dentists, 2 carpenters, etc.

In studying these tables, it should be remembered that new laws are being made constantly; and that the census of 1910 will give figures which as soon as they appear must supersede those of 1900.

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