Art and Handcraft in the Woman's Building
of the World's Columbian Exposition

FRANCE. AT the request of the managers of the International Expo- sition at Chicago, the French government, under date , of Tulv 8, 1892, appointed a committee of ladies chaiged with the preparation of a special woman’s exhibit for the Woman s Building. The first act of this committee was to draw up a pro- gramme and establish a general classification. But before pro- ceeding to particulars touching the status of woman in France and the conditions affecting her work in industrial, commercial, and agricultural pursuits, her part in education, m the arts, t le liberal professions, and the many departments, of labor wherein foresight, sympathy, and economy are requisite, the committee has deemed it important to show, by the aid of a certain number of graphic charts, what is in France the true position of women compared with that of men in the different aspects of socia life in general; that is to say, in married or single life, in the building up of the family, vitality, etc. It is with this object and in view, especially, of the Exposition at Chicago, that the committee lias drawn up the first statistics ever essayed of the demographic part played by women in social economy. Thusan important part of our general statistics has been devoted to this entirely new study. . , We have devised a series of charts, chronologically an methodically arranged by departments and districts in which are shown the proportion of the two sexes m the general population, variation in the date of marriages according to age, locality, and the duration of married life, the number of cluldien therein born, the vitality, longevity, and mortality of women com- pared with those of men, and so on. In another department of inquiry the part of women m emigra- tion and immigration has been shown by a certain number of special charts The committee has elaborated a still more special programme, with a view to classify the diverse economical func- tions of women. The principal features of this programme are as follows: (169)