1888

In this country, which is proud of its claims of freedom to all, one-half of its people are treated as if they were guilty of a crime, and it were better for them, if possible, not to have been born women. A few years ago a young woman was arrested on the streets of New York in men’s habiliments. It transpired that she had been a waiter in a restaurant, and as a woman had received $4 a week. She left that restaurant, and at another, attired as a man, she was paid $9, $5 more than her previous salary. She was convicted, and sentenced to six months’ confinement on Blackwell’s Island for no other reason than that she was a woman.

Source: San Jose Daily, July 27, 1888.