Feminism - Women and Memory Forum

WOMEN AND WORK 221
that women would be in a favoured position — at least till our
present kind of marriage ceases, and with it the civilised race.
Cato of old said that women, when they become men's equals,
would be their superiors ; ^* and his words have often been re-
peated.'*^ Their truth seems to be proved by the fact that
sociologists have been able to discover an age when women were
superior and an age when men were and are superior, but not
an age when both were equal, showing that the intermediate stage
was one of unstable equilibrium, through which the transition was
rapid. It is, in fact, impossible for two powers to keep the
balance even between themselves. The ideal of man-and-woman
rule is impracticable. The feminists themselves 6ften run
through it to the other side. They advocate subserviency to
women, thinking it chivalrous to do so.^^ But chivalry, of course,
is consistent only with recognition of the inferiority of woman's
position, being an endeavour to even up their condition with
men's. If it is to continue when the equality of women with
men is proclaimed, it elevates them to a more favoured position,
destroying the very equality aimed at.
Thorough feminists, however, are fair enough to wish to
prevent this one-sidedness on the other side, and in order to
obtain perfect equality, without privilege or favour, and without
the wastefulness above objected to their scheme, require
that women shall have all men's duties as well as all men's rights,
and shall not forfeit either by marriage. Women, therefore,
who have taken up a profession, are to continue in it after
marrying, just as men do, the wife being as independent of the
husband as the husband of the wife, and contributing equally with
the husband to the support of the children they have in com-
mon ;
^^ for it is always supposed that the woman will earn as
much as the man.^* Husband and wife are to go each to his
and her work in the morning, and meet again in the evening.^^
prejudice of the race by withdrawing from parenthood men and women of talent.
Also, through failure to provide sufficiently for the celibate women, a celibate priesthood
always fosters prostitution. "Public celibacy," says Draper, "is private wickedness,"
Conflict between Science and Religion, 262.
BO In Livy, XXXIV. 3-
61 E.g., Schiller puts into the mouth of his Lady Milford, in Kabale und Liebe,
Act II., Scene i. : " Wir Frauenzimmer konnen nur zwischen Herrschen und Dienen
wahlen." " This," says J. W. P. in A Remonstrant View of Woman Suffrage, p. 38,
"is the age of the tyranny of the weak over the strong. As surely as women have
half of the political power, they will have more than half."
52 £.^.. Edward R. Oilman: "Let us give a 'square deal' also to women, who are
entitled to all our rights and, to my mind, to two more: the right of man's sympathy
and of man's protection," in Miss Strachan's op. cit., 544. Cf. above, p. 2i6n.
53 " By way of illustration," says Christabel Pankhurst, '' we may take the case
of husband and wife who are both doctors, or actors, or industrial workers. Each
earns an independent income, and both should contribute equally to the maintenance
of the family. Plain Facts about a Great Evil, 121.
54 But cf. above, p, 124, 180-1.
55 This and what follows is not a recent demand of Mrs. Gilman and her followers
only: it appeared early in the woman movement. In 1859 Miss Emma Hardinge