Figuratively expressed, this seems to me the process: from a common root of universal human spiritual life issue two stems which can again unite in their blossoming. The ramification13 has necessarily involved a division of labour in two equally important spheres. From this point of view I give, in the following, my opinion of the value of the influence of the woman movement upon the spiritual life of woman.
We all know that life expresses itself as movement, that movement brings with it change, transformation14; that this can mean quite as well disintegration15 as higher organisation16.
The woman movement is the most significant of all movements for freedom in the world’s history. The question whether this movement leads mankind in a higher or lower direction is the most 60serious question of the time. Those who assert unconditionally17 the former or the latter have uttered a premature19 judgment20. The question must be formulated21 thus:
(a) Has the woman movement brought to mankind a higher degree of vital force, a greater faculty22 for self-preservation, a more complete organisation, by which the more simple forms have become more finely complex, the more uniform have become richer, more diverse; the incoherent have attained23 a more perfect unity25? Or has the woman movement called forth26 an activity which represses life? degrades, scatters27, and reduces the powers to uniformity, in society and in mankind?
(b) Is woman’s spiritual life now in general above the level at which it was in the beginning of the woman movement? Have modern women finer perceptions, deeper feelings, clearer ideas, a firmer will, richer association of ideas? Do their spiritual faculties28 so work together that they mutually enhance instead of hinder one another? In a word is the modern woman more soulful than the woman of any other time?
(c) Is the body of the modern woman, at all stages of life, stronger, more healthy, and more beautiful than that of the woman of the previous century, when the woman movement began in real earnest in Europe?
(d) Does the modern woman perform in more perfect manner than the woman of that time, the physical and psychic functions of motherhood?
61If the question be put thus then the objective investigator29 must answer to all—“Yes and No.”
But if this investigator is an evolutionist, then he knows that the progress of every social evolution is like that which womankind is now experiencing. We see first, how, in any given sphere of society, where those engaged therein have attained a pure, instinctive30 certainty in their actions through laws and customs, the individuals oppressed by these laws and customs must rebel against the limits, drawn31 from without, for the development and exercise of their powers. This revolt occasions at first a stage of anarchy32 in which everything seems to collapse—while in the previous conserving33 epoch34 “crystallisation” furnished the vital danger! But after such an anarchistic35 stage there comes infallibly the constructive36 stage, where a part of the old is organised, incorporated, into the new. But this acts no longer as instinctive impulse. No, mankind has become conscious anew of these values of law and custom; they have been recognised by the thought, encompassed37 by feeling, sanctioned by the will as still always indispensable, in another and higher form it is true than that against which the individuals rebelled. But just as the leaves which once grew green above in the summer light, gradually become one with the earth, so the motives38 of the new customs sink gradually down into the unknown; man acts again with instinctive certainty and uniformity—until the new period of 62stagnation evokes39 a new rebellion and achievement of individualism.
The woman movement finds itself now at a point where it is about to pass from the dynamic stage to a static stage. Exactly at this point a survey begins to be possible; and it is also necessary for every one who believes that the ideal, as well as the practical direction of the woman movement, in future, must be influenced by the knowledge gained about the effect of the movement, thus far, upon the uplifting of the life of mankind.
Every great achievement of individualism is as inconsiderate as the spring tide and must be, in order to have strength for its task. The woman movement was so also. But it encountered two other great ideas of the time, Socialism and Evolutionism, and in consequence the woman movement was obliged to modify gradually its conception of the feminine individual and of her position in existence.
On the one hand, as has been already shown, man has had to understand that “open competition” and “individual initiative” are not absolute political-economic truths. On the other hand, the defender40 of women’s rights has been forced to understand more and more that woman’s soul is no unchangeable value which must remain the same however much the spheres have changed toward which this spiritual life directed itself and from which it received its impression. While feminists41 fifty years ago scorned the objection 63that “womanliness” would be lost in business life or in politics, now the evolutionist mind in thinking women understands that all human soul life is subject to the law of change; that just as indisputably as the soul life of man is changed by different vocations42 and surroundings, so that of woman also must be changed. The feminists founded their dogma that the woman movement can only benefit woman, man, the child, the family, society, mankind upon the conviction of the stability of “true womanliness.”
And if the woman movement had not had this religious certainty of belief, how could it have withstood the mass of prejudice and stupidity which it encountered in its own, as well as in the other sex? The woman movement has conquered because it was self-intoxicated.
And quite naturally! After a stability of centuries, during which the position of woman was altered only in and with the general progress of culture, women finally recognised that they could accelerate their own progress and with it also the somewhat snail-like course of universal human culture. And so woman asserted herself and increased her motion. The faster this movement became, the more was she seized by the intoxication43 which always accompanies every vigorous physical or psychic movement. And when has a movement of the time advanced more rapidly?
Folk-migrations, crusades, slave rebellions, revolutions 64have led a race, a class, a group, beyond certain geographical44 or social boundaries. The emancipation45 of women has shifted and extended the limits of the freedom of movement of half mankind. No wonder that the extent of the movement in and for itself was advanced as proof of the infallibility of its direction. All points of departure, the natural right of man, individual freedom, social necessity—all led out into the sun, which, in society as in nature, should radiate over woman as well as over man; they led up onto the summit where man and woman both should breathe the air of the heights. All obstacles which were raised with the help of arguments such as, “the nature of woman,” “the welfare of the family,” “the idea of society,” “the purpose of God”—all proved temporary. And of necessity—for the innermost law of life, the law of development, of life enhancement, carried the movement forward. When it began, the Biblical expression about the wind was quoted, “Man knows not whence it comes nor whither it goes.” Now all know it. Now the spirit of the time speaks with “feminist” voice. The ideas of emancipation “are in the air,” like bacilli, by which only savages46 are thus far wholly untouched.
There are now no great movements of the time whose path does not run parallel with or cut across the woman movement. Every new generation is involuntarily and unconsciously drawn along with it. The ends already attained seem to the present 65age obvious; the ends, for which man is still struggling to-day, will appear equally obvious to the future. The woman movement is now a power with which even its most bitter adversaries47 must reckon. And this force has so quickly attained prominence48 exactly as a result of fanaticism49. Just as the White and the Blue Nile mingle50 their waters in the main stream, so in every great current of time enthusiasm is mingled51 with fanaticism. And it is the latter which bears the most fruit, for it gives power of growth to the passions of the majority, good as well as bad.
Every great idea begins with great promulgators. The promulgator52 who has the spirit does not hold to the letter. And the woman movement which was spirit began also with women and men who did not follow the call of the spirit of the time; no, who from lonely heights sent out their awakening53 call to the time. Men who give their age new ideals have always religious natures. This means, according to a good definition, that they are “individualists in their being, social in their action.”
Such natures burn, above all, with the passion to find themselves. Then they burn with the passion to sacrifice themselves in order to help others, whose suffering or wrongs they feel as deeply as if they were their own. No one who passively endures an injustice54 against himself has the material in him to struggle for the rights of others. The one who patiently forbears becomes an accessory to the injustice done to others. He 66who resists the injustice which he himself meets can open up the way to a higher right for others. Such path-finders were the first apostles of the emancipation of women. They consecrated55 to this task a faith which required no proof, a faith which saw visions and heard melodies of the glorious future that their victory would prepare for mankind. They emanated56 neither from scientific investigations57, nor from systems of political economy, nor from philosophic58 evidence, nor theories of political science. They flung themselves into the struggle with inadequate59 weapons, without plan of campaign, just as do all impelled60 by the spirit. But such a method always evokes later dissension among the disciples61. Sects62 are formed, gradually a church is crystallised, an orthodoxy, a papacy, and an inquisition. This course is physically63 necessary as long as mankind is still in greatest part a mass. A Paul more “Christian” than Christ and a Luther more “Paulist” than Paul are met also in the woman movement.
This has now, among most people of culture, passed beyond the stage of the great apostles and martyrs64 and heralds65. The movement has reached the point where certain typical manifestations66, certain conventional forms testify that the masses—which stoned the prophets—have now, since the ideas of the woman movement have become truisms, banalities, the fashion, appropriated them to themselves and endeavour to transform them to their image and adapt them to their needs.
67Again and again the old tale repeats itself: the trolls steal the weapons of the gods but they cannot use them. Again and again there is occasion to deplore67 the fact that the autocrat68 of genius, whether he rule over a people or a kingdom of ideas, has heirs, heirs who diminish his work. Again and again it must be recognised that no spiritual formation vanishes at one blow. The servile mind, intrigue69, pettiness, delusion—all that, from which the great spirits of the woman movement hoped to “emancipate70” woman—could not suddenly vanish out of the world. And since all this must go somewhere it finally finds room in the woman movement itself!
But on the other side—since after all everything has another side—it must be admitted that the levelling and conserving tendency of the average person is of real value at the stage when an idea begins to be transformed into law and custom.
Those who can work only in crowds receive their significance exactly because of their collective work. They push aside the “individual emancipation” which they do not need for their own part, since they have no individuality to emancipate. But by diligent71 and efficient work they succeed in securing certain results, which are the common cause of all. So the Philistines72 make for themselves a footstool of that which was a stumbling-block for their congenial souls in the previous generation. From this height they look down upon the new truth of their time. And those who 68perceive and uphold this new truth turn aside from the great uniformed army which now advances safely where the little vanguard has previously73 and laboriously74 opened up the way. Those who turn aside will form the new vanguard when it comes to achieving, in the spirit of the first apostle, the emancipation not only of women in the mass, but of each individual woman. When the present work of the woman movement for joint75, common ends shall no longer be necessary, because one end after another has been attained, then comes the task of the present “radical” feminism: the accomplishment76 of “emancipation” by leading it up to those free heights which already the path-finders are endeavouring to attain24, the heights where every feminine individuality can choose her own path of life, perhaps at variance77 with all others; can choose it in freedom, answerable only to her own conscience. Although this summary grouping historically as well as psychologically corresponds approximately to the past, present, and future of the woman movement, yet there are so many ramifications78 of the three groups into one another, that the woman movement now exhibits a tangled79 confusion in which every exact demarcation is impossible.
Whoever lives to witness it will see the course of progress just described—for which the modern labour movement offers quite as good material for observation as the woman movement—repeat itself in the next great emancipation movement. 69I mean the movement for the right and freedom of the child, which will be the unconditional18 result of the victory of the woman and labour movements. This idea is still in the morning-clear hour of inspiration. But from the cry, “Away with the child destroying home training,” we can hear that the troop of Philistines will appear by afternoon upon the scene, to adopt the idea into their midst!
By means of the comparison with socialism, I have endeavoured to emphasise80 that the woman movement’s formation of dogmas and its doctrinary fanaticism are not effects of the peculiarity of the feminine mind. These phenomena81 are typical of every movement of the time thus far observed. They are essential above all because a new belief without dogma and without ritual is for the masses a sword without a hilt: it offers nothing tangible82, nothing whereby the masses can come into relation with the idea.
That certain feminists still believe that the woman movement has advanced just as the exodus83 of the Children of Israel out of the land of bondage84, that is to say, under God’s special protection against wandering astray; that they stigmatise as “treason” and “defection” the assertion that this movement was determined85 by the same psychological and sociological laws as every other movement for freedom—this shows to how high a degree many leaders of the woman movement lack elementary psychological and sociological conceptions. 70This deficiency is, however, being continually remedied. And in the generation which now advances, dogmatic fanaticism has well nigh vanished, but pure enthusiasm is preserved.
We can thus expect from this generation a clearer understanding of the necessary social repressions86 which the woman movement has now sufficient strength to impose upon itself without forfeiting87 thereby88 its character of a movement for freedom. As such it cannot and dare not cease until it has attained all its ends. As long as the law treats women as one race, men as another, there is a woman question. Not until man and woman, equal and united, work together for mankind will the woman movement belong to the past.
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1
psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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aphorisms
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| 格言，警句( aphorism的名词复数 ) | |
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psychic
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| n.对超自然力敏感的人；adj.有超自然力的 | |
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peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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chaotic
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| adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的 | |
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maternal
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| adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的 | |
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maternity
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| n.母性，母道，妇产科病房；adj.孕妇的，母性的 | |
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functional
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| adj.为实用而设计的，具备功能的，起作用的 | |
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perpetuation
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| n.永存，不朽 | |
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obliteration
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| n.涂去，删除；管腔闭合 | |
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retention
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| n.保留，保持，保持力，记忆力 | |
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ramification
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| n.分枝，分派，衍生物 | |
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transformation
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| n.变化；改造；转变 | |
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disintegration
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| n.分散，解体 | |
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organisation
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| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
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unconditionally
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| adv.无条件地 | |
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unconditional
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| adj.无条件的，无限制的，绝对的 | |
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premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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formulated
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| v.构想出( formulate的过去式和过去分词 )；规划；确切地阐述；用公式表示 | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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unity
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| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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scatters
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| v.（使）散开， （使）分散，驱散( scatter的第三人称单数 )；撒 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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investigator
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| n.研究者，调查者，审查者 | |
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instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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anarchy
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| n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序 | |
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conserving
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| v.保护，保藏，保存( conserve的现在分词 ) | |
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epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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anarchistic
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| 无政府主义的 | |
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constructive
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| adj.建设的，建设性的 | |
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encompassed
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motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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evokes
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| 产生，引起，唤起( evoke的第三人称单数 ) | |
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defender
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| n.保卫者，拥护者，辩护人 | |
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feminists
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| n.男女平等主义者，女权扩张论者( feminist的名词复数 ) | |
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vocations
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| n.（认为特别适合自己的）职业( vocation的名词复数 )；使命；神召；（认为某种工作或生活方式特别适合自己的）信心 | |
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intoxication
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| n.wild excitement;drunkenness；poisoning | |
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geographical
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| adj.地理的；地区(性)的 | |
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emancipation
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| n.（从束缚、支配下）解放 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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adversaries
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| n.对手，敌手( adversary的名词复数 ) | |
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prominence
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| n.突出；显著；杰出；重要 | |
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fanaticism
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| n.狂热，盲信 | |
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mingle
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| vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往 | |
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mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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promulgator
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| n.颁布者，公布者 | |
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awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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consecrated
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| adj.神圣的，被视为神圣的v.把…奉为神圣，给…祝圣( consecrate的过去式和过去分词 )；奉献 | |
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emanated
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| v.从…处传出，传出( emanate的过去式和过去分词 )；产生，表现，显示 | |
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investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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philosophic
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| adj.哲学的，贤明的 | |
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inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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disciples
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| n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
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sects
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| n.宗派，教派( sect的名词复数 ) | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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martyrs
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| n.martyr的复数形式；烈士( martyr的名词复数 )；殉道者；殉教者；乞怜者（向人诉苦以博取同情） | |
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heralds
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| n.使者( herald的名词复数 )；预报者；预兆；传令官v.预示( herald的第三人称单数 )；宣布（好或重要） | |
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manifestations
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| n.表示，显示（manifestation的复数形式） | |
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deplore
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| vt.哀叹，对...深感遗憾 | |
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autocrat
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| n.独裁者；专横的人 | |
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intrigue
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| vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋 | |
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emancipate
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| v.解放，解除 | |
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diligent
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| adj.勤勉的，勤奋的 | |
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philistines
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| n.市侩，庸人( philistine的名词复数 )；庸夫俗子 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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laboriously
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| adv.艰苦地；费力地；辛勤地；（文体等）佶屈聱牙地 | |
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joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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77
variance
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| n.矛盾，不同 | |
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78
ramifications
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| n.结果，后果( ramification的名词复数 ) | |
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79
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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80
emphasise
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| vt.加强...的语气，强调，着重 | |
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81
phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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82
tangible
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| adj.有形的，可触摸的，确凿的，实际的 | |
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83
exodus
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| v.大批离去，成群外出 | |
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84
bondage
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| n.奴役，束缚 | |
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85
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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86
repressions
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| n.压抑( repression的名词复数 )；约束；抑制；镇压 | |
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87
forfeiting
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| （因违反协议、犯规、受罚等）丧失，失去( forfeit的现在分词 ) | |
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thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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