The appeal to history, which men like Dr. Emil Reich have so gravely abused, is in this case singularly unfortunate. In most cases the candid9 student of history finds some ancient abuse or irrational10 tradition making its way from one civilisation4 to another, and finds it natural that our more critical and independent generation should at length seek to dethrone it. But in the case of woman the Conservative has not even “the wisdom of the race” to appeal to. Her position in the past has varied11 greatly, but it is very far from true that she had always occupied that state of subjection in which our Victorian reformers found her. I have elsewhere (Woman in Political Evolution) surveyed the full story of woman’s development, and will here be content with a summary view which makes the Feminist12 movement of our time intelligible13.
During the greater part of the history of civilisation, in the Egyptian and Mesopotamian empires, woman had a considerable measure of freedom and respect. When the Greeks and Romans entered the stage, they brought with them a different tradition in regard to woman, but as soon as they reached the height of their cultural development, their women (and many of their men) rebelled against this tradition. The civilisation of Greece was extinguished so speedily that the women of Athens, aided by so eminent14 a thinker as Plato, had not time to win their emancipation15; but the Roman women did succeed in lifting themselves from their position of subjection. In the meantime, however, the political and religious development of Europe led to the reappearance of the barbaric tradition in a new form. The Christian16 leaders had in their sacred documents the social code of a rude Semitic tribe, the Jews, which was sternly emphasised by St. Paul, and they brooded darkly over the position of woman. Tertullian fiercely reminded Christians18 that, but for woman, the race would never have been damned. Ambrose ingeniously reflected that Eve was made out of a mere19 rib17, not out of the brain, of Adam. Augustine regarded woman as an unpleasant institution created by Providence20 for the relief of weak-willed males and for the maintenance of the race. Jerome frowned heavily on the Roman woman’s claim of emancipation. This quaint21 mixture of Jewish contempt and ascetic dread22 was imposed on Europe by the triumphant23 priesthood, educated mainly in the opinions of “the Fathers,” and woman sank again to a position of inferiority and subjection.
Women writers of many countries have written this story of the degradation24 of their sex in Christian Europe, and one can only admire the splendid audacity25 with which Bishop26 Welldon assures women that Jesus Christ (who never uttered a protest against the Jewish conception or a warning against the coming abuse of it) was “the first to respect them,” or the Bishop of London describes Christianity as “woman’s best friend,” or Bishop Diggle represents the Christian as an advance on the Roman attitude. Our clergy27 are distinguished28 for the facility with which they make historical statements without giving us any serious evidence of a command of history; they have the advantage of being able to assure their followers29 that it is a “sin” to read more accurate and less orthodox experts.
The historical truth is that the nineteenth century found woman in a position far lower than that she had occupied at Rome seventeen centuries before—far lower, indeed, than she had occupied during (except for two brief periods) the many thousands of years of the history of civilisation. It was quite inevitable30 that a movement for her emancipation and uplifting should find a place among the great reforms initiated31 in the last century. To conceive this movement as a semi-hysterical rebellion against the settled usage of the race is merely to betray a gross ignorance of history. Recent experience has taught us that there is a great deal in the settled usage of the race to rebel against; but it is false that in this case we are doing so. The undisputed historical truth is that woman had been comparatively free and respected during the greater part of the civilised period: that, when the early civilisations of Greece and Rome had placed her in subjection for a few centuries, she, at the beginning of the Christian era, rebelled and won her emancipation: and that the later period of subjection was merely due to the incorporation32 in the Christian religion of the primitive33 and crude ideal of a polygamous Arab tribe. Against this intolerable superstition34 modern civilisation has rebelled, and we are in the midst of a far deeper discussion of woman’s nature and position than ever occurred before.
The discussion is passing through the three phases which are customary in these controversies35. At first the clergy and the Conservative quoted the Bible and the Fathers. Then, when women began to show that they were disposed to examine a little more closely the authority of documents which taught so obvious an injustice36, it was pleaded that in this case the religious view coincided with “sound” science and sociology. In that phase we are to-day, discussing claims that “nature” and our social interest are on the side of the old ideal. In a few more decades, when the battle is won, the Bishop of London of the time will be demonstrating that the reform was anticipated by the Fathers sixteen hundred years ago and was contained, in germ, in the New Testament37.
At present the controversy38 about woman’s position turns largely on the question of her “nature,” and the literature of the subject is prodigious39. Woman has different organs and functions than those of man, and it is natural to suppose that they will give her a different character. Here is the opportunity of the male: he has a solid scientific fact to build upon.
He sagely40 examines the intellectual life of woman and pronounces it inferior to that of man: he measures her brain and finds it smaller than that of man, and thus discovers the scientific basis of her inferiority; and he never reflects that, since he, on the whole, forbade her to develop her brain and intelligence during the fifteen centuries of Christian domination, it may be that her brain is not working with all the energy of which it is capable. He lays down for this dependent creature a certain code of deportment and behaviour, and, when it has enfeebled her, he discourses41 on her inferior muscular development: if any girls or women defiantly42 exercise their muscles and become strong, he calls them “unwomanly” and happily exceptional. He observes that woman is more emotional than man; and, of course, he does not ask physiologists43 whether this may be merely, or mainly, the effect (as it is) of the muscular and intellectual restrictions45 he has placed on her. He bids her develop pretty curves on her body for his entertainment, and never thinks about the physiological46 and psychological effect of the dead mass of fat and the flabby muscles. He kindly48 undertakes (for a consideration) the care of this weaker companion, and, when she begins to prove that she can fend49 for herself, he severely50 censures51 her for intruding53 on his labour-market. He learns from novelists that she has a peculiar54 power of “intuition” (in fiction), and a greater fineness of perception than man (which exact experiment in America has shown to be untrue), and is altogether a deep and unfathomable being. And he then, in virtue55 of his superior understanding of her “mysterious” nature, proceeds to dictate56 to her about her sphere and her capacities.
The absurdities57 and contradictions of male writers on women, supported by some women writers, during the last two hundred years, would fill a volume. They were more or less intelligible, and certainly entertaining, in the earlier part of the modern period, but at a time when we have scientific and historical information to guide us they are neither intelligent nor amusing. We now know that there is no such thing as an unchangeable nature of a living organism. Structure and function vary with use and environment, whatever theory of heredity one follows. Forbid the brain and muscles to function for some centuries, and they will become feebler: restore their activity and they will return to strength. Shut a woman out of politics or business or war, and she will lose her capacity for it: reintroduce her to it, and her faculties58 are sharpened. When the kings of Dahomi formed a regiment59 of women in their army, the women were found to be more deadly fighters than the men, and they drank as heavily.
As far as the political phase of the modern Feminist struggle is concerned, the application of these principles is clear enough. When statesmen can find no better argument against the enfranchisement60 of women than the fact that (like the politicians themselves) they do no military service, and when scientific men plead only their periodical perturbations and their “change of life,” it is time to cease arguing. Even in countries which have a system of conscription it has never been proposed that those who are exempt61 from service should not have a vote. In a country like England the objection is supremely62 foolish: it reminds one of Plato’s ironical63 argument, in this connection, that men who are bald should not be allowed to make shoes. As to the comparative disturbance of judgment64 which a certain proportion of women suffer at certain periods, it is preposterous65 to suppose that this does not unfit them for more important work, but does unfit them for casting a vote once in seven years. Is it suggested that the Conservative matron will, if an election fall in her period of nervous instability, march in a frenzy66 to the poll and vote for Keir Hardie? Even the more or less intoxicated67 male voter does not overrule a settled conviction so easily. But it is waste of time to discuss such matters. A simple investigation68 of years of experience in America and Australasia is more valuable than the pedantic69 declarations of one or two scientific men. Even Conservative Australians smiled when I asked them if the consequences of female enfranchisement, as they are darkly foreboded by serious people in England, had been observed in their Commonwealth70.
The anti-suffrage71 campaign has been the death-blow of the prejudice against the enfranchisement of women. It has shown the complete futility72 of the Conservative position. Women would probably have the vote in England to-day if a section of those who demand it had not taken a false path. The end, however sacred, does not justify73 criminal means; nor can any serious statesman yield to violence and intimidation74. Yet there is nothing in this temporary aberration75 to strengthen the anti-Feminist position. It was an error of judgment and a misreading of history. I am well acquainted with many of the ladies who did these regrettable things, and I know that the suggestion of “hysteria” is an insult. It is, however, useless to discuss this question further. Women will be enfranchised76 in England within a few years, and in all civilised nations within a quarter of a century.
Then will begin the campaign for the right to sit in Parliament, even in the Ministry77. From sheer force of prejudice the great majority of the enfranchised women will resist this further claim, and the long story of education and agitation78 will be repeated. This is the outcome of our habit of persistently79 compromising with false traditions instead of frankly81 discarding them. The immortal82 jokes about women will be retailed83 in the House of Commons by our legislators; the same dark warnings will come from scientific Cassandras who have felt social influence; the same tragic84 whispers about “what every woman knows” will be heard in drawing-rooms. Then, about the year 1930, we will discover that woman is really capable of undertaking85 the not very exacting86 duties of the average Member of Parliament,—if we have not in the meantime abolished these aimless long debates on subjects which all approach with a fixed87 conviction,—and that it may not be impossible to find a woman with the capacity of Mr. Reginald M’Kenna or Lord Gladstone or Mr. Walter Long. Our Mrs. Humphry Wards88 will be the first to compete for the office.
I turn to the more serious question of the economic enfranchisement of women. On this side of the Feminist movement our views are hardly less hazy89 than in regard to politics. The middle-class, being the brain as well as the backbone90 of England, is chiefly responsible for the maxim91 that woman’s place is the home; but the middle-class is also the great employer of labour, and it has found that female labour is cheaper than male, and has therefore concluded that woman’s proper place is the office or the workshop. More than a fourth of the girls and women of England work outside the home. This material incentive92 to right views is, however, limited in its action. When the middle-class woman in turn seeks economic independence, she is received with coldness, if not derision. Women may be clerks, teachers, actresses, telegraphists, hosiery-makers, etc., but they ought not to aspire94 to be doctors, lawyers, or stockbrokers95. If they ask the reason, they hear an inconsistent jumble96 of statements. In the first place, of course, they are not clever enough; in the second place, however, they are likely to be so far successful that they would lessen97 the available employment of men.
Certainly in such a haphazard98 industrial world as ours the accession of a fresh army of workers will cause, and is causing, confusion. On the laissez-faire principle this overcrowding of the market is good; it gives a greater play to selection and promotes efficiency. But we have, as I said, forced laissez-faire to compromise with decency99. We prefer a little overcrowding, but not too much. The opening of the doors of all the professions to woman means a worse overcrowding than ever in the medical and legal worlds, and we naturally hesitate.
Naturally, but not justly or logically. Between logic47 and justice the modern man pleads that he is distracted, and he asks time for reconstruction100; asks, in other words, that we should leave the trouble to another generation. This shrinking from trouble is of no avail. We have sanctioned the principle of female industry outside the home—millions of women are so employed in England to-day—and we have absolutely no ground to limit it except the natural disability of woman or the social need for her to undertake other functions. Of her natural disability little need be said here. We have had, in most countries, decades of experience of the employment of women in many industries—teaching, nursing, journalism101, factory-work, art, theatre, post-office, type-writing, shop-work, and so on. What proportion of complaint to the number of workers is there that their periodical functions make them unfit for employment? We do not need learned experts on gynecology to tell us of the acute and exceptional cases which have come under their observation. The scientific and practical procedure is to make a general inquiry102 into the net result of our employment of millions of girls and women. Most of us would await such a report with confidence. As long as the wages of women are lower than those of men, we hear very little complaint; nor do we find the work of our schools or the play of our theatres very much interrupted by peculiarly feminine weaknesses. Of late years women have shown that they are equally qualified103 to be dentists, doctors, chartered accountants, etc. Common-sense would persuade us, if we would find the real limits of woman’s capacity, to open to her all the doors of the world of work and learn it by experience.
One must give more serious attention to the claim that this economic enfranchisement of women will tend to lessen maternity104, and will therefore endanger our social interests. This question of the birth-rate is, in fact, very important from many points of view, and it is extremely advisable to have a clear and reasoned grasp of it. Many people are at once alarmed if it is shown that a practice will tend to lessen the birth-rate. They rarely examine with critical attention the reasons which would be alleged105 by those who maintain that a lowering of the birth-rate is a social menace.
But one needs no lengthy106 reflection to discover that at the root of all this clamour for maintaining or increasing the birth-rate we have only military requirements. Some, indeed, urge that a nation needs as many soldiers as possible for her industrial army as well as for her military forces; but, seeing that each nation already has more than she can employ, we are not impressed by this phrase. It is not volume of production, or gross largeness of revenue, which makes a nation great. It is the proportion of her revenue to her population, and in that respect some of the smallest States are the most happily situated107. The need of a large army alone justifies108 complaints about a falling birth-rate, and it is monstrous109 that we should lay this strain on parents merely in order to produce “fodder for cannon110.” The actual need of each country, as long as the military system lasts, must, of course, be met, but—apart from the hope that we will soon cast off the greater part of this military burden—two circumstances show that we have not here a sound and permanent social need. The birth-rate is falling in all civilised countries, and will eventually reach a common low level; and the war has shown us that a nation with a reduced population may, like any nation with a small population, find compensation for its weakness in alliances.
The truth is that the premature111 advance of France in restricting its birth-rate has led to a general fallacy. France exposed itself to a particular danger in face of Germany, and this special weakness of France was converted into the general statement that any nation which reduces its birth-rate is in danger. Not only is the general statement untrue, but the particular case of France is very carelessly conceived. After 1871 the German Empire had such an advantage in population over France, and (until 1895) so much less need of maintaining a fleet, that even a full birth-rate would not have equipped France confidently for a combat. In any case, we come back always to military needs, and we may trust that these will not long impose their terrible strain on civilisation. There is, apart from them, no reason why the birth-rate should not sink in every country to the level of the death-rate, and in many countries even lower.
On the other hand, the superficial folk who cry for heavy maternity and full cradles overlook a very important social fact. I am thinking chiefly of the men and women who denounce in principle the practice of restricting births. Not only do they ignore the overcrowding of our trades and professions,—and they are usually amongst the most reluctant to organise112 them,—but they fail to notice that the increasing application of science and humane113 sentiment to our modes of living threatens the earth, as a whole, with enormous over-population, unless the birth-rate be checked. The population of England has increased nearly fourfold in the past hundred years, whereas it had little more than doubled in the previous two hundred years. The factors which are responsible for this vast modern increase are becoming more active every decade, and are spreading over the world. How will the population of Europe and Asia stand when they are fully114 applied115 in Russia, China, and India? Within twenty years the United States, according to its agricultural experts, will have as large a population as it can support, and we have already seen Germany very largely thrust into war because of its superabundant population. The future is full of peril116 and misery117 if we continue to allow this military demand for men to masquerade as a sound and permanent human need. The birth-rate must be checked.
We must therefore refuse to allow the path of reform to be obstructed118 by either the priest or the drill-sergeant. If ever a time comes when some real interest of the race is endangered by too low a birth-rate, we may trust the race to see to it. Conservatives often imagine that those who would reform life on common-sense lines are devoid119 of sentiment. They confuse sentiment and sentimentality, which is sentiment out of accord with reason. The man of the future will be, in my judgment, not less, but more emotional than the man of to-day; but he will not allow ancient prejudices and mere phrases to have the unchecked support of his feelings. It will not be enough to tell him that divorce is increasing, or the birth-rate falling, or respect for the clergy deteriorating121. He will ask the precise value in social terms of your bogy. At present we have, on broad social grounds, much to gain and nothing to lose by a fall of the birth-rate. Indeed, the prospect122 of a fall is, as far as this economic development alone is concerned, much exaggerated. Millions of employed women have, and will continue to have, children. Under our present system of industry this has undoubtedly123 certain risks and burdens; under the organised system of employment for which I plead it will be possible to adjust employment to maternal124 functions.
And this brings me to the cardinal125 issue of the whole controversy: the economic position of the married woman or the mother. Let us face this graver position quite candidly126. The industrial disorganisation will right itself in the course of time. The middle-class father of our time whose daughter does a certain amount of work, not in order to relieve his pocket, but in order to buy additional luxuries for herself, has assuredly a grievance127. She takes part of a man’s work and pay, yet leaves on him the old burden of maintenance. She makes matters worse by accepting a low wage, because she is not self-maintaining. I am assuming that women will become independent economic units, and that the rate of payment will be—equal wage for equal service.
But the position of the married woman, or of the independent woman who undertakes maternal functions, forms a special and difficult problem, which is pressing upon us more heavily every decade. There is spreading rapidly through the civilised world a feeling of rebellion against the economic dependence93 of wife or husband. No Conservative argumentation, no censure52 of new ideas, no religious preaching of self-sacrifice for a doubtful reward in heaven, will relieve us of this difficulty. Educated women—statistics of college-taught women are available—are increasingly rebelling against the subjection or inferiority which this economic dependence seems to entail128. It is the chief motive129 of the general demand for economic independence (or an independent place in the industrial world) and has much to do with the revolt against marriage itself. Whether or no we adopt new ideals of social life, this revolt will spread.
One very quickly sees that it is not so much marriage as the traditional practice of husbands which is chiefly responsible for the revolt. The practice varies considerably130, but, apart from a small class in which the wife brings with her or earns an independent income, it is still generally true to say that the wife receives what the husband chooses to give. Now it is plain that this difficulty may be met in a very large proportion of cases by an equitable131 voluntary agreement. Various domestic experiments of the kind are being tried, and a comparison of experiences would be useful. Many people are agreed in the just view that, since the wife works at home while the husband works abroad, all income is joint132 income. A common fund, accessible to both, is assigned for household and saving, and an equal and fixed personal share is taken by each from the income or wage. Such an arrangement is quite easily practised by middle-class people, and it seems to me to remove every legitimate133 suspicion of ignominy from the wife’s position.
When unmarried women have secured economic independence they will be able to demand some such arrangement before marrying. The kind of “modesty” which would prevent a woman from having an understanding before marriage in regard to income and children is a very costly134 and foolish luxury. Let them insist that the ritual words, “With all my worldly goods I thee endow,” must mean something more than that they shall have chocolates and pretty dresses if they humour the moods of a husband. Our law, which secures for a wife full maintenance when she has ceased to do any work for it (after a separation), but has no interest in her when she is working dutifully for twelve or fourteen hours a day, is infinitely135 more dangerous to marriage than are the puritan assaults of Mr. G. B. Shaw. In any case, a voluntary agreement that a wife has access to the bank and cash-box, and a right to take for personal use the same sum as her husband, removes all need of asking money from a husband (which is justly odious136 to many women), and makes a wife economically independent in any important sense of the word.
But it would be futile137 to hope either that the majority of men will thus surrender their privileged position, or that all women will recognise even such an arrangement as economic independence. A grave conflict undoubtedly lies before us, and there will be an increasing demand for the State-endowment of wifehood, or at least of motherhood. The suffrage movement has naturally inflamed138 the difficulty by educating women in a sense of grievance. Indeed, it seems to many of us that Feminist writers have at times gone far beyond legitimate grievances139 and set up fictitious140 and mischievous141 standards. This is a very common development of propagandist movements which meet with a prolonged resistance. The first generation of agitators142 says the obvious and just things in regard to the reform: the next generation must revive the jaded143 sentiment with stimulating144 novelties and exaggerations. It seems to me one of these morbid145 exaggerations to speak of marriage as “legalised prostitution”; to imagine that one is “selling one’s body” to a man, or receiving payment for ministering to his “lust.” One Feminist writer of some influence, and some pretension146 to knowledge of science, has actually compared the human male very unfavourably with all other male animals in the world, on the ground that the latter are content with a restricted period of “rut”!
This mixture of ancient Puritanism and advanced sociology is as incongruous as it is mischievous. A woman who sincerely regards sex-pleasure in the way generally implied by the use of the word “lust”—a woman who has not the same healthy desire of it as her partner—has no right to marry: except, of course, to marry a man with similarly antique views. A wife of such a kind may very well consider that she is being “paid” to surrender her body. The normal wife is not paid for that at all. She is paid—if there is any paying—to care for the home and her children: which is as well earned a payment as the fee of a lawyer. And from the sentimental120 point of view it does not make a particle of difference whether she is paid out of her husband’s income or out of the coffers of the State. She would still “sell her body,” if there is any selling of body. But there is not. Maternity and sex-pleasure are entirely147 different matters.
I am deliberately148 trying to undermine the plea for the endowment of motherhood, because the proposal seems to me to present very grave difficulties which even so penetrating149 a sociologist150 as Mr. H. G. Wells has, apparently151, not appreciated. Mr. Wells is, of course, in a very different position from the Feminist writers who advocate the complete endowment or maintenance of wives or mothers by the State. Such a scheme would cost about £300,000,000 a year, and need not be discussed. Mr. Wells suggests rather a modest contribution per child born (leaving out, I assume, wealthier mothers); a practicable scheme, with much in its favour. Yet it seems to me that such endowment would mean that we would encourage the weakest in will, the most sensual, the least intelligent and least provident152 of our people, to breed. Intelligent women would not abandon the practice of restricting births because the State offered them a few shillings per child. The better class—whether of manual or professional workers—would have to pay for the undesirable153 fertility of the worst class. We are just beginning to realise that quality of children is more precious than quantity, and the endowment of motherhood would not encourage this saner154 view. The kind of brute155 who is at present restrained by the paternity-law would be restrained no longer: the rougher type of husband—a very numerous type—would pay so much less to his wife when he found the State contributing (either in cash or kind) to her: the man who at present practises restriction44, not out of consideration for his wife and family, but to have more shillings for himself, would cease to practise it, and lay a greater burden on his wife.
But, while there seem to be such grave objections to the endowment of motherhood that we do better to strengthen women in their individual demand of justice, we must remember that the wife will have the advantage of other changes in the home. Domestic service is becoming more and more repugnant to girls, and some form of co-operative and efficient housekeeping, with common servants and restaurant, will be adopted. Some day a photograph of a twentieth-century suburb will provoke a smile. Perhaps the museum of the future will set up models of our establishments, just as we set up in our ethnographical galleries models of a Kaffir or a Papuan household. Boys and girls will gaze with admiring delight at the naïveté of the model: a thousand brick boxes, separated by a thousand little gardens, with three thousand little chimneys smoking, a thousand amateur cooks perspiring157 over a thousand fires, and a thousand inefficient158 servant-girls flirting159 with the servants of rival butchers and dairymen. The common nursery will especially relieve the mother and lower the death-rate. The State will one day have an interest in seeing that each babe ushered160 into the world, at such pain and sacrifice, becomes a useful citizen. If any mothers care to entrust161 the child more fully to it, the State will find it profitable to respond. These things can be arranged without more detriment162 to parental163 affection than there is in the case of women—often women who write beautiful things in defence of the old tradition—who have nurses for the child and send it later to a distant school for the greater part of the year.
Reforms of this kind will enormously relieve the home life and enable even mothers to earn, if they wish, quite as much as the State would ever be able to award them. The work will be better done, by trained workers, at less cost. People do not reflect that this change has been proceeding164 for centuries. Once the wife brewed165 the ale, and baked the bread, and spun166 the linen167: later she entrusted168 these things to experts working for the community, and reserved for herself the making of preserves, pickles169, underclothing, and antimacassars: now these things have gone to the expert, and the wife confines her amateur efforts to scolding children and cooking refractory170 joints171. She will be relieved when it is all over, and we shall have no more of the “beautiful doll” or the domestic drudge172. The independent position and greater leisure and broader interest in life will make her intellectual activity more similar to that of man’s.
I speak, of course, of the mass of women, and do not forget that already the intellect of alert and thoughtful women is equal to that of men of the corresponding class. The majority will be, as it were, differently orientated173 toward life by these changes. A saner muscular activity will restore the balance of the system, and will rid them of the excessive nerve-energy, particularly of the sympathetic system, which finds expression in facile and explosive emotion. There will assuredly always be a bias174 toward sentiment in woman, and we have no reason to fear a deterioration175 of the distinctively176 feminine sentiments of tenderness, refinement177, and sympathy. The relief from the more irritating domesticities ought to accentuate178 them. On the other hand, the idea of obeying the male or practising self-sacrifice for his undue179 benefit, will certainly disappear; and it is quite time that it did. Self-sacrifice, in case of need, comes instinctively180 to either sex, but the kind of self-sacrifice which a selfish masculine tradition has pressed on women is degrading to the man and unjust to wife and daughter. All that is attractive and really beneficent in woman will be fostered, but on the emotional side it will become less and less characteristic of one sex. The sharp contrast of the sexes tends to disappear. There is something grotesque181 about the traditional idea that the human male must be distinguished by a greater capacity for taking alcohol and using meaningless expletives and telling sexual stories. Even in physical strength and athletic182 skill the sexes are approaching; nor does one find any loss of charm or grace in some of the finest women athletes.
These changes are proceeding, and, apart from inevitable errors and excesses, on which caricaturists fasten with their genial183 unscrupulousness, the result is promising80. Contemporary expressions of alarm are often ludicrous. Thousands of ladies who are horrified184 at the emergence185 of “a new sex” are themselves contriving186, by means which would have caused their prolific187 grandmothers to raise white hands to heaven, to limit their families to two children. We take our reform in small doses, as if complete social health were a thing to be considered very seriously. Yet if one patiently traces in imagination the effect of all these changes on the womanhood of the race, one foresees a generation of women which recalls Shelley’s lines:
“And women, too, frank, beautiful, and kind
As the free heaven which rains fresh light and dew
On the wide earth, past; gentle radiant forms,
Speaking the wisdom once they could not think,
Looking emotions once they feared to feel,
And changed to all which once they dared not be,
Yet, being now, made earth like heaven; nor pride,
Spoilt the sweet taste of the nepenthe, love.”
Grant the poet his licence; women are not more likely than men to become angels. The moral superiority which some Feminist writers claim for their sex is founded on a curiously190 narrow view of life; if man, instead of woman, had to pay the penalty of sexual intercourse191, we should probably find the aggression192 on the other side. Yet the most sober-minded of us must expect from this healthier balance of powers, this easing of the domestic burden, this limitation of care to a few children, and this independence of marital193 generosity194 or marital selfishness, a great advancement195 in the character and happiness of woman.
Shelley, however, was thinking less of wives than of free women, and economic independence will swell196 their numbers. The changes I have described will make marriage far less onerous197, but they will also make it easier for a woman to dispense198 with marriage, and before the end of the twentieth century there will be in every city a growth of temporary unions and independent conduct. Woman will be mistress, morally and economically, of her own destiny; she will consult neither husband nor priest. The plain moral law, which forbids a man to inflict199 pain or injustice, will be more faithfully observed than it ever was before. There will be an immense reduction of the hypocrisy200, the prostitution, the misery and illness, which this fictitious law of chastity has always caused; and the alteration201 of public opinion will remove from a woman the unpleasant consequences which unwedded love entails202 at the present time. It is preposterous to say that the State will be injured by these changes, and it seems clear that woman will be happier, more healthily developed, and not less tender and graceful203 than she can be under the present reign204 of shams205.
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disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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arsenal
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| n.兵工厂，军械库 | |
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rhetoric
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| n.修辞学，浮夸之言语 | |
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civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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sensuous
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| adj.激发美感的；感官的，感觉上的 | |
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proprietorship
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| n.所有（权）；所有权 | |
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ascetic
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| adj.禁欲的；严肃的 | |
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8
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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9
candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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10
irrational
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| adj.无理性的，失去理性的 | |
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11
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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12
feminist
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| adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的 | |
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13
intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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14
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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15
emancipation
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| n.（从束缚、支配下）解放 | |
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16
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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17
rib
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| n.肋骨，肋状物 | |
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18
Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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19
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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20
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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21
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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22
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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23
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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24
degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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25
audacity
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| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
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26
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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27
clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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28
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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29
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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30
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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31
initiated
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| n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入 | |
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32
incorporation
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| n.设立，合并，法人组织 | |
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33
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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34
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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35
controversies
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| 争论 | |
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36
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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37
testament
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|
| n.遗嘱；证明 | |
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38
controversy
|
|
| n.争论，辩论，争吵 | |
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39
prodigious
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|
| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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40
sagely
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|
| adv. 贤能地，贤明地 | |
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41
discourses
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| 论文( discourse的名词复数 )； 演说； 讲道； 话语 | |
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42
defiantly
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|
| adv.挑战地，大胆对抗地 | |
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43
physiologists
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|
| n.生理学者( physiologist的名词复数 )；生理学( physiology的名词复数 )；生理机能 | |
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44
restriction
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|
| n.限制，约束 | |
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45
restrictions
|
|
| 约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则） | |
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46
physiological
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|
| adj.生理学的，生理学上的 | |
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47
logic
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|
| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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48
kindly
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|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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49
fend
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| v.照料（自己），（自己）谋生，挡开，避开 | |
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50
severely
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|
| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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51
censures
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|
| v.指责，非难，谴责( censure的第三人称单数 ) | |
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52
censure
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|
| v./n.责备；非难；责难 | |
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53
intruding
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|
| v.侵入，侵扰，打扰( intrude的现在分词)；把…强加于 | |
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54
peculiar
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|
| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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55
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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56
dictate
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|
| v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令 | |
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57
absurdities
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|
| n.极端无理性( absurdity的名词复数 )；荒谬；谬论；荒谬的行为 | |
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58
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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59
regiment
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|
| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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60
enfranchisement
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| 选举权 | |
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61
exempt
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|
| adj.免除的；v.使免除；n.免税者，被免除义务者 | |
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62
supremely
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|
| adv.无上地，崇高地 | |
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63
ironical
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|
| adj.讽刺的，冷嘲的 | |
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64
judgment
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|
| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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65
preposterous
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|
| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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66
frenzy
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|
| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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67
intoxicated
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|
| 喝醉的，极其兴奋的 | |
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68
investigation
|
|
| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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69
pedantic
|
|
| adj.卖弄学问的；迂腐的 | |
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70
commonwealth
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|
| n.共和国，联邦，共同体 | |
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71
suffrage
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|
| n.投票，选举权，参政权 | |
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72
futility
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|
| n.无用 | |
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73
justify
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|
| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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74
intimidation
|
|
| n.恐吓，威胁 | |
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75
aberration
|
|
| n.离开正路，脱离常规，色差 | |
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76
enfranchised
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|
| v.给予选举权( enfranchise的过去式和过去分词 )；（从奴隶制中）解放 | |
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77
ministry
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|
| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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78
agitation
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|
| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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79
persistently
|
|
| ad.坚持地；固执地 | |
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80
promising
|
|
| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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81
frankly
|
|
| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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82
immortal
|
|
| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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83
retailed
|
|
| vt.零售（retail的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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84
tragic
|
|
| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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85
undertaking
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|
| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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86
exacting
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|
| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
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87
fixed
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|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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88
wards
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|
| 区( ward的名词复数 )； 病房； 受监护的未成年者； 被人照顾或控制的状态 | |
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89
hazy
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|
| adj.有薄雾的，朦胧的；不肯定的，模糊的 | |
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90
backbone
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|
| n.脊骨，脊柱，骨干；刚毅，骨气 | |
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91
maxim
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|
| n.格言，箴言 | |
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92
incentive
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|
| n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机 | |
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93
dependence
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|
| n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属 | |
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94
aspire
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|
| vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于 | |
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95
stockbrokers
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|
| n.股票经纪人( stockbroker的名词复数 ) | |
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96
jumble
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|
| vt.使混乱，混杂；n.混乱；杂乱的一堆 | |
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97
lessen
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|
| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
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98
haphazard
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|
| adj.无计划的，随意的，杂乱无章的 | |
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99
decency
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|
| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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100
reconstruction
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|
| n.重建，再现，复原 | |
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101
journalism
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| n.新闻工作，报业 | |
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102
inquiry
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|
| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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103
qualified
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|
| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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104
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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105
alleged
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|
| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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106
lengthy
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|
| adj.漫长的，冗长的 | |
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107
situated
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|
| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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108
justifies
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|
| 证明…有理( justify的第三人称单数 )； 为…辩护； 对…作出解释； 为…辩解（或辩护） | |
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109
monstrous
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|
| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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110
cannon
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|
| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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111
premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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112
organise
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| vt.组织，安排，筹办 | |
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113
humane
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|
| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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114
fully
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|
| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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115
applied
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|
| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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116
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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117
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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118
obstructed
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|
| 阻塞( obstruct的过去式和过去分词 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止 | |
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119
devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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120
sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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121
deteriorating
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| 恶化，变坏( deteriorate的现在分词 ) | |
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122
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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123
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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124
maternal
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|
| adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的 | |
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125
cardinal
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|
| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
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126
candidly
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|
| adv.坦率地，直率而诚恳地 | |
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127
grievance
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|
| n.怨愤，气恼，委屈 | |
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128
entail
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| vt.使承担，使成为必要，需要 | |
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129
motive
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|
| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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130
considerably
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|
| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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131
equitable
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|
| adj.公平的；公正的 | |
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132
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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133
legitimate
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|
| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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134
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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135
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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136
odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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137
futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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138
inflamed
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|
| adj.发炎的，红肿的v.（使）变红，发怒，过热( inflame的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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139
grievances
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|
| n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 )；苦衷；不满；牢骚 | |
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140
fictitious
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|
| adj.虚构的，假设的；空头的 | |
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141
mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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142
agitators
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| n.（尤指政治变革的）鼓动者( agitator的名词复数 )；煽动者；搅拌器；搅拌机 | |
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143
jaded
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| adj.精疲力竭的；厌倦的；（因过饱或过多而）腻烦的；迟钝的 | |
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144
stimulating
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| adj.有启发性的，能激发人思考的 | |
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145
morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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146
pretension
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| n.要求；自命，自称；自负 | |
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147
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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148
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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149
penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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150
sociologist
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| n.研究社会学的人，社会学家 | |
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151
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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152
provident
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| adj.为将来做准备的，有先见之明的 | |
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153
undesirable
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| adj.不受欢迎的，不良的，不合意的，讨厌的；n.不受欢迎的人，不良分子 | |
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154
saner
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| adj.心智健全的( sane的比较级 )；神志正常的；明智的；稳健的 | |
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155
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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156
gall
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| v.使烦恼，使焦躁，难堪；n.磨难 | |
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157
perspiring
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| v.出汗，流汗( perspire的现在分词 ) | |
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158
inefficient
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| adj.效率低的，无效的 | |
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159
flirting
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| v.调情，打情骂俏( flirt的现在分词 ) | |
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160
ushered
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| v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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161
entrust
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| v.信赖，信托，交托 | |
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162
detriment
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| n.损害；损害物，造成损害的根源 | |
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163
parental
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| adj.父母的；父的；母的 | |
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164
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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165
brewed
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| 调制( brew的过去式和过去分词 )； 酝酿； 沏（茶）； 煮（咖啡） | |
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166
spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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167
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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168
entrusted
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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169
pickles
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| n.腌菜( pickle的名词复数 )；处于困境；遇到麻烦；菜酱 | |
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170
refractory
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| adj.倔强的，难驾驭的 | |
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171
joints
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| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
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172
drudge
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| n.劳碌的人；v.做苦工，操劳 | |
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173
orientated
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| v.朝向( orientate的过去式和过去分词 )；面向；确定方向；使适应 | |
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174
bias
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| n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见 | |
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175
deterioration
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| n.退化；恶化；变坏 | |
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176
distinctively
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| adv.特殊地，区别地 | |
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177
refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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178
accentuate
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| v.着重，强调 | |
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179
undue
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| adj.过分的；不适当的；未到期的 | |
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180
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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181
grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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182
athletic
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| adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的 | |
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183
genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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184
horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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185
emergence
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| n.浮现，显现，出现，（植物）突出体 | |
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186
contriving
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| （不顾困难地）促成某事( contrive的现在分词 )； 巧妙地策划，精巧地制造（如机器）； 设法做到 | |
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187
prolific
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| adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的 | |
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188
taint
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| n.污点；感染；腐坏；v.使感染；污染 | |
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189
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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190
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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191
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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192
aggression
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| n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害 | |
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193
marital
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| adj.婚姻的，夫妻的 | |
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194
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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195
advancement
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| n.前进，促进，提升 | |
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196
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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197
onerous
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| adj.繁重的 | |
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198
dispense
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| vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施 | |
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199
inflict
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| vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担 | |
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200
hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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201
alteration
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| n.变更，改变；蚀变 | |
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202
entails
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| 使…成为必要( entail的第三人称单数 )； 需要； 限定继承； 使必需 | |
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203
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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204
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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205
shams
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| 假象( sham的名词复数 )； 假货； 虚假的行为（或感情、言语等）； 假装…的人 | |
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