GIFT OF Ernmet SEX EQUALITY From the Greek Sculpture in the National Museum at Naples ORESTES AND ELECTRA SEX EQUALITY A Solution of the Jf^oman Problem BY EMMET DENSMORE, M.D. Author of " The Natural Food o/3fan," " How Nature Cures," "Con- sumption and Chronic Diseases " " In order that woman should reach the same standard as man she ought, when nearly adult, to be trained to energy and perseverance, and to have her reason and imagination exer- cised to the highest point; and then she would probably trans- mit these qualities to her adult daughters " (From Darwin's " Descent of Man," xlx, 565) SECOND EDITION RS1TY LONDON SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LIM. NEW YORK FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY COPYRIGHT IN U. S. A. BY FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, NEW YORK Registered at Stationers' Hall, London [Printed In the U. 8. A.] Progress is the law of life ; Man is not man as yet. BROWNING With Dr. Eensmore'a compliments May, 1909. From "Tine Republic/' Par. 455 182031 t .id rfcf 2(1 oY Progress is the law of life; Man is not man as yet. BROWNING Laboring man and laboring woman Have one glory and one shame, Everything that's done inhuman Injures both of them the same. LOWELL Adapted from "Biglow Papers" A daughter of the gods, divinely tall, And most divinely fair. TENNYSON There, healthy as a shepherd-boy, And treading among flowers of joy Which at no season fade, Thou, while thy babes around thee cling, Shalt show us how divine a thing A woman may be made. WORDSWORTH In the administration of the State, neither a man as a man, nor a woman as a woman, has any especial function, but the gifts of nature are equally diffused in both sexes; all the pursuits of man are the pursuits of women also. PLATO From "The Be public," Par. 455 182031 CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY PAGE Disabilities of women 21 Piano-playing, example of disability 22 v'Woman's limitations not inherent 23 Illustrations from Darwin 24 Man's superiority preserved by exercise 25 Effects of selection and inheritance 26 Habits of the sexes in primitive times 27 Monogamy of the wild pigeon 28 The law of sexual heredity 29 V Mental traits sexual heredity 30 "* Woman dwarfed by restrictions 31 ^Man favored by primitive environment 32 v Genesis of feminine characteristics 33 ^ Origin of tact and finesse 34 Woman 's powers best in fiction and acting 35 Effects of heredity illustrated 36-38 CHAPTER II. SEX EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS Class distinctions inimical to progress 39 Inequalities of human birth 40 Inequalities of sex unnatural 41 As confirmed by science 42 O. Hertwig in "Biological Problems" 43 Geddes and Thomson and A. Weissman 44 Darwin use enlarges; disuse diminishes 45 Darwin 's views on heredity contested 46 Weissman 's basic doctrine 47 CONTENTS PAGE Traits transmitted by germ-plasms 48 Variation primarily caused by environment 49 Climatic influences produce permanent variations ... 50 Darwin and Weissman reconcilable 51 Theories of fundamental maleness and f emaleness Ged- des and Thomson 52, 53 Theory of katabolism and anabolism 54 Facts contravening above theory 55 Yung's tadpoles Flammarion's silkworms 56 Regulation of sex illustrated by sheep 57 Darwin's views bearing on inheritance 58 Female birds which acquire male traits 59 Interchangeability of sexual characters 60 Female insects which exhibit male characteristics . . 61 Sexual characters independently developed 62 F. Darwin's experiments with stridulating insects . . 63 Some female butterflies more brilliant than males . . 64 Where females take the part of males 65 Cases where variability is confined to females .... 66 Interchange of sex characters in plants and fishes . . 67 Secondary sex characters from environment .... 68 Sexual characters lying latent 69, 70 Applicable to the human species 71, 72 Sexual characters lying latent 73 Sex characters result from environment 74 The law of sexual heredity 75 Cumulative effect of sexual heredity 76 Maleness and femaleness incidental 77 Eationale of sex characters lying latent 78 Sex an incident not fundamental 79 Confirmation by Prof. Lester Ward 80 Evolution of the male organism 81 Male frequently inferior to female 82 Female predominance the matriarchy 83 Patriarchal system and polygamy 84 Monogamy a powerful element in progress 85 Complete equality of the sexes essential 86 Confirmation by David Starr Jordan 87 Influences controlling sex 88 Evolution of the male increased variation 89 Maleness and femaleness not fundamental 90 Masculine and feminine are simply human traits ... 91 iv CONTENTS CHAPTER III. SEXUAL DIFFERENCES AND WOMAN'S DEVELOPMENT PAGE Havelock Ellis on sexual differences 92 Men and women indefinitely modifiable .93 Male and female infants compared 94 Precocity more marked in girls than boys 95 Anatomical comparisons between the sexes 96 Jews in the East and West End 97 Comparison of the senses smell and taste 98 Comparison of the senses hearing and seeing .... 99 Comparison of the senses sensitiveness and endurance . 100 Differences largely caused by environment 101 Why men excel in senses of smell and vision .... 102 Why women are inferior in manual dexterity .... 103 Further interesting comparisons 104 Costal breathing not a sex peculiarity 105 Diversity of customs among primitive peoples .... 106 Occupations of men and women interchangeable . . . 107 The Amazons of Dahomey 108 Powers of modern matriarch 109 How to make woman man's physical equal 110 President Eliot's views on women's athletics .... Ill Women compete with men in college studies .... 112 The woman graduate better fitted for life's struggles . 113 Outdoor life valuable for women 114 Value of conservatism open mind desirable . . . .115 Woman much improved by gainful pursuits .... 116 Women engaged in men's pursuits 117 Colleges teaching outdoor pursuits for women .... 118 Women in business and professions census 1900 119, 120 Great increase of professional women 121 Bright prospects for women workers 122 Views of Plato, Xenophon and Darwin 123 CHAPTER IV. WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK Relative mentality of sexes 125 Feminine memory superior in student tests 120 Girls more imaginative than boys 127 CONTENTS Deliberateness a male quality 128 Traits peculiar to women evolved by conditions . . . 129 Distinguished martial women of history 130 The genius of Joan of Are 131 Queen Elizabeth's remarkable personality 132 Forceful qualities of Catharine II 133 Her rule favorable to Eussia 134 Maria Theresa as wife, mother and ruler 135 Her brilliant powers of administration 136 Countess of Derby's defense of Lathom House . . . 137 Against the Parliamentarian troops 138 Queen Victoria 's sagacity as constitutional ruler . . . 139 Queen Dowager of China as a reformer 140 Why women excel in government 141 Heroic qualities independent of sex 142 Grace Darling's prowess 143 A New Jersey heroine 144 Heroism frequent in modern women 145 Women as actors equal men 146 Hypatia and Mary Somerville 147 Maria Mitchell Madame Curie 148 Sappho Vittoria Colonna 149 Mrs. Barrett Browning Christina Ecssetti Jean In- gelow 150 Madame de Stael Mary W. Godwin 151 H. Martineau Margaret Fuller 152 Mrs. Gilman Mrs. Fawcett Frances Burney D'Arblay 153 Mary W. Shelley 154 Jane Austen 155 George Eliot Mrs. Stowe George Sand, etc 156 Modern women novelists and teachers 157 Madame Lebrun Ang. Kauffmann, Eosa Bonheur . . 158 Cecilia Beaux limitations of women artists .... 159 Especially in music 160 Lombroso on rarity of women of genius 161 Alleged male qualities of women of genius 162 Women opposed to reform 163 And generally conservative -*,' 164 Why initiative commoner in men than in women . . . 165 Environment and feminine limitations 166 Women of intellect not necessarily virile 167 vi CONTENTS CHAPTER V. SUPERFICIAL VIEWS OF WOM- AN'S PLACE IN NATURE PAGE Ignorant conclusions regarding epileptics 169 Mistaken views as to Oriental peoples 170 Similar errors in regard to woman's place 171 Schopenhauer 's assumptions unjustified 172 His indictment of feminine traits 173 And natural untruthfulness 174 Schopenhauer compared with Spencer 175 Progress of women since Schopenhauer wrote .... 176 Unlovely traits still remain 177 Schopenhauer's superficial views 178 His strictures nevertheless useful 179 ' ' Sex and Character ' ' by Otto Weininger 180 A work of assumption and assertions 181 His method analyzed 182 Maleness of enlightened women 183 Illustrated by famous examples 184 Exception taken to his generalization 185 Contrary cases ignored by Weininger 186 Wm. Heinemann 's eulogy of Weininger .... 187, 188 Citation from "Woman and Her Significance" . . . 189 Citation from " Woman and Mankind " .... 190,191 Logical conclusion of Weininger 's philosophy .... 192 CHAPTER VI. A WOMAN'S VOICE Mrs. Oilman's "Woman and Economics" 193 Race-attributes and sex-attributes 194 Excessive sex-distinction of human race 195 ^Prejudicial effect of restricted expression 196 Mrs. Oilman 's conclusions in accord with science . . . 197 Wild cow compared with domesticated 198 Normal and abnormal sex-distinction 199 "Weaker sex" peculiar to human species 200 Mrs. Oilman 's views on heredity conflict with Spencer 201, 202 Effect of environment and heredity on Jews .... 203 Evolution of their finer traits 204 V Analogous to those of women 205 Pro-slavery sentiments formerly dominant 206 v Now outgrown and obsolete 207 Woman's subordination and slavery compared .... 208 vii CONTENTS PAGE The social evil results from dependence of women . . . 209 Business does not coarsen women 210 Business life improves women 211 Present system retards marriage 212 Early marriage favored by woman's enfranchisement . 213 Women wage-earners and economics 214 Women's entry in business aids general prosperity . .215 Exclusion of women from business unreasonable . . .216 Enfranchisement promotes happy marriages . . . .217 Question of women in business closed .... . . 218 CHAPTER VII. LELAND'S AND CARPENTER'S VIEWS C. G. Leland's "Alternate Sex" 219 Edward Carpenter's "Intermediate Sex" 220 Explanation of Carpenter's theory 221 Both theories maintain fundamental sex differences . 222 The irrelevancy of current deductions ...;.. 223 The female mind in men of genius 224 Woman bereft of humor inspires humor 225 Pursuit of matehood the inspiration of genius .... 226 General hypothesis outweighs limited 227 Christianity fundamentally democratic 228 True democracy guarantees justice to all 229 Restrictions removed, both sexes equally endowed . . . 230 Human race yet in its infancy 231 Ulrich's sex theory explained 232 Urning love the intermediate sex 233 Rational explanation of above theories 234 Both shown to be equally unnecessary 235 A well rounded nature more fortunate 236 No alternate nor intermediate sex 237 CHAPTER VIII. A DARWINIAN SOLUTION- PROFESSOR THOMAS'S SEX AND SOCIETY Professor Thomas's "Sex and Society" 238 Woman excluded from white man's world 239 Imagination not an exclusive male trait 240 Woman's peculiarities shaped by environment .... 241 viii PAGE Chaperonage of women based on contempt 242 Free thought an immodesty to woman 243 Wide diffusion of woman's exclusion 244 Wide-spread dissimilarities in women's work .... 245 Extraordinary confinement of girls 246 Illustrating extreme chaperonage 247 Similar seclusion in China 248 Girls confined until marriage 249 Sexual heredity ignored 250 Sexual heredity explains problem 251 Which hypothesis is preferable? 252 "Specialized bodies of knowledge" 253 A natural misapprehension 254 Present inferiority of women indisputable 255 Enslavement of women to fashion 256 "Rainy Day Clubs" still needed 257 Why women are fashion-fettered 258 And men relatively free 260 CHAPTER IX. THE FORCE OF HEREDITY- WOMEN IN POLITICS The Irish-American in politics 260 His finer traits enumerated 261 Exemplified by Mayor Fagan 262 Political rise of Fagan 263 Eecord of integrity 264 And single-minded effort 265 Miss Margaret Haley of Chicago 266 Successful as reformer 267 Triumphs over powerful interests 268 School-teacher versus Board of Education 269 Attains ends in interest of educational reform . . . 270 Miss Jane Addams of Hull House fame 271 Other Chicago women philanthropists 272 General Grant 's career cited 273 CHAPTER X. COEDUCATION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE Motives impelling male students 274 Same motives actuate women 275 Health of college women 276 ix Women students apt in administration 277 Analogy between slavery and woman's subserviency . . 278 The onward trend of democracy 279 Woman's cause gaining generally 280 Educational progress 281 College women equal and surpass men 282 Large increase in women students 283 Coeducation in the United States and Europe . . . .284 Sex-segregation in secondary schools of Europe . . . 285 Coeducation practically general in United States . . . 286 Its rise in America 287 University coeducation in British Colonies and England . 288 In France, Germany and Austria 289 In other European countries 290 Universal suffrage in Australia 291 Eesult of woman suffrage in New Zealand 292 Satisfactory after fourteen years' trial 293 Eemarkable progress in Finland and Norway .... 294 General advance thruout Europe 295 Woman suffrage prospects in America 296 Democratic institutions now undisputed 297 The outlook for woman's freedom 298 Why women students often excel men 299 General uplift of women necessarily slow 300 Final success depends on woman herself 301 CHAPTER XL WOMEN IN BUSINESS AND THE PROFESSIONS Mrs. Hetty B. Green as business woman 302 The peer of C. P. Huntington 303 Successor of Eussell Sage 304 Mrs. N. H. Kelley as successful iron-smelter .... 305 Young woman as scientific farmer 306 Sets example to older men in the business 307 Other cases of successful business women 308 Miss Frink's brilliant achievements 309 Made State Instructor of farmers 310 Celebrated women if law in Europe 311 Women lawyers in America 312 Career of Miss Esttlle Eeed 313 As Government Su] erintendent of Indian Schools . . 314 x CONTENTS PAGE Women physicians in America 315 Mrs. Eddy, founder of Christian Science 316 Her business ability and sagacity 317 Striking financial success 318 Pioneer in new field for women 319 Business women in France 320 Women chauffeurs 321 CHAPTER XII. HERBERT SPENCER ON WOM- AN'S DEVELOPMENT Spencer and Evolution 322 His authority unquestioned 323 His views on the origin of human character 324 Development of woman 's traits 325 Survival of most adaptable 326 Similar conditions operative with men 327 Differences between sexes modified by civilization . . 828 Mental disparity still further diminishing 329 Evidence bearing on heredity by sex 330 Among human races as well as animals 331 Where and why woman is degraded 332 Her high status among the Pueblos 333 AThe double standard of morals 334 ^Woman's lack of generalizing power 335 Of abstraction, precision, impartiality 336 Applies more or less to all women 337 CHAPTER XIII. MARRIAGE AND MATEHOOD A mother's limitations 338 VWell developed women help the race 339 Individualism and matehood 340 Physical equality in matehood desirable 341 Early marriages promoted by woman's independence . 342 Needless fears family interests will not suffer . . . 343 Common-sense care of children 344 The business woman as wife and mother 345 More helpful and attractive as worker 346 i Elements of ideal matehood 347 "X Eeprehensibleness of modern marriage customs . . . 348 v Independence will help raise marriage standard . . . 349 xi CONTENTS Education an equal factor in raising each sex .... 350 What is ideal marriage? 351 The secret of friendship's charm 352 Diverse interests of men and women 353 An average modern menage 354 \! The ideal household 355 N Picture of a perfect marriage 356 Drawn by John Stuart Mill 357 Professor Jordan on the "lady-nuisance" 358 Balance of the sexes inequality impossible .... 359 Man responsible for woman's weakness 360 Physical force versus deceit and intrigue 361 The woman of the future . 362 \|Man also in the balance 363 Need of thought and action to woman 364 Penalties of disuse 365 Motherhood consistent with intellectual pursuits . . . 366 Maternity no handicap to material achievement . . . 367 Equal justice essential in social relations 368 CHAPTER XIV. THE FUTURE OF WOMAN- ETERNAL JUSTICE Mingling of the sexes a gain 369 What constitutes true companionship 370 Conclusions drawn from Spencer's teachings .... 371 Change of social conditions favor women 372 Woman must become man's equal 373 Sex equality realized partially in ancient Greece . . . 374 Classic and modern ideals of woman 375 Darwin's grasp of the problem 376 The poets on woman 377 Contributions to the race by both sexes 378 Neither is the greater 379 The scales hang even 380 Sex equality a reality now 381 xii ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE ORESTES AND ELECTBA Frontispiece CHARLES DARWIN 39 MADAME DE STAEL 96 RACHEL 112 MARIE-THERftSE D'AuTRICHE 128 CATHARINE II., EMPRESS OP RUSSIA 128 QUEEN VICTORIA 136 JENNY LIND 144 MARY SHELLEY 152 MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT GODWIN 152 GEORGE ELIOT 164 GEORGE SAND 164 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE 180 CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN 193 ANGELICA KAUFPMANN 212 MARIE LEBRUN 212 CHARLOTTE BRONT^ 224 JANE AUSTEN 224 xiii ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE MARY SOMERVILLE 240 FRANCES BURNEY 248 AMELIA OPIE 264 FELICIA HEMANS 276 ELIZABETH B. BROWNING 288 CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI 288 HARRIET MARTINEAU 304 HERBERT SPENCER 322 xlv PREFACE WHILE it has been in the plan of this book to ground its underlying principles on strictly scientific premises, it has also been the aim to give it a popular form in the hope of reaching a wider audience. The critic, as he proceeds, is likely to ob- ject that sentiment has no place in a trea- tise aiming to be scientific. This may or may not be true. It all depends upon the nature of the science. In logic or mathe- matics sentiment surely has no place. In society it is, however, an important if not a chief factor, and a resort to it may help the reader to a better understanding of all that constitutes sociologic science. The author desires to acknowledge his obligations to those writers from whose works he has made quotations in the prep- aration of this volume. PREFACE A few representative portraits of cele- brated women have been chosen to illus- trate the main theme. Those selected have not been deemed more important or more desirable than others which have been ex- cluded for want of space. It is the aim of this work to investigate, from the standpoint of science, woman's true place in nature as compared with man's; to point out those traits and char- acteristics in which men are superior, and again those in which women are superior, and to trace the causes of these differ- ences. A study of races in civilization quite uniformly shows that women are of shorter stature and possess less physical strength than men. Reasons will be given for the belief that this difference in stat- ure and vigor between men and women in civilization does not arise from any fun- damental difference in sex, as some biol- PEEFACE ogists contend, but is the result of gener- ations of differing environment and he- redity. The inhabitants of the East End of Lon- don are of shorter stature and possest of less physical and mental stamina than the better fed and more prosperous dwellers in the West End. Similarly reduced stat- ure and lack of stamina are noted among the agricultural laborers of England. Yet the denizens of the East End and the agri- cultural laborers are of the same race as the residents of the West End, the differ- ences having arisen from generations of severe labor, inadequate food and pinched conditions. In brief, the diminutive stat- ure and lack of stamina, well-nigh univer- sal among this class, are the result of gen- erations of unfavorable environment and heredity. In the Orient, thruout historic time, woman has been subjected to the utmost PREFACE degradation. It is a tenet of Mohammed- anism that she has no soul and is depend- ent for immortality upon association with man. The majesty of numbers has force ; and the fact that millions in Eastern coun- tries have become habituated to a low con- ception of woman has a profound socio- logic interest. In modern times we see a similar doc- trine grafted on the movement commonly known as the Mormon Church, founded by Joseph Smith. It is a repellent anach- ronism. In the same class is to be placed the contention of some modern-day phi- losophers that man constitutes the race, woman being merely the medium by which it is propagated. It is of the essence of democracy that invidious class distinctions are indefen- sible ; that one human being is potentially the equal of any other, irrespective of race, sex, color, or previous condition. In PREFACE a profound sense, no one is either higher or lower than another because of sex, race, position, association, or heredity, except as these factors advance or retard devel- opment; the relative moral and intellec- tual status of the individual is the essen- tial. Christianity is primarily democratic. St. Paul says : ' ' For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free" (I Cor. xii. 13). It must be as- sumed that the Apostle meant by "all" both men and women. Christianity and democracy explain and confirm each other. The paramount thought is that the indi- vidual and his or her culture and devel- opment is all that is of moment. Birth, social position, wealth, poverty and like conditions are accidental, incidental and hence non-essential. It is a corollary of Christianity and democracy alike that the PREFACE individual whether we mean the ego, soul, or whatever is the all in all; that sex, place, condition, and material circum- stance are in no sense vital. If by nature woman is debarred from the highest pos- sible human development, a great injus- tice is manifest. If, on the other hand, woman is to develop the same powers and privileges that man has and will have, then the two sexes must be fundamentally and potentially equal. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY ONLY a half -century ago it was a matter of course that the domain of woman was circumscribed by her home and domestic duties ministering to the household of her parents or that of her husband and children. To-day it is entirely proper for her to engage in any legitimate gainful pursuit. If she desires to become a physi- cian, lawyer, editor, lecturer, merchant or manufacturer, she has only to possess and use the same powers that enable men to succeed in these pursuits. In the mean- time she has overcome many of the arbi- trary disabilities under which she was suf- fering and held back. Many disabilities, however, remain ; and these are somewhat as effective in retarding her progress as the prejudices of a century ago whereby 21 SEX EQUALITY she was prevented from pursuing any re- munerative vocation outside of teaching, sewing and domestic service. If a woman feels drawn to the profes- sion of music, for example, and aspires to become a Paderewski at the piano she finds that, as a rule, her hands are neither large enough nor strong enough properly to manipulate the keys, and that she has not the requisite physical strength and stamina to practise for years the neces- sary four to eight hours a day. A relatively similar disability follows woman into most of the professions. Genius is said to be an infinite capacity for taking pains. If a woman aims to excel as a painter, sculp- tor or architect, minister or lawyer, the same handicap is in force. Usually, all are at their best in youth, so far as health and strength are concerned; and young women in school or college are able suc- cessfully to compete in their studies with 22 INTRODUCTORY young men. Again, the field of fiction does not exact the research and special knowl- edge demanded by some other branches of literature, and accordingly the woman novelist fairly holds her own against her male competitors. But success in the larger spheres of the world's activities calls for both a physical and mental power beyond her present development ; and be-* cause of lack in these essentials woman at present is seriously handicapped in her competition with man. So general is woman's present inferior- ity to man in stature, strength and robust- ness that it is commonly taken for granted this was always so, and that weakness and frailty are inherent in the nature of her sex. Scientific investigation, however,! shows the fallacy of this nearly universal* assumption: "Among the most primitive peoples the forms of men and women are often strikingly similar. The women are 23 SEX EQUALITY masculine and generally muscular in ap- pearance, and the faces of both sexes are often, except for the distribution of hair, extremely alike." Darwin says, in his Origin of Species, page 110, Murray's Edition : "Thus it is, as I believe, that when the males and females of any animal have the same general habits of life, but differ in structure, color or ornament, such differ- ences have been mainly caused by sexual selection ; that is, by individual males hav- ing had, in successive generations, some slight advantage over other males, in their weapons, means of defense or charms, which they have transmitted to their male offspring alone." Also, in the Descent of Man, page 224: "With most animals the greater size of the adult male than of the female is due to the stronger males having conquered the weaker in their struggles for the possession of the females, and no doubt it is owing to this fact that the two 1 From Aspects of Social Evolution, by J. Lionel Taylor, M.K.C.S., London, 1904. 24 INTRODUCTORY sexes of at least some animals differ in size at birth." In the same book, page 268: "With most animals when the male is larger than the female, he seems to owe his greater size to his ancestors having fought with other males during many gen- erations." Also at page 563: "There can be little doubt that the greater size and strength of man, in comparison with wom- an, together with his broader shoulders, more developed muscles, rugged outline of body, his greater courage and pugnacity, are all due in chief part to inheritance from his half-human male ancestors. These characters would, however, have been preserved or even augmented during the long ages of man's savagery by the success of the strongest and boldest men, both in the general struggle for life and in their contests for wives; a success which would have ensured their leaving a more numerous progeny than their less favored brethren. It is not probable that the great- er strength of man was primarily acquired thru the inherited effects of his having 25 SEX EQUALITY worked harder than woman for his own subsistence and that of his family; for the women in all barbarous nations are compelled to work at least as hard as the men. With civilized people the arbitra- ment of battle for the possession of the women has long ceased ; on the other hand, the men, as a general rule, have to work harder than the women for their joint sub- sistence, and thus their greater strength will have been kept up." Also on page 605: "We may calculate that the greater size, strength, courage, pugnacity and en- ergy of man, in comparison with woman, were acquired during primeval times, and have subsequently been augmented, chiefly thru the contests of rival males for the possession of the females. The greater intellectual vigor and power of invention in man is probably due to natural selec- tion, combined with the inherited effects of habit ; for the most able men will have succeeded best in defending and provi- ding for themselves and for their wives and offspring." 26 INTRODUCTORY < The conditions, habits and customs that obtain in both savagery and civilization respectively tend to continue the inequal- ities between men and women. In prim- itive times the women did much the great- er share of necessary work. The men killed the game; the women skinned the animals, tanned the hides, cooked and pre- pared the food. The men took the titbits and most nutritious portions, leaving to the women the less desirable and nutri- tious. The women underwent the confine- ment of child-bearing, the care of the chil- dren and the work of the shelter. They were underfed and overworked. The men when not at war had a relatively easy time. They hunted the woods for game, the riv- ers for fish and often met for recreation. These differing conditions between the sexes were well calculated to maintain the physical development and mental vigor of the men as well as the relative weakness of the women. /. ' 27 SEX EQUALITY rA further proof that the superior size and strength of the male has been caused by the survival of the fittest in the com- bats for the possession of the females is found in the fact that no such differences occur among monogamic species where such struggles do not occur. The common wild pigeon is an illustration. These birds mate in pairs and for life a true mono- gamic marriage; there is no struggle be- tween males for the possession of the fe- males, and consequently no greater phys- ical development in the males; and in a flock of thousands of these birds, the males and females are indistinguishable by their outward appearance. ^ In striking contrast to this illustration of monogamous life are the habits and pe- culiarities of elephants. Darwin quotes Doctor Campbell, who states that it is "rare to find more than one male with a whole herd of elephants, the larger males 28 INTRODUCTORY expelling or killing the smaller or weaker ones. The male differs from the female in his immense tusks, greater size, strength and endurance; so great is the difference in these respects that the males when caught are valued at one-fifth more than the females." The male seal affords an equally strong contrast with the group of females with which each male herds. In the same connection/Darwin states that among those animals that are not po- lygamous, the sexes rarely differ, and if at all but very slightly. Thruout his en- tire book, the Descent of Man, Darwin plainly teaches that when the sexes differ the difference is caused by their respective habits and by the law which I have termed sexual heredity by which males have a preponderating tendency to inherit from the father and females from the mother. ' It is an important factor in the Darwin- ian system that those varieties and charac- 29 SEX EQUALITY teristics which appear in the infancy of animals or of man are inherited by both sexes alike, whereas there is a tendency for those traits which appear near ma- turity or after to be inherited by the male offspring if these traits first appeared in the father, and in the female offspring if these traits first appeared in the mother. Moreover, such characteristics appear in the offspring at about the same age at which they first appeared in the parent. In savage and barbaric life, the same conditions which distinguish animal life serve to develop the stature, strength and special characteristics of men and account for the lack of similar characteristics in women. What about mental traits ? We have seen that characteristics developed in individuals of one sex are usually in- herited by that sex alone. Males fighting with and struggling against each other have a tendency to develop their size, 30 INTRODUCTORY strength and vigor, just as a " blacksmith's muscle ' ' is developed by exercise. If it be accepted as proved that man's manifest physical superiority over woman to-day is the result of inheritance from forebears who had developed their frames and mus- cles by severe and continuous struggles, it is reasonable to conclude that woman's present mental disability^jarises from unfavorable inheritance. (While women were confined to their habitations, their children and their drudgery, the men had leisure and opportunity to invent tools and implements for hunting and for war ; also to contrive boats and to tame animals for use in transportation. The navigation of boats necessitated a study and even- tually a knowledge of winds, -weather, tides and waves. Observation of the heav- ens inevitably followed, and eventually from these pursuits and from the differ- entiations which ensued there developed 31 SEX EQUALITY a knowledge of mechanics, physics, and the rudiments of mathematics and astron- omy. Logic and philosophy are further developments along this line. All this came naturally to men as an inevitable di- vision of labor, while the women, ham- pered by confinement and drudgery and suffering from overstrain and inadequate food, had no such opportunities ; and their daughters, by the laws of environment and heredity, are therefore necessarily in- ferior to men, as a rule, in invention, me- chanics, mathematics and logic. On the other hand, it is seen that the en- vironment of woman in savage and bar- baric times was well calculated to develop those characteristics which are recognized as preeminently feminine. (Denied those conditions which tend to develop powers of observation and reasoning, women were thrown back on their intuitions, and to- day it is universally admitted that women 32 INTRODUCTORY are far more intuitive than men) A man demands that any assertion shall be based on reason. His wife, who may be totally unable to give any reason for the faith that is in her, but who arrives at her con- clusions by intuition, is quite as apt to be right, as proved by the outcome, as the man who prides himself upon his reason- ing powers. Women, confined to their homes by their children and their work, not only in sav- agery and barbarism but even at the pres- ent day, have lived a life favorable to the growth of patience and the ability to en- dure suffering ; and it is indisputable that women are more patient, long-suffering and uncomplaining than men. In all ages, women have had the care of infants, the aged and the helpless. In the very nature of things such employment tends to the development of tenderness, and tenderness is a distinctly feminine 33 SEX EQUALITY trait. As war and strife coarsen those who engage in them so do the qualities de- veloped by suffering refine, and refinement is to-day a predominantly feminine char- acteristic. During untold generations of subjection women have been obliged to compass their ends by more or less indirect means. While they have found it advisable to make a show of obedience before their husbands and masters, they have found ways to ac- complish their ends by management and craft ; and hence tact and finesse are pre- eminently feminine traits. We also see that thru this method of attaining her de- sires woman has developed her histrionic powers, so that, as actor, she is commonly admitted to be man's equal if not supe- rior : witness Mrs. Siddons, Rachel, Bern- hardt, Duse and others. Again as mother, woman has thru all ages entertained her children with tales 34 INTRODUCTORY and stories, and this has doubtless been a considerable factor, thru inheritance, in endowing her with her present attain- ments as a writer of fiction; for in this realm woman is distinctly more on an equality with man than in any other, ex- cept the histrionic. In the discussion of the relative powers of men and women, popular writers, and scientists as well, have brought forward the present relative conditions and char- acteristic differences of the two sexes as a basis from which to posit woman's infe- riority to man and the impossibility of her becoming his equal. Let us imagine two boys who in infancy display approxi- mately equal powers and possibilities. Let one be placed in a family of wealth and re- finement, ensuring to him the best hy- gienic conditions, including pure air, ex- ercise, recreation and nourishment. He is sent successively to the kindergarten, 35 SEX EQUALITY the preparatory school, the college and the university. He has the stimulus of cul- tured and enlightened companions and the advantages of travel and contact with the best minds. The second boy who, we must remember, is equally well born and poten- tially the equal of the other, is placed with a family in extreme poverty, surrounded by unhygienic conditions, is inadequately supplied with food, and at a tender age is sent, in place of school, to a factory to help in the support of the family. Early in life the second youth marries, and is ever after chained to a life of penury and strug- gle. Anyone acquainted with the circum- stances of the two lives the fact that the one fortunately placed in due time rose to power and influence, and the other lived to the end in indigence and obscurity would surely have small grounds for con- tending that the more fortunately placed boy had naturally or potentially any 36 INTRODUCTORY greater power than the other. The con- dition of woman as compared with that of man is really much worse than that of the poor boy surrounded by the worst con- ditions compared with the one fortunately placed. The two boys might easily have been potentially equal, whereas thru en- vironment and heredity for unnumbered generations, it is now nearly impossible for a woman to start on an equality with man, and this will remain for many gener- ations until that time when by favoring conditions and environment woman has acquired a physique of such characteris- tics as will enable her to enter into com- petition free from the handicap of a di- minutive body, weak muscles and frail health. The two boys with an equal inher- itance and equal opportunities would have developed on lines of approximate equal- ity. A female child destined to compete with a brother born of the same parents 37 SEX EQUALITY is, however, handicapped at the outset by having inherited thru her mother the above-named disabilities; and added to this, as time goes on and the competition continues, her brother has still further ad- vantages in a larger outdoor life, greater freedom in dress and movement, and those hygienic conditions, exercises and pur- suits which custom has decreed proper for boys and men, but improper or unsuitable for girls and women. t ^N\Vt of CAL CL CHAPTER II SEX EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS THE underlying purpose and central thought of this book is the affirmation that it is the human ego which is all-important. Class distinctions are inimical to the prog- ress of the race. We are learning more and more that it is from a strictly human standpoint that every question must be settled. The opening sentence of our Dec- laration of Independence has made us fa- miliar with this thought. The assertion that all men are free and equal has been confusing to many, but when we come to understand the real meaning of this proc- lamation all becomes clear. It is that in the nature of things all men are entitled to freedom and a full opportunity for an unrestricted development of their powers. In the nature of things progress is grad- 39 SEX EQUALITY ual and slow, and it was not until our Civil War that we were in the moral position to maintain that all are equally entitled to those privileges without regard to ' * race, color or previous conditions of ser- vitude." It is true that the inequalities of human birth are almost infinite, but this is no dis- couragement to the philosopher. He sees that the poor and uneducated those who are now obliged to perform an excessive amount of labor for which they receive an inadequate share of the fruits of labor if surrounded by favoring conditions are destined by the laws of evolution to make continuous progress until there comes a day when every normal individual will be required to perform his just share of the world's work and receive his full share of the result of such labor. It need dis- courage no one, however much one's sym- pathies may become involved, to realize 40 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS that so far we have only made a start on the road of progress, and that as yet men are born sadly unequal. It no longer oc- curs to any enlightened person to point to the present inequalities as proof that such was the intention in the original scheme of things, or that these inequalities are proof that they will always inhere. We are com- ing to see that for all of us it is a duty to do what we can to bring about those condi- ' ( tions that will soonest actualize that equal- ' ity which is as yet only an ideal. I wish also to urge that the inequalities from which women suffer constitute no argument in favor of the assumption that such inequalities are natural or inevitable. When the founders of this republic de- clared that all men are born free and equal they evidently made a mental reservation that such proclamation did not apply to the serving class or to slaves. As before remarked, it required a great war to ena- 41 SEX EQUALITY ble us to perceive that "all men" applies really to all, and is not modified by any considerations of "race, color or previous conditions of servitude." Likewise, I wish to urge that "men" in the sense in which it is used in our Declaration is strictly generic and means human, thus applying to men and women equally. The following quotations show that foremost authorities in science confirm the view advanced above, or, at all events, the inevitable conclusion to be deduced from them is that sex is an incident and that there is no organic and fundamental difference between male and female: "Males and females, whether they be more or less unlike, arise from the same germinal material. The germinal mate- rial itself is sexless; that is to say, there is not a male and a female germinal mate- rial. The phenomena of inheritance in the sexual generation of hybrids show this clearly. Characters appropriate both to 42 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS males and females are transmitted either by eggs or by spermatozoa. In parthe- nogenetic animals both male and female individuals appear at definite times from eggs produced without sexual commerce. Whether the male or the female forms be produced depends not upon any differ- ence in the germinal material but on the external influences, just as external influ- ences determine whether the bud on a twig shall give rise to a vegetative or to a flowering shoot, to a thorn or to a stem. The influence of food, of temperature, or probably of other agencies, determine in which direction the germinal material shall grow." " Every organism, whether male or fe- male, develops from a fertilized egg-cell, apart, of course, from the occurrence of a sexual and parthenogenetic reproduc- tion. This material which in one case de- velops into a male, in another into a fe- male is, as far as our experience can go, always the same ; and when the sex of the 1 Biological Problems of To-day, by O. Hertwig. (Page 123.) 43 SEX EQUALITY organism is absolutely decided is a ques- tion to which no general answer can be given. . . . The factors which are influ- ential in determining sex are numerous and come into play at different periods, so that it is quite possible for a germ-cell to have its future fate more than once changed. The constitution of the mother, the nutrition of the ova, the constitution of the father, the state of the male element when fertilization occurs, and even the larval environment in some cases, these and yet other factors have all to be con- sidered." "Both in animals and plants essentially the same substance is contained in the nucleus both of the sperm-cell and egg- cell this is the hereditary substance of the species. There can be now no longer any doubt that the view which has been held for years by Strasburger and myself is a correct one, according to which the nuclei of the male and those of the fe- 1 The Evolution of Sex, by Geddes and Thomson. (Chapter III, para- graph 1.) 44 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS male germ-cells are essentially similar; that is, in any given species they contain the same specific hereditary substance." In his contention that structural varia- tions due to changes in the habits of an- imals are transmitted by inheritance, Dar- win holds that use invariably tends to strengthen and enlarge special organs and muscles exercised, while continued disuse of any developed parts invariably tends to diminish them ; and such modifications appear to be inherited. He gives in- stances both in the cases of wild and do- mesticated animals. Among domestic an- imals he instances the farmyard duck as notably illustrating this view its wing bones weighing less, its leg bones more than the same bones in the wild duck, which accords with its altered habits. Among wild animals he mentions the nearly wingless birds inhabiting oceanic 1 The Germ-plasm, by A. Weismann. (Introduction, page 23.) 45 SEX EQUALITY islands where there are no beasts of prey; under these favorable conditions the habit of ground feeding has become established and the flying function has al- most fallen into desuetude. In fine, altho the law of natural selection, or the sur- vival of the fittest, operates largely in the development of species, it seems clear that habit, or use and disuse, plays a consider- able part, thru heredity, in the modifica- tion of structure and constitution. This doctrine, in so far as the influence of habit in the modification of species is concerned, has been contested by scientific contemporaries of Darwin, among whom August Weismann is perhaps the princi- pal exponent. His ingenious, complicated and closely reasoned theories regarding heredity and the ' ' continuity of the germ- plasm" are well worth attention. I shall merely advert to that aspect of Weis- mannism which seems partially in conflict 46 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS with the Darwinian theories mentioned in the preceding paragraph, so that a com- pleter view of the field of discussion may be brought before the reader. Weis- mann's basic doctrine is that the phe- nomena of heredity among the highest or- ganisms are connected with a definite sub- stance to which he gives the name of germ-plasm. This he localizes in the nuclear substance of the germ-cell which, by means of nuclear and cell division, is transmitted from generation to genera- tion. The details of the process are too tech- nical to be fully described here; it will suffice to indicate the central idea of his contention, which is that individual traits and characters are transmitted from one generation to another by the agency of "ancestral germ-plasms" (also termed "ids" by Weismann) which are not and can not be ordinarily influenced by the 47 SEX EQUALITY life conditions of the individual. These "ids," altho beyond the power of the microscope to verify, are each assumed to contain all of the primary constitutents necessary to the formation of an organism. They are not identical with the "physio- logical units" postulated by Herbert Spencer, which are assumed to be ultimate particles composing the whole body, whereas the ancestral germ-plasm is com- prized in the nuclear matter only and serves exclusively the mechanical purpose of heredity. This theory has a certain resemblance to the now obsolete "pre- formation" concept of the old biologists, which Weismann himself had vigorously opposed. Notwithstanding Weismann 's hypothe- sis emphasizes the value and importance of the ancestral germ-plasm in carrying on from sire to son and from mother to daughter distinctive variations in their 48 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS kind, lie admits that the primary cause of such variations is always the result of ex- ternal influences, but when these changes of condition only affect the body in gen- eral their effects are limited to the life of the individual and are not transmitted by heredity ; whereas when they occur in the germ-plasm they are transmitted to the next generation and cause corresponding hereditary variations. In the author's own words : "It is self-evident from the theory of heredity here propounded that only those characters are transmissible which have been controlled that is, produced by determinants of the germ ; and that conse- quently only those variations are heredi- tary which result from the modification of several or more determinants in the germ- plasm, and not those which have arisen subsequently in consequence of some in- fluence exerted upon the cells of the body. In other words, it would follow from this 49 SEX EQUALITY theory that somatogenic or acquired char- acters can not be transmitted. This, how- ever, does not imply that external influ- ences are incapable of producing heredi- tary variations ; on the contrary, they al- ways give rise to such variations when they are capable of modifying the deter- minants of the germ-plasm. Climatic in- fluences, for example, may very well pro- duce permanent variations by slowly caus- ing increasing alterations to occur in cer- tain of such determinants in the course of generations. An apparent transmission of somatogenic modifications may even take place under certain circumstances by the climatic influence affecting certain de- terminants of the germ-plasm at the same time, and when they are about to pass to that part of the body which they have to control. ' ' And again : i i The primary cause of va- riation is always the effect of external in- fluences. Were it possible for growth to take place under absolutely constant ex- ternal conditions, variation would not oc- 50 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS cur ; but as this is impossible, all growth is connected with smaller or greater devia- tions from the inherited developmental tendency. While these deviations only affect the soma, they give rise to tempo- rary non-hereditary variations ; but when they occur in the germ-plasm, they are transmitted to the next generation and cause corresponding hereditary variations in the body." From the above exposition of Darwin- ism and Weismannism respectively it will be seen that their differences of mode af- fect my contentions but slightly; and if subsequent investigation should place one or the other of these positions on irrefuta- ble ground, it will still in no way inval- idate this important link in the argument. We are not concerned so much with the method by which change in habits of life and the use or disuse of functions results in the modification of structure and the acquisition of new characters in the off- 51 SEX EQUALITY spring, as we are in the establishment of the contention that conditions and en- vironment cause and control variations and development. Nor is it of moment whether the transmission of any particu- lar modification occupies many or few generations so long as the fact itself is con- firmed. From Darwin we have the propo- sition in plain and definite terms, as al- ready seen, and from Weismann the ad- mission is quite as clear that "the primary cause of variation is always the effect of external influences." In the work entitled the Evolution of Sex, quoted from above, Prof. Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson take the position that in all the higher classes of animals there exists a fundamental male- ness and a fundamental femaleness; and they place great stress on the contention that secondary sexual characteristics are the result, not of environment and of 52 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS natural selection and sexual selection, but at the last resort are distinctly a product of an essential maleness and f emaleness respectively. This distinction is based on the differing and complementary charac- ters which are exhibited even by the pri- mordial germ-cells in both animal and vegetable life. In fact, the beginnings of sex-differentiation are stated to be observ- able in the motion and activity with which some of the earliest forms of life cells are endowed as contrasted with the listless and passive conduct of other cells with which they unite. The authors cited above have bestowed upon these varying tendencies the terms katabolism and anabolism, respectively, the former indicating the restless seeking force represented by the male, the latter a comparatively inert, self -centered im- mobile entity, complementary to the other and represented by the female. The latter 53 is also usually the larger and better nour- ished being. In so low a form of life as the protozoa an observer quoted by Gred- des and Thomson states that the two indi- vidual cells are quite unlike each other both in form and history; the process is essentially a sexual one ; and according to this observer there seems no reason why the terms male and female should not be applied to them it being found in some of these cases that a small active katabolic unit combines with a larger, more passive and anabolic individual. Still other scien- tific testimony is forthcoming in support of this primitive sex-differentiation, En- glemann demonstrating it in the Bell-ani- malculse family, and Schlumberger, Harpe and Brady in the Foraminifera. Notwithstanding the instances and au- thorities citied in support of Geddes and Thomson's theory of fundamental sex- distinction, two definite facts stand forth 54 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS distinctly which, altho they may not de- tract from the logical deductions on which their proposition is based, yet should sug- gest caution in accepting and applying the theory as a final and practical solution of the sex problem. One of the facts fully conceded by Geddes and Thomson, as well as by O. Hertwig, a notable naturalist is the absolute identity of the material, as far as can be ascertained, that composes the cells from which males and females respectively are produced, even in the higher species. The quotations referred to are given on a preceding page. The second pregnant fact, equally well proved and admitted, is the practicability of restricting or increasing the proportion of male and female offspring by artificial regulation of the conditions and environ- ment of the egg, and in some cases even of the embryo, especially thru nutri- tion, temperature, light and humidity. An 55 SEX EQUALITY experiment with tadpoles made by Yung, which is quoted by Professor Geddes, luminously illustrates this point. Three broods of tadpoles were taken in which the proportions of females to males were as follows: 54 to 46, 61 to 39 and 56 to 44, the average of female preponderance be- ing about 57 per cent. One of these broods was fed with beef, which raised the per- centage from 54 to 78 ; the second was fed with fish with a resulting increase in the female percentage from 61 to 81; in the third set, the specially nutritious flesh of frogs was given under which high diet the percentage rose from 56 to 92. At a meeting of the Academy of Sci- ences in Paris, M. Bouquet de la Grye de- scribed the result of certain observations made by Camille Mammarion, the cele- brated astronomer. Experiments made on a great number of silkworms showed that those bred under natural light pro- 56 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS duced an equal number of male and fe- male worms, but when placed under glass of a violet color the worms produced 77 per cent, of males. Another decisive experiment on the in- fluence of nutrition upon sex was made by Girou on sheep, an account of which is also found in Geddes and Thomson's Evolu- tion of Sex, page 47 : "A flock of three hundred ewes was divided into equal parts of which one- half were extremely well fed and served by two young rams, while the others were served by mature ones and kept poorly fed. The proportions of ewe lambs in the two cases were respectively 60 and 40 per cent. In spite of the combination of two factors the experiment is certainly a cogent one. Diising brings forward fur- ther evidence in favor of the same conclu- sion noting, for instance, that it is usually the heavier ewes which bring forth ewe lambs." 57 OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SEX EQUALITY In Darwin's works will be found many examples of so-called sex characteristics exchanging places, so to speak, or inherit- ed by both sexes alike, the full significance of which does not appear to have occurred to the great naturalist. Doubtless the fact that they are gleaned in widely differ- ing species, both in plants and animals, and are comparatively uncommon, may have caused him to regard them as ab- normalities not as yet capable of interpre- tation. In his Descent of Man, however, Darwin notes the following fact: "The equal transmission of characters to both sexes is the commonest form of inherit- ance," altho he did not indicate its bear- ing other than on the subject of heredity. Following are a few of the illustrations above mentioned taken from the same work, page 225 : "A few exceptional cases occur in va- rious classes of animals, in which the f e- 58 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS males instead of the males have acquired well pronounced secondary sexual char- acters, such as brighter colors, greater size, strength or pugnacity. With birds there has sometimes been a complete transposition of the ordinary characters proper to each sex ; the females having be- come the more eager in courtship, the males remaining comparatively passive, but apparently selecting the more attrac- tive females, as we may infer from the results. Certain hen birds have thus been rendered more highly colored or other- wise ornamented as well as more powerful and pugnacious than the cocks; these characters being transmitted to the female offspring alone . . . There are many an- imals in which the sexes resemble each other, both being furnished with the same ornaments, which analogy would lead us to attribute to the agency of sexual selec- tion." Page 231: "With animals under do- mestication, but whether in nature I will not venture to say, one sex may lose char- 59 SEX EQUALITY acters proper to it and may thus come somewhat to resemble the opposite sex; for instance, the males of some breeds of the fowl have lost their masculine tail- plumes and hackles. On the other hand, the differences between the sexes may be increased under domestication, as with merino sheep in which the ewes have lost their horns. Again, characters proper to one sex may suddenly appear in the other sex ; as in those sub-breeds of the fowl in which the hens acquire spurs while young ; or, as in certain Polish sub-breeds, in which the females, as there is reason to believe, originally acquired a crest, and subsequently transferred it to the males." Page 227: "That secondary sexual characters are present in both sexes is manifest when two species having strong- ly marked sexual characters are crost, for each transmits the characters proper to its own male and female sex to the hybrid offspring of either sex. The same fact is likewise manifest, when characters proper to the male are occasionally developed in 60 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS the female when she grows old or becomes diseased; as for instance when the com- mon hen assumes the flowing tail-feathers, hackles, comb, spurs, voice and even pug- nacity of the cock. . . . Again, independ- ently of old age or disease, characters are occasionally transferred from the male to the females ; as when, in certain breeds of the fowl, spurs regularly appear in the young and healthy females." Referring to the usual absence of the stridulating apparatus in the females of the Orthoptera (cricket) family, Darwin again notes the " exceptions" that so per- sistently occur thruout the whole animal realm. The following is from page 228: "In the three foregoing families (of the Orthoptera tribe) the females are almost always destitute of an efficient musical apparatus. But there are a few excep- tions to this rule, for Doctor Gruber has shown that both sexes of Ephippiger vitium are thus provided, tho the organs 61 SEX EQUALITY differ in the male and female to a certain extent. Hence we can not suppose that they have been transferred from the male to the female as appears to have been the case with the secondary sexual characters of many other animals. They must have been independently developed in the two sexes which no doubt mutually call to each other during the passion of love." Among the Coleoptera (beetles) Darwin remarks (page 294) that "the colors of the two sex- es are generally alike," and further on: "On the whole, as far as I could judge, the females of those Prionida, in which the sexes differ, are colored more richly than the males, which does not accord with the common rule in regard to color when acquired thru sexual selection." On pages 304, 305, regarding the stridula- ting organs of the Coleoptera, Darwin has the following to say : "In order to discover whether the sexes differed in their power of stridulating, my son, F. Darwin, collected fifty-seven living specimens, which he separated into two lots according 62 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS as they made a lesser or greater noise, when held in the same manner. He then examined all these specimens, and found that the males were nearly in the same proportion to the females in both the lots. Mr. F. Smith has kept alive numerous specimens of Monoynchus pseudacori and is convinced that both sexes stridulate and apparently in an equal degree." Coming now to the butterfly kingdom, we have the following very interesting ob- servations from Darwin (pages 318, 319) which clearly confirm my contention that secondary sexual characters are not the outcome of fundamental attributes but result from conditions, variations and transmission : "I have as yet only referred to the spe- cies in which the males are brighter col- ored than the females, and I have attrib- uted their beauty to the females for many generations, having chosen and paired with the more attractive males. But con- 63 SEX EQUALITY verse cases occur, tho rarely, in which the females are more brilliant than the males ; and here, as I believe, the males have selected the more beautiful females and have thus slowly added to their beauty. We do not know why in various classes of animals the males of some few species have selected the more beautiful females instead of having gladly accepted any fe- male, as seems to be the general rule in the animal kingdom; but, if contrary to what generally occurs with the Lepidop- tera, the females were much more nu- merous than the males, the latter would be likely to pick out the more beautiful fe- males. Mr. Butler showed me several spe- cies of Callidryas in the British Museum in some of which the females equaled and in others greatly surpassed the males in beauty; for the females alone have the borders of their wings suffused with crim- son and orange and spotted with black. The plainer males of these species closely resemble each other, showing that here the females have been modified; whereas 64 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS in those cases where the males are the most ornate it is these which have been modified, the females remaining closely alike. . . . Again, the females of Colias edusa and Hyale have orange or yellow spots on the black marginal border rep- resented in the males only by thin streaks ; and in Pieris it is the females .which are ornamented with black spots on the fore- wings, and these are only partially present in the males. Now the males of many butterflies are known to support the fe- males during the marriage flight, but in the species just named it is the females which support the males ; so that the part which the two sexes play is reversed, as is their relative beauty. Thruout the an- imal kingdom the males commonly take the more active share in wooing, and their beauty seems to have increased by the fe- males having accepted the more attract- ive individuals; but with these butter- flies, the females take the more active part in the final marriage ceremony, so that we may suppose they likewise do so in the 65 SEX EQUALITY wooing; and in this case, we can under- stand how it is that they have been ren- dered the more beautiful." On page 320, speaking of the variations in the species of the stEneas group of butterflies, we find the following: "The variability is here almost confined to the male sex; but Mr. Wallace and Mr. Eates have shown that the females of some species are extremely variable, the males being nearly con- stant." The foregoing citations seemingly form an irrefutable demonstration of the cor- rectness of the hypothesis that sex is an incident, dependent upon the environment for its evolution; and that sexual char- acters are the result, not of inherent and fundamental maleness and f emaleness, but of environment, variation and heredity. If male characters were the result of fundamental maleness, it would not be possible for the parts which the two sexes usually play to be reversed; or for the 66 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS females in such numerous instances to de- velop and exhibit the qualities and pe- culiarities usually exhibited by the male sex. The student will find in Chapter XII of Part II of The Descent of Man similar examples among fishes; in fact, we have only touched on a mine of corroborative examples that abound in Darwin's works, where the interchange of features usually associated exclusively with one sex is re- corded by him without any apparent at- tempt to assign an explanation that will apply with equal cogency to all the facts. It is instructive to note that in the veg- etable world analogous conditions are found. For example, Hertwig, in his Biological Problems (page 124), states that "melons and cucumbers which pro- duce on the same stem both male and fe- male flowers bear only male flowers in high temperatures; only female flowers when 67 SEX EQUALITY subjected to cold and damp." Also, Ascherson (quoted by Geddes in Evolu- tion of Sex, page 49) has observed that the Water-soldier (Stratoites aloides) bears only female flowers north of lati- tude 52 and from 50 southward only male ones. Plainly the same environ- mental factor is operative in these cases as in the more highly organized kingdom. The contention that secondary sexual characters are not the result of an essen- tial maleness and femaleness respective- ly, but are the result of environment and heredity, is further strengthened by the following passages from Darwin's An- imals and Plants Under Domestication, Volume II, Chapter XIII, pages 25, 26, 27: "Latent characters. But I must ex- plain what is meant by characters lying latent. The most obvious illustration is afforded by secondary sexual characters. 68 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS In every female all the secondary male characters and in every male all the sec- ondary female characters apparently ex- ist in a latent state, ready to be evolved under certain conditions. It is well known that a large number of female birds, such as fowls, various pheasants, partridges, peahens, ducks, etc., when old or diseased, or when operated on, assume many or all of the secondary male char- acters of their species. In the case of the hen-pheasant this has been observed to occur far more frequently during certain years than during others. A duck, ten years old, has been known to assume both the perfect winter and summer plumage of the drake. Waterton gives the curious case of a hen which had ceased laying and had assumed the plumage, voice, spurs and warlike disposition of the cock; and when opposed to an enemy she would erect hackles and show fight. Thus every char- acter, even to the instinct and manner of fighting, must have lain dormant in this hen as long as her ovaria continued to act. 69 SEX EQUALITY The females of two kinds of deer, when old, have been known to acquire horns; and, as Hunter has remarked, we see something of an analogous nature in the human species. On the other hand, with male animals, it is notorious that the sec- ondary sexual characters are more or less completely lost when they are subjected to an operation. Thus, if the operation be performed on a young cock, he never, as Yarrall states, crows again; the comb, wattles and spurs do not grow to their full size, and the hackles assume an intermedi- ate appearance between true hackles and the feathers of the hen. Cases are record- ed of confinement which often affects the reproductive system, causing analogous results. But characters properly confined to the female are likewise acquired by the male; the capon takes to sitting on eggs, and will bring up chickens; and what is more curious, the utterly sterile male hybrids from the pheasant and the fowl act in the same manner, ' their delight be- 70 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHAEACTEES ing to watch when the hens leave their nests, and to take on themselves the of- fice of a sitter. ' That admirable observer, Reaumer, asserts that a cock, by being long confined in solitude and darkness, can be taught to take charge of young chickens; he then utters a peculiar cry, and retains during his whole life this new- ly-acquired maternal instinct. The many well-ascertained cases of va- rious male mammals giving milk show that their rudimentary mammary glands retain this capacity in a latent condition. We thus see that in many, probably in all cases, the secondary characters of each sex lie dormant or latent in the opposite sex, ready to be evolved under peculiar circum- stances. We can thus understand how, for instance, it is possible for a good milking cow to transmit her good qualities thru her male offspring to future generations ; for we may confidently believe that these qualities are present, tho latent, in the males of each generation. So it is with the game-cock, who can transmit his superi- 71 SEX EQUALITY ority in courage and vigor thru his female to his male offspring ; and with man, it is known that diseases such as hydrocele, necessarily confined to the male sex, can be transmitted thru the female to the grandson. Such cases as these offer, as was remarked at the commencement of this chapter, the simplest possible ex- amples of reversion, and they are intelli- gible on the belief that characters com- mon to the grandparent and grandchild of the same sex are present, tho latent, in the intermediate parent of the opposite sex.' Mr. Darwin is strikingly confirmed by the following quotation from Weismann 's The Germ-plasm, Chapter II, page 111: "The determination of the sex of an ani- mal may perhaps be referred to similar causes if, at least, we can assume that the sex is not always universally decided by the act of fertilization, and that influences exerted upon the organism subsequently 72 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS may have an effect in the determination. In the case of certain parasitic crusta- ceans, the Cymathoidce, the male sexual organs are developed first; and when the animal has fulfilled its functions as a male, the female organs become developed, and give the animal the character of a female. ' ' On page 15 of The Origin of Species, Darwin says: "No one can say why a peculiarity is often transmitted from one sex to both sexes, or to one sex alone, more commonly but not exclusively to the like sex." This is another way of saying that the characteristics of the father are more apt to be inherited by the son than by the daughter, and the characteristics of the mother are more apt to be inherited by the daughter than by the son. All the above quotations mutually sus- tain and confirm each other as well as confirm the main contention on which this book is based namely, that secondary 73 SEX EQUALITY sexual characters are the result not of fundamental maleness or f emaleness, but of conditions surrounding the two sexes respectively, and of variations which usually occur in the male sex, but some- times occur also among females, and that these characteristics are transmitted from the fathers to the male and from the moth- ers to the female offspring. This latter contention is more specifically confirmed by quotations from Herbert Spencer, to be found in Chapter XII. The theory that secondary sexual characters are the result of fundamental maleness and fundamen- tal f emaleness respectively comes natural- ly from the discovery that male cells are active and wasteful and female cells pas- sive and conservative katabolic and ana- bolic. Against this biological observation may be placed the equally well-established fact (witness the foregoing quotations from Darwin, Weismann. Hertwig and 74 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS Geddes) that males and females alike arise from the same germinal material. If sex is an incident in life and not an essen- tial and fundamental characteristic it can be understood why favoring conditions may considerably increase the proportion of female tadpoles. Similar experiments higher in the scale of life transform what would have been male sheep into female. Since these facts seem to be established it need cause no surprize if science should find a way by which sex in humankind may be predetermined. If environment and heredity are ac- cepted as the cause of the development of secondary sexual characters, it is not diffi- cult to understand the process. The moth- er and this law will apply to all grades of animal life has been handicapped by the conditions of maternity and has been prevented from utilizing those exercises that tend to the development of stature, 75 SEX EQUALITY strength and virility. By the law of sex- ual heredity the shortcomings and fail- ures of the mother are transmitted to the daughters ; and these variations, slight in any one individual or variation, are cumu- lative; and in hundreds or thousands of generations there are finally developed marked and distinctive characteristics. The father, unhampered by the burdens of maternity, is free to follow such exercises as tend to develop size, strength and ac- tivity; and these qualities being trans- mitted to his male offspring, culminate in markedly virile characteristics. The two sexes, surrounded by differing conditions and following different activities, and, in obedience to the law of sexual heredity, finally evolve such varying characteristics and contrasts that it is not strange such contrasts and characters should be mis- taken for fundamental differences. The sun's rays are condensed in coal, 76 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS and energy conserved therein lies dor- mant. Combustion of the coal releases or develops force which may be transformed into light at will. Light and heat appear as dissimilar and unlike as male and fe- male, and yet the movement of a switch will transform either of these forces into the other. The coal or the sun's rays may be said to represent in the domain of physics what life represents in a higher sphere. Force, or energy, or power by whatever word it is designated is the es- sential and fundamental fact; whether it be manifested as light or heat is an inci- dent. In similar manner in the biological sciences life is the essential and funda- mental fact maleness and f emaleness are incidents. On this hypothesis it is easy to under- stand why a tree may bring forth male flowers in one latitude and female flowers in another; why the male which has 77 SEX EQUALITY usually undergone most variation has sometimes remained stationary while the female is the one that varies ; why the male bird is usually ornate and embellished with beautiful colors and yet at times is plain and unattractive while the female is brilliantly decorated; why it is that the hen will usually remain with sober, un- demonstrative feminine characters, but does on occasion develop the secondary sexual character of the cock; and again, why the cock has the capacity, repeatedly proved, of helping in the hen's work by hatching and brooding the chicks ; why the duck may sometimes assume both the win- ter and summer plumage of the drake; why male mammals on occasion secrete and give milk; why it is in general thru- out the animal kingdom that individuals of one sex exhibit sexual characters usu- ally associated with the opposite sex, and why each sex seems to have in a latent 78 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS state the secondary characters of the other, whereby the male or female can transmit traits peculiar to his or her sex to grandchildren thru his or her offspring of the opposite sex. It is not to be ignored that the contrary hypothesis has obtained wide acceptance among biologists, the present status of sex being apparently considered the status quo ante of the nature of an unquestion- able axiom and one of the rudimentary concepts in the science of biology. Never- theless, it must seem difficult and is appar- ently impossible to reconcile these well- attested phenomena with the theory that maleness and f emaleness are essential and permanent characteristics. The facts above given clearly affirm that sex is an incident, not essential and fundamental. The foregoing views are strikingly re- inforced by a recent contribution to scien- 79 tific discussion. Dr. Lester F. Ward, 1 a president of the American Sociological Society, and the author of several volumes on sociology, contributed an article to the New York Independent of March 8, 1906, entitled "The Past and Future of the Sexes." After premising the diffi- culty of obtaining exact data in sociolog- ic science, largely owing to the compara- tively enormous field covered and the al- most inconceivably long periods of time the mind has to reckon with, Doctor Ward gives a brief sketch of the history of sex. At the outset all organisms were self- fertile and there was no sex. All life was originally and essentially female. 2 Then followed the development of the male sex. At first the element was diminutive and 1 A. Weismann, in his work The Germ-plasm, thus refers to Doctor Ward: "The eminent American naturalist, Lester Ward, writes from the thoroly objective and truly scientific point of view." a It is only fair to state that Dr. Stanley Hall and other sociologists take exception to Doctor Ward's views as to the existence of an ex- clusive female sex thru primal ages and to other of his ideas set forth in this article. See N. Y. Independent, March 22, 1906. 80 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS relatively insignificant ; but from the first it aided and increased variation. As soon as the male organisms became numerous the females began a process of selection, and in consequence the males gradually in- creased in size and importance. Then the males began to compete with each oth- er which still further increased their size and importance, and these two influences united in the development of the male. As the female structure was the higher and the ideal one, the selected fertilizers gradually grew to resemble "their creator, the fertile organism," and later ap- proached it in size as well as in form. When birds and mammals were first evolved the males of certain species had acquired greater size, strength and orna- mentation than the females, as witness the stag and the peacock. In the insect world, however, this sex development has not pro- ceeded to any such length, and we may find 81 SEX EQUALITY among that class numerous species in which the male is often a much inferior creature, merely acting as the fertilizing adjunct, which also applies to the still lower organisms. In fact, it is only among the latter that the asexual method of re- production still survives, for the reason that evolution to higher stages is possi- ble only thru sexual reproduction. Doctor Ward emphasizes the claim that the pur- pose of sex is not primarily that of repro- duction, but is for the organic develop- ment of the race by the crossing of strains and intermingling of characters. Mam- mals being the highest class we know in the animal world, and man the highest of that class, we find in him the male char- acteristics most fully in evidence. Doctor Ward points out that this superiority in size, strength and other qualifications car- ries with it no real supremacy or dominion over the female, which thruout the an- 82 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTEES imal world is the primary fertile organ- ism and has always been the supreme fac- tor in the regulation of the animal econ- omy. The strength and prowess of the male, it is recalled, have been developed from competition among themselves for the favor of the female. For long genera- . tions woman exercised rule over man, and matriarchy, Doctor Ward holds, was the apparently natural order of things. When the change took place which re- versed this condition, or how long it con- tinued, it is impossible to say, but it seems probable that it progressed pari passu with the growth of the idea of paternity in man. This conception is comparatively of recent date as there still exist human tribes in which the father has no knowl- ' edge of his relations to the children, and in which the mother attributes her mater- nity to some kind of magic. 83 SEX EQUALITY Altho the realization of the paternal functions caused a change in the relation of the sexes, unfortunately other mental and moral traits were not correspondingly advanced, and this it is, Doctor Ward be- lieves, that caused the practical enslave- ment of women thruout many centuries. The patriarchal system which largely pre- vails in the world to-day is almost uni- versally associated with polygamy the strongest men owning most of the women. Previously women had selected their mates, thus helping in man's development. In the patriarchal stage, men naturally mated with the most perfect women, and under this new form of selection woman has been " transformed from the una- dorned but stern and peerless ruler of the household destiny into an ornament of the seraglio and a model of the sculptor. . . . Thus woman lost her power and dignity, probably considerable of her 84 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS stature and certainly in a large degree her mental capacity for protecting and defending her offspring." While other influences have somewhat checked this degeneracy the fact remains that female beauty has been attained at the cost of many of those " sterling quali- ties that primarily characterized the fe- male sex as the original trunk of all or- ganic existence and the source and prop of life itself." However, with the change of polygamy to monogamy, which, altho comparatively recent, has been adopted for some centuries by the leading nations of the world, mutual selection by both sexes is the governing factor, and must naturally tend to combine the best quali- ties in both sexes, harmonize existing sexual distinctions and enable the future man and woman to enter into complete sympathy and understanding with each other. In Doctor Ward's own words: 85 SEX EQUALITY "The imperfection of the mutual or monogamic system, as it exists to-day, is most plainly seen in the almost complete economic dependence of woman upon man. She has not regained her pristine inde- pendence, not to speak of her primary do- minion. The latter, indeed, is not desir- able. Female supremacy would be as inimical to true progress as male suprem- acy. But mutual independence in the eco- nomic sense and complete equality in all things not otherwise ordained by nature are the great ends still to be attained. . . . The past has always been characterized by inequality of sex. The future will be char- acterized by greater and greater equality. The inequalities that have been inherited from the past prevail to a large extent in the present, and most persons assume that they are natural and necessary. There could be no greater mistake. Nothing in the history of the world justifies such an assumption. The movement now be- gun can not stop until complete equality of the sexes is attained. . . . When com- 86 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS plete equality shall be reached, and not until then, the human race will be really ready to begin its career. Handicapped by this worst of all inequalities, it has thus far been incapable of any great ac- tion." The claim that secondary sexual char- acters in all animals and man as well as those familiar characteristic differences between man and woman which are called respectively masculine and feminine are the result of environment and heredity and are not caused by constitutional and fundamental differences between maleness and f emaleness is still further confirmed by the extracts following from David Starr Jordan's 1 Footnotes to Evolution, page 136. Referring to the possibilities of the human sexless embryo, he says : * * The germ has now to grow and expand by cell division. But besides its vegeta- 1 President, etc., of Stanford University and an eminent ichthylo- gist and biologist 87 SEX EQUALITY tive growth two possible lines of develop- ment lie before it, one of which it must take. It must assume sex. It must be- come either male or female. The choice of the one at the critical time is as feasible as the other. But once made the choice is irrevocable. Thus far man has found no way to control this choice and nature makes it for him. The sexless embryo is, as it were, suspended on a hair, to be turned to male or female by the first stimulus that may reach it. In the human race such impulses must come thru the mother. Certain of these forces have been partially defined. With certain insects and crustaceans full nutrition increases the number of females; starvation of the mother makes the young male. It may be so with the human race. Doctor Schenck, of Vienna, has formulated cer- tain rules for the control of sex in off- spring. Among other things, a proteid or training-table diet before and thru the critical period of early pregnancy should increase the probability of male offspring ; EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS a fat-producing diet should tend to ensure a daughter (page 312). In the beginning of life, as far as we know, the two sexes must have been identical. From the point of view of evolution neither can be supe- rior or prior to the other. Each is com- plementary to the other; the differences which have arisen in the progress of de- velopment being responses to the needs of division of labor. The cells of protozoa which unite in the function of conjugation are apparently alike as to sex. Their union serves to modify the hereditary characters of their descendants. To have two parents instead of one is to widen the range of possible variation. With time this identity of the two elements in parentage disappears. It gives way to specialization. ' ' So far as I have been informed, Doctor Schenck's anticipations have not been con- firmed; but if the accident of the deter- mination of sex "hangs by a hair" ; if sim- ply a change of food will develop into a 89 SEX EQUALITY male an individual that would have been a female, and the reverse, in an animal so high in the scale as the domestic sheep, it is not unreasonable to expect that hu- man beings are amenable to the same law. Again, if environment is a principle of so much force that it will develop a poten- tial male into its opposite, it is reasonable to conclude that this same principle, en- hanced and augmented by heredity, is the force that has caused the so-called " masculine" and "feminine" traits; and likewise that maleness and femaleness, which are seen to be incidental and, so to speak, accidental, can not be fundamental. Great numbers of men are observed whose methods of thought and whose essential characteristics are distinctly feminine; and likewise thousands of women who manifest characters which are usually called masculine. , This would not be possible if maleness and femaleness 90 EVOLUTION AND SEXUAL CHARACTERS were fundamental and essential princi- ples. On the other hand, if we assume that\ so-called masculine and feminine traits are simply human traits, and are the re- sult primarily of environment a force of sufficient potency to determine the direc- tion of a sex-tendency with variation and heredity as contributory factors, we have an hypothesis in accord with all the ob^ served facts. 91 CHAPTER III SEXUAL DIFFERENCES AND WOMAN'S DEVELOP, MENT MR. HAVELOCK ELLIS, in Man and Woman, 1 has collected a mass of data bear- ing on the comparative physiology and relative functions, powers and habits of the sexes from which may be gleaned much that tends to establish the conten- tion that sex differentiation as regards mental and physical qualities is neither fundamental nor constitutional, but large- ly the result of environmental influences and heredity. The work referred to above appeared in 1894, has passed thru a num- ber of editions and been translated into several languages. Its popularity is well deserved. The author evidently has spared no pains in gathering his material and so has produced a volume that is a London, Walter Scott, Ltd.; New York, Chas. Scribner's Sons. 92 WOMAN'S DEVELOPMENT veritable storehouse of information to which I am indebted for many of the citations contained in this chapter. His object in the compilation of so much data relating to the sexes was, to quote his own words, to ascertain the extent and nature of the " constitutional differences between men and women." The conclusions he draws are conservative. He says : " We have not succeeded in determining the radical and essential characters of men and women uninfluenced by external modifying conditions. . . . We have to recognize that our present knowledge of men and women can not tell us what they might be or what they ought to be, but what they actually are under the condi- tions of civilization. Under varying con- ditions men and women are, within certain limits, indefinitely modifiable. We are not at liberty to introduce any artificial sexual barrier into social concerns. The respective fitness of men and women for 93 SEX EQUALITY any kind of work and any kind of priv- ilege can only be ascertained by actual open experiment. The hope of our future civilization lies in the development in equal freedom of both the masculine and feminine elements in life." In making this summary of comparison between man and woman in civilization to- day, Mr. Ellis first gives consideration to the anatomic and physiologic data. At birth male infants on the average exceed females in weight, length and girth, the difference in length being about one-fifth of an inch. The size of the head of the male infant is also considerably larger than that of the female. Since the large-head- ed infant is less able to withstand the perils of parturition and so less likely to survive, the mortality of male infants is somewhat greater than that of females at birth and soon after. During youth both sexes make rapid growth until the third 94 WOMAN'S DEVELOPMENT year, slow growth during the third and fourth years with the boys a little ahead and keeping this advantage to about the tenth year. From this period to the age of puberty the girls take a decisive lead in the rate of growth, being actually taller between eleven and fourteen and heavier between twelve and fifteen years than boys at the same age. Thereafter, boys again take the lead with a rapid growth more or less maintained until about the age of twenty-three, while girls grow slowly after sixteen to full stature about the twentieth year. Women as a rule attain full devel- opment at twenty, whereas men may con- tinue for some years later, especially un- der favoring conditions. Generally speak- ing, physical precocity is more marked in women than in men, and the more prim- itive the race the earlier is the full stature attained. Compared with man, woman has a 95 SEX EQUALITY longer head and trunk, a shorter neck, arms and legs. With respect to the skull, that of man on the whole is thicker and stronger, also projects more over the nose and shows more development than that of woman. In comparing facial types, it is found that women in civilized races show a more prognathous character of face than men; whereas the reverse holds in most savage races, a greater projection of the lower jaw being a male characteristic. The cranial capacity of the sexes is ex- ceedingly varied, altho averaging in favor of the male. Inhabitants of cities, nor- mally occupied, possess a larger cranial capacity than those of the country, and in cases where men and women have been engaged in similar tasks, calling for mucb the same amount and kind of energy, there is comparatively little difference in their cranial measurements. It is said that among the Jews in the West End of Lon- 96 MADAME DE STAEL X A . ' OF THE UNIVERSITY J OF WOMAN'S DEVELOPMENT don the women are distinctly inferior in cranial measurements to the men, where- as between the male and female Jews of the East End there is comparatively little difference. This is presumedly because the wealthy Jewesses in the West End are not usually occupied in any serious work, while in the case of the Jews in the East End both sexes are frequently engaged in substantially the same kind of labor. As to the human brain, while investiga-i tion shows that, actually, men possess, larger brains than women, yet as com- c pared with the size of the body the differ-^ ence is hardly appreciable, in fact, if any-^ thing it tends to favor women. If it be incontestably demonstrated that more male than female children have ex- cessively large heads and so suffer more at birth, the cause of this condition is thereby not necessarily settled. Or, to go further, if it should be proved that males 97 SEX EQUALITY are more variable than females it is then in order to ascertain if this greater varia- bility of the male arises from a sexual and 1 'constitutional" difference or from a dif- ference in the environment and heredity of the two sexes. Concerning the senses, from tests made by Professors Bailey and Nichols, report- ed in the Proceedings of the Kansas Academy of Science, 1884, on the percep- tive faculty of smelling, about seventy university students of both sexes being experimented upon, the men proved to have much the more delicate olfactory power. Doctor Ottolenghi's observations in the Turin University confirm this supe- riority, but to a less marked extent. In respect to taste, women appear to have the advantage in sensitiveness, at any rate so far as sweetness, bitterness and acidity are concerned. The testimony of investi- gators regarding the detection of salt is 98 WOMAN'S DEVELOPMENT conflicting, Bailey and Nichols' experi- ments showing men to be more sensitive, and Ottolenghi's quite the reverse. No very extended experiments appear to have been made as to the relative hearing powers of the sexes, but Mr. Galton's tests at his Anthropomorphic Laboratory in London reveal a decidedly keener develop- ment on the part of men. The celebrated English surgeon, Brudenell Carter, who published an analysis of ten thousand cases affecting the eyes, found a distinct preponderance of women and girls over men with diseased or defective sight. Taking normal adults of both sexes, in Europe and America, the consensus of testimony shows no marked superiority of vision in the case of either sex. Accord- ing to Dr. E. L. Nichols' tests for color sensitiveness with thirty-one males and twenty-three families, the males excelled in regard to red. yellow and green, the f e- 99 SEX EQUALITY males showing a keener sense for blue only. On the other hand, color-blindness, according to all authorities, both in Eu- rope and America, is much less common among women than men. The sense of touch in the two sexes has not been as thoroly investigated. Professor Jastrow's experiments regarding the tactile sensi- tiveness of the hand in the case of male and female students show the women to be decidedly superior to the men in the use of this faculty. Experiments as to the sensibility to pain made upon normal men and women show somewhat varying results, but there is the testimony of dis- tinguished surgeons and dentists that women as a rule stand operations and en- dure pain with more fortitude than men. In strength, as well as in rapidity and precision of bodily movement, anthropo- morphic statistics as well as every-day ex- perience show women to be inferior to 100 WOMAN'S DEVELOPMENT men. 1 Commenting on this fact, Have- lock Ellis says: "To a very large ex- tent, it is certainly a matter of difference in exercise and environment. It is prob- ably also particularly a matter of or- ganic constitution. That this latter fac- tor can in any case account for more than a small proportion of the immense mus- cular difference which exists between civilized men and women is impossible when we consider the muscular strength displayed by the women among some sav- age races." 1 In public typewriting competitions that have been held during recent years in America between expert typists of both sexes, the high- est honors have thrice successively been borne by a young woman, Miss Fritz. The tests cover both accuracy and speed, and are quite severe. Her last record on March 22, 1907, was 2,445 words in 30 minutes, 200 words faster than her previous performance. While these contests may not have the general scientific value of experiments made under expert direction, they indicate nevertheless that the quah'ties of high coordination exhibited are common to both sexes. 9 The following results of very thoro tests instituted by Miss Helen B. Thompson on twenty-five students of each sex at the University of Chicago are taken from her work, Physiological Norms in Men and Women, published by the Chicago University, 1903: Motor ability is better developed in the male than in the female. Men have a greater rapidity of movement and become less fatigued; also have greater accuracy of movement than women. The latter, 101 SEX EQUALITY Apropos of the foregoing summary, it is not difficult to understand why men have keener 1 sense perceptions than women when we bear in mind that men thru the ages have led a larger outdoor life and come more in contact with nature. Hence it would be expected, bearing in mind the law of sexual heredity, that men possess a keener sense of smell and more powerful vision. At the same time, there appears no obvious reason why men should be more subject to color-blindness than women. The fact that men in their direct contact with nature and their out- door pursuits harden and thicken the skin probably explains why they have a less however, excel in the formation of new motor coordinations such as card sorting. In taste, men appear to have the higher sensibility; in smell, the reverse holds good. In regard to hearing, men show a lower limit than women, but in pitch discrimination women excel men. Vision: In sense of brightness, men have better power; in color vision, women are best. In visual discrimination of area and in estimates of length males are superior to females. Memory tests show women to be quicker in learning and no less re- tentive than men. 102 WOMAN'S DEVELOPMENT keen sense of touch than women. The en- vironment and occupations of men for countless generations have tended to the development of invention and originality. This appears to explain why women yield- ed up the industrial arts, first promoted by them, to men to be further developed, specialized and embellished; and this ex- plains why women are now inferior to men in manual dexterity. In a quotation above given, Mr. Have- lock Ellis, discussing the superiority of men over women in strength as well as rapidity and precision of movement, says this superiority is caused by exercise and environment, but adds that "it is probably also a matter of organic constitution." He fails, however, to give any reason for this belief, and the affirmation is entirely based on the assumption that there is a fundamental or " organic" maleness and femaleness. I believe I have shown in 103 SEX EQUALITY Chapter I good reasons for thinking that Darwin is right in his conclusion that when the sexes differ in other than organic characteristics these differences are due to environment and heredity. There are further interesting physiolog- ic comparisons between the sexes, such as the greater amount of red corpuscles in the blood of the male, indicating a greater oxygen-absorbing power ; a higher specific gravity of blood (except in extreme youth and old age) ; a lower pulse-beat and greater respiratory power than the female possesses. Yet the conclusion drawn from these facts by those who affirm that "the difference in the quality of the blood of men and women is fundamental" does not appear to be warranted. The differ- ence exists it is granted ; but there is no proof that it is deeper than can be traced to external and modifiable conditions, to- gether with cumulative heredity. Physi- 104 WOMAN'S DEVELOPMENT ology has already, in the light of fuller knowledge, corrected its error when it held costal or chest respiration to be a sexual peculiarity of woman, distinct from the freer abdominal breathing of man. It is now orthodox science that women nor- mally breathe as men do, but owing to the long-established custom of waist con- striction, the comprest organs have ad- justed themselves to the changed condi- tions and chest breathing has thus been artificially induced. Where the attire has f pr generations been worn loose, women are invariably found to breathe in the natural diaphragmatic manner. In the same way, it is probable that the blood and the pulse-beat of woman when observed' under more favoring conditions, approxi- mating to those which obtain in the case of man, will show identical analysis and characteristics, other factors of course be- ing analogous. 105 SEX EQUALITY It is instructive when studying the pe- culiarities of primitive people, to note the great diversities in customs and character- istics. In many tribes the tanning of hides, the gathering and preparation of material for clothing as well as sewing are in the hands of the women; but in East Central Africa all the family's sewing is done by the men; and, according to Mac- donald, in the Journal of the Anthropo- logical Institute of August, 1892, the men are the better tailors; and so much has custom made sewing strictly the work of the men that a wife ' ' can obtain a divorce if she can show a rent in her petticoat." In ancient Peru, men did the spinning and weaving, and women the field-work. In Abyssinia, the washing of clothes for both sexes is done entirely by the men ; and among certain Arab tribes all the needle- work is performed by them. Generally in savagery, hunting has been wholly in the 106 WOMAN'S DEVELOPMENT hands of the men, and yet in British Co- lumbia, among certain Indian tribes, the women are nearly as good hunters as the men. Also, among the Tasmanians it is the women who dive for fish, who climb the tall, smooth-barked gum-trees for opossums, and who dig up roots with sticks, in addition to looking after their children. Fighting has mostly been done by the men, and yet women engaged in battle occasionally and even habitually among the ancient Teutons, Slavs and Celts, and have done so more recently in Africa and Australia. The Amazons of Dahomey are historic, and while their feats have probably been exaggerated, the existence and active fighting qualities of a regiment of female warriors numbering about two thousand five hundred is vouched for by Captain Burton as late as 1862, when he saw them marching on an expedition. "The system of warfare," 107 SEX EQUALITY says the Encyclopaedia Britannica, "is one of surprize. The army marches out and when within a few days' journey of the town to be attacked silence is enjoined and no fires are permitted. The regular high- ways are avoided, and the advance is by a road specially cut thru the bush. The town is surrounded at night, and just be- fore daybreak a rush is made, and every soul captured if possible ; none are killed except in self-defense, as the first object is to capture, not to kill." These fighting women are carefully trained, and in the mimic warfare in which they are some- times exhibited by the king to foreign visitors, they have shown remarkable powers of endurance, fortitude and ap- parent insensibility to pain. In fine, there is very little work usually deemed proper for man only that woman has not done, and very little of woman's work, so-called, that has not in some tribes 108 WOMAN'S DEVELOPMENT been done by the men. Even the function of the patriarch has been filled by woman. The patriarch had as many wives as he could buy or capture and provide for. All the wives and their children were ruled by the patriarch until the day of his death. In what may be called polyandrous coun- tries the matriarch performs the functions of the patriarch. She is the ruler of the family and the clan, and the rights of in- heritance must be established thru her. During the recent British expedition into Tibet, conducted -by Colonel Younghus- band, it was desirable, in one of the settle- ments thru which the expedition was pass- ing to have a roadway repaired, and it was found necessary to negotiate the con- tract thru the matriarch of the district who named the price and collected the pay, sending several of her husbands to do the work. While men are usually taller, larger and 109 SEX EQUALITY stronger than women, for which Darwin's explanation is probably the correct one, contrary instances occur among some tribes where the women are as strong and as large as the men, and better formed, a fact which is no doubt explained by the very different social customs of the differ- ent tribes. Accepting Darwin's hypothesis that the superior stature and strength of man have been caused by his struggles, exercises and outdoor life, we have in this a formula for developing woman to a plane of physical equality with her brother. It is simply to induce women to take up out- door life and such exercises and pursuits as have proved so effective for men. An encouraging start has already been made. During the past two decades prominent educators have strongly urged girl stu- dents and women generally to engage in athletics and outdoor sports, with the re- no WOMAN'S DEVELOPMENT suit that many have engaged in bicycling, golf, swimming, walking, tennis and even basketball; and it is popularly believed that the girls and women of this genera- tion are distinctly taller, stronger and healthier than those of a generation ago. / /TPres. Charles W. Eliot, of Harvard, re- cently exprest the opinion that women are not designed for such arduous exercises, and that such physical strenuousness as has been referred to is threatening women's health. He particularly con- demns the exercises which are becoming common in women's colleges jumping, sprinting, hurdling, putting the shot and the like. Well-known physicians agree with President Eliot in thinking that such exercises are injurious to the young women participants. These gentlemen have overlooked the fact that between thirty and forty years ago, when the ques- tion of the coeducation of the sexes was 111 SEX EQUALITY first seriously considered, a hue and cry was raised that the curriculum of men's colleges would prove an injurious strain upon women ; and Doctor Parker, a Bos- ton physician, published a book of warn- ing urging that women's health would be undermined by such a course, and they would be unable to compete with men any- how. Yet the contrary has proved true. The young women have taken a majority of the honors, and it is said that Harvard and Yale are enrolling new students from the Middle West who would naturally at- tend Western universities, but are de- terred by the strenuous competition from young women they have to meet there, and it has also been urged that this competi- tion is the reason why some of the promi- nent universities in the West are limiting the number of women students. 1 1 The following is the official explanation as given in the U. S. Edu- cation Report, 1903, Chapter XX, by Anna Tolman Smith 1 " The recent action of three educational institutions, Chicago, Leland Stanford and Wesleyan (Connecticut), discriminating in noticeable 112 RACHEL WOMAN'S DEVELOPMENT The opposition to female athletics will probably fail for the same reason that the opposition to coeducational colleges has failed because of the salutary effect upon the women themselves. The well-trained woman college graduate has found just what the well-trained male graduate finds that because of her attainments and dis- cipline she is better fitted for the strug- gles of life ; and the young woman student is also well satisfied with the results of athletics and of the outdoor life; and it ways between the men and women students has excited great agita- tion, and has been widely discust as a general reaction against the coeducation policy. This view has given exaggerated importance to measures growing out of conditions peculiar to the respective institu- tions. In his official report for 1908, Doctor Harper submits a full ex- planation of the segregation policy recently adopted by Chicago University, for which he assigns three principal causes: (1) the proxim- ity of the university to a large city, with the attendant social distrac- tions; (2) the high ratio of young women students to the whole body; (3) the comparative youth of the junior students. In all these respects, Chicago University offers a contrast to the older coeducational col- leges. The action of the authorities of Leland Stanford University in limiting the number of women students to 500 at any time is in pursu- ance of the special purpose of Stanford, which was the endowment of a university to be distinctively for technical and graduate students. The limit placed by the trustees of Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, upon the number of women students namely, 20 percent, of the total number for the preceding year appears to have been deter- mined by the accommodations of the college home for women." 113 SEX EQUALITY is a common observation that young women generally are physically stronger as well as mentally brighter and generally more capable than her kind of a genera- tion ago. At the same time, it is unwise to go to extremes. The game of American football is no doubt too severe and ardu- ous for girls to engage in, and basket-ball as sometimes played may be also ; but the abuse of anything is no argument against the thing itself. So long as women per- ceive that there is not only a physical but an ethical value in the outdoor life and varied exercise, there will be an increased and not a diminished indulgence in these sports. Sports, however, are only among life's incidents, and exert relatively but insig- nificant influence on development. It is one 's life-work that counts. If sedentary habits and indoor occupations have a nec- essarily cramping and deleterious influ- 114 WOMAN'S DEVELOPMENT ence upon development, why should wom- an be subjected to more than her share? Custom and conservatism are powerful factors and hedge us about with bands of steel. It is well that this is so. Other- wise in his restlessness and desire for new sensations man would uproot much which experience has demonstrated to be essen- tial to true progress. It is plainly the part of wisdom to challenge all innova- tions and to cherish those landmarks of civilization which experience has taught us to value. Nevertheless, change is the law of progress, and while we should jeal- ously conserve all those customs that stand approved by an enlightened judgment and challenge all those innovations that threat- en any of our bulwarks, we must neverthe- less maintain an open mind toward those movements and changes that promise to uplift the race. Only a generation ago the great majority of well-conditioned and 115 SEX EQUALITY cultured people looked with horror upon the proposition that woman be admitted to colleges and permitted to invade the pro- fessions and other gainful occupations heretofore monopolized by men. It was averred that women would be "unsexed" by such pursuits. Let us bear in mind that it is but a matter of a score or two of years when the only occupations outside of the home open to women were teaching, sewing and domestic service. Women, un- deterred, kept steadily knocking at the doors opening to gainful vocations and financial independence ; and what has hap- pened? The barriers are broken down and, as compared with conditions only half a century ago, woman has entered into an industrial and professional para- dise. She is more independent, more cul- tured, more helpful, has far greater influ- ence; and instead of being "unsexed" or having deteriorated in any way, has dis- tinctly enhanced her charm. 116 WOMAN'S DEVELOPMENT While these momentous changes have been rapidly taking place, very little has been done to familiarize us with the thought that women or at all events women of culture may engage in out- door pursuits. All Europe is familiar with the spectacle of peasant women en- gaging in agricultural work; and in the Middle West of the United States, during the stress of harvest, it is not unusual to see women assist in the field, and upon oc- casion drive horses and ride sulky-plows or grain-drills. A Mrs. Wilcox, living in a suburb of Lincoln, Nebraska, formerly for five years a school-teacher, has now for some time been following the vocation of a blacksmith. She is said to do all branches of the work forging iron, re- pairing wagons and shoeing horses. She has three daughters who are going to school and taking music lessons and who also assist in the shop work. Nevertheless, 117 SEX EQUALITY such occupations are considered by the great majority as not only unladylike, but as wholly unsuitable and even improper for women. The inconsistency of this prejudice is most obvious when we bear in mind that thruout the world it is con- sidered entirely proper for women to work long hours and most laboriously at cook- ing and serving of meals, at washing, ironing and the various tasks included in housework. For some years England has boasted a school for teaching young women the arts of bee-keeping, market- gardening, fruit-raising and flower-cul- ture. Our agricultural colleges are also opening to women students the door to these pursuits as well as to general agri- culture, dairying and poultry-raising. According to the census of 1900, 1 the gainful occupations of women in the United States with the number employed 1 From the New International Encyclopaedia. 118 WOMAN'S DEVELOPMENT in each are classified as follows, the total number being 5,329,807 as compared with nearly 24,000,000 males: WOMEN EMPLOYED IN UNITED STATES CENSUS 1900 In domestic service 2,099,195 In agriculture (of whom 665,791 are laborers) 980,025 In manufacturing 1,315,890 In trade and transportation 503,574 In professions 431,153 As dressmakers 344,948 As laundresses 355,711 As textile-workers 277,972 As saleswomen 149,256 As stenographers , 86,158 As retail dealers 34,132 As bookkeepers and accountants 74,186 As clerks 85,269 As telephone and telegraph operators . . . 22,556 In higher positions were found: 253 bankers, 45 bro- kers, 1,271 officers of banks, 2,883 manufacturers and officials of companies, 153 builders and contractors, 261 wholesale dealers. Among unusual employments of women are: 84 civil engineers, 545 carpenters, 41 mechanics, 193 blacksmiths, 571 machinists, 3 mining engineers, 154 boatmen and sail- ors, 897 watchmen, policemen and detectives, 85 boot- blacks, 1,320 hunters 11 surveyors, 248 chemists, 21 119 SEX EQUALITY stevedores, 78 longshoremen, 3,370 steel and iron work- ers, 409 electricians, 800 brassworkers, 1,775 workers in tin, 100 lumbermen, 113 woodchoppers, 373 sawmill workers, 440 bartenders, 2,086 saloon-keepers, 906 dray- men, 324 undertakers, 2 motormen, 5,582 barbers, 13 car conductors, 31 brakemen, 7 steam-car conductors, 2 roof- ers, 126 plumbers, 45 plasterers, 167 brick and stone masons, 241 paper-hangers, 1,759 painters, 177 stationary engineers and firemen, 1,947 stock-raisers. The foregoing data from the Census Re- port, showing the large number of women engaged in unusual occupations and in work heretofore thought to be exclusively adapted for men, will come as a sur- prize to most readers. According to a report of the Census Bureau dated May 22, 1907, the number of women at work more than doubled in the twenty years from 1880 to 1900; and there was an in- crease of breadwinners among married women in 1900 as compared with 1890. Women are engaged in all but nine of the three hundred and three breadwinning occupations of the country. The profes- 120 WOMAN'S DEVELOPMENT sion of teaching has been longest open to women, and yet during the past ten years women have made more rapid progress even in this field than at any previous time. They now hold positions as princi- pals, city superintendents and college pro- fessors; in Colorado and Idaho there are women State superintendents of schools. In our public schools (all grades inclu- ded) 72 per cent, of the teachers are wom- en. There are over one thousand five hun- dred women attending medical colleges, and within twenty-four years women have almost created the profession of nursing. In 1906 were graduated about eight thou- sand trained nurses, of whom over seven thousand were women. During the same year more than four hundred women en- tered the field as clergymen, lawyers, den- tists, and pharmacologists. There is only a small percentage of women at present whose physical as well 121 SEX EQUALITY as mental powers are sufficiently devel- oped to compete successfully with men in the more strenuous pursuits. But this new life upon which women are entering is made up of those exercises and strug- gles that tend to develop the faculties and powers in which women are now deficient ; and it is probable that year by year women will be found in an increasing proportion in all professions and in all work requir- ing intelligence, industry, sobriety, con- scientiousness and the higher traits gen- erally. It is no new philosophy that advocates similar methods of training for both sexes. Plato said long ago: "In the administra- tion of a State, neither the woman as a woman nor the man as a man has any special function, but the gifts of nature are equally diffused in both sexes ; all the pursuits of men are the pursuits of women also." And Xenophon puts into the 1 Jowett, page 285, Rep., paragraph 455. 122 WOMAN'S DEVELOPMENT mouth of Socrates a decided assertion of woman's equality with man. " Woman's nature," he says, "happens to be in no way inferior to man's, but she needs in- sight and strength." In other words she has the powers, but needs to develop them. The quotation from Darwin already given is to the point: "In order that women should reach the same standard as man, she ought, when nearly adult, to be trained to energy and perseverance and to have her reason and imagination exer- cised to the highest point; and then she would probably transmit these qualities to her adult daughters." The more girls compete with boys in schools and colleges, and the more women compete with men in the professions and in those pursuits which demand a considerable amount of mental and physical strength, the greater will be their own development and the 1 Symp. c. ii. 0. 123 SEX EQUALITY larger the powers which their daughters will in turn inherit. No fear need be en- tertained that the result will be hurtful to any individual or class. 124 CHAPTER IV WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK IT is obviously difficult to arrive at any accurate determination as to the relative mentality of the sexes in approximately the same class. Some work in this direc- tion has been done by Professor Jastrow and others in cooperation with university students. I am again indebted to Have- lock Ellis. In the first test, Professor Jastrow asked twenty-five of each sex to write down one hundred words as rapidly as possible and to record the time. Five thousand words were obtained, of which nearly three thousand were the same ; one thousand three hundred and seventy-five words were used by the men, one thousand one hundred and twenty-three by the women. After analyzing the classes of subjects into which the given words ar- 125 SEX EQUALITY ranged themselves, the professor remarks : "In general, the feminine traits revealed by this study are an attention to the im- mediate surroundings, to the finished product, to the ornamental, to the indi- vidual and the concrete ; while the mascu- line preference is for the more remote, the constructive, the useful, the general, and the abstract." In another experiment, memory and association were called into play, and the superiority of the feminine mind was shown in the direction of mem- ory ; this result being even more strikingly demonstrated in another experiment with high-school students. An investigation in Berlin quoted by Prof. Stanley Hall, 1 involving several thousand school children, was made in 1891, the result of which is summarized as follows: "The easy and widely diffused concepts are commonest among girls, the President of Clark University and author of Adolescence. 126 WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK harder and more special or exceptional ones are common among boys. The girls excel in space concepts, the boys in num- bers; more boys could repeat sentences said to them, or sing musical verses sung to them, or sing a song, than girls." Pro- fessor Hall made some similar tests in Boston. He says : ' ' The girls excelled in knowledge of the parts of the body, home and family life, thunder, rainbows, in knowledge of square, circle, and triangle, not in that of cube, sphere, or pyramid. Their stories are more imaginative, while their knowledge of things outward and remote, their power to sing and articulate correctly and from dictation, their ac- quaintance with numbers and animals are distinctly less than that of the boys. " Pro- fessor Romanes made a test as to the rapid reading power of several well-educated persons of both sexes, in which the women were usually more successful; they not, 127 SEX EQUALITY only excelled in speed, but in giving a bet- ter account of the paragraph in their own words afterward. This facility, however, of quick reading is no criterion of supe- rior intellectual qualities. The general tendency of masculine mental action is toward deliberateness in expression as compared with the female mind, which moves faster and is more inclined to act on impulse in matters that are not under the influence of convention and custom. In most communities the natural instincts of woman have been, from various causes, more or less repressed or hampered by the ignorance or superstition of the dominant sex. But even under these circumstances woman has been able to hold her own, ac- quiring gradually in the course of num- berless generations qualities of craft, sub- tilty, rapid adaptability, and keen dis- crimination of masculine character which have served her, indeed been her only 128 WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK weapons against the brutality and sheer force of man. These qualities under more civilized and urbane conditions have been retained in various degrees by the female sex and undoubtedly contribute to the pre- eminent ability that women display in vo- cations and situations calling for special tact and finesse ; in the histrionic realm ; as leaders in the gentler social functions and amenities of modern life and in the gen- erally beneficial influence exercised upon the ruder, fiercer, and harsher dispositions of man. Thru the ages, woman has been the one to follow rather than to lead, but enough notable exceptions have occurred to dis- prove the assertion that lack of initiative or originality is a characteristic defect of femininity. If woman's general inferior- ity to man has been brought about by en- vironment and heredity, one would expect to find instances of individual women 129 SEX EQUALITY manifesting such powers of genius as make men eminent and conspicuous. This is precisely what has happened. Many women of history have distin- guished themselves by political and states- manlike qualities as well as martial feats. Boadicea was queen of one of the original tribes of Britain about the middle of the first century. She and her people suffered great injustice and persecution at the hands of the invading Romans. She gathered a large army, stormed and cap- tured several strongholds which had been established in Britain and, according to Tacitus, destroyed seventy thousand Ro- mans before she herself was finally van- quished. Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, who reigned in the name of her sons in the lat- ter half of the third century, was a woman of great power and brilliant attainments. In addition to the possession of striking 130 WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK feminine beauty, her literary acquire- ments were considerable, and she spoke Latin and Greek as well as Syriac and Coptic. She was distinguished also for prudence, justice and liberality in her ad- ministration. She proved herself capable of coping with Roman armies and taxed the Emperor Aurelian's military skill to the utmost before he was abie to subdue her. In the instance of Joan of Arc, it is not important to this survey whether she was miraculously inspired, whether deluded, or even, as some claim, was an impostor altho this last hypothesis is not tenable when the uprightness of her character is considered. In any event, the facts re- main: up to the time of Joan's interven- tion the English had been uniformly suc- cessful and the fortunes of the French were at the lowest ebb. It was thru her ingenuity and enthusiasm that the troops 131 SEX EQUALITY were gathered which, under her personal leadership, made such successful sallies upon the English that the siege of Orleans was raised. The tide which had been against the French during the Hundred Years' War was reversed. She was the savior of the Dauphin and of France, and these results were accomplished by the manifestation of traits supposed to be characteristic of the male sex only initi- ative, dauntless bravery and self-sacrifi- cing patriotism. Concerning Queen Elizabeth, it has been claimed that the glories of her reign were due to her ministers rather than herself. But an examination of the record shows that thruout her life she devoted her pow- ers to steering clear of foreign complica- tions. Her personality is as clearly stamped upon her administration as was that of Henry VIII. upon his ; and what- ever were the actual motives of these two 132 WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK rulers, we are indebted to Henry for Protestant England and to Elizabeth for that tranquillity and freedom from foreign entanglements that fostered the growth of commerce and peace, and laid the founda- tion of that literature of which Shake- speare and Bacon are the most conspicu- ous examples. One can not read the biography of Cath- erine II. of Russia without being struck with the extraordinary qualities of her character and genius. Married at the early age of sixteen, she soon became deep- ly absorbed in statesmanship and diplo- macy. Surrounded by a typically frivo- lous and impure court, she manifested on the one hand all the frailties of a weak woman, while, on the other, she dis- played in constructive statesmanship those strokes of genius which were conspicuous- ly shown by Peter the Great, Napoleon and like master-rulers, and which but for 133 SEX EQUALITY a few such examples would have been deemed impossible for a woman. She gave close attention to details of adminis- tration and established in St. Petersburg one of the most brilliant courts of Europe. She brought about the partition of Poland and obtained for Russia the lion's share. She brought representatives from the provinces to Moscow to discuss plans of reform. As a result she reorganized the laws and reformed the administration of justice, established elementary schools, built canals, founded institutions of learning and sent abroad artists and scholars to profit by foreign examples. Catherine inherited the mantle of Peter the Great. She found St. Petersburg a village of hovels and left it a city of brick and marble. She lived a life of assiduous industry and of close application to the affairs of her country, and displayed in a remarkable degree perhaps never ex- 134 WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK celled in history those attributes of genius which are popularly supposed to be the possession only of the male sex. Were this the only example that history affords of a woman displaying in an em- inent degree the qualities ordinarily asso- ciated with man, it would not carry so much weight; but there are many other instances of the same type. Maria Theresa, of Austria, was born in 1717 and at the age of nineteen married the Duke of Lorraine, by whom she had sixteen chil- dren, ten of whom lived to maturity four sons and six daughters, of whom Marie Antoinette is the most conspicuous. Her life as a wife and mother did not, however, interfere with the manifestation of her extraordinary powers as a ruler. She came into posses- sion of the throne of Austria at the age of twenty-three. She found her army weak, her people discontented, her finances em- 135 SEX EQUALITY barrassed and her country exhausted. Af- ter the termination of the War of the Suc- cession, Austria enjoyed a period of peace during which the Empress initiated great financial reforms whereby commerce, manufactures, and agriculture flourished and the burdens of the peasantry were di- minished. These measures were hastened and stimulated by anticipation of the re- newal of war with Frederick the Great, whose ruin she well-nigh accomplished during the Seven Years' War. In con- sequence of this war, Austria was again reduced to a state of great exhaustion. Again the Empress introduced reforms by which the penal code was mitigated, the condition of the peasantry ameliorated and the nation's prosperity enhanced. She so endeared herself to the hearts of her people that to this day she is spoken of familiarly by the peasants as "the queen. ' ' Altho a devout Roman Catholic, 136 QUEEN VICTORIA WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK she maintained against the court of Rome the rights of Austria. She prohibited the presence of priests when wills were being made, abolished the right of asylum in churches and supprest the inquisition in Milan. The Hungarians who regarded themselves as her special people, still dis- tinguish their country from German Aus- tria and Bohemia by calling it "the terri- tory of the queen." In instances such as the above where women were born to rule, and where their minds were naturally and inevitably trained for their life's work, there would appear to be some reason for ascribing to them masculine traits. The life of the Countess of Derby furnishes a noteworthy example of the display of similar charac- teristics by a woman in comparative pri- vate life. Her husband, Lord Derby, owned Lathom House, which had come into the possession of his family in the 137 SEX EQUALITY reign of Edward III. In 1644, during the Parliamentary War and in the absence of her husband, the Countess defended the castle for four months against the army of General Fairfax. Spurning his re- peated offers of immunity in exchange for surrender, she inspired the garrison by her own constant example with a zeal, con- fidence and courage that nothing could daunt. When the situation seemed des- perate and the destruction of the strong- hold was threatened by the besiegers' suc- cessful use of a mortar, the Countess planned and executed a sortie against the enemy. She headed, in person, her little band of one hundred as far as the trenches and to such good purpose that the far more numerous assailing army was routed with considerable loss, the trenches taken and occupied, the offending mortar cap- tured and effectively used against the enemy, until the siege was finally raised by 138 WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK the approach of Prince Rupert's army. Later in the war an act of treachery was the cause of Lathom House falling into the hands of the Parliamentarians, and the event is thus pointedly referred to in a newspaper of the period: "On Satur- day, December 6th, after the House was up, there came letters to the Speaker of the Commons House of the surrender of Lathom House, in Lancashire, belonging to the Earl of Derby, which his lady, the Countess of Derby, proving herself the better soldier of the two, hath above these two years kept in opposition to our forces." History repeats itself. Queen Victo- ria's reign presents some striking simi- larities to that of Queen Elizabeth. Eng- land made great strides and showed marvelous prosperity in each, and the two reigns are alike in the development of immortal men in literature and science. 139 SEX EQUALITY In Victoria's reign democracy had im- mensely greater influence and the queen was therefore less able to impress her pe- culiarities and personality upon the na- tion's history than her predecessor; at the same time, she showed herself superior to her ministers when she prevented Lord Palmerston in 1864 from embroiling Eng- land in a threatened war with Prussia, and again when (it is claimed) she over- ruled her prime minister at the time of the American Civil War, when that states- man desired to acknowledge the independ- ence of the Southern Confederacy. A woman is now ruling (the Queen Dowager of China) whose reign rivals that of the most distinguished kings of history in dramatic interest not only in the absolute personal supremacy she has achieved over the viceroys and governors of the various provinces of the Chinese Empire, but in the reforms modeled upon 140 WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK Western experience that she has institu- ted, and which promise to do for China what the Mikado has been able to do for Japan. These same reforms were impos- sible in China under the guidance of a weak emperor, but have been made possi- ble by the shrewdness of a woman who has gained absolute sway and is determined that her people shall profit by the experi- ence and achievements of Japan. It is in the domain of government, no doubt, that the most striking instances are found where women exhibit traits and characteristics usually termed masculine. This is natural because women have for unnumbered generations been placed in dependent positions where they could ac- complish their purposes and ambitions only by finesse and diplomacy, and these are important factors in government. But we are not confined to queens for instances where women have manifested the special 141 SEX EQUALITY traits usually appropriated by men. We can go to science, art and literature for ex- amples, and, best of all, we can find them in abundance in every-day life. We need to bear in mind that, after all, masculine traits and feminine traits are but human traits ; and there is every reason to antici- pate that, in the full fruition of the race, each individual, male and female, will ex- hibit indifferently both masculine and feminine traits. A hero was originally as- sumed to be exclusively male. The word is defined by the Century Dictionary as one who exhibits courage, firmness, forti- tude and intellectual greatness in any course of action. To this should be added unselfishness and willingness to risk life for others. The word " heroine" shows sociologic progress and means broadly that woman has come to exemplify virtues that were not originally attributed to her sex. 142 WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK Grace Darling, the English heroine, is in point. Thru her initiative, she and her father saved from a wrecked steamer the lives of nine survivors who would other- wise have perished. The storm was so furious that the father, accustomed as he was to the perils of the sea, feared to make the attempt. But Grace Darling insisted, and with the aid of her mother, their boat was launched, the father then taking one oar and his daughter " manning" the other. This feat is the more remarkable as it was the first time that Grace Darling had engaged in rescue work, altho an ex- perienced "boatman." Progress is marked and great changes are taking place. Grace Darling's exploit made her famous because, among other reasons, such prowess by her sex was then very unusual. The frequency with which women now brave hardship and peril for others has become relatively such a 143 SEX EQUALITY commonplace that a repetition of Grace Darling's feat would be merely the news- paper wonder of a day, and add one more to the list of Carnegie medals for heroism. As I write, the morning papers extol the brilliant and heroic action of a young woman in New Jersey, near New York. She was engaged in gathering flowers in a field. Down the road came a maddened runaway horse attached to a wagon occu- pied by two women, who had not only lost control of the animal, but had dropt the reins and, claspt in each other's arms, were awaiting their doom. Our hero (why should we indicate her sex by the formal designation any more than in the case of an artist?) at a bound cleared the fence and headed the horse just in time to seize the bridle. Clinging to this at the peril of her life for a hundred yards or more, she finally succeeded in bringing the crazed animal to a stop at the edge of a 144 JEHNT LIND A > "^ V OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK dangerous precipice. Such feats, as I have already remarked, have become al- most every-day instances. One day we read in the newspapers accounts of how a woman the night before collared a burglar and held him until the policeman arrived ; another, how a woman dived from a pier and rescued a man unable to swim ; again, in Chicago I am quoting from actual re- cent instances it is a woman who plunges into a burning building which a large number of men bystanders had not the courage to enter and carried out two young children ; again rushed in and then appeared on the fire-escape leading an aged man and woman, thus saving nearly half the number of lives rescued in Grace Darling's famous exploit. If we bear in mind that women have had a very limited opportunity to hold the reins of government, it is surprizing that so many instances are recorded where they 145 SEX EQUALITY equal men distinguished as kings, com- manders of armies and administrators of government. In the histrionic sphere women have easily achieved places along- side of the foremost men. This is no doubt due to reasons similar to those which explain why women so nearly equal men in affairs of government. Women, in the past, dependent on and subject to man, had no way of obtaining their ends except by playing a part. As we have seen, if women are to equal men in intel- lectual pursuits, it is necessary that they be surrounded during adolescence and early maturity by conditions stimulating their imagination and initiative. The laws of selection and heredity will do the rest. In the theater, women have been relatively untrameled, and accordingly a Siddons, Rachel, Ristori, Duse or Bern- hardt can claim full equality with a Gar- rick, Kean, Booth, Irving or Salvini. 146 WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK A few women have made brilliant rec- ords in science and philosophy. In the fifth century of the Christian era, Hypatia, of Alexandria, whose father was a cele- brated mathematician, attained an em- inence probably not equaled by any other woman and excelled by few men in history. She was a distinguished lecturer on phi- losophy and became the recognized head of the Neo-Platonist School ; she was an elo- quent and effective advocate in the courts of law; she was consulted by the magis- trates on account of her great learning and gained eminence as a student of as- tronomy and mathematics. Mary Somerville, whose active life was spent in the first half of the last century, is a modern example of the same type. In the face of family opposition she secretly mas- tered mathematics. She published several mathematical and scientific works, and at the solicitation of Lord Brougham, trans- 147 SEX EQUALITY lated and published Laplace's great work, The Mechanism of the Heavens. The Koyal Astronomical Society conferred its membership upon her and after her death her bust was placed in the Hall of the Royal Society in London. Maria Mitchell, formerly Professor of Astronomy in Vassar College, was an em- inent mathematician and astronomer, and the first woman member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Madame Curie, the noted Polish-French scientist, co-discoverer with her husband of radium, is reported to have taken the initiative, and to have made the first re- searches that led to a discovery which has already in many respects revolutionized scientific concepts. Her husband held an influential position as lecturer at the Sor- bonne, and upon his death Madame Curie succeeded to it. She is the mother of two little girls and devotes to them the time she can spare from her laboratory work. 148 WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK While literature covers a wide and va- ried field, it is (with few exceptions) only in one domain, that of fiction, that women have to any degree approximated the work of men. In the lists of poets relatively few women stand high. Of Sappho's writings only some fragments remain, yet enough, according to eminent critics, to show the very highest genius and to en- title the poetess to rank with the fore- most lyric writers. Her fame in antiquity rivaled that of Homer. She was called "the poetess" as he was called "the poet." Altho living in so remote an age, 600 B. C., such remains of her writings as have come down to us fully justify the praise lav- ished on her by the ancients. Vittoria Colonna, distinguished by her friendship with Michelangelo, was a poetess of some merit. She published in 1538 a volume of poems, the popularity of which is shown 149 SEX EQUALITY by the fact that four editions were issued in six years. Coming to our own times Jean Ingelow and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (whose Sonnets from the Por- tuguese are thought to be unequaled in the English language) have among others achieved a considerable place; but the most enthusiastic champion of women must see that in this field there is scarce- ly any basis for comparison with men. Scores of names will occur to the reader, and a few like Christina Rossetti, are worthy of special mention. Madame de Stael, who may be regarded as a second Rousseau in initiative and in the ability with which she advocated democracy, and in the transforming in- fluence she exerted upon French litera- ture, was one of the few women who mani- fested the grasp and original power of the foremost male geniuses. When rebuked by Napoleon I. for entering into politics 150 WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK Madame de Stael replied: "Women should not be blamed for their interest in the affairs of a country when for that country they lose their heads" an argu- ment which admitted of no reply. No less noteworthy is the career of Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), the English authoress, who afterward married William Godwin. Compelled by family misfortunes early in life to seek her own support, she resorted to teaching and while so engaged she became acquainted with Doctor Johnson, who manifested a warm interest in her work. Finding lit- erature more congenial she accepted a po- sition as literary adviser and translator to Johnson, the London publisher. Dur- ing this time she brought out several works of fiction, translations and juvenile tales. Her best and most serious work appeared in 1792, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, in which she gave ut- 151 SEX EQUALITY terance to views well-nigh a century in advance of her time. She claimed that ' ' if woman be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge, for truth must be common to all"; she urged the equality of education, the responsibility of the State for such education, and the coeducation of the sexes. Until these ends were achieved, she argued, there could be no intellectual and real compan- ionship between the sexes, and any lower relationship she regarded as degrading to both. She was fully the equal of Madame de Stael in originality and power, and was even more radical in her views. Harriet Martineau and Margaret Ful- ler were brilliant essayists and had con- siderable influence upon their generation. The former translated into English Comte's Philosophic Positive, reducing the whole work to two volumes which the 152 WOMAN'S POWER AND WOEK Encyclopedia Britannica says to most readers is more useful and intelligible than the original. Comte himself strongly approved of it and included the work in his Positivist library. Among living writers, Mrs. Fawcett, of England, is the author of an introductory text-book on political economy which has become almost a school classic in England. In this country Mrs. Oilman, as will be seen in another chapter, has made original contributions of the highest merit to economics. Ida Tarbell has shown histori- cal and controversial work of a high or- der; and had she chosen to write under a man's name it would not have occurred to anyone that her essays were written by a woman. As before said, it is in the field of fic- tion that women compete successfully with men. Prances Burney D'Arblay pub- lished in 1788 her first novel, Evelina, 153 SEX EQUALITY which rivaled Richardson's Clarissa Har- lowe in the attention it excited. Burke, Reynolds, Johnson and others praised it highly. Her stories were the beginning of the domestic life novel and formed the model for Jane Austen and, to some ex- tent, Maria Edgeworth. It is claimed also that Thackeray obtained his Water- loo scene in Vanity Fair from Madame D'Arblay's Letters and Diaries, published after her death. It is thus seen that Madame D'Arblay's genius showed a high order of initiative and originality. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851), sec- ond wife of the poet, has been over- shadowed by her husband's fame, but de- serves notice on her own account. While still in her teens she engaged in a friendly competition with Byron and Shelley for the production of a story based on the supernatural. Byron wrote The Vampire and Mrs. Shelley wrote Frankenstein, 154 WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK which ranks among the most remarkable of imaginative creations. Mrs. Shelley wrote numerous other novels but none showing the powers manifested in Frank- enstein. Almost a century has elapsed since Jane Austen's first novels were pub- lished, yet they are remarkable still for the qualities which made them popular in her time : the clearness with which they portray the every-day life of the middle classes of England in that age. Sir Wal- ter Scott said that her talent for descri- bing characters of ordinary life and ma- king commonplace things interesting was the most wonderful he had ever met, and exhibited a fidelity that he himself was unable to equal. It is also interesting and pertinent to note that she had none of the mannish qualities popularly ascribed to intellectual and literary women; she was thruout her life distinguished by good 155 SEX EQUALITY sense, sweetness of disposition and person- al attractiveness. When, half a century later, Miss Evans assumed the name of George Eliot and wrote Scenes of Clerical Life, the book made a sensation and the reviewers remarked that it was plain no woman would have written it. Thackeray thought the book was written by a man and gave it warm praise. Now, after half a century, many able critics place George Eliot among the leading novelists, regard- less of sex. It is safe to say that no work of fic- tion has had a larger vogue or exercised a wider influence upon the history and progress of a nation than Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. The Bronte Sisters, Miss Mulock and George Sand are a few among many other women nov- elists in the nineteenth century who de- serve mention. At the present time, out of a multitude of women writers, some 156 WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK of them of great excellence, one may mention the names of Mrs. Humphrey Ward, Mrs. Wharton, Mrs. Craigie, Mar- garet Deland, Gertrude Atherton, Miss Murfree and Mrs. Wilkins-Freeman. In truth, women have not only invaded the field of fiction they have annexed it and made it a legitimate sphere of women's work. What is here said of women as writers of fiction, and has also been said of them as exponents of the histrionic art, can hardly be said to apply to any other intel- lectual occupations except perhaps that of teaching. Women teachers in the United States outnumber men in the common schools by over 75 per cent. In the sec- ondary schools their proportion is about one-half, while in the higher colleges and universities the percentage diminishes un- til in the advanced college departments a little over 10 per cent, of the instructors are women. It must be borne in mind also 157 SEX EQUALITY that the epoch-making writers on educa- tion are all men; we have no female Horace Manns or Froebels. In painting, anything by women ap- proaching the first-class is so meager that there is no ground for comparison be- tween the sexes. Madame Lebrun was a portrait painter at the age of fifteen and at twenty-eight had become so distin- guished partly no doubt because she was a woman that she was made a member of the French Academy. Angelica Kauff- mann also showed early talents, and while still young became famous not only in Italy but in England where at the age of twenty-eight the membership of the Royal Academy was bestowed upon her. Rosa Bonheur, also precocious, was the first woman to receive the French Cross of the Legion of Honor, and is thought by many to have excelled Landseer in the depiction of animal life, especially in scenes of ac- 158 WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK tion ; while in this country Cecelia Beaux has struck a high note in portraiture. In sculpture, also, there are few names worthy of mention if a list of women artists were to be made ; but when it comes to the great masters there are no female Michelangelos or Donatellos, any more than there are in painting female Raphaels or Rembrandts. In creative music, woman fares no bet- ter, perhaps not as well. This may appear strange when it is considered that both in barbarism and in civilization women have taken a prominent part both as singers and as players on musical instruments. But the fact remains. Rubinstein, in his work Music and Its Masters, says : " Women lack two prime qualities nec- essary for creating subjectivity and ini- tiative. In practise they can not get be- yond objectivity (imitation). They lack courage and conviction to rise to subjectiv- 159 SEX EQUALITY ity. For musical creation they lack ab- sorption, concentration, power of thought, largeness of emotional horizon, freedom in outlining, etc. It is a mystery why it should just be music, the noblest, most beautiful, refined, spiritual and emotional product of the human mind that is so in- accessible to woman who is a compound of all those qualities ; all the more as she has done great things in the other arts, even in the sciences. ' ' Professor Lombroso gives a brief and comprehensive summing up of this sub- ject in the following paragraphs which are taken from The Man of Genius (page 137): "In the history of genius women have but a small place. Women of genius are rare exceptions in the world. It is an old observation that while thousands of women apply themselves to music for ev- ery hundred men, there has not been a single great woman composer. Yet the 160 WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK sexual difference here offers no obstacle. Out of six hundred women doctors in North America not one has made any dis- covery of importance; and with few ex- ceptions the same may be said of the Rus- sians. In physical science it is true that Mary Somerville emerges; and in litera- ture we have George Eliot, George Sand, Daniel Sterne and Madame de Stael; in the fine arts, Rosa Bonheur, Lebrun, Maraini; Sappho and Mrs. Browning opened new paths for poetry; Eleonora d'Arborea, it is said (but the assertion is contested), initiated at the beginning of the fifteenth century legal reforms of al- most modern character; Catherine of Siena influenced the politics and religion of her time ; Sarah Martin, a poor dress- maker, influenced prison reform; Mrs. Beecher Stowe played a large part in the abolition of slavery in the United States. But of all these, none touch the summits reached by Michelangelo, or Newton, or Balxac. Even J. S. Mill, who was very partial to the cause of women, confest 161 SEX EQUALITY that they lacked originality. They are, above all, conservators. Even the few who emerge have, on near examination, something virile about them. As Goncourt said, there are no women of genius; the women of genius are men. Pulcheria, Marie del Medici, Louise, mother of Francis I., Maria Christina, Maria Theresa, Catherine II., Elizabeth, dis- played eminent political ability as rulers ; as in the field of democracy Madame Ro- land, Fonseca, George Sand, Madame Adam. Mill affirms that when an Indian state is ruled with vigor and vigilance, three times out of four the ruler is a woman. At the same time, it is noted that when women rule men command; just as when men rule women command. In any case, their number is too limited to com- pare them with masculine rulers. As in politics, so admirable examples of valor were given by Caterina Sforza and Joan of Arc, Anita Garibaldi, Enrichetta Cas- tiglioni and many others. These facts be- come more noted because unexpected and 162 WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK exceptional. It may be said that the dis- parity would be much less if the pre- dominance of men, depriving women of the vote in politics and of action in war, had not taken away from women the op- portunity of manifesting their capacities. But if there had been in women a really great ability in politics, science, etc., it would have shown itself in overcoming the difficulties opposed to it; nor would arms have been lacking, nor allies, in the enemy's camp. In revolutions (except in religion) women have always been in a small minority, not being found, for ex- ample, in the English Revolution, or in that of the Low Countries, or of the Uni- ted States. They never created a new re- ligion, nor were they ever at the head of great political, artistic or scientific move- ments. On the contrary, women have often stood in the way of progressive movements. Like children, they are no- toriously misoneistic; they preserve an- cient habits and customs and religions. In America there are tribes in which women 163 SEX EQUALITY keep alive ancient languages which the men have lost; in Sardinia, Sicily, and some remote valleys of Umbria, many ancient prejudices and pagan rites, per- haps of a prehistoric character supersti- tious cures, for example are preserved by women. As Goncourt remarks, they only see persons in everything; they are, as Spencer observes, more merciful than just." The hypothesis that the greater share of the intellectual differences between men and women is the result of their respect- ive environment and heredity not of fundamental maleness and femalenesF fully explains women's shortcomings. When we bear in mind that the training and habits of men thru unnumbered gen- erations have favored the development of the powers of generalization, abstraction and invention, and that the environment of women confined to long hours of petty details and absorbing domestic cares has 164 WOMAN'S POWER AND WORK been distinctly unfavorable to such de- velopment, the ''mystery" of which Ru- binstein speaks is explained. Music is essentially more subtle, abstract and elusive than the other arts. Initiative is but another word for invention, a quality which the habits and heredity of men have clearly fostered. When we consid- er the " great things woman has done in the other arts, even in the sciences," we have good reason to expect that when women have overcome the prejudices against their engaging in pursuits former- ly monopolized by men, their daughters in succeeding generations will be able to make as good a showing in music and the higher arts as they now do on the stage and in the field of fiction. It is not so much "depriving women of the vote in politics and of action in war" that "has taken from them the oppor- tunity of manifesting their capacities," 165 SEX EQUALITY for women have shown remarkable pow- ers in overcoming manifold difficulties as well as a very high order of genius in gov- ernment, art and science. The important point to bear in mind is that for countless generations women have been reared un- der conditions that make the development of intellectual, inventive and philosophical powers well-nigh impossible ; and the won- der is not that the number of women who have shown genius has been comparatively small, but that there have been so many. The women who have distinguished them- selves have done so in "overcoming the difficulties opposed to them" and "arms have not been lacking, nor allies, in the enemy's camp." Lombroso says: "Even the few women who emerge have, on examination, some- thing virile about them." This is true only because women of genius manifest powers that have hitherto been thought 166 WOMAN'S POWER AND WOEK to be the product of maleness only. Hypa- tia and Mrs. Somerville were celebrated for their beauty, and Mrs. Somerville was a model mother, housekeeper and woman of society. Male traits and female traits are after all human traits, and all men and women are dual in their nature. A man excelling in vigor, strength and pow- er may, nevertheless, on occasion show as much tenderness and refinement as any woman. He is showing only human traits in both respects, and it does not follow that such a man is effeminate or the oppo- site. So, too, the "few women who emerge" and manifest powers heretofore supposed to be exclusively the traits of men, are not unsexed nor coarsened, nor do they necessarily manifest any less tenderness or refinement. Mrs. Somer- ville was not "virile" any more than a strong, masterful man who on occasion manifests tenderness and delicacy is 167 SEX EQUALITY weak and womanish. Mrs. Somerville's strength and the strong man's delicacy complement each other to gracious ends, while proving the identity of the source from which their human traits are de- rived. Goncourt's epigram is brilliant, but false. There are women of genius just as there are men of refinement. 168 CHAPTER V SUPERFICIAL VIEWS OF WOMAN'S PLACE IN NATURE AN injury may induce epilepsy. Epi- lepsy results in a weakening of the intel- lect, accompanied by excitability and de- pression of spirits. Ignorant associates of an epileptic are prone to form wrong and unjust conclusions as to the basic moral and mental nature of the un- fortunate. Such critics take a superficial view. Unable to assign the true cause of the irascibility and mental weakness shown by the patient, they judge him as if his development were normal and natural. A century ago, or a little more, victims of insanity were harshly judged and cruelly treated on account of widespread ignorance as to the cause of the abnormal 169 SEX EQUALITY traits exhibited. These uninformed ob- servers mistook the erratic and often ap- parently vicious manifestations of de- ranged persons for normal manifestations and accordingly formed unjust as well as unsympathetic judgments. A score of years ago there would have been a consensus of opinion among West- ern minds, including even the well-in- formed, that all Oriental peoples are in- trinsically and fundamentally inferior to the Caucasian race as exemplified by the inhabitant of Western Europe and Amer- ica. That this was both a superficial and wholly mistaken view is convincingly demonstrated by the recent progress of Japan. That nation has proved that it possesses the ability both to master West- ern methods and to assimilate the high- est achievements of Western civilization. The Japanese have not only adopted the latest and most effective methods in war, 170 SUPERFICIAL VIEWS but they have given the world an object lesson in courtesy and humanity. And their skins are still brown and their modes of thought still Oriental. We may as well admit the facts ; we were mistaken in our view of the basic powers and possibilities of the Oriental mind. We generalized from insufficient data. We suffered from race prejudices, and Japan has done much toward opening our eyes to our narrow- ness. Some philosophers and writers of ability have attempted to fix and define woman's place in nature from similarly superficial and inadequate premises. They have observed the many and various weak- nesses of woman and, like the ignorant and misinformed critics of the epileptic and insane, have mistaken conditions which are the result of environment and heredity (in the case of woman, during hundreds and perhaps thousands of gen- 171 SEX EQUALITY erations) for normal and natural charac- teristics. Arthur Schopenhauer, the German phil- osopher and pessimist, is a notable ex- ample of this method. In his Studies in Pessimism he devotes a chapter to women, in which he accounts for their limitations by assuming certain propositions as self- evident and indisputable, whereas they are nothing more than assumptions. He says: " Women exist as a whole mainly for the propagation of the species and are not destined for anything else." Again: "The fundamental fault of the female character is that it has no sense of justice. This is mainly due to the fact that women are defective in the powers of reasoning and deliberation, but it is also traceable to the position which Nature has assigned to them as the weaker sex." The italics are mine. Schopenhauer was in the same state of mind about the limitations of 172 SUPERFICIAL VIEWS women that people formerly were about the insane ; he mistook an undue develop- ment or an abnormal condition for a natural state. But let us quote at some length his indictment of woman's short- comings. He says : ' 'They are dependent not upon strength, but upon craft; and hence their instinct- ive capacity for cunning and their in- eradicable tendency to say what is not true. For as lions are provided with claws and teeth, and elephants and boars with tusks, bulls with horns and the cuttlefish with its cloud of inky fluid, so Nature has equipped woman for her defense and protection with the arts of dissimulation; and all the power which Nature has conferred upon man in the shape of physical strength and reason has been bestowed upon woman in this form. Hence dissimulation is innate in woman and almost as much a quality of the stupid as the clever. It is as natural to them to make use of it on every occa- 173 SEX EQUALITY sion as it is for those animals to employ their means of defense when they are at- tacked ; they have a feeling that in so do- ing they are only within their rights. Therefore, a woman who is perfectly truthful and not given to dissimulation is perhaps an impossibility, and for this very reason they are so quick at seeing thru dissimulation in others that it is not a wise thing to attempt it with them. But this fundamental defect which I have stated with all that it entails, gives rise to falsity, faithlessness, treachery, in- gratitude and so on. Perjury in a court of justice is more often committed by women than by men. It may, indeed, be generally questioned whether women ought to be sworn at all. From time to time, one finds repeated cases everywhere of women who want for nothing taking things from shop counters when no one is looking and making off with them." It should be borne in mind that Scho- penhauer wrote nearly half a century ear- 174 SUPERFICIAL VIEWS Her than Spencer (whose views on wom- en are quoted in a later chapter) and that women have made marked progress dur- ing the last seventy-five years. A correct characterization of women as they were then would therefore not be wholly ap- plicable now. Moreover, Spencer's obser- vations were made in England and Scho- penhauer's in Germany; and the status of women is higher in England than in Ger- many. And altho there is essentially con- siderable similarity in their respective characterizations, in reasoning therefrom they are as wide as the poles. Spencer traces the origin of the limitations of women to environment and " heredity by sex. ' ' Schopenhauer, like the uninformed and unenlightened observers of epileptics and the insane, attributes women's short- comings to fundamental and natural char- acteristics. It must also be borne in mind that since 175 SEX EQUALITY Schopenhauer wrote, woman has forced her way into recognition as a competitor with man in trade, manufacturing and professional pursuits, and these activities have undoubtedly already somewhat modi- fied her mental traits. Nevertheless, friends and defenders of woman, in scrutinizing the following quotation from Schopenhauer, will do well to ask them- selves if there is not far too much truth in his portraiture, and must rejoice that the enlargement of woman's work and sphere, which was primarily brought about to increase her financial independ- ence and all that that implies, has inci- dentally wrought a modification of the unlovely traits which this philosopher so pitilessly enumerates. He says : "The natural feeling between men is mere indifference, but between women it is actual enmity. The reason of this is that trade- jealousy odium figulinum 176 SUPERFICIAL VIEWS which in the case of men does not go be- yond the confines of their own particular pursuit but with women embraces the whole sex, since they have only one kind of business. Even when they meet in the street, women look at one another like Guelphs and Ghibellines. . . . Further, while a man will, as a general rule, al- ways preserve a certain amount of con- sideration and humanity in speaking to others, even to those who are in a very in- ferior position, it is intolerable to see how proudly and disdainfully a fine 'lady' will generally behave toward one who is in a lower social rank (I do not mean a woman who is in her service) whenever she speaks to her." After stigmatizing woman as an " undersized, narrow-shouldered, broad- hipped and short-legged race" he adds that "men need only look at the way she is formed to see that woman is not meant to undergo great labor, whether of mind 177 SEX EQUALITY or body. She pays the debt of life not by what she does but by what she suffers." Schopenhauer's assumption that " woman is not meant to undergo great labor" im- plies that woman's form is in accordance with her true place in nature, and this again is a superficial view. As will be seen in a subsequent chapter, while Spen- cer observes much the same physical and mental limitations in woman that Scho- penhauer does, he advances good reasons for believing that these characteristics are the result of environment and heredity, not of fundamental femaleness. It is quite true that if such characters were the result of woman's essential nature, it would follow that she is "not meant" or naturally adapted to undergo great labor. I have shown in preceding pages that these characters do not arise from wom- an's inherent nature. Nevertheless, all who are interested in woman's uplift and 178 SUPERFICIAL VIEWS progress, will do well to give sober thought to these strictures. Women for hundreds of years have shown by their efforts that they have the same ambition as men have to excel in art, literature and science; and yet, except as writers of fiction, ex- ponents of vocal and instrumental music and interpreters of the drama, they have succeeded only as exceptions. Schopen- hauer has put his finger on the crucial spot ; woman has inherited and cultivated a body incapable of entering into competi- tion with man in artistic and intellectual pursuits on terms in any way approaching equality. It is true, since woman's en- trance into business and professional pur- suits she has greatly increased her efforts and with corresponding success or her success, at any rate, is becoming less ex- ceptional but, on the whole, the limita- tions remain. What is the remedy ? Dar- win, as has already been shown, has point- 179 SEX EQUALITY ed the way. It is needful that every earn- est and intelligent mother encourage her daughters to pursue those activities that stimulate alike the development of body and brain. Sex and Character * is the name of a re- markable book by Otto "Weininger, a young German physician, first published in 1901 when its author was only twenty- one years of age. A third edition was brought out a few months later. This work received considerable attention from the German press, and also called forth criticisms from men of science. Upon its translation and publication in London in 1906, it was reviewed at length in the English press. The London Telegraph called it a "startling book, a clever book, a book of patient analysis applied to the illustration of premises which are wholly questionable." 1 Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. 180 ( UNIVERSITY OF SUPERFICIAL VIEWS The reader of Doctor Weininger's book will do well to keep the words of the Tel- egraph in mind that the premises are "wholly questionable." There is almost no attempt to adduce authenticated data as a basis of reasoning; and in no in- stances are the alleged facts above ques- tion. In fine, the author deals in simple assumptions and assertions. The doctor's theory is that the normal woman is always sexual and is always absorbed in the con- templation of marriage, in match-making, in children and in the management of men thru sexuality.- When a book has been heralded as scientific, one naturally ex- pects that its conclusions are based on the methods of science. For example, if one reads Professor Geddes on the Evolution of Sex, one finds his proposition based on the hypothesis that characters acquired thru environment are not inherited; that female characters are the result of 181 SEX EQUALITY a fundamental femaleness. Professor Geddes found difficulties and attempted to meet them by reasoning based on the sci- entific method, illustrations of which have been given in preceding chapters. In contrast, let us observe Doctor Wein- inger's method. He says: " Woman is only sexual; man is partly sexual. . . . The female principle is nothing more than sexuality ; the male principle is sexual and something more." Of course, Doctor Weininger soon encounters difficulties; he finds women who are not in the least governed by sexual considerations. Ob- serve how he surmounts this difficulty. I quote from Chapter VI, ''Emancipated Women": "A woman's demand for emancipation and her qualification for it are in direct proportion to the amount of maleness in her. Emancipation, as I mean to discuss it, is not the wish for an outward equality 182 SUPERFICIAL VIEWS with man, but what is of real importance in the woman question, the deep-seated craving to acquire man's character, to at- tain his mental and moral freedom, to reach his real interests and his creative power. I maintain the real female ele- ment has neither the desire nor the capac- ity for emancipation in this sense. All those who are striving for this real eman- cipation, all women who are truly famous and are of conspicuous mental ability, to the first glance of an expert reveal some of the anatomical characters of the male, some external bodily resemblance to a man. . . . George Eliot had a broad mas- sive forehead ; her movements, like her ex- pression, were quick and decided, and lacked all womanly grace. The face of Lavinia Fontana was intellectual and de- cided, very rarely charming, while that of Rachel Ruysch was almost wholly mascu- line. The biography of that original poetess, Annette von Droste-Hulschoff, speaks of her wiry, unwomanly frame, and of her face as being masculine, and re- 183 SEX EQUALITY calling that of Dante. The authoress and mathematician, Sonia Kowalevska, like Sappho, had an abnormally scanty growth of hair, still less than is the fashion among the poetesses and female students of the present day. It would be a serious omis- sion to forget Rosa Bonheur, the very dis- tinguished painter; and it would be diffi- cult to point to a single female trait in her appearance or character. The notorious Madame Blavatsky is extremely mascu- line in her appearance. ... It is only the male element in emancipated women that craves for emancipation." If one views these problems from the standpoint of humanity that man is hu- man and woman is human and that the characters of each are the result of en- vironment and heredity, one has a reason- able and logical explanation of why it is that some women indeed, the great ma- jority are influenced in their relations to other human beings chiefly by considera- 184 SUPERFICIAL VIEWS tions of sex; why there are other women whose ambitions and activities are appar- ently wholly free from such considera- tions, who are absorbed in efforts to achieve distinction in the arts, in science, literature, money-making, et cetera; and again, why there are large numbers of women and these the normal type whose natures, while they respond to the attractions and duties of matehood and motherhood, are yet mentally affluent enough to devote at least some portion of their activities to artistic, intellectual and philanthropic ends. It is quite true that some emancipated women, like Rosa Bonheur and Madame Blavatsky, are quite masculine in appear- ance; and the hypothesis of environment and sexual heredity of Darwin and Spen- cer will readily account for such cases. On the other hand, in Weininger's list of celebrated women are found the names 185 SEX EQUALITY of Madame Lebrun, Mary Somerville, Mrs. Browning and Marie Bashkirtseff, who were women of a distinctly feminine type, and Weininger makes no attempt to account for this. Assertion is not argu- ment ; and this brilliant young writer con- tents himself with the mere affirmation that it is the male element in woman that craves intellectual and artistic pursuits and so ends the matter, without attempt- ing to explain how these women came by their "male element." Nevertheless, it is not strange that Doc- tor Weininger 's book made a sensation. It is a phenomenon of rare occurrence to find a youth of twenty-one who exhibits a familiarity with literature and science that would be remarkable in one who had devoted twice twenty-one years to such subjects, and sets forth his themes with a grace and fluency of expression such as one meets with usually only among the 186 SUPERFICIAL VIEWS recognized masters of style. Anyone in- terested in the subject of woman and her rightful place in nature will do well to read this book, not failing, however, to bear in mind that most of its premises are mere assumptions. Some of the most striking chapters in this remarkable work come at the close, viz: "Woman and Her Significance," and " Woman and Mankind." Mr. Will- iam Heinemann, author and playwright, is the London publisher, and his Note, which precedes the author's preface, seems to me quite as remarkable as any- thing in the book. He says : "In Wagner's Kundry, Weininger rec- ognizes the most profound conception of woman in all literature. In her redemp- tion by the spotless Parsifal, the young philosopher sees the way of mankind marked out; he contrasts with this the program of the modern feminist move- 187 SEX EQUALITY ment, with its superficialities and its lies ; and so, in conclusion, the book returns to the problem which, in spite of all its wealth of thought, remains its governing idea; the problem of the sexes, and the possibility of a moral relation between them a moral relation fundamentally different from what is commonly under- stood by the term, of course. In the two chapters ' The Nature of Woman and Her Significance in the Universe' and 'Wom- an and Mankind,' we drink from a foun- tain of the purest wisdom. A tragic and most unhappy mind reveals itself here, and no thoughtful man will lay down this book without deep emotion and admira- tion; many, indeed, will close it with al- most religious reverence." After such impassioned praise from Mr. Heinemann, the reader will be inter- ested in a sample quotation from each of these chapters. The following is from "Woman and Her Significance," page 274: 188 SUPERFICIAL VIEWS 1 1 The point I am urging is that woman is never genuine at any period of her life, not even when she, in hysteria, slavishly ac- cepts the aspect of truth laid on her by an- other and apparently speaks in accordance with those demands. A woman can laugh, cry, blush, or even look wicked at will : the shrew, when she has some object in view; the 'maid' when she has to make a decision for herself. Men have not the organic and physiological qualifications for such dissimulation. If we are able to show that the supposed love of truth in these types of women is no more than their natural hypocrisy in a mask, it is only to be ex- pected that all the other qualities for which woman has been praised will suffer under analysis. Her modesty, her self-re- spect and her religious fervor are loud- ly acclaimed. Womanly modesty, none the less, is nothing but prudery; that is, an extravagant denial and rejection of her natural immodesty. Whenever a woman evinces any trace of what could really be called modesty, hysteria is cer- 189 SEX EQUALITY tainly answerable for it. The woman who is absolutely unhysterical and not to be influenced that is, the absolute shrew will not be ashamed of any reproaches her husband may shower on her, however just : incipient hysteria is present when a wom- an blushes under her husband's direct cen- sure ; but hysteria in its most marked form is present if a woman blushes when she is quite alone : it is only then that she may be said to be fully impregnated with the masculine standard of values." The following is from " Woman and Mankind," page 334: "Even a young and beautiful girl is never valued by a woman for her attrac- tions as such (the sense of the beautiful is wanting in woman since they have no standard in themselves to measure it by) but merely because she has more prospect of enslaving a man. The more beautiful a young girl is the more promising she ap- pears to other women, the greater her value to woman as the matchmaker in her 190 SUPERFICIAL VIEWS mission as guardian of the race ; it is only this unconscious feeling that makes it pos- sible for a woman to take pleasure in the beauty of a young girl. It goes without saying that this can only happen when the woman in question has already achieved her own end (because, otherwise, envy of a contemporary and the fear of having her own chances jeopardized by others, would overcome other considerations). She must first of all attain her own union, and then she is ready to help others. . . . Kundry appealed often to Parsifal's com- passion for her yearnings ; but here we see the weakness of sympathetic morality, which attempts to grant every desire of those around, however wrong such wishes may be. ... But the question is: How ought man to treat woman? As she her- self desires to be treated, or as the moral idea would dictate ? If he is going to treat her as she wishes, he must have inter- course with her, for she desires it ; he must beat her, for she likes to be hurt ; he must hypnotize her, since she likes to be hypno- 191 SEX EQUALITY tized; he must prove to her by his atten- tions how little he thinks of himself, for she likes compliments and has no desire to be respected for herself." And this final chapter closes with the recommendation that mankind exemplify the course that Parsifal pursued toward Kundry even to the extinction of the hu- man race. It is not strange that the au- thor of such effusions should have commit- ted suicide ; it is, however, incomprehensi- ble that Mr. Heinemann should character- ize these efforts as "a fountain of the ri- pest wisdom" and aver that a perusal of this book will inspire " almost religious reverence." 192 CHAPTER VI A WOMAN'S VOICE A STUDENT of the subject of woman's place in nature is to my mind inadequately equipped until he has read and duly weighed Women and Economics by Char- lotte Perkins Gilman. * Mr. William Heinemann, in his preface to Doctor Weininger's Sex and Character, quotes Kant's saying that " woman does not betray her secret" and remarks that this "has been true until now. But now she has revealed it by the voice of a man." I apprehend that many of the secrets or veiled mysteries of woman have been unveiled to the world, not by the 1 Published by Small, Maynard & Co., Boston, and G. P. Putnam's Son's, London. Prof. Lester Ward, In the N. Y. Independent, defines "cosmological perspective " as an adequate conception of the stability of structures, and especially of social structures, and an adequate allowance for the time required to bring about changes in nature, and he further says that the only person who, to his knowledge, has clearly brought out this cosmological perspective is Mrs. Oilman. 193 SEX EQUALITY writings of Doctor Weininger, but by those of Mrs. Oilman. I quote from this " voice," page 51: "A clear and definite understanding of the difference between race-attributes and sex-attributes should be established. Life consists of action. The action of a living thing is along two main lines self-preser- vation and race-preservation. The proc- esses that keep the individual alive, from the involuntary action of his internal or- gans every act from breathing to hunt- ing for food, which contributes to the maintenance of the individual life, these are the processes of self-preservation. Whatever activities tend to keep the race alive, to reproduce the individual, from the involuntary action of the internal or- gans to the voluntary action of the extern- al organs ; every act from the development of germ-cells to the taking care of chil- dren, which contributes to the mainte- nance of the racial life, these are the processes of race-preservation. In race- 194 A WOMAN'S VOICE preservation, male and female have dis- tinctive organs, distinctive functions, dis- tinctive lines of action. In self-preserva- tion, male and female have the same or- gans, the same functions, the same lines of action. . . . All the varied activities of economic production and distribution, all our arts and industries, crafts and trades, all our growth in science, discovery, gov- ernment, religion, these are along the line of self-preservation; these are, or should be, common to both sexes. To teach, to rule, to make, to decorate, to dis- tribute, these are not sex-functions ; they are race-functions. Yet so inordinate is the sex-distinction of the human race that the whole field of human progress has been considered a masculine prerogative. What could more absolutely prove the ex- cessive sex-distinction of the human race ? That this difference should surge over all its natural boundaries and blazon itself across every act of life, so that every step of the human creature is marked 'male' or ' female, ' surely this is enough to show 195 SEX EQUALITY our oversexed condition. Woman's re- stricted impression, her confinement to the four walls of the home, have done great execution, of course, in limiting her ideas, her information, her thought proc- esses and power of judgment ; and in giv- ing a disproportionate prominence and intensity to the few things she knows about ; but this is innocent in action com- pared with her restricted expression, the denial of freedom to act. A living organ- ism is modified far less thru the action of external circumstances upon it and its re- action thereto than thru the effect of its own exertions. Skin may be thickened gradually by exposure to the weather ; but it is thickened far more quickly by being rubbed against something, as the handle of a broom or an oar. To be surrounded by beautiful things has much influence upon the human creature ; to make beauti- ful things has more. To live among beau- tiful surroundings and make ugly things is more directly lowering than to live among ugly surroundings and make beau- 196 A WOMAN'S VOICE tiful things. What we do modifies us more than what is done to us." We have seen in Chapter IV, in wnat I have called their superficial view, how both Schopenhauer and Weininger mis- took a result for a cause. These writers perceived the many weaknesses of women and then took it for granted that these weaknesses are the result of woman's na- ture of fundamental femaleness. In this, however, they place the cart before the horse. We have seen, on the other hand, how Darwin and, in a less degree, Havelock Ellis, have adopted a very dif- ferent method. These writers admit the same weaknesses, but regard them as bio- logical phenomena and so come to the con- clusion that these weaknesses are probably the result of environment and heredity. From the above quotation, it is seen that Mrs. Oilman adopted the same hypothesis and so has come to similar conclusions. 197 SEX EQUALITY The following quotation from page 43 is a further illustration : "It is in woman that we find most fully exprest the excessive sex-distinction of the human species physical, psychical, social. See first the physical manifesta- tion. To make clear by an instance the difference between normal and abnormal sex-distinction, look at the relative condi- tion of a wild cow and a i milch cow,' such as we have made. The wild cow is a fe- male. She has healthy calves and enough milk for them ; and that is all the feminin- ity she needs. Otherwise than that, she is bovine rather than feminine. She is a light, strong, swift, sinewy creature, able to run, jump and fight, if necessary. We, for economic uses, have artificially de- veloped the cow's capacity for producing milk. She has become a walking milk- machine, bred and tended to that express end, her value measured in quarts. The secretion of milk is a maternal function a sex-function. The cow is oversexed. 198 Turn her loose in natural conditions and, if she survive the change, she would re- vert in a very few generations to the plain cow, with her energies used in the gen- eral activities of her race, and not all running to milk. Physically, woman be- longs to a tall, vigorous, beautiful animal species, capable of great and varied exer- tion. In every race and time, when she has opportunity for racial activity, she develops accordingly, and is no less a woman for being a healthy human crea- ture. In every race and time where she is denied this opportunity and few, indeed, have been her years of freedom she has developed in the lines of action to which she was confined; and these were always lines of sex-activity. In consequence, the body of woman, speaking in the largest generalization, manifests sex-distinction predominantly. Woman 's femininity and the 'eternal feminine' means simply the eternal sexual is more apparent in proportion to her humanity than the femi- ninity of other animals in proportion to 199 SEX EQUALITY their caninity, or f elinity, or equinity. A 1 feminine hand' or a 'feminine foot' is dis- tinguishable anywhere. We do not hear of a 'feminine paw' or a 'feminine hoof.' A hand is an organ of prehension, a foot an organ of locomotion ; they are not sec- ondary sexual characteristics. The com- parative smallness and feebleness of woman is a sex-distinction. We have car- ried it to such an extent that women are commonly known as 'the weaker sex. 7 There is no such glaring difference be- tween male and female in other advanced species. ' ' Mrs. Oilman evidently does not take into account the principle of sexual heredity the important fact that the characteristics of the father are more apt to be inherited by the son than by the daughter and that the peculiar traits of the mother are more apt to descend to the daughter than to the son. We have al- ready seen that Darwin took note of this 200 A WOMAN'S VOICE tendency which Spencer termed "heredity by sex." The following is a quotation from Woman and Economics, page 46: ' ' The degree of feebleness and clumsiness common to women, the comparative in- ability to stand, walk, run, jump, climb and perform other race-functions common to both sexes, is an excessive sex-distinc- tion ; and the ensuing transmission of this relative feebleness to their children, boys and girls alike, retards human develop- ment." The italics are mine. If the feebleness and clumsiness and pe- culiar shortcomings of women were trans- mitted to their "boys and girls alike" the boys would soon approximate the girls in feebleness and clumsiness, while the girls in similar degree would inherit the traits peculiar to men. Of course, daughters do inherit peculiarities from the fathers, and sons likewise from their mothers; but there is an heredity of sex whereby there 201 SEX EQUALITY is a cumulative tendency for boys to in- herit from their fathers more than from their mothers, and girls in the same man- ner to inherit from their mothers ; and this tendency, strengthened and augmented by thousands of generations, accounts for the present feebleness of woman and the pres- ent strength of man. Like animals, human beings derive their characteristics from environment and he- redity. This is strikingly illustrated by the history of the Jewish people. First pastoral and then agricultural, they have for fifteen hundred years been the victims of restriction by Christian na- tions. Forced to live apart from others in Ghettos, not permitted to own land, and prevented generally from engaging in the varied business activities open to the Gentile, the Jew became identified with the chief occupation left him loaning and dealing in money. Obliged to struggle 202 A WOMAN'S VOICE against all manner of disadvantages, the weaklings were ruthlessly cut off by na- ture, and only the expert and specially gifted were able to survive and reproduce their kind ; hence after two or three scores of generations this natural selection has developed a race of extraordinarily skil- ful money-dealers and merchants ; and the ability to succeed and accumulate wealth under circumstances and conditions where the generality of people would and do fail is everywhere recognized as a Jewish trait. Again, the necessity the Jew was under to get money or perish developed a certain hardness and regardlessness for others and a tendency to pursue question- able methods in business. It is curious that simultaneously with the development of these money-making traits came the evolution of some of the most beautiful elements of human nature. During the countless ages of 203 SEX EQUALITY woman's subjection, her hours of toil, her sorrows and her sufferings, there was developed in her the qualities of sympa- thy, patience, intuition, delicacy and re- finement now deemed feminine traits. The confinement of Jews in Ghettos and the restrictions imposed on them in their pursuit for a livelihood in like manner developed and emphasized among the Jews equally beautiful traits loyalty and fidelity in the marriage relation, love of father, mother, brother, sister, husband, wife and children. The Jews excel prob- ably all other people in the generosity and thoroness with which they provide for their poor. And for that matter, wealthy Jews are to-day also most liberal in their gifts to Christian hospitals and charities. In those long centuries of Jewish subjec- tion, the environment of hardship and suffering was much the same for the men and women; and the graces of charity, 204 A WOMAN'S VOICE fidelity and sympathy were developed in the two sexes alike. Dr. Morris Fisher has recently published in the Popular Sci- ence Monthly several essays on "The Jews, a Study of Race and Environment. " Doctor Fisher is a decided opponent of the idea of race and a strong upholder of the factor of environment. He says : * ' There is no such thing as a Jewish race. Ethical- ly, Jews differ according to the country and even the province of the country in which they happen to live." In the sub- jection of peoples, whether by Christian or Pagan nations, whether in savagery, barbarism or civilization, it was the wom- en alone who experienced the hardships of environment inseparable from slavery and, save in exceptional cases like the Jew, it has been women alone who have devel- oped the graces of patience, sympathy and idealism usually considered feminine traits. There is, therefore, a valid reason 205 SEX EQUALITY for believing that these are human traits, and that, whether developed in men and women alike, as among Jews, or chiefly in women among Gentiles, it is the result of environment and not of sex. It is but a commonplace that a large ma- jority of mankind is conservative and in- stinctively opposed to changes in laws or conditions which have the sanction of long custom. Fifty years ago, great multitudes of people in the United States, in the North as well as in the South, were con- vinced that slavery was the only natural and proper condition for the negro. These same people saw clearly enough that freedom is the only just and proper condition for the white man, but could not concede equal freedom to the blacks be- cause accustomed to their enslavement and so were convinced that the negro was destined by nature to be a hewer of wood and carrier of water, and altogether a be- 206 A WOMAN'S VOICE ing unable to live wisely and take care of himself without the guiding hand of a master. These conservatives held stoutly that the abolitionists were impractical visionaries, whose policy was inimical to the best interests of the black man. No one now understands better than the former slave-owner that slavery was a curse and that the South under slavery never could have enjoyed the prosperity and de- velopment now in progress. There is none now to question that slavery is a curse and a blight to all who come within its in- fluence no less to the slaveholder than to the slave. Fifty years ago woman was literally in economic servitude to man. Gainful pursuits were not yet open to her, and she had but one source of livelihood ; if not already supported by father or brother her only hope lay in securing a husband who was either already in pos- session of wealth or had the power to gain 207 SEX EQUALITY it. It will be seen on analysis that this state of dependence and quasi-slavery on the part of the women carries in its train a blight not unlike that engendered by negro slavery. A woman wholly dependent upon a man for a livelihood has but one resource with which to achieve success she must culti- vate those attractions that depend upon sex. This involves confining the woman to the house and limiting her to those activi- ties or lack of activities that increase her sexual attraction. Heretofore pre- vented from engaging in gainful pursuits and in activities that develop mental and physical vigor, woman has been weak- ened both bodily and mentally. This has reacted upon her offspring, and men are manifestly less healthful and vigorous than they would be if ihey had been born of robust and vigorous mothers. And this is not all : when the woman has no re- 208 A WOMAN'S VOICE sources for a livelihood except to make herself attractive to man, she naturally and inevitably overstimulates him sexual- ly ; and this as inevitably leads to the sup- port of the social evil. In whatever light this matter is viewed^ and however unpleasant the thought, it is obvious that there is some analogy be- tween the social evil and that marriage which the woman has sought as a means of livelihood. One is a temporary promiscu- ous relation, professedly for gain; the other is sought by the woman as a perma- f nent relation, and while on her part usual- * ly free from promiscuity, it nevertheless remains true that both these relations are sought by woman as a source of gain or broadly as a means of livelihood. Sure- ly this is a condition to be deplored by every right-thinking and pure-minded person, however conservative or opposed to change. 209 SEX EQUALITY When, less than fifty years ago, women began to ask for admission to gainful oc- cupations, conservatives were alarmed lest these women would be coarsened by association with men. This anxiety arose from a mistaken idea. In a foregoing quotation Mrs. Gilman clearly points out the differences between race-at- tributes and sex-attributes. All those at- tributes and powers which are called into action in business or professional life are for self-preservation, and are nei- ther masculine nor feminine; they are simply human qualities, and a woman who engages in them is neither coarsened nor the reverse, but is distinctly broadened and her womanly attractions brought out and accentuated. A man of large powers and remarkable skill in business or pro- fessional life is not coarsened nor changed in any way, and he is distinctly more sought after and admired. The proof that 210 these powers and this skill are not mascu- line and are simply human traits is seen in the fact that when Madame Lebrun and Angelica Kauffrnann paint their pictures, or George Eliot writes her novels, these manifestations of large powers and great skill elicit the same admiration and ap- plause that men excite when they manifest genius of the same order. Indeed, it is common observation that high mental powers, when displayed by a woman, evoke far greater admiration and ap- plause than when manifested by a man. Why ? Is it not because of a general tho unconscious recognition that woman has been hitherto deprived of an opportunity to manifest these mental powers and hu- man traits'? As Mrs. Oilman well says: "To teach, to rule, to make, to decorate, to distribute, these are not sex-functions; they are race-functions. " None but women can know the heart hunger, the craving 211 SEX EQUALITY during all these ages, for an opportunity to express themselves in other ways than in presenting an attractive appearance to the male sex. And, as the former slave- holder rejoices to-day that negro slavery has been abolished, will not the day come when the very men who now would be most shocked to see their wives or sisters or daughters engaged in gainful pursuits will be the first to rejoice in the full emancipation of woman ? One of the evils resulting from our cus- tom of looking to the husband to meet all expenses is that with the evolution of so- cial wants and consequent increase in household expenses, marriage will be de- layed until later and later in life. I do not refer to that small class of the very wealthy with whom money is a minor con- sideration, nor yet to that large class of the very poor who live from hand to mouth and with whom early marriage and 212 A WOMAN'S VOICE numerous children are a matter of course. But it can not be gainsaid that in the large class of relatively well-to-do and fairly educated people who are the hope and mainstay of the nation, the expenses of living are ever increasing, and when all means to a livelihood devolve upon the husband, later and later marriages and fewer and fewer children must be the re- sult. When, however, husband and wife engage in gainful work the burden will be greatly decreased and earlier marriages will inevitably follow. Some economists strenuously object to women entering gainful pursuits on the plea that such a step results in lowering the wages of men, and they rightly claim that lower wages lessen general prosperity and so constitute an evil to be deplored. These same economists must have ob- served that the introduction of labor-sa- ving machinery also has a tendency not 213 SEX EQUALITY only to throw men for a time out of em- ployment, but in some cases also to lower wages ; yet such a state of things is clear- ly shown to be only temporary, and the final outcome is that it opens new fields of work and stimulates to general activity. Prosperity results from high wages, and the increasing wants of those who labor, and the supplying of these wants thru ag- riculture, manufacturing, merchandising and transportation. It follows that the higher the wages and the greater the num- ber of workers the greater and more wide- ly diffused will be the general prosperity. Before the doors to gainful pursuits were opened, the great majority of women from necessity reduced their wants to a mini- mum. When considerable numbers of women become wage-earners or enter pro- fessions and find themselves in receipt of comfortable incomes, their wants at once increase and thereby manufacturing 214 A WOMAN'S VOICE and merchandising are also increased for merchants and manufacturers have no sex prejudice in trade. And altho when unskilled women first seek em- ployment such a departure has a tend- ency to lower wages, yet as they become more and more skilled they are not slow in demanding higher and higher wages; and the women who are now earning $12, $20 or $30 a week make a distinct eco- nomic contribution to the general pros- perity. When labor-saving machinery is first introduced, some men may be thrown out of employment, but as a rule they soon either get larger wages than before by managing the new machines or they find other work equally remunerative. Even if those women who are fortunate- ly married whose husbands are either well-to-do or have large earning powers and who share their incomes with their wives on terms of equality may be said 215 SEX EQUALITY to have little to complain of, what about the others who have lost their husbands or who remain unmarried? It need not be pointed out that those women who are capable of earning large incomes are per- sonally greatly benefited quite aside from the fact that their earnings are a factor in the general prosperity. It is all very well for the economist to sit in his study and argue that women ought to be deterred from gainful work for fear that they lower men's wages; but what would he say were he put in the place of one of these women? Let him imagine himself cut off from all support except what might come to him thru the generosity or sense of justice of friends and relatives. How long would he stop to argue the proprieties or ponder the effect of his work from an economic point of view, if in such circumstances a gainful pursuit were opened to him? 216 A WOMAN'S VOICE If a woman is equipped before marriage with the power of earning for herself an adequate support, it is evident that some of the most objectionable features of the marriage state are mitigated. Surely then money or other sordid considerations are much less apt to enter into the ques- tion. A woman so situated is far more likely to marry for love, and for that rea- son much less prone to marry for money. And if the marriage prove a disappoint- ment, or the husband die, then surely that woman is fortunate who is able to support herself and her children by her own in- dustrial efforts. It is incomprehensible that this ques- tion should be open to debate. It is but a few years since the telephone, electric lighting and motor cars were in- troduced. At the outset a discussion as to the practicability or desirability of these inventions was clearly in order. 217 SEX EQUALITY Now, however, the debate is closed and the decision rendered ; all agree that these in- novations have come to stay. Why should there be any further discussion as to the economic desirability of opening gainful occupations to women? They as the persons primarily concerned have an- swered ; and whether or not it is desirable from a man's point of view is hardly a pertinent inquiry. 218 CHAPTER VII THEORIES OF CHARLES GODFREY LELAND AND EDWARD CARPENTER THAT brilliant and versatile writer, Charles Godfrey Leland, well known as the author of The Breitmann Ballads and im- portant works on education and psychol- ogy, shortly before his death wrote an in- teresting book on the differences between man and woman. * The following quota- tions are taken from this work : "The theory on which this book is based is that the fundamental condition or intelligence of the two sexes, or man and woman, is radically different, or corre- sponding to their physical creation and development. . . . That men and women are, in strict accordance with the opinions of the most recent physiologists, radically 1 The Alternate Sex; or, the Female Intellect in Man and the Mascu- line in Woman. Published by Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York. 219 SEX EQUALITY different as regards both body and mind, altho social or domestic life has given them much in common. That in propor- tion to the female organs remaining in man, and the male in woman, there ex- ists also in each just so much of their pe- culiar mental characteristics." Edward Carpenter, the English poet and essayist, has also recently published a book on the relation of the sexes. 1 The following quotations are taken from a chapter entitled "The Intermediate Sex" : "It is beginning to be recognized that the sexes do not, or should not, normally form two groups hopelessly isolated in habit and feeling from each other, but that they rather represent the two poles of one group which is the human race; so that while certainly the extreme speci- mens at either pole are vastly divergent there are great numbers in the middle re- gion who (tho different corporeally as > Love's Coming of Age. Published by Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London. 220 LELAND AND CARPENTER men and women) are by emotion and tem- perament very near to each other. . . . We all know women with a strong dash of the masculine temperament, and we all know men whose almost feminine sensi- bility and intuition seem to belie their bodily form. Nature, it might appear, in mixing the elements which go to compose each individual, does not always keep her two groups of ingredients which repre- sent the two sexes properly apart, but often throws them crosswise in a some- what baffling manner, now this way and now that ; yet wisely, we must think for if a severe distinction of elements were always maintained, the two sexes would soon drift into far latitudes and abso- lutely cease to understand each other. As it is, there are some remarkable and (we think) indispensable types of character in whom there is such a union or balance of the feminine and masculine qualities that these people become to a great extent the interpreters of men and women to each other." 221 SEX EQUALITY These two books are brought together here for the same reason that in Chapter IV Schopenhauer's Essay on Women and Doctor Weininger's work on Sex and Character are associated. The four au- thors are alike in this : that each not only notes the marked characteristic differ- ences between women and men, but also exhibits entire ignorance of the principle of sexual heredity to which Darwin re- ferred and which, as may be seen in Chap- ter XII, Spencer named " heredity by sex"; and each, furthermore, takes for granted that all differences between men and women, aside from secondary sexual characters, are the result of a fundamental difference between maleness and female- ness. When we come to understand " heredity by sex" and comprehend that woman's present-day weaknesses and in- firmities are the result of a cramped en- vironment and cumulative heredity, we 222 LELAND AND CABPENTER shall then see the inadequacy of all in- ductions derived from woman's present development as well as of those deductions based upon theories which have for their foundation the present artificial differ- ences between the sexes and the present manifest inferiority of women to men physically and mentally. When one real- izes that woman has not had the opportu- nities and environment necessary to her free development one sees clearly the fu- tility of basing a generalization upon traits of character that are plainly the re- sult of unjust and unnatural environment and thwarted powers. And yet both Mr. Leland and Mr. Car- penter make interesting and valuable sug- gestions; both discern in every man and woman a kind of duality. According to Mr. Leland every man has a female double or inner self and every woman has a male 223 SEX EQUALITY mentor or prompter. I quote the follow- ing from The Female Mind in Man, page 41: " Great geniuses, men like Goethe, Shakespeare, Shelley, Byron, Darwin, all had the feminine soul very strongly de- veloped in them, and I believe that Cole- ridge somewhere makes a remark to the same effect. This feminine aid is not genius itself, nor poetry, but it is the muse which inspires man to make it. He could never write anything truly original or beautifully varied without her aid. Nor, on the other hand, would woman create mentally and vigorously without the aid of her masculine inner mentor, any more than she could bear a child per se. The outer world common sense of man gives him a perceptive power of selection, or of putting into proper form the material which his muse supplies. There are in- numerable men who do good work, and a great deal of it, in this world without any aid, or next to none, from the woman with- 224 LELAND AND CARPENTER in. But they rarely produce anything orig- inal, or in accordance with beauty, be- cause they lack imagination. Now all of imagination is not due to the inner woman by any means, but there would be none without her. Thus, by merely appar- ent paradox, woman, who is so rarely, if ever, a humorist in real life, inspires all the humor which exists in man. For he is consciously, while she is unconsciously, what Edgar A. Poe called the 'Angel of the Odd.'" This is neither science nor logic ; never- theless, it does not follow that there is not an inspiration as well as an interesting half-truth in these remarks. Emerson's Essays are scarcely scientific nor yet al- ways logical, but who can read them and not realize their inspiration and truth ? It is neither necessary nor helpful to explain the flights of genius by the crea- tion of an hypothesis that every man goes about with a hidden female prompter, and 225 SEX EQUALITY that every woman unconsciously harbors an inner male mentor. That the primary concern of the intelligent majority of men and women is the pursuit and discovery of ideal life mates, is hardly to be ques- tioned. The biographies of great geniuses such as Mr. Leland enumerates show con- clusively that the inspiration of their lives and works is the search for and the pur- suit of their soul mates; and this is just as true of women of genius as it is of men. It was Franklin who said that a husband and wife separated and we must pre- sume that he referred to a true union or spiritual matehood are like the two parts of a dissevered pair of shears good enough to scrape a trencher with, but of no use for the purpose for which the shears were made. If the longing for and the pursuit of a mate were characteristic of men and not of women, or of women and not of men 226 LELAND AND CAEPENTEE then we would be compelled to admit a profound difference between maleness and f emaleness ; but what we do see is that the divine passion is as dominant in one sex as in the other, and that in the endless and ever-present quest for matehood each man and each woman is a witness that the all- important things of life are not the prop- erty of either sex; that the great matter is to be a human being, and that sex is but an incident. A generalization is strengthened in the degree that the hypothesis upon which it is founded is wide and far-reaching; a special hypothesis formed to explain spe- cial conditions must give way to a general hypothesis if the latter embraces a wider field of phenomena and at the same time makes adequate explanation of the restrict- ed or exceptional facts which the special hypothesis was formed to explain. For- tunately, the general hypothesis in point 227 SEX EQUALITY has been familiar to philosophers for cen- turies; it is as old as democracy and Christianity. The democracy of the He- brews and the Greeks was for men and patricians; women and slaves were ex- cluded from all consideration. It is the crowning glory of Christianity that its teachings are applicable to every human being irrespective of race, color, sex or condition. In its light, every human being possesses the divine spark, the human ego, and therefore is potentially equal to every other human being. Thus it follows that the only way in which an ideal humanity may be developed or evolved is thru the perception that such human being is heir to every human activity and achievement,^/ This does not mean that every human be- ing must be at one and the same time equally proficient in each and every field of endeavor; it means simply that every field of endeavor must be open to everv hu- 228 LELAND AND CARPENTER man being. If the male half of the human race were so constituted that it monopo- lized the philosophical, logical, mathemati- cal, mechanical and artistic realms and those of genius then there would be a manifest injustice to the female half of humanity who, tho born with a longing for expression and achievement, yet would be cut off from any possible grati- fication of this longing. Again, if the fe- male half of the human race is constitu- tionally and fundamentally ordained to monopolize the graces of beauty, sweet- ness, patience, refinement, and unselfish- ness, there is manifestly an equal injustice to man. How much more reasonable and adequate then the hypothesis that every human being is (potentially) heir to every human faculty and achievement that there is no male or female mind or brain (except where artificially induced) any more than there is a male or a female lung, 229 SEX EQUALITY liver or stomach. As we have seen in Chapter III, physiology has corrected its former error that chest respiration is a peculiarity of women, while abdominal breathing is characteristic of men. It is true that costal breathing is a habit of many, perhaps most women in civilization, but science now teaches that this is a re- sult of artificial constriction, and when freed from this handicap women can and do breathe in the same manner as men. It is the object of this book to show that as artificial restrictions are done away with, and men and women are naturally developed, they will be endowed equally with powers of logic and philosophy and with the graces of patience, unselfishness and refinement. In the light of this broader generaliza- tion it is manifest that Mr. Leland's spe- cial hypothesis is neither necessary nor true. There is no "alternate sex.' 7 All 230 LELAND AND CARPENTER the powers of mind and of spirit are hu- man, not sexual, and men and women are naturally and potentially co-heirs to every human attribute. The only powers and functions limited by sex are those of re- production and these are common to all animals. The human race is yet in its infancy, and all men and women are but fragments of what the fully developed human being will be. Science Darwinism and Evolu- tion demonstrates that progress is in- evitable and a law of life. Future gener- ations, the product of unrestricted envi- ronment, will develop men and women un- restricted in breathing and thinking. It will be seen that Mr. Carpenter, like Mr. Leland, also makes use of a restricted hypothesis, when a general one naturally and more adequately explains the facts which he adduces. I quote from page 116 of Love's Coming of Age: 231 SEX EQUALITY "More than thirty years ago, an Aus- trian writer, K. H. Ulrichs, drew atten- tion in a series of pamphlets to the exist- ence of a class of people who strongly illustrate the above remarks, and with whom specially this paper is concerned. He pointed out that there were people born in such a position as it were, on the dividing line between the sexes that while belonging distinctly to one sex as far as their bodies are concerned they may be said to belong mentally and emotionally to the other ; that there were men, for in- stance, who might be described as of feminine soul enclosed in a male body, or in other cases, women whose definition would be just the reverse. And he main- tained that this doubleness of nature was to a great extent proved by the special di- rection of their love sentiment. For in such cases, as indeed might be expected, the (apparently) masculine person in- stead of forming a love union with a fe- male tended to contract romantic friend- ships with one of his own sex; while the 232 LELAND AND CARPENTER apparently feminine would, instead of marrying in the usual way, devote herself to the love of another feminine. People of this kind (that is, having this special variation of the love-sentiment) he called Timings (from Uranos heaven; his idea being that the Urning love was of a higher order than the ordinary attachment) ; and tho we are not obliged to accept his theory about the crosswise connection between 'soul' and 'body' since at best these words are somewhat vague and indefinite, yet his work was important because it was one of the first attempts, in modern times, to recognize the existence of what might be called an intermediate sex, and to give, at any rate, some explanation of it." If it is true that the present mental and physical peculiarities of women are the result not of fundamental femaleness, but of restricted and artificial environ- ment; and also if it is true that while sons are more apt to inherit the peculiari- ties of their fathers than those of their 233 SEX EQUALITY mothers, and the daughters are more apt to inherit from mothers than from fath- ers it is equally true that some sons do inherit traits thru their mothers and daughters thru their fathers ; and further- more, if it is true that all these powers and faculties of men and women alike are human faculties barring only the animal functions of reproduction and may be in- herited alike by both sons and daugh- ters, then we have a clear explanation and understanding of why it is that " people are born in such a position that while be- longing to one sex so far as their bodies are concerned they may be said to belong mentally and emotionally to the other. " Obviously, it is because those peculiarities usually deemed masculine and those usual- ly deemed feminine are but human traits and liable to be inherited by both sons and daughters. When, as is often observed, a daughter inherits the forceful, logical and 234 LELAND AND CARPENTER philosophical qualities of her father, or a son inherits the patient, refined and un- selfish characteristics of his mother, those who believe these respective characters are the result of fundamental maleness and femaleness, respectively, are then obliged to erect some hypothesis to explain such evident contradictions of their funda- mental beliefs ; and to this end Mr. Leland invents the theory of ''alternate sex," and Mr. Carpenter adopts that of the "intermediate sex." They are equally superfluous and unnecessary. The facts which these hypotheses are invented to ex- plain are simply proofs that the charac- teristics which have come to be known as masculine and feminine are merely hu- man traits ; not the result of fundamental maleness and femaleness but of the action of restricted environment thru ages of cumulative inheritance. Mr. Carpenter is right in claiming that 235 SEX EQUALITY those men and women who have inherited both so-called masculine and feminine qualities have a more adequate under- standing and appreciation of the men and women with whom they come in contact than those who have inherited a fractional and one-sided nature ; for, when one con- siders that so-called masculine and fem- inine characters are common human traits, and that every man and every wom- an is a rightful heir of all human facul- ties, it is plain that a well-rounded nature is more fortunate than one which is frag- mentary or lopsided. It is difficult to perceive any value in the further differentiation which Mr. Car- penter takes from Mr. Ulrichs and appar- ently approves, namely: the alleged fact that men of certain peculiarities, instead of marrying, tend to " contract romantic friendships with one of their own sex," and that a woman of this peculiar type, in- 236 LELAND AND CARPENTER stead of marrying in the usual way, "de- votes herself to the love of another fem- inine." Men and women who have in- herited in marked degree both so-called masculine and feminine characteristics are quite as competent to understand pe- culiar sexual traits and to act as interme- diaries as these alleged Timings and, at the same time, are still able to live normal hu- man lives and to marry and beget children. Any facts about the peculiarities of these Timings are mainly interesting as contri- butions to the pathology of sex and as ex- amples of the abnormal and morbid. However, in their case, there seems no danger of a survival of the fittest, or other- wise; and, just as Mr. Leland's reasoning fails to establish the existence of an " al- ternate sex," so a thoro consideration of Mr. Ulrich's theory leads to a similar de- nial of an " intermediate sex." 237 CHAPTER VIII A DARWINIAN SOLUTION PROFESSOR THOMAS'S SEX AND SOCIETY IN preceding chapters I have quoted different scientific authorities in support of the theory that the masculine and fem- inine characters shown respectively by man and woman are not the result of fundamental differences in their maleness and f emaleness but are directly traceable to environment and heredity. A recent book by W. I. Thomas * of the University of Chicago, Professor of Sociology, is also strikingly confirmatory of this view. The following quotations are from a chap- ter headed ' ' The Mind of Woman and the Lower Races": "The differences in mental expression between the lower and the higher races 1 Sex and Society: Studies in the Social Psychology of Sex, by William I. Thomas, University of Chicago Press. 238 PROFESSOR THOMAS'S SOLUTION can be exprest for the most part in terms of attention and practise. The differences in run of attention and practise are in this case due to the development of different habits by groups occupying different habitats and consequently having no copies in common. Woman, on the other hand, exists in the white man's world of practical and scientific activity, but is ex- cluded from full participation in it. Cer- tain organic conditions and historical in- cidents have, in fact, inclosed her in habits which she neither can nor will frac- ture, and have also set up in the mind of man an attitude toward her which ren- ders her almost as alien to man's interests and practises as if she were spatially sepa- rated from them. ... In mankind espe- cially the fact that woman had to rely on cunning and the protection of man rather than on swift movement, while man had a freer range of motion and adopted a fight- ing technique, was the starting point of a differentiation in the habits and interests, which had a profound effect on the con- 239 SEX EQUALITY sciousness of each. Man's most imme- diate, most fascinating and most remuner- ative occupation was the pursuit of an- imal life. The pursuit of this stimulated him to the invention of devices for kill- ing and capture ; and this aptitude for in- vention was later extended to the inven- tion of tools and of mechanical devices in general, and finally developed into a set- tled habit of scientific interest. The scien- tific imagination which characterizes man in contrast with woman is not a distinctive male trait but represents a constructive habit of attention associated with freer movement and the pursuit of evasive an- imal forms. The problem of control was more difficult, and the means of securing it became more indirect, mediated, reflec- tive and inventive; that is, more intelli- gent. "Woman's activities, on the other hand, were largely limited to plant life, to her children and to manufacture, and the stimulation to mental life and invention in connection with these was not so powerful 240 Photo Copyright, Emery Walker, London MARY SOMERVILLE PROFESSOR THOMAS'S SOLUTION as in the case of man. Her inventions were largely processes of manufacture, connected with her handling of the by- products of the chase. So simple a mat- ter, therefore, as relatively unrestricted motion on the part of man and relatively restricted motion on the part of woman de- termined the occupations of each, and these occupations in turn created the char- acteristic mental life of each. In man this was constructive, answering to his varied experience and the need of controlling a moving environment; and in woman it was conservative, answering to her more stationary and monotonous condition. . . . The world of white civilization is intel- lectually rich because it has amassed a rich fund of general ideas, and has organized these into specialized bodies of knowledge, and has also developed a special technique for the presentation of this knowledge and standpoint to the young members of soci- ety, and for localizing their attention in special fields of interest. When for any reason a class of society is excluded from 241 SEX EQUALITY this process, as women have been histori- cally, it must necessarily remain ignorant. But while no one would make any asser- tion that women confined as those in New Ireland and China, must have an intelli- gence as restricted as their mode of life, we are apt to lose sight altogether of the fact that chivalry and chaperonage and modern convention are the persistence of the old race habit of contempt for women and of their intellectual sequestration. Men and women still form two distinct classes and are not in free communication with each other. Not only are women un- able and unwilling to be communicated with directly, unconventionally and truly on many subjects, but men are unwilling to talk to them. I do not have in mind situations involving questions of pro- priety or delicacy alone, but a certain habit of restraint, originating doubtless in matters relating to sex, extends to all in- tercourse with women, with the result that they are not really admitted to the intel- lectual world of men ; and there is not only 242 PROFESSOR THOMAS'S SOLUTION a reluctance on the part of men to admit them, but a reluctance or rather a real inability on their part to enter. Modesty with reference to personal habits has be- come so ingrained and habitual, and to do anything freely is so foreign to woman, that even free thought is almost of the nature of an immodesty to her. ' ' Professor Thomas illustrates his posi- tion by copious and interesting citations, from which the following are selected : "In New Caledonia you rarely see men and women talking or sitting together. The women seem perfectly content with the company of their own sex. The men who loiter about with spears in most lazy fashion are seldom seen in the society of the opposite sex. . . . The O jib way, Peter Jones, thus writes of his own peo- ple: *I have scarcely ever seen anything like social intercourse between husband and wife, and it is remarkable that the women say little in the presence of the 243 SEX EQUALITY men. ' The Zulus regard their women with a haughty contempt. If a man were going to the bush to cut firewood with his wives, he and they would take different paths, and neither go nor return in company. If he were going to visit a neighbor and wished his wife to go also, she would fol- low at a distance. In Senegambia the women live by themselves, rarely with their husbands, and their sex is virtually a clique. In Egypt a man never converses with his wife and in the tomb they are separated by a wall, tho males and fe- males are not usually buried in the same vault. . . . Among the Dacotas custom and superstition ordain that the wife must carefully keep away from all that be- longs to her husband's sphere of action. The Bechuanas never allow women to touch their cattle; accordingly, the men have to plow themselves. ... In Guiana no woman may go near the hut where ourali is made. In the Marquesas the use of canoes is prohibited to the female sex by tabu ; the breaking of the rule is pun- 244 PROFESSOR THOMAS'S SOLUTION ished with death. Conversely, among the same people tapa-making belongs exclu- sively to the women; when they are ma- king it for their own head-dresses it is tabu for the men to touch it. In Nicara- gua all the marketing was done by the women. A man might not enter the mar- ket nor even see the proceedings at the risk of a beating. In Samoa where the manufacture of cloth is alloted solely to the women, it is degradation for a man to engage in any detail of the process. . . . An Eskimo thinks it an indignity to row in a uniak, the large boat used by women. The different offices of husband and wife are also clearly distinguished; for ex- ample, when he has brought his booty to land it would be a stigma on his character if he so much as drew a seal ashore, and generally it is regarded as scandalous for a man to interfere with what is the work of women. In British Guiana, cooking is the province of the women, as elsewhere ; on one occasion when the men were com- pelled perforce to bake some bread they 245 SEX EQUALITY were only persuaded to do so with the utmost difficulty, and were afterward pointed out as old women. ' ' Professor Thomas quotes the following as extreme cases and says "they differ only in degree from the chaperonage of modern Europe": "I heard from a teacher about some strange customs connected with some of the young girls here (New Zealand), so I asked the chief to take me to the house where they were. The house was about twenty-five feet in length and stood in a reed and bamboo enclosure, across the en- trance of which a bundle of dry grass was suspended to show that it was strictly tabu. Inside the house there were three conical structures about seven or eight feet in height and about ten or twelve feet in circumference at the bottom, and for about four feet from the ground, at which point they tapered off to a point at the 1 A. E. Crawley, " Sexual Taboo," Journal of the Anthropological In- stitute. (Volume XXIV, page 233.) 246 PROFESSOR THOMAS'S SOLUTION top. These cages were made of the broad leaves of the Pandanus tree, sewn quite close together so that no light and little or no air could enter. On one side of each is an opening which is closed by a double door of plaited cocoanut tree and Pan- danus tree leaves. About three feet from the ground there is a stage of bamboos which forms the floor. In each of these cages we were told was a young woman confined, each of whom had to remain for at least four or five years, without ever being allowed to go outside the house. I could scarcely credit the story when I heard it ; the whole thing seemed too hor- rible to be true. I spoke to the chief and told him I wished to see the inside of the cages, and also to see the girls that I might make them the present of a few beads. . . . I then (a girl having been allowed to come out) went to inspect the inside of the cage out of which she had come, but could scarcely put my head inside of it the at- mosphere was so hot and stifling. It was clean and contained nothing but a few 247 SEX EQUALITY shirt-lengths of bamboo for holding water. There was only one room for the girl to sit or lie down in a crouched posi- tion on the bamboo platform, and when the doors are shut it must be nearly or quite dark inside. They are never al- lowed to come out except once a day to bathe in a dish or wooden bowl placed, close to the cage. They say that they per- spire profusely. They are placed in these stifling cages when quite young and must remain there until they are young women when they are taken out and have each a great marriage-feast prepared for them. One of them was about fourteen or fifteen years old, and the chief told me she had been there for five years, but would soon be taken out now. The other two were about eight or ten years old, and they would have to stay there for several years longer. I asked if they never died, but they said 'No.'' ' "From the time of engagement until marriage a young woman, in China, is re- > Dank's "Marriage Customs of the New Britain Group," Journal of the Anthropological Institute. (Volume XVII, page 284.) 248 Photo Copyright, Emery Walker, London FRANCES BURKEY . OF THE i UNIVERSITY OF PROFESSOR THOMAS'S SOLUTION quired to maintain the strictest seclusion. Whenever friends call upon her parents she is expected to retire to the inner apart- ments, and in all her actions and words guard her conduct with careful solicitude. She must use a close sedan whenever she visits her relations, and in her intercourse with her brothers and the domestics in the household maintain great reserve. In- stead of having any opportunity to form those friendships and acquaintances with her own sex which among ourselves be- come a source of much pleasure at the time and advantage in after life, the Chinese maiden is confined to the circle of her relations and her immediate neigh- bors. She has few of the pleasing remem- brances and associations that are usually connected with school-day life, nor has she often the ability or opportunity to corre- spond by letter with girls of her own age. Seclusion at this time of life and the cus- tom of crippling the feet combine to con- fine women in the house almost as much as the strictest laws against their appearing 249 SEX EQUALITY abroad ; for in girlhood, as they know only a few persons except relatives and can make very few acquaintances after mar- riage, their circle of friends contracts rather than enlarges as life goes on. This privacy impels girls to learn as much of the world as they can, and among the rich their curiosity is gratified thru maid-ser- vants, match-makers, peddlers, visitors and others." Professor Thomas nowhere gives evi- dence of taking into account the law of sexual heredity to which Darwin referred and Spencer named the " heredity of sex," according to which the peculiarities of the father are more apt to be inherited by his sons than his daughters and the char- acters of the mother are more apt to be inherited by her daughters than her sons ; with the addition that this law is cumulative in its effect and so accounts for the gulf between men and women after i Williams, The Middle Kingdom. (Volume I, page 786.) 250 PROFESSOR THOMAS'S SOLUTION a long series of generations. Had Pro- fessor Thomas given due attention to this law and its working, it would have enabled him to explain far more convincingly than he has done how the differences in environment have resulted in what appear to be fundamental dif- ferences between men and women. To be sure, according to this law, women also inherit from their fathers, but since they inherit more of the mother's quali- ties than of the father's and since this increased inheritance from the mother necessarily is cumulative there results, after a long series of generations, a fe- male sex strikingly and apparently radi- cally different from the male, and this offers an adequate explanation of why " woman is excluded from full participa- tion in the white man 's world. ' ' This may be called the Darwinian hypothesis and explanation. Professor Geddes and those 251 SEX EQUALITY following his initiative, as may be seen in Chapter II, erected a directly opposed hypothesis and explained the marked present-day differences between men and women, both mentally and physically, on the theory that there is a profound and fundamental difference between maleness and femaleness. Either hypothesis is adequate to explain the phenomena; men of science must determine which of these theories has fewest objections against it and which must, therefore, be accepted as the true one, if no other theory is found equally adequate and equally free from objections. Professor Thomas asserts that the " relatively unrestricted motion on the part of man, and the relatively re- stricted motion on the part of woman have determined the occupations of each, and these occupations in turn created the char- acteristic mental life of each." This hypothesis is adequate so far as it goes, 252 PROFESSOR THOMAS'S SOLUTION and is practically identical with that of Darwin and Spencer, except that no ac- count is taken of the law of sexual hered- ity explained above. Instead, the profes- sor puts forth the theory that civilization has developed "a rich fund of general ideas organized into specialized bodies of knowledge," that woman has been exclu- ded from this body of knowledge and therefore necessarily remains ignorant. If women inherited as much from fathers as from mothers it is clear that as this ' l body of knowledge ' ' increases they would inherit an increased natural aptitude ; and when and wherever this body of knowl- edge is open they would respond by a cor- responding mastery. No such result has followed the wide-spread opening to wom- en of schools and colleges during the past fifty years. Our girls, daughters of edu- cated mothers, are still distinctly "fem- inine" and, mentally and physically, as 253 SEX EQUALITY radically different from boys as would be the case if Professor Geddes' theory of fundamental differences in maleness and femaleness were true. If Professor Thomas had exploited the law of sexual heredity he would have been less liable to be misunderstood. At a recent meeting of the Society for Political Study, in New York, its president, Mrs. J. H. Judge, in discussing Professor Thomas' "Mind of Woman and the Lower Races," said: "I am at a loss to see how the acci- dent of sex should make such a difference between two persons born of the same mother why one should be a savage and the other a learned professor, for in- stance. I think we have been in the habit of assuming that differences exist natural- ly, when in reality we have made them ourselves." Any one conversant with the law of sexual heredity would readily un- derstand how two persons born of the 254 PROFESSOR THOMAS'S SOLUTION same mother may be as wide apart as the poles in both physical and mental charac- ters ; and why a woman may be on a level with the savage in mentality, while her brother may be a trained logician and philosopher. If the president of the Society for Po- litical Study questions the present inher- ent and fundamental superiority of the male sex in many respects, and if she has no knowledge of the law of sexual hered- ity, she must be quite unable to explain why women born of the same mother and the same father are still on the average greatly inferior to their brothers, in size, strength and endurance ; and this dispar- ity exists when the girls have had an environment including exercise, education and calling quite similar to that of their brothers. There are other unmistakable differ- ences in the sexes than those just ad- 255 SEX EQUALITY verted to, obvious to unbiased observers. In foregoing chapters many of these dif- ferences have been pointed out while dis- cussing the writings of Schopenhauer, Doctor Weininger and others. A charac- teristic trait of woman is her enslavement to the whims of fashion. And this subjec- tion is not confined to the unthinking ma- jority. A few years ago "Rainy Day" clubs were formed in London, New York, Chicago and other English-speaking cities. These clubs were largely composed of brainy, progressive women who thus banded for the purpose of resisting the ab- surdities of fashion. The especial mark of membership was the wearing of skirts reaching to the boot-tops and short enough to prevent sweeping the ground even in descending steps. When these clubs were first formed the behests of fashion were favorable to the reformers, as short skirts for street wear were then the vogue ; and 256 PROFESSOR THOMAS'S SOLUTION while the fashionable skirt was not quite as short and as well adapted to the exi- gencies of muddy streets as that adopted by the " Rainy Day" clubs, it was yet short enough to escape in a measure the filth of the street, prevent the soiling of the wearer's clothing and avert the intro- duction of dangerous germs into human abodes and resorts. There was general rejoicing among reformers, and. the san- guine were confident that never again would sensible women submit to such an absurd and uncleanly habit as that of dragging long skirts thru filthy and germ- laden streets. But the fashion changed, and now where are the " Rainy Day" clubs ? Its members, quite like other wom- en, appear to-day in costumes with skirts that sweep every stairway their wearers descend unless held up by the overbur- dened hand of the one-time reformer. Sensible, earnest and progressive women 257 SEX EQUALITY may go so far as to protest against the follies of fashion in general, yet because it is the fashion they meekly submit to costumes made without semblance of a pocket, and so contrived that the fashion- ably gowned woman is unable to dress without assistance. No one imagines for a moment that men would be coerced into such an absurdity. And why? Simply because men have been bred for ages in comparative freedom. Women, on the other hand, submit to the absurd, incon- venient and often dangerous mandates of fashion because for like ages they have been brought up in an environment of sub- jection, and the cumulative result is a be- ing who is as much a slave to fashion as she formerly was to her owner and hus- band, while her brother, bred in relative freedom, is consequently relatively free; and this difference in heredity is a clear explanation "why it is that the accident 258 PEOFESSOE THOMAS'S SOLUTION of sex should make such a difference be- tween two persons born of the same moth- er" and why the difference in philosophic grasp and other mental characteristics between this brother and sister may be as great as that between a savage and a col- lege professor. 259 CHAPTER IX THE FORCE OF HEREDITY WOMEN IN POLITICS IN preceding chapters special stress is laid upon the influence of environment in shaping heredity. It is difficult to point out what has developed the facility which characterizes the Irish- American in politi- cal life. Ireland has had no home govern- ment for three or four generations. It is true that she has had more than her share of representatives in Parliament, and Parnell and subsequent leaders have dis- tinguished themselves for their skill and power of organization. But these men belong to a class quite different from the one which usually furnishes the Irish- American immigrant and subsequent poli- tician. From whatever source the hered- ity, these people have distinctly made themselves felt in the government of 260 THE FORCE OF HEREDITY American cities as office-holders and particularly as political bosses; an ex- tended list of Irishmen who have achieved fame or notoriety in this respect will occur to any American reader. Few of these, it is true, would be classed among our first citizens. They are sympathetic, generous-hearted and loyal friends, no doubt, but seldom particular as to the means employed to further their ends. There are, however, notable exceptions men and women whose integrity and high principles are as marked as their other distinctive traits. It is for the purpose of adding emphasis to the basic principles underlying this book namely, that intel- lectual, spiritual and artistic characters, as well as the so-called masculine traits of initiative, ingenuity, philosophy, logic and practical sagacity are simply human faculties, neither masculine nor feminine and incidentally to enable the reader to 261 SEX EQUALITY appreciate the better elements of the Irish- American character that reference is here made to Mayor Mark Fagan, of Jersey City, New Jersey, and to school- teacher Margaret Haley, of Chicago, Illi- nois. Of Fagan 's upbringing little is on rec- ord, but that little stands out sharp and typical. 1 Fagan lost his father in early boyhood and thus the lad was thrown un- schooled on the world to pick his living. As a newsboy he learned to hold his own even tho he had to fight for it. At twelve or fourteen he learned a trade in New York with a Scotchman whose strength of character influenced the youth to steadi- ness of purpose, and when he left this mentor to enter an undertaking establish- ment in Jersey City, his essential qualities of sympathy and philanthropy had al- ready begun to manifest themselves. 1 1 am indebted to McClure's Magazine, January, 1906, for the main outlines of this sketch. 262 THE FORCE OF HEREDITY Brought into close relations with the poor and wretched, his innate desire to help and serve his fellows had full scope. In the course of a few years he found him- self popular. Altho known as a Republi- can he was approached by emissaries of the opposite party to run for office on the Board of Freeholders, and finally con- sented, in the belief that he might be able to do some good in the ward. He was elected and had his first insight into the depravity of political life when frankly invited to join the other incumbents in the division of the spoils of office. The invitation was quietly rejected. The fol- lowing year, by a rearrangement of wards, young Fagan was left out of the Board, but was later nominated by his own party for the State Senate. He lost this elec- tion by an adverse vote in the rural pre- cincts, but astonished even his friends by carrying Jersey City, a Democratic 263 SEX EQUALITY stronghold. In 1901 Fagan was elected Mayor of Jersey City, being almost the only successful candidate on his ticket. Then came in quick succession the crucial tests that have tried and demonstrated the mettle and worth of the man. Intimida- tion, cajolery, flattery, bluff, even direct bribery were resorted to by the bosses with intent to continue the spoils system and graft of the past ; also by corporations en- joying valuable public privileges at a nom- inal cost; and by time-serving senators and representatives in a position to bury or block bills inimical to the powerful in- terests which employ them, all these in- fluences, sometimes separately, sometimes in combination, he has been compelled to face and fight. At first it seemed a case of one man against a multitude, but, one by one, Fagan has gradually drawn around him men of his own type who re- gard public office as a public trust for the 264 AMELIA OPIE THE FORCE OF HEREDITY betterment of the people rather than for the selfish interests of the politicians. Municipal improvements of all kinds were badly needed ; and in order to raise money the Mayor had to insist on the tax-shirkers paying their dues; on the street-car sys- tems being properly assessed ; on the users of public franchises contributing their just quota to the city treasury; on the rates for public utilities being kept down to a reasonable point in fine, to insist that the law be enforced as strictly in the case of the wealthy corporation as in that of the private individual. All these re- forms have involved incessant vigilance, hard work, strategy and much warfare to secure and maintain. In the face of ap- parently overwhelming odds, this man of the people, still young, personally simple, direct and honest in all his methods, with a single ambition to make the city he loves physically and morally clean, an attract- 265 SEX EQUALITY ive home for all its citizens and especially for the wage-earner, has succeeded and is succeeding in realizing his ideal. This struggle, with its outcome, has been more than local in its influence ; it has helped to raise the standard of municipal honesty and to encourage similar efforts in other cities. An equally remarkable record is that of Miss Margaret Haley of Chicago. 1 Her career disproves the claim that women have no bent for politics and are physic- ally and mentally incapable of working in competition with men. Miss Haley is one of the celebrities of her city at the present time, having by dint of sheer force of character emerged from the obscurity of a public school-teacher into the forefront of the municipal stage where she is pop- ularly regarded as one of the champions of democracy. It was in 1892 her public 1 For the following facts, credit is due to the Times Magazine of January and February, 1907. 266 WOMEN IN POLITICS career began by stirring up her fellow teachers to protest against a bill which proposed to centralize all educational au- thority such as the appointment of teachers, choice of school-books, etc., in the person of the superintendent. Re- garding it as undemocratic in principle and likely to be subversive of a progress- ive educational policy, and realizing that she would not succeed if she flatly de- manded its recall, she first framed a con- servatively-worded petition asking the Legislature to postpone consideration of this bill in order that the citizens might have time to study and understand it. Thru her fellow teachers and by her own efforts in circulating the petition she se- cured at the end of a few weeks fifty thou- sand signatures. She addrest public meetings thruout the city after her regu- lar day's work, and by a fervent appeal secured the support of the Federation of 267 SEX EQUALITY Labor. She had to overcome opposition in the Teachers' Federation before attain- ing any considerable influence, and suc- ceeded in outmaneuvering and outvoting all opposition and establishing a united federation in accord with her progressive policy. In due course she personally pre- sented the petition to the Legislature and the obnoxious bill was withdrawn. Less than two years later, in 1901, a still greater triumph was achieved when Miss Haley compelled a reluctant State Board of Equalization to perform its duty. Prior to that date, the Board had permitted sev- eral municipal corporations to carry on their business without taxation, altho the city treasury was so low that a portion of the teachers' salaries remained unpaid. Posting herself thoroly on the law, Miss Haley obtained a mandamus from the courts enjoining the State Board to tax the corporations or suffer the penalty of 268 WOMEN IN POLITICS imprisonment. Despite formidable oppo- sition this mandamus was upheld and en- forced ; and the Board, thus compelled to summary action, actually accepted Miss Haley's figures on the value of these prop- erties. As a result the school tax fund was increased by $250,000 a year. Miss Haley, however, had still much to contend with. The Board of Education ignored the teachers' first claim for unpaid back sal- aries and appropriated the whole amount to other purposes. Still undaunted, she resolved to reconstruct the then existing board. Her first step was to strengthen the Teachers' Federation by uniting it with the Federation of Labor, in which latter body Miss Haley became one of the Committee on Legislation. Her second step was to fight against corruption in the Labor Federation itself, in which once more her astuteness and foresight brought her victory. Allying her forces with other 269 SEX EQUALITY political and reform associations which she recognized as helpful and working for the election of a mayor sympathetic to her cause, Miss Haley finally realized her am- bition. The new mayor whom she had enthusiastically supported not only re spected her suggestions on educational matters, but largely replaced the old Board of Education by members in ac- cord with Miss Haley's policy, while the president of the Board is one of her for- mer associates. /That a friendless, moneyless school- teacher should be able to exert such polit- ical influence in a great community like Chicago is a picturesque illustration of the political possibilities open to women in America. Miss Haley's career is only a fresh illustration of the truth that traits of character heretofore deemed masculine are simply human traits and may be man- ifested as fully by women as by menj 270 "** WOMEN IN POLITICS Miss Haley is not alone. There are sev- eral other women in Chicago who are equally active and influential in further- ing the city's welfare and improving its conditions. Miss Jane Addams, the founder of Hull House Settlement, has achieved international fame. William Hard in the American Magazine says of (her: " Selecting beautiful pictures for the walls of Hull House, founding a co- operative club-house for young working women, conducting a famous political fight against a corrupt alderman, bringing out young people with a talent for paint- ing or music, toiling on the Board of Edu- cation, providing a stage at Hull House for local dramatic societies, shaming the city into enforcing its health laws by pub- lishing a study of the causes of typhoid fever in a tenement district, all these things and a thousand others engage her daily attention. . . . The difficulty of 271 SEX EQUALITY writing about her is to seem judicious to those who do not know her." Miss Julia Lathrop interested herself in the mal- treatment of the inmates of poorhouses and insane asylums and hospitals of Illi- nois. She personally investigated the con- ditions obtaining in the charitable institu- tions of the State. As a result of her ef- forts these investigations were taken up by the newspapers, and Miss Lathrop was made a member of the State Board of Charities, and the insane and other wards of the State have improved conditions and prospects. Dr. Cornelia DeBey, a mem- ber of the Board of Education, and Miss Mary McDowell, an influential organizer among women workers and a force for peace in times of strike, have each done most valuable work for Chicago. When General Grant was chopping wood and carting it to St. Louis for a livelihood, or afterward when a book- 272 WOMEN IN POLITICS keeper for a tannery in Geneva, Wiscon- sin, no one would have dreamed that he was destined to become one of the great military commanders of history. Grant's career is a confirmation of the truth of democracy ; that it is the inherent nature of the individual which is important, not the class or station in life in which the in- dividual is born. When Joan of Arc developed the acumen and military strat- egy which enabled her to outwit the Eng- lish and to crown the Dauphin and seat him on the throne, she not only gave proof of the truth of democracy, but confirmed the claim that military genius is not the accident of sex but is a human trait. Joan demonstrated her possession of military genius by her achievements; she also demonstrated the possession of unsur- passed intellectual acumen when con- fronted with the judges at her trial. 273 CHAPTER X COEDUCATION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE IT is worthy of note that woman's edu- cation during the past half century runs pari passu with her invasion of the gain- ful trades and professions. A primary incentive with young men to seek a college education is the fact that such education increases their earning power. Other con- siderations have influence, of course. One enjoying financial independence may have an inborn love of scholarship, and many are no doubt stimulated in the pursuit of knowledge by the higher standing it gives them in the community. But after all, the great bulk of young men have undoubt- edly been moved to undergo the restraints and hard work of college life because of the greater earning power which an edu- 274 COEDUCATION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE cation affords and the greater ease with which positions of trust and emolument are reached. It is precisely these motives that have actuated young women in deciding upon an educational career. The ambition to achieve financial independence is not a sexual characteristic ; it is simply a human trait, and it is, therefore, no more strange that women students should have this end in view than that young men should. The following figures give evidence of the very great progress of women in edu- cational institutions where the specified professional subjects are studied: Be- tween 1890 and 1898 the increase of men students in medicine was 51.1, of women 64.2. In dentistry, the increase of men students was 150.2, that of women 205.7. In pharmacy, men 25.9, women 190. In technology and agriculture, men 119.3, women 194.7. 275 SEX EQUALITY When women first asked admission to colleges it was the opinion of many lead- ing teachers that there were physiological obstacles which would prevent women from taking the laborious courses pre- scribed for men. Experience has shown that this is a mistake. The data at hand show that out of seven hundred and five women graduates from twelve American colleges, 78 per cent, were in good, and 5 per cent, in fair health. This compares with 75 per cent, in similar tests in Eng- land and is 5 per cent, better than the health of a given number of women of the same age who were not college graduates. In preceding chapters, good reasons are advanced for believing that woman nat- urally has a genius for government and has exceptional powers of administration. The following in confirmation is quoted from an article entitled " Education of Women," by Nicholas Murray Butler, 276 COEDUCATION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE President of Columbia University, in Education in tine United States: "At Vassar there is at present a well- developed system of what is known as 'limited self-government' according to which many matters of discipline are en- trusted to the whole body of students. Bryn Mawr was organized with a system of self-government by the students, per- haps more far-reaching than was in op- eration in any of the colleges for men. 1 The necessary rules are made by the stu- dents' associations, which include all un- dergraduate and graduate students, and enforced by an executive committee of students who in the case of a serious of- fense may recommend the suspension or expulsion of the offender, and whose rec- ommendation when sustained by the whole association is always accepted by the col- lege. The perfect success of the system has shown that there is no risk in relying 1 Readers will bear In mind that these colleges are both exclusively for women. 277 SEX EQUALITY to the full extent on the discretion of a body of women students." I have already in a former chapter pointed out the analogy between negro slavery and the subjection of women. For centuries negroes were held in bondage. If a philanthropist or reformer demanded freedom for the black man the conserva- tives replied that the negro was born to serve ; that service is natural to him ; that he is incapable of managing his own af- fairs; that he is the natural ward of the white man; and that it is the white man's duty to regulate the black man's life. When the American States issued their Declaration of Independence, as well as when later the French Revolutionists, in- spired by the teachings of Rousseau, pro- posed to destroy the monarchy and estab- lish a republic, conservatives and up- holders of the established order made the same reply. They claimed that the king 278 COEDUCATION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE was born to rule ; that a monarchial gov- ernment is natural and has divine sanc- tion; that an elected ruler would neces- sarily be a demagog and use his office to corrupt and selfish ends. Now it is seen that the conservatives were mistaken ; that monarchial rule is neither natural nor just, and even the England of George III. is now governed by the voice of democracy as completely as any republic. At this day democracy is insinuating itself into all the governments of Europe, and it is only a question of time when even Russia will have a constitutional and democratic form of government. All this is pertinent only to show the fallacy of the invariable claim of the con- servative that the existing condition is natural and therefore right. Fifty years ago, when women first began practically to assert their right to freedom and self- support, conservatism raised its well- 279 SEX EQUALITY worn cry that woman's natural sphere is the home ; that she is the natural protege of her father, brother or husband ; that to enter gainful pursuits would destroy her delicacy and unsex her whatever that may mean ; and there has been a more per- sistent and determined cry against the woman movement for self-support than was ever heard against freedom and democracy. The apologist for negro sla- very is dead his voice is no longer heard in the land; monarchial governments are going or gone. What is the present status of the woman movement ? In Chapter III there is a general survey of the progress women have made in their efforts to force an opening into gainful pursuits. The history of the education of women and of the coeducation movement is certainly en- couraging. In America, 1 coeducation prevails ex- 1 The statistics quoted are taken from United States Commission of Education Reports, 1898 and 1903. 280 COEDUCATION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE tensively in the Western states and terri- tories, and is rapidly gaining ground thruout the North. Altogether twenty state universities are now open to women. Among private universities, Cornell has Sage College for women and Boston University has admitted wom- en from the first, 1873. Out of four hun- dred and eighty educational colleges in the United States, three hundred and thirty- six, or 70 per cent., admit women. A closer comparison covering fifty-eight colleges, giving a more extended and complete edu- cational course, yields fifty-eight per cent, as coeducational. The proportion of wom- en students to total number of college students is nearly 25 per cent., while their proportion to students in coeducational colleges is close on 50 per cent. The uniform experience of coeduca- tional colleges shows the average standing of women as slightly higher than that of 281 SEX EQUALITY men. Thousands of women have been working side by side with men in coeduca- tional institutions for the past twenty-five years, and undergoing exactly the same tests, without a larger percentage of with- drawals on account of illness. In Eng- land, testimony is not lacking to show that women may equal or even surpass men in excellence of scholarship. Up to 1898, ac- cording to the records of London Univer- sity, 54 per cent, of the women students passed the matriculation examinations as against 53 per cent, of the men. In the matter of health, also, the withdrawals from college are no greater among women than among men students. Perhaps the only objection from the men's point of view is that coeducation has succeeded too well and that the pro- portion of women students is increasing too rapidly. Not only is the number of co- educational colleges increasing, but the 282 COEDUCATION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE number of women relatively to the num- ber of men is also increasing. In 1890 there were in coeducational colleges 16,- 959 men and 7,929 women, a percentage of 31.9 of women to the whole body. In 1898 there were 28,823 men and 10,284 women, the latter forming 36 per cent, of the whole. Between 1890 and 1898 men in coedu- cational colleges have increased 70 per cent, and women 105 per cent. ; and in an- swer to the possible contention that this slower increase on the part of men is due to their dislike to the presence of women, stands the fact that in the same period (1890-98) the increase in separate col- leges for men is only 34.7 per cent., while in women's colleges the increase is 138.4 per cent. The world-wide extent of this awaken- ing of woman to claim her share in the realm of mental achievement and the up- 283 SEX EQUALITY lift of the race is convincingly shown by the article on coeducation which appears in the 1903 edition of the International Encyclopedia to which I am indebted for most of the following data : Coeducation is practically general in the public elementary schools of the Uni- ted States, the exceptions being found in a few of the larger Eastern cities, such as New York and Boston. In England, since 1891, coeducation in the same grade of schools is also largely the rule. In France, communes with more than five hundred inhabitants must establish a separate elementary school for girls unless the departmental council sanc- tions a mixt school. The law of 1871 in Prussia favored sex separation in the public schools, but in 1896 the mixt schools outnumbered the others by more than one-half. In Austria, Switzerland and Sweden, coeducation is again pre- 284 COEDUCATION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE dominant in the elementary school sys- tems. In Italy, on the contrary, the sepa- rate system is the role. A very different condition exists in re- gard to secondary education in Europe, every nationality named above segrega- ting the sexes in all government lycees, colleges or gymnasia, even where (which is not always the case) statutory provision is made for young women students. The United States presents a striking contrast. In 1899 there were 5,495 public high schools, of which 5,439 were coedu- cational, with only twenty-two exclusively for girls and thirty-four for boys. Out of 1,957 private secondary schools, 1,092 were coeducational, with 541 exclusively for girls and 324 for boys. The public normal schools in 1898-99 numbered 166. Of these, two were exclusively for women; twelve had no men in attendance, tho pre- sumably coeducational ; the rest contained 285 SEX EQUALITY both sexes. Of the 165 private normal schools, five prepare kindergarten teach- ers and have no men in attendance ; one is exclusively for women, while two others report no men, and there are three that re- port no women. The English training schools for teachers, the French primary and superior normal schools, and the Prussian normal schools separate the sexes. In Europe, generally speaking, wher- ever separate schools can be maintained they are favored. From economical con- siderations, however, mixt elementary schools have, as we have seen, been quite widely adopted, and no doubt the same reason has had much to do with the estab- lishment of mixed schools in the United States. It was owing to Horace Mann's persistent advocacy that a system of town educational high schools was instituted as early as 1826, from which time such 286 COEDUCATION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE schools have gradually spread thruout the country until they have become almost in- variable features of every community. The Civil War placed both elementary and secondary education largely in the hands of women teachers. 1 There ac- cordingly followed a demand on their part for better opportunities for instruc- tion. In 1883, Oberlin Collegiate Institute in Ohio had admitted women. In 1855, Antioch College, also in Ohio, was founded coeducational from the beginning, and having as its first president Horace Mann, the ardent advocate of this system. One by one, the state universities of the West opened their doors to women until, at this date, of thirty-two state institutions in all, only three exclude women. Again, of fifty-eight private leading colleges and 1 According to Dr. Anna Tolman Smith in the United States Report of Education, 1903, Chapter XX, the percentage of women teachers is now as follows: In public elementary schools, 51 per cent.; private ele- mentary schools, 58 per cent.; colleges and seminaries for women, 72 per cent.; coeducational colleges preparatory departments, 29 per cent.; college departments, 10 per cent. 287 SEX EQUALITY universities, four are independent colleges for women, three are women's colleges af- filiated with men's colleges, thirty are co- educational, and of the remaining twenty- one, five have affiliated women's colleges. Only twelve of the fifty-eight exclude women from all departments. In Canada and Australia, all the univer- sities admit women co-equal with men, and in the latter country women are eligi- ble as lecturers and professors. London University, England, has been open to women on equal terms with men since 1878. Victoria University and the University of Wales give similar privileges to women. Durham Uni- versity excludes women only from the theological course. Cambridge admits women to nearly all university privileges and grants a titular degree to those who fulfill the regular requirements. Similar conditions obtain at Oxford. Three of the 288 COEDUCATION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE four Scottish universities admit women to all degrees except law, and Aberdeen makes not even this exception. The Royal University of Ireland grants equal privi- leges to both sexes. In France, women are admitted to lec- tures on equal terms with men, tho a dis- cretionary power of exclusion is left with professors. In Germany, special permission from various authorities must be obtained by women desirous of joining specified class- es, and considerable opposition has to be surmounted to secure anything like equal university privileges with men. To some extent, the academic prejudices are disappearing and several of the universi- ties are now granting Ph.D. degrees to women. In 1898-99, three hundred and fifteen women, mostly foreigners, attended the German universities. In Austria, since 1878, the universities 289 SEX EQUALITY have been open to women as hearers, and recently, in the case of foreigners, as matriculated students, forty women being registered at Vienna during 1899-1900. In Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, Swe- den, Denmark, Spain and the Nether- lands, women are admitted to the univer- sities in most cases on an equality with men. In Russia, as might be expected, the higher education of women has had much to contend with, because of political troubles. At present, the universities are closed to women, but special provision is made for higher courses at St. Petersburg under governmental auspices. Akin to the entrance of women into gainful pursuits and her acquisition of unrestricted opportunities for education is her assumption of complete " manhood suffrage" in some of the Western states, in New Zealand, in Finland and in Nor- 290 COEDUCATION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE way with Sweden likely to follow; also the growing movement for her enfran- chisement not only in the Eastern states of America, but thruout Europe as well. It was a great victory for universal suf- frage when, in 1902, Federated Australia gave to women the same unrestricted right to the ballot possest by men, including eligibility to serve in both branches of the Legislature or Parliament as well as in the highest offices of the government. It is often urged by opponents of the woman suffrage movement that only a small minority of women desire the ballot. The result of the trial which has been made in Australasia is conclusive proof of the incorrectness of this contention. The fol- lowing testimony is taken from the Lon- don Chronicle of recent date : "New Zealand was the first British colony to adopt women's suffrage in 1893. The New Zealand woman was given 291 SEX EQUALITY universal adult suffrage. Tho she had not sought it, she immediately used it. Out of 140,000 women, 109,000 had placed themselves on the register in a few months, and 90,000 voted in the general election of November, 1893. They voted peacefully and in order during the day, while the men were at work, and left the booths to the men in the evening. They have voted with similar regularity and steadiness ever since. How do the women use their powers ? Very calmly by all ac- counts. Generally, women make very much the same use of the franchise as do men. . . . There has been no disorder or unseemly behavior no strange or sudden \ revolution in dress or in manners. En- franchisement has led neither to di- vided skirts nor divided households. Families, as a matter of fact, generally vote on the same side. But on the other hand, there is a general agreement that family life has become brighter, that hus- bands and wives have more subjects in common to talk about, and that women are 292 COEDUCATION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE really setting themselves to study and watch public affairs. The effects, in fact, have been rather social than political. Women seem to be treated with more real respect and not merely at election times. There has arisen between the sexes that sense of (equality which is perhaps the . only permanent and enduring social basis. Speaking generally, they have simply be- come citizens, whose part in public affairs is not sharply distinguished from that of men. New Zealand women have simply stept into equality. And fourteen years of political life have shown them equal to that equality. Working side by side with man, woman still keeps her place not like to like, but like in difference. The word pictures of which colonists used to have so many given them of domestic dis- cord, children forgotten, husbands un- cared for, dinners uncooked, dress and ap- pearances neglected, have already almost passed from memory. It is the commonest sight to see husband, wife and grown-up children walking or driving cheerfully to 293 SEX EQUALITY the polls together. The head of the fam- ily has become a more important factor in politics than of old." The recent extension of the suffrage to the women of Finland is a no less notable achievement. At the first election in Hel- singfors in which women voted, 55 per cent, of the votes were cast by them, and the new Finnish diet contains nineteen women, very nearly 20 per cent, of the as- sembly. That in this first election more than half of the voters of Helsingf ors were women goes far to show that women gen- erally are likely to claim the ballot as soon as there has been any considerable agita- tion of the subject. Norway has followed the example of Finland ; its parliament granted the fran- chise to women June 14th, 1907. The ef- fect of this agitation and triumph in Nor- way is likely soon to be followed by the extension of the suffrage to women in 294 COEDUCATION AND WOMAN SUFFEAGE Sweden. Even Russia seems inclined to give to peasant women the right to vote for candidates for the Duma. Municipal suffrage has just been granted to the wom- en of Natal, South Africa. There are vig- orous National Woman Suffrage societies in Italy, Hungary and Russia. There is a remarkable increase in the agitation for full suffrage for women all over Europe. The International Council of Women, representing twenty countries and 6,000,- 000 women, is most impressive. Perhaps the most surprizing and important sign of progress is the statement that in England out of six hundred and seventy members of the House of Commons, there are over four hundred who are pledged to vote for a bill giving full suffrage to women. It is quite true that if such an act were passed by the Commons it would still have to encounter the opposition of the Lords and the conspicuous conservatism which 295 SEX EQUALITY is an ingrained British trait; but when it is borne in mind that the English gov- ernment is far more responsive to the will of the people than the American, it will not be surprizing if full suffrage is ex- tended to the women of England before it is granted in the Eastern states of Amer- ica. However, the cause of woman suffrage is very hopeful in this country. Its de- mands have been endorsed by the Ameri- can Federation of Labor, the National Grange, the Western Federation of Mi- ners, the United Mine "Workers of Amer- ica, the International Typographical Union, the National Letter-carriers' Asso- ciation and the Knights of Temperance. A mandate enforced by such a combina- tion and helped on by the fair-minded amiability of American men will not long go unheeded after American women have shown that they desire enfranchisement. 296 COEDUCATION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE The meaning of this history of coedu- cation and of the enfranchisement of women is plain and its logic invincible. It is only one hundred and fifty years since Rousseau and Voltaire were fighting their battles for the rights of man and democracy. Of necessity their arguments were academic ; democracy in the sense in which it is now understood had never been tried. But the American Revolution of 1776, the French Revolution of 1792, and the very general Revolution of 1848, which was especially active in Germany, the steady and triumphant march of democracy in the United States and its no less noteworthy advance in England and all her colonies for a century have re- moved the need in America at all events for further academic discussion as to whether democratic government is right or desirable. Only one hundred and fifty years have elapsed since this discus- 297 SEX EQUALITY sion and the widespread agitation began. Progress is much more rapid now than it was one hundred and fifty or even one hundred years ago. The academic discus- sion of and an active agitation for the rights of woman her claim to the same right to an education and admission to all gainful pursuits and privileges that man possesses began only a little over fifty years ago. In view of the data presented above and the fact that progress now has a much accelerated pace, is not the conclu- sion irresistible that long before the lapse of another century woman will not only enjoy the freest opportunities to acquire an education, but also to enter into all business pursuits on an equality with man, and all this quite as a matter of course ? It may seem an inconsistency to claim that woman is the victim of ages of re- straint and at the same time show that she 298 COEDUCATION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE frequently excels the young men in col- leges where both sexes attend under equal conditions. This is at least partially an- swered by the fact that the young women who go to college are usually the pick of their kind the brightest and most ambi- tious while a considerable portion of boys attend either because their parents desire it, or for the recreational and social enjoyments these institutions afford, there being but slight compulsion to take any real interest in the intellectual part of college life. It should also be noted, as may be seen by reference to the experiments recorded by Miss Helen Thompson, referred to in Chapter III, that tests go to show that women are quicker in learning and possess no less re- tentive memories than men. This faculty would enable women to outstrip men in cramming for an examination, even when they did not as thoroly understand the 299 SEX EQUALITY subject matter. Furthermore, just as chil- dren of savage races brought up under civ- ilization have risen to intellectual emi- nence without entirely losing their inher- ited baser traits, so in the case of women students, school or college "tests" may be quite inadequate except as showing bright, receptive minds and traits of cleverness. The less brilliant but more solid character- istics of male students require generations of self -discipline, with favoring heredity and environment for their development. Many of woman's shortcomings and limitations will require more than a cen- tury for their overcoming. Her environ- ment has been too long restricted, her heredity too unfortunate and cumulative to warrant us in looking for an early, marked, revolutionary improvement. Are there any good grounds for discourage- ment in this ? Assuredly not. Democracy is victorious and triumphant, and yet the 300 COEDUCATION AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE most ardent champion of the laboring man can not fail to admit that he has many undesirable traits, which also are the result of a long-restricted environment and an unfortunate heredity ; but no one, on that account, thinks of placing any re- strictions upon his opportunities for de- velopment. And a like free opportunity is all that is demanded for working women and for all women. In the last resort her suc- cess or failure must depend upon her own powers. This is equally true of the work- ing man, and it is fortunate for both that it is so. The necessity for cultivating use- ful and admirable traits and the over- coming of undesirable ones in order to succeed is a universal law, and, like all laws applicable to human nature, applies to men and women equally. 301 CHAPTER XI WOMEN IN BUSINESS AND THE PROFESSIONS MRS. HETTY KOBINSON GREEN is a nota- ble example of a woman possessing the characteristics and mental powers of a man, and who has achieved success in business fully equal to that of our most conspicuous men financiers. In 1865, when thirty years old, she inherited a large fortune $10,000,000, it is said, from her father, and $2,000,000 from her aunt. It required business powers of a high or- der to so manage this vast heritage as to insure its safety and normal growth, but Mrs. Green has done far more than this. It is currently reported that her present fortune is over $60,000,000, which shows an average annual income of more than $1,000,000 a year for more than the forty years during which she has had the con- 302 WOMEN IN BUSINESS trol of this wealth. Mrs. Green, like the late Russell Sage, has made a specialty of loaning Wall Street large sums at high rates of interest on first-class securities; but she is also a skilful strategist, and many mysterious movements of prices on the stock exchange have been traced to her after it was too late to thwart her plans. She is said to have outwitted Collis P. Huntington in the reorganization of the Texas Pacific Railroad. Her habits of economy and her business methods are strikingly like those which characterized Russell Sage, and she is classed as fully his equal by men who have done business with both. Where women have succeeded in business, it is often found that they have profited by the schemes and advice of a skilful man of business ; but there is no such suspicion regarding the success of Mrs. Green. She has fully demonstra- ted that her wealth and power are the re- 303 SEX EQUALITY suit of her own initiative and sagacity. There are but few among the well-known millionaires who have attained a greater financial position than that achieved by Mrs. Green. It is true that Mrs. Green's career is quite exceptional, but the wonder is, when woman's unfavorable environment and heredity are considered, not that there should be so few such women of business, but that there should be any. Russell Sage acquired a colossal fortune and a reputation for financial sagacity not equaled by half a dozen of America's most famous millionaires. He was also almost alone among financiers in his field and method of operations. It is interesting to note that Mrs. Green has followed the ex- act methods in finance and economics that made Mr. Sage famous, and also that she is recognized as the successor of Mr. Sage in Wall Street. 304 WOMEN IN BUSINESS Financial ability is not monopolized by those who have amassed millions; good business powers may be shown as surely in the skilful management of thousands as in the manipulation of millions. In a re- cent summary 1 of the large number of men who have realized great fortunes in the iron and steel business of America, an interesting account is given of the success achieved by Mrs. Nannie H. Kelley, of Ironton, Ohio. Mrs. Kelley is the sole owner and manager of a charcoal furnace that produces about $100,000 worth of iron per year. She bought the property and 10,000 acres of ore lands at about one- fifth of its value during the trade depres- sion of 1893, and for eight years has re- ceived large dividends from this furnace. Mrs. Kelley is a woman of force and enter- prise who is in business life from choice, not necessity. In Ironton, her judgment 1 Munsey's Magazine, March, 1907. 305 SEX EQUALITY in financial matters is held in great re- spect. She is on the best of terms with her workmen and can boast of never having had a strike. Altho actively occupied in this self -chosen work, she has never al- lowed it to interfere with her duties as wife, mother and entertainer. Mrs. Kelley's wealth bears no compar- ison with that of Mrs. Green, but it may easily be seen that the management of her enterprises exhibits as clearly as does the career of Mrs. Green the powers of initi- ative and invention powers heretofore supposed to be exclusively male character- istics. There are many instances where women have engaged in business, sometimes on a small scale, and have shown the originality and skill usually supposed to be peculiar to men. Near the town of Saline, Michigan, at her father's death, a young woman inher- ited an exhausted farm of eighty acres. 306 WOMEN IN BUSINESS She became interested in scientific agri- culture the rotation of crops, the chem- istry of soils and intensive farming. She concluded to make a specialty of growing peppermint and succeeded in building a mint distillery. She introduced original methods of mint farming, which have since been adopted by neighboring mint- growers. She set out her plants in the autumn instead of in the spring, as had been the custom. This enabled her to harvest her crop in the hottest weather of the summer instead of in September, and before the deterioration of the plant by the concentration of the mint essence in the root had taken place. She thus saved a larger proportion of the essence and had more time in which to harvest her crop, with the result of a marked financial success. A young woman of Mentonne, Minne- sota, strikingly exemplifies the value of 307 SEX EQUALITY the higher education to women. After graduating at the university she accepted a position as teacher in the public schools. Her knowledge of geology enabled her to see the value of a marsh situated outside of the town and in the direction in which the town was extending. She became con- vinced that the marsh was underlaid with a bed of gravel that would drain it if wells were dug thru the clay into the gravel. She paid $1,000 for the marsh, drained it and sold her tract for $35,000. A most interesting illustration of a woman's business ability is presented by Miss Alice L. Yoder, a Pennsylvania girl. Having made a study of scientific agricul- ture, she accepted a position offered her by an evangelizing mission to teach native children in India the principles of suc- cessful farming. Local conditions have been thoroly mastered, and her 300-acre farm-school, under scientific irrigation 308 WOMEN IN BUSINESS and culture, is the only farm in the province able to withstand long droughts without serious loss. Several hundred native orphans live and work on the place under Miss Yoder's supervision, and it is claimed that the farm more than pays ex- penses. An equally interesting illustration of a woman's business ability is afforded by Miss Marguerite Frink, a young woman only twenty-five years of age, who is al- ready Assistant Professor of Mathematics in the State Agricultural College of Colo- rado. She began her work by attending the State Normal School, in Greeley, at the age of fifteen, and worked herself thru college by selling farm products on com- mission and by attending to the details of her small farm interest which came to her as a share of her work at home during va- cations. While she is a teacher of mathe- matics, she is better known as one of the 309 SEX EQUALITY best cheese-makers in the West and as one of the best judges of farm and market products. She is perhaps the only wom- an who has taken carlots of cattle and hogs to market ; and she has the reputation of getting the very best prices. Her father wished her to remain in charge of his canning factory; and the dairies, school- men and school boards wished her to teach for them. She was finally persuaded to accept a position in the Agricultural Col- lege because it gave a better opportunity of teaching the farmers the business end of farming. It is because of her success in these commercial undertakings that the Agricultural College is planning to use much of her time in institute work trav- eling and lecturing with illustrations to the farmers. 1 It is the province of the lawyer not only to be versed in the laws of his state 1 These particulars are taken from an article in Woman, May, 1907, by Joseph F. Daniels, Librarian State Agricultural College, Colorado. 310 WOMEN IN BUSINESS or nation but also to instruct and guide men in the management of their business. Success in the profession of the law pre- supposes the possession of those qualities recognized as masculine. It is interesting to learn that there were distinguished women lawyers in the middle ages. In 1100, Countess Matilda, of Tuscany, es- tablished a chair of jurisprudence in the University of Bologna. The prominent women of that day connected with legal affairs were Laura Bassi, Clotilde Lamb- soni, and Novella Calderini, the latter be- ing also renowned for her beauty. These women all received the doctorate of law. In Spain, from the eighth to the eleventh century, women were judges and jurists. They lectured in Cordova, Granada and Seville, and here at the age of twenty- one Cassandra Felice was a doctor of law. This woman must have been a dean or professor for it was she who conferred de- 311 SEX EQUALITY grees at Padua. She is said to have been one of the greatest women lawyers that ever lived, and her mental and physical strength made her one of the leading law- yers of Spain. She lived to be one hun- dred and one. She was often referred to as the phenix. According to Habbell, it was these women who gave Shakespeare the idea of his Portia in the "Merchant of Venice." 1 Former Ambassador Choate, in a recent address, stated that after investigation he found there were at present over one thou- sand women practising law in the United States. Thirty-seven years ago there was not a woman in the Union who had been admitted to the bar. Slowly and re- luctantly the barriers of the profession have been lowered. To-day nearly every country has its women lawyers. Ten years ago Belgium denied Miss Papelin 1 Woman, December, 1906. 312 WOMEN IN BUSINESS the right to practise, but since that time the decision has been reversed. Mile. Jeanne Chauvan is one of the leading law- yers in France, as successful in criminal as in civil cases. In one of the Zurich colleges, Miss Kempin is an instructor of law. She has now a class of women, and outside of this work is active in her own private profession. In America thirty- four states admit women to the bar, Illi- nois leading the list with ninety in prac- tise and New York second with forty-five. Missouri has twenty-five, the District of Columbia ten, Nebraska twenty-five, Ore- gon twelve, Wisconsin ten, Michigan eight, and Florida four. These women are variously engaged in all branches of the profession. In another department of professional work, involving the possession of good business powers, may be mentioned the career of Miss Estelle Reel, Superintend- 313 SEX EQUALITY ent of Indian Schools and the highest salaried woman employee of the govern- ment, receiving $3,000 per annum and ex- penses. From the fact that because of work she had previously done, she was sought out by the government and that she was in no way indebted to the influence of friends for this responsible appoint- ment, it is evident that her capabilities are of no ordinary kind. Her present duties comprize the personal supervision of all the Indian reservations, which necessi- tates her being in the saddle a large part of the time for more than half the year; during the remainder of the time she is in her office at Washington in the Indian Bureau Building where a clerical force is managed by her with a precision and ef- fectiveness equal to her school and reser- vation work. 1 While there are about a thousand wom- 1 Woman, AprD, 1907. 314 WOMEN IN BUSINESS en lawyers, the United States Census of 1900 shows the number of women physi- cians and surgeons as 8,600. The rapidly increasing number of women doctors shows that they are meeting with success in this profession. It was Professor Lombroso who stated that among the con- siderable number of women doctors in America none is found who has done work in original research. This is a mistake. In 1876, Mary Putnam Jacobi took the Boylston prize of Harvard University for original work. In 1891, this distinguished physician contributed a paper to a book entitled Woman's Work in America, and in giving an account of the writings of American female physicians she mentions over forty productions from her own pen. On account of the extreme conservatism of the established churches, women have encountered more difficulty in entering the ministry than any other profession, 315 yet the census for 1900 gives the number of women ministers as 3,373. I know of no noteworthy records of women as minis- ters in the conservative churches, but in the Christian Science Church, Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy has achieved a remarkable financial success. 1 She adopted a system of healing the sick which had been first practised by Dr. Phineas P. Quimby, Portland, Maine. Doctor Quimby made but a modest living out of his practise. He was, however, so imprest with the beneficence of his system and its value to humanity that he tried to give it to the world without money and without price. Mrs. Eddy (then Mrs. Glover) advertised in the Banner of Light, July 4, 1868 a paper devoted to spiritualism that she would teach this system of healing with- out pay until the student became able to demonstrate and heal by it. In eighteen Christian Science, by Mark Twain, and McClure's Magazine, 1907, 316 WOMEN IN BUSINESS years Mrs. Eddy had made most astonish- ing progress. In the Christian Science Journal for September, 1886, appears an advertisement of the " Massachusetts Metaphysical College" situated at 571 Co- lumbus Avenue, Boston, and of which the name of Mary Baker G. Eddy is given as president. Her progress is so marked as compared with the terms given in her ad- vertisement in the Banner of Light that I quote the announcement entire : MASSACHUSETTS METAPHYSICAL COLLEGE REV. MARY BAKER G. EDDY, PRESIDENT 521 Columbus Ave., Boston The Collegiate course in Christian Science metaphysi- cal healing includes twelve lessons. Tuition, three hun- dred dollars. Course in metaphysical obstetrics includes six daily lec- tures, and is open only to students from this college. Tuition, one hundred dollars. Class in theology, open (like the above) to graduates, receives six additional lectures on the Scriptures, and summary of the principles and practise of Christian Science, two hundred dollars. 317 SEX EQUALITY Normal class is open to those who have taken the first course at this college; six daily lectures complete the normal course. Tuition, two hundred dollars. No invalids, and only persons of good moral character are accepted as students. All students are subject to examination and rejection; and they are liable to leave the class if found unfit to remain in it. A limited number of clergymen received free of charge. Largest discount to indigent students, one hundred dollars on the first course. No deduction on the others. Husband and wife entered together, three hundred dollars. Tuition for all strictly in advance. In the preface to the 1902 edition of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says that in seven years she had taught over 4,000 students. Excluding all account of what she may have received from students in the normal classes and in the "classes in theology," there is still left more than $1,000,000 received for seven years de- voted to teaching this new gospel a busi- ness success no doubt unequaled by any other woman and unsurpassed by any 318 WOMEN IN BUSINESS man, when the nature of the business is considered. It is interesting to note that Mrs. Eddy manifested initiative in open- ing a new field for women, in which she has had many imitators. Numbers, adopting her methods, have opened class- es in Boston, New York, London and other cities. While they have given their sys- tems different titles "Mind Cure," "Mental Healing," "Spiritual Healing" and "Metaphysical Healing" they have followed Mrs. Eddy in giving courses of twelve lessons, also in the substance of what is taught and in charging similar prices. In a chapter on women in business, how- ever brief, some mention should be made of the women of Prance and the continent. If England may be called a nation of shop- keepers, France may be said to be a coun- try of business women. It is so usual to see French women in business that it is 319 SEX EQUALITY regarded by themselves as a matter of course. A traveler in France is struck by the quiet dignity and efficiency of the women in their conduct of business; and no one sees in them any coarseness or mannishness or lack of feminine charm. And yet, from the management of the Bon Marche down to the ubiquitous news- kiosks and tobacco stores, women are pre- dominant. In fact, women in Paris are even encroaching upon kinds of business heretofore monopolized by men. Altho it is only a few months since women cab- drivers undertook this work, they have been so successful that men cab-drivers, in order to attract patronage, have be- gun to adopt a similar style of hat and coat to that worn by these women. Both in America and abroad many women are driving their own motor-cars, and in England this practise is becoming fash- ionable among the upper classes. It is 320 WOMEN IN BUSINESS stated also that in England women are beginning to enter the arena as profession- al chauffeurs. Manifestly, women are taking to these vocations because they re- ceive better pay than in more crowded pursuits; and the public patronize these women because they are more careful and better mannered than the average man driver. 321 CHAPTER XII HERBERT SPENCER ON WOMAN'S DEVELOPMENT THE name of Herbert Spencer is as firmly identified with the doctrine of evo- lution as an explanation of the facts and phenomena of life as that of Darwin. Co- discoverer with Wallace of the laws of natural selection, Darwin devoted his en- ergies to the discovery and solution of the origin of species. Spencer, quite as orig- inal and from independent data, sought to explain by evolution the origin of life in the whole field of matter. Altho not the discoverer of the law of natural selec- tion he at once recognized its truth, naming it the survival of the fittest and incorporating it as an indispensable por- tion of the framework of his philosophy. In preceding chapters are numerous quotations from recognized authorities in 322 HERBERT SPENCER ON WOMAN the field of science confirmatory of my contention that the larger share of those differences between men and women which heretofore have been considered the re- sult of fundamental maleness and female- ness respectively are but the result of en- vironment and sexual heredity. It is now my purpose to give reasons for believing that if in the preceding hundreds of gen- erations the conditions and environment (of the two sexes had been reversed men would now very likely exhibit the traits usually termed feminine; while women probably would be the larger and more vigorous sex and show the same superior- ity over men in invention, initiative, mechanics, mathematics, logic and powers of ratiocination that men now exhibit over women, fit is because of the high place Mr. Spencer holds as a scientific philos- opher that I venture the extended quota- tions following; and also because of the 323 SEX EQUALITY especial pertinence of these extracts to the matters under discussion. The following is from The Study of Sociology, page 375 : "The remaining qualitative distinctions between the minds of men and women are those which have grown out of their mutual relations as stronger and weaker. If we trace the genesis of human charac- ter, by considering the conditions of exist- ence thru which the human race passed in early barbaric times and during civiliza- tion, we shall see that the weaker sex has naturally acquired certain mental traits by its dealings with the stronger. In the course of the struggles for existence among wild tribes those tribes survived in which the men were not only powerful and courageous, but aggressive, unscrupulous, intensely egoistic. Necessarily, then, the men of the conquering races which gave origin to the civilized races were men in whom the brutal characteristics were dominant; and necessarily the women of such races, having to deal with brutal men, 324 HERBERT SPENCER ON WOMAN prospered in proportion as they possest, or acquired, fit adjustments of nature. " How were women, unable by strength to hold their own, otherwise enabled to hold their own? Several mental traits helped them to do this. We may set down, first, the ability to please and the concomitant love of approbation. Clearly, other things equal, among women living at the mercy of men, those who succeeded most in pleasing would be the most likely to survive and leave posterity. And (rec- ognizing the predominant descent of qual- ities on the same side) this, acting on suc- cessive generations, tended to establish, as a feminine trait, a special solicitude to be approved, and an aptitude of manner to this end. " Similarly, the wives of merciless sav- ages must, other things equal, have prospered in proportion to their powers of disguising their feelings. Women who betrayed the state of antagonism produced in them by ill treatment, would be less likely to survive and leave offspring than 325 SEX EQUALITY those who concealed their antagonism; and hence, by inheritance and selection, a growth of this trait proportionate to the requirement. In some cases, again, the arts of persuasion enabled women to pro- tect themselves and, by implication, their offspring where, in the absence of such arts, they would have disappeared early or would have reared fewer children. " One further ability may be named as likely to be cultivated and established the ability to distinguish quickly the pass- ing feelings of those around. In barbar- ous times a woman who could, from a movement, tone of voice or expression of face, instantly detect in her savage husband the passion that was rising, would be likely to escape dangers run into by a woman less skilled in interpreting the natural language of feeling. Hence, from the perpetual exer- cise of this power, and the survival of those having most of it, we may infer its establishment as a feminine faculty. Or- dinarily, this feminine faculty, showing 326 HERBERT SPENCER ON WOMAN itself in an aptitude for guessing the state of mind thru the external signs, ends simply in intuitions formed without as- signable reasons ; but when, as happens in rare cases, there is joined with it skill in psychological analysis, there results an ex- tremely remarkable ability to interpret the mental states of others. Of this we have a living example never hitherto paralleled among women, and in but few, if any, cases exceeded among men. 1 "Of course, it is not asserted that the specialties of mind here described, as having been developed in women by the necessities of defense in their dealings with men, are peculiar to them; in men also they have been developed as aids to defense in their dealings with one another. But the difference is that whereas, in their dealings with one another, men depended on these aids only in some measure, women in their dealings with men depended upon them almost wholly within the domestic circle as 1 This is supposed to have reference to George Eliot. 327 SEX EQUALITY without it. Hence, in virtue of that par- tial limitation of heredity by sex, which many facts thruout nature show us, they have come to be more marked in women than in men. . . . " Those unlikenesses of mind between men and women which, under the condi- tions, were to be expected, are the unlike- nesses we actually find. That they are fixt in degree by no means follows: in- deed, the contrary follows. Determined as we see some of them are by adapta- tion of primitive women's natures to the natures of primitive men, it is inferable that as civilization readjusts men's na- tures to higher social requirements, there goes on a corresponding readjustment be- tween the natures of men and women, tending in sundry respects to diminish their differences. Especially may we anticipate that those mental peculiarities developed in women as aids to defense against men in barbarous times, will di- minish. It is probable, too, that tho all kinds of power will continue to be at- 328 HERBERT SPENCER ON WOMAN tractive to them the attractiveness of physical strength, and the mental at- tributes that commonly go along with it, will decline; while the attributes which conduce to social influence will become more attractive. Further, it is to be an- ticipated that the higher culture of wom- en, carried on within such limits as shall not unduly tax the physique (and here, by higher culture, I do not mean mere lan- guage-learning and an extension of the detestable cramming system at present in use) will in other ways reduce the con- trast. Slowly leading to the result every- where seen thruout the organic world, of a self -preserving power inversely propor- tionate to the race-preserving power, it will entail a less-early arrest of individual evolution, and a diminution of those mental differences between men and wom- en which the early arrest produces. . . . "As the validity of this group of infer- ences depends on the occurrence of that partial limitation of heredity of sex here assumed, it may be said that I should f ur- 329 SEX EQUALITY nish proof of its occurrence. Were the place fit, this might be done. I might de- tail evidence that has been collected show- ing the much greater liability there is for a parent to bequeath malformations and diseases to children of the same sex than to those of the opposite sex. I might cite the multitudinous instance of sexual dis- tinctions, as of plumage in birds and coloring in insects, and especially those marvelous ones of dimorphism and poly- morphism among females of certain spe- cies of Lepidoptera, as necessarily imply- ing (to those who accept the hypothesis of evolution) the predominant transmission of traits to descendants of the same sex. It will suffice, however, to instance, as more especially relevant, the cases of sexual distinctions within the human race itself, which have arisen in some varieties and not in others. That in some varieties the men are bearded and in others not, may be taken as strong evidence of this partial limitation of heredity; and per- haps still stronger evidence is yielded by 330 HERBERT SPENCER ON WOMAN that peculiarity of feminine form still found in some of the negro races, and especially the Hottentots, which does not distinguish to any such extent the women of other races from the men. There is also the fact, to which Agassiz draws at- tention, that among the South American Indians males and females differ less than they do among the negroes and the higher races; and this reminds us that among Europeans and Eastern nations the men and women differ, both bodily and mental- ly, not quite in the same ways and to the same degrees, but in somewhat different ways and degrees a fact which would be inexplicable were there no partial limita- tion of heredity by sex. ' ' Thruout Mr. Spencer's writings when 1 1 wish to call attention to a phrase Mr. Spencer uses in the fore- goingnamely, "heredity by sex," or "the predominant descent of qualities on the same side." I had written several chapters of this book before reading Mr. Spencer on the Study of Sociology from which the above extracts are taken. For some years I have been aware of this principle of heredity, but was not aware that any other had per- ceived its general bearing or had given it a name. Darwin chose the phrase " sexual selection " for one of the important factors on which his system is based, and I had an excellent precedent for naming this principle " sexual heredity." Mr. Spencer's phrase " heredity by sex " has the same meaning. 331 SEX EQUALITY discussing the differences between men and women, lie attributes them to differ- ences in environment; nowhere does he suggest that differences between men and women may have arisen from a con- stitutional or fundamental distinction. In the chapter " Status of Woman," found in Principles of Sociology, Mr. Spencer points out that in no way is the moral progress of mankind so clearly shown as by contrasting the position of women among savages with that in civilized life. Among warlike peoples the position of women is uniformly low. The men are often absent in war, and so excessive bur- dens are placed upon the women, and the lower the women the less respect and con- sideration do they receive from the men. As war wanes and industrialism increases, men and women join in similar occupa- tions and both are uplifted. Among peo- ples habitually warlike, polygamy becomes 332 HERBERT SPENCER ON WOMAN universal and women are correspondingly degraded. As industrialism advances and men and women engage in similar pursuits and are brought into closer social contact, monogamy becomes more and more the custom; and the more monogamy is en- forced the higher the condition of women, which is true alike of civilized and bar- barous peoples. The Pueblos may be cited as a simple community having a high industrial organization, among whom monogamy is firmly adhered to, and in consequence, the status of woman is re- markably high. Among this people there is " courtship and exercise of choice by girls and none is forced to marry against her will, however eligible her parents con- sider the match. Sometimes the usual or- der of courtship is reversed: when a girl is disposed to marry she does not wait for a young man to propose to her, but selects one to her own liking and consults her 333 SEX EQUALITY father who visits the parents of the youth and acquaints them with his daughter's wishes. ' ' The above is full of suggestion. In our civilization, custom forbids a young wom- an, no matter how her affections may be engaged, to give a sign until the young man has signified his preference. Per- haps this condition is a survival from the time when a wife was obtained by capture or purchase. The double standard of morals one for the man and another and very different one for the woman was no doubt established by the men who owned their wives, and it has been carefully guarded and handed down to the present time. Another custom and relict from the same source and time is not so clearly un- derstood the necessity of labeling a wom- an Mrs. or Miss, and thus indicating whether she is or has been some man's property, or whether she is still in the 334 HERBERT SPENCER ON WOMAN market. When we have established equal standards for both sexes and abolished the last remnant of woman's subjection we shall no longer demand these labels. The great lack of development in wom- en is tersely and picturesquely exprest in the following quotation from Spencer's Principles of Psychology, Volume II, page 538. After defining intellectual evo- lution as a broadening of ideas, the ac- quiring of a power to classify and coordi- nate facts and to recognize general laws, Spencer says : "How necessary is this consensus we may, indeed, see in the less cultivated in our own society, and especially in women of the inferior ranks. The united traits distinguishing them are : that they quickly form very positive beliefs which are diffi- cult to change ; that their thoughts are full of special, and mainly personal experi- ences, with but few general truths, and no truths of high generality; that any ab- 335 SEX EQUALITY stract conception exprest to them they can never detach from a concrete case; that they are inexact alike in processes and statements, and are even averse to preci- sion ; that they go on doing things in the ways they were taught, never imagining better methods, however obvious; that such a thing as the framing of an hypoth- esis, and reasoning upon it as an hypoth- esis, is incomprehensible to them ; and thus it is impossible for them deliberately to suspend judgment and to balance evi- dence. Thus the intellectual traits which in the primitive man are the results not of limited experiences only but of corre- spondingly undeveloped faculties, may be traced among ourselves in those cases where the life, relatively meager in its ex- periences, has not cultivated these facul- ties up to the capacity of the type." While it is obvious that the above ap- plies especially to the ignorant classes, the friends of and workers for woman's up- lift will achieve best results from their 336 HERBERT SPENCER ON WOMAN efforts if they open their minds to the fact that this characterization applies, with exceptions, more or less to all classes of women, even the better educated and the more intellectual; that, indeed, the in- ability to generalize is conspicuously a feminine characteristic. 337 CHAPTER XIII MARRIAGE AND MATEHOOD IN former chapters I have emphasized the wide gulf that still exists between the minds of men and women. Boys emerging from childhood are quick to discern this disparity. The mother, when adequately equipped, can not fail to be a most potent force in molding her son's mind and form- ing his character. During the first ten years of the boy's life, the mother's influ- ence is apt to dominate. Thereafter, he becomes aware of his mother's limita- tions; his affection remains, but he now finds himself engrossed in activities and pursuing lines of thought to which women, until recent years, have been strangers; and so the mother's influence wanes. But the seed of a different relation between mother and children is now being sown. 338 MARRIAGE AND MATEHOOD Not only are our higher schools and gain- ful pursuits open to women, but also the influences outside of schools are rapidly augmenting that stimulate women to in- tellectual activity. When thru such forces women evolve powers now termed masculine of generalization, philosoph- ical reasoning, logic, initiative and the like they will not only be IT ore attractive and companionable to their husbands, but will also be far more competent teachers to their children; their enlarged range of thought inspiring greater confidence from their sons and stimulating high- er ideals in both sons and daughters. It is a common observation that great men are usually born of highly-endowed moth- ers. It follows that the greater the oppor- tunities opened to women, the wider will be the mental range and activities of their children; and the larger the intellectual equipment of mothers, the finer and 339 SEX EQUALITY stronger the nature of their sons as well as daughters. It is thus seen that to in- crease woman's opportunities is as impor- tant to men as to women. One other principle has an important bearing on marriage. In foregoing chap- ters allusion has been made to the "under- sized and flat-chested women" and their lack of physical strength for the sustained efforts necessary to succeed in the higher realms of human endeavor. It remains to speak of the bearing which the widespread frailty of women has upon matehood. It is true, frailty is not an insurmountable obstacle to domestic happiness. Brown- ing lived a life of great joy and fulness altho in closest association with an in- valid wife. This historic pair compan- ioned each other to a very unusual degree in the higher realms of thought; in their case, obstacles of relatively minor im- portance were readily overcome, and the 340 MARRIAGE AND MATEHOOD prolonged illness of the wife only evoked greater compassion and attention. Not many are so fortunately endowed; the need for close sympathy and companion- ship is as extended as civilization, and one of the stumbling-blocks to an indefinitely prolonged honeymoon, where the husband is not richly endowed with unselfishness, is an invalid wife. The course of life and environment herein recommended for women, while tending to develop qualities of mind now generally supposed to be fundamentally masculine, also develops size, strength and health, and so augments the bonds and strengthens the ties which bind together the units of the family and the state. All things work together for good for those who keep in the pathway of truth. We hear much nowadays of the evils of race suicide because of a lessened birth- rate. When women have more fully mas- 341 SEX EQUALITY tered the gainful pursuits, and young women enjoy substantially as large in- comes as young men, marriage will not be deferred until so late in life as is now more and more the custom. Under present con- ditions the young man is moved to wait until he has saved a sum sufficient to en- able him to set up housekeeping and de- fray the expenses of the entire household, with a house-servant frequently included. When two of equal powers are engaged in the pursuit of means the competence will be gained in half the time. Earlier marriages produce more children. More- over, children born of large, strong and healthy women, instead of from "under- sized and flat-chested" invalids, have a much better assurance of life; and we shall thus get the better of race suicide in more ways than one. Numbers, however, are not everything. The quality of the child its intellectual and physical well- 342 MARRIAGE AND MATEHOOD being, its moral fiber and the assurance of a long life are quite as important to the upbuilding of the race as the multiplica- tion of units. Some may fear that this proposed change in the general life of women will work harm in the family circle and weak- en those influences which tend to safe- guard the child. A change in the educa- tion of our children has already improved their development and outlook on life. They are getting much better training of a practical sort in our public schools than could possibly fall to their lot in their homes, even under the highest priced and best qualified private tutors. No doubt our grandparents had many misgivings about trusting their children to a miscel- laneous day-school with strangers for teachers. But results have amply justi- fied the innovation. We can not deter- mine except by experiment whether a day- 343 SEX EQUALITY nursery, under competent supervision, is not as much better for our infants than home nursing, as our day-school is better than any ordinary method of home teach- ing. Many people are rightly solicitous about making new experiments, but ex- periments must be made if there is to be progress. The well-to-do American moth- er would likely be shocked if advised to send her infant from home to be nursed ; yet the English well-to-do mother does something not essentially different. She employs a nurse who takes entire charge of the infant, and the mother often does not see it more than once or twice a day, and then only for a brief period ; yet there is no apparent shock to sentiment. And what would be a still greater shock to the unaccustomed American mother is the English practise of sending the boy off to boarding-school at an early age, in which case the child visits his home but 344 MARRIAGE AND MATEHOOD two or three times a year for limited periods; and whatever the disadvantages of this custom, there is no evidence of its waning. On the plan suggested, the strong, healthy and vigorous mother, skilled in some trade or profession by which she might earn as much as or even more than her husband, has time in the morning to give her child an ample caressing, to look into the adequacy of its care, and then leave for the day to en- gage in lucrative, congenial employment that to many would be far more attractive than the monotonous tedium of an un- changing environment where endless household cares, routine work and drudgery weary and dishearten. The enfranchized woman, like her hus- band, may return in the evening from a well-spent day glad to take up do- mestic duties for a while with which her sister of to-day is weary, and far more 345 SEX EQUALITY capable of giving essential service to both the children and the home than she could possibly be had she remained the livelong day disheartened by its te- dium and solitude. She is far more likely, in these circumstances, to engage her hus- band with interesting or intellectual con- versation and make herself attractive than her worn-out prototype of the present day who has been tied to her relatively mon- otonous life. It is obvious that whatever tends to up- lift marriage and promote matehood is directly in line with social progress ; and any sociologic change which increases woman's opportunities for independence and unf oldment strengthens marriage and favors matehood. The dawn of an ideal fraternity is yet far in the future ; and even single concrete examples of perfect marriage are all too rare phenomena; nevertheless, perfect 346 MARRIAGE AND MATEHOOD matehood is a condition not second in im- portance to any other requisite of an ideal life. The possibility of its existence de- pends and must always depend upon ab- solute monogamy, and upon the same rule of conduct for the man that is universally demanded for the woman. To be ideal it must be based on mutual love and un- selfishness, and be free from worldly or commercial considerations. To show that this is instinctively felt to be true, it is only necessary to refer to the universal abhorrence of the social evil. To be free from all commercial taint it is necessary that one seeking an ideal marriage, whether the seeker be man or woman, must be in a position of financial inde- pendence, inherited or acquired. The selling of one's body for worldly consid- erations, even for life and in strict monog- amy, should be regarded with aversion whether more or less will depend upon the 347 SEX EQUALITY intelligence and enlightenment of the ob- server. Custom and precedent have much to do with our perceptions of right and wrong. Since our otherwise most ad- vanced people give their daughters to husbands who are able, or who promise to provide a comfortable living, the custom of bartering them on this basis has become established; and while multitudes of mothers are seeking such bargains for their daughters, multitudes of daughters are cooperating in such pursuit, both with- out thinking custom has so blinded them of the similarity of their quest to that "social evil" so repugnant that we in- stinctively shrink from pronouncing its name. It is no doubt in their favor that these bargain-hunters are usually igno- rant or unconscious of the nature of the trade they pursue, but unconsciousness of a sin does not free the transgressor from its penalties. This is made plain when- 348 MARRIAGE AND MATEHOOD ever unconsciously we disobey the laws of health and hygiene. The transgressor is no less liable to contract tuberculosis from sleeping in and breathing the poisonous air of an unventilated chamber than if conscious of the folly of such habit; and so a matrimonial bargain-hunter, uncon- scious of the sin of letting worldly con- siderations determine the choice of a hus- band or a wife, is as certain to suffer from the immorality of the bargain as if con- scious of its demoralizing nature. This is but one of many potent reasons why women should be encouraged to enter gainful occupations. Without financial independence or adequate earning power, a woman often finds herself in the dilem- ma of either accepting a worldly marriage unsanctified by love, or facing penury with all the misery it entails. The same argument applies with equal force to the question of education for 349 SEX EQUALITY women. It has been remarked that addi- tional earning power is one of the strong- est inducements that prevail with young men to acquire a collegiate education ; and when we consider the momentous impor- tance to women of financial independence and freedom of choice in marriage, it is evident that a collegiate or technical edu- cation may be of as much service to the one sex as to the other. Whether the education is sought in a woman's or in a coeducational college is of less importance; at the same time, the segregation of the sexes tends to deterio- ration, whereas a mingling of the sexes in intellectual pursuits and in recreations has a mutually beneficial influence. It is not strange that society has en- listed every precaution to safeguard mar- riage. It is the basis of the family, and the family is the unit of the state. If the units are ideal, the state likewise must be 350 MARRIAGE AND MATEHOOD so, and hence ideal marriages are indis- pensable factors of an ideal state. The supreme test for determining the social value of any system for the develop- ment of women or the race is the effect it is likely to have on marriage and mate- hood. What is ideal marriage 1 ? In the last analysis its basis is the mutual at- traction of sex. But, however adequate and perfect this may be, and however in- dispensable as a basis, it is still but a be- ginning. It is the spiritual sympathy and subtile charm which may evolve from a union that is the thing to be chiefly de- sired. Since the beginning of time this indefinable charm has been the theme and inspiration of poet, story-teller and artist. Its influence, however, is not limit- ed to the realm of the imagination. The inexpressible charm that fills the lives of those fortunately mated or those adapt- ed for matehood and inspired by its up- 351 SEX EQUALITY lift has been a moving incentive to phi- lanthropy and a never-failing inspiration in other fields of human endeavor to the statesman, the scientist, the inventor, the teacher, as well as to the poet and artist. Strong friendships are also impelling, and these may exist between individuals of the same or opposite sex. What is the secret of this charm ? Obviously it has its roots in similarity of tastes and modes of thought. For example, let us take the in- terior of a drawing-room where the hus- band has accompanied the wife to a re- ception. The guests are divided into coteries the men in groups here, the women disposed there and while the former exchange views on business or politics, the latter are most likely discuss- ing the popular novel, the program at the women 's club, or the latest fashion. The individuals composing these groups come together because of a similarity of 352 MARRIAGE AND MATEHOOD activities, opinions and predilections. The men are not interested in the novel to the degree that women are and the fashions or doings of women hard- ly interest them at all; and, per contra, women do not usually care for discussions about business or public men and meas- ures. To be sure, occasionally one finds women quite as deeply interested in po- litical, economic or sociologic questions as men; and such will invariably be grouped with the men, not so much be- cause of sexual attraction but because they are interested in the subjects with which men naturally concern themselves. Men do not form groups to exclude wom- en because they are women, but follow a natural law of intellectual selection. Oth- er things being equal, men no doubt prefer the companionship of women because of the natural attraction of sex, and some day all such unnatural groupings will be things of the past. 353 SEX EQUALITY These contentions are too obvious to re- quire proof. Two young people under the allurement of sex and, let us suppose, with mutual earnestness and good intentions, fall in love and are married. They have youth, spirit and abounding life and for a time they are happy. But cares and troub- les come and these with monotony are the death of romance. The wife is ab- sorbed in her domestic or maternal duties and finds her only respite in the latest novel or the neighborhood gossip. The husband comes home tired with cares of business and needs an atmosphere of cheerful entertainment. He is not inter- ested in the novel, and not always in the gossip. Dinner over, he departs to his club or wherever congenial company awaits him. Carlyle no doubt frequented Lady Ashburton's drawing-rooms not so much because he was seeking the society of grandees as that he was fatigued with 354 MARRIAGE AND MATEHOOD hard work and weary of home dissensions and longed for the flow of wit and repartee which entertained him. It is, of course, quite as important for the hap- piness of the cultured and aspiring wom- an to be mated to her equal as it is for the cultured and aspiring man. This dis- crimination in selection is a prerequisite to mutual happiness. So far as this re- lates to men, a husband returning to his home after a day's strenuous toil, who finds a wife well informed on current topics, who can enter into his views* upon matters of public concern and is able to contribute fresh views of her own, is not nearly so apt to. seek his evening relaxa- tion elsewhere. If the husband is further fortunate in social acquaintances with home circles where the wives are the intel- lectual equals of their husbands, there is an additional charm to his social life. Such husbands have no occasion to join 355 SEX EQUALITY men's clubs ; they are happier at home and in their own social circles. If a club is still desired, it will naturally be composed of both men and women. This will in- sure increased refinement and greater en- joyment. When material advantages are ignored and marriage is the result of unselfish love, together with similarity of tastes and development, domestic life will yield its greatest joy; and the charm of matehood will continue thru life. "What marriage may be in the case of two persons of cultivated faculties, identi- cal in opinions and purposes, between whom there exists the best kind of equal- ity, similarity of powers and capacities with reciprocal superiority in them so that each can enjoy the luxury of looking up to the other and can have alternately the pleasure of leading and of being led in the path of development I will not at- tempt to describe. To those who can con- 356 MARRIAGE AND MATEHOOD ceive it, there is no need ; to those who can not, it would appear the dream of an en- thusiast. But I maintain, with the pro- foundest conviction, that this, and this only, is the ideal of marriage ; and that all opinions, customs and institutions which favor any other notion of it, or turn the conceptions and aspirations connected with it into any other direction, by what- ever pretenses they may be colored, are relics of primitive barbarism. The moral regeneration of mankind will only really commence when the most fundamental of the social relations is placed under the rule of equal justice, and when human be- ings learn to cultivate their strongest sym- pathy with an equal in rights and in cul- tivation." JOHN STUART MILL in the Subjection of Woman. It was after the manuscript of this book had been completed that my attention was called to "The Woman of Evolution and 357 SEX EQUALITY Pessimism," a chapter in Footnotes of Evolution* by David Starr Jordan, Ph.D., President of Leland Stanford Junior University. After quoting liberally from Schopenhauer's Essay on Woman [Co- pious extracts may be seen in Chapter V], Doctor Jordan says : "The * lady-nuisance' which distresses the philosopher is only a phase of the 'lord-nuisance' which has temporarily stood in the way of the progress of Euro- pean democracy. If the ' lady-nuisance' is ridiculous to-day, the 'lord-nuisance' will be equally absurd to-morrow. Pomp and fatuity know no sex. The dry rot of life without effort affects men and women alike. Schopenhauer's attitude thruout the discussion of woman is that of a blase collector discussing his neigh- bor's bric-a-brac. He finds it out of taste and out of harmony not worth half it cost. But it is none of his business, and he has no responsibility for it. 1 D. Appleton & Co., New York. 358 MARRIAGE AND MATEHOOD "Waiving all minor criticisms, we find in this harsh review many elements of truth. It is an expression of the results of an attempt to 'see things as they really are. ' But to see things in such fashion is not to see the whole truth. The greatest truth lies in what shall be, in the flow of the underlying stream of tendencies. Why are things as they are ? From what condition have they come, and what is the movement of the forces which govern fu- ture conditions? "If the work and the life of woman seem less important than those of man, it is because we measure them from a man's standpoint, not from that of humanity. Prom the standpoint of the race, the sexes can not be unequal. The one sex balances the other. The line in the long run must be drawn evenly and equally. If in any race of people the woman does not do her share of the life work, the process of natural selection sets this race aside in favor of some one more normally consti- tuted. . . . 359 SEX EQUALITY "Let us for present purposes accept Schopenhauer's analysis of the defects of woman's character. May we not say that for each real defect there is an historic cause ? To remove the wrong is to destroy its reaction. If women are given to small deceit, it is because men have been ad- dicted to small tyranny. If women are short-sighted, it is because in the nature of things the near things have been wom- an 's province. If a woman has not a ju- dicial mind, it is because the protection of the child makes her necessarily a partizan. If woman in her care of the species neg- lects the individual, it is because in the past she has been driven or sold into the custody of individuals not lovable for themselves. If she shows in one form or another the same weaknesses as man, it is because she is, in fact, very man, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. We are all poor creatures, and to quarrel with the defects of human nature is as futile as to hold i a feud with the equator. ' The desire of woman to seek mastery thru the con- 360 MARRIAGE AND MATEHOOD quest of man is in part an outgrowth of the militarism of past generations, when security was possible only thru such means. It is a trait of the lower races of men, as of the monkey families, that the male should be a tyrant. Whenever tyranny exists it is met by deceit. In the reign of physical force, those who are weak must win strength by the force of love or intrigue. This condition is not confined to woman. Those men who were favorites of princes used the same meth- ods of conquest. Moreover, the power of a strong will over a weak one has always been a factor in history, even tho the strong will be in a weak body. The free- dom of man has brought with it the free- dom of woman. With woman as with man not all are ready to be free. The fool when free shows his folly. It is safer for him to follow his class, to govern his life by tried conventionality, rather than by imperfect reason. The emancipation of woman permits the growth of senseless fads and meaningless superstitions, dis- 361 SEX EQUALITY torted desires and hysterical impulses. But the emancipation of man has had just the same effect. In the long run all these things are outworn; the survival of the fittest is the survival of the wise. "The offensive phases of 'new woman- hood' are temporary and self -curative. They are of the nature of fads which en- cumber and disguise real progress. The woman of the future will be the fit and equal partner of the future man. 1 As the wise and the strong will prize the woman- ly virtues, so will she be modest, sympa- thetic and beautiful. Nevertheless, she need not lack a degree of sturdy strength, without which motherhood fails of its best fulfilment. Yet in so far as the highest physical activity and its coordinate rea- soning power are not to ~be demanded of women in general, so in the nature of things must the brain and muscle of wom- an retain qualities of immaturity? The ac- celerated development of these qualities in 1 The italics are mine. * The italics are mine. 362 MARRIAGE AND MATEHOOD the male of a race, 'sore bestead by the environment, ' must leave the female rela- tively undeveloped if judged by the stand- ard of the man. "But, judged by the standard of wom- anhood, man shows an equal number of crude instincts and embryonic traits. In the division of labor this is necessarily the case. If it were not, there would need be no division of sex, and womanhood and manhood would be identical. " '. . . Could we make her as the man, Sweet love were slain. His dearest bond is this, Not like to like, but like in difference.' 1 'When woman has perfect freedom of choice in marriage, there will be more love in the world than now. Too many women now marry under duress. Money or title, or place or security, are not valid reasons for marriage. The chances are that a union on such a basis will never prove a marriage at all. Nor is it right that marriage should rest on mere propin- quity. The choice of the nearest scarcely 363 SEX EQUALITY rises above the automatic loves of the lower animals. "In the conditions arising from an ex- panding civilization, the art of being a woman becomes a difficult one. It is un- safe on the one hand not to take part in industrial or intellectual activities. On the other hand, to be absorbed in these matters may be to lose sight of the more important functions which must belong to woman in any condition of social de- velopment. 'Wo to the land that works its women ! ' says Laurence Gronland. But there is equal wo to the land in which women find nothing to do. On the human side idleness and inertia are just as de- structive to women as to men. Brain and muscle must be used each in its way, and the penalties for disuse are stagnation, ennui and misery. It is not every wom- an, as matters are, who can find occupa- tion in household cares and in the train- ing of children. To the extent that women are not so occupied their need of thought 364 MARRIAGE AND MATEHOOD and action is not essentially different from that of men. 1 "A woman, like a man, must find some- thing to do if she is to avoid misery and decay. Her release from the industrial world is conditional on the fact that she has something better to do than to win food; something more vital to social de- velopment than to add to the physical re- sources of life. So long as society exists, the l eternal womanly' will find its own sphere of full activity. In the long run that division of labor will prove best which justifies itself by enduring." How can the woman of the future be- come the fit and equal partner of the fu- ture man if she is doomed to a life by which her brain must retain qualities of immaturity? If exclusion from indus- trial and intellectual activities neces- sarily causes immaturity and deteriora- tion of power; if the penalties for disuse 1 The italics are mine. 365 SEX EQUALITY of brain and muscle are stagnation and misery ; and if the woman of the future is to be man's equal partner, have we not a sure promise that any custom which in- terferes with woman's industrial and in- tellectual activities is destined to be done away with ? Doctor Jordan refers to women who are not occupied in the duties of maternity, and concedes that these women need the same intellectual and industrial activities as men. But have we any ground for con- cluding that women who are fulfilling the functions of maternity are thereby ex- cluded from exercising full mental and physical activities in other directions? Even under the restricted conditions which have prevailed in civilization large numbers of women who have borne and successfully reared children have at the same time become eminent in intellectual and artistic pursuits. It is the teaching 366 MAERIAGE AND MATEHOOD of science that the natural life of an an- imal is six times the period necessary for its growth, and by this computation the normal life of man is from one hundred to one hundred and twenty years. When the earth has become fully peopled and man has learned to live in obedience to physiological law, approximately all the children that one woman will need to pro- duce are the two necessary to replace their parents. Thus, there would be eighty to one hundred years of adult life to each individual, and it is clear that two chil- dren, or even three, would be no appre- ciable handicap to the women who are moved to engage in intellectual and indus- trial pursuits. If human matehood and companionship be the highest expression of life, and not the " dream of an enthusiast," there is no reason why the enlightened father should not take an active and effective interest in 367 SEX EQUALITY the uprearing of the children; and when he does this, there will be all the more time for the woman to companion the man in life's various activities. To quote again the words of John Stuart Mill: "The moral regeneration of mankind will only really commence when the most fundamental of the social rela- tions is placed under the rule of equal justice." CHAPTER XIV THE FUTURE OF WOMAN ETERNAL JUSTICE THE comparative separation of the sexes has been one cause of the slow prog- ress of woman. The mingling of the sexes in family life, in the school and the church, in industrial and professional work and in efforts to promote the general welfare is mutually uplifting. The iso- lation of either sex, whether in the harem, the nunnery, the monastery, or the army and navy, inevitably exerts a deteriorating influence. The cessation of war, and the entrance of the soldier into industrial pur- suits, altho a great gain, is only one step. For further progress it is necessary that women enter more generally the ranks of industrial workers. Thru this increased association the refining and elevating in- fluences which each sex under favorable 369 SEX EQUALITY conditions exerts upon the other will be augmented. The status of woman is rapidly improving because of the financial independence now coming to her thru in- dustrial and professional pursuits. While this is a great advance on past conditions, it must not be accepted as the final goal. The basic idea of this book is the funda- mental and ultimate equality of the hu- man ego, whether embodied in the one or the other sex ; and the aim of these pages is to explain the nature of this equality and to promote its practical realization. When woman, thru environment and heredity, has developed in similar degree the powers of generalization, initiative, invention and logical deduction which characterize man, and when man has evolved those powers of intuition, spirit- uality, refinement, patience and unselfish- ness which distinguish woman, then will men and women truly companion each 370 THE FUTURE OF WOMAN other and their mutually uplifting influ- ence will be at its culmination. In a former chapter devoted to an expo- sition of the teachings of Herbert Spen- cer on woman's development and the law of sexual heredity is found a complete ex- planation of why at the present time and especially in civilized nations women are smaller and weaker and have more restricted minds than men. It is difficult to see how any one who adopts the hypoth- esis of evolution as an explanation of cosmic phenomena can contravene Mr. Spencer's reasoning or deny his conclu- sions. Accepting these deductions as proven, there inevitably follow some most revolutionary conclusions. Jf wom- en are undersized, flat-chested and phys- ically weak and unhealthy, because of their restricted environment during thousands of generations, it follows that generations having a radically different environment 371 SEX EQUALITY will develop in radically different direc- tions.; Spencer says by implication, and Darwin directly affirms, that where the female is smaller and weaker than the male it is because of a difference in envi- ronment and heredity. A radically differ- ent environment for both sexes is in- evitable as civilization advances. In savagery and barbarism war and strenu- ous endeavor in the open were the exclu- sive occupations of men; while women handicapped by maternity and a restric- tive environment were reared under con- ditions far less arduous than men. War is waning, industrialism is waxing. In- dustries had their birth in the hands of women; the entrance of woman into in- dustrial life is but a return to occupations that were predominantly hers. The ap- plication of steam and electricity to ma- chinery is entirely favorable to woman. Brute strength is giving way to skill. The 372 THE FUTURE OF WOMAN conditions of life are changing and ev- ery advance in civilization is an invita- tion to women to work side by side with men v y Since free exercise gave men their stat- Ure, and since restriction is the cause of women's inferiority in size, strength and health, it follows that so long as the present trend toward healthful exercise on the part of women continues, the pres- ent disparity between the sexes will di- minish; and it is difficult to escape the conclusion that when woman has had an environment as favorable as that of man, for a sufficient number of generations, she will become his equal in physical develop- ment. Such a conclusion presents an in- teresting and attractive perspective. The frontispiece to this book is a reproduction of the sculptured group of Electra and Orestes, found in Herculaneum, and now in the Naples Museum. The approximate 373 SEX EQUALITY physical equality of the pair in no way detracts from the woman's charm or the man's manliness. It may be contended that this is only an imaginary conception of the sculptor. Those who urge this for- get that in the flower of Greek civilization, and especially in Sparta, women were given much the same exercises in the gym- nasium as men; and it has been con- jectured that it was Grecian every-day life that gave to Plato the conception, em- bodied in his Republic, to which previous reference has been made, that women ought to have the same education as men. Professor Donaldson in his work Woman: Her Position and Influence in Ancient Greece says that a vase of the fifth cen- tury before Christ, found in Girgenti, gives us representations of Alcasus and Sappho, and on these Sappho is taller than Alcseus and exceedingly beautiful. In the celebrated group of Orpheus, Eurydice 374 THE FUTURE OF WOMAN and Hermes, the female figure is fully as ample and well-developed as the males. Similar conceptions of the feminine physique in Grecian sculpture may be noted in such classic groups as the Atlas Metope from Olympia, the Phigalian Temple frieze and several other famous monuments of that singularly art-gifted race. In our own days, the popularity of Du Maurier's, of Gibson's and of Christy's types indicates a vague but favorable response in the public mind to the demand for a physically well-devel- oped woman suggestive rather of an ideal Diana or Minerva, of a Juno or a Venus, than the frail products of our hot- house civilization. ' m The law which governs woman's physi- cal evolution applies with equal force to her artistic and intellectual development. Darwin tells us that for women to reach the same standard as man (and this ap- 375 SEX EQUALITY plies both to the physical and intellectual parts) she must be trained to energy and perseverance at the same time that her reason and imagination are exercised to their fullest scope. It would seem that this distinguished man of science had a prevision of woman's entrance not only into the gainful pursuits but into the ar- tistic, scientific and intellectual profes- sions as well. If Darwin had taken an especial interest in woman's social en- franchisement and physical and mental development, and had desired to set the seal of his approval on woman's entrance into public life he could hardly have chosen apter words than those quoted on the title-page ; for it is precisely the mul- tifarious activities, physical and intel- lectual, in which women are now engaging at a continuously augmenting ratio, that are covered by Darwin's utterances. And truth is truth whether arrived at thru the 376 THE FUTURE OF WOMAN slow and patient steps of the experiment- ing scientist or flashed into the mind of the poet and seer. Among the excerpts from the poets following the title-page is a quotation from Wordsworth which affirms that the future woman will have the same health as man that this vigor will be the result of an outdoor life, as typified in the shepherd boy that her spirit is happy and joyous at all times and seasons and that these traits, joined to an abundant maternity, reveal her divinity; and Tennyson tells us that she is divinely tall as well as fair. It is suggestive that this verse from Wordsworth is taken from a poem addrest "To a young lady who had been reproached for taking long walks in the country, ' ' our grandmothers evidently believing that outdoor exercise for women was unsuitable and unladylike. In less than a century after Words- 377 SEX EQUALITY worth wrote, and less than half a century since Darwin's epoch-making book, we are privileged to see their prophecies par- tially fulfilled, and neither has woman been unsexed nor have her charms depre- ciated. On the contrary, her attractions are increased. In scanning the portraits of celebrated women included in this vol- ume the reader will observe that a goodly portion are distinguished by womanly beauty ; and their biographies reveal that a similar proportion excelled both as mothers and members of society their feminine traits strengthened and en- hanced by their developed mental powers. Students of the woman problem are lia- ble to be misled. The two sexes have both made definite contributions to the race. At first glance it would seem that the contri- bution made by man is of far greater im- portance. With most people, material 378 THE FUTURE OF WOMAN splendors greatly outweigh spiritual qual- ities. To superficial minds the distinc- tion between savagery and civiliza- tion is signified by the absence or presence of colossal ships, railroads, skyscrapers, mechanical inventions, sci- ence and the arts. These more or less material achievements loom large and they are man's contributions. At first sight, they appear to eclipse woman's con- tributions of intuition, patience, self-sac- rifice, regard for the well-being of others, gentleness, love; in short, the graces of civilization. This view, however, is quite erroneous. The truth is that the con- tributions of man and woman are of equal value because equally indispensable. Civilization may well exult in material splendors, but no less does it stand in need of gentleness and love. A civilized man is distinguished from a savage quite as 379 SEX EQUALITY much by his gentler virtues as by his material achievements; and for the for- mer he is indebted to the evolutionary con- tributions of women. Furthermore, it is not by any means clear that the man has had an advantage over the woman in the communal life which resulted in these di- verse contributions. Is any enlightened person willing to say that he would rather be a slave-driver than a slave ? And who would venture to assign a higher value to men because by their ' ' unrestricted move- ments" they were able to evolve mathe- matical, mechanical and logical powers and those inventions upon which our material triumphs are based, yet held the weaker sex in abject subjection, than to women who thru this very subjection have evolved the graces that so distinguish them? The scales of eternal justice hang even. 380 THE FUTURE OF WOMAN There is satisfaction in the thought that the two sexes have been equal factors in the evolution of our present civilization and still more in the anticipation of a time when they will evolve into entire equality. As each sex in the past has played its nec- essary part in the drama of life, and is destined to share equally in the acquisi- tions and triumphs of coming ages, sex equality is seen to be an all-pervading law in savagery, in civilization and also in a fully evolved humanity. It is no mere " vision of the future" no mere hypoth- esis spun by a fanciful theorist; it is a living force inherent in humanity ages be- fore history an influence not to be mis- taken by the enlightened mind ; it is a sub- lime truth fulfilling an eternal purpose which shall transform a world of discord into a paradise. This conception, seen thru an adequate 381 SEX EQUALITY perspective, enables us better to under- stand the justice and grandeur of the eternal scheme of things. The more man learns, the less need he feels to criticize and advise the government of the uni- verse. 382 INDEX Achievements of men and women compared, 359, 378. Addams, Jane, 271. Agricultural colleges open to women, 118. Alternate sex, theory of, 219, 224. Amazons of Dahomey, 107. Anabolism, 53. Ancestral germ-plasms, 47. Anita Garibaldi, 162. Association of sexes beneficial, 369. Atherton, Gertrude, 157. Austen, Jane, 155. Bassi, Laura, 311. Beaux, Cecilia, 159. Boadicea, 130. Bonheur, Bosa, 158. Boys and girls, mentality tests, 126. Brain of sexes compared, 97. Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 150. Browning's home life, 340. Bryn Mawr, student government, 277. Burney, Frances, 153. Butterflies, variability of sex qualities, 63-66. Calderini, Novella, 311. Carlyle, crave for congeniality, 354. Carpenter, Edward, on intermediate sex, 220, 232 233. Cassandra, Felice, 311. Caterina, Sforza, 162. Catherine II. of Eussia, 133. Catherine of Siena, 161. Celebrated women of history, 130 et seq. Chauvan, Jeanne, 313. Children, home or school nurture, 343-345. 383 INDEX Christianity and democracy, 228. Christian science, founder of, 316-319. Christy's illustrations, 375. Civilization's debt to woman, 379-381. Coeducation, in United States, 274, 281-287. In England, 282, 284, 288. In Europe, 284-286, 289, 290. In Australia and New Zealand, 288, 290. Coleoptera, sex abnormalities, 62. Companionable women, 339-341, 353, 355, 370. Conservativeness of women, 163. Costal respiration, no sex distinction, 105. Countess of Derby, 137-139. Craigie, Mrs., 157. Cranial capacity, men and women, 96. Curie, Madame, 148. D 'Arblay, Madame, 153. Darwin, on sexual selection, 24. On use and disuse of functions, 45. Theories compared with Weissman's, 51. On training of woman, 123, 375, 376. De Bey, Cornelia, 272. Declaration of Independence and women, 42. Deland, Margaret, 157. Democracy and Christianity, 228. Derby, Countess of, 137-139. Dexterity, women inferior to men, 100, 101, 103. Disabilities of women, 21. Du Maurier's women, 375. Eddy, Mrs. Mary B., 316-319. Education helps woman, 349, 350. Electra and Orestes a type, 373. Elephants, males and females compared, 28. Eliot, Pres. C. W., on exercises of women, 111. Eliot, George, 156, 211, 327. Elizabeth, Queen of England, 132. Ellis, Havelock, on man and woman, 92-107. Enrichetta Castiglioni, 162. Environment, power of, 35, 260, 300, 371, 372, 373. And heredity illustrated by the Jews, 202-206. 384 INDEX Fagan, Mark, career of, 262-266. Fawcett, Mrs., 153. Flammarion, experiments on silkworms, 56. France, business women in, 319, 320. Freeman, Mrs., 157. Friendship, essence of, 352. Frink, Margaret, 309, 310. Fuller, Margaret, 152. Fundamental sex theory, 44, 52, 53, 229, 252. Geddes and Thomson on sex evolution, 44. Genius, inspiration of, 226. Germ-plasms of Weissman, 47. Gibson's type of girl, 375. Gilman, Mrs. C. P., 153. On woman and economies, 193 et seq. Girls and boys, growth compared, 94, 95. Grace Darling, 143. Greece, women in ancient, 374. Green, Mrs. Hetty E., career, 302-304. Habits modify species, 46. Haley, Margaret, career of, 266-270. Heredity by sex, 29, 73, 74, 76, 200, 222, 250, 253, 254, 328, 329, 330, 331. And environment explain women's faults, 164, 166, 178, 196. Force of, 260 et seq. Hero and heroine, 142. Heroism, instances of, 144, 145. Hertwig, O., on sex, 43. Human traits not sexual traits, 229, 233, 236, 261, 273. Hypatia of Alexandria, 147. Industrialism favors woman, 333. Ingelow, Jean, 150. Intermediate sex theory, 220, 221. Irish- American as type, 260, 261. 385 INDEX Jacobi, Dr. Mary P., 315. Jewish traits, results of suffering, 204. Jews, West and East End compared, 96, 97. Illustrate power of environment, 202-206. Joan of Arc, 132. Jordan, Dr. D. Starr, on cell-development, 87, 98. On the woman of evolution, 358-365. Katabolism, 53. Kauffmann, Angelica, 158, 211. Kelley, Mrs. N. H., 305, 306. Kempin, Miss, 313. Kundry, as type of redeemed woman, 187, 191, 192. Lambsoni, Clothilde, 311. Latent characters, Darwin on, 68-72. Lathom House, history of, 137-139. Lathrop, Julia, 272. Lebrun, Madame, 158, 211. Leland, C. G., on alternate sex, 219. Madame de Stael, 150. Man judged from woman's standard, 363. Maria Christina, 162. Maria Theresa of Austria, 135. Marie del Medici, 162. Marriage, conventional compared with social evil, 209, 348. Earlier desirable, 212, 213, 342. Marriage of love promoted by woman 's freedom, 217- 363. Both kinds, 347, 349, 363. Ideal, 351, 355, 356, 357. Martin, Sarah, 161. Martineau, H., 152. Matehood, perfect, characterized, 347, 351, 355-357. Maternity, no handicap to freedom, 366. Matriarchy, Doctor Ward on, 83. Matriarch, a modern, 109. McDowell, Mary, 272. Memory, test of in men and women, 126, 299. Men, traits developed by struggle, 25, 30. In savagery and barbarism, 27, 240. 386 INDEX Mental differences between men and women diminishing, 329. Mentality of sexes compared, 125-128. Mill, John Stuart, on ideal marriage, 356. Mind of woman on lower races, Thomas, 238. Mitchell, Maria, 148. Modesty, Weininger's theory of, 189. Modesty and free thought, 243. Monogamy in animals, 28. Favors woman's development, 333. Morality of sexes, different reasons for, 334. Mother, when influence wanes, 338. Freed from excessive home cares, 344-346. Mulock, Miss, 156. Murfree, Miss, 157. Natural selection, factor in man's development, 26. Occupations of primitive men and women, 106, 243-245. Orthoptera, sex abnormalities, 61. Outdoor exercises for women, 110. Piano-player, woman as, 22. Pigeon, effect of monogamy, 28. Plato on education of women, 122, 374. Polygamy, degrading to women, 332, 333. Primitive races, men and women compared, 23. Progress and evolution, 40. Pueblo Indians, high status of woman, 333. Queen Dowager of China as reformer, 140. Queen Elizabeth, 132. Queen Victoria, 140. Bace and sex attributes compared, 194, 210. Rainy day clubs and women, 256, 257. Eeel, Estelle, 313, 314. Eossetti, Christina, 150. Rubinstein on woman in music, 159. 387 INDEX Sand, George, 156. Sappho, 149. Savagery, habits and customs in, 27. Schenck, Doctor, on sex control, 88, 89. Schopenhauer on woman, 172-174, 176, 177, 360. And Spencer compared, 175. Seals, sex contrasts, 29. Secondary sexual characters, 69-71, 78, 87. Senses, men and women compared, 98-103. Sex, theory of fundamental traits, 229. Artificial control, 55-57, 88-90. Abnormalities of, 58-68. Incidence of, 66, 68, 77, 79, 90. And race attributes compared, 194, 195, 210. Absent in germinal material, 42, 88. Determined by external factors, 43. And character, by Weininger, 180 et seq. Distinction, excessive in woman, 198-200. Equality, 359, 370, 381. Sexes, association of helpful to woman, 369. Sexual differences, 92 et seq. Traits interchangeable, 58-60. Selection, 24. Heredity, 29, 73, 74, 76, 200, 222, 250, 253, 254, 328, 329-331. Sheep, experiments on, 57. Shelley, Mary W., 154. Slavery and woman's servitude, 206-208, 278-280. Social evil and conventional marriage, 209. Somerville, Mary, 147. Spencer, Herbert, on woman's development, 322 et seq. Stae'l, Madame de, 150. Starr-Jordan, Dr. D., on cell development, 87-89. On the woman of evolution, 358-365. Struggle, man's traits developed by, 25. Suffrage, woman's, in Australia and New Zealand, 291-293. In Finland, 294. In Norway, 294. In England, 295. In United States, 296. Superficial views, 169 et seq. 388 INDEX Tact and finesse, origin of, 129. Tadpoles, experiments on, 56. Tarbell, Ida, 153. Taste, sex comparisons, 98, 99. Thomas, Prof. W. I., "Sex and Society," 238. Touch, sense of in woman, 100. Ulriehs, theory of timings, 232, 233. Urnings, Ulrichs' theory of, 232, 233, 237. Use and disuse of functions, 45. Variation, Weissman on, 50. Vassar, student government at, 277. Victoria, Queen, 140. Vision, tests on both sexes, 99. Vittoria Colonna, 149. Wagner in Parsifal, as viewed by Weininger, 187, 191, 192. War, prejudicial to woman's progress, 332, 369. Ward, Mrs. Humphrey, 157. Ward, Dr. Lester F., on past and future of sexes, 80-87. Weininger, O., on woman, 180 et seq. Weissman, A., summary of theory, 46-51. Compared with Darwin, 51. Wharton, Mrs., 157. Wollstonecraft, Mary, 151. Woman, disabilities of, 21, 22. Weakness not inherent, 23. In savagery and barbarism, 27-31. Effect of environment, 32. Specific traits, how originated, 33, 34, 238-243, 324- 326, 360, 361. Present status no argument against sex equality, 35, 41. In Declaration of Independence, 42. Varied occupations of in primitive tribes, 106, 107, 243-245. Outdoor exercises urged for, 110. President Eliot on exercises for, 111. Students compete successfully with men, 112, 276. Not unsexed by business, 116, 210, 378. 389 INDEX Woman, in strenuous vocations, 117. Gainful occupations of, 118, 119-121, 275. Famous, 130 et seq. Ir government, 141, 276, 277. Actors equal to men, 146. Lacking in creative music, 159. Conservativeness of, 163. Of genius, why so few, 166. Not coarsened by virile traits, 167, 210, 378. Lacks sense of justice, 172, 360. Woman's enmity to woman, 176, 177. Faults of, due to environment and heredity, 164, 166, 178, 179, 239, 258, 300, 360, 361. Sex-distinction of, 198-200. Traits developed by suffering, 203-205, 324-327. Degradation of, reacts on race, 208, 209. As wage-earner, 213-216. Separation from man, 239-244, 369. Cases of extreme seclusion, 246-249. Submission to fashion, 256-258. Intellectual limitations, 335-337, 360. Women teachers outnumber men, 157. Xenophon on woman's equality, 122. Yoder, Alice L., 308, 309. Yung, experiments with tadpoles, 56. 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