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diff --git a/78463-0.txt b/78463-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7d2ad50 --- /dev/null +++ b/78463-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1945 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78463 *** + + + + + Transcriber’s Note + Italic text displayed as: _italic_ + + + + + The + Disadvantages of Being + a Woman + + BY + + GRACE ELLISON + + Author of “Abdul Hamid’s Daughter,” “An Englishwoman + in a Turkish Harem,” etc., etc. + + [Illustration] + + A. M. PHILPOT, Ltd. + 69 GREAT RUSSELL STREET, W.C. 1. + + + + + THE DISADVANTAGES OF BEING A + WOMAN + + + + + The + Disadvantages of Being + a Woman + + BY + + GRACE ELLISON + + Author of “Abdul Hamid’s Daughter,” “An Englishwoman + in a Turkish Harem,” etc., etc. + + [Illustration] + + A. M. PHILPOT, Ltd. + 69 GREAT RUSSELL STREET, W.C. 1. + + + + + [_Copyright_] + + + PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY W. JOLLY AND SONS, LTD., ABERDEEN + + + + +CONTENTS + + + _Introduction._ Woman the Discovery of the Century. + + CHAP. PAGE + + I. Feminist Leaders—and their Mistakes + (i) Unwise Haste (ii) Legislation for the + élite, not for the masses (iii) Hostility to + Man, who should be the associate 9 + + II. The Drawback of Health 16 + + III. Barred from the Professions 24 + + IV. The French Business Woman 33 + + V. Laws for Women illogical and inconsistent 39 + + VI. Can Women succeed in Politics? 48 + + VII. Sex in Work 56 + + VIII. Is Femininity at a discount? 63 + + IX. Pin-money Women 71 + + X. What is wrong with Marriage? 77 + + XI. The Future 86 + + + + +_PUBLISHER’S NOTE_ + + +_These are not the reflections of a woman who has failed. On the +contrary, her literary record, her extensive travels, the work she did +amongst the women of Turkey, and later her war-work in France, give her +the right to speak with authority and to command a hearing._ + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Since every age has its own great discovery, who will deny “Woman” her +laurels as the Discovery of this Century? + +Opinions are still divided as to how and why Woman as a Force actually +made her first appearance. Some declare that she had been seeking +enfranchisement for over sixty years; others maintain that the Woman +Movement began with militancy. + +The truth is that no one noticed her first coming. Apparently without +warning, she burst the fetters of domesticity and sprang from obscurity +into the blazing sun. Wakening the dullest and the most awkward of the +centuries, she stepped, one might say, bounded, into Freedom. + +Like radium or electricity, Woman the Force was always there, and the +age that needed her discovered her. We believe that Nature intended +this Force to balance the Force of Man. The scales must be even; and +where one of the sexes has been either atrophied or over-developed, the +State falls. + +But _the scales must be even_. We are too near our subject, and events +now happening are not sufficiently in perspective for it to be possible +to write even a résume of the Woman’s Movement, but it must be evident +to everyone that there is something fundamentally wrong with the +situation as it stands at present. + +Nothing has happened to weaken our faith in the possibilities of the +great Discovery, but it cannot be denied that Woman as a Force has been +and is being mishandled by many a clumsy engineer. + +It is our purpose, in these pages, to examine their mistakes. + + + + +I + +FEMINIST LEADERS AND THEIR MISTAKES + +_(i) Unwise haste (ii) legislation for the élite, not for the masses, +(iii) hostility to man, who should be the associate._ + + +Resistless as the appointed tides, the Revolution of Woman has swept +over us. Who can be held responsible? To criticise or to blame the +women themselves would be as senseless as to attempt a judgment upon +the shore washed by the sea. It had to be and it was. The end had come +for Victorianism, with its soul-crushing hypocrisy. The new Force had +to be set free. + +Most unfortunately the advanced feminists who took charge of the +movement had few of the god-given gifts of leadership. There is but +a step from revolution, with its healthy exaggerations, to complete +anarchy. They sowed the seeds, and only the Great War—with its issues +of life and death—has saved them and us from a terrible harvest. + +(i.) The leaders’ first tactical mistake, no doubt, was to set up a +fighting corps before the average woman had learned how to march. To +realise with what unstable rapidity they forged ahead, we have only to +measure the distance between the women of this generation and of the +last. + +History has always recorded the perils and suffering of any period +that follows a too rapid emancipation of slaves; and as all Suffrage +Societies alluded to women as slaves, we may adopt the comparison +without offence. Our speed in settling the women’s question was no less +than a crime. Women ought to have served a period as novitiates before +taking the full vows of freedom. + +For our mothers the gates were locked. Their narrow horizon was +bounded—on the one side by the needle and on the other by children. +They had, in return, the safety and the protection of a home. For the +women of this generation most doors have been flung wide. But with the +full liberty to work, they have gained also full liberty to starve; +and they are finding themselves too often forced down paths they have +not the physical strength to tread. Rights demanded without tact, and +the unconsidered outcry for absolute equality, have largely killed +men’s protective instincts, and really amount to a “declaration of war +between those who should be allies or partners in humankind.” + +Only a few women can go far, or last long, without a home, a pension, +or a private income, to fall back on. Our mothers were “looked +after” as a matter of course. So many women to-day are forced to +work for themselves, however unqualified they may be. They have been +given the Parliamentary vote, before even learning their municipal +responsibilities. They have entered upon business careers without +training or capacity. At the moment, indeed, one feels as if both the +professional and the business worlds were actually clogged up with +untried women. + +How different the whole situation might have been if the leaders had +been content to move more slowly; feeling their way as they went +along; organising, experimenting, and helping—teaching the meaning of +responsibility, what it involves and how to use it? + +Above all, they should never have lost touch with the anchor of the +home, until they were well able to navigate their own course in the +variable currents of the world outside and secure not only work for an +income, but some security for the future. + +_Independence, so called, that does not include economic provision for +bad times and old age, is not independence at all._ What problem can be +more terrible or more grave for the great army of superfluous women, +than the absolute insecurity of their future? + +(ii.) The feminist leaders also made a very serious mistake when they +based their demands for all women upon the needs of a very exceptional +minority. “Take care of the weak part of your army,” said Napoleon, +“the strong can look after themselves.” But in this movement it was the +reverse policy which the leaders preferred to adopt. If a few workers +had proved that despite obstacles, difficulties, and sex-prejudice, +they could yet take their place in open competition with men, _these +giant personalities were exceptions that proved the rule_. Why +legislate for exceptions? + +It was maintained, from the first, that all professions should be open +to all women; that the sexes should be at once placed upon absolute +equality. “What one, the finest of women, can do, all should strive +to do,” was the theory. And we had dangerous legislation, suddenly +introduced, which was doomed in advance to disaster; carrying with it +deceptions, disappointments, the unclassing and unsexing of women. For +one woman who can succeed at the bar or in surgery there are hundreds +who had far better be sighing for the cradle. They will never reach the +bar, or prove fitted to wield the knife; and they will lose the cradle +into the bargain. + +All the ages have brought forth exceptional women. At the time +when Mahomet raised his voice in the desert, and was leading his +dusky-skinned converts out of semi-barbarianism into the light of +civilisation, his own daughter, the Lady of Paradise, was speaking and +lecturing in many lands, so that her fame spread over the whole of the +East. Yet other women were not encouraged to follow her example; and +few made the attempt before the arrival of Zeyneb, the famous professor +of Damascus. + +Yet in our own days, that woman might undertake man’s work, she was +given the vote. It was held up, and fought for, as the key to unlock +all professional doors—the instrument of the Millennium! It is true, +of course, that the vote can, and perhaps will eventually be of great +utility. But how can we judge? It is as yet scarcely out of its +swaddling clothes; and, certainly for women, the promised Millennium is +still far to seek. + +(iii.) The final, and most disastrous mistake of the feminist leaders +was their entire _disregard of Nature herself_. It is by this means +that the whole movement has been developed on a false premiss; for any +overdrafts on the bank of Nature must be repaid with crushing interest. + +“Only the vote can right all wrongs,” said the leaders, “and as men +used violence to obtain the vote, women must do the same. Men pillaged, +burnt, destroyed; did evil that good might come. We must follow their +example.” There is no real logic in such a claim. A woman simply cannot +apply man’s weapons. Men who riot use fair violence against other +men; whereas when women use violence against men, they gain an unfair +advantage. When two men fight, it is the stronger who prevails; against +women no man can strike the death-blow that is in his hands, lest he +violate the most sacred laws of his manhood. + +The only “force” a woman may fairly use against men is to know what +she wants and sit tight until she obtains it. It is, we admit, a slow +process, but it is sure and certain—in fact the only way. + +What has woman, in fact, gained by violence? Since man considered +she had not given him a square deal because he could not counter her +violence by his own, he used the only weapon available—_complete +indifference_. Instead of meeting man as an associate, woman became +his enemy and his commercial competitor. As we shall later attempt to +prove, woman is not so constituted, either physically or emotionally, +that she can compete with men. Wherefore the loss is hers. + +The attitude of distrust, or at least indifference, thus created in man +necessarily reacts on him. It was responsibility towards his womenkind +that gave him a regular outlet for his chivalry and the moral backbone +he would otherwise have seldom maintained. + +The lack of organisation in woman’s fight for independence has injured +not only herself but man. + + + + +II + +THE DRAWBACK OF HEALTH + + +One sometimes wonders whether, if more time had been given in schools +to the study of physiology, women would have been tempted to enter upon +physically exhausting careers. + +When we examine the complicated but delicately-made workmanship of the +female body, compared with the simple robustness of the male, we must +seriously consider whether Nature intended women for their present work. + +People have argued and will always argue that we have women who are +stronger than men. This we do not deny; but the whole conformation of +a woman’s body goes to prove that she is not fitted for heavy physical +work, whatever her mental capacity may be. + +Thus it is that all the controversy about the abolition of a Woman’s +Police Force, (which never existed), makes one wonder why a body of +_Welfare Workers_, as they really are, should want to be called +_Police_, when they are unable to protect themselves, far less to +arrest a man. Think what a blow in a woman’s chest may mean! Or a kick! +Or a chill at the wrong time! + +But here again, we have the advanced feminists attempting to spoil +a very valuable “welfare” cause, by forcing women down a road which +they are not fitted by Nature to tread. More than this, they can only +succeed as “welfare” workers, when the police become interested in +their work and will protect them, if necessary, whereas now they annoy +the whole force by taking the title and uniform of a profession they +cannot safely adopt. + +This is how a policeman summed them up. “God forbid that I should ever +want to prevent a woman from earning her living; but it gives a fellow +a kind of degraded feeling to be asked to take any woman into the +immorality of Hyde Park at night.” So ought every policeman to feel, +and the whole _raison d’être_ of his profession goes, when he has to +share it with women. + +When the Great War came, woman had the unique experience of trying +her hand at all work, from the land to the railway station and the +omnibus, and from the counting-house to the Civil Service. She could +then judge men’s work first-hand. There were no men for the hard +fetching and carrying, so that she had to do it herself. The general +opinion has been that she proved a remarkably good stop-gap; _but only +a stop-gap_. The most intelligent women workers have recognised and +owned this. + +During the War, too, there was always the patriotic ideal to help +one along. Could so many have toiled day and night had they not ever +ringing in their ears the eternal refrain, “I am helping to win the +War, I am doing my bit.” It is not just to criticise, then, women who +worked with a zeal and self-abnegation for which some of them will have +to pay, physically and morally, till the end of their lives. At the +same time, when women ask to be judged for their war-work according to +men’s standards, they are playing the game of the little frog in the +fable who tried to measure himself against the ox, and they will suffer +as he did. + +And who amongst us has forgotten the physical strain for even the +strongest women? During the war, the bus women used up their strength +and their nerves. They were so over-wrought that a cross word would +produce a torrent of wrath, and one spoke to them as seldom as +possible. Yet the work is no more strain on a man than eating his +breakfast. + +How can any one pretend that such war-work suited the women? I remember +a woman porter who took charge of a suit case for me that few men would +have found heavy, but which I myself could not carry. The pale-faced +porteress soon became too exhausted for such a load. So I gave her a +large tip and kind words in exchange for her insults; and under the +influence of this unexpected kindness, she burst into tears. Were not +most of our workers in a similar state of nervous prostration? Then +there seemed no option; but looking at the havoc that was thus wrought +upon women’s health, one wonders whether it would not have been better +to have imported coolies or blacks. + +And where is the contractor who will pay for woman’s work at the same +figure as man’s? In the labour market women must always be a poor +speculation from the physical point of view, and so, when equal work +means equal pay, the man, for whom there is less physical risk, secures +the job. Woman must undercut man, which is economic suicide. + +In office life too the routine work proves a great strain. Women start +off so full of zeal. They overwork, as they love and hate and take +exercise, _always to excess_. And the flame of youth quickly burns +itself out. German doctors have always advocated that to assure safety +in middle age every woman, whether she thinks she requires it or not, +ought to have two complete days’ rest a month. But how many can afford +this? and what would their employers have to say? + +And who does not know how easily a woman’s health is wrecked by poor +or insufficient food? Argue and warn as one may, no woman who has +to choose between clothes and food would choose food. She cannot, +clothes being a business asset. In short, since we are summing up the +disadvantages of women’s work, it must be admitted that the question of +health is her chief handicap—a handicap which often puts her altogether +out of the race. + +In the days of primitive men and women, they divided their work, as +it were, by instinct. He hunted the wild beasts; she cooked them and +looked after the little savages in the tent. Neither attempted the +other’s task, and yet to-day, with all her physical disqualifications, +woman is often forced to do the work of both. + +Indeed, the whole situation seems to have been reversed. Very few +women are really qualified to succeed in men’s professions, yet often +they persist in trying until they break down, whereas it is doubtful +if there is one part of a woman’s work that men cannot do as well, if +not better than women—though they seldom care to try! That is to say, +though men may not be good, all-round house-keepers, they are better at +special jobs. As a tailor, a servant, a chef, a masseur, a hairdresser, +a dressmaker and sometimes even in the care of babies, they are better +specialists than a woman. In the United States, Chinamen are found to +make excellent nurse-maids. + +When I was crossing the Atlantic during one of the worst storms of the +year, a British officer took charge of his baby in a fashion that won +universal admiration. Every woman on board, including his wife, was +ill; so the father powdered and bathed, combed and fed the little +thing; yet, when questioned, he owned he had never done anything of the +kind before, or even watched the operation. + +How many outstanding women painters, musical composers or doctors, can +we name? In the theatre, where she can keep her sex and give full sway +to her emotions, woman reigns supreme; though even here sometimes, at +the expense of health. + +Entirely without disloyalty, one must emphatically declare (for +the statistics of the war are on record to prove it) that, for +physical reasons alone, we cannot rely on women to replace men in +professions, in the business world, nor as land-workers. They can, very +successfully, supplement men and, temporarily, replace them, but their +physical strength quickly gives way and their reign must of necessity +be short. + +Then why not give our first consideration to health? Why attempt work +for which we are not physically fit? + +In the administration of prisons, hospitals, and work-houses, as +poor-law guardians and, above all, in the home, women can render +invaluable service. It seems a thousand pities for them to neglect +these spheres for others where they are too often foredoomed to failure. + + + + +III + +BARRED FROM THE PROFESSIONS + + +Taking professional careers as a speculation, i.e., carefully counting +the outlay and what it is likely to bring in, can we deny what a +University woman once said: “With training at one British and at two +foreign universities, and all our degrees, as well as dancing, singing, +music, painting, riding and other accomplishments, should we not have +been, so far as actual monetary gain is concerned, better off had we +learnt to stick labels on jam-pots?” + +Look what a barrister’s education costs, and yet “briefless barristers” +amongst men are the rule, not the exception. Hear what young barristers +have to do and put up with until they can get their chance. Remember +that some have to leave the thorny road without securing even a chance. +For men, the Bar is a great career fraught with passionate interest, +but bristling with disappointments. The prizes are few and far between. +What then has taken woman along that most difficult of difficult ways? +Is it a real love of the profession? Or is it a vain desire to be +amongst the first interesting few? Has she any real chance of success +at the Bar? + +Some people are inclined to think women ought to be able to plead +for their own sex better than men—but can they? Have they the sound +logic of the man barrister? Is not his fox-craftiness, cynicism, and +self-possession more necessary than the fund of emotion which is her +trump card? Perhaps the very qualities she is relying on to win her +case will lose it. It must be a long while before women can make a name +for themselves at the Bar, for only _super_ women will ever get briefs. +“We trust women doctors with our lives,” it is said. “Yes, but you +trust the woman lawyer with your purse!” + +From the first, Mlle. Miropolsky, the brilliant Polish-French +barrister, herself a woman of unusual intelligence, very wisely placed +a rich barrister husband between herself and the financial side of +life. In any case, both have exceptional personalities, and are leaders +in their profession. + +But would anyone in their senses consider the Bar as a suitable +_provision_ for the average woman? + +In Medicine, though physically hard on women, and despite the cost +of the long years of training, there is more chance of success. To +begin with, the East can utilize a great many women doctors, and in +the medical mission field they have proved their unique worth. Yet in +spite of the war, sex-prejudice has not vanished, and only women of +exceptional personality can keep a practice together. And despite all +that has been said or written to the contrary, it will be long before +this prejudice disappears. Her sex is against women here as in so many +other fields of endeavour. When one recognises how much personality and +capacity public opinion demands from a woman doctor, and how all her +little slips are multiplied a thousandfold, one sees that medicine can +only be a stop-gap, and that the experiment is indeed costly. + +In the early days, suffragettes quoted the father who said: “Had my +girl been a boy, I would have risked the money and put him in practice; +but, with my limited income, that would be too much to ask me for a +girl.” + +As an investment, medicine for women is very risky. When the career is +completed, a practice has to be bought. How is her health to stand the +strain? Has she enough courage and personality to keep up her practice? +Surely most fathers would do better if they used the money to purchase +an annuity instead of spending it on training. + +Another great drawback to the woman doctor is the refusal of other +women to trust her judgment. As a confessor, where above all one would +have prophesied her success,—and every doctor is to a certain extent a +confessor—she often fails. Is it lack of heart and of understanding, +or simply of _savoir-faire_? The fact remains, however, that a large +number of women, seeking the mental help that a doctor so often gives, +would unburden themselves more readily to a man. + +When a man and a woman, both doctors, work together, the partnership is +generally a success, and not only among married couples. The friendship +of mutual interests, _where no love comes in_, often raises both to +great heights of purpose, and achieves much that is conspicuously +worth while. If one, or both, are married, so much the better. + +The solitary, spinster-practitioner can have no secretary in her work. +In partnership the strain is diminished for both, and the patients feel +much greater confidence with a man in the background. + +The two professions for which, at any rate in the past, no special +training was required, are journalism and the stage. In these +professions competition is fiercest. It is not always the best written +work which pays; it is not the most talented actress who wins public +applause. There are hundreds, however, who love the excitement of +trying to find even a tiny corner of their own in these streets of +adventure, and they are ready to go through fire to secure it. + +The University of Columbia, U.S.A., has now a Chair for “Journalism,” +which shows the value of training in this profession. Paris has a +Conservatoire where all their artists are trained, free of charge, +after admission by open competition. The preliminary work thus +entailed, however, does not in the least diminish the keen competition +that we must expect in professions which hold the chance of such big +possibilities. Yet once more, for both, good health is absolutely +indispensable. The harassing strain of uncertainty plays havoc with the +finest constitution, and the public, out for amusement and interest, +has no time for waning or fallen stars. + +The fact is that women are only fitted constitutionally for certain +kinds of journalism. The office night-work is too exhausting, and the +path of the War Correspondent is one no woman should seek to tread. +There are insurmountable difficulties all the way, and, speaking from +personal experience, I am convinced that she can only pull through at +all by throwing herself on the chivalry of men. In the French army, +officers were seriously punished for uselessly exposing men’s lives; +yet in order to furnish the sensational head-line of “A Woman in the +Trenches,” fathers of families had to risk their lives to protect +her, to my certain knowledge, over and over again. It ought not to be +allowed. + +In the early Victorian era, teaching and nursing used to be the two +professions for women. They were both badly paid, and if the school +teacher had little or no prestige, the governess had none at all. +Nursing was and is still done in hospitals for a pittance; private +work is better paid, but the women who do it tell me they dislike the +profession. + +Both teaching and nursing are, however, vocations, and girls who only +take them for want of something better, do not, of course, give their +best. Yet no work requires women of more solid character. They have at +their mercy, to make or to mar, the young and the sick, yet candidates +for these professions cannot be chosen. Neither nursing nor teaching, +taken seriously, is a sinecure, and again robust health is required for +both. + +In the arts, _i.e._, music, painting and literature, training is +not enough, and since men have not only to be put on their feet but +“seen through,” women must also be “seen through.” Genius, generally +speaking, will find its public, but the arts too frequently mean that +lessons are given for bread and butter. From both the artistic and +financial aspect, however, one wonders whether such poor results are +really worth while. Things have naturally been much worse since the War. + +The hand-to-mouth, Quartier Latin or Chelsea Studio existence is all +very well as a stop-gap, for a change or even a picnic; but what of the +future? When is the woman paid enough at this work to save for her old +age. It simply cannot be done. There is Florence Barclay, it is true, +who made more than enough for a life-time with one book—and there are +other exceptions. But these are rare enough to be called miraculous. + +In the Middle Ages, teaching and nursing were done by nuns. They gave +their lives to the community; and the community cared for them—in +sickness, unto death. Nowadays, if women still give their lives to the +community, a lay community, the community (or the State) must see that +they never want. + +Considering the strain of teaching, the terrible risks of nursing, and +the uncertainty of women being strong enough to pursue their work after +middle age, they ought not to be left dependent upon any profession +that does not carry with it the security of a pension; unless, indeed, +they are well insured, and, for greater safety, insured by the State. + +A profession cannot be abandoned and then picked up again for rainy +days. A woman will come back, as men have, to find herself out of +date, out of the running. She is not wanted; her place is taken by +younger women. + +In every profession—the Bar, Medicine, Teaching, Nursing, or +Journalism, woman is hindered by her physique. It is idle to contend +with the statistics which prove how many women between forty and fifty +break down seriously, and never get fit again. Even in partnership with +men, where all the risks are obviously diminished, they must be sure of +provision in case of sickness. Most professions are good ladders but +bad crutches. Under the present conditions of destructive competition, +they too often prove no more than an expensive hobby. + + + + +IV + +THE FRENCH BUSINESS WOMAN + + +From long residence on the Continent I have been able to study at first +hand that admirable person the Frenchwoman in business. What a power is +hers! What would France be without her! + +There is certainly no need nor any intention to undervalue Frenchmen; +but in France one sees woman in her right place, holding the balance +of power that follows most closely Nature’s obvious design. There, on +the one side, is man performing the hard physical labour which he alone +is wise to attempt; on the other, his partner, woman, with her clear +business judgment, advising, supervising, suggesting, persuading: never +allowing herself to be carried away by sentiment, but always looking +facts in the face. A very tiger over her own offspring, she would sell +her own soul—or anyone else’s—to save her children; and for that +reason must be met with extreme caution by the foreigner. Her personal +judgments nevertheless are always based on clear-headed common-sense. + +Wherefore, despite her large army of mateless women, France will never +be faced with the “women’s question,” as we know it. Women in France +are, to a large extent, independent of public opinion: they do not fear +facts. + +Any ideal of “single-blessedness” would not appeal to them. “It +is neither practical nor natural; why therefore should we pretend +otherwise?” We question indeed if English women are quite sincere in +this matter. “It is better,” they say, “to be alone than with the wrong +man.” “A strange ideal,” answers Madame, “how do you know that he _is_ +wrong until you have tried?” + +As the French believe, whatever work a woman may undertake, she must +be man’s associate and partner; neither his subordinate nor his +rival. Wherefore she gives her daughter a professional, or business +training; _and_ above all, money. A shopkeeper’s daughter generally +marries her father’s most promising assistant. The business becomes +a sort of double partnership, and most of these marriages prove quite +satisfactory. So if a girl’s father is in the army she generally +marries an officer; if a banker she will choose a man in a bank. It +is a practical family arrangement seldom leading women out of their +own class. The disastrous sort of “The Earl and the Girl” affair, so +familiar to us, could scarcely ever take place in France. + +It is true that France has now a large army of mateless women, but the +greater number are widows. As widows they are either carrying on the +family business, working in government posts, or living with their +parents. Few, of their own choice, would set up alone for themselves. + +In their eyes the English woman seems always struggling with “so much +work for such small results:” driven to occupations for which she +is not properly equipped. They would never expect or permit their +own daughters to face the material insecurity which few of our women +workers can avoid. Here they may swim, more often they sink. The +Frenchwoman says, “swim by all means if you can, but first make sure +that you never sink.” A profession or a business is not enough. The +girl must have a home _or_ money. Mothers who cannot provide all three +will at least insist on one. + +Even a short residence on the Continent will suffice to show us what +sacrifices all Frenchwomen are prepared to make in order that the +“daughter” may never find herself in the humiliating position of having +no money behind her, whether she marries or not. I knew, for instance, +a doctor who was killed in the war before his daughter’s dowry had +been saved up. The widow at once let her furnished house, and took the +position as housekeeper in a school. She is living on her husband’s +pension; the rest is put by for the girl. This of course is only one +example out of a thousand. The woman thinks no work beneath her, or too +heavy to undertake for her daughter’s future. Public opinion accepts +her sacrifice as a mere matter of course. It is her duty. + +As a matter of fact, however, our snobbish attitude towards +shop-keepers is unknown in France. The woman who sees that she can do +better at business than in a profession, goes into business. As a rule +she succeeds in both, because she will sink her personality and take up +the position in which she is needed most, whatever her qualifications +for better work. An expert at embroidery, bodice-making, or +hair-dressing will devote her life to keeping the books of the family +business for the good of the firm. The woman doctor may be sighing to +make her name as a surgeon or oculist; but for the good of the practice +she will readily give her mind to research work, or, if her husband is +also a doctor, to writing his lectures. Her whole career may have its +course changed, but she remains content. + +Moreover, the Frenchwoman never forgets, or ignores, her real +object—_permanent security_. They are a race of cautious investors, +who will invest almost everything they possess to put a child on his +feet. They will not make him a clerk, always subject to dismissal; a +secretary, always looking for better posts. They put capital, however +small, into his business to _establish_ him there. + +It is for this reason that, at the boot-makers, dress-makers, +milliners, and elsewhere, you so continually meet the familiar faces. +The assistants, whether married or not, keep their jobs until they can +face the world with a fixed income. A few English, and more Americans, +make larger fortunes, it is true; but how many of us would have the +patience to “heap up” franc by franc, the security which is the great +aim of every Frenchwoman. + +Comparisons are odious, but we certainly have much to learn from the +French business woman. + + + + +V + +THE LAWS FOR WOMEN—ILLOGICAL AND INCONSISTENT + + +How strange it is that Englishwomen, who enjoy a liberty of action +their sisters on the continent regard with envy, should yet be governed +by a code of laws as inconsistent as they are unjust. From this code +were taken the chief planks of the Suffrage platforms. + +Though the feministic appeal was made first to unhappy, or dissatisfied +women, it was easy to rouse righteous wrath in all by dwelling upon the +cruel laws to which women in this land are subjected. + +Tell a woman that “by the law you are not the legal parent of your +child,” and who could not secure a majority by such an appeal? + +When the “master” is good and kind, the position of wife, mother, or +daughter may be quite satisfactory. When, however, a woman is thrown +into the grip of these cruel laws, then Heaven have mercy on her! + +Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, because they might otherwise +have been more quickly reformed, Englishwomen have, to protect them, +the Englishman’s own self-made code, really of more effect than any +law:—simply, “_It isn’t done._” Every British gentleman bows to the +great judge, Public Opinion. Alas, however, every Britisher is not a +gentleman, and again one asks: “What chance has a woman when left to +the mercy of the laws of the realm?” Even the Moslems, who are not +supposed to credit women with the possession of a soul at all, have +more consistent and just laws than ours, and, what is of the greatest +importance, children are always given a legal status. + +It is astonishing that the British gentleman, the world-renowned +sportsman in the very highest sense, can stand not only for the wrongs +that are done to unmarried mothers, but worse still, for the wrongs +done to the poor defenceless beings who come into the world unasked, +and yet suffer all their lives for what has not been in any way their +own fault. Considering the real nature of that very fine being, the +British gentleman, and a finer than he does not exist on this earth, +in comparison with the men of every other land, one wonders whether, +after all, his attention has ever been properly drawn to this injustice. + +The laws are so out of harmony with all the “fairplay” for which he +stands. First, taking woman as a wife. There are far too few obstacles +to prevent her marrying in haste, and far too many, since these hasty +marriages are allowed, to prevent her unmarrying. One cannot, perhaps, +altogether approve of the Continental arranged marriage, but there is +certainly something to be said for the wisdom of a system that demands +the parent’s or guardian’s consent up to the age of twenty-five. At +least it puts off the “evil day”; and gives the families on both sides +time to act. Both family histories, and both family banking accounts +are carefully examined; and, in most cases, the State ceremony and +service in church combined are calculated to impress upon young people +the solemnity of the partnership into which they are about to enter, +and the interests of the future generation it will be theirs to +safeguard. + +Compare these carefully arranged marriages with some of our slipshod, +ill-considered unions, based on pure physical attraction which +naturally cannot last! + +If neither the State, nor the parent, will—or can—do anything to +prevent hasty marriage, why should the laws for Divorce be so +consistently illogical. They are not only illogical, but disgracefully +unfair. In Italy there is no divorce—neither the Church nor the State +grants it—so the situation is quite clear; both sexes are treated alike. + +In France, the State, not the Church, grants divorce for men and women +on equal terms; that, too, is fair. + +In England, however, _the divorce laws do not help the right class of +men and women_, and release is not granted to women on equal terms with +men. + +A frivolous-minded couple, who have rushed into matrimony without a +thought, and have very quickly had quite enough of one another, can go +through the usual “restitution of conjugal rights” comedy—disgraceful +legislation, unworthy of our traditions. + +It is the wife of a criminal lunatic or a confirmed drunkard who has +our pity. For her, or the woman tied to a thoroughly immoral man +who tries to lead the sons astray, there should be permanent relief. +Judicial separation is not a sufficient protection for the children. + +No thinking woman wants easier divorce or anything to loosen family +ties and lead to legitimatised “free love.” But even devout Roman +Catholics are now prepared to “use scissors” for the protection of +children. Handicapped by nature, often the victim of circumstances, +the unmarried mother is always to be pitied. Although she has the +advantage over the married woman in being the legal parent of her +child, yet for her public opinion is merciless. From the father of the +child, when she can prove who he is, she gets a mere pittance; and if, +driven to distraction and temporary insanity, she puts an end to the +little life that began with so much sorrow, she must stand alone in +the dock. Without defending the woman—God forbid, a little life is too +sacred!—one cannot help asking: “Where is the man?” + +In summing up the disadvantages of being a woman, here is one of +the greatest. Public opinion and the law defy nature, and by their +cowardly unchristian attitude frequently drive poor erring humanity to +the crime of infanticide. + +Perhaps the German treatment of this problem is the most Christlike. +Human nature being what it is, such things will happen; no legislation +can stop them. Therefore, these children must be brought up as honest +citizens, _not as children of sin_. The German “Mothers’ Home,” where +no difference is made between the married and unmarried, is well worth +a visit and might be imitated with advantage. + +“For every sin there is pardon,” we repeat mechanically; and yet +the British Code puts the awful scarlet letter of illegitimacy on +defenceless children, and not even the marriage of the parents can wipe +it out. + +One of the most unjust of laws in this realm is that which allows +parents to disinherit their children. On the Continent this cannot be +done. Children are entitled to one-third of the parents’ possessions. +However worthless, they are the parents’ “creations,” for whom the +responsibility cannot be evaded. + +It is true that some parents give away all they possess in their +life-time in order to deprive the children of their inheritance. This +is illegal, however, and punishable by the law. + +There is something very mean in the attitude of parents who cut off +their children with the proverbial shilling. They are often influenced +by mere caprice, a marriage they dislike, or a change of religion. Yet +whatever a child has done, is this justifiable? And surely a daughter +who acts in defiance of the wishes of her parents, needs them all the +more when the predicted day of sorrow arrives. To disinherit a son is +bad enough, but to disinherit an unmarried daughter is criminal. + +The case of the daughter who does not marry in order to look after +her widowed father and suddenly finds herself penniless because the +new wife will not let him provide for her, could not happen on the +Continent. Over and over again one has met these poor victims. Well +over thirty-five, and yet just starting to work. How can parents be so +heartless? + +On the Continent there is, at least an unwritten law which forces a +brother to look after his sister. No one likes to accept charity from +a brother, yet Continental public opinion deals harshly with the man +who deserts his mother and sisters in their time of need. It is more +lenient to those who neglect their wives; children and one’s own flesh +and blood, however, seem somehow to have a closer claim. + +A good brother is the dearest possible pal. And what a difference his +mere existence makes sometimes in the attitude of his sister’s male +employer. Yet, as many Englishwomen must admit, their brothers are +scarcely aware of their existence. There has been no quarrel, but they +do not even correspond; he has married and has new interests. The +companion of his childhood is a memory that cannot even be kept alive +by a postcard. + +Brothers know perfectly well, or if they do not know they ought to be +told, that woman’s value as she grows older decreases in the labour +market. They have become so used to sisters helping themselves when +they are not married, or badly married, that they lose interest: +influenced, in some cases, maybe, by a jealous wife. How bitter the +heart-ache of many a “Maggie Tulliver” at the indifference of “brother +Tom.” + +None can deny the injustice of these English laws. It was said that +they would never be changed until women obtained the vote. As no +thinking worker could uphold such crushing, humiliating, and dangerous +laws, they worked whole-heartedly for the Vote, and obtained it. Yet +the laws have not yet been changed. It was then maintained that the +Vote was not enough, women must sit in the House of Commons. + +What have they done in the House of Commons? + + + + +VI + +CAN WOMEN SUCCEED IN POLITICS? + + +Can women succeed in politics? It is, perhaps, too early to say. +Suddenly some giant personality may give the lie to all that could be +said against woman as a politician. + +Meantime, who but Lady Astor could have been the first woman M.P.? +Who but a woman of her social position, wealth, and personality could +have secured the reception accorded her by the House of Commons? And +who but a woman—trained in America and as a Christian Scientist—would +have had the courage to take up a work for which she was not educated; +braving the criticism of the whole civilised world. But she has done +it, and in spite of serious blunders at the beginning, she has done it +remarkably well. When one remembers her demoralising wealth, that she +had no business training at all, that she has to rely on her quick wit +for speeches, one wonders what she might not have accomplished had she +been through the professional mill. + +But will she really help women at Westminster? Has she really their +cause at heart? Can she understand them? Certainly she belongs to that +fine school of American idealists who want to make great reforms. +Only, to do these great things, you must understand them, and can she +understand women’s needs, who has not herself been in need? She has a +chance to help women, such as no one else has ever had, or may have +again. Will she take it? + +The cause of the working woman will always be well championed. +Besides, the poor can beg; professional women cannot. On their way to +independence some women have found sorrow and humiliation and suffering +at every corner, but to whom will they ever confess? + +Lady Astor was certainly not very successful in her attitude towards +divorce. Had she studied the question sufficiently? Possibly not, and +that was the reason. She supposed the thinking women of England were +trying for _easier divorce_, not _reformed divorce_, and who could +blame her for wishing to keep out of England the “easy divorce” laws +of the U.S.A. + +As a professional working woman, Mrs. Wintringham ought to be able +to give the professional woman’s point of view with much more +understanding than Lady Astor. Her speeches are commendably brief and +to the point, but the public usually prefers personality and social +standing to the highest, technical qualifications. It is, indeed, +another very great point in Lady Astor’s favour that she has no axe +to grind. The constituents who elected her because she is Lady Astor, +will elect her again; whereas, with other woman candidates we have yet +to find out whether they will put their own personal interests before +their cause. + +There was a time when one supposed women would clear up politics as +they cleared up a dirty house. But are they more to be trusted in +politics than men? A woman comes out of Labour ranks; as she gets on, +she becomes socially ambitious, then she throws her party aside. Men +have done it over and over again; they call it “evolution,” and women +no doubt will say the same. + +The few women who are likely to sit in the House of Commons can make +_very little difference to the constitution_, and it might be wiser for +women to use their vote for forcing men on to their side, and so making +sure that their wishes are carried out with regard to Bills with which +they are particularly concerned. Women and children’s laws need reform +so badly; is it safe to rely on future women M.P.’s? It is true that +we have not yet had any bills framed by women for women; they may be +master-pieces of statesmanship. Let it be said meanwhile that at least +they could not be worse than the existing man-made laws. + +The danger of trusting women in politics, comes from their lack of +_esprit de corps_, yet the very _raison d’être_ of their being in +Parliament is to protect and help other women; to uphold other women’s +interests. But see how they run their clubs! No men’s clubs are +conducted on such lines. The best of them cannot choke that Mothers’ +Meeting spirit, which shows itself at the most unfortunate moments. And +the meetings are often conducted in the most unsportsmanlike manner. +Over and over again a woman in the Chair will close the meeting if +the feeling is going against her party, or her speaker cannot answer +questions. + +Individual women are magnificent; but to trust them collectively is +futile as yet. Either from ignorance or from something in woman’s +nature, somehow or other she so often seems to let other women down. +We have said that Lady Astor, if she really cares to understand the +professional woman’s point of view, could be of the greatest service to +the women’s cause. + +Outside the House of Commons, however, the women’s cause has suffered +a great deal from the rich and titled women who annex it as an +interesting hobby, draw up impossible charters for women, hold +drawing-room meetings, agitate and drive their hearers on much faster +than they ever ought to attempt to go. As one of the victims said: “I +wish she would talk less, and offer us instead a good meal.” + +There is not this terrible gulf of misunderstanding between rich men +and professional men. Not even a workman would have his interests +meddled with by people who have neither the right nor the capacity to +interfere. They would very soon send Lord X. about his business, if he +addressed them as his wife once addressed a women’s meeting. Stretching +her pretty Paradise-plumed head out of her magnificent sable furs, +she said: “Twopence is quite enough to spend on a meal; one penny for +a packet of pea soup powder, and one penny for margarine. It makes +a most delicious soup. I give it to my guests.” The pearls she was +wearing would have fed a whole community for a long time on a much more +substantial menu than two penny-worth of pea soup. + +Another lady of great wealth advised a typist, earning only one pound a +week, and forced to live on bread and cheese with a cup of tea, to “cut +out the tea; it is indigestible. One good meal of bread and cheese a +day is _excellent_; that is my régime.” + +What is the use of answering such cruel folly by talk of sisterhood +and democracy? Are they not mere idle words? Have we advanced one step +since Marie Antoinette asked her historic question, “Why are the poor +crying because they have no bread; can they not eat cake?” + +There is no more fascinating, or useful, study than Foreign Politics. +See what a conscientious student can learn in its train—history, +geography, foreign languages, the literature and the psychology of +different races. Then comes the longing to visit foreign lands, to see +and judge their civilisation, and to understand them through their art +and music. What better League of Nations Study-circle can there be than +this? + +And now, when in spite of conferences and meetings and reunions, the +great cry is “less Europe and more England,” is there any chance for +a serious study of foreign policy? The papers give us less and less +foreign news; and how then are we to stimulate the great cosmopolitan +spirit which ought to awaken a new breath of life? + +If only such women as Lady Astor would revive the political “Salon,” +where the great statesmen of the world could meet and discuss the +affairs of nations, they might surely accomplish more for humanity than +as members of Parliament? + +Those wise old French _salonières_ who have passed into the realm of +history, could no doubt have secured direct representation. They had +no such desire—and therein showed their wisdom! + + + + +VII + +SEX IN WORK + + +Some women workers are curiously inconsistent. They have declared that +sex shall not on any account enter into the business world. They cut +off their hair and dress themselves as nearly as they dare in men’s +attire; yet they deliberately put a _feminine label_ on their work. + +Why the label? Is it lack of sex confidence, or is the work so weak +that it must trust to that label and beg for mercy? + +Take the title of “Women Journalists.” What does this suggest? Either +an agency for supplying articles on dress or cookery, or a group of +women banded together to demand their professional rights. As neither +is meant, the term is misleading. And why should a journalist, whether +man or woman, want to belong to any but a Society of Journalists? + +It is the same with the Women Artists. Why the label? At the Leipzig +Palace of Women’s Work in 1914, the work of one artist drew everyone’s +attention, and presumably she was a woman, since the Society had taken +her to its bosom. Her pictures of Berlin’s underworld were so powerful, +that they gave birth to all kinds of important prison reforms. But what +was she doing in that anæmic assembly? Kathie Kollwitz was her name. + +Her idea in allowing her work to be labelled “woman” was to help other +women. Alas, how often the Christian spirit achieves the precise +opposite of its intention! Kathie Kollwitz’s work, rather than helping +women, killed by its superiority any chance of appreciation others +might have secured. The terms artist, writer, author, musician, actor, +professor and doctor should be used for both sexes. Work must be judged +regardless of sex, or it is not worth judging at all. + +Yet however much we protest against the label, sex is there all the +same. Lifeless work is sexless work. Sex is like fire, water, and the +other vital things of life, a great power when properly dominated. At +the same time its legitimate use in art, as in life, is too subtle +a weapon to be flourished recklessly as we stumble over the rocks of +progress. + +In the world of workers, sex often makes difficulties in business +relations. It is for men to judge exactly how a woman handles the +men under her control. Towards other women she is often the hardest +task-mistress, when not actually unkind and unjust. In her search after +the tiny flaws in a piece of work, she loses the great spirit of the +whole. Her values are wrong; for this reason it is dangerous to give +average women the final word. + +It has been said that men put up more readily with incompetence than +women. But this is not quite the case. They are more patient and more +indulgent, and they take the trouble to judge from all round. The most +aggravating little imperfections may well be balanced by some sound +practical efficiency which, in the business eye of an employer, cancels +all other faults. He knows he cannot expect perfection, and is content. + +Women are not so much exacting as unreasonable. With the exacting +one can deal; but not with the unreasonable. In business the terms +_unreasonable_ and _incompetent_ are synonymous. In time, no doubt, +women will learn to take broader views of life and will acquire sense +of proportion. The question of kindness to their own sex will thus +adjust itself, but in the meantime only a very limited number of +them are _big_ enough to employ others: which obviously means much +unnecessary suffering for the workers. + +On the other hand, relations between men and women in business are +not always easy. A woman may be allowed to take positions of such +importance in the office that she will shake the whole foundations of +business; which is obviously unwise. + +On the other hand, a man will often take advantage of a woman in +business and find her an easy prey, just as he makes a good bargain +for himself with a less wide-awake rival, without any offence to his +business conscience; or if, under the influence of a smile and pearly +teeth, he make a bargain that he regrets when thinking it over, he will +soon find a means for catching up the pretty incompetent. Sometimes, +again, a feeling of pity for a woman fighting life’s battles leads him +to do things for her he would never dream of doing for a man. Alas! how +many business careers have been wrecked on the rocks of sympathy. + +The much criticised _impresario_ is not the only sinner. Wolves in +sheep’s clothing are to be found in every walk of life, and the very +harmless act of accepting a lunch from an employer may swing the +business relations on to entirely the wrong footing. After that, it is +too late. + +A woman who has business dealings with men must train herself to be +two personalities—official and private. The more she is accustomed +outside the office to being her own sweet self, the more must she +school herself to leave the charming female on the doormat, and convert +herself into a shrewd business woman who wants all her wits about her +to conclude a bargain. + +The woman in business who allows a man to take any but a business +footing with her, must lose, _the odds being against her always_. By +not putting her foot down at once, she finds herself quickly out of +things altogether, with no chance of return. + +There are, of course, many trying feminine types in business. For +example, there is the woman who wants to be treated with 18th century +courtesy. When asked why he objected to women lecturers, a secretary of +a big society replied: “We hate being discourteous, but we really have +not time to meet women at the station, dine them, and look after them. +A man looks after himself. You will say a woman ought to do the same. +Well, she does not. You can’t let her. A woman’s a woman....” + +A very distressing type of worker is the one who, having signed a +contract, wants to get out of it directly a better offer is in sight. +This happens too frequently. She knows very well a man would have to +pay heavy damages for doing such a thing. So she plays the feminine +note, and the employer is cornered. All he can do without scandal is to +cut his loss and get rid of her as quickly as possible. But his whole +attitude towards women becomes filled with distrust, and the innocent +have to suffer in consequence. + +Once women learn to work more as the associates of men, these +uncomfortable questions of “sex” will necessarily to a large extent +disappear. But at the present moment they must unfortunately fill a +large space in any attempt to sum up the disadvantages under which +women work. + + + + +VIII + +IS FEMININITY AT A DISCOUNT? + + +Femininity is a disadvantage to the professional woman, first of all, +because it is expensive, and secondly because it takes up too much time. + +If the hours spent trying on dresses, hats and other items of the +wardrobe were presented in the form of a bill, one may wonder how many +feminine existences would have a life balance at all. + +Some women make dress their life work, the planning of their clothes +and going out to show themselves in them, dominating all else in their +minds. While others, the workers, are sighing for just a little more +time, mostly to keep themselves neat and tidy. Life does sometimes seem +out of proportion. + +The subject of dress in a professional woman’s life is a vexed problem. +How is she to find time to attend to her wardrobe? A short while ago, +I saw a woman at the club sipping hot water. She owned she was banting. +“I’m getting fat,” she said, “too fat to be stock-size, and that +would be a calamity. Where can I find time to wear any but ready-made +dresses?” + +Yet unreasonable as it is to wear lace cuffs, collars and blouses which +require constant washing and ironing, what true woman would give them +up? Laundry bills are too heavy, so these things have to be done at +home, and the already long day must begin an hour earlier, probably +at six instead of seven. And how much time is squandered sewing on +buttons, mending, and other things. For a woman suffers when she feels +all her garments are not in order; those unseen, as well as those +seen. Whilst the man worker goes off to tennis, cricket or football +on Saturday afternoons without a thought of the clothes to be mended +for him by some female hand, the woman worker stays at home to do her +tidying up herself. + +Although the final result is often quite as satisfactory as when the +work is done by a woman, there is something pathetic in the sight of +a male using a needle. He holds his garments in such awkward, though +mathematically correct, positions, and the table is his thimble. +Nothing more quickly arouses the maternal side of a woman than the +sight of a man with a needle. “Has he no woman to look after him?” +is the question which comes instinctively. And, in the same way a +chivalrous man will ask, “Has she no man to take care of her?” when he +sees a woman wearing herself out in an office. + +People may argue as they like; the old primitive division—man the +hunter, woman the tent-keeper—is the natural order of things. Will the +world’s mind really grasp any other? It is true that women workers are +to be seen everywhere in England, but, as one witty woman said, “their +real work has to be done out of hours.” + +“However severe the orders given my servants to leave me to work +undisturbed,” said Flora Annie Steele, “just when I am wondering how +I can best kill off my hero, the cook comes in to tell me she has no +lemon.” Such a thing would never happen to her husband were he the +writer of books. + +Another woman, the editress of a big woman’s paper, tells me she leaves +home to this tune—“the pipe has burst,” “the gas is out of order,” +“the ceiling is leaking,” and then more of these important items are +sometimes communicated by telephone to the office during her busiest +days. All this side of life, of course, is kept from a busy man. He has +to think only of his work. + +Knowing, as she does, the time that clothes take to keep in order, +knowing that long hair means at least an afternoon to wash, and always +constant attention, a feminine woman defies all reason and somehow +makes time for these things. And so it is with the care of her house or +flat. She could live in lodgings or have a corner in a hostel, but she +cannot bear the atmosphere that is not of her own creation. She must +therefore have a place of her own. The whole of her income probably +goes on the upkeep of her home; she cannot afford a servant, she cannot +even really afford a flat if she looked into the future as a man looks. +But she will have it. From an outsider’s point of view, one wonders +where the pleasure comes in. She begins the day by getting her own +breakfast, and having worked in an office all day, she returns to shop +and sweep and dust and sew, or to cook and wash up for friends when +they come to spend the evening. “It’s silly, I know,” said a bachelor +woman, “I’m always having to draw on my sleep capital, but I couldn’t +stand “apartments,” and I’m not going to try.” Were women really +intended to live in this way? + +Seeing then the time that femininity absorbs in a woman’s career, can +we not understand those who cast it aside for ever? They cut off their +useless hair, buy substantial masculine boots with low, flat heels, +and dress themselves as nearly as they dare in the comfortable, ugly +fashions of men. + +From the artistic point of view the result is often deplorable. It +needs a brave woman to be seen in such clothing, except at a carnival; +but for the work they have to do perhaps male attire is more consistent. + +Such clothing, however, convenient as it may be, tends to unsex the +wearer. No longer feminine, unable to be quite masculine, she becomes +a _neutral_, and her real friends, male or female, are few and far +between. + +I shared a cabin, crossing the Atlantic, with one of these “neutrals.” +Except for a very short skirt, her garments were all masculine until +the evening when, remembering her original sex, she extracted some +rings from a grandmother’s pocket somewhere in her nether garments, and +at the same time allowed her femininity to go the length of wearing +lace stockings, without ceasing, however, to don her major’s coat. Such +a woman would probably never do any great good nor any great harm, and, +supposing she had sex, it could easily be transmuted to her work. + +This type, nevertheless, gets a perfectly square deal from a man +employer. “With such a woman as a business associate or a secretary, I +can treat her like a man,” said a member of Parliament. + +Probably this type of woman would be excellent on a jury, even a jury +to try a murderer. But to ask some women to sit on juries is next to a +crime. It is not at all in their line of thinking. They would be much +happier buying silk stockings and leaving this grim and complicated +subject to men or to other women of tried experience. + +In the question of juries we have another example of the part being +made greater than the whole. For one woman who can be of any real use +in a police court, a hundred are no good at such work, at least until +they have learnt to be more just to their own sex, and more balanced in +judgment. No woman should sit on a jury against her will. + +Face to face with two million superfluous women, perhaps the “neutral” +may offer a solution, who can tell? They work mechanically, like the +bees, and judging the work, one forgets the worker. + +But it was neither as a hybrid nor through any male mentality that Mme. +Curie succeeded in helping her husband to discover radium. It was the +feminine quality of her mind that was of such great value. And when he +was killed in the most stupid of street accidents, that female mind +became sterile until the day when she found a substitute for the great +masculine mind at rest. + +George Eliot, before she met George Lewis, was no more than a competent +journalist. With the assistance of his mind she wrote _Adam Bede_. +Without him, would her novels have ever been produced? + +And the hybrid can never be good for the community. It may be +convenient for us to ask women to give up their femininity, but the +sacrifice is too great. It is marking her with the same gender as a +table. + + + + +IX + +PIN-MONEY WOMEN + + +After health, women’s great obstacle in work, comes the pin-money +woman. There must be something fundamentally unnatural in a system that +makes women disloyal to one another, yet it is pin-money women who are +the hardest on those who must work. + +When the proprietor of a girl’s magazine can obtain a Girton Honours +student as editor for thirty shillings to three pounds a week; or +when another University graduate, with five years linguistic training +in Germany, France and Italy, will work in a Government office for +three pounds a week, how is the woman who absolutely depends on her +own efforts to compete with her? Thirty shillings is the price of a +none too luxurious room in London, without a meal; it is, therefore, +very wrong of qualified women with enough to live on, to accept three +pounds a week. A competent woman secretary may be satisfied with one +hundred and fifty pounds a year, because she has a handsome allowance +from her father so that she need not live with her step-mother. She +has two incomes. Work keeps her from getting bored and gives her a +certain _raison d’être_. But it is her low salary that helps to kill +all possibility of women’s work being taken seriously. + +Apply for the post which Miss X. has given up for another hobby, and +ask for a living wage. You will be stared at in amazement. “Miss X. +with her exceptional qualifications did it for so much,” they say, “we +must find another Miss X.” + +How do pin-money women come into existence? And why do they increase? +“It is useless having more than one or two daughters at home,” says +the father of four daughters. “Supposing my daughter can earn only one +hundred pounds a year, that will keep her in clothes and pin-money and +save me that amount in allowance.” But her work cannot be considered +either a career or an independence. She does not even supply her own +“bread and butter,” whereas most of the salary of the serious worker +goes on that alone. + +The head of the house supposes, and continues to hope, that his +daughters will marry, and his responsibility come to an end. With this +in view, he thinks that a little office experience will do her no harm. +It will teach her at least the value of money. And so, year in, year +out, the army of pin-money women, marking time, make it more and more +impossible for those who must work to earn their living. One sometimes +wonders whether these pin-money women have any idea of the sorrow and +hardship they bring to other women; only the wearer feels the shoe +pinch. The amateur, who is not forced to work and can give it up at any +time, so easily becomes slipshod. Hence arises the tendency to class +even the best women’s work as amateur. + +Amongst those who are making the professional woman’s career more +difficult, we can now also count the Society women. + +The number of Society women who, since the war, have pushed their way +into literature, art, films and the business world, is bewildering. +It frequently means that the poor girl, who naturally cannot compete +with the beautiful and much advertised fine lady, has to serve as +“ghost” and rewrite the Countess’s articles, for which she gets a +mere pittance. The Countess is paid for her name: and the “ghost” must +submit, as she knows that hundreds of other women are ready to take the +work. + +In business there may be nothing against a combination by which the +Countess X supplies the capital and Miss X does the work. Men lend +their noble names to help along financial schemes, and women may do the +same, if only a fair share of the profits be allowed to the worker. + +One must admit that nowadays many Society women are out to make money, +and generally succeed, thus doing far less mischief than the pin-money +women who are qualified to make money and yet work for a pittance. + +There were days when the middle-class professional worker was +considered the backbone of the nation. Are those days past? + +Democracy, with its blundering fingers, has shuffled the cards so badly +that it is difficult to see where things will right themselves. It is +as useless to sigh for the days when a countess was a countess, and an +actress an actress, and a worker a worker, as to weep for the fine men +of England who are asleep amongst the Flanders poppies. No competent +worker fears competition; lack of competition means stagnation. +There is a great difference, however, between _competition_ and +_under-cutting_, which is what the pin-money women are systematically +creating. Competition builds the edifice, under-cutting makes it fall. +And no words are sufficiently harsh for the amateur worker who, to +avoid _ennui_, does not hesitate to ruin her poorer sisters, actually +lowering men’s wages in the process, and—indirectly—forcing more women +into the labour market. There is great importance in the distinction +between the woman who works in collaboration with her husband, and +the woman who works to help keep the household. The latter is always +a dangerous experiment, and one which often ends in the wife having +to keep the whole house. When a woman is able to earn money, the man +so easily falls into the habit of letting her do it, till gradually +his efforts become slacker and slacker and he often leaves off working +altogether. _An energetic, wage-earning wife always demoralises a man._ + +An able-bodied man who allows his wife to keep the family is a poor +being; yet in these days of women’s work, it is becoming more and more +frequent, the energetic, clever woman attracting a weak, lazy type of +man. Women ought to let men understand from the first that husbands +are responsible for the family expenses. In the day of misfortune, of +course, normal rules do not apply. + +At the same time, the married worker may be as great an obstacle to the +single woman as the pin-money woman. Under the shelter of her husband’s +roof, she can do work for a comparatively low figure which must injure +her less fortunate rival. + +Work has been done from mere vanity! In fact, as one man said about his +wife’s work: “One requires a really large income to be the husband of a +literary woman.” + + + + +X + +WHAT IS WRONG WITH MARRIAGE? + + +Pages have been, and always will be, written about love and marriage, +or marriage without love, or even marriage as a profession. All the +roads of romance lead that way, all sorrows spring from its wrong +vibrations, or because it never came. Whatever may be written or +thought to the contrary, marriage will always remain the woman’s +vocation. + +When one sees a worn-out, middle-aged, woman taking notes at some +tiresome political meeting and knows that she still has to write her +report before she can struggle home in the small hours of the morning, +one asks: “What has she gained, morally or financially? Would she not +be far better at the fireside mending stockings?” + +We have set out, one by one, the disadvantages under which women labour +in the different professions they have taken up. What, after all, is +safer or better than matrimony? + +Not, however, the matrimony of our grandparents, but matrimony on the +basis of _moral partnership_. + +In the past century, when the wife was a kind of head servant and +obeyed the master without questioning his authority, matrimony ran on +easy enough lines. Now, when modern woman has a distinct personality of +her own, unless both husband and wife have a high sense of duty and a +feeling of partnership in the family they have created, their home-life +cannot be a success. + +And yet, with all its imperfections, on what better arrangement can +they co-operate? + +We have admitted that exceptional women, with unusually good health, +can succeed in the professions, but certainly the majority are, both +physically and morally, best fitted for married life. All the emotional +qualities of women, the worrying over details, the love of order, the +forgive-and-forget process of training children, are home virtues. The +qualifications for success in business are entirely different. + +And, for our generation, noting the moral upheaval and depravity +following the war, there was never a time when clear-thinking women of +high principles were more needed in home-life. There was never a period +when young men had more need of the one love that will never betray +them—the mother love. + +We in England have so much that could never be found in France, but we +now need to learn a few lessons from France with regard to family life. + +Most unfortunately, the literature of France seldom depicts French +home-life. Frenchmen read novels that, in frank contrast to their +lives, scoff at marriage and extol adultery. Are we not, alas, +following in the same tragic footsteps? It is more tragic for us, for +we have not the same critical balance. Sentimental natures like ours do +not reflect, and thus easily digest the tainted food which the French +are critical enough to analyse. Those who have lived in France know +that the Frenchman loves his home. It is his one ambition to have a +home and family, and for this ambition he can depend on encouragement +and support from all. + +The English marriage system may be idealistic, but is it practical? The +French system, with the bride’s dowry, has often been criticised and +condemned, but there can be no question that on the whole it is far +better for the bride. It is said that in France a man marries a woman +for her dowry; which is sometimes true. Here, however, he often cannot +marry for lack of it, which is worse. Just one or two hundred pounds +a year which the French mother begins to collect when the daughter +is born, and scarcely misses herself, would hardly tempt mercenary +suitors, yet it makes all the difference to the girl. The provision of +a dowry is rightly considered a sacred duty. To allow a daughter to +marry without something of her own is looked upon as a disgrace, and +even the poorest _concierge_ finds the wherewithal for her girl’s dot. + +But apart from the fact that this small standby is an encouragement +to early marriage, it raises the wife to the position of a “partner,” +and as a partner she naturally has a right to know exactly how the +household works. “I haven’t the least idea what my husband’s position +is,” English wives have said. “I spend my allowance, but perhaps I +ought not—who knows?” Imagine her feelings if her husband should +suddenly announce that he is a bankrupt. She has contributed without +knowing to the general useless expenditure. That could never happen in +France where the woman takes her full share of management. + +The French system differs from ours because money is given at the time +of the daughter’s marriage instead of at the parent’s death, when it is +often only half as valuable as it would have been in early life. Either +the couples have married and set up for themselves, struggling along +in a crippled way for want of a little extra money, or the young man, +not daring to risk life for two on his first earnings, has married less +happily than he would have done in earlier manhood. + +Above all, a sense of humiliation prevents many women from marrying. +Rather than be utterly dependent on a man, they prefer to work for +themselves. “You feel so cheap taking a salary as if you were a +housekeeper.” In a struggling or unhappy marriage, where too often the +man resents every penny he doles out, the position is heartrending for +a woman. Some, ashamed of not contributing to the home and unable to +make ends meet out of their small allowance, supplement it by adopting +a profession. This may help, but as already suggested, it often leads +to all sorts of complications. + +Girls should be encouraged to marry young, though not too young. It is +dangerous for them to have gone too far on the road of independence, +for success may make them so “difficult” in their choice that they +wait too long and do not bother to marry at all. The Turkish proverb: +“Friendless still he remaineth who demands a perfect friend,” may prove +a wise warning in the matter of choosing a husband. + +In an Empire like ours, where many of our young men have to emigrate, +and cannot afford to take a wife out with them, there would be many +obvious advantages in some system of dowries. + +No French mother would let her son go to the end of the earth without +a wife to look after him. She knows, “it is not good for man to be +alone.” Nor does she relish the idea of daughters left to “wither on +the virgin thorn.” Perhaps, even, she considers the daughter’s case +more seriously than the son’s. For she has made up her mind that +matrimony is not only the most natural, but the only path for a woman, +and she leaves no stone unturned to bring about a marriage. Friends +help, the family confessor helps; the conspiracy is an open secret, and +no one thinks any the worse of her for her scheming. + +Perhaps the best and happiest marriages are those arranged by brothers. +When a girl marries her loved brother’s best friend, it is the safest +way of making assurance doubly sure. + +Between the too cautious system of the French and our careless methods, +there ought to be a happy mean. We have been arguing by extremes. Could +we not compromise and secure the advantages of both methods? + +We have advocated early marriage. We who love children know what it +means for them to have young parents. Early marriage, however, is a +danger, unless the family ties are tightened. Would Englishmen and +women ever take their mothers into their confidence, and act on advice, +as the French do? Yet every great virtue has its own defects, and +very often the Frenchwoman’s great love for her son will tempt her to +cripple his best interests both in marriage and in his career. She +may spoil his career by keeping him in France where he does not obtain +either experience or promotion. She may force him to marry “well” when +his heart is elsewhere, though an understanding and unselfish mother +generally chooses a better wife than he would have found for himself. + +There was a time when every Englishman scorned the idea of a dowry. +Now, though not actually applauding the system, they do fall in love +more easily with the daughter of rich parents, and, in these hard +times, who can blame them? A woman naturally resents being married for +money; but we have never seen any signs of rejoicing in those who have +been left penniless in the hands of the best husband. That is more +humiliating, not less. + +The greatest advantage of the French system, which provides something +for both husband and wife, is that a young couple _can_ marry, and +their children will have the immense advantage of young and healthy +parents. How, in these hard times for professional men, can one of +these afford to marry before he is nearly forty, and this often results +in his wife being left a young widow with a family, the children +without the moral and material support of the father when he is most +needed. + +It is only a small sacrifice that these French parents make in slowly +and steadily saving money for their daughters, and it seems incredible +that for want of similar unselfishness, this country should eventually +abound, as it must, in destitute women. + + + + +XI + +THE FUTURE + + +What is to be the Future of the army of two million superfluous women? + +We maintain that, with few exceptions, the vocation of women is +matrimony. But where are all these two million to find husbands? +Certainly not in England. + +From time to time, the papers are full of the need for women in our +colonies:—Rhodesia, Western Canada, or Australia. But does such a need +really exist? Why cannot some thoroughly competent and trustworthy +woman be sent out on a mission to these places—as the _Daily Mail_ +quite recently sent one of its men representatives—to investigate, and +produce a reliable report of all the facilities for emigration? It +is idle and dangerous to pursue such ideas blindfold: we need exact +figures and precise facts. + +If there is work in the colonies for our women, why not send them +out? If there _are_ men there wanting wives, the rest will follow as a +matter of course. + +When we read what the first Puritan colonists of America endured and +suffered, and how the women battled along beside them, we need feel no +fear of what Englishwomen can do when put to the test. In the fight for +home and children woman stands out supreme. Who knows what a marvellous +tale of love, adventure, and real heroism, a new exodus might call +forth? But we must know the truth. Are women really needed in the +colonies, or are they not? + +Every woman has the right to some goal in life. She was not born to +vegetate; and where the vocation of husband and children is lacking, a +field of sufficient interest to absorb her whole life must be found. +What about the Church? Or some other form of work in the service of +Humanity? + +Every student of human nature knows that great insatiable longing of +one being for the special sympathy of another, the two making one +perfect whole. The Roman and Anglican Churches have expressed this +instinct under the simile of Christ the bridegroom and the nun or +sister, His bride. This Union between God and man is perhaps the only +one that can replace the wonderful exclusive tie between a man and a +woman. How many women who buried their “one man” in the battle-fields +of France, have found their consolation in Heavenly Union and taken +refuge from the world in the service of humanity with the protection of +the veil? + +In Protestant England, however, the convent does not mean what it +means in Latin countries, yet England assuredly needs women to labour +for the certain benefit of their sex. She wants another St. Theresa, +without her delusions. But where is she? Certainly not in the ranks +of the women who would drive us to the Bar and the House of Commons. +Nor amongst those who would send us back to crochet in our mother’s +drawing-rooms. + +Help must come from the religion of _practical service_; and who knows +whether if women once gain a broader and saner outlook, they would not +do fine and noble work in the pulpit. They must be chosen, of course, +with the greatest care, or more harm than good will be done. + +If only there were more of us like Miss Maud Royden, a broad-minded, +deep-thinking, human woman, who can do only good wherever she goes. + +We do not want the “shrieking sister” type. We want women who will +preach that human nature is neither foul nor base, but a noble, +beautiful thing; that men and women are neither angels nor beasts, but +just men and women in sore need of help. + +The non-conformist Church, too, should make room for more women in its +foreign missions; and what a fine field there is for the trained nurse +as Florence Nightingale conceived her. To-day the mere ‘paid’ nurse is +a different being altogether, with few, if any, of the qualities of the +pioneer. Too often she is neither working in God’s service to relieve +suffering, nor straining her mind and strength to learn the laws of +health. Florence Nightingale’s religion was her work. But where are her +disciples now? + +Nevertheless, there is a practical side to the Service of Humanity. +It simply cannot be done without organisation and support. The +“Sisterhood” provides this. Sister Leonie, working day and night in +the St. Lazare prison, Paris, could not be tortured by the material +worries of daily life. What a waste of effort that would have been, +disturbing the work of service as she prays with and comforts her +penitents. + +Everywhere, in fact, and whatever their work or their mission, +_provision for the Future must prove to be Women s real problem_. +At present there is no sphere open to her in which the returns are +substantial enough to allow of saving. Those who feel the Call may be +freed from such anxieties; but where there is neither a home nor an +income to depend on, in business or professions that do not carry with +them an adequate pension, _some kind of insurance must be devised by +the State_. + +This is obviously a big question needing most careful thought. To-day, +indeed, we must feel serious doubt whether women can place any real +dependence even on the home and the family. Times are hard, and society +is unstable. At any moment revolution or anarchy may sweep away, +through no fault of our own, whatever provision the most prudent of us +have been able to make. + +There can, therefore, be no doubt that the Economic Insecurity among +women is a grave problem. It may lead anywhere—to suicide, immorality, +or crime. The matter is too serious for delay. All single women who +have passed the age of thirty should now be included in some scheme +of _National Insurance_. The other disadvantages, however great they +be, are actually dwarfed before the monster terror of no money in our +old age—or in times of sickness. True, there are old age pensions, +there are charities for distressed gentlewomen, but no self-respecting +professional worker can be beholden to these. We ought not to allow it. + +Finally, as one who stands whole-heartedly for progress, may we not +once more ask what is the use of a femininism that preaches hatred +of the other sex, or a desire to exercise the wearing—for women, +tearing—professions of men? + +Man, with his better-balanced brain and uncomplicated physique, fills +us with awe. See him at his magnificent work of building bridges, +stemming rivers and piercing mountains, conquering Nature inch by inch! +Woman can help his work and complete his life, but she may not enter +into competition with him. + +Let her not deceive herself: in spite of women in Parliament and other +signs of advanced femininism, she has not gone very far. What she needs +now is more humanity, more commonsense, and some of the Latin charm. If +she works as man’s antagonist, she will be beaten back steadily. + + _Male and Female created He them. + And a little child shall lead them._ + +There, in a nutshell, is the truth. + + + + +. From A. M. PHILPOT’S LIST . + + +BLUE BOOKLET, VOL. I + +THE + +FALLACIES _of_ SPIRITUALISM + +By A. LEONARD SUMMERS + +2s. 6d. net. + +SOME EARLY REVIEWS + +“This booklet is an extremely able and interesting criticism of a craze +that has become wide-spread with the most pernicious results. The +writer does not limit himself to an account of the sensational frauds +that have been exposed on both sides of the Atlantic, but he analyses +the evidence of Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir A. Conan Doyle, Mr. Vale Owen, +and other distinguished spiritualists, with merciless severity and very +great acumen.”—_Freemans Journal._ + +“Lucidly written, and without bitterness, Mr. Summers makes out a good +case for the ‘against’ in this little book.”—_Glasgow Citizen._ + +“As a popular indictment, Mr. Summers’ pamphlet is likely to make +considerable impression. It remains for his opponents to offer +as succinct and well-documented an answer.”—_The Times Literary +Supplement._ + + +BLUE BOOKLET, VOL. II + +PSYCHIC PHENOMENA IN THE OLD TESTAMENT + +By SARAH A. TOOLEY + +2s. 6d. net. + +Scenes and occurrences in the Old Testament, so familiar as to have +lost their real significance, are here described in a way that will be +of extraordinary interest to the psychic student of to-day. + + +BLUE BOOKLET, VOL. III + +MORAL POISON IN MODERN FICTION + +By R. BRIMLEY JOHNSON + +2s. 6d. net. + +The truth about certain new theories of morality, taught in some modern +novels, assumed in others, and to some extent already put in practice +by young readers, frankly and carefully examined, with an exposure +of their probable evil influence. Extracts from novels by well-known +writers give point and interest to what amounts to an unhesitating +condemnation. + + +_NEW BOOK BY TROWARD._ + + THE HIDDEN POWER. By T. TROWARD. With frontispiece portrait of the + author. Uniform with author’s Complete Works. Crown 8vo, cloth and + linen, 8s. 6d. net. + +This important volume, which includes practically all Troward’s +unpublished manuscripts and magazine articles, concludes the series +of books on Mental Science by an author who was described by the +late Archdeacon Wilberforce as “one of the greatest thinkers of our +times.” It is significant to note that these books, beautiful in their +sustained clearness of thought and style, are now included in the +curriculum of societies, clubs and classes devoted to the study of +Mental Science. + + +_Complete List of the Series._ + + 1. THE EDINBURGH LECTURES ON MENTAL SCIENCE. Crown 8vo, cloth and + linen, 6s. net. + +Mental Science defined as the proper understanding of Livingness, based +on the distinction between Spirit and Matter, i.e., Thought and Form. + + 2. THE DORÉ LECTURES ON MENTAL SCIENCE. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s. net. + +An exposition of the relation of the Individual to the Universal +Originating Principal of the Cosmos—the Mind of God. + + 3. THE CREATIVE PROCESS IN THE INDIVIDUAL. Crown 8vo, cloth, 8s. 6d. + net. + +A study of spiritual evolution which, the author maintains, is but +another aspect of physical evolution. + +“_No thinker should be without this book._”—The late Archdeacon +WILBERFORCE. + + 4. BIBLE MYSTERY AND BIBLE MEANING. Demy 8vo, cloth, 10s. 6d. net. + +Troward here proposes that “we shall re-read the Bible on the +supposition that Jesus and these other speakers _really meant what +they said_, which is a startling proposition from the standpoint of +the traditional interpretation.” An illumination for those who seek to +render the older theology into terms of modern science. + + 5. BIBLE PROPHECY, 1914-23. Crown 8vo, paper, 1s. net. + +An arresting pamphlet upon the Great War; providing clues to prophetic +utterances of the Bible concerning the Time of the End. To-day _is_ the +End of the Age. + + 6. THE LAW AND THE WORLD. With a Foreword by PAUL DERRICK. Crown 8vo, + cloth, 8s. 6d. net. + +In this posthumous volume, Troward formulates a final statement of his +beliefs after long investigation and profound study in the field of +Mental Science. + + +A. M. PHILPOT, LTD., 69 Great Russell Street, W.C. 1 + + + _TWO WORKS OF GENIUS_ + +VOL. IV of Les Fleurs de France. + +THE CRYSTAL COFFIN + +By MAURICE ROSTAND + +6s. net. + +An amazing first novel by the son of the author of _Cyrano de Bergerac_. + +“It is written in the form of a diary in which the author narrates +his soul-corruption by a life of luxury and incessant pleasure until, +finally, he commits suicide on his father’s grave in a mood of +remorse.... + +There is veri-similitude throughout. We see the leading figures of +French life crossing the stage; often Rostand himself stands revealed +in the intimacy of this diary. While one is inclined to resent an +exposure so candid, from which the father emerges still greater, it is +true that the recorder has not spared himself.... + +A bare outline of the tragedy gives no conception of the fascination +of this astounding volume. Throughout one cannot separate fact from +fiction, history from imagination, and everyone asks, ‘How much of this +is the real Rostand?’ It is a book of astounding candour, of merciless +introspection, with passages of sheer lyricism.... + +As a first volume and a _roman à-clef_, _The Crystal Coffin_ is +something new in the experience of the reviewer. It is undeniable +evidence of a case of inherited genius, and it seems probable that +the man who could write this book will create such works that he will +be independent of the fact that he is his father’s son.”—_Liverpool +Courier._ + + +VOL. V. of Les Fleurs de France. + +THE FOSTER MOTHER + +By ERNEST PÉROCHON + +6s. net. + +A poignant story of the conflict between Mother Love and the power of +the showy, heartless “Vampire Girl”. It is not often that a work of +genius is “everyone’s book,” but this simply-told story of country life +is also an exquisite piece of writing which gained the much-coveted +Prix Goncourt, 1920. + +“A tragedy so poignant and so free from sentimental dilution is a truly +fine achievement.”—_Times Literary Supplement._ + +“The story is worthy of comparison with big things.”—_Manchester +Guardian._ + + + _ALL ABOUT PARIS RESTAURANTS_ + +PARIS À LA CARTE + +Where the Frenchman Dines and How. + +By SOMMERVILLE STORY + +Author of _The Spirit of Paris_, etc. + +4s. 6d. net. + +A book of great interest and value to all who visit Paris or are +interested in French cuisine. In a series of sparkling sketches, the +author describes the different restaurants, past and present, night +and day, their specialities, habitués, etc., and there are chapters +describing the preparation and origin of the best-known French dishes, +the apéritif hour, the chief French wines, and everything connected +with the subject. + + + + +Transcriber’s Notes + +Pg 14 Changed: the instrument of the Millenium To: the instrument of +the Millennium + +Pg 14 Changed: the promised Millenium is still far to seek To: the +promised Millennium is still far to seek +Pg 26 Changed: women doctors, and in the medical mission-field To: +women doctors, and in the medical mission field + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78463 *** |