# The Future of the Women's Movement

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THE FUTURE OF THE
WOMEN'S MOVEMENT
BY
H. M. SWANWICK, M.A.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
MRS. FAWCETT, LL.D.
PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL UNION OF WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE SOCIETIES
LONDON
G. BELL & SONS LTD.
1913
TO
F. T. S.
CONTENTS :
| PREFACE ||
| | page |
| Homo—Human principles of government—Unscientific scientific men—Our masters | vii |
| Introduction. By Mrs. Fawcett | xi |
| CHAPTER I Causes of the Women's Movement ||
| Woman becomes articulate—Why the movement has become political in England—Women's handicap—The need for concentration—Two kinds of change: education, industrialisation—Adaptation essential—Solidarity of women | 1 |
| CHAPTER II What is the Women's Movement? ||
| Is it chaotic?—Knowledge and scope—What the world is losing—The spirit of the time a scientific one; women must share it—Action will follow knowledge—Is it to be thwarted action? | 14 |
| CHAPTER III The Subjection of Women ||
| Importance of motherhood—Vocational training of women for motherhood a mistake—Whole ​human beings—Full development under Men's domination impossible—Sentimentalists and Brutalitarians—Subjection degrading—Are women mentally inferior to men?—An irrelevant question—Opportunity for development | 20 |
| CHAPTER IV Physical Force ||
| Man's undoubted superiority—The handicap of motherhood—Woman's battle a spiritual one—Domination by force is bad business—Foreign policy and war—Equality of service and equality of sacrifice—War not the only business | 31 |
| CHAPTER V Democracy and Representative Government}} ||
| Mr. Frederic Harrison and Prof. Dicey—Difficulties of governing others—Civil rights depend upon political rights—Illiberal arguments against women's suffrage—Safety a delusion—Progress due to control of physical force by mind—Law of diminishing returns on compulsion—Opinions and interests of voter | 42 |
| CHAPTER VI Votes ||
| Effects of the denial of the vote—Legislation, administration, taxation—Status—The ​intolerable slur of disfranchisement—Direct effect of the vote—What women want—How Bills are made—Peaceful penetration—Indirect effect of the vote—Responsibility, independence, cooperation | 59 |
| CHAPTER VII The Economic Problem: (i) The Wage-Earner ||
| The domination of economic force—Woman's natural handicap, motherhood—Woman's artificial handicap, law and custom—Laissez-faire abandoned—Case of the pit-brow girls—Opening up of trades and professions—A living wage—Danger of sweated womanhood | 69 |
| CHAPTER VIII The Economic Problem: (2) The Mother ||
| Neglected motherhood—King Log and King Stork—The Englishman's almost absolute power over his wife—Socialistic legislation—Endowment of motherhood—Payment of wives—Man's outlook mainly personal, not racial—Woman's outlook | 78 |
| CHAPTER IX The Economic Problem: (3) The Housewife ||
| The mother is generally the housewife—Convenient and economical—Bad conditions of ​housework—No reform without discontent—Motherhood and housewifery not inextricable—Co-operative housekeeping—Divorce of producer and consumer—Advertisement and speculation—Waste, adulteration, and ugliness—Specialisation needed in the consumer; also collective effort and political action | 89 |
| CHAPTER X The Economic Problem: (4) The Prostitute ||
| Prostitution the most commercially profitable of women's trades—Definition—Extent—Is it an evil?—Is it (1) necessary for health, or (2) necessary consequence of evil nature and evil institutions?—Professions and performances—What is wrong with men, women, and marriage? A complex evil requiring many remedies—Education—Self-respect—Wages—Brutality—Housing—Alcohol—Cruelty—Rescue | 99 |
| CHAPTER XI The Economic Problem: (5) Commercialised Vice ||
| Women's crusade against prostitution, alcoholism, and war—Decay of Empires—Originally appetites, have become trades—Advertisement and finance—Vested interest in alcohol—Traffic in women—Chicago Vice Commission—More facts wanted—Enormous profits—Trade controlled by men—Ignorance and indifference—Traffic in war | 117 ​ |
| CHAPTER XII The Man's Woman: Womanly ||
| Two ideals—Motherly qualities do not attract men—Weakness and dependence are not motherly—Women distrust men's judgment of women—Women's wiles—Social value of women's qualities—Florence Nightingale—Women must combine and organise—Inarticulate women | 126 |
| CHAPTER XIII The Woman's Woman: A Person ||
| Ideal, Normal, and Average woman—Procrustes' bed—Motherhood not everything—Genius and motherhood—Scientific men constantly overlook the mind—Breeding versus environment | 138 |
| CHAPTER XIV Sex-Antagonism: (1) Man's Part ||
| No permanent opposition of sexes—Mr. Heape's theory—Primitive man and woman are opposed—Men and women not the "same" nor "equal"—Effect of luxury—Mr. Heape's nightmare: Men "brute beasts," maidens "waste products"—Love the reconciling force—Adaptation of the Human to environment—Women not all sex—The literature of abuse—Are men fit for judicial powers? | 156 ​ |
| CHAPTER XV Sex-Antagonism: (2) Woman's Part ||
| Women's war—Is men's need greater?—War open and articulate—The Ladies' Gallery—Sir Charles Grandison on the enemies of women—Militancy and the machine—The mob spirit—A revival due—Press, purse, and party—The good and the evil of militancy—Is it War or Martyrdom?—Men's hypocrisy about women's violence—The weapon of femininity—The responsibility of the Government—Exasperation is not statesmanship | 173 |
| CHAPTER XVI The Old Adam and the New ||
| Adaptation—A man's world difficult for women to live in—Men's needs—The double standard—The child's needs—Health of girls—Co-education—Teaching of sex—Parasitic daughters—The birth-rate—Women the natural protectors of children; therefore they should be given power to protect—Men should help women—The experience of Finland—Comradeship—Faith | 193 |
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1939, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 84 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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