News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-11-15
"SupeTHuous Women"
HOW MRS. LIvERMORE WOULD DIsrOs
EIIEhI

OF THEN.
Mrs. LtvecmOre lectured recently ut
Brattleboro, on "Super}uous Women"
We take the following from her remarks:
She first spoke of the dpplOrable con
ditiOn of woman in the past. how she
was considered by the Greeks and He
brews in the middle ages. and even by the
early Christian fathers, as the source of
ali evil. unworthy of instruction and
hopelessly inferior to man. 1t is only of
late that woman is taking her place by
the side of man as his other half, and be-
cause he desires it. Schools, colleges
and business pursuits are opening their
doors to her. Thirty years ago only one
college. Oberlin. admitted women; now
1913 colleges in this country admit women
! to the same privileges which men enjoy.
! and at the last census 2S7 business Dur-
| suits were open to women. But there
| are still hindranCcS III the path of WO-
mans elevation. This is because we
| have two theories OF the creation of
mankind. One is, that God thought of
man and made him to grow and rise from
one good thing to another, defining his
sphere by his taste, or capacity. But
woman was an after thought, made as a
hplp for man and cOusecrated only
through him,-the ridiculous theory
which Milton put into the mouth OF Eve /:
I"Re thou for God only; | for God
! through thee" The other theory is that
man and woman were created for each
other. as the two parts which make one
whole. That every manliness has its
corresponding wOmanlineSS; every I'M
manlimesS its unwOmanliness. That the
two are so indissolubly united by nature
that they rise or sink together; alone,
;tI to .i,rl, t-
They are Gods dual children and togeth-
er they may best rise to that higher at
mOSphere and commence their flight to
Him. Under the first theory women are
trained to believe that marriage Is their
only honorable outlook and that she who
misses marriage misses everything.
Henry james says the unmarried woman
is everywhere failure. Yet it j. this
training the object OF which is to fiji
women for domestic life which has filled
the world with these supertluous women.
\ domestic woman of this type is fit tOr
nothing. cares for nothing but to stay at
home ana keep up the inccsSant routine
of house work and fancy work. Her life
is belittling and narrowing, but she cares
for nothing else. \ woman who Is Z
wife, mother and hoUSekecper only, has
} not fulfilled her mission, but she who
has neither, has not necessarily failed II
her mission. (IIere the speaker gave
some illuStriOuS examples of unmarried
women who have done great work in art
and science) The great cause of the
failure of this training is from the tlcl
that while women are trained tor the
sphere of wife, mother aud hOuSC&ecpel
only. the increase of manageable WOmer
over that of men makes it impossible tOl
them to fill that sphere. Statistics show
that an average of LOG boys to 100 girl;
are born, but the extra RISKS that mel
run with war and intemperance. makes ;
very great surplus of women over men il
most countries. In the last census Mas
= SachuScttS showed 6l,OS4 more marriage
able women than men. ct in the whole
country there are more men than women
many foreigners having come over here
leaving families behind. The surplus o
women is great in the Eastern and Mid
die States. but there is a grea
excess of men in the west. Many way.
+ have been thought of to rid the world o
these supcrtluous women, but it SHOULD
be case of prevention and not of cure
Let Us change the training of woman s.
that she cannot be called supertluOus
; Train her as though she were sure to b.
: 4 wife and mother, and train her alSC
f as though she were certain never to be
wife or mother, Teach her to stan,
i alone in the world and depend upon her
; self. The industrial and schools of de
= sign should be encouraged i'll this cOuu
= try. Designing is i work for whicl
woman is particularly fitted, and $1,000
now goes from this to other countries 70
this work, because there IS no one her
, that can do it. The work to be done is t
, fit woman still further than has yet bee
done tor Independence and self support
\ This kind of training helps all men an
u women too, for there are plenty of ST
: pcrtluous women and men, both amor
q the married as we'll as the unmarried
| And united man and woman are b
nature th'tr" - n" NN"ul:'n'~ c:ru~" that