The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-02-28
DEMAND ON WOMEN.
The Role of Women More Intricate
Than That of Men.
From the Boston Court,


One of the most marked characteristics
of modern life is the enormous increase
which it makes in its demands upon woman.
1t has always been true, from the dawn of
civilization, that the role of women in So
! ciety and in life has been more intricate,
| although less broad, than that Of men. 1t
| has always been asked at the hands of wo-
men that they should be a thousand times
| more flexible than men; that they should
| adapt themselves to a hundred conditions
which men ignored or scor ed; and that
| they play in the drama of life a score of
parts to every one which was undertaken
| by their fathers and brothers and sons. As
| life has constantly grown more and more
| complex, this difference between the sexes
| has increased rather than diminished. Life
| today demands of a woman more changes
in day than man is required to compass
in month. She must, from moment to
moment, be one thing after anOther-the
wife, the mother, the woman of society,
the leader in reforms, the sharer in this
work of charity, and that labor and intel
lectual progress, until it is a miracle that
she Is able TO do any Of the multitudinous
duties imposed upon her.
OF course, in a great measure this Is due
to the fact that women will accept these
burdens. Men escaped much by the simple
1t is idle expect men to bend to all
changes with which women cucumber their
lives, and so the lives of men remain and
are likely to remain more simple than tn )se
of the other sex. Women are, as a rule,
sufficiently we'll able to oppose their wills
to personal opposition, but the women are
few and far to seek who are capable of
standing out against circumstance Perhaps
the dffe ence is that a man argues with
ms nd IL satisfied
while woman must argue with a second
person or her arguments are apt to be as
water spilled upon the ground which mot
be gathered again. A man convinces him
self that he is right and that is the
end of it. He acts upon that
conclusion, while woman in similar
case would be apt to find it impossible to be
nation of some one else TO assure her that
she was justified in her decision.
But whatever be the cause, of the fact
there is TO doubt. The woman who is of
the world to-day must be prepared to be all
things in succession. She must be the care
full housewife, the social leader, the religi-
el,se the scholar, tue wit, the confidanue,
all in turn. She must compass at least a
show of all learting, she must be in sym
patty with all branches of knowledge and
feeling aud bought; she must attend to a
hund ed forms OF life of the very existence
of which her grandmothers were ignorant
Whether she has been wise in taking all
this burden upon her it will hardly fall
within the province Of the present genera
ton to decide. Whether the ohil-
dren and grandchildren OF these
wonderful women will be the better
or the worse for the extraordinary strain
which is put upon the mothers Of the race,
any man may speculate but no man can
tell. Every woman might be supposed to
decide for herself how far she will share
this high strung life. but as matter of fact
no human being is able 10 escape the infiu-
ence of his day and generation. We are part
of whole, and, although woman may to
some extent withdraw herself from the cur
rent in the end she is forced to choose be-
tween being left a stranded waif on the
shore Of the stream and taking her part OF
whatever the life of her time may be.