The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1895-01-26
THE NEW WOMAN.

THE NEW WOMAN.
There is a tendency now days for
women to become men and men to be-
come women. To person interested in
the human race this tendency is most
deplorab]e one. The unnatural desire of
some women to be admitted to the fran
chise and to all employments and occu-
pations on equal terms with mon, is de-
serving Of the hearty disapproval of hui
man society. A great deal has been said
about the "new woman" The new
woman, in che comm IN acceptation Of
those terms, is certainly poor substi-
tute for our mothers and grandmothers.
She is an unnatural being who goes
about prating about the rights of women
and the cruelties of men. She has SUI
preme contempt for all the harder and
more obscure modes of earning liveli-
hood, and particularly for those which
have hitherto been mainly or exclusiv ely
confined to women. She treats the la.
bors of housekeeping such, as cooking,
busting, sweeping, dressmaking, wash
ing, and ,baby-tending with undisguised
scorn, as unworthy the powers OF the
ideal woman, whose cause she pleads:
She exalts those callings which are car:
ried on in public, and are attended with
more or less excitement, and which offer
the chance OF making money without
much exertion. She tells her fellow
women by her example and manners to
become brokers, lawyers, physicians,
ministers, editors and lecturers. She 1s
constantly telling about freedom and
rights and never misses chance to de-
monstrate the great capacity of the fe-
male mind. Her ideal is the woman
who takes to the stump and by her burn
ing eloquence makes ten thousand q
year, or the young woman dressed as
nearly as the law permits like man, who
rushes about the country plying a re-
porter's pencil, making Scoops" describ.
ing dresses, aud reporting convention 8.
She swaggers along the street with hands
in the hip pockets of her coat, stopping
before the city hall or the court house to
read the notices of sheriff's sales and
casting plying glances on her inferior
brothers as she passes them by on the
street.
This is the much spoken OF new woman
OF the Nineteenth century-the would-be
new power in the intellectual and politi-
cal world. All sensible men are glad
that their mothers, sisters aud wife do
not belong to that unnatural class of
women.
It is easy to see to what absurd oon-:
illusions one would arrive by admitting
that woman's rights, sphere and power
were equal to and identical with mans.
Woman is mans equal, but she is not his
exact Counterpart. Woman's sphere in
life is equal to mans, but it is not idsnti-I
cal with mans. Woman's capacity to
do good or evil is equal to mans but it Isl
not ideotlcal with mans The question;
as to the enlargement OF women's rights
is not only important as political q ues-l
ton but it is highly SO as q social ques
ton.
The new woman is important only az q.
study of what nature can produce when.
out OF gear. She cannot bee ,me an i'm !
portant factor because there is no place:
to her in the symmetry OF ma
ture. Yet there are tendencies apparent
among American women to initiate the
''new woman" The higher education Of
women, especially co education in col
leges, has increased the intellec tual power
Of woman at the expense Of the gentle
qualities Of heart and soul. Women, by
men out Of the pursuits which
cightfully belongs to the bread winner Of
,he family. prevent young men from
and for every young man that
:emains unmarried, one young woman
Ices also. The result is that cause oper
ties against effect and effect against
,ause. re finally this independent, self