The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-09-17
The THIRD SEX,
An italian Scientist
Alarmed at Increase
In Spinsters.
A new TYPE OF WOMAN,
The One Who Completes Is
a Sexless Creature
He Says.

People who have a taste for abstract
political speculation ought to read Sig
nor Ferrero's book, "L3Europa Gio-
vane," which is a study of northern
Europe as it appears to an observer
who is of Latin race and a disciple Of
Lombroso. He pays us Anglo Saxons
the compliment of particular atten-
ton; and one of his most amusing
chapters is exclusively devoted to what
he takes to be our most characteristic
productive emancipated woman. This
chapter is entitled The third sex"
on terzo sesso''), and from the Oh
servation of facts as they are, it trends
a good deal into the region of prophecy.
Marriage is becoming daily more diff
cult, says Signor Ferrero, owing to a
network of obstacles, mostly econom-
ical, and as a consequence, the army
of voluntary celibates increases. Now.
the presence of any new class in So
ciety must ultimately make itself felt:
and the class of bachelors, male and
female, is assuming, in his judgment.
alarming proportions OF the two d.
visions into which that class falls, it is
the women who will make themselves
sons there is not the same difference Of
character between the bachelor and the
married man as between the married
woman and the spinster. 1t is the in
creasing prepOnderance Of the spinster
in Anglo-SaXon society that strikes Sig
nor Ferrero and fills him with appre-
tensions of the most formidable ma
ture
Women, he says, are gradually invad-
ing all the fields in which man had for
merly no competition; and 1t is a new
type of woman who is competing
women who have accepted the necessi-
ty Of single life and who throw into
their work all the energy. which nature
intended to meet the drain of maternity.
Renan has somewhere laid it down that
the highest intellectual development
can only be attained by absolute ehas-
tity lin the Roman Catholic sense); as
if there were a total fund of nervous
energy available which may be drawn
upon solely for the intellect, or, as is the
common case. both for the intellect and
the emotions. CThe idea seems absurd,
but / am concerned merely to state Sig
nor Ferrero's opinion.) Consequently
the competitor who now meets man at
every turn is a creature like the work.
ing bee, in whom the desire to be a
wife or mother has been atrophied,
and the driving force of that desire Is
converted into feverish hunger for
work. Woman will count for more and
more in the world; all careers will soon
be open to her, for she will knock pas
sionately at every door till she is
admitted, and once she is allowed to
compete, this sexless creature, this
working bee has such an advantage
in the struggle for life as man would
have who could live without eating.
What will be the result? Till quite
lately marriage has been the only
profession open to a virtuous woman:
ii has been the one success within her
grasp. This view is frankly recognized
by women, for to every woman mar
riage in itself is still accounted pro-
motion. There may be counterbal-
ancing circumstances, but to be married
is in itself an object of desire and a
subject Of congratulation. With men,
the case is the other way. When a
man marries, his friends will admit to
themselves that there may be or there
are compensations; but the position Of
single man is in itself enVied and ap-
plauded, that of a single woman en-
phatlcally is not. In England the sin
gle woman has always been able TO Sc
cure a reasonable freedom, and she has
never been accounted ridiculous as she
still is in Italy, and to some extent in
france. But till of late years she has
not had career open to her as a sin
gle woman, except in works of charity
where there is neither the stimulus Of
competition nor the consequent intoxi-
cation of success. Nowadays, there is
an alternative to matrimony set before
every ambitious woman; she has to
choose between marriage and a career;
and already, says Signor Ferrero, she
| chooses the career.