Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-09
THE WOMEN OF SPAIN
WIVES SUBORDINATE TO Hus-
BANDS In LAND OF poNS
Their Position but Little Better Than
. Domestic Slave, but Sat-
listed With Lot.

From the Fortnishtly Review.
Woman in Spain has Lad no part In the
emancipation Of the sex that has taken
place In most European countries In the
last century. As factor in social life
she stands entirely In the background: man
has the predominant influence, and the po-
sftfon Of woman is an entirely subordinate
one. To the foreigner the first sign Of this
Is visible in the absence Of that easy and
homeiy spirit Of hospitality prevalent In
other countries, and which owes so much
Of its character to female influence.
In this matter the ideas of the Spaniard
retain flavor Of orientalism which the
progre-s Of time and the general advance
Of civilization around him have been unable
to dissipate. He possesses what we should
call most limited views as to the sphere In
which woman should move. He thinks that
a good wife should have no interests which
may distract her from the duties of her
household, and hence these duties-the
chief among them being the care and bring
Ing up of children-form the chief occupa-
tion OF the Spanish lady.
Brainy Women Few.
Any unusual development of intellect In
a woman is held by public opinion to be I'M
feminine. and the proportion Of intellectual
women in Spain is remarkably small. The
majority of Spanish girls are quite unculti-
waited in our modern sense of the word, ex-
cept as regards hand-embroidery. music
and dancing, for which the race has con-
siderable aptitude. Half a century ago, the
photography of a large percentage of we'll
born Spanish ladies would not have come
up to the standard of one Of our eIemen-
tary school boards.
The education of Spanish women has in
deed improved during the last thirty years,
ewing chiefly to greater facilities for travel
and certain filtering through of foreign
habits of life. But this has only taken
place within the recognized lines of COM
muntca ton over the country. Physical
training plays as small part in the edu-
cation of Spanish women as does intellec-
tual culture. In this, too there is a wide
distance separating the Angio-Saxon wo-
man from her southern neighbor. One of
the most noticeable characteristics of the
former is the love of exercise which she
has recently acquired and in which she can
now with impunity indulge.
Lack Of Exercise.
In Spain. on the other hand, not only do
women take little or no exercise, but they
have strong aversion to taking 1t. Span
fsh girls are never, in their childhood,
taught to appreciate open-air life, and they
have no opportunity of acquiring the taste
later on. An endeavor was made a short
time ago to, introduce bicycling into Madrid
as feminine amusement. but the attempt
was failure, owing to the obstructive at
titude of both sexes. The new idea was
only taken up by few votaries Of foreign
fashion.
One result of the position of the Spanish
woman is the easy solution it offers of
conJugal problems" The explanation of
this fact Is to be found in corollary to
the following general proposition that
one OF the most essential condi-
tons of contugal happiness is that the
views of the contracting parties as to their
respective spheres of action should be in
perfect harmony. In Spain there Is never
any question of what woman can or can
not do or think. She Is domestic slave
but she is perfectly contented one and no
more devoted wives and mothers are to be
found than In that country