The Tupelo journal., 1903-04-03
The Educated Women.
BY DEAN ]. L. GOODNIGHT, D. D.

We have outliYed the doubts
about the mental equality OF mer
and women. Men and women per.
form the same intellectual process.
ses in the same way and they have
the same mental faculties and
powers. When we compare a man
and woman of like grade of intel
ligence, with like training and in
formation, we find that the mental
output of the two, with reference
to any given subject, is not the
same. There is a subtle difference
of quality. This is true even in
the face of the fact that some lit
erary productions of women have
been taken for those of men.
AT best the social ideals that
train women to be competitors
with men are like poisons admin
istered as medicine. They are
evils only little less hurtful than
the disease. Our finer instincts
testify against competition and
for partnership in all the active
world; certainly nothing less c.n
be well held as the ideal to be aim
ed at in all efforts to adjust the
relations of men and women.
We are not So sure as we might
be that women are better than
men. We have hedged in women
more closely; put up more and
higher barriers to shield them
from temptation put higher pre-
miuM on, certain virtues; affixed
fearful penalties to some of wo-
fmen's faults. There is nothing
higher and finer in human person
ality than thoroughly wcmanly
woman, with the possible excep-
ton of a thoroughly manly man.
In recent centuries beliefs have
been affected that make feminine
virtue sort of foreordained anti
septic to neutralize masculine
views, whether good or bad
Whenever men aud women are
most free to be themselves, they
rival each other with about equal
success in goodness and badness.
There is no specific saving salt for
society in woman's natural nature.
Character has to be an acquired
virtue with women no less than
with men.
The best work which American
women can do at the present mo-
ment is not political as the term is
commonly understood. The best
work college women can do is not
the pursuit nor the encouragement
of the political ambitions of wo-
men IN politics for politics sake.
So far as any "abstract right"
to participate in elections is con-
cerned, it belongs to women as
certainly as to men. In fact it
might be that the substitution of
women for men as voters would be
a less evil than the extension of
the basis of suffrage by the addi-
of women.
If, however, we go beyond alb
stractions to the realities of life,
our certainty is disturbed. No
different principles should guide
the college woman who must de-
pend upon her own earnings from
those that ought to govern college
men who must do the same. How
ever, the motives of each rlay be
different. 1t is a fact now that
the woman or the man who de
pends on personal earnings for a
living has to make az exhaustive
speciality of the gainful occupa
tion to feel any assurance of per-
manent success in a special line.
Every business which has right
to exist at all, ought to be maize a
center of operations for increasing
the amount Of right life in the
world.
Whether educated women not in
business expend a limited or liber-
al income, their most important
vocation in our American society
is to represent in themselves and
to promote within their sphere of
influence, an ideal conception of
human life and do something real
to realize it. The distinctive
social mission of the educated wo-
men is the counterpoise of busi-
ness. For the women who are
not bread winners must preserve,
develop and distribute the more
human qualities Of the ideal life.
They must cherish the ideals, up
hold the standards and perfect the
conceptions of thoroughly worthy
living. They must take the lead
in life itself. They should rem
force the spiritual elements. They
ought to set the standards and