Los Angeles herald., 1905-07-26
FINDS A TARGET
IN IDLE WOMEN
DEPENDENTS RAPED BY MRS.
GILMAN
TALKS TO CLUB LEADERS
says That Girls Should Not Buy Their
Living With Love-she Declares
Woman's Profit Comes
Through Matrimony

Two hundred club women and social
leaders many of whom were accom-
panied by men, assembled in the big
parlor of the Hotel Lankershtm last
evening to hear Mrs. Charlotte Perkins
stetson Gilman answer the question:
"Shall Women Work?"
The audience, in evening dress, pre-
sented a tacit answer in the negative,
for It was the leisure class that was
drawn from in this brilliant assembly.
Mrs. Gilman was introduced by Mrs.
Bertha Hirsch Baruch, who had ar
ranged what proved to be a memor-
able meeting.
"This question of woman's work in
wolves two consideration" said the
speaker as she looked down upon her
hearers from a stool placed behind
big mahogany table. zone Is that
woman can work and the other is that
woman ought to work.
For ages women did all the work
in the world. Woman. because she
was a mother, was the originator Of
human industry. Man slowly and re-
luctantly discovered that work is the
thing that pays. Little by little he has
taken work from woman, who began
bv being his teacher. This brought
about the gradual development of the
harem-the selection Of certain women
to be ornamental. The idea is with
us vet. Let us remember that a harem
Is no less a harem when 1t Is haren
of one.'
Mrs. Gilman said she desired to make
plain the differences in the terms mas
culine," feminine" and human" That
is masculine which pertains to males
irrespective of species, while that Is
feminine which pertains to females ir-
respective of species. That is human
which pertains. only to the human
species. In the growth Of humanity
there could be no sex distinction.
Work. she declared, is human function
belonging equally to men and women.
In taking up the reasons why woman
ought to work, she said:
Woman Alone Dependent
'In no other of the animal species
is the female altogether dependent In
the male for food. Imagine any crea-
tufe with its paws or its fins idly
crossed while the male scrambled for
food. This dependent condition of wo-
men is responsible for the heaviest
load Of evil in the world.
Because motherhood is the first duty
of women she must be economically in
dependent. Our present system puts
a drag on the wings of love and har-
nesses Cupid to bread wagon.
"a girl must attain prosperity by
means of a small gold ring. We do not
: ask whether young man about to
marry is healthy, clean and upright.
The question is: How is he fixed?
Has he money?
.eWoman's profit comes through mat
rimony. 1t is not fair to manhood or
to womanhod that man must purchase
love, the greatest gift on earth. Woman
should not make her living off love.
Human life is a higher relation than
the relation of the sexes. Men anc
women have equal duties, equal re-
sponsbilities, but while man has been
ueVeloplHB lHuuStiioiiy' "oiioiA ~
been kept back.
"The reason our business our poll
tics and our public ethics are as they
are is because our people are born of
modern civilized men and ancient, pa
triarchal, half civilized women"
At the close of the lecture. Mrs.
Gilman read one of her poems, giving
a dramatic Interpretation. An oppor-
tunity was offered for the asking of
questions but there was no disposi-
tion to discuss the problems connected
with woman's economic Independence.