The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1909-03-04
DESCRIBES MOMENTUM RICH
HOMES AS SECTION BOSSES
AND POOR ONES AS SERVANTS
Mrs. Gilman, SOCiolOsist, Mafes Startling At
tack on Modern Views Of Marriage and
Asserts Conditions Are Such There
is No Chance For Proper
Cultui0 Of Children. l.


5000 NAS
structing Of the existing views of mar
riage, which she described as the
Ownership of women and, as a
corollary to the emancipation of WON
en-, she demanded "a wise revision OF
domestic conditions in the interests
of the child"
Not one home in 4 thousand" she
said, ever attempts TO make provis-
ion for child culture. The majority
do not promote, but, on the contrary,
prohibit, the development of higher
standards in this respect"
Defining the present. position of
women she said:
The home is a place where the
nan has his meals cooked and served
by the woman and his general clean
ing and mending done by her. She is
his servant. This condition accom-
panies marriage, be it observed, and
precedes maternity. 1t has no rela-
ton whatever to motherhood. If
there are no children tie wcman re-
mains the house servant of the man.
If she has many, their care must not
prevent the service of his meals.
I'm America to-day in one family
out of sixteen the man is able to hire
other women to wait upon him, but
his wife is merely raised to- the posi-
ton of a sort of section boss she
still manages the service of the house
for him. This woman service has no
relation to the family in the vital
sense. 1t is a relic of the period of
woman slavery in the patriarchal age.
1t exhibits not the evolution of a rue
monogamy. but merely the ancient
industrial polygamous group shorn
down to n lingering female slave.
ITO visualize it, let us reverse the
position. Let us suppose that the
conditions of home life required every
man, upon marriage, to become his
wife's butler, fOotman, cook; every
a all men, necessarily following
the profession of domestic servants.
This is an abhorrent, an incredible
idea. So is the other. That an entire
sex should be the domestic servants
of the other is abhorrent and incredi-
ble."
In urging a fuller measure of indie
pendence for women, Mrs. Gilman
said:
"A woma slave is not a wife. The
more absolutely a woman is her own
mistress, in accepting her husband
and her life with him, the higher is
the grade Of love and companionship
to them The economic depend
of the woman initiates against
a true marriage, in hat the element
of the economic profit degrades and
commentaries love and so Injuries
the family. 1t may be said that the
with the male head cannot ex-
list in a pure form without its original
concomitants of absolute personal
ownership and exploitation of woman.
Ownership of women interferes
with the power of selection so
essential to right motherhood, and
secondly, enforces motherhood unde-
sired, a grave physiological evil. The
ensuant condition of female s%ervitude
is an injury in demanding labor in
with right maternity, and
in lowering the average of heredity
through the arrest of social develop
ment in the mother. 1t is not good
for the race that a majority of its fe-
male parents should be unskilled la
borers, plus a few unskilled idlers.
poverty, the overworked woman
breads maternity and avoids it all she
If she cannot, her unwelcome
and too frequent children are not
what is needed to build up our peo-
pie. In wealth, the woman becomes
- -1~,0fro1 oh;Il ,-o a-a -
sponble, breads maternity and avoids
1t If she can. Her children are few
and often frail. Neither the condi-
tons of the poor home nor of the rich
tend to a joyous and competent ma
ternity."
Coming to the subject of child-caret
and culture, Mrs. Gilman said: eff
the home has only one room that
room is a kitchen, and few indeed are
the families that car afford a nur-
Child-care is wholly subordi-
nate to kitchen service; the home is
complicated, inconsistent group of
industries, in which the child must
wait for spare moments of attention:
attention, when given, is that
of a tired cook, OF a worried house
keeper"
Mrs. Gilman laid special stress on
she believes are the evil effects
of the economic dependency of wom-
en-, one of the chief results of which
she pointed u as "the unnatural
phenomenon of the idle woman"
THE man, whose sex relation SPURS
him to industry" she said, "and {
whose exceptional powers meet spe-
cial reward, then proceeds to shower
gifts and pleasures upon the woman
he loves. That man shall be "a good
provider' is frankly held to be his
end of the family duty, a most essen
tial condition of home life. The re-
suit, as we so frequently and sadly
see, is abe development of a kind of
who performs no industrial !
service, produces nothing and con- I
everything, and a kind of man {
who subordinates every social and {
moral claim to this widely accredited ]
first duty to provide, without limit, :
Tor his wife and children. These two
home conditions-the enormous tax ]
lpon the father if he is poor, together Y
With the heavy toll of the mother, and
he opposite one of the rich man
a beautiful parasite,
visible and serious results upon t
he family" q
The speaker was disposed to blame q
~ on nWynn ~ -