Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1909-03-04
DESCRIBES WOMEN In RICH
HOMES As SECTION BOSSES
and POOR ONES As SERVANTS
Mrs. Gilman, Soeiologlst, Makes Startling Al
tack on Modern Views Of Marriage and
Asserts Conditions Are Such There
s No Chance For Proper
Culture OF Children.

~A0A GOO ,uC11t0IGu OCIOT6 IQ0
American Sociological Society al At
lantlc City Mrs. Charlotte P. Gilman
made startling charges against the
modern home. Tracing the evils she
discovered to what she alleged to be
their source, she demanded a recon-
struct1ng of the existing views of mar
rage, which she described as the
ownership of women" and, as a
corollary to the emancipation of wom-
en-, she demanded "a wise revision of
domestic conditions in the interests
Of the child"
Not n home in a thousand" she
said, lever 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 q place where the
man 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 the woman re-
mains the house servant of the man.
II h has many, their care must not
prevent the service of his meals.
In 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
m slavery in the patriarchal age.
1t exhibits not the evolution of a true
monogamy, but merely the ancient
industrial polygamous group shorn
down to one 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
man, 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 inde-
pendence for women, Mrs. Gilman
said:v 2
"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
open to them. The economic depend
ence of the woman initiates against
a true marriage, in that the element
OF h economic profit degrades and
commentaries love and so INJURIES
the family. 1t may be said that the
family with the male head cannot ex-
list in a pure form without it's original
concomitants of absolute personal
ownership and exploitation of woman
"Ownership of women interferes
firstly 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 servitude
is an injury in demanding labor in
compatible 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 it's fe-
male parents should be unskilled la
borers, plus a few unskilled idlers.
In poverty, the overworked woman
breads maternity and avoids it all she
can. 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
a perpetual child, greedy and ire
sponble, breads maternity and avoids
it if she can Her children are few
and often frail.- Neither the condi-
lions of the poor home nor of.the rich
tend to a joyous and competent ma
ternity."
Coming to the subject of child-care
and culture, Mrs. Gilman said: IF
1 IAS AoAAS "a I'LL oAC 4OO" Ludl
room is a kitchen, and few indeed are
the families that can afford a nur-
sery.' Child-care is wholly subordi-
nate to kitchen service; the home is
! a complicated, inconsistent group of
industries, in which the child must
wait for spare moments of attention;
which attention, when given, is that
of a tired cook, OF a worried house
keeper"
Mrs. Gilman laid special stress on
what she believes are the evil effects
Of the economic dependency of WON.
en-, one Of the chief results of which
she pointed out as 1.-The unnatural
phenomenon of the idle woman
"The man, whose sex relation spurs
him to industry" she said, land
whose exceptional powers meet spe.
cial reward, then proceeds to shower
gifts and pleasures upon the woman
he loves. That man shall be "a goo6
provider' is frankly held to be hi.
end of the family duty, a most essen
4 +;o1 condition IF horoo 1ifo TL.--