The Washington herald., 1912-02-12
WOMAN CURIOUSLY
LACKING In PRIDE
Take Themselves at Value Men
Place on Them.
BY DOROTHY DIX.

One OF the most curious things about
women is their lack OF sex pride.
A woman should glory in her woman
hood as a man gIories in his manhood.
A woman should feel that her very sex
entities her to high honors, consideration,
and emoluments as a man considers his
sex does him. A woman should esteem
her womanhood as a royal gift, for IL
shared with woman the power OF Omnip-
otence' itself when He. made her the
creator Of the human race.
Therefore. woman might well walk
through the world with upIifted head,
like queen. Instead Of which she adopts
a meachin' creepin', wormlike attitude,
humbly apologize for encumbering the
earth at all. and only too thankful to
take anything that is handed out to her.
She has no pride in herself, no pride
in her work, no pride in her sex. She
is "A very Uriah Heep for humbleness.
Poets and romanceTs have compared her
10 the deer. and the fawn, and the ga
zclle, and the panther. and the lion, and
so on. wheE they sought a symbol for
her. Rats The real prototype Of woman
among animals is the rabbit. And the
scared rabbit at that.
OF course. there are women who are
individually and personally vains They
are vain of n No. . foot shoe, or a
twenty-two-inch waist. or of their faces,
or hair, or Of their intelligence, but they
are never set up over being women.
They have none Of the sex pride that
makes the stupidest and runtiest man
pun out his chest because he is a man,
and II women could be convinced to-day
that by killing themselves they would
come back in the next incarnation az
men, the visible supply OF cyanide OF
potassium would be exhausted before
night.
The Answer Is Easy.
Why have women no pride in them
selves? The answer is dead easy. They
take themselves at the value that men
place upon them. For centuries men have
written women's price tags, and women
have accepted them. They have been
either slaves or toys. and there isn't
much in either role to swell the head
of the one who fills it.
No: it's an axiom of life that no one
succeeds in any calling or pursuit IN
which he does not take pride, and which
he does not believe 10 be the finest and
most important work in the world. Can
you imagine an actor gripping your heart
If he was ashamed OF being an actor?
Can you conceive Of a physician finding
new cure for a disease If he thought so
poorly of his profession that he didn't
even think it worth doing we'll? Can
you imagine a grocer making a fortune
out Of store in which he felt that his
services were so slight that he was only
entitled to receive his board and clothes
fer them?
Ne II is the man who is so proud of his
calling that he iaunts il in your face all
the time: it is the man with passion for
his calling; ii is the man who thinks that
there is no business in the world that re-
fleets such honor and glory upon one as
his own who succeeds. and right here
you find the explanation Of nearly all of
wOnau's failures and the root of her
troubles and miseries.
She has so little pride in herself that
she does not do her best work. She has
so little pride in herself that she does not
demand the best of others for herself.
You doubt the statement? Let US con-
slider it. Take the matter of marriage,
for instance. Rather an important thing
to a woman. Much more important 10
her than to a man. because il means not
only her happiness. bat her bread and
butter; the whole Of her opportunities in
the world
Hence, marriage is a much more i'm
pOrtant affair to women than to men. A
woman gives a million times more In
marriage than a man does. but so little
pride has she in herself and so little value
does she esteem the gift she makes that
she has never even thought that she had
as much right to the selection of her mate
as man has to the selection Of his.
A Waiting Game.
There are plenty Of women who would
Ike TO marry. There are plenty of wom-
en- who know whom they would like to
marry, and who are sitting upon the
stool of patience with their fingers
crossed for luck. humbly hoping and
Praying that the particular one they de-
sire will condescend to ask them. But
they haven't got enough pride in them
selves to go to the men and say: Look
here, am going to offer You the grand
est present on earth. l am going to
offer you something that is worth a
barrelful Of Kohinoors. 1 am going to
offeT you woman's priceless love and
deathless devotion. and you ought to go
down on your knees and thank me
for it"
Oh, no. No woman has nerve enough
&c value herself so high. On the con-
trary, she waits and waits and waits.
And If the man doesn't ask her she mar
Ties some other man who does, and she
IS grateful to him for taking pity on her.
Also consider womsn's lack of pride
IN the man she narries. Before an or6i-
narily decent man will marry girl she's
Got TO produce a certificate OF character
that shows that she is as pure as snow:
but no girl ever even thinks of investi-
eating a mans past, unless it is so no.
torious that the newspapers have al
ready printed It. She doesn't dream OF
such thing as expecting to get as good
Is she gives. Indeed, so humble are
women in this respect that every day We
see good, innocent girls marry bleary
old FOUNDERS as II they thought any kind
of a husband was good enough for them.
or course, trouble follows. Broken
hearts follow. Death and disease follow,
so that 1t is not too much to say that
half Of the matrimonial misery in the
world could be avoided IL only women
had enough pride in themselves to de-
mand that the men they marry make a
fair trade with them, and bring as clean
slate as they expect their wives to.