The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-12-04
BY FRANCES sHAIFER.

! Much is heard these days about sex
antagOnism," and quite a few serious
| perfectly sincere masculine folk are EN-.
phatic in declaring IL a grievOus thing 10
| tear down the safe old road-signs that
for many years plainly showed how the
! ways should divide-this way for woman
that for man. They count it a breaking
away from nature on the part OF woman
and, worse than that, a real menace 10
the world, because in the struggle for
supremacy or for an open way for all,
bitterness. antagonism, and one thing
and another will take the place OF the
! Old-time peace.
And they say that the Maker of US all
plainly enough revealed his purpose and
showed his hand right through when man
was fitted TO rise and rise until he
| reached the heights of art, while woman
was designed to let her light shine forth
in the home. They add, too, that what
man has done proves what he can do.
has shown her limita tons. Man for the
has shown her limitations. Many for the
struggle, the achievements. the honors
and the like woman TO abide in the one
spot made for her-and any woman-de-
parture Is treason or sex antagOnism, il
you please
As FOR me- there is the firm conviction,
despite all the erratic things that get into
print, that there is a perpetual compact
Of peace between man and woman, be-
cause Nature herself has willed it so.
And woman would be the last to seek or
10 want to destroy it.
But-why is it so hard to look at life
from the angle where others abide?
Why so difficult to understand that the
thing called sex antagonism" is no
more than a human struggle for a COM
Portable. natural place in the world?
And why cannot thoughtful, practical
menfOlk, just for a brief while, try very
hard to put themselves in the place OF
the average woman with her way tc
make through the world?
One would suggest to these critical
menfolk that in fancy-if they can
women, where they say the roads should
divide.
For them now, the sign points to mar
rage and the home. But who shall de-
eide when, where, how, with whom? Not
they, for theirs is a silent. n waiting
part They cannot push ahead while
they wait, cannot boldly ask some one
to help them find their way to n home |
that right, duty. pleasure, privilege |
their sphere any longer. Marriage and |
the home for them-but they have no |
Initiative in the matter; that goes some |
where along the other road.
And one finds herself wondering n |
those men. standing on the roadside /
waiting for something to happen in the |
shape of a good, practical OFFER with /
Just bit of sentiment thrown in, might |
not find themselves growing rather re-
bellious, rather inclined to the belief |
that sex antagonism' possibly had a
different meaning than they had dreamed |
Of before. Might it not occur to them
that If their way in life pointed to the
home, and there alone, they should be
the ones to be granted the freedom OF Il
looking and choosing? And would they /
not say that II they must walt IN 1
silence, while they were waiting they II
'hould be given the right to work where II
hey would? And, most of all, If, through II
some tragic disaster, they and their Il
lGmes failed ever to connect, would
hey not be loud in declaring that they
lad not been given a fair chance, cut
IN from the right to try for home,
md forbidden to follow the other road?
Yes, one believes those menfolk
night see a glimmer of light.
Because they must never forget. when
hey grow most earnest in their fear of
lex antagonism, that early in the life
" the average woman comes the grim
I'D problem of how to live. When a
question OF how to live is at stake, how
o earn one's daily bread and few lit
lie Injuries aside, the struggle is bound
o grow more or less tense, more as the
Vorkheld is narrowed down, less as 1t is
pened to all.
And in earlier days there must have
zen some saints among women who
missed their way to homes, and who
new no other way; else they would
ave been the ones to bemosn the pity
Z sex antagonism
For, In spite or the fact that there are
len today, and perhaps few women as
'eli' who insist that nothing but antag-
nlsm and a host of other ills will result
rom woman's flight from the home, they
lust know, down in their hearts, that
neither II is a man or a woman who is
riven by the necessity TO earn a living,
ne real antagonism comes in closing
ny way at ALL For the open way is
one too easy.
And IL men viii insist upon talking
bout sex antagonism on the part OF
omen, they ought to look ut both sides