Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-03-29
Science Explains the Failure Of Chicago's
Policewomen ALongthe Very Line Where
They Were Supposed Be Most Useful

expect to be controlled. After the
FIRST strong outburst of fury has spent
itself they are likely to yield with
comparative complacency. With the
policewomen, on the other hand, they
feel that they are contending with
their equals in the matter Of
strength. Their chances of success
full resistance are therefore good, and
they keep up the fight Resentment
at the thought that they are being
coerced by women who are appar-
emily their equals and who should
naturally be their allies lends an
additional impetus to their fury.
But there Is yet another and more
fundamental reason why women are
not likely to prove successful in this
particular field of activity. This is
to be found in the well-established
fact that women are physiologically
more irritable or excitable than men.
That is to say, they respond more
readily and directly to stimuli,
whether physical or psychical.
The question need not be raised
here whether this is a mark OF in
feriority or superiority. If any one
Is disposed to raise the question, the
answer is that it is neither. It is un-
fortunate that the matter of relative
superiority is implied in almost
every discussion Of differences of
the sexes, for it is just this impli-
cation that prompts SO many femi-
nists to maintain that sex differences
do not exist at all. The fact is that
differences do exist, fundamental
and immutaIble differences, and the
only wise course is to recognize their
existence.
This point is so vital in the pres
emit day discussion of the woman
movement and so much overlooked
that we feel justified In going just
little out of our way to quote from
a recent article by Miss Ida TarbelI,
a woman who certainly cannot be
accused of being an "old fogy" on the
question Of woman's place in modern
life:
Doing mans work in a mans
way almost invariably means for a
woman self-consciousness friction,
self-suppression. 1t is costly to
society and to the Individual. for 1t
means at least the partial atrophy Of
powers and qualities peculiar to
women and essential to the
harmony, the charm, and the vigor
of society. Her differences are her
strength. Their full growth COM
pletes the human cycle. 70 sun
press these differences is to rob not
merely her individual life, but the
life Of the world Of its full ripeness.
There is grave need, in this
country particularly, OF lifting the
suffrage debate from the narrow
lines 1t has followed, stripping it of
false assumptions and of impossible
claims, and centering it about a
woman more nearly typical than the
melancholy figure which so far has
served It. Woman is not
asked to prove her equality to man
by doing in his way the things he
does. She proves 1t by doing the
things for which she is fitted and
which the world needs from her"
This greater excitability or affect
ability of women, which is perhaps
the characteristic by which she diff
fers most from man, is the source Of
her greatest weakness as well as her
greatest strength. Women as a
class are noted for their tact, for
their ability to sense situation i'm
mediately and to adjust themselves
promptly to varying conditions.
Their intuitions with respect to inn
portant problems that are incapable
of logical analysis are more likely to
be accurate than those Of a man
These are few of the advantages
accruing from this heightened sus-
ceptibility.
On the other hand, this same quail
ity tends to a certain degree of In
stability in life and conduct.