Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-05-24
WOMAN HAS ALWAYS BEEN
MANS CHIEF INCENTIVE
Now That She 10 "Emaneipated" Il Re-
mains to Bs Seen Whether She
VIII be His Squirting Rival

A LTHOUGH the University Of Pcnnsyl-
\ vania is about 175 years old, the first
woman on whom 1t ever conferred an hon
orery degree or degree of any kind-Sara
Yorke Stevenson--is still alive and active.
Its admission that woman could conduct
any researches OF sufficient Importance to
warrant recognition in such a way provoked
considerable discussion at the time.
The world has moved so far in the mean
time that the award by the University
yesterday of an honorary degree to Madame
Curie is taken as a matter OF course. In
deed, there are some persons who would say
that the University honored itself as much
as It honored the distinguished Franco
Polish discoverer of radium.
Sex distinctions have disappeared in the
realm Of knowledge and women are compel
ing with men in all its provinces.
IL must be admitted, however. that the
women have done comparatively little. Nir-
tually all the great discoveries have been
made by men. They have made the revolu
tionary inventions in mechanics, They have
painted the great pictures, written the great
books and composed the great music.
There were no notable women painters
before the nineteenth century, when Rosa
Bonheur won recognition. Mary Cassatt
and Cecilia BeauX and others are carrying
on the tradition of women in art. but the
number of persons of their sex who have
wide regulations can be counted on the
fingers. Chaminade is distinguished COM
poser, but she does not rank with Chopin
or Wagner or Verdi. 1t is too early to say
whether Amy Lowel's verse will be read
when that of Whitman is forgotten, but
Mrs. Browning, who had considerable vogue
in the last century, has sunk TO the place to
which she belongs in the history Of English
poetry, while the works OF men who wrote
when she was most popular are still read
and treasured. A hundred or more women
were writing fiction in Great Britain at the
time of Scott but the name Of not more than
one or two of them is popularity known
today
In science the name of Caroline Herschel
is unique for her time. Born in the last half
of the eighteenth century, she was the vic
tim of the prevailing prejudices against
learned women and her mother would not
allow her to receive more than a rudimentary
education. She Joined her brother, Fred
erick William Herschel, in England. in 1872.
when she was twenty two years old and
assisted him in teaching music at Bath. But
she interested herself in his astronomical
avocations, and after he became the private
astronomer for George III she discovered
three comets herself and in her old age
received the gold medal of the Royal Geo
graphical Society. She was a woman who
overcame prejudices against her sex inter
esting itself in the pursuit Of knowledge.
This prejudice may account for the small
number of women who have won distinction
1t was a man who invented the sewing
machine, which women operate. 1t was
man who invented the typewriter, used by
more women than any other implement un-
less it be the frying pan, and If the truth
were known 1t was doubtless a man who
invented the frying pan itself.
Now that women have been emaucipated-
that is the word which they like to USE for
it seems to mean so much more than
freed may expect to have dozen
Madame Curies where we now have only one
But this is not likely to happen unless the
women devote themselves exclusively to their
scientific or literary or artistic pursuits.
The ordinary occupations Of women are
absorbing, both Of the time and the atten-
ton. They leave little strength for other
activities. The man working in machine
shop makes great invention as a natural
by product of his daily work. Or he devotes
himself exclusively 10 invention or TO
scientific investigation as a means of earn
ing a living. His wife devotes herself to
rearing his children and taking care of his
home.
But rearing children does not seem to be
wholly incompatible with scientific discov-
cry, else Madam Curie would not have two
charming daughters to exhibit to her admir-
ers on this side of the ocean. She is
standing refutation of the charge frequently
made against the extreme feminists that n
woman cannot devote herself to anything
outside Of the home without doing violence
TO the laws of nature.
1t may be argued that one instance does
not prove a rule, and it will be so argued
If the new woman is to fill the place TO
which she aspires she will have to demon
strate her ability TO hold her own with men
while she continues to be n wife and A
mother. Perhaps it is their absorption in
this business that has prevented them from
doing the other things. But however this
may be. We know that it is the desire to
make life more tolerable for their wives and
children that has inspired men TO the great
achievements for which they have won fame
Fame itself is a most unsatsfying recon
pense. The poets. who see more deeply than
the press agents, have called it n bubble
The allegorical painters have represented
Fame as siren Turing men to their destruc-
tlon. The enduring satisfaction for both
men and women are won in a very different
sort of endeavor.
II any eager young girl hungerng for
glory could get into the mind Of the tired
little woman who received degrees from the
University and from the Woman's Medical
College yesterday she would doubtless dis
cover there an immense wearness with all
the 1ubdubbery Of honors and great desire
TO get back to the quiet of her laboratory,
n IL.
one is not worthy of them, become pretty
empty things when they are tardily be-
slowed
-