Year: 1874




An Anti Womcn'S Rights View Of the


situation


That woman has not competed with
men in the active work of life was pro-
badly because, not having had the pow
er, she had not the desire to do so, and
because, having the capacity of func.
tions which man has not, she has found
her pleasure in performing them. 1t is
not simply that man, being stronger in
body than she is, has held her in SUBJ
lection, and debarred her from careers
Of action which he was resolved to keep
for himself; her Maternal functions
must always havG> udered, and must
continue to render, most Of her activity
domestic. There have been times
enough in the history of the world,
when the freedom which she has had,
and the position which she has held in
the estimation of men, would have en-
abled her to assert her claims to other
functions, had she so willad it. The
most earnest advocate of her rights to
be something else than what she has
hitherto been, would hardly argue that
she has always been in the position of a
slave kept in forcible subsection by the
superior physical force of men. As,
suredly, if she has been slave, she has
been a slave content with her bondage.
But it may, perhaps, be said that IN
that lies the very pith of the matter
that she is not free, and does not care
to be free that she is slave, and does
not know or feel it. 1t may be alleged
that she has lived for so many ages IN
the position of dependence, to which
she was originally reduced by the supe-
rior muscular strength of man, has
been so thoroughly imbued with inher-
tied habits of submission, and over
awed bv the influence of customs never
questioned, that she has not the desire for
emancipation that thus a moral bond
age has been established, more etlectual
than an actual physical bondage.


1t would be rash to assert that there
il not some measure of truth III these
arguments. Let any one who thinks
otherwise reflect upon the degraded
condition of women in Turkey, where
habit is so ingrained in their nature,
and custom so powerful over the mind,
that they have neither thought nor de.
sire to attain to higher state, and
"naught feel their foul disgrace :" a
striking illustration how women may be
demoralized and yet not know nor feel
it, and an instructive lesson for those
who are anxious to form a sound iudg-
ment upon the merits of the movement
for promoting their higher education
and the removal OF the legal disabilities
under which they labor. 1t is hardly
possible to exaggerate the effects OF the
laws and usages of Il country upon the
habits of thought of those who, gener-
alton after generation, have been born
and bred, and have lived under them.
But may we not fairly assert that 1t
would be no less mistake in an oppo-
site direction to allow no weight to such
an argument? Setting physiological
considerations aside, it is not possible
to suppose that the whole explanation
of womans position and character is
that man, having in the beginning found
her pleasing III his eyes and necessary
to his enjoyment, TOOK lOrclDle posses
sion Of her, and has ever since kept her
in bondage, without any other jnstifica-
ton than the right of the strongest.
Superiority of muscular strength, with,
ont superiority of any other kind, would
not have done that any more than su-
periority of muscular strength has avail
I'd to give the lion or the elephant the
possession of the earth. If it were not
that woman's organization and functions
found their fitting home in a position
different from, if not subordinate to,
that of men, she would not so long
have kept that position. If she is to he
Judged by the same standard as men,
and to make,their aims her aims, we are
certainly bound to say that she Iabors
under an inferiority of constitution by
dispensation which there is no gain
saying. This is matter of physiology,
not matter of sentiment. -Fortnightiy
Rclie,U.