The husband, then, is to be allowed to discard his wife when he is tired
of her, and the wife the husband when another man strikes her fancy?
One must reply unhesitatingly in the affirmative; for if we are to
deny every proposition that can be stated in offensive terms by its
opponents, we shall never be able to affirm anything at all. But the
question reminds us that until the economic independence of women is
achieved, we shall have to remain impaled on the other horn of the
dilemma and maintain marriage as a slavery. And here let me ask the
Government of the day (1910) a question with regard to the Labor
Exchanges it has very wisely established throughout the country. What do
these Exchanges do when a woman enters and states that her occupation is
that of a wife and mother; that she is out of a job; and that she wants
an employer? If the Exchanges refuse to entertain her application, they
are clearly excluding nearly the whole female sex from the benefit of
the Act. If not, they must become matrimonial agencies, unless, indeed,
they are prepared to become something worse by putting the woman down as
a housekeeper and introducing her to an employer without making marriage
a condition of the hiring.