THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN
I have just digested a most interesting book by M. Novicow, entitled
'L'Affranchisement de la Femme.' This is a very serious subject, and I
feel sure that I need not apologize for treating it with all the
earnestness of which I am capable.
In a society organized in conformity with the nature of things, woman
will be brought up, from infancy, with the same object in view as
man--that is to say, in order to learn how to live by her work. And so
it should be, since work is the universal law of biology. Every living
creature, from the invisible microbe to the most powerful animal, works
unceasingly to assure its existence. Work being the law of Nature, to
remain idle is to resist that law and to be immoral.
Woman must become an independent economic unity. There is nothing
revolutionary in this; on the contrary, it is a most conservative idea.
The leisure class does not represent one-thousandth part of society, and
999 out of every 1,000 women have, or should have, to work to support
themselves or help to support their families.
From time immemorial women have worked in families, in manufactures,
offices, in the fields, either as mistresses of houses, as helps, or as
servants.
If woman has to be recognised as an independent economic unity, her
education should enable her to earn her living, and, whether she gets
married or not, she ought always to be ready to support herself without
the help of man. Knowledge of every description should be placed at her
disposal by the State, as well as at the disposal of man.
This is not all. Not only should she receive an education enabling her
to make a livelihood, but also one enabling her to direct her steps in
life in the right direction. She should be told the mysteries of life,
and the role she is called upon to play in life. In our times the ideal
young girl is the one who knows nothing. This ideal is absolutely false,
and creates the greatest source of danger in existence that stares women
in the face. This ideal was created by the monstrous selfishness of man,
who reserved to himself the satisfaction, the pleasure (only a rake's
pleasure) of teaching her in one moment what, little by little, without
shock, she should learn without astonishment.
It is innocence that disarms women and hands them over, defenceless, to
the most odious and revolting attempts to corrupt them. When we suppose
nowadays that a girl knows too much of the mysteries of love, we think
she is depraved; but degradation does not come from the knowledge of
certain things--it comes from the mysterious and unhealthy way in which
that knowledge is sometimes imparted.
If she were told openly, in full daylight, all she should know of the
role Nature has given her to play, she would not be depraved.
When a young girl shall have received from a rational society an
education that will enable her to live independently by her work, and to
behave to the best of interests, what will she do?
Well, she will do exactly what men do. The rich ones will manage their
own fortune, and will engage in pursuits, civil, political, and
intellectual. They will embrace professions, be writers, lawyers,
artists, doctors, professors, and so on. All the careers will be open to
them. In humbler stations of life, she will be clerk, shop-woman,
work-woman, servant, labourer, etc. In fact, no woman will be prevented
from entering a career for which she has aptitude, and, by so doing, no
intellectual force will be lost to society.
For instance, we have lately heard, in Europe, of a young American girl
passing a brilliant examination for naval engineering, who presented the
model of a ship far superior to anything known up to date. With the new
system a woman will not be prevented from building ships for the State
because she is a woman. This will not only be justice to woman, but
justice to society, which has a right to benefit by the genius of all
its members, whether they be men or women.
Now let us examine what will become of society if all these
transformations take place. When all the liberal professions and
political functions are exercised by men and women alike, women will be
members of Parliament, of chambers of commerce, of literary and
scientific academies, and will sit by the side of men, as, in America,
at schools and colleges, girls sit by the side of boys. On this account
America will be the first country to get quickly reconciled to the new
state of things.
The activity of women will be as indispensable to nations and their
success as that of men. But I see other consequences. Women being no
longer dependent on men, people will be no more concerned about the
private life of an unmarried man. A woman who has committed
indiscretions will not be called a woman with a past, but, may be, one
with experience.
It is even just possible that men will feel more flattered to be chosen
by them. They will repeat the word of Balzac, that a woman loves any
first man who makes love to her, and that there is nothing in this to
make a man feel proud; and Alphonse Karr goes as far as Ninon de Lenclos
when he says that the only love that a man may feel proud of is that of
a 'woman of experience.'
Another thing, and a very important point. Woman, in this future system,
will be so busy with her occupations as a bread-winner that she will
have very little time to devote to love.
'Woman lives by love and for love' will be thought an absurdity. She
will come across love in her way through life. She will stop or pass on,
according to her fancy, just as man does at present. She will not be
taught early that woman was born to be a mother, and that she has
constantly to keep her artillery in good order so as to bring down a
man.
For that matter, it is just possible that, in those days, it will be
women who will propose to men. I should not regret to see it for the
sake of the happiness of mankind, because I maintain that woman is a far
keener individual than man, and that a woman is much better able to
choose the right husband than a man the right wife.
Of course, the frivolous woman, the doll, will have ceased to exist, and
the woman will cease to be considered what she is in Turkey and Persia,
an instrument of pleasure.
The author assures us that when his system is put into practice, it will
work so well that society will discover that it has reached a climax,
the advent of happy and perfect civilization.
* * * * *
Well, if it does, all I can say is that what consoles me for getting old
is the thought that I shall not be there to see it.