It is a fact that in some Christian countries the actual status of woman
is higher than it is to-day in any other country; but it is also true
that her _comparative_ status is often lower.*
* See Appendix C, 1-6.
If we compare the actual status of woman in Russia or Spain (the two
most intensely Christian countries to-day) with that of the Chinese or
Hindoo woman, the showing may be somewhat in favor of the former; but on
the other hand, her _comparative_ position (when taken with that of the
men of her country) does not gain but loses by the contrast.
"How immeasurably would his faith in the elevating tendency
of his religion have been increased, could he have looked
with prophetic eye into the distant ages of the future, and
beheld the enlightened and Christianized nations of the
nineteenth century adopting the remains of Grecian
architecture, sculpture, painting, oratory, music, and
literature as their models!
"Pagan Rome, too, once mistress of the world and arbitress
of nations--the home of philosophers and sages--the land in
which the title, 'I am a Roman citizen,' was the proudest
that a mortal could wear--Rome, by the above Christian
argument, should have ascribed all her honor, praise, and
glory to her mythology.
"The Turk and the Saracen, likewise, have had their day of
power and renown. Bagdad was the seat of science and
learning at a time when the nations of Europe were sunk in
darkness and superstition. The Turk and Saracen should have
pointed to the Koran as the source of their refinement.
"Thus we see that the Christian argument we are noticing, if
it proves anything, proves too much. If the nations of
Christendom are indebted to the Bible for their
enlightenment, likewise were the Egyptians indebted to their
cat and crocodile and onion worship, the Greeks and Romans
to their mythology, and the Turks and Saracens to their
Koran."
It is a significant fact that of all the Christian countries, in those
where the Church stands highest and has most power women rank lowest
and have fewest rights accorded them, whether of personal liberty
or proprietary interest. In the countries named above, and in other
countries where the Church still has a strong grip upon the throat
of the State, woman's position is degraded indeed; while in the three
so-called Christian countries where the Church has _least_ power, where
law is not wholly or in so large part canonical, woman's position is
more free, more independent, and less degraded, when compared with the
position of the men of those countries.
That tells the whole story. If it were to the Church or to her religion
that she owed her advancement, it would be in the most strictly
Christian countries that her elevation and advantages would be greatest.
Under the canon law her status would be higher than under the common
law. On the contrary, however, it is under the least religious, freest,
and most purely secular forms of government that she has attained most
full recognition and secured the greatest advancement.
Compare the position of woman in Christian Spain with her position in
Infidel France. Compare her condition in Russia, with the flag of the
Church and the seal of the Cross for her protection, with that of her
sister under the stars and stripes of America, with a constitution
written by the infidels Jefferson and Paine.
Compare them and decide whether it is to the Church and the Cross, with
their wars and persecutions, or to Liberty and Scepticism that women owe
their loyal love and their earnest support. Compare them and determine
then whether it is to Christianity or to Science that she should fly for
protection, and where it is that she will be most certain of justice.
Compare them and answer whether it is to the Fathers of the Church or
to the Founders of Republics that women should be most grateful. Compare
them, and be thankful, oh women of America, that the Church never had
her hand on the throat of the Constitution of the United States, and
that she is losing her grip on the Supreme Bench! *
In our pride of race we forget that it is less than three hundred short
years since Christianity by both legal and spiritual power enforced the
most degrading and vile conditions upon woman, compelling her to live
solely by the sale of her virtue.**
Only within the past three hundred years of growing scepticism and loss
of power by the Church has either purity or dignity become possible for
women; and it is well for us to remember that for over 1500 years
of Christianity, when the Church had almost absolute power, it never
dreamed of elevating woman, or recognizing her as other than an inferior
being created solely to minister to the lowest nature of man, and
possessing neither a right to her own person nor a voice in her own
defence.
I wish that every woman who upholds the Church to-day might read the
array of facts on this subject so ably presented by Matilda Joslyn Gage
in her work on "Woman, Church, and State," a digest of which is printed
in the last chapter of vol. 1. of the "History of Woman Suffrage," of
which she is one of the editors. It is so ably written, and the facts
collected are so damning, that I need add no word of mine to such
passages as I can give from it, in the accompanying appendix to this
work. ***
* On the status of women there is much of interest in Mr.
Herbert Spencer's "Principles of Sociology," vol 1. Mr.
Spencer deals with the subject, in the main, from a
different point of view from the one taken in this article;
but that his position (in regard to the causes of woman's
advancement being due to the Church) is not wholly unlike my
own, will, I think, be readily seen. He places more stress
on the results of war than I have done (and in this the
corroborating evidence furnished by the Holy wars would
sustain the position of both), I having included this phase
of action under the term occupation, since I have dealt
almost wholly with nations more advanced and freer from the
fortunes of the Militant type than Mr. Spencer has done.
** See Appendix D.
*** See Appendix E.