And so it came about that to some extent woman's special and privileged
vocation as a home-maker began even in prehistoric times. Upon her it
devolved to rear the children she bore; to cook, to mend, to make, to
spin and dye and weave; to prepare a welcome for the victor and to
minister to the sick or wounded. No sense of menial limitation in
their duties was apparent among the notable women of the past. They
were skilled workers, capable and respected managers, under whose
direction men as well as women carried out the details of daily work,
to whose care in later centuries castle and garrison were entrusted in
the absence of their lords, and who most evidently assumed this
responsibility with confidence and success.
The changing conditions of the last three centuries, however, reacted in
many ways to the detriment of women's domestic energies and sapped their
pride in the vocation of housewife. Industrial developments took much
occupation out of their hands, and they were not apparently concerned to
undertake others more in consonance with modern life. As concentration
of the population in large centres undermined the last survival of
feudal conditions, the strong conservative instinct of women made it
hard for them to adapt themselves and their households to revised
methods:--to substitute "new lamps for old," so that gradually it seems
women became split up into two parties, somewhat out of sympathy one
with the other. Adherence to the traditions of the past and the
attractions of social life distinguished the one party; a restless
desire to give scope to their whole nature and to work out their own
salvation on unconventional lines possessed the other. In the one case
there was no desire for domestic reformation. What methods could be
better than their great-grandmother's! In the other, glimpses of what
seemed a far wider and more intellectual life than that of the ordinary
housewife diminished interest in the physical needs of human nature,
which it was thought made no claims on mental faculties, and of which
the daily care was constantly associated with irksome restrictions and a
position of financial dependence.
It is not possible here even to outline the numerous social and
commercial innovations which have modified every side of daily life
for the last two hundred years; but, when inclined harshly to rebuke
women for some of their now almost inexplicable blindness to these
changes, it is well to remember that the flood of new discoveries, new
inventions, new modes of transit, new forms of occupation and
amusement, new means of money-making and fresh excitements imposed an
enormous strain upon nervous systems, still but slowly adapting
themselves to the stir and stress of the modern world. That eyes
should be temporarily dazzled by the brilliance of the "wonderful
century"; that the first results of freedom from a period of unnatural
restraint should be intoxication with liberty, is not surprising. Full
of encouragement is, however, the fact that an increasing number of
women of all ranks are engaged to-day in efforts to direct the light
of modern knowledge to the betterment of human life; the movement
speaks for the innate soundness of their womanhood and for their
realisation of their imperial responsibilities. Many of these efforts
are still unsystematised, many good intentions are held to be of
equal worth with organised practical knowledge; many women are alive
only to the needs of the least favoured of the community and are dead
to the urgent calls for intelligent reforms in their own domiciles. But
if the willing mind be there, the direction of the work into desirable
channels will slowly though surely follow. It is most certainly
unnecessary to pour every girl into the mould of a conventional
German hausfrau in order that she may perceive the inner meaning of
family life. God fulfils Himself in many ways, and diversity of training
and of interests is as beneficial as it is desirable. Neither can the
women of a country single-handed conserve this great institution of
family life. The loyalty of boys and the co-operation of men are
imperative to its preservation. They as well as their mothers, wives,
and sisters must realise its responsibilities and opportunities, and
must maintain the dignified position of those who preside over this
unit of community life; they also must respond to the crying need for
its adaptation to the requirements of modern civilisation.