Say That By Advocating The Rights Of Women, Philanthropists Succeed
In Apportioning More Work To Their Share, Will They Eat More, Wear
Better Clothes, Lie Softer, And Have Altogether More Of The Fruits
Of Work Than They Do Now?
That some would do so there can be no
doubt; but as little that some would have less.
If on the whole
they would not have more, for what good result is the movement
made? The first question is, whether at the present time they have
less than their proper share. There are, unquestionably, terrible
cases of female want; and so there are also of want among men.
Alas! do we not all feel that it must be so, let the
philanthropists be ever so energetic? And if a woman be left
destitute, without the assistance of father, brother, or husband,
it would be hard if no means of earning subsistence were open to
her. But the object now sought is not that of relieving such
distress. It has a much wider tendency, or at any rate a wider
desire. The idea is that women will ennoble themselves by making
themselves independent, by working for their own bread instead of
eating bread earned by men. It is in that that these new
philosophers seem to me to err so greatly. Humanity and chivalry
have succeeded, after a long struggle, in teaching the man to work
for the woman; and now the woman rebels against such teaching - not
because she likes the work, but because she desires the influence
which attends it.
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