THE INTEGRATION OF THE SEXES — MARRIAGE 287 



together, a small minority will not be disturbing, but a bloc 

 will take form if this minority becomes formidable. The 

 question then is, in how far can modern society overcome 

 this tendency? 



In industrial life, from time to time, new lines of work are 

 opened to women, but we may ask, to what extent do men 

 and women work at the same thing in the same place and 

 time? More than once, it has been remarked that when 

 women constitute a respectable minority in any trade or pro- 

 fession, men tend to shift to other hnes. The usual explana- 

 tion for this is economic, viz., wage competition, but the 

 subject has not been studied searchingly enough to make it 

 certain that this is the only factor or even the primary one, 

 since it is possible that the segregation tendency is reassert- 

 ing itself. As we have noted, even the most primitive of 

 communities gets on by coordinating the segregated labors 

 of the sexes, rather than by attempting wholesale integration; 

 and there are signs that something like this is going on in 

 modern industry. 



Noting then , how segregation of the sexes with respect to 

 work has been the rule in the past, we may consider how far 

 biological factors control the kinds of work performed by 

 women and by men. From the first, we see men handling the 

 more violent tasks of life, women the routine work. Even 

 primitive woman seems to have had leisure to indulge in 

 basketry, pottery, and other like occupations, as a visit to a 

 museum will show. Altogether, she had a varied life, but in 

 modern industry, she specializes in what was formerly con- 

 sidered man's work. Yet, on the whole, we seem to find 

 modern woman in industry engaged in occupations which 

 require less muscular exertion and which otherwise remind us 

 of her primitive labors. Nevertheless, again, we advise cau- 

 tion, because this subject has not received the attention it de- 

 serves, but the suggestion is that biological factors are operat- 

 ing now as in the past, to differentiate the work of men and 

 women. 



Some alarm is felt, however, because the organized 

 woman's movement decries all distinctions, and seeks to put 

 women into all kinds of work. The fear is that injury to 

 health and offspring will result. Space does not permit a 



