380 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



position toward a separation of social interests. Dinners, receptions, 

 functions of every sort, exclusively for women, are becoming common 

 everywhere. From the very nature of the club itself they are more 

 frequent in connection with club work than anywhere else. It is a 

 serious question whether or not this growth of a separate social life for 

 women may not have a markedly deteriorating effect upon the aesthetic 

 and moral status of man. Whether this be true or not, the fact remains 

 that there is a decided separation- 



Another phase of club life is its connection with reforms. This 

 naturally comes about^ because reform is the cry of the age. Political 

 reform, municipal reform, social reform, these are onl^- a few of the needs 

 of the hour which have been taken up in earnest by the women of today. 

 Much has been accomplished by clubs which have definite aims in this 

 direction, particularly in the matter of city health and cleanliness. 



Hand in hand with this comes the discovery of administrative ability, 

 and the thirst for political power, an interesting phase of woman's 

 growth. The club furnishes an outlet in this direction. There is an 

 opportunity for every sort of political maneuver. For instance, in the 

 great convention of the national and State federations delegates may be 

 influenced, remarks and motions previously arranged; in fact, all the 

 machinery of politics is possible here, so that woman, although she may 

 not have the ballot, has nevertheless an opportunitj' of proving her 

 political ability. 



But an infinitely more important and significant feature of woman's 

 development is the spirit of desperate earnestness which characterizes 

 all she thinks, says, or does. It would seem that, in the struggle for 

 freedom, she has lost sight of the fact that it is not absolutely necessary 

 to be doing something all the time, that there should be an occasional 

 opportunity for complete rest. She has been called the unquiet sex, 

 and with good reason, for although she has gained the high place for 

 which she has striven, she is by no means content to stop here, but must 

 go on and on with feverish energy, in the effort to accomplish something — 

 she scarcely knows what. For this reason we do not expect to find her 

 club what it should be — a haven where she may secure a complete rest 

 of mind and body, but here, as everywhere else, she is dissatisfied unless 

 she is enlarging her horizon in some direction. The club to her repre- 

 sents only another opportunity for exercising the nervous energy of which 

 she seems to have such an abundant supply. The thinking person may 

 well pause and wonder whither we are tending. If woman's emancipa- 

 tion means increased burden it is only natural to question whether or not 

 her emancipation is an unmixed blessing. 



It does not seem unreasonable to suppose that the Woman's Club 

 will remain, as it is now, an exponent of the condition of the times. It 

 will change and grow with the development and growth around it, and 

 of which it is, in some senses, the center. We may hope that it will 

 before many years reflect the fact that women have awakened to the 

 necessity for a more composed view of their duties to society. Although 

 it must always be earnest, grave, strenuous in spirit, it may also be a 

 potent factor in teaching the overtaxed woman of today that, although 

 she owes a duty to society, and the opportunities of the age in which she 

 lives, she nevertheless owes a higher duty to herself — the sacred duty of 

 rest. 



