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The Review of Reviews. 



THE WOMAN'S MOVEMENT. 



THE FEMINIST OF FRANCE. 



The intercijting thing about French feminism, 

 writes Ethel Dean Rockwell in the November 

 number of the Century Magazine, is that the 

 French feminist is instinctively individual, 

 always French. 



In England the feminist bends all her energies 

 to winning the suffrage and being able to carry 

 reforms by Act of Parliament ; in France the 

 feminist takes little part in political campaigns. 

 In England women are working for the cause of 

 all women rather than for individual advantage ; 

 in France women appear to be working more for 

 their own benefit than for humanity. Measured 

 by American standards, or those of northern 

 countries. Frenchwomen, considers the writer, 

 have still far to travel to reach the point where 

 these were fifty years ago. Americans accept 

 liberty of thought and action as a matter of 

 course, also equal opportunities for study and 

 work and the respect of men. Frenchwomen do 

 not yet possess these blessings, and the causes 

 are stated to be chiefly social, civil, and reli- 

 gious. In Latin countries men have generally 

 treated women with gallantry, but not respect, 

 and in France the bargaining about the dowry 

 has added sordidness. The principle of the sub- 

 jection of woman to the authority of man, fast 

 bound in civil law by the Napoleonic Code, has 

 been largely emphasised by the Church. The 

 passive virtue of sacrifice has been consistently 

 developed. 



CHANGES WROUGHT BY ECONOMIC PRESSURE. 



Meanwhile, economic pressure has sprung up, 

 and women in France have been forced into 

 industry until sixty per cent, are now said to be 

 wage-earners. Industrial conditions have been 

 compelling them to demand recognition on the 

 same basis as men. The tradition that every 

 girl must marry or retire to a convent left too 

 many women unaccounted for in the social scale. 

 Four and a half millions of women — unmarried, 

 widows, or mothers whose children are grown 

 up — have no home ties, and are clamouring for 

 the privilege of employing their energy in useful 

 work. Another stimulating factor is the result 

 of the separation of Church and State, carrying 

 with it the dissolution of the convents. Previ- 

 ously the convents had been largely the refuge 

 of unmarried women. 



Certain classes of men have been strong and 

 active supporters of the women's cause. French 

 Protestants are in the forefront of sympathy for 

 the movement; many literary men, lawvers, 

 teachers, professional men in general, and some 

 deputies and senators are with them. Play- 



wrights and poets have done much to break 

 down prejudice and widen the point of view, 

 and the novelists have done their part. Add to 

 this education and its results in science, medi- 

 cine, law, etc., and it will be seen what a 

 change has come over women's position in 

 France in the last few years. In literature and 

 art the progress made has been enormous. 



THE SUFFRAGE QUESTION. 



In the matter of the- suffrage the progress is 

 not so marked, but the most encouraging thing 

 is the number of hummes-femmes — influential 

 men who give devoted service to the cause. 

 About three years ago the Voters' League for 

 Woman Suffrage was formed, and it counts 

 among its members two senators and nine 

 deputies. It has been working for a Bill to give 

 women the municipal vote. The Socialists are 

 said to favour the vote for women, but their 

 help does not seem to be of much value, since 

 they are controlled by the Labour Party, and the 

 labour unions are bitter and formidable enemies 

 of women's entrance into either the economic or 

 political field. The women's suffrage societies 

 are comparatively small. The newer type of 

 French women is thus interpreted by Madame 

 Maeterlinck : — 



It is customary to say that woman, influenced by man, 

 perfects herself according to his ideal. Hut lo-day, grown 

 clearer-sighted, she seems to look over the shoulder of her 

 mate and perceive what he docs not yet descry on the 

 horizon. 



HONOUR IN MEN AND WOMEN. 



To the Atlantic Monthly for November Eliza- 

 beth Woodbridge has contributed an article on 

 the subject of Honour .'\mong Women. 



She quotes Wordsworth's definition as the 

 kind of honour that will ultimately be required 

 of men, whether business men, lawyers, or 

 soldiers, and as the kind that must ultimately be 

 required of women also : — 



Say, what is honour? 'Tis the finest sense 

 Of justice which the human mind can frame, 

 Intent each lurking frailty to disclaim, 

 And guard the way of life from all offence 

 Suffered or done. 



In conclusion the writer says that so far 

 neitlier men nor women have been able to build 

 up, to a point of practical and universal efficacy, 

 such a code of honour as Wordsworth suggests, 

 but both men and women are now working to- 

 wards. It is perhaps not altogether Utopian to 

 anticipate that w^hat they have not been able to 

 do apart, they may be able to do, with somewhat 

 greater success, together. 



