226 SEX 



commonplace has sometimes been used by 

 those who are women's best, if not always 

 wisest, friends. Some who have a firm grip 

 of the fact that women are wives and mothers 

 at heart, who are also influenced by the pre- 

 valent technical education fallacy of our 

 day, have advocated a more predominantly 

 domestic and maternal education for girls. 

 But there are great dangers in exaggerating 

 what in moderation is sound enough. A 

 broadly educated intellectually alert mother 

 means much for the mental atmosphere of 

 the home, and that means much for the child- 

 ren. But an over-emphasised domestic edu- 

 cation is apt to force a premature development 

 of mental and perhaps bodily instincts, which 

 in many cases will find no realisation in 

 life. 



Our second thesis is the converse of the 

 first. It is that coercive differentiations in- 

 consistent with the natural distinction have 

 often been attempted, with unfortunate results. 

 This misdifferentiation of women demands, 

 like the harmonious differentiation of women, 

 a careful historical survey, but we cannot give 

 more than a few diagrammatic illustrations. 

 Women have been used to draw the plough 

 and to work in the mine ; they are still em- 

 ployed as coal-heavers. They are still too 

 often to be seen bent and worn by severe 

 physical tasks. Much of this is disappearing, 

 but it is still necessary to say that the use of 

 woman for functions which should be dis- 

 charged by a beast of burden illustrates 

 misdifferentiation. It is destructive of the 



