SEX AND SOCIETY 235 



full power to control her own special activities 

 and develop her own individual life ; in short, 

 feel herself a free citizen of a free State ? 



Just as a large class of the male community 

 has accepted the special protection of labour, 

 so, Pearson maintains, women must do when 

 their movement becomes more solidary. In 

 certain careers we already see capable women 

 giving men points and beating them hollow. 

 But even at this level they might be the 

 better for special social protection; for in- 

 stance, that a combination of professional 

 work and maternity might be possible. But 

 when we consider the growing ranks of work- 

 ing womankind dressmakers, clerks, type- 

 writers, designers, etc. we see the force of the 

 argument that a demand for special legislation 

 and special protection must replace the cry 

 for equality of opportunity which marked the 

 earlier stages of the woman's emancipation 

 movement. " To reconcile maternal activity 

 with the new possibilities of self -development 

 open to women is par excellence the woman's 

 problem of the future. It is not one which 

 can be solved by ' equality of opportunity,' 

 but solely by the recognition of maternity as 

 an essentially social activity, by the institution 

 of some form of national insurance for mother- 

 hood, and by the correlated restriction and 

 regulation of woman's labour." 



Towards these ends the enfranchisement of 

 women is a means, justified for that end ; and 

 also rendered almost imperative as a removal 

 of an inhibition which has very detrimental 

 effects on the minds of many men. 



