234 TABOO AND GENETICS 



suggested, the term is loosely applied to such 

 cases as these, but the tendency of recent 

 psychological Uterature is to consider them as 

 highly sublimated expressions of this tendency. 



As has been intimated, the modern woman 

 who has entered into the economic competition 

 is often reluctant to abandon this activity for 

 the responsibilities of wifehood and motherhood, 

 which involve a withdrawal from the business 

 world. Just as the materialistic rewards of 

 economic activities often prove more attractive 

 than the emotional satisfactions of family life, 

 so, too, the intellectual ambitions of the pro- 

 fessional woman may deter her from the exercise 

 of her reproductive functions. Thus the egoistic 

 and individualistic tendencies which modern 

 social organization fosters in the personality 

 of its feminine members makes them unwilling 

 to sacrifice their ambitious plans in the per- 

 formance of their natural biological functions. 



In the present speeding up of competition, 

 the entrance upon family life becomes almost 

 as burdensome to man as to woman, although 

 in a different manner. Free as he is from the 

 biological responsibilities connected with child- 

 bearing which fall to a woman's lot, he finds 

 the economic responsibilities which the care of 

 children entails equally grilling. His choice of 

 a profession can no longer be decided by his 

 own preferences, but must be determined by 



