CHAPTER XVI. 



THE INFLUENCE OF WOMEN IN THE ALLIANCE. 

 BY MRS. BETTIE GAY, COLUMBUS, TEXAS. 



IN the past, woman has been secondary as a factor in society. She 

 has been placed in this position because the people have been educated 

 to believe that she is mentally inferior to the sterner sex. Only of late 

 has the discussion of her social and political rights been brought promi- 

 nently before the country. The male portion of our population, through 

 a false gallantry, have assumed that they are the protectors of the 

 "weaker sex": women have been led to believe that they had no 

 political or social rights to be respected, and a very large majority of 

 them have bowed in quiet submission. 



History proves that the more crude and savage society is, the lower 

 women are placed in the social scale. The men of savage races compel 

 their women to do all the work in fact, to be their slaves. When 

 this social question is investigated from a -scientific standpoint, the 

 wonder is that man has ever been able to emerge from his original 

 condition, while the situation of the mothers of the race has been such 

 as to naturally impede intellectual progress. Only the plain manifesta- 

 tion of the laws of nature and the human mind has enabled man to 

 raise himself above the crude forms of barbarism, and establish what is 

 now termed civilized society. 



Education concerning the effects of social conditions is demonstrating 

 that most of the moral evils which afflict society are produced by the 

 unnatural conditions which .are imposed upon women. Nature has 

 endowed her with brains ; why should she not think ? If she thinks, 

 why not allow her to act? If she is allowed to act, what privilege 

 should men enjoy of which she should be deprived? These are perti- 

 nent questions which society should begin to consider. 



Go into the rural districts, and look at the position occupied by the 

 wives and 'daughters of the farmers. They have, until of late, occupied 

 a social position which tended only to discourage intellectual effort. 

 In most of the churches women have been allowed no voice ; anfj the 

 very moment some brainy woman in a community would rise above 

 her surroundings and take an interest in public questions, the men, as 

 well as the women, would begin to discourage her efforts. She would 

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