THE PRESENT POSITION OF WOMEN 89 



the persons and things who are fulfilling their natural 

 functions. Not only where women are concerned, but 

 in many other cases, we may see the tendency to 

 consider and legislate for the exception develop and 

 grow until to many people the interests, nay even the 

 existence, of the normal type are almost forgotten, and 

 are certainly overshadowed by the scrupulous care with 

 which any abnormality is given more than its due share 

 of public attention. 



Therefore, in calling attention to problems which 

 originate in the excess female population, it must be 

 remembered throughout that we are dealing with 

 questions which only affect a numerically small propor- 

 tion of the sex, and might be ignored, were it not for 

 the fact that human nature is ever prone to regard 

 the exception as though it were the principal object 

 requiring solicitude and favourable treatment. 



Let us first consider how present social conditions 

 are affecting the prospects of the married woman, the 

 normal type of adult womanhood. 



Now here it is clear that the prevailing fashion of 

 small families, of the only child, or the son and daughter 

 long the desiderata of the typical French parents is 

 producing a marked effect on our social customs. Apart 

 from the fact that four children to each fertile marriage 

 is the least that will maintain the number and quality of 

 the race unaltered, a woman who has given birth to only 

 two children is very obviously a person of insufficient 

 occupation, who has not fulfilled her legitimate functions. 

 These two children may be educated in our public 

 elementary schools, or may be consigned to the care 



