90 HEREDITY AND SOCIETY 



of schoolmasters and governesses ; in either case it 

 is sufficiently plain that the mother has usually become 

 one of the unemployed and unremunerative members 

 of society. Whether she salves her conscience by 

 taking up politics and philanthropy or is driven by 

 economic pressure into some industrial occupation, 

 whether she deadens her natural instincts on the 

 racecourse, at the bridge table or on the golf links, 

 the fact remains that her capacity for engaging in 

 other occupations depends on the thoroughness with 

 which she has neglected her natural avocation. The 

 normal woman who, between the ages of twenty and 

 forty-five, regulates well her household, gives birth 

 and nourishment to a large family of children, super- 

 intends their education, health and upbringing, has 

 little time or inclination for outside distractions. She 

 requires all the help and strength that emanate from 

 a quiet home life and undisturbed surroundings to 

 enable her to accomplish her task satisfactorily, and it 

 is a suicidal policy from the wider point of view to 

 endeavour to thrust further responsibilities upon her. 



There is another way in which our customs are 

 affecting the position of the married woman. To any- 

 one advancing into middle age, who has been conversant 

 with each generation of young people during the past 

 ten, twenty or thirty years, there is an extraordinary 

 alteration in the outlook, in the intuitive knowledge 

 with which the majority of young women of the upper 

 and professional classes can look forward to-day to the 

 duties and responsibilities of married life. 



Among the priceless advantages of the normal 

 family is the fact that each home of this type supplies 



