THE PRESENT POSITION OF WOMEN 103 



each society. If such figures could be obtained, we do 

 not doubt that they would throw great light on the 

 psychology of the whole movement, of which the rate 

 of progress, in modern Europe, as in Greece and Rome, 

 is probably a very fair measure of the rate of decadence 

 of the nation produced by the decline of the birth-rate 

 among the abler sections of the community. It is a note- 

 worthy fact that in some of the Australasian colonies, 

 where women enjoy the suffrage, and in France, where 

 women are actively engaged in business and commerce, 

 the birth-rate is almost the lowest in the civilized world. 



In the industrial sections of the community, and in 

 the classes to whose hands much of the educational 

 work is entrusted, the direct result of the habitual 

 employment of women outside their normal sphere 

 is to affect injuriously the prospects of the race and 

 to undermine the position of men in their capacity 

 as the natural providers for the maintenance of the 

 coming generation. Moreover, if there be no appreci- 

 able coming generation to maintain, any stimulus to 

 exertion beyond what has a purely selfish origin must 

 cease to be effective in moulding the destinies of the 

 human race. 



Throughout the history of nations, the demand for 

 the equalization of the status of men and women seems 

 to come invariably from the classes usually the more 

 intellectual classes when and where, for various eco- 

 nomic and social causes outlined above, the marriage- 

 rate and birth-rate have become abnormally and danger- 

 ously low. The connection between the two phenomena 

 is one which all sociologists should study and watch 

 with great care. 



