316 



Leading Articles in the Reviews, 



WOMEN 



WHAT 



WOMAN'S "MISSION." 

 Mr. a. Maurice Low contributes to the August 

 issue of the .Vjrili Anieruan Revieiv an article on the 

 ■ Mission " ot Woman. 



A PASSmXATE DEMAND. 



" Let woman remain in her proper sphere ! " That 

 is the crushing answer of the opponent of woman 

 suffrage, writes Mr. Low. " Woman's sphere is the 

 home and family. .\ woman fulfils her hi<;hest mission 

 when she is wife and mother," and further argument is 

 closed. The fact is, replies Mr. Low, the demand of 

 women is new, and to the ignorant everything that is 

 new is dangerous. There are only two relations which 

 woman ran occupy to man. She can be his wife and 

 the mother of his children, as in primitive times ; and 

 she can he his intellectual equal. There is no middle 

 ground. The intimate relation between man and 

 woman makes it impossible for man morally or inlel- 

 lectuallv to advance and woman to stand still. Man 

 has brought woman to his own level. Women have now 

 reached that stage when they no longer regard mother- 

 hood as their only function. There is no revolt against 

 sex, but there is a passionate demand on the part of 

 woman to be recognised, within her own limitations, 

 as man's equal, and not as his inferior based solely 

 upon the fact of sex. 



WHAT MAN OWES TO WOMAN. 



The demand for the ballot, Mr. Low explains, is only 

 incidental to the breaking down of the artificial relation 

 i-xisting between the two sexes. As a result of women's 

 intelle( tual emancipation the birth- 

 rate mav possibly fall, because women 

 will marrv- later and more rationall)-. 

 The children will then be more virile 

 and more intellectual, and quality is 

 more desirable than quantity :— 



Is not lh<- cli.ir.iclcr of a race dclcmiincil 

 by tlic inlelltctuilily of the niollii-r ? Is 

 n<i( the higlier level iif civilisation, in a 

 l.irge measure at least, the result of the 

 larti.il eni.inci|)alion of woman, anil the 

 nio<lificati<in ol the olil rclalirn lietwccn 

 ihewxes? . . . Kijuality will not destroy 

 woman's r.ipmity (or child-liearing, nor 

 prevent her performing her part as a 

 imilher; it will, however, make her a 

 belter and more iiitclliyeni wife and 

 mother. ... It will not make man the 

 »eaker Mx. It will place man and woman 

 on a level. 



Mr. Low concludes : — 



U,iille as wi' may again-st proRress, 

 wc cannot del.iy ii. Progress demands 

 that woman Ix: r<-garde<t, not as man's 

 toy or chattel or inferior, or .simply the 

 female of the r^ue, but as his cijual and 

 companion in l!i'- largest an<l truest sense. 

 That comp.1nion^hip will come only when 

 the tradition 'if iufcrioriiy is broken down, 

 ami men and wurncn meet on lonnnun 

 ;;rinin-l I'-spite the wciilcnl of Hex. 



ARE DOING. 



EQUALITY IN MARRIAGE. 



The August number of the Ribliothcqiie UniverscUe 

 contains an article, by M. G. Chastand, on Women and 

 Marriage in Switzerland and in France, from the civil, 

 the moral, and the religious point of \'iew. 



A FAMILY REPUBLIC. 



The writer explains how Switzerland has revised and 

 modified the chapters of the civil code concerning 

 marriage. In the new code, which came into force in 

 January of the present year, the word " obedience " 

 iias been deleted, and the writer hopes France will 

 soon follow the example of Switzerland in this impor- 

 tant particular. The new chapter on the Rights of the 

 Family and treating of marriage rests upon a really 

 democratic conception. Conjugal union, represented 

 by the wife and her husband, is no longer an absolute 

 monarchy under the go\^ernment or, rather, under the 

 despotism of the husband, but a family republic, a 

 mutual association founded on common agreement. 

 In this union the wife owes her husband, according to 

 her strength, aid and counsel in view of the common 

 prosperity of the menage which she directs. Thus the 

 law now recognises the right of the wife to give counsel 

 to her former lord and master— a remarkable innova- 

 tion. She has now an equal share in paternal power. 

 Husband and wife henceforth share equally the direc- 

 tion of the education and religious instruction of their 

 'hildren, and a child has the right at the age of sixteen 

 to choose the religious confession which he or she 

 prefers to adopt. 



>/«/.'r »>»fr«.] (London. 



A Three-Headed Monster. 



The women's enemy is not merely the flnvcrnnient, but a coalition monster 

 whose three heads arc those of Mr. .\squilh, Mr. Urdmonil, and Mr. I.loyd 

 Cieorge, 



