THE AMERICAN-SCANDINA VIAN REVIEW 
37 
in every detail, for nothing is perfect in this world, but the new law 
certainly means a long stride in the direction of justice and can hardly 
be too highly valued. 
A law proposing such changes within the estate of marriage must 
necessarily cause a stir in the populace. All those who cling to the 
existing order of things and to the old traditions have difficulty in 
understanding anything so subversive. Many have not kept abreast 
of the rapid social and industrial evolution during the last half century. 
They do not know that the women of the Scandinavian countries have 
j^assed through an intensive personal development. Formerly women 
were confined within the home and had only a very limited schooling; 
now they receive almost the same education as men. They can hold any 
office for which they are qualified and enjoy full civil rights. The 
principle of equal pay for equal work is also recognized, so all that re¬ 
mains is a fair legislation in the domain of marriage, and now this last 
stronghold seems about to fall. The absolutism which has for so long 
characterized man’s position in the home has in reality already passed 
away. In the average Scandinavian home it may be said with certainty 
that the contribution of the mother to the maintenance of the house¬ 
hold is as great as that of the father. Whether this condition when 
carried out consistently is good for the home is another question, but 
in view of the situation as it is or as it has developed, and in consider¬ 
ation of the part women have borne as providers for the home, they 
should certainly have equal authority over the household and the 
children. 
Heretofore there has been no unified marriage code in this country’ 
and the laws we have had that touch married life have been so 
uniformly in favor of the man, so unjust to the woman, that it is about 
time we obtained something better. It is true, something has been done 
in recent years to make amends for old injustice, but not until the 
report of the Scandinavian Commission for Domestic Legislation 
appeared, have women been given the full rights to which they are 
entitled by virtue of their development. 
Characteristic of the old marriage law is the statement made by 
a judge of the criminal courts in an address on the legal rights of 
married women delivered in Copenhagen in 1912. “Without regard to 
whether or not a marriage contract exists,” he said, “it is the wife who 
bears the children, but the man and he alone who has authority over 
them.” If this is a picture of conditions as they existed a short time 
ago and to some extent still exist, it is hardly to be wondered at that 
many old-fashioned heads of families feel the ground slipping away 
under them at the idea that they are to divide the entire administra¬ 
tion of the home with the mother. 
Naturally, then, the proposed new marriage law has made a stir 
among the people of the Scandinavian countries. Much has been 
