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NADONALSECULARSOCIETy
THE
POLITICAL STATUS
OF
WOMEN.
BY
AITNIE
[third
EESANT.
edition.]
LONDON:
FEEETHOUGHT
PUBLISHING COMPANY,
28, STONECUTTER STREET, E.C.
PRICE TWOPENCE.
�LONDON:
PRINTED BY ANNIE BESANT AND CHARLES BRADLAUGH,
28, STONECUTTER STREET, E.C.
�POLITICAL STATUS OF WOMEN.
Various arguments are advanced by the opponents of
woman suffrage, which require to be met by those who
maintain that the political status of women should be the
same as the political status of men. Of these the prin
cipal—apart from party arguments, such as those which re
gard the momentary strengthening of Tory, Whig, or
¿Radical, by the female vote—are as follows :—
Why should the political incompetency of women receive
so much attention when more pressing wrongs require a
remedy ?
Women are naturally unfit for the proper exercise of the
franchise.
They are indifferent about the matter.
They are sufficiently represented as it is.
Political power would withdraw them from their proper
sphere, and would be a source of domestic annoyance.
It can scarcely be necessary for me to clear my way by
proving to you that there are such things as rights. “ Every
great truth,” it has been said, “ must travel through three
stages of public opinion : men will say of it, first, that it is
not true; secondly, that it is contrary to religion; lastly,
that every one knew it already.” The “rights of man”
have battled through these first two stages, and have reached
the third; they have been denounced as a lie, subversive of all
government; they have been anathematised as a heresy, to
be abhorred of all faithful Christians.; but now every one
has always known that men have rights, it is a perfect
truism.. These rights do not rest on the charter of a higher
authority; they are not privileges held at the favour of a
superior; they have their root in the nature of man ; they
are his by “ divine ’’—that is to say, by natural—right.
Kings, presidents, governments, draw their authority from
the will of the people; the people draw their authority
from themselves.
�4
!
POLITICAL STATUS OF WOMEN.
It is quite a new light to the general public that women
have any rights at all; duties ? ay, plenty of them, with
sharp penalties for their non-fulfilment. Wrongs? ay,
plenty of them, too—wrongs which will not be borne much
longer. Privileges ? yes, if we will take them as privileges,
and own that we hold them at the will of our masters; but
rights ? The assertion was at first met with laughter that
was only not indignant, because it was too contemptuous.
Our truth is as yet in its infancy—first, it is not true;
secondly, it is contrary to religion. The matter is taken
a little more seriously now ; men begin to fancy that these
absurd women are really in earnest, and they condescend
to use a little argument, and to administer a little “soothingsyrup ” to these fractious children. Gentle remonstrance
takes the place of laughter, and thus we arrive at my first
head—surely there are more pressing female wrongs toattend to than the question of political incapacity.
It is perfectly true that the want of representation in
Parliament is not, in itself, a grave injury. In itself, I say,
it is of secondary importance; its gravity consists in what
it involves. You do not value money for its own sake—
those little yellow counters are not intrinsically beautiful,,
nor are they in themselves worth toil, and trouble, and
danger; but you value them for what they represent; and
thus we value a vote, as means to an end. In a free
country, a vote means power. When a man is a voter,
his wishes must be taken into consideration; he counts asone in an election—his opinion influences the return.
When the working-classes wished to alter laws which
pressed hardly on them, they agitated for Parliamentary
reform. What folly 1 what waste of time 1 what throwing
away of strength and energy! how unpractical! Why agitate
for an extension of the franchise, when so many social
burdens required to be lightened ? Why? Because they
knew that when they won the franchise they could trust to
themselves to remedy these social anomalies—when they
had votes, they could make these questions the test of the
fitness or unfitness of a candidate for Parliament. Non
voters, they could only ask for reform; voters, they could
command it. And this is the answer of women to those
who urge on them that they should turn their attention to
practical matters, and leave off this agitation about the
franchise. We shall do nothing so foolish. True, certain
laws press hardly on us; but we are not going now to
�POLITICAL STATUS OF WOMEN.
S
agitate for the repeal of these laws one by one. We might
agitate for a very long time before we gained attention.
We prefer going to the root of the matter at once. We
will win the right of representation in Parliament, and
when we have won that, these laws will be altered. Ten
years after women become voters, there will be some
erasures in the Statute Book. There will no longer be a
law that women, on marriage, become paupers, unless steps
are taken beforehand to prevent it; marriage will. have
ceased to bring with it these disabilities. There will no
longer be a law which gives to the father despotic authority
over the fate of the child ; which enables the father to take
the child from the mother’s arms, and give it into the charge of
some other woman; which makes even the dead father
■able to withhold the child from the living mother. _ There
will be no longer be a law which sanctions the consignment
of thousands of women to misery and despair, jn order
that men’s lives may be made more safely luxurious, and
their homes, when they choose to make them, kept more
pure. The laws whose action is more and more driving
women (in the large towns especially) to prefer unlegalised
marriages to the bonds of legal matrimony, will have
vanished, to the purifying of society and the increased
happiness of both men and women. The possession of a
vote, by giving women a share in the power of the State, will
Also make them more respected. Hitherto, law, declaring
women to be weak, has carefully put all advantages into
the hands of those who are already the powerful. Instead
of guarding and strengthening the feeble, it has bound them
hand and foot, and laid them helpless at the feet of the
strong. To him that hath, it has indeed been given ; and
from her that hath not, has been taken away even the
,protection she might have had.
“ Women are naturally unfit for the proper exercise of
the franchise.” It has been remarked, more than once,
that, in this contest about the voting of women, men and
women have exchanged their characteristics. Women appeal
to reason, men to.instincts; women rely on logic, men on
.assumptions; women are swayed by facts, men . by pre
judices. To all our arguments, to all our reasoning, men
answer, “ It is unfeminine—it is contrary to nature.’’ If
we press them, How and why? we are only met with a
re-assertion of the maxim. I am afraid that we women
.sadly lack the power of seeing differences. It is unfeminine
�6
POLITICAL STATUS OF WOMEN.
to be a doctor, but feminine to be a nurse. It is unfeminine
to mix drugs, but feminine to administer them. It is un
feminine to study political economy, but feminine to train
the future Statesmen. It is unfeminine to study sanitary
laws, but feminine to regulate the atmosphere of the nursery,
whose wholesomeness depends on those laws. It is un
feminine to mingle with men at the polling-booth, but
feminine to.labour among them in the field and the factories.
In a word, it is unfeminine to know how to do a thing, and
to do.it comprehendingly, wisely, and well j it is feminine to
do things of whose laws and principles we know absolutely
nothing, and to do them ignorantly, foolishly, and badly.
We do not see things in this light.. I suppose it is because
we, as women, have “ the poetical power of seeing re
semblances,” but lack the “ philosophical power of seeing
differences.” We must, however, analyse this natural in
feriority of women; it is shown, we are told, in their mental
weakness, their susceptibility to influence, their unbusiness
like habits. If this natural mental inferiority of woman
be a fact, one cannot but wonder how nature has managed
to make so many mistakes. Mary Somerville, Mrs. Lewis
(better known as George Eliot), Frances Power Cobbe,
Harriet Martineau, were made, I suppose when nature
was asleep. They certainly show no signs of the properlyconstituted feminine intellect. But, allowing that these
women are inferior in mental power to the uneducated
artisan and petty farmer, may I ask why that should be a
political disqualification? I never remember hearing it
urged that the franchise should only be conferred on men
of genius, or of great intellectual attainments. Even the
idea of an educational franchise was sneered at, low as was
the proposed standard of education. When a law is made
which restricts the franchise to those who rise above a
certain mental level, the talk about mental inferiority will
become reasonable and pertinent; but, when that law is.
passed, I fear that nature will not be found to have been
sufficiently careful of the male interest to have placed all
men above the level, and all women below it. Suscepti
bility to influence is an argument that also goes too far. I
am afraid that many people’s opinions are but rarely
“ opinions ” at all. They are simply their neighbours*
thoughts covered over with a film of personal prejudice.
It is, however, a new idea in England that a class liable to.
be unduly influenced should be disfranchised ; the Ballot.
�POLITICAL STATUS OF WOMEN.
7
Act lately passed was, I always understood, specially
designed to protect the weak from the pressure of the
strong. Oliver Cromwell said that it was unjust to deprive
any one of a natural right on the plea that, were it given, it
would be abused. Not so; “when he hath abused it,
judge.” Business incapacity may, or may not, exist on the
part of women; it is difficult to judge what power a person
may have when he is never permitted to exercise it. Tie
' up a man’s hands, and then sneer that he has no aptitude
for writing; or chain his feet, and show his natural inca
pacity for walking. John Stuart Mill has remarked : “ The
ladies of reigning families are the only women who are
allowed the same range of interests and freedom of develop
ment as men, and it is precisely in their case that there is
not found to be any inferiority. Exactly where and in pro
portion as woman’s capacities for government have been
tried, in that proportion have they been found adequate.”
In France, at the present day, the women rule business
matters more than do the men, and the business capacity
of French-women is a matter of notoriety. Lastly, I would
urge on those who believe in women’s natural inferiority,
why, in the name of common sense, are you so terribly
afraid of putting your theory to the proof? Open to women
the learned professions; unlock the gates which bar her
out from your mental strifes ; give her no favour, no special
advantages; let her race you on even terms. She must fail,
if nature be against her; she must be beaten, if nature has
incapacitated her for the struggle. Why do you fear to let
her challenge you, if she is weighted not only with the
transmitted effects of long centuries of inferiority, but is
also bound with nature’s iron chain ? Try. If you are so
sure about nature’s verdict, do not fear her arbitration ; but
if you shrink from our rivalry, we must believe that you feel
our equality, and, to cover your own doubts of your supe
riority, you prattle about our feebleness.
“Women are indifferent about the possession of the
franchise.” If this is altogether true, it is very odd that
there should be so much agitation going on upon the sub
ject. But I am quite willing to grant that the mass of
women are indifferent about the matter. Alas ! it has
always been so. Those who stand up to champion an
oppressed class do not look for gratitude from those for
whom they labour. It is the bitterest curse of oppression
that it crushes out in the breast of the oppressed the very
�8
POLITICAL STATUS OF WOMEN.
wish to be free. . A man once spent long years in the
Bastille; shut up m his youth, old age found him still in
his dungeon. The people assailed the prison, and, among
others, this prisoner was set free; but the sunshine was
agony to the eyes long accustomed to the darkness, and the
fresh stir of life was as thunder to the ears accustomed to
the silence of the dungeon; the prisoner pleaded to be
kept a prisoner still. Was his action a proof that freedom
is not fair ? The slaves, after generations of bondage, were
willing to remain slaves where their masters were kind and
good. Is this a proof that liberty is not the birthright of
a man ? And this rule holds good in all, and not only in
the extreme, cases I have cited. Habit, custom, make hard
things easy. If a woman is educated to regard man as her
natural lord, she will do so. If the man to whom her lot
falls is kind to her, she will be contented; if he is unkind,
she will be unhappy; but, unless she be an exceptional
character, she will not think of resistance. But women are
now beginning to think of resistance j a deep, low, murmur
ing is going on, suppressed as yet, but daily growing in
intensity; and such a murmur has always been the herald
of revolt. Further, do men think of what they are doing
when they taunt the present agitators with the indifference
shown by women? They are, in effect, telling us that, if
we are m earnest in this matter, we must force it on their
attention 5 we must agitate till every home in England rings
with the subject; we must agitate till mass meetings in
every town compel them to hear us; we must agitate till
every woman has our arguments at her fingers’ ends. Ah !
you are not wise to throw in our teeth the indifference of
women. You are stinging us into a determination that this
indifference shall not last j you are nerving us to a struggle
which will be fiercer than you dream ; you are forcing us
into an agitation which will convulse the' State. You dare
to make indifference a plea for injustice ? Very well; then
the indifference shall soon be a thing of the past. ’ You
have as yet the frivolous, the childish, the thoughtless, on
your side 5 but the cream of womanhood is against you.
We will educate women to reason and to think, and then
the mass will only want a leader.
“ Women are sufficiently represented as it is.” By whom ?
oy those whose interests lie in keeping them in subjection. So
the masters told the workmen : “ We represent you; we take
care of your interests.” The workmen answered : “ We
�POLITICAL STATUS OF WOMEN.
9
prefer to represent ourselves : we like to have our interests
guarded by our own hands.” And such is our answer to
-our “ representatives.” We don’t agree with some of your
views; we don’t like some of your laws ; we object to some
-of your theories for us. You do not really represent us at
all; what you represent is your own interests, which, in
many cases, touch ours. The laws you pass are passed in the
interests of men, and not of women; and naturally so, for you
are made legislators by men, and not by women. There are
few cases where men are really the representatives of women.
John Stuart Mill—now dead, alas!—noblest and most candid
•of philosophers and Statesmen; Professor Fawcett, a future
leader; Jacob Bright, our steadfast friend: these, and a
few others, might fairly be called representatives of women
in Parliament. Outside the House, too, we have a few
gallant champions, pre-eminent among whom is Moncure
Conway, whose voice is always raised on the side of freedom
and justice. But what we demand is the right to choose
our own representatives, so that our voice may have its
share in making the laws which we are bound to obey. We
share the duty of supporting the State, and we claim the
right of helping to guide it. Taxation and representation
run side by side, and if you will not allow us to be repre
sented, you have no right to tax us. I may suggest here, in
reference to the contest about married women having votes,
that this point is altogether foreign to the discussion. The
right to a vote and the qualification for a vote, are two dis
tinct things, and come under different laws. The one is
settled by Act of Parliament, the other by the revising
barrister. A blunder was lately made by putting into a Bill
a special disqualification of married women. Such a clause
is absurdly out of place. We are contending to remove
from a whole sex a legal disability; the details come later,
and must be arranged when the principle is secured. A
man has the right to vote because he is a man; but he must
possess certain qualifications before he can exercise his
right. Let womanhood, as such, cease to be a disqualifi
cation; that is the main point. Let the discussion on
qualifications follow. Further, if it be urged that women
are represented by their husbands, what are we to say about
those who have none? In 1861, fifteen years ago, there
were three and a half millions of women in England work
ing for their livelihood—two and a half millions of these
were unmarried, and were, therefore, unrepresented. Is
�10
POLITICAL STATUS OF WOMEN.
there no pathos in these figures ? Two and a half millions
struggling honestly to live, but mute to tell of their wants
or their wrongs. Mute, I say, for not one in a thousand hasthe power of the pen. And this is not the worst. Oh,
friends ! below these, pressed down there by the terrible
struggle for existence, there is a lower depth yet, tenanted
by thousands of whom it is not here my province to speak,
thousands, from whom a bitter wail goes up, to which men’s
ears are deaf. Surely, women need representation—surely,
there are grievances and wrongs of women which can only
be done away by those whom women send to Parliament as
their representatives. It is natural that men should not
desire that many of these laws should be altered. In the
first place, it is impossible they should understand how
hardly they press on women; only those who wear it, says
the proverb, “ know where the shoe pinches.” And, in the
second place, the holders of a monopoly generally object
to have their monopoly interfered with. They can’t imagine
what in the world these outsiders want pressing in upon
their social domains. The nobleman cannot understand
why the peasant should object to the Game Laws; it is so
unreasonable of him. The farmer cannot make out why
the labourer should not attend quietly to his hedging and
ditching, instead of making all this fuss about a union.
The capitalist cannot see the sense of the artisan banding
himself with his brethren, instead of going on with his
duty, and working hard. Men can’t conceive why women
do not attend to their household duties instead of fussing
about Parliament. Unfortunately, each of these tiresome
classes cares very little whether those to whom they are
opposed can or cannot understand why they agitate. We
may be told continually that we are sufficiently repre
sented ; we say that we do not think so, but that we mean
to be.
“ Political power would withdraw women from their
proper sphere, and would be a source of domestic annoyance.”
Their proper sphere—/.<?., the home. This allegation is
a very odd one. Men are lawyers, doctors, merchants;
every hour of the day is pledged, engrossing speculations
stretch the brain, deep questions absorb the mind, great
ideas swell in the intellect. Yet men vote. If occupation
be a fatal disqualification, let us pass a law that only idle
people shall have votes. You will withdraw workers from
their various spheres of work, if you allow them to take an
�POLITICAL STATUS OF WOMEN.
II
interest in politics. For heaven’s sake, do not go and take
the merchant from the desk, the doctor from the hospital,
the lawyer from the court; you will disorganise society—you will withdraw the workers. Do you say it is not so—
that the delivery of a vote takes up a very short time at
considerable intervals ? that a man must have some leisure,,
and may very well expend it, if he please, in studying
politics ? that a change of thought is very good for the
weary brain? that the alteration of employment is a
positive and most valuable relaxation? You are quite
right; outside interests are healthy, and prevent private
affairs from becoming morbidly engrossing. The study of
large problems checks the natural tendency to be absorbed
in narrower questions. A man is stronger, healthier,
nobler, when, in working hard in trade or in profession for
his home, he does not forget he is a citizen of a mighty
nation. I can think of few things more likely to do women
real good than anything which would urge them to extend
their interests beyond the narrow circle of their homes..
Why, men complain that women are bigoted, narrow
minded, prejudiced, impracticable. Wider interests would
do much to remedy these defects. If you want your wife
to be your toy, or your drudge, you do perhaps wisely in
shutting up her ideas within the four walls of your house
but if you want one who will stand at your side through
life, in evil report as well as in good, a strong, large-hearted
woman, fit to be your comfort in trouble, your counsellor in
difficulty, your support in danger, worthy to be the mother
of your children, the wise guardian and trainer of your sons
and your daughters, then seek to widen women’s intellects,
and to enlarge their hearts, by sharing with them your
grander plans of life, your deeper thoughts, your keener
hopes. Do not keep your brains and intellects for the
strife of politics and the conflicts for success, and give to
your homes and to your wives nothing but your condes
cending carelessness and your thoughtless love. Further, do
you look on women as your natural enemies, and suppose they
are on the look out for every chance of running away from
their homes and their children ? It says very little for you
if you hope only to keep women’s hearts by chaining their
minds, or limiting thezr range of action. What is it really
worth, this compelled submission—this enforced devotion?
Do you acknowledge that you make home-life so dull, sowearisome, that you dare not throw open the cage-door,
�12
POLITICAL STATUS OF WOMEN.
lest the captive should escape ? Do you confess that your
service is so hard a one that she you call your friend
is only longing to be free? You do yourselves an injustice,
friends; you shame your own characters—you discredit
your homes. A happy home, the centre of hopes and
fears, the cherished resting-place from life's troubles, the
sure haven from life’s conflicts, the paradise brightened
by children’s prattle and children’s laughter—this home is
not a place where women must be chained down lest they
should run away. Admitting, however, for argument’s
sake, the absurd idea that women would neglect their
homes if they possessed the franchise, may I ask by what
right men restrict women’s action to the home? I can under
stand that, in Eastern lands, where the husband rules his wives
with despotic authority, and woman is but the plaything
■and the slave of man, woman’s sphere A the home, for the
very simple reason that she cannot get outside it. So, in
this sense, in the Zoological Gardens, is the den the sphere
of the lion, and the cage of the eagle. Shut any living
creature up, and its prison becomes its sphere. But if the
prisoner becomes restless—if nature beats strongly at the
captive’s heart—if he yearns for the free air and the golden
sunshine, you may, indeed, keep him in the sphere you
have built for him; but he will break his heart, and will
die in your hands. Many women now, educated more
highly than they used to be—women with strong brains
and loving hearts—are being driven into bitterness and
into angry opposition, because their ambition is thwarted
at every step, and their eager longings for a fuller life are
.forced back and crushed. A tree will grow, however you
may try to stunt it. You may disfigure it, you may force it
into awkward shapes, but grow it will. One would fain
hope that it is in thoughtlessness and in ignorance that
men try to push women back. Surely they do not appre
ciate the injury they are doing, both to themselves and to
women, if they turn their homes into prison-houses, and
the little children into incumbrances. In the strong, true,
woman there is a tender motherhood which weaker natures
cannot reach ; but if these women are to be told that
‘domestic cares only are to fill their brains, and the prattle
of children to be the only satisfaction of their intellect, you
run a terrible risk of making them break free from home
and child. Allow them to grow freely, to develop as nature
bids them, and they will find room for home-cares in their
�POLITICAL STATUS OF WOMEN.
13
minds, and the warmest nestling-place in their bosom will
be the haven of the little child. But if you check, and
fret, and carp at them, you will not succeed in keeping,
them back, but you will succeed in souring them, and in
making them hard and bitter. Oh, for the sake of English
home life—for the sake of the tender ties of motherhood—
for the sake of the common happiness, do not turn into
bitter opponents the women who are still anxious to be
your friends and your fellow-workers. This is no imaginary
danger; it is a thunder-cloud brooding over many English
homes. I can scarcely believe that men and women would
be so unreasonable as to make the power of voting into a
domestic annoyance. Of course, if a married couple want
to quarrel, there are sure to be plenty of differences of
opinion between them which will give them the proper
opportunity. But why should political disagreement be
specially fatal to domestic peace ? Theology is now a
fruitful source of disagreement. If the husband is the free
thinker, he does not suffer, because he does not allow his
wife to worry him too far ; but if the free-thinking is on the
side of the wife, matters are apt to become uncomfortable.
There is only one way to remedy this difficulty. Let the
husband feel, as the wife now does, that between two
grown-up people control of one by the other is an absurdity.
Bitterness arises now from disagreement, because the wife
who forms her opinion for herself is regarded as a rebel to
lawful authority. Remove the authority, which is a tyranny,
and people will readily “ agree to differ.” There will pos
sibly be a little more care before marriage about the opinions
of the lady wooed than there is now, when the man fancies
that he can mould the docile girl into what shape he
pleases, and the future happiness of both is marred if the
woman happens to be made of bright steel, instead of
plastic clay. In any case, Parliament is scarcely bound tp
treat one half of England with injustice, lest the other half
should find its authority curtailed.
One by one I have faced the only arguments against the
extension of the franchise to women with which I am ac
quainted. You yourselves must judge how far these argu
ments are valid, and on which side right and justice rest. I
would add that I feel sure that, when the matter is fairly
placed before them, most men will sympathise with, and
assist our cause. Some noble and brave men have come
forward to join our ranks already, and speak boldly for
�r4
POLITICAL STATUS OF WOMEN.
woman’s cause, and work faithfully for its triumph. The
mass of men only need to study our claims in order to
accept them. They have been reared to regard themselves
as our natural superiors; small blame to them that they
take the upper seats. Kind and gentle as many of them
•are, working hard for wife and children, thinking much of
women and loving them well, it cannot be expected that
they should readily understand that their relations to the
weaker sex are founded on an injustice. But if they want
to see how false is their idea of peace, and how misled
they are when they think women’s position satisfactory, let
them go out and see what the laws are where the power they
give is wielded by brutality and tyranny. Let them try to
imagine what women suffer who are too weak and timid to
resist the strength under whose remorseless exercise they
writhe in vain , let them try to appreciate the sharper agony
of those whose bolder hearts and stronger natures defy their
tyrants, and break, at. whatever cost, their chains. Laws
must be tested by their working ; these laws which make
the woman the helpless servant of man are not enforced in
happy homes; but they exist, and elsewhere they are
used.
Injustice is never good ; it is never even safe. There is
a higher life before us, a nobler ideal of marriage union, a
fairer development of individual natures, a surer hope of
wider happiness. Liberty for every human being, equality
before the law for all in public and in private, fraternity of
men and women in peaceful friendship, these are the promise
of the dawning day. Co-workers in every noble labour, co
partners in every righteous project, co-soldiers in every just
cause, men and women in the time to come shall labour,
think, and struggle side by side. The man shall bring his
greater strength and more sustained determination, the
woman her quicker judgment and purer heart, till man shall
grow tenderer, and woman stronger, man more pure, and
woman more brave and free. Till at last, generations
hence, the race shall develop into a strength and a beauty
at present unimagined, and men and women shall walk this
fair earth hand-in-hand, diverse, yet truly one, set each to
each—
“As perfect music unto noble words.3
�BOOKS BY ANNIE BESANT.
The Freethinker’s Text-Book.—Part II. By Annie Besant.—
“On Christianity.” Section I.— “ Christianity: its Evidences
Unreliable.” Section II.—“Its Origin Pagan.” Section III.—“Its
Morality Fallible.” Section IV.—“Condemned by its History.”
Bound in cloth, 3s. 6d.
History of the Great French Revolution.—By Annie Besant.
Cloth, 2s. 6d.
My Path to Atheism.—Collected Essays of Annie Besant.—The
Deity of Jesus—Inspiration—Atonement—Eternal Punishment_ Prayer—Revealed Religion—and the Existence of God, all examined
and rejected ; together with some Essays on the Book of Common
Prayer. Cloth, lettered, 4s.
Marriage: as it was, as it is, and as it should be. By
Annie Besant. In limp cloth, Is.
The Jesus 'of the Gospels and The Influence of Chris
tianity.—Verbatim Report of Two Nights’ Debate between the
Rev. A. Hatchard and Annie Besant, at the Hall of Science,
London. Is.
To be obtained of the Freethought Publishing Company,
28, Stonecutter Street, E.C.
�PAMPHLETS BY ANNIE BESANT.
The True Basis of Morality. A Plea for Utility as the Standard
of Morality...
...
...
...
...
q
Auguste Comte. Biography of the great French Thinker, with
Sketches of his Philosophy, his Religion, and his Sociology.
Being a short and convenient resumé of Positivism for the
general reader
...
...
...
...
.. q
Giordano Bruno, the Freethought Martyr of the Sixteenth
Century. His Life and Works
...
...
... 0
The Political Status of Women. A Plea for Women’s Rights ... 0
Civil and Religious Liberty, with some Hints taken from the
French Revolution ...
...
...
...
... q
The Gospel of Atheism ...
...
...
...
.. q
Is the Bible Indictable ? ...
...
...
...
... q
England, India, and Afghanistan ...
...
...
... q
The Story of Afghanistan
...
...
...
... 0
The preceding two pamphlets bound together in limp cloth, Is.
The Law of Population : Its consequences, and its Rearing upon
Human Conduct and Morals. Fortieth thousand
... 0
An additional twenty-five thousand of this have also been
printed in America, and translations have been issued and
widely sold in Holland, Italy, and France.
Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity...
...
...
.. 0
Landlords, Tenant Farmers, and Labourers
...
... 0
The God Idea in the Revolution ...
...
...
... 1
The Gospel of Christianity and the Gospel of Freethought
... 0
English Marseillaise, with Music ...
...
...
... 0
English Republicanism ...
...
...
...
... q
Essays, bound in one volume, cloth
...
...
... 3
Christian Progress
...
...
...
...
... q
The English Land System
...
...
...
... 0
Ethics of Punishment
...
...
...
...
... ()
Large Portrait of Mrs. Besant, fit for framing, 2s. 6d.
A splendidly executed Steel Engraving of Mrs. Besant, price 2d.
London : Fkeethought Publishing Company, 28, Stonecutter
Street, E.C.
d..
2
6
1
2
3
2
2
3
2
&
1
1
a
2
1
1
a
2
1
1
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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The political status of women
Description
An account of the resource
Edition: 3rd ed.
Place of publication: London
Collation: 14 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Books and pamphlets by Annie Besant advertised on and inside back cover. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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Besant, Annie Wood [1847-1933]
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Freethought Publishing Company
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[188-?]
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N069
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Women's rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The political status of women), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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English
NSS
Women-Suffrage
Women's Rights
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DE
DES FEMMES
EN ANGLETERRE
PAR
MME C. COIGNET
PARIS
LIBRAIRIE GERMER BAILLlfiRE
RUE DE L’EC0LE-DE-m£DEC1NE, 17
1874
*
�Extrait de la Revue politique et litteraire
Numdros 44, 45. — 2 et 9 mai 1874
�DE
HmWHISSHMT POLITIQUE
DES FEMMES
Un des spectacles les plus interessants pt les plus curieux
de l’ordre politique est celui que nous presente aujourd’hui
TAngleterre.
En voyant ee peuple abandonner de plus en plus sa pre
ponderance en Europe et faire aux nations une sorts de
declaration da paix a tout prix, on a prononce parfois le
mot de decadence. L’exces du bien-Mre et des richesses,
a-t-on dit, et les satisfactions egoistes qui en ddrivent produisent, la commo partout ailleurs, leur effet d’atonie et d’engourdissement. Encore quelques annees, l’Angleterre sera
devenue une nouvelie Hollande. Mais ceux qui suivent d’un
mil plus attentif et plus penetrant la politique anglaise a l’interieur en appelleront de ce jugement,
Il est bien vrai que les traditions orgueilleuses qui ont
porU pendant des siecles le Royaume-Uni a s’arroger la
souverainetd des mers et la suprematie sur le continent, s’affaiblissent de plus en plus, ~ et la classe qui les avail si hardiment proclamdes et si hardiment soutenues perd cheque jour
de son prestige. La bourgeoisie est aujourd’hui preponde
rate en Angleterre, Or, les classes travailleuses ne sent ja
mais guerrieres; connaissant le prix des richesses acquires
�- Zl —
par leurs propres efforts, elles tiennent a la paix qui les con
serve, a la liberte qui leur permet d’en jouir, et preferent au
bruit du champ de bataille les luttes fecondes de la vie civile
et les joies du foyer. Peut-dtre la classe moyenne en Angleterre manque-t-elle encore de la culture superieure, des tra
ditions diplomatiques et des larges visees de la vieille aristocratie. Aussi, sous sa direction, le pays a trouve jusqu’a
present moins d’eclat exterieur que sous ses anciens chefs (1).
Mais cette meme classe peut acquerir ce qui lui manque, et
si d’ailleurs elle mtme a bonne fin 1’oeuvre qu’elle a entre
prise, — la reforme liberate des institutions, — l’Angleterre y
trouvera plus de vraie gloire que dans toutes les conqudtes.
Qu’on ne parle done pas de decadence. La vitalite de cette
forte race n’a nullement diminue; jamais, au contraire, son
energie et son activite n’ont ete aussi intenses; seulement
elles se concentrent a l’interieur.
Les questions politiques et sociales qu’on debat aujourd’hui
en Angleterre sont celles qui agitent 1’Europe moderne tout
entiere. Elles peuvent se ramener a une seule : la lutte d’un
monde nouveau fonde sur le droit humain, la liberte et l’egalite des individus, contre un vieux monde fonde sur le droit
divin, les privileges de classes et les pouvoirs ecclesiastiques.
Les diverses reformes obtenues dans le cours de ce siecle
en Angleterre (2), et celles qu’on v reclame encore aujour
d’hui (3), ne sont que les manifestations de cette lutte, et le
progres social s’y rattache en entier. Ddgager la societe mo-
(1) L’Angleterre peut remplir en Europe un grand role, sans viser
a la conquete. Nous esperons qu’elle le comprendra. L’abstention systematique et absolue serait trop aisement taxee d’egoisme, d’etroitesse
et d’impuissance. Un peuple ne saurait s’isoler du groupe auquel il
appartient et se desinteresser de la politique exterieure, sans voir diminuer, non-seulement son influence, mais sa valeur morale.
(2) Le mafiage civil, le libre echange, la suppression des brevets
achetes dans l’armee, la suppression du serment religieux a l’entree
du parlement et des universites, la reforme electorale, etc.
(3) La separation de l’Eglise et de l’Etat, l’enseignement public et
laique generalise, l’extension du suffrage, la libre possession et la libre
transmission de la terre, etc., etc.
�derne, laique et democratique, de la societe theologique et
aristocratique du moyen age : telle est la question dans tous
les pays. Mais il y a bien des manures de la resoudre, et ici
nous allons reconnaitre un des traits les plus caracteristiques
de l’esprit anglo-saxon.
Le progrds social en Angleterre n’apparait jamais comme
le fruit d’une revolution violente qu’un parti peut obtenir par
surprise et imposer par force. 11 est le resultat d’une trans
formation lente et reguli&re accomplie par la nation ellemfime. Chaque nouvelle reforme doit 6tre soumise a l’opinion; avant d’arriver au Parlement, elle doit avoir ete debattue
et acceptee par le peuple.
Or, chez cette race positive et fortement attachee a ses tra
ditions, il ne suftit pas qu’une reforme soit juste et conforme
a l’interfit du pays pour devenir populaire ; il faut encore
qu’elle ait un fondement dans la legislation, un precedent
dans l’histoire, qu’elle rentre en un mot dans le d6veloppement regulier des institutions.
Ce respect de la volonte nationale aussi bien dans les tra
ditions du passe que dans les tendances du present fait la force
morale de l’Anglelerre. Il eleve le patriotisme au-dessus de
toutes les divisions de classes et de partis, et, en donnant a
l’action politique la resistance, la force et la duree, il lui
donne une incomparable grandeur. L’esprit tradition'nel, si
puissant d’ailleurs en Angleterre, peut retarder parfois la reali
sation des reformes, mais neles fait pas 6chouer; il ne leur
presente jamais un obstacle qu’on ne puisse tourner ou
vaincre.
Dans un pays oil aucune loi n’a jamais ete abolie, aucun
code revise, et ou la jurisprudence se puise aussi bien dans
la coutume et l’equite que dans la loi ecrite, il ne saurait fitre
difficile au reformateur de maintenir un lien entre les temps.
La question qui va nous occuper aujourd’hui en est un
saisissant exemple.
�dertes, s’il est une reforme importante, une reforme qui
doive atteindre la societe dans ses ptofondeurs, c’est celle qui
consisterait a supprimer toute distinction l&gale entre les
sexes, et s’il est un pays ou une telle reforme semble devoir
rencontrer une opposition invincible, c’est celui de tous ou la
legislation a etabli dans le mariage le plus d’inegalites. C’est
pourtant dans celui-la, c’est en Angleterre que la question
est aujourd’hui posee et publiquement debattue, et qu’elle
gagne du terrain chaque jour.
Quand nous parions de supprimer toute distinction legale
entre les sexes, nous indiquons la question dans sa veritable
portee philosophique (t), non point telle que l’ont formulee
devant le public la masse de ceux qui la defendent. Fidfeles a
l’esprit et aux habitudes de leur contree, ils se sent places, au
contraire, sur un terrain essentiellement pratique : ils ont
restraint leur reclamation a un point precis et bien deter
mine, -sachant que c’est le meilleur moyen pour obtenir peu
a peu tout le reste.
Ce point est le droit politique.
Peut-6tre, en France, s’etonnera-t-on du choix; mais ils’explique en Angleterre, d’une part, par les habitudes du self
government, de l’autre, par les conditions speciales du droit
politique, qui v rendent le vote bien plus accessible aux fem
mes qu’il ne le serait chez nous.
Voici comment la question s’est determinee d’elle-mfime :
De nombreuses reformes etaient demandees touchant la
condition sociale des femmes en Angleterre, et la conve-
(1) M. Mill, un des principaux promoteurs du mouvement, l’a
posee ainsi dans son remarquable ouvrage sur VAssujettissement des
femmes.
�- 7 nance, la justice de CertainCs d’entre elles etaient gOtteralement reconnues. Les reformateufs alors ont dit :
« Si l’on doit reviser la legislation qui regie la condition de
la femme, n’est-il pas juste et dans l’esprit meme de notre
lol nationale que les femmes participent a cette revision ?
Ghacun est pouf Soi le meilleuf juge, et I’on rtd saurait chan
ger le sort de la moitie des membres de la commlihaute sanS
les consulter suf ce changement. t
Or, la seule maniore de consulter Idgalement les femmes,
c*est ’de leur accorder une part a la legislation au moyen du
vote.
Sans doute, s’il s’dtait agi d’ouvrir inopihement la vie po
litique a une nouvelle masse d’electeurs, on aurait pu recm
ler deVant un changemeht auSsl considerable, mais la ques*
tion ne se prdsentait point ainsi.
Le suffrage universel n’existe pas en Angleteffe. Le vote
y est eonsidPrd conime un privilege tenant a la propriety
bon comme un droit personnel attache A l’iftdividu. Toutes
les libertes publiques Oht Une origine traditionnelle; elles se
rattachent a ce vieil adage que ceux qui payent 1’impdt ont
un droit de controle suf ceux qui le levent et qui l’appliquent.
S’appuyant done sur le droit public ainsi determine, les
femmes ont demande le suffrage, non pas en tant que pefsonnes morales et civiles, be qui aufait pu btre sujet k con
testation, mais en tant que propriCtairos titulalresj pavant
rimpOt. La reclamation sous cette forme avalt le ddttble
avantage de restrelndre le hombre des nouveaux electeurs
aux feme sole (1) (demoiselles majeufos, et veuves), et de s’appuyer suf ie droit historique le plus ancidh.
(1) Expression de la loi normande pour designer les femmes qui
ne sunt nl en puissance de pefe, ni en puissance de marl. Il
faut remarqiier toutefois que, par le fait da Immigration, cette
eategorie est en Angleterre beaucoup plus nombreuse que chez
nous. Dans ce pays, le nombre des femmes depasse celui des hommes
d’un million environ, et on y trouve deux a trois millions de femmes
non mariees ou veuves. On a calcule que le jour ou la lol paSSetalt
elle augmenterait d’un septieme le nombre des dlecteilfs, Gette pro
portion est relativement considerable.,
�— 8 —
La loi salique, en effet, qui, dans notre pays et des l’epoque des Francs, excluait la femme de l’heritage paternel
comme incapable de le defendre, n’a jamais existe en Angle
terre. Les plus vieux souvenirs de cette contree nous montrent les filles heritant de leurs p&res a defaut des descen
dants males, et jouissant dans ce cas des mfimes droits que
ces derniers.
Avant mfime l’invasion normande, et sans cesse depuis,
les femmes possesseurs titulaires de fiefs prenaient part au
gouvernement de leur pays, tantOt par mandataires et tantot
d’une faqon directe.
Thomas Hughes, dans la Vie d'Alfred le Grand, nous dit
que les nobles dames, mfimes mariees, conservaient leurs proprietes personnelles, qu’elles pouvaient en disposer, et a ce
titre siegeaient dans le Wittenagamott, conseil national des
Saxons; elles siegeaient aussi dans les assemblees provin
ciates, les comites de paroisse, et elles etaient protegees par
des lois speciales alors que, dans ces temps de violence, la
faiblesse de leur corps les plagait en etat de peril,
Gurdon, dans ses Considerations sur les antiquites du parlement, parle aussi des femmes de naissance et de quality
qui siegeaient au conseil avec les chefs saxons.
L’abbesse Wilde, dit encore Bede, presida un synode-eccl6siastique.
Sous Henri VIII, dans-la salle Booth de Glocester, lady Anne
Berkeley tint une cour de justice comme juge-president. Elie
avait en cette qualite une commission du roi, et Fosbrook,
l’historien de Glocester, raconte comment elle vint, s’assit sur
le banc dans la salle des sessions publiques, presida le jury,
re§ut les temoignages, declara les accuses coupables de com
plot et de desordre public, et les condamna comme ennemis
du genre humain.
Sous Henri III, quatre abbesses furent convoquees au Parlement. Sous Edouard III, plusieurs dames nobles y comparurent par leurs mandataires. On cite encore mistress Copley,
sous le regne de Marie, et lady Packington, sous le regne
d’Elisabeth.
La derni&re manifestation publique que nous ayons de ce
droit date de I6Z1O; mais on peut voir que l’usage commence
�— 9 —
deja a s’affaiblir, carle sheriff fait alors cetteremarque qu’il
est honteux pour un homme d’etre elu par des femmes.
Dans le si£cle suivant, les juges le reconnaissent encore,
mais on n’en reclame presque plus l’application.
En 1739, la douzieme annee du regne de Georges II, devant
la cour du roi (kings' bench), sir William Lee etant premier
juge (chief justice) et sir Francis Page etant second juge, on
posa la question de savoir si une feme sole pouvait voter pour
les officiers de la paroisse, les sacristains, et si elle pouvait
elle-mtaie exercer ces fonctions. Dans le cours du proems, sir
William Lee d&clara que le droit etait incontestable, et qu’en
nombre de cas les feme sole avaient mdme vote pour les
membresdu Parlement, mais que, lorsqu’elles etaient marines,
leur mari devait voter pour elles. Le juge Page s’exprime
de la m6me faQon dans un cas analogue, et lord Coke, qui est
une autorite en ces matures, confirme ces dires.
Il nous reste d’ailleurs un temoignage vivant et plus ecla
tant que tous les autres de cette interpretation du droit feodal:
e’est la royaute qui en derive. Les femmes occupent le trdne
en Angleterre, et chaque terme de la loi qui en regie les
conditions est applicable a un sexe comme & l’autre. La reine
regnante remplit toutes les fonctions du roi; elle a les memes
prerogatives, les memes obligations. Bien plusj elle est en
Angleterre la seule epouse qui conserve la libertd de la feme
sole. Aprds comme avant le mariage, elle peut acheter,
vendre, recevoir des dons et des heritages, tester, et enfin
prendre toute sorte d’engagements.
Le droit traditionnel est done incontestable, et si l’usage
s’est perdu, il faut en accuser l’indifference des femmes, qui
n ont point ete assez jalouses de maintenir ce droit en l’exerqant. Toutefois, eten depit d’une telle negligence, le principe
n’en demeure pas moins comme un element de la constitu
tion et del’histoire du Royaume-Uni, et, en le relevant de nos
jours, en demandant a le remetlre en vigueur, les femmes
n’innovent pas, elles retournent ala tradition; ce point a
une grande importance.
Voici dans quels termes miss Mary Dowling (1), secretaire
(1) Miss Dowling, femme aussi distinguee par le caractere et par
�— 10 —
generale de 1’AsSociation en faveur du Suffrage des femmes,
determinait, au mois d’aofit 1873, l’objet de cette Association.
S’adressant att principal journaliste de la ville de Ramsgate,
ou devait se tenir un meeting sur cette question, elle s’exprimait en ces termes:
«Nous ne demandons pas, comtne quelques personnes se
l’imaginent vaguement, que chaque femme ait un vote. Mais
la proprfete, la rente et l’impdt etant la base des droits poll-*
1
tiques en Angleterre, nous disotts qtt’il est tres-injuste d’en
exclure les femmes qui sont proprietalres, rentieres, et qui
payent 1’impOt. Nous ne demandons nullement le droit de
vote pour les jeunes titles et les fipottses chargdes des devoirs
de la vie domestique, mais settlement pour les femmes dont
la situation civile peut 6tre assimifee it Celle des hottimes.
Nous demandons que les femmes non mariees et 16s Veuves
appelees a partager la charge de 1’impdt participent au privi
lege qui y est attache qttand le contribuable eSt un homme.
La question en litige n'est done point la question abstralte
des droits de la femme, sur laquelle les niembreS memes de
notre Association peuVent differer d’opinions, mais la ques
tion de savoir si la quality du sexe peut destituef du droit
politique tin membra quelconque de la communaute.
a J’ajouterai que nous avons sur ce point en notre faveur la
plus haute autorite legale du pays. Notre avocat general ltiimeme, sir John Coleridge, areconrtu en plelnParlement qtt’il
dtait difficile & uti Anglais de denier ttil tel droit (1). »
Nous ne pouvons qu’admlrer la sageSse et la moderation
d’un tel langage. La fermete dont les femmes anglaises
font preuve,en limitant leur reclamation au strict principe du
droit positif, est a nos yeux un gage certain de succes. On
verra d’ailleurs, en continuant cette etude, quelle matche regulfere et progressive la question a suivie. Nous la feprendrons au debut, stir le terrain legislatif.
le coeur que par les facultes de l’intelligence, a ete pCettiaturement
enlevee a sa tache et a 1’affection de ses amis, au mois de Janvier
4874. La cause a laquelle elle s’etait entierement Vouee a fait, par
cette mort, une grande perte.
(1) SPatice du le» tnal 1872.7 *'
�Le registre parlementaire d’Hansard nous donne, a la date
du 3 aoflt 4832, la premiere mention qui ait ete faite a la
Chambre des Communes du droit des femmes au vote poli
tique.
M. Hunt (1) se l&ve et dit qu’il a une petition a presenter,
laquelle sera peut-6tre un sujet de gaite pour les honorables
gentlemen, mais qui lui parait neanmoins meriter quelque
attention. Cette petition vient d’une dame de haut rang,
Mary Smith de Stanmore, du comte d’York. La petitionnaire
etablit que, possedant de grands biens, elle paye des taxes
considerables, et elle demande, selon le principe de la con
stitution anglaise, a participer al’election de ceux qui reprdsentent lapropriete. Elle ajoute que les femmes etant sujettes
a tous les chatiments de la loi, sans excepter la mort, il lui
parait juste qu’elles ne demeurent pas etrangeres a la legis
lation. Et pourtant, ajoute-t-elle, non-seulement elles en sont
exclues, mais quand elles ont a subir un jugement, elles ne
reconnaissent personne de leur sexe parmi les jures et les
juges. La petitionnaire ne voit aucune bonne raison pour
refuser aux femmes les droits sociaux, em Angleterre surtout oil la plus haute fonction de l’Etat, celle de la royautb,
peut dtre exercee par une femme, et elle termine en deman
dant que toutes les femmes non mariees ou veuves se trouvant d’ailleurs dans les conditions legales, puissent voter
pour les membres du parlement.
M. Hunt ne se mdprenait pas en prevoyant le peu de succes de cette petition. Elle fut ecartee sans discussion, mais
non sans quelques sourires des-honorablesgentlemen.—
A cette dpoque, d’ailleurs, l’opinion n’avait point encore
(1) Miiiistre de la marine dans ie cabinet actufel.
�— 12 —
ete saisie, et cet acte isole passa pour une excentricit6 sans
valeur et sans consequence.
C’est seulement treize ans apres que la question apparait
dans le public avec un certain eclat, relevee et soutenue par
deux noms populaires : M. Richard Cobden et M. Stuart Mill.
Dans un discours ala date du 15 janvier 18Zt5, a CoventGarden, M. Cobden se prononce en faveur du suffrage des
femmes (1), et l’annee suivante, M. Stuart Mill, dans un ouvrage politique sur la nature du gouvernement, se prononce
a son tour avec non moins de fermete dans le mdme sens.
Des cette epoque, on peut prevoir 1’attitude resolue que
M. Mill prendra plus tard dans la lutte.
L’appui de noms aussi estimes et aussi populaires com
mence a donner a la question une importance nouvelle.
Cependant le progres est lent, et c’est seulement douze ans
apres qu’un incident la remet en lumiere, sans amener encore
de resultats positifs.
En 1858, les ouvriers de Newcastle, avant forme une asso
ciation en faveur du suffrage universel, demanderent a un
groupe de femmes distinguees et liberates de se joindre a
eux et d’appuver leurs reclamations.
Celles-ci proposerent alors d’unir la question du vote des
femmes a celle du suffrage universel. Mais les ouvriers, tout
en admettant le principe, craignirent de compromettre leur
cause par cette union, et les pourparlers n’eurent pas de
suite.
En 1865 seulement, a l’epoque des elections, la question
revint devant le public avec un eclat nouveau. Les electeurs
de Westminster avaient propose la candidature a M. Mill.
« J’ecrivis en reponse, nous dit-il dans ses Memoires, une
lettre destinee a la publicite. Au sujet des droits electoraux,
je leur declarai peremptoirement que dans ma conviction,
conviction a laquelle je conformerais mes actes, les femmes
(1) « C’est un fait singulier a mes yeux, dit M. Cobden, et une
grande anomalie, que les femmes ne puissent pas voter elles-memes
quand, en nombre de cas, elles peuvent conferer le vote. Je souhaite
pour mon compte que leur droit finisse par etre reconnu. »
�avaient le droit d’etre representees dans le parlement sur le
meme pied que les hommes. C’etait sans doute la premiere
fois que cette doctrine s’afflrmait devant des electeurs an
glais. Aussi le succes de ma candidature, apres cette decla
ration de principe, a-t-elle donne l’impulsion au mouvement,
devenu depuis si vigoureux, en faveur du suffrage des
femmes » (1).
On remarque, en effet, que l’annee suivante, en 1866,
M. Mill put deja presenter, a la chambre des Communes une
petition de 1500 femmes pour demander le suffrage.
Dans cette curieuse seance, M. Disraeli, chef du parti conservateur,serailie a l’idee generale contenue dans la petition.
Il s’exprime en ces termes :
« Dans un pays gouverne par une femme, alors que nous
reconnaissons aux femmes le droit de former une partie de
l’Etat en qualite de pairesses de leur propre chef, alors que
nous admettons, non-seulement qu’elles possedent la terre,
mais qu’elles soient dames de manoir (Lady of the manor} et
tiennent des cours de justice, quand elles peuvent Otre gardiennes de l’Eglise etsurveillantesdespauvres, je ne saurais
voir par quelle raison on les exclurait du droit de vote. »
(Hansard’s Parliamentary debates.}
En 1867, M. Mill presenta une seconde petition de 12 2Zi7
personnes, hommes et femmes, et, de plus, un bill ou projet
de loi, en faveur de la reforme. Voici dans quels termes il
posa alors la question:
« Je me l&ve, messieurs, pour proposer une extension du
suffrage qui ne saurait exciter aucun sentiment de classe
ou de parti, qui ne peut pas plus donner'd’ombrage aux par
tisans les plus absolus des droits de la propriety qu’aux defenseurs les plus ardents des droits du nombre ; une exten
sion qui ne troublera pas dans la moindre mesure ce qu’on
appelait derni&rement la balance des pouvoirs politiqu.es, qui
(1) Histoire de ma vie, par Mill, p. 269.
�n'alarmera ni les adverspires leg plus craintifs de la revolu
tion, ni leg ddmocrates les plus jalouxdes droits populates,,,
La question que je yous adresse est celle-ci; Est-il juste de
refuser a une moitie des membres de la communaute, nonseulement l’exercice, mais la capacite d’exercer jamais les
droits politiques, alors que ces membres se trouvent dans
toutes les conditions legales et constitutionnelles qui suffiseut
auxautresmembres?.., La justice, qui represente a mes yeux
un groupe particulier d'intdrdts, n'exige pas sans doute qu’on
confere les fonctions politiques a chacun, mais elle exige
qu’on n’en destitue arbitrairement personne. Or, peut-on
prdtendre que des femmes qui administrent leurs biens per
sonnels, possfcdent et exploitent la terre, conduisent des
fermes, des maisons d’affaires et des dtablissements d’dducation, sont chefs de famille et paient des impots conside
rables, restent incapables de remplir une fonction a l’exer
cice de laquelle tout homme, quel qu’il soil, peut fitre ap’
pele?.,.Etce n’est pas seulement le principede la justice qui
est violepar cette exclusion des femmes,entant que femmes,
c’estnotre constitution m£me. La vieille doctrine sur laquelle
elle est fondee, doctrine chere a tousles liberauxetreconnue
par tous les conservateurs, n’est-elle pas contenue dans cette
maxime que I'impdt et la representation sont coeioistants ?
Or, cette maxime est violee par 1’exclusion des femmes. »
M. Mill examine ensuite tous les arguments eontraires au
projet de loi, arguments qu’on tire des obligations de la
femme dans la vie privee, et il ajoute : « Qu’est-ce done que la
liberty politique, sinon le controle de ceux qui exercent
directement les. fonctions publiques par ceux qui ne les exer
cent pas? Ce contrble est-il done de nature h absorber
l’existence, pour qu’on le declare incompatible avec les soins
de la famille et ses obligations ? Si Ton est sincere, on ponrra
peut-dtre rdduire cos arguments h un sentiment obsenr et
honteux de lui-mdme, que nous traduirons ainsi: — Une
femme n'a pas le droit d’etre autre chose que la servante la
plus utile et la plus devouee d’un homme. — J’ajouterai que,
dans ma conviction, il n’y a pas un seul mernbre de cette
Chambre capable d’un sentiment si bas. »
A la suite de ce discours, le bill obtint 82 voix: la plupart
�appartenaient au parti radical (1). Quglques conservateurs
cependant suivirent l’exemple de M. Disraeli, au nona de la
tradition constitutionnelle, et voterent comme
pour le
bill.
Ainsi, chose curieuse 1 la question du drbit politique des
femmes est entrde sur le terrain legislatif appuyde par les
chefs des deux partis les plus opposes da la Chambre, at grace
a I’honorable minority qu’elle obtint, on peut dire qu’elle y
conquit ce jour-la sa place offlcielle. On pouvait encore la
combattre, mais on ne pouvait plus la traiter de chimeyique
et d’absurde.
Cette meme annbe, un incident se prhsenta qui permit de
faire en sa faveur, et sous une autre forme, une tentative
nouvelle,
La loi ecrite, en Angleterre, se sert du terme person
(personne) pour designer quiconque possede certains droits,
ou est sujet a certaines obligations. Or, dans un eas
particulier, un juge ayant decide que le mot person ntetait
point applicable aux femmes (2), on avait senti le danger
d’une jurisprudence qni aurait flni par dispenser les femmes
de tous les impbts si on l’avait ghnhralishe, et, pour parer M
la possibility d’un tel abus, lord Romilly avait presente une
loi, votee sans discussion par la chambre des Communes,
qui decidait que le terme legislatif de person etait egalement
applicable aux deux sexes, a moins que l’intention contraire
n’ait ete clairement exprimee par le legislateur.
L’annee suivante nbanmoins, en 1867, quand on vota la
re forme electorale, entraine par l’usage, on employe encore
(1) Les radicaux representent la partie la plus avancee du parti
liberal, Ce terme, toutefois, n’iniplique aucune signification revolutionnaire. Tous les partis politiques, a la chambre des Communes,
sont constitutionnels.
(2) Voici quel etait ce cas: Le dernier due de Buckingham avait
cite quelques chasseurs devant la justice pour fait de braconnage a
Stowe. Ceux-ci furent condamnes a Tamende, et, par vengeance, ils
attaquerent de la meme facon la duchesse pour avoir chasse le faisan
sans permis. Les magistrats decidferent que pour les permis de chasse,
la loi, employant le mot de person et le pronom he (il), n’etait pas
applicable aux femmes.
�le terme person pour designer les votants, sans deter
miner le sexe. Les partisans du suffrage des femmes ne devaient pas manquer de se prevaloir de cette inadvertance;
voici comment ils procederent:
Les listes electorales, en Angleterre, sont dressees par les
municipalites et revisees par un avocat de la couronne qui,
dans le cas ou les inscriptions ne lui paraissent pas conformes a la loi, peut effacer d’office les noms inscrits. Ses
decisions toutefois ne sont pas souveraines; il y a une cour
d’appel.
En 1868, l’annee qui suivit la reforme, quand les nouvelles
listes furent dressees, nombre de femmes se presentdrent
pour etre inscrites comme electeurs. Il y eut des cas ou les
officiers municipaux consentirent a cette inscription, d’autres oil ils la refuserent, et il y eut aussi des cas ou les avocats de la couronne ratifierent l’inscription municipale, d’autres ou ils effacdrent d’office les noms de femmes.
Dans tous les districts oil les noms furent maintenus sur
la liste, les femmes purent voter ; et de fait, elles voterent.
On cite entre autres le district de Finsbury, a Londres, ou
cinq femmes voterent. A Worcester, il y en eut une ; a Ash
ford, dans le comte de Kent, il y en eut vingt; il y en eut
dans beaucoup d’autres. La validite de ces votes n’a jamais
ete contestee.
La question neanmoins restait pendante. Il fallait la resoudre sur le terrain legal. On s’entendit a cet effet.
A Manchester, cinq mille femmes enregistrees comme elec
teurs avaient vu leurs noms rayes d’office par l’avocat de la
couronne; elles en appelerent, et leurs reclamations furent
portees devant la Cour.
Malheureusement pour la cause, il se trouva dans la faqon
dont les reclamations furent presentees un incident qui la
compromit.
On se rappelle que l’objet des deux dernidres reformes
electorales, celle de 1832 et celle de 1867, avaient ete d’etendre le droit de vote de la propriete a la rente. Il y avait dans
le principe de cette reforme un element qui paraissait une
derogation a la pure tradition constitutionnelle, etle parti
conservateur ne l’avait acceptee qu’avec repugnance, contraint
�17 —
par l'opinion publique. Or, le corps de la magistrature, ©n
Angleterre, y compris les avocats et les avoues, appartenant exclusivement au parti conservateur, on pense que
si les reclamations avaient ete presentees a la Cour au nom
des femmes proprietaries "conformement a l’ancienne loi,
elles avaient chance d’etre accueillies.
Malheureusement, la premiere petition inscrite venail
d’une femme rentiere, et on dut statuer en se plagant au
point de vue de la reforme. Les juges etaient naturellement peu enclins a etendre les applications d’une loi dont
ils n’approuvaient pas le principe; ils rejeterent done la
requfite et decidbrent que le mot person, employe fortuitement par le legislateur, ne comprenait pas dans son esprit
les deux sexes, mais les hommes seulement.
Ce jugement, qui enveloppait en masse toutes les reclama
tions, avait force de loi, et c’est la premiere decision legale
qui ait exclu les femmes du vote politique en Angleterre.
Malgre cet echec, le mouvement ne fut pas arrdte, car
les annees suivantes un nombre de petitions comprenant, en
1868, Zt9 780 signatures, en 1869, 56A75, puis 13Z| 561, puis
186 976, puis 355 806, furent successivement presentees a la
Chambre.
En 1869, M. Mill n’avait pas ete reelu, mais M. Jacob
Bright, frere de John Bright quaker et membre du ministbre, avait repris au Parlementla defense de la meme cause,
et, en attendant qu’il presentat un nouveau bill, il obtenait
de la Chambre, en faveur de l’intervention des femmes dans
la vie publique, les decisions les plus importantes. Il obte
nait le droit de vote dans les elections municipales, dans
l’election des officiers de police, des comites d’hygiene, des
gardiens des pauvres et, l’annee d’apres, en 1870, quand on
discula la loi de l’inslruction primaire, l’election et l’eligibilite dans les school-boards (1).
(i) Les school-boards sont des comites locaux qui organisent, administrent et gouvernent l’enseignement primaire dans chaque district.
Ce ne sont pas seulement des comites scolaires, mais de veritables
pouvoirs qui decident de la creation des 6coles et forcent les conseils
municipaux a lever les taxes necessaires a ce sujet. Ils decident, en
2
�— 18 —
En outre, la m6me annee, 11 presenta un nouveau bill qui,
apres avoir dte renvoye devant une commission par une majorite de circonstance (la Chambre n’etait pas en nombre),
fut ensuite rejete par un autre vote de surprise (1). La dis
cussion parlementaire se trouvait ainsi close jusqu’a la fin
de 1’annee ; mais la semaine suivante un grand meeting fut
tenu a Londres, dans lequel on decida avec enthousiasme de
continuer la lutte jusqu’au jour du succes.
En 1871, en effet, la question, qu’on n’avait pas cesse d’agiter devant le pays, revient devant le Parlement, et on peul
encore constater ses progres de deux manieres : d’abord par
le nombre des votes, qui s’elevent de 9Zi ou de 124 a 151; puis
par l’attitude tres-differente du cabinet. M. Gladstone, au lieu
de s’opposer personnellement au bill, laisse entendre, dans
un langage toutefois assez obscur, qu’il n’est pas loin d’en
admettre le principe. Il croit.le moment premature, car le
vote a bulletin ouvert donne lieu a de telles scenes de vio
lence que la presence des femmes ne pourrait y £tre
supportee. Mais une fois le vote secret adopte, la situa
tion sera tres-differente (2). «Les adversaires du bill,
dit M. Gladstone, lui opposent cette grande loi de la race
humaine en vertu de laquelle les travaux et les devoirs
de la vie domestique incombent ala femme, etles travaux et
les devoirs exterieurs incombent a l’homme; mais ils oublient que cette loi se modifie chaque jour sous l’empire des
faits. Le nombre de femmes independantes vivant soil de
outre, si l’enseignement sera obligatoire dans le district et s’il sera
la'ique ou religieux. Les femmes peuvent y etre elues, alors meme
qu’elles ne paient pas de cote personnelle et sont mariees. La pre
miere election qui s’est faite apres le vote de la loi a introduit sept
femmes dans les school-boards ; la seconde, qui a eu lieu a la fin de
1873, huit pour l’Angleterre et vingt-quatre pour l’Ecosse.
(-1) La majorite lors du premier vote etait de 124 contre 94. Lorsque }e bill revint pour la seconde fois devant la Chambre, M. Glad11
chef du gouvernement, s’y opposa ouvertement et le fit rejeter
en provoquant un vote subit a une heure du matin, auquel prirent
part tous les deputes faisant partie du gouvernement. On remarqua
que 58 deputes qui avaient vote pour le bill la premiere fois etaient
alors absents.
(2) Depuis cette. epoque le vote secret a ete adopte.
�— 19 —
leur propre fortune, soit de leur propre travail, augmente
chaque annee, surtout dans les grandes grilles. Or, on ne
saurait contester que ces femmes, en assumant la responsamlite de leur propre existence, assument en mdme temps
ioutes les charges qui appartiennent d’ordinaire exclusive*
ment aux hommes, et elles les assument dans des conditions
plus difficiles que leurs puissants competiteurs. Il y a dans
ce fait une inegalite et une injustice qu’aucun de nous ne
peut contester. Il est done certain qu’il y a des rdformes h
faire. »
En 1872 et en!873,le bill revient au Parlement et obtient
la dernidre annee un gain de Z|, voix (155). C’est un faible
progrSs, niais on se trouve en face de la mCme Chambre.
C’est M. Jacob Bright, M. Eastwick et M. Fawcett qui ont
remplacd M. Stuart Mill dans la defense de la cause.
« On discute, dit M. Fawcett, la question de savoir si les
femmes sont plus ou moins capables que les hommes de
prendre part a un gouvernement representatif: je repondrai
que nous n’en savons tien, que nous ne pouvons rien en
savoir avant l’experience. Mais je dis qu’il est contraire aux
principes de ce gouvernement et contraire a la justice d’imposer des lois a certains membres de la communautd sans
leur donner en mfime temps le pouvoir de contrdler ces lois.
Un grand nombre de mes amis me disent qu’ils ne voteront
pas pour le bill parce qu’ils pensent que l’intervention des
femmes augmentera la force du parti conservateur et celle
de 1 Eglise. Je n admets pas mdme qu’on pose cette question.
Si les femmes sont favorables a l’Eglise, elles en ont le droit,
et nous devons prendre leur opinion en consideration,
quelles que soient nos sympathies. »
« On a donne le vote aux femmes dans les conseils municipaux et les school-boards, dit M. Jacob Bright, parce que, a-t-on
dit, elles sont interessees autant que les hommes aux ques
tions d’education et aux questions d’administration locale.
Mais ne pouvons-nous pas employer le mdme argument
quand il s’agit de la representation generale du pays? Est-il
une seule de nos lois qui ne les interesse d’une fa§on directe
ou indirecte? On nous demande d’etendre le vote dans les
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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De l'affranchissement politique des femmes en Angleterre
Creator
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Coignet, C. (Clarisse)
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Place of publication: Paris
Collation: 46 p. ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. From La Revue Politique et Litteraire, vol. 10 44-45: 2, 9 May 1894. Includes bibliographical reference.
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Librairie Germer Bailliere
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1874
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G405
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Women's rights
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French
Conway Tracts
Women-Suffrage
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Text
THE POWERS OF WOMEN, AND IIOW TO USE
THEM.
HERE has been, perhaps, a greater change of opinion in England
on a greater variety of subjects—social, political, and religious
—during the last ten years than had taken place in the whole period
which had elapsed since Europe was convulsed by the Reformation.
Whether the change has been for the better or the worse will be, of
course, estimated differently by different minds, but the fact itself
will hardly be disputed.
Ten years ago household suffrage was considered an impossible
tenet belonging to the ultra-Radicals ; we have lived to sec it given
by a Conservative Government. The abolition of the Irish State
Church was the scheme of “ philosophical levellers;” it has become
the popular cry on which a party rides into power. “ Essays and
Reviews ” was petitioned against as fraught with horrible novelties
of heresy; the book may be said to have died in bringing forth a
bishop, but scarcely a weekly paper or a monthly magazine now
appears which does not contain doctrines almost as “advanced.”
The revolution has been more tranquil and peaceful than any
former one. The Bishop of Peterborough did not offer to go to the
stake in defence of the Irish Establishment; Lord Derby swallowed
the bitter draught of the suffrage instead of laying down his head like
Strafford on the scaffold. Liberal admissions take out the sting of the
strongest defences of orthodoxy ; and the revision of the authorized
version, headed by the Bishop of Winchester, looks a little like the
�¿22
THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
theological equivalent of Mr. Disraeli taking the political bread out of
the mouths of his adversaries by the “ ten minutes ” Bill. Lastly,
the whole question of the use of women in the world, their “ rights ”
and their 11 wrongs,” is being discussed in a manner which contrasts
very remarkably with the tone of even a few years back; while the
discussions in Parliament upon female suffrage, the municipal vote
granted last year to single women possessing the necessary quali
fication, the Married Women’s Property Bill, which has just passed
the House of Commons, the education—artistic, medical, scientific,
and literary—now offered to them by so many bodies, public and
private, show the breach which has been made in the fortress of
ancient opinion.
The movement has now indeed attained a wider, deeper signifi
cance than is even indicated by such changes in England. It is
spreading over the whole world in the marvellously rapid way with
which the interchange of ideas takes place at present among nations ;
through that “ solidarity ” which is at last comprehending even the
unchanging East. It is showing itself in Russia and Spain, in India
and America, the old world and the new alike. Russian ladies are
taking medical degrees at Zurich, and now at St. Petersburg; schools
for Hindoo girls are established and well attended at Madras and
Calcutta. Monseigneur Dupanloup protests against the lowering
effect of the poor education given to girls in France, and the Roman
Catholic bishop is as urgent in his demand for a higher ideal of
woman’s life as our English radical philosopher.
But though both extremes of opinion agree as to the evil of the
present state of things, though the Saturday Review is as strenuous
in its description of the vacuity of the lives and occupations of
thousands of women as the most strong-minded of the lady writers,
there is the greatest possible divergence as to the remedy and the
means of applying it. Give them the same education as men, says
one side ; but we are at this very moment revolutionising the instruc
tion in our boys’ schools, and declaring the subjects to be often illtaught, and not always worth learning.
Shut them up with
governesses and in school-rooms more strictly, says the other ; but
it is the girls who are the result of this very training of whom we
are now complaining.
Meantime two or three hard facts have come out in the discussions
on the subject. The census of 1851 showed three millions and a half
of women working for a subsistence, of these two millions and a half
were unmarried. At the census of 1861 the number of self-supporting*
* The wretched gulf below into which so many of these are driven by misery, the
wholesale destruction of soul and body which takes place, cannot here be entered on, and
indeed this class is not included in these numbers.
�THE POWERS OF WOMEN.
523
women had increased by more than half a million, many with relations
dependent upon them. The pretty, pleasant, poetic view of life
by which man goes forth to labour for his wife, while her duty
is to make his home comfortable, is clearly not possible for this large
portion of womankind, since, although a certain number of them
are single because they preferred celibacy to any choice offered to
them, a very large proportion are so from necessity, and certainly
find the burden of maintaining themselves a heavy one.
That the “highest result” of life both for men and women is a
really happy marriage there can be no doubt; where each is im
proved by the other, and every good work is helped, not hindered,
for both. It is an ideal which has existed, though it may not have
been carried out, from very early times—and it is somewhat dis
couraging that, as Mr. Lecky has shown, some of the most beautiful
pictures of the relation, and indeed of womanhood at large, are to
be found in Homer and the Greek tragedians; “the conjugal
tenderness of Hector and Andromache, the unwearied fidelity of
Penelope, whose storm-tossed husband looked forward to her as to
the crown of all his labours, the heroic love of Alcestis volun
tarily dying that her husband might live,” and many more such.
Later in history, though Aristotle gives a touching account of a
good wife, and Plutarch declares her to be “ no mere housekeeper,
but the equal and companion of her husband,” we must go on
to Rome for an equally high type of a wife. “ The Roman matron
was from the earliest times a name of honour,” and a jurisconsult of
the empire defined marriage as “ a lifelong fellowship of all divine
and human rights.” Indeed, “ the position of wives during the
empire was one of a freedom and dignity which they have never
since altogether regained.”
That modern society has not always shown an advance on these
questions may be seen in Mr. Maine’s observation that the canon law,
which nearly everywhere prevailed on the position of women, has
on several points “deeply injured civilization.”
Mr. Mill’s description of the relation seems drawn from his own
experience:—
“ What marriage maybe in the case of two persons of cultivated minds,
identical in opinions and purposes, between whom there exists the best
kind of equality” (not that of powers, but of different capacities), “with
each their respective superiority, so that each can have alternately the plea
sure of leading and being led in the path of development . . . where the
two care for great objects in which they can help and encourage each other,
so that the minor matters on which their tastes differ are not all-important,
. . . here is a connection of friendship of the most enduring character,
making it a greater pleasure to each to give pleasure to the other than
to receive it. . . . This is 110 dream of an enthusiast, but a social rela-
�524
THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
tion on whose general realization will depend the best development of our
race.”
To enable women to fulfil their share of this union it will be
granted must require far more cultivation than they now generally
attain. For the very large portion who cannot obtain this “highest
result,” and who yet have the misfortune to require food and
clothing, which they must earn for themselves or starve, it is
surely not too much to ask that they be furnished ungrudgingly
with all possible means of fitting themselves to perform well what
ever work society will permit them to carry out.
As to what is “ unnatural” work, opinion varies so much in different
ages and countries, that we are hardly yet entitled to dogmatise.
“ Nature,” Mr. Mill thinks, “ may be safely left to take care
of itself, and that in any work for which women are really in
competent they will drop out of the race ;” but he hardly seems to
allow for the extraordinary plasticity with which women adapt them
selves to the ideal required of them by public opinion. Among
the North American Indians all the heavy labour—the carrying of
burdens, &c.—falls to their share without any feeling of hardship,
the duty of the “ braves ” being only to fight. In many parts of
Germany the division is the same ; the peasant woman digs, ploughs,
manages the cattle, carries the fuel and the hay from the mountains,
while the men are either with the army, or sitting smoking and
drinking in the little “ platz ” of the village. In Scotland the
stalwart fishwives would be horrified at their husbands doing any
thing but manage the sea share of the business; they have their
boats and nets to look after, and have nothing whatever to do with
matters on shore, where the woman reigns paramount.
An extremely curious instance of what habit and opinion can make
of women appeared not long ago in that very unromantic source of
information, a British Blue-Book. In the account of a mission sent by
England in 18G3 to induce the King of Dahomey to give up the slave
trade, the envoy, Commodore Wilmot, remarks incidentally :—
“ The Amazons are everything in this country. There are nearly 5,000
of them in the king’s army;” and he adds, “ there can be no doubt that
they are the mainstay of the kingdom. They are a very fine body of
women, remarkably well-limbed and strong, armed with muskets, swords
gigantic razors for cutting off heads, bows and arrows, blunderbusses, &c. ;
their large war-drum was conspicuous, hung round with skulls.
“ They are first in honour and importance, all messages are carried by
them to and from the king and his chiefs. They are only found about the
lojal palaces, form the bodp-guard of the sovereign, and no one else is
allowed to approach them. At the reception of the embassy the kinoordered them to go through a variety of movements and to salute me, which
they did most creditably; they loaded and fired with remarkable rapidity,
singing songs all the time. . . . They marched better than the men, and
�THE POWERS OF WOMEN.
525
looked far more warlike in every way ; their activity is astonishing—they
would run with some of our best performers in England. On one occasion
the king appeared in a carriage drawn by his body-guard of women. As
soldiers in an African kingdom and engaged solely in African warfare, they
are very formidable enemies, and fully understand the use of their
weapons.”
Besides 5,000 of these under arms, there are numerous women to
attend on them as servants, cooks, &c. Their numbers are kept up
by young girls of thirteen or fourteen, attached to each company,
who learn their duties, dance, sing, and live with them, but do not
go to war till they are considered old enough to handle a musket.
They are fully aware of the authority they possess—their manner
is bold and free; but in spite of a certain swagger in their walk, he
speaks particularly of “ their good manners and modest behaviour ;
most of them are young, well-looking, and without any ferocity in
their expression, though an occasional skull or jaw-bone may be
seen dangling at their waist-belts. They are supposed to live a life
of chastity, and there is no doubt that they do so, as it would be
impossible for them to do wrong without being found out, and such
discovery would lead to instant death.” “ The only menial service
they perform is to fetch water (which is extremely scarce) for the
use of the king and his household, and morning and evening
long strings of them may bo seen with water jars on their heads
silently and quietly wending their way to the wells in single file,
the front one with a bell round her neck, which she strikes when
any men are seen ; these immediately run off to leave the road
clear, and must wait till the file has passed, for if an accident
happened to the woman or her jar, any man near would be con
sidered responsible, and cither imprisoned for life or his head cut
off. Business is stopped, and everybody delayed to their great
inconvenience, by this absurd law.” The Amazons enjoy their con
sequence, and laughed heartily when they saw the commodore obliged
to step aside in order to avoid them.
It was mentioned by Bishop Crowther, in a lecture at Torquay,
that in war, fewer prisoners by far are made among them than
among the men soldiers ; they fight more fiercely, with more deter
mination, and would rather die than yield. “ Indeed,” says Wilmot,
11 they are far superior to the men in everything—in appearance, in
dress, in figure, in activity, in their performance as soldiers, and in
bravery.” It is curious to see the old Greek legends, which we have
so long disbelieved, thus fully borne out.
The evidence is the more interesting as it appears merely as part
of the report of the embassy,“ presented to both Houses of Parliament
by command of her Majesty,” with no object of proving anything to
anybody in the matter.
�526
THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
Here is a whole body of women distinguished for the very qualities
we should bo most inclined to refuse them, the produce of a “ welldirected ” education to the end required.
It is difficult at present to make any sweeping assertions as to
what women can or cannot do, as even if we decide categori
cally for England, we shall find the standard of their ability
vary by merely crossing the Channel in France ; and if such a dis
cussion had been possible in India, and a Hindoo Mr. Mill had
expressed hopeful views of their powers and of wliat might be
expected from them under a different régime, the weekly papers of
Benares would certainly have replied that the nature of women was
tolerably well known since the beginning of the world ; that they
had had time enough in all conscience to give proof that their
powers were but little above those of animals ; that they could not
be trusted out of the zenana to take care even of themselves ;
that it was doubtful whether they had any souls at all, and, at all
events, certain to the orthodox, that theii1 only chance of immor
tality was by burning themselves on the funeral pile of their hus
bands. Yet even with public feeling so strongly against them,
“ the best native Indian governments are those directed by women,”
says Mr. Mill, borne out by Sir Richard Temple and many other
authorities.
Seven-eighths of the world is Pagan, Mahometan, or Budd
hist, where the lowest opinion concerning women still prevails ;
and even in Christian countries the education given to them is
so much for show, so little for use, so empty of real knowledge,
that we have hardly yet the materials on which to found our
judgment as to their powers, unless exceptionally.
That these will turn out to be the same as those of men is, to say
the very least, most improbable ; that God should have created two
sets of beings, so different physically and outwardly, if he had
intended one to be merely the repetition of the other, and unless they
had been fitted to perform different functions in the world’s great
work. Such a variety of gifts is required to accomplish what is
wanted around us, that it will be strange if we cannot arrive at a
certain joint co-operative action between men and women which
shall be better than that of either alone. “ Two are bettei’ than one,”
as Solomon says, and even than one and one. There is a male and
female side to all great work which will not be thoroughly carried
out unless both can labour at it heartily together. The silent share
contributed by women in man’s work,—to take only a few of the
instances found in late biographies, the assistance given by the
sister of Mendelssohn in the composition of the “ Lieder ohne
Worte,” by old Miss Herschel in her brother’s calculations, by Mrs.
�THE POWERS OF WOMEN.
527
Austen and Lady Hamilton* in the production of their husbands’
works on jurisprudence and metaphysics, and that which is told
by M. Renan and Mr. Mill in their touching tributes, the
first to his sister, the other to his wife,—is only known from
magnanimous men, rich enough in ideas not to grudge such
acknowledgments. “ On ne prête qu’aux riches,” says a French
proverb. But how this joint work for the world can best
be generally carried out remains still to be settled. To take,
however, one instance : the administrative power with which
Mr. Mill credits woman enables her to assist most efficiently
conjointly with men in the management of philanthropic estab
lishments— hospitals, reformatories, asylums, workhouses, &c.r
where she is found to give more comfort more economically than
men, to spend less with greater results. She has generally more
intuitive insight into character, and is less liable to be taken in (pro
vided her affections are not concerned). She is both more considerate
and considering, more observant of small indications than a man,
and draws her conclusions more carefully, and carries out her kind
intentions with more thought. “ And Mary pondered all these things
in her heart,” is a very true picture of her sex. She is a particularly
efficient teacher of male pupils, says one good educational authority ;
there is a certain rude chivalry among boys when they know that
they cannot be compelled to do a thing by force, which will often
make them yield. For example, a class of unruly lads in a ragged
school, utterly unamenable to the discipline of a man, has been
known to obey a young woman ; as a difficult-tempered horse is
sometimes most easily guided by a female hand, when it is at the
same time both skilful and light.
There was one remarkable instance of such influence in the late
American war. After the arrival of the lady nurses in the different
field hospitals of the northern army, the degraded attendance which
ordinarily follows a camp gradually melted away. The husbands,
brothers, and relations of the women who had given up the pro
tection of their homes for the sake of the wounded did not choose
that their belongings should be exposed to such scenes, and the baser
element almost entirely disappeared, at least from sight.
One of the most curious “ changes of front ” in public opinion
which has taken place, is concerning the care of the sick. Surgery
and medicine seem to have been regarded as peculiarly feminine
occupations in the Middle Ages. Even queens and princesses were
regularly instructed in the “ healing arts.” To be a good leech was
as important in a complete education then as to play on the piano
nowadays, and was certainly not less useful.
* The Edinburgh Review says
“ We are, in truth, indebted to these two ladies
that the most profound and abstruse discussions of law and metaphysics which have
appeared in our time became accessible and intelligible to the public.”
vol.
xiv.
n n
�528
THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
That there are certain branches of the profession adapted for
women most people will now admit—i.c., midwifery and the diseases
of women and children; we may indeed come to regard this part of
the craft as one into which men have intruded themselves instead of
the contrary cry. But it is clear that women physicians neither can
nor ought to be consulted or trusted who have not undergone the
most thorough training and submitted to the most searching exami
nation. The difficulties which must result from a course of joint
study for men and women together are such in the present state of
things as to render it most undesirable ; but in France, the question
is solved by a separate training, which there for sixty-nine years
has given as perfect an education to midwives, both practical and scien
tific, as well can be. It includes a course of instruction in a hospital
of two hundred beds, where none but women pupils are received. A
first-class certificate is not given under two years, a second-class not
under one, and without a certificate no one can practise in France.
The lady professors of this institution are physician accoucheurs, not
merely midwives, and hold a rank, both scientific and practical, quite
equal to our first-class “ ladies’ doctors ” here. No classes or lectures
such as are often proposed in England, could possibly afford the
requisite training, unless accompanied by the practical work on the
patients themselves such as is thus afforded in France. In the same
way no certificates or examinations in nursing could be of any avail
unless they are the result and the evidence of trained work in a
hospital, to be judged of not by a board theoretically, but by the
training surgeons and nurses.
Many foreign universities, however, Zurich, Stockholm, &c., have
•shown no jealousy of women doctors, but will now admit any woman
who can pass their examination for a medical degree.
With regard to other special training, the greater facilities given
in the classes at the Royal Academy, the female schools of design at
South Kensington and elsewhere, the Academy of Music, &c., will
now enable women to obtain the thorough knowledge necessary
for good work in art. It is to be hoped that some proof of effi
ciency may soon be exacted for governesses and schoolmistresses:
a diploma such as is required to be shown by them in Germany,
France, and Switzerland, will be a natural result, indeed, of the
examinations now offered by Cambridge, London, Dublin, Edin
burgh, and, lastly, Oxford. The class of female teachers will thus be
raised both in position and salary. In America, at this moment, they
stand very high in the scale, and are even entrusted with a great
.share of the conduct of large boys’ schools.
But it is for those women who do not intend to be either doctors,
or artists, or schoolmistresses, that our improved education is most
wanted. As it is, in the very fields which are considered to belong
�THE POWERS OF WOMEN.
529
to women by the most niggardly estimate of their powers, they are
totally without training of any kind, and each individual is forced to
make out the very A B C of useful knowledge for herself.
For instance, in the conduct of their houses and the management
of their children, which the staunchest Conservative would declare to
be their peculiar province, what pains is taken to give them even the
most elementary knowledge of the things likely to be most useful to
them ? What woman has learnt how to prevent the frost from
bursting the water-pipes, which flood half the houses in London
unnecessarily every winter ? or what has caused the cracking of the
boiler, and how it may be avoided? or the facts concerning food, that
proportion which is best for each different stage of life, and how to make
the best of it ? “ I’m sure it was the bread was very nice last time ;
I can’t think why it isn’t so this while,” says even a clover cook.
The rule of thumb is universal, and the mistress cannot correct it.
Again, with regard to the health of the children and household,
the frightful ignorance of mothers, both rich and poor, annually
sacrifices the lives, and, what is really worse, the health, of thousands
of human beings. It is a common saying that the first child is
generally a victim to the experimental efforts of the poor mother,
who, having never learnt what is good either for herself or her off
spring, can only guide herself after having been taught by the bitter
knowledge of experience.
Women will be found “sending for the doctor ” for the slightest
ailment, either of their own or of their children, which the commonest
sense and the most easy acquaintance with hygiene ought to enable
them to cope with ; yet “laudamy and calomy” are the “simples”
they have not scrupled to use. Every girl ought to go through a course
of training as to what is required in all ordinary cases of emergency—
how to bind up a cut, to put out fire, to treat a burn, the bad effect of
air on a wound, its necessity to the lungs, the measures necessary to
guard against infection—“ common things,” as they are called, but
uncommonly little known at the present day. Questions of fresh
air are beginning to be a little better understood; yet still,
passing along the crowded streets of London, and looking up at
most of the nursery windows, rows of little pale faces may be seen
peering through the closed casements, “ for fear they should
catch cold,” which is often the only form of care conceived of, and
is carried out by making them as liable to cold as possible. A
great medical authority declares that the children of the lowest
and artisan class in London are healthier than those of the class above
them, because they are allowed to play in the gutter, which cannot
be permitted to “ genteel ” children, and the fresh air compensates
for inferior Eving and much want of care. How much of the disease
NN2
�530
THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
and ill-temper of our children, and consequently of our own, is owing
to ignorance in their keepers, which might be prevented by the
better education of nursemaids (no very Utopian notion), it is grievous
to think of.
Again, with regard to education, there is a peculiar appetite in a
healthy-minded child, evidently placed there by nature, for observing
the facts around it, and seeking for their interpretation—“ why ? ”
“ what?” “ where?” is the substance of the talk of intelligent children.
Questions as to the reasons of everything, as to the birds, beasts,
flowers, and stones they meet with. Instead, however, of satisfying
this curiosity, we give them names, the hardest husks of knowledge,
“ Mangnall’s Questions,” and “ Pinnock’s Catechisms,” the very
deadest dry bones of information. As a general rule let what it can
sec, and touch, and taste, and smell, and the explanation thereof,
come before things which its limited experience does not enable
it to realise, and therefore take interest in, and which are
generally to it mere words, such as history, geography, grammar.
The abstract comes later in life. There can be no doubt that such
instruction comes within a woman’s province ; let her, at least, learn
how best it may be accomplished.
There are many questions still remaining to be solved as to how
body and soul react on each other, which women are peculiarly fitted
to assist in settling ;—for instance, although asceticism and epi
cureanism are alike mistaken rules of life, how yet the good
which exists undoubtedly in both is to be secured in education ;
how to give the mind the fairest play ; to “ have the body under
subjection,” in one sense—to make it the slave, and not the master,
in the joint concern,—yet so to cultivate it as to render it the
healthy organ, or interpreter to execute the intentions of the mind,
and how neither mind nor body can do its best without a proper
balance being attained. Education having gone too much in the
cramming direction, the pendulum seems likely now to sway too far
on the opposite side for men—athletics, for their own sake, (although
the sitting still regimen is still required for women) ; while the wisest
among the Greeks seem to have aimed at the perfection of outward
form, chiefly as the instrument of the inward powers of man.
Again, the field of philanthropy has never been contested to
woman: let her be taught to fulfil it wisely. Men have such respect
apparently for her power of intuition that they seem to think she can
do as well without as with study. The excellent women who under
take to assist the poor, probably at this moment are doing at least
as much harm as good, demoralising them by teaching dependence,
and diminishing their power of self-reliance ; they are utterly ignorant
in general of political economy, in its best sense ; of the laws of
�THE POWERS OF WOMEN.
53i
supply and demand; of that which constitutes real help, i.c., that
which rouses man to help himself; while their religious teaching
too often resolvesitself into proselytism and dissemination of doctrinal
tracts. These are studies without which charity degenerates into the
pouring of water into baskets, whereas in France the administration
of the Poor Law, the bureau de bienfaisance, is committed by Govern
ment to the care of the Sisters of Charity, who are considered as the
fittest instruments for the work.
With regard to comparatively smaller matters, such as art, there
can be no doubt that if woman’s knowledge of what really constitutes
beauty were more cultivated, if her taste were higher, or, indeed, any
thing but the merest accident of feeling, oui' hideous upholstery, our
abominable millincry-portraits, the vulgar or vapid colouring of our
drawing-rooms, would improve. “ Natural selection ” would get rid
of the monstrosities in our shops by the simple process of the bad not
finding purchasers, as much as by any schools of design.
Again, with regard to dress, wider interests would probably indi
rectly tend to cure the extravagance which constant change of
fashion produces. For a woman to take care that her outward cloth
ing makes her as pleasing as circumstances comport, is a real duty
to her neighbours ; but this is not at all the aim of fashion. There
is nothing which puzzles the male mind, and especially the artist
mind, like its mystery—why every woman, short and tall, fat and
thin, must wear exactly the same clothes ; why their heads must all
bud out in an enormous chignon one year, and their bodies expand
into an immense bell in the next, under pain of being unpleasantly
remarkable, by the edict of some irresponsible Vehmgericlit which
rules over us. The tyranny of opinion is such that no woman dreams
of resisting beyond a certain point; she has been taught that to be
singular is in her almost a crime, and she accordingly undresses
her poor old shoulders, or swells out her short body, and is intoler
ably ugly and unpleasant to look at to her male relations, but is satis
fied with the internal conviction of right given by the feeling that
at least she is in the fashion ! More knowledge of real art would
show her that if certain lines are really becoming, their opposites
cannot be so too; that there is a real science of the beautiful, to
contravene which is as painful to the instructed eye as notes out of
tune in music to the instructed ear.
The power wielded by woman is at present so enormous, that if
men at all realized its extent, they would for their own purposes
insist on her being better qualified to use it. If any man
will candidly confess to himself the amount of influence on
his habits of thought and feeling throughout his life, first
of his mother and sisters, of young ladyhood in general, and
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THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
later of his wife, daughters, and female friends, the opinions modified,
the incentives supplied by women, old and young, he will be almost
appalled by the thought of the manner in which this potent being
has been left to pick up what education she could from an ignorant
governess or an indifferent school; while her ideas of right and wrong,
her religion and morality, have generally been obtained by being care
fully kept from hearing that there is another side to any question The important and the trivial are generally strangely mixed up in
her mind: traditional rules—such as that though it is wicked to read
history on Sundays, you may make riddles out of the Bible ; that you
may cut paper for patchwork on the Sabbath, but if you sew it is a sin
—being not seldom considered almost as binding as the Gospel itself.
A custom becomes in such a woman’s eyes as sacred as morality;
the inextricable confusion of the form with its meaning, which is so
common, and which makes it so dangerous to touch or improve a
symbol lest we damage the thing symbolized, may be greatly traced
to the unreasoning traditional mode in which women, half the
human race, regard everything. The sentimental part of their
minds being stronger, their power of association more vivid than
that of men, anything connected, however remotely, with their affec
tions, is clung to more warmly, and makes it more difficult for
them to part with the external shape which a thought has been in
the habit of taking in their eyes.
Accordingly, even in matters of politics, which have been sup
posed to be out of their line, “ the party of the roses and night
ingales,” as Mr. Grant Duff once euphuistically called it, has been a
power in the State, a very sensible influence, which has often
checked, and even prevented, useful reforms.
To give her the “ responsibility of her opinions ” might be a cure
for this, but the question of the suffrage cannot be looked upon as
an important one. During the past session the municipal franchise
was granted to unmarried women, with this comment from the con
servative ex-Chancellor, in assisting to pass the Bill: “ Since an
unmarried woman could dispose of her property, and deal with it in
any way that she thought proper,” said Lord Cairns, “ he did not
know why she should not have a voice in saying how it should be
lighted and watched, and in controlling the municipal expenditure to
which that property contributed.” In one of the southern counties,
five large, well-managed estates, almost adjacent to each other,
belong to women either unmarried or widows. Here a district,
amounting in size almost to a small county, is virtually unrepre
sented. If the representation of property is to be a reality, it seems
as if these women ought to “ have a voice in choosing the repre
sentatives who are to regulate ” the national “ expenditure ” to which
�THE POWERS OF WOMEN.
533
they contribute so largely. A single woman is no infant to whom
the law allots trustees ; she can conduct her own affairs and dispose
of her estate as she sees good. The franchise is certainly an inferior
privilege to such functions as these.
It is perfectly true that these women would prefer being without
the franchise, but the question is, what are the arrangements by
which the duties of property may be best performed? They are
called upon, as a matter of course, to use “ the legitimate influence
of a landlord ” with their tenants : why should they be allowed to
shirk the responsibility, to be spared the personal onus of decision in
political opinions ? Are not these likely to be better weighed, more
justly and well considered, if they know they can be called to account
for the proper employment of their power ?
It is no new theory, after all, that women should be treated as
political entities. One barony, at least, was bestowed by Pitt on a
single lady in right of her borough influence ; and the very fact of a
woman being able to use the power of a great proprietor without the
check of publicity and open responsibility, inclines her to make the
question a personal one, and not a trust for the good of the
“ republic.”
With regard to a married woman, it seems to be very unwise to press
her claim. Any property she possesses is, after all, represented by
her husband ; if she votes contrary to him, it will merely neutralize
his vote ; if she votes with him, it is an unnecessary reduplication ;
there seems no good in putting such an abstract cause of contention
among married people.
In England, by manners, although not perhaps by law, the influ
ence of woman has been more useful, calmer, less dreaded, and more
open, than in any country since the days of Evo. When they
have ruled it has been by acknowledged sway; the difference between
Queen Elizabeth and Queen Philippa, and the Montespans and
Pompadours of France. The Maitresse du Rot has been no re
cognised part in our constitution; no fine ladies like Madame de
Longueville, and the other lady leaders of the Fronde, have ruled
the destinies of our country according to the influence of the lover
of the moment. There have been names of power amongst us, but
they have been good as well as great.
In Roman Catholic countries, where the feeling for women has
culminated in the adoration of the Virgin and the deification of
many female saints, where the longing for feminine tenderness
which could not find satisfaction in the stern ideal to which they
had reduced their Christ, has erected an intercessor in “ the mother of
God,” woman, intellectually, has been degraded curiously to the
utmost, the notion of her spiritual eminence having, as it were,
�534
THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
stifled any other. Christianity, great as its influence has been for
woman, has not worked at all alike in this respect in different
nationalities even close at home, and it would be curious to trace out
the reason for her varying position at the present day in the different
Christian countries—in America, where from the disparity of the
sexes she takes a high hand as to her personal claims, but does
not seem to have improved in wisdom beyond her old-world sisters ;
in Germany and Italy, where she holds a strangely inferior place,
from the most different causes, for the German woman is generally
and in some respects highly educated, while the Italian (with some
exceptions in the north) is almost utterly ignorant; in France,
where the influence of woman has always been more really great,
probably, than in any country in the world, America not ex
cepted, with the single exception, which however symbolizes a
good deal, that they must not wear the crown—i.e., be ostensibly
sovereign. The Frenchman is said to be more good-tempered, the
woman more imperious; in a household she is very really the better
half. Partly, perhaps, in consequence of the drain upon the male
part of the nation caused by its warlike propensities, the affairs of
the shop, of the bureau, the management of the money of the family,
in fact, has devolved in great part on her. Monsieur often is
amusing himself at the café, while madame, nothing loth, is admi
nistering the joint affairs of the commerce, in which she has probably
an equal stake in money, while her property is to a great extent
under her own control, and is looked after very keenly; indeed, her
strict attendance at the bureau is mentioned in an interesting
article of the Revue des Deux Mondes as one reason for the fearful
mortality among infants in France. Again, the power of the mother
over her grown-up sons, both by law and custom, is in our eyes
most extraordinary. One of Madame Sand’s best-known novels
runs on the refusal of the widowed mother of a marquis of forty, in
full possession of his own estate, to let him marry a young lady, well
born and well-bred, but poor. No surprise is expressed; it is an
ordinary incident in his social world—it is impossible for the marriage
to take place without her permission.
The relation, however, between the sexes in France seems to be
one of antagonism—an armed peace—constant resistance on one
side, and terror of encroachment on the other. In the absence of
any idea of justice, “a woman’s rights are what she can get foi’
herself;” and their amount is almost incredibly large to our notions,
lor instance, on the occasion of a marriage in the higher classes, the
bridegroom is required as a matter of course by the young girl and
her mother to renounce his profession, which is often mentioned as
one reason of the frivolous life led by young men of family in France.
�THE POWERS OF WOMEN.
535
The sudden change in a French girl’s life, the tremendous leap
from her convent education to the rush of dissipation in the world,
makes her temptation to independence still greater. She has not
even been allowed the choice of the man who is to rule her ; he is
generally more or less in love, she has all the advantage that perfect
coldness and self-possession can give. She rules by dint of her
esprit, her strong will, her tact in pleasing the least worthy part of
men ; and her desire for power is evidently far greater than in
England, where, after the first blush of youthful coquetry is over,
a girl generally subsides rapidly after marriage into the “family
woman,” the wife and the mother ; whereas the Frenchwoman’s
career onlv then begins. And what is considered at least to be its
nature may be guessed from M. Fame’s problem (for even a caricature
is evidence of a popular mode of thought), “Etant donnée la femme,
c’est à dire un être illogique, subalterne, malfaisant, mais charmant
comme un parfum délicieux et pernicieux,” how is she to be treated?
In England, on the contrary, at the present moment, take it for
all in all, the position of an educated woman of a certain class is
probably unequalled both in legitimate influence and happiness. If
she is at all qualified for it by character, she is trusted and consulted
by her husband in everything ; she is respected by her sons for her
experience in life ; she has a large field for her administrative
capacitie,—the schools, the cottages, the sick, the poor, both in
London and the country, employ all her philanthropic energies.
She is cut off from no great questions of national interest, poli
tical, literary, benevolent ; if her opinion is worth having, she
is listened to by men with perfect respect and attention. She
wants nothing more of privilege for herself of any kind. It
is not for these that any change is necessary. But because these
have their “ rights,” in cant phrase, and indeed something more, by
custom, if not by law, it is no use for them to blink the fact of the
intolerable sufferings endured often by women of the lowest class
without a chance of redress, or that the lives of the greater portion
of the middle class are miserably wanting in interests and cultivation
of any kind ; while for the increasing number of women who must
earn their own bread, there are hardly any fields open, and they
have hitherto been even denied the facilities for fitting themselves
to work which are provided so largely for men.
That this has happened by accident more than design, appears in
the Reports upon Endowed Schools, which are proved to have often
been intended by their founders for girls as well as boys. The com
mittee, headed by Lord Lyttelton, sitting now upon them, has been
requested to ascertain what means can be adopted in each case to add
a separate provision for the education of girls, or to enable them to
�53^
THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
share in the classes for boys, as in the national schools. At present
the lower class is bettor provided for in this matter than the middle
and upper. It is to be hoped that Government will not neglect so
fair an opportunity of securing what might become a national and
lasting provision for this want. Mr. Rogers has already led the way
by starting a middle-class school for girls pari passu with the great
school for boys in the City of London.
Meantime, as if to prove that girls would make use of any oppor
tunities given them, several of the school inspectors in England and
Scotland report that they found the capabilities of girls as good in
general as those of boys ; that although part of the school-day was
devoted rightfully to needlework, they did as well as the lads of the
same amount of training when taught by the same masters. In the
few schools for the upper class which have existed, the acquirements
of the average of boys and girls are found to run very evenly, though
here and there a boy appeared who beat all the girls. The brains
of women, says Dr. Barlow, quoting many authorities, English
and foreign, are larger than those of men in proportion to the size
of their bodies, while their temperaments are more nervous and sen
sitive ; they thus require good education for their guidance more even
than men ; whereas cut off, as they too often have been, from the
most interesting subjects in life, it is not surprising if they often
throw their whole souls into petty questions with a vehemence which
makes good men sigh and hard men laugh. “Les femmes excellent à
gâter leur vie,” has been most truly said, and not seldom that of their
belongings besides. Excellent women may be seen spoiling the
comfort, as far as in them lies, of their “ mankind,” about some
miserable little matter of anise and cummin to which their illdirected conscience affixes an inordinate interest, while the greatest
national questions of right and wrong (for which they have proved they
can care so deeply) are to them uninteresting often because unknown ;
for how large a portion of them may still be said to be “ brought up
in the religion of darkness and fear,” which Plato complained of
even in his day ? They are often accused of putting their affections
above any abstract interest, however high, yet how many of them
have shown the power to suffer and to die for the noblest causes.
Martyrs are of no sex or time. “ The mother of seven sons,” as told
in Maccabees, “ saw them all slain in one day with horrible torments ”
for their faith, by Antiochus. Filled with courageous spirits, stir
ring up her womanish thoughts with a manly stomach, she stood
by and exhorted them to remain firm for the right, “and last of all,
after her sons, died also.” Women like Vivia Perpétua, whose
martyrdom for her faith was preceded by the agony of appeals from
her husband holding up her baby before her, and her father entreat
�THE POWERS OF WOMEN.
537
ing her to have compassion on his grey hairs. Through all the phases
of persecution, Pagan, Catholic, and Protestant alike, women have
never been found wanting, and not in religious questions alone—in the
French Revolution the women suffered for their political faith like the
men. It has been remarked that no woman ever then put forward her
sex as a reason for being spared; they had “ the courage of their
opinions,” and went to the scaffold unflinchingly, although some
of them, like Madame Roland, did not believe in any future state.
In the Indian mutiny there were no weak lamentations or com
plaints under the almost intolerable sufferings and privations to
which the women were exposed. They had most of them spent
their lives in the gossip and idleness of Indian stations, yet when
courage and endurance were called for, their heroism was as great
as that of the men.
The stuff is there, it only requires to be adequately made use of.
In spite of what Mr. Mill says, there can be little doubt that women
are by nature more pliable than men, more ready to take the colour
which public opinion represents as right, and also to endure more for
what they believe to be true, in small things* as well as great. But
this only makes it more incumbent upon society, which in this case
means men, to see that the ideal life held up to women is a wise one,
and that their education is in a wise direction. The jealousy of
women acquiring knowledge, in England at least, is quite modern.
At the time of the Reformation, of the revival of learning through
the classics, they were allowed to obtain whatsoever they pleased
of the new fields of knowledge; and Latin and Greek, through
which alone these could be obtained, were freely, taught to
them. They suffered death again and again in political risings in
England, that unpleasant proof of their importance. Lady Salisbury,
Jane Grey, Arabella Stewart, were not spared because they were
women ; and in the feudal times, Mr. Mill declares that both politics
and war were considered part of their proper business in life. Sir
Thomas More, in his ideal republic, even proposes that the “ priests
should be few in number, of either sex.” And though we arc not
very likely to follow out such a counsel as this, yet northern civiliza
tion has always been based, more or less, upon respect for women,
as shown alike in the honour paid to female prophets and priestesses
in the earlier faiths of Teutonic and Scandinavian nations, and the
ideal held up by chivalry in later Christian ages. “ We may, on
the whole, well admire the instinct,” says Mr. F. Newman, “ which
made the old Germans regard wTomen as penetrating nearer to the
* Would anything induce men to submit to the tortures of tight-lacing, or of tho
Chinese “lily feet”—utter absurdities of the most harmful kind—for the sake of being
“ comme il faut ”—in the literal sense, “ as one ought to be ? ”
�538
THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
mind of God than man docs.” That a large share of the higher
moral and ideal work of the world may fairly be taken by her, is
shown by the fact that though the male and female population is
nearly equal in number, the crimes committed by men are usually
five times as numerous.
Her influence now is more than sufficiently great; it is not desirable
that it should be in any degree increased. What is wanted is to
give her the training and discipline by which that which she has
may best be used. There are symptoms on all sides of a change
of thought, a desire to make more use of her powers in various
work. Dean Alford, in his. paper on “The Christianity of the
Future,” has observed, that “woman’s action in the Church” has
been neglected in our present civilization, that “ the Reformers
levelled in the dust, instead of attempting to regenerate, the whole
conventual system of Catholicism.”
Mr. Tennyson hints in his
Guinevere at the double power which the united action of men
and women brings forth; and the reason he gives for his hero
Arthur’s failure is the failure of his wife. “ If he could find,”
says the “bard,”
“ A woman in lior womanhood as great
As he was in his manhood, then, he sung,
The twain together well might change the world.”
And again, in “ The Holy Grail,” he makes Arthur himself declare
that if he can be joined to her whom he considers the pearl of
women—
“ Then might we live together as one life,
And reigning with one will in everything,
* Have power on this dark land to lighten it,
And power on this dead world to make it live.”
Mr. Tennyson has insisted on the “ diverse ” nature of men and
women in lines which have become almost hackneyed by constant
use, and therefore these hints at the joint action which shall
make both more strong, the division of the work of the world
between them, each supplying the deficiencies of the other, are the
more important.
To enable women, by the wisest teaching which the nation can
give, to make themselves ready for such a future, must be our
object. A move of such an extent as is now taking place in women’s
minds cannot be repressed, their further advance is merely a question
of time ; let us insure that it is made in the right direction. Not in
solitary action, for which with her quick sympathies and tender
affections she is eminently unfit; not by usurping the work of men
either as M.P.s, Amazons, or female lawyers, nor again by dooming
half the human race to the most petty trivialities by way of keeping
�THE POWERS OF WOMEN.
539
them virtuous and contented, shall we obtain the best work for the
world. It is Iago only who condemns women to “ suckle fools and
chronicle small beer.” To find the use of everything is the grand
discovery of modern science, to waste nothing of whatever kind, and
certainly not power. The body politic can hardly be made stronger
by bandaging one hand tightly (even if it be the left) to prevent it
from getting into mischief. A beautiful Hungarian myth says,
“ Woman was not taken from man’s heel, that he might know he was
not to trample on her, nor from his head, for she was not to rule
over him, but from the rib next his heart, that she might be nearest
and most necessary in every action of his life.” And not until this
joint action shall have been fully carried out in all work (different in
kind for man and woman, and therefore for that very reason each
fitting into each) shall man indeed “have power on this dead world
to make it live,” as the Creator of both seems to have intended for
the benefit of all.
V.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Dublin Core
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Title
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The powers of women and how to use them
Creator
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Verney, Frances Parthenope [1819-1890]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: [521]-539 p. ; 25 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Article signed as 'V'. Also known as Frances Parthenope Nightingale. From Contemporary Review 14, July 1870.
Publisher
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[s.n.]
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[1870]
Identifier
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G5402
Subject
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Women
Suffrage
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The powers of women and how to use them), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
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English
Conway Tracts
Women
Women-Suffrage