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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
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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-
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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.
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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
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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
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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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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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Text
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English
Conway Tracts
Women
Women-Suffrage