4.—The Misery of Present Day Marriages.As a result of our social and sexual relations, woman is directed toward marriage by every fibre of her existence, and naturally marriage constitutes a chief topic of her conversation and thought. As woman is physically weaker than man, and is subjected to him by custom and law, her tongue is her chief weapon to be used against him, and she naturally makes a liberal use of this weapon. In the same way her much berated love of dress and personaladornment can be explained, that leads to increasingly eccentric follies of fashion and often causes financial troubles and unpleasantness to fathers and husbands. To man, woman has chiefly been an object of enjoyment. Being socially and economically dependent, she must regard marriage as a means of support, and thus becomes subservient to man, becomes his property. Her position is rendered more unfavorable still by the fact that the number of women usually exceeds the number of men; we will return to this phase of the question later on.—This disproportion increases the competition of women among themselves, all the more so because, for numerous reasons, many men fail to marry. Woman is therefore compelled to enhance her personal charms, in order to compete with the members of her own sex in the struggle for the possession of a man. When we consider that this disproportion has existed through many generations, it is not to be wondered at that these characteristics have gradually assumed their present, extreme form. We must consider moreover that at no time the competition among women for the possession of man was as severe as it is at present, owing to causes, some of which have already been, and others that still are to be enumerated. The increasing difficulty of obtaining a decent livelihood also directs woman more than ever to marriage as a means of support.Men do not object to these conditions, since they are favorable to them. It flatters their vanity and serves their interest to play the part of the ruler, and as all rulers they are not easily accessible to reason. It is all the more important therefore that women themselves should strive to bring about conditions that will liberate them from their present, degraded position. Women can no more rely upon the aid of men, than the workers can rely upon the aid of the bourgeoisie.When we furthermore consider what traits of character are developed by competition along other lines, how, for instance, industrial competition leads to hatred, envy and calumny, and how the competitors resort to the basest means, we find an explanation for the fact that similar traits of character have been developed in women by theircompetition for the possession of a man. It is due to this permanent competition that women, as a rule, cannot get along as well with one another as men can; that even intimate friends are easily led to quarrel when the favor of a man enters into consideration. This competition also explains what may be frequently observed, that when two women meet, even though they are utter strangers to one another, they regard each other in a hostile way. With a single glance they have summed up each other’s shortcomings in the manner and style of their clothes, and in the looks of each the verdict may be read: “I am better dressed than you are and am better able to attract attention to myself.”On the other hand woman is by nature more impulsive than man. She is less given to reflection, is more unselfish and naive, and is more controlled by passion. These traits of character are expressed in their most beautiful form by the unselfish self-sacrifice with which she serves her children and others who are near and dear to her and cares for them during illness. But when angered, her impassionate nature manifests itself in its ugliest form. Yet the fact remains that both good and evil qualities are fostered, hampered or transformed, by the social position. The same propensity that may be harmful under unfavorable circumstances may, under favorable circumstances, become a source of happiness to oneself and others. Fourier has ably shown that the same human propensities may, under different circumstances, lead to oppositeresults.[67]Beside the improper mental education, the improper or insufficient physical education in regard to the purposes of nature, remains to be considered. All physicians are agreed that woman’s education for her profession of motherhood is almost entirely neglected. “Soldiers are trained in the use of their weapons, and mechanics in the use of their tools. Every profession requires preliminary study. Even the monk has his noviceship. Only thewoman is not educated for her serious maternal duties”.[68]Nine tenths of all maidens who are given an opportunity to marry, enter matrimony in complete ignorance of motherhood and its duties. The unpardonable prudery that prevents mothers from speaking to their grown daughters about the important functions of sex, leaves them in a state of densest ignorance concerning their duties to their husbands and to themselves. The entrance into marriage means to most women entrance into an utterly strange world. Their conceptions of marriage are purely imaginative, drawn from novels of doubtful value, and are usually very foreign to reality.[69]Another source of differences may be found in the lack of practical knowledge of housekeeping that is still quite essential in present day marriage, though women have been relieved of many domestic activities that were formerly inevitable. Some women are deplorably ignorant of household duties because they consider themselves superior to such work and regard it as a task for servants only. Others, daughters of the proletariat, are equally ignorant, because the struggle for existence compelled them to toil in the factory from morning until night, and they found no time to prepare for their future profession of housekeeper. It becomes more and more evident that the trend of development makes individual housekeeping unpractical, and that it can be maintained only by an irrational sacrifice of time and money.There is still another cause that to many men destroys the purpose of marriage: the physical enfeeblement of women. The food we eat, the manner in which we live, the conditions of our work and the character of our amusements, all tend to act more destructively than favorably upon our physical condition. Rightly is our age termed a nervous age. But nervousness leads to physical degeneration. Anaemia and nervousness exist in an especially marked degree among women. This physical degeneration is fast becoming a social calamity, and if it would continue to exist for several generations more, without our being able to procure more normal conditions of development, it would ultimately lead to racedestruction.[70]The female organism requires special care in consideration of its special sexual functions. It requires good and sufficient nourishment and at certain periods it requires rest. For the great majority of women such care does not exist, nor can it be obtained under present-day conditions. Women have so accustomed themselves to self-denial that many women consider it a matrimonial duty to give their husbands the best morsels and to content themselves with insufficient food. It also frequently happens that the boys of a family are better nourished than the girls. It is generally assumed that women can content themselves with poorer and less nourishment than men. Young girls are therefore often a sad sight to professional authorities on hygiene and physical culture.[71]A great number of our young women are weak, anaemic, and extremely nervous. The results are suffering during menstruation and diseases of the sexual organs that sometimes make it dangerous or impossible to give birth to children or to nurse them. “If the degeneration of ourwomen continues to go on in the same manner as up to the present, it will become doubtful whether civilized man may still be classified with the mammals.”[72]Instead of being married to a healthy, cheerful companion, a capable mother, a wife attending to her domestic duties, the man is burdened with a sickly, nervous woman who cannot endure the slightest draught or the least noise and requires the constant attendance of a physician. We need not dwell longer on this subject. Everyone knows of a number of such cases among his own friends and relatives.Experienced physicians assert that the majority of married women, especially in the cities, are in a more or less abnormal, physical condition. According to the degree of the ailment and the characters of husband and wife, such marriages must be more or less unfortunate. In accordance with public opinion they entitle the men to take liberties outside of their matrimonial relations, and the knowledge of this fact must heighten the misery of the wives. Sometimes the sexual requirements of husband and wife also differ widely and give rise to profound disharmonies, yet the much desired separation is not possible.In connection with this, the truth must not be concealed that in a great many casesthe men are responsible for the severe physical sufferings that befall their wives in marriage. As a resultof their profligate lives, many men suffer from chronic sexual diseases that they frequently treat lightly, because they do not cause them much trouble. But during sexual intercourse with their wives, these fall victims to severe abdominal diseases that set in shortly after marriage and frequently result in sterility. Usually the unfortunate woman is ignorant of the true cause of the disease that mars her life and destroys the purpose of marriage, and reproaches herself or is reproached for the condition that her husband has caused. Many a blooming young woman becomes a chronic invalid after she has barely entered marriage,—neither she nor her relatives areable to explain her condition, and the physician must maintain silence. Recent investigations have shown that childless marriages are frequently due to sexual diseases of men; while formerly the lords of creation maintained the convenient theory that the woman was always to blame when their marriages remainedchildless.[73]Numerous are the causes that prevent present day marriage from being what it ought to be. It is therefore a recommendation of doubtful value when even learned men seek to oppose the woman movement by pointing out to woman that marriage is their true vocation. As a result of our social conditions marriage has become a carricature foreign to its true purposes.[67]A. Bebel—“Charles Fourier, His Life and His Theories.” Stuttgart, 1907. J. H. W. Dietz.[68]Irmav.Troll-Borostyani—“The Mission of our Century. A Study of the Woman Question.”[69]In“Les Femmes qui tuent et les femmes qui votent,” Alexander Dumas,jr., relates that an eminent Catholic clergyman had told him that among hundred of his former female pupils who had become married, at least eighty came to him after a few months had elapsed and told him that marriage was a disappointment to them and that they regretted having married. That seems very plausible indeed. The French bourgeoisie find it compatible with their conscience to have their daughters reared in convents. They are influenced by the assumption that an ignorant woman is more easily guided than an enlightened one. Conflicts and disappointments in marriage are the inevitable result.Laboulayeeven frankly advises to maintain the women in moderate ignorance, for “notre empire est détruit si l’homme est reconnu.” (Our rule will be destroyed if man is recognized.)[70]Softening of the brain has increased more rapidly among women than among men. Among every hundred patients admitted to asylums in Prussia there were cases of softening of the brain:[Women][Men]1876–187917.03.71880–189117.35.41892–189417.76.81895–189718.57.61898–190116.27.5[71]Further details on this subject may be found in “The Book of Women,” byMrs.H. S. Adams,M. D., Stuttgart.[72]Dr.F. B. Simon, “The Care of the Health of Women.”[73]Dr.F. B. Simon discusses this subject and the analogous subject, why so many young women become ill after marriage without being able to account for it, at length. His book is a glaring reflection upon the wrongdoings and vices of men.
4.—The Misery of Present Day Marriages.As a result of our social and sexual relations, woman is directed toward marriage by every fibre of her existence, and naturally marriage constitutes a chief topic of her conversation and thought. As woman is physically weaker than man, and is subjected to him by custom and law, her tongue is her chief weapon to be used against him, and she naturally makes a liberal use of this weapon. In the same way her much berated love of dress and personaladornment can be explained, that leads to increasingly eccentric follies of fashion and often causes financial troubles and unpleasantness to fathers and husbands. To man, woman has chiefly been an object of enjoyment. Being socially and economically dependent, she must regard marriage as a means of support, and thus becomes subservient to man, becomes his property. Her position is rendered more unfavorable still by the fact that the number of women usually exceeds the number of men; we will return to this phase of the question later on.—This disproportion increases the competition of women among themselves, all the more so because, for numerous reasons, many men fail to marry. Woman is therefore compelled to enhance her personal charms, in order to compete with the members of her own sex in the struggle for the possession of a man. When we consider that this disproportion has existed through many generations, it is not to be wondered at that these characteristics have gradually assumed their present, extreme form. We must consider moreover that at no time the competition among women for the possession of man was as severe as it is at present, owing to causes, some of which have already been, and others that still are to be enumerated. The increasing difficulty of obtaining a decent livelihood also directs woman more than ever to marriage as a means of support.Men do not object to these conditions, since they are favorable to them. It flatters their vanity and serves their interest to play the part of the ruler, and as all rulers they are not easily accessible to reason. It is all the more important therefore that women themselves should strive to bring about conditions that will liberate them from their present, degraded position. Women can no more rely upon the aid of men, than the workers can rely upon the aid of the bourgeoisie.When we furthermore consider what traits of character are developed by competition along other lines, how, for instance, industrial competition leads to hatred, envy and calumny, and how the competitors resort to the basest means, we find an explanation for the fact that similar traits of character have been developed in women by theircompetition for the possession of a man. It is due to this permanent competition that women, as a rule, cannot get along as well with one another as men can; that even intimate friends are easily led to quarrel when the favor of a man enters into consideration. This competition also explains what may be frequently observed, that when two women meet, even though they are utter strangers to one another, they regard each other in a hostile way. With a single glance they have summed up each other’s shortcomings in the manner and style of their clothes, and in the looks of each the verdict may be read: “I am better dressed than you are and am better able to attract attention to myself.”On the other hand woman is by nature more impulsive than man. She is less given to reflection, is more unselfish and naive, and is more controlled by passion. These traits of character are expressed in their most beautiful form by the unselfish self-sacrifice with which she serves her children and others who are near and dear to her and cares for them during illness. But when angered, her impassionate nature manifests itself in its ugliest form. Yet the fact remains that both good and evil qualities are fostered, hampered or transformed, by the social position. The same propensity that may be harmful under unfavorable circumstances may, under favorable circumstances, become a source of happiness to oneself and others. Fourier has ably shown that the same human propensities may, under different circumstances, lead to oppositeresults.[67]Beside the improper mental education, the improper or insufficient physical education in regard to the purposes of nature, remains to be considered. All physicians are agreed that woman’s education for her profession of motherhood is almost entirely neglected. “Soldiers are trained in the use of their weapons, and mechanics in the use of their tools. Every profession requires preliminary study. Even the monk has his noviceship. Only thewoman is not educated for her serious maternal duties”.[68]Nine tenths of all maidens who are given an opportunity to marry, enter matrimony in complete ignorance of motherhood and its duties. The unpardonable prudery that prevents mothers from speaking to their grown daughters about the important functions of sex, leaves them in a state of densest ignorance concerning their duties to their husbands and to themselves. The entrance into marriage means to most women entrance into an utterly strange world. Their conceptions of marriage are purely imaginative, drawn from novels of doubtful value, and are usually very foreign to reality.[69]Another source of differences may be found in the lack of practical knowledge of housekeeping that is still quite essential in present day marriage, though women have been relieved of many domestic activities that were formerly inevitable. Some women are deplorably ignorant of household duties because they consider themselves superior to such work and regard it as a task for servants only. Others, daughters of the proletariat, are equally ignorant, because the struggle for existence compelled them to toil in the factory from morning until night, and they found no time to prepare for their future profession of housekeeper. It becomes more and more evident that the trend of development makes individual housekeeping unpractical, and that it can be maintained only by an irrational sacrifice of time and money.There is still another cause that to many men destroys the purpose of marriage: the physical enfeeblement of women. The food we eat, the manner in which we live, the conditions of our work and the character of our amusements, all tend to act more destructively than favorably upon our physical condition. Rightly is our age termed a nervous age. But nervousness leads to physical degeneration. Anaemia and nervousness exist in an especially marked degree among women. This physical degeneration is fast becoming a social calamity, and if it would continue to exist for several generations more, without our being able to procure more normal conditions of development, it would ultimately lead to racedestruction.[70]The female organism requires special care in consideration of its special sexual functions. It requires good and sufficient nourishment and at certain periods it requires rest. For the great majority of women such care does not exist, nor can it be obtained under present-day conditions. Women have so accustomed themselves to self-denial that many women consider it a matrimonial duty to give their husbands the best morsels and to content themselves with insufficient food. It also frequently happens that the boys of a family are better nourished than the girls. It is generally assumed that women can content themselves with poorer and less nourishment than men. Young girls are therefore often a sad sight to professional authorities on hygiene and physical culture.[71]A great number of our young women are weak, anaemic, and extremely nervous. The results are suffering during menstruation and diseases of the sexual organs that sometimes make it dangerous or impossible to give birth to children or to nurse them. “If the degeneration of ourwomen continues to go on in the same manner as up to the present, it will become doubtful whether civilized man may still be classified with the mammals.”[72]Instead of being married to a healthy, cheerful companion, a capable mother, a wife attending to her domestic duties, the man is burdened with a sickly, nervous woman who cannot endure the slightest draught or the least noise and requires the constant attendance of a physician. We need not dwell longer on this subject. Everyone knows of a number of such cases among his own friends and relatives.Experienced physicians assert that the majority of married women, especially in the cities, are in a more or less abnormal, physical condition. According to the degree of the ailment and the characters of husband and wife, such marriages must be more or less unfortunate. In accordance with public opinion they entitle the men to take liberties outside of their matrimonial relations, and the knowledge of this fact must heighten the misery of the wives. Sometimes the sexual requirements of husband and wife also differ widely and give rise to profound disharmonies, yet the much desired separation is not possible.In connection with this, the truth must not be concealed that in a great many casesthe men are responsible for the severe physical sufferings that befall their wives in marriage. As a resultof their profligate lives, many men suffer from chronic sexual diseases that they frequently treat lightly, because they do not cause them much trouble. But during sexual intercourse with their wives, these fall victims to severe abdominal diseases that set in shortly after marriage and frequently result in sterility. Usually the unfortunate woman is ignorant of the true cause of the disease that mars her life and destroys the purpose of marriage, and reproaches herself or is reproached for the condition that her husband has caused. Many a blooming young woman becomes a chronic invalid after she has barely entered marriage,—neither she nor her relatives areable to explain her condition, and the physician must maintain silence. Recent investigations have shown that childless marriages are frequently due to sexual diseases of men; while formerly the lords of creation maintained the convenient theory that the woman was always to blame when their marriages remainedchildless.[73]Numerous are the causes that prevent present day marriage from being what it ought to be. It is therefore a recommendation of doubtful value when even learned men seek to oppose the woman movement by pointing out to woman that marriage is their true vocation. As a result of our social conditions marriage has become a carricature foreign to its true purposes.[67]A. Bebel—“Charles Fourier, His Life and His Theories.” Stuttgart, 1907. J. H. W. Dietz.[68]Irmav.Troll-Borostyani—“The Mission of our Century. A Study of the Woman Question.”[69]In“Les Femmes qui tuent et les femmes qui votent,” Alexander Dumas,jr., relates that an eminent Catholic clergyman had told him that among hundred of his former female pupils who had become married, at least eighty came to him after a few months had elapsed and told him that marriage was a disappointment to them and that they regretted having married. That seems very plausible indeed. The French bourgeoisie find it compatible with their conscience to have their daughters reared in convents. They are influenced by the assumption that an ignorant woman is more easily guided than an enlightened one. Conflicts and disappointments in marriage are the inevitable result.Laboulayeeven frankly advises to maintain the women in moderate ignorance, for “notre empire est détruit si l’homme est reconnu.” (Our rule will be destroyed if man is recognized.)[70]Softening of the brain has increased more rapidly among women than among men. Among every hundred patients admitted to asylums in Prussia there were cases of softening of the brain:[Women][Men]1876–187917.03.71880–189117.35.41892–189417.76.81895–189718.57.61898–190116.27.5[71]Further details on this subject may be found in “The Book of Women,” byMrs.H. S. Adams,M. D., Stuttgart.[72]Dr.F. B. Simon, “The Care of the Health of Women.”[73]Dr.F. B. Simon discusses this subject and the analogous subject, why so many young women become ill after marriage without being able to account for it, at length. His book is a glaring reflection upon the wrongdoings and vices of men.
As a result of our social and sexual relations, woman is directed toward marriage by every fibre of her existence, and naturally marriage constitutes a chief topic of her conversation and thought. As woman is physically weaker than man, and is subjected to him by custom and law, her tongue is her chief weapon to be used against him, and she naturally makes a liberal use of this weapon. In the same way her much berated love of dress and personaladornment can be explained, that leads to increasingly eccentric follies of fashion and often causes financial troubles and unpleasantness to fathers and husbands. To man, woman has chiefly been an object of enjoyment. Being socially and economically dependent, she must regard marriage as a means of support, and thus becomes subservient to man, becomes his property. Her position is rendered more unfavorable still by the fact that the number of women usually exceeds the number of men; we will return to this phase of the question later on.—This disproportion increases the competition of women among themselves, all the more so because, for numerous reasons, many men fail to marry. Woman is therefore compelled to enhance her personal charms, in order to compete with the members of her own sex in the struggle for the possession of a man. When we consider that this disproportion has existed through many generations, it is not to be wondered at that these characteristics have gradually assumed their present, extreme form. We must consider moreover that at no time the competition among women for the possession of man was as severe as it is at present, owing to causes, some of which have already been, and others that still are to be enumerated. The increasing difficulty of obtaining a decent livelihood also directs woman more than ever to marriage as a means of support.
Men do not object to these conditions, since they are favorable to them. It flatters their vanity and serves their interest to play the part of the ruler, and as all rulers they are not easily accessible to reason. It is all the more important therefore that women themselves should strive to bring about conditions that will liberate them from their present, degraded position. Women can no more rely upon the aid of men, than the workers can rely upon the aid of the bourgeoisie.
When we furthermore consider what traits of character are developed by competition along other lines, how, for instance, industrial competition leads to hatred, envy and calumny, and how the competitors resort to the basest means, we find an explanation for the fact that similar traits of character have been developed in women by theircompetition for the possession of a man. It is due to this permanent competition that women, as a rule, cannot get along as well with one another as men can; that even intimate friends are easily led to quarrel when the favor of a man enters into consideration. This competition also explains what may be frequently observed, that when two women meet, even though they are utter strangers to one another, they regard each other in a hostile way. With a single glance they have summed up each other’s shortcomings in the manner and style of their clothes, and in the looks of each the verdict may be read: “I am better dressed than you are and am better able to attract attention to myself.”
On the other hand woman is by nature more impulsive than man. She is less given to reflection, is more unselfish and naive, and is more controlled by passion. These traits of character are expressed in their most beautiful form by the unselfish self-sacrifice with which she serves her children and others who are near and dear to her and cares for them during illness. But when angered, her impassionate nature manifests itself in its ugliest form. Yet the fact remains that both good and evil qualities are fostered, hampered or transformed, by the social position. The same propensity that may be harmful under unfavorable circumstances may, under favorable circumstances, become a source of happiness to oneself and others. Fourier has ably shown that the same human propensities may, under different circumstances, lead to oppositeresults.[67]
Beside the improper mental education, the improper or insufficient physical education in regard to the purposes of nature, remains to be considered. All physicians are agreed that woman’s education for her profession of motherhood is almost entirely neglected. “Soldiers are trained in the use of their weapons, and mechanics in the use of their tools. Every profession requires preliminary study. Even the monk has his noviceship. Only thewoman is not educated for her serious maternal duties”.[68]Nine tenths of all maidens who are given an opportunity to marry, enter matrimony in complete ignorance of motherhood and its duties. The unpardonable prudery that prevents mothers from speaking to their grown daughters about the important functions of sex, leaves them in a state of densest ignorance concerning their duties to their husbands and to themselves. The entrance into marriage means to most women entrance into an utterly strange world. Their conceptions of marriage are purely imaginative, drawn from novels of doubtful value, and are usually very foreign to reality.[69]Another source of differences may be found in the lack of practical knowledge of housekeeping that is still quite essential in present day marriage, though women have been relieved of many domestic activities that were formerly inevitable. Some women are deplorably ignorant of household duties because they consider themselves superior to such work and regard it as a task for servants only. Others, daughters of the proletariat, are equally ignorant, because the struggle for existence compelled them to toil in the factory from morning until night, and they found no time to prepare for their future profession of housekeeper. It becomes more and more evident that the trend of development makes individual housekeeping unpractical, and that it can be maintained only by an irrational sacrifice of time and money.
There is still another cause that to many men destroys the purpose of marriage: the physical enfeeblement of women. The food we eat, the manner in which we live, the conditions of our work and the character of our amusements, all tend to act more destructively than favorably upon our physical condition. Rightly is our age termed a nervous age. But nervousness leads to physical degeneration. Anaemia and nervousness exist in an especially marked degree among women. This physical degeneration is fast becoming a social calamity, and if it would continue to exist for several generations more, without our being able to procure more normal conditions of development, it would ultimately lead to racedestruction.[70]
The female organism requires special care in consideration of its special sexual functions. It requires good and sufficient nourishment and at certain periods it requires rest. For the great majority of women such care does not exist, nor can it be obtained under present-day conditions. Women have so accustomed themselves to self-denial that many women consider it a matrimonial duty to give their husbands the best morsels and to content themselves with insufficient food. It also frequently happens that the boys of a family are better nourished than the girls. It is generally assumed that women can content themselves with poorer and less nourishment than men. Young girls are therefore often a sad sight to professional authorities on hygiene and physical culture.[71]A great number of our young women are weak, anaemic, and extremely nervous. The results are suffering during menstruation and diseases of the sexual organs that sometimes make it dangerous or impossible to give birth to children or to nurse them. “If the degeneration of ourwomen continues to go on in the same manner as up to the present, it will become doubtful whether civilized man may still be classified with the mammals.”[72]Instead of being married to a healthy, cheerful companion, a capable mother, a wife attending to her domestic duties, the man is burdened with a sickly, nervous woman who cannot endure the slightest draught or the least noise and requires the constant attendance of a physician. We need not dwell longer on this subject. Everyone knows of a number of such cases among his own friends and relatives.
Experienced physicians assert that the majority of married women, especially in the cities, are in a more or less abnormal, physical condition. According to the degree of the ailment and the characters of husband and wife, such marriages must be more or less unfortunate. In accordance with public opinion they entitle the men to take liberties outside of their matrimonial relations, and the knowledge of this fact must heighten the misery of the wives. Sometimes the sexual requirements of husband and wife also differ widely and give rise to profound disharmonies, yet the much desired separation is not possible.
In connection with this, the truth must not be concealed that in a great many casesthe men are responsible for the severe physical sufferings that befall their wives in marriage. As a resultof their profligate lives, many men suffer from chronic sexual diseases that they frequently treat lightly, because they do not cause them much trouble. But during sexual intercourse with their wives, these fall victims to severe abdominal diseases that set in shortly after marriage and frequently result in sterility. Usually the unfortunate woman is ignorant of the true cause of the disease that mars her life and destroys the purpose of marriage, and reproaches herself or is reproached for the condition that her husband has caused. Many a blooming young woman becomes a chronic invalid after she has barely entered marriage,—neither she nor her relatives areable to explain her condition, and the physician must maintain silence. Recent investigations have shown that childless marriages are frequently due to sexual diseases of men; while formerly the lords of creation maintained the convenient theory that the woman was always to blame when their marriages remainedchildless.[73]
Numerous are the causes that prevent present day marriage from being what it ought to be. It is therefore a recommendation of doubtful value when even learned men seek to oppose the woman movement by pointing out to woman that marriage is their true vocation. As a result of our social conditions marriage has become a carricature foreign to its true purposes.
[67]A. Bebel—“Charles Fourier, His Life and His Theories.” Stuttgart, 1907. J. H. W. Dietz.[68]Irmav.Troll-Borostyani—“The Mission of our Century. A Study of the Woman Question.”[69]In“Les Femmes qui tuent et les femmes qui votent,” Alexander Dumas,jr., relates that an eminent Catholic clergyman had told him that among hundred of his former female pupils who had become married, at least eighty came to him after a few months had elapsed and told him that marriage was a disappointment to them and that they regretted having married. That seems very plausible indeed. The French bourgeoisie find it compatible with their conscience to have their daughters reared in convents. They are influenced by the assumption that an ignorant woman is more easily guided than an enlightened one. Conflicts and disappointments in marriage are the inevitable result.Laboulayeeven frankly advises to maintain the women in moderate ignorance, for “notre empire est détruit si l’homme est reconnu.” (Our rule will be destroyed if man is recognized.)[70]Softening of the brain has increased more rapidly among women than among men. Among every hundred patients admitted to asylums in Prussia there were cases of softening of the brain:[Women][Men]1876–187917.03.71880–189117.35.41892–189417.76.81895–189718.57.61898–190116.27.5[71]Further details on this subject may be found in “The Book of Women,” byMrs.H. S. Adams,M. D., Stuttgart.[72]Dr.F. B. Simon, “The Care of the Health of Women.”[73]Dr.F. B. Simon discusses this subject and the analogous subject, why so many young women become ill after marriage without being able to account for it, at length. His book is a glaring reflection upon the wrongdoings and vices of men.
[67]A. Bebel—“Charles Fourier, His Life and His Theories.” Stuttgart, 1907. J. H. W. Dietz.
[68]Irmav.Troll-Borostyani—“The Mission of our Century. A Study of the Woman Question.”
[69]In“Les Femmes qui tuent et les femmes qui votent,” Alexander Dumas,jr., relates that an eminent Catholic clergyman had told him that among hundred of his former female pupils who had become married, at least eighty came to him after a few months had elapsed and told him that marriage was a disappointment to them and that they regretted having married. That seems very plausible indeed. The French bourgeoisie find it compatible with their conscience to have their daughters reared in convents. They are influenced by the assumption that an ignorant woman is more easily guided than an enlightened one. Conflicts and disappointments in marriage are the inevitable result.Laboulayeeven frankly advises to maintain the women in moderate ignorance, for “notre empire est détruit si l’homme est reconnu.” (Our rule will be destroyed if man is recognized.)
[70]Softening of the brain has increased more rapidly among women than among men. Among every hundred patients admitted to asylums in Prussia there were cases of softening of the brain:
[71]Further details on this subject may be found in “The Book of Women,” byMrs.H. S. Adams,M. D., Stuttgart.
[72]Dr.F. B. Simon, “The Care of the Health of Women.”
[73]Dr.F. B. Simon discusses this subject and the analogous subject, why so many young women become ill after marriage without being able to account for it, at length. His book is a glaring reflection upon the wrongdoings and vices of men.