Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1920 — Modern Woman Is Superior to Grandmother [ARTICLE]

Modern Woman Is Superior to Grandmother

London.—The woman of today is Intellectually and physically superior to her grandmother of the ever-ready blush and the downcast eye. Her latchkey is the badge of her emancipation. She is no longer the wooed but the wooer. She has, and exercises, the right to select her own mate. Dr. Alfred T. Schofield, the latest champion of the modern woman, advanced this courageous theory at a recent lecture at the Central hall, discussing that strangely tangled subject, “The Psychology of the Female Mind.” The subject, says Doctor Schofield, presents at the moment a dissolving view of great promise. The woman of early Victorian days has nearly disappeared, though she may still be found in remote country places—the gentle, quaidt, prim, yet graceful lady with her tippet and poke bonnet, her samplers and her still room. But the new is better! The coming picture is on nobler and grander lines. The gentle submission and downcast eye may not be easy to find nowadays, but they have been replaced by the candid and clear look of complete emancipation and the upright figure of the freedom.

Marvel in Rapid Advance. The marvel is-that with such rapid advance there has not. been more extravagance. Setting aside exceptions, nothing Is more delightful and marvelous than the quiet, decent, self-respect-ing dignity of the modern latchkey young woman living in her own rooms in a large city. Very severe strictures have been passed on her dress in these last few years, but that has somewhat confused the causes. In all times of war and general upheaval similar caprice in women's dress has been observed, but that was not in any way the outcome of the emancipation of womanhood. The remarkable lack of women's Interests in their own minds. Doctor Schofield points out, is a very curious point. No doubt this is a survival of the past bad years. After the most careful search in the libraries of the world no workmen psychology written by women are discoverable, save, perhaps, tentatively by that remarkable Swede, Ellen Key.

The world still waits for a conception of the female mind written by a woman. The future of England- and America largely depends on the quality of woman’s mind today. A good physique Is Important to the next generation of woman, but the quality of her mind is of still greater importance than her body. In proposed legislation which is now being considered with regard to the prevention of a certain contagious disease, the. question really turns on whether the health or the morals of a nation are of greater importance. In ultimate analysis there is no antagonism between health and morals.

Value of Man’s Body. In earlier times the value of man’s body was supreme; a woman’s mind then was cultivated better than a man’s and her preponderance as a sex in spiritual matters was overwhelming. When man, however, substituted machinery for manual labor his bodily powers were heavily discounted and his success in life depended on his intellectual powers; at the same time, relieved of constant physical exhaustion his spiritual outlook approximated more nearly to that of women. Since then the resemblance of the sexes has increased. The result is nowhere more marked than in the typical presentment of John Bull. A hundred years and more ago the streets in this country were filled with portly, rubicund men, stern or jovial of visage, and vastly different from the more intellectual but slightly anaemic and attenuated individuals who fill their role today. The doctor admits that the substitution of tea and coffee for beer has been a minor factor in the change. The mother’s atmosphere Un the home is stronger than heredity. Every training college for- women must Include special instruction in the right education of childhood. The character of the child, even of the nation, depends mainly, not on heredity, but on environment or atmosphere, discipline or habit, and so ideal or example in the parent’s life. It is absolutely cruel to allow girls to become wives and mothers without their acquiring any knowledge of these mighty forces, any idea of the value of their own minds, any insight into these great but simple powers, or any skill in their use. Endowment or Motherhood. Man is mainly, in virtue of his economic position, tht principal selector tn matrimony —a fact which is detrimental to the status of woman and her offspring. So long as women are mostly dependent on their fathers until they change that for dependence on their husbands will they continue to retain many of the characteristics peculiar to the servile state. r The endowment of motherhood ia one solution of this financial difficulty, though by no means the best, for all state interference in private life is more or less of an evil. Once a womaaW independent economic position is

assured she will probably select her mate in a way that would now, with our false standards of conduct, be considered perfectly indecent, but seeing she Is the mother of the resulting race, it seems only right she should do so. One thing is certain, that a large number of degrading unions which now take place would at once cease Sind the whole psychology of marriage would be raised to a higher level. Until the economic position of women is altered womaii is most unfairly handicapped. It is undoubtedly for the good of the individual, of the nations and of civilization Itself that the financial position of a woman shall be assured as that of a man. Already the freedom of women has begun, but it is in vain to strike off the prisoner’s shackles one by one so long as the most galling one of all Is retained in the form of economic dependence. No doubt professional and business careers have to some small extent solved the problem, but much more is required. A radical change of view as to the provision of daughters as compared with sons seems to Doctor Schofield to be an essential step.