Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 April 1901 — The Slav and Woman. [ARTICLE]

The Slav and Woman.

Abhorrent even to the strongest “Slavophile” is the position occupied by woman in the family and in social life, says a writer in the Outlook. To escape the charge of prejudice, I shall quote a few proverbs current among the Southern Slavs—a few out of many hundreds: “The man is the head, the woman is grass.” “One man is worth more than ten women.” “A man of straw is worth more than a woman of gold. “Let the dog bark, but let the woman keep silent.” “He who does not beat his wife is no man.” “What shall I get when I marry?” asks a boy of his father. “For your wife a stick, for your children a switch.” “Twice in his life is a man happy—once when he marries, and once when he buries his wife.” And the woman sings in the Russian folk-song, which I have freely translated: “Love me true and love me quick, Pull my hair and use the stick.” Although there are love songs of another kind, in which the woman is praised for her charms, she becomes virtually a slave as soon as she marries, and the little poetry of the folksong does not accompany her even to the marriage altar. She is valued only for the work she can do in a household and for the children she can bear, and, should this latter blessing be denied her, her lot becomes doubly pitiable, and she often seeks release by suicide.