Woman at the Present Day.
[CHAPTER VII.
Woman as a Sex Being.]
[1.—The Sexual Impulse.]
In present-day bourgeois society woman holds the second place. Man leads; she follows. The present relation is diametrically opposite to that which prevailed during the matriarchal period. The evolution from primitive communism to the rule of private property has primarily brought about this transformation.
Plato thanked the gods for eight favors they had bestowed upon him. The first was that he had been born a free-man instead of a slave, and the second was that he had been born a man instead of a woman. A similar thought is expressed in the morning prayer of the Jews. They pray: “Be thou praised God our Lord and Lord of the earth, who hast not created me a woman.” In the prayer uttered by the Jewish women the corresponding passage is worded: “Who hast created me according to thy will.” The contrast in the respective positions of the sexes could not be more forcibly expressed than in this utterance of Plato and the prayer of the Jews. Man is the real human being according to numerous passages in the Bible, and both the English and French languages furnish proofs of this conception, since the word “man” denotes both male and human being. When speaking of the people we usually think of men only. Woman is a factor of slight importance, and man is her master. Men generally consider this state of affairs quite proper, and the majority of women still accept it as a divine ordinance. In this prevailing conception the present position of woman is reflected.
Regardless of the question whether woman is oppressed as a proletarian, we must recognize that in this world of private property she is oppressed as a sex being. On all sides she is hemmed in by restrictions and obstacles unknown to the man. Many things a man may do she is prohibited from doing; many social rights and privileges enjoyed by him, are considered a fault or a crime in her case. She suffers both socially and as a sex being. It is hard to say in which respect she suffers more, and therefore it only seems natural that many women wish they had been born men instead of having been born women.
Of all the natural desires that are a part of human life, beside the desire for food in order to live, the sexual desire is strongest. The impulse of race preservation is the most powerful expression of the “will to live.” This impulse is deeply implanted in every normally developed human being, and upon attaining maturity its satisfaction is essential to physical and mental welfare. Luther was right when he said: “He who would thwart the natural impulse, seeks to prevent nature from being nature, fire from burning, water from moistening, man from eating and drinking and sleeping.” These words ought to be engraved above the portals of our churches in which the “sinful flesh” is so vehemently denounced. No physician or physiologist could more accurately express the necessity of satisfying the human desire for love.
If the human organism is to develop normally and healthfully it is essential that no portion of the human body should be neglected, and that no natural impulse should be denied its normal satisfaction. Every organ should perform the functions which it has been destined by nature to perform, unless the whole organism is to suffer. The laws of the physical development of man must be studied and observed as well as the laws of mental development. The mental activity of a human being depends upon the physiological condition of his organs. Physical and mental vigor are closely linked. An injury to one has a detrimental effect upon the other. The so-called animal instincts are not inferior to mental requirements. Both are products of the same organism and are mutually interdependent. This applies to both man and woman. Hence it follows that knowledge of the nature of the sexual organs is as necessary as that of all other organs, and that the same attention should be bestowed upon their care. We ought to know that organs and impulses implanted in every human being constitute a very important part of our existence, that they as a matter of fact predominate during certain periods of life, and that therefore they must not be objects of secrecy, false shame and complete ignorance. It follows furthermore that among both men and women knowledge of the physiology and anatomy of the various organs and their functions should be as widely diffused as any other branch of human knowledge. Endowed with an exact knowledge of his physical nature, man would take a different view of many circumstances. This knowledge would lead to the removal of many evils that society at present passes by silently, in solemn awe, but that nevertheless claim consideration in almost every family. In regard to all other matters knowledge is considered a virtue; it is regarded as the loftiest, most desirable human aim. But we decry knowledge pertaining to those matters that are most closely linked with our own “ego” and are at the bottom of all social development.
Kant says: “Man and woman together form the full and complete human being; one sex supplements the other.” Schopenhauer says: “The sexual impulse is the most complete expression of the will to live, it is the concentration of will”; and long before these Buddha thus expressed himself: “The sexual impulse is sharper than the prod by means of which wild elephants are tamed; it is hotter than flames; it is like an arrow driven into the soul of man.”
Such being the intensity of sexual impulse, it is not to be wondered at that with both men and women sexual abstinence frequently leads to serious disorders of the nervous system, and in some cases even to insanity and suicide. Of course, not all natures manifest an equally strong sexual impulse. It can also be restrained to a great extent by education and self-control, especially by avoiding the stimulant of lewd conversation and literature, alcoholism, etc. It is held that the sexual impulse is weaker among women than among men, and that sometimes women even feel revulsion against sexual contact. But these constitute a small minority whose physiological and psychological dispositions are peculiarly constituted.
We may say that the manner in which the natural desires of the sexes are expressed, both in their organic and physical development, in form and in character, marks the degree of perfection of a human being, be it man or woman. Each sex has attained its own highest development. “Among civilized human beings,” says Klenke in his essay on “Woman as a Wife,” “sexual intercourse is controlled by moral principles dictated by common sense. But nothing could ever fully subdue the instinct of race preservation, implanted by nature in both sexes. Wherever healthy male or female individuals failed to fulfill this duty, it was not of their own free will, though they may deceive themselves into believing it, but was a result of social hindrances and restrictions. These hindrances have impeded the laws of nature, have stunted the organs, and have transformed the whole organism into an atrophied type both in appearance and in character and have caused nervous disorders that bring about abnormal, pathological conditions of body and mind. The man becomes effeminate; the woman becomes masculine in form and character, because the sexual contrast has not been realized; because such particular human being remained one-sided, failing to attain his own integration, the full height of his existence.” Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell says in her essay on “The Moral Education of the Young in Relation to Sex”: “Sexual impulse exists as an inevitable condition of life and the foundation of society. It is the greatest power in human nature.... While undeveloped it is not an object of the thoughts, but it remains nevertheless the central force of life. This inevitable impulse is the natural guardian against all possibility of destruction.”[44] Practical Luther has positive advice to offer. He advises: “Let him who has no desire for chastity look about him for work and turn to matrimony; a boy at the latest when he is twenty, a girl when she is fifteen or eighteen years of age. Then they are healthy and skillful and trust to God to provide for them and their children. God gives them the children and he will provide for them.” Unfortunately our social conditions make it impossible to follow Luther’s good advice, and neither the Christian state nor Christian society believes in trusting to God to provide for the children.
Science, the views of the philosophers, and Luther’s sound common sense, all are agreed that man is entitled to normal satisfaction of those desires that are part and parcel of his very life. If social institutions or prejudices make this impossible, his development is hampered thereby. The results are well known to our physicians, and can be met with in hospitals, insane asylums, prisons, and in thousands of disrupted families. In a book published in Leipsic we find the following thought expressed: “Sexual impulse is neither moral nor immoral; it is simply natural like hunger and thirst. Nature knows nothing of morality.” But organized society is very far from recognizing the truth of this sentence.
[44] E. Blackwell, “Essays in Medical Sociology.” Page 177. London, 1906.
[2.—Celibacy and the Frequency of Suicide.]
Among physicians and physiologists it is generally assumed that even an imperfect marriage is preferable to celibacy, and this assumption is substantiated by experience. It is a striking fact that the rate of mortality is lower among married than among unmarried people (comparing about 1,000 married persons 30 years old with 1,000 unmarried persons of the same age). The difference is especially marked in the case of men. During some periods of life the rate of mortality among unmarried men is almost twice as great as that among married men. Mortality is likewise very great among men who have become widowers while still young.[45]
It is furthermore claimed that the number of suicides are increased by unsound sexual relations. In all countries suicides are much more frequent among men than among women. The following table shows the ratio in various European countries:
| During the years. | Among 100,000 suicides. | Ratio of female to male suicides. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male. | Female. | |||
| Germany | 1899–1902 | 33.0 | 8.4 | 25.5 |
| Austria | 1898–1901 | 25.4 | 7.0 | 27.6 |
| Switzerland | 1896–1903 | 33.3 | 6.4 | 19.2 |
| Italy | 1893–1901 | 9.8 | 2.4 | 24.5 |
| France | 1888–1892 | 35.5 | 9.7 | 27.3 |
| Netherlands | 1901–1902 | 9.3 | 3.0 | 32.3 |
| England | 1891–1900 | 13.7 | 4.4 | 32.1 |
| Scotland | 1891–1900 | 9.0 | 3.2 | 35.6 |
| Ireland | 1901 | 2.3 | 1.2 | 52.2 |
| Norway | 1891–1900 | 10.0 | 2.5 | 25. |
| Sweden | 1891–1900 | 21.1 | 8.6 | 40.8 |
| Finland | 1891–1900 | 7.8 | 1.8 | 21.1 |
| European Russia | 1885–1894 | 4.9 | 1.6 | 32.7 |
During the years 1898 to 1907 we find the following ratio of suicides in the German Empire:
| Year. | Total. | Male. | Female. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1898 | 10,835 | 8,544 | 2,291 |
| 1899 | 10,761 | 8,460 | 2,301 |
| 1900 | 11,393 | 8,987 | 2,406 |
| 1902 | 12,336 | 9,765 | 2,571 |
| 1904 | 12,468 | 9,704 | 2,764 |
| 1907 | 12,777 | 9,753 | 3,024 |
For each 100 male suicides there were female suicides: During 1898, 26.8; during 1899, 27.2; during 1900, 26.8; during 1904, 28.5; during 1907, 31. But during the period of life from the fifteenth to the thirtieth year, the rate of suicide is higher among women than among men.
The following table shows the ratio between the 15th and 20th, and between the 21st and 30th year:
| During the years. | 15th to 20th year. | 21st to 30th year. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male. | Female. | Male. | Female. | ||
| Prussia | 1896–1900 | 5.3 | 10.7 | 16. | 20.2 |
| Denmark | 1896–1900 | 4.6 | 8.3 | 12.4 | 14.8 |
| Switzerland | 1884–1899 | 3.3 | 6.7 | 16.1 | 21. |
| France | 1887–1891 | 3.5 | 8.2 | 10.9 | 14.[46] |
The following table shows the ratio of male and female suicides in Saxony between the 21st and 30th year:
| Men. | Women. | |
|---|---|---|
| 1854–1868 | 14.95 | 18.64 |
| 1868–1880 | 14.71 | 18.79 |
| 1881–1888 | 15.3 | 22.3 |
We find an increased number of suicides among widowed and divorced persons also. In Saxony among divorced men the rate of suicide is seven times as high, among divorced women three times as high, as the average rate of suicide among men and women. Also suicide is more frequent among those widowed or divorced men and women who are childless. Among the unmarried women who are driven to suicide between the 21st and 30th year, there are many who have been betrayed in love or have “gone wrong.” Statistics show that an increase of illegal births is generally accompanied by an increase of female suicides. The rate of female suicides between the 16th and 21st year is exceptionally high, which also points to the conclusion that ungratified sexual impulse, love-sorrow, secret pregnancy or the deceit of men constitute frequent causes.
In regard to the position of woman as a sex being, we find the following thought expressed by Professor Krafft-Ebing[47]: “One source of lunacy among women that should not be underrated, is their social position. Woman is by nature more desirous of love than man, at least in the ideal sense, and she has no honorable means of gratifying this desire except marriage (Mandsley). Marriage is, furthermore, her only means of livelihood. Through countless generations her character has been developed in this direction. Even the little girl is mother to her doll. Modern life with its increased demands is constantly diminishing the prospects of satisfaction through marriage. This is especially true of the upper classes where marriages are contracted less frequently and later in life.
“While man owing to his greater physical and intellectual force and his free social position, readily obtains satisfaction of his sexual impulse, or at least finds an equivalent in some life’s work that requires all his strength, these paths are barred to the unmarried women of the upper classes. This leads, consciously or unconsciously, to dissatisfaction with one’s self and the world and to morbid brooding. For some time compensation is sought in religion, but in vain. The religious fanaticism, with or without masturbation, leads to a number of nervous disorders that frequently culminate in hysteria or insanity. This explains the fact that unmarried women fall victims to insanity most frequently between the 25th and 35th year of life. It is that period when the bloom of youth fades and hope fades with it; while among men insanity most frequently occurs between the 35th and 50th year, the period during which the struggle for existence makes its greatest demands upon their strength.
“It is not a mere coincidence that with the decline in the marriage rate the question of the emancipation of women is becoming more and more urgent. I regard it as a signal of distress showing that woman’s position in modern society is steadily becoming more unbearable. It is a just demand that woman should be given an equivalent for that which has been assigned to her by nature and of which she is being deprived by modern social conditions.”
In speaking of the effect of ungratified sexual impulse on unmarried women, Dr. H. Ploss says: “It is a noteworthy fact, of interest not only to the physician but to the anthropologist as well, that an infallible remedy exists whereby the process of fading bloom, so manifest in old maids, cannot only be arrested, but the already vanished bloom of youth can even be reinstated, partly at least, if not in its entire charm. Unfortunately our social conditions rarely permit its application. This remedy is a regular, orderly, sexual intercourse. We can often observe that when an elderly girl is still fortunate enough to attain matrimony, a marked change in her appearance takes place shortly after her marriage. Her shape obtains its former roundness, the roses return to her cheeks, and her eyes regain their former brightness. Marriage then is a real fountain of youth to the female sex. Thus nature has its fixed laws that inexorably demand obedience, and every unnatural mode of life, every attempt to adapt the organism to conditions of life that are not in keeping with the laws of nature, inevitably leaves marked traces of degeneration. This is true of both the animal and the human organism.”
The question now presents itself: Does society fulfill the demands for a rational mode of life, especially in the woman’s case? If it does not, we are confronted by a second question: Can society fulfill them? If this question also must be answered in the negative, a third question ensues: How can they be fulfilled?
[45] Dr. G. Schnapper-Arndt: “Social Statistics,” Leipsic, 1908.
[46] H. Krose, “Causes of the Frequency of Suicide.” Freiburg, 1906.
[47] Text-book of Psychiatry—Stuttgart 1883.
[CHAPTER VIII.
Modern Marriage.]
[1.—Marriage as a Profession.]
“Marriage and the family are the foundations of the state. Whoever, therefore, attacks marriage and the family, is attacking society and the state and undermining both.” Thus exclaim the defenders of the present order. Monogamic marriage as has been sufficiently shown, is the outcome of the system of gain and property that has been established by bourgeois society, and therefore undoubtedly forms one of its basic principles. But whether it is adapted to natural needs and to a healthy development of human society is a different question. We will show that this marriage, which depends upon the bourgeois system of property, is a more or less forced relation, having many disadvantages, and frequently fulfilling its purpose only insufficiently or not at all. We will, furthermore, show that it is a social institution which is and remains inattainable to millions of persons, instead of being a free union founded on love, the only union suited to nature’s purposes.
John Stuart Mill says in regard to modern marriage: “Marriage is the only real bondage recognized by law.” According to Kant’s conception man and woman together constitute the perfect human being. Upon a normal union of the sexes the healthy development of mankind depends. Satisfaction of the sexual impulse is essential to the sound physical and mental development of both man and woman. But man has gone beyond the animal stage, and so is not contented by the mere physical satisfaction of his sexual impulse. He requires intellectual attraction as well, and the existence of a certain harmony between himself and the person with whom he enters into union. Where such intellectual harmony fails to exist, the sexual intercourse is purely mechanical and thereby becomes immoral. Men and women of refinement demand a mutual attraction that extends beyond their sexual relations, and that shall have an ennobling effect upon the new beings which may spring from their union.[48] The fact that such a standard of ideals fails to exist in countless present-day marriages caused Varnhagen von Ense to write: “Whatever we saw about us both of marriages already contracted, and of marriages about to be contracted, was not likely to implant in us a good opinion of such unions. On the contrary; the entire institution which is supposed to be founded on mutual love and respect and is instead founded on anything but that, seemed coarse and despicable to us, and we fully agreed with Friedrich Schlegel, whose opinion on this subject we found expressed in the fragments of ‘Atheneum’: Almost all marriages are concubinages; they are at best remote approaches to the true marriage, which should be a blending of two persons into one.” This is quite in keeping with the views of Kant.
The joy in having progeny and the responsibility toward same makes the relation of love existing between two persons one of longer duration. A couple desirous of entering marriage should therefore carefully consider whether their respective traits of character are suited to their union. The answer to this grave question ought to be unbiased. But that is only possible by the exclusion of every other interest that has no direct bearing on the purpose of the union, satisfaction of the sexual impulse and propagation of one’s own personality by means of propagation of the race, guided by a certain measure of insight that controls blind passion. As these conditions fail to be observed in a tremendous number of cases in present-day society, it is evident that modern marriage frequently fails to fulfill its true object and that we are not justified in regarding it as an ideal institution.
How many marriages are contracted on an entirely different basis than the one described above cannot be demonstrated. The parties concerned like to have their marriage appear different from what it really is. Here a condition of hypocrisy presents itself, such as no previous social period has known in a similar degree. The state, the political representative of society, has no inclination to institute investigations that would cast an unfavorable light upon society. The state itself marries its officials and servants according to maxims that cannot be measured by the standard that should constitute the foundation of true marriage.
[48] “The sentiments and feelings with which husband and wife approach one another undoubtedly have a decisive influence upon the effects of sexual intercourse and transmit certain traits of character upon the being that is coming into existence.” Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell. “The Moral Education of the Young in Relation to Sex.”—See also Goethe’s “Affinity,” where he distinctly shows the effects of the feelings that prompt two human beings to intimate intercourse.
[2.—Decline of the Birthrate.]
Marriage, in order to realize the purpose of nature, should be a union founded on mutual love. But this motive is rarely met with unalloyed under present conditions. To the great majority of women, marriage is a means of livelihood that they must obtain at any cost. On the other hand, a great many men regard marriage from a purely commercial point of view, weighing and considering its material advantages and disadvantages. Even those marriages that are not based on selfish, sordid motives, are frequently marred and broken up by the harsh realities of life. Only rarely those hopes are realized that were held by a man and woman prior to their marriage. That is only natural. For in order to lead a contented married life not only mutual love and respect are required, but economic security as well; that is, a certain measure of the necessities and comforts of life in order to satisfy the needs of man and wife and their children. Material cares and the cruel struggle for existence are destructive to marital contentment and happiness. But these material cares increase with the increasing number of offspring; in other words, the better marriage fulfills its natural object, the greater become these cares. The peasant, for instance, takes pleasure in every new calf that his cow brings forth, he cheerfully counts his suckling pigs and relates the good news of their arrival to his neighbors. But he looks somber when a new baby is added to the number of children that he feels able to support without care—not a large number, forsooth—and he looks doubly somber if the newly-born babe has the ill fortune of being a girl.
We may say then that both marriages and births are controlled by economic conditions. This is especially evident in France where agriculture is carried on by a division of the land into small lots, the products of which are not sufficient to support a large family. The famous, or notorious, French system of having no more than two children, a system that has developed into a social institution in France, is the result. In many provinces the population is accordingly almost stationary, while in others there has been a marked decline. The same results that the methods of farming have produced in the rural districts, have been produced in the cities by industry. In fact, the birthrate is declining even more rapidly in the cities.
The number of births is constantly decreasing in France, in spite of the fact that the number of marriages is increasing. This is true not only of France, but of the majority of civilized countries. This fact points to a development produced by our social conditions that should make the ruling classes think. In 1881, 937,057 children were born in France; in 1906, 806,847, and in 1907, only 773,969. In 1907, 163,088 fewer children were born than in 1881. It is a noteworthy fact that the number of illegitimate births did not decrease. There were 70,079 of these in 1881; during the period from 1881 to 1890 they attained their highest figure, 75,754, and in 1906 there still were 70,866. The decline of the birthrate then was confined entirely to the legitimate births. During the entire century a decline of the birthrate was noticeable. The following table shows the number of births for every thousand inhabitants of France during more than a century:
| 1801–1810 | 332 |
| 1811–1820 | 316 |
| 1821–1830 | 308 |
| 1831–1840 | 290 |
| 1841–1850 | 273 |
| 1851–1860 | 262 |
| 1861–1870 | 261 |
| 1881–1890 | 239 |
| 1891–1900 | 221 |
| 1905 | 206 |
| 1906 | 206 |
| 1907 | 197 |
This represents a decline of 135 births for every thousand inhabitants from 1801 to 1907. It is natural that this symptom is a cause of much concern to French statesmen and economists. But the problem is not confined to France. Since a long time the same phenomenon may be observed in Germany, especially in Saxony, where the decline of the birthrate has been even more rapid. In Germany there were the following number of births for every thousand inhabitants:
| 1875 | 423 |
| 1880 | 391 |
| 1885 | 385 |
| 1890 | 370 |
| 1895 | 373 |
| 1900 | 368 |
| 1905 | 340 |
| 1906 | 341 |
| 1907 | 332 |
The majority of the other European countries present a similar condition, as the following table shows:
| For every 1,000 inhabitants. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1871 to 1880 | 1881 to 1890 | 1891 to 1900 | 1901 to 1905 | 1907 | |
| England & Wales | 35.4 | 32.5 | 29.9 | 28.1 | 26.3 |
| Scotland | 34.9 | 32.3 | 30.2 | 28.9 | 27. |
| Ireland | 26.5 | 23.4 | 23. | 23.2 | 23.2 |
| Sweden | 30.5 | 29.1 | 27.2 | 26.1 | 25.5 |
| Italy | 36.9 | 37.8 | 34.9 | 32.6 | 31.5 |
| Austria | 39. | 37.9 | 37.1 | 35.8 | 35. |
| Hungary | 44.3 | 44.0 | 40.6 | 37.2 | 36. |
| Belgium | 32.3 | 30.2 | 39. | 27.7 | 25.7 |
| Switzerland | 30.8 | 28.1 | 28.1 | 28.1 | 26.8 |
| Netherlands | 36.2 | 34.2 | 32.5 | 31.5 | 30. |
The decline of the birthrate then is a general one, and though France and Ireland show the lowest figures, the decline is most rapid in England, Germany and Scotland. We meet with the same phenomenon in the United States and Australia. The fact presents itself still more strikingly if we proceed to compare the number of births with the number of married women between the 15th and 49th year of age:
| DECADES | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1876 to 1885 | 1886 to 1895 | 1896 to 1905 | |
| England and Wales | 250 | 259 | 203 |
| Scotland | 271 | 255 | 235 |
| Ireland | 250 | 245 | 264 |
| Denmark | 244 | 235 | 217 |
| Norway | 262 | 259 | 246 |
| Sweden | 240 | 231 | 219 |
| Finland | 259 | 246 | 244 |
| Austria | 246 | 250 | 242 |
| Hungary | 234 | 235 | 216 |
| Switzerland | 239 | 230 | 225 |
| German Empire | 268 | 258 | 243 |
| Prussia | 273 | 265 | 250 |
| Bavaria | 276 | 263 | 259 |
| Saxony | 267 | 250 | 216 |
| Wurtemberg | 288 | 259 | 262 |
| Baden | 266 | 248 | 251 |
| Netherlands | 293 | 286 | 272 |
| Belgium | 264 | 236 | 213 |
| France | 167 | 150 | 132 |
| Italy | 248 | 249 | 232 |
The above enumerated facts go to prove that the birth of a human being, “God’s image,” as religious persons say, is, on an average, estimated below the value of a newly-born domestic animal.
In many respects our views differ but slightly from those of barbarian people. Among the latter, newly-born children were often killed. This fate especially befell the girls. Among some living savages the same custom still prevails. We do not kill the girls; we are too civilized for that, but frequently we treat them as parias. Man, being the stronger, everywhere represses woman in the struggle for existence, and if she still persists in the struggle, she is often persecuted by the stronger sex as an undesirable competitor. Men of the upper classes are especially bitter against female competition. Among workingmen the demand to exclude women from the trades is voiced only rarely. When a resolution formulating such a demand was presented at a congress of French workingmen in 1876, it was voted down by a large majority. Since that time the conviction that the working woman is a fellow being entitled to equal rights and privileges, has grown among the class-conscious workingmen of all countries. The resolutions passed by international workingmen’s congresses prove this. The class-conscious workingman knows that present industrial conditions compel woman to enter into competition with man. He also knows, that an attempt to exclude woman from industry would be as futile as an attempt to forbid the use of machinery. Therefore he endeavors to instruct woman in regard to her position in society and to enlist her aid in the struggle for freedom of the proletariat against capitalism.
[3.—Mercenary Marriage and the Matrimonial Market.]
Modern society has undoubtedly advanced beyond any previous stage of development, but our conceptions concerning the relation of the sexes has in many respects remained unchanged. In 1876 Prof. L. v. Stein published a book on “Woman in the Field of Political Economy,” that is not suited to its title, since it merely draws a very poetically tinted picture of marriage. But this picture clearly shows the submissive position of woman in her relation to the “lion,” man. Stein writes: “Man desires a being who not only loves him but also understands him. He seeks one who is not only devoted to him, but whose soft hand smoothes the wrinkles on his forehead; who brings into his life peace, calm, order, gentle self-control, and all the many little comforts of life to which he returns daily. He needs some one to enhance all these things with the inexpressible charm of womanliness, imparting warmth and joy to his home.”
Beneath this apparent praise of woman lurks her degradation and the egotism of man. The professor depicts woman as a dainty creature, endowed nevertheless with the needful knowledge of arithmetic to keep the household accounts well balanced, caressing like a gentle spring breeze the master of the house, the ruling lion, and with her soft hand smoothing the wrinkles from his forehead, that perhaps have appeared there from brooding over his own stupidity. The professor depicts woman and marriage such as barely one among a hundred actually exist.
About the many thousand unhappy marriages, about the great number of women to whom it is never given to attain marriage, and about the millions of women who must slave beside their husbands from morning till night to earn their daily bread, he seems to see and know nothing whatever. All these marriages are stripped of poetry by the harsh reality of life, more quickly than a careless hand strips the colored dust from a butterfly’s wing. One glance at those countless women sufferers would have greatly marred the professor’s poetically tinted picture. The women he observes only constitute a small minority, and it is doubtful whether they represent an advanced type.
There is a frequently quoted saying, that the degree of civilization attained by a nation may be measured by the position of its women. We uphold the justice of this saying. But upon applying this standard we find that our highly lauded civilization does not amount to much. In his book on the “Subjection of Women”—the title shows the conception of the position of woman held by the author—John Stuart Mill says: “Men have become more domesticated. Increasing civilization has put more fetters on man in regard to woman.” That is true to some extent wherever an honest marriage relation exists between husband and wife. But to a considerably large minority it does not apply. Intelligent men will recognize, that it is to their own advantage, if women are drawn out into the world from their narrow domestic sphere, and are given an opportunity to become acquainted with the great problems of the day. The “fetters” that are thereby placed on him, are not hard to bear. On the other hand, the question arises whether modern life has not brought new factors into the matrimonial relation that are more apt to destroy marriage than any previously known.
Marriage has become an object of material calculation in a marked degree. The man who wishes to marry, in seeking to obtain a wife, also seeks to obtain property. That was the chief reason why daughters, who were at first excluded from the right of inheritance when the patriarchal system came into power, were at an early period reinstated to this right. But never before was the marriage market as openly and cynically displayed as to-day; never before was marriage regarded in the same degree as a simple speculation, a mere financial transaction. At present match-making is frequently carried on so shamelessly, that the often-repeated phrase about the “sanctity of marriage” becomes a farce. Still, for this fact, as for all others, an explanation can be found. At no previous time was it so difficult for the great majority of people to accumulate a modest fortune, as it is at present, and at no previous time was the striving for a decent livelihood and the enjoyment of life so general. Those who do not attain the aim they have set for themselves feel their disappointment all the more keenly, because all believe to have the same right to enjoyment. No formal difference of class or caste exists. Everyone hopes to attain some aim that seems attainable in accordance with his station in life. But many are called and few are chosen. In order that one may live in comfort, twenty others must live in want; and in order that one may revel in luxury, hundreds or thousands must dwell in poverty. But everyone is eager to be one of the favored few, and accordingly resorts to all means that are likely to lead him to his goal. One of the simplest and most accessible means of attaining a privileged social position is a mercenary marriage. In this way the desire for money, on the one side, and the desire for social rank and title, on the other, obtain mutual satisfaction among the upper classes of society. Here marriage is degraded to a business transaction. It becomes a conventional union that both sides respect outwardly, while secretly both all too often follow their own inclinations.[49]
In every large city there are certain places where upon definite days members of the upper classes come together, chiefly for the purpose of match-making. Rightly have these reunions been called the “matrimonial market”; for just as on the stock market, speculation and barter dominate, and not infrequently fraud and deception enter into the dealings. Here we find officers of the army, over head and ears in debt, but possessing some ancient title of nobility; roués, weakened by a life of debauchery, who seek a wife to nurse them and hope to mend their shattered health in marriage; manufacturers, merchants and bankers, who are at the verge of bankruptcy, sometimes at the verge of imprisonment and who wish to be saved, and public officials who have prospects of promotion, but are in need of money; here they come as customers and conclude the marriage bargain. In these marriages it frequently is deemed quite immaterial whether the future wife is young or old, pretty or ugly, well-built or deformed, educated or ignorant, pious or frivolous, a Christian or a Jewess, provided that she has money. Money redeems all faults and compensates for the lack of anything else. According to the German law, procurers are severely punished by imprisonment. But when parents or guardians barter their children or relatives to some unloved man or woman for life, for the sake of wealth, social position or some other advantage, no public prosecutor may interfere, and yet a crime has been committed. There are many well-organized matrimonial agencies, and any number of procurers and procuresses who are searching candidates for the “sacred wedded state.” These transactions are especially profitable when performed in the interest of members of the upper classes. In 1878 a procuress was tried in Vienna who had been accused of being an accomplice in murder, and was finally sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment. Among other things the trial revealed that the former French ambassador to Vienna, Count Banneville, had paid this woman 22,000 guilders for procuring a wife for him. Other members of the aristocracy were also involved in this trial. For years the authorities had permitted this woman to ply her criminal trade unmolested. In the capital of the German Empire similar occurrences were reported. They are met with wherever there are persons seeking to contract mercenary marriages. During the last few decades the daughters and heiresses of American millionaires have become special objects of desire to the pauperized European nobility. These American women, on the other hand, have exchanged their millions for the rank and title that are unknown in their own country. A number of communications, published in the German press during the fall of 1889, contained some characteristic information on this subject. According to this a German nobleman living in California had offered his services as a match-maker by advertising in German and Austrian papers. The offers he received in return clearly show the conceptions prevailing in the circles concerned, in regard to the sanctity of marriage and its ethical side. Two Prussian army officers, members of an ancient nobility, sought his services, and frankly stated as the reason of their doing so, the fact, that together they owed over 15,000 dollars. In their letter to the procurer they literally wrote: “It is self-understood that we cannot pay anything in advance. You will receive your remuneration immediately after the wedding journey. Only recommend ladies to us whose families are in no wise objectionable. We would also consider it very desirable to meet ladies who are particularly good-looking. If required, we will give your agent our photographs, who can also give us further details, show us the ladies’ photographs, etc. We regard this whole transaction as an affair of honor (!) and expect the same of you. We expect an early reply through your agent on this side.
“Baron v. M........
“Baron v. W........
“Berlin, Frederick St. 107, Dec. 15, 1889.”
A young German nobleman, Hans v. H...... wrote from London that he were five foot ten, of ancient nobility, and employed in diplomatic service. He confessed that his fortune had been greatly diminished by unsuccessful betting at the races, and that he was therefore compelled to seek a rich wife. “I am prepared,” he wrote, “to come to the United States immediately.” The German-American nobleman asserted that besides a number of counts, barons, etc., he had counted among his customers three princes and sixteen dukes. Some men who were not the proud possessors of a title bargained for American heiresses likewise. An architect, Max W. from Leipsic, asked for a fiancée who must be rich, beautiful and cultured. A young manufacturer, Robert D., from Kehl on the Rhine, wrote that he would content himself with a fiancée owning 100,000 dollars, and promised in advance that he would make her happy. But we need not look far to find further instances of this sort. We need but glance at the matrimonial advertisements in many of our capitalistic papers to recognize them as the outward signs of degrading views. The prostitute who plies her trade as a result of bitter need is morally superior to these marriage seekers. The editor of a Socialist paper who should venture to publish such advertisements would be expelled from his party. The capitalistic press does not hesitate to publish such advertisements, because they pay. But that does not prevent this same press from railing against the Socialistic principles as being destructive of marriage. No age has been more hypocritical than ours. Most of these newspapers are nothing more or less than matrimonial agencies. One might fill entire pages with clippings taken from leading newspapers on a single day. Sometimes the interesting fact is revealed, that even ministers are sought in this way and that ministers also resort to this method to seek wives. Sometimes the applicants even consent to overlook a moral blemish, provided that the girl is rich. The moral degradation of certain strata of society could not be more vividly exposed than by this sort of marriage.
[49] For the sake of completeness we must also mention marriage for political reasons as contracted in the highest circles. In these marriages the right is also silently conceded to the man to follow his own inclinations outside of his marriage. There was a time when rulers considered it good form, a sort of royal attribute, to have at least one mistress. Thus, according to Sherr, King Frederick William I. of Prussia, otherwise noted for his temperate life, maintained an intimate relation with the wife of a general. It is well known that King August of Poland and Saxony had almost 300 illegitimate children, and that King Victor Emanuel of Italy left 32 illegitimate children. In the picturesquely situated little capital of a German principality there still stood not many years ago about a dozen beautiful villas that had been erected by the ruler for his abdicated mistresses. One might write volumes on this subject; in fact, an extensive collection of books exists that deal mainly with these piquant occurrences. In view of these facts it is indeed very necessary that sycophantical historians should strive to present the various fathers and mothers of their countries as models of domestic virtue, as faithful husbands and devoted mothers. The augurs are not yet extinct, they fatten, as in the days of Rome, upon the ignorance of the masses.
[CHAPTER IX.
Disruption of the Family.]
[1.—Increase of Divorce.]
The part played by church and state in this sort of “sacred marriage” is not a worthy one. The state official or the officiating clergyman whose task it is to perform the marriage ceremony, never pauses to consider by what methods the couple he is about to join in wedlock have been brought together. It may be quite evident, that the two are in no wise mated either in regard to their ages or in regard to physical and mental qualities; the bride may, for instance, be twenty and the groom seventy, or vice versa; the bride may be beautiful and full of vitality, the groom may be old, cross and inflicted with infirmities, it makes no difference to the representative of state and church. The marriage is consecrated, and the consecration is most solemn in character where the monetary reward for this “holy function” is most generous. But when such a marriage turns out to be an exceedingly unhappy one, as could have been foreseen by anybody, and frequently was foreseen by the unfortunate victim itself—the woman generally being the victim—and when one or the other party then seeks separation, both church and state place the greatest difficulties in their way. Yet neither church nor state questioned in advance whether love and moral sentiments, or shameless, coarse egotism brought about the union. Moral revulsion is not considered sufficient cause for separation; obvious proofs are demanded, proofs that will degrade one or the other party in public opinion, to make divorce possible. That the Catholic Church does not permit divorce at all, except by special permission from the pope, which is very hard to obtain, makes conditions particularly unfavorable among the Catholic population. The German code of civil law has also made divorce much more difficult. Thus divorce by mutual consent, that had been permitted by Prussian law, was abolished. Many divorces had been granted under this law, some for more serious reasons that were concealed out of regard for the guilty party. In Berlin, for instance, there were 5,623 divorces from 1886 until 1892; 1,400 of these, approximately 25 per cent., were granted upon mutual consent. In many cases divorce is granted only then, when the party seeking divorce does so within six months after discovery of the cause for divorce. According to Prussian law, the time limit is one year. Take, for example, that a young wife discovers soon after her marriage, that she is tied to a man who is no husband to her at all. It is asking a great deal that she should determine on divorce within six months, a step that requires a considerable amount of moral strength. To justify the increased difficulty in divorce, the following argument is advanced: “Only by making divorce increasingly difficult, can the advancing disruption of the family be counteracted and the family bonds be strengthened.” This argument is a contradiction in itself. A disrupted marriage is not made bearable by forcing husband and wife to continue living together in spite of their inward estrangement and mutual aversion. A condition of this sort, maintained by law, is profoundly immoral. The result is that in a large number of cases adultery is made a cause for divorce, since this cause cannot be ignored by the law; neither the state nor society are improved by this process. It must also be regarded as a concession to the Catholic Church, that in many cases separation takes the place of divorce which was formerly not the case according to civil law. It is no longer considered a cause for divorce, when through the fault of the one party, a marriage remains childless. The new German code of civil law contains the following paragraph: “The religious duties in regard to marriage are not touched upon in the rules laid down in this paragraph.” This likewise is a concession to the church. It is merely ornamental in character, but it is characteristic of the spirit still prevailing in Germany at the beginning of the twentieth century. For our purposes the admission is important, that divorce was made more difficult to counteract the advancing disruption of the family.
Human beings then remain chained to one another for lifetime against their will. One party becomes a slave to the other and is forced in fulfillment of “matrimonial duties,” to endure intimate embraces that perhaps seem more loathsome than harsh words and ill treatment. Rightly Mantegazza says: “There is no greater torture than to suffer the caresses of an unloved person....”[50] Is such marriage not worse than prostitution? Even the prostitute has a certain degree of liberty of withdrawing from her abominable trade, and if she is not the inmate of a public brothel, she may refuse herself to a man she does not wish for some reason or other. But a woman sold in marriage must endure the embraces of her husband, even though she have a hundred reasons to hate and despise him.
If the marriage has been contracted from the outset and by mutual understanding, as a mere marriage of convenience, matters are not quite as bad. Mutual obligations are considered and a bearable mode of life is found. Scandal is avoided, especially out of consideration for the children, where such exist; and yet it must be said that the children are the ones to suffer most when their parents lead a cold, indifferent life, devoid of love, even if it does not deteriorate into a life of open hostility. More frequently yet an agreement is accomplished to avoid material loss. Usually the husband’s misbehavior is the cause of trouble in marriage; that may be seen from the divorce cases. When a man remains dissatisfied with his marriage his domineering position enables him to find compensation elsewhere. The woman is far less inclined to go astray, firstly because physiological reasons make a transgression much more dangerous in her case, and secondly because when she is the one to break the marital vow, it is considered a crime that society will not condone. The woman alone—be she wife, widow or maiden—has “fallen”; the man, when he commits the same sin, has, at the worst, behaved with impropriety. The same action then is judged by entirely different standards, according to whether it has been committed by a man or by a woman, and the women themselves are often most bitter and unmerciful in their condemnation of a “fallen” sister.[51]
As a rule, women will seek divorce only in cases of flagrant infidelity or gross ill-treatment, because they are in a dependent position and are obliged to regard marriage as a means of subsistence; also because the social position of a divorced woman is not an enviable one. She is regarded and treated more or less as a cipher. If in spite of all this women constitute the majority of plaintives in divorce cases, this goes to prove what moral tortures they must endure. In France, even before the introduction of the new divorce laws, by far the most proceedings for separation were instituted by women. Until 1884 a woman in France could sue for divorce only in case her husband brought the woman with whom he maintained an intimate relation into the domicile of his wife against her will. Thus proceedings for separation were instituted annually by:
| Women. | Men. | |
|---|---|---|
| 1856–1861 | 1,729 | 184 |
| 1861–1866 | 2,135 | 260 |
| 1866–1871 | 2,591 | 330 |
| 1901–1905 | 2,368 | 591 |
Not only were the majority of proceedings instituted by women, the figures also show that their number steadily increased. By information gathered from reliable sources it may be seen, that elsewhere also the greater number of actions for divorce and separation are instituted by women, as the following table shows:[52]
| DIVORCES. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| During the years. | Husbands. | Wives. | Husbands and wives. | |
| Austria | 1893–1897 | 4.4 | 5.0 | 90.6 |
| Roumania | 1891–1895 | 30.6 | 68.9 | 0.5 |
| Switzerland | 1895–1899 | 26.4 | 45.4 | 8.2 |
| France | 1895–1899 | 40.0 | 59.1 | .. |
| Baden | 1895–1899 | 36.0 | 59.1 | 4.9 |
| England & Wales | 1895–1899 | 60.4 | 39.6 | .. |
| Scotland | 1898–1899 | 43.3 | 56.7 | .. |
| SEPARATIONS. | ||||
| Austria | 1897–1899 | 4.9 | 16.6 | 78.5 |
| France | 1895–1899 | 15.9 | 84.1 | .. |
| England & Wales | 1895–1899 | 3.0 | 97.0 | .. |
| Scotland | 1898–1899 | .. | 100. | .. |
In the United States, where the divorce statistics cover a period of forty years, we find the following ratio:
| 1867–1886. | P. C. | 1887–1906. | P. C. | 1906. | P. C. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men | 112,540 | 34.2 | 316,149 | 33.4 | 23,455 | 32.5 |
| Women | 216,176 | 65.8 | 629,476 | 66.6 | 48,607 | 67.5 |
| Total | 328,716 | 100 | 945,625 | 100 | 72,062 | 100 |
The above table shows that in more than two-thirds of all divorce cases women were the plaintiffs.[53]
In Italy we find a similar ratio. During 1887 there were 1,221 divorce cases; 593 of these were instituted by wives, 214 by husbands, 414 by both husbands and wives. In 1904 there were 2,103 cases; 1,142 by wives, 454 by husbands, and 507 by both.
Statistics teach us that the majority of divorces are sought by women, and they furthermore teach us that the number of divorces is rapidly increasing. Since the introduction of the new divorce law in France in 1884, the divorces have increased from year to year, as follows:
| Years | 1884. | 1885. | 1890. | 1895. | 1900. | 1905. | 1906. | 1907. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Divorces | 1,657 | 4,123 | 6,557 | 7,700 | 7,820 | 10,019 | 10,573 | 10,938 |
In Switzerland, too, the divorce-rate is increasing. From 1886 to 1890 there were 882 divorces. From 1891 to 1895 there were 898 divorces; in 1897, 1,011; in 1898, 1,018; in 1899, 1,091; in 1905, 1,206; in 1906, 1,343. In Austria during 1899 there were 856 divorces and 133 separations. In 1900 there were 1,310 divorces and 163 separations. In 1905 there were 1,885 divorces and 262 separations. The number of divorces and separations have been doubled during a decade. In Vienna there were 148 divorces in 1870 and 1871; they increased with each succeeding year until in 1878 and 1879 there were 319 cases. Vienna being a Catholic city, divorces are not easily obtained. Nevertheless, a Viennese judge exclaimed during the eighties: “The charge of broken marriage vows is as frequent as the charge of broken windows.”
The following shows the increasing divorce-rate in the United States:
| Years | 1867. | 1886. | 1895. | 1902. | 1906. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Divorces | 9,937 | 25,535 | 40,387 | 61,480 | 72,062 |
If the number of divorces in relation to the population had remained the same in 1905 as in 1870, the exact number of divorces in 1905 would have been 24,000, and not 67,791, as actually was the case. The total number of divorces from 1867 to 1886 was 328,716; from 1887 to 1906, 945,625. The United States have the highest divorce-rate. For every thousand marriages there were the following number of divorces: In 1870, 81; in 1880, 107; in 1890, 148; in 1900, 200. Why is divorce more frequent in the United States than in any other country? Firstly, because in some of the states the divorce laws are less rigorous than in most of the other countries, and, secondly, because women enjoy a freer, more independent position than in any other country of the world, and are accordingly less willing to submit to the tyranny of husbands.
The following shows the number of divorces in Germany from 1891 to 1900:
| Years | 1891. | 1892. | 1893. | 1894. | 1895. | 1896. | 1897. | 1898. | 1899. | 1900. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Divorces | 6,678 | 6,513 | 6,694 | 7,502 | 8,326 | 8,601 | 9,005 | 9,143 | 9,563 | 7,928 |
We see that from 1899 to 1900, the number of divorces have decreased by 1,635, because on the first of January, 1900, the new code of civil law went into effect which made divorce more difficult. But life is stronger than law. After there was a decrease in the divorce-rate from 1900 to 1902, there has been a rapid increase ever since, as the following table shows:
| Years | 1901. | 1902. | 1903. | 1904. | 1905. | 1906. | 1907. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Divorces | 7,964 | 9,069 | 9,933 | 10,868 | 11,147 | 12,180 | 12,489 |
In Saxony, too, in spite of various fluctuations, there has been a steady increase, as may be seen from the following table:
| Years. | Divorces. | For each 1,000 marriages. |
|---|---|---|
| 1836–1840 | 356 | 121 |
| 1846–1850 | 395 | 121 |
| 1871–1875 | 581 | 122 |
| 1891–1895 | 921 | 138 |
| 1896–1900 | 1,130 | 151 |
| 1901–1905 | 1,385 | 168 |
For each thousand marriages in Prussia there were the following number of divorces: 1881 to 1885, 67.62; 1886 to 1890, 80.55; 1891 to 1895, 86.77; 1896, 101.97; 1905, 106; 1908, 121. That is a tremendous increase. The increase of divorce is not a national but an international symptom. For each thousand marriages there were the following number of divorces in:
| 1876–1880. | 1881–1885. | 1886–1890. | At the close of the century. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | .. | 19.4 | 19.7 | 31. |
| Hungary | 31.6 | 30.4 | 30.5 | 58. |
| Roumania | 37.3 | 52.3 | 73.1 | 98. |
| Italy | 11.8 | 11.3 | 10.6 | 15. |
| France | 33.9 | 75.9 | 80.9 | 129. |
| England & Wales | 6.5 | 7.4 | 7. | 10.6 |
| Scotland | 12.3 | 13. | 16.7 | 26. |
| Ireland | 0.6 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 1. |
| Belgium | 25.5 | 31.9 | 43. | 72. |
| Netherlands | .. | .. | .. | 78. |
| Norway | 13.9 | 12.1 | 19.3 | 33. |
| Sweden | 28.5 | 28.6 | 31.6 | 45. |
| Finland | 16.1 | 7.8 | 10.0 | 29. |
| Switzerland | 220. | 200. | 188. | 199.9 |
It would be a great mistake to draw conclusions from these widely diverging figures about the moral status of the various countries enumerated above. No one would claim, that cause for divorce is four times greater among the Swedish people than among the English people. The laws must be taken into consideration that make divorce more or less difficult as the case may be.[54] The moral status, that is, the causes making divorce appear desirable to either man or woman, are a secondary consideration. But the figures show, that the divorce-rate is increasing more rapidly than the population; that is increasing, in fact, while the marriage-rate is decreasing. We will return to this phase of the question later on. Great differences of age between husband and wife play a considerable part in divorce. That is shown by the following table gathered from official statistics in Switzerland:
| 1881–1890. | 1891–1900. | |
|---|---|---|
| Man older; 26 years and more | 271 | 328 |
| Man older; 11 to 25 years | 189 | 198 |
| Man older; 1 to 10 years | 193 | 181 |
| Husband and wife of same age | 195 | 190 |
| Man younger; 1 to 10 years | 226 | 226 |
| Man younger; 11 to 25 years | 365 | 431 |
| Man younger; 26 years and more | 759 | 870 |
The following statistics from Saxony during 1905 and 1906, and from Prussia from 1895 to 1905, show the divorce-rate in its relation to the various strata of society:
| Saxony. | Prussia. | |
|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | 59 | 34 |
| Industry | 220 | 158 |
| Commerce | 297 | 229 |
| Public service and learned professions | 346 | 165 |
In Saxony divorces were most frequent among officials and professional men. In Prussia they were most frequent among those employed in commerce. In Saxony those employed in commerce came second; in Prussia, officials and professional men. Men employed in industry come third; 220 in Saxony, and 158 in Prussia. Those employed in agriculture furnished the lowest figures. When we compare the growing number of divorces in the cities with those among the rural population, we are led to the conclusion that the rapid development of industry, accompanied by an increasing instability of public life, makes the marriage relation more unfavorable, and adds to the factors that make for the disruption of marriage. On the other hand, the growing divorce-rate shows, that the number of women are increasing who resolve to cast off a yoke that has become unbearable.
[50] The Physiology of Love.
[51] Alexander Dumas correctly says in “Monsieur Alphonse”: “Man has created two standards of morality: one for himself, and one for woman, one that permits him to love all women, and another that permits woman as a compensation for her lost freedom, to be loved by but one man.” See also Marguerite’s self-accusation in “Faust.”
[52] George v. Mayer: “Statistics and Social Science.”
[53] Marriage and Divorce. 1887–1906. Bureau of the Census, Bulletin 96, p. 12. Washington, D. C., 1908.
[54] In England divorce is a privilege enjoyed by the rich. The cost of a trial is so exorbitant, that divorce becomes almost impossible to people of moderate means, especially as it necessitates a journey to London. In the whole country there is only one divorce court, which is situated in London.
[2.—Bourgeois and Proletarian Marriage.]
The corruption of marriage increases at the same rate at which the struggle for existence grows more severe, making matrimony more and more an object of mercenary speculation. As it is becoming increasingly difficult to support a family, many men choose to refrain from marrying, and so the declamations about it being woman’s duty to practice her natural profession of wifehood and motherhood, are just so many meaningless phrases. On the other hand, these conditions are bound to foster illegitimate relations and to increase the number of prostitutes; they also increase the number of those who fall victims to an unnatural satisfaction of the sexual impulse.
Among the ruling classes the wife is frequently degraded, just as she was in ancient Greece, to the mere functions of bearing legitimate children, acting as housekeeper, or serving as nurse to a husband ruined by a life of debauchery. For his amusement, or to gratify his desire for love, the man maintains courtesans or mistresses who live in elegance and luxury. Others who do not have the means of maintaining mistresses, associate with prostitutes during marriage as before marriage, and a number of wives are sufficiently corrupted to consider such relations quite proper.[55]
In the upper and middle classes of society the chief evil in marriage is its mercenary character. But this evil is still heightened by the mode of life that prevails among these classes. That applies to the women as well as to the men, since they frequently lead lives of idleness or devote themselves to corrupting occupations. The society woman’s spiritual nourishment usually consists of the following: Reading ambiguous novels, visiting frivolous plays, enjoying sensuous music, resorting to intoxicating stimulants, and indulging in scandal-mongering. Idleness and ennui frequently entice her into love-intrigues, that are sought more eagerly still by the men of her circles. In the mad pursuit of pleasure she rushes from one banquet and entertainment to another, and in summer she goes to watering-places and summer resorts to rest from the exertions of the winter and to seek new amusement. Scandals are a daily occurrence with this mode of life; men seduce and women allow themselves to be seduced.
Among the lower classes mercenary marriage is practically unknown. The workingman generally marries for love, but nevertheless many harmful and destructive influences exist in the proletarian marriage also. Blessed with many children, cares and worries ensue, and all too often bitter poverty prevails. Disease and death are frequent guests in the proletarian family, and unemployment heightens the misery. Many are the factors that lessen the workingman’s income and frequently deprive him of that meagre income altogether. Hard times and industrial crises throw him out of employment; the introduction of new machinery or of new methods of production, makes him superfluous; wars, unfavorable tariff and commercial treaties, the imposition of new indirect taxes, or black-listing by his employers as a result of his political convictions, destroy his means of subsistence or gravely injure them. From time to time one or another thing occurs that entails a longer or shorter period of unemployment with its accompanying misery and starvation. Uncertainty is the mark of his existence. Such vicissitudes are productive of ill temper and bitter feelings that most frequently lead to outbursts in domestic life where demands are made daily and hourly that cannot be satisfied. This leads to quarrels and harsh words and eventually to a rupture in the marriage relation.
Frequently both husband and wife must work for a living. The children are left to themselves or to the care of older brothers and sisters, who are still in need of care and education themselves. The noon-day meal, usually of the poorest quality, is devoured in utmost haste, provided that the parents have time to come home for this meal. In the majority of cases this is impossible, owing to the distances between homes and factories and to the brevity of the time allowed for rest. Weary and worn, both parents return at night. Instead of a cheerful, pleasant home to come to, theirs is only a small, unsanitary dwelling, frequently wanting in fresh air and light and devoid of the most elementary comforts. The scarcity of available lodgings with all the resulting evils, is one of the darkest phases of our social system that leads to countless vices and crimes. In spite of all attempts at relief, the housing problem is becoming more serious every year in all the larger centers of industry; and other strata of society, such as professional people, clerks, officials, teachers, small dealers, etc., are affected by it. The workingman’s wife who returns to her “home” at night exhausted from a day’s hard labor, must begin work anew. She must toil in feverish haste to attend to the most necessary details of housekeeping. After the children have been put to bed, she still continues to mend and sew until far into the night. Rest and recuperation are unknown to her. The man often is ignorant and the woman still more so, and the little they have to say to one another is quickly said. The man goes to a saloon where he at least finds some of the comforts that he lacks at home; he drinks, and no matter how little he spends, he is spending too much for his income. Sometimes he falls a victim to the vice of gambling, that claims many victims in the upper strata of society also, and then still loses more than he spends on drink. Meanwhile the woman is brooding at home full of grudge. She must toil like a beast of burden, there is no rest or recreation for her; but the man enjoys the liberty that is his, just because he had the good fortune of having been born a man. Thus discord arises. If the woman is less conscientious; if she, too, seeks pleasure and diversion when she has returned from a hard day of work, to which she is surely entitled, her household goes to ruin and the misery becomes greater still. Nevertheless, we are living in “the best of worlds.”
Thus marriage is constantly being disrupted among the proletariat also. Even favorable periods of employment often have a detrimental influence, for they involve over-time work and sometimes also work on Sunday, thereby depriving the worker of the little time he is able to devote to his family. Often the distances from the workingmen’s homes to their places of employment are so great, that they must leave at day-break, when the children are still soundly asleep, and do not return until late at night when they are sleeping again. Thousands of workingmen, especially those connected with the building trades, remain away from home during the entire week and only return to their families on Saturday night. How can family relations prosper under such conditions?! At the same time the number of women workers is constantly growing, especially in the textile industries, for thousands of spinning-machines and power-looms are being tended by women and children, whose labor is cheap. Here matrimonial relations have been reversed. While the wife and the children go to the factory, the unemployed man not infrequently, remains at home performing the domestic duties. “In a number of cloth factories in Chemnitz we find women who are employed there only during the winter months, because their husbands who are road-builders, masons or carpenters, earn little or nothing in winter. During the absence of the women, the men attend to the housekeeping.”[56] In the United States, where capitalism has developed so rapidly, that all its evils are manifest on a much larger scale than in the industrial countries of Europe, a characteristic name has been coined for this state of affairs. Industrial centers where women are mainly employed while men remain at home, have been called “she-towns.”[57]
At present it is generally conceded that women should be admitted to all trades. Capitalistic society in its mad chase of profits has long since recognized, that women can be more profitably exploited than men, since they are by nature more pliant and meek.[58] Accordingly the number of trades in which women may find employment are increasing with every year. The constant improvement of machinery, the simplifying of the process of labor by an increased division of labor, and the competitive warfare among individual capitalists, as also among rival industrial countries—all favor the steady increase of woman labor. The phenomenon is common to all industrially advanced countries. As the number of women in industry increases, the competition between them and the male workers grows more severe. The reports of factory inspectors and statistical investigations prove this.
The position of women is especially unfavorable in those trades in which they predominate as, for instance, the clothing trades, and particularly in those branches in which the workers perform the work in their own home. Investigations concerning the condition of women workers in the manufacture of underwear and the clothing trades, were made in Germany in 1886. This investigation showed among other things that the miserable pay these workers received frequently drove them to prostitution.
Our Christian government, whose Christianity is sought in vain where it is really needful, but is met with where it is superfluous—our Christian government is like our Christian bourgeoisie, whose interests it serves. This government finds it exceedingly difficult to decide upon the enactment of laws which would limit the work of women to a bearable degree and prohibit child-labor entirely. This same government also fails to grant a normal work-day and sufficient rest on Sundays to its own employees, thereby harming their family relations. Frequently men employed in the mail and railroad service and in prisons must work many hours overtime without receiving adequate remuneration.
As the rents are also far too high in comparison with the incomes of the workers, they must content themselves with the poorest quarters. Lodgers of one sex or the other, sometimes of both, are taken into the workingman’s home.[59] Old and young of both sexes live together in a small space and frequently witness the most intimate relations. How modesty and decency fare under such conditions, has been shown by horrible facts. The increasing demoralization and brutalization of the young that is being discussed so much, is partly due to these conditions. Child-labor, too, has the worst possible influence on children, both physically and morally.
The increasing industrial activity of married women has the most detrimental effect during pregnancy and at child-birth and during the early babyhood of the children, when they depend upon the mother for nourishment. During pregnancy it may lead to a number of diseases that are destructive to the unborn child and harmful to the organism of the woman, and bring about premature births and still-births. When the child has been born, the mother is compelled to return to the factory as soon as possible, lest some one else take her place. The inevitable result for the poor, little babes is neglect and improper or insufficient nourishment. They are given opiates to be kept quiet; and as a further result of all this, they perish in masses or grow up sickly and deformed. It means race degeneration. Frequently the children grow up without ever having experienced real parental love. Thus proletarians are born, live and die; and society and the state marvel at it that brutality, immorality and crime are increasing.
During the sixties of the last century the cotton industry in England almost came to a standstill, as a result of the Civil War that was being waged in the United States. Accordingly, thousands of working-women were unemployed, and among them physicians made the astounding observation, that in spite of the existing want, infant mortality was decreasing. The reason was that the babies now were being nursed by their mothers and more care was bestowed on them than ever before. During the crisis of the seventies of the last century similar observations were made in the United States, especially in New York and Massachusetts. Unemployment enabled the women to devote more time to their children. The same fact was noted during the general strike in Sweden in August and September of 1909. The mortality in Stockholm and other large Swedish cities had not been as low for many years as during the weeks of this giant strike. One of the eminent medical authorities of Stockholm declared that the low rate of mortality and the general state of good health was in close connection with the great strike. He pointed out that the out-of-door life which was being led by the army of strikers was chiefly responsible for this satisfactory state of health, for no matter how extensive the sanitary regulations might be, the air in the factories and workshops was always more or less detrimental to the health of the workers. The same medical authority pointed out, furthermore, that the prohibition of the sale of intoxicating drinks during the great strike, also tended to improve the state of health.
Domestic industry, which is depicted so alluringly by the romancers among political economists, is not more favorable to the workers. Here man and wife both toil from dawn to darkness and the children are trained as helpers from their earliest childhood on. The entire family and perhaps some assistants live together in closest quarters among rubbish and disagreeable odors. The bedrooms are similar to the workshop, usually small, dark spaces with insufficient ventilation, detrimental to the health of the persons who are obliged to sleep in them.
The struggle for existence that is growing increasingly difficult, also sometimes compels men and women to commit acts that they would loathe under different circumstances. It was shown in 1877 in Munich that among the prostitutes entered on lists by the police, there were no less than 203 wives of workingmen and mechanics. Many more married women are driven to occasional prostitution by need, without submitting to police control that deeply degrades all modesty and human dignity.
[55] In his book on “The Woman Question in the Middle Ages,” that I have frequently quoted, Buecher laments the dissolution of marriage and the family. He condemns the employment of women in industry, and demands that woman should return to her “particular sphere,” the only one where she creates “real values,” the home and the family. The aims of the modern woman movement appear “amateurish” to him, and he expresses the hope that “a better way may be found.” But he fails to point out a successful way. From his bourgeois point of view it would be impossible to do so. The matrimonial conditions as also the position of women in general, are not the result of wilful creation. They are the natural product of social evolution, and this social evolution is consummated in accordance with inherent laws.
[56] Technics and Political Economy.
[57] The following clipping taken from an American newspaper in 1893 gives an adequate description of a “she-town”: “A singularity that is met with in the factory towns of Maine, is a class of men who may rightly be called housekeepers. Any one visiting some of these workers’ homes shortly after the noon hour, will find the men, wearing an apron, washing dishes. At other hours of the day they may be seen making the beds, dressing the children, scrubbing or cooking.... These men do the housekeeping for the simple reason that their wives can earn more in the factories than they, and it is more economical for them to remain at home while the women work.”
[58] “Mr. E., a manufacturer, informs me that he employs only women at his power-looms. He prefers married women and especially those who have a family at home depending upon them. They are much more attentive and docile than unmarried women, and are obliged to exert themselves to the utmost in order to earn the necessary means of subsistence. Thus the peculiar virtues of woman’s character are turned to her own detriment, and the gentleness and decency of her nature become a means of her enslavement.” From an address by Lord Ashley on the ten-hour bill, 1844.—Karl Marx, “Capital,” second edition.
[59] The Prussian census of 1900 has shown that in Prussia there are 3,467,388 persons not related to the families in whose midst they live. In the entire state about one-quarter of these non-related members of the households consisted of strange boarders and lodgers; in the rural districts they constituted only one-seventh, but in the cities one-third, and in the capital, Berlin, more than one-half.—G. v. Mayer, “Statistics and Social Science.”
[CHAPTER X.
Marriage as a Means of Support.]
[1.—Decline of the Marriage Rate.]
When we consider the conditions enumerated above, it requires no further proof to recognize that a growing number of persons do not regard the wedded state as a desirable goal, but hesitate to enter into it. This explains the phenomenon, that in most civilized countries the marriage rate is stationary or declining. It was a matter of old experience, that an increase in the price of grain had a detrimental effect on both the marriage and birth rates. With the growing industrial development of any country the marriage and birth rates are influenced more and more by the ups and downs of the market. Economic crises and a lowering of the general economic standard have a lasting unfavorable influence. This may be seen from the marriage statistics of various countries. According to the latest census, 12,832,044 marriages were contracted in the United States during the period from 1887 to 1906.
| 1887 | 483,096 |
| 1891 | 562,412 |
| 1892 | 577,870 |
| 1893 | 578,673 |
| 1894 | 566,161 |
| 1902 | 746,733 |
| 1903 | 786,132 |
| 1904 | 781,145 |
| 1905 | 804,787 |
| 1906 | 853,232 |
These figures show that as a result of the crises during 1893 and 1894, the marriage rate declined by 12,512. The same phenomenon recurs in 1904, during which year the marriage rate declined by 4987. The following table shows marriage statistics gathered in France:
| 1873–1877 | 299,000 |
| 1878–1882 | 281,000 |
| 1883–1887 | 284,000 |
| 1888–1892 | 279,000 |
| 1893–1897 | 288,000 |
| 1898–1902 | 296,000 |
| 1903–1907 | 306,000 |
The marriage rate attained its highest figure, 321,238, during the year 1873. From that time on the marriage rate declined only to increase again with times of prosperity. In France the highest marriage rate since 1873 was attained in 1907 when it reached 314,903. To some extent this increase was due to a new law that went into effect on June 21, 1907, by which the legal formalities required in order to become married were simplified. This increase was especially noticeable in the poorer districts. The following table shows the number of marriages contracted for every thousand inhabitants in various European countries:
| COUNTRIES | 1871 to 1875 | 1876 to 1880 | 1881 to 1885 | 1886 to 1890 | 1891 to 1895 | 1896 to 1900 | 1901 to 1905 | 1907 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| German Empire | 18.84 | 15.68 | 15.40 | 15.68 | 15.88 | 17.83 | 16 | 16.2 |
| Prussia | 18.88 | 15.86 | 15.92 | 16.32 | 16.40 | 16.86 | 16.2 | 16.4 |
| Bavaria | 18.92 | 14.65 | 13.64 | 13.96 | 14.76 | 16.09 | 15.2 | 15.4 |
| Saxony | 19.96 | 17.70 | 17.62 | 18.64 | 17.52 | 18.76 | 16.6 | 16.8 |
| Austria | 18.30 | 15.52 | 15.88 | 15.40 | 15.76 | 16.04 | 15.8 | 15.8 |
| Hungary | 21.51 | 19.30 | 20.24 | 17.72 | 17.92 | 16.05 | 17.2 | 19.6 |
| Italy | 15.54 | 15.06 | 14.08 | 17.64 | 14.96 | 14.40 | 14.8 | 15.4 |
| Switzerland | 16.06 | 14.90 | 13.80 | 14.00 | 14.72 | 15.59 | 15 | 15.6 |
| France | 16.06 | 15.16 | 15.04 | 14.48 | 14.90 | 15.14 | 15.2 | 16 |
| England and Wales | 17.08 | 15.34 | 15.14 | 14.70 | 15.16 | 16.14 | 15.6 | 15.8 |
| Scotland | 14.98 | 11.76 | 13.76 | 18.02 | 13.68 | 14.94 | 14 | 14 |
| Ireland | 9.72 | 9.04 | 8.66 | 8.66 | 9.48 | 9.87 | 10.4 | 10.2 |
| Belgium | 15.44 | 13.94 | 13.94 | 14.34 | 15.24 | 16.45 | 16.2 | 16.2 |
| Netherlands | 16.64 | 15.76 | 14.28 | 14.04 | 14.48 | 14.88 | 15 | 15.2 |
| Denmark | 15.88 | 15.54 | 15.38 | 13.94 | 13.84 | 14.79 | 14.4 | 15.2 |
| Norway | 14.58 | 14.40 | 13.82 | 12.76 | 12.92 | 13.73 | 12.4 | 11.8 |
| Sweden | 14.04 | 13.20 | 12.84 | 12.20 | 11.45 | 12.04 | 11.8 | 12 |
| Finland | 17.68 | 15.72 | 14.90 | 14.40 | 12.98 | 15.34 | 13 | 13.6 |
| European Russia excl. the Vistula province | 19.62 | 17.62 | 18.06 | 17.94 | 17.08 | 17.80 | — | — |
| Bulgaria | — | — | 18.04 | 17.24 | 16.07 | — | — | — |
| Servia | 22.80 | 23.32 | 22.14 | 21.76 | 19.84 | — | — | — |
That the marriage rate rises and sinks with the rise and decline of national prosperity is most strikingly noticeable in Germany. The largest number of marriages (423,900), were contracted in Germany in 1872, the year after the close of the Franco-Prussian war. From 1873 on, the marriage rate declined until in 1879, the year when the crisis was at its worst, it attained its lowest figure (335,133). Then it gradually increased again until 1890, a year of prosperity, to sink once more in 1892 and again to increase with the years of returning prosperity until with the height of prosperity the highest figures were attained (476,491 in 1900, and 471,519 in 1899). The next crisis brought another decline. In 1902 the number of marriages did not exceed 457,208 while in 1906 and 1907 it rose up again to 498,900 and 503,964.
But in general the statistics of most countries point to a decline of the marriage rate. The highest numbers attained during the seventies were attained only in exceptional instances at the close of the nineties. But not only the earnings have a strong influence on the marriage rate, the conditions of property have so likewise. Statistics from the kingdom of Wurtemberg show, that with the increase of large estates the number of married men between 25 and 30 years of age decreases and the number of unmarried men between 40 and 50 years of age increases. Small estates are favorable to the marriage rate, because they enable a greater number of families to maintain a decent though modest livelihood, while large estates are, for obvious reasons, unfavorable to the marriage rate. With the growing industrial development of a country, the number of marriages in urban trades and professions increases. The following statistics from Sweden during the years 1901 to 1904 show the relation of marriage to occupation:
| Agriculture | per | 1000 | 4.78 |
| Industry | “ | “ | 7.17 |
| Commerce | “ | “ | 7.75 |
| Learned professions | “ | “ | 6.33 |
All these figures prove that not moral but economic causes are the determining factors. The number of marriages like the moral status of a social group depend upon its material foundation.
[2.—Infanticide and Abortion.]
Fear of poverty and doubts as to whether it will be possible to bring up the children suitable to their station in life, cause many women of all classes to commit deeds that are averse to the laws of nature and to the laws of organized society as well. Such deeds include the various methods to prevent conception, and when this has occurred nevertheless, artificial abortion. It would be a mistake to assume that such methods are resorted to only by frivolous, unscrupulous women. They are, on the contrary, frequently resorted to by conscientious wives, who feel that they must limit the number of offspring and rather submit to the dangers of abortion, than to deny themselves to their husbands and thereby drive them to the devious paths. Other women again take this step to conceal a “sin,” or because they abhor the discomforts of pregnancy, child-birth and motherhood, or because they fear that their physical beauty will be impaired and that they will accordingly seem less attractive to their husbands and to men in general. These women readily obtain medical and surgical aid at high prices.
Artificial abortion seems to be practiced more and more. It was frequently practiced among the ancients and is practiced to-day among both civilized nations and savages. The old Greeks practiced it openly, without any legal restraint. Plato regarded it as within the province of the midwife, and Aristotle permitted it to married people when a pregnancy that was not desired took place.[60] According to Jules Ronyer, the women of Rome practiced abortion for several reasons. In the first place they wished to conceal the results of their illegitimate relations; secondly they wished to indulge in uninterrupted excesses, and thirdly they sought to avoid the detrimental effects of pregnancy and child-birth upon their beauty.[61] Among the romans a woman was considered old when she attained the thirtieth year, and the women therefore shunned everything that was likely to make them age more quickly. During the mediaeval ages abortions were punishable by severe penalties, in some instances even by capital punishment, and a free woman who had practiced it became a serf.
At the present time abortions are practiced chiefly in Turkey and in the United States. “The Turks do not regard a foetus as being really alive until after the fifth month, and have no scruple in causing its abortion. Even at later stages, when the operation becomes criminal, it is frequently practiced. In 1872 at Constantinople, more than three thousand cases of abortion were brought before the courts in a period of ten months.”[62]
More frequently yet it is practiced in the United States. In all the large cities of the union institutions exist where women and girls can go to bring about premature birth. Many American newspapers contain advertisements of such places.[63] In some strata of American society an artificial abortion is discussed as openly as a regular confinement. In Germany and other European countries it is regarded in a different manner, and according to German law both the perpetrator and the accomplice may be punished by imprisonment. Abortion is often followed by the worst results; not infrequently it results in death, and in many cases it means the permanent destruction of health. “Dangers from the most unfavorable pregnancy and child-birth are less great than from artificial abortions.”[64] Sterility is the most frequent result. Nevertheless the practice is becoming more frequent in Germany also. The following number of persons were convicted of criminal abortion: From 1882 to 1886, 839; from 1897 to 1901, 1565; from 1902 to 1906, 2236.[65] During recent years several cases of criminal abortions created a sensation, because distinguished physicians and prominent society women figured in these cases. Judging by the advertisements in German newspapers, there also is an increase of those places and institutions where married and unmarried women are given an opportunity to await the results of their wrong-doing in absolute secrecy.
The fear of a too numerous progeny in consideration of the economic status and the cost of education has caused the introduction of preventive measures among entire classes and nations and has gradually developed into a regular system that threatens to become a public calamity. It is a wellknown fact that almost all strata of French society abide by the custom of limiting their offspring to two children. Few civilized countries have as high a marriage rate as France; but notwithstanding this fact, in no other country the birth rate is as low and the increase of population as gradual. The French bourgeoisie, the peasantry and the working class, all abide by this custom. In some parts of Germany the conditions among the peasantry seem to have lead to a similar state of affairs. In a picturesque region in the south-western part of Germany, a certain species of tree, which furnishes an ingredient for an abortive remedy, is grown on every farm. In another region the peasants have long since followed the custom of limiting their offspring to two children; they do not wish to divide up their farms. Another noteworthy fact is the marked increase in the publication and sale of literature discussing and recommending means for optional sterility. Of course, these books are always clothed in “scientific” garb and invariably point to the threatening danger of excess of population.
Besides the prevention of conception and artificial abortion, crime also plays a part. In France child exposure and infanticide have increased as a direct result of French civil law, according to which it is interdicted to investigate paternity. The “Code civil” provides that “La recherche de la paternité est interdite,” but “la recherche de la maternité est admise.” This law forbids to search for a child’s father but permits to search for its mother. With brutal frankness it thus proclaims injustice to the unfortunate girl who has been seduced. The men of France may, by the provision of this law, seduce as many girls and women as they please; they are freed from all responsibility and do not have to contribute anything to the support of their illegitimate children. This law was framed under the pretext that women must be deterred from seducing men. We see, everywhere it is the poor, feeble man,—although his is the strong sex,—who never seduces but always is seduced. The result of this paragraph of the “Code civil” was the framing of another paragraph which provides that “L’enfant conçu pendant le marriage a pour père le mari” (the husband is father to every child conceived during marriage). While it is forbidden to search after a child’s father, deceived husbands must regard children as their own, that have sprung from illicit relations their wives may have maintained. We must admit that the French bourgeoisie is at least consistent. Until now all attempts to repeal these obnoxious laws have failed. On the other hand the French bourgeoisie seeks to atone somewhat for the cruelty of preventing women, who have been deceived, from seeking financial aid from the fathers of their children, by establishing foundling institutions. Thus the new-born babe is deprived not only of its father but of its mother as well. According to the French conception foundlings are orphans, and the French bourgeoisie thus permits its illegitimate children to be reared as “children of the nation” at the expense of the state. A wonderful institution!
Lately French methods have been copied in Germany. The new German civil law contains provisions in regard to the legal status of illegitimate children, that are in contradiction to the more humane laws that were in force heretofore. One paragraph states that “an illegitimate child and its father are not regarded as being related,” while Emperor Joseph II had already decreed that legitimate and illegitimate children should be equal before the law. Another paragraph states that “an illegitimate child is fatherless if its mother maintained relations with several men at the time of conception.” The child is made to suffer for its mother’s frivolousness, weakness or poverty. Frivolous fathers are not taken into consideration by the law. The law concerning illegitimate children furthermore provides: “it is the mother’s right and duty to care for the person of the illegitimate child. The father of the illegitimate child is obliged to provide for same until the completion of its sixteenth year, in accordance with the social status of the mother.” According to former Prussian law, the seducer was obliged to provide for the child in accordance with his own social status and wealth. If the woman had been seduced with the promise of marriage, she was entitled to all the rights of a divorced wife, and in those cases the illegitimate children were regarded as legitimate before the law. These more just and humane provisions have now been dispensed with. The tendency of German legislation is a retrogressive one.
During the period from 1831 to 1880, 8568 cases of infanticide were tried before the French court of assizes. This number increased from 471 during the years 1831 to 1835 to 970 during the years 1876 to 1880. During the same period 1032 cases of criminal abortion were tried, 100 of these during the single year 1880. It goes without saying that only a small number of the artificial abortions actually practiced ever come to the notice of the courts. As a rule only such cases are brought to public attention that result in severe illness or death. The rural population furnished 75 percent of the infanticides, and the urban population furnished 67 percent of criminal abortions. The women residing in cities have more means at hand to prevent normal child-birth; therefore the cases of abortion were numerous and the cases of infanticide relatively few. In the rural districts the inverse ratio prevails. In Germany the following number of persons were convicted of infanticide: from 1882 to 1886, 884; from 1897 to 1901, 887; from 1902 to 1906, 745.
This is the picture presented by present day society in regard to its most intimate relations. It differs considerably from that picture which is usually drawn for us by poetic visionaries, but it at least has the advantage of being true. Yet the picture is incomplete; a few characteristic features must still be added.
[60] Elie Metchnikoff—The Nature of Man.
[61] Jules Ronyer, Etudes médicales sur l’ancienne Rome. Paris 1859.
[62] Elie Metchnikoff—The Nature of Man.
[63] According to an official investigation, 200 persons were counted in New York who made a profession of artificial abortions.
[64] Edw. Reich—History of Abortion and its Dangers.
[65] Criminal statistics of the German Empire for the year 1906.
[3.—Education for Marriage.]
All parties are agreed that at the present time the female sex is, on an average, mentally inferior to the male sex. Balzac, who by no means was an admirer of women, nevertheless declared, “a woman who has obtained the education of a man, indeed possesses the most brilliant and fruitful qualities for establishing her own happiness and that of her husband.” Goethe, who was well acquainted with the types of men and women of his day, uttered the following sharp remark in “The Years of Travelling of William Meister” (Confessions of a fair soul): “scholarly women were held up to ridicule, and educated women were not popular either, probably because it was regarded as impolite to disgrace so many ignorant men.” But that does not alter the fact that women, as a rule, are mentally inferior to men. This difference is bound to exist, since the mental status of woman is but what man, her master, has made it. The education of women has always been pitifully neglected, even more than the education of the proletariat, and even at the present time it is insufficient. In our age the desire for the exchange of ideas is a growing one among all classes of society, and accordingly we begin to recognize the neglected mental training of women as a great mistake, one from which not only women, but men also must suffer.
With men education is mainly directed upon the development of the intellect; it is supposed to sharpen their reasoning powers, to expand their knowledge and to strengthen their will-power. With women, especially among the upper classes, education is mainly directed upon the development of their sentiments; it chiefly consists of attaining various accomplishments that only tend to heighten their imaginative faculty and to increase their nervous irritability, such as music, literature, art and poetry. That is the greatest error in education that could possibly be committed. It shows that educators have allowed themselves to be guided by their prejudices concerning the nature of woman and her narrow sphere in life. The development of sentiment and imagination in women should not be artificially stimulated which only increases the tendency to become nervous. With women, as well as with men, the mental faculties should be developed and they should be acquainted with the practical facts of life. It would be the greatest advantage to both sexes if women were less sentimental and more rational; if they displayed less nervousness and timidity, and more courage and will-power; if they possessed fewer accomplishments, and a broader knowledge of the world and mankind and the natural forces of life. Until the present time the spiritual life of woman and her sentiments have been stimulated to the utmost, while her intellectual development has been neglected, hampered and repressed. As a result she literally suffers from spiritual and sentimental hypertrophy, which makes her susceptible to all sorts of superstitions and miracle-frauds, an easy victim of religious and other swindles, a willing tool of bigotry and reaction. Men in their short-sightedness frequently lament this fact; but they do nothing to change it, because the great majority of them are still deeply entrenched in their own prejudices. As a result of this false education, women generally regard the world very differently from men, and thereby another great source of differences and misunderstandings between the sexes is established.
For every man in present day society, participation in public life is one of the most essential duties; that many men still fail to recognize this duty does not alter the fact. But an ever widening circle of men has begun to recognize that public institutions directly affect the private relations of each individual, and that the welfare of individuals and families depends far more upon the nature of public institutions than upon personal qualities and actions. They have begun to recognize, that even supreme efforts on the part of a single individual are powerless in combatting evils that are rooted in social conditions, and influence his position accordingly. Moreover the struggle for existence necessitates far greater exertions to-day than formerly. Demands are made upon a man to-day, that require more and more of his time and strength. But the ignorant, indifferent woman is usually incapable of comprehending his duties and interests. We may even say that the differentiation between man and woman is greater to-day than it was formerly, when conditions were more petty and narrow, and therefore more within the range of woman’s understanding. Occupation with public affairs to-day claims a greater number of men than formerly. This expands their ideas, but it also estranges them from their domestic circle. Thereby the woman feels neglected, and one more source of differences has been created. Only in rare cases do men succeed in making themselves understood by their wives and in convincing them. As a rule the man holds the opinion that his aims and interests do not concern his wife, and that she is unable to understand them. He does not take the trouble to instruct her. “You don’t understand that,” is the usual reply when a woman complains to her husband that he is neglecting her. The lack of understanding on the part of the women is still heightened by the lack of common sense on the part of the men. Among the proletariat the relation between husband and wife is more favorable, when both recognize that they must follow the same path, since one, and one only leads to a better future for them and their children: the complete reorganization of society that will make all men and women free. As this recognition spreads among the women of the proletariat, their wedded life becomes idealized in spite of misery and want. For now both husband and wife have a common aim to strive for, and their common struggle furnishes an inexhaustible source of inspiration in exchange of opinions. The number of proletarian women who have awakened to this recognition is growing with each year. Here a movement is expanding that will be of vital importance to the future of mankind.
In other marriages the differences of education and conceptions, that were overlooked in the beginning while passion was still strong, become more and more noticeable with the advancing years. But as sexual passion decreases, it ought to be replaced by mental conformity. Quite disregarding the fact whether or not a man recognizes that he has social and civic duties, and whether or not he fulfills these duties, his business or profession alone suffices to keep him in constant touch with the outside world, and to create an intellectual atmosphere about him that broadens his views. Contrary to the woman, he is usually in a state of intellectual moulting; but domestic activities require the woman’s time and attention from morning till night, and being deprived of opportunity for mental development, she is apt to become dull and mentally stunted.
This domestic misery in which the majority of wives in present day society are obliged to live, has been truly pictured by Gerhard v. Amyntor in his book on “A Commentary to the Book of Life.” In the chapter on “Fatal Stings” he says: “It is not the terrible occurrences that no one is spared,—a husband’s death, the moral ruin of a beloved child, long, torturing illness, or the shattering of a fondly nourished hope,—it is none of these that undermine the woman’s health and strength, but the little daily recurring, body and soul devouring cares. How many millions of good housewives have cooked and scrubbed their love of life away! How many have sacrificed their rosy cheeks and their dimples in domestic service, until they became wrinkled, withered, broken mummies. The everlasting question: ‘what shall I cook to-day,’ the ever recurring necessity of sweeping and dusting and scrubbing and dish-washing, is the steadily falling drop that slowly but surely wears out her body and mind. The cooking stove is the place where accounts are sadly balanced between income and expense, and where the most oppressing observations are made concerning the increased cost of living and the growing difficulty in making both ends meet. Upon the flaming altar where the pots are boiling, youth and freedom from care, beauty and light-heartedness are being sacrificed. In the old cook whose eyes are dim and whose back is bent with toil, no one would recognize the blushing bride of yore, beautiful, merry and modestly coquettish in the finery of her bridal garb.—To the ancients the hearth was sacred; beside the hearth they erected their lares and household-gods. Let us also hold the hearth sacred, where the conscientious German housewife slowly sacrifices her life, to keep the home comfortable, the table well supplied, and the family healthy.” That is the only consolation that bourgeois society is able to offer those women who slowly perish as a result of the present order!
Those women who enjoy a freer position as a result of their more favored social circumstances, usually have a narrow, superficial education that is manifested in connection with inherited, female characteristics. Most of these women are interested only in external appearances; dress and personal adornment are their chief concern, and the satisfaction of their depraved tastes and their unbridled passions, form their object in life. They are not interested much in the children and their education; that would mean too much trouble and annoyance. Therefore they willingly turn over their children to nurses and governesses and later on to boarding-schools. At the most they regard it as their duty to make silly doll-women of their daughters, and superficial, extravagant dandies of their sons. This class of young men, who regard idleness and extravagance as a profession, furnishes the seducers of the daughters of the people.
The conditions described above have lead to a number of traits of character peculiar to women, that are more fully developed from generation to generation. Men seem to find satisfaction in ridiculing these traits, but they forget that they themselves are to blame for them. The following are some of these frequently condemned female traits of character: talkativeness and scandal-mongering; the inclination to discuss the most insignificant things at the greatest length; the exaggerated interest in outward display; the love of dress and coquetry; envy and jealousy toward the members of her sex, and the tendency of being dishonest and hypocritical. These traits of character usually manifest themselves with the female sex at an early age; they are general and only differ in degree. These traits have developed under the pressure of social conditions, and they have been further developed by heredity, example and education. One who has been brought up unwisely is not likely to bring up others wisely.
In order to understand the origin and development of traits of character common to an entire sex or to an entire people, we must follow the same method that modern scientists apply to understand the origin and development of living beings and their characteristics. The material conditions of life to a great extent imprint upon every living being its traits of character. It is compelled to adapt itself to these existing material conditions, until the adaptation becomes its nature.
Human beings form no exception to that which holds true for all living beings throughout nature. Man is not exempt from natural laws. Viewed physiologically, he is merely the most highly developed animal. Of course, many persons refuse to admit this. Thousands of years ago ancient peoples, although they knew nothing of modern science, held more rational views in regard to many human problems, than a great many of our contemporaries, and, what is more noteworthy still, their views that were based on experience, were put into practice. We praise and admire the strength and beauty of the men and women of ancient Greece; but we forget that it was not the climate of this beautiful country that had such a favorable influence upon the nature and development of its population, but the educational maxims that were consistently carried out by the state, and that were destined to combine beauty, strength and skill with mental sharpness and vigor. Indeed the mental development of woman was neglected even then, but not so her physical development.[66] In Sparta where physical culture of both sexes was most extensively practiced, boys and girls went about naked until the age of puberty, and together they joined in physical exercises, games and wrestling-matches. The display of the nude human body, the natural treatment of natural things, prevented the extreme sexual irritation that is mainly caused by an artificial separation of the sexes from childhood on. The body of one sex was no mystery to the other. No dallying with ambiguities could arise. Nature was regarded as such. Each sex took pleasure in the beauty of the other.
To a natural, untrammeled relation of the sexes must mankind return; we must cast aside the unsound spiritualistic conceptions concerning human affairs and create methods of education that shall bring about a physical and mental regeneration. The prevailing conceptions in regard to education, especially the education of women, are still exceedingly reactionary. That a woman should possess such qualities of character as strength, courage and determination, is decried as unwomanly, and yet no one can deny that by means of such qualities she will be better enabled to protect herself. But her physical development is hampered, just like her mental development. This is due in no small degree to the irrational mode of dress. Woman’s dress not only interferes with her physical development, it frequently does her direct bodily harm; and yet there are few, even among physicians, who dare to oppose it. Fear of displeasing the patient causes them to be silent or even to flatter her follies. The modern style of dress prevents women from freely exercising their strength, hampers their physical development, and creates a feeling of helplessness in them. Moreover, woman’s dress endangers the health of her environment, for at home and on the street she is a walking generator of dust.
The physical and intellectual development of women is furthermore severely hampered by a rigorous separation of the sexes in school and in social intercourse, that is quite in accordance with the spiritualistic conceptions implanted by Christianity, and is still sadly prevalent among us. The woman who is given no opportunity to develop her abilities and talents, who is maintained within a narrow sphere of ideas, and rarely permitted to associate with members of the other sex, cannot rise above the commonplace and trivial. For her ideas are centered in the occurrences of her immediate environment. Verbose conversations over a mere nothingness and the tendency to gossip are fostered by this narrow life, since the mental activities that reside in every human being must find expression somewhere. Men are frequently grievously annoyed and driven to despair by these qualities which they roundly condemn, without pausing to consider that they, “the lords of creation,” are chiefly to blame for them. During recent years numerous attempts have been made to introduce more rational conceptions of life; but they are merely a beginning, and until now have been confined to a very small portion of society.
[66] Plato, in “The State”, demands that women should be given an education similar to men, and Aristoteles in “Politics” declares as a fundamental principle of education: “first let the body be developed and then the mind.”
[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 personal adornment 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 their competition 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 opposite results.[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 the woman 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 race destruction.[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 our women 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 cases the men are responsible for the severe physical sufferings that befall their wives in marriage. As a result of 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 are able 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 remained childless.[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] Irma v. 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. Laboulaye even 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] | |
|---|---|---|
| 1876–1879 | 17.0 | 3.7 |
| 1880–1891 | 17.3 | 5.4 |
| 1892–1894 | 17.7 | 6.8 |
| 1895–1897 | 18.5 | 7.6 |
| 1898–1901 | 16.2 | 7.5 |
[71] Further details on this subject may be found in “The Book of Women,” by Mrs. 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.
[CHAPTER XI.
The Chances of Matrimony.]
[1.—The Numerical Proportion of the Sexes.]
The usual advice to women to seek their salvation in marriage, this being their true profession, is thoughtlessly approved of by the vast majority of men. But it seems like mockery, that many of those who give such advice and of those who applaud it, refrain from marrying themselves. Schopenhauer, the philosopher, has only the conception of a philistine concerning woman and her position. He says: “woman is not called upon to perform great tasks. Her characteristic is not doing but suffering. She pays her debt to life by the throes of child-birth, care of her child and submissiveness to her husband. The supreme expressions of vitality and perception are denied her. Her life should be more tranquil and insignificant than man’s life. Woman is called upon to be the nurse and educator of childhood because she is childish herself; because throughout life she remains a big child, a sort of intermediary stage between child and man, the true human being.... Girls should be reared to be domestic and submissive.... Women are the most thoroughgoing, incurable philistines.”
The work by Lombroso and Ferrero, “Woman as a Criminal and Prostitute”, is also written in the spirit of Schopenhauer. We have never met with an equally extensive scientific book,—it consists of 590 pages,—that contains so little convincing material in regard to the subject it deals with. The statistics from which the most daring conclusions are drawn, are very inadequate. Sometimes a dozen cases have sufficed the author to form a weighty opinion. It is a noteworthy fact that the material contained in the book which may be regarded as the most trustworthy has been furnished by a woman, Dr. Mrs. Tarnowskaya. The influences of social conditions and social development are almost entirely disregarded. All phenomena are judged from a narrow physiological and psychological point of view and much ethnological information concerning various peoples—is interwoven with the argumentation, without any attempt being made to investigate the nature of this information. According to the authors, as according to Schopenhauer, woman is a big child, an incarnate liar, weak in her judgment, fickle in love, incapable of any heroic deed. The inferiority of woman,—so they claim,—has been proven by a great many physical differences and characteristics. “Woman’s love is, at the bottom, nothing but a secondary character of motherhood. All the sentiments of affection that bind a woman to a man are not derived from the sexual impulse but from instincts of devotion and submission acquired by adaptation.” But how these instincts were acquired the authors fail to examine. If they did, it would imply an investigation of the social position of woman during thousands of years which has made her what she is to-day. The authors describe the dependence and enslavement of woman among different nations and during various periods of civilization, but being blinded by a narrow conception of the Darwinian theory, they trace everything to physiological causes, and disregard the social and economic causes that have had the strongest influence on woman’s physiological and psychological development.
Among other things the authors discuss the vanity of woman and express the view that among people at a low stage of development men are the vain sex, which may be observed even to-day on the Hebrides, Madagascar and among the tribes about the Orinoco river, as also on many islands of the Polynesian Archipelago and among a number of African and South Sea Island tribes; while among nations of high stage of development, women are the vain sex. But why is this so? The answer is simple. Among peoples at a low stage of development, matriarchal conditions prevail or have been abandoned but recently. Here woman’s position is such that she is relieved of the necessity of wooing man. The man woos her, and for this purpose he adorns himself, he becomes vain. Among peoples at a higher stage of development, especially among all civilized nations, man does not woo woman, but woman woos man. It rarely occurs that woman takes the initiative and literally offers herself to a man; modesty forbids that. But the offer nevertheless is made by manner and dress, the luxury of her personal adornment and her coquetry. Such conduct is forced upon her by the fact that there are more women than men and by the social necessity of regarding marriage as a means of support and as the only institution by means of which she may satisfy her sexual impulse and obtain social recognition. Here again we find purely economic and social causes bringing forth qualities, now in the man and now in the woman, that we are accustomed to regard as quite independent of social and economic causes. From this we may draw the conclusion that when society has reached a state of development in which every form of dependence of one sex upon the other will cease, vanity and the follies of fashion will disappear as will many other vices that we deem ineradicable to-day, because we believe them to be inherent in human nature.
In regard to Schopenhauer it must be said that he, as a philosopher, is as biased in his judgment of women as the majority of our anthropologists and medical men who regard her only as a sex being, never as a social being. Schopenhauer had never been married. He failed to contribute his share that one more woman might fulfill the purpose in life that he prescribed to women. This leads us to another, no more pleasant phase of the question.
It is generally known that many women remain unmarried because they are given no opportunity to become married. Custom forbids the woman to offer herself. She must allow herself to be chosen; she may not choose. If she is not chosen she must join that great army of unfortunate women who have missed their purpose in life and who are frequently subjected to a life of poverty and want, sometimes made more bitter still by ridicule. But what causes the numerical disproportion of the sexes? Many are quick to reply: too many girls are born. The persons who make this statement are misinformed, as we shall see. Others draw the conclusion that if women are in the majority in most civilized countries, polygamy ought to be permitted. But polygamy is not only averse to our customs, it also entails the degradation of woman; although that did not prevent Schopenhauer from asserting that “to the female sex in general polygamy is a boon.” Many men do not marry because they believe that they are unable to support one woman and the children who are likely to be born according to their station in life. Only few men are able to support two women, and among these, many do have two or several wives: one legitimate wife, and one or several illegitimate wives. Those privileged by wealth allow nothing to prevent them from doing as they choose.
Even in the orient where custom and law have suffered polygamy to exist for thousands of years, relatively few men have more than one wife. We speak of the degrading influence of life in Turkish harems. But we overlook the fact that only very few men belonging to the ruling class can afford to maintain a harem, while the great mass of men live in monogamic marriage. In the city of Algiers at the close of the sixties of the last century, there were among 18,282 marriages no less than 17,319 with only one wife; there were 888 marriages with two wives, and only 75 with more than two. In Constantinople, the capital of the Turkish empire, conditions are probably quite similar. Among the rural population in the orient the conditions favoring monogamic marriage are still more striking. In the orient, as with us, material conditions come into consideration that compel the majority of men to content themselves with one wife.[74] But if conditions were equally favorable to all men polygamy could still not be generally maintained because there are not enough women. Under normal conditions the numbers of persons of both sexes are almost equal, which everywhere points to monogamic marriage. The following table which has been published by Buecher in the “General Statistic Records,” proves this assertion.[75]
| Number of male persons | Number of female persons | Entire population | Number of women for every 1000 men | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Europe | 170,818,561 | 174,914,119 | 345,732,680 | 1,024 |
| America | 41,643,389 | 40,540,386 | 82,183,775 | 973 |
| Asia | 177,648,044 | 170,269,179 | 347,917,223 | 958 |
| Australia | 2,197,799 | 1,871,821 | 4,069,620 | 852 |
| Africa | 6,994,064 | 6,771,360 | 13,765,425 | 968 |
| 399,301,857 | 394,366,865 | 793,668,722 | 988 |
The result of this compilation may, to many people, be a surprising one. With the exception of Europe where there are, on an average, 1,024 female inhabitants for every 1000 male inhabitants, the male population predominates. Even if we may assume that the information is incomplete, especially in regard to the female sex, and that especially in countries with a Mohammedan population the female population surpasses the given figures, the fact remains that, except in a few European countries, the female population nowhere considerably exceeds the male population. In the meantime the imperial bureau of statistics in Berlin has published a new compilation of the census in European and non-European countries which includes 883,000,000 people. “When we take into consideration the census, not included in this compilation, of Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Costa Rica, Argentine Republic, the Transvaal, Orange River Colony, Cyprus, Formosa and Pescadores, the number of enumerated inhabitants of the earth attains 882,000,000 with a general average of 991 female persons for every 1000 male persons. For the enumerated population of the earth we may therefore assume an almost equal representation of both sexes with a slight preponderance of the male.”[76]
In Europe the conditions are different. With the exception of the countries of South Eastern Europe, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Servia, Bulgaria, Rumania and Greece, the female population predominates. The proportion is least unfavorable in Hungary and Italy where there are respectively 1,009 and 1,010 female inhabitants for every 1000 male inhabitants. Belgium comes next with 1013 female for every 1000 male inhabitants. Portugal and Norway show the most unfavorable proportion; next to these Great Britain with 1063 female for every 1000 male inhabitants. France, Germany, Austria and Russia lie in the middle having for every 1000 male inhabitants respectively 1,033, 1,032, 1,035 and 1,029 female inhabitants.[77] In Germany during the last two decades each census has shown a more favorable proportion. On Dec. 1, 1885, the female population exceeded the male population by 988,376 persons. The census of Dec. 1, 1890, still showed an excess of the female population of 966,806 persons. 1895—957,401; 1900—892,684, and according to the census of Dec. 1, 1905 the excess of the female population had sunken to 871,916 persons (1029 female for every 1000 male inhabitants). The decline of this difference may be chiefly accounted for by the decline of emigration in which the male sex is mainly concerned. This may be clearly seen from the proportion of the sexes in the United States, into which the stream of emigration is mainly directed, and where the dearth of women is almost as great as the excess of women in Germany. In 1900 for every 1000 men there were only 953 women. This emigration from Germany decreased from 220,902 persons in 1881 to 22,073 persons in 1901 and to 19,883 persons in 1908. The fact, that more men than women emigrate, accounts in the first place then for the difference between the numbers of persons of both sexes. Italy furnishes a good example; for there the male population still predominated at the beginning of the forties of the last century, while at present the female population predominates, owing to the large emigration.
Furthermore, more men than women meet with accidents in agriculture, industry, commerce and traffic. Also more men are temporarily absent abroad as merchants, sailors, marines, etc. Another fact that has been statistically proven and that constitutes an important factor is that women on an average attain a higher age than men and that therefore there are more old women than old men. According to the census of 1900 the proportion of the sexes according to age in Germany was the following:
| AGE | Male | Female | More male | More female | Excess of female population |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 years | 6,904,732 | 6,871,599 | 33,133 | — | — |
| From 10 to 15 years | 2,925,918 | 2,912,573 | 13,345 | — | — |
| “ 15 “ 21 “ | 3,179,813 | 3,162,448 | 17,365 | — | — |
| “ 21 “ 30 “ | 4,251,204 | 4,293,775 | — | 42,571 | — |
| “ 30 “ 40 “ | 3,669,656 | 3,731,556 | — | 61,900 | — |
| “ 40 “ 50 “ | 2,770,451 | 2,923,228 | — | 152,777 | — |
| “ 50 “ 60 “ | 2,053,085 | 2,320,273 | — | 267,188 | — |
| “ 60 “ 70 “ | 1,300,637 | 1,545,808 | — | 245,171 | — |
| “ 70 years up | 681,751 | 868,671 | — | 186,920 | — |
| 27,737,247 | 28,629,931 | 63,845 | 956,527 | 892,684 |
This table shows that up to the twenty-first year the number of boys exceeds the number of girls.[78] This excess of boys is due to the fact that everywhere more boys than girls are born. The following number of boys and girls, for instance, were born in the German empire:
| During | the | year | 1872 | for | 100 | girls | 106.2 | boys |
| “ | “ | “ | 1884 | “ | 100 | “ | 106.2 | “ |
| “ | “ | “ | 1900 | “ | 100 | “ | 106.0 | “ |
| “ | “ | “ | 1905 | “ | 100 | “ | 106.3 | “ |
| “ | “ | “ | 1907 | “ | 100 | “ | 106.3 | “ |
But the male sex dies younger than the female sex; especially during infancy more boys than girls die. Our [table] shows that from the twenty-first year on the female population exceeds the male. The following figures show the death-rate of male and female inhabitants in Germany:
| During the years | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|
| 1872–1875 | 29.5 | 26.3 |
| 1876–1880 | 27.8 | 24.5 |
| 1881–1885 | 27.3 | 24.2 |
| 1886–1890 | 25.8 | 23.1 |
| 1891–1895 | 24.6 | 22.1 |
| 1896–1900 | 22.6 | 20.0 |
| 1901–1905 | 21.0 | 18.8 |
| [79] |
[79] Hygienic and ethnological conditions of the German Empire. Berlin, 1907—During the year 1907 for every 100 female deceased there were 109.3 male.
The [table on page 159] furthermore shows that at the true marriageable age, between the twenty-first and fiftieth year the female sex exceeds the male sex by 257,248 persons (in the year 1890 by 422,519) and between the fiftieth and seventieth year by 699,279 (in the year 1890 by 566,400). In Germany as in England the number of old women increases each year. A great disproportion, that constantly increases, is furthermore met with among widowed and divorced persons.
According to the census of 1890 and 1900 there were the following numbers of widowed persons in Germany:
| 1890 | 1900 | |
|---|---|---|
| Men | 774,967 | 809,238 |
| Women | 2,157,870 | 2,352,921 |
| More women than men | 1,382,903 | 1,543,683 |
These widowed persons were of the following ages:
| 1890 | 1900 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men | Women | Men | Women | |
| 40 to 60 years | 222,286 | 842,920 | 225,191 | 900,357 |
| 60 years and older | 506,319 | 1,158,712 | 537,116 | 1,299,905 |
The number of divorced persons were during 1890, 25,271 men and 49,601 women. During 1900, 31,279 men and 60,738 women. These were of the following ages:
| 1890 | 1900 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men | Women | Men | Women | |
| 40 to 60 years | 13,825 | 24,842 | 16,976 | 30,385 |
| 60 years and older | 4,917 | 7,244 | 5,713 | 8,452 |
These figures show us that widowed and divorced women are excluded from remarriage, even during the age best suited to marriage. For during the years 1890 and 1900 there were respectively 46,362 and 46,931 widowed men up to the fortieth year of age, while during the same years there were respectively 156,235 and 152,689 widowed women. There were divorced men in 1890 and 1900 respectively 6519 and 8590 and divorced women 17,515 and 21,901. Here the disadvantage of divorce to the women is proved by figures.
The following shows the proportion of unmarried persons during 1900:
| Men | Women | |
|---|---|---|
| 15 to 40 years | 6,700,352 | 5,824,464 |
| 40 to 60 years | 426,388 | 503,406 |
| 60 years and older | 141,416 | 252,134[80] |
Among the unmarried persons between the fifteenth and fortieth year there are, as above table shows, 875,888 more men than women, which appears to be very favorable to women. But men between the fifteenth and twenty-first year of age,—at which age there are 3,175,453 men to 3,064,567 women,—are, with very few exceptions, unable to marry. The same may be said of men between the twenty-first and twenty-fifth year of age, the great majority of whom are unable to support a family, while women of this age are all marriageable. When we furthermore consider the fact that for diverse reasons a great many men do not marry at all,—the number of unmarried men over 40 years were 567,804,—we find that the position of women in regard to marriage is a highly unfavorable one. A great many women then, under present-day conditions, are compelled to deny themselves the legitimate satisfaction of the sexual impulse, while men seek and find satisfaction in prostitution. The position of women would become a far more favorable one, as soon as a transformation of social conditions would abolish the obstacles that at present prevent hundreds of thousands of men from becoming married.
As already mentioned the disproportion in the numbers of the sexes is due to a great extent to emigration. Obligatory service in the army also drives many young men, frequently the strongest, to seek their fortune abroad. According to official reports of the army, 135,168 men were convicted of illicit emigration, and 13,055 more cases were being investigated. These figures include men up to the forty-fifth year. This illicit emigration of men from Germany causes a considerable loss. Emigration is especially large in the years following great wars; that was seen after 1866 and during the years 1871 to 1874.
We furthermore have great losses of life among men by accidents. In Prussia during the period from 1883 to 1905 no less than 297,983 persons were killed by accidents; of these there were, during the one year 1905, 11,792 men and 2,922 women. From 1886 to 1907, 150,719 persons were killed by accidents in industry, agriculture and state or municipal employment; only a small fraction of these were women. Another considerable portion of persons employed in these occupations become maimed or crippled for life and therefore unable to maintain a family. (There were 40,744 of these from 1886 to 1907.) Others die young leaving their families in the neediest circumstances. Much loss of life among men is also connected with navigation. From 1882 to 1907, 2,848 sea-going vessels were sunk, entailing a loss of life of 4,913 members of the crew,—almost all men,—and 1,275 passengers.
Only when the highest valuation of human life has been established,—which will be the case in a Socialistic community,—will society be enabled to prevent a great majority of accidents on land and sea. At present many persons are killed or maimed as a result of illapplied economy of employers. In many other cases accidents are due to excessive speed or over-fatigue of workers. Human life is cheap. When one workingman has been killed there are many others to take his place.
Especially in navigation many preventable accidents occur. By the revelations of Plimsoll in the English parliament during the seventies, the fact became generally known that many owners of unseaworthy vessels, impelled by criminal greed, insured these vessels at a high rate and then sent them with their crew to almost certain destruction, in order to obtain the amount of insurance. These are the so-called death-ships that are not unknown in Germany either. Every year the marine bureaus are called upon to pronounce their verdicts in connection with a number of marine accidents, and those verdicts usually show the accidents to be due to advanced age or overloading or improper condition of the vessel or insufficient equipment, or a number of these causes combined. In the cases of many sunken ships the causes of their sinking can never be determined, because the disasters occur in mid-ocean and no one survives to tell the tale. Many crimes are committed in this way. The stations for saving ship-wrecked persons established at the coasts, are also very insufficient because they are chiefly maintained by private charity. An organized society that will regard it as its highest duty to provide equally for all its members, will succeed in making all these accidents of extremely rare occurrence. But under the present predatory system, where human lives are regarded as mere ciphers and the sole aim is to attain the highest possible profit, a human life is sometimes sacrificed in order that a dollar may be gained.
[74] Throughout India polygamy exists in only a moderate form. According to the census of 1901 which includes all religions, there were for every 1000 married men, 1,011 married women. According to this the monogamic equilibrium is not seriously interfered with.—D. v. Mayer.
[75] Karl Buecher, on the distribution of both sexes upon the earth; lecture delivered on Jan. 6, 1892, before the Geographical and Statistical Society of Frankfort on the Main. General Statistic Records published by Dr. George v. Mayer. Vol. II. Tubingen, 1892.
[76] G. v. Mayer—Dr. G. Schnapper Arndt in his book of Social Statistics arrives at the same conclusion. “Taken all in all the proportion of both sexes is approximately equal.”
[77] According to G. Schnapper Arndt; founded on recent census figures, around the close of the century.
[78] According to the census of 1890, there was an excess of boys only up to the tenth year of age, and according to the census of 1895, up to the sixteenth year.
[80] Statistics of the German Empire. Census of Dec. 1, 1900.
[2.—Obstacles to Marriage.—The Excess of Women.]
There are still other causes that make marriage difficult or prevent it entirely. A considerable number of men are prevented from marrying by the state. People condemn the enforced celibacy of the Catholic clergy, but they do not mention the fact that a far greater number of soldiers are doomed to celibacy likewise. When an officer of the army wishes to marry, he not only requires the consent of his superiors, he is also denied the free choice of a wife, since it is prescribed that he must possess a certain amount of wealth. In Austria a captain of the army seeking to marry, must give a security of 30,000 florins if he is under thirty years of age, 20,000 florins if he is over thirty; minor officers must give a security of 16,000 florins. In all cases the fiancée of an army officer must have lead an immaculate life, and her standard of living must be suited to his rank. In Germany, officers of the army may seek permission to marry only when they can prove that they have an additional income. The required size of this additional income varies with the different ranks. These are striking proofs of the materialistic conception of marriage maintained by the state.
Public opinion in general maintains, that men should not marry until they have attained their twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth year of life. This opinion is founded on the fact that few men are able to support a family before they have reached this age. Only persons who are fortunate enough not to be obliged to win an independent position,—persons of princely rank, for instance,—form an exception. In their case we regard it as quite proper that a man should become married at eighteen or nineteen, and a maiden at fifteen or sixteen years of age. Princes come of age when they are eighteen years old, and are considered competent to rule the most numerous people. Common mortals do not come of age until they are twenty-one years old.
This difference of opinion in regard to the age at which marriage is desirable, shows that only social considerations are taken into account, that have no bearing upon man as a sex being. But nature will not be fettered by definite social conditions and the views that have sprung from these conditions. As soon as a human being has attained maturity, the sexual impulse manifests itself with all its vigor.
The advent of puberty with the female sex differs according to the individual, the climate and the mode of life. In the torrid zones it sets in as early as the ninth or tenth year, and sometimes one meets women of that age with their first babes in their arms; but they are faded when they have attained their twenty-fifth or thirtieth year.[81] In the temperate zones girls usually attain puberty at fourteen or sixteen years of age, in some cases later still. The age of puberty also differs with girls living in the country from those living in cities. Among the healthy, robust country girls who work hard, as a rule menstruation sets in later than among our poorly nourished, effeminate, ethereal young ladies in the cities, who suffer from over-excitement of the nerves. In the country puberty usually developes in the normal way. In the city its normal development is an exception, and not infrequently it is accompanied by various symptoms of disease that drive physicians to despair. Often physicians are obliged to say that the only certain cure would be marriage. But in many cases this cure cannot be applied, owing to the unsurmountable obstacles.
All these factors show where we must seek a change. To begin with, we need a complete revolution in our educational methods. We need a system of education that takes both the physical and intellectual qualities into consideration. Furthermore, we need an entirely different mode of living and working. But both cannot be brought about except by a complete transformation of social conditions.
Our social conditions have created a profound contradiction between man as a sex being and man as a social being. This contradiction has never been so noticeable as in the present age, and it leads to many evils and diseases to which women especially are subjected. In the first place the woman’s organism is far more influenced by her sex mission than man’s organism (for instance, the regular recurrence of menstruation); in the second place she is confronted by the greatest number of obstacles that prevent her from satisfying her strongest natural impulse in a natural way. This contradiction between natural impulse and social constraint leads to anomalies, to secret vices and excesses that are bound to undermine even strong constitutions. Unnatural satisfaction is frequently aided in a most shameless manner. In the advertisements of newspapers and periodicals, certain manufactures are recommended in a more or less veiled manner. These advertisements appeal to the wealthy classes of society, because the price of the manufactures are so high that a person of moderate means could not buy them. Besides we find advertisements of obscene pictures, entire series of photographs, and poetry and prose of a similar character, whose very titles are intended to produce sensual excitement. These matters ought to claim the attention of the police and public prosecutors. But these gentlemen are too busy persecuting Socialism, “that will destroy the home and the family,” to give their full attention to such doings. A part of our novels influence the sentiments of the reading public in the same direction. It is really not to be wondered at if sexual debauchery, artificially stimulated, gradually becomes a social disease.
Many women of the wealthy classes lead an idle, self-indulgent life. They stimulate their nerves by the most extraordinary means, and indulge in a certain enjoyment of art that creates an exaggerated sentimentality and heightens their nervous irritability. All this increases the sensual passions and naturally leads to excesses. Among poor people sexual irritability is frequently heightened by certain kinds of hard work, especially such work that compels people to lead a sedentary life which creates congestion of the blood in the abdominal organs. One of the most dangerous occupations in this respect is constant work at the sewing machine, an occupation in which a great many women are employed at present. This work is so detrimental to the health of women that ten to twelve hours of it daily will shatter the strongest constitution in a few years. Excessive sexual irritability is also brought about by long hours of work in a high temperature, for instance in sugar refineries, laundries, printing establishments, etc. The same may be said of night work with artificial light in overcrowded work-shops, especially where members of both sexes work together.
Here again we are confronted by a number of evils that clearly show the unhealthful and irrational character of present-day conditions. But these evils that are deeply rooted in our social conditions, cannot be removed by moralizing or by resorting to palliative measures, such as social and religious quacks always have in readiness. It is necessary to strike the root of the evil. The only redemption will be to bring about social conditions that shall enable all persons to obtain a natural education, to lead a healthful mode of life and work, and to find normal satisfaction of all natural and healthy desires.
Many obstacles do not exist for the man that do exist for the woman. Owing to his position of rulership, his free choice of a mate is in no wise hampered, except by the social considerations enumerated above. But the nature of marriage as a means of support, the numerical superiority of women, and custom,—all prevent the woman from asserting her wishes. She is obliged to wait until someone seeks her. As a rule she gladly avails herself of the first opportunity of finding a husband who will save her from the social disregard and indifference that are the usual portion of that unfortunate being, the old maid. Many women look down with disdain upon those of their sisters who are possessed of sufficient human dignity not to sell themselves into the prostitution of marriage to the first man who comes along, but prefer to walk on life’s thorny path alone. Nevertheless the man who wishes to marry for love has social obstacles to consider. He must ask himself: can I support a wife and the children who are likely to come, without being weighed down by financial cares? If the man has an ideal conception of marriage, if he is determined to let his choice be influenced by love only, this question becomes all the more important. At present conditions of earning and property are such, that many men must answer this question in the negative, and they accordingly prefer to remain unmarried. Many men do not acquire an independent position, suited to their demands, until late in life, and are not able to support a wife according to her station in life unless she has a considerable fortune of her own. It must be admitted of course, that many young men have an exaggerated idea of what constitutes living according to their station; but owing to the false education of many women and their social habits, these young men must indeed be prepared that their wives will make demands upon them that will exceed their means. They frequently do not make the acquaintance of the good, modest women who are simple in their tastes, because they are modest in their manners also and are not met with in society where men have accustomed themselves to seek wives, while the women they do meet often are the kind who seek to fascinate a man by outward appearances and to deceive him in regard to their personal qualities and their material position. When this type of woman has attained an age at which marriage becomes urgent, lures of all sorts are resorted to all the more eagerly. When such a woman has succeeded in capturing a man, she has become so accustomed to outward show, extravagance in dress and costly enjoyments that she wishes to maintain them in her married life. Here men find themselves on the verge of an abyss, and many prefer to leave the flowers that bloom at this abyss unplucked. They prefer to pursue their path alone and seek entertainment and enjoyment while maintaining their freedom. Deception and fraud are common practices in bourgeois society. It is not surprising that they also play a part in the contracting of marriages and entail severe suffering of both parties.
Statistics show that the educated and wealthy classes as a rule marry later in life than the lower classes. According to Westergaard the average age of marriage in Copenhagen was: among professional people, merchants, manufacturers and bankers, 32.2 years; among mechanics and small dealers, 31.2 years; among clerks and commercial employees, 29.7 years; among waiters and domestic servants, 28, and among factory workers, sailors and day-laborers, 27.5 years. In Prussia from 1881 to 1886 the average ages at which men married were: miners, 27.6; factory workers, 27.7; metal workers, 28; stone-masons, 28.2; building trades, 28.6; workers in wood, 28.7; machinists, 29; teaching, 29.1; agriculture, 29.6; railway service, 30; commerce, 30.9; physicians, clergymen and officials, 31.8 to 33.4. According to Ansell the average age at which the well-to-do and educated classes married in England from 1840 to 1871, was 29.95 years; but since then it has been raised. From 1880 to 1885, the average ages at which men of different professions married, were as follows:
| years | |
|---|---|
| Miners | 23.56 |
| Textile workers | 23.88 |
| Clothing trades | 24.42 |
| Mechanics | 24.85 |
| Day-laborers | 25.06 |
| Clerks | 25.75 |
| Merchants | 26.17 |
| Farmers | 28.73 |
| Professional men and capitalists | 30.72 |
These figures show how marriage is influenced by social position. The fact that the average age of marriage in most European states has been somewhat lowered during the last decades, is due to the general growth of industrialism. This may be seen in Germany, Austria and Sweden where the increase of early marriages is in connection with the growing number of persons employed in industry. In older industrial countries, as France and England, the average age of marriage has been raised. Russia forms an exception; here the rise in the average age of marriage is due to the abolition of communal property.
The number of men who are prevented from marrying for numerous reasons is constantly increasing. This applies especially to the men of the upper classes and the higher professions; firstly because they are more pretentious, and secondly because these men are best enabled to find companionship and pleasure outside of marriage. Conditions are especially unfavorable to women in places where there are many pensioners with their families, and few young men. There we find from twenty to thirty women among hundred who are unable to marry. The lack of men seeking marriage is most severely felt by those women, who have been accustomed by their social position to require a certain standard of life but who have no dowery. This is especially true of the young girls of those numerous families that depend upon a fixed salary which leaves them socially respectable but poor. These girls often become dangerous competitors to the working girls who earn their living by embroidery, making underwear, making artificial flowers, hats, gloves, etc.; that is, in all those trades in which the employers prefer to have the work done in the homes of the workers. These ladies often work for the lowest wages because they are not obliged to earn their living entirely but only wish to add to the family income or to earn enough to pay for their clothes. Employers favor the competition of these ladies, because it enables them to reduce the wages of the poor proletarian workers and to drive them to the utmost exertion of their strength. Many wives of government officials, whose husbands are poorly paid and cannot maintain them according to their standard of living, also employ their spare time in such sordid competition, which means increased exploitation among large strata of female proletarians.
The agitation carried on by the bourgeois women’s clubs to elevate women’s work and to gain admission for women into the higher professions, is especially destined to improve the position of women of the upper classes. In order to do this successfully, these clubs seek the patronage of ladies of high rank. In this respect the bourgeois women only follow the example of the bourgeois men, who also seek such patronage and become interested in such endeavors that only show small, never large results. In this way people waste a tremendous amount of effort, and deceive themselves and others in regard to the necessity of thorough-going reform. In these circles no doubt is permitted to arise as to the justice and wisdom of our present state and social order. The conservative nature of such endeavors prevent clubs of this kind from being permeated by so-called destructive tendencies. At a convention of women in Berlin during the spring of 1894, a minority expressed the thought that it might be well if the bourgeois women would co-operate with the proletarian women, that is, the Socialist women; but with a majority of the delegates this suggestion called forth a storm of protest. But the conservative tendencies of the bourgeois women will not accomplish the liberation of womankind.
How many women are excluded from marriage owing to the causes previously stated, cannot be definitely determined. The numerical superiority of women in Germany is distributed very unevenly, both in regard to the different countries and districts and in regard to age. The following table has been compiled from the census of 1900 (Statistic of the German Empire):
| Number of women for every 1000 men | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| under 15 | 15 to 40 | 40 to 60 | over 60 | |
| Berlin | 1012 | 1044 | 1191 | 1659 |
| Kingdom of Saxony | 1015 | 1030 | 1107 | 1360 |
| “ “ Bavaria to the right of the Rhine | 1015 | 1024 | 1083 | 1163 |
| “ “ Bavaria to the left of the Rhine | 986 | 997 | 1070 | 1157 |
| “ “ Wurtemberg | 1015 | 1041 | 1134 | 1179 |
| Baden | 1000 | 974 | 1079 | 1173 |
| Hamburg | 999 | 1031 | 1038 | 1454 |
| Province of Brandenburg | 993 | 1015 | 1089 | 1276 |
| “ “ Pomerania | 989 | 1035 | 1099 | 1214 |
| “ “ the Rhine | 991 | 954 | 1008 | 1120 |
| German Empire | 995 | 1008 | 1087 | 1218 |
At the true marriageable age, from 15 to 40 years, the numerical superiority of women in the entire German Empire is 8 for every 1,000 men. The number of male inhabitants between 15 and 40 years of age is 11,100,673; the number of female inhabitants between 15 and 40 years of age is 11,187,779. So we have a super-abundance of 87,106 women. In 1900 there were 11,146,833 German women of child-bearing age (18 to 45 years). Among these only 6,432,772 (57.71 percent) were married; 283,629 (2.54 percent) were widowed; 31,176 (0.28 percent) were divorced, and 4,399,286 (39.47 percent) were single. The following table shows the proportion of the sexes in other countries:
| In the year | Number of women for every 1000 men | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| under 15 | 15 to 40 | 40 to 60 | over 60 | ||
| Germany | 1900 | 995 | 1008 | 1087 | 1218 |
| Austria | 1890 | 1005 | 1046 | 1079 | 1130 |
| Hungary | 1900 | 998 | 1029 | 982 | 1033 |
| Servia | 1896 | 969 | 952 | 925 | 804 |
| Italy | 1881 | 963 | 1021 | 1005 | 980 |
| Switzerland | 1888 | 999 | 1059 | 1103 | 1148 |
| France | 1896 | 998 | 1012 | 1029 | 1108 |
| Louxembourg | 1900 | 992 | 853 | 988 | 1063 |
| Belgium | 1890 | 992 | 984 | 1018 | 1117 |
| Netherlands | 1899 | 986 | 1031 | 1031 | 1145 |
| Denmark | 1890 | 978 | 1080 | 1073 | 1179 |
| Sweden | 1899 | 971 | 1016 | 1146 | 1252 |
| England and Wales | 1891 | 1006 | 1075 | 1096 | 1227 |
| Scotland | 1891 | 973 | 1073 | 1165 | 1389 |
| Ireland | 1901 | 968 | 1037 | 1103 | 1032 |
| United States of America | 1900 | 979 | 969 | 989 | 987 |
| Egypt | 1897 | 943 | 996 | 943 | 1015 |
| Japan | 1891 | 978 | 962 | 951 | 1146 |
| New South Wales | 1891 | 978 | 827 | 679 | 665 |
| Queensland | 1891 | 976 | 698 | 559 | 611 |
| Tasmania | 1891 | 977 | 877 | 898 | 632 |
| New Zealand | 1891 | 979 | 927 | 661 | 654 |
| Cape of Good Hope | 1891 | 989 | 1008 | 939 | 1019 |
This table shows that in all countries having a similar economic structure, similar conditions exist in regard to the proportion of the sexes. In all these countries then a great many women,—apart from all other obstacles already mentioned,—have no prospect of becoming married. In England in 1901 among 1,000 women over 15 years only 496.4 were married; in Scotland, 442.8; in Ireland, 370.9; in Sweden, 468.2; in Norway, 469.9.
How do these facts impress those persons who oppose the struggle of women for independence and equal rights by relegating them to marriage and the home? It is not due to ill will on the part of the women if so many fail to marry.
But what becomes of these victims of our social conditions? That nature has been sinned against is expressed in the peculiar features and traits of character by which old maids and ascetic old bachelors are distinguished from other persons in all countries and climates, and goes to show the strong and harmful influence resulting from the suppression of natural instincts. Many forms of hysteria among women are due to this cause. Hysteria is also caused by dissatisfaction in marriage, which sometimes results in sterility.
These are the general characteristics of modern marriage and its results. From them we must draw the following conclusion: Present-day marriage is an institution that is closely connected with existing social conditions, with which it must stand and fall. But this marriage is in a state of decline and dissolution as bourgeois society itself. Which are the salient points that we have determined in regard to bourgeois marriage?
1.—The birth-rate is declining although the population is increasing, which shows that the economic status of the family has deteriorated.
2.—Divorces are increasing more rapidly than the population is growing, and in most cases women are the ones to seek divorce, although they suffer most in consequence of it, both economically and socially. This shows that the unfavorable factors in marriage are increasing, that marriage is in a state of dissolution.
3.—The marriage-rate is declining, notwithstanding the fact that the population is increasing; which proves that in the eyes of many persons marriage no longer accomplishes its social and moral purpose and is regarded as worthless or of doubtful value.
4.—In almost all civilized states there is a disproportion in the number of the sexes, the female sex predominating. This is not due to natural causes,—since more boys than girls are born,—but to unfavorable social and political factors that are rooted in conditions of state and society.
As all these unnatural conditions that are especially harmful to women are established by the nature of bourgeois society and increase with the duration of its existence, this society proves itself incompetent to abolish the evils and to liberate woman. To accomplish this a different social order will be necessary.
[81] Ely Metschnikoff—The Nature of Man.
[CHAPTER XII.
Prostitution a Necessary Social Institution of Bourgeois Society.]
[1.—Prostitution and Society.]
Marriage constitutes one phase of the sex relations of bourgeois society; prostitution constitutes the other. If men fail to find satisfaction in marriage, they, as a rule, seek it with prostitution; and those men who for one reason or another refrain from marrying, seek satisfaction with prostitutes also. To those men then, who voluntarily or involuntarily lead an unmarried life, and to those who do not find their expectations realized in marriage, opportunities for satisfaction of the sexual impulse are far more favorable than to women.
Men have always regarded it as their “just” privilege to employ prostitution. But they are relentless in condemning a woman who is not a prostitute, when she has “fallen.” That natural impulses are implanted in women as well as in men and that these manifest themselves particularly strongly at certain periods of a woman’s life, does not alter their judgment. By means of his ruling position man compels woman to suppress her most powerful instincts, and makes chastity the condition of her social position and of marriage. Nothing can prove the dependent position of woman in a more emphatic and revolting way than these vastly differing conceptions in regard to the satisfaction of the same natural impulse.
Man is especially favored by conditions. The results of sexual intercourse have been assigned to the woman by nature, while man has the enjoyment only without trouble or responsibility. This natural advantage of men over women has fostered the unbridled lust which characterizes a great many men. But as a great many causes prevent or limit the legitimate satisfaction of the sexual impulse the result is its illegitimate satisfaction.
Prostitution thus becomes a necessary social institution of bourgeois society, just as the police, the standing army, the church and the capitalist class. This is no exaggeration; we can prove it. We have shown how prostitution was regarded as a necessary institution in ancient society and how it was organized by the state in both Greece and Rome. We have also shown what views prevailed in regard to it during the Christian middle ages. Even St. Augustin who was, after Paul, the staunchest pillar of Christianity and ardently preached asceticism, could not refrain from exclaiming: “Suppress the public prostitutes and the force of passion will overturn everything.” St. Thomas Aquin, who is still considered the greatest authority on theology, has expressed the same opinion more forcibly still by saying: “Prostitution in the cities is like the cess-pool in the palace; if you remove the cess-pool the palace will become an unclean and evil smelling place.” The provincial council at Milan in 1665 held the same view. But let us consult some modern opinions.
Dr. F. S. Huegel says: “Advancing civilization will gradually clothe prostitution in more pleasing forms, but only with the destruction of the world will it come to an end!”[82] That is a bold assertion, but whoever cannot think beyond the form of bourgeois society, whoever does not admit that society will transform itself to attain healthful and natural conditions, must agree with Dr. Huegel. M. Rubner, an authority on hygiene, professor at the University of Berlin, and director of the Hygienic Institute, expresses a similar opinion. He says: “Prostitution of women has existed at all times and among all peoples. It is indestructable because it serves the sexual impulse and springs from human nature and because in many cases the tendency to prostitution is due to an innate vice of some women. Just as we find in every population geniuses beside idiots, giants besides dwarfs, and other abnormities, so we also find by the chance of birth abnormities which must lead to prostitution.”[83]
None of the above-named conceive the thought that a different social order might remove the causes of prostitution, and none seek to investigate the causes. Some who take up this problem faintly recognize that unfortunate social conditions, weighing heavily upon countless women, might be the chief cause why so many sell their bodies. But they do not draw the conclusion that if this be the case, it becomes necessary to bring about different social conditions. Among the few who recognize that economic conditions form the chief cause of prostitution is Th. Bade.[84] He says: “The causes of the boundless moral degradation from which the prostitute girls emerge are founded on social conditions. They are especially due to the decline of the middle classes, particularly the artisan class, among whom only very few continue to ply their trade independently.” Bade concludes his observations by saying: “Material need which has destroyed many middle class families and continues to destroy them also leads to their moral degradation, especially to that of the female sex.”[85]
But prostitution is not an institution of nature that, as R. Schmoelder says: “Will remain a constant companion of humanity,”[86] it is a social institution without which we cannot conceive bourgeois society.
The police physician of Leipsic, Dr. J. Kuehn, says: “Prostitution is not only a bearable, but a necessary evil. It protects women from adultery (which only men have a right to commit—the author) and guards virtue (of course the virtue of women because men are not required to be virtuous—the author) against assault and destruction.”[87] These words grossly characterize the incarnate selfishness of men. Kuehn maintains the correct position of a police physician, whose duty it is to guard men against unpleasant diseases by the police surveillance of prostitution. Only the man is taken into consideration to whom celibacy is horrible and a torture, but the millions of women doomed to celibacy must content themselves. What is considered right in the man’s case, is considered wrong, immoral and criminal in the woman’s.
Another interesting gentleman is Dr. Fock, who regards prostitution as a “necessary correlation of our civilization.”[88] He fears an overproduction of human beings if all persons should marry after having attained maturity, and therefore considers it important that prostitution should be regulated by the state. He considers police surveillance of prostitution justifiable, and that the State should furnish men with prostitutes who are free from syphilis. He declares himself in favor of closest surveillance of all women who can be convicted of leading a disorderly life. But can this surveillance be carried out, if ladies leading a disorderly life belong to the upper classes? It is the old story. Dr. Fock also recommends that a tax should be levied upon prostitutes and that they should be confined to certain streets. In other words, the Christian state should make prostitution a source of income by state organization and protection of vice in the interest of men.
Dr. Henry Severus,[89] who also favors legal recognition of prostitution maintains an original point of view. He regards it as a useful institution, because it is a necessary correlation of marriage, and that without it the free choice in marriage would be impaired. According to him prostitution is a sort of safety-valve of bourgeois society. He claims: “Much of the poverty that leads to such deplorable social conditions may be traced to the fact, that marriages are recklessly contracted, without questioning how the necessary means of livelihood might be obtained. It is in the interest of the state, that such marriages should not be contracted, for the children that spring from them cannot be sufficiently provided for by their parents, nor do they belong in the foundling hospital, being legitimate children, and thus become a peril to society. Prostitution,” he goes on to say, “prevents that the force of natural instinct should lead to the contracting of marriages that result in an increase of those elements of the population who, owing to lack of education and an unfortunate childhood, developes sentiments that are hostile to the state and become enemies of society.” So according to this, state regulation of vice furnishes a protection and a remedy against socialism—a view that may at least lay claim to originality.
So we may reiterate our assertion, prostitution is a necessary social institution of bourgeois society, just as the police, the standing army, the church and the capitalist class.
[82] F. Huegel.—History, Statistics and Regulation of Prostitution in Vienna, 1865.
[83] Max Rubner—Text Book of Hygiene. Leipsic, 1907.
[84] Th. Bade. Procurers and public dance halls.
[85] Statistics gathered by the Berlin police in 1871–72 concerning the parentage of 2,224 enrolled prostitutes showed the following figures: 1,015 equal 47.9 per cent. came from the artisan class; 467 equal 22.0 per cent. were daughters of factory laborers; 305 equal 14.4 per cent. of minor officials; 222 equal 10.4 per cent. of merchants, etc.; 37 equal 4.1 per cent. of farmers, and 26 equal 1.2 per cent of military men. With 102 the father’s profession could not be determined.
[86] R. Schmoelder, Punishment of fornication as a trade.
[87] J. Kuehn. Prostitution in the nineteenth century from the standpoint of police sanitation.
[88] Dr. Fock—Prostitution in its ethical and sanitary aspect.
[89] Dr. H. Severus—Prostitution and the state.
[2.—Prostitution and the State.]
State supervision and organization of prostitution does not exist in the German empire as it does in France; prostitution is merely tolerated. Disorderly houses are prohibited by law and procurers may be severely punished. But notwithstanding these laws in many German cities, among others in Mayence, Magdeburg, Altona, Kiel, Nuremberg, Worms, Freiburg, Leipsic, Regensburg, Hamburg, Augsburg, Wuerzburg, disorderly houses exist that are tolerated by the police.[90] This seems an incredible state of affairs and its contradiction to the laws must be well known to our government officials. According to German law, persons renting an apartment to a prostitute are subject to punishment. On the other hand, the police are obliged to tolerate thousands of prostitutes and to protect them in their trade if they submit to the prescribed rules, for instance, to regular examination by a physician. But if the state makes concessions to prostitutes and supports them in the plying of their trade, it is necessary for them to have a residence also; in fact, it becomes necessary to public health and order that their trade should be carried on in definite quarters. What contradictions! On the one hand the state officially recognizes prostitution; on the other hand it persecutes and punishes prostitutes and procurers. Moreover, this attitude of the state confirms, that to modern society, prostitution is a sphynx whose riddle it cannot solve. Religion and morality condemn prostitution, the laws punish it, and yet the state tolerates and protects it. In other words, our society that prides itself on its morality, its piety, its civilization and culture must suffer itself to be polluted by the slow poison of immorality and corruption. Still another conclusion follows from these conditions: the Christian state admits that marriage is insufficient and that the man is justified in seeking illegitimate satisfaction of the sexual impulse. The woman is taken into consideration by this same state only, inasmuch as she yields to the illegitimate satisfaction of male lust, that is, becomes a prostitute. The police supervision and control of enlisted prostitutes does not include the men who mingle with the prostitutes, which ought to be a matter of course if the medical surveillance were to be partly effective at least, quite disregarding the fact that justice demands that the law should be equally applied to both sexes.
This protection of the man from the woman by the state overturns the nature of conditions. It appears as if men were the weaker, and women the stronger sex, as if women were the seducer, and poor, weak man the seduced. The myth of temptation of Adam and Eve in Paradise continues to influence our conceptions and laws and sustains the Christian assumption, that “woman is the great seducer, the source of sin.” Men ought to be ashamed of the pitiable and unworthy part they are playing, but it is pleasing to them to be regarded as “weak” and as “victims of seduction” for the more they are protected the more they may sin.
Wherever men come together in great numbers, they do not seem to be able to enjoy themselves without prostitution. That was seen among other instances by the occurrences at the rifle match in Berlin during the summer of 1890. These occurrences caused 2,300 women to sign a petition to the mayor of the German capital, which read as follows: “We beg your honor to permit our quoting what has been reported in regard to this festival by the press and other sources. These reports, which we read with the greatest indignation and disgust, among other things thus described the entertainments provided at the festival: ‘First, German Herold, greatest Café Chantant of the world’; hundred ladies and forty gentlemen; besides small variety shows and rifle ranges from which exceedingly obtrusive women molested the men; furthermore free concerts, where lightly garbed waitresses boldly and unrestrained, with seductive smiles forced their attentions alike on men and youths, on college boys and fathers of families. But the ‘lady’ who was almost nude and who invited them to visit the booths ‘The Secrets of Hamburg, or a Night in St. Pauli,’ might at least have been removed by the police. But the worst, something that plain men and women from the provinces can hardly accredit to the far-famed capital of the empire, was the fact that the committee on arrangements had permitted, that instead of waiters, young women in great numbers were engaged as waitresses and bar-maids without pay. We German women, as mothers, wives and sisters, frequently have occasion to send our brothers, husbands, sons and daughters to Berlin in service of the fatherland, and so we beg your honor, trusting to your influence as chief executive of the national capital to investigate these occurrences and to prevent a repetition of these orgies, especially at the forthcoming celebration of the victory at Sedan.”
During all large festivals, including the national ones, when men come together in great numbers, similar scenes occur.[91]
The German governments made frequent attempts to do away with the contradiction that exists between the legal theories and actual practice in regard to prostitution. They introduced bills among other things, which authorized the police to assign definite places of residence to the prostitutes. It was admitted that prostitution could not be suppressed and that it would therefore be better to limit it to certain places and to control it. Such a law—on this all were agreed—would have reinstated the public brothels that had been officially abolished in Prussia during the forties of the last century. The introduction of these bills caused great excitement and aroused much protest. It was stated that the state by extending protection to vice spread the opinion that prostitution was not averse to morality and was an officially sanctioned trade. These bills that met with much opposition in Parliament, have until now, remained unsettled. But their very introduction shows the predicament of the state.
State regulation and control of vice not only create the belief among men that the state favors prostitution, it also leads them to believe that this regulation protects them from disease, and this belief makes men more reckless and increases the employment of prostitution. Public brothels do not diminish sexual diseases, they promote them, because men become more reckless and careless. To what conceptions the official protection of brothels leads may be seen from the term applied to the licensed prostitutes in England, who were called “Queen’s women” because they had obtained official recognition through a law enacted by the queen. Experience has taught, that neither the introduction of public brothels under police supervision nor regular medical examination insure safety from contagion.
To an inquiry from the woman’s committee of Vienna for combatting the state regulation of vice Dr. Albert Eulenburg wrote as follows: “In regard to the question of police supervision of prostitutes I fully share, as a matter of principle, the point of view set forth in your petition, though, of course I recognize the practical difficulty of its immediate application. I regard this practice which has been introduced in most countries as unjust, unworthy, and moreover as entirely unsuited to attain the object stated with any certain degree of safety.” On July 20, 1892, the Berlin Medical Society declared that the reinstatement of public brothels would be undesirable, both from a hygienic and moral point of view.
The nature of these diseases is such that in many cases it cannot be recognized easily, or at once, and to attain a certain degree of safety several daily examinations would be necessary. But this is impossible, owing to the great number of women in question and the large expense it would entail. Where 30 to 40 prostitutes have to be examined in one hour, the examination is nothing more than a farce, and in the same way one or two weekly examinations are entirely insufficient. Dr. Blaschko[92] says: “The belief, that control of prostitutes furnishes protection against contagion, unfortunately is a widespread and detrimental error. Rather can it be asserted that everyone who associates with a prostitute or a frivolous girl faces a grave danger each time.”
The success of these measures fails also because the men who carry the germs of disease from one woman to another remain entirely free from control. A prostitute who has just been examined and found healthy may become infected by a diseased man in the very same hour, and before the next examination takes place, or before she herself has become aware of the disease, she may have infected a number of other visitors. The control is an imaginary one. Besides the obligatory examinations by male instead of female physicians deeply injure the sense of modesty and help to destroy it completely. This statement is confirmed by a great many physicians who perform such examinations.[93] The same is admitted even in the official report of the Berlin police department, where it says it must be admitted that official enrollment still increases the moral degradation of those affected by it.[94] The prostitutes do whatever they can to escape this control.
Another evil result of these measures is, that it is made very difficult, indeed almost impossible to prostitutes, to return to a decent means of livelihood. A woman who has fallen into police control is lost to society; as a rule she miserably perishes after a few years. The fifth congress for combatting immorality, held in Geneva, thus expressed itself forcibly and correctly against the state regulation of vice: “The obligatory medical examination of prostitutes is a cruel punishment to the woman, for in those who are subjected to it the last remnant of modesty that may still exist in the most depraved, is forcibly destroyed. The state that seeks to regulate prostitution by police control forgets that it owes equal protection to both sexes, it degrades and demoralizes the woman. Every system of official regulation of vice permits of arbitrary police rule and leads to the infringement of personal safety against arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, against which even the lowest criminal is guarded. As these encroachments occur only at the expense of the woman, they lead to an unnatural inequality between her and the man. The woman is degraded to a mere object and is no longer treated as a person. She is excluded from the law.”
How little police and medical control avail has been strikingly shown in England. Before the beginning of official regulation, in the year 1867, the number of venereal diseases in the army were, according to a military report, 91 per 1,000. In 1886, after the regulation had been in effect for nineteen years they were 110 per 1,000. In 1892, six years after the regulation laws had been repealed they were only 79 per 1,000. Among civilians the cases of syphilis were 10 per 1,000 during the years 1879 to 1882, that was during the years of public regulation. After the abolition of public regulation, from 1885 to 1889 they were only 8.1 per 1,000.
The prostitutes themselves were far more affected by the regulation laws than the soldiers. In 1866 there were among 1,000 prostitutes, 121 cases of disease. In 1868 after the law had been in force for two years there were 202 cases among 1,000. After that the number gradually decreased, but in 1874 there still were 16 cases more per thousand than in 1866. The death rate among prostitutes also increased appallingly during the reign of that law. When at the close of the sixties of the last century the English government attempted to extend the regulation laws to include all English cities, a storm of indignation arose among English women. They regarded the law as an insult to their entire sex. The habeas corpus, they claimed, that fundamental law which guaranteed protection to every English citizen, was to be abolished for women; every brutal police officer impelled by revenge or other base motives, would be permitted to attack the most respectable woman if he suspected her of being a prostitute, while the licentiousness of men would not be interfered with, but would on the contrary be protected and fostered by law.
The fact that English women under the leadership of Josephine Butler championed the most degraded of their sex, caused ignorant men to misconstrue their intentions and to make insulting remarks about them. But regardless of these attacks they opposed the extension of the obnoxious law with utmost energy. In newspaper articles and pamphlets arguments in favor of it and against it were fully discussed, until its extension was prevented, and in 1886 is was repealed.[95]
The German police has a similar power, and sometimes cases have been called to public attention in Berlin, Leipsic, Cologne, Hannover and many other places, showing that abuses or “misunderstandings” easily occur with the exercise of this power, but not much is heard among us of an energetic opposition to such transgressions.[96] In Norway, brothels were prohibited in 1888, and in the capital, Christiania, the obligatory registration of prostitutes and the medical examination connected with it was abolished. In January, 1893, the same ordinance was enacted for the entire country. Very correctly Mrs. Guillaume-Shack says in regard to state “protection” for men: “To what purpose do we teach our sons to respect virtue and morality if the state declares vice to be a necessary evil; if young men, before they have even attained intellectual maturity, are given women stamped like commodities by the public authorities as playthings of their passions?”
A man inflicted with a sexual disease may indulge in unbridled licentiousness and may infect any number of these unfortunate beings, most of whom have been driven by seducers or by bitterest need into this abominable trade. The law leaves him unmolested. But woe to the poor, diseased prostitute who does not immediately submit to medical treatment! The garrison towns, university towns and sea port towns, where many strong, healthy men aggregate, are the chief centers of prostitution and its dangerous diseases, which are disseminated all over the land and everywhere spread suffering and destruction. The moral qualification of a great number of our students is described in the following manner in the “Gazette for Combatting Public Immorality”[97]: “Among a majority of the students the views concerning moral questions are appallingly base, almost depraved.” From these circles that boast about their “German spirit” and “German morals,” our public officials, prosecutors and judges are obtained. How bad matters must be, especially among students, may be seen from the following: In the fall of 1901, a large group of professors and physicians, among them leading men in their professions, published an appeal to German students, in which they called special attention to the deplorable results of sexual debauchery, and also warned the young men of excessive indulgence in alcoholic drinks, which in many cases have a stimulating influence on sexual debauchery. At last people are beginning to recognize that the policy of silence is a mistaken one, and that we must call a spade a spade, if we would check an immeasurable disaster. Among other classes of society also this warning should not remain unheeded.
The Biblical utterance that the sins of the fathers shall be visited upon their children applies in its fullest measure to the man afflicted with a sexual disease; unfortunately also to his innocent wife. “Apoplectic strokes among young men and women, forms of paralysis of the spine and softening of the brain, various nervous diseases, weakening of the eye sight, inflammation of the bowels, sterility and general debility are frequently due to no other cause than a neglected case of syphilis, that has, for good reasons been kept secret. As conditions are to-day ignorance and carelessness transform blooming daughters of the nation into weak and sickly creatures who must pay with chronic diseases for the extravagances of their husbands before and outside of marriage.”[98] Dr. A. Blaschko says among other things: “Epidemics like cholera, small pox, diphtheria and typhoid terrify the people, because the suddenness of the results are clearly visible to everybody. But syphilis is regarded by society with an appalling indifference. And yet syphilis is far more widespread and much more terrible in its effects than any of the above-mentioned diseases.”[99] The fact that we regard it as “indecent” to discuss such matters, accounts for this indifference. Even the German diet could not bring itself to provide legally for the treatment of persons afflicted with sexual diseases by means of the sick benefit funds, as in the case of other diseases.[100]
The poison of syphilis is the most tenacious and the hardest to eradicate of all poisons. Many years after the disease has been apparently cured the evil results frequently manifest themselves in the wife of the diseased or in his new-born children, and countless sicknesses of married women and children are due to the sexual diseases of husbands and fathers. In a petition addressed to the German Parliament in the fall of 1899 by the society “Jugendschutz” (protection of the young) it was stated that there are about 30,000 children in Germany who are blind from birth due to contagion from gonorrhoea, and that among 50 per cent of childless women, sterility is due to the same cause.[101] As a matter of fact an alarmingly large number of marriages is childless, and moreover the number of childless marriages is increasing. Feeble-mindedness and idiocy among children is also not infrequently due to the same cause, and many instances have shown what disasters can be caused with vaccination by a single drop of blood inoculated with the poison of syphilis. The great number of persons suffering from a sexual disease has caused several suggestions to be made for the enactment of a national law providing special treatment for persons so afflicted. But until now no such step was taken, probably because one feared the enormity of the evil that would then become manifest. Medical authorities have generally gained the conviction, that gonorrhoea, which was formerly regarded as harmless, is one of the most dangerous of these diseases. This disease continues to act upon the human system even after it has been apparently cured. As Dr. Blaschko reported in a lecture in Berlin on the 20th of February, 1898, the medical examinations of prostitutes reveal only one-fourth, or at best one-third of the actual number of cases. As a matter of fact, the overwhelmingly great majority of prostitutes are afflicted with this disease, while only a small percentage of the cases are properly diagnosed. Of those in whom the disease is recognized it is again only a small percentage with whom a permanent cure is effected. Here society is confronted by an evil for which it has no remedy as yet, but which is an imminent peril to mankind, especially to its female half.
[90] Paul Kampffmeyer—Prostitution as a social class phenomenon and the social and political struggle against it.
[91] “When the Farmers’ Association convenes in the Circus Bush, or large conventions are being held in Berlin, there is a rise in price of human flesh.” Satyr—Life at Night in the Friedrich Strasse, Berlin, 1907.
[92] Handbook of Hygiene, published by Th. Weyl, M. D. Hygiene of Prostitution and Venereal Diseases, compiled by Dr. A. Blaschko, Berlin.
[93] “As a matter of fact the system of regulation does not successfully fight the venereal diseases, nor even noticeably diminish them. The delusive feeling of safety given to men makes them more reckless. The increase in the number of correlation heightens the danger of contagion by at least as much as it has been diminished by the removal of a few who were seriously diseased.” August Forel—The Sex Question, Munich, 1907.
[94] Third report of the royal police department of Berlin for the years 1881 to 1890.
[95] The most reliable supporters of the women were the English workingmen. In her famous publication on “The History of a Crusade,” Josephine Butler says: “We resolved to appeal to the nation. In the fall of 1869 we sent personal letters to every member of Parliament of both houses and to many other leaders of political and religious parties. Of all the replies received only very few expressed complete agreement with our point of view. As we obtained so little encouragement from those circles whose interest we had hoped to win, we turned to the working class population of the country. I am conscious of the fact that the working class has its faults and is no less devoid of egotism than other classes of the population. But I am firmly convinced that when the people are appealed to in the name of justice they almost invariably show a loyal and reliable conviction.”
[96] In 1901 it occurred in Vienna that a French lady was abused by the police agent, Newhofer, amidst the shouts of a mob, was imprisoned among prostitutes and subjected to a forcible medical examination. This case led to five interpellations in the diet. In 1902 in Hamburg and Kiel ladies were arrested as prostitutes and were treated with brutality. These occurrences led to a gigantic meeting of protest in Hamburg on September 8, that was attended by members of all parties.
[97] August 15, 1893, Berlin.
[98] The detrimental results of prostitution. Dr. Oscar Lassar, Berlin, 1892, August Hirschwald.
[99] Treatment of sexual diseases in sick benefit fund institutions and hospitals, Berlin, 1890.
[100] The ordinance of the insurance laws which enabled communities to refuse the payment of sick benefits in cases of sexual diseases was repealed by a law on May 25, 1903, that went into effect January 1, 1904.
[101] Examinations in asylums for the blind showed that the following number of persons were blind from birth through infection: Berlin, 21.3; Vienna, 31; Breslau, 35.1; Budapest, 47.9; Munich, 73.8.—Th. Weyl, Social Hygiene, Jena, 1904.
[3.—The White Slave Trade.]
As the number of men increases who refrain from marriage, be it by choice or under the pressure of circumstances, and who seek illegitimate satisfaction of the sexual impulse, the temptations and opportunities for illegitimate satisfaction increase likewise. Because immoral enterprises yield high profits many unscrupulous persons are engaged in them, and resort to the craftiest methods to attract customers. Every requirement of the patrons according to position and rank and means is taken into consideration. If the public brothels could reveal their secrets, it would become known that their inmates, who are of lowly birth, ignorant and uneducated, but possessed of physical charms, have intimate relations with educated and cultured men who occupy prominent social positions. Here they freely come and go, public officials, military men, representatives of the people, judges, the aristocracy of birth and finance, of commerce and industry. Many of these men are regarded as upholders of public morality and guardians of the sanctity of marriage and the family, and some are leaders of Christian charitable undertakings and members of organizations “to combat prostitution.” In Berlin, the owner of one of these establishments serving immoral purposes even publishes an illustrated gazette, in which the doings of his patrons are described. In this establishment 400 persons can be seated, and every evening a fashionable gathering assembles there, among them (so the gazette tells us) many members of the aristocracy. Frequently well known actresses and famed belles of the demi-monde are present. The merriment reaches its height when in the wee hours of the morning the proprietors arrange an eel-catching tournament. Then the fair patronesses squat about the tanks with their clothes tucked up and try to catch the eel, and so forth. The police is well aware of these doings, but carefully refrains from interfering with the amusements of fashionable society. The following circular, sent by the management of a Berlin dancing establishment to fashionable men, is another shameless form of pandering. It reads: “The undersigned management of the hunting establishment to whom you, dear sir, have been recommended as a passionate hunter, beg to call your attention to a newly-opened hunting ground with a splendid stock of deer and to invite you to the first chase on August 26th. Special circumstances make our new hunting grounds particularly convenient and pleasant: they are located in the heart of the city and the game-laws are not enforced.” Our bourgeois society is like a great masquerade in which all seek to deceive one another. Every one wears his official gown with dignity, while inofficially he indulges his passions without restraint. Yet, outwardly, all feign decency, religiousness and morality. In no age was hypocrisy as widespread as in ours.
The supply of women for immoral purposes increases faster than the demand. Unfavorable social conditions, poverty, seduction, and the fact that many women are attracted by the outward glitter of an apparently free life, help to furnish victims from all strata of society. In a novel by Hans Wachenhusen[102] we find a characteristic description of the conditions that prevail in the German capital. The author thus describes the purpose of his novel: “My book especially tells of the victims of the female sex and their increasing depreciation as a result of our unnatural social conditions, partly through their own fault, partly through a neglected education and the love of luxury. It tells of the surplus of this sex that makes the lives of those, who are born and grow up, more hopeless each day. I wrote as a public prosecutor might write, who had gathered data from the life of a criminal to determine his guilt. If a novel is supposed to be drawn from imagination, then the following is not a novel, but a faithful portrayal of life.” In Berlin conditions are neither better nor worse than in other large cities. Whether orthodox St. Petersburg or Catholic Rome, Christian Berlin, or heathenish Paris, Puritan London or frivolous Vienna is more nearly like ancient Babylonia, it is hard to determine. Similar social conditions bring forth similar results. “Prostitution has its written and unwritten laws, its resources, its various resorts from the lowliest, to the glittering palace, its countless degrees from the lowest to the most cultured and refined. It has its special amusements and its special places of meeting, its police, its hospitals, its prisons and its literature.”[103] “We no longer celebrate the festivals of Osiris, the Bacchanalia and the Indian orgies in the spring month, but in Paris and other large cities in the darkness of night behind the walls of public and private houses, orgies and Bacchanalia take place that beggar description.”[104]
Under such conditions the traffic in women assumes huge dimensions. It is carried on in the midst of civilization on a large scale and in a well organized manner, and is but rarely detected by the police. An army of male and female jobbers, agents and transporters carry on the trade in as cold-blooded a manner as if they were bartering a commodity. Certificates are made out that contain an exact description and qualification of the various “pieces” and are handed to the transporters as a bill of lading for the customer. As with all merchandise, the price varies according to the quality, and the “goods” are assorted and shipped from different places and countries according to the taste and requirements of the customers. By skilful manipulations the traders seek to escape the pursuit of the police, and sometimes large sums are employed to bribe the guardians of law and order. A number of such cases have been revealed in Paris.[105]
To Germany belongs the deplorable reputation of being a market for women to half the world. The rambling spirit, which is innate in the German people, also seems to affect a portion of the German women, so that they furnish a larger quota to international prostitution than the women of other nations, with the exception of Austria and Hungary. German women populate the harems of the Turks and the public brothels in the interior of Siberia and as far as Bombay, Singapore, San Francisco and Chicago. In his book on travel “From Japan, through Siberia to Germany,” the author, W. Joest, says the following about the German white-slave trade: “In our moral Germany, people often grow indignant over the slave trade carried on by some negra sovereign in western Africa, or over conditions in Cuba or Brazil, while we ought to consider the beam in our own eye. In no other country of the world white slaves are bartered to the same extent, from no other countries are such large quantities of this living merchandise shipped as from Germany and Austria. The course taken by these girls can be clearly traced. From Hamburg they are shipped to South America, Bahie, Rio de Janeiro; the greater part are bound for Montevideo and Buenos Ayres, while a few go through the Straits of the Magellan to Valparaiso. Another stream is directed over England to North America, but there competition with the domestic product is unfavorable to the trade, so the girls are shipped down the Mississippi to Texas and Mexico. From New Orleans the coasts down to Panama are furnished. Other troops of girls are sent across the Alps to Italy and on to Alexandria, Suez, Bombay, even to Hongkong and Shanghai, Dutch India and eastern India, especially Japan are poor markets, because Holland will not tolerate white girls of this sort in its colonies, and because in Japan the native girls are far too pretty and cheap. Moreover, the trade must reckon with American competition from San Francisco. Russia is supplied by eastern Prussia, Pomerania and Poland. The first station is Riga. Here the dealers from St. Petersburg and Moscow assort their merchandise and send it in great quantities to Nishny Novgorod across the Ural Mountains to Irbit and Krestowsky and even into the interior of Siberia. In Tschita, for instance, I met a German girl who had been traded in this way. This trade is thoroughly organized—agents and traveling salesmen carry on the negotiations. If the foreign office of the German Empire would ask its consuls for reports on this trade interesting tables might be compiled.”
That this traffic is flourishing, has been repeatedly stated by Socialist deputies in the German Parliament.
Other centers of the white-slave trade are Galicia and Hungary, from where women are sent to Constantinople and other Turkish cities. Especially many Jewesses, who are otherwise rarely met with in public brothels are bartered to the Turks. The prices for the journey and other expenses are usually paid to the agents in advance. In order to deceive the public authorities, fictitious telegrams, that are not likely to attract attention, are sent to the customer. Some of these telegrams read: “Five kegs of Hungarian wine will arrive in Varna to-morrow,” meaning five beautiful girls; or “Have shipped three barrels of potatoes by S. S. Minerva.” This refers to three less beautiful girls: “Common goods.” Another telegram reads: “Will arrive next Friday per S. S. Kobra; have two bales of fine silk on board.”
[102] “What the street engulfs.” Social novel in 3 vols., Berlin. A. Hoffmann & Co.
[103] Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell—The Moral Education.
[104] Mantegazza—L’Amour Dans L’Humanitè.
[105] The relation of the police to prostitution is an interesting one in more than one respect. In 1899 it was shown in a trial in Berlin that a police commissioner employed a prostitute to watch and question a student whom he suspected of being an anarchist. In Prague the wife of a common policeman had her license for maintaining a disorderly house revoked because her husband had ill-treated a prisoner. So the police rewards its officers by giving them licenses for the maintenance of disorderly houses. What lovely conditions!
[4.—The Increase of Prostitution.—Illegitimate Motherhood.]
It is difficult to estimate the number of prostitutes—impossible to determine it exactly. The police may approximately determine the number of women for whom prostitution is the sole or chief source of income, but they can not determine the far greater number of those who resort to prostitution as a partial support. Nevertheless the numbers that have been determined are enormous. According to Oettingen at the close of the sixties of the last century the number of prostitutes in London was estimated to be 80,000. In Paris on January 1, 1906, the number of enrolled prostitutes was 6,196, but more than one-third of these manage to evade police and medical control. In 1892 there were about 60 public brothels in Paris, harboring from 600 to 700 prostitutes; in 1900 there were only 42. Their number is constantly decreasing (In 1852 there were 217 public brothels). At the same time the number of private prostitutes has greatly increased. An investigation, undertaken by the municipal council of Paris in 1889, estimated that the number of women who sell their bodies had reached the enormous figure of 120,000. The chief of police of Paris, Léfrine, estimates the number of enrolled prostitutes at 6,000 and the number of private prostitutes at 70,000. During the years 1871 to 1903 the police inhibited 725,000 harlots and 150,000 were imprisoned. During the year 1906, the number of those who were inhibited amounted to no less than 56,196.[106]
The following numbers of prostitutes were enrolled with the Berlin police: In 1886, 3006; in 1890, 4,039; in 1893, 4,663; in 1897, 5,098; in 1899, 4,544, and in 1905, 3,287. In 1890 six physicians were employed, who performed examinations for two hours daily. Since then the number of physicians has been increased to twelve, and since several years a female physician has been employed to perform these examinations, notwithstanding the objections of many male physicians. In Berlin, as in Paris, the enrolled prostitutes only constitute a small fraction of the entire number, that authorities on this subject have estimated to be at least 50,000. In the single year 1890 there were 2,022 waitresses in the cafés of Berlin, who, with very few exceptions were given to prostitution. The yearly increase in the number of harlots inhibited by the police also shows that prostitution in Berlin is growing. The numbers of those inhibited were: In 1881, 10,878; in 1890, 16,605; in 1896, 26,703: in 1897, 22,915. In the year 1907 17,018 harlots were brought to trial before the magistrates, which was about 57 for each day the court was in session.
How large is the number of prostitutes throughout Germany? Some claim that there are about 200,000. Stroehmberg estimates the number of enrolled and private prostitutes in Germany to be between 75,000 and 100,000. In 1908 Kamillo K. Schneider attempted to determine the exact number of enrolled prostitutes. His table for the year 1905 includes 79 cities. “As besides these there are other large places in which a considerable number of girls may be found, he believes 15,000 to be a fairly correct estimate of the entire number. With a population of approximately 60,600,000 inhabitants that means one enrolled prostitute for 4,040 inhabitants.” In Berlin there is one prostitute for 608, in Breslau for 514, in Hannover for 529, in Kiel for 527, in Danzig for 487, in Cologne for 369, and in Brunswick for 363 inhabitants. The number of enrolled prostitutes is constantly decreasing.[107] According to various estimates the ratio of the number of public controlled prostitutes is to the number of private prostitutes, as 1 to 5, or 1 to 10. We are, accordingly dealing with a vast army of those to whom prostitution is a means of subsistence, and conformably great is the number of victims claimed by disease and death.
That the great majority of prostitutes grows thoroughly tired of their mode of life, that it even becomes revolting to them, is an experience on which all authorities are agreed. But very few of those who have fallen victims to prostitution ever find an opportunity to escape from it. In 1899 the Hamburg branch of the British, Continental and General Federation undertook an investigation among prostitutes. Although only few answered the questions put to them, these answers are quite characteristic. To the question “Would you continue in this trade if you could find some other means of support?” one replied, “What can one do when one is despised by all people?” Another replied, “I appealed for help from the hospital”; a third, “My friend released me by paying my debts.” All suffer from the slavery of their liabilities to the brothel keepers. One gave the information that she owed her landlady $175. Clothes, underwear, finery, everything is furnished by the keepers at fabulous prices; they are also charged the highest prices for food and drink. Besides, they must pay the keeper a daily sum for their room. This rent amounts to $1.50, $2 or $3 daily. One wrote that she was compelled to pay her procurer from $5 to $6 daily. No keeper will permit a girl to depart unless she has paid her debts. The statements made by these girls also cast an unfavorable light on the actions of the police, who side more with the brothel keepers than with the helpless girls. In short, we here behold in the midst of Christian civilization, the worst kind of slavery. In order to better maintain the interests of their trade, the brothel keepers have even founded a trade paper that is international in character.
The number of prostitutes increases at the same rate at which the number of working women increases, who find employment in various lines of trade at starvation wages. Prostitution is fostered by the industrial crises that have become inevitable in bourgeois society, and to hundreds of thousands of families mean bitter need and desperate poverty. A letter sent by the chief of police, Bolton, to a factory inspector on October 31, 1865, shows that during the crisis of the English cotton industry caused by the Civil War in the United States, the number of young prostitutes increased more than during the preceding twenty-five years.[108] But not only working girls fall victims to prostitution. Its victims are also recruited from the “higher professions.” Lombroso and Ferrero quote Macé,[109] who says of Paris: “The certificate of a governess of a higher or lower grade is far less an assignment to a means of support than to suicide, theft and prostitution.”
Parent-Duchatelet has at one time compiled statistics which showed the following. Among 5,183 prostitutes there were 1,441 who were driven to prostitution by utmost need and misery. 1,225 were orphans and poor. 86 had become prostitutes to support old parents, young brothers and sisters, or their own children. 1,425 had been deserted by their lovers; 404 had been seduced by officers and soldiers and had been carried off to Paris. 289 had been servant girls who were seduced by their employers and subsequently discharged, and 280 had come into Paris to seek employment.
Mrs. Butler, the ardent champion of the poorest and most unfortunate of her sex, says: “Accidental circumstances, the death of a father or a mother, unemployment, insufficient wages, poverty, false promises, seduction, the laying of snares may have driven her into her misfortune.” Very instructive is the information given by Karl Schneidt in a pamphlet on “The Misery of Waitresses in Berlin,”[110] in regard to the causes that drive so many of them to prostitution. He says that a surprisingly large number of servant girls become waitresses, which means in nearly all cases that they become prostitutes. Among the answers Schneidt received to his list of questions that he circulated among waitresses are the following: “Because I became pregnant by my employer and had to support my child”; “because my book of references was spoiled”; “because I could not earn enough by sewing and such work”; “because I had been discharged from the factory and could not find other employment”; “because my father died and there were four younger ones at home,” etc. That servant girls, who have been seduced by their employers, constitute a large quota of the prostitutes is a well known fact. Dr. Max Taube[111] makes some very incriminating statements concerning the great number of seductions of servant girls by employers or their sons. The upper classes also furnish their quota to prostitution. Here poverty is not the cause, but seduction, the inclination to lead a frivolous life, the love of dress and enjoyment. A pamphlet on “Fallen Girls and Police Control”[112] contains the following statement in regard to the prostitutes from these classes: “Horror stricken many a worthy citizen, minister, teacher, public official or military man learns that his daughter is secretly addicted to prostitution. If all these daughters could be named a social revolution would have to take place, or the public ideas concerning virtue and morality would be seriously impaired.” The high class prostitutes, the smart set among them, are drawn from these circles. A great many actresses also owing to a glaring disparity between their salary and the cost of their wardrobe, are compelled to resort to this vile means of support.[113] The same is true of many other girls who are employed as salesladies and in similar positions. Many employers are so infamous that they seek to justify low wages by hinting at the assistance from “friends.” Seamstresses, dressmakers, milliners, factory workers numbering many thousands are subjected to the same conditions. Employers and their assistants, merchants, landed proprietors, etc., frequently regard it as their privilege to make female workers and employees subservient to their lusts. Our pious conservatives like to point to the rural conditions in regard to morality as a sort of ideal compared to the large cities and industrial districts. But whoever is acquainted with the conditions knows that they are not ideal. We find this opinion confirmed by a lecture delivered by the owner of a knightly estate in the fall of 1889, which newspapers in Saxony reported in the following manner:
“Grimma. Dr. v. Waechter, owner of a knightly estate, at a meeting of the diocese which was held here delivered a lecture on sexual immorality in our rural communities, in which local conditions were depicted in no favorable light. With great frankness the lecturer admitted that the employers themselves, even the married ones, frequently maintained intimate relations with their female employees, and that the results of such relations were either atoned for by a payment of money or were hidden from the eyes of the world by a crime. Unfortunately it could not be denied, that immorality was introduced into the rural districts not only by country girls who had been employed in the cities as wet nurses and by boys who had become demoralized while serving in the army, but also by educated men, by managers of the large estates and army officers, who come into the country during manoeuvres. Dr. v. Waechter claims that here in the country there actually are few girls who have attained their seventeenth birthday without having fallen.” The honest lecturer had to pay for his love of truth by being socially ostracised by the offended officers. Reverend Dr. Wagner had a similar experience when he ventured to say some disagreeable truths to the landed proprietors in his book on “Morality in the Country.”[114]
The majority of prostitutes are driven into their unfortunate trade at an age at which they cannot be regarded as competent to judge their actions. Among the women who secretly prostituted themselves arrested in Paris from 1878 until 1887, 12,615 equal 46.7 per cent. were minors. Of those arrested from 1888–1898, 14,072 equal 48.8 per cent. were minors. Le Pilleurs gives the following resumé of the prostitutes of Paris, which is as concise as it is pathetic: “Defloured at 16, prostituted at 17, afflicted with syphilis at 18.”[115] Among 846 newly enrolled prostitutes in Berlin in 1898 there were 229 minors. There were:
| 7 | at | the | age | of | 15 |
| 21 | “ | “ | “ | “ | 16 |
| 33 | “ | “ | “ | “ | 17 |
| 59 | “ | “ | “ | “ | 18 |
| 49 | “ | “ | “ | “ | 19 |
| 66 | “ | “ | “ | “ | 20[116] |
In September, 1894, a scandalous affair was revealed in Budapest, where it became known that about 400 girls not more than fifteen years of age had become the victims of rich libertines. The sons of our “propertied and cultured classes” not infrequently consider it their right to seduce the daughters of the poor and then to forsake them. These confiding, inexperienced daughters of the poor, whose lives are often devoid of all joy and who sometimes have no friend or relative to protect them, easily fall victims to the art of the seducer, who approaches them with all the temptations of pleasure and affection. Bitter disappointments and despair and eventually crime are the results. Among 2,060,973 children born in Germany in 1907 179,178 were illegitimate. One can imagine the amount of care and heart-ache that the births of these illegitimate children mean to their mothers, even if some of them are legally married later on by the fathers of their children. Infanticide and the suicide of women are in a great many cases caused by the misery and need of forsaken women. The trials for infanticide present a sombre but instructive picture. In the fall of 1894 a young woman was on trial in Krems, Austria. Eight days after her confinement she had been discharged from the lying-in hospital in Vienna, with her infant and penniless, and being desperate she had killed her child. She was condemned to death. In the spring of 1899 the following was reported from the province of Posen: “On Monday last the 22-year-old working girl, Katherine Gorbacki, from Alexanderruh, near Neustadt was on trial for murder. During the years 1897 and 1898 the defendant had been employed by the Provost Merkel in Neustadt. As a result of intimate relations with her employer, she gave birth to a daughter in June last. The child was placed with her relatives. The provost paid $2 for the child’s board during each of the first two months, but then refused to meet any further expenses. As the girl could not meet the expenses for the child’s maintenance, she decided to do away with it. On a Sunday during September last she smothered the child with a pillow. The jury convicted her of murder in the second degree and admitted extenuating circumstances. The public prosecutor moved to inflict the maximum penalty, five years imprisonment. The judge sentenced her to three years in prison.”
Thus the seduced and forsaken woman, disgraced and desperate, is driven to the utmost, and kills her own offspring. Then she is brought to trial and is sentenced to long periods of imprisonment, or even to death. But the real unscrupulous murderer is allowed to go unpunished. Perhaps shortly after the tragedy he will marry a girl from some good and righteous family, and will become a highly honored and pious man. Many a man is held in great esteem who thus polluted his honor and his conscience. If women had a voice in the making and administration of the laws things would be different. Evidently many cases of infanticide are never discovered. In July, 1899, in Frankenthal on the Rhine a servant girl was accused of having drowned her new-born, illegitimate child in the Rhine. The public prosecutor asked all police departments along the Rhine from Ludwigshafen to the boundary of Holland to report whether within a definite time the body of a child had been washed ashore. The surprising result of this inquest was, that the police departments within the stated time reported no less than 38 bodies of infants that had been fished from the Rhine, but whose mothers had not been found.
The most cruel system is resorted to, as previously stated, by the French legislation, which forbids to seek the father, but instead maintains foundling hospitals. The law framed at the convention of June 28, 1793, reads: “La nation se charge de l’éducation physique et morale des enfants abandonnés. Désormais, ils seront désignés sous le seul nom d’orphelins. Aucune autre qualification ne sera permis” (The nation undertakes the physical and moral education of abandoned children. Henceforward they will be known only by the name of orphans. No other designation will be permitted.). That was a very convenient method to men, for thereby they could turn over their individual obligations to the community and were spared from being publicly exposed. National orphan and foundling asylums were erected. In 1833 the number of orphans and foundlings amounted to 130,945. It was estimated that every tenth child was a legitimate one that its parents wished to get rid of. As these children were not properly cared for, their mortality was very great. At that time 59 per cent. died during the first year; up to the twelfth year 78 per cent. died; so only 22 from 100 children attained the twelfth year. At the beginning of the sixties of the last century there were 175 foundling asylums; in 1861 there were admitted into these 42,934 enfants trouvés (foundlings), 26,156 enfants abandonnés (abandoned children) and 9,716 orphans; together this made 78,066 children who were maintained at public expense. All in all the number of abandoned children has not decreased during recent decades.
Foundling asylums maintained by the state were also established in Austria and Italy. “Ici on fait mourir les enfants” (here children are made to die); a monarch is said to have suggested these words as a suitable inscription for foundling asylums. In Austria the foundling asylums are gradually disappearing. At present only eight remain, but at the close of the nineties of the last century these still contained over 9,000 children, while more than 30,000 children were placed outside of the asylums. During recent years the number of foundlings has greatly decreased, for in 1888 there still were 40,865 children who were public charges in Austria; 10,466 were in asylums; 30,399 were placed in private care. Their maintenance cost 1,817,372 florins. Mortality was not as great among the children placed in asylums as among those privately cared for; this was especially so in the province of Galicia. Here, during the year 1888 31.25 per cent. died in asylums—far more than in the asylums of other countries; but of those who were privately cared for 84.21 per cent. died; a wholesale butchery. It seems as if Polish mismanagement endeavored to kill off these poor, little creatures as quickly as possible.
In Italy 118,531 children were admitted into asylums from 1894 to 1896. Annual average: 29,633; boys: 58,901; girls: 59,630; illegitimate, 113,141; legitimate, 5,390 (only 5 per cent.). How great the mortality has been may be seen from the following table.[117]
| 1890–1892 | 1893–1896 | 1897 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of children admitted | 91,549 | 109,899 | 26,661 |
| Died during first year | 34,186 | 41,386 | 9,711 |
| Percentage | 37.3 | 37.6 | 36.4 |
| Mortality of illegitimate children in Italy | 25.0 | 27.2 | 23.4 |
| Mortality of legitimate children | 18.0 | 17.5 | 15.9 |
The record was broken by the foundling asylum Santa Cosa dell’Annunziata in Naples, where in 1896 of 853 infants 850 died. In the year 1907 the foundling asylums admitted 18,896 children. During the years 1902 to 1906 the mortality of these unfortunate little ones was 37.5 per cent; that means that more than one-third of the children maintained by the state die during the first year.[118] It is a generally known fact, that the rate of mortality is always higher among illegitimate children than among legitimate ones. According to Prusian statistics the following number of deaths of infants occurred for every 10,000 births.
| 1881–1885 | 1886–1890 | 1891–1895 | 1896–1900 | 1904 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legitimate | City | 211 | 210 | 203 | 195 | 179 |
| Country | 186 | 187 | 187 | 185 | 172 | |
| Illegitimate | City | 398 | 395 | 385 | 374 | 333 |
| Country | 319 | 332 | 336 | 336 | 306 |
“It is a striking fact which clearly shows the connection between prostitution and the unfortunate condition of servant girls and menials employed in the country, that of 94,779 illegitimate children born in 1906, 21,164 were the children of servant girls and 18,869 were the children of girls otherwise employed in the country. Together this made 40,033 or 42 per cent. If servants employed in the country and female farm hands are taken together, they constitute 30 per cent., while girls industrially employed constitute 14 per cent (13,460).”[119]
The difference in the rate of mortality between legitimate and illegitimate children is especially marked during the first month, when the mortality of illegitimate children is on an average three times as great as that of legitimate children. Lack of care during pregnancy and during the confinement and improper care of the child after birth are the simple causes of this great mortality of illegitimate children. Ill treatment and neglect help to increase the number of the victims. The number of still-born children is greater among the illegitimate than among the legitimate also. This is probably chiefly due to attempts on the part of the mother to bring about the death of the child during pregnancy.
To this must be added the cases of infanticide that are not found out because the murdered child is counted among the still-born. Bertillon claims, that to the 205 cases of infanticide recorded in the legal documents of France, should be added at least 1,500 alleged still-births and 1,400 cases of intentional killing by starvation.[120]
The following table shows the number of legitimate and illegitimate children in various European countries for every 100 still-births.
| During the years | Legitimate | Illegitimate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | 1891–1900 | 3.15 | 4.25 |
| Prussia | 1900–1902 | 3.02 | 4.41 |
| Saxony | 1891–1900 | 3.31 | 4.24 |
| Bavaria | 1891–1900 | 2.98 | 3.61 |
| Wurtemberg | 1891–1900 | 3.30 | 3.48 |
| Baden | 1891–1900 | 2.62 | 3.35 |
| Austria | 1895–1900 | 2.64 | 3.86 |
| Switzerland | 1897–1903 | 3.40 | 6.14 |
| France | 1891–1895 | 4.40 | 7.54 |
| Netherlands | 1891–1900 | 4.38 | 8.13 |
| Denmark | 1893–1894 | 2.40 | 3.20 |
| Sweden | 1891–1895 | 2.46 | 3.30 |
| Norway | 1891–1900 | 2.47 | 4.06 |
| Finland | 1891–1900 | 2.54 | 4.43 |
| Italy | 1891–1896 | 3.89 | 5.16[121] |
The survivors revenge themselves on society for the ill-treatment accorded them by furnishing an unusually high percentage of the criminals of all grades.
[106] Dr. Licard de Planzoles—La Fonction Sexuelle. Paris, 1908.
[107] Kamillo Karl Schneider—The Prostitute and Society—a Sociological and Ethical Study, Leipsic, 1908.
[108] Karl Marx, Capital.
[109] Ibid.
[110] Berlin, 1893.
[111] Max Taube, M. D.—Protection of Illegitimate Children, Leipsic, 1893, Veit & Co.
[112] Berlin, 1889, Wm. Iszleib.
[113] In a pamphlet on “Capital and the Press,” Berlin, 1891, Dr. F. Mehring relates that a talented actress was employed at a well known theatre at a monthly salary of $25, while the expenses for her wardrobe amounted to $250 in a single month. The difference was made up by a “friend.”
[114] At the conference of the purity societies on September 20, 1894, at the instance of Dr. Wagner an investigation was decided upon. The results of this investigation have been published in two volumes, entitled: The Sexual Morality of Protestant Country People in the German Empire, 1895–1896.
[115] Prof. S. Bettman—Medical Supervision of Prostitutes. Handbook of the social science of medicine, Jena, 1905.
[116] Ibid.
[117] S. Turcranji and S. Engel. The Foundling System in Italy. Quarterly journal of public hygiene, 1903.
[118] Encyclopedia of Social Science; 3d edition, vol. iv., 1909. Article: Foundling Asylums.
[119] Encyclopedia of Social Science, 1909.
[120] Schnapper Arndt.
[121] F. Prinzing—The Causes of Still-Births. General records of statistics, 1907.
[5.—Crimes Against Morality and Sexual Diseases.]
We must still briefly dwell upon another evil that is often met with. An excess of sexual enjoyment is far more harmful than the want of same. An organism abused by excesses is eventually destroyed. Impotence, sterility, idiocy, feeble mindedness and other diseases result. Temperance in sexual intercourse is as necessary as temperance in eating and drinking, and other human requirements. But young men living in luxury seem to find it very difficult to be temperate. Therefore we often find senility among young men of the upper classes. The number of old and young roués is large, and because they are satiated and dulled by excesses, they require special stimulants. Beside those in whom love for their own sex (sodomy) is innate, there are many who succumb to this perversity of the Greek age. Sodomy is far more widespread than most of us imagine; the secret documents of many police departments might reveal appalling facts.[122] Among the women, too, the perversities of ancient Greece have been revived. Lesbian, or Sapphic love is, so Taxel claims, prevalent to an enormous degree among the fashionable ladies of Paris. In Berlin about a quarter of the prostitutes indulge in this perverse passion and it is not unknown among the fashionable women, either.
Another unnatural satisfaction of the sexual desire are the criminal assaults upon children that have greatly increased during the last decades. The following numbers of persons were convicted of crimes against morality in Germany: In 1895, 10,239; in 1905, 13,432; in 1906, 13,557. Among those were 58 persons in 1902 and 72 in 1907, who were convicted of criminal assaults upon children. The following number was convicted of fornication with persons under fourteen: In 1902, 4,090; in 1906, 4,548; in 1907, 4,397. In Italy the number of crimes against morality was: 1887 to 1889, 4,590; 1903, 8,461; which is 19.44 per cent. and 25.67 per cent. for every 100,000 inhabitants. The same fact has been observed in Austria. Very correctly H. Herz says: “The rapid increase in crimes against morality during the period 1880–1890 shows that the present economic structure with its decrease in the marriage rate and its instability of employment is in no small degree the cause of the low standard of morality.”[123]
In Germany members of the learned professions furnish about 5.6 per cent of the criminals; but they furnish about 13 per cent. of those convicted of criminal assaults upon children. This percentage would be higher still if members of those circles would not have ample means to conceal their crimes. The terrifying revelations made by the “Pall Mall Gazette” at the close of the eighties of the last century concerning the criminal abuses of children in England, have shown the widespread existence of frightful conditions.
Concerning venereal diseases and their increase, the following table, showing the number of cases treated in German hospitals, contains valuable information:
| Gonorrhoea | Syphilis | |
|---|---|---|
| 1877–1879 | 23,344 | 67,750 |
| 1880–1882 | 28,700 | 79,220 |
| 1883–1885 | 30,038 | 65,980 |
| 1886–1888 | 32,275 | 53,664 |
| 1889–1891 | 41,381 | 60,793 |
| 1892–1894 | 50,541 | 78,093 |
| 1895–1897 | 53,587 | 74,092 |
| 1898–1901 | 83,374 | 101,225 |
| 1902–1904 | 68,350 | 76,678 |
If we take the average annual number of persons afflicted we find that within a period of 25 years the cases of gonorrhoea have increased from 7,781 to 22,750 and those of syphilis from 22,583 to 25,559. The population has increased only by 25 per cent. while the cases of gonorrhoea have increased by 182 per cent and those of syphilis 19 per cent! We have another statistic that does not cover many years, but just one single day which shows how many patients afflicted with venereal diseases were under medical treatment on April 30, 1900. The Prusian minister of public instruction has caused this investigation to be made. A list of questions was sent to every physician in Prussia. Although only 63.5 per cent. of these replied, the investigation showed that on April 30, 1900, there were about 41,000 persons in Prusia afflicted with venereal diseases. 11,000 were newly infected with syphilis. In Berlin alone there were on this day 11,600 persons afflicted with venereal diseases, among them 3,000 fresh cases of syphilis. For every 100,000 adult inhabitants, the following number were under medical treatment for venereal diseases.
| Men. | Women. | |
|---|---|---|
| In Berlin | 1419 | 457 |
| “ 17 cities having more than 100,000 inhabitants | 999 | 457 |
| “ 42 cities having 30,000 to 100,000 | 584 | 176 |
| “ 47 cities having less than 30,000 | 450 | 169 |
| “ other cities and rural communities | 80 | 27 |
| In the entire German Empire | 282 | 92 |
The cities mainly afflicted are those situated at harbors, college and garrison towns and large industrial centers (In Koenigsberg for every 100,000 inhabitants, 2,152 men and 619 women are diseased; in Cologne 1309 men and 402 women; in Frankfort 1,505 men and 399 women).
Of Berlin Dr. Blaschko says: “In a large city like Berlin annually of 1,000 young men between 20 and 30 years, almost 200, about one-fifth, become diseased with gonorrhoea and about 24 with syphilis. But the time during which young men are exposed to venereal infection is much longer than one year. For some it is five years, for others ten years and more. After five years of unmarried life then a young man will become diseased with gonorrhoea once and twice in ten years. After five years every tenth young man, after eight to ten years every fifth young man would acquire syphilis. In other words, of the men who marry after their thirtieth year every one would have had gonorrhoea twice, and every fourth or fifth one would be inflicted with syphilis. These figures have been compiled by careful calculation, and to us physicians who learn of so many misfortunes that are concealed from the eyes of the world, they do not appear exaggerated.”
The results of the research of April 30, 1900, are confirmed by a careful study of this problem in connection with the Prussian army compiled in 1907 by the surgeon-major, Dr. Schwiening.[124] It was shown that the various divisions of the army annually show about the same number of recruits afflicted with venereal diseases. Some divisions have a particularly large number of cases, especially the division recruited from the province of Brandenburg. Berlin is mainly to blame that 2 per cent. of these recruits are diseased. Dr. Schwiening’s compilation of the percentage of diseased recruits from the various government districts clearly shows the extension of venereal diseases among civilians. Of 1,000 enrolled recruits the following number was afflicted:
| 1903 | 1904 | 1905 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin | 40.9 | 37.2 | 45.2 |
| 27 cities having more than 100,000 inhabitants | 14.9 | 16.7 | 15.8 |
| 26 cities having 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants | 11.6 | 9.6 | 9.5 |
| 33 cities having 25,000 to 50,000 inhabitants | 8.2 | 6.8 | 9.1 |
| Cities having less than 25,000 inhabitants and rural communities | 4.3 | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| State | 7.6 | 8.1 | 7.8 |
The greatest number of diseased recruits came from Shoeneberg, having 58.4 for every 1,000 enrolled. In large cities outside of Prussia, the following numbers were recorded: Hamburg, 29.8; Leipsic, 29.4; Dresden, 19; Chemnitz, 17.8; Munich, 16.4. According to G. v. Mayer the increase of venereal diseases for every 1,000 inhabitants from 1903 to 1904 was: Prussia, 19.6; Austria and Hungary, 60.3; France, 27.1; Italy, 85.2; England, 125; Belgium, 28.3; the Netherlands, 31.4; Russia, 40.5; Denmark, 45. The increase in venereal diseases is especially great in the navy. In the German navy from 1905 to 1906 the number of cases were: On ship-board abroad, 113.6 per thousand; in domestic waters, 58.8; on land, 57.8. In the English navy there were in 1905 121.55 cases and in 1906 121.94 cases.
We have seen that our social conditions have produced all sorts of vices, excesses and crimes that are constantly increasing. The whole social organism is in a state of unrest by which the women are most deeply affected. Women are beginning to realize this more and more and to seek redress. They demand in the first place economic independence. They demand that women, like men, should be admitted to all trades and professions according to their strength and ability. They especially demand the right to practice learned professions. Are these endeavors justified? Can their aims be realized? Will they bring relief? These are the questions we must seek to answer.
[122] The trials of Moltke, Lynar and Eulenburg have since revealed a more revolting picture than one could suspect. They have shown how widespread is this perversity among the higher strata of society, especially among military men and in court circles.
[123] Dr. Hugo Herz—Crimes and Criminals in Austria, Tuebingen, 1908.
[124] Director general of the army medical department, Dr. Chumburg, The Venereal Diseases, Their Nature and Dissemination.
[CHAPTER XIII.
Woman in Industry.]
[1.—Development and Extension of Female Labor.]
The endeavor of women to earn their own living and to attain personal independence is, to some extent at least, regarded as a just one by bourgeois society. The bourgeoisie requires an unhampered release of male and female labor power in order that industry may attain its highest degree of development. The perfection of machinery and the division of labor, whereby each single function in the process of production requires less strength and mechanical training than formerly, and the growing competition, not only between individual manufacturers, but also between entire manufacturing regions, states and countries—causes the labor power of woman to be sought more and more.
The special causes which lead to an increased employment of female labor in a growing number of trades have been set forth in a previous chapter. One reason why employers resort more and more to the employment of women beside men, or instead of men, is, that women are accustomed to require less than men. Owing to their nature as sex beings, women are obliged to offer their labor power cheaper than men. They are, as a rule, more subjected to physical derangements that cause an interruption of their work, and owing to the complication and organization of modern industry, this may lead to an interruption in the whole process of production. Pregnancy and child-birth lengthen such periods of interruption.[125] The employer makes the most of this fact and finds ample indemnification for these occasional interruptions by the payment of considerably lower wages. Moreover the woman is tied to her particular abode or its immediate environment. She cannot change her abode as men are enabled to do in most cases. Female labor, especially the labor of married women workers appears particularly desirable to employers in still another way, as may be seen from the quotation from “Capital,” by Karl Marx on page 129. As a worker the married woman is “far more attentive and docile” than the unmarried one. Consideration for her children compels her to exert her strength to the utmost in order to earn what is needful for their livelihood, and she therefore quietly submits to much that the unmarried working woman would not submit to, far less so the working man. As a rule working women rarely combine with their fellow workers to obtain better working conditions. That also enhances their value in the eyes of the employers; sometimes they even are a good means to subdue rebellious male workers. Women moreover are more patient, they possess greater nimbleness and a more developed taste, qualities that make them better suited to many kinds of work than men.
These womanly virtues the virtuous capitalist appreciates fully; and so, with the development of industry, the field of woman’s work is extended each year, but—and this is the decisive factor—without materially improving her social condition. Where female labor power is employed, it frequently releases male labor power. But the displaced male workers must earn their living; so they offer their labor power at lower wages, and this offer again depresses the wages of the female workers. The depression of wages becomes a screw set in motion by the constantly revolving process of developing industry, and as this process of revolution by labor-saving devices also releases female workers, the supply of “hands” is increased still more. New branches of industry counteract this constant production of surplus labor power, but not sufficiently to create better conditions of labor. In the new branches of industry also, as for instance in the electrical, male workers are being displaced by female workers. In the motor factory of the General Electric Company most of the machines are tended by girls. Every increase in wages above a certain standard causes the employer to seek further improvement of his machinery, and to put the automatic machine in the place of human hands and human brains. In the beginning of the capitalistic era only male workers competed with one another on the labor market. Now sex is arrayed against sex, and age against age. Women displace men, and women in turn are displaced by young people and children. That is the “moral regime” of modern industry.
This state of affairs would eventually become unbearable if the workers, by organization in their trade unions, would not counteract it with all their might. To the working woman, too, it is becoming a sheer necessity to join these industrial organizations, for as an individual she has still far less power of resistance than the working man. Working women are beginning to recognize this necessity. In Germany the following numbers were organized: in 1892, 4,355; in 1899, 19,280; in 1900, 22,884; in 1905, 74,411; in 1907, 136,929; in 1908, 138,443. In 1892 women constituted only 1.8 per cent. of all members of trade unions; in 1908 they constituted 7.6 per cent. According to the fifth international report of the trade union movement the numbers of female members were in Great Britain, 201,709; in France, 88,906; in Austria, 46,401.
The endeavors of employers to lengthen the work day in order to extract larger profits from their workers is met with little resistance by women workers. That explains why in the textile industry, for instance, in which more than half of the workers are women the work day is longest. It was necessary therefore that government protection by limiting the hours of work should begin with this industry. Women being accustomed to an endless work day by their domestic activity, submit to the increased demands upon their labor power without offering resistance.
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| COUNTRIES | Year of Census | Entire Population | Gainfully employed | Persons gainfully employed in percentage of population | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | Female | Both | Male | Female | Both | Male | Female | Both | ||
| German Empire | 1907 | 30,461,100 | 31,259,429 | 61,720,529 | 18,599,236 | 9,429,881 | 28,092,117 | 61.1 | 30.4 | 45.5 |
| Austria | 1900 | 12,852,693 | 13,298,015 | 26,150,708 | 8,257,294 | 5,850,158 | 14,107,452 | 64.2 | 44.0 | 53.9 |
| Hungary | 1900 | 9,582,152 | 9,672,407 | 19,254,559 | 6,162,298 | 2,668,697 | 8,830,995 | 64.3 | 27.6 | 45.9 |
| Russia | 1897 | 62,477,348 | 63,162,673 | 125,640,021 | 25,995,237 | 5,276,112 | 31,271,349 | 41.6 | 8.4 | 24.9 |
| Italy | 1901 | 16,155,130 | 16,320,123 | 32,475,253 | 10,998,462 | 5,284,064 | 16,272,526 | 68.0 | 32.4 | 50.1 |
| Switzerland | 1900 | 1,627,025 | 1,688,418 | 3,315,433 | 1,057,187 | 498,760 | 1,556,577 | 65.0 | 29.5 | 46.9 |
| France | 1901 | 18,916,889 | 19,533,899 | 38,450,788 | 12,910,565 | 6,804,510 | 19,715,075 | 68.2 | 34.8 | 51.3 |
| Belgium | 1900 | 3,324,834 | 3,368,714 | 6,693,548 | 2,123,072 | 948,229 | 3,071,301 | 63.8 | 28.1 | 45.9 |
| Netherlands | 1899 | 2,520,603 | 2,583,535 | 5,104,138 | 1,497,159 | 433,548 | 1,930,707 | 59.4 | 16.8 | 37.8 |
| Denmark | 1901 | 1,193,448 | 1,256,092 | 2,449,540 | 752,559 | 353,980 | 1,106,539 | 63.1 | 28.2 | 45.2 |
| Sweden | 1900 | 2,506,436 | 2,630,005 | 5,136,441 | 1,422,979 | 551,021 | 1,974,000 | 56.8 | 21.0 | 38.4 |
| Norway | 1900 | 1,066,693 | 1,154,784 | 2,221,477 | 599,057 | 277,613 | 876,670 | 56.1 | 24.0 | 39.5 |
| England and Wales | 1901 | 15,728,613 | 16,799,230 | 32,527,843 | 10,156,976 | 4,171,751 | 14,328,727 | 64.6 | 24.8 | 44.1 |
| Scotland | 1901 | 2,173,755 | 2,298,348 | 4,472,103 | 1,391,188 | 591,624 | 1,982,812 | 64.0 | 25.8 | 44.3 |
| Ireland | 1901 | 2,200,040 | 2,258,735 | 4,458,775 | 1,413,943 | 549,874 | 1,963,817 | 64.3 | 24.3 | 44.0 |
| Great Britain and Ireland | 1901 | 20,102,408 | 21,356,313 | 41,458,721 | 12,962,107 | 5,313,249 | 18,275,356 | 64.5 | 24.9 | 44.1 |
| United States of America[126] | 1900 | 39,059,242 | 37,244,145 | 76,303,387 | 23,956,115 | 5,329,807 | 29,285,922 | 61.3 | 14.3 | 38.4 |
[126] These figures include 91,219 persons of the army and navy who were absent from the country while the census was taken.
In other trades, such as millinery, manufacture of artificial flowers, etc.,[127] they reduce their own wages and lengthen their own work day by taking home extra work. They frequently do not even notice that thereby they become their own competitors and do not earn more in a sixteen hour day than they might in a well regulated ten-hour day.
The [table on page 212] shows to what extent female labor has grown among various civilized nations, both in relation to the other sex and in relation to the entire population.[128] Our table shows that the number of women employed in gainful occupations constitutes a considerable percentage of the entire population. The percentage is largest in Austria, France and Italy. This may be partly due to the manner of census-taking, as not only those female persons are counted, whose principal occupation is a gainful employment, but also those who perform incidental work for wages. The percentage is lowest in the United States. It is also important to compare the growth of the laboring population with former periods. Let us begin with Germany:
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| Years in which census was taken | Entire Population | Persons gainfully employed | Persons gainfully employed in percentage of population | Of 100 persons gainfully employed | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | Female | Male | Female | Male | Female | Male | Female | |
| 1882 | 22,150,749 | 23,071,364 | 13,415,415 | 5,541,517 | 60.57 | 24.02 | 71.24 | 28.76 |
| 1895 | 25,409,161 | 26,361,123 | 15,531,841 | 6,578,350 | 61.13 | 24.96 | 70.25 | 29.75 |
| 1907 | 30,461,100 | 31,159,429 | 18,599,236 | 9,492,881 | 61.06 | 30.37 | 66.21 | 33.79 |
This table shows firstly, that the number of persons gainfully employed increases more rapidly than the population; secondly, that the growth of female labor still exceeds this increase; thirdly, that the male laboring population is relatively stationary, while the female laboring population shows a relative and absolute growth, and lastly, that female labor at an increasing rate displaces male labor. The number of persons gainfully employed has increased from 1882 to 1895 by 16.6 per cent.; the number of men, by 15.8 per cent. and 19.35 per cent.; the number of women by 18.7 per cent. from 1882 to 1895, and by 44.44 per cent. from 1895 to 1907. The increase of the population from 1882 to 1895 was only 19.8 per cent., and from 1895 to 1907 only 19.34 per cent. So the entire number of persons gainfully employed has increased; but as the growth of the number of men gainfully employed has approximately kept pace with the growth of the population, the number of women gainfully employed has grown mostly. This shows that the struggle for existence requires greater efforts than formerly.
From 1882 to 1895 and from 1895 to 1907 we find the following increase (+) and decrease (−) among the population of Germany:
| From 1882 to 1895 | From 1895 to 1907 |
|---|---|
| Female persons gainfully employed | |
| + 1,005,290 = 23.60 per cent | + 2,979,105 = 56.59 per cent |
| Male persons gainfully employed | |
| + 2,133,577 = 15.95 per cent | + 3,077,382 = 19.85 per cent |
| Female servants | |
| + 31,543 = 2.46 per cent | − 64,574 = 4.91 per cent |
| Male servants | |
| − 17,151 = 40.35 per cent | − 9,987 = 39.38 per cent |
The following table shows the number of persons gainfully employed in various trades:
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| 1882 | 1895 | 1907 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | Female | Male | Female | Male | Female | |
| Agriculture, Forestry | 5,701,587 | 2,534,909 | 5,539,538 | 2,753,154 | 5,284,271 | 4,598,986 |
| Industry and Mining | 5,269,489 | 1,126,976 | 6,760,102 | 1,521,118 | 9,152,330 | 2,103,924 |
| Commerce and Traffic | 1,272,208 | 298,110 | 1,758,903 | 579,608 | 2,546,253 | 931,373 |
| Various kinds of wage labor | 213,746 | 183,836 | 198,626 | 233,685 | 150,791 | 320,904 |
| Public service and learned professions | 373,593 | 115,272 | 618,335 | 176,648 | 799,025 | 288,311 |
| Army and Navy | 542,282 | — | 630,978 | — | 651,194 | — |
The following table shows the increase and decrease in various trades:
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| From 1882 to 1895 | From 1895 to 1907 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Female | % | Male | % | Female | % | Male | % | |
| Agriculture, Forestry | + 218,245 | 8.60 | − 162,049 | 2.80 | +1,845,832 | 67.04 | − 255,267 | 4.61 |
| Industry and Mining | + 394,142 | 35.00 | +1,490,613 | 28.30 | + 582,806 | 38.31 | +2,392,228 | 35.39 |
| Commerce and Traffic | + 281,498 | 98.40 | + 486,695 | 38.30 | + 351,765 | 60.69 | + 787,350 | 44.76 |
| Various kinds of wage labor | + 50,029 | 27.20 | − 15,120 | 7.10 | + 87,039 | 37.22 | − 47,835 | 24.08 |
| Public service and learned professions | + 61,376 | 53.25 | + 154,285 | 33.25 | + 111,663 | — | + 180,690 | — |
| Army and Navy | — | — | + 179,153 | 39.65 | — | — | + 20,216 | — |
| Total | +1,005,290 | 23.60 | +2,133,577 | 15.90 | +2,979,105 | — | +3,077,382 | — |
Among the persons gainfully employed there were:
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| 1895 | 1907 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Female | % | Male | % | Female | % | Male | % | |
| Independent | 1,069,007 | 22.1 | 4,405,039 | 31.3 | 1,052,165 | — | 4,438,123 | — |
| Employees | 39,418 | 0.81 | 582,407 | 4.1 | 159,889 | — | 1,130,839 | — |
| Laborers, etc., excl. servants | 3,745,455 | 77.09 | 9,071,097 | 64.6 | 6,422,229 | — | 11,413,892 | — |
| Total | 4,853,880 | = 100.00 | 14,058,543 | = 100.00 | 7,634,283 | = 100.00 | 16,982,854 | = 100.00 |
The following shows the increase and decrease of women holding independent positions from 1895 to 1907:
| [1907] | [1895] | [%] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Industry (domestic industry) | 477,290 | 519,492 | − 42,202 | = 8.10 |
| Commerce and traffic | 246,641 | 202,616 | + 44,025 | = 21.77 |
| Agriculture | 328,237 | 346,896 | − 18,659 | = 9.04 |
The greatest number of female persons were employed in the following trades:
| 1907. | 1895. | |
|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | 4,585,749 | 2,745,840 |
| Clothing and cleaning | 883,184 | 713,021 |
| Commercial lines | 545,177 | 299,829 |
| Textile industry | 528,235 | 427,961 |
| Restaurants and cafés | 339,555 | 261,450 |
| Articles of food and luxury | 248,962 | 140,333 |
| Metal works | 73,039 | 36,210 |
| Stone and pottery | 72,270 | 39,555 |
| Paper industry | 67,322 | 39,222 |
| Wood and carving industry | 48,028 | 30,346 |
The following are the trades in which more women than men are employed in Germany:
| Women. | Men. | |
|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | 4,217,132 | 2,737,768 |
| Textile industry | 466,210 | 390,312 |
| Clothing trades | 403,879 | 303,264 |
| Cleaning trades | 85,684 | 58,035 |
| Restaurants and cafés | 266,930 | 139,002 |
| Domestic service | 279,208 | 36,791 |
| Nursing | 129,197 | 78,520 |
These figures clearly show us the prevailing state of affairs in Germany. Although the number of persons gainfully employed has increased more rapidly than the population, the growth of female labor still exceeds this increase. The employment of women is rapidly growing in all lines of industry. While the male laboring population is relatively stationary, the female laboring population shows a relative and absolute growth. In fact the increase in female labor constitutes the chief portion of the general increase of persons gainfully employed in the entire population. The number of female members of families supported by men rank from 70.81 per cent. in 1895 to 63.90 per cent. in 1907. Woman has become such a powerful factor in industry that the Philistine saying, the woman’s place is in the home, seems utterly void and ridiculous. In England the following numbers of persons were industrially employed:
| For every 100 persons gainfully employed | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Male | Female | Male | Fem. | |
| 1871 | 11,593,466 | 8,270,186 | 3,323,280 | — | — |
| 1881 | 11,187,564 | 7,783,646 | 3,403,918 | 69.59 | 30.41 |
| 1891 | 12,751,995 | 8,883,254 | 4,016,230 | 68.09 | 31.91 |
| 1901 | 14,328,727 | 10,156,976 | 4,171,751 | 70.09 | 29.91 |
Within thirty years the number of men gainfully employed increased by 1,886,790 persons = 22.8 per cent.; the number of women gainfully employed increased by 848,471 = 25.5 per cent. It is especially noteworthy that during 1881, the year of a crisis, the number of men emparent one, since most of the wives and daughters of number of women employed increased by 80,638. The relative decrease of female labor in 1901 is only an apparent one, since most of the wives and daughters of farmers are now counted as having no profession. Besides, during the last twenty years those industries have grown mostly in which male labor is chiefly employed, while the textile industry has relatively, and since 1891, positively declined.
| 1881 | [1901] | Percentage of increase | Female workers among these | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stone and pottery industry | 582,474 | 805,185 | 53 | 5,006 |
| Metal works and manufacture of machinery | 812,915 | 1,228,504 | 52 | 61,233 |
| Building trades | 764,911 | 1,128,680 | 47 | 2,485 |
| Textile trades | 1,094,636 | 1,155,397 | 5 | 663,222 |
Nevertheless female labor has again increased at the expense of male labor. Only the share in increase of female labor that was 12.6 per cent. from 1851 to 1861 and 7.6 per cent. from 1871 to 1881 was reduced to 1.8 per cent. from 1891 to 1901. In the year 1907 the following numbers were counted in the textile industry: 407,360 men = 36.6 per cent. and 679,863 women = 63.4 per cent. In the clothing trades and in commerce female labor has increased much more. But it is furthermore seen that older women are displaced by younger ones, and as women under 25 are mostly unmarried and the older ones are mostly married, or widowed, it is seen that women are displaced by girls.
The following are trades in which more women than men are employed in England:
| Women | Men | |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic service | 1,690,686 | 124,263 |
| Clothing trades | 711,786 | 414,637 |
| Textile trades | 663,222 | 492,175 |
| Among these cotton | 328,793 | 193,830 |
| wool and yarn | 153,311 | 106,598 |
| hemp and jute | 104,587 | 45,732 |
| silk | 22,589 | 8,966 |
| embroidery | 28,962 | 9,587 |
In almost all the branches women receive considerable less pay than men for the same amount of work. A recent inquiry showed that the average weekly wage in the textile industry was 28 shillings 1 penny for men, and only 15 shillings 5 pence for women.[129] In the bicycle industry where female labor has rapidly increased as a result of the introduction of machinery, women receive only from 12 to 18 shillings per week, where men received from 30 to 40 shillings.[130] The same conditions are met with in the manufacture of paper goods and shoes and in binderies. Women are paid especially low wages for the manufacture of underwear; 10 shillings per week is considered a good wage. “As a rule a woman earns half or one-third of a man’s wage.”[131] A similar difference in remuneration between men and women is met with in the postal service and in teaching. Only in the cotton industry in Lancashire both sexes working an equal length of time earned almost equal wages.
In the United States we find the following development of female labor:
| 1880 | 1890 | 1900 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | 594,510 | 678,884 | 977,336 | |||
| Learned professions | 177,255 | 311,687 | 430,597 | |||
| Domestic and personal service | 1,181,300 | 1,667,651 | 2,095,449 | |||
| Commerce and transportation | 63,058 | 228,421 | 503,347 | |||
| Manufacture | 631,034 | 1,027,928 | 1,312,668 | |||
| % | % | % | ||||
| Total, women | 2,647,157 | 14.7 | 3,914,571 | 17.4 | 5,319,397 | 18.8 |
| “ men | 14,774,942 | 85.3 | 18,821,090 | 82.6 | 23,753,836 | 81.2 |
| 17,422,099 | 100 | 22,735,661 | 100 | 29,073,233 | 100 | |
Here we see that the number of women gainfully employed has grown from 3,914,571 in 1890 to 5,319,397 in 1900. It has increased more rapidly than the population which increased from 62,622,250 persons in 1890 to 76,303,387 in 1900; only by 21 per cent. In the same inexorable way the number of employed men is decreasing, since they are being displaced by women. Now for 100 persons gainfully employed there are 18.8 women, while in 1880 there were not more than 14.7 per cent. Of 312 occupations there are only 9 in which no women are employed. According to the census of 1900, we even find among them 5 pilots, 45 engineers and firemen, 185 blacksmiths, 508 machinists, 11 well-borers, 8 boilermakers. “Of course these figures are not of great sociological importance, but they show that there are very few occupations from which women are absolutely excluded, either by their natural capacity or by law.”[132] Women are especially numerous in the following occupations: Servants and waitresses, 1,213,828; dressmaking, 338,144; farm labor, 497,886; laundresses, 332,665; teachers, 327,905; independent farmers, 307,788; textile workers, 231,458; housekeepers, 147,103; salesladies, 146,265; seamstresses, 138,724; nurses and midwives, 108,691; unqualified trades, 106,916. In these 12 occupations 3,583,333 = 74.1 per cent. of all bread-earning women have been counted. Besides there are 85,086 stenographers; 82,936 milliners; 81,000 clerks; 72,896 bookkeepers, etc., together 19 occupations, comprising over 50,000 women = 88.8 per cent. of all women breadwinners. Women predominate in the following trades:
| For every 100 persons employed. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manufacture of underwear | Women | 99.4 | Men | 0.6 |
| Millinery | “ | 98.0 | “ | 2.0 |
| Dressmaking | “ | 96.8 | “ | 3.2 |
| Manufacture of collars | “ | 77.6 | “ | 22.4 |
| Weaving | “ | 72.8 | “ | 27.2 |
| Manufacture of gloves | “ | 62.6 | “ | 37.4 |
| Bookbinding | “ | 50.5 | “ | 49.5 |
| Textile trades | “ | 50.0 | “ | 50.0 |
| Housekeeping | “ | 94.7 | “ | 5.3 |
| Nursing | “ | 89.9 | “ | 10.1 |
| Laundry work | “ | 86.8 | “ | 13.2 |
| Domestic service | “ | 81.9 | “ | 18.1 |
| Boarding | “ | 83.4 | “ | 16.6 |
| Stenographers | “ | 76.7 | “ | 23.3 |
| Teachers | “ | 73.4 | “ | 26.6 |
| Music teachers | “ | 56.9 | “ | 43.1 |
Of 4,833,630 women employed in gainful occupations aged 16 years and more, 3,143,712 were single, 769,477 were married, 857,005 were widowed, 63,436 were divorced. The American report says: “The increase in the percentage of persons gainfully employed was greatest for the married women, since it was by one-fourth greater in 1900 than in 1890. In 1890 there was only one married working woman among 22; in 1900 there was one among 18.” The number of widowed and divorced women is very great, both relatively and actually. In 1900 among 2,721,438 widowed women 857,005 = 31.5 were earning their living, and among divorced women the percentage was still greater. Of 114,935, these 49 per cent. were earning their own living in 1890 and 55.3 per cent. in 1900. Thus more women became self-supporting each year. Among the 303 occupations in which women are employed there are:
| 79 | with | less | than | 100 | women |
| 59 | “ | “ | “ | 100 to 500 | “ |
| 31 | “ | “ | “ | 500 to 1000 | “ |
| 125 | “ | more | “ | 1000 | “ |
| 63 | “ | “ | “ | 5000 | “ |
Among 100 persons from 16 years up we find the following wage-scale:
| Men | Women | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Less than 7 dollars | 18 | Less than 7 dollars | 66.3 |
| 7 to 9 dollars | 15.4 | 7 to 9 dollars | 19.6 |
| 9 to 20 dollars | 60.6 | 9 to 15 dollars | 13.2 |
| 20 to 25 dollars | 4.8 | 15 to 20 dollars | 0.8 |
| More than 25 dollars | 2 | 20 to 25 dollars | 0.1 |
| Average weekly wage | $11.16 | $6.17 | |
We see that 60.6 per cent. of the men earn more than $9, while only 13.2 per cent. of the women earn more than $9, and more than two-thirds (66.3 per cent.) earn less than $7.[133] The average weekly wage for men is $11.16; the average weekly wage for women $6.17, almost half of the man’s wages. Among government employes the difference is equally great. Among 185,874 persons engaged in civil service there were 172,053 men = 92.6 per cent., and 13,821 women—7.4 per cent. In the District of Columbia, the seat of the national administration, the percentage of female labor amounts to 29 per cent. And yet 47.2 per cent. of the women earn less than $720, while only 16.7 per cent. of the men earn less than $720.[134]
In France, according to the census of 1901, the laboring population amounted to 19,715,075 persons, 12,910,565 men and 6,804,510 women. They are distributed among various trades as follows:
| Men. | Per Cent. | Women. | Per Cent. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | 5,517,617 | 72 | 2,658,952 | 28 |
| Commerce | 1,132,621 | 65 | 689,999 | 35 |
| Dom’tic service | 223,861 | 23 | 791,176 | 77 |
| Learned prof. | 226,561 | 67 | 173,278 | 33 |
| Industry | 3,695,213 | 63.5 | 2,124,642 | 36.5 |
“The female laboring population amounts to one-half of the male laboring population.”[135] As in all other countries, fewest women are employed at those occupations that require greatest physical strength (In mining 2.03 women for 100 men; in quarries 1.65; in metallurgy, 1.06). The greatest number of women are employed in the textile trades, 116 women for 100 men—in the clothing trades, in laundries, 1,247 women for 100 men, and in the manufacture of underwear 3,286 women for 100 men.[136] It generally holds true, as Mme. C. Milhand states, that the greatest number of women are employed in those industries where the hours of work are particularly long and wages particularly low. “It is a sad fact that while the industries, where the hours of labor are short, only employ a few thousand women, those where the hours of work are long, employs hundreds of thousands of them.”[137] In regard to the wage scale E. Levasseur says that a woman’s wage rarely amounts to two-thirds of a man’s wage and more frequently only to one-half.[138]
[125] A number of lists from sick-benefit funds, compiled by the factory inspector Schuler, showed that female members were ill 7.17 days annually, while male members were ill only 4.78 days annually. The duration of each illness was 24.8 for female members and 21.2 for male members. O. Schwartz, The results of the employment of married women in factories from the standpoint of public hygiene.—German quarterly gazette for public hygiene.
[127] “This is especially the case in the clothing trade, but also in other industries such as the manufacture of toys, underwear, cigarettes, paper goods etc.” R. Wilbrandt—Protection of working women and domestic industry.—Jena 1906.
[128] Encyclopedia of Social Sciences.—H. Zahn, Statistics of professions and trades.
[129] Textile Trades in 1906. London, 1909.
[130] E. Cadbury, C. Matheson and C. Shaun—Women’s work and wages. London, 1906.
[131] E. Cadbury and F. Shaun—Sweating. London. 1907.
[132] Statistics of women at work. Washington, 1908.
[133] Earnings of wage-earners. Bulletin 93, page 11. Washington, 1908.
[134] Executive civil service of the United States. Washington, 1908.
[135] C. Milhand—L’ouvrière en France. Paris, 1907.
[136] E. Levasseur—Questions ouvrières et industrielles en France sous la troisième république. Paris, 1907.
[137] C. Milhand—L’ouvrière en France. Paris, 1907.
[138] E. Levasseur—Questions ouvrières et industrielles en France sous la troisième république. Paris, 1907.
[2.—Factory Work of Married Women.—Sweatshop Labor and Dangerous Occupations.]
Married women form a large percentage of working women and their number is steadily increasing, which means a serious problem in regard to the family life of the working class. In 1899, German factory inspectors were instructed to investigate the work of married women and to inquire into the causes which lead them to seek employment.[139] This investigation showed that 229,334 married women were employed in factories. Besides 1,063 married women were employed in mining above the ground, as was shown by the report of the Prussian mining authorities. In Baden the number of married working women increased from 10,878 in 1894 to 15,046 in 1899, which is 31.27 per cent. of all adult female workers. The following table shows the distribution of married women factory laborers among the various trades:
| Textile industry | 111,194 |
| Articles of food and luxury | 39,080 |
| Stone and pottery industry | 19,475 |
| Clothing and cleaning trades | 13,156 |
| Paper industry | 11,049 |
| Metal works | 10,739 |
| Wood and carving industry | 5,635 |
| Polygraphic trades | 4,770 |
| Manufacture of machinery | 4,493 |
| Chemical industry | 4,380 |
| Various | 5,363 |
| Total | 229,334 |
Besides the textile industry, the manufacture of articles of food and luxury, especially the manufacture of tobacco, gives many married women employment. Then comes the paper industry, especially employment in work shops for the assorting of rags, and employment in brick yards. “Married women are mainly employed in difficult occupations (quarries, brick yards, dyeing establishments, manufacture of chemicals, sugar refineries, etc.), implying hard and dirty work, while young working girls under twenty-one find employment in porcelain factories, spinning and weaving mills, paper mills, cigar factories, and in the clothing trade. The worst kinds of work, shunned by others, are taken up by the elder working women, especially the married ones.”[140]
Of the many replies in regard to the causes which lead married women to seek work only a few need to be mentioned. In the district of Potsdam the main reason given for the factory labor of married women was, that the earnings of the men were insufficient. In Berlin according to the reports of two inspectors 53.62 per cent. of the women who helped to support their families stated, that the earnings of their husbands were insufficient to support them. Similar information was given by the factory inspectors for the districts of western Prussia, Frankfort on the Oder, Franconia, Wurtemberg, Elsatia, etc. The inspector for Magdeburg gives the same cause for the majority of married working women, but also states that some married women must work because their husbands are dissolute and spend all their earnings on themselves. Others again, it was reported, worked as a matter of habit and because they had not been trained to be housekeepers. It may be true that these causes hold good in a minority of cases; but the great majority of these women work because they must. The factory inspector for Alsace states as the main cause for gainful employment of married women in modern industry, the demand for cheap labor, created by the means of transportation and by unrestricted competition. He furthermore states that manufacturers like to employ married women because they are more reliable and steady. The factory inspector for Baden, Dr. Woerishoffer, says: “The low wages paid to women workers is the main cause why employers resort to female labor wherever it can be made use of. Ample proof of this assertion can be found in the fact, that wages are lowest in those industries in which the greatest number of women are employed. As female labor can be employed to a great extent in these industries, it becomes a necessity to the working class families that the women should seek employment.” The factory inspector for Coblentz says: “Women usually are more industrious and reliable than young girls. Young working girls generally have an aversion against disagreeable and dirty work, which is accordingly left to the more unassuming married workers. Thus, for instance, dealers in rags frequently employ married women.”
That the wages of working women are lower everywhere than those of workingmen, even for equal work, is a well known fact. In this respect the private employer does not differ from the state or community. Women employed in the railroad and postal service receive less than men for the same kind of work. In every community women teachers receive a lower salary than men teachers. This may be explained by the following causes: Women have fewer needs and are, above all, more helpless; their earnings are in many cases only additional to the incomes of fathers or husbands, the main supporters of the families; the character of female labor is amateurish, temporary and accidental; there is an immense reserve force of female workers which increases their helplessness; there is much competition from middle class women in dressmaking, millinery, flower and paper goods manufactory, etc.; women are usually tied to their place of residence. All these causes make the hours of work longest for women unless they are protected by legislation.
In a report on the wages of factory laborers in Mannheim in 1893 the late Dr. Woerishoffer divides the weekly wages into three classes.[141] The lowest class comprises weekly wages up to 15 marks ($3.75), the middle class from 15 to 24 marks ($3.75 to $6), and the high class above 24 marks ($6). These wages were distributed among the workers as follows:
| Low class | Middle class | High class | |
|---|---|---|---|
| All the workers | 29.8 per cent | 49.8 per cent | 20.4 per cent |
| Male “ | 20.9 “ | 56.2 “ | 22.9 “ |
| Female “ | 99.2 “ | 0.7 “ | 0.1 “ |
The majority of the working women were paid starvation wages, as the following table shows:
| A weekly wage of | less than | 5 | marks | ($1.25) | was paid to | 4.62 | per cent | ||||
| “ | from | 5 | to | 6 | “ | ($1.25 | to | $1.50) | “ | 5.47 | “ |
| “ | “ | 6 | “ | 8 | “ | ($1.50 | “ | $2.00) | “ | 43.96 | “ |
| “ | “ | 8 | “ | 10 | “ | ($2.00 | “ | $2.50) | “ | 27.45 | “ |
| “ | “ | 10 | “ | 12 | “ | ($2.50 | “ | $3.00) | “ | 12.38 | “ |
| “ | “ | 12 | “ | 15 | “ | ($3.00 | “ | $3.50) | “ | 5.30 | “ |
| “ | more than | 15 | “ | ($3.75) | “ | 0.74 | “ | ||||
An inquiry by the department of factory inspection of Berlin showed that the average weekly wages of working women was 11.36 marks ($2.82); 4.3 per cent. received less than 6 marks; 7.8 per cent. 6 to 8 marks; 27.6 per cent. 12 to 15 marks; 11.1 per cent. 15 to 20 marks, and 1.1 per cent. 20 to 30 marks. The majority (75.7 per cent) earn from 8 to 15 marks. In Karlsruhe the average weekly wages of all working women amounts to 10.02 marks.[142]
Wages are lowest in the domestic industries for both men and women, but especially for women, and the hours of work are unlimited. Also domestic industry frequently implies the so-called sweating system. A sub-contractor distributes the work among the workers and receives for his remuneration a considerable amount of the wages paid by the employer. How wretchedly female labor is paid in these sweated trades, may be seen from the following reports on conditions in Berlin. For men’s colored shirts, manufacturers paid from 2 to 2½ marks in 1889. In 1893 they obtained them for 1.20 mark. A seamstress of medium ability must toil from dawn to darkness to finish from 6 to 8 shirts daily; her weekly wages amounts to from 4 to 5 marks. An apronmaker earns 2½ to 5 marks weekly, a tiemaker 5 to 6 marks, a skillful shirt-waist maker 6 marks, a very skilled worker on boys’ suits 8 to 9 marks, a worker on coats 5 to 6 marks. An experienced seamstress on fine men’s shirts can earn 12 marks per week if the season is good, and if she works from 5 o’clock in the morning until 10 o’clock at night. Milliners who can copy models independently earn 30 marks monthly; experienced trimmers who have been working at their trade for years earn 50 to 60 marks per month during the season. The season lasts five months. An umbrellamaker earns 6 to 7 marks weekly with a twelve-hour day. Such starvation wages drive working girls to prostitution, for even with the most modest requirements no working girl can live in Berlin for less than 9 to 10 marks per week.
All these facts show that the modern development of industry draws away women more and more from the family and the home. Marriage and the family are being disrupted, and so from the standpoint of these facts also it becomes absurd to relegate woman to the home and the family. Only they can resort to this argument who go through life blindly and fail to see the trend of development, or do not wish to see it. In many branches of industry, women are employed exclusively; in a great many they constitute the majority of workers, and in most of the remaining branches women find more or less employment. The number of working women is steadily growing and new lines of activity are constantly being opened to them.
By the enactment of the German factory laws of 1891 the work day of adult women workers in factories was limited to eleven hours, but a number of exceptions were permitted. Night work for women was also prohibited, but here too exceptions were made for factories that run day and night, and for manufactures limited to certain seasons. Only after the international convention at Bern on September 26, 1906, determined on a night’s rest of eleven hours for factory workers, and after Socialists for many years energetically demanded the prohibition of night work for women and the establishment of an eight-hour day, the government and the bourgeois parties are yielding at last. The law of December 28, 1908, limits the hours of work for women to ten hours daily in all factories where no less than ten workers are employed. On Saturdays and on days preceding holidays the limit is eight hours. Women may not be employed for eight weeks prior to and after their confinement. Their readmission depends upon a medical certificate stating that at least six weeks have elapsed since their confinement. Women may not be employed in the manufacture of coke, nor for the carrying of building materials. In spite of the energetic opposition of Socialists, an amendment was accepted that the controlling officials may permit overtime work for 50 days annually. Especially noteworthy is the clause which constitutes a first interference with the exploitation by domestic industry. This clause determines that women and minors may not be given work to take home on days when their hours of work in the factory have been as long as the law permits. Regardless of its imperfections the new law certainly means progress compared to the present state of affairs.
But women are not only employed in growing numbers in those occupations that are suited to their inferior physical strength, they are employed wherever the exploiters can obtain higher profits by their labor. Among such occupations are difficult and disagreeable as well as dangerous ones. These facts glaringly contradict that fantastic conception of woman as a weak and tender creature, as described by poets and writers of novels. Facts are stubborn things, and we are dealing with facts only, since they prevent us from drawing false conclusions and indulging in sentimental talk. But these facts teach us, as has been previously stated, that women are employed in the following industries: The textile trades, chemical trades, metallurgy, paper industry, machine manufacture, wood work, manufacture of articles of food and luxury, and mining above the ground. In Belgium women over 21 are employed in mining underground also. They are furthermore employed in the wide field of agriculture, horticulture, cattle-breeding, and the numerous trades connected with these occupations, and in those various trades which have long since been their specific realm—dressmaking, millinery, manufacture of underwear, and as salesladies, clerks, teachers, kindergarten teachers, writers, artists of all kinds, etc. Tens of thousands of women of the poorer middle class are employed in stores and in other commercial positions, and are thereby almost entirely withdrawn from housekeeping and from the care of their children. Lastly, young, and especially pretty women, find more and more employment as waitresses in restaurants and cafés as chorus girls, dancers, etc., to the greatest detriment to their morals. They are used as bait to attract pleasure-seeking men. Horrible conditions exist in these occupations from which the white slave traders draw many of their victims.
Among the above-named occupations there are many dangerous ones. Thus danger from the effects of alkaline and sulphuric fumes exists to a great degree in the manufacture and cleaning of straw hats. Bleaching is dangerous owing to the inhalation of chloral fumes. There is danger of poisoning in the manufacture of colored paper, the coloring of artificial flowers, the manufacture of metachromatypes, chemicals and poisons, the coloring of tin soldiers and other tin toys, etc. Silvering of mirrors means death to the unborn children of pregnant workers. In Prussia about 22 per cent. of all infants die during their first year of life; but among the babies of working women employed in certain dangerous occupations we find, as stated by Dr. Hirt, the following appalling death-rate: mirror makers, 65 per cent.; glass cutters, 55 per cent.; workers in lead, 40 per cent. In 1890 it was reported that among 78 pregnant women who had been employed in the type founderies of the government district of Wiesbaden, only 37 had normal confinements. Dr. Hirt asserts that the following trades become especially dangerous to women during the second half of their pregnancy: the manufacture of colored paper and flowers, the finishing of Brussels laces with white lead, the making of metachromatypes (transfer pictures), the silvering of mirrors, the rubber industry, and all manufactures in which the workers inhale poisonous gases, such as carbonic acid, carbonic oxide, sulphide of hydrogen, etc. The manufacture of shoddy and phosphoric matches are also dangerous occupations. The report of the factory inspector for Baden shows, that the average annual number of premature births among working women increased from 1039 during the years 1882 to 1886 to 1,244 during the years 1887 to 1891. The number of births that had to be preceded by an operation were on an average 1,118 from 1882 to 1886, and 1,385 from 1887 to 1891. More serious facts of this sort would be revealed if similar investigations were made throughout Germany. But generally the factory inspectors in framing their reports content themselves with the remark: “Particular injuries to women by their employment in factories have not been observed.” How could they observe them during their short visits and without consulting medical opinion? That furthermore there is great danger to life and limb, especially in the textile trades, the manufacture of explosives and work at agricultural machinery has been shown. Moreover a number of enumerated trades are among the most difficult and strenuous, even for men; that can be seen by a glance at the very incomplete list. It is very easy to say that this or that occupation is unsuited to a woman. But what can she do if no other more suitable occupation is open to her? Dr. Hirt[143] gives the following list of occupations in which young girls ought not to be employed at all on account of the danger to their health: Manufacture of bronze colors, manufacture of emery paper, making of straw hats, glass cutting, lithographing, combing flax, picking horse hair, plucking fustian, manufacture of tin plate, manufacture of shoddy and work at flax mills.
In the following trades young girls should be employed only if proper protection (sufficient ventilation, etc.) has been provided: Manufacture of wall paper, porcelain, lead pencils, lead shot, volatile oils, alum, prussiate of potash, bromide, quinine, soda, paraffine and ultramarine (poisonous), colored paper (poisonous) colored wafers, metachromatypes, phosphoric matches,[144] Paris green and artificial flowers. Further occupations on the list are the cutting and assorting of rags, the assorting and cutting of tobacco leaves, assorting of hair for brushes, cleaning (with sulphur) of straw hats, sulphurizing of India-rubber, reeling wool and silk, cleaning bed-feathers, coloring and printing of goods, coloring of tin soldiers, packing of tobacco leaves, silvering mirrors, and cutting steel pins and pens. It is certainly no pleasant sight to behold women, even pregnant women, working at the construction of railways, together with men and drawing heavily loaded carts, or helping with the building of a house, mixing lime and serving as hod-carriers. Such occupations strip a woman of all womanliness, just as, on the other hand, many modern occupations deprive men of their manliness. Such are the results of social exploitation and social warfare. Our corrupted social conditions turn the natural order upside down.
It is not surprising that workingmen do not relish this tremendous increase of female labor in all branches of industry. It is certain that the extension of the employment of women in industry disrupts the family life of the working class, that the breaking up of marriage and the home are a natural result, and that it leads to a terrible increase of immorality, degeneration, all kinds of disease and infant mortality. According to the statistics of the German Empire, infant mortality has greatly increased in those cities that have become centers of industry. As a result infant mortality is also heightened in the rural districts owing to the greater scarcity and increased cost of milk. In Germany, infant mortality is greatest in Upper Palatine, Upper Bavaria and Lower Bavaria, in some localities of the government districts of Liegnitz and Breslau and in Chemnitz. In 1907 of every 100 infants the following percentage died during the first year of life: Stadtamhof (Upper Palatinate) 40.14 per cent.; Parsberg (Upper Palatinate) 40.06; Friedberg (Upper Bavaria) 39.28; Kelheim (Lower Bavaria) 37.71; Munich 37.63; Glauchau (Saxony) 33.48; Waldenburg (Silesia) 32.49; Chemnitz, 32.49; Reichenbach (Silesia), 32.18; Annaberg, 31.41, etc. In the majority of large manufacturing villages conditions were still worse, some of which had an infant mortality of from 40 to 50 per cent.
And yet this social development which is accompanied by such deplorable results means progress. It means progress just as freedom of trade, liberty of choosing one’s domicile, freedom of marriage, etc., meant progress, whereby capitalism was favored, but the middle class was doomed. The workingmen are not inclined to support small trades people and mechanics in their attempts again to limit freedom of trade and the liberty of choosing one’s domicile and to reinstate the limitations of the guild system in order to maintain industry on a small scale. Past conditions cannot be revived; that is equally true of the altered methods of manufacture and the altered position of women. But that does not preclude the necessity of protective legislation to prevent an unlimited exploitation of female labor and the employment in industry of children of school age. In this respect the interests of the working class coincide with the interests of the state and the general humane interests of an advanced stage of civilization. That all parties are interested in such protective measures has frequently been shown during the last decades, for instance, in Germany in 1893, when an increase of the army made it necessary to reduce the required standard, because our industrial system had greatly increased the number of young men who were unfit for military service.[145] Our final aim must be to remove the disadvantages that have been caused by the introduction of machinery, the improvement in the means of production and the modern methods of production, and so to organize human labor that the tremendous advantages machinery gave to humanity and will continue to give may be enjoyed by all members of society. It is preposterous and a crying evil that human achievements which are the product of social labor, should only benefit those who can acquire them by means of their power of wealth, while thousands of industrious workingmen and women are stricken by terror and grief when they learn of a new labor saving device, which may mean to them that they have become superfluous and will be cast out.[146] What should be joyfully welcomed by all thereby becomes an object of hatred to some, that in former decades frequently led workingmen to storm factories and demolish the machinery. A similar hostile sentiment prevails to some extent at present between working men and working women. This sentiment is unnatural. We must therefore seek to bring about a state of society in which all will enjoy equal rights regardless of sex. That will be possible when the means of production become the property of society, when labor has attained its highest degree of fruitfulness by employing all scientific and technical improvements and advantages, and when all who are able to work shall be obliged to perform a certain amount of socially necessary labor, for which society in return will provide all with the necessary means for the development of their abilities and the enjoyment of life.
Woman shall become a useful member of human society enjoying full equality with man. She shall be given the same opportunity to develop her physical and mental abilities, and by performing duties she shall be entitled to rights. Being man’s free and equal companion no unworthy demands will be made upon her. The present development of society is tending in this direction, and the numerous and grave evils incidental to this development necessitate the introduction of a new social order.
[139] Employment of married women in factories. Compiled from the annual reports of factory inspectors, for the year 1899 in the Home Department. Berlin, 1901.
[140] “In the centers of the weaving industry the percentage of married women among factory workers rises far above the average 26 per cent; for instance, in Saxony-Altenburg to 56 per cent, and in Reuss to 58 per cent.”—R. Wilbrandt, The weavers at the present time. Jena, 1906.
[141] Woerishoffer—The social status of factory workers in Mannheim.
[142] Mary Baum—Three classes of women wage-earners in industry and commerce of the city Karlsruhe. 1906.
[143] Industrial activity of women.
[144] By an international agreement between Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland on Sept. 26, 1906, the use of white phosphorus in the manufacture of matches will be forbidden from January 1, 1911. In Germany the manufacture of these goods has been prohibited since Jan. 1, 1907, and since Jan. 1, 1908, they may neither be sold nor otherwise distributed. In England a similar law was enacted in 1909.
[145] The following percentage of men examined were found fit for military service: 1902, 58.5; 1903, 57.1; 1904, 56.4; 1905, 56.3; 1906, 55.9; and 1907, 54.9. The following percentage had to be discharged owing to disability after they had been enrolled: from 1881 to 1885, 2.07 per cent; from 1891 to 1895, 2.30 per cent; from 1901 to 1905, 2.47 per cent. W. Claassen—The decrease of military efficiency in the German Empire.
[146] In December 1871, factory inspector A. Redgrave delivered a lecture at Bradford in which he said among other things: “My attention has recently been called to the changed appearance in the wool mills. Formerly they were full of women and children; now the machines seem to do all the work. Upon my inquiry a manufacturer gave me the following information: ‘under the old system I employed 63 persons; after the introduction of improved machinery I reduced my hands to 33; and recently, as a result of further great improvements, I was able to reduce them from 33 to 13’.” Within a few years then the number of workers was reduced by almost 80 per cent while the same amount of goods were produced.—Further interesting information on this subject may be found in Capital by Karl Marx.
[CHAPTER XIV.
The Struggle of Women for Education.]
[1.—The Revolution in Domestic Life.]
Although the change in the position of women is obvious to all who go through life with open eyes, we still continue to hear the idle talk that the home and the family are woman’s natural sphere. This cry is most loudly raised wherever women attempt to enter the learned professions to become teachers at higher institutions of learning, physicians, lawyers, scientists, etc. The most ridiculous objections are resorted to and defended in the guise of scientific arguments. In this respect, as in many others, supposedly learned men base their arguments on science to defend what is most ridiculous and absurd. Their main objection is, that women are intellectually inferior to men; that in the realm of intellectual activity they cannot attain any noteworthy achievements. Most men are so prejudiced in regard to the professional abilities of women, that whoever resorts to arguments of this sort is sure to meet with approval. As long as the general status of culture and knowledge is as low as at present, new ideas will always be met with rigorous opposition, especially when it is in the interest of the ruling classes to limit culture and knowledge to their own strata. Therefore new ideas are at first upheld only by a small minority, and this small group is subjected to ridicule, slander and persecution. But if the new ideas are good and rational, if they have sprung up as a natural consequence of existing conditions, they will be disseminated, and the minority will eventually become the majority. It was thus with every new idea in the course of human history, and the idea of obtaining woman’s true and complete emancipation will meet with the same success. Were not the believers in Christian faith at one time a small minority? Was the reformation not ushered in by a small and persecuted group? Did not the modern bourgeoisie contend with overwhelmingly powerful opponents? Nevertheless they were victorious. Or was Socialism destroyed in Germany by twelve years of persecution by exceptional laws? The victory of Socialism was never more certain than when it was thought to be destroyed.
The assertion that housekeeping and child-rearing is woman’s natural sphere is as intelligent as the assertion that there must always be kings, because there have been kings as long as there has been a history. We do not know how the first king originated, just as we do not know where the first capitalist appeared. But we do know that monarchy has been greatly transformed in the course of thousands of years, that it is the tendency of evolution to diminish the power of kings more and more and that the time will come—and that time is not far distant—when kings will be quite superfluous. Just as monarchy, so every institution of state and society is subjected to changes and transformations and ultimate destruction. In the historical expositions of this book we have seen, that the present form of marriage and the position of woman have by no means always been what they are to-day. We have seen that both are the product of an historical line of development that is still in progress. About 2,350 years ago Demosthenes could assert that woman had no other vocation but to give birth to legitimate children and to faithfully guard the house. To-day this conception has been overcome. No one could dare to defend this standpoint to-day without being accused of contempt of women. Indeed there are some even to-day who secretly share the view of the ancient Athenian, but no one would dare to express publicly what one of the foremost men of ancient Greece asserted freely and openly as a matter of course. Herein lies the progress.
Now, although modern development has undermined millions of marriages, it has on the other hand influenced the evolution of marriage favorably. Only a few decades ago it was a matter of fact in every citizen’s and peasant’s home, that women not only sewed, knitted, washed, cooked, etc., but that they also baked the bread, spun and weaved, and bleached, brewed beer and manufactured tallow candles and soap. Running water, lighting and heating by gas—not to speak of electricity—besides numerous other modern housefurnishings were unknown in those days. Antiquated conditions persist even to-day, but they are exceptions. The majority of women are relieved from many occupations that were inevitable formerly, because many things can be made better and cheaper industrially than by the individual housewife. Thus, within a few decades a great revolution has taken place in our domestic life to which we pay so little heed, only because we take it for granted. People do not notice transformations even when they take place under their very eyes as long as they are not sudden and disturb the accustomed order, but they resent new ideas that threaten to interfere with their treading of the beaten path. This revolution in our domestic life that is still going on, has considerably changed the position of woman in the family in still another respect. Our grandmother could not and would not think of visiting theatres, concerts and places of amusement even on week days. Nor would any woman in the good old days have dared to bother about public affairs as so many do to-day. At present women organize and join clubs pursuing the most varied, aims, they found newspapers, subscribe to them and edit them and hold conventions. As working women they organize industrially and attend the men’s meetings. In some localities of Germany they even possessed the right to elect members to courts of trade, but of this right the reactionary majority in the diet deprived them again in the year of the Lord, 1890. Although these altered conditions have their dark sides too, the bright sides predominate, and not even any reactionary would wish to abolish them again. The women themselves, regardless of the conservative character of most of them, have no inclination either to return to the old, patriarchal conditions.
In the United States, society is organized along bourgeois lines also, but it is not burdened with old European prejudices and antiquated institutions, and is therefore much more inclined to adopt new institutions and ideas if they hold promise of advantage. There, since quite some time, the position of woman is regarded differently than in Europe. Among wealthy circles women have been relieved not only of baking and brewing, but of cooking as well, and the one kitchen of an apartment hotel replaces many individual kitchens. Our army officers, who are no Socialists or Communists, have a similar method. In their casinos they form a sort of housekeeping community, appoint a manager, whose business it is to purchase the food wholesale, and to draw up the menus, and the food is cooked by steam in the kitchen of the barracks. They live far more cheaply than they could in a hotel, and their food is at least as good. Thousands of wealthy families live in boarding houses or hotels all year or part of the year without missing their domestic cooking. They, on the contrary, regard it as a great comfort to be relieved of the private kitchen. The general aversion of rich and wealthy women against kitchen work does not seem to signify that this occupation is a part of woman’s “natural sphere.” Indeed, the fact that rich families and large hotels employ male cooks makes it appear as if cooking were man’s work. Let these facts be noted by men who cannot conceive woman except surrounded by pots and pans.
Nothing could be simpler than to combine a central laundry with a central kitchen—as has already been done in all large cities by wealthy private residents or speculators—and to make the institution general. With the central kitchen, central heating, hot water supply, etc., might be connected, and much troublesome work entailing a great waste of time and effort would be abolished. Large hotels, many private houses, hospitals, schools, barracks and other public buildings have these and other modern improvements, as electric light, bathing establishments, etc. The mistake is that only public institutions and wealthy persons profit by these improvements. If made accessible to all, they would save a tremendous amount of time, effort, labor and expense, and would considerably heighten the general well being. In the summer of 1890 German newspapers published reports of progress being made in the United States in regard to central heating and ventilation. In these reports, among other things, the following was stated: “Experiments that have recently been made, especially in North America, to heat entire blocks or portions of a city from one centrally located place, have been successful in no small degree. The construction has been so carefully planned and so practically applied, that the favorable results and financial advantages will undoubtedly lead to an extension of this system. Recently further experiments have been made to provide not only the heating but also the ventilation of entire districts from centrally located places.”
Many of these contemplated improvements have since been realized and further improved. Narrow-minded philistines shrug their shoulders when such and similar plans are discussed; and yet in Germany, too, we are in the midst of a new industrial revolution, whereby the individual kitchen and other housework will become as superfluous as labor by manual tools became superfluous by the introduction of modern machinery. As late as the beginning of the nineteenth century, even a Napoleon could deride as a crazy idea the project of moving a vessel by steam. People who were considered intelligent, regarded the plan of building a railroad as an absurdity; they claimed that no one could live in a vehicle travelling at such high speed. In the same manner many new ideas are dealt with to-day. If some one had told our women a century ago that they should get their water from a faucet in the kitchen instead of drawing it from the well, he would have been accused of seeking to encourage laziness in housewives and servants.
But the great technical revolution along all lines is in full swing. Nothing can stay its progress. It is the historical mission of bourgeois society that has ushered in this revolution, to lead it to its climax, and everywhere to bring to light the germs of transformation, which a society organized on a new basis will merely need to generalize and to make the common property of all.
The development of our social life does not tend to lead woman back to the home and hearth, a state that fanatics on domesticity desire, and for which they clamor as the Jews in the desert clamored for the lost flesh-pots of Egypt. It demands the release of woman from her narrow sphere of domestic life, and her full participation in public life and the missions of civilization. Laveleye is right when he says[147]: “With the growth of what we call civilization, the feelings of piety toward family life decrease and its bonds become looser and have less influence on the actions of men. This fact is so general that it may be regarded as a law of social development.” Not only has the position of woman in the family changed, but also the position of son and daughter in their relation to the family. They have gradually obtained a degree of independence that was unheard of formerly. This is especially so in the United States, where young persons are educated to become self-reliant and independent to a far greater extent than in Europe. The dark sides that are incidental to this form of development also are not necessarily connected with it, but are rooted in the social conditions of our time. Bourgeois society does not produce any new and pleasing phenomena that do not have a dark side as well. As Fourier already pointed out with much perspicacity, all its progress is double-edged. Like Laveleye, Dr. Schaeffle also recognizes the changed nature of the modern family as a result of social development. He says:[148] “Thruout history we find the tendency of the family to return to its specific functions. The family abandons one provisionally and temporarily maintained function after another and, inasmuch as it only filled out the gaps in social functions, it yields to the independent institutions of law, order, power, divine service, teaching, industry, etc., as soon as such institutions are developed.”
[147] Original Property. Chap. XX, Household Community. Leipsic, 1879.
[148] Structure and Life of the Body Social. Vol. I. Tuebingen, 1878.
[2.—The Intellectual Abilities of Women.]
Women are advancing, tho at present only a small minority strives to advance, and of these again only a few are fully conscious of their aims. They not only wish to measure their strength with that of men industrially and commercially, they not only wish to hold a more independent position in the family, they also wish to employ their intellectual abilities in higher positions and in public life. They are met time and again with the argument that they are unfit by nature for intellectual occupations. The question of the practice of learned professions only concerns a small number of women in present-day society, but it is important as a matter of principle. The majority of men seriously believe that women must remain subjected to them intellectually also and that they have no right to seek equality; therefore they are vehemently opposed to the intellectual ambitions of women. The same men who do not object to women being employed in difficult and dangerous occupations that threaten their womanliness and injure their maternity, would bar them from professions that are far less difficult and dangerous and far better suited to their physical abilities. In Germany, the lively agitation for the admission of women to universities, has called forth a great number of opponents who especially oppose the admission of women to the study of medicine. Among these are Pochhammer, Fehling, Binder, Hegar, and others. J. Beerenbach seeks to prove that women are not qualified for scientific study, by pointing out that no genius had as yet sprung up among women. This argument is neither valid nor convincing. Geniuses do not drop from the sky; they must have an opportunity for development, and such opportunity women have been lacking, for since thousands of years they have been oppressed and deprived of opportunity for intellectual development, and thereby their mental abilities have become atrophied. A considerable number of distinguished women exist even to-day, and if one denies the existence of potential geniuses among them, that is as far from being true as the belief that there were no more geniuses among men than those that were recognized as such. Every country schoolteacher knows how many able minds among his pupils are never developed because they lack opportunity for development. Indeed we all have in our day met persons in whom we recognized rare ability and who, we felt, would have become a credit to the community, if circumstances had been more favorable to them. The number of talents and geniuses among men is far greater than could be revealed until now. The same is true of the abilities of women that have for thousands of years been far more hampered, repressed and cramped than those of men. We have no standard whereby we can measure the amount of intellectual strength and ability among men and women, that would unfold if they could develop under natural conditions.
To-day it is in human life as in plant life. Millions of precious seeds never achieve development because the ground on which they are cast is unfertile or is already occupied, and the young plant is thus deprived of air, light and nourishment. The same laws that apply to nature apply to human life. If a gardener or farmer would claim that a plant could not be perfected without having made an attempt to perfect it, his more enlightened neighbors would consider him a fool. They would hold the same opinion of him if he would refuse to interbreed one of his female domestic animals with a male of more perfect breed to obtain more perfect stock.
There is no peasant to-day who is so ignorant not to recognize the advantage of a rational treatment of his vegetables, fruit, and cattle; whether his means allow the application of advanced methods is another question. Only in regard to humanity even educated people will not admit what they regard as an irrefutable law with the rest of the organic world. Yet one need not be a scientist to derive instructive observations from life. How is it that peasant children differ from city children? How is it that children of the wealthier classes are, as a rule, distinguishable from the children of the poor by facial and bodily traits and by mental qualities? It is due to the difference in their conditions of living and education.
The one-sidedness of training for a certain profession leaves its particular imprint upon a person. As a rule a minister or a school teacher can easily be recognized by his bearing and the expression of his face, as also a military man, even in plain clothes. A cobbler is easily distinguished from a tailor, a carpenter from a locksmith. Twin brothers who greatly resembled each other in their youth, will show marked differences in a more advanced age if their occupations have been very different from one another; if, for instance, one is a manual laborer, say a blacksmith, and the other has studied philosophy. Heredity on the one hand and adaptation on the other, are decisive factors in human development as well as in the animal kingdom, and man, moreover, is the most adaptive of all creatures. Sometimes a few years of a different mode of life and a different occupation suffice to alter a person completely. External changes are never more clearly seen than when a person is transplanted from poor and narrow circumstances to greatly improved ones. His past can perhaps be disavowed least in his mental culture. When people have attained a certain age, they frequently have no ambition for intellectual improvement, and often they do not need it either. A parvenu rarely suffers from this shortcoming. In our day money is the chief asset, and people bow far more readily before the man with a great fortune than before the man of knowledge and great intellectual abilities, especially if it is his ill fortune to be poor. The worship of Mammon was never greater than in our day. Yet we are living in the “best of worlds.”
Our industrial districts furnish a striking example of the influence of decidedly different conditions of life and education. Even externally, workers and capitalists differ to such an extent as if they were members of two different races. These differences were brought home to us in an almost startling manner at the occasion of a campaign meeting during the winter of 1877 in an industrial town of Saxony. The meeting, in which a discussion with a liberal professor was to take place, had been so arranged that an equal number of both parties were present. The front of the hall was occupied by our opponents, almost without exception healthy, strong, and some stately figures. In the rear of the hall and on the galleries were the workingmen and small traders, nine-tenths of them weavers, mostly small, narrow-chested, hollow-cheeked figures whose faces bore the imprints of care and need. The one group represented the well-fed virtue and morality of the bourgeois world, the other represented the worker—bees and beasts of burden on whose labor the gentlemen waxed strong. If one generation were reared under equally favorable conditions of life the differences would be greatly decreased and would quite disappear among their progeny.
It is usually more difficult to determine the social position among women than among men. They easily accustom themselves to altered conditions and readily adopt more refined habits of life. Their adaptability is greater than that of the more clumsy man.
What good soil, air and light are to the plant, that to man are healthful social conditions, which enable him to develop his physical and mental qualities. The saying that “man is what he eats” expresses a similar thought somewhat too narrowly. Not only what a man eats, but his entire standard of life and his social environment advance or hamper his physical and mental development, and influence his feelings, his thoughts and his actions favorably or unfavorably, as the case may be. We see every day that persons living in good financial circumstances go to ruin mentally and morally, because outside of the narrow sphere of their domestic and personal relations, unfavorable influences, social in character, were brought to bear upon them and gained such control over them that they were driven into evil ways. The social conditions under which we live are even more important than the conditions of family life. But when the social conditions of development will be the same for both sexes, when there will be no restriction for either, and when the general state of society will be a healthful one, woman will rise to a height of perfection that we can hardly conceive to-day, because until now no such conditions have existed in human evolution. The achievements of individual women justify our highest expectations, for these tower above the mass of their sex just as male geniuses tower above the mass of men. If we apply the standard of rulership, for instance, we find that women have shown even greater talent for ruling than men. To mention just a few examples: There were Isabella and Blanche of Castilia, Elizabeth of Hungary, Katherine Sforza, Countess of Milan and Imola, Elizabeth of England, Katherine of Russia, Maria Theresa, and others. Basing his assertion on the fact that women have ruled well among all nations and in all parts of the globe, even over the wildest and most turbulent hordes, Burbach is led to remark that according to all probability women would be better qualified for politics than men[149]. When in 1901 Queen Victoria of England died, a large English newspaper made the suggestion to introduce female succession exclusively in England, because the history of England showed that its queens ruled better than its kings.
Many a great man of history would shrivel considerably if we always knew how much was due to his own efforts and how much he owed to others. As one of the greatest geniuses of the French Revolution, German historians regard Count Mirabeau. Yet research has revealed the fact, that he owed the preparation of almost all his speeches to the willing assistance of a few learned men who worked for him secretly and whose labor he skillfully made use of. On the other hand, women like Sappho, Diotima, at the time of Socrates, Hypatia of Alexandria, Madame Roland, Mary Wollstonecraft, Olympe de Gouges, Madame de Staël, George Sand, and others, merit our highest admiration. Many a male star pales beside them. The influence of women as mothers of great men is also well known. Women have accomplished as much as they could accomplish under exceedingly unfavorable circumstances, and that entitles us to great expectations for the future. As a matter of fact, women were admitted to competition with men in various realms of activity only during the second half of the nineteenth century. The results obtained are very satisfactory.
But even should we take for granted that women, as a rule, are not as capable of development as men, that there are no geniuses and philosophers among them, we are nevertheless led to ask whether this factor was considered among men when they, according to the wording of the laws, were given complete equality with the geniuses and philosophers. The learned men who deny the intellectual ability of women, are inclined to do the same in the case of workingmen. When persons of nobility pride themselves on their “blue” blood and their pedigree, they smile and contemptuously shrug their shoulders; but in the presence of the man of lowly birth they consider themselves an aristocracy that have achieved their favored position, not through their more advantageous circumstances, but only by their own peculiar talents. The same men, who are unprejudiced in one respect and have a poor opinion of persons who are not as liberal-minded as they, become incredibly narrow-minded and fanatical when their class interests or personal conceit are involved. Men of the upper classes judge men of the lower classes unfavorably, and in the same way almost all men judge women unfavorably. The majority of men regard women only as a means to their comfort and enjoyment. To regard them as beings endowed with equal rights is repugnant to their prejudiced minds. Woman should be modest and submissive; she should confine her interests to the home, and leave all other domains to the “lords of creation.” Woman should check every thought and inclination, and wait patiently for what her earthly providence, father or husband, may decide. If she lives up to this standard she is praised for her good sense, modesty and virtue, even tho she may break down under the burden of physical and moral suffering. But if we speak of the equality of all human beings, it is preposterous to wish to exclude half of humanity.
Woman has the same right as man to develop her abilities and to employ them freely. She is a human being as well as man and should have the freedom of disposing of her own body and mind and be her own master. The chance of having been born a woman, must not affect her human rights. To exclude woman from equal rights because she has been born a woman and not a man—a fact of which both man and woman are innocent—is as unfair, as to make rights and privileges depend upon religious or political opinion; and it is as irrational as the belief that two persons are innate enemies because, by the chance of birth, they belong to different races or nationalities. Such views are unworthy of a free human being. Progress of humanity consists in removing whatever keeps one human being, one class or one sex in slavery and dependence upon another. No difference is justified except those differences established by nature to fulfill its purpose. But no sex will overstep the natural limits, because it would thereby destroy its own purpose in nature.
[149] Dr. Havelock Ellis.—Man and Woman.
[3.—Differences in Physical and Mental Qualities of Man and Woman.]
One of the chief arguments of the opponents of equal rights is, that woman has a smaller brain than man and is less developed in other respects, and that therefore her lasting inferiority is proven. It is certain that man and woman are two human beings of different sex, that each has different organs adapted to the sexual purpose, and that, owing to the fulfillment of the sexual function, a number of differences in their physiological and psychological conditions exist. These are facts that no one can nor will deny; but they do not furnish any cause for social or political inequality between man and woman. Humanity and society consist of both sexes; both are indispensable to their maintenance and development. Even the greatest man was born by a mother to whom he may owe his best qualities and abilities. By what right, then, can woman be denied equality with man?
According to the opinion of eminent authorities, the most marked differences in physical and mental qualities between man and woman are the following: In regard to stature, Havelock Ellis considers 170 centimeters the average height for men and 160 centimeters for women. According to Vierordt, it is 172 and 160, and in northern Germany, according to Krause, 173 and 163 centimeters. The proportion of man’s stature to woman’s is as 100 to 93. The average weight of adult persons is 65 kilograms for men and 54 for women. The greater length of the trunk in a woman’s body is a well-known difference; yet this difference is not as great as has been generally assumed, as careful measurements have shown. The legs of a woman of medium size are only by 15 millimeters shorter than those of a man of medium size, and Pfitzner doubts that this difference is noticeable. “The differences in the lengths of body and legs are influenced by the stature, and are independent of sex.” But the female arm is decidedly shorter than the male arm (as 100 to 91.5). The male hand is broader and larger than the female hand, and with men the ring-finger is usually longer than the index, while the opposite is the case with women. By this the male hand becomes more ape-like, as the long arm also is a pithecoid (ape-like) characteristic.
In regard to the size of the head, the proportion of the absolute height of male and female heads may be set down as 100 to 94. But the relative sizes (in proportion to the size of the body) are 100 to 100.8. So actually woman’s head is somewhat smaller, but in proportion to the size of her body, it is somewhat larger than man’s. The bones of woman are smaller, finer, and more delicate in form and have a smoother surface, for the weaker muscles require less rough surface to fasten upon. The weaker muscular development is one of the most striking characteristics of woman. Each separate muscle of a woman’s body is finer, softer, and contains more water. (According to v. Bibra the quantity of water contained in the muscles is 72.5 per cent. with man, and 74.4 per cent. with woman.) In regard to the adipose membrane the opposite proportion exists; it is much more amply developed with woman than with man. The chest is relatively shorter and narrower. Other differences are directly connected with the sexual purpose. The statements of various authors in regard to relative and absolute weight of the intestines, are very contradictory. According to Vierordt the proportion of the weight of the heart to the weight of the body is as 1 to 215 with men, and as 1 to 206 with women. According to Clendinning it is as 1 to 158 and as 1 to 149. Taken all in all, we may assume that the female intestines are absolutely smaller, but relatively, in proportion to the weight of the body, heavier than the male.
The blood of women shows a larger percentage of water, a smaller quantity of blood-globules, and a smaller quantity of hemachrome. With woman the smaller size of the heart, the narrower vascular system, and probably also the larger percentage of water in the blood, cause a less intense assimilation of matter and an inferior nutrition. This may also account for the weaker jaws. “It may thus be explained that even civilized man in many respects is more closely connected with the animal world, especially the ape, than woman, that he possesses pithecoid traits which may be seen in the shape of the skull and the length of the limbs.”
In regard to the differences of the skull of both sexes, let it be stated that, according to Bartels, there is no absolute indication whereby we could determine whether a skull belonged to a male or female person. Absolute comparison shows that the skulls of men are larger in all dimensions. Accordingly the weight is greater, too, and the interior space is larger.
As a medium weight of normally developed brains of adult persons, Grosser states 1388 grammes for the man and 1252 grammes for the woman.[150] The great majority of male brains (34 per cent.) weigh between 1250 and 1550 grammes, and the great majority of female brains (91 per cent.) weigh between 1100 and 1450 grammes. But these weights are not subject to direct comparison since woman is smaller than man. It is, accordingly, necessary to determine the weight of the brain in proportion to the body. When we compare the weight of the brain with the weight of the body we find that with the man there are 21.6 grammes of the brain for every kilogram of the weight of the body, and with the woman there are 23.6 grammes. This outweighing is explained by the fact that woman’s stature is smaller.[151]
Different results are obtained by a comparison of equally large individuals of both sexes. According to Marchand the weight of the female brain is, without exception, lighter than that of men of the same size. But this method is as incorrect as a comparison with the size of the body. It takes for granted what remains to be proven: a direct relation between the size of the body and the weight of the brain. Blakeman, Alice Lee and Karl Pearson have determined on the basis of English data and measurements, that there is no noticeable relative difference in the weight of the brain between man and woman; that is, a man of the same age, stature and skull measurements as the average woman, would not differ from her in regard to the weight of his brain.[152]
Even Marchand points out that the smaller size of woman’s brain may be due to the greater fineness of her nerves. Grosser says: “Indeed, this has not yet been determined by means of the microscope, and would be difficult to determine. But we must point to the analogy that the eye-ball and the cavity of the ear are also somewhat smaller with woman than with man, yet these organs are no less fine and serviceable. Another, perhaps the chief reason, for the lighter weight of the woman’s brain may be found in her weaker muscular development.”[153]
Inasmuch as the differences are rooted in the nature of sex, they can, of course, not be altered. But to what extent these differences in blood and brain can be changed by a different mode of life (nourishment, physical and mental culture, occupation, etc.) cannot be definitely determined for the time being. That modern woman differs from man to a greater extent than primitive woman or the woman of inferior races, seems to be established, and when we consider the social development of woman’s position among civilized nations during the past 1000 or 1500 years, it seems only too obvious.
The following shows the capacity of the female skull according to Havelock Ellis (assuming the capacity of the male skull to be 1000):
| Negro | 984 |
| Hottentot | 951 |
| Hindu | 944 |
| Eskimo | 931 |
| Dutch | 913 |
| Russian | 884 |
| German | 838 to 897[154] |
| Chinese | 870 |
| English | 860 to 862 |
| Parisian, 19 yrs. | 858 |
[154] According to five different authors: 838, 864, 878, 883, 897. For Prussia (Kupfer), 918; for Bavaria (Rause), 893.
The conflicting statements among the Germans show that the measurements have been taken among greatly differing material, both in regard to quality and quantity, and that therefore they are not absolutely reliable. But the figures clearly show one thing: that Negroes, Hottentots and Hindu women have a considerably larger capacity of the skull than the German, English and Parisian women; and yet the latter are far more intelligent.
A comparison of the brain-weights of well-known deceased men shows similar contradictions and peculiarities. According to Professor Reclam, the brain of the scientist Cuvier weighed 1830 grammes; that of Byron, 1807; that of the famous mathematician Gauss, 1492; of the philologist Hermann, 1358; of the Parisian prefect Hausmann, 1226. It is said that the weight of Dante’s brain also was below the average weight of the male brains. Havelock Ellis gives us similar information. He reports that the brain of an unknown person, weighed by Bischoff, had a weight of 2222 grammes, while the brain of the poet Turgeniew weighed only 2012 grammes; the third largest brain was that of an imbecile; the brain of a plain workingman that was also examined by Bischoff, weighed 1325 grammes. The heaviest female brains weighed between 1742 and 1580 grammes; two of these were taken from women who had suffered from mental derangement. On the congress of German anthropologists, which was held in Dortmund in August, 1902, Professor Waldeyer stated that an examination of the skull of the philosopher Leibnitz, who died in 1716, had shown that its contents only measured 1450 cubic centimeters, which corresponds to a brain weight of 1300 grammes. According to Hausemann, who examined the brains of Mommsen, Bunsen and Adolph v. Menzel, Mommsen’s brain weighed 1429.4 grammes; it accordingly did not exceed the average brainweight of an adult man. Menzel’s brain weighed only 1298 grammes and Bunsen’s less still—1295 grammes, below the average male brainweight and not much above the brainweight of a woman. Those are striking facts that completely overthrow the old assumption that intellectual abilities could be measured by the capacity of the skull. After an examination of the English data, Raymond Pearl comes to the following conclusion: “There are no proofs of a close relation between intellectual abilities and brainweight.”[155] The English anthropologist, W. Duckworth, says: “There is no proof that a heavy brainweight is accompanied by great intellectual ability. Neither the brainweight, nor the capacity of the skull, nor the circumference of the head, where they could be determined, have been of any use as a measure of intellectual abilities.”[156] Kohlbruegge, who has during recent years published the results of the examinations of human brains of many races, says: “Intelligence and brainweight are entirely independent of one another. Even the greater brainweight of famous men is not sufficient proof, since it exceeds the general medium weight, but not that of the upper classes to which these men belonged. But by these statements I do not seek to deny that brainweight can be increased, especially by excessive study during youth, which may account for the heavier brainweights and the greater skull capacity of the upper classes and of scholarly persons, especially when—as is usually the case among the well-to-do—excessive nourishment is added. This increase in weight by mental over-exertion has its dark sides also, as is well known. Lunatics often have very heavy brains. The main point is that it cannot be proven that intelligence (something entirely different from productiveness) has any relation to weight. It is true of the external formation also, that until now, no connection could be shown between certain forms and higher mental development, intelligence, or genius.”[157]
It is established, then, that we cannot draw conclusions from the brainweight as to mental qualities, as little as we can draw conclusions from the size of the body as to physical strength. The large mammals, such as elephant, whale, etc., have larger and heavier brains; yet in regard to proportional brainweight they are excelled by most birds and small mammals. We have some very small animals (ant, bee) that are far more intelligent than much larger ones (for instance, sheep, cow), just as people of large stature often are mentally inferior to persons of small and insignificant appearance. According to all probability the mass of the brain is not the determining factor, but its organization and the practice and use of its powers.
“In my opinion,” says Professor L. Stieda, “the difference in psychic functions can doubtlessly be accounted for by the finer construction of the gray matter, the nerve cells, the white matter, the arrangement of the blood-vessels, the construction, form, size and number of nerve-cells, and last but not least, their nutrition, their metabolic assimilation.”[158]
If the brain is to attain the full development of its faculties, it must be exercised regularly, and the brain must be properly nourished, just as every other organ; if this is left undone, or if the training is a faulty one, the normal development will be hampered, even crippled. One faculty is developed at the expense of another.
There are some anthropologists, as Manouvrier and others, who even seek to prove that woman is morphologically more highly developed than man. That is an exaggeration. Duckworth says: “When we compare the two sexes, we find that there is no constant difference that lets one sex appear morphologically superior to the other.”[159] Havelock Ellis only admits of one limitation. He believes that female characteristics show fewer variations than the male. But, in an anticritique, Karl Pearson has explicitly shown that this is only a pseudo-scientific superstition.[160]
No one who is acquainted with the history of the development of woman can deny, that woman has been sinned against. If Professor Bischoff asserts that woman was enabled to develop her brain and her intelligence as well as man, this assertion merely shows an incredible degree of ignorance upon the subject. The description we have given in this book of the position of woman during the course of civilization, makes it appear quite natural, that thousands of years of male rule have brought about the difference in the physical and mental development of the sexes.
Our scientists ought to recognize that the laws of their sciences apply fully to man also. Heredity and adaptation prevail with man as with every other living creature. But if man constitutes no exception in nature, the law of evolution must apply to him also, whereby that becomes clear what otherwise remains wrapped in darkness, and then becomes an object of scientific mysticism or mystic science.
The brain formation of the sexes has developed in accordance with their different educations. Indeed during a great portion of the past, the word education could not be applied to woman at all. Physiologists are agreed that those parts of the brain which influence the intellect are situated in the fore-part of the head, while those that specially influence feeling and sentiment, are situated in the middle part. The conception of beauty for man and woman has developed accordingly. According to the Greek conception, which still prevails, woman is supposed to have a low forehead, while man is supposed to have a high and broad forehead. This conception of beauty, which is a symptom of her degradation, has been so impressed upon our women, that they consider a high forehead unbeautiful and seek to improve upon nature by combing their hair over their forehead to make it appear lower.
[150] The following average weights of male and female brains have been determined by the following scientists:
| Male brain. | Female brain. | |
|---|---|---|
| Bischoff (Bavaria) | 1362 | 1219 |
| Boyd (England) | 1325 | 1183 |
| Marchand (Hessia) | 1399 | 1248 |
| Retzius (Sweden) | 1388 | 1252 |
[151] “Men of genius as a rule are small of stature with a massy brain. These are also the chief characteristics of the child, and their general facial expression as also their temperament resemble the child’s.”—Havelock Ellis, Man and Woman.
[152] J. Blakeman, Alice Lee & K. Pearson—A Study of the biometric constants of English Brainweights. Biometrica, 1905.
[153] Dr. Otto Grosser—The structure of the female body in “Man and Woman.” Stuttgart, 1907.
[155] Raymond Pearl—Variation or Correlation in Brainweight. Biometrika, vol. IV. June, 1905.
[156] W. Duckworth—Morphology and Anthropology. Cambridge, 1904.
[157] Kohlbruegge—Investigations of the furrows of the brain of human races. Journal of Morphology and Anthropology. Stuttgart, 1908.
[158] L. Stieda—The Brain of the Philologist. Journal of Morphology and Anthropology, 1907.
[160] K. Pearson—Variation in Man and Woman in Chances of Death. London, 1897.
[4.—Darwinism and the Condition of Society.]
It has accordingly not been proven, that women are inferior to men as a result of the quantity of their brain; yet the present intellectual status of women is not surprising. Darwin is surely right in saying, that if a list of the ablest men on the subjects of poetry, painting, sculpture, music, science and philosophy were placed beside a list of the ablest women on the same subjects, the two could not compare with one another. But could it be otherwise? It would be surprising if it were not so. Very correctly Dr. Dodel (Zurich)[161] says, that it would be different if for a number of generations men and women would be similarly educated. As a rule, woman is physically weaker than man also, which is by no means the case among many uncivilized peoples.[162] How much can be attained by practice and training from childhood on, may, for instance, be seen with ladies of the circus and female acrobats, who achieve most astounding things in regard to courage, daring, skill and strength.
As all these things are conditioned by the mode of life and education, as they are—to use a scientific term—due to “breeding,” it may be assumed as certain that the physical and intellectual life of man will lead to the best results, as soon as man will consciously and expediently influence his development.
As plants and animals depend upon conditions of existence, as they are fostered by favorable and hampered by unfavorable ones, and as compulsory conditions force them to change their nature and character—provided that their influence does not destroy them—thus it is also with man. The manner in which a human being obtains his means of subsistence not only affects his external appearance, but also his feelings, his thoughts and his actions. If unfavorable conditions of existence—that is, unfavorable social conditions—are the cause of insufficient individual development, then it follows that by a change of his conditions of existence—that is, his social condition—man himself will be changed. The point in question, then, is, so to organize social conditions that every human being will be given an opportunity for the untrammelled development of his nature; that the laws of development and adaptation—called Darwinism after Darwin—may be consciously and expediently applied to all human beings. But that will only be possible under Socialism. As a rational being, capable of judgment, man must so alter his social conditions and everything in connection with them, that equally favorable conditions of existence prevail for all. Every individual shall be enabled to develop his talents and abilities to his own advantage as well as to the advantage of society, but he must not have the power to harm other individuals or society at large. His own advantage and the advantage of all shall coincide. Harmony of interests must supercede the conflict of interests that dominate present-day society.
Darwinism, like every true science, is an eminently democratic science.[163] If some of its representatives claim that the opposite is true, they fail to recognize the range of their own science. Its opponents, especially the clergy, who are always quick to perceive any advantage or disadvantage to themselves, have recognized this, and therefore denounce Darwinism as being Socialistic or atheistic. In this respect Professor Virchow agrees with his most vehement opponents, for at the congress of Scientists, held in Munich in 1877, he asserted in opposition to Professor Haeckel: “The Darwinian theory leads to Socialism.”[164] Virchow tried to discredit Darwinism because Haeckel demanded, that the theory of evolution should be introduced into the school curriculum. The suggestion to teach science in the schools according to Darwin, and the results of modern scientific investigations, is vehemently opposed by all those who wish to maintain the present order. The revolutionary effect of these doctrines is well known; therefore it is deemed wiser to propagate them only among the chosen few. But we contend that if the Darwinian theories lead to Socialism, as Virchow claims, that is no argument against these theories, but an argument in favor of Socialism. Men of science should not question whether the consequences of a science lead to one form of the state or another, whether one social condition or another is justified by them; it is their sole duty to investigate whether the theories are in accordance with truth, and if they are, to accept them with all their consequences. Whoever acts otherwise, be it for personal gain or favor or to serve class or party interest, commits a despicable action and is no credit to science. The representatives of corporate science, especially at our universities, can indeed only rarely lay claim to independence of character. The fear of financial loss, or the fear of being discredited with the powers that be and of being thereby deprived of title and rank and the opportunity of advancement, causes most of these representatives to bow down and either to conceal their conviction, or to say publicly the opposite of what they believe and know. At a ceremony of homage to the ruler held at the University of Berlin in 1870, Dubois-Reymond exclaimed: “The universities are institutions where the intellectual body-guards of the Hohenzollern are trained.” If a Dubois-Reymond could express himself in this manner, we can imagine what conceptions in regard to the object of science are held by the majority of the others, who are very inferior to this eminent scientist.[165] Science is degraded to serve the purposes of the ruling powers.
It is only natural that Professor Haeckel and his adherents, Professor O. Schmidt, v. Hellwald and others, remonstrate energetically against the terrible accusation that Darwinism leads to Socialism. They claim that the opposite is true, that Darwinism is aristocratic, since it teaches that everywhere in nature the more highly organized and stronger living beings suppress the inferior ones; and since, according to their conception, the propertied and educated classes constitute these more highly organized and stronger living beings in human society, they consider the rule of these classes a matter of course, since it is justified by the laws of nature.
These, among our evolutionists, are ignorant of the economic laws which dominate bourgeois society. Otherwise they would know that the blind rule of these laws does not raise to social pre-eminence either the best or the ablest or the most competent, but frequently the worst and the most cunning, who thereby are placed in a position of making the conditions of life and development most favorable to their progeny, without the least effort on their part. Under no economic system did persons, possessing good and noble human qualities, have so little opportunity of attaining and maintaining an elevated position, as under the capitalistic system. Without fear of exaggeration it may be said, that this state of affairs increases with the development of this system. Lack of consideration for others and unscrupulousness in the choice and application of means to attain one’s end, prove far more effective than all human virtues combined. Only one who is ignorant of the nature of this society or who is so dominated by bourgeois prejudices that he cannot reason properly or draw correct conclusions, could regard a social system based upon such conditions as a society of the “fittest and best.” The struggle for existence is always present with all organisms. It goes on without any knowledge on their part of the laws and conditions that shape it. This struggle for existence prevails among men also and among the members of each social group from which solidarity has disappeared, or where it has not yet been developed. This struggle for existence changes its form according to the various relations of men to one another in the course of human development. It assumes the character of class struggles on an ever higher scale. But these struggles—and thereby man is distinguished from all other human beings—lead to a growing understanding of the nature of society, and finally to a recognition of the laws which determine its development. Eventually man will but need to apply these laws to his social and political institutions and to transform them accordingly. The difference is that man may be called a reasoning animal, but the animal is not a reasoning human being. This many Darwinists fail to see, owing to their biased conceptions, and therefore arrive at false conclusions.[166]
Professor Haeckel and his adherents also deny that Darwinism leads to atheism. Thus, after they have done away with the “creator” by all their scientific arguments and proofs, they make desperate efforts to re-introduce him. To attain this purpose a new sort of individual “religion” is formed, that has been termed “higher morality,” “moral principles,” etc. In 1882 at the congress of scientists in Eisenach, in the presence of the Grand-duke of Weimar and his family, Professor Haeckel endeavored not only to save religion but also to represent his master, Darwin, as being a religious man. The attempt failed, as anyone can affirm who read the lecture and the letter from Darwin that was quoted in it. Darwin’s letter expresses, though in careful terms, the opposite of what Professor Haeckel claimed it to express. Darwin was obliged to consider the piety of his fellow-countrymen, the English, therefore he never dared to express publicly his true views in regard to religion. But he did so privately, as became known shortly after the congress in Weimar, for he told Dr. L. Buechner that he had not believed since his fortieth year—since 1849—because he had not been able to obtain proofs to justify belief. During the last years of his life Darwin also supported an atheistic newspaper, which was published in New York.
[161] The Newer History of the Creation.
[162] Proofs of this may be found in the previously quoted book by Dr. Havelock Ellis. He relates that among many savage and semi-savage tribes woman is not only man’s equal in regard to size and strength, but even his superior. Ellis is agreed with others that the differences of brain between the sexes have increased with the development of civilization.
[163] “The hall of science is the temple of democracy.” Buckle—History of Civilization in England. Vol. II.
[164] Ziegler denies that this was the sense of Virchow’s remarks, but his own report of Virchow’s speech only confirms it. Virchow said: “Now, just picture how the theory of evolution is conceived even to-day by the brain of a Socialist! (Laughter) Yes, gentlemen, that may seem amusing to some of you, but it is a very serious matter, and I only hope the theory of evolution may not bring us such horrors as similar theories have brought about in our neighboring country. If this theory is consistently followed out it is very hazardous, and you cannot have failed to observe that Socialism is in sympathy with it. We should make this perfectly clear.”—Well, we have done what Virchow feared, we have drawn the conclusions of the Darwinian theories that Darwin himself and many of his followers either failed to draw or drew incorrectly, and Virchow warned against the dangers of these doctrines because he perceived that Socialism would draw and would have to draw the conclusions that are involved in them.
[165] In reference to former attacks upon him, Dubois Reymond repeated the sentence quoted above in February, 1883, during the commemoration of the birthday of Frederick the Great.
[166] Enrico Ferri published a book on “Socialism and Modern Science, Darwin—Spencer—Marx,” in which he proves, especially in answer to Haeckel, that Darwinism and Socialism are in complete harmony and that it is a grave error on Haeckel’s part to characterize Darwinism as being aristocratic. We do not agree with Ferri’s book in every respect. We especially do not share his point of view in judging the qualities of women, which is, in the main, the point of Lombroso and Ferrero. Ellis has shown in “Man and Woman” that an existing difference in the qualities of man and woman does not imply the inferiority of one—a confirmation of Kant’s utterance, that only man and woman together constitute the complete human being. Nevertheless Ferri’s book is a welcome one.
[5.—Woman and the Learned Professions.]
Women are justified in entering into intellectual competition with men, instead of waiting until it pleases the men to develop their intellectual faculties and to clear the path for them. The woman’s movement is providing for this. Already women have removed many barriers and have entered the intellectual arena—in some countries with marked success. The movement to obtain admission to the higher institutions of learning and to the practice of learned professions is, in accordance with the nature of our conditions, limited to the circles of bourgeois women. The proletarian women are not directly concerned since, for the time being, these studies and the resulting positions are closed to them. Nevertheless, this movement and its success is an object of general interest. In the first place, it is a matter of principle, since it affects the general position of woman; in the second place, it is destined to show what women can accomplish even at present, under conditions that are highly unfavorable to their development. Moreover, all women are interested, for instance, in being able, in case of sickness, to be treated by physicians of their own sex, if they so choose, since many feel that they can confide with less reserve in a woman than in a man. To a great many of our women female physicians are a blessing, for the fact that they must turn to male physicians in the case of diseases or ailments connected with their sex functions, frequently prevents them from seeking medical aid in time. This leads to many troubles and serious results, not only to the women themselves, but to their husbands also. There is hardly a physician who has not had some experience with this reticence of women, that may sometimes be called almost criminal, and their aversion against confessing to their ailments. That is readily understood. But it is inconceivable that the men, and especially many physicians also, will not recognize how justifiable it is, therefore—indeed how necessary—for women to study medicine.
Female physicians are no novel factor. Among most of the ancients, especially among the ancient Germans, women practiced the art of healing. There were female physicians and surgeons of note during the ninth and tenth centuries in the kingdom of the Arabs, especially in Spain, under the rule of the Arabs (Moors), where they studied at the University of Cordova. The study of women at various Italian universities, as Bologna and Palermo, was also due to Moorish influence. When the “heathen” influence ceased in Italy, these studies were prohibited. In 1377 the faculty of the University of Bologna issued the following decree: “As woman is the source of sin, the devil’s tool, the cause of the expulsion from paradise, and the cause of corruption of the old law, and as therefore every conversation with her should be carefully avoided, we distinctly forbid and interdict any one to venture to introduce any woman, no matter how respectable she may be, into this college. Should some one do so nevertheless, the rector shall punish him severely.”
One good result of the study of women is, that female competition has a very stimulating influence on the studiousness of the male students, which has left much to be wished for, as has been affirmed by various sources. That alone would be a great gain. It would furthermore considerably improve their habits. The drunkenness, pugnacity, and beer-saloon habit of our students would become greatly checked. Those places from which our statesmen, judges, public attorneys, police officials, ministers, representatives of the people, etc., are chiefly recruited, would become more worthy of the objects for which they were founded and are being maintained. According to the impartial opinions of those competent to judge, such an improvement is exceedingly needful.
The number of states that admit women to their high-schools and universities are rapidly increasing since a few decades. None that lays claim to being a civilized state can offer continued resistance to this demand. The United States took the lead and Russia followed, two states that are diametrically opposed to one another in every respect. In the North American Union women have been admitted to high-schools and universities in all the states; in Utah since 1850; in Iowa since 1860; in Kansas since 1866; in Wisconsin since 1868; in Minnesota since 1869; in California and Missouri since 1870, and in Ohio, Illinois and Nebraska since 1871. Since then all the other states followed. Quite in accordance with their opportunity for study, the women in the United States have achieved their positions. According to the census of 1900 there were: 7399 female physicians and surgeons, 5989 writers, 1041 architects, 3405 ministers, 1010 lawyers, and 327,905 teachers.
In Europe, Switzerland took the lead in opening its universities to women. The following shows the number of male and female students at Swiss universities:
| Total | Enrolled female students | Total number of women attending courses | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1896–1897 | 7676 | 1502 | 2757 |
| 1900–1901 | 8521 | 1904 | 3156 |
| 1905–1906 | 4181 | 391 | 728 |
| 1906–1907 | 5301 | 854 | 1429 |
During the term 1906 to 1907 the female students were distributed as follows among the various faculties: law, 75; medicine, 1181; philosophy, 648. According to nationality there were 172 Swiss women, and 1732 foreigners. The number of German women students in Switzerland has decreased, since they are admitted to German universities now, although not without restrictions. During the term 1906 to 1907 the number of regularly enrolled female students constituted about 30 per cent. of all the students. In England women are admitted to lecture at the universities, but at Oxford and Cambridge they are still barred from taking degrees. In France in 1905 there were 33,168 students, among these 1922 women (774 foreigners). They were distributed as follows: Law, 57; medicine, 386; sciences, 259; literature, 838; miscellaneous, 382. The following are the countries in which women have been admitted to universities: United States, England, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, France, Turkey and Australia. Female physicians are admitted to the practice of their profession in India, Abyssinia, Persia, Morocco, China, etc. Especially in the Oriental countries female physicians are constantly gaining ground. The restrictions that custom and religion place upon women in these countries make female physicians an especially great boon.
After long struggles and great exertions, Germany, too, has at last taken a new course, though timidly at first. By a decision passed by the Federal Council on April 24, 1899, women have been admitted to examinations for the practice of medicine and dentistry, as well as pharmacy, upon the same terms as men. By another decision of the Federal Council of July 28, 1900, German women physicians who studied abroad are admitted to practice in Germany, and studies commenced abroad were accredited to them. Even since 1898 some German universities, as Heidelberg and Goettingen, had opened their doors to women. During the term 1901 to 1902, 1270 women attending courses were already enumerated in the registers of the universities. In a number of German cities girls’ high-schools and colleges were founded; thus in Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Hannover, Koenigsberg, Hamburg, Frankfort on the Main, Breslau, Berlin, Schoeneberg, Mannheim, etc. But in the spring of 1902, the senate of the University of Berlin again declined a request by female students, to be matriculated upon presentation of a certificate of admission from a German college. The opposition by very influential circles in Germany against the study of women had not yet been overcome. During March of 1902, the Prussian minister of public instruction delivered a speech in the Prussian diet, in which he said among other things, that the girls’ colleges are an experiment that must be declined by the ministry of public instruction. He feared, so he said, that the differences between man and woman established by nature and developed by civilization, would be impaired by the study of girls at colleges and universities, and that the characteristics of the German woman ought to be maintained for the welfare of the German family. That is quite in keeping with the old conception. Many German professors also continue to oppose study for women, though others admit that many of the female students are well, some even excellently qualified, to meet the demands made upon them. What some of the students, perhaps a majority of them, thought in regard to the study of women, may be seen from the following protest of the clinical students at Halle, addressed to the medical students of Germany generally during March of 1902. After it states that the protest has been caused by the agitation, carried on by the “Society for Furthering the Education of Women in Berlin,” to admit women to the study of medicine, it goes on to say: “Since this question has been called to public attention, the clinical students of Halle turn to those circles to whom the decision is of prime importance, the clinical students and physicians at German universities. They either know the resulting unpleasantness from personal experience, or can picture to what unwholesome situations, devoid of all modesty, this common clinical instruction must lead, situations that are too revolting to be described. The medical faculty of the university of Halle was one of the first to admit women to the study of medicine, and the innovation may be regarded as a complete failure. Into these halls of earnest endeavor cynicism has entered with the women, and scenes frequently occur that are equally obnoxious to instructors, students and patients. Here the emancipation of woman becomes a calamity, conflicting with morality, and should be checked. Colleagues, who would dare, in the face of these facts, to oppose our just demands? We demand the exclusion of women from clinical instruction, because experience has taught us that a common clinical instruction of male and female students is incompatible with a thoroughgoing study of medicine, as well as with the principles of decency and morality. This question taken up by us is no longer a local one. Already it has been stated in government circles, that women are to be definitely admitted to the study of medicine. You all now are equally interested in our cause, and therefore we appeal to you: Express your opinion on this question and join with us in a common protest!”
This protest is a striking proof of the narrow-mindedness of the clinical students and also of their envy, for petty envy is at the bottom of most of their moral considerations. How can an institution that has existed for years in other civilized countries, without injuring the morals and the sense of decency of male and female students, be considered a peril to Germany? The German students are not famed for their morality and ought to refrain from a moral outburst that seems like a jest.[167] If it is not incompatible with decency and morality for female nurses to be present and to render assistance to the physicians during all kinds of operations upon male and female patients, if it is decent and proper for dozens of young men to surround, for the purpose of study, the bed of a woman in the throes of child-birth, and to witness operations upon female patients, then it is ridiculous to seek to exclude the female students.
Very different from the reasons given by the clinical students of Halle, was an argument advanced against the admission of women to the study of medicine by the late Professor Bischoff. The reason he gave was the brutality of the male students, which he was well qualified to judge. But, regardless of the narrow-mindedness or envy of men, the question has been decided in favor of the women. On August 18, 1908, an edict was published, decreeing the regular enrollment of female students at the universities of Prussia, where until then they had been admitted to the lectures. The only restriction is, that for the purpose of immatriculation German women require the consent of the minister in one case, and foreigners require it in all cases.[168] The entire number of women students enrolled at German universities was, during the term of 1908–1909, 1077, as against 377 during the summer of 1908, and 254 in 1906. They were distributed among the various universities as follows: Berlin, 400; Bonn, 69; Breslau, 50; Erlangen, 11; Freiburg, 67; Giessen, 23; Goettingen, 71; Greifswald, 5; Halle, 22; Heidelberg, 109; Jena, 13; Kiel, 2; Koenigsberg, 17; Leipsic, 44; Marburg, 27; Munich, 134; Tuebingen, 6; Wuerzburg, 7. Only the universities of Strassburg, Rostock and Muenster had no female students. The entire number of women attending courses was 1787 during the summer of 1908, and 1767 during the term 1908 to 1909. They were distributed as follows: Berlin, 313; Strassburg, 249; Breslau, 168; Munich, 131; Bonn, 120; Koenigsberg, 116; Leipsic, 95; Giessen, 93; Goettingen, 73; Tuebingen, 67; Halle, 54; Freiburg, 50, and in all others less than 50. Of the regularly enrolled women students 3 studied theology; 31, law; 334, medicine, and 709, philosophy.
The admission of women to the universities necessitated a thoroughgoing reform of girls’ high-schools. According to the provisions of May 31, 1899, a nine years’ course had been set down as the rule for girls’ high-schools, while a ten years’ course was the exception. But development necessitated the regular introduction of a tenth class. According to statistics there were in 1901, 213 public high-schools for girls; among these 90 had a nine years’ course and 54 a ten years’ course. In October, 1907, the number of schools having a nine years’ course had decreased from 90 to 69, and the number of schools having a ten years’ course had increased from 54 to 132. Among the private schools for girls, too, there were, besides 110 with a nine years’ course, 138 with a ten years’ course. It only remained to add the bureaucratic seal to this actual development, and to preserve as much as possible of the “characteristics of German women.” According to the reform of August 18, 1908, girls’ high schools shall consist of ten grades. To “complete her education in regard to the future life’s work of a German woman,” it is planned to found a lyceum with a course from one to two years. In order to prepare young girls of the upper classes for academic training, colleges are being planned, which are to be under the same management as the girls’ high-schools.
Thereby an experiment, which the board of education still refused to consider in March 1902, is now, six years later, under the pressure of economic development, being introduced by that same board on a national scale. Let us consider the official argumentation! It reads as follows:
“The rapid development of our civilization and the resulting changes in social, economic and educational conditions, have brought about that, especially in the middle and upper classes, many girls remain unprovided for, and much ability reposing in woman, that may be valuable to the community, remains unapplied. The numerical superiority of the female population and the increasing bachelorhood of men of the upper classes, compel a large percentage of educated girls to renounce their natural profession of wifehood and motherhood. It becomes necessary to open professions to them that are suited to their education, and to give them an opportunity to earn their living, not only by teaching, but also by other professions attainable by a university education.” This almost reads like an extract from my book!
Be this as it may, the higher education of women can no longer be halted. There are female physicians in all civilized countries of the world, and even in some that are not yet regarded as civilized. The late Li Hung Chang had appointed as his family physician a Chinese woman doctor who practiced at the woman’s hospital of her native town, Futchang. The late Sonia Kowalewska, the noted mathematician, was professor of mathematics at the University of Stockholm from 1889 until her death in 1891. There are many women professors in the United States, and some also in Italy, Switzerland, England and France. In France the famous Marie Curie, who together with her husband discovered radium and polonium, was, after the death of her husband in 1906, appointed his successor at the university. We see women acting as physicians, dentists, lawyers, chemists, physicists, geologists, botanists, teachers at higher institutions of learning, etc., and it is up to the women themselves to prove by their achievements, that they are as competent to fill the positions entrusted to them as men. In Switzerland, during the summer of 1899, a majority of voters in the Canton of Zurich, favored the admission of women to the practice of law. The decision was passed by 21,717 against 20,046 votes. In the United States women are admitted to the bar in 34 states. They are also admitted in France, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Russia, Canada and Australia.
Many men, especially learned men, are opposed to the higher education of women, because they believe that the sciences will become degraded if even women can practice them. They regard scientific study as a privilege reserved for the chosen few of the male sex.
Unfortunately our universities, as our entire educational system, still leave much to be wished for. As the children in the public schools are frequently robbed of the most valuable time to cram their brains with a lot of things that are not in conformity with reason and scientific knowledge, as they are burdened with a lot of learning that will prove useless in life and will rather hamper than help their development, thus it is also with our higher institutions of learning. In the preparatory schools the pupils are crammed with a lot of useless stuff, mostly learned by rote, that absorbs most of their time and strength, and in the universities the same method is generally pursued. Besides good and useful things, many that are antiquated and superfluous continue to be taught. Most professors repeat the same lectures term after term even down to the interspersed jokes. To many the noble profession of teaching becomes a mere trade, and it does not require much intelligence on the part of the students to perceive this. The prevailing conceptions concerning college life also prevent the young people from taking their studies too seriously, and some who would like to take them seriously are repulsed by the pedantic and uninteresting methods of many professors. It is generally admitted that students at high-schools and universities are becoming less studious, a fact that has caused some alarm among the authorities. Alongside of this we find toadyism and patronage playing an important part at our institutions of learning in this age, which is marked by a lack of character. To be of good family and to have “sound principles,” is regarded as being of greater importance than knowledge and ability. A patriot—that is, one who has no convictions of his own, but takes his cue from his superiors and fawns upon them—is considered more than a man of character, wisdom and ability. When examinations come around, men of this type cram for a few months what is needful to attain the passing mark, and when the examinations have been passed successfully, and they have attained an official or professional position, many of these “scholars” merely continue to work in a mechanical way. Yet they are very insulted if a man, who is not a “scholar”, does not treat them with utmost respect and fails to regard them as a superior species of human being. The majority of our professional men, lawyers, judges, physicians, professors, public officials, artists, etc., are merely mechanics in their line, and their sole object is personal gain. Only the industrious man discovers later on how much superfluous knowledge he assimilated and how often he failed to learn that which he requires most, and then begins to learn anew. During the best part of his life he has been bothered with much that was useless or harmful; he requires a second part of his life to cast what is useless or harmful aside and to attain the heights of the views of his time, and then only can he become a useful member of society. Many do not surpass the first stage, others come to a standstill in the second, and only few have the energy to struggle on to the third.
But decorum demands that the mediæval trash and superfluous learning should be maintained, and as women have been until now, and in many cases still are, excluded from the preparatory institutions, this fact furnishes a convenient excuse for excluding them from the lecture halls of the universities. In Leipsic, during the seventies, one of the most noted professors of medicine made the following frank confession to a lady: “A classical education is not essential to an understanding of medicine, but it must be made a condition of entrance to maintain the dignity of science.”
Opposition against an obligatory, classical education as being essential to the study of medicine, is gradually manifesting itself in Germany also. The tremendous advance of the sciences and their great importance to life in general, necessitates a scientific training. But the classical education, with its special preference of Greek and Latin, considers science unimportant and neglects it. It therefore frequently happens that young students are wanting in the most elementary scientific knowledge, that is of decisive importance for a study like medicine. Even teachers themselves are beginning to oppose this one-sided method of education. In other countries, for instance, in Switzerland, the study of science has long since been held as being of prime importance, and all who possess sufficient preliminary knowledge in the natural sciences and mathematics are admitted to the study of medicine, even without having had a so-called classical education. The same is true of Russia, the United States, and other countries.
In Russia, where suppression and persecution of the Jews is considered one of the maxims of government, an imperial ukase, in 1907, prescribed that in the newly established school of medicine for women, only 5 per cent. of the students might be of other than Christian faith. Of these only 3 per cent. might be Jewesses, and the remaining 2 per cent. were to be reserved for students of Moslem origin. This is one of the retrogressive measures which are daily occurrences in Russia. The Russian government certainly had no cause for such provisions, because there is quite a dearth of physicians in that tremendous realm, and because the Russian women practitioners, regardless of their faith or origin, have been noted for the most unselfish devotion in the practice of their profession. Dr. Erismann, who practiced in Russia for many years, delivered a lecture at the 54th annual convention of the Medical Society in Olten, in which he said: “Very favorable were the experiences gathered during the first years in regard to the activity of the female physicians. From the very beginning they were enabled to win the confidence of the people. In the noble competition with their male colleagues they even carried off the laurels. It was soon observed that the female physicians, on an average, treated more patients annually than the male physicians, although the latter proved very efficient and unselfish, likewise. Female patients especially, in great numbers, sought aid with the women doctors.”[169]
On the other hand, female competition, so much feared by men, especially in regard to the practice of medicine, has not been in evidence. It seems that female physicians obtain a circle of patients from their own sex who apply to male physicians rarely, or only in cases of extreme necessity. It has, moreover, been observed that a great many women physicians abandon their profession as soon as they enter into marriage. It seems that in present-day society the domestic duties of married women are so numerous, especially where there are children, that many women find it impossible to have two professions simultaneously. A physician must be constantly prepared, by day and by night, to practice her profession, and to many that becomes impossible.[170]
After England,[171] the United States and France took lead in employing women as factory inspectors—an innovation that has become all the more necessary because, as has been shown, the number of women in industry is rapidly increasing, and the industries employing women, chiefly or exclusively, are increasing likewise—a number of German states have also followed their example. Baden, Bavaria, Hessia, the Kingdom of Saxony, Weimar, Wurtemberg, and others have added women assistants to their factory inspectors, and some of these have already achieved much recognition by their activity. In Prussia there are three women factory inspectors in Berlin, and one each in Duesseldorf, Breslau and Wiesbaden. This proves again how the progress of Prussia has been retarded compared with other German states. There is not a single woman assistant in districts like Potsdam (with 32,299 working women), Frankfort on the Oder (with 31,371), Liegnitz (with 31,798), and others, where their presence is extremely needful. Here, too, it has been seen that working women confide more readily in members of their own sex, and that female factory inspectors have been able to obtain much information that was denied to their male colleagues. One shortcoming of this institution is that the assistants frequently are not given the autonomy that is needful in their position, and their pay is not what it ought to be, either. The new institution is being tried out carefully and hesitatingly.[172]
In Germany the prejudice and aversion against employing women in public offices is particularly strong, because so many retired military men annually seek appointments to all kinds of offices in the state and municipal administrations, that there is hardly any room left for applicants from other circles. When women are employed, nevertheless, their salary is considerably lower, whereby they immediately appear as being worth less than men, and whereby they also become a means to keep down wages and salaries.
The great variety of female ability could be observed especially well at the World’s Fair in Chicago, in 1893. The splendid woman’s building had been entirely planned by female architects, and the articles displayed that had been designed and made by women exclusively, were much admired for their tasty and artistic execution. In the realm of invention, too, women have achieved much and will achieve still more. An American trade-journal published a list of inventions by women; among them were: An improved spinning machine; a rotary loom, which produces three times as much as the usual kind; a chain elevator; a connecting-rod for a propeller; a fire-escape; an apparatus for weighing wool, one of the most delicate machines that have ever been invented, of immeasurable value to the wool industry; a fire extinguisher; a process of employing petroleum as a fuel for steam-engines instead of wood or coal; an improved spark-catcher for locomotives; a signal for grade-crossings; a system of heating cars without fire; a lubricating felt to diminish friction (on railroads); a typewriter; a signal-rocket for the navy; a deep-sea telescope; a system for subduing the noise of the elevated trains; a smoke-consumer; a machine for folding paper bags, etc. Many improvements on sewing machines have been made by women; for instance, an appliance for sewing canvas and coarse cloth; an apparatus for threading the needle while the machine is running; an improvement of machines for sewing leather, etc. The last-named invention was made by a woman who was a harness-maker in New York. The deep-sea telescope, invented by Mrs. Mather and improved by her daughter, is an invention of great importance, since it makes it possible to examine the keel of the largest vessel without bringing same into a dry-dock. With the aid of this telescope sunken wrecks may be examined from ship-board, obstacles to navigation and torpedoes may be located, and so forth.
A machine famed in America and Europe for its complicated and ingenious construction, is one for the manufacture of paper bags. Many men, among them noted mechanicians, had tried in vain to construct a machine of this sort. It was invented by a woman, Miss Maggie Knight. The same lady has since invented a machine for the folding of paper bags, which performs the labor of thirty persons. She personally conducted the construction of this machine in Amherst, Massachusetts.
[167] A statistic compiled by Blaschko gives the following information in regard to the extension of sexual diseases among the various occupations. First come the secret prostitutes with 30 per cent; then the students with 25 per cent; merchants with 16, and workingmen with 9 per cent.
[168] In special cases women may be excluded from certain lectures with the consent of the minister of education.
[169] The organization of free clinical treatment of patients in the large cities of Russia.—German Quarterly of Public Hygiene.
[170] What difficulties are entailed for women who have a family and at the same time wish to, or have to, practice a trade or profession, has been ably shown in the book by Adele Gerhard and Helen Simon: “Maternity and Intellectual Occupations” (Berlin, 1901, George Reimer). It contains the personal experiences and opinions of writers, artists, singers, actresses, etc., and these opinions prove that society must be completely reorganized to give full play to the great amount of female intelligence that exists and strives for expression, since it is in the interest of society itself that it should be given full play.
[171] According to the last report for 1908, England has 16 female factory inspectors, Miss A. M. Anderson and 15 assistants.
[172] The first woman factory inspector was appointed in Bavaria in 1897. From then until 1909 the number of woman factory inspectors rose to 26. Fourteen states had until then not appointed any.
[CHAPTER XV.
The Legal Status of Women.]
[1.—The Struggle for Equality Before the Law.]
The social dependence of a race, class, or sex, always finds expression in the laws and political conditions of the country in question. The laws of a country are the formulated expression of its ruling interests. Women, being the dependent and oppressed sex, find their legal status mapped out to them accordingly. Laws are both negative and positive. They are negative by failing to take notice of the oppressed in the distribution of rights. They are positive inasmuch as they point out his dependent position and denote whatever exceptions there may be.
Our common law is founded on the Roman law, which considers the human being solely in his quality as a propertied being. The old German law, that dealt more favorably with women, has maintained its influence only to a slight extent. In the French language, as in the English language, human being and the male are denoted by the same word, “l’homme”—man. In the same way, the French law only recognizes the man as a human being, and, until a few decades ago, this was true also of England, where women were maintained in abject dependence. It was the same in ancient Rome. There were Roman citizens and wives of Roman citizens, but no Roman citizenesses.
In Germany the legal status of women has been somewhat improved, inasmuch as the great variety of existing laws have been replaced by a uniform law, whereby rights enjoyed by women here and there have been made general. Thereby, unmarried women were admitted to guardianship; women were permitted to act as witnesses, to sign contracts, and to carry on a business independently. Both husband and wife are entitled to the common ownership of each other’s property, unless the demands made by either party may be regarded as an abuse of his or her rights. If there are conflicting opinions between them on this subject, the decision rests with the husband, who also is entitled to determine the place of residence. If the husband should abuse this right, the wife is exempt from obedience. The sole management of the household rests with the wife. She has the so-called power of the keys, which empowers her, within her domestic sphere, to attend to her husband’s affairs and to represent him. The husband is liable for his wife’s debts. But the wife’s power of the keys may be restricted, or entirely abolished, by her husband. Should he abuse his power, this limitation may be annulled by the courts. The wife is obliged to do the housework and to perform tasks in her husband’s business, but only where such occupations are customary, in accordance with the husband’s standard of living. A demand to establish, as the rule, separate rights of ownership by husband and wife, was declined by the Diet. This can only be obtained by means of the marriage contract, which is usually neglected, and may lead to disagreements later on. Instead, community of management was established. The husband is thereby entitled to dispose of his wife’s property, while she is limited to her dowry. On the other hand, the wife has unrestricted control over whatever she may earn during marriage, by personal labor or in business. The husband has no right to deprive the wife of her earnings or her dowry. The wife may also demand security, in case she has good reason to fear that her property is endangered, which she may sometimes learn too late. She may also enter a complaint to have the common ownership abolished, if her husband should fail to provide for her and her children. The husband is liable for damage resulting from mismanagement.
The wife may be grievously wronged by the existing divorce laws. For, in case of divorce, the joint earnings of husband and wife belong to the husband, even if he is the guilty party, and if most of their common property has been earned by the wife. But the woman is entitled to alimony, according to her station, only if it can be shown that she is not able to maintain her standard of living by means of her own property or earnings.
Paternal control has been replaced by the joint control of both parents, but in case of disagreement between the parents, the decision rests with the father. In case of the father’s death, parental control, including the management and use of the child’s property, devolves on the mother. A divorced woman has no right to represent her children legally, or to control their property, even if the children have been awarded to her, while the father continues to enjoy full parental rights.
In England, until 1870, according to the common law, a husband was entitled to all the personal property of his wife. Only real estate remained her property by law, but even this the husband was entitled to manage and to use. The English woman was a mere cipher before the law. She could not sign any legal document, not even a will. She was her husband’s chattel. If she committed any crime in her husband’s presence, he was held responsible for it, since she was regarded as a minor. In case she damaged any one’s property, the damage was viewed as if done by a domestic animal; her husband was answerable for it. In 1888 Bishop J. N. Wood delivered a lecture in the chapel at Westminster, in which he said, among other things, that as late as a century ago English women had not been permitted to eat at their husbands’ table, nor to speak until they were spoken to. As a symbol of his marital power, a whip hung above the bed, that the husband was permitted to wield when the wife was not as docile as her lord desired her to be. Only her daughters were obliged to obey her. By her sons she was regarded as a servant.
By the laws of 1870, 1882 and 1893, the woman is not only entitled to all the property brought into marriage by her, she is also entitled to everything she may obtain during marriage by her earnings, by inheritance, or by gift. This legal relation can be modified only by special agreement between husband and wife. In this respect English legislation has followed the example set by the United States. By the Custody of Infants’ Act, of 1886, in case of the father’s death, parental control devolves on the mother. The Intestate Estates Act, of 1890, still gives the man a privileged position. Both husband and wife are free to dispose of their property by their last will and testament. But if the wife dies intestate, all her personal property belongs to her husband; while, if the husband dies intestate, his widow is entitled to only one-third of his personal property and income on real estate; the remainder belongs to his children. Many remnants of the old mediaeval law remain in force that greatly impair the legal status of married women. As we have seen, the divorce laws are still highly unfavorable to women. If a man commits adultery, that alone is no ground for divorce for the woman, but only in connection with cruelty, bigamy, rape, etc.[173]
The civil law is especially unfavorable to women in France, and in all those countries—mostly Romanic countries—that are strongly influenced by the French “code civil,” or where it has been adopted in full, with some modifications. This is the case in Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Russian Poland, the Netherlands, and in most of the cantons of Switzerland. There is a saying by Napoleon I. that is characteristic of his conception of the position of women, and that still holds true; it is: “One thing is not French, a woman who may do as she pleases.”[174] As soon as a French woman marries she is placed under the guardianship of her husband. According to the Code Civil, she may not appear in court without the consent of her husband, not even if she is connected with a lawsuit. The husband shall protect his wife, and the wife shall obey her husband. He controls the property brought into marriage by his wife; he may sell, rent, or mortgage same, without being obliged to ask her consent. The result is, that women frequently live in a condition of absolute servitude. A man may spend his wife’s earnings on drink, or on frivolous women; he may gamble and run into debt, leaving his wife and children in want; he is even entitled to demand from an employer the wages his wife has earned. Under such circumstances it is not to be wondered at that many women prefer to desist from marriage, as was frequently seen in France.
In most Romanic countries women cannot act as witnesses to legal documents, contracts, wills, etc. In France this was the case until 1897. But they are permitted—by a strange inconsistency—to act as witnesses at court in all criminal cases, where their testimony may perhaps lead to the execution of a human being. In criminal law woman is everywhere regarded as man’s equal, and crimes and transgressions committed by her are measured by the same standard as those committed by man. Our law-makers seem blissfully unconscious of this glaring inconsistency. As a widow, a woman may make her will, but in a great many states she is not admitted as a witness to a will, yet she may be appointed as executrix. In Italy women are admitted as witnesses in civil law since 1877.
The privileged position of men is especially manifest in the divorce laws. According to the “Code Civil,” in France a man might obtain a divorce if his wife committed adultery; but a woman could not obtain it, unless her husband had brought his concubine into their home. This article has been changed by the divorce law of July 27, 1884, but in French criminal law the distinction has been maintained, which is very characteristic of the French law-makers. If a woman has been convicted of adultery she is punishable by imprisonment of from three months to two years. But the man is punishable only if he has maintained a concubine in his own household, as per the former article of the “Code Civil.” If found guilty, his only punishment is a fine of from 100 to 2000 francs. Such inequality before the law would be impossible if there were women in the parliament of France. Similar laws are in force in Belgium. The penalty for adultery when committed by a woman is the same as in France. The man goes unpunished, unless adultery has been committed by him in his and his wife’s domicile; in that event he may be punished by imprisonment of from one month to one year. In Belgium the injustice is not quite as glaring as in France, but in both countries we find one standard of law for the man and another one for the woman. Under the influence of French law similar provisions have been made in Spain and Portugal. According to the civil law of Italy, enacted in 1865, a woman cannot obtain a divorce on the ground of adultery, unless her husband maintains his concubine in his own home, or in a place where her presence appears as a particular insult to the wife. In 1907, together with the enactment of June 21, which has modified a number of articles of the Code Civil in regard to marriage, both chambers finally adopted the law of July 13, whereby the wife became the sole owner of property earned by her, or obtained by inheritance or gift. The husband has been deprived of his former control over the personal property of his wife. That is the first breach in French law, and thereby French women have obtained the same legal status that was obtained for English women by the law of 1870.
Much more advanced than the “Code Civil” and more advanced also than German civil law, is the new civil law of Switzerland that was adopted on December 10, 1907, and will come into force on January 1, 1912. Until now the various cantons of Switzerland had their own laws. In Geneva, Waadt, and Italian Switzerland they were partly founded on the “Code Civil.” In Bern and Lucerne they were founded on Austrian law, and in Schwytz, Uri, Unterwalden, etc., the old common law prevailed. Now Switzerland is to have a uniform code of laws. The freedom of the wife and the children is assured. The new law provides that the wife is entitled to one-third of her husband’s income, even if she is only occupied as his assistant or housekeeper. In regard to inheritance, also, the laws are more favorable to women than the German laws. When a man dies, his wife is not only entitled to one-half of his property, but also, together with the man’s parents, to the lifelong use of the income from the other half. If people owe money to a man who fails to provide for his wife and children, the judge may instruct them to pay these debts, not to the man himself, but to his wife. The law no longer forbids a divorced person to marry the person with whom he has committed adultery. The property rights of married persons are mainly determined by the marriage contract that may be drawn up by both before and during marriage. Illegitimate children—in cases where the mother had been given a promise of marriage—are not only entitled to alimony from their father, as according to the new German law, but they are also entitled to their father’s name, and thereby obtain the full rights of legitimate children.
Swedish women are given full control over their own earnings by a law of Dec. 11, 1874. In Denmark a similar law was enacted in 1880. According to Danish law no claims may be made on a woman’s property for the payment of her husband’s debts. The Norwegian law of 1888 and the Finnish law of 1889 are quite similar. The married woman has the same control over her property as the unmarried woman; only some exceptions are provided for that are stated in the law. In the Norwegian law it is clearly stated, that the woman becomes a dependent by marriage.
“In the Scandinavian countries, as elsewhere, this universal movement to extend the property rights of women originated in the same way as it did in England: through the gainful employment of married women. The ruling classes were far more willing to abandon the patriarchal superiority of the common man over his working wife, than that of the man from their own ranks over his propertied wife.”[175]
In the law of May 27, 1908, Danish legislation advanced still another step. If a husband and father fails to provide for his family, the wife and children may have the sum, awarded to them by the authorities, advanced out of the public funds.
In most countries the father has the sole control over the children and the right to determine their education. Only in some countries the mother is given joint control with the father in a more or less subordinate way. The old Roman principle, whereby the father had complete power over his children, everywhere forms the key-note of legislation.
In Russia married women have some control over their property, but as bread-winners they remain utterly subservient to their husbands. No pass—which is absolutely essential for any change of residence—is ever issued to a married woman without her husband’s consent. In order to accept a position or to practice any trade or profession, she must also have her husband’s permission. Divorce is made so difficult, that it can be obtained only in very rare cases. The position of Russian women was much more independent formerly in the old peasant communities, which was due to the remaining communistic institutions or to the reminiscences of these institutions. The peasant woman was the manager of her own estate. Communism is the most favorable social condition for women. We have seen this from our exposition of the matriarchal period.[176]
In the United States the women have succeeded in winning almost complete equality before the law; they have also prevented the introduction of English and other laws regulating prostitution.
[173] A. Chapman and M. Chapman—The Status of Women under the English Law. London, 1909.
[174] L. Bridel—La puissance maritale. Lausanne, 1879.
[175] Marianne Weber—Wife and Mother in the Evolution of Law. Tubingen, 1907.
[176] The correctness of this conception may be seen from the comedy by Aristophanes, “The Popular Assembly of Women.” In this comedy Aristophanes depicts how the Athenian state was so mismanaged that no one knew what to do. In the popular assembly of the citizens of Athens the prytanes submit the question how the state is to be saved. A woman, disguised as a man, moves to entrust the government to the women, and this motion is carried without resistance, “because it was the only thing not yet tried in Athens.” The women proceed to steer the ship of state and immediately introduce communism. Of course, Aristophanes ridicules this condition, but the characteristic part of his play is, that he has the women introduce communism as the only rational social organization from their point of view, as soon as they come into power. Aristophanes had no idea of how much truth was in his jest.
[2.—The Struggle for Political Equality.]
The evident inequality of women before the law has caused the more advanced among them to demand political rights, in order to attain their equality by means of legislation. The same thought has also led the working class to direct their agitation toward the conquest of political power. What is right for the working class, cannot be wrong for the women. Being oppressed, devoid of rights and, in many instances, disregarded, it is not only their right, but their duty to defend themselves and to adopt any method that appears good to them, so that they may win an independent position. Of course these endeavors are opposed by the usual reactionary croakings. Let us see to what extent these are justified.
Women possessing eminent intellectual abilities have influenced politics at all times and among all peoples, even where they were not endowed with the power of sovereigns. Even the papal court was not exempt from this. If they could not exert any influence by means of the rights conceded to them, they did so by their intellectual superiority, even by intrigues. For many centuries their influence was particularly strong at the court of France, as also at the Spanish and Italian courts. At the close of the seventeenth century, at the court of Philip V. of Spain, Marie of Trémonille, Countess of Bracciano and Princess of Ursins, was the prime-minister of Spain for thirteen years, and during this time very ably conducted Spanish politics. As the mistresses of rulers, many women have succeeded in obtaining a great political influence; we need but mention the well-known names of Maintenon, the mistress of Louis XIV., and Pompadour, the mistress of Louis XV. The great intellectual awakening of the eighteenth century, that produced men like Montesquieu, Voltaire, d’Allembert, Holbach, Helvetius, La Mettrie, Rousseau, and many others, did not fail to affect the women. This great movement, which questioned the justification of the fundamental principles of the state and feudal society and helped to undermine them, may have been joined by some women to follow the fashion, to satisfy their love of intrigue, or for other unworthy motives. But a great many women were impelled to take part in this movement by their profound interest and enthusiasm for its noble aims. Decades before the outbreak of the great revolution, which swept over France like a purifying cloud-burst, tore the old order asunder and cast it down, causing jubilation among the most advanced minds of the age, women had thronged into the scientific and political clubs, where philosophical, scientific, religious, social and political problems were discussed with unwonted daring, and had taken part in the discussions. When at length, in July, 1789, the storming of the Bastille ushered in the great revolution, women of the upper classes and women of the common people participated actively and exerted a very noticeable influence both for and against it. They participated excessively in both good and evil wherever an opportunity presented itself. The majority of historians have taken more notice of the excesses of the revolution than of its great and noble deeds. These excesses, by the way, were only too natural, for they were the result of tremendous exasperation at the unspeakable corruption, the exploitation, the imposition, the baseness and villany of the ruling classes. Under the influence of these biased descriptions, Schiller wrote the lines: “And women there become hyenas and mock at horror and despair.” And yet in those years women have set so many noble examples of heroism, magnanimity, and admirable self-sacrifice, that to write an impartial book on “the women in the great revolution,” would mean the erection of a noble monument in their honor.[177] According to Michelet, women even were the van-guard of the revolution. The general poverty and want from which the French people suffered under the predatory and disgraceful rule of the Bourbon kings, especially affected the women, as is always the case under similar conditions. Being excluded from almost every decent means of support, tens of thousands of them fell victims to prostitution. To this was added the famine of 1789, which increased the suffering of women and children to the utmost. This famine led them to storm the town-hall in October and to march in masses to Versailles, the seat of the court. It also caused a number of them to petition the national assembly “that the equality between man and woman be reinstated, that work and employment be opened to them and that they be given positions suited to their abilities.” As the women recognized that they needed power to win their rights, but that they could attain power only by organizing and by standing together in great numbers, they organized women’s clubs throughout France, some of which had a surprisingly large membership, and also took part in the men’s meetings. While brilliant Madame Roland preferred to play a leading political part among the “statesmen” of the French Revolution, the Girondistes, passionate and eloquent Olympe de Gouges took the leadership of the women of the people and espoused their cause with all the enthusiasm of her fervent temperament.
When the assembly proclaimed “the rights of man” (les droits de l’homme), in 1793, she promptly recognized that they were only rights of men. In opposition to these, Olympe de Gouges, together with Rose Lacombe and others, wrote “The rights of Women,” in seventeen articles. On the 28 Brumaire (November 20, 1793), she defended the rights before the Paris Commune, with arguments that are still fully justified. In her argumentation the following sentence, characteristic of the situation, was contained: “If a woman has the right to mount the scaffold she must also have the right to mount the platform.” Her demands remained unfulfilled. But her reference to the right of woman to mount a scaffold met with bloody confirmation. Her defence of the rights of women on the one hand, and her struggle against the atrocities of the assembly on the other, made her appear ripe for the scaffold to the assembly. She was beheaded on the 3d of November, of the same year. Five days later Madame Roland was beheaded, also. Both went to their death heroically. Shortly before these executions, on October 17, 1793, the assembly had shown its attitude of hostility toward women by deciding to suppress all the women’s clubs. Later on, when the women continued to protest against the wrong perpetrated against them, they were even forbidden to attend the assembly and the public meetings, and were treated as rebels.
When monarchical Europe marched against France, and the assembly declared “the fatherland to be in danger,” Parisian women offered to do what was done twenty years later by enthusiastic Prussian women, to bear arms in defence of the fatherland, thereby hoping to prove their right to equality. But they were opposed in the commune by the radical Chaumette, who addressed them thus: “Since when are women permitted to deny their sex and to make men of themselves? Since when is it customary for them to neglect the tender care of their households, to forsake the cradles of their children, to come into public places, to speak from platforms, to enter the ranks of the army, with one word, to perform those duties which nature has destined man to perform? Nature has said to the man: ‘Be a man! The races, the hunt, agriculture, politics, all exertions are your privilege.’ She has said to the woman: ‘Be a woman! The care of your children, the details of the household, the sweet restlessness of motherhood, these are your tasks.’ Foolish women, why do you seek to become men? Are human beings not properly divided? What more do you ask? In the name of Nature, remain what you are, and far from envying us our stormy lives, make us forget them in the midst of our families by letting our eyes rest upon the lovely sight of our children, happy in your tender care.” Undoubtedly the radical Chaumette expressed the opinion held by most men. It is generally considered an appropriate division of labor that men defend the country and women care for hearth and home. For the rest the oratorical effusion of Chaumette consists of mere phrases. It is not true that man has borne the burdens of agriculture. From primeval days down to the present woman has contributed a large share to agriculture. The exertions of the hunt and the races are no “exertions,” but a pleasure to men, and politics entails dangers only for those who combat current opinions, while to others it offers at least as much pleasure as exertion. Nothing but the egotism of man finds expression in this speech.
Aims similar to those pursued by the Encyclopedists and the great revolution in France found expression in the United States, when, during the seventies and eighties of the eighteenth century, the colonists won their struggle for independence from England and established a democratic constitution. At that time, Mercy Ottis Warren and the wife of the second president of the United States, Mrs. Adams, together with a few other women, favored political equality. It was due to their influence that the State of New Jersey bestowed the right of suffrage upon women, of which it deprived them again in 1807. In France, even before the outbreak of the revolution, Condorcet, later a Girondist, published a brilliantly written essay in favor of woman’s suffrage and the political equality of both sexes.
Inspired by the great events in the neighboring country, it was brave Mary Wollstonecraft, born in 1759, who proclaimed woman’s cause at the other side of the channel. In 1790 she wrote a book in opposition to Burke, one of the most vehement opponents of the French Revolution, in which she defended the rights of man. Soon after she proceeded to demand the rights of man for her own sex. In her book, published in 1792, “A Vindication of the Rights of Women,” she severely criticised her own sex, but demanded and bravely defended complete equality for women in behalf of the common welfare. She met with vehement opposition and was subjected to severe and unjust attacks. Heart-broken by bitter inward struggles, she died in 1797, misunderstood and ridiculed by her contemporaries.
At the same time, when the first serious endeavors to obtain political equality for women were being made in France, England, and the United States, even in Germany, which was particularly retrogressive then, a German writer—Th. G. v. Hippel—anonymously published a book in Berlin, in 1792, on the “Civic Improvement in the Condition of Women,” in which he defended the equal rights of women. At that time a book on the civic improvement in the condition of men would have been equally justified. We must therefore doubly admire the courage of this man, who, in his book, ventured to draw all the logical conclusions from social and political sex equality and defended same very ably and intelligently.
Since then the demand for political rights of women has remained dormant for a long time; but gradually it has been taken up again by the woman’s movement in all countries and has become realized in a number of states. In France the St. Simonists and Fourierists favored sex equality, and, in 1848, the Fourierist Considérant moved in the constitutional committee of the French parliament to bestow equal political rights upon women. In 1851, Pierre Leroux repeated the motion in the chamber, but likewise unsuccessfully.
At present matters have an entirely different aspect. The development of our social conditions and all social relations have undergone a tremendous transformation and have at the same time transformed the position of women. In all civilized states we find hundreds of thousands and millions of women employed in the most varied professions, just like men, and every year the number of women increases, who must rely on their own strength and ability in the struggle for existence. The nature of our social and political conditions, therefore, can no longer remain a matter of indifference to women. They must be interested in questions like the following: Whether or not the control of domestic and foreign affairs favor war; whether or not the state should annually keep hundreds of thousands of healthy men in the army and drive tens of thousands from the country; whether or not the necessities of life should be raised in price by taxes and duties at a time when the means of subsistence are very scarce to a great majority, etc. Women also pay direct and indirect taxes from their property and their earnings. The educational system is of the greatest interest to women, for the manner of education is a determining factor in the position of their sex; it is of special importance to mothers.
The hundreds of thousands and millions of women employed in hundreds of trades and professions are personally and vitally concerned in the nature of our social legislation. Laws relating to the length of the work-day, night-work, child labor, wages, safety appliances in factories and workshops, in one word, all labor laws, as also insurance laws, etc., are of the greatest interest to working women. Workingmen are only very insufficiently informed about the conditions existing in many branches of industry in which women are chiefly or exclusively employed. It is to the interest of the employers to conceal existing evils that they have caused; and in many instances factory inspection does not include trades in which women are exclusively employed; yet in these very branches of industry protection is most needful. We need but point to the workshops in our large cities, where seamstresses, dressmakers, milliners, etc., are crowded together. We hardly ever hear a complaint from their midst, and there is no investigation of their condition. Women as bread-winners are also interested in the commerce and custom-laws and in all civil laws. There can no longer be any doubt, that it is as important to women as it is to men, to influence the nature of our conditions by means of legislation. The participation of women in public life would give it a new impetus and open new vistas.
Demands of this sort are briefly set aside, with the reply: “Women don’t understand politics; most of them do not wish to have a vote and would not know how to use it.” That is both true and false. It is true that until now, in Germany, at least, not very many women have demanded political equality. The first German woman to proclaim the rights of women, as early as the sixties of the last century, was Hedwig Dohm. Recently the Socialist working women have been the chief supporters of woman’s suffrage and have undertaken an active agitation for the winning of the ballot.
The argument that women have until now shown only a very moderate interest in politics, does not prove anything at all. If women have failed to care about politics formerly, that does not signify that they ought not to care about them now. The same arguments that are advanced against woman suffrage were, during the first half of the sixties, advanced against universal manhood suffrage. In 1863 the writer of this book himself was among those who opposed it. Four years later it made possible his election to the Diet. Tens of thousands experienced a similar development. Nevertheless there still are many men who either fail to make use of their political right, or do not know how to use it. Yet that would be no reason to deprive them of it. During the parliamentary elections usually from 25 to 30 per cent. of the voters fail to vote, and among these are members of all classes. While among the 70 to 75 per cent. who do vote, the majority, in our opinion, vote as they ought not to vote if they understood their own advantage. That they do not understand is due to a lack of political education. But political education is not obtained by withholding political rights from the masses. It is obtained only by the practice of political rights. Practice alone makes perfect. The ruling classes have always known it to be in their own interest to keep the great majority of the people in political dependence. Therefore it has been the task of a determined, class conscious minority to struggle for the common good with energy and enthusiasm, and to arouse the masses from their indifference and inertia. It has been thus in all the great movements of history, and therefore it need not surprise or discourage us that it is the same with the woman’s movement. The success that has been obtained so far shows, that work and sacrifice are not in vain and that the future will bring victory.
As soon as women shall have obtained equal rights with men, the consciousness of their duties will be awakened in them. When asked to vote they will begin to question “why” and “for whom.”
Thereby a new source of interest will be established between man and woman that, far from harming their mutual relation, will considerably improve it. The inexperienced woman will naturally turn to the more experienced man. Therefrom an exchange of ideas and mutual instruction will result, a relation that until now has been very rare between man and woman. This will give their life a new charm. The unfortunate differences in education and conception between the sexes that frequently lead to disputes, breed discord in regard to the various duties of the man and injure the public welfare, will be adjusted more and more. A congenial and like-minded wife will support a man in his endeavors, instead of hindering him. If other tasks should prevent her from being active herself, she will encourage the man to do his duty. She will also be willing to sacrifice a fraction of the income for a newspaper and for purposes of agitation, because the newspaper will mean instruction and entertainment to her, and because she will understand that by the sacrifices for purposes of agitation, a more worthy human existence can be won for herself, her husband and her children.
Thus the common service of the public welfare, that is closely linked with the individual welfare, will elevate both man and woman. The opposite of that will be attained which is claimed by short-sighted persons or by the enemies of equal rights, and this relation between the sexes will develop and become more beautiful as improved social conditions will liberate both man and woman from material care and excessive burdens of toil. Here, as in other cases, practice and education will help along. If I do not go into the water I will never learn to swim; if I do not study and practice a foreign language, I will never learn to speak it. That is readily understood by everyone; but many fail to understand that the same holds true of the affairs of the state and society. Are our women less capable than the inferior Negro race that was given political equality in North America? Or shall a highly cultured, educated woman be entitled to fewer rights than the most coarse and ignorant man, only because blind chance brought the latter into the world as a male being? Has the son a greater right than the mother from whom he has perhaps inherited his best qualities and who made him what he is? Such “justice” is strange, indeed.
Moreover, we are no longer risking a leap into the dark and unknown. North America, New Zealand, and Finland have paved the way. On the effects of woman suffrage in Wyoming, Justice Kingman, from Laramie, wrote to “The Woman’s Journal,” on November 12, 1872, as follows: “It is three years to-day that women were enfranchised in our territory and were also given the right to be elected to office, as all other voters. During this time they have taken part in the elections and have been elected to various offices; they have acted as jurors and as justices of the peace. Although there probably still are some among us who oppose the participation of women, on principle, I do not believe any one can deny that the participation of women in our elections has exerted an educational influence. The elections became more quiet and orderly, and at the same time our courts were enabled to punish various kinds of criminals who had been allowed to go unpunished until then. When the territory was organized, for instance, there was hardly a person who did not carry a revolver and make use of same upon the slightest provocation. I do not remember a single case where a person had been convicted of shooting by a jury composed entirely of men; but, with two or three women among the jurors, they always followed the instructions of the judge.”
The prevailing sentiment in regard to woman suffrage in Wyoming, twenty-five years after its introduction, was expressed in a proclamation by the legislature of that state to all the legislatures of the country. It read:
“Whereas, Wyoming was the first State to adopt woman suffrage, which has been in operation since 1869, and was adopted in the constitution of the State in 1890; during which time women have exercised the privilege as generally as men, with the result that better candidates have been elected for office, methods of election purified, the character of legislation improved, civic intelligence increased, and womanhood developed to a greater usefulness by political responsibility; therefore,
“Resolved, by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring, that, in view of these results, the enfranchisement of women in every State and Territory of the American Union is hereby recommended as a measure tending to the advancement of a higher and better social order.”
It is certain that the enfranchisement of women has shown many advantageous results for Wyoming, and not one single disadvantage. That is the most splendid vindication of its introduction. The example set by Wyoming was followed by other states. Women were given full parliamentary suffrage in Colorado in 1894, in Utah in 1895, in Idaho in 1896. Women have municipal suffrage in Kansas, and school suffrage, tax-paying suffrage, etc., in a number of other states in the Union. In 1899, after the innovation had been in force in Colorado for five years, the legislature decided upon the following resolution, by 45 against 3 votes:
“Whereas, equal suffrage has been in operation in Colorado for five years, during which time women have exercised the privilege as generally as men, with the result that better candidates have been selected for office, methods of election have been purified, the character of legislation improved, civic intelligence increased and womanhood developed to greater usefulness by political responsibility; therefore,
“Resolved, by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring, that, in view of these results, the enfranchisement of women in every State and Territory of the American Union is hereby recommended as a measure tending to the advancement of a higher and better social order.”
In a number of states the legislatures have passed woman suffrage bills, but these decisions were annulled by the vote of the people. This was the case in Kansas, Oregon, Nebraska, Indiana, and Oklahoma. In Kansas and Oklahoma this proceeding has been twice repeated, and in Oregon even three times. The noteworthy fact is that each time the majorities against the political emancipation of women became smaller.[178]
“The municipal rights obtained by women are very varied, but, taken all in all, do not amount to much. As a matter of course, women enjoy the full municipal rights of citizenship in those four states in which they have been given national suffrage. But only one other state, Kansas, has given women municipal suffrage, which also includes school and tax-paying suffrage and makes them eligible to school boards. A limited municipal suffrage, founded upon an educational qualification, has been exercised by the women of Michigan since 1893. Louisiana, Montana, Iowa, and New York give women the right to vote on municipal questions of taxation. The women have not obtained as much influence in the general administration of municipal affairs as they have in regard to the administration of schools. They have school suffrage and are eligible to school boards in the following states: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Arizona, Oregon and Washington. In Kentucky and Oklahoma they have school suffrage, but are not eligible to office; in Kentucky the school suffrage is limited by certain restrictions. In Maine, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Iowa and California, women are eligible to school boards, but only to certain offices.”[179]
In New Zealand, women have had full parliamentary suffrage since 1893. They have actively participated in the parliamentary elections, more actively than the men, but they are not eligible to office. Only men may be elected. In 1893, of 139,915 women of voting age no less than 109,461 registered; 785 for each 1000; 90,290—645 for each 1000—took part in the elections. In 1896 108,783 (68 per cent.) of the women voted; in 1902, 138,565; in 1905, 175,046.
In Tasmania, women were given municipal suffrage in 1884 and national suffrage in 1903. In South Australia, women have had national suffrage since 1895, in West Australia since 1900, in New South Wales since 1902, in Queensland since 1905, in Victoria since 1908. Federated Australia introduced parliamentary woman’s suffrage in 1902. The parliamentary suffrage implies the eligibility of women to parliament, but until now no woman has been elected. Women who are of age may vote for members of parliament and be voted for on the same terms as men. The municipal administration is less democratic. The right of participation in the administration of municipal affairs is connected with military service. Since 1889, tax-paying women are eligible to the charity-boards of town and rural communities. They may also be elected as directors of charitable institutions and members of school boards.
The grand general strike of October, 1905, and the victory of the Russian revolution made possible the restoration of the constitution in Finland. The working class, by bringing pressure to bear upon the National Diet, succeeded in obtaining the passage of a law that provided for the introduction of universal suffrage, including the women. Only such persons were excluded who received aid from public funds, or who owed their personal tax to the state, 50 cents for men and 25 cents for women. In 1907, 19 women, and in 1908, 25 women were elected to the parliament of Finland.
In Norway, women participate in the administration of schools since 1889. In cities, the city councils may appoint them to school boards, and women having children of school age take part in the election of school inspectors. In the rural districts all who pay school taxes, regardless of sex, are entitled to take part in the school meetings of the communities. Women may hold the office of school inspector. Gradually women were given a voice in other municipal matters also. In 1901, municipal suffrage was extended to all Norwegian women who had attained their twenty-fifth year, who were Norwegian citizens, having been in the country at least five years, and who paid taxes on an income of at least 300 crowns, in the rural districts, and 400 crowns in the cities, or whose husbands paid the required amount of taxes. Women answering these requirements were also made eligible to municipal offices. By this law 200,000 women were enfranchised, 30,000 of them in Christiania alone. During the first election in which the women participated, 90 women were elected as members of town and city councils, and 160 as alternates. In Christiana, 6 women councillors and one alternate were elected. On July 1, 1907, the Norwegian women were given parliamentary suffrage, but not upon the same terms as men. Parliamentary suffrage was extended to women on the same terms on which they had been given municipal suffrage; 250,000 proletarian women still remain excluded from political rights.
In Sweden, unmarried women take part in municipal elections since 1862, on the same terms as men; that is, they must be of age and must pay taxes on an income of at least 140 dollars. In 1887 only 4000 women among 62,000 voted. At first, women were not eligible to any municipal office, but in 1889 a law was enacted which declared them eligible to school boards and boards of charity. In February, 1909, Swedish women were declared eligible to all town and city councils. In 1902 parliamentary woman suffrage was rejected by the lower house by 114 against 64 votes; in 1905 by 109 against 88 votes.
In Denmark, after many years of agitation, women were given municipal suffrage in April, 1908, and were also made eligible to municipal offices. All those women are enfranchised who have attained their twenty-fifth year and who have an annual income of at least 225 dollars in the cities (less in rural districts), or whose husbands pay the required amount of taxes. Moreover, servant girls are enfranchised, in whose case board and lodging are added to the wages they receive. During the first election in which women participated, which took place in 1909, seven women were elected to the city council of Copenhagen. In Iceland, women have municipal suffrage and are eligible to municipal offices since 1907.
The struggle for woman suffrage in England has a considerable history. According to an old law, in the mediaeval ages, ladies of the manors had the right of suffrage and also exercised judicial power. In the course of time they were deprived of these rights. In the election reform acts of 1832, the word “person” had been employed, which includes members of both sexes. Yet the law was construed not to refer to women, and they were barred from voting wherever they made an attempt to do so. In the election reform bill of 1867, the word “person” had been replaced by the word “man.” John Stuart Mill moved to reintroduce the word “person” instead of “man,” explicitly stating as the object of his motion that thereby women would be given the suffrage on the same terms as men. The motion was voted down by 194 against 73 votes. Sixteen years later, in 1883, another attempt was made in the house of commons to introduce woman suffrage. The bill was rejected by a majority of only 16 votes. Another attempt failed in 1884, when a much larger membership of the house voted down a suffrage bill by a majority of 136 votes. But the minority were not discouraged. In 1886 they succeeded in having a bill providing for the introduction of parliamentary woman suffrage passed in two readings. The dissolving of parliament prevented a final decision.
On November 29, 1888, Lord Salisbury delivered an address in Edinburgh, in which he said, among other things: “I sincerely hope that the day may not be distant when women will participate in parliamentary elections and will help to determine the course of the government.” Alfred Russell Wallace, the well-known scientist and follower of Darwin, expressed himself upon the same question in the following manner: “When men and women shall be free to follow their best impulses, when no human being shall be hampered by unnatural restrictions owing to the chance of sex, when public opinion will be controlled by the wisest and best and will be systematically impressed upon the young, then we will find that a system of human selection will manifest itself that will result in a transformed humanity. As long as women are compelled to regard marriage as a means whereby they may escape poverty and neglect, they are and remain at a disadvantage compared to men. Therefore the first step in the emancipation of women is to remove all the restrictions which prevent them from competing with men in all branches of industry and in all occupations. But we must advance beyond this point and permit women to exercise their political rights. Many of the restrictions from which women have hitherto suffered would have been spared them if they had had a direct representation in parliament.”
On April 27, 1892, the second reading of a bill by Sir A. Rollit was again rejected by 175 against 152 votes. On February 3, 1897, the house of commons passed a suffrage bill, but, owing to various manœuvres of the opponents, the bill did not come up for the third reading. In 1904 the same scene was re-enacted. Of the members of parliament elected to the house of commons in 1906, a large majority had declared themselves in favor of woman suffrage prior to their election. On June 21, 1908, a grand demonstration was held in Hyde Park. On February 28, a bill providing that women should be given parliamentary suffrage on the same terms as men, had been passed by 271 against 92 votes.[180]
In regard to municipal administration, woman suffrage in Great Britain is constantly expanding. In the parish councils tax-paying women have a voice and vote as well as men. Since 1899, women in England have the right to vote for town, district and county councils. In the rural districts all proprietors and lodgers—including the female ones—who reside in the parish or district are entitled to vote. All inhabitants who are of age may be elected to the above-named bodies, regardless of sex. Women vote for members of school boards, and, since 1870, are eligible to same on the same terms as men. But in 1903 the reactionary English school law has deprived women of the right of being elected to the school board in the county of London. Since 1869 independent and unmarried women have the right to vote for the privy councils. Two laws enacted in 1907 made unmarried women in England and Scotland eligible to district and county councils. But a woman who may be elected as chairman of such a council, shall thereby not hold the office of justice of peace that is connected with it. Women are also eligible to parish councils and as overseers of the poor. The first woman mayor was elected in Aldeburgh on November 9, 1908. In 1908 there were 1162 women on English boards of charity and 615 women on school boards. In Ireland, tax-paying women have had municipal suffrage since 1887, and since 1896 they may vote for members of boards of charity and be elected to same. In the British colony of North America, most of the provinces have introduced municipal woman suffrage on similar terms as in England. In the African colonies of England, municipal woman suffrage has likewise been introduced.
In France the first slight progress was brought about by a law enacted on February 27, 1880. By this law a school board was created consisting of women school principals, school inspectors, and inspectors of asylums. Another law of January 23, 1898, gave women engaged in commerce the right to vote for members of courts of trade, and, since November 25, 1908, women may be elected as members of courts of trade themselves.
In Italy women may vote for members of courts of trade and be elected as such since 1893. They are also eligible to boards of supervisors of hospitals, orphan asylums, foundling asylums, and to school boards.
In Austria women belonging to the class of great landowners may vote for members of the Diet and the imperial council, either personally or by proxy. Taxpaying women, over 24, may vote for town and city councillors; married women exercise the suffrage indirectly through their husbands, others through some other authorized agent. All the women belonging to the class of great land-owners have the right to vote for members of the Diet, but, with the exception of Lower Austria, they do not exercise it personally. Only in the one domain referred to, the law of 1896 provides that the great landowners, regardless of sex, must cast their vote in person. Women may also vote for members of courts of trade, but may not be elected to same.
In Germany women are explicitly excluded from voting for any law-making bodies. In some parts of the country women may vote for town-councillors. In no city or rural community are women eligible to municipal offices. In the cities they are also excluded from the right to vote for any office. The exceptions to this rule are some cities in the Grand-duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach, in the principalities of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, in Bavaria, and the little town of Travemuende, in Lubeck.
In the Bavarian cities all women who are house-owners, and in the cities of Saxony-Weimar and Schwarzburg, all women citizens are given the suffrage, but only in Travemuende are they permitted to exercise it in person.[181] In most of the rural communities where the right of suffrage depends upon a property or tax-paying qualification, women are included in this right. But they must vote by proxy and are not eligible to any office themselves. This is the case in Prussia, Brunswick, Schleswig-Holstein, Saxony-Weimar, Hamburg, and Lubeck. In the Kingdom of Saxony a woman may exercise the suffrage if she be a landowner and unmarried. When she becomes married, her suffrage devolves upon her husband. In those states in which municipal suffrage depends upon citizenship, women are generally excluded. This is the case in Wurtemberg, in the Bavarian Palatinate, in Baden, Hessia, Oldenburg, Anhalt, Gotha, and Reuss. In Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach, Coburg, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, women can become citizens on the same terms as men, and they have the suffrage, not limited by any property qualification. But here, too, they are prohibited from exercising this right in person.
In those Prussian districts where a limited form of woman suffrage exists, the enfranchised women participate directly or indirectly in the elections for members of the dietines. In the electoral groups of great landowners and the representatives of mining and manufacturing establishments, the women vote for members of the dietines directly; but in the rural communities they vote indirectly, since here the town council does not elect the representatives themselves, but only their electors. As the local dietines elect representatives to the provincial diets, the small number of enfranchised women are enabled to exert a very modest influence on the administration of the provinces.
During recent years women have been admitted to boards of charity, and have been made overseers of the poor and of orphan asylums in growing numbers and with marked success. (Bavaria constitutes the only exception.) In some cities (in Prussia, Baden, Wurtemberg, Bavaria and Saxony), they have also been admitted to school boards, and in one city (Mannheim), they have been made members of a commission for the inspection of dwellings. Insurance against sickness is the only public institution in connection with which women may vote and be voted for. They remain excluded from voting for members of courts of trade.
The above-quoted instances show that suffrage in Germany and Austria is determined, almost without exception, not by the person, but by property. Politically, human beings are mere ciphers if they have no money and no possessions. Neither intellect nor ability, but property is the determining factor. It is very instructive to note this fact in regard to the morality and justice of the present state.
We see that a number of exceptions have already been made to the theory that women are in the same class with minors and that the franchise must accordingly be withheld from them. And yet people vehemently oppose the endeavor to give women full political equality. Even progressive people argue that it would be dangerous to enfranchise women because they are conservative by nature and are susceptible to religious prejudices. But these arguments are true to some extent only, so long as women are maintained in ignorance. Our object must therefore be to educate them and to teach them where their true interest lies. Incidentally it may be stated that the religious influence on elections has been overestimated. The ultramontane agitation was so successful in Germany only because it wisely combined the religious interests with social interests. For a long time the ultramontane chaplains vied with the Socialists in revealing social deterioration. It was this that caused them to become so influential with the masses. But with the end of the struggle between church and state this influence gradually declines. The clergy are obliged to abandon their struggle against the power of the state; at the same time the increasing class differences compel them to show greater consideration for the Catholic bourgeoisie and the Catholic nobility and to be more reticent in regard to social questions. Thereby they lose their influence upon workingmen, especially if consideration for the ruling classes compels them to favor or to tolerate actions and laws that are directed against the interests of the working class. The same reasons will eventually also destroy the influence of the clergy upon women. When women learn in meetings, or from newspapers, or by personal experience, where their true interests lie, they will emancipate themselves from clerical influence just as men.[182]
In Belgium, where ultramontanism still predominates among large circles of the population, a number of the Catholic clergy favor woman suffrage because they deem it an effective weapon against Socialism. In Germany, too, a number of conservative members of the Diet have declared themselves in favor of the woman suffrage bills introduced by Socialist members and have explained their position by asserting that they consider woman suffrage a weapon against Socialism. Undoubtedly there is some truth in these opinions, taking into consideration the present political ignorance of women and the strong influence exerted over them by the clergy. But still this is no reason to disfranchise them. There are millions of workingmen, too, who vote for candidates of bourgeois and religious parties against their own class interest and thereby prove their political ignorance, yet no one would propose to disfranchise them for this reason. The withholding or the rape of the franchise is not practiced because the ignorance of the masses—including the ignorance of women—is feared; for what these masses are, the ruling classes have made them. It is practiced because the ruling classes fear that the masses will gradually become wise and pursue their own course.
Until recently the various German states were so reactionary that they even withheld from women the right of political organization. In Prussia, Bavaria, Brunswick, and a number of other German states, they were not permitted to form political clubs. In Prussia they were not even permitted to participate in entertainments arranged by political clubs, as was distinctly set down by the supreme court in 1901. The rector of the Berlin University even went so far as to forbid a woman to lecture before a social science club of students. In the same year the police authorities of Brunswick forbade women to take part in the proceedings of the social congress of Evangelists. In 1902 the Prussian secretary of state condescended to give women the permission to attend the meetings of political clubs, but under the condition that they had to take their seats in a part of the hall specially set aside for them, like the Jewish women in their synagogues. Nothing could have better characterized the pettiness of our conditions. As late as February, 1904, Pasadowsky solemnly declared in the Diet: “Women shall keep their hands off politics.” But eventually this state of affairs became unbearable even to the bourgeois parties. The new national law on assembly and organization of April 19, 1908, brought the only marked improvement by establishing equal rights of women in regard to political organization and public assembly.
The right to vote must of course be combined with the right to be elected to office. We hear the cry: “How ridiculous it would be to behold a woman on the platform of the Diet!” Yet there are other states where women have ascended to the platforms of parliaments, and we, too, have long since become accustomed to see women on platforms in their meetings and conventions. In North America women appear on the pulpit and in the jury-box; why not on the platform of the Diet? The first woman to be elected to the Diet will know how to impress the other members. When the first workingmen were elected to the Diet they, too, were the objects of cheap wit, and it was asserted that workingmen would soon recognize the folly of electing men of their type. But the working-class representatives quickly succeeded in winning respect, and at present their opponents fear that there may be too many of them. Frivolous jesters exclaim: “But picture a pregnant woman on the platform of the Diet; how shocking!” Yet the same gentlemen consider it quite proper that pregnant women should be employed at occupations which shockingly degrade their womanly dignity and decency and undermine their health. That man is a wretch, indeed, who dares to ridicule a pregnant woman. The very thought that his mother was in the same condition before she gave him birth must drive the blood to his cheeks in shame, and the other thought, that his wife’s being in the same condition may mean the fulfillment of his fondest hopes, must silence him.[183]
The woman who gives birth to children is serving the community at least as well as the man who risks his life in defence of the country. For she gives birth to and educates the future soldiers, far too many of whom must sacrifice their lives on the battlefield. Moreover, every woman risks her life in becoming a mother. All our mothers have faced death in giving us life, and many of them have perished. In Prussia, for instance, the number of deaths in child-birth—including the victims of puerperal fever—by far exceeds the number of deaths from typhoid. During 1905 and 1906 0.73 and 0.62 per cent. of typhoid patients died. But among 10,000 women 2.13 and 1.97 per cent. died in child-birth. “How would conditions have developed,” Professor Herff rightly remarks, “if men were subjected to these sufferings to the same extent? Would not the utmost measures be resorted to?”[184] The number of women who die in child-birth, or are left sickly as a result of same, is far greater than the number of men who die or are wounded on the battlefield. From 1816 to 1876, in Prussia alone, no less than 321,791 women fell victims of puerperal fever; that is an annual average of 5363. In England, from 1847 to 1901, 213,533 women died in child-birth, and still, notwithstanding all hygienic measures, no less than 4000 die annually.[185]
That is a far greater number than the number of men killed in the various wars during the same time. To this tremendous number of women who die in child-birth must furthermore be added the still greater number of those who become sickly as a result of child-birth and die young.[186] This is another reason why woman is entitled to full equality with man. Let these facts be especially noted by those persons who advance the military service of men as an argument against the equal rights of women. Moreover, our military institutions enable a great many men to escape the performance of this duty.
All these superficial objections to the public activity of women would be impossible if the relation of the sexes was natural, instead of there being an artificially stimulated antagonism between them. From their early childhood on the sexes are separated in their education and their social intercourse. It is especially the antagonism we owe to Christianity that keeps the sexes apart and maintains one in ignorance about the other, whereby free social intercourse, mutual confidence and the ability to supplement each other’s traits of character are prevented.
One of the first and most important tasks of a rationally organized society must be to remove this detrimental discord and to restore the rights of nature. We begin by making even the little children in school unnatural, firstly, by separating the sexes, and secondly, by failing to instruct our children as to the sex nature of human beings. In every fairly good school natural history is being taught at present. The child learns that birds lay eggs and hatch them. He learns when birds mate and that both the male and female bird build the nest, hatch the eggs and feed the young. He also learns that mammals bring forth their young alive. He hears of the mating season and that the male animals fight one another for possession of the females. Perhaps he even learns how many young one or another species of animal usually brings forth and how long the female is pregnant. But profoundest secrecy is maintained in regard to the origin and development of the human being. When the child seeks to satisfy its natural curiosity by questioning his parents, especially his mother—he rarely ventures to question the teacher—he is told the most ridiculous fairy tales that cannot satisfy his thirst for knowledge and that must exert an all the more harmful influence when, some day, he nevertheless learns the true nature of his origin. There are few children who have not learned of it by the time they are twelve years old. In every small town, and especially in the country, even very young children have occasion to observe the pairing of poultry and domestic animals at close range in the yards, in the streets and on pasture. They hear that the pairing of domestic animals and the birth of the young is discussed without a sense of shame by their parents, their elder brothers and sisters and the servants. All this causes the child to doubt the truth of what his parents told him in regard to his own coming into the world. Finally the child learns the truth, but not in the manner in which he ought to learn it if his education were a natural and rational one. The fact that the child keeps his knowledge a secret leads to an estrangement between him and his parents, especially between him and his mother. The parents have accomplished the opposite of what they sought to accomplish in their ignorance and short-sightedness. Those who recall their own childhood and the childhood of their playmates know to what this may lead.
An American woman[187] tells us that in order to satisfactorily answer the constant questions of her eight-year-old son as to his origin, and because she did not wish to tell him fairy tales, she revealed to him the truth about his birth. The child, she says, listened to her with utmost attention, and from the day upon which he had learned how much suffering he caused his mother, he had treated her with unwonted tenderness and respect and had also transferred these feelings to other women. The writer upholds the correct view that only by means of a natural education men can be led to treat women with more respect and self-control. Every unprejudiced person is bound to agree with her.
Whatever starting-point one may choose in the criticism of present-day conditions, one is bound always to reiterate the following: A thorough reorganization of our social conditions, and thereby a thorough transformation in the relation of the sexes, is needful. Woman, in order to attain her aim more quickly, must look about for allies, and she naturally finds such allies in the proletarian movement. The class-conscious proletariat has long since commenced to storm the fortress of the state that is founded on class rule, which includes the rule of one sex over the other. The fortress must be surrounded on all sides, and, by arms of all calibers, it must be forced to surrender. The beleaguering army finds its officers and suitable arms on all sides. The social sciences, the natural sciences, historical research, pedagogics, hygiene and statistics furnish the movement with arms and munition. Philosophy comes forward, too, and, in Mainlaender’s “Philosophy of Deliverance,” proclaims the early realization of the “ideal state.”
The conquest of the class-state and its transformation is made easier by dissension in the ranks of its defenders, who, notwithstanding their community of interests against the common enemy, fight one another in the struggle for the spoils. The interest of one group is opposed to the interest of another. Another point in our favor is the growing mutiny in the ranks of the enemy. To a great extent their soldiers are blood of our blood and flesh of our flesh, but, owing to ignorance, they, until now, fought against us and against themselves. More and more of these join our ranks. We are, furthermore, helped by the desertion of honest men of intellect, who were hostile to us at first, but whose superior knowledge and profound insight impels them to rise above their narrow class interest, to follow their ideal desire for justice, and to espouse the cause of the masses that are longing for liberation.
Many still fail to recognize that state and society are already in a state of decay. Therefore an exposition of this subject also becomes necessary.
[177] Emma Adler—Famous Women of the French Revolution. Vienna, 1906.
[178] At present suffrage amendments are pending in Washington and Oklahoma. (Tr.)
[179] Clara Zetkin—Woman Suffrage. Berlin, 1907.
[180] A similar bill, known as the “conciliation bill,” drawn up by a committee consisting of members of all parties, passed its second reading in July 1910 by 299 against 189 votes. Prime Minister Asquith prevented the third reading and final vote upon the bill during that session of Parliament. (Tr.)
[181] Political Manual for Women. Berlin, 1909.
[182] That this danger exists the clergy themselves have soon recognized. Since the woman movement has grown and developed even in bourgeois circles, the leaders of the Catholic party recognized that they could no longer oppose it, and they accordingly completely reversed their attitude. With that subtlety which has always characterized the servants of the church, they favor at present what they opposed until quite recently. They not only favor higher education for women, they also declare themselves in favor of unrestricted right of assembly and organization for women. Some of the more far-sighted even support woman suffrage, hoping that the church may derive the greatest gain from the introduction of same. In the same way the industrial organization of women is supported by the Catholic clergy, even the organization of servant girls. But all these social endeavors are fostered, not from an innate sense of justice, but to prevent the women from flocking to the camp of religious and political opponents.
[183] “Half of the women members of Parliament in Finland are wives and mothers. Three of the Socialist married women members became mothers during their parliamentary activity without any other disturbing results except that they remained away from the sessions for a few weeks. Their pregnant condition was regarded as something natural that was neither wonderful nor noteworthy. It may rather be said that this factor was of educational value to the assembly. In regard to the parliamentary activity of these women members it should be noted that their parties elected them to the special committees also, which proves that they were convinced of their ability. The committee on labor where the laws for workingmen’s protection, workingmen’s insurance, and the new trade laws were drawn up, consisted of twelve men and four women, and three women had been chosen as alternates. The legislative and constitutional committees each had two women members, and for each there was one woman alternate, and the women have ably maintained their place in these committees.”—Miss Hilda Paerssinen, member of the diet of Finland—“Woman Suffrage and the Participation of Women in the Parliamentary Work of Finland.”—Documents of Progress. July, 1909.
[184] Professor Dr. Otto v. Herff—The struggle against puerperal fever. Leipsig, 1908.
[185] W. Williams—Deaths in Child-bed. London, 1904.
[186] “For every woman who dies in child-birth we must assume from fifteen to twenty who are more or less seriously infected with resulting diseases of the abdominal organs and general debility from which they frequently suffer for the remainder of their lives.” Dr. Mrs. H. B. Adams—The Book of Woman. Stuttgart, 1894.
[187] Womanhood, Its Sanctities and Fidelities by Isabella Beecher Hooker. New York, 1874. Lee, Shepard & Dillingham.