Woman - Anthony M. Ludovici

Finally, in the conduct of the man of high ethical development, there will enter the factor of moral ideals. When once he feels his family about him, he will be conscious of certain duties, certain obligations, which will preclude all idea, all velleity, of not abiding by his original pledges. This man will be able to live till the end of his days with a woman, however much his feelings may have changed towards her, and still give the world the impression of being a most dutiful and most devoted husband. Temptation, sexual passion, the desire for variety, will simply not enter within his purview. The moment an irregular thought occurs to his mind, it will be, as it were, “switched off.” It should, however, be remembered that when such men are positive by nature, they will usually be found to practise in their leisure hours some kind of sport (hard walking, cycling, golf, riding) or industry (carpentry—true of thousands of Englishmen to-day; wood-cutting, e.g. Gladstone and the ex-Emperor of Germany; stamp-collecting and numismatics—true of thousands of modern Englishmen) or religious activity (Christian, Spiritualistic or other propaganda) in which much of their sex becomes absorbed.

In Chart I, I have given figures covering a period of twenty-one years—from 1899 to 1919 inclusive, for England and Wales; and the most important conclusions to be drawn from them at a glance are the following:—

(a) The preponderance of divorces which occur as the result of husbands’ petitions over those which occur as the result of wives’ petitions.

Bearing in mind the more insistent impulse to variety in sexual experience which harasses the male throughout life, this preponderance of husbands’ petitions only tends to show the extreme difficulty with which women can tolerate either the premature cessation of child-birth or no child-birth at all. For although it may be argued that in order to obtain a divorce the woman must charge her husband with something more than the mere indulgence of his craving for variety, and therefore that proportions are misleading from this point of view, it should also be remembered that, where there has been a transference of affection with adultery on the male’s part, desertion would necessarily follow, and therefore supply the minimum grounds for the woman’s petition.

Chart I. NUMBER OF CHILDREN AT TIME OF FILING PETITION OF DIVORCE.

Number of Children	1899.		1900.		1901.		1902.		1903.		1904.		1905.		1906.		1907.		1908.		1909.
Number of Children	H.	W.[91]	H.	W.	H.	W.	H.	W.	H.	W.	H.	W.	H.	W.	H.	W.	H.	W.	H.	W.	H.	W.
No children	175	147	167	156	188	166	230	185	183	170	178	147	180	167	201	161	169	182	198	235	213	197
1 child	97	83	80	84	129	91	140	115	105	133	110	116	114	137	120	127	91	128	119	136	104	137
2 children	58	57	59	53	93	57	98	62	76	75	78	82	73	86	73	80	84	82	86	67	75	89
3 to 6 children	66	69	68	63	86	67	131	65	128	70	97	66	83	69	62	78	84	70	82	71	80	79
Above 6 children	4	14	6	9	10	11	9	15	11	11	6	7	3	5	9	12	6	7	3	11	3	6
Number unknown			1	1											2	1				2

Number of Children	1910.		1911.		1912.		1913.		1914.		1915.		1916.		1917.		1918.		1919.
	H.	W.	H.	W.	H.	W.	H.	W.	H.	W.	H.	W.	H.	W.	H.	W.	H.	W.	H.	W.
Total successful petitions	412	343	466	393	506	414	548	450	607	468	682	461	781	382	1,044	379	1,807	516	4,076	1,009
No children	412[92]		408		444		493		496		491		563		660		1,043		2,338
1 child	222		281		347		372		366		379		382		433		707		1,627
2 children	146		201		193		194		241		248		231		307		488		930
3 to 6 children	119		170		160		192		228		231		200		285		423		831
Above 6 children	9		12		10		12		17		17		16		19		27		36

Chart II. DURATION OF MARRIAGE UP TO TIME OF FILING PETITION OF DIVORCE.

	1910.	1911.	1912.	1913.	1914.	1915.	1916.	1917.	1918.	1919.
Less than 1 year		14	17	29	22	18	35	27	36	75
1 and over to 2	29	26	25	44	17	40	58	78	86	156
2 and over to 5	110	143	145	136	150	130	192	274	516	1,171
5 and over to 10	284	353	378	427	394	371	383	482	858	1,947
10 and over to 20	369	418	440	481	583	618	577	667	930	2,008
Above 20	116	119	155	146	182	194	165	177	262	405

The high figures for faithless wives revealed in these statistics, therefore, point to the extreme refractoriness of women under the conditions imposed by modern economic pressure, which makes the limitation of families an ineluctable rule in most homes. This is furthermore confirmed by a comparison of the high figures given for childless marriages, or marriages of only one, two, or three children, with those given for marriages which have more than three children.