PART IV
MOTHERHOOD AND THE RELATIONSHIPS OF THE SEXES
“For the great majority of mankind at least it can be held that life resolves itself quite simply and obviously into three cardinal phases. There is a period of youth and preparation, a great insurgence of emotion and enterprise centring about the passion of Love; and a third period in which, arising amidst the warmth and stir of the second, interweaving indeed with the second, the care and love of offspring becomes the central interest in life.… Looking at this with a primary regard to its broadest aspect, life is seen essentially as a matter of reproduction; first a growth and training to that end, then commonly mating and actual physical reproduction, and finally the consummation of these things in parental nurture and education. Love, Home and Children, these are the heart-words of life.”—H. G. Wells.
CONTENTS OF CHAPTER VIII
THE FAMILY AND THE HOME
Attacks on the family not likely to destroy it—Dominance of the male may be changed without altering the fundamental ideal of the family—Bernard Shaw ignorant of human needs—Two statements by H. G. Wells—The inhuman ideals of intellectual reformers—Trained hands to replace mother’s love—Foolish egoism the basis of the whole argument—The sweated victim of an industrial age is the ideal emancipated woman—The power of the mother in non-industrial societies—Modern uncertainty and want of a fixed standard of conduct—The extension of women’s work during the war—Is it of benefit to the coming generation—Can the mother both work outside the home and give sufficient care to her children—Woman’s subordinate qualities are man’s dominant qualities—Hence the wastefulness of rivalry in the same work—Early experiments in communist families—The child’s need for a home of its own—We must insist on conditions that will make home life possible—Types of mothers—The personal rights of the child—The position of the father—The father can be detached from the family—This harmful—The child’s need for the care of both its parents—The home exposed to danger—It awaits a fresh inspiration to turn back and hold the desires of women.