The true hope of the future lies in the undivided recognition of responsibility in love, which alone can make freedom possible. Freedom for all women—the women of the home and the women of the streets. The prostitute woman must be freed from all oppression. We, her sisters, can demand no less than this. If we are to remain sheltered, she must be sheltered too. She must be freed from the oppression of absurd laws, from the terrible oppression of the police and from all economic and social oppression. But to make this possible, these women, who for centuries have been blasted for our sins against love, must be re-admitted by women and men into the social life of our homes and the State. Then, and then alone, can we have any hope that the prostitute will cease to be and the natural woman will take her place.
FOOTNOTES:
[326] I would refer my readers to the Chapters on "Sexual Morality" and "Marriage" in Havelock Ellis's Psychology of Sex, Vol. VI. The only way to estimate aright the value of our present marriage system is to examine the history of that system in the past. I had hoped to have space in which to do this, and it is with real regret I am compelled to omit the section I had written on this subject.
[327] Lombroso mentions the prevalence of sexual frigidity among prostitutes (La Donna Delinquente, p. 401). See also Havelock Ellis, Psychology of Sex, Vol. VI. pp. 268-272. This writer does not support the view of the sexual frigidity of prostitutes, but in this, I believe, he is influenced by statistics and outward facts, rather than personal knowledge gained from the women themselves.
[328] Women in marriage have been for so long protected by men from the necessity of doing work, that why should we expect the prostitute to prefer uncongenial work?