PART III
MODERN SECTION
PRESENT-DAY ASPECTS OF THE WOMAN PROBLEM
CONTENTS OF CHAPTER VIII
SEX DIFFERENCES
The practical application of the truths arrived at—A question to be faced—The organic differences between the sexes—Résumé of the facts already established—The error in the common opinion of the true relationship of the sexes—The male active and seeking—The female passive and receiving—Is this true?—An examination of the passivity of the female—The delusion that man is the active partner in the sexual relationship—The economic factor in marriage—The conventional modesty of woman—Concealments and evasions—The feeling of shame in love—Woman's right of selection—How this must be regained by women—The new Ethic—The pre-natal claims of the child—The question of parenthood as a religious question—The responsibility of the mother as the child's supreme parent—The mating of the future—Another question—Woman's superior moral virtue—Its fundamental error—Woman's imperative need of love—The maternal instinct—Nature's experiments—The establishment of two sexes—The feminine and masculine characters are an inherent part of the normal man and woman—The female as the giver of life—The deep significance of this—The atrophy of the maternal instinct—Modern woman preoccupied with herself—The right position of the mother—Sex attraction and sex antagonism—Woman's relation to sexuality—The duel of the sexes—The prostitution of love—Man's fear of woman—Misogyny—The rebellion of woman against man—Coercive differentiation of the sexes in consequence of civilisation—The ideal of a one-sexed world—Woman as the enemy of her own emancipation—The attempt to establish a third sex—The danger of ignoring sex—The future progress of love.