PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED, EDINBURGH
THE BOOKS OF CHARLOTTE PERKINS STETSON
(Mrs. G. H. GILMAN)
WOMEN AND ECONOMICS
A STUDY OF THE ECONOMIC RELATION BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN AS A FACTOR IN SOCIAL EVOLUTION
358 pages, crown 8vo, cloth, 6s.
In writing this book it has been Mrs. Stetson's purpose to point out, explain, and justify the changes now going on in the relations of women to society. The subject is one which must inevitably come home to every household in the country. No woman, whatever her position or the conditions surrounding her, can read the book and not feel that the whole argument applies to herself and her concerns almost like a personal appeal.
In brief, the position taken is that women have for centuries been economically dependent on men; that as a result women have been tending to become more and more feminine and less and less normal human beings. Even this bald statement of Mrs. Stetson's thesis will serve to show the scope and importance of her book. The argument is extended to every branch of social activity with remarkable originality. It may safely be said that hardly any volume of recent years has treated a confused subject with so much real intelligence and in an attitude so singularly fair and high-minded.
It has been no part of Mrs. Stetson's purpose to write a dull book. On the contrary, one of the surprising qualities of Women and Economics is its readableness throughout—the really absorbing interest of its argument even to the least scientific reader. It is a book hard to lay down. One hardly knows which to admire the more,—its clearness, earnestness, and courage, or the keen wit and shrewd satire which keep its pages fresh and sparkling to the end.
Whether one finally agrees with Mrs. Stetson's position or not, Women and Economics is distinctly a book one cannot afford to miss. It is worth reading if only for its high ideals of a finer marriage, a family better nourished and better bred, a fuller life and opportunity for childhood, and a more complete and better rounded womanhood in the house as well as in society.