Woman's work in municipalities

by Mary Ritter Beard

All over the country we hear of meetings of women to discuss in a sane and dispassionate way the problem of education in sex hygiene. For example, two methods of teaching sex hygiene, the biological and the physiological, and their adaptation to the needs of different groups, were the subject of three conferences held last spring (1914) by the Society for Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, New York. Dr. Mary Sutton Macy presented the physiological and Nellie M. Smith the biological aspect. The third talk on the adaptability of these two methods to different social groups was given by Harriet McDaniel.

“The Matter and Methods of Sex Education Other Than Instruction in Schools” was discussed at a later meeting. The main speakers were Dr. Eugene LaF. Swain, Nellie W. Smith, Laura B. Garrett and Mabel M. Irwin. The discussion was started by Dr. Ira S. Wile, Dr. Rosalie S. Morton, Dr. Mary Sutton Macy and Harriet E. McDaniel.

Dr. Rosalie Morton, of New York, speaking at the Sixth Triennial Convention of the Council of Jewish Women, on this subject, said:

In the proper understanding of this subject of sex hygiene it is quite impossible for either men or women to go very far alone. I am sure that through the ages there have been men who have had this subject very close to their hearts. They have felt that it was basic, that it was most important; but they felt that it was not a proper matter to discuss with women and so they have blundered on, not getting very far in any solution of it. The subject has also been near the heart of every woman. She hopes that her husband will be a good man; she hopes that her son will be clean; she sees all the wreckage and the heartaches in life that come from ignorance of sex hygiene or lack of attention to it. So women have talked together as to how the standard of morality might be raised, how they might teach their sons and daughters, but they have felt that it was not a topic to discuss with men, so they have blundered on. They have been too sentimental, they have been too ignorant of the limitations in the world of practical affairs; they have lacked well-balanced judgment as to how it was best to teach, how it was best to help. It is absolutely necessary that earnest men and women should modify and guide each other in reaching a solution of the problem.

No home can be successful in its teaching of this subject unless the father and mother agree on the teaching; if the father thinks it is not a subject for his wife to consider or to talk about, or if the mother imagines that she alone shall tell her child, those children will grow up with a feeling that there is discord at the root of the family feeling on a most vital subject. Whether the father or mother shall tell the child is very immaterial. The opportunity may come to one, it may come to the other; both should be ready to meet it when it does come.

This last twenty-five years is the first time in the history of the world that any definite effort has been made to teach sex hygiene; and if each one of us will do our duty as we see it—and we must see it clearly now—and pass on our convictions (because no one has a right to receive anything for themselves or their particular group, and hold it, but each person has a tremendous responsibility to pass on to others their influence, their knowledge), we shall awaken a world-wide conscience regarding this thing. The reason that we can do so little is because one child is taught and another child is not taught. Education must be carried on in a widespread way before it can really accomplish what we hope for. That is the reason that a conference such as this means such progress in the history of the world, because you people will go back to your various communities and carry with you that courage of conviction which comes from the comradeship which you had here. Each one of us is afraid to broach this subject until we have had as the soldiers say, “a shoulder next to us to help us up the hill.”

Dr. Morton’s words went home, and a permanent committee on sex hygiene was established at the convention. The sentiments expressed at the formation of the committee may fittingly form the conclusion to this chapter.

The advance of preventive medicine and the far better understanding of the conditions of health and bodily vigor which obtain today, have put the whole subject of masculine chastity in a new light.

It is now clearly understood that the consequence to offspring of lack of chastity in the father are just as grave as those of lack of chastity in the mother; and that the happiness and security of family life are quite as apt to be destroyed by want of purity and honor in the father as in the mother. It is an established fact that there never was either physical or moral reason for maintaining two standards as regards chastity, one for men and the other for women.

The children of today are destined to be the units of a society whose point of view is to make it unique in the world’s history. It will be characterized by a single standard of morality for both sexes. The child must be so trained and educated that it will later be possible and natural for him to live up to the high standard which the women of his age shall demand of him.