/ Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2007 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.arcliive.org/details/feministmovementOOsnowuoft — The Nation's Library. The outstanding feature of the Natiqji's Library Is specialised information by the moSt capable and com- petent authorities, and every subject dealt with is brought right up to the point of its relationship to modem hfe and thought. Nothing obsolete finds a place in this series; each book provides ample material for thought in its particular direction and presents knowledge in its most modem dress. The volumes already issued or in preparation include : SOCIALISM AND SYNDICALISM. Philip Snowden. M.P. AVIATION. Claudb Grahame-White. SANE TRADE UNIONISM. W. V. Osborne (of the Osborne Judgment). INDUSTRIAL GERMANY. William Harbutt Dawson. EUGENICS : A SCIENCE AND AN IDEAL. Edgar Schuster, M.A. (Oxon.), D.Sc., Fellow of New College, Oxford, sometime Galton Research Fellow in National Eugenics at the University of London. THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF SMALL HOLDINGS. James Long, Member of Departmental Committee on Small Holdings. MODERN VIEWS ON EDUCATION. Thiselton Mark, B.Sc., D.Lit., Lecturer on Education in the University of Manchester. THE CASE FOR RAILWAY NATIONALISATION. Emil Davies (Chairman Railway Nationalisatioa Society). THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT. Ethel Snowden (Mrs Phihp Snowden). F.M. A 2 THE NATION'S LIBRARY—ContifiMd CANADA AS AN IMPERIAL FACTOR, Hama» Greenwood, M.P., Barrister-at-Law. THE STORY OF TRUSTS. M. E. Hirst, M.A. (Birin.), sometime Scholar of Newnham College, Cambridge. With an Introduction by F. W. Hirst, Editor ol The Economist. THE CASE AGAINST RAILWAY NATIONALISA- TION. Edwin A. Pratt, Author of American Railways, THE PRINCIPLES OF EVOLUTION. Joseph McCabe, Author of The Story of Evolution, The Evolution of Mind, etc. MODERN COMMERCE: A SURVEY. H. H. Bassett, Editor Financial Review of Reviews. A BOOK OF FOLK-LORE. Rev. S. Baring-Gould, M.A. THE MODERN BRITISH NAVY. Commander Charles Robinson, R.N. (Ret.). BURNS. Rev. Lauchlan MacLean Watt, M.A., B.D., F.R.S.E., F.S.A. (Scot.). OIL FUEL. Vivian B. Lewes, F.I.C, F.C.S., Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. CO-OPERATION AND CO-PARTNERSHIP. Lang- ford Lovell Price, M.A., Fellow and Treasurer of Oriel College, Oxford, Reader in Economic History in the University of Oxford. POVERTY AND THE STATE. Geoffrey Dragb, M.A. (Oxon.). THE STAR WORLD. A. C. de la C. Crommelin, B.A. (Oxon.), D.Sc, Assistant at Royal Observatory, Greenwich. THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT ETHEL SNOWDEN (^M?? PHILIP SNOWDENJ CONTENTS PAGE Ql. THE MEANING OP FEBONISM . 7 djPL. A MODERN MOVEMENT 20 III. ORIENTAL AND SLAVONIC WOMEN . 41 IV. LATIN AND GERMANIC WOMEN 62 V. THE STRUGGLE FOR EDUCATION 82 VI. WOMEN AND SOCIAL SERVICE 99 VII. WOMEN IN PUBLIC SERVICE , 116 ^KviII. THE WOMAN SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT 189 THE ANTI-SUFFRAGISTS. • 162 tlX. X. THE CASE FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE . 186 XI. THE ECONOMICS OF FEMINISM 203 XII. WOMEN BEFORE THE LAW . 228 XIII. FEMINISM AND MORALITY 248 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 259 INDEX ...... 261 The Feminist Movement CHAPTER I THE MEANING OF FEMINISM The feminist movement is not the only one to suffer from deep and widespread misunder- standing. Great movements, like great people, and those who have led forlorn causes, need the mellowing touch of time and the glory that comes from success to compel the world to recognise their worth and dignity. In the heat and clash of hot and bitter conflict, the innocent, like the guilty, become stained and spattered, and non-combatants, not knowing the meaning of it all, turn away from both in disgust; but the cry of approval, the shout of praise, the laurel-wreath, and the marble bust are their inevitable, ultimate reward, the gift of later generations, who enjoy the happiness for which those others strove. By a consider- able part of the public opinion of her time Florence Nightingale was severely condemned as a woman of no refinement, who went out to the front to seek a husband : now our household goddess reigns supreme, and for ever, in myriads of British hearts and homes. 8 THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT Perhaps more has been written during the last few years on one aspect or another of feminism than upon any other subject, except Socialism; but, since Socialism is feminist in its implications, it can scarcely be considered as entirely unconnected with the subject under discussion. Socialism and the 3ocialist movement have always stood for equality of opportunity to men and women in every department of hirnian activity where sex does not impose an unconquerable barrier* Although the number of books, pamphlets, leaflets, and newspaper and magazine articles devoted to the exposition of feminist teaching is enormous, general ignorance of the subject points conclusively to the fact that these books are not commonly read. It is with the hope that it may reach one other section of the public, and fall into the hands of yet another class of readers, that this simple re-statement is made. Those who know everjrthing there is to be known about feminism will get nothing from these chapters. Those who come fresh and iminformed to the subject may perhaps find something which will stimulate them to further investigation. No subject could be more absorbing in its interest and fascination, and certainly no subject could be more tremendous in its implication. It is, to some at least of its preachers, the greatest thing in the world, the THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT 9 whole of the law and the prophets. It has for its purpose the enrichment of life by the development of love; and neither ignorance nor vice, self-seekers nor politicians, things present nor things to come will be able to stay the onward march of womanhood in the struggle for the full and complete recognition of its humanity. In the last phrase is contained the whole gospel of feminism—the recognition, full and complete, of the humanity of women. Surely this is no monstrous claim, that it should make good men and women afraid of the movement. Is it possible that there can be anything in this demand, which, if granted, will bring about such dire consequences as some people honestly seem to fear? It has been suggested, in all seriousness, that the secret purpose of the women's movement is the expulsion of all males from those offices and places requiring more than mere physical strength which they now hold, and their replacement by women. It ought to be sufficient to say that this is absurdly untrue. The opening of new doors will assuredly result in the entrance of large numbers of qualified women into spheres hitherto closed to them, but if the standard of remuneration for the work be kept up there will be no serious economic disadvantage to capable men. It is only when women are permitted by law — 10 THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT and custom to undersell their male competitors that the admission of women to a trade or profession becomes a serious menace to the father of a family. There are those who see in feminism something which will make for the deterioration, or for the extinction, in men, of those physical and moral qualities which have come to be regarded as purely masculine. It is suggested that the women of the future will have to maintain the men in idleness if they themselves insist on working, and that the inevitable result will be the weakening of the so-called manly qualities strength and courage and the power of domina- tion, with corresponding diminution in stature, brain-power, and nervous energy. This would probably be true if the men of the future chose to live as idle parasites on the life and labour of women; exactly as it is true of many women to-day, who, from choice or compulsion, are living parasitically upon men; but the suggestion of the argument, that men are kept active and virile only because of the need to satisfy their hunger and the hunger of those dependent upon them, is a slander upon male mankind which no mother of stalwart sons will allow for a moment. Where men require compulsion to work, it is very often because they are forced to work at tasks for which they have no taste, because they are overworked, or because THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT II their toil, by reason of the process of sub- division and the employment of machinery, has been robbed of all individuality and rendered so deadly monotonous that it has become repulsive and hateful to them. Monot- ony and the machine are together killing the natural love of productive, creative labour. When the critic speaks of the extinction of male qualities in men, is he quite justified in his use of language? Custom and habit, it is true, have separated the virtues and the vices, classifying them as masculine and feminine respectively; thus strength, vigour, courage, and honesty are regarded as charac- teristic of the typical man, whilst tenderness, grace, softness, and modesty are the commonly allotted attributes of the natural woman. Similarly greed, lust, and cruelty are more often and more commonly attributed to men than to women; and craft, dishonesty, and dissimulation to women than to men. Every one knows cases where the exact opposite of this has been true. Speaking generally, it would be untrue to say that there is not some warrant, so far as the common uses of life and the conveniences of speech are concerned, for this classification of quali- ties. The particular work and environment of each sex have tended to make moral special- ists of men and women, and to develop — 12 THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT notably in each sex, certain tendencies and standards.