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Show Hi --' I Unman lExrla Hlfiut innte I 3ta fitter nf Artiirttfea HI ' H' Dy JAMES P. MUNROE, HJ Author and Chatrmm Social Education Contfreu. H 1INCH woman is intellectually oqtinl to man, lliero is no own- I pntion burring n few (luiiinndiiifi great physical Piulurunco H I in which she niny not, if she choose, excel. There are innny, H M I however, into which it is unwise for any wive the exceptional H Cm . . wo,nnn "Neinpl t" enter. H MTmIm cx ,''",jrt'nccfl nro nt simply physiological. There nrc H lvKf' I L,lnil'b' important mental and ethical divergences which, for fl I J the sake of right human progress, should he preserved and, fl aMm indeed, intenstficd. While, therefore, the majority of men and HJ women could readily interchange most of their present occn- Hi palions, to do bo would he to sacrifice the enormous advantage which HJ comes from the duality of sex and the consequent doubling of the inlel- HJ lcetual and spiritual range of human life. HJ A woman must have the stability nud shelter of a home while bear ing and 'retiring children. Therefore, she excels, as she should, in the field of the household, not as a patient drudge, but as the house manager, iw tho center of family interests, as tho chief guide and teacher of her children. She excels; moreover, because, as a woman, she has certain fundamental qualities, different from those of the mule, that are seem-HH seem-HH ingly essential to the preservation of tho homo and to tho progress of i civilization. The most vital of these is her ethical idealism. HI To the many women who do not maxry or do not have children there HI is presented the wide field of that larger fumily, tho community. Therein HI ara many occupations analogous to those of tho household and requiring Hb kindred powers, such as education, the fine arts, the domestic arts, medial medi-al cine, nursing, organized philanthropy, and a long list of what .may be HI called household and esthetic industries) such as the furnishing of food, HI clothing and shelter, tho making and selling of innumerable domestic sup-HJ sup-HJ plies, and the filling of the increasing human need for dccortitivo beauty. HI Many of these fields, such as teaching and the domestic arts, arc the pc-Hfl pc-Hfl culiar province of women; into others they aro rapidly making their way. H Yet with notable exceptions women do not to-day excel, do not, that is, HI reach the standards of achievement to which men, in the preeminently HJ malo occupations, have attained. As a consequence, those ethical and in-Hfl in-Hfl tcllcctual sides of human progress which, because tjiey concern tho family HI and the rearing of the child, aro the most important, seriously lag behind HJ tho material side the applying of the earth's resources to well-being and H to-luxury which is mainly in the hands of men. HI This is through no fault of woman and is no evidence of sex defi- Hh cicncics. It is due to the fact that .the intellcctuul equality of woman HH has only recently been acknowledged; that she has never been broadly HI trained for those occupations which are clearly hers; and that the rapid HI advance in her opportunities for education has been along malo lines in- Hfl stead of towards developing, strengthening and training those powers HJ which arc natural to licrscx and essential to the right growth of civilizu- HJ tiori. Tho question of her excel lenco in achievement cannot be answered HI until she has had time to show what, under modern conditions of free- Hfl dom, bIic can really do. |