+-------------------------------------------------+ |Transcriber’s note: | | | |Obvious typographic errors have been corrected. | | | +-------------------------------------------------+ CONCERNING WOMEN _by_ SUZANNE LA FOLLETTE [Illustration: Logo] ALBERT & CHARLES BONI NEW YORK 1926 _Copyright, 1926, by Albert & Charles Boni, Inc._ _Manufactured in the United States of America_ _To_ ELLEN WINSOR and REBECCA WINSOR EVANS CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I THE BEGINNINGS OF EMANCIPATION 1 II WOMAN’S STATUS, PAST AND PRESENT 19 III INSTITUTIONAL MARRIAGE AND ITS ECONOMIC ASPECTS 56 IV WOMAN AND MARRIAGE 93 V THE ECONOMIC POSITION OF WOMEN 157 VI WHAT IS TO BE DONE 207 VII SIGNS OF PROMISE 270 CONCERNING WOMEN _Let there be, then, no coercion established in society, and the common law of gravity prevailing, the sexes will fall into their proper places._ MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT. CHAPTER I THE BEGINNINGS OF EMANCIPATION It will be foolish to assume that women are free, until books about them shall have ceased to have more than an antiquarian interest. All such books, including this one, imply by their existence that women may be regarded as a class in society; that they have in common certain characteristics, conditions or disabilities which, predominating over their individual variations, warrant grouping them on the basis of sex. No such assumption about men would be thinkable. Certain masculine qualities, so-called, may be singled out by amateur psychologists and opposed to certain feminine qualities, so-called; but from books about the sphere of man, the rights of man, the intelligence of man, the psychology of man, the soul of man, our shelves are mercifully free. Such books may one day appear, but when they do it will mean that society has passed from its present state through a state of sex-equality and into a state of female domination. In that day, in place of the edifying spectacle of men proclaiming that woman is useful only as a bearer of children, society may behold the equally edifying spectacle of women proclaiming that man is useful only as a begetter of children; since it seems to be characteristic of the dominant sex to regard the other sex chiefly as a source of pleasure and as a means of reproduction. It seems also to be characteristic of the dominant sex--I judge from the world’s experience during the domination of men--to regard itself as humanity, and the other sex as a class of somewhat lower beings created by Providence for its convenience and enjoyment; just as it is characteristic of a dominant class, such as an