Fantasy fiction; Utopian fiction; Utopias -- Fiction
After an exhilarating ride, in which the doctor and I, certainly, were
not troubled by any over-sensitiveness in regard to such robust horses,
we returned to the house and soon found ourselves seated in the music
room listening to one of their famous dramatists reciting his own words
through the phonograph. Next we had some music, and then a poem, from
the same prolific instrument.
When this entertainment was over, and after lunch, Zenith, at our urgent
request, seconded by Thorwald’s solicitation, resumed her narrative.
“We read,” she began, “that during the time when men were grudgingly
bestowing the right of suffrage on our sex, woman was making rapid
strides toward a position in society fitted to her talents and
aspirations. One occupation after another became available, and it was
no longer a disgrace or hardly a peculiarity for women to be earning
their living instead of depending for support on their fathers or
brothers. This tended to create in them a feeling of independence,
and in many employments they had every right to be proud of their
attainments, for, with so little training, they often surpassed the
men at their own trades. Even then, however, some of the old
prejudice against the sex seemed to remain in force, since women were
discriminated against in the matter of wages. When they did the same
work and did it better, still their pay was less than that of men. But
this was a temporary injustice, which disappeared, as it was bound to
do, when woman had acquired her full freedom and had been in the field
long enough to prove her right and ability to stay.
“The work at which women excelled was that requiring a quick
intelligence, nimble fingers, and the faculty of easy adaptability. In
the realm of physical strength woman was not a competitor, but there was
another field in which she more than made up for that loss, and in which
she early began to show great native ability. That was in all pursuits
demanding the education of the mind. Here is where she was to look for
the greatest of her victories. Nature had endowed man with a superior
strength of body and muscle, but woman with a higher order of mind.”
“I must interrupt you here, Zenith,” said the doctor. “This is assuredly
an instance where your race differs materially from that of the earth,
for with us man has by nature the stronger mind.”
“How do you know?” asked Zenith.
“It has been proved so in all ages.”
“Yes, but does not the expression ‘all ages’ include with you only the
ages in which man has been the ruling spirit, and woman has been kept
down and allowed but little opportunity to show the strength of her
mental faculties? You know our history takes in not only a period
similar to that covered by your whole career, but also other ages which
we believe correspond with the years yet to come for the inhabitants of
the earth. It has been during the latter era, a time which you have not
yet seen, that woman has proved the truth of my assertion.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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