E-text prepared by Charlene Taylor, Martin Pettit, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/americana) Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See http://www.archive.org/details/feminismsexextin00kenerich FEMINISM AND SEX-EXTINCTION * * * * * OLIVE SCHREINER'S GREAT BOOK WOMAN & LABOUR _Large Crown 8vo. Cloth._ 8s. 6d. net "The feelings which are behind the various women's movements could not find clearer or more eloquent expression than they do in this remarkable book." _The Daily Mail._ "At last there has come the book which is destined to be the prophecy and the gospel of the whole awakening." _The Nation._ T. FISHER UNWIN, LTD., LONDON. * * * * * FEMINISM AND SEX-EXTINCTION by ARABELLA KENEALY L.R.C.P. (DUBLIN) "_A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit._" "_Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them._" London T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd. 1 Adelphi Terrace First published in 1920 All rights reserved FOREWORD Feminism, the extremist--and of late years the predominant cult of the Woman's Movement, is Masculinism. It makes for such training and development in woman, of male characteristics, as shall equip her to compete with the male in every department of life; academic, athletic, professional, political, industrial. And it neither recognises nor admits in her natural aptitudes differing from those of men, and fitting her, accordingly, for different functions in these. It rejects all concessions to her womanhood; even to her mother-function. It repudiates all privileges for her. Boldly it demands a fair field only and no favour; equal rights, political and social, identical education and training, identical economic opportunities and avocations, an identical morale, personal and public. In _Woman and Labour_, Miss Olive Schreiner sums in a line the Feminist objective: "_We take all labour for our province._" And this is the text of the Feminist creed; the elimination of sex-differences and the abolition of sex-distinctions in every department of life and activity. Feminists anticipate--the militant faction with zest--fierce economic encounters between the sexes now that, War ended, our men, having fought their own and woman's battle in the trenches, are returning to reclaim their places in the world of work. Secure in that possession which is "nine-tenths of the law," and armed with their new powers of enfranchisement, it is further anticipated that the usurpers will be able triumphantly to stem the masculine reflux, and to retain, on all hands, their new industrial footing.