How to Observe: Morals and MannersMartineau, Harriet
Science
How to Observe: Morals and Manners
Martineau, Harriet
Manners and customs; Observation (Psychology); Social psychology -- Methodology
The other way in which domestic morals are affected by the scope which
is allowed to the powers of women, is through the views of marriage
which are induced. Marriage is debased by being considered the one
worldly object in life,--that on which maintenance, consequence, and
power depend. Where the husband marries for connexion, fortune, or an
heir to his estate, and the wife for an establishment, for consequence,
or influence, there is no foundation for high domestic morals and
lasting peace; and in a country where marriage is made the single aim of
all women, there is no security against the influence of some of these
motives even in the simplest and purest cases of attachment. The
sordidness is infused from the earliest years; the taint is in the mind
before the attachment begins, before the objects meet; and the evil
effects upon the marriage state are incalculable.
All this--the sentiment of society with regard to Woman and to Marriage,
the social condition of Woman, and the consequent tendency and aim of
her education,--the traveller must carefully observe. Each civilized
society claims for itself the superiority in its treatment of woman. In
one, she is indulged with religious shows, and with masquerades, or
Punch, as an occasional variety. In another, she is left in honourable
and undisputed possession of the housekeeping department. In a third,
she is allowed to meddle, behind the scenes, with the business which is
confided to her husband's management. In a fourth, she is satisfied in
being the cherished domestic companion, unaware of the injury of being
doomed to the narrowness of mind which is the portion of those who are
always confined to the domestic circle. In a fifth, she is flattered at
being guarded and indulged as a being requiring incessant fostering, and
too feeble to take care of herself. In a sixth society, there may be
found expanding means of independent occupation, of responsible
employment for women; and here, other circumstances being equal, is the
best promise of domestic fidelity and enjoyment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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