Motherhood and the Relationships of the SexesHartley, C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine)
Philosophy
Motherhood and the Relationships of the Sexes
Hartley, C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine)
Mothers; Sex; Women -- Social and moral questions
I need, however, say little in this chapter on the important and
difficult question of sexual education, as the whole of the last section
of my book deals with that subject. I shall there try to show that the
greater number of the evils connected with marriage and motherhood are
due to false ideals and wrong methods of training in early life. I am,
in particular, convinced of the mistakes we have been making in the
education of girls—mistakes which prevent them as young women from having
any clear aim to guide their lives, and act, as I believe, disastrously
on their whole nature as well as spoiling their happiness. This public
recommendation for a recognition of the sexual life and the problems
connected with it as being of vital importance in the training of the
young generation fills me with strong hope. But everything will depend
on how such instruction is going to be given. Unwisely undertaken, it
may easily lead to more harm than good. To be really efficacious it will
need a sweeping change in the home and a revolution in the school. Now is
the appointed time to act; if the opportunity be allowed to pass, it may
not come again. The force of tradition and the convention of silence has
been broken as it has not been broken before. We are all convinced that
the time to change has come and to do something; when so many are agreed
upon what ought to be done, the danger lies chiefly in the dispersion of
energy by the weariness brought on by endless discussions on the way to
give the education—a subject which unfortunately lends itself to much
talking and disagreement.
But to return to the Royal Commission Report. Recommendations (1) and
(2) cannot be carried out without special legislation. To obtain the
support of the House of Commons for measures which would necessarily
be opposed by some persons in every constituency, which have no
vote-catching value and have not been chewed to pulp by long-continued
party platform oratory, is a difficult task. The ordinary member of
Parliament feels afraid to have convictions which are unsupported by
powerful organisations; convictions which may cost him much opposition
at election times. Probably such a measure to safeguard marriage could
be more easily initiated by a vigorous and fearless member of the House
of Lords. The House of Commons at the present time, even apart from
the Great War and its urgency, is often busy for months with intricate
Government measures, which take up nearly all the time available.
Marriage laws cannot be dealt with in half an hour on a Friday evening.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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