Taboo and genetics : $b A study of the biological, sociological and psychological foundation of the familyKnight, Melvin M. (Melvin Moses)
Science
Taboo and genetics : $b A study of the biological, sociological and psychological foundation of the family
Knight, Melvin M. (Melvin Moses)
Sex (Biology); Sex (Psychology); Taboo; Women
The sixth dysgenic effect of the control by taboos is the rebellion of
economically independent women who refuse motherhood under the only
conditions society leaves open to them. The statistics in existence,
though open to criticism, indicate that the most highly trained women in
America are not perpetuating themselves.[3] Of the situation in England,
Bertrand Russell said in 1917: "If an average sample were taken out of
the population of England, and their parents were examined, it would be
found that prudence, energy, intellect and enlightenment were less
common among the parents than in the population in general; while
shiftlessness, feeble-mindedness, stupidity and superstition were more
common than in the population in general ... Mutual liberty is making
the old form of marriage impossible while a new form is not yet
developed."[4]
It must be admitted that to-day marriage and motherhood are subject to
economic penalties. Perhaps one of the best explanations of the strength
of the present struggle for economic independence among women is the
fact that a commercial world interested in exchange values had refused
to properly evaluate their social contribution. A new industrial system
had taken away one by one their "natural" occupations. In the modern
man's absorption in the life of a great industrial expansion, home life
has been less insistent in its claims. His slackening of interest and
attention, together with the discovery of her usefulness in industry,
may have given the woman of initiative her opportunity to slip away from
her ancient sphere into a world where her usefulness in other fields
than that of sex has made her a different creature from the model woman
of yesterday. These trained and educated women have hesitated to face
the renunciations involved in a return to the home. The result has been
one more factor in the lessening of eugenic motherhood, since it is
necessarily the less strong who lose footing and fall back on marriage
for support. These women wage-earners who live away from the traditions
of what a woman ought to be will have a great deal of influence in the
changed relations of the sexes. The answer to the question of their
relation to the family and to a saner parenthood is of vital importance
to society.
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER IV
1. Breckinridge, Sophonisba P. Social Control of Child Welfare.
Publications of the American Sociological Society. Vol. XII, p. 23 f.
2. Davies, G.R. Social Environment. 149 pp. A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago,
1917.
3. Popenoe, Paul. Eugenics and College Education. School and Society,
pp. 438-441. Vol. VI. No. 146.
4. Russell, Bertrand. Why Men Fight. 272 pp. The Century Co., N.Y.,
1917.
PART III
THE SEX PROBLEM IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY
BY
PHYLLIS BLANCHARD, PH.D.
CHAPTER I
SEX IN TERMS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY
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