The Business of Being a WomanTarbell, Ida M. (Ida Minerva)
General
The Business of Being a Woman
Tarbell, Ida M. (Ida Minerva)
Women -- Social and moral questions
One of the most disconcerting characteristics of advocates,
conservative and radical, is their conscienceless treatment of facts.
Rarely do they allow full value to that which qualifies or contradicts
their theories. The ardent and single-minded reformer is not
infrequently the worst sinner in this respect. To stir indignation
against conditions, he paints them without a background and with utter
disregard of proportion.
He wins, but he loses, by this method. He makes converts of those of
his own kind, those who like him have rare powers for indignation and
sacrifice, but little capacity or liking for the exact truth or for
self-restraint. He turns from him many who are as zealous as he to
change conditions, but who demand that they be painted as they are and
that justice be rendered both to those who have fought against them in
the past and to those who are in different ways doing so to-day.
The movement for a fuller life for American women has always suffered
from the disregard of some of its noblest followers, both for things
as they are and for things as they have been. The persistent
belittling for campaign purposes of the Business of Being a Woman I
have repeatedly referred to in this little series of essays; indeed,
it has been founded on the proposition that the Uneasy Woman of to-day
is to a large degree the result of the belittlement of her natural
task and that her chief need is to dignify, make scientific,
professionalize, that task.
I doubt if there is to-day a more disintegrating influence at
work--one more fatal to sound social development--than that which
belittles the home and the position of the woman in it. As a social
institution nothing so far devised by man approaches the home in its
opportunity, nor equals it in its successes.
The woman's position at its head is hard. The result of her pains and
struggles are rarely what she hopes, either for herself or for any one
connected with her, but this is true of all human achievement. There
is nothing done that does not mean self-denial, routine,
disillusionment, and half realization. Even the superman goes the same
road, coming out at the same halfway-up house! It is the meaning of
the effort, not the half result, that counts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account