=Local Discrepancies in Numbers of Men and of Women.=--Fit men and
women are not always together in the same place. To have more men in a
given locality than can possibly have wives or more women than can
possibly marry under the monogamic system is to derange its workings.
Is it conceivable that we shall always be so stupid and clumsy in
economic adjustment that such conditions shall continue, now that we
are able to be more easily mobile and flexible every decade? The mere
mechanical maladjustment caused by serious discrepancies in numbers of
the two sexes; in cities and in older countries more women, in
manufacture and pioneer agriculture more men; certainly creates
serious conditions. Social engineering is needed for remedy. We may
not, as so long ago was done in Virginia, transport hundreds of
"attractive damsels" from crowded towns, where women most do
congregate, to a new country, to be eagerly accepted wives on landing
from the ships. We are told, however, that many girls are being
assisted to emigrate from England to places where their service is
needed and where there are so many surplus men that they do marry in
short order. We shall find that nature and economic adjustments will
unite to more and more even up the two sides of life. It is a
sinister condition of modern life that forbids early marriage to so
many men and all chance of suitable marriage to so many women who
really desire that relationship with all their hearts. We must go
about its remedy with open eyes, and from frankly accepted reasons,
for the sake of better family conditions.
=The Increasing Tendency of Women Toward Celibate Life.=--There is,
however, another condition, many-sided and complex, often operating
upon the persons most involved unconsciously and seldom treated with
clarity or frankness, which works against the family as an
institution. This condition is the increasing tendency of many of the
ablest women to marry very late or to refuse to marry at all. These
are not the women who feel defrauded that they are not mothers in
their own person, still less that life has cheated them in not
furnishing a husband. They are usually those who in youth began some
specialized form of vocational service which holds their interest and
leads toward pecuniary profit and social recognition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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