The Future of the Women's MovementSwanwick, Helena M. (Helena Maria)
General
The Future of the Women's Movement
Swanwick, Helena M. (Helena Maria)
Women -- Social and moral questions; Women's rights
strung the hearts of a score of men round their necks as trophies. One
might make a very good case to show that, in relation to men, there are
really three types of women: (1) those who attract men, (2) those by whom
men say they are attracted, (3) those by whom men ought (for the greatest
happiness of the greatest number) to be attracted.
Ask the average man what he means by a “womanly” woman—take Mr. Austen
Chamberlain: “Their qualities which we most admire are their lofty
devotion to ideals, _their dependence upon others_, upon husband, or
brother, or the hero of their imaginations, their _willingness to yield
their opinions_, their almost _passionate desire for self-sacrifice_,
often, it must be admitted, on behalf of objects very little worthy of
their great devotion” (12th July 1910, Debate on the Second Reading of
the Conciliation Bill). He proceeded to declare that these were not
“_political_ virtues,” and added, “God forbid that they should abandon
their qualities, which are our pride and theirs!” It seems clear that if
women generally are willing to yield their opinions to unworthy persons,
it is safer not to give this disastrous tendency much practical scope,
but what is really illuminating is Mr. Chamberlain’s naïve confession
that he _likes_ women to be this sort of fools. These are the qualities
that are agreeable to himself, provided he can prevent women from
exercising their dangerous preference for unworthy objects. One wonders
if it has never occurred to Mr. Chamberlain that one reason why women
crave direct representation is that they recognise that men are often
devoted to women who are “very little worthy,” and that when men tell
them they “consult women,” and we inquire “what women?” we discover
that they are not those whom women themselves would consult or trust or
follow. There is this foundation at least for the frequent statement that
women “do not wish to be ruled by women.” They do not wish to be ruled by
women who have been selected by men, because they know from experience
that a man’s woman and a woman’s woman are not the same.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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