DELEGATE. You think not. Listen. I've just come down from Paris. Who gave me my railway ticket? A woman. Who did I find behind the counter at the Post Office? A woman. Who was at the end of the telephone wire? A woman. I had to get some money; it was a woman who gave it to me at the bank. I don't even speak of the women doctors and lawyers. And in industry, like everywhere else, women want to supplant us. There are women now even in the metal-working shops. Everyone has the right to defend himself against competition. The workmen are going to defend themselves. THERESE. Without troubling about the consequences. To take away a woman's right to work is to condemn her to starvation or prostitution. You're not competitors, you're enemies. DELEGATE. You're mistaken. We're so little the enemies of the women that in asking you to do away with your Union we're speaking in your own interest. THERESE. Bah! DELEGATE. We don't want women to take lower wages than ours. THERESE. I know the phrase. "Equal wages for equal work." DELEGATE. That's absolutely just. THERESE. The masters won't give those equal wages. DELEGATE. The women have a means of forcing them to; they can strike. THERESE. We don't wish to employ those means. DELEGATE. I beg your pardon, the women would consent at once. It's you that prevent them, through the Union that you've started. Isn't that so? THERESE. That is so. But you know why. DELEGATE. No, I do not know why. THERESE. Then I will tell you why. It is because the phrase only seems to be just and generous. You know very well that here, at any rate, the owner would not employ any more women if he had to pay them the same wages he pays the men. And if they struck, he'd replace them by men. Your apparent solicitude is only hypocrisy. In reality you want to get rid of the women. DELEGATE. Well, I admit that. The women are not competitors; they're enemies. In every dispute they'll take the side of the masters. THERESE. How d'you know that? DELEGATE. They've always done it, because women take orders by instinct. They're humble, and docile, and easily frightened. THERESE. Why don't you say inferiors, at once? DELEGATE. Well, yes; inferiors, the majority of them. THERESE. If they're inferiors, it's only right that they should take lower wages. DELEGATE. Oh, I didn't mean to say-- THERESE [_interrupting him_] But it's not true--they are _not_ your inferiors. If they believe they are, it's because of the wrongs and humiliations you've imposed on them for centuries. You men stick together. Why are we not to do the same? If you start trade unions, why may not we? As a matter of fact, as regards work, we're your equals. We need our wages; and to get hold of the jobs that we're able to do we offer our work at a cheaper rate than you do. That is competition; you must protect yourselves from it. If you want no more competition, keep your women at home and support them.