If we are to stand by monogamy it behoves us to examine very carefully
certain of its present conditions which militate against the full
realization of its value for the individual and for the race. The
disproportion of the sexes we have already discussed, and it may here be
assumed that that grave obstacle to the success of monogamy is removed.
There remains the fact, probably on the whole a quite new fact of our
day, that under modern conditions a large proportion of women, whose
quality we must consider, are declining monogamy as at present
constituted.
Let it be granted that a certain number of these women are cranks,
aberrant in various directions, unfitted for any kind of marriage,
undesirable from the eugenic standpoint, and perhaps less often
declining to be married than failing of the opportunity. There remains
the fact that a large and probably increasing number of women are
nowadays being educated up to such a standard of ideals that, even
though their decision involves the sacrifice of motherhood, they cannot
consent to marriage under present conditions. It is not that they are
without opportunity, for many of them during ten or fifteen years of
their lives may refuse one proposal after another, and spend the
intervals in avoiding the onset of such attentions. It is not
necessarily that the men who propose are of an inferior type. Such women
may refuse many men who come well up to or far surpass the modern male
standard.
Pages:
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297