They are conditions imposed in a
past age by the stronger sex upon the weaker, and no moral defence of
them is possible. It may be argued, and might long have been argued,
that a practical defence of them is possible, but that is undermined in
our own time when we find that under these conditions marriage is
declined by a large number of the best women. The practical argument is
now the other way. In the interests of elementary justice, of marriage,
of the individual and of the race, the conditions of marriage must be so
modified that they shall be equal for both sexes, and that the best
members of both sexes shall find them acceptable. This last is of course
the fundamental eugenic requirement.
The initial criticism of some will be, no doubt, that many men who now
marry will decline the bargain. But surely we need not care at all--if
the right kind of men accept it. As for the others, in the coming time,
when we take more care of our womanhood, and when they are deprived of
the economic weapon, they may go whither they will, their
non-representation in the future of the race being precisely what we
desire.
Women, then, are entitled to demand that the conditions of marriage be
so modified as, above all things, to allow them the possession of
themselves as the married man has possession of himself. The imposition
of motherhood upon a married woman in absolute despite of her health and
of the interests of the children is none the less an iniquity because it
has at present the approval of Church and State.
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