A Survey of the Woman Problem; From the German of Rosa Mayreder (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1913. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... MOTHERHOOD AND CULTURE It will always be a clumsy proceeding to apply the method of averages to an individual in order to trace out the lines of his development or to decide a priori the limitations of his nature. But having conceded that the majority-type of the female sex differs in nature from that of the male, one must set forth the consequences of this phenomenon. In doing so, generalisations drawn from the average are unavoidable; but be it premised that every generalisation is to be received with caution, because the scope of its application is only in breadth, not in depth. The more general an assertion is, the more general must be its application. For example: it may be said that woman is the child-bearing part of mankind; but when one proceeds to the formula, "the vocation of woman is to become a mother," one oversteps the bounds of the generalisation, in that a new idea--that of vocation--is introduced, from which individual constituents cannot be eliminated. With this reservation, then, we concede that the female majority-type is not the equal of the male either in intellect or in strength of will. As to the causes of this, opinions are strongly opposed. They are sought on the one hand in environment, in education, and in the consequences of a subjection which has lasted for thousands of years; on the other hand, in the predestined nature and calling of woman and the limitations appertaining to motherhood. These limitations are innate, according to this view; they are involved by the burden of motherhood; but according to the opposite theory man, not Nature, is responsible for making motherhood into a drag-chain interfering with the spiritual and intellectual development of the female sex. The influence of environment and education and of the age-lon...