The Psychology of Marriage (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. 1918. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI THE WIFE The nature of woman has hitherto been studied more seriously and assiduously by men than by women. Most of the scientific investigation of the feminine psychology and physiology is the labor of men; but the time has come when women will carry on the task probably with greater insight and candor, and without sex bias or sex antagonism. For eras man has attempted to inform woman concerning her sphere, her duties, and her place in the community. Woman has heeded, with more or less intentness, the preconceived and a priori views of her male companion in life's strenuous journey. To charm or placate man, she has endured oppressions, exactions, taboos, and all manner of proscriptions. She has acquiesced with the strangest inhibitions, laws, customs, and social observances, and practically permitted man to shape her whole thought, conduct, and destiny upon his arbitrary plan. It may be said that the poets have understood the soul of woman with a truer and finer insight than the philosophers and the ethical guides. But the allegiance of the poets to "the eternal feminine" has not been uniform and inviolable. The artist's misogyny has often tinged his revelations of the female soul, and some of the hardest and most unjust sayings about women have been uttered by the poetically-minded. A balanced view of the nature and status of woman is slowly emerging from the rubble of the ages. Everywhere in the West and to some marked extent in the East, women are asserting themselves, and demanding deliverance from the intellectual and social inequalities that have cramped their minds, and in many instances, deprived them of common human rights. If women have not known themselves throughout the arduous process of civilization, the deficiency cannot be regarded as...