FEMINISM IN FRANCE

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15558, 7 March 1911, Page 9

FEMINISM IN FRANCE

[Bv LUCIE CARO, in “The Lady’s Realm.”) The “ Woman Question” in England, Fomin ism e in France, are one and tho same tiling: both claim for women equality of rights, equality of education, equality of opportunities; but, whilst in England the movement is marked with all the expression of a struggle, in France it appears subdueef, silent, almost latent. This simply arises from the fact that conditions are different in the two countries.

Racial characteristics and past history are different, and one great factor which intensifies the struggle in England—the numeric potentiality of women—does not exist in France; there, the number of men and women is fairly equal, both men and women, depend upon each other’s good-will, and their lives are so closely interwoven that it is almost impossible to divide their interests.

Still, twenty years ago Feminisme had to pass through its acute phase, when women attempted to graduate in tho different professions regarded, up till then, as man’s own realm.

There was then a decided oseillation in public opinion: “Should they be allowed to graduate or not?” And after considering the issues the answer was “ Why not?”

The reasons which led to this answer were

1. There was no clause in the statutes of any of these professions ostracising women from their rank.

2. Having no surplus of women to contend with, tho men knew quite weli that marriage would always remain the most sought-for of all Die professions, consequently they felt that it would be only fair that all unmarried women, or those who had become widowed, should have the chance to “ face life” with the weapons best suited to their aptitudes, whatever they might he. So women were allowed to graduate; they became doctors, barristers, architects ; not only did they taka their degrees, but they proved themselves worthy of them, and slowly each profession acknowledged their worthiness and offered them the prerogatives and privileges attached to these professions. The doctors became internes; the barrister was entitled, should the occasion arise, to step into the judge’s place. But the main reason 'of the “ why not” of the acquiescence of men rcst-.d upon the fact that women »n coming forward took a step which was expected of them.

The Oodo Napoleon may have put them on tho same footing as infants and imbeciles, but Napoleon was an accident in the history of Franco, and he could not change the characteristics cf the race, nor could ho efface the imprint of past history ; mid whenever we think of Feminism© wo must bear m mind that as far bad: as we can trace woman has been a power in France. Clnu-lry in the Dark Ages called her the lead .tig spirit ; she was the one looked up to. Later the women shared the glory of the Renaissance—Marguerite do Navarre, Anne do Poitiers; they enhanced the light of thc'Roi Soloil himself. Mdllo do Scudery, Madame de Sevigne, Madame de Mr in tenon, reveal all the possibilities, all the latent power, of intelligence. From 1313 Die chatelaines voted ill all municipal affairs; in 1573 they not only voted, hut were elected to tho States-General—that first-born expression of republican spirit. Ail threugu the eighteenth century the prucl’femmes shared the co-operative administration of the arts and crafts of the country—whilst Madame la Duchess© du Maine, Madame la Marquise dn Clintelet, Madame d’Epinav fostered what was to lie tho highest and purest in the ideals of tho French Revolution. Mirabeau ' decided: “To man the activities of the world, to woman the gontlor rearing of the race to be.” Consequently tho liberties of women were not taken into account in framing the now Laws of the Nation. But the women did not care. Even were their rights not proclaimed, they would take, their natural rights— the right- to think, to act. to live, and to die by the side of tin- men. And they used these rights lavishly, loyally: Charlotte Cords.y tries to stay Die oh«:*vy'VTntnAw>: t <zv:K‘V.rr‘ rw *t=^~

Terror; Madame Roland, rising afaov* the miseries of the times, proclaims the glory of the days to come. Hand-in-hand tho men and women of tho French Revolution stood abroa6t, facing life and death in a line of perfect equality. Napoleon came and crushed with tho great Moloch, and tho women of Franca learned tho value of human life. It became very precious to them; and when Napoleon, after the wars, left France a manless country, every woman in the land wished for a child who would live and become strong and rich and independent. For this they worked and worked; every now-born boy was to have a pa.trim.cine, every girl her dot; to make one’s children stronger and richer and better than their parents became the unwritten law under which both men and women bowed low.

No work, no self-sacrifice, could be too great to achieve this ideal; and thus, in spite of fluctuating politios, the plodding, stolid ballast that we call the “classe hourgeoise” repopulated France, and filled the purse oi every homestead, so that when 1870 came, 5,000,000.000 franca indemnity could ho paid up, leaving enough to enable the people to rise again. It is that close, constant, intense collaboration of the nrench woman which made tho French man answer when asked to make room for her, “ Whv not?”

It does not mean that all things came easily, pleasantly; but it means that when the seed of women’s emancipation was thrown on the French soil it grew, because it came into an atmosphere ready for it. So there was no apparent, struggle. The women came and took their place, and what remains to be conquered will be conquered silently, quietly. Because Feminisme is not only a proclamation of tho rights of women; it is a vindication of what is best in women, against what is inferior and unworthy, against all the characteristics which have been fostered by centuries of subjection and which now have no raison d’etre. The word “ honour” for the woman of the future will cease to be only the synonym of sexual “ honesty” : it will become, as for man, the standard of loyalty and of truthfulness.

Woman will have a great moralising influenco when she has her say in public life, not because she is superior, but because she is less gross, more apt and ready to forget herself and to think o f others. The strong will help the weax because the women of the future, being free as a sex, will he linked in the bonds of solidarity to the other women ; their enlarged and cultivated in.teii*-< » will enable thorn to bo better juepes. They will appreciate more readily the power of intelligence, and a Hew n lesser part to tho power of money. But the main thing will be that the educated, cultured woman, having large, tn-ad notions of everything, will become m- :e and more the depositor (f “ geneial ideas,” which men through the hard competition and actual condition of life are hound to neglect so ar. tu throw all their energies in the “ specialisation of their own craft or science. ''