THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN WOMAN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2756, 9 January 1907, Page 65

THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN WOMAN.

THE ADVANCE OF WOMEN- \ RETROSPECT. I. All that the evolution of the modem ■woman implies cannot be realised until the position and surroundings of her piedeces6ors — the old-fashioned woman and the out-of-dat© woman — are considered, however briefly. The progress of women has been such a varying and erratic one : the lines along which they have from time to time emerged from their conventional position of subservience to men have not always been marked by either success ov distinction. "If it be true to say that Kmeu at their best aud worst »fe as

[ heaven and hell, it is truer still to say that the extremes of women's fate have touched heaven and hell." Women have been — still are in more parts of the world than we care to remember — drudges ana beasts of burden, ministering with patient physical toil to the material needs of indolent, masterful men and helpless children. They have been shut up and sequestered, their beauty and sensuous charm caTed for, developed, and worshipped, while their mental and spiritual qualities were stunted and! dwarfed. They have exercised, lawfully or unlawfully, hy means legitimate or the reverse, secretly or openly, such supreme power over men as has swayed the destinies of nations. They have been idealised and exalted to a point scarce lower than the angels^ — more, to the very heights of heaven. They have been Tuthlessly and mercilessly forced into the most complete degradation of body and soul that the world can conceive. They have been praised beyond their merits, abused beyond their deserts, worshipped as saints, and ridiculed as fools, — and through it all, while exceptional women have risen or fallen to the highest and lowest conception of their critics, the average woman, the uncounted millions, the unending procession of sweeti hearts, wives, and mothers, have remained, as they will always remain, what Godi created them to be, — A Helpmate for Man. —

We are apt to consider that in our time alone have women asserted their "rights," and forced their way to the grave responsibilities of public life, or shared with men the duties and self-denials of citizens. We read, however, of women even before the Christian era holding the position of magistrates, anl presiding at games under the Roman Empire ; ana it is on record that among the Jews of Smyrna a woman was appointed to a prominent position, which enabled her to preside over meetings somewhat like our parochial meetings. The early Christian Church in Macedonia also permitted women to take a prominent place in her organisation, and it would appear that already there were members of our sex whom in these times we should class as "progressive," since they were more or less independent of their husbands. One inscription on a tomb of the period has been deciphered as having been erected by the wife fo£ her dear husband and herself out of their joint earnings.

The girls and maidens of ancient Rome were, we know, educated in the came way as their brothers ; the same learned slaves were the preceptors of the girls and boys of noble families, and girls, studying the same great classical writers as their brothers, acquired a taste for elegant literature which coloured their maturer years. The plebeian families sent their boys and girls to the same schools, custom rather than law conceding to girls such freedom and privilege. Finally, even the marriage law became equal— a step certainly not anticipated by Cato, who had in his time rejoiced that a woman who was unfaithful to her husband might be put to death by liim summarily ; although, if the positions were reversed, the wife was powerless to avenge her wrongs.

The progress of women, however, at this period was accompanied by a most discouraging laxity of morals and freedom of life, for the pagan faiths of the time, distinguished alike by mystery and licentiousness, admitted and encouraged the spiritual deterioration of women by admitting them as priestesses. This was probably the reason that presently within the Christian Church the power and position of women was limited to the cloister. Here they rivalled men in saintliness ; but in the outer world tank into their original position of the mere house and home keeper, dependant on their lords.

The age of chivalry, while it gave to women a great deal of theoretical exaltation, was more a dream, a fantasy, a vague ideal only then shaping itselt for future truth and reality than we care to admit — for the phrase "the Age of Chivalry" is one of those charming conceits, of speech — suggestive of such delightful possibilities — that it is no wonder we cling to it. Chivalry was a seductive idea, and, as a forerunner, had its uses, but was itself too fictitious a thing to last. Under tho graceful cloak of courtesy, romance, and gallantry it concealed a lack of morals which proved its destruction. The highflown romanticism of the upper classes, the knightly devotion which turned the attitude of men to women into an attitude of unreal worship and adoration, expressed in joust and tournament, and knightly quest and adventure, penetrated no lower into the Mcial scale, but lemained a kind of drawing-room play which the rustics looked on at, without its in any way affecting the miserable immorality of their own lives.

The Middle Ages were not marked by any great change or advancement in the position of women. Here and there a great saint, like St. Catherine of Sknna, cast the radiance of her lovely life upon the darkness ; or the inspired figure of the young Joan of Arc flashing upon the amazed world showed what women were capable of, just as Boadic^a in the pa6t and Pocahontas in the future were to maik the rlood-tide of exceptional brilliance in other fields. The great majority of women, however, in the Middle Ages remained an inconspicuous social multitude, their influence unrecognised; yet since home- was 'their one and only sphere of action we may be sure that the best among them weie, m all classes of life, a powerful and much-w lelded factor m social development.

It is truly when any cause is at He lowest ebb of contempt, or its dieaiiest level of indifference in public esteem, that nobility of life in its exponents tells most strongly, and what help and influence, and cheer, the livc6 of the noblest women of the Middle Ages exercised upon then time. we may only dimly guess*. It has been pointed out befoie by women vrnters and speakers that the learned women of the Renaissance of Italy held positiuiw which might well content the mt>it

intellectual and ambitious women of our own day. Women were teaching mathematics and philosophy at Bologna and other learned centres, and were treated with equality and respect by their masculine contemporaries at a period when an Englishwomen aspiring to such a position would promptly have paid the price of her presumption at the red fire of the witches' stake. Coming to the progress of women nearer our own times, we find that it is strongest and steadiest. We have seen how at all times, in all countries, and under all circumstances women of unusual qualities have influenced the destinies of nations— whether by their beauty, as Helen of Troy or Cleopatro, or their power of mind and force of character, as Catherine of Russia and Elizabeth of England. Moreover, apart from these individuals, exceptional in position as in character, there have been fiom time to time, in various parts of the world, little groups of iromen who have emerged from the ruck and made their influence felt, for good or ill, upon their time. The progress of women, however, in the ninetenth century differs from all former steps in several particulars. It has been diffused through all sections of the community — the advance has been all along the line, and has been continuous. This is one difference. The other is that, j unlike those former periods of women's ! power and ascendency which were marked by increased laxity of morals and the obscuring of spirituality behind a veil of sensuous freedom, the New Progress of Woman has been marked by an undoubted rise in the standard of morality. If on the one hand we find much cause to fear the loosening of home ties and the development of a feeling of unrest and impatience of restraint which renders the position of parents and children subject to new and trying conditionSj we may for comfort look at the other side of the picture. Never has there been a time M'hen the importance of the home as the nursery of the nation has been more recognised. Never has there been a time when social workers and writers have been more alive to the benefits of home training, more desirous of pointing out the farreaching nobility and power of the mother's influence. No better practical proof of this can be adduced than the existence of such an organisation as "the Mothers' Union," a society which has a membership of something like 200,000, and links together mothers of every class in the bonds of a religious society which enjoins a thorough study and conscientious practice of the highest and best training and education of children. At this point -I shall close the retrospect of our progress, leaving the details of the advance accomplished since the first important step which admitted women, to social Government was taken in 1895 to appear in due course during the progress of this little series of sketches.