Woman.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13608, 30 May 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

Woman.

HER FUTURE.

(By H. B. • Marriott Watson, in London " Daily Chronicle.")

According to a Hebrew leg-end woman was made out of man's rib, stolen wliile he slept. Science, oddly enough, gives us tir. antithesis of this myth, for it is demonstratable that the female existed before the male. ' In other words the male is a mere derivative, though, as is sometimes the ease with offspring, he has outgrown his parent. It is something chastening to our male minds to pause upon this idea, and reflect. It is something to • take in, to realise in all its' significance, that woman is older than man'/ We males of the world of organic life are mere mushrooms compared with the female, which is primarv and elemental.

" Eternally through the ages from . the female comes the male." The males, like the drones of the beehive, were accidental, an afterthought, a make shift, a mere experimental device called in to assist at :he achievement of great ends. When the hive has finished with the drones they tgo. And in the twilight of time, in the dawnof the world, there was no male—only female, the eternal Mother. EVOLUTION. The history of that- Mo: her is known to all who read and observe history. Matriarchy was the rule in savage life; even in the earliest savage human life. Physically and mentally the female excelled the male, "or at least equalled him. What physical inferiority io the male does the lioness or the tigress, or the female gcriila exhibit? It- is not until a later period of Evolution that the males became dominant, that * (hat secondary product, that- afterthought, the growing brat, elevated himself into a tyront over the Mother. Evolutionists understand the process through which the revohition came. It was due to the operation of sexual selection But man's rapid development wps to bring about an unexpected change in woman also. 'And'.' *o • his credit it must- be said that the initiation was his. Indeed, throughout- the ages, since woman passed into 'the condition of servitude 'each step of her gradual enfranchisement has been due to man. In the course of time man developed aesthetic appreciation which de-: manded satisfaction, and : .received it in a' gradual growth of a "fair sex.".~Ghivalry was set on its feet—rfeet, no doubt, of'clay. But >t had golden aspects and materially assisted in improving the status of woman. And to-day we are enjoying such an improved status as would have made our' ancestors stare—and swear. But it is not the end. *.

Women, you see, have broken out of that compound, that corral, in which the traditions of aeons kept them; and like so many newly escaped captives they are not quite ready for freedom, and many of them ore uncomfortable with it. They blink at the light. And, to say the truth, if they were to remain always of the same constitution and at.the same psychological pitch'that- they show now, 1 I for one would think it wiser that they should go back to their accustomed and not uncomfortable quarters in prison. But the point is—the: amazing point, which it is s'o hard to realise—that the development of -yyoman has only just begun, that the development arrested in ages long prior to the Stone Age, has only now ibeen resumed, and resumed through the interposition of the same force that arrested it of old —the younger, more vigorous, and swifter force of man. It is impossible now to stop her development, though it may be by ignorance, and by prejudice, and, most of all, by sentiment. The prisoners' eyes will get accustomed to. the ilght. As Macaulav says in ether words, the best remedy for the excesses of liberty is continued liberty. No; woman is "in" for development, psychological and physical, and (who knows V) even physiological also. There were Amazons once. THE DOMINANT SEX?

The anxious question necessarily arises for all of u? —Whither is she bound, and what is to b9 the term, of that development? ' What will the woman- of the future be like? It looks veiy inubh as if she would'be the Dominant;sex in. the future, thus reverting to her old position in the dim ages before man was a rational animal. Does this then threaten, or .promise, a new Matriarchy? There aire many among us who have taken fright at the idea, and have turned in our fright to reaction. But there is always the consolation ready to hand, that wotinen (which is to say our wives and daughters and sisters) do not. want the freedom which is being thrust upon them. Alas! it is impossible to resist, the overwhelming forces of_ evolution, as impossible as it is by searching to find out God. Man has been used in his turn, and he is now to be discarded? None can know, or even guess at- what the unveiled future has in store. One thing is certain, and that is the development of woman freed from the restraints of her ancient bondage. Just, now, as I have pointed out, it is her own fault that she progresses so slowly. When she realises this elie may advance by flying leaps. We men know her weaknesses and .her defects of nature, taints of blood, as we know also her virtues, her devotion,and her charm. We laugh lightly at her lack of humour, at her inability to see the sweetness of fairplay. Oh, it is of no use even for Suffragists, to attempt to disguise those terrible shortcomings. Woman is handicapped, and will be handicapped by them in public life for a long rime. But we may repeat Macatllay's aphorism, which I wish I could remember in his very words: The cure for the -excesses of liberty is liberty. Mr. Meredith, a profound sympathiser with woman, has said in large words, not cvnical, that the last thing to be civilised by man will be woman. It is true enoughbitter as it sounds. But the rider should be added—she will be civilised. Ere that hour strikes much will happen. We shall be called upon to deliver the destiny of a nation to -the emotional and illogical sex —in theory. In practice men will keep control of this destiny themselves. Suffrages for women would inevitably mean two votes for the family, a highly desirable state of affairs. And when the time comes for wives to vote according to their own judgement, and not according to their husbands'. I have no doubt by then the reasoned judgement will be at least as good as the husband's.

COMING PHENOMENA. But we are not yet in that time. And the vital fact stares at us, that women are, so to speak, in solution, and will be so for many generations. How long it will be before mankind begins to get an inkling of the goal of her development it is impossible to say. We may each of us, according to his ideas, hug to himself notions as to the general trend of that evolution. . I am certain, lor one, that it involves the breaking up of many idols and ideals. Think of woman as the cribbed, cabined and don fined result of incredible centuries of regression; and venture to suggest of what capacities of development she will not be possible when free ! I am horribly aware of the difficulties in the immediate pathway that I see stret- : ching from our doorstep. Woman is ' thoroughly irrational at times, and leans securely on the shoulder of traditional chivalry. She will demand to have her caks and eat it. She will rob' of both pockets. She will. be generous and not just, and be neither generous nor just, as she has occasion; and above all she will never be just save by accident of an emotion which turns out right. Grant her full liberty and, if she so desires, 'she can make havoc of our liberties and our lives. Every man knows as much. Look at the women at Moreton Hampstead, the other day, who calmly defied the parish council to remove them from the council rooms. Physically, man could have achieved the feat; but woman knew that he would not attempt to do so. She leaned on tlhe chivalry of centuries. And, of course, •she was a cheat, for she asked to have her cake and sat it too.

I am confident also that we should not like the manners and ways and the intersexual relations of our great-grandchild-cren. None of us is wholly without sentiment, and I, for one, shall'live and die in the enjoyment of certain ideals of woman hood. Not for me,, not for many of us, the new woman, with her different sexual tangents, and her new and eveir newer aspects. But I do not oppose; 1 await; or at least somewhere or other my bones, will whiten while my descendants await and watch the new phenomenon. Some of us may be glad that they live now, when evolution has held her hand; and some .of' us may be reluctant to look forward. But none of us must grudge the future .its own destiny; for it is ps certain as the sun's in the heaven that the era" of woman is at hand, and that new forces 1 and new relations will rule the earth.