Women's Rights.

Observer, Volume xi, Issue 667, 10 October 1891, Page 12

Women's Rights.

' A Respected Wife and Mother ' writes : — There has of late been much said and written upon the women's suffrage question. I think some of the writers have been most ungenerous and unjust in their opinions, and show very little knowledge of the true character of women generally. That there are weak and foolish women I freely admit, and there will be as long as society is at such a low ebb ; but are there not also weak, foolish, and cowardly men, even amongst the most learned, as is only too often shown by otir daily papers? One writer says a woman is wanting in courage — that she could not lead an army to battle. Neither can every man do so ; yet history tells us of a woman (Joan d'Arc) who, through the greatest of danger, successfully led an army of ten thousand soldiers right under the very nose of the enemy, for which bravery and courage she was shortly afterwards burned alive, by men. Neither are there wanting records of heroic courage and bravery of women on battle-fields, in shipwrecks, in hospitals, and in the patient, domestic home life — noble women, who would look with pity upon the author of such a letter as appeared in your issue of the 12th inst., who complained of soon being advised to chop wood and crack stones, and who thinks he had better hide his diminished head, which I would advise him to do till his ideas become more collected and liberal, and he learns to understand that a woman can appreciate the rights of suffrage without any desire for Parliamentary honours or in any way neglecting her domestic duty, either as wife or mother. Wa3 it not a woman — Mrs Beecher Stowe— a wife and mother, hampered by narrow means, and constantly occupied with the many duties of domestic life, that first laid the train which brought about the great emancipation and the abolition of slavery for ever in the United States ? Did her husband sneer at her for making herself known and felt in the cause of right ? On the contrary, he proved himself worthy of his manhood by helping and honouring her, as did also her children, in whose memories her name will ever be cherished with love and reverence, long, long after she has passed to higher worlds and work. And thus it should ever be. Why should not a woman be free to use her own judgment on things, and, being free, to develop in every possible way the talents so generously bestowed upon her by an impartial Creator, for the furtherance of her own independence and the right and betterment of the children which she brings into the world ? Now, is it to be expected that a poor, uneducated, timid, brow-beaten mother can possibly give birth to bold, healthy, intellectual and morally inborn children? The idea is antagonistic to Nature's divine laws, and degrading to civilisation. Parents, do your duty by your children. Educate them to a higher ideal of life, of their duty to God and society generally, so that through them maj be gained some of the good that you, through lack of privileges, were debarred from participating in. It is through the young of this generation we bope in the future to stamp out dudes, larrikins, and all such brainless social pests. That member of the Education Board who seems so much exercised in hia mind at the idea of being called upon to wheel the perambulator is perhaps, afraid he will be asked to wash clothes at 3d per dozen.