Woman’s Dual Life

Ladies' Mirror, Volume V, Issue 6, 1 December 1926, Page 74

Woman’s Dual Life

by Dr. LEONARD WILLIAMS

A Pleasant Holiday Occupation °g Strawberry Picking

gven those who were against the franchise never grudged the victory to modern women in her fight for personal and economic independence. But neither in the fighting period nor in the hour of triumph did she, or anyone else, realise that she might have to pay a heavy price for her success. This unwelcome fact is only just beginning to emerge: and inasmuch as the story is mainly a physiological one, I make no apology for dealing with the matter from that point of view. There are certain glands in the body known as the endocrine glands, each of which elaborates an essence which it delivers straight into the blood stream. These glands are small, but their essences, or “harmones” as they are called, arc very potent. Chief among these glands are the thyroid, the suprarenal, the pituitary and the gonads or sex glands. These do not exhaust the number —as examples they may serve. Now, it depends in a very large measure upon the exact proportion in which these essences or hormones are admixed in the blood of an individual, what the physical and mental make-up of that indidual will ultimately turn out to be. Strange, increditable almost, as it may seem, it depends upon this admixture whether you are tall or short, dark or fair, clever or stupid, energetic or lethargic, male or female.

In the matter with which we arc at present concerned, we need inquire into the influence of one gland only —the suprarenal. There, are in reality two suprarenals in every normal individual, just as there are two eyes and two lungs and two kidneys, but for convenience we speak of it as a single gland, which in action it is. The suprarenal, or adrenal as it is also called, consists of two parts, an outer part and an inner, the respective functions of which differ very widely from one another, the outer part, or rind, or cortex, is composed of material which differs very considerably from the ma-

If you frighten a stag it will run away, but if you frighten a bear it will immediately attack you. The attitude, whether of fight or flight, which any animal will adopt in an emergency depends entirely upon the relative size of cortex and manulla in its suprarenal capsule. If the cortex is the predominant partner, the surprised or frightened animal will attack: if the medulla is in the ascendant, the animal will run away. It is exactly the saute thing with hit matt beings ; the surprised or frightened man, if he is really manly, turns to fight, his instinct is to hit out; the instinct of the woman is to scream for help and run away. Now the relative sizes of these two elements, cortex and medulla, in the suprarenal capsule of any individual is influenced largely by environment. That is to say. if a man lives so completely sheltered a life and his innate combative element, his predominant suprarenal cortex, is never employed, it atrophies from disuse and the medulla gradually gains the ascend?.".', fv"ilarly, a youth with a cortex which was originally but mediocre, if placed in circumstances where he is obliged to fight in order to defend bis own interests and, say, those of his widowed mother, his cortex increases in size and he himself gains in pugnacity and effectiveness. If, however, he does not react in this way, if there is no increase of adrenal cortex, there ensues what is known as a “failure of adaptation.

terial which constitutes the inner portion, or core, or medulla. The outer portion, or cortex, is the male portion, and the inner portion, or medulla, is the female portion. These words, male and female, are here used in a very extended sense, meaning that the outer portion or cortex supplies the combative element, whereas the medulla supplies the timid, yielding clement. The suprarenal gland as a whole —that is, when it includes both portions. cortex and medulla—is called the gland of fight and flight. If you frighten people, some will run away, others will turn and rend you.

and failure of adaptation is liable to be one of the major tragedies of modern life. In extreme cases it leads to insanity, homicide and suicide. In minor degrees it spells lifelong misery of a peculiarly pathetic type. Let us now apply these general principles to the case of the modern woman who has conquered her place in the sun of personal and economic •independence. In the growing period she has learned to play games which develop what may he called the combative muscles. This brings about a stimulation of the suprarenal cortex, a stimulation which is intensified by '.he mental element of ordered and organised strife which is inseparable from all contests, however friendly. She that passes from adolescence into maturity with the ingredient of fight well developed and goes into training for her career. During her apprenticeship this ingredient is thoroughly well exercised by the atmosphere of emulation, implicit in all educational systems, and she goes into the world self-possessed and self-confident, eminently fitted and well equipped to keep her own end up. She is now a responsible member of the community and we may suppose her to be happy in her work,

with sufficient leisure and adequate pay. If she continues on these lines all, in a sense, may be well; but if the urge of the eternal feminine should well up from within and she should fall to the atavistic lure of domesticity and maternity, there may arise serious trouble for herand for others. The large suprarenal cortex with which she has all unwittingly furnished herself, which has conferred competence and assurance upon her. is there in full efflorescence. She cannot now divest herself of its dominating influence, and unfortunately it will certainly prevent her from sacrificing her hardly-won freedom and independence at the altar of wifely submission and domestic drudgery. In order to marry, she has resigned from her employment, and for a year or so, at any rate she is idle There is nothing to do. Everything is new and there is not even anything to mend. She has no companionship save that of a tired, often anxious and perhaps irritable man, whom she does not see till nightfall. Then follows the inevitable “failure of adaptation,” and the trouble begins. She may try to enter into the spirit of her new environment; but like the artist in a dry-as-dust solicitor’s office, her dominantly cortical make-up is too

strong for her. The daily round, the common task become a very treadmill to her wearied senses. She longs to be back at work, to be doing something worth the doing. Even the advent of a child, though it helps in some cases, helps in a decreasing number. The moral is : Do not overdevelop the male element which lurks in every female. Beware of an environment which stipulates the suprarenal cortex in girls, for thereby you risk, nay, you actually invite, that damnable and devastating thing, a “failure of adaptation.”