WOMAN
689
WOMAN
the family, the organized totality of the individual
families. Consequently the motherly influence must
also extend over these and must be kept within the
bounds corresponding to the division of labour be-
tween man and woman. In these forms of social hfe
also man must vigorously represent authority, while
woman, called to the dignity of the mother, must
supplement and aid the labour of the man by her
unwearied collaboration. This truth is stated in
homely fashion in the expressions "father of the
country", "mother of the country". Hence man,
as man, and woman, as woman, have to attain the
common highest end of moral perfection, which ex-
tends beyond time by the fulfilment here below of
social duties.
This social vocation, whether in marriage or outside of it, is therefore to be regarded by both as means to an end (cf. I Tim., ii, 15). If these two reciprocal spheres of activity are taken in the narrowest sense they exclude each other, as the actual task assigned by nature to woman cannot be performed by man, while the reverse is also true. At the same time there is the mi.xed domain of the earning of a livelihood in which both sexes work, although in so doing neither can deny his or her characteristic qualities. Here, however, nature forbids competition in the same field, as woman is more engro,ssed by her pecuhar natural duties than man is by his. We may justly speak of "dualism in woman's life". But, the per- petuation and development in civihzation of man- kind always come first as natural duties. Conse- quently, according to physical law woman should be spared all industrial burdens which impair her most important duty in life. It remains to be seen how the dictates of nature have been carried out in human history.
History. — Christ proved himself to be the central point in the history of mankind, and not least by the change his teaching effected in the position of woman. The testimony of history as to the position of w-oman in all pre-Christian and non-Christian peoples may be summed up as follows: No people has completely misjudged the natural position of woman, so that everywhere woman appears in greater or less subordi- nation to man. No people, however, has done full justice to the personal dignity of woman; on the con- trary, most peoples evidence an alarmingly low moral level by their degrading oppression of woman. Be- fore the Gospel came into the world, man had vir- tually brought about for woman the condition thus described by Mary Wollstonecraft in the introduction to her "Vindication of the Rights of Women": "In the government of the physical world it is ob.servable that the female in point of strength is, in general, inferior to the male. This is the law of Nature; and it does not appear to be suspended or abrogated in favor of woman. \ degree of physical sujjeriority cannot, therefore, be denied — and it is a noble pre- rogative! But not content with this natural pre- eminence, men endeavor to sink us still lower, merely to render us alluring objects for a moment; and women, intoxicated by the adoration which men, under the influence of their senses, pay them, do not seek to obtain a durable interest in their hearts, or to become the friends of the fellow-creatures who find amusement in their society."
Contran,' to the fundamental principle of historical research, the Darwinian theory of evolution has also been applied to the original position of the sexes. A primitive heta-rism without any permanent marital relation is claimed to be the basis of the later evolu- tion. The first stage of this development, however, is represented as "the right of the mother" or matri- archy, whereby not the man but the woman, it is claimed, represented, among the peoples, the legal head of the family.
However, the researcheB of Bachofen, Engels, Lub-
XV.— a
bock, Post, Lippert, Dargun, and others, who wished
to produce proof for this hypothesis by generalizing
individual phenomena, have been confuted even by
strong Darwinians: "No community has been found
where women alone could rule" (Starke, "Die primi-
tive Familie", Leipzig, 1888, 69). Like the "primi-
tive peoples" themselves, who have been especially
quoted as proofs of this theory, such conditions show
themselves to be degenerations. The authenticated
reports of the conditions among the civilized races
before Christ, as well as the assured results of investi-
gation among "primitive peoples", on the contrary
confirm the sentences quoted above. The farther
back pre-Christian civilization is traced, the purer
and more worthy of mankind are the marriage rela-
tions, and consequently the more advantageous the
position of woman appears. The position of the
sexes to each other among the degraded, so-called
savage, races is, in its essential nature, the same as in
civilized races. At the same time important although
non-essential differences are not excludcfi. which arise
from the differences in the national sjiirit which has
developed in accordance with geographical conditions.
Everywhere is to be found the social subordination of
woman, everywhere is seen the divi.sion of work be-
tween the sexes, whereby the care for the primitive
household falls to the woman. But contrary to the
natural order, the paternal pre-eminence of the man
has developed into unlimited tyranny, and the woman
is debased to a slave and drudge without rights who
gratifies the lusts of the man. Almost without excep-
tion polygamy has displaced monogamous marriage.
The proofs of this are given in the reliable work of
Wilhelm Schneider, "Die Naturvolker, Mi.ssver-
standnisse, Missdeutungcn and Misshandlungen"
(Paderborn, 188.5).
Among the civilized nations of antiquity the Egj'p- tians are distinguished by unusual respect for the female sex. Herodotus calls them (II, xxv) pecuhar among the nations in this respect. On numerous inscriptions may be read as the title of the wife the expression "Nebtper" (ruler of the House). The tradition whereby woman belongs in the home is re-echoed from the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians down through the ages, and among all peo])les. The same principle lies at the basis of the code of laws given by Hammurabi, which gives the social con- ditions in Babylon in the third millennium before Christ. The voluptuous cult, which spread from Babel-Assur and which through Phoenician influence poisoned the ancient world, had a particularly injuri- ous effect upon the position of woman. There was no question of the personal rights of woman apart from man either here or among the Persians who were otherwise different in race and customs, even though at times women such as Parysatis, the wife of Darius II, attained great influence over the government of the country. Up to the present time woman's posi- tion has remained the same in the ancient civiHzed countries of eastern Asia, as in India, China, and Japan, or it has become even more degraded. A. Zimmermann, who was well acquainted with condi- tions in India, stated in 1908: "One of the most ter- rible abuses is the systematical degradation of the female sex which begins even in early vouth" ("His- torisch-politische Blatter", CXLII," 371). In 1907 99.3 per cent of the women of India could not read or write. Hindu widows, especially, are exposed to contempt and ill-treatment. In China the position of woman, owing to the respect shown to mothers or widows, makes a better impression. But, at the same time, woman is branded as a second-rate human being from birth to death. The horrible custom of destroying new-born girls has conse- quently persisted up to the present time, as is proved by the reform decree issued in 1907 by the viceroy of that time, Juanschikai. According to this,
