little thought to their daughters' careers; girls are less well educated than their brothers; they are paid less; they are shut out from trades and professions. But after youth single women have much personal independence. Married women are often, but by no means always, free from the necessity of self-support, and rich married women, for their misfortune, need do no work. But their minds and lives are not free. They are not expected to act or think independently of their husbands. Every one knows the obituary notice of a good political wife. "She entered sympathetically into every phase of her husband's work, and shared all his political aspirations. Her ready tact and brilliant social gifts were of immense service to his career." What more could be expected? But we do not describe a good husband's career in the same way.
In the working class the endless daily labour of a married woman is unrelieved even by the power of escaping into her husband's mental world. To spare an evening for a meeting often means getting up at four in the morning to wash or bake, and the idea only slowly gains ground that she has a right to dispose of any of her time or thoughts outside home. Even a co-operator has said, "My wife? What does she want with meetings? Let her stay at home and wash my moleskin trousers!" The vote will not give married women independence of mind, nor time to themselves, nor the power of self-development. But it will be something of an acknowledgment that they have a right to try for these things.
And as for fitness, it is undeniable that among
