half has come to a consciousness of its own rights, and likewise begins to take an active part. However, its struggles are not within its own ranks as are those of the masculine half, but against this latter, which opposes it as a hostile force. It is a separation of the two halves of humanity that belong together. Six hundred millions of women stand opposed to six hundred millions of men to claim only through a small number of pioneers, as yet, recognition as human beings. As human beings, I say, for only he is of value as a human being who is his own master and law-giver. To the extent to which I deny rights to a man, which I myself possess and exercise, to that extent do I degrade him as man below myself. To deny him all rights would be to degrade him completely to the level of the brute. What the feminine half of humanity has hitherto possessed of so-called rights does not deserve the name, because women did not themselves determine them, nor were they able to maintain them. They were only a gift of mercy, and arbitrary power, presented in the interests of the giver himself.
‘What women want now is to change this gift of grace not only into their own achievement, but to extend this achievement so far as to annihilate every difference that exists between their rights and the rights of men. They demand that since there has hitherto existed only a male right, there should now at last be established a human right which excludes no one, and no longer metes out uneven measure
