Woman and Womanhood A Search for Principles   By: C. W. (Caleb Williams) Saleeby (1878-1940)

BY DR. C. W. SALEEBY

WOMAN AND WOMANHOOD HEALTH, STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS THE CYCLE OF LIFE EVOLUTION: THE MASTER KEY WORRY: THE DISEASE OF THE AGE THE CONQUEST OF CANCER: A PLAN OF CAMPAIGN PARENTHOOD AND RACE CULTURE

WOMAN AND WOMANHOOD

A SEARCH FOR PRINCIPLES

by C. W. SALEEBY M.D., F.R.S.E., Ch.B., F.Z.S.

Fellow of the Obstetrical Society of Edinburgh and formerly Resident Physician Edinburgh Maternity Hospital; Vice President Divorce Law Reform Union; Member of the Royal Institution and of Council of the Sociological Society.

MITCHELL KENNERLEY NEW YORK AND LONDON MCMXI

Copyright 1911 by Mitchell Kennerley

Press of J. J. Little & Ives Co. East Twenty fourth Street New York

CONTENTS

PAGE I. FIRST PRINCIPLES 1 II. THE LIFE OF THE WORLD TO COME 34 III. THE PURPOSE OF WOMANHOOD 52 IV. THE LAW OF CONSERVATION 64 V. THE DETERMINATION OF SEX 72 VI. MENDELISM AND WOMANHOOD 81 VII. BEFORE WOMANHOOD 92 VIII. THE PHYSICAL TRAINING OF GIRLS 99 IX. THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN 128 X. THE PRICE OF PRUDERY 132 XI. EDUCATION FOR MOTHERHOOD 151 XII. THE MATERNAL INSTINCT 163 XIII. CHOOSING THE FATHERS OF THE FUTURE 193 XIV. THE MARRIAGE AGE FOR GIRLS 197 XV. THE FIRST NECESSITY 219 XVI. ON CHOOSING A HUSBAND 234 XVII. THE CONDITIONS OF MARRIAGE 258 XVIII. THE CONDITIONS OF DIVORCE 291 XIX. THE RIGHTS OF MOTHERS 296 XX. WOMEN AND ECONOMICS 327 XXI. THE CHIEF ENEMY OF WOMEN 348 XXII. CONCLUSION 386

CHAPTER I

FIRST PRINCIPLES

We are often and rightly reminded that woman is half the human race. It is truer even than it appears. Not only is woman half of the present generation, but present woman is half of all the generations of men and women to come. The argument of this book, which will be regarded as reactionary by many women called "advanced" presumably as doctors say that a case of consumption is "advanced" involves nothing other than adequate recognition of the importance of woman in the most important of all matters. It is true that my primary concern has been to furnish, for the individual woman and for those in charge of girlhood, a guide of life based upon the known physiology of sex. But it is a poor guide of life which considers only the transient individual, and poorest of all in this very case.

If it were true that woman is merely the vessel and custodian of the future lives of men and women, entrusted to her ante natal care by their fathers, as many creeds have supposed, then indeed it would be a question of relatively small moment how the mothers of the future were chosen. Our ingenious devices for ensuring the supremacy of man lend colour to this idea. We name children after their fathers, and the fact that they are also to some extent of the maternal stock is obscured.