5. Comments By Mrs Mabgaeet Bottome
The request to comment upon Mr. O'Rell's article came to me immediately upon my return from a trip to the Orient; and the women of the East in all their degradation stood before my eyes. I seemed again to see their covered faces. In some instances one can distinguish those of them who are married from those who are unmarried, for the former are all in black. It seemed to be very appropriate that these should be dressed in mourning. They were mere beasts of burden; of not as much worth as the donkeys their husbands rode, while they walked! The piercing cry of a Mohammedan mother, as she saw her baby carried to the burial, sounded still in my ears. Her husband and all the men could enter the mosque, but she must remain without! And I cannot rid myself of the impression that the position of the Western woman will in some way in the future affect the position of her Eastern sisters. The light that comes to us Western women may some day dispel their darkness.
If all that Mr. O'Rell says of the American woman is true, I do not wonder at her unrest. "Petted by her husband, the most devoted and hard-working of husbands in the world, she is literally covered with precious stones. She is the superior of her husband in education and almost in every respect. She is surrounded by the most numerous and delicate attentions, yet she is not satisfied." If she were satisfied, she would be fit only for a harem. The "not being satisfied," of which the writer complains in the Western woman, only proves to my mind that she has a soul. She cares for the less-favored women who are not adorned or covered with jewels. As I write, the face of one of the richest young women of this country comes up before me. We were driving over a part of her great estate and talking on this very subject. I was conservative and spoke of my fears. Her look more than her words told me she was taking in a wider view than I had yet seen. She said: "If such great responsibilities had not been laid on me, I might not feel as I do, but I must act on my deepest convictions." As I think of her face, how I rejoice that it is not with her as with the women of the East who are covered with jewels, who look out of windows so arranged that they can see the great world without being seen by it, or being permitted to influence it! Ah! in the latter part of this nineteenth century, here in the United States, and in Great Britain, covering a woman with precious stones does not answer her nobler needs. She must work to make this world holier. To receive from God and to give out to one's fellows is the only way in which women as well as men can be made happy.
As to the happy wife and mother we are told to look at this picture: "See her lips bearing the imprints of holy kisses, and her neck the marks of the little children's arms." I know women too well to believe that the babies will be neglected, and I know all about the little arms around a mother's neck. But is a mother's interest in what concerns her children to end with their nursery days? Any problem that touches the home concerns her, and it is her duty to take personal interest in it.
And that fact alone justifies women in making their influence felt either in public or private, when the safeguards of home are in danger. And as to those who do enter public life because of their interest in other questions, all I can say is that such of the women who are advocating the cause of suffrage as I personally know, are among the noblest women I have ever met, and there is in them none of the spirit of domination of which the author of "Petticoat Government" complains. They want to help right the wrongs; they want to help in the interest of good government as far as in them lies; for it would seem that those who do not wear petticoats have not yet succeeded in lifting this world into all the light and joy that are needed. It would be too much to hope that all women will be wise; but all men are not wise, or, if they are, it took time to make them so. I wish men could disabuse themselves of the idea that women want to be men. Nothing can ever make a woman aught but a woman, and not many will enter into public life. But I believe that the ideals before those who do enter that life are quite as high as those cherished by their husbands and brothers.
Mr. O'Rell tells us that the new woman is not to be found outside of Great Britain and the United States. So much the worse, then, for other countries! I wish I might have seen some evidence of the new woman in the East! For, let us remember, the real (not the sham) new woman is never a made-up woman. There is nothing unwomanly about her. What we need is more new women; as, just as surely, we need more new men!
Mr. O'Rell says he appreciates and echoes the sentiment of Frederick the Great, who was wont to say when he met a woman alone in the streets of Berlin: "What are you doing here? Go home and look after your house and children." I wonder what Frederick would have said to the thousands of men in clubs who leave their wives at home. Would it have been: "What are you doing here? Go home to your wives and children."
I am making no plea specially for woman suffrage; there may be easily two opinions about that. I do believe, however, that what, as a girl of fifteen, I heard Lucy Stone say, is true: "What a woman can do well, she has a right to do." And what these things are she needs to be told; and she should be encouraged in the doing of them.
Margaret Bottoms.