Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/757

 WOMAN

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WOMAN

to submit to the laws, the authoritative determination of which is assigned to man, she has the right to demand a guarantee that man as legislator will not misuse his right. This essential guarantee, however, is only to be found in the unchangeable authoritative rule of Divine justice that binds man's conscience. This guarantee is given to women in every form of government that is based on Cliristianity. On the contrary, the proclamation of the "Rights of Man" without regard to God set aside this guarantee and opposed man to woman as the absolute master. Woman's resistance to this was and is an instinctive impulse of moral self-preservation. The "autono- mous morality " of Kant and Hegel's state has made justice dependent upon men or man alone far more than the JVench " Rights of Man ". The relativity and mutability of right and morality have been made a fundamental principle in dechristianized society. "The principles of morals, religion, and law are only what they are, so long as they are universally recog- nized. Should the conscience of the sum total of individuals reject some of these principles and feel itself bound by other principles, then a change has taken place in morals, law, and religion" (Oppenheim, "Das Gewissen", Basle, 1898, 47).

Woman is defenceless against such teaching when only men are understood under the "totality of individuals". Up to now as a matter of fact onlj' men have been eligible in legislative bodies. On the basis of the so-called autonomous morality, however, woman cannot be denied the right to claim this auton- omy for herself. Cliristianity, which lays the obliga- tion upon both sexes to observe an unalterable and like morality, is powerless to give protection to woman in a dechristianized and churchless country. Conse- quently, it is only by the restoration of Christianity in society that the rightful and natural relations of man and woman can be once more restored. This Christian reform of society, however, cannot be expected from the radical woman movement, not- withstanding its valuable services for social reform. Besides what has been said, the "movement for the protection of the mother" promoted by it contradicts completely the Christian conception of marriage. (Cf. Mausbach, "Der cliristliche Familiengedanke im Gegensatz zur modernen Mutterschutzbewegung", Miinster, 1908.)

The moderate liberal woman movement is also in- capable of bringing about a thorough improvement of the situation, such as the times demand. It certainly attained great results in its efforts for the economic elevation of woman, for the reform of the education of women, and for the protection of morality in the first half of the nineteenth century, and has attained still more since 1S4S in England, North America, and Germany. The names of Jessie Boucherett, Ehza- beth Frj', Mary Carpenter, Florence Nightingale, Lady Aberdeen, Mrs. Paterson, Octavia Hill, Eliza- beth Blackwell, .losephine Butler, and others in Eng- land, and the names of LuiseOtIo, I.uise Biichner, Maria Calm, .Jeannette Schwerin, Auguste Schmidt, Helene Lange, Katharina Scheven, etc., in Germany, are always mentioned with grateful respect. At the same time this p.arty is liable to imcertain wavering on account of the lack of fixed principles and clearly discerned aims. While these women's societies call them.selves exprcs-sly interdenominational they re- nounce the motive power of religious conviction and seek exclusively the temporal prosperity of women. Such a setting aside of the highest interests is scarcely compatible with the words of Chri.st, "Seek ye there- fore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things .shall be added unto you" (Matt., vi, 33), and is all the more incompatible with the teach- ing of Christ on marriage and virginity, which is of the highest importance, particularly for the well-being of woman. A successful solution of the woman question

is only to be expected from a reorganization of modern conditions in accordance with the principles of Chris- tianity, as Anna Jameson (1797-1860) has set forth in the works, "Sisters of Charity" (London, 1855) and "Communion of Labour" (London, 1856). The effort has also frequently been made by Protestants in P]ngland, America, and Germany to meet the difficulty in imitation of Cathohc charitable work; thus in 1836 the German "Institute of Deaconnesses" was estab- lished.

In Germany the first attempt to attain a solution of the woman question by orthodox Protestants was made by Ehzabeth Gnauck-KUhne, who founded the " EvangeUsch-sozialcr Kongi'ess" (Protestant Social Congress). At the present day this movement has been represented since 1S99 by the "Deutsch-evange- lisches Frauenbund" and by the women's society of the " Freie kirchlich-.soziale Konferenz ". A profound Christian influence upon the woman movement is not to be looked for, however, from these sources. Prot- estantism is, it must be said, a mutilated kind of Christianity, in which woman is especially injured by the abrogation of the dedication of virginity to God. Still worse is the effect of the constantly increasing decay of Protestantism, in which the denial of the Divinity of Christ constantly gains strength. For this reason the Protestant Church party in the agita- tion for women's right in predominantly Protestant countries is much smaller than the liberal and radical parties.

Catholic women were the last to take up the agita- tion. The main reason for this is the impregnabihty of Cathohc principles. Owing to this woman's suffrage did not become a burning question as quickly in the purety Catholic countries as in Protestant and religiously mixed ones. The convents, the indis- solubility of sacramental marriage, and the customary charitable works kept in check many difficulties. However, on account of the international character of the movement and the causes which produced it, Catholic women could not finally hold back from co-operation in solving the question, especiallj' as the attack of revolutionarj- ideas on the Church to-day is most severe in Cathohc countries. For a long time Christian charity has not sufficed for the needs of the present day. Social aid must supplement legal ordi- nances for the justifiable demands of women. For this purpose the "Ligues des femmes clir(5tiennes" were formed in Belgium in 1893; in France "Le feminisme Chretien" and "L'action sociale des femmes" were founded in 1895, after the international review, "La femme contemporaine", had been established in 1893. In Germany the "Katholisches Frauenbund" was founded in 1904, and the "Kathohsche Reichs- Frauenorganisation" was established in Austria in 1907, while a woman's societv was established in Italy in 1909. In 1910 the "Katholisches Frauen- Weltbund" (International Association of Catholic Women) was established at Brus.sels on the insistent urging of the "Ligue patriotique des Fran^aises". Thus an international Cathohc women's association exi.sts to-day, in ojjposition to the international liberal women's association and the international Social- Democratic union. The Catholic society competes with these others in seeking to bring about a social reform for the benefit of women in accordance with the princi))les of the Church.

Apart from the light thrown by Catholic j)rinciple6 on this subject, the .solution of the Ijusks of this Cath- olic .association is made easier by the experience al- ready acquired in the woman's movement. As regards the first branch of the woman question, feminine industry, the opinion has constantly gained ground that "notwithstandingall changes in economic and social life the general .and foremost vocation of women remains that of the wife and mother, and it is therefore above all necessary to make the female sex