Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/254

 brief, they would introduce into the administration of the law an emphasis upon the rights of human beings to balance the present too heavy emphasis upon the rights of property.

Touching upon questions of morals reminds one that feminism is frequently, by its critics, associated with the completest immorality. No charge is more often levelled against the feminist by uninformed critics than the charge of immoral teachings, if not immoral conduct. The supporter of feminism is supposed by some to be involved in an acceptance of the doctrine of free love, and to be bound to oppose the marriage laws, whether of Church or State. Nothing could be more false than this idea of the feminist. The doctrine of free love with all that it implies is held by many people, sick of the living lies that so many people are, and utterly weary of the sight of human suffering consequent upon unhappy marriage bonds, who would strongly disavow any connection with the feminist movement. At the same time this same doctrine is roundly repudiated by thousands who believe in feminism. The one central fact of feminism is equality, the equality of men and women in all those affairs of life which women can occupy without injury to their essential femininity, the equality of men and women as human beings in all those spheres of activity into which sex