Page:The Overland Monthly, volume 1, issue 1.djvu/56



"WOMAN'S Mission" is today the conservative bugbear. Her inability to break into the circles of exclusiveness built up by men, and weakly assented to by herself during past generations, the precarious condition of her employments, and her nothingness in political spheres, have been the texts from which much common-place preaching has been done, and much argument, logical and illogical, taken rise. The battle, so far, has not, in every particular, been as glorious for womanhood as it might have been; her champions, male and female, have not been the ablest she might have commanded; and the gaunt finger of ridicule has often been pointed with effect at the gracelessness of her appearance as she struggled in the fight.

But certain facts have come to be already admitted by the pleadings, that begin to point in what direction the essential truth of feminine duty may be found.

First: It is the general tendency of modern society to view the position of woman, without some relation to marriage, present or in prospect, as abnormal.

Second: A certain ratio, more or less constant, as the nature of the community varies, exists between the percentages of married and unmarried women. A certain number never can marry; another class have suffered some sad accident in their relations with the opposite sex, and they do not wish to marry; and another class are widows, or those deserted by their legal protectors, through no fault of their own, who still require efficient guardianship.

Third: All unmarried women, whether rich or poor, in consequence of their abnormal relations and of the prejudices of society, have not that proper place and consideration granted them to which they are entitled by the laws of existence and civilization, and with which they can be content.

Fourth: The sphere of employment for women is contracted, either by reason of irrational prejudice, or of usurpations by certain classes of men, or by force of the chains of habit.

Fifth: To broaden the field of feminine labor, anything tending to render woman less feminine, less modest, or less pleasing in her companionship with man, raises a violent distrust in the minds of conservative thinkers of both sexes, and arouses the vigilance of prejudices, that impede the work for any effectual purpose whatever.

Sixth: To obviate the difficulty, something must be done that, leaving women free in every respect, will yet place and maintain them in a well-de-