Page:The Relations Tolstoy.pdf/77

 And so in this I perfectly agree with you, and am very glad that I do agree, and very thankful to you for helping me to elucidate this matter for myself.

The real emancipation of woman is in this: To regard no labor as specially woman's work, which one is ashamed of touching, but to help her with all one's strength just because she is physically weaker; to relieve her from the work one can take upon oneself. In the same way in the education of girls, taking into consideration that they will probably have children, and therefore will have less leisure, -just in view of this to arrange schools for them, not worse but better than for boys, in order that they might beforehand gather strength and knowledge, of which they are capable.

It is quite true that with regard to women and their work many very harmful and time-honored prejudices exist, and it is yet more true that one ought to struggle against them. But I do not think that a society which organizes libraries and institutions for women can be the right one to struggle. It is not that woman receives smaller wages than man which revolts me -prices are fixed by the quality of the work; -I am revolted by the fact that on woman who bears then suckles and rears little children, is further loaded the labor of the kitchen -to be roasted at the range to wash pots, pans, clothes, tables, floors, windows, and to sew. Why is this heavy labor loaded exclusively on woman? A peasant or factory workman, a government official, and every other man, has often nothing to do, but he will lie and smoke, and leave the woman, even if enceinte, sick, to roast at the range to bear the heavy labor of