Page:The Woman Socialist - Snowden - 1907.djvu/75

 and more, has accepted as inevitable the situation, and moved, sad-eyed, to her patient and uncomplaining work, to the narrow sphere and petty details of household labour and life, of patience and self-effacement, of tenderness and love, little noticed and less understood; or has twisted herself into a ridiculous mime of fashion and frivolity, if so she might find some use for her empty head and some favour with her lord her brain dwarfed and her outlook upon life marred by falsity and ignorance."

This is the average wife of to-day. In a Socialist State, let it be repeated, no woman will be economically dependent upon any one man, father, brother, or husband. Her living will be assured to her by the community. Marriage will not make her the more dependent. If she should have children she will be salaried, or otherwise supported, according to the number and the healthiness of her offspring. If no children are born to her she will be at liberty to occupy herself with some other profitable work; not necessarily household labour, certainly not household labour all the time; for that will be reduced to a minimum. But