Page:Zelda Kahan - The Life and Work of Friedrich Engels (1920).pdf/43

of Friedrich Engels is now in the new industries, and the man who now has to occupy himself as heretofore with obtaining the means of subsistence, now becomes the owner of herds of animals, of the tools for tilling the soil, then, later, also of slaves, and thus, owing to the fact that the household is now no longer a social function, but purely a private one, the man begins to take the first, the woman the second, place in society.

At the same time, to insure the inheritance to his own children—since he knew them now—the man used his new power to definitely change the law of inheritance from the mother's to the father's side, thus further strengthening his position in the family and in society. The position of woman in society, as that of every class at a given epoch, thus has nothing to do with her inferiority to man, but is due to the historical development in the modes of obtaining the means of subsistence and the growth of private property. Speaking of the woman’s question, Engels says:—"Only by the great industries of our times was the access to social production again opened to women. … This occurs in such wise as to exclude them from earning anything in public industries, if they fulfil their duties in the private service of the family; or that they are unable to attend to their family duties, if they wish to participate in public industries and earn a living independently. As in the factory, so women are situated in all business departments up to the medical and legal professions.

As to the question whether monogamy will survive when the economic reason for its existence has disappeared, Engels, refusing to prophesy and to indulge in useless speculation, simply points out that prostitution must certainly disappear with the introduction of