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2,92 THE POSITION OF WOMAN.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
" Whosoever My Shall Brother Do , The An...
the result to be airaed at is not tliat woman _sliould be bound down to one set of subjects and habitsand man to another ; but that
woman ' s influence upon the affairs , of the world should be as free in the exercise of its peculiar characteristics as man ' s influence is
free in the exercise of its own gifts , for the establishment of a civilization in which the varied elements of manhood and of womanhood
shall be blended together as a perfect whole . This result , it appears to me , could be gradually achieved in a
very natural way . Let a woman be permitted , quietly and unostentatiously , to enter into any calling the duties of which she
can adequately discharge . Without scorn , or jeer , or libel , let her fairly do that which God has given her power to accomplish . If a
woman can do a thing well , it appears to me that her capacity is her divine title to the riht of doing it .
I do not claim that g men should stand aside , and excuse the weakness of woman in the discharge of offices she cannot
competently direct . In this world , no excuse can sustain any class of men or women who may take upon themselves duties for which they
are unfitted . If woman is unfitted for the discharge of any specialdutiesshe will be thrown by destiny in the attempt to perform
them ; , exactly as man will under similar circumstances . The claim is , that if a woman can well perform a task , the gift of
the faculty is God ' s own title-deed to the right of performance . The chief difficulty is not theoreticalbut practical . The difficulty
rests not in the false claim of woman to , do what she cannot do but in the prejudice of men against her attempt to do what she can .
No woman on earth asks to be excused , because she is a woman , in her weak attempts to do that for which she is unfitted , * her demand
is , that , without being insulted , she may execute a possible work . As the matter standsif a woman puts her hands to what she can
execute , guided by necessit , y or taste , or a desire for usefulness , she is personally exposed to contemptuous scornor foolish jeer , or
, slanderous libel . For my own part , if I hear of a woman following some
unaccustomed calling , I neither feel inclined to scorn nor slander- neither do I askis it well enough done for a _zvoman _' s doing as though bad
work , might be excusable in a woman , in a way it is not excusable in a man .
The question is , when a woman follows some unaccustomed calling , are its duties adequately discharged ?
If the duties of any calling are adequately discharged , the sneers of men . must be regarded as answered by the gifts of God .
Let insolence be silenced , * and the theoretical problem concerning the capacities of woman will solve itself in practical results .
Gradually , if the free and natural development of life be unchecked by scorn or libel , the law of life ( which is the law of God ) will
one assert pervading itself ; and Spirit " diversities . of gifts" •• will ¦ be harmonized _'•" , ' by ' the
2,92 The Position Of Woman.
2 , 92 THE POSITION OF WOMAN .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1861, page 292, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011861/page/4/
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