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FEMALE POPULATION OF GREAT BRITAIN. 3
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.
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_—=«»*- Much Mvolving As An ..Ag Importa...
gains by the additional labor of so many wives and mothers . The wide prevalencehoweverof the practice bears against the theory
with whatever wei , ght may , be due to the assumption that a civilised community will generally organise itself without any serious violation
of sound principle . Besides wives and unmarried females , there were 795 , 590 widows
living- in 18 51 . It will be felt to be a question , not merely interesting but somewhat serious , whether to this class also is to be aj ) plied
the theory that , unless left in independent circumstances , their proper daily business is to direct their efforts so as to secure a
repetition of former successful speculations , to make other ventures , to take new contractsand to enter into fresh partnerships . We should all of
, us probably feel inclined to pause and reflect upon the consequences before assenting to the doctrine that widows unprovided for are not
to engage in ordinary industrial pursuits , but are to seek their only means of support in the home of second matrimony . One of such
consequences is shown by these figures of the census tables ; for we there discover that of these 79 5 , 590 widows , there were probably
about 40 0 , 000 ( excluding annuitants , pensioners , and proprietors of lands or houses ) who obtained some , if not the principal part , of their
income from , their exertions in professions , trades , commerce , or manual labor . One consequence , therefore , if the doctrine in question
were to be enforced , would be the introduction of 400 , 000 additional competitors into the marriage-market , already perhaps sufficiently
overstocked . This last expression leads to another point . It is urged in
support of the proposition that women should be taught to look exclusivelto marriage as their calling , that Nature herself teaches
this lesson y by providing a numerical _eqtiality of the sexes . But what are the statistics upon this point ? It is quite true that , as
far as the number of births is concerned , Nature provides , in this portion country of as each well sex as generall . Indeed y throug , in Great hout Britain the world the , number an adequat of e males
proborn constantly exceeds the number of females born ; so that there would seem to be an adequate provision of husbands for all the females who miht grow up to womanhood . But there is this
peculiarity in the g circumstances of this country , that the equality of the sexeswhich exists at birth and continues up to the age of
eighteen , , then ceases . After that age there is a disparity in the numberswhich disparity steadily increases ; so that the persons
resident in , . Great Britain in 1851 of twenty years of age and upwards , w ere divided into 5 , 459 , 000 males and 5 , 998 , 000 females ;
showing an excess of the latter sex ( if such an expression be allowable ) to the extent of 539 , 000 . This excess would be reduced
by about 100 , 000 if the army and navy and other residents abroad were taken into the account ; but these classes are clearly subject to
such virtual disqualifications in respect of marriage that it would not be proper to make any considerable deduction on this account .
TOL . V . A 2
Female Population Of Great Britain. 3
_FEMALE POPULATION OF GREAT BRITAIN . 3
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1860, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031860/page/3/
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