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    344 PUBUC OPINION IN REGARD TO WOMAN'S W...

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    » I Should Not This Year Have Brought Be...

    entering married life would withdraw theni from non-domestic labor

    . This is to my mind a self-evident proposition , and I should like to lace it in a liht whichso far as I ani awarehas never been

    cast p upon it in any g of the discussions , ; and which , I believe would go far to clear it up to the satisfaction of all parties if iny meaning

    were thoroughly understood . When men who are good and sympathetic , and who , as we have

    every reason to believe , really wish well to their mothers , sisters , wivesand daughtersurge the claims of married life , in regard to

    the question , of woman , ' s work , what is it they mean ? What does married life mean in this Christian country , which

    professes and really does try and intend to carry out Bible maxims ? I am not overstating the case ; for the overwhelming majority of

    this kingdom , Protestants and Catholics , and even those who may be neither , are agreed in wishing to see Christian morality carried out

    in political and social life . Our schools , our reformatories , our teetotal societies , all prove this ; and a book which preached pagan

    principles on any topic would have a bad chance of being circulated hj Mr . Mudie .

    Now the household life in a Christian country has this very marked characteristicthat it is the primary unit in . social

    organiza-, tion . The man alone , or the woman alone , is not strictly speaking that primary unit . "With marriage and family life begins the great

    social chain which ascends from the house to the street , from , the street to the parishfrom the parish to the townfrom the town to

    , , the country , and ends in the Government and in the Church . The wifein our civilization , is the centre of domestic but also

    of social life , . She is the mistress of a social circle and of a group of children and of servants . When sensible men say that the vast

    majority of women are destined to marriage , what they mean , the idea which really lies at the bottom of their minds , is , that were it

    otherwise the whole constitution of modern society would literally go to pieces . We should be like a house built without mortar ,

    ready to be blown down in every high wind . As I believethereforefirmlythat the married household is the

    first constituent , element , in national , life , so I consequently believe that the immense majority of women are , and ought to be , employed

    In the noble duties which go to make up the Christian household ; and while I fully admit the principle of vocations to religious and

    also to intellectual and practical life apart from marriage , I think that people are quite right who say that these will ever be , and

    ought ever to be , in the minority .

    Bessie It , Parkes .

    344 Pubuc Opinion In Regard To Woman's W...

    344 PUBUC OPINION IN REGARD TO WOMAN ' S WORK .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1862, page 344, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071862/page/56/