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'The Present Phase of the Woman Question"
Article in the Cosmopolitan Magazine. Argues that "a social revolution is impending." Discusses women's education as a means of their economic independence. Talks about women's entry into the legal and medical professions; attributes the rising number of women preachers to the temperance movement.
Lockwood, Belva Ann, 1830-1917
1888
5 pages
reformatted digital
Belva Ann Lockwood Papers, SCPC-DG-098
Belva Ann Lockwood Papers, SCPC-DG-098 --http://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/scpc-dg-098
Lockwood-0070
968
‘matter how degraded, aa yet sore sod
in her, some epark of womanhood tha
be reached by kindly, sympathetic woman-
hood ; that ala itself ig the result of Igno-
These Unions act’tpon the principle also,
that those who necd help, and culture, and
sympathy, are sot always the miserably
poor, orin workhouses, almshouses or jails,
but that often they are the well-todo and
rich among whom there exists such intense
selfishness, euch a poverty of mental and
moral power, such entire neglect of heart
culture, as to make them truly objects of
charity, although the most difficult to reach.
They know that persons in jail are sot neces-
sarily criminal, any more than those outside
of itareinnocent. These Unions, as prevent-
ive and educational factors, are yet in their
infancy; but their trend, if successful, will be
to elevate, to purify, to enlighten the lower
strata of society ; to teach to the highest
that wealth and position are only the acci-
dents of life, levers to Hf the lower higher,
to ameliorate suffering, and incidentally to
elevate woman.
But while the Union is a collateral branch
of the Kindergarten, the Industrial Schoo!
for both boys and giris, or manual training
in the common school, the seminary and the
college, is to complete the revolution from the
old methods so lony in vogue inthe education
of girls, which was frequently, after years
of work, a mere smattering of the things
that ought to bx known, with an artificial:
ity of manner and hfe as unlovely as un-
profitable. Many a woman who has had
thousands of dollars spent upon her edu
cation, when suddenly thrown upon ber
own resources, although supposed to be
well educated, has found herself unable
to teach a single branch of the education
. She has followed or of the accomplish
“ments that she was supposed to have mas.
tered. She has studied as a matter of course,
without anv interest in) study,--heheving
that papa was rich, and that she was to
marry rich, go into society, and always be
supported, without rendering back ao guid
pro que for all of the benefits received. She
suddenly wakes up, but usually too late for
remedy, to the absolute helplessness of her
condition. The ravages of the late war
threw thousands of wives, mothers and
Gervhterc afr ift unas thastoveae eps at Vite tes
ing Mine between the N
TH PRES ANT PHASE OF THe HWOMAN QUESTION,
yl ‘eiptvas and pitiable condition; and the
hithe4jo false teachings of many of our
schoois, aid the false foundation upon which
socicty ‘8 At present based, has added to the
mumber. Tiving ss {t were upon the divid-
and the South,
the civilization of the East and West, with
@ reputation for some independence of
thought and action, I bave been appealed
to by hundreds of women of these various
sections for advice, for sympathy, for influ-
ence, for money, for work, for shelter, and
sometimes alas! to hide their shame, urti!
T have sought to solve the underlying cause
of the masses of helpless women in the
world. Not unfrequently have they come
to me for protection from the abuse of
drunken busbands, and sometimes alas‘
the woman herself has fallen into habits
ef drink, the opium habit or chloral. or
worse yel, the deadly morphine needi+.
Sometimes the very wretchedness of the
housekeeping, and the slatternliness of th-
wife and children have driven the husban:
to drink, and sometimes the two base
learned to drink together.
The growing tendency todrunkenness ar!
other forms of dissipation among womens:
the large cities, is something appalling A
good sister of the WoC. TT. U. told me that
over five thousand women had been inca:
ceratedin the Moyamensing Pnson. Phila
delphia, within the last few years for drunk.
enness Hut what of New York, Cincingiat
Chicago and St. Louis ?
What is the remedy?) Educate girs fer
usefulness teach them to be selfesuppart-
ing no miutter what them condition in irfe.
instruct them ano mght living instead of
making? marrage the acme of ambit:
as heretofore, teach them to earn an!
spend the: own pocketinoney, and alos
no main te pay Chere bills at lecture, theate:
or other place of amusement Commence
inoearly dife to mold the muind= of the cor
to night thinking . te look upon marrnase
not as a necessity, but as a sacred and on
violable contract into which she has no ry ht
to enter until able to be self-supporting and
that entered upon, its duties and respons:
bilities belong as much to her as to the man
so that should death or accident deprive
her and her children of the assistance of het
life partner, she may be able to take up the
Preveteeere fheet bre Joe have Grote d ane?
Lockwood-0070_3
reformatted digital
Belva Ann Lockwood Papers, SCPC-DG-098 --http://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/scpc-dg-098
Lockwood-0070_3