Sex and civilization / by Paul Bousfield.

  • Bousfield, Paul, 1880-
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Sex and civilization / by Paul Bousfield. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ideals, etc., and those of the man, this to a very large extent is a purely artificial product, and one which can be usefully overcome by the proper application of the results of psychological research to the education of future generations. Assuming that every individual has a certain amount of energy or capacity for work, the efficiency of the woman, who is in reality of equal capacity with the man, is con- siderably reduced by what we may term the continual leakage of energy Another field in which we find a reduction of normal power in civilized women is in physical health and strength. There are many superstitions and ideas concerning this which are completely wrong, but which, added to the methods of up-bringing which they induce, produce a somewhat lowered idea in a large number of women of their own capabilities. It is the force of suggestion con- tinually at work upon them from childhood which drives this home. It is time to make an attempt to trace these so-called disabilities of women to their causes. Certainly in the present state of knowledge, it will be impossible to do this completely, but a beginning should be made, if only to indicate some widely prevalent errors on the subject. In the hope of elucidating some of the main factors in this matter, I have written this book. Evidence from physiological, historical, and psychological sources is collected together, and their converging lines are demon- strated. The work is not intended as a final statement of the subject, but rather as a suggestion of lines of further research to others who may follow. There is a strong clash between primitive desires and our more advanced wishes for reform, as there is, indeed, in all progress, and it is this conflict which we have to meet in an impartial and courageous manner. Paul Bousfield.
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