Licence: In copyright
Credit: Eugenic ideals for womanhood / by Alice Ravenhill. Source: Wellcome Collection.
![the imperial fiat goes forth that womanhood is to confine its energies to a sphere of duty bounded by church, by children, by cooking, and] by clothes ; provided only that in this alliterative catalogue are included the clothing of the home as well as of the family, and the keeping of this same home in a condition which permits of life being both wholesome and cleanly. When, therefore, the thoughtful woman, accepting the share assigned to her in the world’s work, perceives herself to be invested with a mantle of responsibility so weighty and voluminous that she is disposed to feel leniently towards those of her sex who in the past have failed to appreciate the amplitude of its folds—when she realises that upon womanhood largely depends the standard attained by the world’s ethical code, then it is that she sees the necessity of gaining some insight into the bases of ethics, religious and moral; of studying the influences which promote or prejudice their consistent practice or which menace their acceptance ; and of not remaining ignorant of the true relation of morality to efficiency and hygiene—a relation constantly ignored from want of knowledge, or may I add by false modesty. When again she perceives that to her is entrusted the greatest of all human assets, the child, during those impression¬ able years, consecrated to character formation and physical development, she at once becomes alive to the fact that its immaturity calls for intelligent recognition, and its dependence demands skilful guidance. How few women have hitherto acted as if aware that in their hands they hold the health of the community; not only as regards the food consumed and the domestic cleanliness enjoyed, but because of the enormous influence they exercise on young and old alike in respect of the right regulation of rest and the quality, restorative or pernicious, of the recreations sanctioned by, and popular with, the com¬ munity. That the significance of the part played by woman in matters economic and aesthetic is frequently overlooked is largely the result of woman’s own failure to recognise her position as the greatest spender in the community, and the purchaser by whose demands is strictly regulated the supply of goods necessary to the equipment of the home and the wearing apparel of the family. The standard of provisions, the design of furniture and wall](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30616463_0002.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
