Eugenic ideals for womanhood / by Alice Ravenhill.

  • Alice Ravenhill
Date:
[1910?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Eugenic ideals for womanhood / by Alice Ravenhill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    EUGENIC IDEALS FOR WOMANHOOD By Alice Ravenhill It is not so long ago that the monarch of a neighbouring nation aroused considerable indignation in the minds of a proportion of the female population of which he is the titular head, by the announcement that, in his opinion, the sphere of feminine influence is and must be to all time circumscribed by a quadrangle of “ Ks.” These he defined as “ Kirche, Kiiche, Kinder and Kleider ” ; inferring that, by meek submission to authority, by absorbed concentration on housewifely duties, and by perpetual self-sacrifice in the interests of her children, a woman fulfils her life mission, and must confine her intellectual aspirations within these limits. Upon reflection there is after all in this definition more truth and less intention to restrict than at first sight appears.,. The boundaries of this quadrangle may legitimately be recognised as of such extent that they are virtually commensurate with the whole conceivable range of female activities. Thus these cir¬ cumscribing “ Ks,” or—when put into English—these circum¬ scribing “ Cs,” are actually characterised by an elasticity sufficient to embrace all that exercises the intellect, as well as all that enriches and ennobles life under any aspect or in any of its phases. To elevate and maintain a high standard of morality ; to secure to every human being a full share of health, efficiency and happiness by wise attention to and intelligent gratification of the physical demands of mankind ; to utilise in the right production and rearing of children all the knowledge, economic, scientific, and social, now at our disposal for the purpose; to cultivate and refine, without enervating, the aesthetic qualities and potentialities which make for physical, intellectual and moral progress—these purposes represent, in general terms, the influential, exacting and responsible duties entrusted to the women of the world, when*