The position of woman: actual and ideal / with preface by Sir Oliver Lodge.

Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The position of woman: actual and ideal / with preface by Sir Oliver Lodge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    169/192 (page 153)
    ageressive women would continue to agitate; they would gain the acquiescence of those molluscous men who would give their purse to any fairly obstinate highwayman; and revolutions, we are told, are always made by resolute minorities. I confess that I shudder at the results of such a revolution. I shudder still more at the idea of the struggle which must precede it. The conception of a war of sexes is, I think, abhorrent to every right-thinking man and woman. The general trend of previous papers and discussions has deepened and strengthened my conviction that man and woman are complementary and not rival organisms, [heir co-operation is necessary for the continuance of the race, but it is equally neces- sary for the elevation of the race and for the im- provement of its social conditions. Thus baldly stated, the principle may seem to be a truism, but, like many other truisms, it is so obvious as to be easily overlooked and forgotten. The bone of con- tention is not whether there should be co- operation or not, but the terms upon which such co-operation should be based. It is desirable that the terms should involve no humiliation for either sex. [he object of this series of conferences has been, I take it, not to define these terms—the time is hardly ripe for such definition—but to form some conception as to the lines on which they should be drawn up, and at the same time to utter a warning note against a supposed antagonism of interests which, if heedlessly or intentionally