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Read Ebook: A Woman's Philosophy of Woman; or Woman affranchised. An answer to Michelet Proudhon Girardin Legouvé Comte and other modern innovators by H Ricourt Madame D
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Ebook has 817 lines and 57434 words, and 17 pages
"For wives:
"An age of legal majority.
"Administration, and the right of disposing of a portion of their private property.
"The right to appear in law without the consent of their husbands.
"The limitation of the power of the husband over the person of the wife.
"The creation of a family council, charged with controlling this part of the power.
"For mothers:
"The right of government.
"The right of direction.
"The right of education.
"The right of consent to the marriage of their children.
"A law requiring the investigation of paternity.
"The creation of a family council to decide on serious disagreements between father and mother.
"For women:
"Admission to guardianship and the family council.
"Admission to all professions.
"Admission within the bounds of their capabilities and duties to public offices."
It is evident that Legouv? has but one end, that of advancing the emancipation of women a single step; he does not demand all that he believes just, but all that seems to him mature and possible.
We should thank him for his prudence: he has brought over many men to our cause, and has prepared them to hear the voice of woman, speaking loudly and firmly by her right as a wife and a human being, as a worker and a member of the social body.
DE GIRARDIN.
On page 42 of his pamphlet, "Liberty in Marriage," De Girardin says, with great reason: "Man is born of woman. Everything, therefore, that benefits woman will benefit man."
"To fight and conquer for her is to fight and conquer for himself."
Inspired by these excellent sentiments, the celebrated publicist has investigated the causes of the slavery and degradation of woman, and the means of paralyzing them.
That children may become equal, that woman may be affranchised from the yoke of man, it is necessary, says the author, to substitute the system of maternity for that of paternity; to modify Marriage, and to render woman independent through the institution and universalizing of the dower.
We will let M. de Girardin expound the rest of his doctrine himself. "We must choose," says he, "between these two systems:
According to De Girardin, the logical consequences of the system of maternity would be:
The abolition of civil marriage;
The mother's name alone given to the child;
The inheritance placed solely in the maternal line.
"Marriage," says he, "is a purely individual act, and, as regards its celebration, a purely religious act.--
"For one abuse that it pretends to avert, it gives rise to innumerable others which are worse, and from which society afterwards suffers seriously, without taking into account the cause that produced them.
With respect to inheritance and dowry, the author expresses himself thus:
In comparing the lot of the wife under the two systems, De Girardin expresses himself thus:
"Under the system of paternity, the wife, loaded with the gifts of fortune, sinks under the weight of an idleness which most frequently inflames and disorders her imagination. She does not know what to do to employ her time. Woman does nothing because man does everything.
"Under the system of maternity, on the contrary, the richer a woman is, the further she is removed from idleness; for not only has she her children to nurse, to rear, to instruct, and to watch over, but she has also to administer her fortune which will one day be theirs.
"To preserve this fortune, to increase it still more: here is wherewith to occupy her leisure, to calm her imagination, to place her under curb. It is wrong to suppose women not qualified for the management of business; they excel in it, however little may have been their practice or application.
"Long enough has man been the personification of war, of slavery, of conquest; it is the turn of woman to be the personification of peace, of liberty, of civilization.
"In this new system , each of the two has his part: to man labor, the genius of enterprise; to woman economy and the spirit of foresight.
"Man speculates, woman administers;
"Man acquires, woman preserves;
"Man brings in, woman transmits;
"The dowry remains the attribute of the father, the inheritance becomes the privilege of the mother;
A number of women have asked whether De Girardin recognizes political right for women. He says nothing about it, either in his work "Liberty in Marriage," or in his "Universal Politics." But when a man writes that:
"Woman, belonging to herself, and being dependent only on her reason, has the same rights as man to liberty and equality."
That "every holder of a general insurance has a right to be a party to it."
Woman being comprised in universality,
Now, as M. de Girardin is not one of those who recoil from the consequences of their principles, we are led to believe that he admits to woman the exercise of political right for woman.
I have been told that, in 1848, one of those pitiable individuals who have neither intellect enough to be logical, nor justice enough to comprehend the oppressed, was haranguing before M. de Girardin against the claims of certain women to enter political life. "Why not?" asked M. de Girardin. "Do you believe that Madame de Girardin would deposit a less intelligent vote in the electoral urn than that of her footman?"
If this anecdote be true, the opinion of the publicist concerning the political right of woman is not doubtful.
Abolish marriage! cry some, veiling their faces with an air of offended modesty.
Make a speculation of love! exclaim others who, apparently, have preserved their holy innocence and baptismal ignorance.
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