ands upon the individual than any other.
By our constitution we human beings must devote more of our energies to
the Future than any other race. But it is a Future better worth working
for than any of theirs.

CHAPTER XX

WOMEN AND ECONOMICS

It will be evident that the writer of the foregoing chapter must have
something to say on the question of women and economics, but though what
must be said seems to me to be very important, it can be stated at no
great length.

If we turn to the most widely-read and applauded of the feminist books
on this subject, _Women and Economics_, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, we
are by no means encouraged to find it stated in the first chapter that
woman's present economic inferiority to man is not due to "any inherent
disability of sex." Wherever Mrs. Gilman may be right, here the
biologist knows that she is wrong. The argument has been fully stated in
earlier pages, and need not here be restated. But we shall not be
surprised if a premise which denies any natural economic disadvantage of
women leads to more than dubious conclusions.

Only a few pages later, Mrs. Gilman refers to the argument that the
economic dependence of women upon their husbands is defensible on the
ground that they perform the duties of motherhood, and the following is
her comment thereon:

"The claim of motherhood as a factor in economic exchange is false
to-day. But suppose it were true. Are we willing to hold this
ground, even in theory? Are we willing to consider motherhood as a
business, a form of commercial exchange? Are the cares and duties
of the mother, her travail and her love, commodities to be
exchanged for bread?

"It is revolting so to consider them; and if we dare face our own
thoughts, and force them to their logical conclusion, we shall see
that nothing could be more repugnant to human feeling, or more
socially and individually injurious, than to make motherhood a
trade."

Surely this is special pleading and not very plausible at that. It may
be replied, "Is not the labourer worthy of his hire?"--however noble the
labour. If we choose to call society's or a husband's support of
motherhood "a form of commercial exchange," it is indeed "revolting" so
to see it; let us then look at the case as it is. We applaud the "cares
and duties of the mother, her travail and her love"; but the more
assiduous her maternity, and the more admirable