ignoring sex. In spite of the great advance in freedom
and in scope of activity of life, the stigma attached to woman was not
removed. To-day we have arrived at a point where instead of ignoring
sex we must affirm it, and claim emancipation on the ground of our sex
alone. Our mothers taught acceptance, and asked for privileges; the
pioneers of revolt raised the cry "acceptance is a sin and all
privilege evil"; we, the blood in our veins beating more strongly and
understanding at last the true inwardness of our power, found our
claim for complete emancipation upon that special work in the world
and for the State which our differentiation from men imposes upon us.
This differentiation is our potentiality for motherhood, and is the
endowment of every woman, whether realised or not. We claim as our
glory what our mothers accepted as their burden of shame.

No sudden causeless changes ever happen, or ever have happened. And
the question, Why? arises. What is this dynamic force which has been,
and is still sweeping in a great wave of emancipation across the
civilised world, joining women in one common purpose? On the outside
the revolutionary character of women's modern thought and modern
practice means nothing more than that they claim the rights of adult
human beings--political enfranchisement, the right of education and
freedom to work. But the facts are far too complex to enable us thus
to rush hastily to an answer. There is a pitiful monotony in much that
is written and spoken about women's emancipation. The real causes are
deep to seek, and not infrequently they have been missed even by those
who have been most instrumental in bringing a new hope to women. The
most advanced women champions, the martyrs of revolt, show no greater
sense of the meanings and issues of the struggle in which they are
engaged than the complaisant supporters of the worn-out customs they
combat. They exhibit only the energies of an admirable impulse,
without the control of a guiding law. Speculation, which should be
carried to a comprehension of general facts, is concentrated upon the
immediate gain of the hour. The tendency is to trifle with truth, and
to disguise its reach and consequences. We have read, and spoken, and
thought so much about the special character of woman that we have
become almost wearied of the subject. Like Narcissus, we stand in some
danger of falling in love with our own image. Perhaps the truth is we
speculate too much i