rcing them to; they can strike.

THERESE. We don't wish to employ those means.

DELEGATE. I beg your pardon, the women would consent at once. It's you
that prevent them, through the Union that you've started. Isn't that so?

THERESE. That is so. But you know why.

DELEGATE. No, I do not know why.

THERESE. Then I will tell you why. It is because the phrase only seems
to be just and generous. You know very well that here, at any rate, the
owner would not employ any more women if he had to pay them the same
wages he pays the men. And if they struck, he'd replace them by men.
Your apparent solicitude is only hypocrisy. In reality you want to get
rid of the women.

DELEGATE. Well, I admit that. The women are not competitors; they're
enemies. In every dispute they'll take the side of the masters.

THERESE. How d'you know that?

DELEGATE. They've always done it, because women take orders by instinct.
They're humble, and docile, and easily frightened.

THERESE. Why don't you say inferiors, at once?

DELEGATE. Well, yes; inferiors, the majority of them.

THERESE. If they're inferiors, it's only right that they should take
lower wages.

DELEGATE. Oh, I didn't mean to say--

THERESE [_interrupting him_] But it's not true--they are _not_ your
inferiors. If they believe they are, it's because of the wrongs and
humiliations you've imposed on them for centuries. You men stick
together. Why are we not to do the same? If you start trade unions, why
may not we? As a matter of fact, as regards work, we're your equals. We
need our wages; and to get hold of the jobs that we're able to do we
offer our work at a cheaper rate than you do. That is competition; you
must protect yourselves from it. If you want no more competition, keep
your women at home and support them.

DELEGATE. But that's precisely what we want: "The man in the workshop,
the woman in the home."

THERESE. If the mother is not at home nowadays, it's because the man is
in the saloon.

DELEGATE. The men go to the saloons because they're tired of finding the
place badly kept and the supper not ready when they go home, and instead
of a wife a tired-out factory hand.

THERESE. D'you think it's to amuse themselves the women go to work?
Don't you suppose they prefer a quiet life in their own homes?

DELEGATE. They've only got to stay there.

THERESE. And who's to support them?

DELEGATE. Their husbands!

THERESE. First they've got to have husbands. What ab