ave all the nervous and intellectual
capacities of Thomas Edison, or Dr. E. L. Thorndyke. Perhaps he has.
But the economic environment in which he is born will give him small
opportunity to so prove himself.

Women are intellectually capable of all that men can do. They always
will be because the paternal branch of the family bequeathes to its
daughters the same natural tendencies and capacities that are the
heritage of its sons. It is biologically impossible for sons to inherit
the cumulative capacities of their fathers =alone= just as it is
biologically impossible for the daughters to inherit from their mothers
alone. So that, at birth, it appears that both sexes must remain on an
equal footing so far as heredity is concerned. But the social and
economic environment differentiates. Boys and girls =learn= to differ more
than they differ physically at birth.

We believe it is due to the fact that woman, biologically possessed of a
necessary commodity, something to sell besides her labor power, leans
and reckons upon this ownership, which prevents her, not individually,
but as a sex, from taking an active and permanent part in the affairs
and workshops of the world today. There are exceptions to the rule, of
course. And often, unconsciously, perhaps, she seeks to excel in the
fields occupied by the men who surround her, for the purpose of
enhancing her wares.

It is to be remembered that in nearly all phases of the relations
between men and women, both are almost always at least partially
unconscious of the economic basis of the bargain they make, although,
legally, marriage is a contract. Here society and social institutions
protect the possible future mothers of the race.

We are in no way denying the existence of affection between the sexes.
We see undoubted instances of self-sacrifice (in the economic sense) on
the part of women everywhere. We are not gainsaying these. We only
claim that the root of the relation of the sexes in America is today the
economic basis of buyers and sellers of a commodity and that this basis
of sex, sold as a commodity, affects every phase of our social life, and
all of our social institutions, and that we fail to recognize these
economic roots because of the leaves upon the social tree.

Why, do you imagine, the woman who brings to a penniless husband, not
only herself but a fortune as well, is looked down upon in many
countries? Why is the woman of the streets, who spends her sex ea