Debarred from direct power as they are, they are still making us decent
in spite of ourselves.

For the future, then, it seems that we must accept working women in
every path of life. We must remove all disabilities under which they
labor, and at the same time protect them by special legislation as
future wives and mothers. All girls must master some line of
self-supporting work; and, except in the cases of those who have very
special tastes and gifts, they should select work which can be
interrupted, without too great loss, by some years of motherhood. During
this time, the mother must be supported so that she can largely care for
her own child, though she must also maintain outside interests through
work, which will keep her in touch with the moving current of her time.
Industries must be humanized and made fit for women. The last third of a
woman's life must be freed from legal limitations and popular
prejudices, so that we may secure these best years of her life for
private and public service. And meantime, it is well to remember that
every step we take in making this a fit world for woman to work in,
makes it a fit world for her father, her brothers, her lover and her
husband to work beside her.

VII

The Meaning of Political Life

It is a well-known fact that when words have been long and vigorously
used they gather within and around themselves varied meanings. Some
parts of these meanings are remnants of historic, and possibly outworn,
experience; other parts are the result of more or less deliberate
perversion under the stress of deep feelings aroused by opposition and
fighting. This is especially the fate of words in any way associated
with politics. Think how battered and useless for purposes of ordinary
discussion "democrat" and "republican" or "socialist" have become in
America!

In the struggle of the last fifty years over woman's suffrage, most of
the words involved have undergone such transformations; and so many
prejudices have become associated with them, that no one can think or
speak clearly and fairly to-day in these terms. "Woman's Rights,"
"enfranchisement," "Votes for Women," "suffragette," "polls," "ballot,"
"political issues," and many other words, have gone through this
destructive process.

To read some of the most popular literature on this subject one might
imagine that women had all deserted home and fireside, babies and
baking, and were lined up, struggling fiercely to de