ll of the arts, save music, and
in nearly all of the productive walks of life, as well as in a large
percentage of the professional and executive; intellectually the
equal if not the superior of the average man--who in these days, poor
devil, is born a specialist--and making a bold bid for political
equality.

It has been a magnificent accomplishment, and it has marked one of the
most brilliant and picturesque milestones in human progress. It seems
incredible that woman, in spite of the tremendous pressure that Nature
will put upon her, may revert weakly to type. The most powerful of all
the forces working for Nature and against feminism will be the quite
brutal and obscene naturalness of war, and the gross familiarity of
civilization with it for so long a period. There is reversion to type
with a vengeance! The ablest of the male inheritors of the accumulated
wisdom and experiences and civilizing influences of the ages were in
power prior to August 1914, and not one of them nor all combined had
the foresight to circumvent, or the diplomatic ingenuity to keep in
leash the panting Hun. They are settling their scores, A.D. 1914-1917,
by brute fighting. There has been some brain work during this war so
far, but a long sight more brute work. As it was in the beginning,
etc.

And the women, giving every waking hour to ameliorating the lot of the
defenders of their hearth and their honor, or nursing the wounded in
hospital, have been stark up against the physical side: whether making
bombs in factories, bandages or uniforms, washing gaping wounds,
preparing shattered bodies for burial, or listening to the horrid
tales of men and women home on leave.

II

The European woman, in spite of her exalted pitch, is living a more or
less mechanical life at present. Even where she has revealed
unsuspected creative ability, as soon as her particular task is mapped
she subsides into routine. As a rule she is quite automatically and
naturally performing those services and duties for which Nature so
elaborately equipped her, ministering to man almost exclusively, even
when temporarily filling his place in the factory and the tram-car.
_Dienen! Dienen!_ is the motto of one and all of these Kundrys,
whether they realize it or not, and it is on the cards that they may
never again wish to somersault back to that mental attitude where they
would dominate not serve.

On the other hand civilization may for once prove stronger than
Nat