We have traced three stages in the past evolution of the family--two
individual and patriarchal, one communal and maternal. Is the
patriarchal stage, then, the final stage? Has the upward growth, ever
yet continuous, been arrested here? The social ideal of the mother-age
was a transition and a dream--but as a moment of peace in the records
of struggle, following the bloody opening drama in man's history, and
then passing into a forgetfulness so complete that its existence by
many has been denied. Yet the feet of the race were in the way,
though men and women let it pass, blindly unknowing.

Our age is working for scarcely yet formulated changes in the
ownership of property and in the status of women. The patriarchal view
of woman's subjection to man is being questioned in every direction.
What do these movements indicate? If, as seems probable, the
individual evolution, already for so long continued, is perishing,
what is to take its place? What form will the family take in the
future? These are questions to which it is not possible for me here
even to attempt to find the answer.[248]

[248] I hope to do so in a future book on _Motherhood_.

Let us look for a moment in this new direction, the direction of the
future, because it is there that the past becomes so important. In our
contemporary society there is a deep-lying dissatisfaction with
existing conditions, a yearning and restless need for change. We stand
in the first rush of a great movement. It is the day of experiments,
when again the old customs are in struggle with the new. We are
questioning where before we have accepted, and are seeking out new
ways in which mankind will go--will go because it must.

Social institutions alter very slowly as a rule; for long a change may
pass unnoticed, until one day it is discovered that a step forward has
been taken. Those changes that appear so new and are bringing fear to
many to-day, are but the last consequences of causes that for long
have been operating slowly. The extraordinary enthusiasm now sweeping
through womanhood reveals behind its immediate feverish expression a
great power of emotional and spiritual initiative. Wide and radically
sweeping are the changes in women's outlook. So much stronger is the
promise of a vital force when they have refound their emancipation. To
this end women must gain economic security, and the freedom for the
full expression of their womanhood. The ultimate goal I conceive-