The Woman Movement

The Woman Movement

The first woman movement was Eves gesture when she reached for the fruit of the Tree of Knowledgea movement symbolic of the entire subsequent womans movement of the world. For the will to pass beyond established bounds has constantly been the motive of her conscious as well as of her subconscious quest. Every generation has called this transgression, this passing beyond the bounds, a fall of man, the original sin, a crime against Gods express command, a crime against the nature of woman as prescribed for her for all time. And yet from the beginning women have appeared who have passed far beyond the established boundaries set for their sex by their era and upheld by their own people. They have demonstrated that limitations thus prescribed do not always coincide with what is considered by the majority to be the nature of woman. At one time a woman has manifested the masculine 2characteristics of a ruler or has performed a masculine deed; at another time she has distinguished herself in masculine learning or art, or again has dared to love without the permission of law and custom. In a word the individual woman, when her head or her heart was strong enough, has always shown the possibilities of the development of personal power. But she has had in that effort only her own strength and her own will upon which to rely; she has neither been urged on by the spirit of her time (Zeitgeist) nor been emulated by the masses. Exceptional women have sometimes been glorified by their contemporaries and by posterity as wonders of nature; sometimes been cited as warning examples. Seen in connection with the worlds woman movement all these instances, where a bond was broken by womans power of mind or creative gift, by a heart or a conscience, are parts of what can be called the prehistoric woman movement. This movement for personal freedom formed no step in that phase of the development which possesses a conscious purpose, but was merely sporadic. Even so the participation was long nameless which women took in the great struggles for freedom where, without consideration for the nature of woman, they dared bleed upon the arena and scaffold, ascend the pyre, and be raised upon the gibbet. Very rarely did these women martyrs alter immediately mensor even womensconception of womans being. But just as many perfumes are dissipated only after 3centuries, so there are also deeds whose indirect results persist through centuries. Most significant, however, upon the whole in the prehistoric woman movement, are innumerable women whose souls found expression only in the strong, quiet acts of every day life but yet remained living and growing. As a reason for the enslavement of woman by man, the primitive division of labour is still occasionally cited. This division of labour made war and the chase mans task and so developed in him courage, energy, and daring, while the woman remained the beast of burden. But we forget that, in this labour arrangement, the handicraft and husbandry which woman practised at that time made her, to perhaps a higher degree than man, the conservator of civilisation and probably developed her psychic power in more comprehensive manner than his. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 60840
Author: Key, Ellen
Release Date: Dec 3, 2019
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Translator: Borthwick, Mamah Bouton, 1869-1914