according to Bruce, in Abyssinia '^ it is infamy for a man to go to market to buy anything. He cannot cany water or bake bread; but he must wash the clothes belonging to both sexesj and, in this function, the women cannot help him." And Petherick says thaL among the Arabs ''the IHE STATUS OF WOMEN. 753 females repudiate needlework entirely^ the little they require being performed by their husbands and brothers."
From a general survey of the &cts^ multitudinous and heterogeneous^ thus briefly indicated, the only definite con- clusion appears to be that men monopolize the occupations requiring both strength and agility always available — ^wai* and the chase. Leaving undiscussed the relative fitness of women at other times for fighting enemies and pursuing wild animals, it is clear that during the child-bearing period^ their ability to do either of these things is so far interfered with, both by pregnancy and by the suckUng of in&nts, that they are practically excluded from them. Though the Dahomans with their army of amazons, show us that women may be warriors; yet the instance proves that women can become warriors only by being practically un- sexed; for, nominally wives of the king, they are celibate, and any unchastity is fatal. But omitting those activities for which women are, during large parts of their lives, physically incapacitated, or into which they cannot enter in considerable numbers without fatally diminishing popula- tion, we cannot define the division of labour between flie sexes, further than by saying that, before civilization begins, the stronger sex forces the weaker to do all the drudgery; and that cdong with social advance the apportionment, somewhat mitigated in character, becomes variously specialized under varying conditions.
As bearing on the causes of the mitigation, presently to be dealt with, we may here note that women are better treated where circumstances lead to likeness of occupations between the sexes. Schoolcraft remarks of the Chippe- wayans that ''they are not remarkable for their activity as hunters; which is owing to the ease with which they snare deer and spear fish; and these occupations are not beyond the strength of their old men, women, and boys; " and then, he also says that " though the women are as much in the power of the men as other articles of their property, they c c c 754 THi w>iamc BiULTion.
MTQ alwafs ooaBaltod, and powmm a revy qoBsideraUe in- fluiix ia ihm tnfio with EuopesB^ and otlier importaiii ooaoenu." We read* too> in Lawk and Glarki^ that "amoag tke ClataopB and ChiiwookBj who lire upoa fiah and tooti^ whkh the wooien are equally expert with the OMQ in pfoewiag, the fomer have a lank and infliMinoe rerj laidy foiiiid among IndJanw* The females are per- mitted to ipeak freely betove the men, to whom, indeed, thflj ■ometimeH address themaelTes in a tone of authority/' Then, 9gBm^ Bancroft tells as that ** in the proYinoe of Caebi^ women aconnnpaiiy the men, fighting hy their side and aometiiaeB even leading the r^JXi" and of this same people he also quotes Wafer as saying that ''their husbands are very hind and loving to them. I never knew an Indian beat his wife, or give her any hard words/' A kindred meaning spears traeeaUe in a fact supplied by the DahomanSt among whom, sanguinary and utterly unfeeling as they axe, the participation of women with men in war, goes along with a social siaittf much higher than usual; for Bnrtoa telk ns that in Dahomey " the woman is officially superior, but under other conditions she still suffers from }» }» A piobable further canse of improvement in the treat- ment of women may here he noted: I refer to the obtain- ing of wivee by services rendered^ instead of by property paid. The practice which Hebrew tradition acquaints ns with in the case of Jacob> proves to be a widely diSosed practice* It is general with the Bhils, Gonds, and Hill- tribes of Nepaul; it obtained in Java before Mahometanism was introduced; it was common in Ancient Peru and Central America; and among snndiy existing American races it still occurs. Obviously, a wife long laboured for is likely to be more valued than one stolen or boaght. Ob- viously, too^ the period of service, during which the be- trothed girl is looked upon as a future spouse, affords room for the growth of some feeling higher than tiie merely tSM STATUS Off WOMEN. 75& • iii8tiacti^qft'---iiutiates ^OBictU^ approaduflg to the coort* Asp mod eagsigemsat of civilized peoplea* Bat the factft dhiefly to be B0ted are^^Bsmt, that this modifioationy piacii-- eable with diftcnl^ juacny the xadest piedotoiy tribes^ hecomes gzedaally mon practicable as there asise estab- lished isdnstries aflEoidiag spheres in whiofa services may be re&dwed; and^ second^ Aatit is the poerer members of the efiBamwniiiy, oecnpied in labour and uoaUe to buy their wives^ am/OQg whom the sobstitattioii of service for pvrohase will most pievailr the implication being that this higher form of marriage into which the iodostrial class is led^ developa akmg witk the iadnrttial lype.
And now we are introduced to the general question — Whai connezioa is there between the stattkB of women and the type of sodal organisation?
{ 327. A partial answer to this question was reached when we oonckided that there axe natural associations between militancy and polygyny and between industviahiess and monogamy. For as polygyny implies a low position of women, while monogamy is a pre-reqnisite to a high positioED. of women; it follows that decrease of militancy and increase of industrialness^ are general concomitants of a rise in their position. This conclnsien appears also to be coi^fmons wiiih the &et jnst observed. The truth that among peoples otherwise inferior, the position of women is relativdy good where their occupations are nearly the same as those of men, seems allied to the wider truth that their positic» becomes good in proportion as warlike activi- ties are i^placed by iisdastrial activities; since, when the men fight while the women work, the difEerence of occupa- tien is greater than when both are engaged in productive labours, however unlike such labours may be in kind. From general reasons for alleging this connexion, let us now pass to more special reasons.
As it needed no marshalling of evidence to prove that 756 TUK DOMESTIC RELATIONS.
the chronic militancy characterizing low simple faribes, habitually goes with polygyny; so^ it needs no marshalling of evidence to prove that along with this chronic militancy there goes a brutal treatment of women. It will suffice if we here glance at the converse cases of simple tribes whidi are exceptional in thei]^ industrialness and at the same time exceptional in the higher positions held by women among them. Even the rude Todas, low as are the sexual relations implied by their combined polyandry and polygyny, and little developed as is the industry implied by their semi- settled cow-keeping lif e^ furnish evidence: to the men and boys are left all the harder kinds of work, and the wives "do not even step out of doors to fetch water or wood. which « * « is brought to them by one of their hnabands;'' and this trait goes along with the trait of peacefulness and entire absence of the militant type of social stmctare. Striking evidence is furnished by another of the Hill-tribes — ^the Bodo and Dhimdls. We have seen that among peoples in low stages of culture, these furnish a marked case of non-militancy, absence of the political organization which militancy develops, absence of class-distinctions, and presence of that voluntary exchange of services implied by industrialism; and of them, monogamous as already shown, we read — ''The Bodo and Dhinffls use their wives and daughters well; treating them with confidence and kind- ness. They are free from all out-door work whatever." Take, again, the Dyaks, who though not without tribal fends and their consequences, are yet without stable chieftainships and military organization, are predominantly industrial, and have rights of individual property well developed. Though among the varieties of them the customs differ somewhat, yet the general fact is that the heavy out-door work is mainly done by the men, while the women are gesierally well treated and have considerable privileges. Witli their monogamy goes regular courtship, and the girls choose their mates; St. John says of the Sea Dyaks that THE STATUS OF WOMEN.. 757 " Husbands and wives appear to pass their lives very agree- ably together;'' and Bajah Brooke names Mukah as a part of Borneo where the wives close their doors^ and will not receive their husbands^ unless they procure fish. Then, as a marked case of a simple community having relatively high industrial organissation^ with elective head^ representative council, and the other concomitants of the type, and who are described as '^ industrious, honest, and peace-loving,'' we have the Pueblos, who, with that monogamy which chaitM^terizes their family relations, also show us a remark- ably high status of women. For among them not simply is there courtship, and choice exercised by girls — ^not simply do we read that " no girl is forced to marry against her will, however eligible her parents may consider the match,'' but sometimes, according to Bancroft, '' the usual order of courtship is reversed; when a girl is disposed to marry she does not wait for a young man to propose to her, but selects one to her own liking and consults her father, who visits the parents of the youth and acquaints them with his daughter's wishes."
On turning from simple societies to compound societies, we find two adjacent ones in Polynesia exhibiting a strong contrast between their social types as militant and indus- trial, and an equally strong contrast between the positions they respectively give to women: I refer to Fijians and Samoans. The Fijians show us the militant structure, actions, and sentiments, in extreme forms. Under an un- mitigated despotism there are fixed ranks, obedience the most profound, marks of subordination amounting to wor- ship; there is an organized military system with its grades of officers; the lower classes exist only to supply neces- saries to the warrior classes, whose sole business is war, merciless in its character and accompanied by cannibalism. And here, along with prevalent polygyny, carried among the chiefe to the extent of from ten to a hundred wives, wo find the position of women such that, not only are they, as 9Se TAB mmsne mAnonB.
araosg ike lowest aavugcs, '^KHfo better Ifcui beMfa of berdeV aaid not onlj ottf Hwy b&BoId at pTnennm^ boi a mn may kill and eat Iub wife ^ he pieases. Goninrrinae, in SanKM the tjpe of tfe x«gidaluig Byotem kas become is a eoiMideraUe degree zadoflilrial, Tbere is mpiueentatife go- venuBBBtj and cbieftaina^ exertSsing anAority niider cob- sidenble restraint^ are portlj eleetiye; wfaile the indortriBl orgaoization is so far developed that there are fmnMBjiam and apprentioes, there is p^rment for labour, and thofe ire even strikes, with a radimeBtary trades-izniomsBa. And hoc, beyond that imfHroFement of women's Haius implied hj limitation of th^ labours to the l^hter kinds whOe mei take the heavier, there is the improvement imjdied by the fact that *' the hnsband has to provide a dowry, as well a^ the wife, and the dowry of each most be pretty neirijof eqnal valae,'' and by the fnot that a oonple who have lired together for years, make, at separation, a fair division of Ife property. Of otiier compound soeietieB fit for comparison, I may name two in America, North and BcvA, the Iroquois and the Auraucanians. Thongh these, alike in degree of composition, were both formed by oomfaioataon in war against civilized invaders; yet, in their social stroc- tores, they differed in the respect that the Avraocaniaiv^ became decidedly militant in their reg^olative orgaani- tion, while ihe Iroquois did not give tiheir regulative or* ganiiation the militant form; for the governing agancieFy general and local, were in the one personal and heredifaury and in the other representative. Now thongh these two peoples were much upon a par in the division of laboor between the sexes — ^the men limiting themselves to war, tk^ chase, and fishing, leaving to the women tiie labours of i^ field and the house; yet along with Ae freer political type of the Iroquois there went a freer domestic type; as diown by the facts that the women had separate proprietuy rights, that they took with them the children in oases of separation, and that marriages were arranged by the I mothers No defim'te evMeoce either my ii ftmadied bj the doably^mpwmtl nociettes of Awaent Amenca. The poKtial organiBation of Kesieo «a» in a hagh ^gree miUtaat in type; Imt akmg witti it flwi* Wt m elaborate iadiistml otgmiaation, witt extennre dmsioii of laboar and conaide«ble oonuBercial iBteraoime; ani, excepting in the polygyny and concubinage of the npper clawes, and occasional inheritance of wives as property, ti^ position of women appears to have been not bad. Tl^e l-femvian nation, which, though less sangninary in its obi serronces, had the militant stractnre carried out far more eonqdetdy, so that its indrotrial organization formed part rtf the political organization, gave a lower ttatus to women,; who did the hard work, and who, in the upper ranks at least, had to sacrifice themselves on the deaths of tiiett Irasbaiids.
The highest societies, ancient and modem, are many o€ them rendered in one way or otber unBt tor compari- sons. In some cases tlie evidence is inadequate; in some cases we know not wliat the antecedents hate been; in some cases the facts liave been confused by agglomera- tion of different societies; and in all cases the co-operating influences have increased in nnmber. Concerning tbe moist ancient ones, of which we know least, we can do no more than say that the traits presented l>y them are not incon- sistent with the view here set f ortli. The Accadians, who before reaching that height of civilization at which phonetic writing was achieved, must liave existed in a settled popti- Ions state for a vast period, mnst have therefore had for %x, vast period a considerable industrial organization; and vt. seems not improbable tbat during such period, being paw«^^^ in comparison with, ivandering tribes aronnd, their •o^V^jA life, little perturbed by enemies^ was substantially pruMm^w^^ Hence there is no i3icon.gmity in the fact tbat -Ckkey shown by their records to bave given their won tively high status -• "wives owned property, and i&e 760 THE DOMESTIC RELATIONS.
of mothers was especially enjoined by their laws. Of the Egyptians something similar may be said. Their earhest wall-paintings show as a people far advanced in arts, in- dostry, observances^ mode of life. The implication is irre- sistible that before the stage thos depicted^ there most hare been a long era of rising civilization; and since this era was passed in an isolated fertile tract, mostly snrroimded by such nomadic hordes only as the deserts ooold snpport, the Egyptians were relatively strong, and may not im- probably have long led a life largely industrial. So that though the militant type of social stractore evolved dnring the time of their consolidation, and made sacred hj their form of religion, continued; yet industrialism must have become an important factor, inflnendng greatly tbdr social arrangements, and diffusing its appropriate senti- ments and ideas. And the position of women was relatively good. Though polygyny existed it was unusual; matri- monial regulations were strict and divorce difficult; " mar- ried couples lived in full community;'' women shared m social gatherings as they do in our own societies; in sundij respects they had precedence given to them; and, in tlie words of Ebers, " many other facts might be added to proTC the high state of married life/' Ancient Aryan societies illustrate well the relationship between the domestic regime and the political regime. The despotism of an irresponsible head, which character- izes the militant type of structure, characterized alike the original patriarchal family, the cluster of &milies having a conmion ancestor, and the united clusters of families forming the early Aryan community. As Mommsen describes him, the early Roman ruler once in office, stood towards citizens in the same relation that the father of the family did to wife, children, and slaves: " the regal power had not, and could not have, any external checks imposed upon it by law: the master of the community had no judge of his acts within the communiiy, any more than the honse- THE STATUS OF W0M8K. 761 &tlLer liad a judge within his household. Death alone ter- minated his power /^ From this first stage^ in which the political head was absolute^ and absoluteness of the domestic head went to the extent of life and death power over his wife, the advance towards a higher status of women was doubtless, as Sir H. Maine contends, largely caused by that disintegration of the family which went along with the progressing union of smaller societies into larger ones effected by conquest. But though successful militancy thus furthered female emancipation, it did so only. by thereafter reducing the relative amount of militancy; and the emancipation was really associated with an average increase of industrial structures and activities. As before pointed out, militancy is to be measured not so much by success in war as by the extent to which it occupies the male population. Where all men are warriors and the work is done entirely by women, militancy is the greatest. The introduction of a class of males who, joining in pro- ductive labour, lay the basis for an industrial organiza- tion, qualifies the militancy. And as the industrial class, at first consisting though it does wholly of slaves, increases in proportion to the militant class, the total activities of the society must be regarded as more industrial and less mili- tant. In another way the same truth is implied, if wo consider that when a number of small hostile societies are consolidated by triumph of the stronger, the amount of fighting throughout the area occupied becomes less, although the conflicts now from time to time arising with neighbour- ing larger aggregates may be on a greater scale. This is clearly seen on comparing the ratio of fighting men to population among the early Romans, with the ratio between the armies of the Empire and the number of people included in the Empire. And there is the further fact that the holding together of these compound and doubly-compound societies eventually formed by conquest, and the efficient co-operation of their parts for military purposes, itself im- 762 TSB Dcoasnc shahoiis.
plies an increased dcrvdopment of tiie inAoBtrial tion. Great armies oarrying^ on op«ratioi» at the ptripkny of a gpreat tenitoxy^ imply a nnmennxs woildi^ popuslMO, a consideralde division of labomTy and good appfiueoB for transferring BnppUes: lite sustaining and distribvtuig systems must be well devdoped before large milituit stractures can be worked. So tiiat tUs diaislegxaiMm of the patriarchal &mily, and consequent esnancqiatioi ^ woraen, which went along with growtk of &b Bonian Sn- pire^ really had for its concomitant a devoiupMcaat of Ae indosiarial organization.
§ S28. In other ways a like relation of causa and oBeoiis shown ns daring the progress of Earopmn aocHties aw Boman times.
Respecting the Hei^tue of women in mefissval Eoropei Sir Heniy Maine says >— ** There cm be no aerioas qnestioa tikat, in its iilliBSita wmSk^ disraptkxa of ilia Bonuoi Empiie wss veiry nahmmnhie to Hie penonal and pn^zietaiy liberty of women. I pnzpoaely sa^ 'in its nUimite zesult,' in order to avoid a learned controYenQr as to their poatuc nnder purely Teutonic costom/' Now leaving open the question whether this oondnnoii applies "beyond those parts of Europe in which inslits* tions of Boman origin were least affected hj those d Germanic ori^n, we may^ I think^ on contrasting ^ condition of things before the fall of the Empire and the condition after^ infer a connexion between this decline is the staius of women and a return to greater militancy. For while Roman power held together the populations of larg*^ areas^ there existed throughout them a state of compara- tiye internal peace; whereas its failure to maintain sob- ordination was followed by universal warfare: prodacing from time to time larger aggregates and again dissolutioiis of them, until the disintegration had reached the stage in which there existed numerous feudal governments mutnaOy hostile. And then^ after that decline in the position of ns vBOum op mmnr. 78S w<nneft wiiidli aoeompamed iiiis ratrognde increMe of mSitanc^, I3i6 sabaeqa^it iaproremefit in their pcMntioa Treot aiong wi4ih i^gregaiSon of sBiaUer f eadiJ! gofwnaients into hirger o&es^ wludi Itad fhe reeolt timt wiIUxl tiie consolidated territorieB the amoimt of dtfhsed figbtiag decreased.
Comparisons between the chief oiriliBed nations as noir existing^ yield renfications. Note^ finite t3ie tact, significant of the relation between pofitical despotism and domestic despotism, thai, according to Legonv6, Napoleon I. saM to ihe Council of State " xm man doit avoir un empire abs^a sar les actions de sa femme ''; and that sondiy pFovisions of the Code, as intrepreted by Pothier, carry out this dictum. Further, note that, according to de S6gmr, &e positioQ of women in France declined under the Empire; and that " it was not only in ihe hi^er ranks that this nullity of women existed. * « « The habit of figliting filled men with a kind of contempt and aspenty which made them often forget even the regard which they owed to wesSk- ness/' Passing over less essential oontrssta now pre- sented by the leading Enropean peoples, and considering chiefly the siaius as displayed in the daily lives of the poorer rather than the richer, it is mamfest that the mass of women have harder lots where militant organisation and activity predominate, than they hare where there is a predominance of industrial organization and activity. The sequence observed by travellsrB in Afiica, that in pro* portion as the men are occupied in war more labour falls on tho women, is a sequence wiubh both France and Germany show us. Bocial snstentation has to be carried on; and necessarily the more males are drafted off for military service, the more femalea most be called on to fill their places as workers. Hence the extent to which in Garmauy women are occupied in rough ont*of-door tasks — digging, wheeling, carrying burdens; hence the extent to which in France heavy field-operations are shared in by 764 THi Doxssnc bxultionb.
women. Tbat the English housewife is less a dmdge ihan her German sister^ tiiat among shopkeepers in Ehi^land she is not required to take so large a share in the basiness ss she is among shopkeepers in FrancOj and that in ESngland the out-of-door work done by women is both smaller in quantity and lighter in kind^ is clear; as it is dear that thib difference is associated with a lessened demand on thei male population for purposes of offence and def enoe« And then there may be added the fact of kindred meanings that in the United States^ where till the late war the degree of militancy had been so small^ and the industrial type of social structure and action so predominant^ women hare I'eached a higher status than anywhere else.
Evidence furnished by existing Eastern nations^ so tai as it can be disentangled^ supports this view. China^ with its long history of wars causing consolidations, dissolntions. re-consolidations^ etc.^ going back more than 2,000 years b.c^ and continuing during Tartar and Mongol conquests to be militant in its activities and arrangements, has, notwith- standing industrial growth, retained the militant type of structure; and absolutism in the State has been accom- panied by absolutism in the family, qualified in the one as in the other, only by the customs and sentiments which industrialism has fostered: wives are bought; concnbinage is common among those adequately well off; widows are sometimes sold as concubines by fathers-in-law; and wo- men join in hard work, sometimes to the extent of being harnessed to the plough; while, nevertheless, this low stattis is practically raised by a public opinion that checks the harsh treatment legally allowable. Similarly Japan, which, passing through long periods of internal conjiict ending in integration, acquired an organization completely militant, under which political freedom was unknown, showed a simultaneous absence of freedom in the house* hold — ^buying of wives, concubinage, divorce at mere wiD of husband, crucifixion or decapitation for wife's adultery; THE STATUS OP WOMEN. 765 whild^ along with tlie growth of industrialism characteriz- ing the later dajrs of Japan, there went such improve- ment in the legal status of women that the husband was no longer allowed to take the law into his own hands in case of adultery; and now, though women are occa- sionally seen using the flail, yet mostly the men, accord- ing to Sir Rutherford Alcock, " leave their women to the lighter work of the house, and perform themselves the harder out-door labour/' § 329. It is of course difficult to generalize phenomena into the genesis of which there enter factors so numerous and involved — character of race, religious beliefs, surviving customs and traditions, degree of culture, etc.; and doubt- less the many co-operating causes give rise to incongrui- ties which qualify somewhat the conclusion drawn. But, on summing up the several arguments, we shall I think see that condusion to be substantially true.
The least entangled evidence is that which most distinctly forces this conclusion upon us. Bemembering that nearly all simple uncivilized societies, having chronic feuds with their neighbours, are militant in their activities, and that their women are extremely degraded in position, the fact that in the exceptional simple societies which are peaceful and industrial, there is an exceptional elevation of women, almost alone suffices as proof: neither race, nor creed, nor culture, being in these cases an assignable cause.
The connexions which we have seen exist between mili- tancy and polygyny and between industrialness and mono- gamy, present the same truth under another aspect; since polygyny necessarily implies a low status of women, and monogamy, if it does not necessarily imply a high staiuSf is an essential condition to a high status.
Further, that approximate equalization of the sexes in numbers which results from diminishing militancy and in- creasing industrialness, conduces to the elevation of women; 9V6 TBI soHnnc siLiTioau.