CHAPTER 9.

by Mary Wollstonecraft

　　OF THE PERNICIOUS EFFECTS WHICH ARISE FROM THE UNNATURALDISTINCTIONS ESTABLISHED IN SOCIETY.>From the respect paid to property flow, as from a poisonedfountain, most of the evils and vices which render this world sucha dreary scene to the contemplative mind. For it is in the mostpolished society that noisome reptiles and venomous serpents lurkunder the rank herbage; and there is voluptuousness pampered by thestill sultry air, which relaxes every good disposition before itripens into virtue.

　　One class presses on another; for all are aiming to procure respecton account of their property: and property, once gained, willprocure the respect due only to talents and virtue. Men neglectthe duties incumbent on man, yet are treated like demi-gods;religion is also separated from morality by a ceremonial veil, yetmen wonder that the world is almost, literally speaking, a den ofsharpers or oppressors.

　　There is a homely proverb, which speaks a shrewd truth, thatwhoever the devil finds idle he will employ. And what but habitualidleness can hereditary wealth and titles produce? For man is soconstituted that he can only attain a proper use of his facultiesby exercising them, and will not exercise them unless necessity, ofsome kind, first set the wheels in motion. Virtue likewise canonly be acquired by the discharge of relative duties; but theimportance of these sacred duties will scarcely be felt by thebeing who is cajoled out of his humanity by the flattery ofsycophants. There must be more equality established in society, ormorality will never gain ground, and this virtuous equality willnot rest firmly even when founded on a rock, if one half of mankindare chained to its bottom by fate, for they will be continuallyundermining it through ignorance or pride. It is vain to expectvirtue from women till they are, in some degree, independent ofmen; nay, it is vain to expect that strength of natural affection,which would make them good wives and good mothers. Whilst they areabsolutely dependent on their husbands, they will be cunning, mean,and selfish, and the men who can be gratified by the fawningfondness, of spaniel-like affection, have not much delicacy, forlove is not to be bought, in any sense of the word, its silkenwings are instantly shrivelled up when any thing beside a return inkind is sought. Yet whilst wealth enervates men; and women live,as it were, by their personal charms, how, can we expect them todischarge those ennobling duties which equally require exertion andself-denial. Hereditary property sophisticates the mind, and theunfortunate victims to it, if I may so express myself, swathed fromtheir birth, seldom exert the locomotive faculty of body or mind;and, thus viewing every thing through one medium, and that a falseone, they are unable to discern in what true merit and happinessconsist. False, indeed, must be the light when the drapery ofsituation hides the man, and makes him stalk in masquerade,dragging from one scene of dissipation to another the nervelesslimbs that hang with stupid listlessness, and rolling round thevacant eye which plainly tells us that there is no mind at home.

　　I mean, therefore, to infer, that the society is not properlyorganized which does not compel men and women to discharge theirrespective duties, by making it the only way to acquire thatcountenance from their fellow creatures, which every human beingwishes some way to attain. The respect, consequently, which ispaid to wealth and mere personal charms, is a true north-eastblast, that blights the tender blossoms of affection and virtue.Nature has wisely attached affections to duties, to sweeten toil,and to give that vigour to the exertions of reason which only theheart can give. But, the affection which is put on merely becauseit is the appropriated insignia of a certain character, when itsduties are not fulfilled is one of the empty compliments which viceand folly are obliged to pay to virtue and the real nature ofthings.

　　To illustrate my opinion, I need only observe, that when a woman isadmired for her beauty, and suffers herself to be so farintoxicated by the admiration she receives, as to neglect todischarge the indispensable duty of a mother, she sins againstherself by neglecting to cultivate an affection that would equallytend to make her useful and happy. True happiness, I mean all thecontentment, and virtuous satisfaction that can be snatched in thisimperfect state, must arise from well regulated affections; and anaffection includes a duty. Men are not aware of the misery theycause, and the vicious weakness they cherish, by only incitingwomen to render themselves pleasing; they do not consider, thatthey thus make natural and artificial duties clash, by sacrificingthe comfort and respectability of a woman's life to voluptuousnotions of beauty, when in nature they all harmonize.

　　Cold would be the heart of a husband, were he not renderedunnatural by early debauchery, who did not feel more delight atseeing his child suckled by its mother, than the most artful wantontricks could ever raise; yet this natural way of cementing thematrimonial tie, and twisting esteem with fonder recollections,wealth leads women to spurn. To preserve their beauty, and wearthe flowery crown of the day, that gives them a kind of right toreign for a short time over the sex, they neglect to stampimpressions on their husbands' hearts, that would be rememberedwith more tenderness when the snow on the head began to chill thebosom, than even their virgin charms. The maternal solicitude of areasonable affectionate woman is very interesting, and thechastened dignity with which a mother returns the caresses that sheand her child receive from a father who has been fulfilling theserious duties of his station, is not only a respectable, but abeautiful sight. So singular, indeed, are my feelings, and I haveendeavoured not to catch factitious ones, that after having beenfatigued with the sight of insipid grandeur and the slavishceremonies that with cumberous pomp supplied the place of domesticaffections, I have turned to some other scene to relieve my eye, byresting it on the refreshing green every where scattered by nature.I have then viewed with pleasure a woman nursing her children, anddischarging the duties of her station with, perhaps, merely aservant made to take off her hands the servile part of thehousehold business. I have seen her prepare herself and children,with only the luxury of cleanliness, to receive her husband, whoreturning weary home in the evening, found smiling babes and aclean hearth. My heart has loitered in the midst of the group, andhas even throbbed with sympathetic emotion, when the scraping ofthe well known foot has raised a pleasing tumult.

　　Whilst my benevolence has been gratified by contemplating thisartless picture, I have thought that a couple of this description,equally necessary and independent of each other, because eachfulfilled the respective duties of their station, possessed allthat life could give. Raised sufficiently above abject poverty notto be obliged to weigh the consequence of every farthing theyspend, and having sufficient to prevent their attending to a frigidsystem of economy which narrows both heart and mind. I declare, sovulgar are my conceptions, that I know not what is wanted to renderthis the happiest as well as the most respectable situation in theworld, but a taste for literature, to throw a little variety andinterest into social converse, and some superfluous money to giveto the needy, and to buy books. For it is not pleasant when theheart is opened by compassion, and the head active in arrangingplans of usefulness, to have a prim urchin continually twitchingback the elbow to prevent the hand from drawing out an almost emptypurse, whispering at the same time some prudential maxim about thepriority of justice.

　　Destructive, however, as riches and inherited honours are to thehuman character, women are more debased and cramped, if possible bythem, than men, because men may still, in some degree, unfold theirfaculties by becoming soldiers and statesmen.

　　As soldiers, I grant, they can now only gather, for the most part,vainglorious laurels, whilst they adjust to a hair the Europeanbalance, taking especial care that no bleak northern nook or soundincline the beam. But the days of true heroism are over, when acitizen fought for his country like a Fabricius or a Washington,and then returned to his farm to let his virtuous fervour run in amore placid, but not a less salutary stream. No, our Britishheroes are oftener sent from the gaming table than from the plough;and their passions have been rather inflamed by hanging with dumbsuspense on the turn of a die, than sublimated by panting after theadventurous march of virtue in the historic page.

　　The statesman, it is true, might with more propriety quit the FaroBank, or card-table, to guide the helm, for he has still but toshuffle and trick. The whole system of British politics, if systemit may courteously be called, consisting in multiplying dependentsand contriving taxes which grind the poor to pamper the rich; thusa war, or any wild goose chace is, as the vulgar use the phrase, alucky turn-up of patronage for the minister, whose chief merit isthe art of keeping himself in place.

　　It is not necessary then that he should have bowels for the poor,so he can secure for his family the odd trick. Or should some showof respect, for what is termed with ignorant ostentation anEnglishman's birth-right, be expedient to bubble the gruff mastiffthat he has to lead by the nose, he can make an empty show, verysafely, by giving his single voice, and suffering his lightsquadron to file off to the other side. And when a question ofhumanity is agitated, he may dip a sop in the milk of humankindness, to silence Cerberus, and talk of the interest which hisheart takes in an attempt to make the earth no longer cry forvengeance as it sucks in its children's blood, though his cold handmay at the very moment rivet their chains, by sanctioning theabominable traffick. A minister is no longer a minister than whilehe can carry a point, which he is determined to carry. Yet it isnot necessary that a minister should feel like a man, when a boldpush might shake his seat.

　　But, to have done with these episodical observations, let me returnto the more specious slavery which chains the very soul of woman,keeping her for ever under the bondage of ignorance.

　　The preposterous distinctions of rank, which render civilization acurse, by dividing the world between voluptuous tyrants, andcunning envious dependents, corrupt, almost equally, every class ofpeople, because respectability is not attached to the discharge ofthe relative duties of life, but to the station, and when theduties are not fulfilled, the affections cannot gain sufficientstrength to fortify the virtue of which they are the naturalreward. Still there are some loop-holes out of which a man maycreep, and dare to think and act for himself; but for a woman it isan herculean task, because she has difficulties peculiar to her sexto overcome, which require almost super-human powers.

　　A truly benevolent legislator always endeavours to make it theinterest of each individual to be virtuous; and thus private virtuebecoming the cement of public happiness, an orderly whole isconsolidated by the tendency of all the parts towards a commoncentre. But, the private or public virtue of women is veryproblematical; for Rousseau, and a numerous list of male writers,insist that she should all her life, be subjected to a severerestraint, that of propriety. Why subject her to propriety—blindpropriety, if she be capable of acting from a nobler spring, if shebe an heir of immortality? Is sugar always to be produced by vitalblood? Is one half of the human species, like the poor Africanslaves, to be subject to prejudices that brutalize them, whenprinciples would be a surer guard only to sweeten the cup of man?Is not this indirectly to deny women reason? for a gift is amockery, if it be unfit for use.

　　Women are in common with men, rendered weak and luxurious by therelaxing pleasures which wealth procures; but added to this, theyare made slaves to their persons, and must render them alluring,that man may lend them his reason to guide their tottering stepsaright. Or should they be ambitious, they must govern theirtyrants by sinister tricks, for without rights there cannot be anyincumbent duties. The laws respecting woman, which I mean todiscuss in a future part, make an absurd unit of a man and hiswife; and then, by the easy transition of only considering him asresponsible, she is reduced to a mere cypher.

　　The being who discharges the duties of its station, is independent;and, speaking of women at large, their first duty is to themselvesas rational creatures, and the next, in point of importance, ascitizens, is that, which includes so many, of a mother. The rankin life which dispenses with their fulfilling this duty,necessarily degrades them by making them mere dolls. Or, shouldthey turn to something more important than merely fitting draperyupon a smooth block, their minds are only occupied by some softplatonic attachment; or, the actual management of an intrigue maykeep their thoughts in motion; for when they neglect domesticduties, they have it not in their power to take the field and marchand counter-march like soldiers, or wrangle in the senate to keeptheir faculties from rusting.

　　I know, that as a proof of the inferiority of the sex, Rousseau hasexultingly exclaimed, How can they leave the nursery for the camp!And the camp has by some moralists been termed the school of themost heroic virtues; though, I think, it would puzzle a keencasuist to prove the reasonableness of the greater number of wars,that have dubbed heroes. I do not mean to consider this questioncritically; because, having frequently viewed these freaks ofambition as the first natural mode of civilization, when the groundmust be torn up, and the woods cleared by fire and sword, I do notchoose to call them pests; but surely the present system of war,has little connection with virtue of any denomination, being ratherthe school of FINESSE and effeminacy, than of fortitude.

　　Yet, if defensive war, the only justifiable war, in the presentadvanced state of society, where virtue can show its face and ripenamidst the rigours which purify the air on the mountain's top, werealone to be adopted as just and glorious, the true heroism ofantiquity might again animate female bosoms. But fair and softly,gentle reader, male or female, do not alarm thyself, for though Ihave contrasted the character of a modern soldier with that of acivilized woman, I am not going to advise them to turn theirdistaff into a musket, though I sincerely wish to see the bayonetconverted into a pruning hook. I only recreated an imagination,fatigued by contemplating the vices and follies which all proceedfrom a feculent stream of wealth that has muddied the pure rills ofnatural affection, by supposing that society will some time orother be so constituted, that man must necessarily fulfil theduties of a citizen, or be despised, and that while he was employedin any of the departments of civil life, his wife, also an activecitizen, should be equally intent to manage her family, educate herchildren, and assist her neighbours.

　　But, to render her really virtuous and useful, she must not, if shedischarge her civil duties, want, individually, the protection ofcivil laws; she must not be dependent on her husband's bounty forher subsistence during his life, or support after his death—forhow can a being be generous who has nothing of its own? or,virtuous, who is not free? The wife, in the present state ofthings, who is faithful to her husband, and neither suckles noreducates her children, scarcely deserves the name of a wife, andhas no right to that of a citizen. But take away natural rights,and there is of course an end of duties.

　　Women thus infallibly become only the wanton solace of men, whenthey are so weak in mind and body, that they cannot exertthemselves, unless to pursue some frothy pleasure, or to inventsome frivolous fashion. What can be a more melancholy sight to athinking mind, than to look into the numerous carriages that drivehelter-skelter about this metropolis in a morning, full ofpale-faced creatures who are flying from themselves. I have oftenwished, with Dr. Johnson, to place some of them in a little shop,with half a dozen children looking up to their languid countenancesfor support. I am much mistaken, if some latent vigour would notsoon give health and spirit to their eyes, and some lines drawn bythe exercise of reason on the blank cheeks, which before were onlyundulated by dimples, might restore lost dignity to the character,or rather enable it to attain the true dignity of its nature.Virtue is not to be acquired even by speculation, much less by thenegative supineness that wealth naturally generates.

　　Besides, when poverty is more disgraceful than even vice, is notmorality cut to the quick? Still to avoid misconstruction, thoughI consider that women in the common walks of life are called tofulfil the duties of wives and mothers, by religion and reason, Icannot help lamenting that women of a superiour cast have not aroad open by which they can pursue more extensive plans ofusefulness and independence. I may excite laughter, by dropping anhint, which I mean to pursue, some future time, for I really thinkthat women ought to have representatives, instead of beingarbitrarily governed without having any direct share allowed themin the deliberations of government.

　　But, as the whole system of representation is now, in this country,only a convenient handle for despotism, they need not complain, forthey are as well represented as a numerous class of hard workingmechanics, who pay for the support of royality when they canscarcely stop their children's mouths with bread. How are theyrepresented, whose very sweat supports the splendid stud of an heirapparent, or varnishes the chariot of some female favourite wholooks down on shame? Taxes on the very necessaries of life, enablean endless tribe of idle princes and princesses to pass with stupidpomp before a gaping crowd, who almost worship the very paradewhich costs them so dear. This is mere gothic grandeur, somethinglike the barbarous, useless parade of having sentinels on horsebackat Whitehall, which I could never view without a mixture ofcontempt and indignation.

　　How strangely must the mind be sophisticated when this sort ofstate impresses it! But till these monuments of folly are levelledby virtue, similar follies will leaven the whole mass. For thesame character, in some degree, will prevail in the aggregate ofsociety: and the refinements of luxury, or the vicious repiningsof envious poverty, will equally banish virtue from society,considered as the characteristic of that society, or only allow itto appear as one of the stripes of the harlequin coat, worn by thecivilized man.

　　In the superiour ranks of life, every duty is done by deputies, asif duties could ever be waved, and the vain pleasures whichconsequent idleness forces the rich to pursue, appear so enticingto the next rank, that the numerous scramblers for wealth sacrificeevery thing to tread on their heels. The most sacred trusts arethen considered as sinecures, because they were procured byinterest, and only sought to enable a man to keep GOOD COMPANY.Women, in particular, all want to be ladies. Which is simply tohave nothing to do, but listlessly to go they scarcely care where,for they cannot tell what.

　　But what have women to do in society? I may be asked, but toloiter with easy grace; surely you would not condemn them all tosuckle fools, and chronicle small beer! No. Women might certainlystudy the art of healing, and be physicians as well as nurses. Andmidwifery, decency seems to allot to them, though I am afraid theword midwife, in our dictionaries, will soon give place toaccoucheur, and one proof of the former delicacy of the sex beeffaced from the language.

　　They might, also study politics, and settle their benevolence onthe broadest basis; for the reading of history will scarcely bemore useful than the perusal of romances, if read as merebiography; if the character of the times, the politicalimprovements, arts, etc. be not observed. In short, if it be notconsidered as the history of man; and not of particular men, whofilled a niche in the temple of fame, and dropped into the blackrolling stream of time, that silently sweeps all before it, intothe shapeless void called eternity. For shape can it be called,"that shape hath none?"

　　Business of various kinds, they might likewise pursue, if they wereeducated in a more orderly manner, which might save many fromcommon and legal prostitution. Women would not then marry for asupport, as men accept of places under government, and neglect theimplied duties; nor would an attempt to earn their own subsistence,a most laudable one! sink them almost to the level of those poorabandoned creatures who live by prostitution. For are notmilliners and mantuamakers reckoned the next class? The fewemployments open to women, so far from being liberal, are menial;and when a superior education enables them to take charge of theeducation of children as governesses, they are not treated like thetutors of sons, though even clerical tutors are not always treatedin a manner calculated to render them respectable in the eyes oftheir pupils, to say nothing of the private comfort of theindividual. But as women educated like gentlewomen, are neverdesigned for the humiliating situation which necessity sometimesforces them to fill; these situations are considered in the lightof a degradation; and they know little of the human heart, who needto be told, that nothing so painfully sharpens the sensibility assuch a fall in life.

　　Some of these women might be restrained from marrying by a properspirit or delicacy, and others may not have had it in their powerto escape in this pitiful way from servitude; is not thatgovernment then very defective, and very unmindful of the happinessof one half of its members, that does not provide for honest,independent women, by encouraging them to fill respectablestations? But in order to render their private virtue a publicbenefit, they must have a civil existence in the state, married orsingle; else we shall continually see some worthy woman, whosesensibility has been rendered painfully acute by undeservedcontempt, droop like "the lily broken down by a plough share."

　　It is a melancholy truth; yet such is the blessed effects ofcivilization! the most respectable women are the most oppressed;and, unless they have understandings far superiour to the commonrun of understandings, taking in both sexes, they must, from beingtreated like contemptible beings, become contemptible. How manywomen thus waste life away, the prey of discontent, who might havepractised as physicians, regulated a farm, managed a shop, andstood erect, supported by their own industry, instead of hangingtheir heads surcharged with the dew of sensibility, that consumesthe beauty to which it at first gave lustre; nay, I doubt whetherpity and love are so near a-kin as poets feign, for I have seldomseen much compassion excited by the helplessness of females, unlessthey were fair; then, perhaps, pity was the soft handmaid of love,or the harbinger of lust.

　　How much more respectable is the woman who earns her own bread byfulfilling any duty, than the most accomplished beauty! beauty didI say? so sensible am I of the beauty of moral loveliness, or theharmonious propriety that attunes the passions of a well-regulatedmind, that I blush at making the comparison; yet I sigh to thinkhow few women aim at attaining this respectability, by withdrawingfrom the giddy whirl of pleasure, or the indolent calm thatstupifies the good sort of women it sucks in.

　　Proud of their weakness, however, they must always be protected,guarded from care, and all the rough toils that dignify the mind.If this be the fiat of fate, if they will make themselvesinsignificant and contemptible, sweetly to waste "life away," letthem not expect to be valued when their beauty fades, for it is thefate of the fairest flowers to be admired and pulled to pieces bythe careless hand that plucked them. In how many ways do I wish,from the purest benevolence, to impress this truth on my sex; yet Ifear that they will not listen to a truth, that dear-boughtexperience has brought home to many an agitated bosom, norwillingly resign the privileges of rank and sex for the privilegesof humanity, to which those have no claim who do not discharge itsduties.

　　Those writers are particularly useful, in my opinion, who make manfeel for man, independent of the station he fills, or the draperyof factitious sentiments. I then would fain convince reasonablemen of the importance of some of my remarks and prevail on them toweigh dispassionately the whole tenor of my observations. I appealto their understandings; and, as a fellow-creature claim, in thename of my sex, some interest in their hearts. I entreat them toassist to emancipate their companion to make her a help meet forthem!

　　Would men but generously snap our chains, and be content withrational fellowship, instead of slavish obedience, they would findus more observant daughters, more affectionate sisters, morefaithful wives, more reasonable mothers—in a word, bettercitizens. We should then love them with true affection, because weshould learn to respect ourselves; and the peace of mind of aworthy man would not be interrupted by the idle vanity of his wife,nor his babes sent to nestle in a strange bosom, having never founda home in their mother's.