THE SEVETH CHAPTER continued...
English translation copyrighted 2nd April 2023.
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HUMANITY, ITS DESTINY.
Humanity is one. The races and nations which compose it are only its organs or elements of an organ, and they have their special task. The modern ideal is to link them in intimate solidarity, as the organs of the same body are linked together.
Humanity is itself the author of its Progress, its Justice, and its ideal which it perfects as it becomes more sensitive, more rational, and better understands the universe, its laws, and itself.
The careful study of the history of our species shows us that the collective destiny of Humanity is to rise above animality, by cultivating the faculties which are special to it, and at the same time to create the arts, the sciences, industry, society, in order to ensure more and more and to an ever greater number, freedom, the means of self-improvement and well-being.
History also tells us that Progress is due to the degree of freedom, the number of free and the practice of equality. From this, it follows that Individual Freedom in Social equality is an imprescriptible right, the only means of giving each individual the power to accomplish his destiny which is an element of the collective destiny: This is why France has since proposed to ideal the triumph of Liberty and equality.
GENDER equality.
The two sexes, being of identical species, are, before Justice, and must be before the law and Society, perfectly equal in Right.
The couple is a Society formed by Love; an association of two distinct and equal beings, who cannot be absorbed, and become a single being, an androgyne.
The woman does not have to claim her rights as a woman, but only as a human person and a member of the social body.
The woman must protest as a wife, human person, and citizen against the laws which subordinate her, and claim her rights until they have been recognized.
What some have called the emancipation of Woman in Love is her slavery, the loss of civilization, and the physical and moral degeneration of the species. Woman, sadly emancipated in this way, far from being free, is the slave of their instincts, and the slave of the passions of man.
However incomplete and imperfect this provisional profession of faith may be, if you gathered around it, ladies, you would restore an ideal to your sex which is corrupting itself and leading the other to the abyss.
You would imprint on education a stamp of Justice, of unity, of rationality which it has never had up to now.
You would enlarge and transform Morality.
Penetrated by a lively faith in human solidarity, you would work seriously for the reform of morals.
Instead of despising the misguided of both sexes, you would use everything to put them back on the right path: for not one of us can believe himself innocent, if there are culprits.
You would moralize work and working women.
In a word, you would prove by your works, that you are worthy to enjoy the rights that you claim; and you would shut your mouths to those insipid babblers who rant in verse and prose against woman's activity, woman's ability, woman's science, woman's rationality, and practicality.
A thousand years of denials are not against them, believe me, ladies, five years well filled with useful work and active devotion.
PART A.
ENCYCLOPEDIC COMMITTEE.
Let's go back, ladies, to some of the collective works that I mentioned to you, and let's talk first of all about the Encyclopedic Committee.
The purpose of this Committee should be to popularize the knowledge acquired so far by Humanity, by conforming to the general doctrine outlined in the preceding paragraph.
The Committee would be composed of an unlimited number of women, each cultivating some artistic, scientific, or literary specialty; they would be classified into as many sections as there were branches of knowledge to be treated, and the members of each section would agree among themselves to divide the work.
The members of the Committee would not lose sight of the fact that their works were addressed to a class of readers with little or no education; that, consequently, they must preserve the scientific style, express themselves simply, and methodically, and not leave without very clear definition the technical terms which they would sometimes be obliged to use.
The completed individual work should come from the section which would examine it in substance; then that of the assembled Committee which would only have to concern itself with clarity, of which it could judge better than the specialties, too accustomed to the language of the science they cultivate to be sufficiently aware when it cannot be understood from all.
In addition to this role of a test audience, the Committee should scrupulously ensure that the author respects the general principles which are the basis of the profession of faith. Thus, for example, an author who would deal with the formation of our globe and the successive manifestations of life on the planet, should not deviate from the rational method, and could not, consequently, present a creator laying the foundations of the earth and breathing life into any nostrils. An author dealing with universal history would not have to subordinate the great facts of humanity to the arrival and mission of a man, as Bossuet did; but to bring out the law of Progress, to subordinate everything to the development of Justice and of the faculties which are special to us. The Committee should clearly understand that it is not there to continue the past, to explain the facts by the unknown, but to prepare for the future, and to explain the facts by the laws which are only their generalization.
The work, approved by the Committee, would be delivered to the printer and would carry at the head the title: Committee of the Women of Progress; and, below the title, the name of the author or authors.
By organizing themselves and working in this way, by delivering their treatises as cheaply as possible, women, in a few years, would have made a popular encyclopedia that would reform Reason, develop the moral sense of the people and their sex, popularize, would make Love the principles of the modern world that the ancient world tries to stifle. By acting thus, educated women would do more for Progress, more against bloody revolutions, the disorders which accompany them, and the reactions which terminate them, than all the measures of repression which are so strongly of masculine taste and whose infallible result is a new storm.
Besides the immense advantage of making possible a rational and popular encyclopedia at a low cost, the Committee would offer its members the means of instructing themselves. Very few of us have sufficient general knowledge, however strong we may be in a specialty: our education has been so defective! In the Bosom of the Committee, each would enlarge her own sphere by enlarging that of her companions: individual labors would be better for it, because all knowledge is connected. Thus, by devoting themselves to national education, the members of the Committee would complete their own.
PART B.
INSTITUTE.
We demand the doubling of the lycées, of the special schools: but the routine is so tenacious, the prejudices so great, that a good deal of time will pass, perhaps, before we have granted our legitimate demands; we must therefore do without men until they are ashamed of their injustice and unreason.
How are we going to do it in terms of education?
We only have one thing to do; it is to find a polytechnic institute to cultivate the so-called exceptional vocations, and to train teachers according to modern principles.
Several objections are made to this proposition. Why, it will be said, cultivate in women specialties which cannot be professions for them? You expose them to setbacks, to suffering. We could answer: wife of an astronomer, the mathematician will share her work; The chemist, wife of a chemist, will help him; the wife of a manufacturer, she will be of great service to him.
The physicist, the mechanic, the woman doctor, etc., will preferably marry the physicist, the mechanic, the doctor, and joint work will give superior results.
We could still answer that the woman, exempted from work by wealth or ease, always has time to spare; that it is healthier for her to employ her in the cultivation of a science or art than in shopping, making idle visits, taking care of rags or, to preserve herself from yawning, spinning some intrigue with a lover who hardly amuses her.
This is what we could answer if we were purely utilitarian, but as before utility is the Right, we say:
Women who have so-called exceptional vocations have the right to cultivate them like men.
If they did not prepare to take their place if they did not feel strongly that they have the right to take it if they did not suffer from their unjust exclusion, this place they would never have.
They must therefore suffer and be indignant: it is from this that the recognition of their rights will come.
Besides, young America is there: we will have the means of finding employment there for exceptional vocations. It will not be the first time that France has forced its children to put their intelligence and their industry at the service of other countries.
Others tell us: Don't you find the teachers sufficiently educated that you want to train by other methods? We answer: their instruction is fragmented, incomplete, literary if you will, but devoid of any philosophy, of any general point of view; they are inculcated with a host of false and contradictory notions; they do not have the firmness to refuse to teach what they do not believe, and harbor prejudices which, deep in their hearts, they do not share.
The student of the Institute would, on the contrary, be a rationalist, a progressive, solidly imbued with the Ideal which he would have been made to verify by the study of history, religions, and laws; she would only say what she thought; would practice only what she herself believed and practiced. Dignified, moral, true, as much by principle as by habit, methodically and philosophically educated, feeling the importance of life, the gravity of its role, carrying in all its relations the idea of Right and Duty, the daughter of The Institute would everywhere be able to fulfill the task imposed on it by its aptitudes and its title as a member of humanity.
It would not be she, in truth, who would say languidly and foolishly to her husband: you, only you, always you; my child it is still you; for he would have been taught that it is failing in what one should, to become absorbed in a being who is always weak, often vicious and despotic; that it would be failing in one's duty towards humanity, to put a particular affection above the general affections, and to dispose of oneself thus to sacrifice justice and the universe to a selfish sentiment.
To the solid and methodical instruction, necessary for the teacher, the pupil of the Institute would join the anatomical, physiological, and hygienic knowledge so necessary to those who direct education, and the best method of teaching, that of Frobel modified, for example.
Do you think that teachers trained in this way would lack employment? I do not believe that.
On the whole surface of Europe, families devoted to the new idea, today embarrassed enough to give a teacher to their children, would not fail to ask for one from the Institute.
The superiority of knowledge and method would induce, on the other hand, a crowd of people to prefer the pupils of the Institute for private lessons.
Finally, the pupils of the mother house would find in France and abroad pensions which would be, in spirit and teaching, only branches of the Institute; pensions in which parents who share our faith would not fail to place their daughters; while the parents who have no settled principle, and who form the great majority, would send theirs there because of the variety of knowledge, and the solidity of the principles that they would draw from it.
All these children of the Institute and their pupils would soon form a nursery of reformers who would regenerate the family, and prepare the peaceful transformation of society, the extension of the law, and the progress of justice.
It is asked who would form the teaching body of the Institute. We answer: as much as possible, members of the Encyclopedic Committee: because what is important is the unity of Doctrine.
We still say: but will there be enough capable women to fulfill this double task? We answer again: yes; for in every branch of knowledge, there are distinguished specialists among us: let all these women be willing, and things will be organized promptly.
PART C.
JOURNAL.
For some time now, in the ranks of advanced women, the need has been felt for a periodical, not only to support the cause of their rights and to work for the reform of morals and education, but to create a criticism and new literature, and finding the placement of earnest articles which the male papers, even run by men of Progress, reject from their columns, in which they admit the often mediocre works of people who are not in the current of the Reformation.
We will not appreciate this behavior of some of those who call themselves our brothers: but since many of them refuse us hospitality, instead of complaining about it and being astonished at it, let us build ourselves a house that is ours.
To render service and succeed, the newspaper should not raise the flag of any social sect and should eliminate political and religious questions properly so called: for it cannot descend into the arena of the passions of sects and parties without harming the cause he would defend.
The editorial staff should be imbued with this truth: that good faith, honor, and devotion meet under all banners; that habit, education, and family relations classify us much more than our will. It is by holding on to this lofty point of view that it would be possible for him to remain just, equitable, and even lenient towards people while combating erroneous doctrines.
The newspaper should be the flag of a new School founded, no longer on Mysticism or Metaphysics, but on reason which deduces our Rights and our Duties from our faculties, our needs, and our relationships.
The work of this journal would be to modify public opinion by rational criticism of the laws, institutions, and customs which oppress women;
To pursue, by way of petition, the reforms ripe in the minds;
To point out the facts of misery and corruption resulting from ignorance, idleness, and the precarious situation of women;
To interest individuals and the government in special measures designed to diminish ignorance and misery;
To work out the methods of education from the modern point of view;
To criticize works of art and literature, not only from the point of view of form, because art for art's sake is nonsense; but from the point of view of substance and moral import;
To report on serious works;
To put science within everyone's reach;
To work for the elaboration of solidarity morality;
Lastly, to support the polemic which its doctrines would raise, by measuring its blows on those of the adversaries; because it is necessary for our spiritual country of France, where one is always right when one beat, always wrong when one is beaten.
Let those who read me think about it: if they sincerely want the triumph of their cause, the peaceful reform of society, they must become a power; and they will only be so by a periodical organ of publicity. A book, however good and strong it may be, produces only a fleeting impression on the public: but a sheet which comes at short intervals and on a fixed day strikes the same chords of the brain, makes them contract the habit of vibrating in a certain way: what at first seems strange, sometimes inadmissible, ends up seeming very acceptable and very normal when you get used to it. A cause is won when the opinion is for it: now this opinion, as far as our rights are concerned, it is up to us to form it and, I repeat, it is much less by books than by a newspaper that we will get there.
PART D.
WORKSHOPS.
A question was on the agenda in 1848; it is always thrilling at the bottom of things: it is the Right to work, at which a crowd of short-sighted people has laughed because they have not understood that the Right to work is the right to live, of which can be eliminated the one who is born; because they have not understood that the Right to work is the right to dignity, to virtue; that it is Justice entering the domain of activity and exchange; that is to say Justice entering its fourth phase to constitute Industrial Law.
We need not dwell on this serious and burning question which is not about to be resolved; only we would like that the women of progress occupy themselves with organizing workshops according to the principles of association so that the wages of the workers increased: everyone knows that it is possible.
What is still possible is to find apprenticeship workshops where young girls would be preserved from the corruption that affects them in workshops dependent on the private industry: on this subject, we could make very sad revelations.
What can be done, finally, is to make the associates of these workshops vote for a regulation that expels any woman of reprehensible morals, just as those who have been drunk three times are eliminated from a presently existing men's association.
Couldn't the Apostolate still organize what is organized among American workers, chastity associations?
It is in these workshops of workers and apprentices, it is in these associations of women, that the Apostolate could best recall the worker to the feeling of her value, of her dignity, to raise her up in her own eyes, speak to her of her duties as a wife, mother, and wife, reveal to her our great destinies, inculcate in her the best method of raising her children, finally make her an instrument of social salvation.
Ah! It is not the working women, ladies, who are found jealous of the superiorities found in their sex. How proud they are of it, on the contrary; how they Love them, when they feel that they are loved, esteemed by them; that we desire nothing so much as to enlighten them, to instruct them. As the apostle of their sex would see them, with smiling faces, fixing their attentive eyes on her, when she said to them: my good friends, this is the straight path; the one you must follow to respect within you the noble character of humanity. Workers of thought, workers of arms, we are all useful for the accomplishment of the common work. By you alone, women of the people, France can be regenerated and saved, if you know how to understand and fulfill your great functions as mothers and wives. Gently and fraternally instruct your children and your husbands as I instruct you myself; repeat to them unceasingly that the Rights are the condition of the accomplishment of the duties; that Duty is their reason for being, their justification. So far revolutionaries have spoken of rights, and left duties in the shadows; it is up to you, women, to restore harmony; for right alone is a license, oppression; duty alone is servitude. Teach everything around you that one should not sacrifice the fatherland to the family, any more than personal dignity and Justice to well-being. It is by acting as I advise you, that you will show yourselves worthy of our brave grandfathers who fought barefoot and without bread for the defense of the national soil and of Liberty.
Women of the bourgeoisie, hear me well, it is by loving your sisters of the people and the people themselves with a mother's Love, it is by devoting yourselves to enlightening them, to moralizing them, it is by raising yourselves above divisive male passions, and not by sharing them and, what is more odious, by exciting them, you will bring hearts together and merge interests; that you will work to make France the true Great Nation, worthy of serving as an example to the Universe.
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English translation copyrighted 2nd April 2023.
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The Book of Women’s Rights. 1860.