It is safe to say that women will enter far more largely than ever before into movements for the betterment of the race.  Though their way of life may breed neurasthenia for some, it will have this great advantage,—­the mother feeling will sweep into society, will enter politics, and social discussions.  That we need that feeling no one will deny who has ever tried to enlist social energies for race betterment and failed while politicians stepped in for all the funds necessary even for some anti-social activities.  We have too much legalism in our social structure and not near enough of the humanism that the socially minded mother can bring.

Is the increasing incidence of divorce a revolt against domesticity?  To some extent yes, but where women obtain the divorce it is mainly a refusal to tolerate unfaithfulness, desertion, incompatibility of temperament.  It does not mean that the family is threatened by divorce,—­rather that the family is threatened by the conditions for which divorce is nowadays obtained and which were formerly not reasons for divorce.  In many countries adultery on the part of the man, cruel and abusive treatment, chronic intoxication, and desertion were not grounds for divorce.  These to-day are the grounds for divorce, and in the opinion of the writer they should invalidate a marriage.  I would go even further and say that wherever there was concealed insanity or venereal disease the marriage should be annulled, as it is in some States.

Divorce will not then diminish, despite the campaign against it, until the conditions for which it is sought are removed.  Until that time comes, to bind two people together who are manifestly unhappy simply encourages unfaithfulness and cruelty, and is itself a cruelty.

Whether we can devise a system where woman’s individuality and humanness can have scope and yet find her willing to accept the roles of mother and homekeeper, is a serious question.  It seems to me certain that woman will continue to demand her freedom, regardless of her status as wife and mother.  She will continue to receive more and more general and special education, and she will continue to find the role of the traditional housewife more uncongenial.  Out of that maladaptation and the discontent and rebellion will arise her neurosis.

In other words what we must seek to do—­those of us who are not bound by tradition alone but who seek to modify institutions to human beings rather than the reverse—­is to find out what changes in the home and matrimonial conditions are necessary for the woman of to-day and to-morrow.

That there has been a huge migration to the cities in the last century is one of its outstanding peculiarities.  This urban movement has meant the greater concentration of humans in a given area, and it is therefore directly responsible for the apartment house.  That is to say, there has been a trend away from individual homes, completely segregated and individualized, to houses where at least part of the housework was eliminated, in a sense was cooeperative.  This cooeperation is increasing; more and more houses have janitors, more and more houses furnish heat.  In the highest class of apartment house the trend is toward permanent hotel life, with the exception that individual housekeeping is possible.