He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as she can commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the presence of her husband.  In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master—­the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement.

He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the proper causes, and in case of separation, to whom the guardianship of the children shall be given, as to be wholly regardless of the happiness of women—­the law, in all cases, going upon a false supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all power into his hands.

After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single, and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support a government which recognizes her only when her property can be made profitable to it.

He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty remuneration.  He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and distinction which he considers most honorable to himself.  As a teacher of theology, medicine, or law, she is not known.

  He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough
  education, all colleges being closed against her.

He allows her in Church, as well as State, but a subordinate position, claiming Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the ministry, and, with some exception, from any public participation in the affairs of the Church.

He has created a false sentiment by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and women, by which moral delinquencies which exclude women from society are not only tolerated, but deemed of little account in man.

  He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as
  his right to assign for her a sphere of action, when that belongs
  to her conscience and to her God.

  He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her
  confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to
  make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life.

CHAPTER II

ON THE IMITATION OF MAN

Fresh attacks on life, like chemical experiments, turn up unexpected by-products.  The Uneasy Woman, driven by the thirst for greater freedom, and believing man’s way of life will assuage it, lays siege to his kingdom.  Some of the unexpected loot she has carried away still embarrasses her.  Not a little, however, is of such undeniable advantage that she may fairly contend that its capture alone justifies her campaign.

Go to-day into many a woman’s club house, into many a drawing-room or studio at, let us say, the afternoon tea hour, and what will you see?  One or probably more women in mannish suits and boots calmly smoking cigarettes while they talk, and talk well, about things in which women are not supposed to be interested, but which it is apparent they understand.