monogamous marriage. Surely no long argument is needed to
demonstrate the superior competence and effectiveness of women
here, and therewith their greater self-possession, their saner
weighing of considerations, their higher power of resisting emotional
suggestion. The very fact that marriages occur at all is a proof,
indeed, that they are more cool-headed than men, and more adept in
employing their intellectual resources, for it is plainly to a man's
interest to avoid marriage as long as possible, and as plainly to a
woman's interest to make a favourable marriage as soon as she can.
The efforts of the two sexes are thus directed, in one of the capital
concerns of life, to diametrically antagonistic ends. Which side
commonly prevails? I leave the verdict to the jury. All normal men
fight the thing off; some men are successful for relatively long
periods; a few extraordinarily intelligent and courageous men (or
perhaps lucky ones) escape altogether. But, taking one generation
with another, as every one knows, the average man is duly married
and the average woman gets a husband. Thus the great majority of
women, in this clear-cut and endless conflict, make manifest their
substantial superiority to the great majority of men.


Not many men, worthy of the name, gain anything of net value by
marriage, at least as the [institution is now met with in Christendom.
Even assessing its benefits at their most inflated worth, they are
plainly overborne by crushing disadvantages. When a man marries
it is no more than a sign that the feminine talent for persuasion and
intimidation--i.e., the feminine talent for survival in a world of
clashing concepts and desires, the feminine competence and
intelligence--has forced him into a more or less abhorrent
compromise with his own honest inclinations and best interests.