thoroughly a femme covert, is being displaced by a gadabout,
truculent, irresponsible creature, full of strange new ideas about her
rights, and strongly disinclined to submit to her husband's authority,
or to devote herself honestly to the upkeep of his house, or to bear
him a biological sufficiency of heirs. And the German Hausfrau,
once so innocently consecrated to Kirche, Kche und Kinder, is
going the same way.




30.


The Emancipated Housewife


What has gone on in the United States during the past two
generations is full of lessons and warnings for the rest of the world.
The American housewife of an earlier day was famous for her
unremitting diligence. She not only cooked, washed and ironed; she
also made shift to master such more complex arts as spinning,
baking and brewing. Her expertness, perhaps, never reached a high
level, but at all events she made a gallant effort. But that was long,
long ago, before the new enlightenment rescued her. Today, in her
average incarnation, she is not only incompetent (alack, as I
have argued, rather beyond her control) ; she is also filled with the
notion that a conscientious discharge of her few remaining duties is,
in some vague way, discreditable and degrading. To call her a good
cook, I daresay, was never anything but flattery; the early American