The fact that for equal work equally well performed by a man and by a
woman, it is ordained that the woman on the ground of her sex alone shall
receive a less recompense, is the nearest approach to a wilful and
unqualified "wrong" in the whole relation of woman to society today. That
males of enlightenment and equity can for an hour tolerate the existence of
this inequality has seemed to me always incomprehensible; and it is only
explainable when one regards it as a result of the blinding effects of
custom and habit. Personally, I have felt so profoundly on this subject,
that this, with one other point connected with woman's sexual relation to
man, are the only matters connected with woman's position, in thinking of
which I have always felt it necessary almost fiercely to crush down
indignation and to restrain it, if I would maintain an impartiality of
outlook. I should therefore much regret if the light and passing manner in
which this question has been touched on in this little book made it seem of
less vital importance than I hold it.

In the last chapter of the original book, the longest, and I believe the
most important, I dealt with the problems connected with marriage and the
personal relations of men and women in the modern world. In it I tried to
give expression to that which I hold to be a great truth, and one on which
I should not fear to challenge the verdict of long future generations--
that, the direction in which the endeavour of woman to readjust herself to
the new conditions of life is leading today, is not towards a greater
sexual laxity, or promiscuity, or to an increased self-indulgence, but
toward a higher appreciation of the sacredness of all sex relations, and a
clearer perception of the sex relation between man and woman as the basis
of human society, on whose integrity, beauty and healthfulness depend the
health and beauty of human life, as a whole. Above all, that it will lead
to a closer, more permanent, more emotionally and intellectually complete