they might escape the frightful isolation of marriage, might be free
to "live" and to "work," to "know" and to "do."

What it was really all about they never knew until it was too late.
That is, they examined neither the accusations nor the premises. They
accepted them. Strong young natures are quick to accept charges of
injustice. To them it is unnatural that life should be hampered, that
it should be anything but radiant. Curing injustice, too, seems
particularly easy to the young. It is simply a matter of finding a
remedy and putting it into force! The young American woman of
militant cast finds it is easy to believe that the Business of Being a
Woman is slavery. She has her mother's pains and sacrifices and tears
before her, and she resents them. She meets the theory on every hand
that the distress she loathes is of man's doing, that it is for her to
revolt, to enter his business, and so doing escape his tyranny, find a
worth-while life for herself, and at the same time help "liberate" her
sex.

And so for sixty years she has been working on this thesis. That she
has not demonstrated it sufficiently to satisfy even herself is shown
by the fact that she is still the most conspicuous of Uneasy Women.
But that she has produced a type and an influential one is certain.
Indeed, she may be said to have demonstrated sufficiently for
practical purposes what there is for her in imitating the activities
of man.


FOOTNOTES:

[1] DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS