refused to recognize man as an equal and mated simply that they might
rear more women like themselves. Here the tables were turned and the
boy baby turned out--not to the wolves, but to man! The convent has
always been a favorite way of escape.

It has never been a majority of women who for a great length of time
have shirked this problem by any one of these methods. By individuals
and by groups woman has always been seeking to develop the business of
life to such proportions, to so diversify, refine, and broaden it that
no half failure or utter failure of its fundamental relations would
swamp her, leave her comfortless, or prevent her working out that
family which she knew to be her part in the scheme of things. It is
from her conscious attempt to make the best of things when they are
proved bad, that there has come the uneasiness which trails along her
path from Eve to Mrs. Pankhurst.

When great changes have come in the social system, her quest has
responded to them, taken its color and direction from them. The
peculiar forms of uneasiness in the American woman of to-day come
naturally enough from the Revolution of 1776. That movement upset
theoretically everything which had been expected of her before.
Theoretically, it broke down the division fences which had kept her in
sets and groups. She was no longer to be a woman of class; she was a
woman of the people. This was striking at the very underpinning of
femininity, as the world knew it. Theoretically, too, her ears were no
longer to be closed to all ideas save those of her church or
party,--a new thing, freedom of speech, was abroad,--her lips were
opened with man's. Moreover, her business of family building was
modified, as well as her attitude towards life. The necessity of all
women educating themselves that they might be able to educate their