The day book. [volume], February 24, 1917, LAST EDITION, Image 13

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

HER SEVEN SELVES! SHADOW OF HER IDEAL
SELF WALKS BESIDE EVERY WOMAN
BY WINONA WILCOX
By the side of every woman walks
a shadow her ideal self.
Man fancies that woman believes
her ideal state to be one of equality
and comradeship with himself. Her
insistence on getting the ballot con
vinces him of this.
But man is wrong. It is not as
man's equal that woman hopes to
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make her dreams come true it is in
independence of his will.
For the ghost that -travels by the
side of the average woman is the
shade of a free woman, a human
being with a right to herself, regard
less of sex.
Woman has made many experi
ments in. seeking for personal liberty.
Parasitism always has been and
probably will remain a favorite form.
The woman who is provided with
luxuries regards herself as an inde
pendent creature. Yet women are
never more completely slaves than
when they depend entirely on men
for food, clothing and amusement.
"When the wife, loaded with jew
els, reposes among cushions," says
an old Roman author, "all things go
downward and the state decays."
The parasite is on a level with the
woman of the harem. Her children,
if she have any, are unfit
,The opposite condition, that of
economical independence, attracts
woman today. But it is not leading
her out of captivity.
So far she has only succeeded in
making herself one more handy cog
in the wheel of man's industries.
The children of the woman who
works for wages outside of the home
are often weaklings. Thus the wom
an who is employed and the woman
who does nothing at all both fail as
mothers in the same degree, al
though for quite different reasons.
But as a rule,-more talking than
thinking is done on this subject And
much of the talking amounts to the
same things as cutting water with a
knife.
Real freedom can come to woman
only through her universal, her nor
mal experience.
Free womanhood means free
motherhood. The ideal woman will
be able to choose how many chil
dren she will have and when she will
have them. This means a new spir
itual relation with man. It is a mat
ter of ideal love, not one of dollars,
and cents, not one of parasitism 01'
of economical independence.
o o
What! Gen. Pershing to marry a
New York widow? Gee! hasn't the
man had enough of punitive expeditions?.
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