(pp. 11, 8/9)
Who, I ask, who delivers us from the phrase? –
“from the subordination of the female sex on the basis of the biblical words:
‘he shall be thy master.’”
As a rule, he is exactly that in the lower classes, for the law of the jungle still applies there.
To be sure, in the educated classes, the wife often has predominance in the marriage, but unfortunately, in these cases, it is very rarely the spouses’ good qualities that dictate who rules. – Mean, egotistical female characters can take care of themselves. Nearly always, the female martyrs in matrimony are noble women of refined constitution.
In the few ideal marriages that I know of, however, no one is subordinate and no one superior; what prevails is the most perfect respect for each other’s individual nature; the spouses live in secure freedom, and so will it always be among truly noble people.
But let us stick with the subject of marriages as they generally are, and as they virtually must be on the basis of our social institutions, and let us ask: Who should prevail in these marriages?
Not one of the sexes, Mr. von Nathusius, but an attitude, the nobler attitude and the purer spirit should prevail.
(pp. 17ff)
Nevertheless, the author most kindly wishes to permit three types of occupation as emergency employment to those unhappy, unmarried women who have missed their real vocation:
“The job of deaconess, which includes midwifery by extension, and – would
you believe it – the profession of physician.”
Yet as soon as Mr. von Nathusius has spoken the bold word, he is overwhelmed by moral scruples, which he then attempts to assuage with the following qualification:
“A great deal, however, will depend on steering this aspect of the ‘women’s
question’ in the right direction. If one intends to treat it as nothing but an aspect
of women’s competition with men, without maintaining that each sex has its own
particular strengths and limitations, [ . . . ] then there is the danger that this
competition will fail and the whole thing will end in a ridiculous attempt.”
“The female healer’s vocation will be restricted to women and children
(of course); preferably it will tackle women’s and children’s illnesses.
Men’s superiority with respect to calmness, reason, and energy will
remain rooted in this profession, just as it does in the nature of
both sexes.”
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