The Man‐Made World
Here are the people on earth, half of them women, all of them her children. It is her earth as much as his; the people are their people, the state their state; compounded of them all, in due relation.
As the father and mother, together; shelter, guard, teach and provide for their children in the home; so should all fathers and mothers, together; shelter, guard, teach and provide for their common children, the community.
The state is no mystery; no taboo place of masculine secrecy; it is simply us.
Democracy is but a half‐grown child as yet, one of twins? Its boy‐half is a struggling thing, with “the diseases of babyhood”; its girl‐half has hardly begun to take notice.
As human creatures we have precisely the same duty and privilege,
interest, and power in the state; sharing its protection, its advantages, and its services. As women we have a different relation.
Here indeed we will admit, and glory in, our “diversity.” The
“eternal womanly” is a far more useful thing in the state than the
“eternal manly.”
To be woman means to be mother. To be mother means to give love,
defense, nourishment, care, instruction. Too long, far too long has motherhood neglected its real social duties, its duties to humanity at large. Even in her position of retarded industrial development, as the housekeeper and houseworker of the world, woman has a
contribution of special value to the state.
As the loving mother, the patient teacher, the tender nurse, the wise provider and care‐taker, she can serve the state, and the state needs her service.