Louisa Lawson’s Statue in Mudgee

IF you ask what we consider the greatest defect in the education of women, we answer: The absence of an aim in life. Faculties used merely for amusement or ornament lose half their strength. The painter who takes long rambles in search of scenery for his pictures, or the civil engineer who rides through tracts of country, observing all the characteristics, with reference to the shortest and most profitable route for a railroad, has mind and body simultaneously exercised, and is consequently ten times more invigorated than a man who does the same amount of riding or walking under the direction of a physician, with no other object than a vague pursuit of health. And he who studies for some definite use has the advantage over him who pursues the same study merely as a prescribed accomplishment in the routine of education.

It is proverbial that women learn with facility any branch to which they apply themselves in earnest. But, unfortunately, the present construction of society affords very limited employment for the faculties wherewith God has endowed them, and thus condemns them to work, in a great measure, without inspiriting motives. It is generally observed in schools that, up to the age of twelve or fourteen, girls are apt to learn faster than boys, but, after that age, the girls lag behind, and the boys go ahead. The reason is obvious. All the prizes of life are placed within the grasp of boys. They can become Presidents, Governors, Generals, Members of Parliament, Professors, etc. But girls, as soon as they are old enough to think upon the subject, become aware that further progress is impeded by formidable barriers, and, having nothing to pursue, they naturally relax their efforts.

All human beings instinctively desire to attain to eligible situations, and to become of importance, in some way, to their fellow creatures. These motives sharpen the wits to invent, and strengthen the muscles to per- form. But the great misfortune of woman has been that only one avenue to an eligible position was open to her, and that was by marriage, with a prosperous or distinguished man, from whom she could derive reflected lustre. The consequence is that while marriage is only one among very many objects of interest with men, it is the central and all-absorbing subject of interest with women. This fact has been the theme of innumerable jests;

but if men reflect upon the subject, they must see that is the inevitable result of the social system that they have ordained. As a general rule, men are drawn into marriage merely by the natural attraction of the sexes toward each other, the desire for a home, and the wish to transmit property to heirs of their own. But if a woman is ambitious of high social position, if she is avaricious of money, if she is fond of splendid dress and equipage, if she wishes to give largely for benevolent purposes, she must seek the means to gratify all these wishes and aspirations by making what is termed “a good match.” If men had no other road to wealth, distinction and power than by be- coming the appendages of women, we apprehend we should see among them such a “setting of caps” as would furnish a rich theme for jesters and satirists.

The old and still prevailing idea that woman is a mere appendage of man is the root of that defect in education of which we complain. It deprives woman of any other aim in life than marriage, and thus represses her aspirations by confining them within very narrow limits, and weakens her faculties by compelling them to move perpetually in fetters. We laugh at the Chinese for cramping the feet of their women, so that when they attempt to walk, they totter like infants; and yet we insist in pursuing a similar course with regard to the souls of women. Certainly, there has been very great improvement in Europe and America in the course of the last half century, and the good work goes on with increasing rapidity. But woman can never attain to her full spiritual stature till laws and social customs cease to treat her as an appendage to man, and acknowledge her as an independent individual. Never, till that period arrives, can she be really and truly a help meet for man Men have wronged themselves more than they know by treating women as if they were merely conveniences and pretty playthings. Domestic life would be ennobled and purified beyond all calculation if women were generally capable of enlightened interest in all the pursuits of men, and if habits of self-support removed the temptation to marry from selfish motives. Therefore, for the happiness of men, as well as for the dignity and healthy development of women, we wish to see women educated with distinct and various aims in life, leaving marriage to be but one object of interest among many others with them, as it is with men.