The Woman Socialist/Chapter 6
CHAPTER VI
WOMAN UNDER SOCIALISM: EDUCATION
Before turning to consider the future position of woman, her condition, environment, and occupation under the social and industrial system known as Socialism, it might be advisable to briefly recapitulate the points already dealt with. So far, the propositions laid down have been: That Socialism means the social ownership and control of everything that society needs for the full development of its individual members. That Socialism means, also, the development of the social spirit, the socialisation of men and women; which shall teach them mutual love and service as the highest good they can attain.
That the establishment of true Socialism will be accomplished only through the joint efforts of men and women. The present social system will be changed for something better through an in the laws of the country. Women have no part in this work at present; hence the political enfranchisement of women must precede the establishment of Socialism. That the raising of women to the present position of men would be a great step in the direction of Socialism, and would be a change as revolutionary and far-reaching in its effects as the nationalisation of the land, mines, and railways.
That women calling themselves Socialist ought to put their own question before all others, working for the freeing of women of all classes. That centuries of sexual and domestic enslavement have caused to be evolved the idea that woman's sphere ought to be limited to the bearing of children and the keeping of the house.
In considering the position of the Woman Socialist, one great central fact must be borne constantly in mind. What she will be, what she will do, how she will live—all will depend upon one great fact, the greatest fact in Socialism, a fact which constitutes Socialism, namely, that she will be economically free. That is, her livelihood will be assured to her by the community in return for some service done by her. She will be paid for her work from the public funds, or she will be at liberty to take all her necessaries from the public storehouses, just as developments on socialistic and communistic lines take place. She will not be dependent on any casual individual employer, who might rid himself of her, or refuse to employ her, whenever he chose. She will not need to sell her sex for bread. Nor will she be obliged to enter into a loveless marriage-compact for sustenance.
Her sphere under Socialism will be just whatever her tastes and talents and inclinations demand that it shall be, and the State will protect her and support her whilst she serves society in the sphere of her own choice. Thanks mainly to the strenuous efforts of the splendid women pioneers who have gone before, the education at the command of girls and women at the present time is greatly in advance of that which it was thought fit to give then even so late as half a century ago. But our educational system is by no means perfect yet, and it remains to men and women filled with the ideal of Socialism to perfect our system of State Education in all its branches and departments.
Under Socialism boys and girls will receive exactly the same training and exercise in the fundamentals of a liberal education. At present this obtains, generally, for the first dozen years or so of the children's lives. We are rapidly growing towards the ideal of equal educational opportunities for the sexes, and those opportunities granted have proved the equal power and capacity of men and women to distinguish themselves in scholarship. A Socialist system will still further widen the opportunities of women. Success in examinations, of whatever character, shall bring equal reward and distinction, nor will such a spectacle be possible then as has more than once been witnessed to-day, of a successful male competitor demanding and wearing the honours won by a girl still higher than himself on the list, but not qualified to enjoy a reward because of her sex.
Socialist boys and girls will be educated together. There will be no separation into boys' classes and girls' classes. The instruction being the same they shall receive it at the same time, and by their early comradeship shall learn to honour one another in later life, each recognising the other's peculiar strength and virtues, each helping each in mutual confidence and affection. Plato's prayer shall have more success in Socialist England than it had in heathen Greece—"That young men and women should be more frequently permitted to meet one another, so that there should be less enmity and indifference in the married life."
Opinions as to the benefits, or otherwise, of co-education are very varied. Very few serious objections are urged against the co-education of small children of both sexes. But it is felt by many to be a dangerous proceeding to bring together young men and women at the most critical period of their lives, when the sex-impulse is strongest, and when their studies are liable to be forgotten or neglected in the more attractive occupations of lovers.
If this argument be founded on present experience, it is an additional condemnation of the present system and of its false ideals, producing as it does the over-sexed female, eager for her mate, and the self-indulgent male, superior in the knowledge of his power, and with so little self-respect, and respect for his girl-friend, that he is willing to neglect his books and spoil his own prospects and hers for the sake of a senseless flirtation or a vulgar intrigue.
But in the intermediate stages of Socialist development,—even under a complete Socialism,—the sacred and peculiarly feminine function of motherhood shall be recognised by the community, and an education for that occupation be given to all the female children.
Strange, that to-day so much should be made of the maternal function of woman, and that so much fear should exist of the consequences upon it of increased liberty, when it is remembered that practically no teaching whatever, and certainly no effective training for this great work is given in the schools to those who are to become the mothers of the future.
Some little instruction, very elementary, is given in the principles of Hygiene, Human Physiology, and Domestic Economy, in some of the schools; but this mainly for the purposes of examination. Every other occupation has its apprenticeship, or period of initiation and training. A doctor or a lawyer is not permitted to practise unless he can give the assurance of having attained a certain standard of proficiency or of knowledge in his particular profession. Yet the poor ignorant girl has thrust upon her offices infinitely more important than those of lawyer and doctor, without, in the majority of cases, having received the slightest instruction. How to care for her own body; how to care for her child, to nourish and clothe it, and to tend it in its earliest and most dependent years; these and kindred subjects will form part, and an important part, of the education of every Socialist girl.
And in securing for its women the highest possible education, the Socialist State will be not only acting justly, but it will be displaying the deepest wisdom. "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world" is an old saying, but an infinitely true one. That is why the world is no better than it is. Woman has been degraded, the mother has been kept down, so the children have been born with slavish instincts, ready to creep for any favour, and only just awakening to the need for self-assertion and independence of action.
An extract from the Manchester Examiner and Times for September 1870, and which is to be found quoted in "Woman Free," by Ellis Ethelmer, is finely illustrative of the truth of the old proverb used by our ancestors that "The womb dyes the child." "An American writer says: 'While I lived among the Choctaw Indians, I held a consultation with one of their chiefs respecting the successive stages in their progress in the arts of civilised life, and, among other things, he informed me that at their start they made a great mistake; they only sent the boys to school. Their boys came home intelligent men, but they married uneducated and uncivilised wives, and the uniform result was that the children were all like their mothers. The father soon lost all his interest in both wife and children. And now,' said he, 'if we could educate but one class of our children, we should choose the girls, for when they become mothers, they educate their sons.'"
How can man grow?"