BRENTANO'S NEW YORK
MCMXVI
Copyright, 1916, by Brentano's
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
We are confronted at the present time by the woman who is anxious to layby means for her own support irrespective of the protection of herhusband. In this play I have indicated the tendency of this difficultyand the consequent troubles which the older civilizations will bringupon themselves when the woman's standing as a worker is generallyacknowledged. My conclusion, namely, that all these complications andtroubles are, at present at any rate, owing to the education of the man,points to the remedy, as far as I can see it.
I must inform my readers that the version of La Femme Seule, atranslation of which is now published in this volume, has, so far, notappeared in France and is unknown there; at least as regards the largerpart of the third act. I might, did I think it advisable, reproduce inits entirety a text which certain timidities have led me to emasculate.
As between the man and the woman the ideal situation would, no doubt, bea rehabilitation of the old custom—the man at the workshop and thewoman in the home; thus reserving for her the holiest and most importantof all missions—the one which insures the future of the race by herenlightened care of the moral and physical health of her children.
Unfortunately it happens that the wages of the working-man areinsufficient for the support of a family, and the poor woman istherefore compelled to go to the factory. The results are deplorable.The child is[Pg viii] either entirely abandoned, or given to the State, and thesolidarity of the family suffers in consequence.
Then again a generation of women with new ideas has arisen, who thinkthey should have, if they wish it, the right to live alone and bythemselves, without a husband's protection. However much some of us mayregret this attitude, it is one which must be accepted, since I cannotbelieve that the worst tyrants would dare to make marriage obligatory.These women have a right to live, and consequently a right to work. Alsothere are the widows and the abandoned women.
Women first took places which seemed best fit for them, and which themen turned over to them because the work appeared to be of a charactersuitable to the feminine sex. But the modern woman has had enough of themeagre salary which is to be obtained by means of needle-work, and shehas invaded the shop, the office, the desks of the banks and postoffice. In industry also she has taken her place by the side of theworking-man, who has made room for her first with ironical grace, thenwith grumbling, and sometimes with anger. I believe that in Europe at