By the woman of letters Mrs. Asma Tubi

Look for... the woman who laid the greatest stone in the building of the Pasteur Institute. Look for... the woman who raised the great man of the Arabs in Andalusia. Look for... the woman who contents herself with the portion of the unknown soldier. "And it might only be just to look for the man!"

It is an idea that has prevailed until it has become a fixed creed — the idea that at the root of every disturbance that befalls society, or misfortune that strikes a family, there is a woman.. So whenever the blow falls, people whisper without examination, men and women alike: look for the woman.

An unemployment crisis descends upon the world, and workless laborers fill the land asking for work to bring in bread for their children; meetings are held to consider a solution to the crisis or a lightening of it; they study the matter and study it, then come out shaking their heads and saying, "Look for the woman." Woman has crowded in upon the man, and this crowding has produced the crisis.. And they have forgotten, or pretended to forget, that this woman works, most often, to support her people or her children after they have lost their breadwinner, or to support herself after she had been a heavy burden on the man's shoulder; so she is not a rival at all, but a partner, working just as he works, to lighten the woes of life..

A scandal breaks out in a family; two friends quarrel over a

corrupt passion until blood may even be shed, and tender youth and a brilliant future destroyed; and people whisper, and there issues from their mouths, in a pained sigh: look for the woman. Were they fair, they would lay the responsibility upon the two partners together — upon the friend who betrayed the trust, and upon the wife who betrayed the pledge... Were they fair, they would lay the blame upon a corrupt passion that knows neither selflessness nor sacrifice, upon a debased character, and upon a slack friendship never braced by brotherly love and lofty sincerity.

"I passed a little girl of five, sitting on a doorstep and crying. I asked her, what is the matter, little one? And with all the simplicity of children she answered: Mother has given birth to a girl."

Chaos reigns in a house — chaos in its finances, chaos in the treatment of the little ones, chaos in every corner of the house; the neighbors and visitors take notice and whisper: look for the woman. And perhaps justice would demand that they look for the man; for the master of the house may be a spendthrift and a gambler who begrudges his wife whatever would secure the family's happiness; he may be a drunkard and a profligate who has so ill-used the poor woman that her nerves have broken, and her pains and her despair have turned her away from everything around her..

And woman has her share in the greatest of affairs. Here is the discoverer of America, knocking at the doors of the kings of Europe,

asking protection and money to bring into being an idea that set his brain aflame — and all of them fail him; and when he comes before the great king of Spain, and he in his turn fails him, the woman stepped in: she prevailed over the members of the council that had been convened to consider the matter and had resolved to refuse the request, and she prevailed likewise over the monarch, who feared to hazard the expenses of the brave seafarer.. Isabella the wise, the monarch's wife, went on arguing and persuading, and then offered her jewels to meet Columbus's expenses, until the monarch, before such sacrifice and such courage, was compelled to yield, crying: Let it be as the beloved Isabella wills.. And the idea was carried out, and history recorded for Columbus his immortal deed, while Isabella lay down in one of history's modest corners — and no one said, look for the woman.

And here is Pasteur, the man of blessing to the world, gathering charity to build an institute or a laboratory. He calls upon a certain lady, and she hands him a check, which he takes with thanks, without looking at it, believing that the benefactress had given a thousand francs at the very most. The man goes out — then comes back in haste, seizing the lady's hand, emotion locking the words of thanks in his mouth: he had read on the paper these words, "Pay to the order of Louis Pasteur one million francs." And the Pasteur Institute was built — that institute whose motto is: here