The Woman's Word

... And along with the toilers who are entitled to a week of rest each year, I fled to the mountain to escape the blazing heat of August, and to change, for my eyes and my ears, the monotonous sights and sounds that had taken hold of my life... In contemplation and silence I watched and studied the condition of our women when they are far removed from the responsibilities of their homes, and I came out of that contemplation with a brief study of the way our women are spending their time at this season:

Is it a fitting interval in which they straighten what has grown crooked in their children's natures, and make up for what they fell short of over the course of the year?
Is it the favorable opportunity to read some of the books that have appeared of late and which they had no time to read?
Is it the moment of complete rest, in which our women give themselves to the hobbies dearest to them? Are they broadening their knowledge of the fine arts, of languages, of poetry, of the boundless modern sciences?!
Have they volunteered in the service of some social project that will bear fruit?
Are our women aware of the gravity of the national crisis in which we are floundering, so that they concentrate their efforts in support of their cause?
... And what else lies in the metal of our women by way of genuine virtues?

I said that I came out of my watching and my contemplation with a study, and in the light of this disinterested study I shall whisper a few words in the ear of my sister, woman; my sole excuse for it is the sincerity that comes from the heart.

It had reached my ears that a large portion of the body of women had been swept along with the gambling current, preferring this devilish pastime to every other. So I wanted to be an eyewitness to what I had heard: either to deny the rumor, repel the accusation from woman and clear her name, or to verify the truth of their claim and bow my head in shame, as though a spatter of the accusation had clung to my own dress...

It was not easy to believe what my own eyes saw: that most of our women prefer no form of innocent amusement to gambling, whether the stake of the wager be great or small!!

Truly it is a strange thing, this seductive pleasure that tempts a woman's soul and drives her into manifest error; she kills hour after hour after hour, and with it forgets her food and her sleep, and the food and sleep of her children, and her most sacred duties.

... And do not ask me, after that, about the sight of her bent over the game! It is a hideous sight in which all absurdity, all weakness, and all degradation are gathered at once.

It is likewise a social phenomenon proclaiming woman's failure in her most sacred national responsibilities, as though she had forgotten that today we are in the thick of the fray, fighting a desperate fight to set matters right, to recover our violated dignity and our natural right to life...

And what would man say of us, on the day we record against our own selves our absorption in trivial pettiness, and our slackness in pursuing our cause, which will be the deciding line in determining our destiny?

And how would man judge woman, when he sees her shirk the burden of the emergencies sweeping over her country, and step aside from the great responsibilities her homeland demands of her — how would he judge her standing as a citizen?

The woman who falters and holds back from these duties, and who neglects her cause, is in need of a violent shaking to restore her to her full senses, that she may grasp the importance of the role which it is incumbent upon her to play with devotion and sacrifice, to prove her worth as a citizen deserving a life joined with dignity, and to render her share of service in the building of a better homeland...

We are at the beginning of the course, and there still lies before us a long and arduous stage that must be withstood with exemplary moral firmness, or else the storm will sweep us away and hurl us into the deep, where there is no mercy for the weak and faltering who make light of their duty toward themselves and toward their homeland.