In the Transitional Stage

These are some thoughts that cross the mind of any one of us at this moment of our social life, stirred up by those disturbances in our society which many factors of development, progress, and change in laws and rights have provoked. I do not claim that any particular, clear benefit will come of them, but neither do I find anything to justify withholding them; perhaps some glimmer of light may issue from them by which certain souls will take comfort, carrying it with them along the windings of the roads that stretch before them toward no clearly visible end.

1

In woman's going out into life — indeed, her going out from darkness into light, as some are pleased to describe the matter — there is something that delights the soul, for it will lend public life bright colors and a pleasure it has long lacked. Yet the new truth is not in woman's going out into life, for she has always been in it, but in the fact that she has become responsible for many matters whose responsibility she did not bear before. In the past she used to grumble at her family circumstances and chafe at her social station — all of them things which man imposed upon her by force, imposing along with them the ills that have resulted and still result from them, their consequences and their punishment as well — and woman had in that no recourse, nor any power to avoid the pains of soul produced by that moral servitude.

Perhaps we may expect of woman from now on that she cease grumbling at all of that and busy herself in turning to account her being responsible for herself — and for society — so that she in her turn imposes conditions whose responsibility and consequences she bears with contentment and good grace. For responsibility is a strong argument in the hand of the one who holds it, since we cannot bear it unless we are satisfied with the matters it concerns, accept them, and have absolute freedom to dispose of them... And therefore her struggle will develop from the limitedness of demanding political rights to the limitlessness of the broad human struggle. Until recently, woman's works were for the most part scattered regional works, built upon regional or class or sectarian blocs and associations. Perhaps that was so because the general bonds were lacking, with the lack of general rights among women. But today they are on the verge of entering a new battle that will gather them on a broad, general plane, where the educated woman meets the illiterate, the rich the poor, and the northerner the southerner. It is incumbent upon her, as I see it, to understand this new truth, to derive from it the right to struggle, and to draw inspiration from it in setting the goals and clarifying the ends at which she aims... This understanding is an essential part of the new responsibility.

2

In this work of hers she stands between two matters which she must attend to and by whose light she must be guided. First, she is a woman. What one fears most is that her newfound freedom may carry her away and her new field of struggle sweep her off, so that in its turbulent flood she forgets those qualities of hers which I consider more important than anything else. These qualities are the qualities of femininity in woman, which family and social life — indeed, every other kind of life as well — need more than they need her struggle. I do not say this arbitrarily and without guidance; I say it prompted by general observations. For woman often aspires, in her soul, to keep pace with man, in revolt against her femininity and her ways. This springs from a psychological complex buried in the depths of her soul, whose bonds her domestic and historical upbringing have drawn tight; but we see its traces in the garb of symbols and symptoms that betray either a hidden resentment in the soul at man's being taken as the model of the human being in general, so that she imitates him, or a feeling of challenge and rivalry between them, which naturally gains her some of his traits and characteristics...

Perhaps these matters grow stronger as woman feels that she has come to possess men's political and social rights, and we cannot but recall that her earlier struggle was often marked by the demand for equality with man, as though he were her goal. This may not hold true of all the women who worked in that field. In fact it by no means holds true of them all, but it was evident, at any rate, in the work of many... Could not woman have taken the free human being as a model, a goal for her struggle, regardless of whatever authority or right man possesses as a man?... No, that was never possible, because at that time she was working socially within a limited scope, disjointed and scattered... and in total submission to the prevailing conditions.

3

So after woman has preserved her femininity — and it is better for her to do so even if she must sacrifice many material things (for she will know with certainty that her peace of mind will come by no other means) — she passes on to her greater struggle... In her greater struggle she stands on one plane with man, and therefore, in my view, there is no longer any reason for her to confine her work to herself and within the bounds of her womanhood... The greater struggle is the struggle of the human element that dwells within her, and it is the same in man; no wonder, then, if we hold that the greater

struggle is neither a "women's" struggle nor a "men's" struggle, but a human struggle that transcends sex in whatever form.

For that reason, we hold that what is fitting, reasonable, and most profitable for us all is to come out of the shells of our sex in this field and be fused in a single human crucible, brimming with continuous activity and pressing toward general goals, one that secures for you women and for us a respected human standing and a settled position such as the individual needs in contemporary life, free from economic, social, and moral bonds and servitudes.

Woman's struggle in this station is the struggle of the individual, and it is a comprehensive, general struggle... As for her other struggle, it is one peculiar to her, a woman's struggle in every sense of the word, which she wages not with other people nor in a broad public field, but with herself, her passions, and her impulses, in a private, limited family and personal field.

4

The sense of responsibility for this duty in the struggle varies with the variance of intellectual maturity, experience, and awareness of social needs. This holds true of men and of women alike. Tomorrow we shall observe that the greater share of this responsibility falls upon the educated, cultured woman, who occupies a professional standing in society and takes upon herself the leadership of women's battle and the carrying of its banner. In her striving, this woman will be more fortunate than man, wider in her field of action, and more effective than he. I do not say this out of favoritism or out of spite; it is a truth which, if woman carries on her striving upon a foundation of goodness, sincerity, and awareness, will appear plainly and clearly. Perhaps it is fortunate that the illiterate woman — who will at first remain outside the battle — is isolated from society, staying within her own four walls most of the time, content with what she has, peaceable, kind of heart, careful of her reputation and her good conduct; matters being so, the educated woman cannot fail to find her field free of the rowdiness and disturbance which we see in the case of man... For the illiterate man is a man of rowdiness, disturbance, and quarrelsomeness, whom no thought of reputation restrains from meddling in everything, and whom no fear or regard keeps from aggression... He is forever out of doors, a commodity in the hand of a chieftain, a force in the hand of a despot — what are we to do with him?!...

Therefore I do not shrink at all from expressing a personal opinion, which is that society as a whole, and men in particular, will find in woman's descent into the field and arena of the greater struggle a flourishing benefit and an ordering of morals, of habits, and of conduct...

5

But this period will not last very long. The woman of whom we said that she is illiterate, or whom we earlier described

as belonging to the "lower classes" or the poor, will soon come out of her cell into the field, once she has grown accustomed to freedom and received her due of culture... And why this repetition? This "unknown woman" (let us call her so) has in fact begun to enter life through its wide, true door, the door of reality and need... Until recently, the women working in the social fields were, most of the time, from "the respectable, notable families," naturally... And change has begun to come over these conditions... Expect tomorrow that this "unknown woman" will give her struggle a strength and an activity we have never before known in the fair sex among us — indeed, she has truly begun to do so... And she will also give it a self-sacrifice which the difficulties of her life, its problems, and its harshness have taught her. For this new fighter does not descend into the battle from perfumed golden towers, with drowsy eyelid and contented soul; rather she has come out to it, and will come out more and more, from that flood teeming with the struggle for bread and the wrestle of life, after understanding and absorbing with her whole soul the needs of woman and the needs of the human being — needs of soul and of heart, social and material — so that in her the daughter, the sister, the wife, and the mother are all embodied... Her experience is no marginal, incidental experience, but a fundamental, firm one, pulsing with the toiling life that is open to everything, the life of the generality of people... and of mankind...

This is the truth as I see it...
And thus do I understand woman's coming battle...