And now, what do you think of this woman? Would it not have been better for her to keep silent as her mother kept silent,

instead of rising in her failed revolt and coming back to her husband in defeat? She is inca-pable of freeing herself, incapable of living on her own. Better for her to accept the husband, even if he does not satisfy her pride, and to be content with little rather than attempt the impossible.

I said: I prefer the daughter to the mother, because she strove and failed. Striving with failure is better than standing still. And the struggle for liberation, even if it ends in disappointment, is better than contentment with humiliation and the crushing of the self. Revolt is the sign of life and the road to freedom.

He cried: And what freedom do you mean? Is the woman of today any freer than the woman of yesterday? She merely passes from the slavery of the home to the slavery of work in a factory or an office or a school... And what difference is there between one slavery and another?

I said: The family used to force her to marry whom they chose; today she marries whom she chooses.

He said, curling his lip: Sheer fantasy!... Do you believe that the woman of today is any luckier than her grandmother in reaching the young man of her dreams? Do you not see that she usually accepts the first suitor who asks, for fear no other will come?... In the old days the husband gave the wife a bride-price, or presented her with money as a wedding gift; today it is she who buys him with her money, or tempts him with her position or her monthly salary... and I do not know which of the two ways is worse!... The woman of yesterday did the work of the house. The woman of today works in the house and outside the house — that is, her work has been doubled, and I

do not know which of the two conditions is the more enticing... Woman's work changes like the fashions. Yesterday we let our mustaches grow, and today we go to extremes in shaving them off, according to the prevailing style... Yesterday the husband thought it a scandal to have his wife work outside the house; today he encourages her to work... yet none of this has lessened her slavery one bit...

He stopped speaking, wanting to rest. And when he got no answer from me, he made to leave, supposing he had silenced me. But I was not convinced; rather I said with warmth, motioning him to listen:

You are mistaken... Freedom is a relative thing, and cannot be attained in full. There is no doubt that the woman of today is freer than the woman of yesterday. In work she is still a beginner, awkward and confused, and that is why she frets and complains of exhaustion or of tyranny. But once the worker's condition improves and woman grows used to working outside the home, she will come to find in it pleasure and solace — quite apart from its being the means of her economic liberation, for it frees her from the family's favors and the husband's dominion... That girl whose story you told me — had she been used to work beforehand, she would have found no hardship in it, nor wished to return to a husband to whom no bond ties her.

And there we both stopped talking. My interlocutor stopped because he had wearied of the argument and wanted to go. And I stopped because I sank into reflection, and began asking myself: Can freedom be an illusion, as he claims?... Do we shake off one set of chains only to fall into another?... No. That is not the freedom we seek... Work has not yet liberated woman. And the road to freedom is thorny and hard... The problems of soci-ety are complicated, exceedingly

complicated. It is idle to hope they will be solved easily, or in a short space of time.