But  when  at  last  she  awakened  to  a  recognition
of  the  fact  that  her  sacrifices  were  unfitting  her
for  motherhood  ;  when  she  saw  that  by  remain-
ins:  a  household  slave,  chained  forever  to  the  un-
skilled  work  of  a  slave,  she  was  thereby  sacrific-
ing her  children  as  well  as  herself,  then  woman
felt  no  longer  her  previous  satisfaction  in  moth-
erhood at  all  costs.  She  began  to  remember,  like
Ibsen's  Nora,  that  first  of  all  she  was  a  human

59


THE  PEOPLE'S  SCHOOL

being  with  the  right  and  the  duty  of  life.  She  per-
ceived that  to  be  fully  human  preceded  all  func-
tions, however  proper,  which  belong  to  a  human
being.  "This  business  of  motherhood  can  wait
till  I  am  fit  for  it,"  she  thought.  "First,  I  must
breathe  and  move  and  think  as  becomes  a  woman
and  not  a  drudge.  Drudge  in  mind  and  body.^
Drudge  and  mother.^  The  terms  are  mutually
exclusive  !  I  will  set  about  escaping  drudgery."

Set  about  it  she  has  and  in  deadly  earnest.
She  has  gone  to  work  in  industry  where  she  ex-
pects to  be  treated  as  a  twentieth-century  indi-
vidual. The  domestic  serv^ant  is  withdrawing
her  protection  against  kitchen  work.  Woman
forms  trade  unions  and  battles  manfully  for
justice.  She  organizes  women's  clubs.  She  agi-
tates for  the  ballot.
Not  all  of  her  methods  are  so  praiseworthy.  She
escapes  marital  obligations  by  divorce.  She  avoids
bearing  children.  She  avoids  marriage  altogether,
or,  once  married,  manages  her  home  so  poorly
that  it  might  as  well  not  exist  :  witness  the  mere
fact  that  in  New  York  City  the  largest  percent-
age of  undernourished  school-children  come  from
moderately  well-to-do  families  ^ ;  and  witness  also
the  number  of  incorrigible  children  voluntarily

1  Investigation  by  the  Board  of  Health,  1907.
