On the Arbitrary Use of the Terms “Masculine” and “Feminine”

There is an aphorism which in effect states that all that has been or is, contains a real value and plays an important part in the development of the whole, albeit that which is obvious appears destructive instead of constructive and seems to have been an evil rather than a good. I believe this to be true even though it is difficult to see just how the retardation of the development of one half of the human race, and that half the bearers of the entire race, through their subjection to the will and power of the other half, could make for the good of the whole. It is generally considered that a subject people are a retarded people no matter how kind their masters may be, and that for their proper development the attitude and conditions of their environment must be such as to allow them the unrestricted expression of their own qualitics—whether these agree with the preconceived ideas and the wishes of the ruling class or not, or even whether the subject people are satisfied with their own subjection. That this has been the situation affecting the feminine half of humanity for a very long period, I think can be accepted without much question, and whether it has been a necessary phase in the progress of the race or not, it is not my purpose here to inquire.

Certainly, a careful study of all the evidence we possess, would seem clearly to prove that at a previous stage of human existence the term feminine had an entirely different connotation from that with which the word is associated today among the people of our civilization, and this is entirely apart from the question of whether a universal matriarchal period or mother-rule existed or not. Herodotus has made us acquainted with the status of women in ancient Egypt, recording his observations thus: “They have established laws and customs opposite for most part to those of the rest of mankind. With them the women go to market and traffic; the men stay at home and weave—the men carry burdens on their heads, the women on t