160

SEX IN EDUCATION.

lias been so slow to acknowledge, that the male and female organization are not identi­cal.*

This is not the place for the discussion of these details, and therefore we will not dwell upon them. Our object is rather to show

* It is a carious commentary on the present aspect of the “ woman question ” to see many who honestly advocate the elevation and enfranchisement of woman, oppose any move­ment or law that recognizes Nature’s fundamental distinc­tion of sex. There are those who insist upon the traditional fallacy that man and woman are identical, and that the iden­tity is confined to the man, with the energy of infatuation. It appears from the Spectator, that Mr. and Mrs. Fawcett strongly object to the Ten-hour Act, on the ground that it discriminates unfairly against women as compared with men. Upon this the Spectator justly remarks, that the true question for an objector to the bill to consider is not one of abstract principle, but this: “ Is the restraint proposed so great as really to diminish the average productiveness of woman’s labor, or, by increasing its efficacy, to maintain its level, or even improve it in spite of the hours lost t What is the length of labor beyond which an average woman’s con­stitution is overtaxed and deteriorated, and within which, therefore, the law ought to keep them in spite of their rela­tions, and sometimes in spite of themselves.” — Vid. Specta­tor, London, June 14, 1873.