It gives us the right to go
before the people--to plead to them, not for ourselves, for them.
[Again she seems to lose consciousness of those at the table, of
the room.] To the men we will say: "Will you not trust us? Is it
harm we have ever done you? Have we not suffered for you and with
you? Were we not sent into the world to be your helpmeet? Are not
the children ours as well as yours? Shall we not work together to
shape the world where they must dwell? Is it only the mother-voice
that shall not be heard in your councils? Is it only the mother-
hand that shall not help to guide?" To the women we will say:
"Tell them--tell them it is from no love of ourselves that we come
from our sheltered homes into the street. It is to give, not to
get--to mingle with the sterner judgments of men the deeper truths
that God, through pain, has taught to women--to mingle with man's
justice woman's pity, till there shall arise the perfect law--not
made of man nor woman, but of both, each bringing what the other
lacks.
Pages:
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43