Woman Movement

by Ellen Key

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1912. Not illustrated. ... CHAPTER VII THE INFLUENCE OF THE WOMAN MOVEMENT UPON MOTHERHOOD Because it has increased the culture of woman and her feeling of personal responsibility, the woman movement has had its influence, both directly and indirectly, upon the postponement of the legal and customary marriage age. Since young girls have exercised their brains as much as the boys have, they are no longer so far in advance of the boys in physical development. But when modern girls finish their studies they are physically as well as psychically more universally developed than their grandmothers were. They know much more of the difficulties and realities of life, not least of the sexual life. And this knowledge has instilled in them a reluctance to undertake too early the serious and difficult task of motherhood. They have greater need of truth and culture, and less tendency to erotic visionary dreaming than girls of their age in the middle of the previous century; their desire for work and their social feeling fix goals, and they work with all their might to attain them. And because, as already explained, both sexes have for each other a more many-sided attraction than the merely erotic, young people are more careful, more choice, in their erotic decisions. The finest young girls of to-day are penetrated by the Nietzschean idea, that marriage is the combined will of two people to create a new being greater than themselves. But their joy does not consist in the fact "that the man wills"; they are themselves "will," and above all they have the will to choose the right father for their children, not only for their own sake but for the sake of the children. If it be true that immediate, "blind," erotic attraction is most instinctively correct in choice, then the present comrade life of young peo...

Genres: Feminism

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2007

About the author

Ellen Karolina Sofia Key (Swedish pronunciation: [kej]) was a Swedish difference feminist writer on many subjects in the fields of family life, ethics and education and was an important figure in the Modern Breakthrough movement. She was an early advocate of a child-centered approach to education and parenting, and was also a suffragist.

She is best known for her book on education, Barnets århundrade (1900), which was translated in English in 1909 as The Century of the Child.

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read sections of this after reading "Loving Frank." Pretty remarkable given the time Ms. Key was writing, and it was probably more interesting to read while the characters of "Loving Frank" were still clearly in my mind.

[Sevde Ç. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Eski bir kitap olduğundan olsa gerek, yazım dili hiç hoşuma gitmedi. Çok basit kurulabilecek cümleler çok kötü oluşturulmuştu ve sürekli anlamaya çalışmam gerekti. Anlatmak istediği şeyi anlıyorum, merak ettiğimden de okudum. Konusu güzel olsa da sevemedim maalesef.

[Architeacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many fans of Swedish feminist Ellen Key aaren't likely to know (or, perhaps, care) that The Woman Movement was translated into English by Mamah Borthwick Cheney, the inamorata of Frank Lloyd Wright on the eve of her elopement to Europe with Wright. I read the book for that curious connection.