volve some special
duties and training. In the usual discussion in regard to woman's
sphere, such men as Herbert Spencer, Frederick Harrison and Grant
Allen uniformly subordinate her rights and duties as an
individual, as a citizen, as a woman, to the necessities of these
incidental relations, some of which a large class of women never
assume. In discussing the sphere of man we do not decide his
rights as an individual, as a citizen, as a man, by his duties as
a father, a husband, a brother or a son, some of which he may
never undertake. Moreover he would be better fitted for these
very relations, and whatever special work he might choose to do
to earn his bread, by the complete development of all his
faculties as an individual. Just so with woman. The education
which will fit her to discharge the duties in the largest sphere
of human usefulness, will best fit her for whatever special work
she may be compelled to do.

The isolation of every human soul and the necessity of
self-dependence must give each individual the right to choose his
own surroundings. The strongest reason for giving woman all the
opportunities for higher education, for the full development of
her faculties, her forces of mind and body; for giving her the
most enlarged freedom of thought and action; a complete
emancipation from all forms of bondage, of custom, dependence,
superstition; from all the crippling influences of fear--is the
solitude and personal responsibility of her own individual life.
The strongest reason why we ask for woman a voice in the
government under which she lives; in the religion she is asked to
believe; equality in social life, where she is the chief factor;
a place in the trades and professions, where she may earn her
bread, is because of her birthright to self-sovereignty; because,
as an individual, she must rely on herself....

To throw obstacles in the way of a complete education is like
putting out the eyes; to deny the rights of property is like
cutting off the hands. To refuse political equality is to rob the
ostracized of all self-respect, of credit in the market place, of
recompense in the world of work, of a voice in choosing those who
make and administer the law, a choice in the jury before whom
they are tried, and in the judge who