r in those fields, and though a
grave injustice is done to the individual woman excluded from perhaps
the only field she is fitted to excel in, that yet woman as woman
has probably little or nothing to contribute in those fields that is
radically distinct from that which man might supply; there would be a
difference in quantity but probably none in kind, in the work done for
the race.

But in those spheres of social activity, dealing especially with
certain relations between human creatures because of their diverse if
complementary relation to the production of human life, the sexes as
sexes have often each a part to play which the other cannot play for
them; have each a knowledge gained from phases of human experience,
which the other cannot supply; here woman as woman has something
radically distinct to contribute to the sum-total of human knowledge,
and her activity is of importance, not merely individually, but
collectively, and as a class.

That demand, which today in all democratic self-governing countries is
being made by women, to be accorded their share in the electoral, and
ultimately in the legislative and executive duties of government, is
based on two grounds: the wider, and more important, that they find
nothing in the nature of their sex-function which exonerates them,
as human beings, from their obligation to take part in the labours of
guidance and government in their state: the narrower, but yet important
ground, that, in as far as in one direction, i.e., in the special form
of their sex function takes, they do differ from the male, they, in so
far, form a class and are bound to represent the interests of, and to
give the state the benefit of, the insight of their class, in certain
directions.

Those persons who imagine that the balance of great political parties
in almost any society would be seriously changed by the admission of its
women in public functions are undoubtedly wholly wrong. The fundamental
division of humans into those inclined to hold by the past and defend
whatever is, and those hopeful of the future and inclined to introduce
change, would probably be found to exist in much the same proportion
were the males or the females of any given society compared: and the
males and females of each class will in the main share the faults, the
virtues, and the prejudices of their class. The individuals may lose by
being excluded on the ground of sex from a share of public labour, and
by being