ing; so that even for
these of us, child-bearing and suckling, instead of filling the entire
circle of female life from the first appearance of puberty to the end of
middle age, becomes an episodal occupation, employing from three or four
to ten or twenty of the threescore-and-ten-years which are allotted to
human life. In such societies the statement (so profoundly true when
made with regard to most savage societies, and even largely true with
regard to those in the intermediate stages of civilisation) that the
main and continuous occupation of all women from puberty to age is the
bearing and suckling of children, and that this occupation must fully
satisfy all her needs for social labour and activity, becomes an
antiquated and unmitigated misstatement.

Not only are millions of our women precluded from ever bearing a child,
but for those of us who do bear the demand is ever increasingly in
civilised societies coupled with the condition that if we would act
socially we must restrict our powers. (As regards modern civilised
nations, we find that those whose birthrate is the highest per woman are
by no means the happiest, most enlightened, or powerful; nor do we even
find that the population always increases in proportion to the births.
France, which in many respects leads in the van of civilisation, has
one of the lowest birthrates per woman in Europe; and among the free and
enlightened population of Switzerland and Scandinavia the birthrate is
often exceedingly low; while Ireland, one of the most unhappy and weak
of European nations, had long one of the highest birthrates, without
any proportional increase in population or power. With regard to the
different classes in one community, the same effect is observable. The
birthrate per woman is higher among the lowest and most ignorant classes
in the back slums of our great cities, than among the women of the upper
and cultured classes, mainly because the age at which marriages are
contracted always tends to become higher as the culture and intelligence
of individuals rises, but also because of the regulation of the number
of births after marriage. Yet the number of children reared to adult
years among the more intelligent classes probably equals or exceeds
those of the lowest, owing to the high rate of infant mortality where
births are excessive.)

Looking round, then, with the uttermost impartiality we can command,
on the entire field of woman's ancient and traditional