of age. In the
United States, married women constitute less than 60% of the women
fifteen years of age and over.

The impossibility of a social system based on the old sex taboos under
the new conditions is obvious. There must be a revaluation of woman on
the basis of her mental and economic capacity instead of on the manner
in which she fits into a system of institutional taboos. But the old
concepts are still with us, and have shaped the early lives of working
women as well as the lives of those who have fitted into the old
grooves. Tenacious survivals surround them both, and are responsible for
many of the difficulties of mental and moral adjustment which make the
woman question a puzzle to both conservative and radical thinkers on the
subject.

BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER III

1. Davis, Michael M. Psychological Interpretations of Society. 260 pp.
Columbia University. Longmans. Green & Co. N.Y., 1909.

2. Webster, Hutton. Primitive Secret Societies. 227 pp. Macmillan. N.Y.,
1908.

3. Blanchard, Phyllis. The Adolescent Girl. 243 pp. Kegan Paul & Co.,
London, 1921.

---- Peters, Iva L. A Questionnaire Study of Some of the Effects of
Social Restrictions on the American Girl. Pedagogical Seminary,
December, 1916, Vol. XXIII, pp. 550-569.

4. Report of the U.S. Children's Bureau, 1917.

5. Fowler, W. Warde. The Religious Experience of the Roman People. 504
pp. Macmillan. London, 1911.

---- Fustel de Coulanges, Numa Denis. The Ancient City. Trans. from the
latest French edition by Willard Small. 10th ed. Lee and Shepard.
Boston, 1901. 529 pp.

6. Gautier, Emile Theodore Leon. La Chevalerie. 850 pp. C. Delagrave.
Paris, 1890.

CHAPTER IV

DYSGENIC INFLUENCES OF THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO

Taboo survivals act dysgenically within the family under present
conditions; Conventional education of girls a dysgenic influence;
Prostitution and the family; Influence of ancient standards of "good"
and "bad." The illegitimate child; Effect of fear, anger, etc., on
posterity; The attitude of economically independent women toward
marriage.

It is evident that in the working of old taboos as they have been
preserved in our social institutions there are certain dysgenic
influences which may well be briefly enumerated. For surely the test of
the family institution is the way in which it fosters the production and
development of the coming generation. The studies made by the Galton
Laboratory in England and by the Chi