Vägen till jämställdhet är lång

och än är vi inte där.

A Suffragette, 1911

 Emanuel Phillips Fox

Bland det sista jag gjorde i går kväll var att läsa novellen "The Second Time", 1898, av Sarah Knowles Bolton, vilket höll mig vaken en bra stund, när jag började fundera på hur kvinnor i alla tider hållits på plats av konventioner och brist på egna medel. Informationen om författaren är knapphändig, hon sägs ha varit en beläst och intelligent kvinna som ägnade stor del av sin tid åt arbetet inom "The National Woman's Christian Temperance Union" och välgörenhet. I sitt författarskap framhåller hon ofta vikten av hårt arbete och en gudstro. Ingenstans hittar jag ens en antydan om att hon sympatiserade med suffragetterna, vilket man skulle kunna tro att hon gjorde när man läser novellen som börjar så här:

The Second Time

THE HON. John Crawford had become a prominent man in his community. He had begun life in poverty, had learned economy early, and fortunately had married a girl with tastes and habits similar to his own. Both desired to rise in the world, and she, forgetting herself, bent all her energies toward his progress and success. She did her own housework for years, made her own clothes and those of her children, and in every way saved, that John might be rich and influential. Her history was like that of thousands of other New England women—she wore herself out for her family. She never had time for social life, and not a very great amount of time for reading, though she kept up as well as possible with the thought of the day; but her one aim was to have her husband honored.

John Crawford was a good husband, though not always considerate. He thought nobody quite so good and helpful as Betsey, nobody cooked so well, nobody was more saving, and he was proud to rise by her help. He failed sometimes to consider how large a matter that help had been in his life. If he had been asked who made his money he would have replied without hesitation, “I made it.” That Betsey was entitled to half, or even a third, would never have occurred to him. He provided for her and the children all they seemed to need. He was the head of the family, and that headship had made him somewhat selfish and domineering.

As the children grew older, and Mrs. Crawford looked out into the future and realized the possibility of leaving the world before her husband, she thought much of their condition under a changed home. Mr. Crawford would marry again, probably, and her children might have little or none of the property which they together had struggled to earn.

Klicka på novellens titel om du vill veta hur det går.  

Bland det första jag hör när jag slår på radion i morse är en recension av filmen "The Wife". Filmens hustru är uppenbarligen kvinnan bakom mannen — för det visar sig att utan sin hustru skulle mannen förmodligen inte ha fått Nobelpriset i litteratur.

Ett ämne som uppenbarligen fortfarande är högaktuellt.

Har hon inte märkliga händer, kvinnan på bilden?