More of This Feature • General • Mosaic Law, Ancient India • Roman Law • Christian Law • Northern Europe Law • English Law • Husband and Wife • Criminal Law • Education • Professions • Nursing and Medicine • Government and Politics • Women Practicing Law • Women as Clergy • Women's Rights Agitation • Woman Suffrage   • Woman Suffrage 1865-1906 • Woman Suffrage 1906-1910 • Woman Suffrage Societies • Woman Suffrage New Zealand and Australia • Woman Suffrage America • Woman Suffrage Europe • Woman Suffrage International • Sources

Related Resources • Index to Etexts on Women's History

Note that this entry is a product of its time, and should be read in that context. Footnotes have been omitted to make the text easier to follow. Also note that scanning and editing may have introduced a few errors into the transcription. Because of these errors, if you need to use this information in an academic paper, please consult the original, available at many libraries.

This continues the entry under "Women" in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

WOMEN. The very word "woman" (0. Eng. vifmann), etymologically meaning a wife (or the wife division of the human race, the female of the species Homo), sums up a long history of dependence and subordination, from which the women of to-day have only gradually emancipated themselves in such parts of the world as come under "Western civilization." Though married life and its duties necessarily form a predominant element in the woman's sphere, they are not necessarily the whole of it; and the "woman's movement" is essentially a struggle for the recognition of equality of opportunity with men, and for equal rights irrespective of sex, even if special relations and conditions are willingly incurred under the form of partnership involved in marriage. The difficulties of obtaining this recognition are obviously due to historical causes combined with the habits and customs which history has produced.

Next page > Mosaic Law, Ancient India

More of this article: General | Mosaic Law, Ancient India | Roman Law | Christian Law  | Northern Europe Law | English Law | Husband and Wife | Criminal Law | Education | Professions | Nursing and Medicine | Government and Politics | Women Practicing Law | Women as Clergy | Women's Rights Agitation | Woman Suffrage | Woman Suffrage 1865-1906 | Woman Suffrage 1906-1910 | Woman Suffrage Societies | Woman Suffrage New Zealand and Australia | Woman Suffrage America | Woman Suffrage Europe | Woman Suffrage International | Sources

<Index to Etexts on Women's History>

Part of a collection of etexts on women's history produced by Jone Johnson Lewis. Editing and formatting © 1999-2003 Jone Johnson Lewis.