Beneficial results are to be expected unless an
objectionably extreme feminism finds support.
In general, the demand for political equality, in a broad sense, seems
to the eugenist to be the most praiseworthy part of the feminist
program. The abolition of those laws, which now discharge women from
positions if they marry or have children, promises to be in principle a
particularly valuable gain.
3. Economic equality is often summed up in the catch phrase "equal pay
for equal work." If the phrase refers to jobs where women are competing
on piecework with men, no one will object to it. In practice it applies
particularly to two distinct but interlocking demands: (a) that women
should receive the same pay as men for any given occupation--as,
stenography, for example; and (b) that child-bearing should be
recognized as just as much worthy of remuneration as any occupation
which men enter, and should be paid for (by the state) on the same
basis.
At present, there is almost universally a discrimination against women
in commerce and industry. They sometimes get no more than half as much
pay as men for similar grades of employment. But there is for this one
good reason. An employer needs experienced help, and he expects a man to
remain with him and become more valuable.
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