The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c16.109

c16.109

Even Rousseau, the apostle of freedom who bewailed the fact that man though born free should be in chains everywhere, condemned women to a servile position. ‘Girls,’ he argues, ‘should be early subjected to restraint. This misfortune, if it be really one, is inseparable from their sex.’ Even educated and cultured ladies of the 18th century felt that women could never dream of independence. While writing about the education of girls, Hannah Moore says, ‘Girls should be led to distrust their own judgment; they should learn not to murmur at expostulation, they should be accustomed to expect and endure opposition. They should acquire a submissive temper and forbearing spirit. They must endure to be thought wrong sometimes, when they cannot but feel that they are right¹.’ The French Revolution, which stood for Equality, was not prepared to grant it to women. The French National Assembly treated women so contemptuously that it refused even to read their petition (George, p. 186). In the Anti-Slavery Congress held in London in 1840, women delegates from America were not admitted because British representatives felt that it was contrary to the word of God that women should sit in the Congress. In England there was a determined opposition to the admission of women to the medical course down to 1888 A. D. Oxford University admitted women students, but would not give them any degrees till 1920 A. D. Cambridge, though bantered and ridiculed into granting degrees to women, still refuses to grant them the right to vote at meetings, where men holding corresponding degrees, are allowed to vote. Until the Great War succeeded in shattering old beliefs and fetters, women did not succeed in winning elementary political rights. They are still without franchise in some countries in Europe.