Men, Women, and God | Page 9

from his mother, his
sisters, and his girl friends --from his wife, his daughters, and the women friends of later
days are the golden things in life. And I know that many a woman would say a
corresponding thing about the life career of a woman. That is God's plan--to make us
dependent on one another for the stimuli, the inspirations, and the joys which prevent life
from becoming drab and monotonous. "In the beginning God made them male and
female," because He loved them. He made them gloriously different that they might
enjoy and help each other.
It is one of the mysteries of history that for uncounted centuries man imagined that he
only needed woman in her capacity as a wife and potential mother--that for long ages
woman had no place in society except as wife or mother. Why it was so long before the
spirit of God moved women to shatter that conception, I do not understand. But with its
shattering there appeared for a time a tendency to imagine that men and women are in

most things practically the same, and that the difference of sex is a very little thing. Many
people seemed inclined to believe that a woman is just the same sort of being as a man,
except for one special function--that of motherhood--which can only be exercised
occasionally, and need not be exercised at all. That I am sure was a mistake with the
possibility of disaster in it. No doubt there are men with many feminine characteristics,
and women with many masculine ones. But woman is not only physically different from
man. She is different mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. And that is just why we need
her so much in all life's departments.
We need woman in politics, for instance, just because she is different from man. If the
extension of the franchise to some millions of women had meant merely that the number
of people had been increased who would think and vote simply as men had previously
thought and voted, it would have been no great event. If women members of Parliament
are going to be mere replicas of the old type of M. P., then they might as well save
themselves the bondage of Westminster, for their presence there will make no valuable
difference. But we do need them in the constituencies and in the House exactly because
they bring new and different vital forces to bear on the conduct of affairs. Experience is
already teaching us that men and women think more truly together than they do apart.
There is something about the sweep and range of man's thought which is peculiarly
stimulating to woman's mind, and there are aspects of truth to which men remain blind
until women point them out. For this reason very often mixed committees act more
wisely than committees of only one sex. I suspect that the same thing holds in relation to
art, and even to scientific work. It certainly holds in connection with social work, and
church work. In fact in all life's departments, with a few obvious exceptions, men and
women supplement and stimulate one another, and by comradeship make a bigger and
better thing of life than would be possible otherwise.
I am not assuming that a fine comradeship is necessarily an easy thing to achieve. I
should be surprised if it were, for I know of no fine things that can be attained easily.
Comradeship between the sexes is rapidly spoilt by "silliness." It has to be based upon a
considerable amount of restraint. It can be and it ought to be "jolly," but it becomes a
poor thing at once when either man or woman forgets dignity. We are still at the
experimental stage in traveling through this new country that has opened up to us within
the last twenty years; and if that is a reason for being very charitable about mistakes, it is
also a reason for being alert to find the right paths.
I am very much impressed by the opportunity that lies before students as a class in this
matter. In most of our universities and colleges men and women meet in the freest way,
and they only and for themselves can discover how this new kind of life is best conducted.
College rules and regulations are not going to do it for them. Indeed the older generation
is not going to do it for them. But if they will find out the right way and establish for
themselves the right standards and conventions, they may do an immense service for the
rest of the nation. And I believe they are already in large measure doing this. My
experience has on the whole made me entirely hopeful, and has deepened my faith in