WOMEN AS WORLD BUILDERS
Women
as
World Builders
Studies in
Modern Feminism
BY
FLOYD DELL
CHICAGO
FORBES AND COMPANY
1913
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY
FORBES AND COMPANY
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE |
| I The Feminist Movement | 7 |
| II Charlotte Perkins Gilman | 22 |
| III Emmeline Pankhurst and Jane Addams | 30 |
| IV Olive Schreiner and Isadora Duncan | 41 |
| V Beatrice Webb and Emma Goldman | 52 |
| VI Margaret Dreier Robins | 65 |
| VII Ellen Key | 76 |
| VIII Freewomen and Dora Marsden | 90 |
Women as World Builders
CHAPTER I
THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT
The feminist movement can be dealtwith in two ways: it can be treated asa sociological abstraction, and discussed atlength in heavy monographs; or it can betaken as the sum of the action of a lot ofwomen, and taken account of in the lives ofindividual women. The latter way wouldbe called "journalistic," had not the lateWilliam James used it in his "Varieties ofReligious Experience." It is a methodwhich preserves the individual flavor, thepersonal tone and color, which, after all, arethe life of any movement. It is, therefore,the method I have chosen for this book.
[Pg 8]The ten women whom I have chosen arerepresentative: they give the quality of thewoman's movement of today. CharlottePerkins Gilman—Jane Addams—EmmelinePankhurst—Olive Schreiner—IsadoraDuncan—Beatrice Webb—Emma Goldman—MargaretDreier Robins—EllenKey: surely in these women, [see also the chapter "Freewomen and Dora Marsden."] if anywhere,is to be found the soul of modern feminism!
One may inquire why certain other namesare not included. There is Maria Montessori,for instance. Her ideas on the educationof children are of the utmost importance,and their difference from those ofFroebel is another illustration of the differencebetween the practical minds of womenand the idealistic minds of men. But MadameMontessori's relation to the feministmovement is, after all, ancillary. A tremendouslot re