婦女與經濟 Women and Economics

    財富、權力、社會地位、名望，除此之外，還有家庭及其天倫之樂、個人名聲、閑情逸趣、油鹽醬醋等等，一個女子要獲得這一切就得接受那小小的金戒指，嫁給男人。

    夏洛特‧金斯‧吉爾曼(1860－l 935)是這一進步時代婦女運動的著名理論家。吉爾曼的童年十分淒慘，父親拋棄母親後，家裏幾乎一貧如洗。1884年，古爾曼結婚，婚後生有一女。家務例行瑣事的煩惱使她精神崩潰。1888年，她帶著女兒離開丈夫。離婚後，她原先丈夫與她的一位摯友再婚，於是吉爾曼將女兒送到他們處，由此騰出時間從事著述和演講。吉爾曼寫有短篇小說和詩歌，並以發表有關婦女、勞工和社會組織等題目的演講來維持生計。

    1900年，吉爾曼再婚，但婚後繼續其演講和著述的繁忙生活。自1909年至19l6年，吉爾曼隻身 一人編輯、出版女權運動月報：《先驅》，並獨自為其撰稿。吉爾曼還發表過一部名為《家》的小說，以及一部有關自己精神崩潰的虛構性著作；《黃色的糊牆紙》。

    這裏選載的是她的名作《婦女與經濟》(1898)；文章倡導的是婦女的經濟獨立。

    我們所能做的要比別人施加給我們的更能制約自己。婦女的表達自由，如果有的話，也要比承受自由少得多。她們只能通過鐵條阻隔的窗戶窺視她們生活於其中的世界一角，只能從深閨幃幔間隙中呼吸到一點外部空氣，她們豎起耳朵，如饑似渴想聽到的只是男人口中傳來的一點點知識。莎劇《奧瑟羅》中的苔絲德蒙娜從丈夫奧瑟羅口中只瞭解到一丁點東西，要是她能多瞭解一些情況，可能會活得更久。雖然人有不斷增長的創造欲，有能力和毅力以新的形式表達新的精神，以求有所作為，但婦女在這些方面是完全受限制的。她們可以像先前那樣操勞，幹那些最原始的家務活。當她們很自然地將這種辛勤勞作擴展到職業層次時，我們卻想設法拖她們的後腿。婦女靠雙手幹體力活，直接為家庭服務，一無所獲，這是允許的──甚至是強制的!除此之外，婦女要越雷池一步是不允許的。婦女的勞動不僅在內容上受限制，在形式上也一樣受到制約。即使允許她們於這做那，她們也只能獨自悄悄地進行，所從事的是最原始的手工勞動……

    婦女受制於經年累月形成的綜合影響，追溯起來，耐人玩味卻令人痛心。首先，是自然法則對所有生靈的巨大影響，同樣作用 於婦女身上。其次，是緊步自然力之後且與之形成一種合力的社會風俗習慣與社會法則之演化，在這一演化過程中，婦女的低下地位是一活躍因素。接著是隨著文明發展，累積而成，經年不斷的一個個先例，不斷增強的教育作用使之深深印入每代人的腦海，藝術使之迷人，宗教使之神聖，習慣使之更具魅力。再有便是最為根本的經濟需要，它奠定了整個社會結構的基礎，其作用貫穿古今，延至永遠。毫無疑問，上述種種是對婦女強有力的制約條件。

    對婦女的這些制約本來可以更加有效，而且痛苦要少得多，但有個重要因素還得考慮，那就是先天遺傳並非「捨拉法典」。根據這一法典，在昔日捨拉族和日爾曼部族裏，婦女不得繼承土地，而在昔日法國，女人不准繼承王位。可由於遺傳的作用，每個女孩從父親身上繼承有越來越多的求發展、圖強大的人性傾向；而每個男孩同樣從母親身上繼承有愈來愈多的溫柔天性。先天遺傳的作用是要使後天環境及教育傾向於區別對待的趨於平等。遺傳的作用是張揚女性、抑制男性。同時又不讓女性成為一種舞毒蛾，並給那些企圖荒唐地在一個種族裏使一種性別落後於另一種性別的人套上鐵鐐，不讓他們的企圖得逞。但是遺傳的這種作用又使人類生活異常痛苦，極其艱難。這種痛苦與艱難應使我們早就看到，我們的生活出了正軌。一個女孩誕生後，經過其父親參與的種族活動的洗禮，更加人性化了，可她自身的傳統地位又使自己重新女性化，這樣她得重新生活一番，親身再次體驗那種受限制、受壓抑、受否定的全過程。令人窒息的一個「不」字粉碎了她作為一個人的所有願望，所有創造、探索、學習及表達個人見解、奮發向上的願望……

    對一個面對生活的年輕男子來說，世界是個廣闊的天地。他可以利用，而且必須利用身上的所有力量。假如第一步選擇錯了，他可以選擇再選擇；一條路定不通，他可以選擇另一條路，最後獲得成功。整個人類各種不斷增長的需要要求他從事各種有利自身發展的工作。想成為什麼樣的人，他可以努力爭取達到；想要什麼，他可以努力爭取得到。財富、權力、社會地位、名望……想要什麼，他都可以爭取得到。

    對一個面對生活的女子來說，外部世界並無兩樣，其自身也同樣擁有人的能量，人的願望，人的抱負。然而她可望得到的，可望從事的，都只有一次性選擇，擺在她面前的只有一條通道。財富、權力、社會地位、名望，除此之外，還有家庭及其天倫之樂，個人名聲、閑情逸趣、油鹽醬醋等等，一個女子要獲得這一切，就得接受那小小的金戒指，嫁給男人。壓力之大概莫能外。這是她身後傳統累積而成的壓力，是她周圍環境繼續施加的壓力。這種壓力通過教育的潛移默化進入她的內心，直到最後自己竟也認為，這種壓力是無可非議的，並將其影響變本加厲地施加給自己的女兒。這樣，女人過於女性化還有什麼可值得奇怪的呢?要不是不斷地從男性身上繼承有某種更有人性的東西，我們早就都成為一群雌蜂了。然而，每個時代，每個士兵的女兒、海員的女兒、藝術家的女兒、發明家的女兒、巨商的女兒，在身體與腦力兩方面，都繼承和分享有父輩發展的成果。因此，儘管過於女性化，她們也同時或多或少地人性化……

What we do modifies us more than what is done to us. The freedom of expression has been more restricted in women than the freedom of impression, if that be possible. Something of the world she lived in she has seen from her barred windows. Some air has come through the purdah's folds, some knowledge has filtered to her eager ears from the talk of men. Desdemona learned somewhat of Othello. Had she known more, she might have lived longer. But in the ever-growing human impulse to create, the power and will to make, to do, to express one's new spirit in new forms,－here she has been utterly debarred. She might work as she had worked from the beginning,－at the primitive labors of the household; but in the inevitable expansion of even those industries to professional levels we have striven to hold her back. To work with her own hands, for nothing, in direct body-service to her own family,－this has been permitted,－yes, compelled. But to be and to do anything further from this she has been forbidden. Her labor has not been limited in land. but in degree. Whatever she has been allowed to do must be done in private and alone, die first-hand industries of savage times. . . .

      It is painfully interesting to trace the gradual cumulative effect of these conditions upon women: first, the action of large natural laws, acting on her as they would act on any other animal; then the evolution of social customs and laws (with her position as the active cause), following the direction of mere physical forces, and adding heavily to them; then, with increasing civilization, the unbroken accumulation of precedent, burnt into each generation by the growing force of education, made lovely by art, holy by religion, desirable by habit; and, steadily acting from beneath, the unswerving pressure of economic necessity upon which the whole structure rested. These are strong modifying conditions, indeed.

      The process would have been even more effective and far less painful but for one important circumstance. Heredity has no Salic law. Each girl child inherits from her father a certain increasing percentage of human development, human power, human tendency; and each boy as well inherits from his mother the increasing percentage of sex-development, sex-power, sextendency. The action of heredity has been to equalize what every tendency of environment and education made to differ. This has saved us from such a female as the gypsy moth. It has held up the woman, and held down the man. It has set iron bounds to our absurd effort to make a race with one sex a million years behind the other. But it has added terribly to the pain and difficulty of human life,－a difficulty and a pain that should have taught us long since that we were living on wrong lines. Each woman born, re-humanized by the current of race activity carried on by her father and re-womanized by her traditional position, has had to live over again in her own person the same process of restriction, repression, denial; the smothering "no" which crushed down all her human desires to create, to discover, to learn, to express, to advance. . . .

     To the young man confronting life the world lies wide. Such powers as he has he may use, must use. If he chooses wrong at first, he may choose again, and yet again. Not effective or successful in one channel, he may do better in another. The growing, varied needs of all mankind call on him for the varied service in which he finds his growth. What he wants to be, he may strive to get. What he wants to get, he may strive to get. Wealth, power, social distinction, fame, －what he wants he can try for.

      To the young woman confronting life there is the same world beyond, there are the same human energies and human desires and ambition within. But all that she may wish to have, all that she may wish to do, must come through a single channel and a single choice. Wealth, power, social distinction, fame,－not only these, but home and happiness, reputation, ease and pleasure, her bread and butter,－all, must come to her through a small gold ring. This is a heavy pressure. It has accumulated behind her through heredity, and continued about her through environment. It has been subtly trained into her through education, till she herself has come to think it a right condition, and pours its influence upon her daughter with increasing impetus. Is it any wonder that women are oversexed? But for the constant inheritance from the more human male, we should have been queen bees, indeed, long before this. But the daughter of the soldier and the sailor, of the artist, the inventor, the great merchant, has inherited in body and brain her share of his development in each generation, and so stayed somewhat human for all her femininity. . . .