Women v. Dictator & Earl

Readers of the August Cosmopolitan learned what the world's two most potent antifeminists still think of women.

The two are, of course: First, Signor Benito Mussolini, 45, who lives most of the year away from his wife, Donna Rachele, yet dotes on their only daughter, Edda; and the Second, the Earl of Birkenhead, Viscount Furneaux, 56, Secretary of State for India, a devoted British husband, and a hero to his two smart daughters--Lady Eleanor Smith and Lady Pamela Margaret Elizabeth Smith.

Opposite as sunny Rome and slate-hued London are the anti-feminist theories of Dictator and Earl. The Roman by sheer ardor would explode the very notion that a "new" or "modern" woman can exist. The Londoner, icily accepting modern woman's existence, defines her function as competition with man, and brands her as a failure at her chosen game.

Said Mussolini: "Love is the prime pastime of mankind. . . . Modern woman cannot get away from love. . . . She is no new woman. . . .

"Crushed and yet conquering . . . she is just what man wills her to be. ... Man is in full possession of woman's liberties, and measures them out to her. . . .

"If fate has been kind to her she is bound, body and soul, to some dominant male. . . . She was in industry before the male . . . worked and worked to the limit of her endurance. . . . She is in industry today, but it really is only the modern form of her ancient activity."

Said Birkenhead: "In England during the War, when millions of men were drawn away from industry for military purposes vast numbers of women were called in to take their places. . . .

"It is very remarkable how that great invasion of women into the workaday world has receded. Industry is not stationary; had women shown themselves to possess the necessary skill and the inclination to retain their place in it they could not have been replaced so easily. . . . Even a feminist must be aware that the reason, and the sole reason, why women have retained any hold on such posts is economic. They are permitted to do a man's work because they do it more cheaply. The reason they are able to sell their labor at a lower price is because women in general receive a measure of protection and assistance from modern society which is not accorded in like measure to men.

"Every woman in industry who by underselling her labor deprives a man of his post is making more difficult the setting up of a home by that man. This prevents some other woman from becoming mistress of his home and exercising the rights and privileges inseparable from that position.

"Any skilled dramatist could simplify the problem, after the custom of his craft, by presenting to us a study of a man and woman about to marry and applying, each without the other's knowledge, for the same post. If he secures it, the play ends happily. If she secures it, the social loss is clear. This is what actually is taking place on a large scale--all over the world.

"When I recall the claims made by feminists a few years ago of the vast access of strength and wisdom to the councils of nations which would follow the extension of the franchise to include women, I cannot but feel that there is reason for a certain disillusionment. . . . Women have not merely failed to demonstrate superior political aptitude to that of men, but at no time have they shown even the promise of ripe statesmanship. . . . The incursion of women into industry and politics has failed, is failing, and must of necessity fail."

Fascist Mussolini seemingly did not conceive that his ardent words could give offense; but Anti-Fascist Birkenhead, conscious that his icy logic must have offended, threw a concluding sop to women: "Though a woman may not take a revealed part in the conduct of affairs, we need not fall into the error of supposing that she has no influence in deciding them. ... I can make my meaning more easily understood by repeating a remark made by the Duchess of Burgundy to Madame de Maintenon. 'Do you know,' she said, 'why the queens of England have ruled so much better than the kings? It is because men govern under women's guidance, whereas women rule by the advice of men.' "

These polished words of Lord Birkenhead--typical of his youth as a smart lawyer named F. E. Smith--were flatly contradicted by Dictator Mussolini thus: "The oft-repeated platitude that somewhere in every strong man there is the influence of a woman, is a woven fancy. That there is a feminine 'power behind the throne' is a flimsy tissue of the imagination. No woman ever has been the dominant influence in a strong man's life!"