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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Woman and the Right to Vote + +Author: Rafael Palma + +Release Date: September 24, 2008 [EBook #26699] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOMAN AND THE RIGHT TO VOTE *** + + + + +Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net/ + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="front"><span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e70" href="#xd0e70">1</a>]</span><div class="titlePage"> +<h2 class="docTitle">Philippine Senate</h2> +<h2 class="docTitle">Fifth Philippine Legislature</h2> +<h2 class="docTitle">First Session</h2> +<h1 class="docTitle">The Woman and the Right to Vote</h1> +<h2 class="byline">Address Delivered By +<br> +<span class="docAuthor">Hon. Rafael Palma</span><br> +Senator for the Fourth District +<br> +In support of Bill No. 23 of the Senate in the sessions held by said body on the 22d and 25th of November, 1919 +</h2> +<h2 class="docImprint">Manila<br> +Bureau of Printing<br> +1919 +</h2> +</div> +</div><span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e106" href="#xd0e106">2</a>]</span><div class="body"> +<div class="div1"> +<h2 class="normal">The Woman and the Right to Vote</h2> +<p>Mr. <span class="smallcaps">President and Gentlemen of the Senate</span>: + +</p> +<p>I have seldom felt so proud of being a representative of the people as now, when it gives me an opportunity to advocate a +cause which can not be represented or defended in this chamber by those directly and particularly affected by it, owing to +the leven of prejudice that the beliefs and ideas of the past have left in the mind of modern man. The cause of female suffrage +is one sure to strike a sympathetic chord in every unprejudiced man, because it represents the cause of the weak who, deprived +of the means to defend themselves, are compelled to throw themselves upon the mercy of the strong. + +</p> +<p>But it is not on this account alone that this cause has my sympathy and appeals to me. It has, besides, the irresistible attraction +of truth and justice, which no open and liberal mind can deny. If our action as legislators must be inspired by the eternal +sources of right, if the laws passed here must comply with the divine precept to give everybody his due, then we can not deny +woman the right to vote, because to do otherwise would be to prove false to all the precepts and achievements of democracy +and liberty which have made this century what may be properly called the century of vindication. + +</p> +<p>Female suffrage is a reform demanded by the social conditions of our times, by the high culture of woman, and by the aspiration +of all classes of society to organize and work for the interests they have in common. We can not detain the celestial bodies +in their course; neither can we check any of those moral movements that gravitate with irresistible force towards their center +of attraction: Justice. The moral world is governed by the same laws as the physical world, and all the power of man being +impotent to suppress a single molecule of the spaces required <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e122" href="#xd0e122">3</a>]</span>for the gravitation of the universe, it is still less able to prevent the generation of the ideas that take shape in the mind +and strive to attain to fruition in the field of life and reality. + +</p> +<p>It is an interesting phenomenon that whenever an attempt is made to introduce a social reform, in accordance with modern ideas +and tendencies and in contradiction with old beliefs and prejudices, there is never a lack of opposition, based on the maintenance +of the <i lang="la">statu quo</i>, which it is desired to preserve at any cost. As was to be expected, the eternal calamity howlers and false prophets of evil +raise their fatidical voices on this present occasion, in protest against female suffrage, invoking the sanctity of the home +and the necessity of perpetuating customs that have been observed for many years. + +</p> +<p>Frankly speaking, I have no patience with people who voice such objections. If this country had not been one of the few privileged +places on our planet where the experiment of a sudden change of institutions and ideals has been carried on most successfully, +without paralyzation or retrogression, disorganization or destruction, I would say that the apprehension and fears of those +who oppose this innovation might be justified. + +</p> +<p>However, in less than a generation our country, shaken to its very foundations by the great social upheavals known as revolutions, +has seen its old institutions crumble to pieces and other, entirely new institutions rise in their place; it has seen theories, +beliefs, and codes of ethics, theretofore looked upon as immovable, give way to different principles and methods based upon +democracy and liberty, and despite all those upheavals and changes which have brought about a radical modification in its +social and political structure, or rather in consequence of the same, our people has become a people with modern thoughts +and modern ideals, with a constitution sufficiently robust and strong to withstand the ravages of the struggle for existence, +instead of remaining a sickly and atrophied organism, afraid of everything new and opposed to material struggles from fear +of the wrath of Heaven and from a passive desire to live in an ideal state of peace and well-being. +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e133" href="#xd0e133">4</a>]</span></p> +<p>In view of the fruitful results which those institutions of liberty and democracy have brought to our country; and considering +the marked progress made by us, thanks to these same institutions, in all the orders of national life, in spite of a few reactionists +and ultra-conservatives, who hold opinions to the contrary and regret the past, I do not and can not, understand how there +still are serious people who seriously object to the granting of female suffrage, one of the most vivid aspirations now agitating +modern society. + +</p> +<p>I remember very well that in the past, not so very long ago, the same apprehension and fears were felt with regard to higher +education for our women. How ridiculous—the same people argued—is it for woman to study history, <span class="corr" id="xd0e138" title="Source: mathemathics">mathematics</span>, philosophy, and chemistry, which are not only superior to the assimilating power of her deficient brain, but will make her +presumptuous and arrogant and convert her into a hybrid being without grace or strength, intolerable and fatuous, with a <span class="corr" id="xd0e141" title="Source: beatiful">beautiful</span>, but empty head and a big, but dry heart! However, we admitted the women to our high schools and universities and made it +possible for them to attain to the degree of bachelor of arts and graduate in law, medicine, and other professions. Can it +be said that those women have perverted the homes of their parents or that, when they married, they were a source of disgrace +or scandal to their husbands? We are now able to observe the results, and if these results are found to be detrimental to +the social and political welfare of the country, it is our duty to undo what we have done and to return to where we were before. + + +</p> +<p>Fortunately, nobody would think of such a thing. From the most cultured centers of population to the remotest villages, public +opinion fervently approves and applauds the education of <span class="corr" id="xd0e146" title="Source: woman">women</span>, and even the most backward peasants send their daughters to the cities and go to the greatest sacrifices imaginable in order +to make it possible for them to ascend to the highest pinnacles of knowledge. Though ignorant rustics, they reason in their +own rude way that woman and man are made of the same clay, and refuse to believe that because it has been their fate to have +daughters <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e149" href="#xd0e149">5</a>]</span>instead of sons, they must condemn them to bear the chains of ignorance, incapacitating them from being useful to their families, +society, and their country. + +</p> +<p>Education has not atrophied or impaired any of the fundamental faculties of woman; on the contrary, it has enhanced and enriched +them. Far from being a constant charge to the family, the educated woman has often been its sustain and support in times of +great need. The educated woman has not become a blue-stocking, that fatuous creature imagined by certain elements, nor has +she lost any of her feminine charms by being able to argue and discuss on every subject with the men. On the contrary, it +seems to lend her an additional grace and charm, because she understands us better and can make herself better understood. +Thank God, people are no longer ready to cast ridicule upon what some used to consider the foolish presumption of women to +know as much as the men, and this is doubtless due to the fact that the disastrous results predicted by the calamity howlers, +the terrible prophets of failure, have not materialized. + +</p> +<p>Very well; if you allow the instruction and education of woman in all the branches of science, you must allow woman to take +on her place not only in domestic life, but also in social and public life. Instruction and education have a twofold purpose; +individually, they redeem the human intellect from the perils of ignorance, and socially they prepare man and woman for the +proper performance of their duties of citizenship. A person is not educated exclusively for his or her own good, but principally +to be useful and of service to the others. Nothing is more dangerous to society than the educated man who thinks only of himself, +because his education enables him to do more harm and to sacrifice everybody else to his convenience or personal ambition. +The real object of education is public service, that is, to utilize the knowledge one has acquired for the benefit and improvement +of the society in which one is living. + +</p> +<p>In societies, therefore, where woman is admitted to all the professions and where no source of knowledge is barred to her, +woman must necessarily and logically be allowed to take a part in the public life, otherwise, her education <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e157" href="#xd0e157">6</a>]</span>would be incomplete or society would commit an injustice towards her, giving her the means to educate herself and then depriving +her of the necessary power to use that education for the benefit of society and collective progress. + +</p> +<p>I can not resist this conclusion. If woman is given equal opportunities with man for educating herself; if she is encouraged +to learn and study the knowledge of the world and of life, it is but just that the doors of public life should be thrown open +to her in order to allow her to play in it the part to which she is entitled. + +</p> +<p>In backward societies, woman is taught only such knowledge as she requires for the home; that is, she is unconsciously prepared +for that gentle, that charming slavery so pleasing to the masculine sex. The question now before us is what system we shall +adopt for our women: whether slavery and ignorance, or liberty and education. + +</p> +<p>Female suffrage is the consequence of the education of woman; it is also the consequence of her liberty of conscience. The +vote is the expression of political faith, just as worship is the expression of religious faith. There is no more reason for +keeping woman from the ballot box than there is for preventing her from going to church. + +</p> +<p>There is no reason why suffrage should be a privilege of sex, considering that the duties of citizenship rest as heavily upon +woman as upon man. Is woman under less obligation to strive for the welfare and future of her country because she is a woman? +To attempt to curtail the activity of woman in public life is tantamount to declaring that a woman must not love her country +and must not dedicate any of her time to her duties of citizenship; that she must not feel the affection and devotion which +the idea of native land and community awaken in every well-born creature. + +</p> +<p>Physical barrenness is combated and looked upon as a misfortune in woman; but we condemn her to a perpetual political barrenness, +to <span class="corr" id="xd0e169" title="Source: patrotic">patriotic</span> barrenness, if we keep her away from exercising the right of suffrage which affords the citizen the most effective means +to make his influence felt in social questions and in the improvement of the public affairs. How are we to inculcate in our +children, that sacred pledge of the future of the nation, the cult and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e172" href="#xd0e172">7</a>]</span>worship of native land and liberty if we do not give their mothers that practical education involved in the exercise of the +right of suffrage; if they are taught that government and politics are strange gods at whose shrines they are forbidden to +worship; if they feel upon themselves the stigma of inferiority, of being incapacitated from speaking to their children about +the public affairs and the interests of the nation and the State? + +</p> +<p>All social classes are entitled to representation in the legislative houses and are thus enabled to work for legislation favoring +their interests: the merchants, the laborers, the manufacturers, all can choose one of their own number; but the women, who +are not merely one group or class, but a collection of groups or classes, who represent one-half of the country and have interests +of their own to defend, not only with relation to their sex, but also with relation to their position in the family, are not +allowed to vote and are therefore not permitted to have representatives to promote and defend laws and measures necessary +for their protection and betterment. Is this just? Is this even moral? Female labor can be exploited in shop and factory; +feminine virtue can be made the object of commerce, and yet woman is not allowed to defend directly the interests of her sex, +owing to one of those aberrations of the moral sense that spring from the crass egoism and brutal tyranny of man. + +</p> +<p>If woman were at least exempt from complying with the laws! But no; the law binds the woman as well as the man; the Penal +Code menaces man and woman alike with the sword of justice, and the burden of taxation rests upon both the masculine and the +feminine wealth. Consequently, before the law, their duties are the same, but their rights are not. + +</p> +<p>Is it not strange that our laws should contain so much social injustice towards woman, so much exasperating discrimination, +all based upon the theory of the servile dependency of woman upon man, resulting from her congenital mental and physical inferiority? +Moebius is incarnated in our Codes, governs our policy, and influences all the customs <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e180" href="#xd0e180">8</a>]</span>and usages of our social and political life, to such a point that we ought to be ashamed that in the midst of this era of +vindication, when all classes have secured their right to liberty and equality, woman has been kept indefinitely upon the +same level as in the centuries of subjection and slavery. + +</p> +<p>True democracy can not exist with one-half of the people free and the other half in a stage of slavery, with one-half of the people with representation in the public affairs and the other half without it. The people +does not consist of men alone, but of women as well, and conditions being equal, woman should have the same political rights +as man. She should, at least, have those fundamental rights the exercise of which, like that of the right to vote, requires +nothing but intelligence and capacity, in order that she may have some voice in the decision of her own destiny and may herself +fight the battles for her honor, her liberty, and other rights neglected or ignored by man on account of the undisputed monopoly +exercised by him over the public affairs. + +</p> +<p>The injustices and social and juridical discriminations contained in our codes will not be eliminated in a radical manner +and the condition of woman will not improve while man alone legislates and controls all the spheres of public life, dictating +to woman what she must do and what she must not do; and woman will be incompetent to take care of her own interests and shape +her own life so long as she does not look higher, so long as she consents to the superiority of man and believes that her +lot is simply that of serving and pleasing man in bed and home, instead of being his true helpmate and companion, for the +progress and felicity of the human race. + +</p> +<p>All arguments that are or may be adduced against female suffrage tend invariably towards these two objects: the confinement +of woman to the home and the perpetuation of her civil and political slavery. + +</p> +<p>Woman must busy herself with nothing but her household duties and must live only for her husband and her children; she has +her hands full from the rising to the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e193" href="#xd0e193">9</a>]</span>setting sun if she manages the cook, cleans the house, and mends the clothes: this is the great argument of the partisans +of the old régime. Another is, that it is not in the nature of things that woman should struggle with man in the battle of +public life; that if she enters that struggle, man will cease to look upon her as a being to be worshipped, as a sacred idol +at whose feet he must kneel, and will see in her a rival to be combated and overcome, for his own preservation, and woman +will not only drag the pure flower of her virtue into the mire of political life, but will lose the esteem, respect, and consideration +now tributed to her. + +</p> +<p>I have the most profound respect for all men and women who honestly believe this to be the case. It is not their fault that +they believe that what has always been so is the best. They do not realize that life is motion and that the new elements of +life and character which are being imperceptibly introduced into society demand changes and innovations. Society can not become +stagnant, otherwise it runs the risk of becoming like stagnant water, which generates pestilential miasma. The theory that +woman exists for the home alone has been a dead issue for some time past. Woman has quietly taken her place in public life +and aids and directs man, even though he may not notice it and may not recognize her right to do so. In modern society, woman +participates in the direction of public charity and in the education of the children, she practises law and medicine, engages +in literary and journalistic pursuits, occupies many public offices, and takes interest and cooperates in the suppression +of social vice and suffering. + +</p> +<p>Who does not admit that woman has duties towards her home and her husband and children to which she must ordinarily give the +preference over all other duties? However, does this exclude the performance of other duties towards God, her neighbor, and +the State? Like man, woman has many duties to perform, and the true merit lies in the orderly and complete performance of +these duties. Does not the Filipina dedicate part of her time, sometimes a very considerable part, to the church and to her +so-called <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e199" href="#xd0e199">10</a>]</span>social duties, receiving and making calls and attending celebrations, theaters, and balls? + +</p> +<p>Has anybody ever complained against this? Has woman <span class="corr" id="xd0e203" title="Source: even">ever</span> been criticised for her assiduous attendance of the religious services and the public performance of her religious duties +in crowded churches, in the public streets, filled with tumultuous throngs of people, marching in a procession behind some +saint, jostled about and exposed to disagreeable incidents, which she bears with resignation because she suffers them for +the cause of the public confession of her faith? Our women go not only to church, but to the theater and to popular entertainments +and celebrations, where they may show off their elegant dresses and satisfy their feminine curiosity. In all this we see no +pitfalls or dangers to their virtue, though we know that the women who go to those places and exhibit themselves in this manner +are mothers, wives or daughters who have duties to attend at home. + +</p> +<p>Now, what is the difference if woman leaves her home to attend or take part in a political meeting where the public needs +or the election of candidates for public office are discussed? In what way is the virtue or purity of woman imperilled by +her taking an interest in public questions affecting the welfare of the families, considering that whatever her status may +be in life, woman always occupies some position in the family? Why should we fear that woman will leave the flower of her +charms on the brambles of politics if she listens to a political speaker, after having listened to sermons all her life, or +if she herself makes a speech giving her opinions on some subject of interest to the family, on the necessity of remedying +some social evil or of providing a home for abandoned and indigent children? + +</p> +<p>Let us take the case of one of the most vital questions of the present time, the subject of gambling. Do you not believe that +this question has a direct bearing upon the welfare of the families, especially of the feminine part of them? Who suffers +the most if the father or husband spends the money of the family in order to satisfy his craving for gambling? The women, +of course, the daughters <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e210" href="#xd0e210">11</a>]</span>who are often condemned to undergo unnecessary privations and suffering because of the conduct of the head of the family. +And you try to deny to woman the right to take a part in political affairs, to enlighten the electorate with regard to the +fatal results of gambling or cast her vote for the candidate who promises to secure the passage of measures against it? And +why should the opinion of woman on issues like this not have as much weight as that of man? Should it not be given greater +weight, it being she who suffers the consequences and results of the evil? There are many questions like this which vitally +affect the welfare and happiness of woman. + +</p> +<p>I fail to see anything pernicious in the activity of woman in the field of politics: I even believe that her activity in this +respect will be highly salutary and beneficent not only for womankind, but for society in general. It will serve to instruct +woman and give her a more extensive knowledge of the world and of life. She will not be considered as an outsider where society +and government are concerned and will therefore not remain indifferent to their short-comings and progress. Nothing could +possibly be more harmful to society than the presence in it of foreign bodies absolutely indifferent to its weal or woe, of +useless parts in the machinery of progress. + +</p> +<p>We are terrified by the idea that the impulsiveness of woman and her fanaticism and narrow-mindedness, according to some, +her weakness and lack of character, according to others, and her unpreparedness and deficient culture, according to still +others, will make female suffrage a mere farce and will convert it into a tool for certain elements and interests. My opinion +is that all these impulses, sentiments, weaknesses, and imperfections of woman are due to nothing but to the seclusion in +which she has been kept. They are the effects of an educational and social system tottering to decay, of a system that does +not give the natural faculties of woman that room for expansion and development which is as necessary to life as steam is +to electricity and electricity to light. And those defects and imperfections can not be cured by continuing the system <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e216" href="#xd0e216">12</a>]</span>under which they have formed and developed, but there must be a radical reform, a regeneration, in order that, as a bird on +its first flight stretches its wings and soars forth into space, where there is an abundance of air and light, woman may have +an opportunity to develop to their fullest extent her faculties and instincts and to show the graceful essence of her being. + + +</p> +<p>We must give woman new objectives in life and lofty occupations in which she can test her aptitude, in order that everything +defective and ill-developed in her character and education may be eliminated in the atmosphere of liberty and publicity, where +all defects can be brought to light without fear or pity and all vices crushed with iron heel. This is why I desire and demand +political rights for our women. I am convinced that one of the results of this concession will be to enrich, improve, and +develop her aptitude and aspiration to serve the high ideals of life and society. Woman will devote less time to dress, fashions, +gossip and all the other petty and trifling things that are generally the subject of their conversation and will endeavor +to study and discuss the more serious questions of social betterment and welfare. + +</p> +<p>Politics is not a permanent occupation that absorbs all the time of a person who has other regular business to attend to. +As a matter of fact, not speaking of political officers and a few professional politicians, most of the citizens devote to +politics only the time strictly necessary and which they can spare. Any man or woman depending for his or her living or future +upon politics will soon come to the conviction that politics bring starvation instead of bread. + +</p> +<p>Politics are perfectly compatible with the domestic duties and occupations of woman, whether she be mother, wife, or daughter. +An educated woman realizes her responsibilities; she knows how to divide her time and will give her domestic duties the preference +over any other duties outside of the home. A woman is not liable to engage in political activity if she is very busy at home, +and when confined to her bed by the labors and cares of maternity, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e224" href="#xd0e224">13</a>]</span>she will be unable to engage in politics, even if she were willing. Therefore, when I hear the argument that woman will be +remiss in her household duties on account of politics and that she will neglect to take care of her husband and children if +she is given the right to vote, I frankly confess that I am, perhaps, too dull to see the truth of it. + +</p> +<p>You insist that by divine precept the place of woman is in the home and that of man in society, and that this is the true +and proper division of labor between the two halves of the human species. If this is really the plan of God, will you tell +me then why all religions and all schools of ethics coincide in prescribing duties towards the neighbor and teach us to love +our fellow-beings? Did the Lord speak to man alone, and not also to woman when amidst fire and smoke, on the quaking mountain, +he gave to the world the tables of the Decalogue and said: “Love thy neighbor as thyself?” And the universal precept contained +in every code of morals and in every religion, “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them,”—does +it refer to man alone, or does it include woman also? To me, these precepts indicate that man and woman have duties towards +others, that they have duties towards their fellow-beings, and that they must not confine their efforts towards happiness +to the home, but extend them beyond it, to society. Will you tell me whether there can be happiness in the homes if society +is not happy, seeing that society is nothing but the extension and sum of all the homes, and that all the suffering and evils +that afflict society find their echo in the home, just as the happiness of the home exercises <span class="corr" id="xd0e228" title="Source: and">an</span> influence upon the happiness of society? + +</p> +<p>You attempt to do something impossible: You try to divide the human being into halves: one-half that is happy in the home +and the other that is happy in society, or vice versa. You can do it if you wish, but then you will either have to consign +all your codes which confer upon man the government and administration of the home to the waste basket and make others vesting +these powers in woman, or if you do not wish to do that, you will have to give woman a share in the public affairs in order +that she may, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e233" href="#xd0e233">14</a>]</span>the same as in the home, assist man in building up and strengthening the happiness of that other big home which we call society. + + +</p> +<p>You say that woman, upon appearing on the stage of politics, will lose the respect and admiration of man; that instead of +gaining any advantages, she will lose all those inherent in her present position, in which she is removed from any direct +struggle with man, is adorable and adored everywhere, and reigns supreme in her home with the undisputed authority of the +wife or mother, clad in the purple of the grace and majesty with which Nature has endowed her, pure and undefiled by the mire +with which political strife and intrigue always bespatter the reputation and dignity of those who engage in them. + +</p> +<p>I believe I have stated the position of our adversaries in terms both poetical and precise, and when I speak of our adversaries, +I include that numerous legion of women who still hesitate to ask for the right of suffrage, for reasons which, perhaps, deserve +being called selfish. + +</p> +<p>However, the idealistic woman I have depicted will not disappear if our <span class="corr" id="xd0e241" title="Source: woman">women</span> are educated in politics the same as they are educated in the arts and sciences. A political education<span class="corr" id="xd0e244" title="Source: .">,</span> far from being harmful to the natural charms of woman, will in my opinion enhance these, for the same reason that our modern +education has given woman charms which the woman of the past did not possess. Unless you argue that education is in itself +an evil rather than a blessing, and that it vitiates the character instead of improving it, you can not escape the conclusion +that by increasing the knowledge and experience of woman, you give her more vigor, more energy, and a greater personal charm. + + +</p> +<p>Nothing commands greater respect than education. Education elevates a person. From the moment that you show that you possess +education, the consideration and respect of the others are yours. Education does not know the bar of race prejudice; through +it an individual of a colored race can win the respect and often the admiration of the white man. + +</p> +<p>Does woman ever inspire man with greater respect than when she is instructed, when a college education has brought <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e251" href="#xd0e251">15</a>]</span>her to his own level? Was woman more respected in the past, when she remained ignorant, than she is now? I am willing to concede +that she may have been courted more assiduously, but that does not mean that she was more respected. Do you understand by +respect and consideration those empty forms of etiquette which make a man bow down to the ground to a woman and regale her +with a few hollow compliments, designed to tickle the vanity or turn the head of a credulous and frivolous being? Do you call +respect the singular habit of certain men to always find the eyes of the woman to whom they are speaking divine, to compare +her mouth to a rosebud, her teeth to a string of beautiful pearls, and her form to the slender willow, and other stupidities +of that kind? If that is the sort of respect and consideration that woman will lose if she goes into politics, she ought to +be very glad to get rid of it, because all these empty phrases of gallantry are like the crowing of the rooster who wishes +to dazzle a silly hen on which he has designs. + +</p> +<p>And, tell me, how is it possible for weakness and ignorance to inspire respect? As a matter of fact, when a little cooking, +embroidering, and music, and the knowledge of the catechism were deemed sufficient to prepare a girl for married life, which +was then the only career open to woman, she was the recipient of great consideration and courtesy from man. These, however, +were not inspired by real respect, but rather by a sentiment of chivalry, because man thought woman so weak and ignorant that +he deemed it his duty to show her that protection, consideration, and courtesy which are due to weakness and ignorance. Is +this the opinion that our <span class="corr" id="xd0e255" title="Source: woman">women</span> want us to have of them? Respect is a sentiment engendered by the idea of equality, and unless woman is placed <span class="corr" id="xd0e258" title="Source: of">on</span> the same level with man in the field of politics, we shall continue to hear ignominious phrases such as “But, woman, what +do you know about these things! You go and mind your own business!<span class="corr" id="xd0e261" title="Not in source">”</span> + +</p> +<p>Our women need not worry that if they are allowed to vote, they will necessarily forfeit the consideration and courtesy accorded +to them at present, when they do not <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e266" href="#xd0e266">16</a>]</span>come into direct collision with man on the field of politics, and that the men will then consider themselves free to attack +them as a rival whom they must overcome and destroy for their own preservation. In the first place it is a mistake to conclude +that the participation of woman in public life will result in rivalry between the sexes. The attraction and sympathy between +man and woman springs precisely from the difference in sex. If there were only men or only women, there might be such a thing +as our mutually destroying each other, because there would be no purpose in life and the human race would not reproduce itself. +It is in the interest of one sex not to destroy the other. On the other hand, politics is not always a personal struggle. +In its proper and loftiest sense it is a struggle of ideas and principles, of theories and methods. Therefore, if a man is +pitted against a woman in the arena of politics, they are certainly not compelled to engage in fisticuffs and kill each other, +but each will present his own views on the points at issue, with more or less sound arguments in support of them. I do not +believe any man has the right to insult a woman because she is his opponent, seeing that he has no such a right where a man +is concerned. And if in the heat of political strife such an insult should be passed, has not woman the right to reply or +to pay the offender back in his own coin? This is a case where woman will be given an opportunity to learn to be independent +in judgment and action, seeing that certain persons do not want woman to vote unless she <span class="corr" id="xd0e268" title="Source: possess">possesses</span> independence of thought and action. I do not want, either, to give voice to the suspicion that many men are against female +suffrage because they fear they might be worsted in a public debate, and what would then become of the prestige of the strong +sex? + +</p> +<p>In the second place, if woman wants man to adore and idolize her, she can get him to do it whether she votes or not. Man does +not adore woman because she has less rights than he has; but he worships her because woman is woman, the <span class="corr" id="xd0e273" title="Source: archtype">archetype</span> of grace and beauty of creation, and man will forever burn incense at the shrine of that divinity. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e276" href="#xd0e276">17</a>]</span>Remember that it has always been said that christianity elevated the condition of woman and gave her greater rights, and yet +it is the Christian countries where woman is accorded the greatest consideration and respect. + +</p> +<p>Suffrage will not detract from the beauty of the long tresses of woman, nor will it make her cheeks and lips less rosy and +the curves of her body less graceful. On the contrary, it will lend her an additional grace, that of being able to write a +ballot in her diminutive handwriting, and man will always feel for her that love, tenderness, and adoration which grace and +beauty will always inspire all the world over. Hercules will always bow to Venus because she is Venus, though Venus be a suffragist. + + +</p> +<p>A political education will provide woman with new means for gaining the respect and admiration of man. Woman will realize +that her duty does not merely consist in giving sons and daughters to the fatherland, but in educating and training them in +such a manner that from their childhood on they will take interest in everything tending to improve social conditions, and +in inspiring them with the desire to devote their efforts to a certain cause or party, for the best of their people. Public +opinion will become much broader and stronger when it shall reflect the sentiments of our women, who are at present a passive +element where the duties of citizenship are concerned; and when in her dark hours the nation shall need assistance, she will +receive it not only from her citizens, but also from her citizenesses, who will not be ignorant and inexperienced in the tasks +and duties confronting the people, but will be accustomed to the discipline of organization and to the calls of the public +service. + +</p> +<p>There is no doubt, of course, that it is greatly to the advantage of man to maintain woman in ignorance, not only with regard +to politics, but also where other matters are concerned. For one thing, it renders it easier for man to satisfy his whims +and make of woman a toy which he can use or drop according to his fancy. She is obedient, submissive, and resigned; she never +discusses or argues; she obeys and serves in silence, like a beautiful piece of <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e284" href="#xd0e284">18</a>]</span>furniture, differing from the rest only in that she is animate; she is a delightful doll because she can speak and has a little +sense. I know that this is the ideal of many men, for the only reason that it suits their convenience. + +</p> +<p>But that is not woman as she should be; the woman that our century has redeemed from ignorance and slavery; the woman whom +God has endowed with an intellect, a will and a heart, hers to cultivate and perfect in order that she may be not the servant +of man, but his companion, not the subject of the king, but the queen enthroned by his side, to be his faithful and constant +ally from the cradle to the grave, in prosperity and adversity, not only in the intimacy of the home, but also in the wide +arena of public life. Man and woman were created to mate and to understand and love each other, to work, suffer, and struggle +side by side for all that is good and beautiful in life, to perpetuate the sovereignty of human couple on earth, and to make +it a place of happiness, free from tyranny and suffering and fit to be inhabited by peaceful and intelligent beings and not +by vultures and wild beasts. + +</p> +<p>This is the mission of woman and man on earth as I understand and conceive it. Until man and woman are placed on exactly the +same footing, until they stand on the same plane, so that there can be an intimate communion of thoughts, ideas, and interests, +life will always be ominous and unhappy for one or for the other, and humanity will never overcome the evils with which it +is now struggling. God made woman as perfect as man, and it is unjust to deprive her of any of the benefits and advantages +which man derives from science, arts, and politics. Politics is a noble occupation, as it is the art or science of making +nations happy, and it is but just that woman should contribute her share to the attainment of that happiness. + +</p> +<p>Is there any doubt that woman has faculties, sentiments, views, and methods of doing things of her own, different from those +of man? How often has man, when he did not dare to do a thing, left it to woman to do! She has a personality of her own and +should, like man, be given an opportunity to develop it; she should be given a voice where her own interests are concerned, +and should on her own <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e292" href="#xd0e292">19</a>]</span>account face the risks incidental to life, venturing, experimenting, and discovering things for herself instead of having +man establish an invariable rule of conduct for her and imposing upon her the methods which she must follow. + +</p> +<p>Politics is no longer what it should be; it has become too masculine and is brutal, selfish, and altogether too personal, +because it lacks the kindness, the self-denial, the altruism, and the spirit of sacrifice which are characteristic qualities +of the feminine sex. Why should we not benefit by the energy of woman, by her impulses and her views of things, in order to +improve our practices and methods in public life? Perhaps, politics will be chastened and purified to some extent by the intervention +and presence of woman, just as her presence at any gathering makes man more careful in language and actions! + +</p> +<p>Like a number of other institutions that are now a thing of the past, the monopoly exercised by man over the public functions +is based on force and violence, and in order to perpetuate this monopoly, its supporters take shelter behind the wall of prejudice +erected in the course of the times under the protection of the established order of things, and from there they hurl the shafts +of satire and ridicule upon all who demand that this violent condition cease. Ridicule is the most powerful weapon now used +against the woman who attempts to obtain justice and the vindication of the rights of her sex, some of which rights, such +as that of governing the peoples, were not even withheld from them in many of the primitive states. + +</p> +<p>The result is that many persons have a very queer idea of the suffragist. She is represented as a woman who dislikes home +work and is absent from her home at all hours of the day and night. The most common picture is that in which the wife addresses +a gathering of other women, while the husband is busy at home, sweeping the floor and attempting to pacify the squalling baby. +This is the idea which has been spread by cinematographs and reviews and which has impressed itself upon the minds of the +unthinking <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e300" href="#xd0e300">20</a>]</span>masses, who are incapable of rising above a superficial view of things. + +</p> +<p>Nothing, however<span class="corr" id="xd0e304" title="Not in source">,</span> is farther from representing her as she really is. The suffragist is a true product of our era of liberty. Having received +the same education as man, she knows and does not shirk her responsibilities towards her family; but at the same time she +is free from prejudice and deems it her duty to coöperate with man in all work concerning social reform and the public welfare +of the community in which she lives. She believes that for the very reason that there are duties in the home which are assigned +to woman, she has also duties to perform in public life. The distribution of the work between man and woman causes no conflict +between them in their home and family life, and there is no reason why there should be any conflict in public life if each +sex is assigned the duties adapted to it. + +</p> +<p>Being a suffragist does not mean being antagonistic to the family duties. On the contrary, the suffragist realizes that the +happiness of the family is the foundation of the happiness of society, and she knows that social distress and vices affect +the family and that she can and should coöperate with man in the relief of that distress and the suppression of those vices. + + +</p> +<p>No, the general idea people have of the suffragist is altogether a wrong one and it is high time that at least the educated +and intelligent correct their views where they are based on prejudices and ideas belonging to the past. We can not prevent +the uneducated masses from thinking as they did half a century ago; but the fact that many serious and otherwise progressive +persons content themselves with the opinion of the uneducated shows that here we do not go deep into subjects and allow ourselves +to be carried away by the impressions of the moment. + +</p> +<p>Suffragism is a legitimate aspiration, an ideal of our century. It springs from the philosophy and institutions of the modern +world and from the growing difficulty of the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e313" href="#xd0e313">21</a>]</span>position of woman in the struggle for existence. It is necessary for her to protect herself and organize, not to create rivalry +and make war upon man, but to become an asset in the social progress and protect herself from the exploitation and iniquity +of the other social groups, whose victim she would become if she remained indifferent and took no part in the public life. + + +</p> +<p>As a man of the law and a legislator, I would not think of opposing this aspiration. I consider it as natural as the right +to live and the right of self-defence. I do not consider it premature for the Filipino woman to demand this right, as her +sisters have done, successfully in some cases, in other parts of the world. To me it makes no difference that the number of +those now demanding it is small and insignificant. It would even make no difference to me if the women of our country did +not demand or want it at all. Where rights fundamentally in accordance with the spirit of our institutions and with the ideals +of our times are to be granted, I would not consult those who are entitled to demand them, but would give them without the +asking, because it would be just and God wants justice to prevail at all times and everywhere. I am not a judge, but a legislator, +and it is my first duty to provide for justice, not to administer it, nor wait for some one to ask for it and some one to +object to it. + +</p> +<p>It is a source of gratification to me that there is a group of women who, voicing the aspirations of their sex, have dared +to approach our Legislature and call attention to a void in our statutes. This indicates to me that the consciousness of that +right has been born and has revealed its existence in the Filipino woman, and more than that I need not know. I do not have +to count and classify the women who think that way. When Rizal espoused the cause of the political rights of our race, his +companions were very few, because in the majority of his compatriots that consciousness was lying dormant. But it would be +a falsehood and an error to affirm that even at that time Rizal did not voice the cause of his entire race, and that no attention +should be paid to his demands because he and those with <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e319" href="#xd0e319">22</a>]</span>him were few in number. He knew that his country was oppressed, that he was defending a just cause, and that he was fighting +for the rights of his fellow-citizens, and he did not stop to reflect whether or not those fellow-citizens had the consciousness +of their rights. + +</p> +<p>We must conclude, therefore, that the few women who now speak to us of the rights of their sex and for suffrage, represent +all the Filipino women, unless we wish to insult our women by saying that they have so little common sense as to oppose the +concession to them of rights that will broaden the scope of their lives and of their activity in society. It matters but little +that the desire for suffrage appears in its initial stage, in the vague form of an indefinite proposition: the fact is that +there has been an indication of that desire, and in my judgment the plant has germinated and it is useless to endeavor to +smother it, as it will grow again. The more we delay female suffrage, the more shall we suffer by it, because why should we +stifle a budding plant instead of allowing it to grow and in due season produce delicious fruit? + +</p> +<p>We need not imitate the older nations who have been so slow in recognizing women's rights. We have neither their traditions +nor their prejudices and our progress need not come by slow revolutions. We must foster all those peaceful revolutions of +ideas that will result in social justice. Just as we accept the latest inventions in mechanics, industry, and art, such as +the automobile, the dynamo, and the aeroplane, so must we accept the latest improvements in the social and political institutions +of the most advanced countries. + +</p> +<p>Female suffrage spells justice and vindication for the modern woman and we must adopt it forthwith, without unnecessary delay +and formalities. The liberty of worship which gave us religious tolerance; the popular suffrage which strengthened our collective +conscience; the free public school which emancipated our masses from the tutelage of the <i>cacique</i>: in short, all the achievements of democracy of which we are so justly proud would not yet be beautiful realities and we +would not be able to enjoy their mature <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e330" href="#xd0e330">23</a>]</span>fruits as we now do, if we had been compelled to feel our way and make many tentative steps instead of at once entering fully +upon our social and political life. We have to move quickly and anticipate the aspirations of the feminine masses, which are +as yet vague, in order to save us the agitation which otherwise is sure to come and the justice of which will have to be recognized. + + +</p> +<p>When we are told that our social condition is such that we are not ready for female suffrage, and that our women are not sufficiently +educated to exercise political rights, I feel like asking whether we said the same thing when we imported and implanted in +our country the democratic institutions that are the base and foundation of our present society. Our traditional education +was diametrically opposed to a popular system of government, yet we adopted that form of government, because we considered +it better than the other, more suited to our interests and to the ideals of the century, and did not worry about whether or +not we were sufficiently educated and prepared for it. + +</p> +<p>It is more than twenty years now that the free public school has opened its doors to the women, and education has extended +its benefits to them in the same proportion as to the men. Many of the women educated in these schools are now wives or mothers, +and yet you still ask whether the Filipina has attained to the maturity necessary for her investment with political rights. +I am sure there is no idea of requiring them all to be doctors or bachelors of art before we grant them the right of suffrage. + + +</p> +<p>A political education can not be acquired except by education, just as you can not learn how to swim except by swimming. The +argument that the Filipina is not sufficiently prepared is a justification of the attitude of a country which never finds +its colonies sufficiently prepared or educated to exercise the right of sovereignty themselves. + +</p> +<p>The other day, when I made a flight in a seaplane for the sake of the experience, I felt—I frankly admit it—some apprehension, +a certain fear of the unknown, but after the first few moments were happily past, I felt perfectly comfortable and enjoyed +the flight through space and the view of the magnificent landscape far below me. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e340" href="#xd0e340">24</a>]</span>Ah, it is beautiful to cleave the air like a swallow and to ride upon the clouds and the winds of heaven, looking down upon +the cities and human dwellings spread like a relief map upon the crystal sheet of the waters, to traverse enormous distances +in a few minutes almost without noticing it, and to emulate in everything the bird and like the bird to alight suddenly, without +fatigue and physical hardships. When the voyage was over, I realized that my apprehension and fear had been unfounded; that +it was not more risky to fly through space on an aeroplane than to speed across country on an automobile, and I then realized +the numerous advantages to be derived from the flying machine, that product of our time which is destined to revolutionize +not only warfare, but also the pursuits of peace. + +</p> +<p>The same thing occurs with all new ideas and reforms of a moral and political order. They are adopted with the instinctive +fear, the vague apprehension inspired by the new and unknown. There is much talk of their objectional features and dangers +for the established order of things. You might think the firmament was going to crumble to pieces or the world was threatening +to go out of joint. However, after the innovation has been made, it is found to be quite natural and logical, because things +go on in their natural course, the heavenly bodies continue in their orbits as before and the mountain peaks do not slide +down into the valleys. Courage and hope are born again in the human breast, the masses get used to the new state of affairs, +and soon even the most recalcitrant would be furious if any one should propose to return to the old order of things. This +has happened in our country before, and has always been and always will be the way in which progress is worked out. + +</p> +<p>We must make up our minds to overcome our scruples and fears. If in discussing the aeroplane, we were to speak of nothing +but of the number of aviators who have been killed, we would never accept that invention. We must embark in one in order to +prove to ourselves that our fears and apprehensions are unfounded. Sight must not be lost of the fact that suffragism is not +a new thing <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e346" href="#xd0e346">25</a>]</span>in the world, that it is far from being an experiment and is already an established fact in some countries. Exactly the same +as the aeroplane: if we desire to become acquainted with the advantages of that apparatus, we do not ask those who have never +traveled in it, but those who have experimented with it, and if we wish to know the advantages of suffragism, we must not +listen to those who oppose it as a matter of principle and theory, but must consult countries that have made experiments with +it and have already had a chance to see its results. We must take note of the fact that suffragism is gaining in strength +every day and is becoming a general movement in the countries where it has found acceptance. Exactly like the aeroplane. Would +it not be perfectly ridiculous to declaim against the aeroplane on account of the accidents that are liable to occur, and +would we not be stupid to refuse to follow the lead of other <span class="corr" id="xd0e348" title="Source: government">governments</span> who utilize its advantages for defence or aggression in war and for rapid communication in time of peace? And is it not just +as stupid and even senseless to oppose suffragism on speculative or rather hypothetical grounds, instead of being guided by +the experience of other countries in this respect and accepting suffragism as part and parcel of our modern customs and institutions? + + +</p> +<p>In conclusion, permit me to quote a few passages on this subject from an address which I made at an entertainment given at +the Opera House in honor of Rizal by various schools for young ladies in 1913: + + +</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p>According to the old idea, woman's sphere of action should not extend beyond the home, beyond her domestic occupations, and +she should be nothing but the glory and delight of her husband and her children. This is not right. Like man, woman is born +and lives in society, and she can not and must not remain indifferent to social distress and suffering. To think otherwise +would be selfishness and aberration and would leave society a prey to much suffering which only the blessed hand of woman +can cure or relieve. Let woman be the glory and happiness of the home; but do not forget that she must extend her beneficent +action beyond the confines of the household, that she must make the world outside the participant of the wealth of kindness +and charity that bountiful Providence has lavished upon her. Just as she shares the duties of life with man within <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e356" href="#xd0e356">26</a>]</span>the home, so should she without it, in public life, share with man the responsibility of remedying and alleviating public +distress and misfortune. + +</p> +<hr class="tb"><p> + + +</p> +<p>It is very significant that beneficence, charity, and morality are feminine virtues, it being woman's mission to exercise +all these virtues in society. She must take a part, and should, in my opinion, always take the initiative, in all work for +the protection of the orphans, the relief of distress, and the elevation of the standard of public morality. She must strive +and suffer, in the society in which she is living, for all that is feminine in life, must with a wave of her hand attenuate +the fierceness of the struggle for existence, and must brighten the gloomy night of human suffering with her gentle presence. +Our country needs not only the strength of her men, but the kindness and charity of her women; she needs not only heroes, +but also heroines. And heroines exist and always have existed in the history of humankind; and there are and always have been +heroines in our country, the special privilege of which, according to serious foreign authors, consists in its women being +superior to its men. + +</p> +<hr class="tb"><p> + + +</p> +<p>And the girls who to-day pay homage to Rizal and dedicate their songs and prayers to him, will to-morrow be citizenesses who +will not, like unhappy Maria Clara, be made the victims of social injustice, but will help to banish social injustice and +strive for justice, virtue, and the glory and greatness of their native land. +</p> +</div><p> + + +</p> +<p>Yes; I cherish that hope and have faith in the liberty of woman. It is not possible to keep one-half of humanity in the upper +part and the other half in the lower part of the balance without producing <span class="corr" id="xd0e369" title="Source: desequilibrium">disequilibrium</span>, tears, and suffering. Everything tends to reach the same level in life, the same as in death, the great leveller. Humanity +has seen a new light which will shine brightly, though error and prejudice may endeavor to shroud it with darkness. Woe to +those who refuse to see the light! The world continues to progress and stops for no one. He who wishes to lag behind is free +to do so, but he will surely deplore it afterwards. + +</p> +<p>I can not prophesy what will be the outcome of the efforts which the Filipino women are now making to obtain suffrage; but +I know that these efforts must be to them, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e374" href="#xd0e374">27</a>]</span>and are to us, a source of pride and glory, because they show that there is no part of our people which has remained indifferent +to the great movements of the century. There are persons who scoff at them and many shrug their shoulders; but this must not +discourage our women, because neither scoffing nor shrugging the shoulders are very weighty arguments. The same persons who +now laugh at them and shrug their shoulders, probably because they do not know that the world and society are moving and progressing, +will some day recognize that these women were in the right, just as the men who scoffed at Rizal lived to deplore their mistake +and have since made amends. + +</p> +<p>What we must do is to diffuse the light and spread the new doctrines, in order to convince those who unwittingly refuse to +see justice and truth, the only firm foundations of the stability and prosperity of civilized society. + + + + +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e378" href="#xd0e378">28</a>]</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<div class="back"> +<div class="titlePage" lang="es"> +<h2 class="docTitle">Senado de Filipinas</h2> +<h2 class="docTitle">Quinta Legislatura Filipina,</h2> +<h2 class="docTitle">Primer período de sesiones</h2> +<h1 class="docTitle">La mujer y el derecho de votar</h1> +<h2 class="byline">Discurso pronunciado por el +<br> +<span class="docAuthor">Hon. Rafael Palma</span><br> +Senador por el Cuarto Distrito +<br> +En favor del proyecto de Ley No. 23 del Senado en las sesiones celebradas por dicho cuerpo en los días 22 y 25 de noviembre de 1919 +</h2> +<h2 class="docImprint">Manila<br> +Bureau of Printing<br> +1919 +</h2> +</div><span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e409" href="#xd0e409">29</a>]</span><div lang="es" class="div1"> +<h2 class="normal">La mujer y el derecho de votar</h2> +<p>Sr. <span class="smallcaps">Presidente y Caballeros del Senado</span>: + +</p> +<p>Pocas veces me he sentido tan orgulloso de ostentar la representación popular como esta vez que me permite abogar por una +causa que no puede ser representada ni defendida en este sitio por la parte a quien directa y particularmente interesa, merced +a esa levadura de prejuicios que han dejado en la mente del hombre moderno las creencias e ideas del antiguo. La causa del +sufragio femenino es una causa que despierta la simpatía de todo hombre desapasionado, porque representa la causa del débil +que, privado del medio de defenderse por sí mismo, pone toda su razón y derecho al arbitrio del fuerte. + +</p> +<p>Pero no es solamente por esto que atrae mi simpatía y apela a mi defensa. Es además que dicha causa tiene en sí un fondo irresistible +de verdad y justicia al cual no puede negarse ninguna inteligencia abierta y libre. Si nuestra conciencia como legisladores +debe inspirarse en las eternas fuentes del derecho, si las leyes que aquí formulamos deben llevar el sello divino de dar a +cada uno lo suyo, no podemos rehusar a la mujer el derecho del voto como no pretendamos renegar de todas las fórmulas y conquistas +de la democracia y de la libertad que han hecho de este siglo el ser llamado con propiedad el siglo de las reivindicaciones. + + +</p> +<p>El sufragio femenino es una reforma exigida por las condiciones sociales de nuestro tiempo, por la elevación de la cultura +de la mujer y las aspiraciones de todas las clases o grupos de la sociedad a organizarse para trabajar por los intereses que +tienen de común. No podemos parar el movimiento de los astros y no podemos parar igualmente ninguno de esos movimientos morales +que gravitan con <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e424" href="#xd0e424">30</a>]</span>incontrastable fuerza hacia su centro de atracción: la Justicia. Pues el mundo moral está regido por las mismas leyes que +el físico y si el poder del hombre es impotente para suprimir una molécula de los espacios necesaria a la gravitación universal, +menos podrá contener la generación de las ideas elaboradas en la conciencia y ansiosas de encarnar en los fecundos senos de +la vida y de la realidad. + +</p> +<p>Es interesante el fenómeno de que cada vez que se trata de realizar una reforma social en consonancia con las ideas y actividades +del siglo y en contradicción con añejas creencias y preocupaciones, no faltan nunca las objeciones fundadas en el mantenimiento +del <i lang="la">statu quo</i> que se quiere a toda costa preservar. Los eternos agoreros del desastre, los falsos profetas de la destrucción, como no puede +menos de suceder, alzan sus fatídicas voces en esta ocasión protestando contra el sufragio femenino en nombre de la santidad +del hogar y de la insustituibilidad de costumbres que han sido por largo tiempo admitidas. + +</p> +<p>Francamente, no tengo ninguna paciencia para escuchar semejantes objeciones. Si este país no hubiera sido precisamente uno +de los pocos lugares privilegiados del planeta en donde se ha realizado con fortuna el experimento de una brusca transición +de sistemas e ideales, sin producir paradas ni retrocesos, sin desarticulaciones ni roturas, yo diría que los sobresaltos +y temores de aquellos que se oponen a esta innovación se hallan justificados. + +</p> +<p>Pero en menos de una generación, este país, sacudido en sus cuatro costados por esos grandes terremotos sociales que por otro +nombre se llaman revoluciones, ha visto desmoronarse sus antiguas instituciones para levantarse en su lugar otras enteramente +nuevas; ha visto desaparecer teorías, creencias y valores morales que se tenían por inconmovibles y eternos para ser sustituídos +por diferentes principios y métodos, fundados en la democracia y libertad; y a despecho de esos cambios y trastornos que han +modificado radicalmente su estructura social y política y gracias precisamente a ellos, nuestro pueblo se ha convertido en +un pueblo con pensamientos e ideales modernos, con una constitución robusta y capaz de afrontar los estragos de la lucha por +la existencia, en vez de aquel enfermizo y atrofiado <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e435" href="#xd0e435">31</a>]</span>organismo que tenía miedo a todas las novedades y repudiaba las luchas materiales por temor a las iras del cielo y por un +pasivo deseo de vivir en paz y bienestar ideales. + +</p> +<p>En frente de los provechosos resultados que esas instituciones de libertad y democracia han dado a este país, a la vista de +los marcados progresos alcanzados en todos los órdenes de la vida nacional merced a esas mismas instituciones, pese a algunos +cuantos reaccionarios y ultraconservadores que opinan lo contrario y añoran el pasado, yo no veo, no puedo ver, como haya +gente seria que seriamente sostenga que no debe concederse el sufragio femenino, una de las más vivísimas aspiraciones que +agitan actualmente la conciencia del mundo moderno. + +</p> +<p>Recuerdo muy bien que en otros tiempos, y no muy lejanos, los mismos temores y sobresaltos se habían abrigado contra la instrucción +superior de la mujer. ¡Que ridículo, se decía, qué ridículo que la mujer aprenda Historia, Matemáticas, Filosofía y Química +que no sólo no puede digerir su escaso cerebro sino que la llenaría de presunción y soberbia convirtiéndola en una especie +de criatura híbrida, sin gracia y sin fuerza, intolerable y fatua, con mollera hermosa pero vacía y corazón grande pero seco! +Y, sin embargo, hemos dado entrada a la mujer en las escuelas superiores y en las universidades y, al igual que el hombre, +hemos permitido que sus cabezas ostenten las borlas de bachiller en Artes, Leyes, Medicina y otras profesiones. ¿Podemos, +ahora, decir que esas mujeres han pervertido el hogar de sus mayores o cuando se han casado han sido para sus maridos motivo +de deshonor o escándalo? Es tiempo de observar los resultados porque si estos resultados han sido perjudiciales al cuerpo +social y político del país, nuestro deber es deshacer lo hecho y desandar lo andado. + +</p> +<p>Nadie piensa afortunadamente en esto. Desde los más cultos centros de población hasta las aldeas más desconocidas se arrastra +silenciosa y majestuosa una ola de opinión popular que aprueba y aplaude la educación femenina, al punto de que los más rudos +sementereros envían a sus hijas a las ciudades a costa de los más imaginables sacrificios <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e443" href="#xd0e443">32</a>]</span>para que puedan escalar las cumbres más altas del saber, si a eso pudieran. Esos lugareños ignorantes saben confusamente que +la mujer como el hombre está hecha de la misma arcilla y no se avienen a creer que por haberles cabido la suerte de tener +niñas en vez de niños necesitan condenarlas a llevar las cadenas de la ignorancia incapacitándolas para ser útiles a sus familias, +a su sociedad y a su patria. + +</p> +<p>La instrucción no ha atrofiado ni desmejorado ninguna de las facultades fundamentales de la mujer, sino, por el contrario, +las ha elevado y enriquecido. Lejos de ser una carga constante para la familia, la mujer instruída ha sido muchas veces su +sostén y apoyo en apurados trances. La mujer instruída no se ha transformado en la marisabidilla, la fatua criatura forjada +por la imaginación de algunos, ni siquiera ha perdido ninguno de sus encantos femeninos porque razone y discuta con el hombre +sobre toda clase de materias; antes bien, a causa de ello, parece que encontramos en ella mayor gracia y encanto, porque nos +comprende mejor y sabe hacerse comprender mejor. Hoy, gracias a Dios, ha desaparecido ya aquella comezón de ridículo que acometía +a muchos al observar lo que consideraban necia presunción de las mujeres de saber tanto como los hombres, y esto se debe, +indudablemente, a que los desastrosos resultados que pronosticaron los agoreros de las malas nuevas, las terribles profetas +de la destrucción, no se han cumplido. + +</p> +<p>Pues bien, si admitís la instrucción y educación de la mujer, en todos los terrenos de la ciencia, debéis admitir la intervención +de la mujer no sólo en la vida doméstica sino también en la vida social o pública. La instrucción y la educación tienen un +doble fin: el individual, que redime la inteligencia humana de los peligros de la ignorancia, y el social, que prepara al +hombre y a la mujer a cumplir los deberes de una buena ciudadanía. No se educa uno exclusivamente para su propio bien sino +principalmente para ser útil y servir a los demás. El mayor peligro que existe para la sociedad es el hombre instruído que +sólo piensa en sí mismo, porque su instrucción misma le da mayor poder para hacer daño y sacrificar a todos a su conveniencia, +o su ambición personal. El verdadero <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e449" href="#xd0e449">33</a>]</span>objeto de la educación es el servicio al público, el de aplicar los conocimientos que no adquiere, al bien y mejoramiento +de la sociedad en que vive. + +</p> +<p>Por tanto, en las sociedades donde se admite a la mujer a todas las carreras y profesiones de la vida, donde no se escatima +a la mujer ninguna fuente de conocimiento debe admitirse necesaria y lógicamente la intervención de la mujer en la vida pública. +De otro modo, su educación sería incompleta o la sociedad sería injusta con ella pues después de suministrarla los medios +para su educación la privaría de los poderes necesarios para emplear esa educación en pro del bien social y el progreso colectivo. + + +</p> +<p>No puedo resistirme a esta conclusión. Si se ofrece a la mujer igual oportunidad de educación que al hombre, si se la estimula +para aprender y estudiar los conocimientos del mundo y de la vida, <span class="corr" id="xd0e455" title="Source: debe">deben</span> abrírsela las puertas de la vida pública para que pueda desempeñar en ella el papel que le corresponde. + +</p> +<p>En las <span class="corr" id="xd0e460" title="Source: socidades">sociedades</span> retrógradas se enseña a la mujer solamente aquella parte de conocimientos que necesita para la vida del hogar, preparándola +así inconscientemente para sufrir aquella dulce, aquella encantadora esclavitud que tanto agrada al ser masculino. Es cuestión +solamente de escoger nuestro sistema: o esclavitud e ignorancia o libertad y educación para la mujer. + +</p> +<p>El sufragio femenino es consecuencia de la educación de la mujer; es consecuencia, también, de su libertad de conciencia. +Por el voto se expresa la fé política, como por el culto la fé religiosa. No hay razón para impedirle a la mujer el acceso +a las urnas como no la hay para privarla de ir al templo. + +</p> +<p>No hay razón para que el sufragio sea un privilegio de sexo, puesto que los deberes de ciudadanía pesan tanto sobre el hombre +como sobre la mujer. ¿Es que la mujer, por serlo, está menos obligada a velar por los intereses de la Patria, por la felicidad +y el porvenir de su país? Querer restringir la actividad de la mujer para las cosas públicas es como decir que la mujer no +debe amar a su país ni debe consagrar tiempo a las obligaciones que la corresponden <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e467" href="#xd0e467">34</a>]</span>como ciudadana, ni debe sentir el cariño y la devoción que en toda criatura bien nacida despierta la idea de la Patria y de +la colectividad. + +</p> +<p>La esterilidad física es combatida y se considera como una desgracia en la mujer; pero queremos condenarla a una perpetua +esterilidad política—que es lo mismo decir esterilidad patriótica—al impedirla que tome parte en el sufragio que da a los +ciudadanos el medio más efectivo para influir en los destinos sociales y en el mejoramiento de los negocios públicos. ¿Cómo +inculcar en los niños, esa prenda sagrada del porvenir de una nación, el culto y la <span class="corr" id="xd0e471" title="Source: fe">fé</span> en la Patria y en la libertad si no se les da a las madres la educación práctica que envuelve en sí el privilegio del voto, +si se les enseña que el gobierno y la política son divinidades extrañas, en cuyos templos les está vedado penetrar, si sobre +sí mismas sienten el estigma de inferioridad e incapacidad para hablar a sus hijos de los negocios públicos y de los intereses +de la nación y del Estado? + +</p> +<p>Todas las clases o grupos sociales tienen derecho a ser representados en las legislaturas para trabajar por las leyes que +afectan a sus intereses; los comerciantes pueden eligir a uno de ellos, lo mismo los agricultores, los obreros y los industriales; +pero a las mujeres, que no son meramente un grupo sino un compuesto de grupos, con representar la mitad de un país, con propios +intereses que sostener no sólo en relación a su sexo sino también en relación a su situación dentro de la familia, no se les +permite votar y por tanto no se les permite tener una representación que sostenga aquellas leyes o medidas necesarias para +su protección y mejoramiento. ¿Es esto justo? ¿Es siquiera moral? El trabajo de las mujeres puede ser explotado en fábricas +y talleres, la virtud de las mujeres puede ser objeto de tráfico en el mercado, y, sin embargo, la mujer no puede defender +directamente los intereses de su sexo por una de esas aberraciones del sentido moral proveniente del grosero egoísmo, de la +brutal tiranía del hombre. + +</p> +<p><span class="corr" id="xd0e477" title="Not in source">¡</span>Si al menos las mujeres estuvieran exentas de cumplir las leyes! Pero la ley obliga tanto a la mujer como al hombre; el Código +Penal alcanza con su espada las infracciones <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e480" href="#xd0e480">35</a>]</span>cometidas por uno y otro sexo, y el impuesto y la contribución gravan lo mismo la riqueza masculina que la femenina. Es decir, +ante la ley, los deberes son los mismos, pero los derechos, no. + +</p> +<p>¿Qué extraño que nuestras leyes contengan tantas injusticias sociales para la mujer, tantas irritantes desigualdades, basadas +todas ellas en la teoría de la dependencia servil de la mujer al hombre causada por su <span class="corr" id="xd0e484" title="Source: congéníta">congénita</span> inferioridad mental y fisiológica? Moebius está encarnado en nuestros códigos, rige nuestra política y preside todas las +modalidades de nuestro vivir social y político, en forma tal que hay motivos para avergonzarse que en plena época de reivindicaciones, +cuando todas las clases han obtenido sus derechos a la libertad y a la igualdad, la mujer ha permanecido indefinidamente sujeta +al mismo nivel como en los siglos de sujeción y esclavitud. + +</p> +<p>Una democracia verdadera no puede existir mitad libre y mitad esclava, mitad con representación y mitad sin representación +en las funciones públicas. El pueblo no es solamente hombre sino también mujer, y, en igualdad de condiciones, la mujer debe +tener los mismos derechos políticos que el hombre. Pero lo menos debe tener aquéllos derechos fundamentales que, como el voto, +requieren nada más que inteligencia y capacidad para ejercerlo, a fin de que pueda tener alguna voz en la decisión de sus +propios destinos y librar por sí misma las batallas que exigen su honor, su libertad y otros tantos intereses que descuídan +o ignoran los hombres en virtud del indisputado monopolio ejercido por ellos sobre los negocios públicos. + +</p> +<p>No desaparecerán radicalmente las injusticias, las desigualdades sociales y jurídicas contenidas en nuestros códigos ni mejorarán +las condiciones de la existencia para la mujer mientras sean los hombres<span class="corr" id="xd0e491" title="Source: ,"></span> los únicos que legislen y dominen todas las esferas de la vida pública, mientras dicten a la mujer lo que debe hacer y lo +que no debe hacer; y, a su vez, la mujer será incompetente de cuidar de sus propios intereses y de dirigir sus propios destinos +mientras no mire más alto, mientras preste su asentimiento a la superioridad del hombre y crea que su destino es simplemente +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e493" href="#xd0e493">36</a>]</span>servir y complacer al hombre para el lecho y el hogar, en vez de ser su verdadera ayuda y compañía para el progreso y felicidad +del género humano. + +</p> +<p>Todas las objeciones que se aducen o pueden aducirse en contra del sufragio femenino tienden invariablemente a estos dos objetos: +a la seclusión doméstica de la mujer y a perpetuar su esclavitud civil y política. + +</p> +<p>Que la mujer no debe atender más que las ocupaciones del hogar, que no debe vivir más que para su esposo e hijos; que tiene +bastante trabajo para todo el día con dirigir al cocinero, limpiar la casa y remendar los vestidos; es la fórmula que sostienen +los partidarios del antiguo régimen. O si no, esta otra: que la mujer no está por naturaleza llamada a luchar con el hombre +en la vida pública; que el hombre por razón de esa lucha dejará de considerarla como un <span class="corr" id="xd0e499" title="Source: sér">ser</span> digno de adoración, un sagrado ídolo ante cuyos pies se arrodilla, sino que verá en ella a una rival a quien hay que combatir +y anular para la propia conservación, y con ello la mujer no sólo arrastraría la nítida sampaguita de su virtud en el lodo +de la vida política, sino perdería, además, la estimación, el respeto y las consideraciones, de los cuales se ve rodeada en +la actualidad. + +</p> +<p>No tengo sino el más profundo respeto para todos aquéllos, hombres y mujeres, que piensan honradamente así. No tienen la culpa +de creer que aquello que ha existido siempre de un modo tal, no sea lo mejor. No comprenden que la vida es movimiento e insensiblemente +se adhieren a <span class="corr" id="xd0e504" title="Source: los">las</span> capas sociales nuevos elementos de vida y carácter que requieren necesariamente el cambio y la renovación. No es posible +a la sociedad estancarse en un sitio, porque ocurrirá lo que ocurre a las aguas estancadas, que despiden pestilentes miasmas. +La teoría de que la mujer sólo existe para el hogar y por el hogar ha dejado de existir hace tiempo. Ella ha tomado insensiblemente +su puesto en la vida pública y ayuda y dirige al hombre aún cuando éste no se percate de ello, y aún cuando no se la reconozca +derechos para ello. En las sociedades modernas, la mujer participa en la dirección de la caridad pública y en la educación +de los niños; ejerce como médica, abogada, literata; forma <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e507" href="#xd0e507">37</a>]</span>parte de la legión de la prensa, de muchos empleos públicos y se interesa y coopera en la supresión de los vicios y miserias +sociales. + +</p> +<p>¿Quién no admite que la mujer tiene deberes para su hogar, su esposo e hijos que debe cumplir ordinariamente con preferencia +a cualesquiera otros deberes? Pero, ¿excluye eso, acaso, el cumplimiento de otros deberes para con Dios, para con el prójimo +y para con el Estado? El hombre como la mujer está lleno de deberes: en cumplirlos ordenada y totalmente está el verdadero +mérito. ¿No dedica la mujer filipina una parte a veces considerable de su tiempo a la iglesia y a otros deberes llamados de +sociedad, a ir de visitas o recibirlas, a concurrir a fiestas, teatros y bailes? + +</p> +<p><span class="corr" id="xd0e512" title="Not in source">¿</span>Se ha quejado alguien de esto? <span class="corr" id="xd0e515" title="Not in source">¿</span>Se ha criticado al menos a las mujeres porque asistan asiduamente y cumplan públicamente sus deberes <span class="corr" id="xd0e518" title="Source: religiosas">religiosos</span> en los templos llenos de bote en bote; en las calles públicas, ahitas de muchedumbres tumultuosas, formando cola a lo largo +de las procesiones de los santos, entre empellones y sofocones desagradables que toleran mansamente a causa de la confesión +pública de su fé? <span class="corr" id="xd0e521" title="Source: Éllas">Ellas</span> no van solamente a las iglesias sino a los espéctaculos públicos, a las fiestas populares, allí donde pueden ostentar la +elegancia de sus trajes o satisfacer su curiosidad femenina. Y no vemos en todo ello ninguna asechanza o peligro para su virtud, +sabiendo que esas mujeres que van a esos puntos y se exhiben de esa manera son madres, esposas, o hijas que tienen deberes +que atender en sus casas. + +</p> +<p>¿Cuál es la diferencia, digo ahora, de que la mujer salga también de su casa para asistir o tomar parte en un miting político +donde se trata de las necesidades públicas o de la conveniencia de eligir a éste o a aquél funcionario? ¿Qué peligros puede +haber para la virtud o pureza de la mujer en que ella se interese en los asuntos públicos que afectan al bienestar de las +familias, puesto que la mujer en cualquier estado de su vida ocupa siempre una posición dentro de la familia? ¿Por qué ha +de considerarse que la mujer dejará en las zarzas de la política la flor de sus encantos si oye a un orador político—ella +que está acostumbrada a oir sermones—o, si el caso se presenta, pronuncia ella <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e526" href="#xd0e526">38</a>]</span>misma un discurso expresando su opinión sobre algún asunto de interés para la familia, sobre la necesidad de remediar ciertos +males sociales o sobre la conveniencia de recoger a niños abandonados o desválidos? + +</p> +<p>Tomemos el caso de una de las cuestiones de más palpitante interés en este tiempo, la cuestión del incremento de los juegos. +¿Creeis que esta cuestión no es de aquéllas que tienen relación inmediata con el bienestar de las familias especialmente de +las mujeres dentro de ellas? ¿Quiénes son los que más sufren de los abusos del padre o del esposo al dedicar gran parte de +los ingresos de la familia a los azares e incertidumbres de su pasión? Son las mujeres y las hijas a quienes se condenan a +sufrir muchas veces privaciones y sufrimientos innecesarios por causa del vicio y de la falta del hombre en la familia. Y +¿quereis negar a la mujer el derecho de inmiscuírse en la vida política para que pueda ilustrar con su opinión al cuerpo electoral +sobre los resultados funestos del juego o para influir con su voto en la elección de funcionarios que se comprometan a llevar +a cabo las deseables medidas? ¿Y por qué no ha de ser la opinión de la mujer en un asunto de esta naturaleza de tanto o mejor +peso que la del hombre pues que a ella le alcanzan las consecuencias y resultados del mal? Como este asunto se pueden encontrar +otros muchos en que el bien y la felicidad de la mujer se halla de un modo o de otro vitalmente interesados. + +</p> +<p>No veo en todo cuanto pueda hacer la mujer en política ninguna actividad perniciosa, y si me apurais más, digo que semejante +actividad es altamente saludable y beneficiosa para la mujer y para la sociedad entera. En todos esos casos la mujer se instruye +y obtiene mejor conocimiento del mundo y de la vida. No se considera como un ser extraño a la sociedad y al gobierno y no +se mostrará por tanto ajena e indiferente a sus miserias y progresos. Nada puede hacer mayor daño a una sociedad como el encontrar +en su seno cuerpos extraños, absolutamente indiferentes al bien o al mal, piezas inútiles de una maquinaria que está en función. + + +</p> +<p>Nos aterrorizamos ante la idea de que los impulsos de la mujer, su fanatismo, su criterio cerrado, según unos, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e534" href="#xd0e534">39</a>]</span>su debilidad o falta de carácter, según otros, su poca preparación o poca cultura, según otros más, hagan del derecho de sufragio +una mera farsa o una comedia ridícula por la que han de entrar a tener predominio elementos o intereses privilegiados. Lo +que yo digo es que todos esos impulsos, sentimientos, debilidades e imperfecciones de la mujer se deben precisamente a su +estado de seclusión doméstica, efectos de una educación o de un sistema tocado de senil debilidad, que no permite a las facultades +naturales de la mujer aquella expansión que es tan necesaria a la vida como el vapor a la electricidad y la electricidad a +la luz. Y que para corregir esos defectos e imperfecciones, no es lo más cuerdo mantener el sistema bajo el cual han crecido +y prosperado, sino producir un cambio violento, un vuelco regenerador para que ella pudiera, como el ave que ensaya sus alas, +volar a los altos espacios, abundantes de aire y luz, libre para derramar allí la graciosa esencia de su ser y ensayar los +límites de sus facultades e instintos. + +</p> +<p>Tenemos que procurar a la mujer nuevos objetivos en la vida, otras ocupaciones elevadas para que pruebe su aptitud y de esta +manera todo eso que se señala como defectuoso y deforme en su carácter y educación se eliminará en un ambiente de libertad +y publicidad, donde sin miedo ni piedad se puedan sacar a colación los defectos y expurgar al individuo de sus vicios. Y por +esto quiero y pretendo para la mujer derechos políticos, porque entiendo que uno de sus resultados será enriquecer, mejorar +y favorecer sus aptitudes y aspiraciones para servir a los altos ideales de la vida y de la sociedad. La mujer se ocupará +menos de fruslerías y pequeñeces, de cortes de vestidos y modas, de chismes y otros tópicos comunes, que constituyen por lo +general, el asunto de sus conversaciones y se esmerará en aprender y tratar de las cosas serias que atañen al mejoramiento +y bienestar sociales. + +</p> +<p>La política no es una ocupación permanente que pueda absorber el tiempo de una persona que tiene otros negocios regulares +que atender. De hecho, con excepción de los funcionarios políticos y ciertos profesionales, la mayoría de los ciudadanos no +emplea en política más que el tiempo puramente preciso que le permiten sus ocupaciones ordinarias. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e540" href="#xd0e540">40</a>]</span>El hombre o la mujer que haga depender su suerte o sus medios de vida de la política tiene que convencerse de que la política +no dá para comer pero si para tener hambre. + +</p> +<p>Es perfectamente compatible la política con las ocupaciones y <span class="corr" id="xd0e544" title="Source: táreas">tareas</span> domésticas de la mujer, sea ella madre esposa o hija. La mujer educada sabe sus responsabilidades y conoce la manera de dividir +su tiempo y anteponer sus obligaciones domésticas a cualesquiera otras fuera del hogar. Y cuando la mujer está muy atareada +en casa, no hará política; o cuando se ve atada al lecho por los dolores y cuidados de la maternidad no podrá hacer política, +aunque quiera. Y, por eso, cuando se dice que la mujer va a descuidar el hogar por la política o va a desatender el cuidado +del esposo y de los hijos por el mero hecho de obtener el sufragio, realmente confieso que, por mi torpeza quizá, no puedo +entenderlo. + +</p> +<p>Insistís en que la mujer, según el plan divino, es para el hogar y el hombre para la sociedad y en eso consiste la verdadera +división del trabajo entre las dos mitades del género humano. ¿Me quereis decir por qué, si eso fuera el plan de Dios, todas +las religiones y todas las escuelas de moral coinciden en prescribir el deber al prójimo, el amor a los semejantes? ¿Se ha +dirigido el Señor sólo al hombre y no a la mujer también cuando entre temblores de tierra y llamas resplandecientes entregó +el mundo las tablas del Decálogo y dijo: “Ama a tu prójimo como a tí mismo”? ¿Se refiere al hombre y no a la mujer inclusive +aquel precepto universal, contenido de toda moral y de toda religión, que dice: “Haz a tu prójimo lo que quieras que hagan +contigo”? Estos preceptos me indican que el hombre y la mujer tienen deberes para con los demás, tienen deberes para con sus +semejantes y que no deben concentrar su felicidad en el hogar sino también, fuera de él, en la sociedad. ¿Me quereis decir +si el hogar puede ser feliz entretanto que la sociedad no lo sea, puesto que la sociedad es nada más que la ampliación y la +suma de todos los hogares, y todas las miserias y males de la sociedad repercuten en el hogar de la misma manera que la felicidad +y el bienestar del hogar influyen en el bienestar y felicidad de la sociedad? +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e549" href="#xd0e549">41</a>]</span></p> +<p>Quereis hacer una división imposible, dividir al individuo humano en dos mitades: mitad feliz en el hogar y mitad infeliz +en la sociedad, o viceversa. Podeis hacer, si quereis, esa división; pero una de dos: o teneis que barrer por inútiles todos +vuestros códigos que dan al hombre el gobierno y administración de la casa para arreglar otros que entreguen ambos poderes +a la mujer; o tenéis que admitir a la mujer, si no quereis eso, en la participación de los negocios públicos para que ella +pueda, como en el hogar, ayudar al hombre a formar y cimentar la felicidad de ese otro hogar grande que se llama sociedad. + + +</p> +<p>Se dice que la mujer al presentarse en el escenario político se enajenará al punto el respeto y la admiración del hombre y, +lejos de ganar, perderá las ventajas en que su actual posición le coloca, fuera de toda lucha directa con el hombre, siendo +adorable y adorada en todas partes y reinando suprema en el hogar con la autoridad indiscutible de la madre o de la esposa, +envuelta en ese espléndido manto de gracia y majestad de que la ha dotado la Naturaleza, pura e impoluta de las manchas que +las luchas e intrigas políticas dejan siempre en la reputación y en la dignidad humanas. + +</p> +<p>No creo que haya dejado de expresar deliberadamente en términos más poéticos y exactos la posición de nuestros adversarios, +y al decir “de nuestros adversarios” yo incluyo a la innumerable legión de mujeres que titubean aún en pedir el sufragio por +consideraciones que no sé si llamarlas egoístas. + +</p> +<p>Pero, con todo, digo que ese ideal político de la mujer no puede desaparecer porque ella sea educada en la política a la manera +que se educa en las ciencias y en las artes. La educación política, lejos de perjudicar los encantos naturales de la mujer +los realzará, a mi juicio, por la misma razón y motivo que la educación actual de la mujer moderna le ha dado otros encantos +que no poseía la mujer antigua. A menos que sostengais que la educación es en sí misma un mal más que un bien, que desmejora +el carácter en vez de mejorarlo, no podeis eludir la deducción de que ampliando los conocimientos y las experiencias de la +mujer, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e558" href="#xd0e558">42</a>]</span>daríais más vigor, más energía y más encanto a la personalidad femenina. + +</p> +<p>Nada infunde mayor respeto como la educación; la educación es lo que eleva el nivel de las personas. Desde el momento en que +uno muestra ser educado, al punto obtiene la consideración y el respeto de los demás. A pesar de los prejuicios de raza, solamente +por su educación el hombre amarillo u oscuro puede conquistar el respeto y a veces la admiración del hombre blanco. + +</p> +<p>¿Cuando ha inspirado la mujer mayor respeto al hombre sino cuando la ha visto instruida y educada a su altura en los colegios +y universidades? <span class="corr" id="xd0e564" title="Not in source">¿</span>Antes, cuando la mujer permanecía en estado de ignorancia era acaso más respetada que ahora? Estoy dispuesto a convenir en +que era más asediada, más agasajada quizás, pero no por eso más respetada. <span class="corr" id="xd0e567" title="Not in source">¿</span>Llamais respeto y consideración a aquéllas vanas fórmulas de etiqueta que hacían doblar el espinazo del hombre a la vista +de una mujer y le hacían decir cuatro frases vulgares de cumplimiento, para hinchar la vanidad o marear la cabeza de una mujer +crédula y fatua? <span class="corr" id="xd0e570" title="Not in source">¿</span>Llamais respeto a ese hábito singular de algunos hombres de calificar siempre de divinos los ojos de la mujer que tiene delante, +de comparar sus labios a lindos pétalos de rosa, sus dientes a sarta de diminutas perlas, su cintura a cimbreante tallo de +azucena y otras tantas necedades de ese jaez? Si es esa la forma de respeto y consideración que perdería la mujer por dedicarse +a la política, ella debe celebrarlo, porque todas esas fórmulas insustanciales de galantería no pasan de ser lo que el cacareo +del gallo para sorprender y asaltar repentinamente a la descuidada gallina. + +</p> +<p><span class="corr" id="xd0e574" title="Not in source">¿</span>Ni como puede, en verdad, inspirar respeto la debilidad y la ignorancia? De hecho cuando la mujer estaba en aquel estado en +que se tasaban sus conocimientos, porque se creía que un poco de culinaria, de bordado y de piano, a más de saber el catecismo, +eran suficientes para el matrimonio, única carrera que se le permitía, el hombre le dispensaba toda clase de consideraciones +y cortesías, pero éstas no estaban inspiradas en un verdadero sentimiento de respeto sino más bien en una especie de caballerosidad, +hija de la idea de que la mujer siendo de suyo débil e ignorante, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e577" href="#xd0e577">43</a>]</span>merecia de parte del hombre, aquella protección, consideración y cortesía debidas a la debilidad y a la ignorancia. <span class="corr" id="xd0e579" title="Not in source">¿</span>Es esta acaso la idea que quieren las mujeres que se tenga de sí mismas? El respeto es un sentimiento que nace de la idea +de igualdad y a menos que la mujer se coloque al nivel del hombre en las cuestiones políticas, no dejarán de oirse estas o +semejantes ignominiosas exclamaciones. ¡Pero, mujer, que entiendes de estas cosas! No te metas en asuntos que no te importan. + + +</p> +<p>No necesita preocuparse la mujer de que al participar en el sufragio, y como resultado de él habrá de perder necesariamente +las consideraciones y cortesías de que se ve rodeada en la actualidad, fuera de toda lucha directa con el hombre y libre de +ser atacada por él como una rival a quién hay que anular y destruir por propia conservación. En primer lugar, es un error +el considerar que la intervención de la mujer en la vida pública dará por resultado la rivalidad de los dos sexos. La atracción +y simpatía entre el hombre y la mujer nace precisamente de la oposición del sexo: si no hubiera más que puramente hombres +o puramente mujeres, acaso sería posible pensar que se destruirían porque no tendría objeto la vida ni la especie humana se +reproduciría. De modo que en el interés de un sexo está el no destruir al otro sexo. La política, por otro lado, no es siempre +una lucha personal; en su sentido propio y elevado es lucha de ideas y principios, de teorías y procedimientos y suponiendo +el caso de que un hombre y una mujer se ponen frente a frente en una lucha política no están obligados seguramente a dar un +espectáculo de <i>boxeo</i> y de matarse a brazo partido, sino solamente a presentar puntos de vista y opiniones que tienen más o menos fundamento, según +sus propios juicios. No creo que ningún hombre tenga derecho a insultar a una mujer por el hecho de ser su oponente, cuando +no lo tiene tratándose de un hombre. Y en el caso de que las pasiones políticas dieran lugar a semejante insulto, ¿no tendría +la mujer el mismo derecho para contestar o echar otro insulto? He aquí un caso en que la mujer tendrá oportunidad para aprender +a ser independiente en sus juicios y en sus acciones, ya que algunos parece que no quieren el sufragio sino a <span class="corr" id="xd0e587" title="Source: condicción">condición</span> de que <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e590" href="#xd0e590">44</a>]</span>la mujer tenga independiente manera de pensar y obrar. No quiero tampoco suponer que muchos hombres no quieren el sufragio +de la mujer porque temen que pueden resultar vencidos en una discusión pública y el prestigio del sexo quedaría mal parado. + + +</p> +<p>En segundo lugar, si lo que quiere la mujer es encontrar siempre en el hombre aquella especie de adoración que se tributa +a un ídolo, ella puede estar segura de ello con sufragio o sin sufragio. Esa adoración no nace en el hombre por el hecho de +que la mujer tenga menos derechos o esté privada de ellos, nace de que la mujer es mujer, arquetipo de gracia y belleza de +la creación y el hombre quemará siempre el incienso de su admiración ante el ara de esas divinidades. Recordad que se ha dicho +siempre que el Cristianismo elevó la condición de la mujer y la dió más derechos; y sin embargo los pueblos cristianos son +los que rodean a la mujer de mayores consideraciones y respetos. + +</p> +<p>El sufragio no hará menos hermosos los cabellos largos de la mujer, ni empalidecerá la rosa de sus mejillas y de sus labios +ni hará menos graciosas las curvas de su talle, por el contrario la imprimirá una gracia adicional—la de saber escribir una +balota con su pequeña letra—y mientras sea así, el hombre guardará siempre para ella aquel tesoro de amor, de ternura y de +adoración que en todas partes y en todos tiempos y por los siglos de los siglos inspirará la idea de la gracia y de la belleza. +Hércules se rendirá siempre a Venus por ser Venus, aunque Venus sea sufragista. + +</p> +<p>La educación política dará a la mujer nuevas armas para atraerse el respeto y la admiración del hombre. La mujer entenderá +que su obligación no consiste solamente en dar hijos a la Patria sino en educar y dirigir sus sentimientos, de modo que desde +niños se interesen en las cosas que se puedan hacer para mejorar las condiciones sociales, inspirándoles de este modo el amor +o la afición a servir una causa determinada o un partido determinado en pró del interés público. La conciencia pública se +dilatará, se robustecerá conteniendo y reflejando los sentimientos de la mujer, elemento pasivo, hoy por hoy, de nuestra ciudadanía, +y en horas de crisis, cuando la nación alguna vez <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e598" href="#xd0e598">45</a>]</span>se encuentre en peligro, ella se verá servida y ayudada, no sólo por ciudadanos, sino también por ciudadanas, que no van a +ser improvisadas ni inexpertas en las tareas y deberes colectivos sino acostumbradas a la disciplina de la organización y +a los llamamientos del servicio público. + +</p> +<p>Tiene—¿qué duda cabe?—sus infinitas ventajas para el hombre el dejar a la mujer en la ignorancia, no sólo de la política sino +también de otras materias. ¿No es más fácil así al hombre satisfacer sus caprichos y hacer de ella un juguete que puede dejar +o utilizar cuando quiera? Ella es obediente, sumisa, resignada; no discute ni razona nunca; calla, obedece, sirve, un mueble +hermoso que se diferencia de los demás de la casa en que tiene vida; muñeca deliciosa porque habla y tiene un poco de juicio. +Yo sé que este es el ideal que muchos hombres quieren, por la sencilla y única razón de que así les conviene. + +</p> +<p>Pero no es esa la mujer como debe ser; la mujer que nuestro siglo ha redimido de la ignorancia y de la esclavitud; la mujer +que ha recibido de Dios una inteligencia, una voluntad y un corazón para que los cultive y perfeccione al objeto de que ella +sea, no la sierva del hombre sino su compañera, no la súbdita de un rey sino reina al lado del rey, fieles y constantes aliados +desde la cuna hasta el sepulcro, en la hora feliz o en la adversa, no sólo en las intimidades del santuario doméstico, sino +también en los abiertos y dilatados espacios de la vida pública. El hombre y la mujer han sido hechos para unirse, comprenderse +y amarse, para estar juntos siempre a trabajar, sufrir y luchar por cuanto hay de bueno y de bello en la vida, para afirmar +el reinado de la pareja humana sobre el planeta y hacer de él una habitación digna y feliz, libre de tiranías y sufrimientos +y apta para ser vivida por séres pacíficos e inteligentes y no por buitres y otras fieras voraces. + +</p> +<p>Esta es la misión de la mujer y del hombre sobre la tierra tal como la comprendo y la concibo. Hasta que el hombre y la mujer +no se encuentren en un perfecto nivel, en un plano completo de igualdad según sus naturalezas respectivas de modo que pueda +haber una comunión íntima de pensamientos, afectos e intereses, la vida será siempre ominosa y miserable para el uno o para +la otra, y la Humanidad no <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e606" href="#xd0e606">46</a>]</span>triunfará de sus presentes desdichas. La criatura femenina ha salido de la mano de Dios tan perfecta como el hombre y no es +justo privarla de ninguna de las satisfacciones y ventajas que al hombre proporcionan las ciencias, las artes y la política. +Si la política es una noble ocupación de la vida, ciencia y arte de hacer la felicidad de los pueblos, justo es que la mujer +contribuya con cuanto quiera y con cuanto pueda a lograr esa felicidad. + +</p> +<p>¿Qué duda cabe que la mujer tiene facultades, sentimientos, puntos de vista y métodos propios para hacer las cosas, diferentes +del hombre? ¡Cuántas veces se ha visto que cuando un hombre no se ha atrevido a hacer una cosa se ha dejado obrar a la mujer +para conseguirla! Ella tiene su propia personalidad y debe dársela, como al hombre, la libertad necesaria para que pueda desarrollarla, +tener voz decisiva en sus intereses y destinos, tomar por su cuenta los riesgos de la vida, hacer sus propias aventuras, experimentos +y descubrimientos en vez de que el hombre la fije invariablemente la pauta de conducta y le imponga el molde en que debe trabajar. + + +</p> +<p>La política ha dejado de ser lo que debía, se ha hecho demasiado masculina, se ha vuelto brutal, egoísta, personalísima, porque +le ha faltado la bondad, la abnegación, el altruísmo y el espíritu de sacrificio, que son cualidades características del ser +femenino. ¿Por qué no sacar ventajas de las energías de la mujer, de sus impulsos y modos de ver las cosas para mejorar nuestras +prácticas y nuestros procedimientos en la vida pública? ¡Quién sabe si la política se sanea y se purifica un poco con la presencia +y la intervención de la mujer, de la misma manera que la presencia de ésta en una reunión cohibe en cierto modo la licencia +de las palabras y de la acción de los hombres! + +</p> +<p>El monopolio ejercido por el hombre sobre las funciones públicas, ha sido, como otras tantas instituciones ahora desaparecidas, +basado en la fuerza y violencia y con el fin de perpetuarlo se parapeta detrás de la muralla de prejuicios levantada a costa +del tiempo y del orden de cosas establecido, lanzando de allí los dardos de la sátira y del ridículo contra aquéllos que demandan +la cesación de ese estado de violencia. Así, ridículo es la más fuerte arma <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e614" href="#xd0e614">47</a>]</span>que ahora se esgrime contra la mujer que pretende reclamar justicia y obtener la reivindicación de los derechos de su sexo, +alguno de los cuales, como el gobierno de los pueblos, no ha sido negado ni aún en muchas de las sociedades primitivas. + +</p> +<p>Por ésto, la idea que muchos tienen de la sufragista es muy curiosa. Se la representa como una mujer que odia los quehaceres +de la casa y está constantemente fuera de ella, de día y de noche. La pintura más común es aquella en que la mujer arenga +en una especie de asamblea a algunas de su sexo, mientras su marido se dedica a barrer la casa y entretener al bebé que llora. +Esa es la idea que ha sido vulgarizada por los cines y revistas y la que está fijada en la mente de las muchedumbres que no +se paran a reflexionar elevándose por encima de la superficie de las cosas. + +</p> +<p>Nada hay, sin embargo, más lejos de representar la realidad. La sufragista es una mujer, producto de nuestros tiempos de libertad; +instruída como el hombre, conoce y no rehuye las responsabilidades que tiene en la familia; pero a la vez esta libre de preocupaciones +y cree sencillamente en el deber de compartir con el hombre los trabajos concernientes al mejoramiento social, al bienestar +público de la comunidad en que vive; cree que por lo mismo que en el hogar hay deberes asignados a su sexo, tiene asimismo +deberes que desempeñar en la vida pública. En la vida doméstica y familiar no surge ningún conflicto entre los dos seres por +estar repartido el trabajo entre ambos; no hay motivo tampoco para temer ningún conflicto en la vida pública si se sabe asignar +a cada sexo los deberes que le corresponden según su naturaleza. + +</p> +<p>La sufragista, por el hecho de serlo, no es antagónica a los deberes de la familia, antes bien comprende que el bienestar +de la familia es el fundamento del bienestar de la sociedad, y tiene conciencia de que las miserias y vicios sociales afectan +a la familia y ella puede y debe acudir a remediar con el hombre esas miserias y esos vicios. + +</p> +<p>¡No! la idea que se tiene de la sufragista es errónea; y es hora de que por lo menos las personas inteligentes y <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e624" href="#xd0e624">48</a>]</span>educadas corrijan su propia impresión basada en prejuicios y en una mentalidad atrasada. No podemos impedir que el vulgo piense +a la manera que pensaba hace medio siglo atrás, pero el que muchas personas serias y por demás progresivas se contenten con +la opinión del vulgo dá idea de que aquí no analizamos bien el fondo de las cosas y nos dejamos llevar simplemente de las +impresiones del momento. + +</p> +<p>El sufragismo es una aspiración legítima, un ideal de nuestro siglo. Tiene su raíz de vida en la filosofía e instituciones +del mundo moderno y en las condiciones cada vez más difíciles en que pone a la mujer la lucha por la existencia. Ella necesita +protegerse y organizarse no para crear la rivalidad y armarse contra el hombre sino para ser un activo sumando en el progreso +social y evitar ser víctima de la explotación y de la iniquidad de los demás grupos sociales por su indiferencia y absentismo +en la vida pública. + +</p> +<p>No seré yo, hombre de ley y legislador, quien me oponga a que esta aspiración fuera satisfecha. La considero tan natural como +el derecho a la vida y el derecho a la propia defensa. Y por ser natural no considero prematuro el que la mujer filipina reclame +ese derecho, como ya lo han reclamado y obtenido sus congéneres en otras partes del mundo. Me es indiferente que el grupo +que ahora lo reclama sea pequeño e insignificante: aún más, me sería completamente indiferente si la mujer de este país no +lo pidiera o deseara. Para otorgar, para reconocer derechos fundamentalmente concordes con el espíritu de nuestras instituciones +y con los ideales de nuestra época no consultaría con quién tuviera opción de reclamarlos, los daría, los concedería porque +es de justicia y es el plan de Dios que se realice la justicia en el tiempo y en el espacio. No soy juez sino legislador y +mi primer deber es dictar la justicia, no administrarla, no esperar que haya quién la pida y quién se oponga a ella. + +</p> +<p>Me satisface que haya un grupo de mujeres que representando la aspiración de todas las de su sexo, se atrevan a acercarse +a las gradas de nuestra Legislatura para llamar la atención sobre una falta en nuestros estatutos. Esto me indica que ha nacido +y se ha revelado la conciencia de ese derecho en la mujer filipina y no necesito más; no necesito <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e632" href="#xd0e632">49</a>]</span>contar el número y la clase de las que están en esa condición. Rizal en su tiempo al abogar por los derechos políticos de +nuestra raza, estaba con muy pocos compañeros; en la mayoría de sus compatriotas, la conciencia de esos derechos estaba dormida. +Pero mentiría y erraría quién dijera que aún en aquel tiempo la voz de Rizal no representaba la causa de toda su raza y porque +él y los que con él trabajaban eran muy pocos, no debia prestarse atención a sus demandas. El sabía en conciencia que su patria +estaba oprimida, que defendía una causa justa, que abogaba por los derechos de sus conciudadanos y no se paraba a reflexionar +si sus conciudadanos tenían o no la conciencia de sus derechos. + +</p> +<p>Estoy satisfecho, por esto, de que las pocas mujeres que ahora hablan de los derechos de su sexo y reclaman el sufragio representan +a las demás mujeres filipinas, a no ser que queramos inferir el insulto de decir que las mujeres de este país están privadas +de sentido común para oponerse o rehusar la concesión de derechos que pueden ensanchar sus medios de vida y sus actividades +dentro de la sociedad. Importa poco que la aspiración al sufragismo aparezca en su estado inicial o tenga la forma vaga de +una proposición no definida y concreta: desde el momento en que ha apuntado esa aspiración, para mi es que ha brotado la semilla +a flor de tierra y es inútil ahogarla, pues volverá a brotar. Cuanto más retrasemos la concesión del sufragio femenino sería +tanto más en nuestro daño, porque es lo mismo que impedir que la semilla de ahora se convierta en planta y dé a su sazón apetitosos +frutos. + +</p> +<p>No, nuestro país no necesita imitar la lentitud con que han procedido las viejas naciones en reconocer los derechos de la +mujer. No tenemos sus tradiciones, no tenemos sus preocupaciones para ir por lentas evoluciones y no por súbitas revoluciones. +Debemos admitir todas las revoluciones pacíficas de ideas que condensan, como el vapor la gota de lluvia, una fórmula de justicia +social. Lo mismo que admitimos los últimos inventos en mecánica, industria y artes, los automobiles, las maquinarias centrales, +los aeroplanos, debemos admitir los últimos progresos en instituciones sociales y políticas de las sociedades más avanzadas. + +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e638" href="#xd0e638">50</a>]</span></p> +<p>El sufragio femenino encierra un fondo de justicia, de reivindicación para la aptitud de la mujer moderna y debemos enseguida +adoptarla sin necesidad de pasar por procesos innecesarios. La libertad de cultos que engendró la tolerancia religiosa, el +sufragio popular que vigorizó nuestra conciencia colectiva, la escuela libre que emancipó nuestras masas de la tutela de los +caciques, todas las conquistas de la democracia de que nos enorgullecemos no serían realidades hermosas, llenas de sazonados +frutos, en estos días, si hubiésemos tenido que hacer tanteos y dar pasos vacilantes antes de incorporarlos súbitamente a +nuestra vida social y política. Tenemos que movernos de prisa y anticiparnos a las horas vagas aspiraciones de las masas femeninas +para ahorrarnos de ese modo agitaciones que al fin habrían de sobrevenir y cuya justicia se ha de reconocer más tarde. + +</p> +<p>Cuando se dice que nuestro estado social no está preparado para el sufragismo, que la mujer no está suficientemente educada +para ejercer sus derechos políticos, quiero preguntar si es que hemos necesitado decir lo mismo cuando importamos e implantamos +en éste país las instituciones democráticas que son la base y el fundamento de nuestra sociedad actual. Nuestra educación +tradicional era enteramente contraria al sistema popular de gobierno y hemos adoptado éste por considerarlo mejor que el otro, +más adecuado a nuestros intereses y a los ideales del siglo, sin preguntarnos si estábamos preparados y educados suficientemente +para ello. + +</p> +<p>Hace más de veinte años que la escuela libre ha abierto sus puertas a la mujer del pueblo, la educación se ha extendido entre +ellas en la misma proporción que entre los hombres, muchas de las mujeres que han producido nuestras escuelas son ya ahora +esposas o madres y todavía estamos preguntándonos si la mujer filipina ha llegado o no a la madurez necesaria para poder ser +investida de sus privilegios políticos. No creo que se pretenda exigir que todas ellas sean doctoras y bachilleres antes de +concederlas el sufragio. + +</p> +<p>La educación política no se adquiere más que educándose como no se llega a saber nadar más que nadando. El argumento <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e647" href="#xd0e647">51</a>]</span>de la falta de preparación suficiente de la mujer filipina favorece y justifica la posición intelectual de los imperialistas +de una metrópoli que no encuentran a una colonia jamás preparada o educada suficientemente para recibir sus derechos soberánicos. + + +</p> +<p>Cuando el otro día subí a un hidroplano para experimentar la sensación de un viaje por las <span class="corr" id="xd0e651" title="Source: altura">alturas</span>, tenía—¿como no decirlo?—cierta aprensión, algo así como un vago temor a lo desconocido, a lo nuevo, pero pasados los primeros +momentos con felicidad me sentí perfectamente confortado y dichoso de sondear los espacios y escudriñar los magníficos paisajes +que se presentan a los ojos desde la altura. ¡Oh, que hermosura nadar en la luz, cabalgar sobre las nubes y el viento, divisar +el panorama de las ciudades, de las viviendas humanas como un mapa de relieve sobre el fondo de cristal de las aguas, cruzar +distancias enormes en minutos, en instantes de un modo imperceptible, emular en todo al pájaro y como el pájaro aterrizar +de repente sin fatiga y sin sufrimiento! Una vez terminado el viaje es cuando comprendí que mi aprensión y mi temor carecían +de fundamento, que no envolvía más riesgos el volar por los aires en un aeroplano como el correr a campo traviesa en un automovil +y me hice cargo de las innumerables ventajas que se pueden sacar de este aparato, producto también de nuestros tiempos, destinado +a revolucionar no sólo los medios de guerra sino también las artes de la paz. + +</p> +<p>Lo mismo pasa con las nuevas fórmulas, con las innovaciones en el orden moral y político. No se las adopta sin ese instintivo +temor, esa vaga aprensión que produce lo nuevo y lo desconocido. Se oye hablar mucho de sus peligros e inconvenientes para +el orden establecido. Se cree poco menos que se desquiciarían las esferas del firmamento y que el eje del mundo se rompería +en pedazos. Luego, después que la innovación se ha admitido, se encuentra que parece lo más natural y lógico porque las cosas +siguen su curso normal, las estrellas ruedan y brillan lo mismo que antes en el azul y las montañas altas no se vienen abajo. +Se sienten renacer el ánimo y la esperanza, las muchedumbres se avienen con el nuevo estado de cosas y los más recalcitrantes +se lastimarían si se les propusiera que se <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e656" href="#xd0e656">52</a>]</span>volviese el antiguo estado. Así ha ocurrido en nuestro país. Así se ha hecho siempre el progreso y así marchará siempre par +nuevos caminos. + +</p> +<p>Es preciso que tomemos la resolución de vencer nuestros temores y escrúpulos. Si habláramos del aeroplano solamente por el +número de aviadores que han perecido, no admitiriamos nunca esa invención. Es preciso que nos embarquemos en él para probarnos +a nosotros mismos que nuestros temores y preocupaciones carecen de fundamento. No hay que perder de vista que el sufragismo +no es una cosa nueva en el mundo, ya no es un experimento sino un hecho y ha tomado carta de naturaleza en algunos paises. +Lo mismo exactamente que el aeroplano. Del mismo modo que para conocer las ventajas de este aparato no vamos a preguntar a +los que nunca han viajado con él sino a los que han hecho experiencias con el mismo, así también para conocer las ventajas +del sufragismo no debemos dar crédito a los que lo combaten por principios y teorías sino a los paises que han hecho experimentos +con él y han probado ya sus resultados. El hecho que debemos anotar es que el sufragismo cunde con mayor fuerza cada día y +se va generalizando en los paises en que se ha admitido. Lo mismo exactamente que el aeroplano. Por consiguiente, así como +sería perfectamente ridículo en estos momentos declamar contra el aeroplano, por los riesgos y accidentes que pueden ocurrir +y sería estúpido no seguir los pasos de otros gobiernos que utilizan sus ventajas, para la defensa o la agresión en caso de +guerra o para abreviar las comunicaciones interiores en tiempos de paz, asimismo me parece ridículo, sino insensato, combatir +el sufragismo en el terreno especulativo o más bien hipotético y no tomar la experiencia de otros paises como guía de nuestra +conducta haciendo que el sufragismo forme parte de nuestras modernas costumbres e instituciones. + +</p> +<p>Quisiera, para terminar, citar algunos extractos, pertinentes a este asunto, de un discurso que pronuncié en una velada celebrada +en el Opera House y dedicado a Rizal por varios colegios de señoritas en 1913: + + +</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p>Se ha creído que la mujer debe reducir toda su esfera de acción al hogar a la vida doméstica, ser absolutamente la gloria +y el encanto <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e665" href="#xd0e665">53</a>]</span>de su esposo y de sus hijos; y no es así, pues que la mujer tanto como el hombre, nace en la sociedad y vive dentro de ella, +y no puede, no debe ser indiferente a las miserías y las desgracias sociales. Pensar de otro modo sería egoísmo y aberración, +y dejaría a la sociedad abandonada a muchos sufrimientos que solo la mano bendita de la mujer puede curar o acallar al menos. +Bien haya que la mujer sea en su casa amor y ensueño, gloria y felicidad; pero también más allá de los muros de su hogar debe +cumplir su misión divina y hacer llegar a todos el secreto tesoro de bondad y dulzura de que la ha provisto la buena providencia. +Así como en el hogar comparte con el hombre los deberes de la vida, así fuera de él, en la vida pública, debe compartir con +el hombre la responsabilidad de remediar y de aliviar las desdichas públicas. + +</p> +<hr class="tb"><p> + + +</p> +<p>La beneficiencia, la caridad, la moral, por algo, tienen nombres femeninos: y es a la mujer a quien corresponde el ejercicio +de todas esas virtudes en el seno de la sociedad. Ella debe tomar parte, si es que no debe iniciar en todos los casos, toda +propaganda y toda acción que tienda a amparar la orfandad, a socorrer la indigencia, a elevar la idea de la moralidad pública. +Ella debe luchar y sufrir, en medio de la sociedad en que vive por cuanto hay de femenino en la vida para calmar con un bello +gesto de piedad la furiosa contienda que se libra por la existencia, y durar con el mágico esplendor de su cariñosa mirada +la noche eterna del humano dolor. La patria necesita no sólo la fuerza de los hombres, sino también la piedad, la caridad +de las mujeres; no sólo requiere héroes, sino también heroínas. Y las hay, y las ha habido siempre en la historia de la humanidad: +y las hay y las ha habido en esta nuestra tierra, cuyo especial privilegio consiste, en sentir de graves autores extranjeros, +en que sus mujeres son superiores a los hombres. + +</p> +<hr class="tb"><p> + + +</p> +<p>Y estas niñas de hoy que adoran en Rizal y que le dedican sus cantos y oraciones, mañana se convertirán en las ciudadanas, +que no serán, como la infeliz Maria Clara, víctimas de las injusticias sociales, sino reparadoras de ellas, y sublimes propagadoras +del bien, de la virtud de la gloria y grandeza de su patria. +</p> +</div><p> + + +</p> +<p>Sí; abrigo esa esperanza, tengo fé en la libertad de la mujer. No puede permanecer una mitad de la humanidad en la parte superior +y otra mitad en la parte inferior de la escala sin producirse desequilibrios, lágrimas y sufrimientos. Todos tienden a nivelarse +en la vida como todos se nivelan en la muerte. La humanidad ha descubierto una nueva luz y su antorcha iluminará aunque los +errores y preocupaciones de los hombres se empeñen en cubrirla de tinieblas. ¡Ay de los que resistan la luz! El mundo marcha, +<span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e678" href="#xd0e678">54</a>]</span>no se detiene en su progreso. Los que quieran quedar atrás se quedarán porque es dado a los seres humanos ese albedrío, pero +será para lamentar más tarde su culpa y su retraso. + +</p> +<p>No me es dado vaticinar la suerte que cabrá a los esfuerzos presentes que hacen las mujeres filipinas para obtener el sufragio; +sé sin embargo que sus esfuerzos deben ser para ellas y para nosotros un motivo de orgullo y de honor porque indican que ninguna +parte de nuestro pueblo es insensible a los grandes movimientos del siglo. Hay algunos que se mofarán de ellas, muchos que +se encogerán de hombros, pero las mujeres no deben desalentarse por eso, porque ni la mofa ni el encogimiento de hombros son +razones de peso. Algún día les darán la razón esos mismos que ahora se ríen y se encogen de hombros ignorando probablemente +la marcha del mundo y la de su propia sociedad, como aquellos que se burlaron de Rizal en su tiempo han lamentado su error +muy tarde y le han completamente justificado y vindicado. + +</p> +<p>Lo que necesitamos es hacer la luz y propagar las nuevas doctrinas para que las acepten las conciencias que no se niegan voluntariamente +a reconocer la justicia y la verdad, únicos e inconmovibles fundamentos sobre los que descansan la estabilidad y el bienestar +de las sociedades civilizadas. + + + + +<div class="back"> +<div class="transcribernote"> +<h2>Colophon</h2> +<h3>Availability</h3> +<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give +it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/">www.gutenberg.org</a>. + +</p> +<p>This eBook is produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at <a href="https://www.pgdp.net/">www.pgdp.net</a>. + +</p> +<h3>Encoding</h3> +<p></p> +<h3>Revision History</h3> +<ol class="lsoff"> +<li>2008-02-20 Started. + +</li> +</ol> +<h3>External References</h3> +<p>This Project Gutenberg eBook contains external references. These links may not work for you.</p> +<h3>Corrections</h3> +<p>The following corrections have been applied to the text:</p> +<table width="75%"> +<tr> +<th>Location</th> +<th>Source</th> +<th>Correction</th> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e138">Page 4</a></td> +<td width="40%">mathemathics</td> +<td width="40%">mathematics</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e141">Page 4</a></td> +<td width="40%">beatiful</td> +<td width="40%">beautiful</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e146">Page 4</a></td> +<td width="40%">woman</td> +<td width="40%">women</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e169">Page 6</a></td> +<td width="40%">patrotic</td> +<td width="40%">patriotic</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e203">Page 10</a></td> +<td width="40%">even</td> +<td width="40%">ever</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e228">Page 13</a></td> +<td width="40%">and</td> +<td width="40%">an</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e241">Page 14</a></td> +<td width="40%">woman</td> +<td width="40%">women</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e244">Page 14</a></td> +<td width="40%">.</td> +<td width="40%">,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e255">Page 15</a></td> +<td width="40%">woman</td> +<td width="40%">women</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e258">Page 15</a></td> +<td width="40%">of</td> +<td width="40%">on</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e261">Page 15</a></td> +<td width="40%"> +[<i>Not in source</i>] + +</td> +<td width="40%">”</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e268">Page 16</a></td> +<td width="40%">possess</td> +<td width="40%">possesses</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e273">Page 16</a></td> +<td width="40%">archtype</td> +<td width="40%">archetype</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e304">Page 20</a></td> +<td width="40%"> +[<i>Not in source</i>] + +</td> +<td width="40%">,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e348">Page 25</a></td> +<td width="40%">government</td> +<td width="40%">governments</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e369">Page 26</a></td> +<td width="40%">desequilibrium</td> +<td width="40%">disequilibrium</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e455">Page 33</a></td> +<td width="40%">debe</td> +<td width="40%">deben</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e460">Page 33</a></td> +<td width="40%">socidades</td> +<td width="40%">sociedades</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e471">Page 34</a></td> +<td width="40%">fe</td> +<td width="40%">fé</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e477">Page 34</a></td> +<td width="40%"> +[<i>Not in source</i>] + +</td> +<td width="40%">¡</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e484">Page 35</a></td> +<td width="40%">congéníta</td> +<td width="40%">congénita</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e491">Page 35</a></td> +<td width="40%">,</td> +<td width="40%"> +[<i>Deleted</i>] + +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e499">Page 36</a></td> +<td width="40%">sér</td> +<td width="40%">ser</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e504">Page 36</a></td> +<td width="40%">los</td> +<td width="40%">las</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e512">Page 37</a></td> +<td width="40%"> +[<i>Not in source</i>] + +</td> +<td width="40%">¿</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e515">Page 37</a></td> +<td width="40%"> +[<i>Not in source</i>] + +</td> +<td width="40%">¿</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e518">Page 37</a></td> +<td width="40%">religiosas</td> +<td width="40%">religiosos</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e521">Page 37</a></td> +<td width="40%">Éllas</td> +<td width="40%">Ellas</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e544">Page 40</a></td> +<td width="40%">táreas</td> +<td width="40%">tareas</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e564">Page 42</a></td> +<td width="40%"> +[<i>Not in source</i>] + +</td> +<td width="40%">¿</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e567">Page 42</a></td> +<td width="40%"> +[<i>Not in source</i>] + +</td> +<td width="40%">¿</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e570">Page 42</a></td> +<td width="40%"> +[<i>Not in source</i>] + +</td> +<td width="40%">¿</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e574">Page 42</a></td> +<td width="40%"> +[<i>Not in source</i>] + +</td> +<td width="40%">¿</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e579">Page 43</a></td> +<td width="40%"> +[<i>Not in source</i>] + +</td> +<td width="40%">¿</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e587">Page 43</a></td> +<td width="40%">condicción</td> +<td width="40%">condición</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#xd0e651">Page 51</a></td> +<td width="40%">altura</td> +<td width="40%">alturas</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of 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