Turning, finally, to the African continent, we find that among the Negro races the woman, though often heavily burdened and more or less subservient to her husband, is by no means without influence.123 “When we become more closely acquainted with family conditions,” Herr Büttner observes, “we notice that there, as elsewhere, husbands are under petticoat government, and those most of all who like to pose before the outer world as masters of their house. The women, including the aunts, have on all occasions, important and unimportant alike, a weighty word to contribute.”124 The Monbuttu women, according to Dr. Schweinfurth, exhibit towards their husbands the highest degree of independence; “the position in the household occupied by the men was illustrated by the reply which would be made if they were solicited to sell anything as a curiosity, ‘Oh, ask my wife: it is hers.’”125 Among the Momvus “the women are on a footing of equality with the men, and go hunting with them, and accompany them to the wars, taking their part in the combat.”126 Among the Madi or Moru tribe of Central Africa “women are treated with respect and politeness by the men, who always show them preference, resigning to their use the best places, and paying them such like courtesies.” The women associate with the men on equal terms, being consulted and honoured; and any insult to a woman is revenged, nay is frequently the cause of war.127 In a Hottentot’s house the woman is the supreme ruler, and the husband has nothing at all to say. “While in public the men take the prominent part, at home they have not so much power even as to take a mouthful of sour milk out of the tub, without the wife’s permission. If a man ever should try to do it, his nearest female relations will put a fine on him, consisting in cows and sheep, which is to be added to the stock of the wife.”128 Among the peoples of Berber race the women exercise considerable influence over the men. Among the Guanches of the Canary Islands they were much respected.129 Among the Touareg “la femme est l’égale de l’homme, si même, par certains côtés, elle n’est dans une condition meilleure.”130 Among the Beni Amer a husband undertakes nothing before consulting his wife, on whose goodwill he largely depends.131 Of the Aulâd Solîmân, an Arab tribe in the Sahara, Dr. Nachtigal observes that it was curious to see how powerless those much feared robbers and cut-throats were in their own houses.132 Both in the Sahara133 and in the East134 the Bedouin women enjoy a considerable degree of freedom, and sometimes actually rule over their husbands.

All these statements certainly do not imply that the husband has no recognised power over his wife, but they prove that his power is by no means unlimited. It is true that many of our authorities speak rather of liberties that the woman takes herself than of privileges granted her by custom; but, as we have seen before, customary rights are always more or less influenced by habitual practice. It should be added that among many savage peoples the husband has a right to divorce his wife only under certain conditions;135 and among a very considerable number custom or law permits the wife to separate either for some special cause or, simply, at will.136 In certain parts of Eastern Central Africa divorce may be effected if the husband neglects to sew his wife’s clothes, or if the partners do not please each other.137 Among the Shans of Burma the woman has a right to turn adrift a husband who takes to drinking or otherwise misconducts himself, and to retain all the goods and money of the partnership.138 Among the Irulas of the Neilgherries the option of remaining in union, or of separating, rests principally with the woman.139 Among the Savaras, an aboriginal hill people of the Madras Presidency, “a woman may leave her husband whenever she pleases.”140 This is surely something very different from that absolute dominion which hasty generalisers have attributed to savage husbands in general.

It is often said that a people’s civilisation may be measured by the position held by its women. But at least so far as the earlier stages of culture are concerned, this opinion is not supported by facts. Among several of the lowest races, including peoples like the Veddahs, Andaman Islanders, and Bushmans, the female sex is treated with far greater consideration than among many of the higher savages and barbarians. Travellers have not seldom noticed that of two neighbouring tribes the less cultured one sets in this respect an example to the other. “Among the Bushmans,” says Dr. Fritsch, “the female sex makes life-companions, among the A-bantu beasts of burden.”141 Lewis and Clarke affirm that the status of woman in a savage tribe has no necessary relation even to its moral qualities in general. “The Indians,” they say, “whose treatment of the females is mildest, and who pay most deference to their opinions, are by no means the most distinguished for their virtues…. On the other hand, the tribes among whom the women are very much debased, possess the loftiest sense of honour, the greatest liberality, and all the good qualities of which their situation demands the exercise.”142 That the condition of woman, or her relative independence, is no safe gauge of the general culture of a nation, also appears from a comparison between many of the lower races and the peoples of archaic civilisation.

In China the condition of woman has always been inferior to that of man, and no generous sentiment tending to the amelioration of her social position has ever come from the Chinese sages.143 Her children must pay her respect, but she in her turn owes to her husband the subjection of a child;144 a wife is an infinitely less important personage than a mother in the Chinese social scale.145 The husband has certainly not absolute power over his wife: he may not kill her, nor sell her without her consent,146 nor even divorce her, except for certain causes specified by law.147 But these causes are very elastic; it is said that “when a woman has any quality that is not good, it is but just and reasonable to turn her out of doors.”148 And in a book containing the cream of all the moral writings of the Chinese, and intended chiefly for children, we read:—“Brothers are like hands and feet. A wife is like one’s clothes. When clothes are worn out, we can substitute those that are new. When hands and feet are cut off, it is difficult to obtain substitutes for them.”149 A woman, on the other hand, cannot obtain legal separation on any account.150 Confucius says that “man is the representative of Heaven, and is supreme over all things. Woman yields obedience to the instructions of man, and helps to carry out his principles. On this account she can determine nothing of herself, and is subject to the rule of the three obediences. When young, she must obey her father and elder brother; when married, she must obey her husband; when her husband is dead, she must obey her son.”151 In Japan, also, a woman was formerly, in the eye of the law, a chattel rather than a person. “Having all her life under her father’s roof reverenced her superiors, she is expected to bring reverence to her new domicile, but not love. She must always obey but never be jealous. She must not be angry, no matter whom her husband may introduce into his household. She must wait upon him at his meals and must walk behind him, but not with him. When she dies her children go to her funeral, but not her husband.”152 In Japan a man might repudiate his wife for the same reasons as in China,153 and till the year 1873 a wife could not obtain separation according to law.154 However, though the Japanese wife is “the first servant of the household,” training and public opinion require that she should be treated with respect, if the marriage be blessed with children.155 She is addressed as “the honourable lady of the house,” and her position is said to be higher than in any other Oriental country.156

From various quarters of the ancient world we hear of the rule that the husband shall command and the wife obey. The Lord said to the woman, “Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”157 How great the husband’s power was among the Hebrews we do not know exactly. He could divorce his wife if she did not please him because he had “found some uncleanness in her,”158 whereas a wife could not legally separate from her husband.159 In later times her condition evidently improved.160 From the old Jewish point of view it is surely surprising to find Sirach putting the companionship of a wife not only above that of a friend, but even above children.161 In the Talmud a husband is admonished to love his wife like himself and to honour her more than himself,162 though he should take care not to be ruled by her;163 and the wife also is authorised to demand a divorce under certain circumstances, namely, if the husband refuses to perform his conjugal duty, if he continues to lead a disorderly life after marriage, if he proves impotent during ten years, if he suffers from an insupportable disease, or if he leaves the country for ever.164

In the Zoroastrian Yasts a holy woman is defined as one who is “rich in good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, well-principled, and obedient to her husband,” whereas the fiendish woman is “ill-principled and disobedient to her husband.”165 According to Brahmanic law, a woman must in childhood be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons; “a woman must never be independent.”166 Not even in her own house is she allowed to do anything independently.167 Him to whom her father may give her, or her brother with the father’s permission, she shall obey as long as he lives.168 She must never do anything that might displease him;169 even though he be destitute of virtue, or unfaithful to her, “a husband must be constantly worshipped as a god by a faithful wife.”170 A wife who shows disrespect to a husband who is addicted to some evil passion, is a drunkard, or diseased, shall be deserted for three months, and be deprived of her ornaments and furniture.171 If a wife obeys her husband, she will for that reason alone be exalted in heaven;172 but by violating her duty towards him, she is disgraced in this world, and after death she enters the womb of a jackal, and is punished with disease for her sin.173 There is no indication that a woman can obtain legal separation on any account, though she may with impunity “show aversion” towards a mad or outcast husband, a eunuch, one destitute of manly strength, or one afflicted with such diseases as punish crimes.174 Again, if she is sold or repudiated by her husband, she can never become the legitimate wife of another who may have bought or received her after she was repudiated.175 But the husband is not allowed to divorce her indiscriminately. A wife who drinks spirituous liquor, is of bad conduct, rebellious, quarrelsome, diseased, mischievous, or wasteful, may at any time be superseded by another wife; a barren one may be superseded in the eighth year; one whose children all die, in the tenth; one who bears daughters only, in the eleventh; whereas a sick wife who is kind to her husband and virtuous in her conduct, may be superseded only with her own consent, and must never be disgraced.176 The rule, “Let mutual fidelity continue until death,” may be considered the summary of the highest law for husband and wife;177 women must be honoured and adorned by husbands who desire their own welfare.178 Various passages in the Mahabharata and Ramayana indicate that women in India were subjected to less social restraints in former days than they are at present according to the rules of Brahmanism, and even enjoyed considerable liberty;179 and the Vedic singers know no more tender relation than that between the husband and his willing, loving wife, who is praised as “his home, the darling abode and bliss in his house.”180 Yet it is noteworthy that goddesses play a very insignificant part in the Veda.181 In this respect the Pantheon of the Vedic people essentially differs from that of the ancient Egyptians,182 a difference which may be due to the remarkably high position which woman seems to have occupied in Egypt.183

In Greece, also, a wife appears to have been a more influential and independent personage in ancient times, in Homeric society, than she became afterwards.184 In the historic age her position was simply that of the domestic drudge; her virtues were reduced to the maintenance of good order in her household and obedience to her husband; her greatest ornament was silence.185 Aristotle, always a faithful exponent of the most enlightened opinion of his age, gives the following description of what he considers to be the ideal relation of a woman to her husband:—“A good and perfect wife ought to be mistress of everything within the house…. But the well-ordered wife will justly consider the behaviour of her husband as a model of her own life, and a law to herself, invested with a divine sanction by means of the marriage tie and the community of life…. The wife ought to show herself even more obedient to the rein than if she had entered the house as a purchased slave. For she has been bought at a high price, for the sake of sharing life and bearing children, than which no higher or holier tie can possibly exist.”186 So also, according to Plutarch, the husband ought to rule his wife, but by sympathy and goodwill, as the soul governs the body, not as a master does a chattel.187 The law invalidated whatever a husband did by the counsel, or at the request, of his wife, whereas the wife, on her part, could transact no business of importance in her own favour, nor by will dispose of more than the value of a bushel of barley.188 Yet whatever may have been the exact compass of the husband’s power in Greece, it was not unlimited. At Athens a woman could demand divorce if she was ill-treated by her husband, in which case she merely had to announce her wishes before the archon.189