The home: its work and influence

Оглавление

Gilman Charlotte Perkins. The home: its work and influence

TWO CALLINGS

I

II

I. INTRODUCTORY

II. THE EVOLUTION OF THE HOME

III. DOMESTIC MYTHOLOGY

IV. PRESENT CONDITIONS

V. THE HOME AS A WORKSHOP

VI. THE HOME AS A WORKSHOP

VII. HOME-COOKING

VIII. DOMESTIC ART

IX. DOMESTIC ETHICS

X. DOMESTIC ENTERTAINMENT

XI. THE LADY OF THE HOUSE

XII. THE CHILD AT HOME

XIII. THE GIRL AT HOME

XIV. HOME INFLUENCE ON MEN

XV. HOME AND SOCIAL PROGRESS

XVI. LINES OF ADVANCE

XVII. RESULTS

Отрывок из книги

In offering this study to a public accustomed only to the unquestioning acceptance of the home as something perfect, holy, quite above discussion, a word of explanation is needed.

First, let it be clearly and definitely stated, the purpose of this book is to maintain and improve the home. Criticism there is, deep and thorough; but not with the intention of robbing us of one essential element of home life – rather of saving us from conditions not only unessential, but gravely detrimental to home life. Every human being should have a home; the single person his or her home; and the family their home.

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The latest of our home-ideas, personal convenience and expression, are themselves resultant from larger development of personality, and lead out necessarily. The accumulating power of individuality developed in large social processes by the male, is inherited by the female; she, still confined to the home, begins to fill and overfill it with the effort at individual expression, and must sooner or later come out to find the only normal field for highly specialised human power – the world.

Thus we may be encouraged in our study of domestic evolution. The forces and sentiments originating in the home have long since worked out to large social processes. We have gone far on our way toward making the world our home. What most impedes our further progress is the persistent retention of certain lines of industry within domestic limits, and the still more persistent retention of certain lines of home feelings and ideas. Even here, in the deepest, oldest, darkest, slowest place in all man's mind, the light of science, the stir of progress, is penetrating. The world does move – and so does the home.

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