Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/455

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resources of the family and distributes them. Woman is her infant's nurse, she is its maker, ou her depends the child's character, she is the child's first teacher, thus she is the mother of the nation. Man is not its father. After a time the father's influence over his son begins to wane. The mother never allows it to slip away from herself. Even when we reach manhood we play like children with our mothers. We are unable to retain that relation- ship with our fathers. If then the vocation of the two are naturally and properly distinct, there is no occasion to arrange for an independent earning of livelihood by women in general. Where women are obliged to be telegraphists, typists and compositors, there is a break in well ordered society. A nation that has adopted such a scheme has, in my opinion, come to the end of its resources, and has begun to live on its capital.

Thus it is wrong on the one hand to keep our women in a state of ignorance and degradation. It is a sign of weakness, and it is tyrannical to impose men's work on her. After coeducation for some years, a different scheme for girls is necessary. They ought to have a knowledge of the managment of the home, of re- gulating the life during the child-bearing period and the upbringing of children, etc. To formulate such a scheme is a difficult task. This is a new subject in the depart- ment of education. In order to explore the unbeaten track, women of character and learning and men, of experience should be entrusted with the task of devising a scheme of female education. Such a committee will try to devise means for the education of our girls. But we have numerous girls who are married during girlhood. The number is increasing. These girls disappear from the education stage after marriage. I venture to copy

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