The Bondage of Women

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 10, 1914

The Bondage of Women

We hear a great deal today regarding the so-called bondage of womankind. The militant suffragettes of England and their more gentle sisters in the United States are carrying on an earnest agitation for greater so-called liberty—the right of franchise, political freedom and its opportunities. We surely should not deny them this right if it were in our power, but we are wondering if there are not other forms of bondage from which they need quite as zealously to be seeking relief. There is, for instance, the bondage of fashion.

As never before in the history of mankind, fashion holds sway over the minds and bodies of the human race. Speaking of this, the editor of the Detroit Free Press makes the following sensible remarks:—

There was never a time when fashion was so arbitrary and exacting as at present, or when dress was so all-important and so expensive. “Out of fashion, out of the world,” accounts for the feminine feeling in the matter of dress; no woman wishes to be regarded as out of the world. Therefore the perfectly good garment of last season is voted “absolutely impossible” this year, not because it is worn, or shabby, but because it is not a 1914 model. Women of moderate means say, “There is no use buying expensive things, they go out of style so quickly,” but because of the perishable nature of what they buy they spend as much, eventually, as if they had bought the better goods at first. This results in waste by those who should not waste, and in endless worry over what should be subordinate. Husbands are harried, debts incurred, and homes made unhappy by this subservience to fashion’s sway.

Women believe they bring things about by their efforts and their views expressed through “resolutions” passed at their club meetings. They unquestionably have and do affect legislation. They occupy, creditably, many important positions, and exert an influence in social reforms and betterments. Why do they not conspire to rid themselves of this tyranny, so destructive and belittling? It has been said that if one hundred of the leading women of this country would “resolve” to dress simply, suitably, and becomingly, and would actually do so, Parisian couturieres would no longer sit up nights devising garments that hobble and deform the sex. With such an opportunity within their grasp, why not make use of it?