Education: One Woman, Two Lives

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The main reason that feminism failed was its belated discovery of the fact that women need men and motherhood. Mary Bunting, who would shudder at comparison with Susan B. Anthony, stands first of all for the family. She proposes no all-front feminine attack on the business and professional fields of men. But in a society of early marriage, lightened housework and lengthened lives, she does deplore women who abdicate their obligation to put their brains and education to creative use. Marriage, motherhood, the fledging of children and possibly widowhood subject a woman's life to stressful changes, and she must be "ready to come out alive."

<footnote>* Fifth oldest (1879) of the Seven Sisters, the female Ivy League. Oldest is Mount Holyoke (1837), biggest is Smith (2,200), richest is Wellesley ($44 million). The others are Vassar, Barnard, Bryn Mawr.</footnote>