The Pittsburgh Press (January 12, 1944)
Ferguson: An angry view of marriage
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
Alma Booker of Pittsburgh is a valued correspondent, because she does such a swell job of romping on a columnist.
Believing in moral as well as economic and political freedom for women, she offers some fine arguments to make her point:
Why do you defend the state of marriage? It needs no defense, for it’s still the best of chiseling rackets for women, although they haven’t sense enough to resist its superstitious trimmings.
On all sides I see reason to be ashamed of my sex – girls trying to force men to marry them “for the baby’s sake,” trying to force them to establish a home.
If marriage is so important, it is a crime that society fails to provide every woman with that status automatically on her coming of age. Make it a criminal offense to insult a woman who has children without a husband. Have all women use the same title. The depth of their degradation I s measured by their present willingness to brand themselves as “Miss” or “Mrs.”
Motherhood should be subsidized. Birth control should be legalized, but discouraged. No disgrace ought to be attached to fertility in a woman. Personally, I’m sick of reading of doctors imprisoned for illegal operations. If motherhood were no disgrace such operations would be unnecessary.
Why couldn’t we have the luck of the Swedish, Norwegian, Russian and Danish women whose governments have recognized them as equal, decent human beings instead of the property of men? Women need a good strong dose of freedom.
It seems to me the first reform must be made in the character of men and women. Others would follow naturally. No institution is better than the individuals who maintain it.