1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. Winnifred Harper Cooley

Winnifred Harper Cooley Quotes

Winnifred Harper Cooley was a U.S. author and lecturer.

✵ 2. October 1874 – 20. October 1967
Winnifred Harper Cooley photo
Winnifred Harper Cooley: 1 quote0 likes

Winnifred Harper Cooley Quotes

“The finest achievement of the new woman has been personal liberty. This is the foundation of civilization; and as long as any one class is watched suspiciously, even fondly guarded, and protected, so long will that class not only be weak, and treacherous, individually, but parasitic, and a collective danger to the community. Who has not heard wives commended for wheedling their husbands out of money, or joked [about] because they are hopelessly extravagant? As long as caprice and scheming are considered feminine virtues, as long as man is the only wage-earner, doling out sums of money, or scattering lavishly, so long will women be degraded, even if they are perfectly contented, and men are willing to labor to keep them in idleness!

Although individual women from pre-historic times have accomplished much, as a class they have been set aside to minister to men's comfort. But when once the higher has been tried, civilization repudiates the lower. Men have come to see that no advance can be made with one half-humanity set apart merely for the functions of sex; that children are quite liable to inherit from the mother, and should have opportunities to inherit the accumulated ability and culture and character that is produced only by intellectual and civil activity. The world has tried to move with men for dynamos, and "clinging" women impeding every step of progress, in arts, science, industry, professions, they have been a thousand years behind men because forced into seclusion. They have been over-sexed. They have naturally not been impressed with their duties to society, in its myriad needs, or with their own value as individuals.

The new woman, in the sense of the best woman, the flower of all the womanhood of past ages, has come to stay — if civilization is to endure. The sufferings of the past have but strengthened her, maternity has deepened her, education is broadening her — and she now knows that she must perfect herself if she would perfect the race, and leave her imprint upon immortality, through her offspring or her works.”

Winnifred Harper Cooley

The New Womanhood (New York, 1904) 31f.

Similar authors

Dale Carnegie photo
Dale Carnegie98
American writer and lecturer None
Joseph Campbell photo
Joseph Campbell140
American mythologist, writer and lecturer None
Dan Millman photo
Dan Millman38
American self help writer None
Seamus Heaney photo
Seamus Heaney29
Irish poet, playwright, translator, lecturer None
Helen Keller photo
Helen Keller156
American author and political activist None
Richard Dawkins photo
Richard Dawkins322
English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author None
H.P. Lovecraft photo
H.P. Lovecraft203
American author None
Christopher Morley photo
Christopher Morley30
American journalist, novelist, essayist and poet None
Napoleon Hill photo
Napoleon Hill104
American author None
Albert Camus photo
Albert Camus209
French author and journalist None