Equality in Fitness
By Helen G. Putnam, M. D. LL. D.
It makes no difference to the child’s inheritance which parent is unfit. Neither should be. It makes no difference to the child whether, after birth, the ignorance, evil instruction, contagious blighting of him come from a man or from a woman; from domestic conditions (said to be women’s work), or from municipal conditions (said to be man’s work). The responsibility cannot be divided. Before this ideal—the child’s well being—these sexes are on an equal footing, nor is one sex justified in wronging the child because the other says or does so. Nature forgives no spurious reasoning. The child and the race suffer the consequences.