“No free communities ever existed without morals;
and, as I observed in the former part of this work, morals are the work
of woman. Consequently, whatever affects the condition of women,
their habits and their opinions, has great political importance in my eyes.
Amongst almost all Protestant nations young women are far more the mistresses
of their own actions than they are in Catholic countries. This independence
is still greater in Protestant countries, like England, which have retained
or acquired the right of self-government; the spirit of freedom is then
infused into the domestic circle by political habits and by religious opinions.
In the United States the doctrines of Protestantism are combined with great
political freedom and a most democratic state of society; and nowhere are
young women surrendered so early or so completely to their own guidance.
Long before an American girl arrives at the age
of marriage, her emancipation from maternal control begins; she has scarcely
ceased to be a child when she already thinks for herself, speaks with freedom,
and acts on her own impulse. The great scene of the world is constantly
open to her view; far from seeking concealment, it is every day disclosed
to her more completely, and she is taught to survey it with a firm and
calm gaze. Thus the vices and dangers of society are early revealed
to her; as she sees them clearly, she views them without illusions, and
braves them without fear; for she is full of reliance on her own strength,
and her reliance seems to be shared by all who are about her. An American
girl scarcely ever displays that virginal bloom in the midst of young desires,
or that innocent and ingenuous grace which usually attends the European
woman in the transition from girlhood to youth. It is rarely that
an American woman at any age displays childish timidity or ignorance.
Like the young women of Europe, she seeks to please, but she knows precisely
the cost of pleasing. If she does not abandon herself to evil, at
least she knows that it exists; and she is remarkable rather for purity
of manners than for chastity of mind.
I have been frequently surprised, and almost frightened,
at the singular address and happy boldness with which young women in America
contrive to manage their thoughts and their language amidst all the difficulties
of stimulating conversation; a philosopher would have stumbled at every
step along the narrow path which they trod without accidents and without
effort. It is easy indeed to perceive that, even amidst the independence
of early youth, an American woman is always mistress of herself; she indulges
in all permitted pleasures, without yielding herself up to any of them;
and her reason never allows the reins of self-guidance to drop, though
it often seems to hold them loosely.
In France, where remnants of every age are still
so strangely mingled in the opinions and tastes of the people, women commonly
receive a reserved, retired, and almost cloistral education, as they did
in aristocratic times; and then they are suddenly abandoned, without a
guide and without assistance, in the midst of all the irregularities inseparable
from democratic society. The Americans are more consistent. They
have found out that in a democracy the independence of individuals cannot
fail to be very great, youth premature, tastes ill-restrained, customs
fleeting, public opinion often unsettled and powerless, paternal authority
weak, and marital authority contested. Under these circumstances,
believing that they had little chance of repressing in woman the most vehement
passions of the human heart, they held that the surer way was to teach
her the art of combating those passions for herself. As they could
not prevent her virtue from being exposed to frequent danger, they determined
that she should know how best to defend it; and more reliance was placed
on the free vigor of her will than on safeguards which have been shaken
or overthrown. Instead, then, of inculcating mistrust of herself,
they constantly seek to enhance their confidence in her own strength of
character. As it is neither possible nor desirable to keep a young woman
in perpetual or complete ignorance, they hasten to give her a precocious
knowledge on all subjects. Far from hiding the corruptions of the
world from her, they prefer that she should see them at once and train
herself to shun them; and they hold it of more importance to protect her
conduct than to be over-scrupulous of her innocence.
Although the Americans are a very religious people,
they do not rely on religion alone to defend the virtue of woman; they
seek to arm her reason also. In this they have followed the same
method as in several other respects; they first make the most vigorous
efforts to bring individual independence to exercise a proper control over
itself, and they do not call in the aid of
religion until they have reached the utmost limits of human strength.
I am aware that an education of this kind is not without danger; I am sensible
that it tends to invigorate the judgment at the expense of the imagination,
and to make cold and virtuous women instead of affectionate wives and agreeable
companions to man. Society may be more tranquil and better regulated,
but domestic life has often fewer charms. These, however, are secondary
evils, which may be braved for the sake of higher interests. At the stage
at which we are now arrived the time for choosing is no longer within our
control; a democratic education is indispensable to protect women from
the dangers with which democratic institutions and manners surround them”.
* Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America, volume 2, part III, chapter 9