Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Women and Men

[119] in benevolent enterprises as men, and as willing to give what they have, but they have not the money. Even if they have it by them, they fear to use it, for they have not the habit of the separate purse.

It may be said that it is base and unworthy to treat married life as a co-partnership only. I do not so treat it, for it is much more than that. The trouble is that the system prevalent in many families makes it much less than that. A wrong system makes it a business affair, as far as the labor goes, but tie alliance ceases when the distribution of profits is concerned — as if in a large firm the partner having charge of the books should balance them for his own convenience at the end of the year, and deposit the undivided profits to his own private credit in the bank. Marriage is something more than a co-partnership, but it is nothing less; it is governed by higher laws, but by no lower. Fortunately the business knowledge of women is steadily increasing, and with it their capacity to deal with money. If a woman, by art or authorship or bookkeeping, has earned a thousand dollars a year before marriage-and such instances are now common — it is absurd to ask her, after marriage, to work harder in her household than before, and yet handle less money, while her husband handles plenty. It is not a question of economy where economy is needed;