In the later and farther development of the pecuniary culture,
the requirement of withdrawal from the industrial process in
order to avoid social odium is carried so far as to comprise
abstention from the emulative employments. At this advanced stage
the pecuniary culture negatively favors the assertion of the
non-invidious propensities by relaxing the stress laid on the
merit of emulative, predatory, or pecuniary occupations, as
compared with those of an industrial or productive kind. As was
noticed above, the requirement of such withdrawal from all
employment that is of human use applies more rigorously to the
upper-class women than to any other class, unless the priesthood
of certain cults might be cited as an exception, perhaps more
apparent than real, to this rule. The reason for the more extreme
insistence on a futile life for this class of women than for the
men of the same pecuniary and social grade lies in their being
not only an upper-grade leisure class but also at the same time a
vicarious leisure class. There is in their case a double ground
for a consistent withdrawal from useful effort.
It has been well and repeatedly said by popular writers and
speakers who reflect the common sense of intelligent people on
questions of social structure and function that the position of
woman in any community is the most striking index of the level of
culture attained by the community, and it might be added, by any
given class in the community.
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