GK Chesterton was an amazing philosopher and writer who penned interesting works on nearly every subject (learn more about him here). In his book What's Wrong With The World the essay "The Emancipation of Domesticity" centres on the necessary role women play in civilisation. It is a poetic exploration of female nature* that highlights the gifts we offer to the world and celebrates what makes us unique and distinct from men.

What I especially love about this essay is the description of how essential good women are to men. Often we speak about the negative aspects of modern women, and point out how various female traits are a detriment to male happiness. It is important to remember that the negative side of female nature is not the only side! Women truly can be wonderful :) I've shared posts about how our emotions and inconsistency can be charming and endearing in the right contexts so definitely take a look at those if you missed them.

Let's discuss Chesterton's description of female nature and how his ideas apply to our modern times! He mentions specifically women at home and as mothers but there's no need to focus on that part, we can look at his ideas of women as generalists without tying it to homemaking. I'm especially interested in a conversation about positive female traits and connecting them to other RPW ideas such as psychological femininity within relationships.


*Of course each woman has a different combination and ratio of positive and negative female traits (as well as other traits), but this does not mean that there are no patterns or underlying characteristics that apply in general to our gender.