A Quote on Womanhood

I am reading through the books that we'll be using next year for Sonlight Core E, and came across this beautiful quote on womanhood, in "Caddie Woodlawn". For a little bit of background, Caddie is a girl who grew up in the late 1800s - her father permitted her to be as wild and tomboyish as she pleased, but one day when she was about 12, she took things a little too far, and this is a discussion he had with her:

"It's the sisters and wives and mothers, you know, Caddie, who keep the world sweet and beautiful. What a rough world it would be if there were only men and boys in it, doing things in their rough way! A woman's task is to teach them gentleness and courtesy and love and kindness. It's a big task, too, Caddie - harder than cutting trees or building mills or damming rivers. It takes nerve and courage and patience, but good women have these things. They have them just as much as the men who build bridges and carve roads through the wilderness. A woman's work is something fine and noble to grow up to do, and it is just as important as a man's. But no man could ever do it so well."

I think the quote really says so much that women (and men) today have forgotten! The femininity of a woman is what sets her apart from a man - it doesn't make her weaker, lesser, or inferior in any way - it makes her unique and distinguished! It's a beautiful design God created, the way men and women compliment each other through their differences - and yet, the world struggles so hard to erase those differences, leaving both men and women stripped of this glorious knowledge, and important, necessary jobs left unfulfilled.