ARGENTINA'S STRANGE FEMININISM.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7691, 11 January 1909, Page 1

ARGENTINA'S STRANGE FEMININISM.

It would eeem to some, perhaps, as if tho woman movement m Argentina has gone just a little too.far, Women have become fully masculinised m the arts and sciences; they are represented m most of the professions, but so httlo has this made them co-operators with men that it has actually isolated them from the! interests, the associations, j and even tiie society of those nearest and dearest to them bi the other' 3ex. This paradoxical condition Of tilings is described by an Italian lady, Gina uOM' broso Ferrero, iuLallevue (Paris). She begins by describing the effect which North America has produced by teaching the. world "to judge the condition of woman by the degree of masculinisation she has attained, that is, by the aptitude she exhibits for those professionsl the exercise of which has so far been confined to the other sex." Judged by this standard the Argentine women have been very much mascxilinised indeed. We read : "The woman m Argentina, from this point of view, occupies a position of the first order. I have known at Buenos Aiies numerous doctresses who practise medicine, surgery, dentistry, and obstetrics. I have attended a meeting at the Academy of Medicine over which a doctress presided. ] have visited a school of nurses which was founded and directed by a woman. I have frequently heard the addresses of women who have received degrees and decorations. I have heard women m the drawing-rooms to which I was invited executing pieces of music composed by themselves. I have seen the medal which a woman ambulance attendant won upon the field of battle. I have read the stories, the poems, the school-books, the novels, the magazine articles, and scientific treatises, as well as tho manuals of medicine, which the women of. Argentina have ■ni'+ten. I have admired m the Parliament lioi.*? at. Buenos Aires the statues and bas reliers • «::ii the monument of Tucuman which have been produced by the chisel of a woman sculptor. . , . If, therefore, m Argentina the woman wishes to be masculinised, the door is assuredly open foi her." But this claim for equal rights, so fully conceded In Argentina, has been bought at the price of feminine isolation. The more woman has become like to alid equal to man, the more has she become separated from him. In Europe the woman from her birth to her death shares the life of the man, be he father, husband, or son. In the rural districts of Italy are seen men and women working together m the fields. The same is the case whether the man be a shoemaker,, a ropemaker, or what not. In the upper classes, of Europe, m science, commerce, literature, or politics, the woman, mother, daughter, wife, or sister, is the inspiror and associate of the man. A wor^nn governs Holland, and m Eng land, Russia, Italy, and Germany the sovereign is accompanied on greai State occasions by his consort. Fai different is Argentina thus describeeby. this writer: "The case is different m Argentina A sort of reciprocal fear seems to raise an insdrmountable barrier between the men arid the women.- Whether at home, m tho street, at banquets and public promenades, m the theatres or schools, the two sexes, as if by a tacit understanding, keep each other at a r.espectful distance. What most strikes the foreigner who walks m Buenos Aires whether he traverse the narrow street;, where the traffic of foot passengers h more crowded than m either London or Paris, or saunter through the broac? avenues where tram-cars, carriages automobiles pass and repass eacl. other,-is the absence of women. ... She acts, not as an associate of the man, but as his rival, and m the same house we find an antagonism existing between husband and wife, mother and son." The social reformers of Argentina are beginning to think that women are being too highly educated. They do not make themselves necessary to theinterests and happiness of the men. , They neglect children and household duties. The feminist movement ir Argentina has therefore taken an opposite direction to that of Europe anc 1 North America. At Buenos Aires ar institution has been founded by the new feminists called Eseneln de Hogar "The School of the Hearth," m whiel are taught all the arts that make the homo what it should be. Sewing, and the whole circle of domestic economy, including tho care of children, arc included m the curriculum. This movement, m opposition to the excessive ambition which women m Argentina .have shown for proficiency m the arts of men, will doubtless result, says thi? writer, m "the re-establishment of those feminine arts" which alone car render the woman a welcome and fil partner and associate of the man.