FEMINIST FORUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 33, 8 February 1930, Page 4 (Supplement)

FEMINIST FORUM.

AFTER THE BALL IS OVER]

GOOD-BYE TO ALL THAT

(By A feminist; Correspondent.)

LONDON, December 20,

The feminist, can' echo Mr. Robert Graves' "Good-bye to All That," the title he gives to his book of war memories. For actually yesterday a judge decided that a certain husband was not liable for a certain debt incurred by his wife. It was" in such circumstances that all of us who. foil owed the case were ready to believe that the law would come down on the miserable husband, since the bill sued for by the May Fair Hotel was incurred by a lady for a ball at which her husband was present and admittedly was responsible for some of the guests being invited. Both these facts the husband admitted; and we all thought the law would say pay. But he denied liability ori the score that'his wife asserted the ball was being paid for by one of the guests. In his verdict the judge did- not regard it incumbent on the husband to go and inform the hotel company this fullyadmitted fact. The judge held that the husband was telling the truth when he asserted that but for believing that the ball was to be paid for by another person, he would have disclaimed liability for the cost of the ball.

What added pregnancy to the whole situation was the popularity of this ball, for some hundreds of gate crashers, it appears, managed to evade the scrutiny of the doorkeepers and enjoyed the lavish hospitality of a debutante's ball w!:h an effrontery which annoyed the hotel management almost at much as the trouble over liquidation of the debt owing to them of £675! Economic Independence. At first 6ight this treatment seems to say good-bye to treating a married woman as an imbecile incapable of assuming financial liability, as a step towards treating a married woman as a responsible being. But closer scrutiny will show feminists that the case shows no change in the law; it merely shows that the judge considered that the husband ,had countenanced this expensive function because his personal liability had been assumed by another! So feminists must wake from their dream of women's economic independence within the married state.

Is she as economically independent

outside it,- and full of money as some gossiping papers say? Edith Shackleton

(this is merely a nom de plume), one of the leading journalists here, demands

truculently, "Where is .all this mouey ?" This she asks because Miss Ethel Mannin, who is a best seller among the illiterate, has been declaring that it is easier for a woman to earn a lot of moneyeasier than for a man! "Roughly speaking," says Edith Shackleton, "women have scarcely any money at all. There are at the moment a few highly-arti-culate and noticeable women, apart from actresses, who earn good incomes— that is to say, incomes that a schoolmaster, a minor bank manager or a small town doctor might think were pretty good and which nearly all the work think are wonderful "for a woman," but which would scarcely keep a really thriving city man in bathrooms. But a few of these women occasionally get together and, suddenly realising they are all well enough off to buy one another occasional hock, and truite bleu and peaches, fall into ecstasies of admiration of their own earning powers."

She scouts utterly Miss Mannin's remark, p "We "have women like Lady Rhondda." Have we?, Frankly I agree with Edith Shackleton that there are none in this part of the world, and that the reason is as she says: "We all know at least one father who knows well that his own capability and business acumen has been transmitted to his daughter, while his sons all take after the mother lie married for her prettiness and pliability—but which of these fathers will take the clever girl into the business and leave the sons to be ornamental companions to their mother with a promise of a trousseau and a "small marriage portion 1" Handicapped Women. I can give a parallel from my own experience. I knew a South African girl, an only daughter with several brothers. The whole countryside admitted her superiority to her brothers in farming, particularly the veterinary part. The father set up all his sons in farms and wouldn't even consider giving her a chance. Incidentally, the Roman Dutch law did not admit of »'• woman owning land, but the father might have found a way round had he wanted to I 1 Miss Shackleton is udder no illusions. "It is not yet bo easy for. a woman to get on in any business 'or profession as it is for a man. Once, attached to a going concern, men are carried along .by its momentum. They sit on the shafts where women must run behind." Earning Powers. What appears to have set Miss Shackleton on her high horse is the statement . being widely broadcast by the lesser Press—the wish being father of the thought—that there are crowds of women out doing Christmas shopping. And she clinches her argument. "It would make a delightful Christmas game if one. could pretend that it had all happened and forget all the charming, well-equipped, earnest young women who have come down from Oxford and Cambridge during the last few years 'and still can scarcely support themselves, forget all the ageing women who have worked from • infancy (for one of the solemn facts of life is that in a poor neighbourhood only the little boys have time to play) and have still no money to call their own; forget the dignified and experienced professional women who are thought to be on the verge of insanity if they express surprise at being superseded by any silly young man. ; "But, alas! one cannot buy illusion with the boxes of crackers and. Christmas cards. I am afraid I still know that men have all the best jobs and nearly all the money," says Miss Shackleton. ■ ' Well, didn't I say everything is just the sartie! Let us admit frankly that there are few enough women who have money to spend which they made themselves. In a democratic age the thought need not worry us overmuch. For it would be best, in «my view, if the world was keener on preventing men froi.t amassingnnore fian a fair share of the world's production. If they can be persuaded to share more fairly • among themselves there might bo some hope cf women getting a- fairer share out. But we need not lose all hope. There is one—yes, one —woman who has risen to power and pay equal to a man's — Miss Bondfield—though there it is a debatable point whether, with her ability, she might not have "arrived" sooner if she had been a man.