PROGRESS OF WOMEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 153, 30 June 1934, Page 17

PROGRESS OF WOMEN.

ADDRESS AT AVONDALE

'•Women in those days were considered creatures of little character and no intelligence, and their ideas were supposed to be bounded by the cooking stove on the one sido and the store cupboard on the other," said Mrs. Kenneth Gordon in the course of her address on "Women of the Georgian Period" at the Avondiilc Women's Club this week. S.ho continued by giving a graphic account of the conditions under which women lived in thu years 1700-1820, when any artistic ability was suppressed, as it was considered unseemly for women to excel at anything except housekeeping. This lead to the remarkable number of literary women who became prominent at that time, as "scribbling" could be indulged in secretly and with little expense. Maria Edgeworth, Fanny Uurney, and Jane Austen were authoresses mentioned as being all marvellous products of that age; and, in , a different class, Slary Wolstcncroft-Godwin, was a bom rebi 1 and wrote books of a revolutionary type. Mrs. Gordon pointed out tho improved status of women in the community to-day, as compared with tho tinio when even tho property of a married woman belonged to her husband, an'd in the punishment of crime a different code for men and women existed.

A vote of thanks to the speaker for her address was proposed by Mrs. Metcalfe, and carried heartily by acclamation. Miss Newton presided and presented a brief report from the National Council of Women. .Solos by Mrs. W. Browne and Mrs. P. (i. Wright were greatly enjoyed; Mrs. IT. Bollard, acted as 'accompanist. The meeting closed with tho usual social interval, during which tea was served by Mrs. March and mcin.bers of the ten < imittce.