SHOULD WIVES WORK?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 136, 11 June 1938, Page 4 (Supplement)

SHOULD WIVES WORK?

For Women

THE male species delights in clinging to nineteenth century ideals where his womenfolk are concerned; but for himself— modernism all the time! When a young man marries to-day he usunTly insists that his wife should stay at homo, have his moals ready for him on his nightly return from work, rear his children in a civilised way. and generally slave from morning to night for his own self-satisfaction and comfort. And if you should so much as*>suggest working and helping things along by putting money aside in case yeu should decide to have a baby, or else things become bad with his work, he will turn round and exclaim with »11 the false logic of manhood: "My mother didn't work, nor did my grandmother. They were content to stay at home and look after the house find bring children into the world. And that's what you're going to do.* . But he forgets, or prefers to ignore, the fait that very few women -were in business in those days. But to-day, the major part of a girl's training is not domestic but commercial. It is her life, the office and the files and typewriter. If she is to sacrifice these 10 years of her life—lo happy years in most cases —and live only on the fastfading m emeries of yesterday, she cannot be ideally happy with a man who theoretically chains her to his selfselected kennel. Unless, of course, his position in the world compensates for this sacrifice, and makes it easr for the young wife—servants to wait on her and keep her house clean. But that is for the selected few, and the majority of the young brides to-day are boxed up in four walls and are forced to keep that box tidy and straight. They are not, though, as happy to-day as they were yesterday. They have tasted the freedom of earning, buying their own clothes, spending their own money on make-up, frills, and just how and when they like. To take thin ireedom away from them suddenly is like snatching a cake from a baby —bringing nothing but temporary misery and howls of indignation. There is a practical way out of this sudden wrench, and one that has been tried and proved by several friends of my own. In each case the wife has been allowed by her husband to remain at work for six months to a year, and her earnings are her own, to spend as she wishes. Generally, the wife has been content to save only a portion of her fncome. and spend a considerable sum on little luxuries they could not enjoy without this extra income.

But after a time the housework, which has to be done when she arrives home tired after a hard day's work, begins to pall upon her, and she sees for herself that the job of wife is a full-time one, and cannot be shared with a business job as well. Then she is prepared to give up her commercial interests, and settle down to homework in real earnest—and thoroughly enjoying it.

" 8 * ,93e A New View On An Ancient Angle

By Doris Hughes

Aβ I have said, this has worked with several of my own friends, but I have heard of cases when the young bride has managed to force her husband into

lielpiiijr with the housework, thus finding that she can handle the two jobs with comparative ease. Because of this she has not left her work after the <»iven period, and she has soon found her husband wandering flwav from home as much as he could conscientiously , d<> so. With the result that the marriage has hit the rocks, only to shoot, the rapids after a series of very nasty humps. This, however, can be avoided if the wife realises, that, while her j"l> i* relatively unimportant, her husband's job is tho eventual bread and butter. She. therefore, can do the two jobs, while he must concentrate on one job only. It is foolish to jrobble up the cake and ijrnore the bread —the bread's always there; the cake's not.