ARE WOMEN WORKSE THAN MEN?

Bush Advocate, Volume VII, Issue 475, 30 May 1891, Page 7

ARE WOMEN WORKSE THAN MEN?

YES-OFTEN AND IN MANY THINGS. (BEVXBW of _EVIKWS.) In the Leisure Hour for February Mrs. Mayo devotes her serial paper, ' ' Under Discussion," to a criticism of some women's manners and ways. The article is a strong one, in the form of a conversation, bufc the gist of it is that women are distinctly inferior to men in very many important elements of human character. Women, to begin with, blind themselves to their own wickedness by using innocent terms to describe plain sins. Treachery is called tact ; lies, fibbing ; drunkenness, over - stimulation ; while thoughtlessness stands for sheer vulgar selfishness and disregard for fche rights of others. Selfishness may be equal in both sexes, but it manifests itself pre-eminently 1 in some women by their capacity for petty pushing and grasping, and by their callous indifference to the rights and feelings of others : — (t 1 am afraid that disregard for others' rights, an indisposition to look not only 'on one's own things, but also on tbe things of others,' is a besetting weakness of our poor sex. I think it is John Ruskin who somewhore says, in his rather sweeping fashion, that he has come across very few women who seem to realise that there is anybody else in the world except themselves and their own children !" Sometimes out of spiteful iuquisitivenesa, sometimes to gratify a mean vanity, women will recklessly undermine or damage the influence or authority which ia really responsible for the welfare of young lives. Nor is this all. While men and women are far more alike than they are different, women are muoh wickeder in being more spitet fui: — I " For instance, women go out of their way to inflict pain or contumely on eaoh other, even when there is no question of revenge or spite, or scarcely of personal knowledge. I have no doubt some men are quite as purseproud or house-proud as some women, but generally they will simply neglect those whom they outshine. The woman wishes to drive home her triumph and enjoy it with the flavour of somebody's humiliation." Then, again, tew women have among themselves any share of that which among men is called "houour." A room full of girls will indulge in the most spiteful remarks about a visitor whom they see coming up tho avenue, and then the moment she has arrived in the room they will surround her with greetings, hugging her, kissing her, and generally teaching a terrible lesson aa to the possibilities of feminine treachery : — "I have heard men make remarks about others both spiteful and severe. . . . But those men would not straightway fawn upon the object of their contempt, and profess an unctuous joy in hia sooiety. If any man did so, his fellows would instantly dub him a cad and a sneak. And yet too many men only laugh when they detect women in these mean treacheries 1 Quite recently a *- society ' journal said airily, as a matter of course, thafc women aro allowed to speak and behave in ways which would cause the immediate ostracism of a man. I think the virtue aboufc which women should examine themselves and their ways is truthfulness 1 I do think it is the lack of this which underlies much bad manners,' and social treachery, and potty injustice." Mrs. Mayo finishes up by quoting- Canon Littledale, who says that men rarely stab ono another with the personal stilettos of concentrated Bpite which, women are apt to wiold. Men are loth to strike a fallen enemy, whereas too many women delight in trampling on him to tho last. He also says that there is a lower standard of truthfulness among women than among men, proved by small sooial hypocrisies, continual inaccuracy, and a marked tendency to exaggeration.