WOMEN'S PLACE IN WORLD

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22083, 4 May 1937, Page 14

WOMEN'S PLACE IN WORLD

BUSINESSMEN .IN KEEN DEBATE IN THE HOME OR OUT OF IT? While waitresses cleared away ' luncheon dishes in Beath's yesterday afternoon they listened to a debate on whether women's , place was in the home. The speakers were six members of the Christchurch Businessmen's Club, and the debate had been arranged as a change from the club's usual practice of having a single speaker at their luncheons. After six men, each in humorous vein, had given their opinion the question was put to the meeting, but members could hot make up their minds. A loud chorus of "ayes" greeted both the affirmative and the negative sides, and Mr D. V. Wilson, who took the vote, gave his casting vote for each side. Messrs I. Sladen, A. Stewart, and S. G. Holland, M.P., spoke in support of the contention that women should remain at home, and Messrs E. A. Sayers, R. A. Young, and S. H. Thomas held that they should have liberty to earn their own living. . Mr Sladen related a dream he had had, which he said was an ominous warning that unless men changed their attitude towards women, their womenfolk would be in control of their businesses, leaving the men to take the baby for a walk—and to call at the offices of their wives for tramfare home. "A. Noble Occupation" Mr Sayers claimed, in opposition to Mr Sladen, that there was no more noble occupation for a man than to take his children out for a walk. Women had. ruled so efficiently for years in the home that it was no wonder that they now desired a place in the control of the world. Womanly intuition would.be a big help in making laws. Mr Stewart contended that the first thoughts of primitive woman were concerned with a home, and the instinct still persisted. Those women who went to work did so only the better to!further their real ambition of obtaining a home, and running it. Mr Young said that women stayed at home not because they wanted to, but because they had to. The last census showed that the city had a surplus of women in the population of 6000. If, carrying the affirmative side to its logical conclusion, all these were to be-placed in the home, considerable unpleasantness would result. The only sane solution was for them to earn their living as they did. Woman was entitled to the best the world had to offer—and the home was the best and noblest place for her, said Mr Holland. Those who argued that women should leave the home to work seemed themselves prepared to take woman's place at afternoon teas and bridge parties. • Mr Thomas concluded the debate by saying that woman did not choose the home—it was thrust on her. The correct place for her was the place she could best fill—and that was not necessarily the home. '