INFLUENCE OF THE HOUSEWIFE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25244, 24 July 1947, Page 2

INFLUENCE OF THE HOUSEWIFE

DANISH WOMAN’S WORK A staunch supporter of increased influence in public life by the housewife, is Mrs Bodil Begtrup, a member of the Danish delegation to the General Assembly of the United Nations, and president of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. According to Mrs Begtrup, housewives should have an influence commensurate with their services. As president of the National Council of Women in Denmark, she has taken the lead in a movement to have women cn the rationing boards. She claims that rationing boards composed only of men have made regulations without taking into consideration the way in which such regulations may cause hardship to the housewife Housewives’ organisations in the country, and women members of trade unions in the cities are co-operating in an effort to have women on the rationing boards, but they emphasise that the women appointed must be practical persons. Mrs Begtrup herself is a woman of wide interests. She spends four or five hours a day on three days of the week 'n film censorship. She and the Danish actor, Ole David, direct Denmark’s censorship of films sent in from other countries. Their aim is to protect the children of Denmark from some of the worst influences in other lands, which, they say, could often enter in the guise of harmless entertainment at the cinema. It was through the efforts of the women of the country, who wanted a woman censor, that Mrs Begtrup was appointed to this position.