RESPONSIBILITIES OF WOMEN

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26393, 11 April 1951, Page 2

RESPONSIBILITIES OF WOMEN

MRS RAYMOND SAYRE’S VIEWS

ADDRESS AT CANTERBURY COLLEGE

Mrs Raymond Sayre, president of the Associated Country Women of the World, who is touring New Zealand, yesterday addressed a very large gathering of women in Canterbury College Hall, where she was welcomed by the Mayor (Mr R. M. Macfarlane, M.P.) and Mr A. E. Flower, chairman of the Regional Council of Adult Education, who presided. The Mayor and Mr Flower spoke of the great work that Mrs Sayre’s country, the United States, was trying to accomplish in promoting the peace of the world. "Women have great potential power in their hands,” said Mrs Sayre, “but they still do not know how to use that power. If they did, they would get done in the world the things they want done.” But with power, she said, came great responsibility—the responsibility of creating public opinion. Public opinion influenced politicians and determined their course of action, and women must make sure to make public opinion be what they wanted it to be. There were in England, 3,000,000 more women voters than men voters, in America there are 8,000,000 more women than men, and m Germany 7,000,000 more. It was plain that where there was a preponderance of women voters, the women had in their hands the power 'to determine the policy of the government. She regretted that many women did not exercise this power. They did not vote. She thought that the first duty of a citizen was to go to the polls. Women had also great noweir as consumers, Mrs Sayre added. They could influence the economy of their country. As teachers—and in the United States and Canada about 75 per cent, of teachers were women—they exerted a tremendous influence on the minds of the children whom they taught, and as mothers they stamped indelibly on the minds of their children, during the first six years of their life, the ideals and beliefs that would always influence their conduct.

“When I hear women complaining of the m6sS men have, made of the world. I remind them that women-have the powfr to mould the minds of the men,”* she said. Tasks for Women Mrs Sayre said that upon women mostly depended the creation of inter-; national understanding, on which depended world peace. They must widen their horizons and they must realise that, when peace and freedom were endangered in any part of, the world, they were also endangered in their own country. They must also realise that the welfare and'Standard of living of people in one country affected the welfare of other cduntrieS, arid they should try to acquire knowledge of the histories, background; customs,; and language of other countries. “How can we create an international mind?” was a question* women often, asked, Mrs Sayre said. She admitted it was not easy. It required selfdiscipline.. Women should begin in, their own homes, iri their clubs, and their communities to accept individual responsibility for doing what needed to be dime. They should study the problems of others and, learn to appreciate their difficulties. They must learn to evaluate what they read, and; in women’s organisations they must acts rather than’imfc They must learn the technique of working together for a specific cause. “If women want peace, they must; work for it. They must have patience have courage, not only physical courage, but mental and spiritual courage,’ ' concluded Mrs Sayre. ... Mrs Ross Macdonald welcomed Mrs Sayre on behalf of the Womwi's Division of Federated Farmers, and the Women’s Institute, and Mrs I. L. M. Coop thanked her for her address. Yesterday morning Mrs Sayre visited Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln, where she met and addressed 250 members of women’s organisations. Mr* A. Harper (president of the North Canterbuiy executive of the Women’s Division of Federated Farmers) presided at the meeting. Afterwards a picnic lunch was enjoyed. Mrs Sayre will address a meeting of women in Dunedin to-day.