Italian Finds Husbands In N.Z. “Well Trained And Tamed”

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28128, 17 November 1956, Page 13

Italian Finds Husbands In N.Z. “Well Trained And Tamed”

“The Press’ Special Service

WANGANUI. November 16. Husbands in New Zealand are “well trained” and “tamed.” They are a happy-go-lucky type who would do anything for a quiet life and they do not even scorn washing dishes—a woman's job at any time. This is the opinion of Mr R. Bertoldi, from Italy, who has been living in Wanganui for just over 12 months. In an address to the National Council of Women, he said that the Italian man would never dream of intruding into the kitchen or helping with any of the household chores; he was "lord and master” in his home and his wife was kept in subjection and was entirely dependent upon him. Looking at the New Zealand woman through the eves of a Continental. ’Mr Bertoldi said he would place her

just half way between the Continental woman and the American woman. She was not as dependent upon men as the Continental woman and she was not as “aggressive” as the American woman.

American women, he said, seemed to run everything. New Zealand women did not run quite everything. Though the Italian woman was said to have gained political, educational, legal and professional equality, this was only in theory. All occupations were now open to women except diplomacy or the positions of judge, magistrate or officer in the army. The reason for the exclusion of women from, these positions was their “fragility, their lack of control, their instability and their inability to make the right decision.”