Women Graduates Owe “Return To Society”

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28801, 23 January 1959, Page 2

Women Graduates Owe “Return To Society”

Education was described as an investment for living by the president of the New Zealand Federation of University Women (Mrs W. Grant) in her address at the opening session of the federation’s triennial conference in Christchurch yesterday. In education lay the vision for the future, she said.

About 70 delegates and observers from many parts of New Zealand and two from Australia are attending the conference. It is being held at Belen Connon Hall, the University of Canterbury’s hall of residence for women students, named after one of the first woman graduates of the university and an outstanding scholar. “It is our proud boast in New Zealand that university education is available to all who are capable of undertaking the work, Yet even today there are people In New Zealand and elsewhere who consider university education for women quite wasted, unless it serves some useful specific purpose such as teaching, research, or other professional work,” Mrs Shaw said. Education had yet to be appreciated for its own sake as an alltime investment for living. “How do we, as women graduates, assess the education we have _ received?” she asked. Assessment "Perhaps we are content to accept it as being purely functional—a necessary qualification for obtaining a good position to which we devote all our energies,” she said. “Perhaps, as married women, we are content because we carry the hall-mark of the university in our degrees. How many of us accept the responsibility, which surely is ours by virtue of our education, of making a definite return to society in the form of community or national service?” Surprise had quite often been expressed by overseas visitors that so few women in New Zealand took part in publie or community life. “Is this a fair criticism? No doubt the answer lies in the fact that at our last triennial conference one of the . resolutions adopted asked branches to urge members to lose no opportunity in nominating qualified women (not necessarily university women) for vacancies on education boards, city councils and other public bodies, and a second resolution urged branches to choose one piece of community service to be undertaken as a branch effort,” she said. Civic Responsibility New Zealand women were given the vote as early as 1893, ret the country had produced few frilling to aepept ctvier feSponsithat women members of Parliament would'usteF fa a new era of common sense and humanity fa politics. Was this lack of participation fa public life attributable to arduous professional jobs which allowed women no time for outside interests? Was lack of adequate domestic help fa the home the reason? Was a cause that women were unable to overcome the prejudice of men and, unfortunately, of many women against women entering public office? she asked. Another reason may be that women had won their privileges too easily and that they did not have to fight for them, she said. “Or Is it that we lack the in- - itiative or the incentive to find out how and where we can serve best, or is it lack of any real conviction that we ought to serve at all?” she asked. Changing Status These and similar questions arose from a recognition of the changing status of women the world over. "Education and particularly the education of women is an integral part of the change, for in education lies the vision for the future —an investment for living,” Mrs Grant said. Women’s advancement depended on their education. History showed that the two were inseparably Interrelated. The inception and growth of the International Federation of University Women showed how the, advancement of knowledge and the adTizsr of women went hand Towards the end of World War I the realisation began to dawn that people must be educated to want international under- - standfag and co-operation. Thousands of educationists began to think of plans, that might pro-

duce these results, plans specially for the exchange of professors and the movement of students from one country to another—a comparatively new idea at that time. The International Federation of University Women was founded in 1919 to promote international

understanding, broaden and develop educational standards and demonstrate the value ot personal contacts between persons of different nationalities. The underlying purpose was world peace. Basis for Service The leaders of the international federation had shown again and again that for them education provided the basis for service for others, Mrs Grant said. Dean Virginia Gildersleeve, one of the leaders in founding the federation, had emphasised that the vital qualities which education should try to produce were “the ability to think straight, some knowledge of the past, some vision of the future, some skill to do useful service and some urge to fit that service into the wellbeing of the community.” “The history of our time does not depend on unchangeable, impersonal forces but upon the nature of the dreams which possesses us, our dedication to it and the courage with which we pursue it together,” said Mrs Grant.