Part Of Women In The Community

Press, Volume C, Issue 29517, 19 May 1961, Page 2

Part Of Women In The Community

“We women must understand democracy,” said Miss Mary McLean, in Christchurch last evening. “We should understand that we are responsible for the planning of roads, our means of transport, street lighting and the health of our people. We make a big mistake when we elect people to office simply because they belong to this party or that” Miss McLean was the final speaker in an Adult Education Department course on group membership and leadership. Miss McLean urged women to take a more active part in civic affairs. “It doesn’t matter whether you talk on the platform of how to buy food, or how to cook it or eat it,” she said. “Even if you are just minding a baby at home, you can still consider what is best for the people of this country.” Women were very often shy and nervous about taking part in civic life and trying to see business and civic affairs from a man’s point of view. But the woman's place in the affairs of the present changing world was really an extension of her home “where she was wife, mother, and educator to her family. World Unity “Very soon women will make a more definite step towards unity and harmony in the world than has ever been made before,” said Miss McLean.

"This step will be more powerful and effective than any of your atomic or nuclear weapons. Women will work toward friendship because they want friendship. Thier thoughts are constantly turned toward peace and wise government of their countries.” Miss McLean gave examples of this by describing delegates and their discussions at the many international conferences she had attended. "The Asian people are changing our world,” she said. “They are sending their boys and girls to Western universities and in so doing they believe they are sending them from a world where religion is the foundation of all things rto a world where nearly everything is based on commerce. If this is so, we shall have to have a balance between the spiritual side of life and the material side.” War Forgotten Women were willing to forget their bitterness at wartime experiences and that their countries were once enemies. Everywhere women were willing to be friendly with other women, to exchange ideas and to learn from one another. “Do we in the Western world and in our country take our small problems too seriously?" asked Miss McLean. “Eastern women and women in Pacific countries nut happiness for their homes and families before everything else. They consider that we may have lost our grip on happiness. We can certainly learn from them and at the same time we can learn a great deal more about them and their ways of life.”

Miss McLean said the changing world was a challenge to security, democracy and the whole New Zealand way of life. "We are being pushed together so quickly in the Pacific that we hardly have time to right ourselves and begin to become internationally minded,” she said. “But. even so, we are doing just that. “Women will have a strong reasoning power in this new world and we hope that it will bring peace and friendship.”