WOMEN’S EMPTY GAINS

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31378, 25 May 1967, Page 2

WOMEN’S EMPTY GAINS

Demands made upon women today had multiplied excessively, and although women had gained much, nothing had been taken off their shoulders, making the gain rather empty in most cases, Mr Harold Cohen, senior psychologist for the Christchurch Prisons told a large audience attending the first of six lectures on “The Potential of Women” organised by the Society for Research on Women in New Zealand.

Society had grown away from the treatment of women as chattels, but not entirely from the attitude of mind which gave rise to these circumstances. “How, many men really welcome equal pay for equal work?” he said. Depriving people of their sense of worth and importance gave rise to feelings of resentment which were now

becoming articulate, and may become militant, particularly

among well-educated professional and business women who married and entered a world which was not entirely to their liking. “We* hear much of the woman - dominated society which is supposedly developping in the United States, and this makes me think of a woman who once said: T have given birth to three babies, but I find I have four children,’ he said.

“Many women don’t know what they are getting themselves into when they many. They are not encouraged to believe looking after a home and family is important work, and often have a husband who envies them their ’freedom,’” he said. Resentment at being “housebound” was a normal reaction and it was characteristic of the healthy woman that she “did something about it.”

This class of "housebound women" formed the majority. Those with a “full-blown suburban neurosis” were the minority, and were in need of specialised care. “We need psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, and social workers in large numbers. We haven’t got them and

are not likely to get them,” said Mr Cohen.

Social reorganisation—providing help in the home, portunities for women to continue working or taking up outside interests—was necessary to allow the majority of women, particularly those living in the vast housing areas surrounding cities, to live fuller lives.

Deep-seated neurosis was often blamed on the women being housebound and tied to a family. This aggravated the situation, but was not its cause.

“The sufferer has failed to develop into a mature, responsible, adult person. Neurosis is created by unfortunate circumstances in the first five years of life. If parents don’t supply adequate love and interest the child feels be has failed. He grows up expecting to be hurt, living a life on the basis that he must not get dose to anyone. Deep down he feels a failure.

“Neurosis is always associated with unreasonable anxiety. The sufferer does not need hospitalisation but has the nagging feeling he has been cheated by life. Neurosis is characterised by failure to see and face up to reality-

“This is often Incorrectly blamed, in women, on being housebound, but it is already there before marriage. This tendency is brought to the fore when she is forced to cope and assume responsibilities for which she is not equipped,” he said.

Basically, she was still “a little girl” needing to feel wanted, cherished, and under-

stood. “A mother knows she should love her children, and that it’s vitally important for their future well-being that she and her husband should do the very best for their children. "But if she has missed out on love from her parents, she needs to receive and cannot give—she has not developed into a mature woman,” said Mr Cohen. The problem of suburban neurosis was only a small part of a much greater and wider problem-Mhat of mental health of the community.

In New Zealand there was a vast number of people who needed treatment which few were likely to receive, said Mr Cohen. "The plain fact is, despite our affluence, we don’t have a society fit to bring up children in.”