MARRIED WOMEN IN MANY LANDS

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 326, 13 October 1908, Page 3

MARRIED WOMEN IN MANY LANDS

. A writer in the " Daily Mail," reviewing the general treatment women receive in different' European countries, says: —The French married woman lias perhaps more independence, that her English sister. Also, she is more.of a. companion and an associate to Kerhusbahd. She is told by. him about his ■business, his work, his ambitidn, his plans. He takes her everywhere, and sho will often spend hours in somo cafe listening ■to the conversation of' her husband" with his comrades. She', enjoys greater liberty, of speech and. action. She spends her timo very much - as she pleases, and stands on apparent equal-ity-'with tho other sex. It must bo confessed that this equality is merely apparent, artificial and meaningless. The French have not that respect for .women as a sex which is so characteristic : of the English. True, tho Englishman does not take his'wife intb his .confidence with the same completeness, but ■there is an atmosphere of sanctity, of mutual 'respect, and often veneration, in their relations, . which is hardly to. be found on the ..other side, of. 1 the Channel. That respect is so universal, so national and instinctive, as .it werCj that women in England are never •interfered with, wherever . they go..This cannot be said of France, where women, if at all attractive or happily dressed, are never safe from annoyance in public places.' The feeling that she is respected being undoubtedly one of the • most gratifying to every woman, _it may be said that sho is better treated in England than anywhere else oiving to the fact, that she is respected even when her attitudo or her style do not command it. - The.German woman is/', above all,, the " hausfrau." Her husband is her lord and'' masteA., She reports him on all her doings, and is Supposed to obey his orders blindly. As soon as she is -a mother she ceases, as it were, to have a personality of her .own; she becomes a nurse, a cook, a charwoman. This, of course, applies to the great majority, to the masses, not to the aristocracy, or the upper middle, class. It has often' been said that the-'trcatmcnt of women is an index' to a "nation's :rank in civilisation. It would seem that the old adage does not apply to Germany, for her? we hare a highly cultured- nation where, woman is, as a rule, entirely under the yoke .-'of man. The German hausfrau " does not appear, to suffer through this state of: things. takes it for.granted that her only function in life is to bring up children, prepare good meals for her husband, and keep the house in order. Whatever serious intellectual knowledge she may have had as a young girl or a young bride,.she soon loses in--the daily terre-a-terre routine of wedded life, and the only accomplishment sho retains by practice is her musical talent; . The way ..women are treated in Spain and Italy is very similar, with this difference, that a wife has a larger share, ill the pleasures of her Husband. It is a well-known fact that Italians,-spend most of their leisure, time , with their family. As for Spain, it is'enough to have witnessed one bull-fight to find out that women are as numerous in tho {)iazza as the men. , It, must bo acknowledged, however, - that in the lower classes the Italian and the Spanish women are considerably worse off than their sisters of the northern countries of Europe. - lit many villages they do most of the work, aud even work which Englishmen, for instance, would not-consider, fit , for a woman to do.

The way women' are treated in Russia among the poorer classes is worse, still. .A Russian wife of . the poorer class is nine time's out of'ten .treated, with the utmost brutality, and beaten on. the. most trivial provocation. In many districts she .is used as a beast of burden. She is rather looked upon; as: a slave than as a human being with tastes, desires, and feelings'of her own. Here the old maxim is correct, that the most debased and injured of womankind is to;.be found in the-most primitive States. One-cannot help:'when one travels in' Russia and in the Balkan Peninsula recalling the words of Herbert Spencer;' who thought that the saddest part in the history of humanityconcerned .tho treatment of women if we. had before us its written history, we should'find this part still sadder. I say the sadder, because, though . there have been many things more conspicuously dreadful—cannibalism, the torturing' of prisoners, tho sacrilicings of victims to ghosts and gods—these liavo been, but occasional; whereas tho brutal treatment of women has been universal and constant. The amount of' suffering which has been aiid is'borne by women is utterly beyond imagination." " . .Woman dot-s not want to be a slave, but she does not wish to be a goddess. Tho ideal is simpler: she wishes to be appreciated, respected, and loved—loved, above all things. She seeks a friend, a companion, a ' comrade, but' at the same time she wants to preserve and develop her own independent. personality.

There recently settled at Le Mans an old lady named Mme. Imbert, who at the time of the Franco-German war dressed as a man and. acted .as a French spy. • She carried important secret 'messages through the enemy's lines, and was at length captured, but finally escaped. Sho found her home at Metz .burned down. To-day the aged heroine,: dead and the. three young .child'reji of an adopted daughter confided to her care, is petitioning tho French Government to grant her a tobacconist's license.':. . In recognition' of the services rendered! by Jlme: Imbort to the French army, she 'continues by .special permission to wear male,'attire. •