"FINDING A NICHE"

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2961, 27 December 1916, Page 3

"FINDING A NICHE"

BUTTERFLY GIRLS. No one will deny that the exigencies 'of war have brought to light a surprising number of latent capacities in'women. Wo women did not oven know ourselves that wo possessed the qualities that have been revealed. But, all the same, wo have had a great deal to learn. Enthusiasm wa possessed in large measure. But enthusiasm without the capacity for concentration never. Jet achieved anything worth while. And it is this capacity for concentration that wo women so often lack. ~ During the first outbreak of feverish female energy after tho beginning of tha war it beoome apparent that even ;ihe most enthusiastio workers wore often more or less victims of the butterfly habit. They were so eager to Bample the new sensations suddenly offered to them that thoy could,not bring themselves to settle down into

any ono particular groove when once tbo novelty of the new work had worn off.

One girl of my acquaintance boasts of the faot that during the earlier days of the war she tried her,hand at six different kinds of war. .work in as many months. By soma peculiar process of thought she imagines herself to be . in consequence a very enterprising, capable person, speoially valuable to her 'country at such a time of crisis as,the present... ' She is one of those people who make the mistake of confusing, the spirit of ■restlessness with the spirit of onter'prise.

' It is, of course, quite' the right, at'titudo of mind for a capable woman of 'the present time to be unwilling to submit to conditions that tend to havo a retrogressive.effect on feminine progress. But self-assertion is not a necessary attribute of such progress. As a matter 1 of fact the really capable woman is usually ready to efface herself and is particularly amenable to discipline. And the root reason of this submission of the'really capablo woman is to ho found in her capacity for concentration. She is not a victim of the butterfly habit. ' In- everyday parlance; when we talk of a butterfly type of girl, we usually mean the frivolous young person whose sole ambition in life is to spend her waking hours in dressing herself up in pretty frocks and flying about from ono rorm of sonseless dissipation, to- an-' other. She is regarded with contempt by the girl who makes a cult of taking herself seriously. . . .

Yet, if the truth be told;, the latter has "often just the same butterfly instincts. For the chief characteristic of the butterfly is irresponsibility and inconsequence. And no matter how soriously the modern girl thinks she is tak•ing herself and her work, so long as she lacks the power of-concentration she will nevor.be a-really valuable asset to the community.

As I say, the chief attribute of the butteruy-typo- of "character; is its.irresponsibility and inconsequence. But in consequence is not always recognised as such. In the minds of some women it becomes confused with adaptability. They w'ill leap lightly from one mental atmosphere to another, gaining nothing' on the way, learning nothing, applying nothing. Impressions and what ought to have been lessons acquired during the' experiences of the past are non-existent for them. Thoy enter the new arena with a perfectly blank memory sheets— and then they pride themselves on be-

ing so adaptable/to new surroundings and new work. But is it 'a tliing_ of which to ho so inordinately vain, nftcr all ? Docs it not sometimes lead to tho making of a Jack-of-all-trades and master of none?

The really valuable woman worker, whose energies are going to bo turned permanently to good use on behalf of her country is the one who has made herself a specialist in whatever she has taken up. Concentration is necessary to good work. And the woman who has learnt to acquire the faculty of concentration is the one our country wants. —Elizabeth Uyley, in the "Daily Mail."