QUESTIONNAIRES!

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 89, 9 January 1926, Page 14

QUESTIONNAIRES!

WHAT GIRLS REALLY DO

WANT

American psychologists have been devoting increasing attention of _ late years to the accumulation of statistics concerning the views and desires of the voting people now at college, who, to a'prcppmlerant extent, will soon be the chief moulders and guardians of the public opinion of the nation. Thev are particularly aided, especially in the case of the young women, by the large number of State aud other colleges, whose graduates and undergraduates readily fill in the inquisitive questionnaires sent to them by their former instructor, who guarantees secrecy as to their identity. In some instances not even a name has to be signed. Some Confessions. The result is a steady stream of data, now so extensive as really to give a pretty good reflection of the sort of mind produced by the national environment and educational system, states a writer in an overseas exchange. The latest dossier of such confessions has come to us from Kansas State Agricultural College, which has been sending questionnaires to a large number of girl students in the Middle West, anent the ideal husband for the woman of education. Sixty-five per cent, want him to be “cave-mannish,” but “in a refined way”—presumably beating them with a gold club instead of an ordinary one, and ceasing to drag them about by the hair when asked to nicely. Seven per cent., however, are eager to take a chance with “the sheik type.” Two-thirds want a “non netter.” Half will marry a man with £5OO a year, but one confessor in every five considers that he ought to have £lOOO a year to begin with. Such a bogey is “liquor” in the Middle West, where immoderate consumption of raw rye whisky has left an evil tradition, that 85 per cent, of the young women declare that they are hoping for a Prohibitionist husband. Forty per cent. not only do not themselves smoke, but want a husband who does not. But prosnective husbands have been given no such bad scare as that inflicted bv a determined voting woman in a previous questionnaire, whose idealism was so unbridged as to crave a mate who would get tin early, light the fire, cmnty the ashes, put the coffee on, clean her shoes and prepare breakfast! The Career Question. A questionnaire circulated among girls by the psychologist, Dr. Lorine Pruette, showed that marriage and motherhood were by far the most popular career. One hundred and forty-nine votes were cast for it; next came the arts, with 101) votes. Business received 59 votes, teaching 35, the professions 20, and social settlement work 15. One girl wanted to be a sky pilot iu civil aviation. and 10 wanted to be sky pilots in the mission field. Six wanted to be kinema stars. At a time when so much stress is.

laid on the university graduate’s duty to the body politic it must have been a nasty shock to higher educational authorities to see the result of Dr. Pruette’s poll to ascertain whether the girls would rather be beautiful, valuable to society, famous or intellectually brilliant.’ Being valuable to society came third, not first, with a mere 61 votes. Beauty got only 31 votes. Fame got 71 and intellectual brilliance 159. Popular Heroines!

One hundred and ninety names were mentioned in replies to the request that each girl would mention the four characters in history or novels whom they would most like to resemble. One hundred and sixteen of these received only one votg. Joan of Arc got 100 votes.- Cleopatra came second with 40, and Florence Nightingale third with 19. Jane Eyre was fourth with 13 votes, and for fifth place tied the ill-assorted trio, Jo (the heroine of "Little Women”), and Queens Elizabeth, and Victoria. Nine votes were cast for Martha Washington and eight each for Venus, George Eliot, Helen of Troy and Ruth (of Biblical fame). The college girls liar] very decided views about the place of kinema stars in-the great scheme of things. Norma Talmadge was given five votes, to be sure, but the rest were nowhere.