Woman at Work

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 153, 25 March 1937, Page 6

Woman at Work

Soviet Scientist in New Zealand

WOMEN ill Whom the spirit and ’’ ideals of Sylvia Pankhurst still live would find acquaintance with Madame Gulino Dudarenko an exixirience uncommonly satisfying. Here is a woman to whom the fact of completc social and professional equality with men is so commonplace as to be almost, impossible ot discussion. Madame Dudarenko is probaldy the first woman citizen of the i .S.S.R. to visit New Zealand on official business. She is a member of the veterinary group of :t commission of six scientists who arc touring the Dominion to study sheep breeding and select, if possible. animals for introduction into the herds of a Siberian stud faitn. Tlie party comprises three veterinarians who examine animals for physical condition and constitutional soundness. using specially-imported sera for certain tests, and two experts who judge type and wool characteristics. Madame Dudarenko sees nothing untisital in the fact that she is the sole woman member of so highly technical a parly of investigators. In an interview this week she explained that Russian women were deeply interested in agricultural sciences and that many ot them were engaged actively and successfully in both practical and research work’. All professions were open to Russian women to-day. find they bore an increasingly important part in the nation’s work. The economic emancipation of women laid not, apparently, created tiny serious race problems. It Wits not obligatory for a married woman Io work, but most did. If they were not wage-earners they spent much of their time in organising the Soviet schemes for communal kindergartens and creches, etc. Her veterinary work had not interfered with her own marriage and the wives of several other members of the party were engaged in scientific or other work.

CONTRARY to general belief, Madame Diidarenlm explained, family' life was still a highly important part of Russian social life, although the economic indeitondence of women had given it tlie character of an independent union. The problem of children was met according to the circumstances and activities of the mothers. They might be kept permanently in creches, or merely’ left there in care of competent people during such hours as the mother was actually at work. Birth control knowledge was available to all, but it was significant that the birth rate of Russia was rising. L . In common with other members ot her party, Madame Dudarenko expressed pride and satisfaction at the advances made in educational problems in recent years. So far, she said, she had boon deeply interested in what she had seen of New Zealand. It was now realised that travel was necessary' to help such work as she was doing, and although there had been no question of any sex barrier to prevent her making the present trip, women still perhaps suffered some small handicap- A friend had been unable to come because two small children required her care. A trip of 20,000 miles was too lengthy for her to expect a creche to bo adequate in the meantime. A small, strongly-built woman with bine, thoughtful eyes, honey-coloured hair and a merry smile, Madame Dudarenko gives the.lie direct to any suggestion that equality with mon robs woman of feminine charm.