The Dominion. SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1941. WOMEN IN THE WAR, AND AFTER

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 197, 17 May 1941, Page 10

The Dominion. SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1941. WOMEN IN THE WAR, AND AFTER

Increasing attention is being paid in Britain and the United States of America to the social changes portended by the very lull participation of women in the war. A quarter of a century ago women proved their capability in all manner of emergency services on the home front. They earned and secured a foothold in industry, in business and in public services, which to a very appreciable extent was retained in time of peace. The Great War, indeed, gave enormous impetus to the democratic social evolution known as the feminist movement. Today enlightened democracy stands for the sane encouragement of that movement, just as Fascism and Nazism stand opposed Throughout the Empire women have entered into the present struggle for the survival and triumph of the democratc way of life to an extent, and in ways, undreamed of even a few years ago. With their men they are fighting for racial and national liberty but, in addition, they are fighting for the preservation of a movement which is bound to advance with the victory of democracy, but is equally certain to be crushed and extinguished should the light oi democracy itself go out. Today women are not merely on the industrial and business front replacing men called to the colours. Aerial warfare has transformed every <x front” in the United Kingdom into a fighting front and danger zone. A vast army of women is being deployed on those fronts. Many of its rankers are being drafted for actual military service in home defence —as searchlight operators, at listening and observation posts, as fire spotters and fighters. Behind these actual defenders are the battalions of . transport workers, military and civil; the munitions girls and land girls in far greater numbers than in the past; also the thousands of. women auxiliaries to the armed Services. In this and other Dominions the numbers of women serving in such specialized ways—apart from those temporarily replacing men in industry and business —are mounting daily. As the Prime Minister of Australia (Mr. Menzies) said in New York a day or two ago, women are “fighting to a greater extent than anyone had conceived possible.” And he foresaw the changes to come in the social life of democracies when he added: “The war will probably have an enormous effect on the status of women.”

Leaders of. women in English-speaking countries are already working to make the most of the coming changes. They are striving for full political, economic and social equality for the women of postwar democracies —preaching the doctrine that true future democracy can only result from the creation of that complete equality. Except in lands under the sway of anti-democratic power the sudden upspringing of the feminist movement is practically world-wide. No community or Government can ignore it, or remain long oblivious to the economic questions and vital problems of racial increase and social and family life which are inevitably attached to it. As we prepare, as prudently and as best we can in time of Avar, to fit ourselves for a Avord of peace, our preparations must allow for, and cope with, the far-reaching adjustments which the feminist movement may demand.