WHAT WOMEN MAY DO IN FUTURE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 3, 29 September 1943, Page 6

WHAT WOMEN MAY DO IN FUTURE

Influence On Community ADDRESS BY BISHOP OF WAIAPU

The woman of tomorrow is going to: Solve our sex problems; recover the knowledge of God;- make marriages better: become community minded: accept the survival of chivalry. These five propositions were submitted by the Rt. Rev. the Bishop of IVniapu, Lt,-Col. G. V. Gerard, speaking at a thanksgiving service held in the Municipal Theatre, Napier, to commemorate the. golden jubilee of women’s suffrage in New Zealand. The meeting was held under the auspices of the National Council of Women of New Zealand.

“A startling twentieth century innovation is the wholesale manufacture and distribution of contraceptives.” said Bishop Gerard. “No shade of Christian opinion can condone unbridled st’f-in-dulgence on the part of husbands and wives, or a prolonged avoidance of parenthood from selfish motives. . “Contraceptives are also readily accessible to unmarried persons of both sexes, including even adolescents ot tender years, and this factor acts like an intoxicant on numbers of young women. It cannot and will not. I maintain, be left unchecked indefinitely. I have seen enough of life to have every sympathy for thy plight of unmarried mothers and illegitimate children in days before the introduction of humanitarian legislation, and to know enough of human nature to appreciate the stiff up-hill struggle required for anyone to win through to eelftliscipline and moral control. Yet J am staggered by the realization of the attitude apparently assumed by many people in professedly Christian lands toward ‘promiscuous sex intercourse’ or ‘fornication* as the Bible calls it. That which was formerly regarded ns the prerogative of the prostitute and the adulteress is coming to 'be treated as. the potential privilege- of any emancipated woman. Though men may still rest content to remedy the ravages of venereal disease upon the body, the enlightened woman of the future will not persistently igueie demoralization of the soul. Knowledge of God.

“Sweat, blood and tears are the conditions of victory in the earthly combat today, and no smaller cost can be paid in the spiritual battle that never ends. It needed the Cross for our Lord Jesus Christ to redeem the soul of man and transform his development on the earth. These facts will be better known tomorrow than they are today, for the women of tomorrow will make sure that all children are taught the Scriptures and Christian history. She will not tolerate silence on these things in home or_ in school. She will think of the fruitful acts that sprung from the seeds of simple truths planted in the mind of the infant Christ at the knees of Mary his mother. Thus there will arise a people able to understand that the problems of love 6r lust, truth or falsehood, theft or honesty, good and bad are nothing new to their own particular age and time. Human nature is the same as it has always been, and there are no new short cuts to solving the questions of belief or conduct. To Make Better Marriages. “As a daughter of God the woman of tomorrow will not even consider the project of incubating babies outside the confines of her body, even if such 1 a method were found to be scientifically possible. For she will be conscious that birth brings not only a new citizen for man byt a new soul for God. The young of both sexes will be brought up in preparation for the vocations of either a jiarried or single state, bearing in mind that the majority will probably be called to marriage. In either case they will expect reasonable opportunities to develop such special talents as they happen to possess. Care will be exercised in telling the truth about sex sublimation, instead of exaggerated half-truths about the evils of repression. “The modern woman will recognize the power of suggestion for good’or ill. She will keep the atmosphere of her home clear from any taint of vulgarity in conduct or conversation,, and take steps to ensure that the selection of books, pictures, cinema submitted to her children, though they, may describe life in full, always do so from a wholesome standpoint. Early in life she will let them understand that if marriage be their lot later on it must be based upon common tastes, religious fellowship, intellectual compatibility and a clean healthy physique, rather than social status or economic advantage. “The woman of tomorrow will discourage hasty marriages or those based on glamorous infatuation, and. l in this she will Ibe aided (by the State and the Church, (both of whom will do everything possible to see that the parties understand the responsibilities they are undertaking and are adequately prepared’ for them. Children will (be subsidized and large families granted .priority of housing, (but irresponsible .parents will receive the severe censure of society. “The task of helping (busy mothers in their homes will (be raised to its deserving status of honour and will be made available to all irrespective of means. Home workers will ibe well remunerated, and every fit young female citizen will be -liable for service of this kind, if required. for six months of her life. Special rewards.in the form of homes, overseas travel, and other privileges, will be awarded from time to’ time to families pre-eminent in all-round citizenship, according -to competent judges. Whenever one partner of the marriage is the breadwinner (usually the husband), a proportion of the pay received will be paid directly to the other as his or her personal right. To Become Community Minded.

“The eoirmunity-minded woman of tomorrow will demand that only such laws are made as the people can respect, and that once passed they are enforced. It is not possible to make people good by legislation alone, though certain laws are necessary for the protection of the young, the reckless, and' the weak-minded. For example, women’s franchise has no doubt influenced our own regulations as to alcoholic drinks and gambling pastimes, laws insufficiently supported by .public opinion and /widely (broken in letter or spirit. have lost the respect they ought to have. iNo doubt there must have been serious evidences of intemperance and of irresponsibility in past days for such laws to have Ibeen enacted-. But this will not continue indefinitely. An intelligent, prosperous and well-favoured people such as we have in these islands will learn to prove themselves capable of self-control and true temperance without restrictive legislation which is not necessary in more backward communities, such as the wine-growing peoples of the Mediterranean. The citizen of the future will have a better sense of proportion than to gauge the prosperity of his homeland in terms of totalizator investments: and he will think clearly enough to distinguish between the moral unimportance of a ‘harmless little flutter,’ game of cards, or modest gamble, as compared with the callous greediness of wagering sums the bettor has no justification to spend. Laws will ibe fewer and better kept. The Survival of Chivalry.

“Having won her rights to equality of opportunity, remuneration, political and social .privileges, and intellectual cooperation with men, woman will be wise enough not to surrender the natural charms and graces inherent in her sex, without which life would ibe very drab. It should not become necessary, for example, to use women for fighting iu wars, killing in abbatoirs, or cleaning the sewers. There is still truth in the old saying ‘Manners .mayketh the man,’ and our ideal woman of tomorrow will graciously submit to those courtesies and attentions which both in .public and private bring refinement and agreealbility to all relationships between the sexes.’