WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO WOMEN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3131, 21 August 1922, Page 2

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO WOMEN.

»■» British scientists, biologists and medical authorities are worried 1 by new tendencies in womankind. The French, especially critics of America with its freedom for women, are satirical. American scientists and physicians are discreetly marking time, saying they do not know what's* going, to happen, but that they will be able to decide in so mo six or seven generations. All aire willing to talk freely on the new development of woman, but nobody seems willing to predict her biological future. That is, up to a certain point. British physicians come nearer to a prophecy than any other group of investigators. No dire monstrosity is promised in the development of the woman of'the future. But these savants do forecast a sort of biological extinction, with a positive physical reaction to certain mental qualities being emphasised in the modern woman. In other words, Nature, they declare, angered at being ignored in the increasing number of women who refuse to marry, will be revenged. Even as 1 the archangel stood, with flaming sword, in the Garden of Eden in those ages long ago when the first chapter in the ever fascinating' history of womankind was written, and drove Achun and Eve from Paradise, so Nature, in the ga.rb ol a Nemesis, an avenger, a goddess of retribution, will stand in this next six generations and drive woman to estrangement from motherhood; to complete extinction as a sex. In fact British scientists are moved to vigorous action at the prospect. A committee of investigation has been appointed, and this committee represents the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Surgeons and Physicians, the British Medical Women's Association, and includes the most eminent representatives of the teaching profession. Included in the committee are Sir Charles Rvall. Dr Alice Sanderson Clow and Miss M. Cowdray, head of a widely-known English girls' school. But upon what basis are they going to work? That's the question asked by Dr Edward Wallace Lee, prominent New York specialist, whose article "Physical Defects a Factor in the Cause of Crime," caused wide comment when it was printed in the New York Medical Journal. Dr Lee does not share the gloomy foreboding of the British medical authorities on the subject of women, but admits that the problem is worthy of study. "The point is," Dr Lee said, in a recent discussion of the matter, "we can't tell what effect the celibacy of women and their devotion to athletics and mental pursuits is going to have for a matter of some six generations." Dr Lee does not incline to the belief of some of the British scientists that woman, by indulging in mental pursuits, engaging in busines, refusing to marry and following masculine forms of athletics will anihilate by her own action her most precious heritage. "Artificial mental development cannot wipe out woman's inherent desire for children. It amounts to an instinct." ne said. "It is only the abnormal women who seek to avoid children and who shrink from the responsibility of bearing them. "Circumstances may create a false aversion to motherhood," he said, "but the instinct remains implanted. Nor can athletics or any form of exercise wipe cut that instinct. Healthy exercise is a saviour of womankind as well as mankind." In addition Dr Lee says we cannot know for at least six generations whe-r t-Jier woman will be affected physically by the celibacy promoted by athletics, her increasing pursuit of business and the ignoring of the responsibilities of matrimony and motherhood. "It is dangerous," he said, "to assert that biological changes quickly follow any merely external changes of modes of living. Centuries are required for that," And yet there are those who declare that American women in particular are trifling with Mother Nature and that The American woman is dancing in time they must pay the tiddler, while Rome burns, figuratively speaking, says Hughes he Roux, the French writer," in his book "Business and 1 Love," in which he roundly scores what lie terms the "third sex." Ho deplo-vs (he increasing number of women who refuse to marry. Restlessness, he says, is a disease, and woman is degenerating liv her selfishness and her habit of thinking only of herself, li is k'lbng her, he insists. These modern Abasias who seek to live as that hnlliaut lioiuan lady lived, in a purely intellectual atmosphere, will lose more than thev ivill gain. While he docs not deny '.lie charm >,\ intellectual companionship between, men and women, lie believes no v. Oman who is unmarried is entitled to it. And vet. he declares, the American woman s 'attention to athletics and outdoor hie is making her more and more a "platonie" creation. "It must lie admitted " he writes, "that the companionship of man is indispensable to the French woman. She wants near her this masculine element that makes Hie complete. *_ , , "But French society does not admit, the existence of the unmarried wornm. One never meets in society the -weliayo no name lor them m l<raiice-e.d maids; those no longer yoiyig guts who are not stamped as old mauls. In America he complained oi Ins ninbilitv to distinguish the maiden fr.;iii the matron and assailed the custom oi women between 25 and ■(! ye.rs y ea - ilu , velvets and satins fitting o> > vearn The latter, he expostulated, demand more attention than married \vo- '" This tvpe ol' woman, be lions believes is'encouraged and often produced In'the American colleges and the nitcWitual and social freedom o women "The American college, hos.axs. ru>> ~ tendency to turn out a particular so t of woman' 1 ask leave to call the third 80 And vet in the face of all these sharp .halts at womankind conies a woman ;.],o is in daily medical contact with scores of college women, who examines theni! watches their development and Serves the effed of „,„„, them, with a defence lor the so called "new woman". and her studj and her athletics. She s Dr Guhelma F. Al.-op. M.D., medical examiner of B ; - nm-d College. Columbia University, llie British scientists are on the wrong track, she declares; their fears of a total extinction of the sex instinct are absurd and the basis of their investigation is a more or less fictitious one, at least in America. She adds:— Good ,euse and medical science are applied, to athletic work for women in colleges:. The American college girl is in no danger of any sort of extinction asi a possible mother!" . But th" alarm'sts continue to protest. What will Nature do? Is she silently watchimi the whole process? And from mother to daughter is she taking toll as the years slip by? British doctors tear just that. "Enirishwomen as a race are heading straight for sex extinction." said George Chalmers, secretary of the College of Preceptors. Bioonisbiiry Square, London, after a joint committee appointed to stay the peril of feminine sex extinction had met and proceeded l with its investigation, "unless there are speedy and fundamental changes in the prevailing system of physical education for the modern girl."

"Women as a sex will no longer exist," he added, "if the present modes of physical instruction are continued. Added to this we have sound scientific opinions submitted by eminent biologists, pointing out that in these strenuous games women aire spending all their capital with the consequence that they are producing an emasculated type of men. "These biologists also'point out that woman has a male as well as a female element in her composition and that the accumulated effects of the present system of training tend to develop only the male in her, with the consequence that we shall soon have a species of human being that is neither male nor female." In the face of this serious aspect of the future development of the half of the human race cuarged with the promulgation of the species comes Br .Julius Tannenbaum, New York psychologist, who declares there is neither a maternal nor a paternal instinct and that the cycle of life goes on reproducing without the assistance of instincts. Meanwhile the discussion goes on. The modern Darwins are pointing out that once man walked on all fours. When he stood erect he began to become adjusted to his new state. He developed the thumb on his hand. Will woman, exercising her mind, her body in strenuous pursuits, using all her strength and acquiring more, assume more and more the masculine attributes of strength? Will she retain less of her softness, her roundnes of contours, her gentleness of voice? Will her love and consecration to motherhood disappear? To what is her love of athletics, business and outdoor pursuits, her freedom of old conventions and old ideas of feminine retirement, leading her? "To extinction," say the British scientists. "To glorification," retort American savants.