SURPLUS WOMEN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3382, 11 July 1927, Page 2

SURPLUS WOMEN.

AN ENGLISH PROBLEM

What is to become of the surplus women who, as shown in the report of the 1921 census of England and Wales, are increasing and number nearly 2,090.000? This question was being discussed recently by prominent men and women who arc concerned by the growing preponderance of women over men, states the Daily Mali. Every year this difference is becoming emphasised, and the chances of marriage lor a number of women are becoming more remote Without any prospect of marriage‘more and more women are being compelled to seek careers to keep themselves, and in many professions in which they play ed only a minor part a few years ago they are rapidly becoming a dominant force A striking example of this “feminisation” of a profession in which men had held the most important position is in teaching, where women are gaining executive powers. Women doc tors are so numerous that many are barely able to make a living. It is generally agreed that in consequence of the disproportion between the sexes the struggle for employment in England will become more intense, and that women will assail every position now held! by men. Many responsible authorities declare that if the problem is to be dealt with a comprehensive scheme of migration to the dominions must be organised, so that the women who are denied a chance of marriage and home life will have an opportunity to fulfil their ambition. Among the opinions expressed to a Daily Mail reporter recently were ; Lady Askwith: The problem is a serious one, for I believe we are now getting back to the old Victorian idoql of home life. The reaction following the war is passing, and the modern young woman wants a husband and a home even if she smokes cigarettes, wears short skirts, and does all the things unknown to her Victorian sisters. Ihe repressed “mothering” tendency of our girls is asserting itself, and it is i great pity that Nature should' have made the satisfaction of these empulses impossible for so many in Great Britain. It seems very unfortunate that this state of affairs should exist while vast parts of the Empire are crying out for women. The solution of the difficulty seems to lie in a proper redistribution of our Empire population. A sensible scheme of migration would absorb many women and give them a chance of marriage. In these days of broadcasting the Empire is being linked more closely together and the loneliness which deterred many women from going to the Dominions in the past is fast disappearing. In any ease women will have to turn to productive occupations rather than the sedentary jobs they are now doing, but this will not make the number of available men go round Miss Sybil Thorndike (Mrs Lewis Carson), the actress: I think it is all the better that there should he a surplus of women. There are always large numbers who are unsuitable for marriage, and who are. anxious to make their own careers. In Victorian days the only career open to them was marriage, mid a terrible mess some of them make of it. iNow a woman has to get on with a job, and she does it very well. There is no reason why she’ should not make it a life career, while those who really want to marry will he able to do so. Lady Trances Balfour: There always has been a surplus of women and there always will he. Women are solving the situation for themselves.

Miss Josephine Knowles, the novelist: I.do not think the two million surplus women are young. At Richmond Park during the holidays every girl T saw had a boy friend. Young giijls certainly do not suffer from a shortage of men. The surplus evidently belongs to the elder and middle-aged—the widows of men killed in lie war. and there have always been the confirmed spinsters.