THE NEW WOMAN.

Evening Post, Volume LXIX, Issue 118, 20 May 1905, Page 14

THE NEW WOMAN.

Madam© Sarah Grand has, in a press interviow, discoursed upon "tho new woman" and "tho mero man" in tho following candid terms:— "Wo have como to a point in our history," she remarked as wo discussed tho position of women, "when it is a question whether woman will develop further or retrograde. Is she to bo encouraged to take an interest in politics and municipal affairs, or i? she to be driven to find an outlet for hor energies in o. continual whirl of amusement? Thoro is now no longer any question of the inferiority of women ; you haro educated them or they have educated themselves to tako an interest in tho most important questions of tho day. The average woman would now makes as good a citizen as the averago man. But if you give her no opportunity of devoting her new powers to tho State I boliovo i«at what I described as tho now woman will become a danger to society. Now, what I meant by tho new woman' was not the caricature that has been drawn in my name. She does nofc of necessity woar short petticoats and mako heTself otherwise ugly by clipping hci hair. There may be excellent women who do this, but I was not thinking of thoin What I meant by tho now woman was just the old woman A'ith all her pood qualities * littlo bettor developed. Such a woman will not neglect her home life because she takes an interest in questions of tho day and is her husband's helpmate and companion. She atny not hold a political salon like Lady Salisbury or •posbess tho political insight of Queen Victoria, and yet fulfil, as these two noble women did, all the dutie* of a woman's life. "There is, in fact," continued Ma dame Grand, "scarcely an argument against this class of woman that may not be refuted by reference to Queen Victoria's life. Queen Victoria is the most satisfactory examplo of the new woman that I can think of; for she was not an exceptional woman, but just a woman of ordinary fine intelligence care- ; fully trained and developed. I "Now. if the average man of Queen Victorias day ha<i encouraged his vvife to develop her mind on the same lines, then we should havo had a fino, reliable sot of women at the present time, instead of the idle, frivolous, and often untruthful and worthless woman of today. Men made the greatest mistake when they tried to laugh tho real new woman out of existence." "Perhaps thoy feared," I suggested, "that tho time was coming whon women would throw off their subjection and compote on equal terms with men?" "I don't think," said Madame Sarah Grand, "that men noed fear that women will loso the domestic virtues by taking an intorest in public questions. A good citizen is not necessarily an unsexed woman, as some men soom to think. A woman does not loso har domesticity by making herself a fit companion for a clever, man. No intelligent man ever thought so ; but then the majority of men are not intelligent so far as women are concerned. The ivomcn »bo belonged to tho privileged class in our grandmothers' days had evory advantage of education, and were much more thorough in what they know than tho Girton girls of to-day. They wero really highly educated and cultivat- ><\, and took an interest in public questions, and I do not think that rhe- world | ever saw a better raoo of wivos and mothers, or women with a greater 6ens< of duty and principle. "But tho modern woman is not governed by duty or principle. Sho h governed by emotion. Pleasure is hei object, and she is mora or loss unscru pulous in her demand for pleasure. Hei attitude does not affoct women only, but has a grave effect on the standarc of lifo and morals. Tho wholo tone ol society is lowered by this typo of wo •man. Most men owe their sonso of hon^ our to thoir nfothers, and you will fimi that remarkable men havo nearly always

had remarkable mothers. But sous who daily watch their mother's practicing petty deceits will not go into the world with a sen.se of honour. "Then would you have a woman spend half her time in the nursery and the otlior half at public nifetinjcs!" "No; it is obvious that there must be degrees of domesticity, and that a ,voman whose husband occupies an importint public position cannot be expected to be in the nursery all the day. There is no reason why she should. Sha wmid still be aii excellent mother if she »aw that her children were provided with good governesses and nurses. But the ;iase of Airs. Brown Jones, who cannot ifford good governesses and nurses for tier children, -and spends the time that she ought to give to them rushing about ,o entertainments, is very different. Mrs. Brown Jones, instead of playing at bridge and dining at restaurants, ought to bo seeing niter her children ; ana if they arc badly brought up it is her fault. It is when Mrs. Brown Jones has brought up her family that, she might find scope for her energies in taking an interest in public and social affairs. And it is then that her menkind are so foolish in ridiculing her efforts to be. useful. And this, of courts, applies equally to men in a higher social scale "Women, after all, largely tako their cuo from men. It is true that they have a great influence on men; but man at present has all the political power, and if he is content with a low standard thai is a dead weight on the efforts of women around him Reform tho modern man, and you will reform the modern woman! Jiut at, the same time tell the modern woman who haa an interest in thefutun- of her country to refuse to be dragged down by tile low etandard of the men around her. Let her struggle against it; let her insist on t.:ing his companion, ,f he will take hsr as oue; and let her, above all, see— if ahe is a mother— that the boys of to-day grow up with a higher standard of honour and ;« higher ideal of womanhood. It U only by olico more making the relations between man and woman sacred that we can hope to save out country from that decadence which wealth and' luxury engender in the greatest ompirea."