WOMAN TRIUMPHS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 42, 18 August 1930, Page 3

WOMAN TRIUMPHS

MAN GROWS TIRED

TOLL OF LONG EFFORT

FEMININE FUTTJEE

Among the civilised peoples of the white race, the future of woman seems likely to be determined by a veritable revolution which will upset . familiar and once well-established customs and [completely alter the balance between the sexes as regards opportunities and I social advantages. This prospective rovolution must be considered from the economic and social, from the intellectual and from the emotional aspects, as well as in relation to the family, writes Lucicn Homier, the eminent French sociologist, in the "New York Times." The feminist revolution is in process of realisation. It follows the same general lines in Euroupe and in America. But in America it seems destined to take place more quickly and more freely; bocause tho' American is not troubled by caste or class prejudices or jealously guarded traditions, as the European is. Consequently, feminism doos not meet with the same resistance, either local or national. * By multiplying the number of ,iobs open to women in factories, offices, shops, and in all varieties of the arts, material progress has emancipated woman by supplying her with many easy alternatives to domestic lifo as a means of livelihood. RUSH TO WORK. " .•Par from diminishing', the rJlsh' of feminine multitudes to the work which liberates them increases every day. The 'iiuiiibor of professional schools for girls | and women grows at a surprising rate in the countries of Western Europe. In I France the girls taking "examinations to qualify themselves for .teaching in the secondary schools are already almost as numerous as the men, and soon will outnumber the men. But this army of ambitious women has not yet made its pressure felt upon the labour market. | The. women, who arc employed in great numbers to-day represent an illequipped and relatively inconsiderable group, compared with those who in tho near future will compete with the men for jobs. As the girls' schools increase throughout the world, as equal educa- ; tion for the two sexes begins to have its full effect, the economic'role of woman will rapidly enlarge and' we shall face a problem of social adaptation which it will' be- impossible to solve on the basis of the present customs. It is in this way without doubt that society will change most profoundly. Even among the .Mohammedan peoples—for example, in Egypt and in the French possessions in North Africa-—native girls flock to the schools to recoive a technical instruction which will prepare them for an economic life of their owu. A SPECIAL ROLE. Woman will not attain a genuine equality with man in imitating his work or emulating his aspirations or adopt; ing methods designed by man to fit the masculine temperament. She will gain professional equality only if she creates for herself—-as1 man has done—work, aspirations, and methods which equal those of man, not by resembling them, but by their general utility. In the measure that woman becomes conscious of her economic identity—of her special role in economic life, is relation to that of man—she will advance to new conquests and enlarge both her gains and | her usefulness. But such a success is possible only if woman ceases to be the pupil of man and ceases to expect from him an instruction which—-by definition—he is not qualified to give. Even in the economic sphere; woman must be her own teacher and her own leader. She must work out herself a general schemo of professions, trades,. and types of work which are specifically feminine. No group ever realised_ its aspirations without defining and directing them. The time now seems to be approaching when women will, once more exert a social and intellectual influence such as she exerted in the "centuries of cultural fruitfulness and maturity. She, will regain this influence because the mate mind, fatigued by long inventive ■ oilort, has need of a pause and of the opportunity to examine its own victories—somewhat like the primitive huntsman who throws his quarry at the door of the hut and'leaves to the women the task of turning it into food for the tribe. LOSING ZEST. In fact, we may discern in our time a sort of fatigue of the masculines I thinking faculties, an indifference ; toward the fundamental things of lifo and a disposition to make the most iof what has been " gained without bothering about its origin or its significance. The man of the twentieth century manifests ', this mental differ- | ence from tho man of the nineteenth century; he seeks regeneration no longer as a discovery, but as an enjoyment. He has passed the point of being tormented by doubt and is actuated only by fear of boredom and the ambition to add to his comforts. Amid the artificial movement with which it has surrounded itself the masculine mind is content to contemplate the disordered multiplicity of the spectacle and of its own satisfactions. Thus the time has come when woman must insure the flowering of a true civilisation by judging and sifting into intellectual values. She alono is capable to-day of saving culture within the family and outside it. Masculine r culture soon will be limited to the practical undertakings which lead the individual to material success and riches. If this tendency, should triumph over all others it would deprive our civilisation of at least half its advantages. This woman may prevent. Woman is curious .by instinct, by taste, and from vanity. Sho takes an interest in many things of an artistic or idealistic nature from ' which tho ordinary man turns away the momont. ho sees that they offer no material profit. She has the intuition ;of moral values and an innato esteem for them. MORK CULTIVATED. Since the intellectual culture of the averago man is rapidly declining, while that of woman is.rising, feminine ascendancy will not be long in coming. It has already come in the countries whore economic competition so absorbs the energies and the minds of men as to exclude all disinterested curiosity. In the United States, in England, in Germany, in the industrial reg- .. ions of France and Italy—with the exception of university circles and the , intellectual professions—woman, in general, is more cultivated than man. This feminine cultural superiority is particularly notable in the younger generation. To-day it would be futile to attempt to limit the activity of the girls in civilised countries to that of waiting for husbands. For the girls of. to-day, • love has lost none of its attraction, and marriage is still valued. But a whole set of conventional attitudes and a : whole system of sentimental circumspection are becoming obsolete because ' the profound difference of position that [ once existed bclwccu men and women , has passed. This change may lead to something bolter or to something werse. Like ■ all such changes, it calls for adaptation and consequently for a reform in edu- . cation. ■It bring* more light to bear

upon every thing pertaining ,to love. This may encourage both cynicism and honesty. If the education of the sexes should henceforth substitute the teaching of uprightness in regard to the affections in place of'the illusions and the calculated modesty of the past, it is difficult to see that sexual mogals in particular or social morals in general would suffer. There is reason to belieye that both would gain a great deal. FUTURE OF FAMILY. The intellectual and social advance of woman yjevitably involves new demands from the point of view of her personality. There are to-day hundreds of thousands of girls and young women who have been educated' in the colleges, universities, and great technical schools, and among them are many who have attained a high level of intellectual culture.^. There are millions of school teachers, secretaries, and employees, and there are destined to be more still. They all associate with men whoso minds often are less cultivated than their own. It is inconceivable that these girls and women should regard thteir eventual marriage as a necessary subjection which they cannot and must not question. The family is not menaced as a, natural fact. There is only one really serious danger for the family of the future; the danger that the woman, being better educated, will be less susceptiblo to enduring illusions as to the attractions and the virtues of the more or less mediocre man whom she will marry. If the number of women who remain-single by choice increases today, the reason is that the woman of our time is more exacting and more readily disillusioned. This is indicated, too, by the' growing number of divorces, most of which arise from feminine disappointment. - The fact remains that modern marriage tends to go to pieces because of feminine discontent, women having gained more-opportunities of living independently .and having got over the habit of blindly resigning themselves to their, fate.

As a consequence of economic progress, marriage has ceased to be — from the material point of view—the only normal manner of life to which woman can look forward. Henceforth, whether it is a question of contracting such a union or of 'maintaining it, marriage— i or ■ the woman, as for the man—will he a matter of choice—of choico between independence and conjugal affection, between free work and maternity, between, devotion to'a family and devotion to a career. The woman's choico will vary more and more according to her temperament and her personal inclinations. It will vary also according, to the emirts and attractions of the man who presents himself.

Thus it cannot be said that the future of the family will depend upon the habits of the woman. -It will depend quite as much,, if not more, upon the effort-which the man will make 'to win the woman and to keep her.