Women and Figures

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 122, 19 November 1932, Page 9

Women and Figures

Mrs. Alfred Watt, founder of the Women's Institutes, addressing the'lnternational Speakers' School at Buckingham Palace road recently, gavo the members some advice on what to say andwhat to avoid when speaking to an audience of women (states a correspondent).

She counselled them to 'avoid-at-all costs general statements, anything which required much explanation, facts which were out of the picture, and long and frequent statistics. "I would particularly warn you to beware_ of the latter," sho said, "especially when you are addressing women. Most women are constitutionally unable to think in figures. When you go beyond thousands a few hundreds mean very little to them one way or another. I may be belittling some, members of my sex when I say this, but having got along all my life without figures I am not inclined to bo predisposod toward those exceptional women who are brilliant at figures. '' Have you ever watched four women round a bridge tablo adding up their scores? N6 two of them will do it in the same way. The most-extraordinary examples of feminine calculation go on when the average woman has to enter into the realm of figures.''