EDUCATED WOMANHOOD

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 111, 6 November 1937, Page 8

EDUCATED WOMANHOOD

It is a bold man who will speak on questions that are particularly within the province of women; but Dr. M, B. M. Tweed, as medical adviser to the Pl'unket Society, holds a .privileged- position- and his remarks on education in mothercraft cannot be open to attack as were the remarks, some time ago, of the Mayor of Wellington on cooking. Yet the doctor's speech was very pointed. He questioned, though without opposing the idea, whether the addition of a mothercraft book to the already large, list of schoolgirls' books would be very helpful. More rest and more home . leisure appeared to be his preference, with a gradual reshaping of education to give girls better preparation for a life of complete womanhood.

A hundred years ago, he said, women fought for equality with men and demanded the right 4o sit for the same examinations" as men did. They confused equality with identity, and this has led them to the present system of education totally unfitting for womanhood. The women demanded it and they got it. Now they can see where it has led them. Empty cradles and a distaste for housekeeping and motherhood. Flats instead of homes, books instead of babies.

Dr. Tweed was speaking, of course, of general tendencies and what he said did not imply that the "equal" education had not produced women eminent in spheres once monopolised by men. That will always be so; but it does not mean that in general education there should be no recognition of the fact that men and women have different aptitudes.

In years gone by the issue was confused (and it still is to some extent) by talk of rights and privileges. That is always provocative. ' But when equality is accepted, it may be timely to consider whether it necessitates everything that has come with the victory. Many of these things arc, in the long run, as detrimental to womenfolk as to the men. The entry of women into numerous branches of industry, for instance, has given many a wider life, but later they have lost—through inability to obtain help in their homes and perhaps through postponed marriage because male earnings have been depressed by female competition. In time these questions may be considered and an effort made to bring about a better order. Ideas of progress change. In the past recognition of the right of women to work anywhere but in the home has been viewed as progressive. In Hitler's Germany now the .prowess is back to the home. Of course' Hitler's methods would never Ibe acceptable with us. Compulsion, Jor even male agitation, would defeat j its purpose utterly. All that may ibe done is to recognise that the present state of affairs has grave imperfections. In primary production great progress has been made recittStty/hy' recognising the essential l&faftßeftF' riature which may not be greatly disturbed . with impunity— that destruction of forests may lead to floods, soil denudation, crop destruction, loss of bird-life, and plagues of insects. In human affairs I there is also an essential balance which must be regained. Men and women are equal but not identical. Society can assure its greatest progress by recognising difference as well as equality and making it possible that all the talents and capaci- , ties of manhood and womanhood I shall be most suitably and profitably I employed, ,