WOMEN'S DUTY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 120, 17 November 1937, Page 18

WOMEN'S DUTY

SOCIAL PROGRESS IDEAS

A VIGOROUS PROTEST

Reference to the alleged lack of appreciation by women of their duty to the State in failing to keep up the birth-rate was made by Mrs. G. _L. Stewart, who presided at a recent meeting of the Women's Social Progress Movement. The necessity, she said, was urged for teaching girls mothercraft, home-making, and general housekeeping.

"It was suggested that the present crisis was due to the emancipation of women, and also to the similar course of study in higher education by boys and girls," said Mrs. Stewart. "We of ths Social Progress Movement challenge these latter suggestions, and hold that, up to a certain age, until at least the period of secondary school training is over, girls should have, except in a few particulars (chiefly science and hygiene), the same cultural education as boys. Unless the

girls go on to .the university, specialising in.housewifery and mothercraft can well be taken then. But the cultural background is necessary in making for trained intelligence and understanding in order to appreciate the meaning of varying and complex aspects of. life.

HIGHER EDUCATION.

"The best of higher education," continued Mrs. Stewart, "is needed by women to make the home a place of interest, comfort, and content. The cultured, educated girl will more readily absorb the necessities of mothercraft and home-making. There is such freedom in the choice of subjects for study from the curriculum of colleges today that most girls can take a course which will cause no undue strain. Much, indeed the foundation of mothercraft, can be taught to a child before it has reached the age of seven. Children love dolls and playing 'mother' and helping to make beds, wash dishes, dusting, etc. Then during their school years girls learn much of home-making through assisting in many ways when at home. It does not appear that the adolescent period is a good one in which to teach advanced mothercraft. The girl is going through a change period, adapting herself to new physical changes and feelings, and these (at least to an ordinary mother it seems so) should not be intensified. Rather the outlook should be one away from her condition —games in and out of doors, singing, drama, school activities which mean thought for others, and so on. MOTHERCRAFT AFTER SCHOOL-

"The beauty, wonder; and allure of motherhood, family life, and homemaking can be better unfolded in a maturer, more balanced period. Much of life and its requirements are taught in the book time, and when a girl has completed her secondary or college education it is a Very easy matter, with her trained, orderly mentality, to absorb all that she does not already know to begin the real work of homemaking. Only a beginning, for only with practice and time can extended knowledge come."

Mrs. Stewart warmly defended the modern girl's aptitude for home-mak-ing, and, in reply to the oft-heard query, "Is there distaste for motherhood and the responsibilities of family life today?" said emphatically "No. Give the modern girl the chance to be a mother and to rule a home kingdom and 90 per cent, will accept and make a success, of it. It is to be remembered that until a recent decade it was only the privileged who could avail themselves of the full .benefit of advanced education, but now every girl has her chance, and a very enriched womanhood should obtain in the future.

"It has been suggested that future progress for women may be back to the home entirely, as in Germany today. We view that position not as progress, but as distinct retrogression. Women, through education, can take up, and make a success today of many professions and callings once only available to men. And why not? Are we to go back to the days when their only choice was the factory, the field, and inferior positions in the home? We cannot see that ultimate benefit is to come that way. Many women must always provide for themselves and often for mothers and others also. Surely it is only just that they may choose a calling to their liking and for which they feel adapted!

ANOTHER ASPECT.

The speaker then dealt with a different aspect and said: "Women today are beinj held responsible for much of the moral and economic troubles which are a vexation and anxiety to all right-thinking people. We women are willing to take our share of blame, but only a sh are. In much of the alleged moral, decadence men must stand their trial with women, and it is high time that lectures on increasing the birth-rate and the" practice of disciplining their desires should be given to men and not to women only! In many cases men are equally and in others wholly responsible, for a woman cannot even ask for a home partnership. All this national pessimism Social People's members feel ia not