A "NEW ORDER" FOR MOTHERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 37, 12 August 1942, Page 4

A "NEW ORDER" FOR MOTHERS

A. post-war. "new order" for mothers is envisage^ by the Dominion president of the Plunket Society, Mrs. James Begg, who speaks of more honour for motherhood and a better practical deal for. mothers with several babies.' Mrs. Begg does not suggest exactly how this is to be achieved, but she does helpfully indicate the breadth of the task. It extends from the psychological side to the material and financial; from a change of attitude towards the mothers of large families to the translation of that attitude into terms of practical help. The problems the young mother has to face, she says, are not wholly financial. Inability to get household help is serious and is becoming more so. To solve the problem there must be a genuine and frank examination of bedrock policies. It is not sufficient, for example, to say that the mother of a large family shall be helped, say, with a family alio wanee* while the basic policy of the country is putting up living costs that more than absorb that allowance. It is not enough to train or even subsidise' helpers for the home in numbers that are never adequate if an industrial policy is followed that gives girls every inducement to work anywhere but in the home. The home, and the effect of policy on the home, must be a starting-point when political, industrial, and social planning is undertaken. For instance, the establishment of an in-

flustry must be considered from this viewpoint: Is it worth while if it will increase living costs and increase the „ competition for female labour? Until such questions are asked in the first place, help to the family must, in large part, be the correction of faults that should never h&vc occurred.