IGNORANT WIVES THE HAPPIEST

Evening Star, Issue 19840, 13 April 1928, Page 1

IGNORANT WIVES THE HAPPIEST

WORLD PENALISES CLEVER WOMEN It is true that the average woman is appallingly ignorant of the world and its affairs, but if woman is to remain contented with her lot she had better leave well alone (writes Olga Hall-Brown in the ‘ Sunday Chronicle ’)• Under existing conditions women arc happier as they are. There may come a time when there is room for "a mentally complete race of women in this country, but it is a long way off. Women is miraculously adaptable to the demands made upon her, and her ignorance and mental apathy is a proof of her adaptability. She is" what she is expected to bo. GIRLS KEPT IN IGNORANCE.

Most headmistresses of girls’ schools realise this. Their method of education subtly suggests that there is something evil and undesirable about the world at large, from which their pupils should be protected as long as possible. To this end young women are kejit in ignorance of the vital affairs of every day. Every year more girls are thrust in an ignorant and useless condition on a difficult and hurrying world. The education of the non-professional woman does little more than teach her to read and write and give he a vague idea of a past history and the remote existence of a wider world. 01 contemporary affairs and international economics, and of what the intellectual giants of to-day are accomplishing, she knows practically nothing, There arc a few women mentally alive and intellectually enterprising. ]t would ho a pity if large numbers were stimulated by their example, for there is only room for a few such woman in a man’s world. COMMONPLACE WIVES.

Take the fate of the average woman. She married the average man. If she is ignorant of contemporary life and unmoved'by the march of events she stands a eliance of contentment in her narrow sphere. Tho routine of domesticity will fill her mind, and her round of repetition work will fill her days. The experience of wifehood and maternity will provide her with a gentle excitement, and she will find pleasure in the society of her commonplace kind The woman who goes in for mental) adventure, widening her horizon by reading the newspaper in explorer fashion, and learning of modern life from our magnificent contemporary literature, is going to suffer in a manmade world. The marriage tie to her commonplace husband will become a fetter and the home will become a prison. It is a heautifu legend that the average husband wants a wife with well-developed thinking powers. He finds it disturbing if tho partner of his choice has any ambition to discuss anything more subtle than the neighbors, the babies, tho movies, or tho kitchen. PERIL OF THOUGHT.

Mental activity in a married woman is a dangerous thing. It generates ambition. Her life with the ordinary husband is circumscribed, tame, and narrow, and only by keeping her mind within its circle will she find content. Again, take the woman who earns her living. Where there are a thousand jobs at starvation salaries for women who will carry out routine work obediently and without question, there is one for the woman who desires to exercise her mind and assume a male responsibility. There arc male executives by the thousands who employ women cleverer than themselves in subordinate positions, and the woman who is not only the rmht hand but the brain of the man she works under is a well-known natural phenomenon in every big business. WOMAN’S HANDICAP.

In industry the knowledgeable thinking woman is not welcome except where her sex makes her of more value than a man. A mere handful of women occupy highly-paid executive positions in men’s businesses, and these arc such freaks that their life stories appear from time to time in the newspapers. In business it is not enough for a woman to be as good as a man to have equal opportunity. She must be twice ns good, or personally approved of by the boss. In the creative arts woman is actually able to bold her own without suffering sex handicap. The public do

not care who writes a book, a play, a song, so long' as they like it. The stage is woman’s kingdom—she is necessary and decorative, and although it is the nursery of much feminine genius it is graced by hundreds who have no time to develop their minds. IGNORANCE AS BLISS. If the average woman would he happy she will be well advised to use many of the present-day bonks for lighting fires and ignore the trend of the world’s events. It is a sorry business to equip the mind with wings and have it shut up in the kitchen. Life with the average husband is not Paradise when taken for granted that it is the most charming possible fate. Illuminated by knowledge and imagination it would be simply unbearable. There are, of course, men here and there who prefer intelligent, thinking women, and who deserve them. Life with such husbands as these has possibilities of mental companionship and sustained interest. There would not, however, he enough of them to go round if the average woman took to acquiring knowledge and developing her mind. There is already sufficient unrest and revolt among women against conditions of marriage and feminine employment. What it would he like if all—instead of the few—realised what a poor affair it is to be an average woman in a man’s world I tremble to think. This is undoubtedly a case where “ ’tis folly to . be wise.”