WOMEN AND MARRIAGE

Evening Star, Issue 21820, 8 September 1934, Page 22

WOMEN AND MARRIAGE

(Series No. 4.)

A WOMAN'S BEST AGE IS AT FORTY [Written hy Siieilaii G'kauam, for the ‘ Evening Star.’] The first kiss—what a thrill! The last kiss —what a relief! Someone told me it was Mussolini who uttered these words. They sound rather frivolous for that austere statesman. But of the truth of these words, whether spoken by Mussolisi or another, there is no mistaking. The relief of that final kiss! Women of forty to forty-five know what 1 am talking about. They are enjoying the best years of their life when kisses don’t count as much as comfort. It used to be a catchword to say that man was in his prime in the early forties. The woman of forty was placed in. a different category. For her joys of life were over. Her best years were considered to be between twenty and thirty. But even in the days when it was considered unfashionable to cling to youth tins was a fallacy. Although women in the forties are pleased when they arc told they look thirty, only those who have failed to discover the secret of living would turn the clock hack if they could. The agonies of the early twenties. The world a beach of shifting sands. Nothing seems solid or permanent. Searching for.a husband. Searching for a job. The blank despair when the man you have chosen prefers another. The joy of getting a rise drowned in the misery of getting fired. “Thirty,” the twenty-nine-ycar-old spinsters cry dismally. “We shall soon be old. No more fun. No .man will want to date us up. No man will want to marry ns. No man will want to kiss ns. A new batch of girls have taken our places.” Not until they are thirty-five will they acknowledge the jump into the thirties. Until the day they pass the milestone of forty, they look into their mirrors and the sensible ones recapture their sense of humour. They realise that however many facials they indulge in, however youthful the clothes they wear, forty is stamped on them, and a great burden is lifted from their minds. For the first time in this woman-inust-attract-men business they can relax. The last kiss is over. Affection takes the place of passion, and if you can take the words of a great many women of over forty whom 1 know it’s a big relief. The woman 'of forty knows what the whole thing is all about. Men are viewed in their’right perspective. A masculine smile no longer spells happiness, Jbut neither does a frown spell heartache. If she has had her quota of thrills and disappointments she is grateful to be able to sink into the contentment of mind due to experience. ’ She kows the stupidity of expecting too much from humans and life. She “ can keep her head when * the under forties ’ are losing theirs.” _ _ . If she is married the yoke of childbearing is over. If she still has a husband she has learned how to keep him happy with the least expenditure of mistakes.

For the single women over forty there arc a great many joys, to Compensate her for the loss of her youth. The turmoil of debating within herself, “ Shall I give up my career for him?” is over. If she marries at all now it will be because she wants to, not because it is the correct thing to do. She has made a delightful discovery, She is sufficient unto herself.