WOMEN’S CHARTER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21260, 24 November 1943, Page 2

WOMEN’S CHARTER

All good things come to an end. That is why there had to be an ending to the Australian women’s conference. But the conference did not conclude without the delegates distinguishing themselves to the extent of a 5000-word charter—a document which has dwarfed in verbal dimensions a certain valuable and farreaching charter drawn up by Mr. Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt. In these enlightened times nobody wishes to deprive the fair sex of the fundamental rights of citizenship, nor yet to deny its members such measures of equality as they may regard as their right in view of the more active part they are playing in public affairs of the day. In fact, is has occasionally been argued with more than a modicum of cogency that, since menfolk appear not to have made an outstanding success of creating a world safe for peace-lovers, the women could with some advantage be given an opportunity to show what they can do. There is a point in this; yet it must be acknowledged that mere man, having realised his mistakes and hoping to profit thereby, is doing his humble best to solve the grim problems of the present and find the right formula for building the “brave new world.” If ! he fails again, he should perhaps retire from the administrative arena.

Although there can be no objection to woman being man’s helpmeet to some extent in affairs of State as well as in the home, it may be feared in masculine circles that if the Australian women’s charter is the standard by which prospective co-operation is to be measured, the days of the “lord and master” are more than numbered. In 150 words the Press Association office in Sydney has given a precis of the programme planned at the conference which will leave the average man meditating with some apprehension on the probable subject matter of the other 4850 words or so of the charter. The full charter embodies all the resolutions passed by the conference. It demands that no discrimination be made in the rights and responsibilities of men and women as citizens, equal pay for work, and encouragement for women to lake part in all phases of public life. An advancement along these lines is admittedly desirable, but what women have to consider is the question as to whether complete equality with men will eventually make it logical that they should forego the innumerable everyday courtesies and acts of chivalry that have hitherto been their due. One thing which must be hoped lor is that the eompiehensive charter has devoted at least a little space to woman s place in the home, where, under any conceivable future conditions, there will always be a job or two awaiting attention.