FEMINISM AND MARRIAGE

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3716, 26 October 1926, Page 7

FEMINISM AND MARRIAGE

PROBLEM OK THE MODERN GIRL. That the women’s movement has in it all the characteristics of rebellion is the contention advanced by Mr Meyrick Booth in an article in the July ‘Nineteenth Century.’ “While the enthusiastic belief in freedom which animated the movement was certainly a source of strength,” lie says. “ it led at the same time to a. dangerous onesided ness. Under the influence of John Stuart Mill and*others of his way of thinking, English feminism developed an individualistic and rationalistic view of life from which it has never been able to free itself.” This militant indi* vidualism has done good work in freeing women from male subjection, and particularly in opening careers to unmarried women. But, says Mr Booth, like 'other movements of protest, it is mainly negative. It has not brought to light any positive ideal of life large enough to include in its scope the relationship of the sexes. Tho girl of to-day absorbs a freedom-loving and egocentric conception of life almost Irom the time she is able to walk. The books she reads, her social milieu, her companions, her school, olten the home itself, all conspire to impress upon her a view of life which leaves out of account the social and functional aspects of womanhood. School staffs, complains Mr Booth, are staffed with bachelor women, who care little for problems of sox and marriage. The Italian girl, on the other hand, is trained from the cradle for marriage and motherhood. Tho English girl is trained for anything but that. Her personality is torn in two. Nature urges her towards union with the opposite sex, but ihe general tendency of her mental outlook causes her to cling tenaciously to personal freedom.

The serious aspect ot the matter, says Mr Booth, is not that the modern girl refuses to marry, but that she is unfitted to be the companion of her husband, who looks to her to be complemented in mind, with characteristics and interests different Irom ids own. Moreover, men cannot marry modern girls until they arc in a position to free them from housework and domestic drudgery. The modern girl is not capable of absorbing bersell in the work of home and children. This means that men in educated circles cannot marry till they are middle-aged, which is bad for them and for the State, and loses them the years when marriage should mean most. 1 tie whole circumstance constitutes a vicious circle. AVo are told that girts must go out into the world and compete with men because their opportunities ol marriage are so small that it is useless to prepare girls for marriage. But one ot the main reasons why so many men do not marry or do not marry early is just because the girls are not prepared fur marriage. Mr Booth pleads tor an education for women which, while not aiming to restore the conventional outlook of the past, will yet inculcate ■ a saner philosophy ul sex, and which will reveal the possibilities ot happiness and sotf-fnliilmonl in the companionship of marriage. At present, looking at marriage from without, girls can see in it only I lie drudgery and loss of liberty.