THE AGE OF WOMEN

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4327, 17 August 1937, Page 6

THE AGE OF WOMEN

MAN A NONENTITY ONE ASPECT OF AMERICA New York. American women to-day purchase 80 per cent, of the consumer goods, receive 80 per cent, of the benefits of life insurance, 65 per cent, of the proceeds of personal trusts, possess 65 per cent, of all savings-bank accounts, 46 per cent, of Wall Street stocks, whether they be railroads, public utilities or automobiles, and own 40 per cent, of all real estate. In fact, economically they rule the United States. How came this abopt? Partly by the incursion of women into business and industry, and partly by men allowing them to acquire the last secret in money-making, in which they were once the sole factor. Before the boom days of the nineteen-twenties men took an interest in the home and its management. Then, when dividends became easy to acquire and after-office hours became valuable for making valuable business contacts, the home was turned over to the wife. When the crash came the husband took refuge in the home, only to discover that he was superfluous. In business it was the same. He had left all his responsibilities to a woman secretary, when he was eased out of his job she carried on successfully. A remarkable full-page advertisement appeared recently in the ‘New York Times.’ Inserted by Women Investors of America, Inc., an organisation with branches in 30 States, it said boldly, “America is not a democracy: it is a matriarchy.” It went on to talk boldly about women deciding what the nation should eat and wear, how and where it should live, what is good for it and what is not. Nowadays advertising running to several hundred millions of dollars annually is designed to appeal to the feminine mind. Women are acknowledged to be the decisive buyers of everything except locomotives. Fiction, plays and motion pictures aie produced mainly for feminine consumption. „ Man has so lost his repute that women are finding him no longer worth fighting for. Laws are being amended to acknowledge their new independence. If the average husband is not bossed outright by his wife he is subjugated by his children. With the passing of the pioneering days of rugged individualism, serious commentators find the male with a decided inferiority complex, while vigorous females are rediscovering and reconquering America.