WOMEN OF THE NEW AGE

Manawatu Times, Volume LII, Issue 3579, 9 April 1927, Page 7

WOMEN OF THE NEW AGE

It is during the last half century that women have made an enormous advance, said Miss Oppenheimer, speaking at the Ladies’ Guild of the Theosophical Society, on Thursday afternoon. It is one of the signs or the New Age when woman will be recognised not as an inferior but as an equal and co-worker with man. The Theosophical teaching of the Law of Rebirth helps one to understand, that in order* to attain perfection we must have experience as men as well as women. Thus- we see to-day that the former, more brutal, domineering type of man, is a thing of the past, as the clinging, weepy, weak type of woman, who was brought up with the one idea that she was to make herself pleasing to a man. We find both men and women of &. more balanced type, men expressing more tenderness, yet losing nothing of their strength, and woman more independent and self reliant, yet losing none of her charm and gentleness. But it Is to the women we must look for the future, to the mother, and her influence in the home which wo see disappearing very alarmingly in these days of turmoil and unrest. We arc obviously living under a wrong social system, which must and will be changed, and the women are going to be a helpful factor in this change. No, not the petty women whose thoughts do not go beyond their own finery and bridge-playing, (when leisured) o rbeyond scrubbing and cake-making (when tied to their homes): but the strong thoughtful women, keen and anxious to help train the young,' will usher in reform | for the betterment of the race. Many are the noble women ana Annie • Besaut, Miss Florence Nightinj gale, Mme. Montessoui and others whose unceasing efforts for the causes they espoused have made their names immortal. ! Theosophly gives us ideals for which to work, religious, political, social, etc., and shows that woman’s influence and special work is by no means a small part of the work to bo done. Let us then stand together and help usher in the reforms which will leave struggling humanity btter conditions under which to live, and” make it bus special work to ensure peace for al Inations as well as our own. It’s the women who can and will insist on the cessation of war and its hideous machinery and the mother of the future will train both her sons and her daughters along humane lines, and the necessity for the recognition of brotherhood based on the unity of all that live.