WOMAN’S NEW IDEALS

Manawatu Times, Volume LII, Issue 3626, 16 June 1927, Page 4

WOMAN’S NEW IDEALS

Why, if a woman may ask, all this talk about the startling change m woman’s psychology On all sides one hears that woman, once the clinging vine, now In her independence emulates the sturdy oak. Woman, from being unpractical, sentimental, fragile, has "turned” business like, a mine of common sense a tower of strength, writes Miss Berta Buck. Woman, lately the purely domestic parasite, Is realising herself as a citizen, developing a social conscience, influencing legislation, sitting on juries, and joining in discussions at the mention of which her grandmothers would have swooned. What a revolution! Due to a change In the mind of woman? I, for one, think not. By this Ido not mean that women to-day do not appear mor e free, more businesslike, capable, broadminded and Independent than they appeared yesterday. But all the emphasis is on the Word “appear.” This appearance is due to two things. First, the change in woman’s economic circumstances. Once a girlTs place really was th e home; indeed, “being at home” represented the staple profession for the daughters of the upper and middle classes. They were required to fall in with the ideas that their duty was to provide the sunshine of that home, as well as being stocking darners, collar-stud finders and housekeepers to fathers and brothers until they married. The average young woman fell in with all that. Nowadays, however much she might prefer to laze at home, she is warned that she cannot expect to do so while poor father and her brothers are toiling in business! "Out with you, my dear;' hustle for a job! And no getting married until you’re able to keep yourself, we can’t all get engaged to millionaires. You be self-supporting and make your way, like a sensible girl; that's the Idea!” Again the girl fails in with it, adapting herself to fresh fields of activity and conditions new. What is not new is her essentially feminine power of adaptability. Heaven knows what may be required of her daughter In--1947, of her grand-daughter In the nineteen-sixties! Only one thing is certain; they will be found Successfully readjusting themselves to the newest requisitions.