Status of Woman

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 41, 18 February 1938, Page 11

Status of Woman

NO PROPERTY RIGHTS Compared with women of other nations British women are the best protected and the most free, according to Mrs Leonard Murray, of London, who arrived at Auckland recently. Mrs Murray, who belongs to several women’s organisations in London, including the National Council of Women, left Auckland for Wellington en route to England after completing a year’s tour of Europe, the United States and the East. “For some unknown reason married women seem to occupy a quite inferior civic status compared with those unmarried,” said Mrs Murray. “It may be the same old prejudice about ‘women in the home.’ In as democratic a country as France, I was surprised to discover that while unmarried women possessed the same rights of property as men, a married woman required to have the authority of her husband or some judiciary authority before she could exercise her rights over her own property whether testamentary rights or the rights of sale. Inheritance Laws. ’ ‘ln Bulgaria, under the law of inheritance, in the case of land or any proferty not movable, the son or sons inherit two-thirds and the daughter or daughters one third, but when a daughter marries her property may be purchased by her brothers with or without her consent,” continued Mrs Murray. “In Poland women have complete freedom in their rights of property, following the same legal principles as their husbands, but in those teritories which were annexed to Germany the husband has the authority over his own and his wife’s property. In Yugoslavia there are six different legal codes for different sections of the commuu.ty, but only under the Serbian, Austrian and Montenegrin codes can married women exercise rights oyer their property,” she continued. Interest in Politics. Mrs Murray stressed the urgent need for women’s interest in politics—not only national, but also world po.-.-cs. It should be obvious to all that the status of women always depended very largely upon the Gocernment. In Germany, Italy, Turkey and Russia, tiie status of women had been lowered even further than it was under the antiquated laws of Frence and Bulgaria. Not only did women in those countries possess no rights of property, out also’ they possessed no right to cnoose their own careers or their own ways of living.

“Most women seem not to realise how vitally they are affected by polities in many different ways, or how much a Government can do to help or harm them,” said Mrs Murray. “In many cases, women are simply too lazy either to interest themselves in the questions at stake or to take full advantage of their voting powers.”