THE MODERN WOMAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15141, 4 November 1912, Page 5

THE MODERN WOMAN.

BISHOP CROSSLEY'S VIEWS

COMPETITION WITH MAN,

Is A sermon- on " The Modern Woman" was it preached last night at St. Sepulchre's © Church by the Anglican Bishop of Aucka land. The sermon, .which had as its text, • 8 "We have a little sister," was intended) 6 as a preface to the Girls' Friendly Society l } Conference week. s In his opening remarks, Dr. Crossley stated that wo were living in an age of societies. The old religious communities were being supplanted by societies with . initiative aims. There were societies ] against drunkenness, war, gambling; in fact against everything except lying, his Lordship said. There were protective • societies, too, but the only society for the f women of the future was tho Girls' . Friendly Society. , Continuing, the Bishop said there were ' thoso who deprecated the fuss made about . the modern woman. Some maintained that , woman's place in nature was unalterable, and that th© modem woman was only a • phase which would rectify itself. '' " The modern woman is divisible into • two classes, the unemployed and the employed," ho said. "Those women who are not wage-earners by necessity erroneously think that the emancipation of 1 women began through them." Tho Bishop argued that tho contrary was the case. Tho emancipation of woman could bo traced from the wage-earning class of women. To prove tins, ho showed how sick nurses vindicated a new position for women in paid occupations, and how their inevitable reception into the medical profession was quickly followed by their invasion of the office and the telephone room. Not without a great struggle did women win their way to the front in education. In New Zealand, it looked more than likely that they would hold their own. "This forced entrance into competition with man," ho continued, " has changed woman's sphere. Women cannot jostle men in all walks of life without demanding the same freedom and rights. Bat there is this great distinction to be remembered. The wage-earning women create their own spheres of activity, especi- ; ally in medicine and education. The nonwage earners do not create their own ' spheres of activity, they seek to bo rivals , of the men. Witness the formation of women's clubs, the forced athleticism of 1 girls' schools, and the women on the plat- ( form." ( The Bishop said that he was satisfied J .with woman's right and ability to use the { platform. Logically, the right to the vote i followed this concession, but that would 3 inevitably lead to the right to sit in a Parliament, which he did not think suit- «< able. r

"Two examples of tho modem woman," continued His Lordship, " have lately been before the eyes of the world, tho suf-

fragettes in England and the Waihi women in New Zealand. The former are not starving or ill-used, but preach the

gospel of destruction of property and as- ! sault to secure a political end. Tho logical outcomes of their gospel aro tho anarchist outrages in Russia or the atrocities of the Turks in Bulgaria. Tho Waihi women, though using language that does not -make pleasant reading, are more just than their sister suffragettes in supporting tho wageearners. It must beviemembcred that the women of New Zealand have liberty, "a certain freedom from competition, and the vote. Common sense in New Zealand would counteract the extravagant theory of tho equality of tho sexes. I do not

want. to see this equality of sexes," conclued tho Bishop. " I want to see woman remain superior to man in those qualities which he. lacks and which are- 50 essential to her own womanhood. These qualities, which can be summed up in the. words, 'home, wife, mother and child,' can be best trained and oared for in the woman of to-morrow by sympathetic cooperation ami help. This is tho aim and object of the Girls' Friendly Society."