WOMAN AND HER WORK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15482, 13 December 1913, Page 1 (Supplement)

WOMAN AND HER WORK.

BY ISABEL MAUD PEACOCKE. In Mr. W. L. George's book, "Womanand To-morrow," a plea for feminism as distinct from suffragism, the author observes : "When a work is judged as a work and not as a woman's work, a truer appreciation must follow." This actually expresses the protest of any woman of intelligence and ambition in regard to her work. She wishes it to bo accepted on its merits as simply good work or bad work. In the question of art, for instance, she holds that art is without sex and should be wholly independent of Bex-considerations. She would expunge such words as 'authoress," "poetess," "sculptress" from the dictionary if she could. To have her work criticised as well done "for a woman," is to damn it as futile, inferior and not to bo taken seriously. Praise, qualified on the score of sex, is to her tho most humiliating form of criticism, and belittles her achievement far more effectually than honest abuse. If a woman produces a brilliant book or play, n. beautiful painting or piece of sculpture which was tho instant applause of the public, sho finds it unflattering to havo her sex insisted on, for in that sounds the note of depreciation. It suggests limitation, and, in her art, she desires to be unique as tho artist, and not as the woman. It is the desire to havo her work judged without prejudice that drives her so often to shelter under tho nom-de-plumo of a man, not because she desires to pose as masculine in her stylo, but because thereby her work may escape the disparaging reproach of "woman's work." Tho patronising attitude of man to woman is, or has been, to a very great extent, hor own fault, or tho fault of trammeling tradition. For generations woman's education was of the "smattering" order, due weight being given to tho elegant accomplishments. Woman was corntent to do consciously inferior work, because, being a woman, no one expected anything more of her, and she was quite conplacent when sho hung her drawingroom with feeble water-colour sketches, or sang plaintive ditties in the smallest of voices, and played mechanical piano-pieces faultily. Man examined her colourless, characterless drawings through monocled evos, cried "Very good ! 'pon honour! Quito artistic, y'know;" applauded her music and asked for more with condescending patronage, and mouthed her weak verses when sho took to poetry ; and Miss Lucilla blushed, simpered and was content. And man, too. was content with her work, always on tho understanding that ho was "making allowances," If any young woman with moro originality attempted anything different it was held to be "bad form" and such tendencies wero rigidly repressed. It was small wonder then that woman finding mediocrity pleasing to her small world of judges, and any attempt to rise above it received coldly, should cease to struggle to assert her own individuality. That tho old reign of tho repression of women is drawing to a close there, are abundant signs. Women are entering tho professions, though as their numbers are small, they aro still regarded as being out of their place; but it is a good omen' that masculine opposition is surely, if slowly, breaking down. We hear of women on hospital boards and college councils, women as city councillors, women even in tho mayoral chair, women as editors, chemists, dentists. Physicians no longer disdain to consult with a woman colleague; authors collaborate with woman writers. And as tho numbers of professional women increase, it will no longer be regarded as unnnatural for a woman to be a doctor, a lawyer or a scientist. and she will bo criticised simply as a good doctor or a bad one, an able lawyer or a poor one, and the question of sex will be ignored. This is what she wants. Once lift her work to the same plane as man's and it will no longer bo ranked as unquestionably second-class. There aro still a great number of persons of both sexes, who consider that woman, in entering the lists with man, is usurping his prerogatives, and man complains that while still exacting his homage, she forces him into an unchivalrous attitude by competing with him. In reality woman is more than willing to meet him on his own ground, and asks no more of him than that ho will give her the samo business recognition as he gives to men competitors in the same field. It is often objected that in entering business woman becomes hard, keen and unwomanly, gaining self-rolianee and worldly wisdom at tho expense of hor natural softness and refinement, but it is not considered that she is in far more danger of having the softer attributes of her sex destroyed, her refinement blunted, her radiance dimmed by coarse manual labour, the sordid tasks of the kitchen and laundry, tho cares of the nursery, and the soul deadening struggle to make ends meet. Wo hear a very great deal of woman's "true sphere" being tho home. But who is to decide that such a versatile, volatile, many-sided creature as woman, speaking collectively, is to bo forced along one particular rut without, regard to individual characteristics. Has she not as much right as man to expand and develop along her own line, to "sing and give praise with the best member," that she has. Assuredly! Doubtless the great majority of women 'justify Nature, and find tho true moaning and fulfilment of life in mating', rearing their children, and if in this they recognise their mission and accept it, as roundin*: and filling cut their lives satisfactorily, then all is well with them. It is a high and holy office, this of motherhool and homemaker, but it is not conceivable that there are other women, who hear other trumpet-calls, just as high and clear and insistent, who never many, never devote themselves to making a "home" for a man, becauso they recognise other duties, to them more sacred and compelling. They have all reverence for their sisters, tho wives and mothers, and for their work, but thoy know their own natures, and that they require far other outlets for the energies of body and spirit. There is that within them which craves expression and which cannot find it in the multiple duties of wife and mother. A woman of ambition and intellectual power, who chooses a vocation for which she feels herself eminently fitted, justifies her choice in the performance of it. She is not necessarily unwomanly or unsoxed becauso she feels she would be stultifying herself if sho allowed natural gifts to be fallow, while she tended babies, scrubbed floors and cooked meals with indifferent success. If sho takes up a work uncongenial to her she is doing violence to her mental powers, and thwarting her natural instincts, and thwarted Nature turns peevish at last and will make of her nothing but an unwilling slave, a grudging worker, a woman with a grievance against circumstance, instead of a happy, virile worker, proud and keen in fulfilling her ordained destiny. To sum up, woman has an equal right with man, to choose her field of work, and to be regarded thojfo simply as a worker and not as a woman and to receive tho same consideration as a man in the same field. The labourer is worthy of her [ hire, and if we offer a woman' less pay, it makes it appear that we judge beforehand that her work will he inferior, hut that we are willing to accept inferior work | because it is cheaper, an unsound principle. ! Granted, for the sake of argument, that there is a very small percentage of woman capable of certain kinds of work, then let all incompetent, women and men. dron out. It will raise the standard of work all round, and women will renliso that no allowances are made for incompetence, and that her sex counts not at all one way or the other, and time and experience will teach her just exactly what sho can and cannot do as well as a man,