THE THIRD SEX.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18879, 29 November 1924, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE THIRD SEX.

" K little embarrassment was caused," we are told, by " a passage of arms which occurred between two women members of the League of Nations Fifth Committee. In the course of the dispute one fair member seems to have twitted the other with "sentimentality," drawing upon herself the frightful accusation of belonging to "tho third sex." Deplorable, of course. But if this skirmish had taken place during discussion by a committee of men would it hive been considered worth reporting ? questions Ray Devereux in an exchange. The implication is that such scandals do not happen when men meet round a table to deliberate on affairs of State, or commerce of what-not. Yet every man who has developed the committee habit, in pursuit of either duty or pleasure, knows that the. contrary is true. As for that " third sex," it is merely a term of opprobrium hurled by sentimentalists of both sexes at persons who have the courage to look life in the face, and who prefer tho sovereign coin of sentiment to tho small change of sentimentality. A vast amount of nonsense is talked about vague qualities which are described as " manly" or " womanly." In reality these aro only human qualities, and none belong specifically either to one sex or the other, for tho soul has'no sex. Wo all know men who possess tho characteristics of tenderness and delicacy usually called " feminine." and women who show the strength and energy commonly associated with men. Unfavourable circumstances pressing upon a whole sex or nation do, of course, tend to develop what is defined as a slave psychology. That is Nature's

measure of self-defence. But to-day, when women aro able to share in most of men's activities and when the education of girls progresses along the same wide lines as the education of boys, the feminine protective mimicry, analogous to that of the bird and the insect, has disappeared or is disappearing. To-morrow, therefore, wo may, conndently expect that women will be able to squabble in committee just like men do, without raising either a jibe or a smile.