WOMEN OF CHINA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21295, 23 September 1932, Page 11

WOMEN OF CHINA

ALTERATION IN STATUS EMANCIPATION MOVEMENT The rapid emancipation of Chinese women in recent years to a position of consequence in the affairs of their country was the subject of an address by Miss Vera Hay, before the Auckland branch of the League of Nations Union afc its luncheon yesterday in the Milne and Choyce Eeception Hall. The chairman, Mr. W. T. G. Airey, presided over a iarge attendance. Miss Hay was present at a conference, in Shanghai last year, of the Institute of Pacific Relations. She outlined the growth of new influences in China tending to change the former status of the women and to remove old conventions placing them in a position of inferiority compared with men. " Madame Sun Yat Sen and Madame Kiang Kai Shek can be mentioned as important leaders of the emancipated Chinese women," said the speaker. "By 1926. women had 'arrived' in China, gaining dignity and having the right to speak their mind. The new women of China are courteous, charming and well poised. Moreover, they are eager to assist in the affairs of their country." Miss Hay pointed out that one authority had divided Chinese women broadly into three groups—university students and those returned from education abroad, the partly-educated,, and the old-fashioned and often unlettered. In the changed attitude on home life, bringing about greater rights for women, it was the unlettered woman who fared worst. The speaker added that she was impressed by the attitude of the Chinese men in accepting philosophically the change in the status of their womenfolk during recent years. There were women in China who were thinking in terms of international goodwill. Under the new conditions, women, for the first time, were being regarded as the equals of men, as individxials, and as participants in civil and national affairs. A vote of thanks was carried on the motion of Mrs. John Cook, who said there was far more hope for the world when women took an interest in international subjects.