HOMES OR CAREERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21878, 14 August 1934, Page 3

HOMES OR CAREERS

DULLNESS OF DOMESTICITY HARDSHIP ON WOMEN BY J. HAMMERTON News has reached us from London of the revolt of women against the recent attempts to drive them back to domesticity. At a conference of the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries, Miss A. Rimer said, "Domestic work stifles and blunts the mentality. I have known intelligent bright women become hardly recognisable after six months of marriage." It is a severe indictment on domesticity, but unfortunately often true, and there is no need to go out of our own country to see it.

The two chief causes are, firstly, that the business of homemaking is not considered as a career; secondly, tho lack of time, opportunity, and training to break the monotony of housework with some congenial hobby. A woman holds a good job, and knows the dignity of a certain amount of financial independence, or she may bo fortunate enough to be able to live at home, and enjoy a sufficient allowance from her parents to give her that measure of dignity and independence. She marries, and what happens? So often instead of acting as her husband's partner and companion—the running of the home being considered as much of a business as the running of an office, and having a fifty-fifty basis of monetary arrangement, the wife has to go to her husband for every penny she requires for her personal needs. Loss of Sell-Respect After freedom the consequences to an intelligent sensitive woman are ultimate chafing, dissatisfaction, and loss of selfrespect, the change from a bright eager mentality to dull irritability naturally following. Really there is a great deal to be said for the Continental system of a dowry at marriage. It gives something for security and independence if things go wrong, and a woman has the comfortable feeling she is at least bringing something substantial to her marriage, according to her social position, and not, as is the case so often with us, a flimsy inadequate trousseau, and not a penny of her own. Anyway, the income, however small, should be fairly appropriated for husband's and wife's personal expenses and the various household ueeds, thereby saving much friction, nagging and subsequent domestic discord. Running a house successfully is not a simple job as many men vaguely imagine. Women often work longer than men. The work of home executive is a big and important job in the scheme of life, with far reaching results, and it should be fairly and well paid. Genius and Talent Swamped

The second trouble is that cooking, cleaning, scrubbing, mending—the never ending unaided domestic round —leaves little time or energy for the cultivation of a hobby which would do so much to break up the monotony and "nervy" state so often associated with housework and children. One wonders how much genius and talent in New Zealand has been swamped in pots and pans, in the scrubbing bucket and the washtub! Every housewife should have sufficient leisure for the cultivation of her private and personal tastes arid taJents —some hobby that would be more restful and soothing than too much of the ceaseless social rush that most women try to crowd into their minute margin of spare time. Besides, creative work will give much more lasting comfort, pleasure, and satisfaction than the inevitable jars—the ragged, jagged ends of too many social contacts. So often do we hear of a girl after a few years, of marriage. Fair Deal Essential "Oh, yes! poor dear, she has lost her looks!" and we might add, probably her health. Monotony, overwork, having children, coupled 'with insufficient care and rest, quickly leave their mark, physically and mentally. A woman isn't a machine as it suits many men to think! Or if she is, she had best be considered as the most delicately made and adjusted piece of machinery ever created, or ever likely to be, and - as such requires careful ,and proper treatment to keep her in good running order. As Oliver Wendell Holmes says:— "Nature is in earnest when she makes a woman."

So those who are crying from the housetops for the return of women to domesticity should be prepared to class the business of homemaking as a career, and give at least some assurance of a fair deal, and a measure of dignity and independence which women have found working outside.