WOMEN OF EUROPE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22935, 13 January 1938, Page 4

WOMEN OF EUROPE

POSITION UNDER FASCISM FEMINIST'S INVESTIGATIONS POLITICS NOW STAGE-MANAGED Returning to Sydney after having acted as liaison officer in London for the Australian Federation of Women Voters, Mrs. Linda Littlejohn, who is also president of the Equal Rights International, had much to say of the status of women in the countries she visited. She had chosen to see those countries which might be said to be in difficulties, so that she might study the conditions which brought them to that state, and, if possible, visualise what reactions there would be in Australia if similar conditions should come to exist there. "We see around us these countrieii in unrest —Italy and Germany definitely Fascist, Spain and France likely to become Fascist —and we in Australia continue to sit back hoping in the good old way that the worst will never happen," Mrs. Littlejohn said. Investigation Needed "We should be looking round to discover what factors brought about this state of affairs in Fascist countries," she continued. "We would find out that the first thing was the economic distress of the people, and wo Bhould see that such a condition never exists among our community. "German women have always been the 'hausfrau' type and Italian women have always had to bear the domestic burdens that men, t with their superior brains, would not* deign to carry. It is for us, who have attained a certain amount of status, to do something to guard it. "We must be determined to do everything in our powei to keep our democracy the splendid thing it is. But, staunch feminist though I am, I realise that we cannot do this through our women's organisations alone. We must co-operate with all movements working to the same end. The truth is, our feminist role has moved far out of its own confines into the orbit of State, national and world politics. Stage-managed politics

"Wo have a lot to learn from the Nazis in stage-management of politics,!' Mrs. .Littlejohn continued. "They dramatise every move of national importance, while we, with our British sense of \vhat is done and not done, stage-manage nothing. "If we do not begin speedily to talk about what democracy can do for the people, someone else will step in and talk about what another system can do. Let ns begin along the same lines as the Nazis, who tell their people: 'This country is yours, we are building it for you.' Let us boost it thoroughly. It may not be good form, but it will save democracy."-