MAN THE USURPER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 6871, 15 July 1909, Page 10

MAN THE USURPER.

WOMAN’S RIGHTS CHAMPIONED.

MOTHERS: AS WAGE-EARNERS. A whole-hearted champion of wo man invasion -of What it it; the fashion among benevolent medical gentlemen to claim as man’s domain discovered bimseif at Petone tho other night in tho Rev. J, T. Nott, M.A., of the Tn/.ta. Addressing a meeting of the Wesley Guild .Mr Nott (who, It is interesting to note, is,a bachelor) threw clown the gauntlet on behalf of downtrodden, femininity, in most valorous manner and carried tho war right into tho ••edmp. Alan, not won’ian, .he ’ declared, is the usurper ; lie has filled tho role through all the ages and now when woman asserts her rights and. refuses longer to content herself in the narrow preserve his majesty has fenced off for her, she is told that she is imperilling the future of the race. "What constituted the real evil of this “invasion of woman” in most men’s eyes? Simply-the fact that she was ’goiug/for the “plums” instead of the crumbs. ‘ She had been graciously permitted to,engage in sundry minor pursuits, whoso rewards offered no attraction Vfor the more acquisitive sex, and now that she dared bo become a competitor in avenues where tho reward was substantial she was greeted with tho cry'of “usurper.” The hoot was on the other foot. At tho beginning man was the hunter and woman skinned the beast and prepared the food. She lost the job. Woman was the first agriculturist—the spado was taken from her, She it was who first engaged in the* preparation of textile fabrics. Thcn { man invented machines and operated, them himself.The proportion of woman operatives in cotton mills at Home decreased from 87 per cent, to 49. per cent, in a few years. Where,' now, did they find a woman employed as a baker .or pastrycook? Even house-cleaning was being done by machinery. The result of all this was that woman could not find tho necessary outlet for her activities in the. old channels, and was driven to seek others. She had, the option of being idle and in mischief, or : being at work. Wisely sh© preferred tho latter.

AN INTELLECTUAL AWAKENING. What, then, was this “woman’s invasion” due to? The ‘answer that it was due to economic * causes—to the increased cost of living, etc.—wouh not bear investigation/ This accounted for only a small portion of it. There wore clearly other causes at work, and cn© of the noteworthy’features of the present day movement Avas that it was tho intellectual sphere that was being rushed by woman. In-the non-intellec-tual classes of employment • tho pro-, portion of female labour was stationary or decreasing. The was due, of course, to the ■, education of woman. She had learned to think. Having readied this stage she quickly saw other tilings in a n6w light. She saw th© advantage of physical wellbeing and invaded the field of sport. And it was an undercurrent of thought which led her to seek benefits of emolument—the satisfaction of profitable employment. The iftovement was a .kind of “spiritual upheaval” rather than the outcome of economic causes.

AGE OF CHIVALRY NOT DEAD. / Improvement in the condition of labour in recent times had been largely due to tho advent of the feihale operative. Alan’s instinctive 1 sense of chivalry impelled him to have -regard for the comfort and well-being _of the woman worker, and her occupation in factory and workshop was made less and less irksome. In a measure this was due’ to motives of expediency—the future well-being of the race, claiming consideration —but the age of chivalry was neither dead nor threatened with extinction. Man’s feeling of respect for woman was ingrained and natural. Incidentally man himself benefited by the changes introduced primarily on behalf of woman—always it would be found that concessions made to. womanworkers were presently extended to the whole of th© operatives engaged. Hence it was that a large portion of the betterment of the conditions of presentday employment was; directly traceable to the advent of woman. America; in particular was facing this problem of trimming an industrial system become, as it were, top-heavy, so that woman s identification with it might be fraugnt with less menace to the of th© nation. Th© absolute, soul-acstroj-ing monotony; the unwholesome Surroundings; the inhuman conditions which characterised some phases ,of industrial life were ■ evils which were being earnestly grappled with. 1 MAURIAGE, AND AFTER.

Quoting from Professor Thomas’s “ Sex and Sociology,” Mr Noth claimed that the'fact of man being a more ‘ locomotive” animal than woman involved no superiority of mental endowment no inherent disability in tvoman as woman. The trend of advanced thought was in, the direction of releasing every woman, whatever her occupation, for from three to five hours a day in order that she.might emt gage in interesting and profitable work outside of her everyday sphere of activity. Thus her mental outlook would be enlarged, her interests in life would be multiplied; in the-case of a mother the daily, separation would be to her own and her children’s physical and mental advantage. The difficulties in the way might he solved by the introduction of co-operative nurseries, co-operative kitchens, and other organised methods of economising in household management. Besides the advantages named the idea had much to commend it as a business preposition. Under present conditions the husband was under obligation to bo the sole breadwinner. , 'When the wife, too, became a wage-earner adjustments would he possible which would result, amongst other things, in the reduction of the hours of labour. It was inevitable equality of pay,must come. The avenues of employment open to women tended to become more and more profitable, and the time would come when the offer of marriage would carry with it no pecuniary gain.. That being so, there must come also the tefidency to seek for profitable employment of marriage—the ultimate outcome being the economic independence of women. It was laid down by Professor Thomas that the employment engaged in should be invested with special occupational interest, and that it should be gainful, though not onerous nor incessant. WORK IS THE KEYNOTE. Quoting figures to show the widereaching nature of the movement toward wider engagement of women in everyday activities, the speaker mentioned that whereas the population of the United States of America in-

creased 95 per cent, during the thirty years ended 1900, the proportion of female wage-earners increased Ho per cent., factory pursuits claiming an increase of 21V per com., domestic employment of 115, agriculture of 146, the professions of 337, and commercial activities of 2307 per cent, of female ■employees. At the root of the whole movement was the instinctive craving for occupation. “It is not so much that we may read, it is that we may be enabled to work,” declared the blind girls whose sympathies Helen Keller first enlisted in her education scheme. “ Work ” was the keynote of the position.