ARGENTINA'S STRANGE FEMINISM.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10041, 8 January 1909, Page 4

ARGENTINA'S STRANGE FEMINISM.

; It would seem to edmH, perhaps, as if the woman movement .in Argentina has gone just a little too far. Women have ! become fully masculiriis&d in the arts and sciences; they are represented in most of" the professions, but so. little has this iixß.de theiii co-operators with men that_it has Actually isolated them .from the interests, the associations, _ahd even the society of those nearest and dearest to them 'of'the other sex: This, paradoxical condition of tilings is described by an Italian lady, Gina Lombroso Ferrero, in La Revue (Paris). She begins by describing the effect which North America has produced by teaching the world "to judge the condition of woman by the degree of_ masculinisation she has attained, that is, by the aptitude she exhibits.for those professions the exercise <3f Which lias so far iieoii coiifiried to the other sex." Judged by this standard the Argentine women have been very much masculinised indeed. Wb. ,?eaa: .

'■'liie woman in Argentina, from this point of view, occupies a position of the first order. I have known at Buenos Aires numerous doctresses who practise nisdicine, surgery, dentistry, and obstetrics. I hove attended a meeting at tile Academy of Medicine oyer which a doctress presided: I have- visited a. school of nurses which was founded and directed by a woman. I have frequently heard the addresses of women who .had received .aiid-.decbr'afiorts'. i '. I have heard women in the drawing-rooms to which I was invited executing pieces of music composed by themselves. I have seen the medal which a woman ambulance attendant won upon the field of battle. I have read the stories the po-cms, the schoolbooks, the novels, the magazine articles, and scientific treatises, as well as the manuals of medicine, wnieh the women of Argentina have written. I have admired in the Parliament-house at Buenos Aires the statues aiid bas-reliefs arid the monument of Tucilmah which have.been produced by the. chisel of a woman sculptor. ;..;.; ~ It; ; -therefore, in Argentina the woman wishes to be masculinised, the door is assuredly open for her." But this claim for equal rights, so fully conceded in Argentina, has been bought at the price of feminine isolation. The more woman has become like to and equal to man, the more has 6he become separated from him. In Europe the woman from her birth to her death shares the life of th<» man, be he father, husband, or son. In the rural districts of Italy are seßn..ineii aiid .women working together in the fields. The same is th£ case whether a man be a shoemaker, a ropemaker, or what not. In the upper classes of Europe, in science, commerce,, literature; or politics, the womati, mother, daughter, wife, or sisteT, is the inspirer and associate of the man. A woman governs Holland, and in England, Russia, Italy, and Germany the sovereign is accompanied on great State occasions by his consort. Far dif- , ferent is Argentina thus described by this writer:

"The case is different in Argentina. A sort of reciprocal fear seems to raise an insurmountable barrier between the men and the women. Whether at home, in the street, at banquets and public promenades, itt the theatres or schools, the two sexes, as if by a tacit understanding, keep each other at a respectfttl distance. What most strikes tile foreigner who walks id BheHbs Aires, whether he traverse the harrow streets where the traffic of foot passengers is more crowded than in either London or Paris, or saunter through the broad avenues where tram-cars, carriages, automobiles pass and repass each other, is the absence of women. . . . She acts, not as an associate of the man, but as a rival, and in the same house we find an antagonism existing between husband and wife, mother aiid son." The social reformers of Argentina are beginning to think that women are being too highly educated. They do not make themselves necessary to the interests and happiness of the men. They neglect children and household duties. The feminist movement in Argentina has therefore taken an opposite direction to that of Europe and North America. At Buenos Aires an institution has been founded by the new feminists called Escuela de Hogar, "The School of the Hearth," in which are taught all the arts that make the home what it should be. Sewing, and the whole circle of domestic economy, including the care of children, are comprised in the curriculum. This movement, in opposition to the excessive ambition which women in Argentina have shown for proficiency in the arts of men, will doubtless result, says this writer, in "the re-estab-lishment of those feminine arts" which alone can render the woman a.welcome and fit partner and associate of the man.