SURPLUS WOMEN

Otago Witness, Issue 3662, 20 May 1924, Page 20

SURPLUS WOMEN

A LOOSENING OF MORALS. LONDON, May 11. Sir Cbiozza Money calls attention to Great Britain's increasing surplus of females. For millions of women, he says, there is no chance of marriage. The female surplus in 1851 was 600,000, it reached 1,400,000 by 1911, and is now 2,100,000. The evil of the great excess of females is accentuated by man’s increasing disinclination to marry. “A loosen-

ing of morals,” be says, “is bound to result from the excess of unmarried females. It is merely stating a plain truth to say that when some women have lost hope of regular ties they are tempted to accept irregular ones. This number is big enough to exercise a profound influence on the marriage question. Another factor is the high cost of living, combined with the craze for dress, which is sedulously fostered among women of all classes. It is difficult for a young man to marry on a moderate income. Women increase the number of unmarried women by taking men’s jobs. They are established in medicine, dentistry, law, and in the banks; they are everywhere. Some of these prefer a bachelor existence. Others cannot expect to take men’s places, thereby lowering the general standard of men’s remuneration as well as a chance of finding husbands. The emigration of hosts of our young men in the near future will largely increase the excess of females.” Muriel Wrench, in an article in the Sunday Pictorial, declares that a new ideal of feminity must be built up. The education of women must be conducted on new lines, fitting her to be an intelligent wife and mother, or the intelligent disciple of one of the professions in which women can excel. Owing to their special characteristics the woman of the future- should be taught psychology, instead of logic; and physiology instead of mathematics. She should learn folklore, biology, and the care of children, instead of zoology, trigonometry, and Latin. The care of children should be put on a more scientific basis, and an educated, intelligent mother, bringing brains and knowledge, instead of merely instinct to her work, will cease to be a domestic drudge and an inefficient guardian of children. A woman employed outside the home should be recognised as the ideal nurse and teacher of young children. She should be a healer rather than a scientific physician : she should be a kindergarden teacher rather than a senior wrangler; thereby the professional woman will excel in her own particular work.