IF WOMEN WENT ON STRIKE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12707, 9 March 1912, Page 6 (Supplement)

IF WOMEN WENT ON STRIKE.

, A lady writer in the Pall Mall Gazette discusses what might happen if women went on strike against the supremacy of men. In the cour.se of the article the writer says: — As to the housemaid's work and the mending, even if that were left undone during a feminine strike it would not trouble the supposed victims much. Dust is not by any means as distasteful to a man as . it is to a woman ; his attitude towards it is somewhat that of the elderly Irish woman to the superior and nose-tilted Saxon: "Arrah,: it's only the likes of you.'ud be mindin' a little bit o| clean dirt." Anyone who . doubts this assertion might test it by, dxisting the tbooks of a many-volume loving man. : Her act will not meet with the gratitude she might possibly be led to expect. On the contrary ! i ■ ■ ■■ ' We may then take it for granted that if it came to the worst, most men could do without us very well. , The(re are som^ women who : still . think men want a lot of mothering; but a. few inquiries at the "male" counters of any \of our vast emporiums would prove ; that the ordinary young man looks after himself | with far greater care than : any. woman could possibly look after him. He knows his own wants/ and; he satisfies them with the acme of comfort. ■BUT. But on the other hand, if a strike of women against men would prove ineffectual, what would happen if the men struck' against women as a sex? No electric light would be shown, where women congregate, and the man would quietly .settle down at, his. club,- leaving his recalcitrant wife iin darkness, The baker would only sell his bread .to men, the grocer his tea, the butcher the meat, and the I rtjilkman the, milk. ; The, postman would- only deliver; letters, w^th. the magic symbol "Esq," the-vanmaii would "park" the feminine, parcel, the. 'busman would refuse the feminine passenger, the man at the ticket office, would sell . no ticket to anything in ijki.rts, * ne taxi would turn" the other, way if hailed by a tired lady, the waiter (with a recollection <ji" meagre .tips), would .declipe absolutely to produce even asardine for a feminine client, the theatres run by men would refuse to employ, wpmen . (they could do that quite readily,- shice men were the first actors, and can still portray womQii excellently, though women cannot portray men),-, and refuse the feminktie audience., Judges would refuse to hear cases in which women were defendants or plaintiffs^ district messengers would decline to carry their messaged. And, worst of all, the genial) delightful, useful policeman would refuse 'to; stop the traffic or tell' even the most elderly lady the way. . . ... The- moral is I hat the only effectual sex strike would be a male one,. /_, , .