Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1926. WOMAN’S PLACE UNDER THE SUN.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17058, 12 June 1926, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1926. WOMAN’S PLACE UNDER THE SUN.

Now Zealand lias not boon slow to recognise the right of the claim made by women to occupy a wider place under the sun than was conccedod to them by men in earlier days. But even in the lifetime of many persons of both races, ,tho. clergy working among the Maoris found that the Maori women were reluctant to enter into legal marriages as required by the Church and the State, because upon marriage, lands which under Maori customs they were entitled to in their own right, passed under the law of the Europeans to the husband. In New Zealand, since, we think, 1884, the idea that a woman so lost her identity upon marriage as to be incapable of possessing separate estate, or of enjoying its fruits, except, through complicated and often fictitious trusts, has been consigned to the oblivion of exploded views and barbarian customs. It would be difficult at this day ,to name any right or privilege that a .woman could not enjoy, or any office which she could not occupy. It was a curious anomaly that a woman could occupy a throne but not a less exalted position. Women in New Zealand to-day could, it' they chose to organise, return at least, half the members to the New Zealand Parliament, of whom, certainly, a. majority might be women. It has often been said, irreverently and quite without justification, that the Legislative Council is composed of a lot of old women; however this may be, the Governor-General,' if he were so advised, could call to the Council any number of women, young or old. So far. neither in Great Britain nor New Zealand, have women shown any strong desire to occupy scats in the Legislature, or to secure .them for other women. Where women have allowed themsolevos to be nominated for an electorate, they do not seem to have secured a consolidated vote of the women voters on the roll. Women have exercised the franchise freely but have not so far aspired to oust, man from the right, by virtue of his manhood, to dominance in the government of the State. They do, however, claim to share equally with him the right to occupy any profession, trade, or occupation eonuniMnate with their strength. Men have to plead guilty to a habit of generalisation in regard to women. The object of this generalisation is in some way to emphasise certain limitations which attend her choice of occupation, or which affect her tastes, her disposition, her mode of thought, or even her judgment. There is an assumption, underlying such aphorisms, which takes for granted and inevitably narrows the sphere of women’s work. If the limitations suggested are accepted, it is plain that the founda-. t ion for many claims, made on woman’s behalf, to. specialise in some professions or pursuits, would be endangered. Miss Rose Macaulay has i very cleverly taken up some of those customary generalisations applied to i women, and has read them to a tie-1 lighted audience of women with

“mail?’ substituted for- “vroinan,” In the eases selected for her purpose it was.at once seen that the statement applied equally, wheu .spoken of “man” as when spaken;of “woman'.” But in truth, most of tliesoi generalisations, which women properly enough resent, have come down to us from .'a time when women. had no place under the sun except as the complement and the comforter of man. In those days women were as much shut off from taking a place in the business of general life, as if secluded under the care of some Eastern Potentate. We have only to look at the illustrations in our New Zealand weekly papers, anil note, week after week, in our schools, colleges, and universities the equal proportions of either sex, and note the vast- number of young women in cap and gown, with all the marks and insignia of high scholarship, .to recognise that wo are making history, and that women are now ready to take the fullest share in every walk of life, not requiring great manual strength, and that the life of independenece and the glory of wider service, is, in the future, to encroach very materially upon the desire for a home life, under the uncertain and sometimes exacting conditions attendant, upon the settlement of a country in the making. Mr. Haw ken has spoken strongly, but not a bit too strongly, as to the hardships endured by many wives and mothers in the bnckbloeks. We need not go very far back in Poverty Bay to find where cases ,such as Mr. Ilawken liad in his mind, are lo be found. It is not surprising if women with equal education to men, sacrifice their natural desire for the home life, rather thtui face uncertainty, and discomfort. Men may" have -to show 'theriTselv.es more worthy, of the gift, of .herself; Which a woman brings into .married life, than has boon the case in the past. At present the careers, which women can scdect for themselves arc overcrowded, It will not always be so. It is natural to turn to the typewriter and stenographer’s desk, because facile fingers and a quick drain acquire skill in a comparatively short time. But women will learn to organise, and .take up occupations, equally adapted to their genius, and more likely to pc remunerative. The war proved, in a way which cannot be forgotten, how many occupations women were able, at short notice, to take up, some of which demanded much technical skill, strength and endurance. In New Zealand women have not yet taken up horticulture as a> pursuit. This is a field in which they could undoubtedly succeed, and make, money. It would require leadership and organisation, together with moderate capital. In France, marriage is often, not. only a partnership in the house, but also in the shop. Woman’s intrusion into the sphere of man’s usurped domain is less marked in France, because it has existed for so long. In England, ■ copying the French, women to-day do not hesitate to become shopkeepers, although the-occupations they resort to .would have been impossible in their immediate progenitors. A modern Englishwoman is more reluctant to be dependent than to work, even though that work is not what she would have preferably chosen. Women have always shared with men the triumphs of the stage. This can hardly be accounted for by the natural attractiveness of her sex. The stage represents man arid woman as the complements of each other in tlio drama of life. Apart from the glamor of the footlights, there is no reason why in all occupations the two sexes should not act in co-opera-tive. partnership. In literature women have taken a great place. They have not yet given to the world a monumental work—though Madame Curie, if her mind had taken the direction, was quite capable of such a gift. Women in advancing their claim to a larger place under the sun have not expressed any desire to vacate their natural place as the helpmeet of man, and the mother of the nation. It is motherhood which sl)e justly- : claims as her most glorious task, for it is certain the men of the future will reflect Ihe mothers of the present. She has made .good her claim to an independent life, which at the first was received with derision and caricature. She has proved that an educated woman, trained for vocational service, does not part for a moment with the qualities which give her her place with, for, and by- the side of man. His arrogance she overlooks; his obliquities she covers up; his troubles she shares.