STUDY AND DISCUSSION SOCIETY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17058, 12 June 1926, Page 6

STUDY AND DISCUSSION SOCIETY.

The subejet 'of last Thursday evening's address was an interesting one. the lecturer, Mrs.'A. V. Terry, member of tho League of New. Zealand Pen W-omen, giving an entertaining lecture on “Feminism.”

The speaker mentioned the great preponderance in England of females over males —henco die importance of the feminist movement to the public of England, a state of affairs which has not yet arisen in New Zealand. The '(definite number of,women working for improvement in all matters relating to their sex amounts to at least five millions, who are led hy a small but. powerful body of women calling thmselves feminists, in most cases educated and cultured women. Their objects are to obtain equal pay for equal work, equality of opportunity .and general recognition that woman is the equal of man in the industrial world. They make no claim to the physical equals of man, but they do claim menial equality and the chance to prove it. The question of the relative brain-power of the sexes is still ati open question in the'medical ivorkl. The weapon to be used in bringing about feminist, ideals' is the organisation ol women Into trade unions. The lecturer claimed that in the Old Country women had not the same opportunities of higher education, whatever noliticians might say to the contrary. The abandonment of home-life was absolutely necessary to the cultivation of woman’s individuality, as centuries of cooking, cleaning, the earn of (lie child, have warped feminine mentality. Such conditions can no longer be maintained if woman is to develop a. 'free personality. Feminists advocate the provision of creches for the rearing of the children, where women trained in mother-craft • would take charge. They also advocate a. uniform dress for women which the 'lecturer contended would he a splendid innovation, referring to the beatity of the uniforms cif lioso’ nurses, and the garments worn hy 'Creek women, which did not vary in style for some centuries. The money saved by the adoption of inexpensive uniforms could be spent on more useful tilings.

Tfie discussion which followed tended to develop into a. controversy, some speakers contending 'that feminists went much too far iri their 'programme of social reconstruction. Others considered shiif the question of woman’s position in the world was merely a question of economics.

j A hearty vole of thanks to the speaker , concluded tilt meeting.