WOMEN AND THE CRISIS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18089, 16 May 1933, Page 11

WOMEN AND THE CRISIS

ADDRESS BY Y.W.G.A. LEADER THE PROBLEM OF LEISURE ■‘The industrial problem was the problem of yesterday, the economic problem is the problem of to-day. and the leisure problem is the problem of to-morrow lor all who believe in the progress of the race Goihvard and who hold the Christian mandate for a really abundant life for all people," said Miss .lean Stevenson, national secretary for the Y.W.G.A.. in an address at St. John's Presbyterian Church, Wellington. Miss Stevenson .spoke on the topic "The Gliurcli, the Crisis, and the Girl of To-day.” She said there was a mandate to Christian people in Christ’s words, "I am come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly'’ (.John 10.10).

People may differ in their interpretation of these words. "1 have known one business man who held Bible classes with his employees as Ins way of sharing with them 'the principles of abundant living, lmt ho would not think it applied to the wages he paid,” said Miss Stevenson.

The end of the Crimean War marked tho beginning of women’s emancipation, and lim Y.W.G.A. hud come into being to meet the new emergencies which arose as women gradually assumed independent life in the community. The last war had opened still more doors, and in recent years a very large, proportion of young women spent, from five to 15 years in some industrial, professional, or Imsi ness vocation before entering on home life.

“To-day we face (lie problem of diminishing employment with the trend of progress in the direction of eliminating human labor,” said Miss Stevenson. “A job means other tilings besides its very important aspect of economic independence. It means discipline, companionship, the interests that give zest to life, and (the incentive !u an enlarging mental

horizon. We depend upon the discipline of the job to 'counteract slackness and to prevent deterioration of character. Now wo must find other substitutes for this—personal motives, absorbing interests, spiritual and mental stimuli. In this is a challenge for a great world-wide Christian movement like the Y.W.C.A. “We have thought of leisure as being a very narrow margin in a life nearly lilled by enforced work. Now we have

to think of it as a largo piece of life which may be lilled by self-directed ellort, and in this there is the promise of great progress for nation and for indi vidua 1 The problems of to-day are a challenge to the Church to load the thinking of the 'community, not by creating new organisations within itself, hut by sending out inspired leaders who will revitalise and transform the life of the community. If greed and fear are the spiritual basis of our economic woes, ( hristians are those who are not motivated by self-interest and who have the perfect love, that casts out fear—the. love of Cod and neighbor.”

The community should lie able to look fo the youth of the Church for constructive and radical thinking. Casual benevolence was not a sullicient way to express the true Christian conscience. Every ( hristian should hi*, seeking by hard 1 bought to know Imw the mandate of Christ might he expressed in the terms of to-day. Christian organisations and community avenues should he used J'or Christian leadership rather than special Church organisations. Among the immediate principles required were a shorter working day. Leisure should he distributed over the population and not given to some in the form of unemployment. Adequate wage standards were nouessary. One section of the community could not he depressed without depressing all. Extension of education and unemployment insurance*were other principles for application. Miss Stevenson concluded ; “The conscience of William lllake was challenged by the' industrial abuses of England in the nineteenth century. Not less to-day must the Christian conscience ho challenged as we see the creation of a pauper class and of physical and mental ‘slum conditions' in our fair laml. r