WOMAN'S INFLUENCE IN FRANCE.

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 21 May 1913, Page 3

WOMAN'S INFLUENCE IN FRANCE.

In Politics, Art, Literature and Commerce, as well as in social life in France, says Claire de Prat, in "France from Within," the woman-in-fluence is everywhere, tEough it is not so flagrantly apparent as it is occultly felt. It is the mothers of France who form the souls of the men of France, and the best and greatest Frenchmen have ever possessed as many of the higher feminine qualities as of the nobler masculine ones. .

A Frenchman never has a better friend than his wife. He confides all his troubles to her—business ones.and others. She is a true helpmate, and never falls to tne level of so many Anglo-Saxon "wive s of the middle classes, who often know nothing at all of their husband's business, and are merely upper servants in their own households. . . Although she is educated from her earliest youth with the idea that she must please her husband in every way, and fashion herself to his liking, yet in moments of great stress, when firm decision is necessary, no woman can be more personally heroic than the Frenchwoman.

In France alone have been such women a*s Jeanne d'Arc, Jeanne Hachette, Charlotte Corday, Madame Rolan<3 3 and many others, not to mention those who throughout history have pulled the wires of all political, literary and social affairs. There is no more capable or resourceful woman than the Frenchwoman in the moments of trouble and it is very rare to find one stranded in life, because she can generally turn her hand to anything, and do that anything well. Within my own experience I have both heard and known of many women who from one day to another, after some great financial loss, have become excellent business women, cashiers, clerks, dressmakers, milliners, etc., who when it has been necessary have managed to acquire the requisite technical knowledge with facility and ability. It is very rarely that one sees in France the helpless, incompetent woman who can turn her hand to nothing, having never learnt to do one single thing well.