Don’t Be a Career Cheater

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1010, 28 June 1930, Page 18

Don’t Be a Career Cheater

Have Your Job, but —

Woman’s Niche in Life is Still Home-Building & Motherhood, Argues Woman Magistrate.

BHE modern woman is still a long way from leading a well-balanced and normal life,” declares Jeanette G. Brill, woman magistrate. ‘‘She is forgetting that the building of her home is still her biggest and most glorious career and that her newly acquired freedom and advantages should be utilised for its enrichment. ‘‘l am speaking now particularly of the married woman who is participating in a variety of things, none of which reacts to the advantage of her home or, in many cases, even to her own personal benefit. Numberless inventions have released her from household cares and duties and have given her more leisure than women, except the very wealthiest, have had before. What is she doing with this leisure that is of any value to family life and to society in general? “We have, on one hand, a group of idle wives who employ their time in playing bridge, spending their husbands’ money and belonging to some feminine groups of unproductive character. They do little to develop themselves culturally or to equip themselves to become better companions i.o their husbands and children. For all the creative good to which thev put their leisure, they might just as well not have it at all. The only thiug that, interests them is the social part of life, and they neither seek nor desire any mental activity. “In direct contrast to this class, we have those women who are so intent upon a career that everything else in is sacrificed to it. Either they can’t be bothered with children, or if they do have them, they are almost at once turned over to other hands .■heir husbands rarely see them—and then only when they are tired and exhausted from a day’s work. Unlike their sisters of the leisure group, they ' have no time for social activities or t development. They are utterly absorbed by one thing—their work. I “-*■ am still old-fashioned enough to j

1 believe that a woman’s first cons id era- i tson should be her home and her j children, and that unless she is doing : something that will be of benefit to! them, she has failed in her purpose in life. The question that every woman should ask herself is: ‘What am I do-, ing with my freedom that is helping i to make the family life richer ami \ happier? It does not require more j than a casual observation to see how , many women are using their hours of j leisure for selfish, egotistical purposes | only. They are so intent upon deriv- j ing happiness for themselves that they : miss it altogether. “And yet, for the woman who uses \ her intelligence and who does a little j systematic planning, there never was ! a wider opportunity to do so much ! for herself and her family as tiler** ; is today.” Mrs. Brill, who, by the way, was the : first woman in New York City to try j a first-degree murder case, was ap* | j Pointed Deputy-Attorney-General in j 1923. She is a member of the American Bar Association. New’ York! County Lawyers* Association, as well j as many religious and civic organisations. She is vice-president of the Madison Club. Mrs. Brill is also a lecturer on child : training and psychology and has com- j bined many other outside interests in j a busy career. She became especially , interested in the subject of child psy-! chology, first as a school teacher and later as a mother. She read every reliable work on that subject and soon began to formulate ideas and theories based on her own studies and experience concerning the upbringing of children. As a result of her school-teaching experience, it was only natural that she should seek to disseminate the knowledge she had gleaned from her study of child psychology. She found the lecture platform best suited to her purpose. “It is of the utmost importance that the married woman who wants to continue with her career should consider the attitude of her husband,” Mrs. Brill says. “Unless she has his

<<>op.'ration and encourage men, .■ | dual role will be too much tor j and she will scarcely do either I justice. In fact, if her husbandV’ I not approve of the idea, she S h I not even attempt to pursue anm?’ I I career, for it isn’t worth an iota e I | means sacrificing the peace and k I | mony of the home. **’ I “Many a successful professa. I woman disrupts her married life? I cause she flaunts her capabilities ' I her financial freedom in her husbaM I lace, whenever an argument I agreement arises. The woman I j earns more than her husband a- 1 1 always try to make him feel tha>l I is on an equal basis with her. and ik I must do it in such a way that h» I never conscious of it. Not I should she turn to him for his 01* I ions, but it will be of inestimable J? 1 I for her to obtain the man’s point! V

“And yet another tiling j „ b •mphasisc for the married woman vt I ins a. job is that a husband i s 1 I uled to the companionship of a *4 I Who is physically at her best. jf . 1 I leiurns home tired and hasn't enoS I < nergy to talk to him, to say nntuL I cf going out with him. you may pi, j ; assured that she is paving the ul I I'm trouble. Before she knows it o j will be sharing him with soma oig I else, and from there it. will be oab one step to the divorce court, ! woman, therefore, who isn’t physical! ; strong enough to hold on to two jobt and who is the victim of nerves | should banish the thought of a career “However, the woman who eanae continue with her work should Mfeel that she is losing anything, j•she only exercises her intelligent slic can make her home job attrat five, by relating it to other activities lin the outside world. This applj,'. I as well to the woman who is not fitter | for a career and who wants to rcei,- | the mentally demoralising effect 0 i idleness. j “As for the woman who holds onto i an office job for the sake of havitu- | her own bank account or even be j cause she wants an additional outlet ; l have very little patience with he j There is so much more vital wots which she can be doing with hepriceless gift of leisure, and so mam j worth-while causes to which she cai devote herself, that there is no uece, | sitv for her to go back into the i*. ! dus trial world to perform some ut ; important work. “If she has children, the first thing j she should take up is modern psychoj logy and child study, so that she wffi j he better able to guide the destinies |of her children. I believe that even woman should take an active part it politics and public welfare work This will react to the benefit of the community in which she lives, ani even of the country at large. “Women today can do big things That is why it is pathetic to see sc many of them getting into a rut, wasting their spare time or unnecessarily holding on to jobs. A woman’s leis ure should be used in such ways that others beside herself gain from it She should ask herself whether tht people with whom she comes into contact are better off for having know! her, and whether she brings them any happiness. If she can answer in th, affirmative, then, and only then, cat she count her life a success.”