The Rights OF Women

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21280, 25 February 1939, Page 22

The Rights OF Women

YVOMEN of Norway have decided that, if the so-called Women’s Movement is to go forward, it must be prepared to change its front. Such a decision was brought about largely by the action of Mrs. Betzy Kjelsberg, who, when the National Council of Women of Norway met in Oslo not long ago, resigned and nominated as her successor a young lawyer, Mrs. Sigrid Stray, explaining that, since doors had been opened by the women of the pioneer generation, it was now the duty of the younger women to pass through these doors and take over the leadership.

Upon being elected to fill her new post, Mrs. Stray declared that the days of asking for rights are over, and that women must now be prepared to give. Enormous energy, she said, had been expended in the past in demanding the right to serve. Nowadays, there is danger lest women should, by sheer force of habit, continue to “demand” instead of seeing that rights have, for the most part, been won, and now need only to be put into action. Women must be prepared in these times, Mrs. Stray said, to be peculiarly useful both to parliamentary and to municipal goverpment. They must be ready to supply information and to give the kind of special service that nobody else can give. Only in this way will the struggle for recognition and status be abandoned and the new generation of women recognise in the older organisations a means of giving—of rendering assistance to authority in an orderly way.

The National Council of Women of Norway is a powerful body, embracing 35 women’s councils and 13 national organisations, and numbering 180,000 individual members. By a stronger coordination of these members, Mrs. Stray would like to see the Council become a Women’s Parliament, adequately financed, systematic in its issue of infor-

Rice Variations It has been truly said that the subject of rice dishes is almost inexhaustible, and there are numerous really first-rate recipes. The secret of successful rice is to serve it up so that each grain is separate from the others, clear and tender. A teaspoonful of lemon juice put into the water will help to keep it white and the grains separate. To get the best results with boiled rice, wash it thoroughly rn of cold water, throw it into boiling water and boil

What They Think In Norway

mation in the form of lectures, pamphlets, and the like, and active in its organisation of study circles for the discovery and comparison of reliable information. Had the Council in the past been wider awake to the opportunities of giving, Mrs. Stray said, it would not to-day have to acknowledge that, among women, only one delegate and two substitute delegates hold seats in the Storting. Past faults and failures, it was pointed out by Miss Mimi Bockman, manager of the Municipal Continuation School for Girls in Oslo, have lain very largely in the fact that, while demanding rights, the women’s movement has not seen to it that its individual members were prepared to accept those same rights when granted.

She emphasised the need for a broader ideal in regard to the education of girls. Too often, she said, girls are allowed to leave school and to drop into paid work before their ideas in regard to a career have developed; and too often parents, urged either by vanity or by the influences of tradition, allow them to spend valuable training years in occupations which will lead them nowhere. She urged that the profession of the woman should be indicated by the talents and adaptabilities of the child, and that every effort should be made to give each young girl the opportunity to develop upon constructive lines. In no case, she said, should either girl or boy hold a paid position under the age of 15 years. Taking up a similar argument, Miss Anna Halvorsen, Manager of Baerums Ungdomskontor—an organisation for young people—told of how common interest in the future of the young had led the older people of her own district of Sandvika to band together in giving them a good start in working life. First-rate training, which is not always easy to obtain for every boy and girl, she explained, had been secured by the making of personal investigations among

rapidly for about 15 minutes. Test a grain between the thumb and finger, if it rubs away easily, the rice is cooked. Pour it into a colander, hold it for a second under the cold-water tap, drain well, replace in the saucepan and keep it covered on the stove until it is heated through again. Milk Meringue Jelly Take 1 pint of milk, and keep aside 2 tablespoonsful from it. Dissolve a pint jacket of jelly in 2 tablespoonsful

such people as the proprietors of important business concerns, or large stores, of workshops of various kinds, and of awakening their interest to accept pupils for practical training. Much may be done. Miss Halvorsen said, by the organisation of interested people with a certain amount of spare time on their hands, to discover just where and how openings may be found for the training of young people. In such a way, real help may be given in the development of a generation ready to step into the opportunities which ♦he pioneers opened for it.