MODERN FRENCH GIRL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17169, 12 October 1923, Page 9

MODERN FRENCH GIRL.

* In our present after war day?, although our French g.ir!s are not entirely enfranchised, we nevertheless find them greatly advanced in mincK 1 hey have also taken kindly to all kinds of sport, ar>d with undisputed authority, as several well known names can testify. Nevertheless, be she ever so far advanced in ideas, you will never find a young girl in France smoking in pub lie places, dressing in imitation of men. going on week-end expeditions with male companions, and addressing their own fathers as “old bean!” (writes Claire Do, Pratz in “ John o’ London’s AA'eekly ”). because French girls, being of the Latin race, tend rather to excessive femininity than to extreme feminism. *‘ Mademoiselle ’’ has no wish to become a member of the “third sex.” She intends to remain as at tractively feminine as possible, in spite of her new freedom She has no desire to become half a lady and half a gentleman. A'et. in spite of her femininity and of her moral emancipation, when a French girl sets to do man’s work she does it thoroughly, while yet remaining, and intending t-o remain, essentiallv a woman. Notwithstanding their well-known interest in smart clothes.. when the women in France performed the work of the absent men they never dressed for the part nor adopted any special costume for the occasion. The women of all classes who took up men’s, work in all she depleted professions- -in the fields, in the vine yards, in State offices, in factories, and in all the railway and tramway services wore no special uniform as did their militarised English sisters. Thev performed their duty as women, and not as men. Tf in certain transport services they wore uniform caps, these were merely used as a distinctive service badge. The rest of their accoutrement remained as before, and front the top to the bottom of the social ladder French women workers wore their own hats, skirts, blouses or aprons as usual. This is the old traditional attitude ol the Frenchwoman in all branches of activity. .She will neither c-opv nor ape man in any way. In this she is supremely logical, for as to a certain extetit she considers man as her op pressor she will imitate neither his ways nor his manners. In this the English girls evidently feel otherwise. An English ladv who organised a gi-eat- number of land girls during the war told me that one of the principal attrac lions for all candidates was the becom mg uniform of the female landworkers. The French girl develops differently, though? not in a different degree. She is now making bverv effort to use her newlv-acquired experiem:© to aid the development of her feminine tendencies to the utmost. Not in the spirit of re volt- and ruse to which her grandmothers were often forced in other dnvs. but as a means of convincing her still reluctant male partners, ami as a means to attaining a more complete scientific education for herself that ?haP benefit the next- generation, as well as r» means to better feminine citizen-