MRS HOOVER'S VIEWS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18947, 18 December 1929, Page 12

MRS HOOVER'S VIEWS.

“Our feminine curriculum has been revolutionised, and college discipline made a real preparation for the practical business of life. The colleges are more democratic than those of men, and class distinctions are less pronounced,” stated Mrs Hoover, recently to an interviewer. “What are a girl’s expenses at Vassar?” it was inquired. “From £IOO to all told. The girl student of to-day is free as air, and devoted to outdoor sports. She ‘hikes’ across country in short skirts or knickers, which would have shocked her mother as gymnasium gear. Tracksports, tennis, hockey, baseball, and the rest —well, you know how we excel in these. If our girls do smoke and keep late hours, they consider their physical fitness more than equal to the test. And when they marry, they do aspire to be partners, in the French sense—and more. “Our college girls.” Mrs Hoover went on, “may not be conspicuous for ‘religion’ in the older sense. But they do understand, feel, and desire Christ’s second commandment ‘to love one’s neighbour as oneself.’ Hence the lure of. medicine, nursing, sociology, and science, as applied to industry. I would say that the difference between our women and yours lies in the initiative of American careers. A business of her own is the lode-star of ten thousand college girls; and marriage is less regarded as an essential to happiness or usefulness.”