WOMEN IN ITALY

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1579, 27 November 1924, Page 3

WOMEN IN ITALY

As ma '.vnndprc through Italy, through 'he paved sfeets of the cities and along the White duty roads of the counlry-s-ide, one is struck by the "great divide" that still exists between the two classes of women of that wonderful country, writes Elizabeth Fleur, in the "Westminster Gazette." But whichever class they belong to, whether that of the highly cultured or the hard-working peasant, they command the admiration of an Englishwoman.

With regard to the peasant woman, one is inclined to allow one's admiration to overcome moderation. She is so integral a part of that glorious country. Her husband may sleep from dawn till eve, may spend his days throwing down cards on a cafe's greasy table, but she goes on, with only the shortest break in order to give birth to another child. She works in the fields, in the vineyards, in the olive groves. When there is building in progress she carries, often bare-footed, the bricks and the mortar, on a flat-shaped basket balanced on her head, from where they are made or dumped to the site. One meets her on the roads, everywhere. Her face is deeply lined from the hardships of life, yet she smiles always.

The middle-class woman in Italy, compared with other countries, scarce'y exists, yet -slowly a general levelling is taking place. It is scarcely perceptible, but the peasants are getting educated, and many of the nobility are so poor that their houses are falling to pieces, so that sooner or later these women will have to find their place in the world of workers. There are woman teachers, but the teaching profession in Italy is sadly overcrowded, both men and women being inadequately remunerated. The arts, especially painting and sculpture, are more and more attracting the Italian woman, also literature, there being quite eight woman writers of distinction.

' But, strange to say, in a country that is so rich and fertile, there are few women who- take any interest in agriculture, yet what an opportunity awaits the woman fruit grower and farmer. Peaches, figs, oranges, lemons, and grapes all grow out of doors in the richest profusion; the corn fields wave voluptuously for miles and miles, and still the patient oxen draw the most primitive of ploughs.