WOMEN IN 1950

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1787, 27 July 1926, Page 6

WOMEN IN 1950

THE BASJOJESS OF POLICY. CHANGES IN DRESS. What is the use of asking what women will be like in 1950 if we cannot tell what they will be. or do, or say, next week? (inquires a writer in the Melbourne Age). It has been immortalised in poetry, ancient and modern. It is part of woman's charm. Old bachelors, sour and disappointed, may liken her to the moon, hut the happily married will retort that the moon is a heavenly body in spite of variability. Pope will declare that woman's at best is a contradiction, Richter that she is the most inconsistent compound of obstinacy and self-sacrific eand even Scott will describe her as uncertain, coy and hard to please, as variable as the shade by the light quivering aspen made. If all this is true, why try even to imagine what bhe will be when half this century shall have gone? For the obvious reason that whatever changes may have taken place in her habits of outlook, she will still be a woman, with all a woman's instincts and intuitions. Part of her will change and part remain unchanged, and the unchanged and the unchangeable part will sway the other. That which is passing and variable is the accidental, that which is permanent and invariable belongs to the essence of womanhood. Of course the woman of 1950 will be different in many ways from the woman of 1926. What her dress will be no one will be rash enough to predict. A glance through the fashion books for the last 20 or even 10 years would provide much reason for hilarity. Does anyone remember contraptions known as "improvers" or "bustles." and the beautiful outline they were supposed to confer? Where are those glories now? Or can anyone recall the various hats which have appeared and vanished during the same period, some like jam pots, and some like nothing in heaven above or on earth beneath? Contrast them with the concoctions of to-day. Now the point is that even what we now call monstrosities pleased the eye and gave genuine delight to wearer and beholder. They really looked nice and made the wearer look well. Then we come upon a vital principle which enables us to predict that in 1950 women will still wish to look nice, and they will succeed. A sound instinct tells woman that it is her duty to keep alive in the world the sense of the beautiful. See what space in great establishments is given over to her sex, and how many of the greates* advertisements are devoted to her needs. It is natural that shops should powerfully attract a woman. It is her duty to dress well for the sake of giving pleasure to all who see her. Dowdiness is a sin against, the race, an offence which smells rank. iNow no one can tell whether in 1950 a man will be able to hide himself behind a woman's skirts, or whether they will voluminously and gracefully encircle her ankles, or with a majestic train sweep up the microbes of the pavement and deposit them in her shoes. The chances are that science and common sense will triumph, and that modesty, still being persistent, will combine to ensure at once dignity, beauty, health and the structure of woman's outer garment. But no designer can anticipate details. Heaven forbid that in 1950 women should all be wearing the' bifurcated garments which are now considered the exclusive property of man. If she does she will still be charming, but the fashion will pass. Probably more women will be better ressed in 1950 than now. What about love and marriage? Already women are marrying later. Prudence has a say; also women do not now look upon marriage as the only vocation. Many take quite the opposite view, and happily there are alternative careers. Will there be more bachelor girls in 1950?. Difficult to say but probaby not. Love is for ever the supreme authority for. woman. To fight against it is to defy the universe. As woman keeps the sense of beauty alive in the drab world, so she keeps love alive. The urge of home, husband, children is nearly almighty. She wants her love to make a man stronger, not less manly, but more. This is an instinct, and will endure. paradoxical though it may seem, there will be less home life in 1950; that is, home as we know it. At present the home is all-sufficient or nearly so. Each family does its own cooking and housekeeping, its own scrubbing and washing, and is what one may call self-contained. Our parents were greater on this principle than we are. They made their own bread, pickles, preserves, reared their own fowls, and in the previous generations our ancestors made their own clothes from the wool grown on their own sheep. Nowadays the tendency is towards life in flats, with one .cooking, cleaning and laundry system for several families. Science is organising domestic life in such a way that woman is to gain immensely in freedom. She will .have less home ties in 1950. but that does not necessarily mean she wil be happier. There are pessimists who predict ihat on questions of sex we are on the

down grade, and by 1950 every city will be. a Sodom. We do not believe it. Because one sees a bit of thistledown blowing seaward, it does not follow that it will ever reach the opposite shore. Other winds may rise and determine its course and destination. If anyone asks what will check certain sex tendencies unhappily too prominent to-day, let him remember, among «other influences, the conscious weakness of woman. As her caprice is her charm, so her weakness' is her strength. This will make her cling to man, but will remind her also that mot even man will be able to save her and her children unless she stands for purity. Men sneer at women for being religious, yet it is the religion of women that is making the world safe for men to live in. Becaue women will ever need protection, and because her instincts are finer, she will see to it that by 1950 life will still be worth living. The thin end of the wedge will not mean the coming of the thick end. The changes that will have taken place by 1950 will be chiefly in extern, als. In all that really matters woman will be the same as she is now. One can see that education, with all the limitations it has, is producing a number of strong, noble and serious women who are rearing families in which reason and conscience triumph over destructive impulses. Woman is no longer a creature of storms, smiles, whims, anger, tears, but a sensible, influential, balanced personality. She and the schools now concerned in the education of the girls are creating a type of character that will flower and fruit in 1950, and enrich and sweeten the land. Woman is essentially religious, her instincts are sound, and she will go on moulding the race, saving it from itself and moving it to finer issues.