SURPLUS WOMEN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18071, 8 January 1921, Page 8

SURPLUS WOMEN

SOME PROBLEMS OF THE FUTURE. By ANNIE S. SWAN, in the Glasgow “Weekly Herald.” Surplus women present a concrete I fact from which there is no getting ’ away. Personally Ido not think any ' public service is rendered by the |newspapers exploiting and dwelling I upon it, thus obtruding it on the attention of all whom it may or may inot concern. I Do not imagine, however, that I ' am an admirer - or advocate of the ostrich policy. There is nothing to he gained by sticking one’s head in the : sand, and pretending there isn’t anyI thing happening or going to happen. | But there is a wide difference between that senseless attitude, and labouring cr intruding un\velcome J truths. That they are truths does I not alone justify their obtrusion. I There are so many crises in life for which there is no remedy save the I great silence. ■ The science of living has to be | learned like any other science; the ‘pity is that it takes the whole of the i span, be it long or short, to acquire (even a workable modicum of proficI iency.

I BRAYING SCAREMONGERS. I We are all hindered and handiI capped in our endeavours to live to I the best of our ability by scaremon- ; gers, and the world was never so full iof them as it is to-day. There is far I too much writing about everything, i We cannot get peace to adjust our | compasses for the braying of a multi- | tude of counsellors in whom there is I no wisdom. j In this tirade you may imagine you sense some uneasiness, as of one who reluctantly admits that there is no smoke without fire. Far be it from me to blink the fact that we live in difficult times. The problems of the future —especiI ally those affecting women—are !grave enough in all conscience. Let ;us see whether we can’t create a i more cheerful atmosphere by dispos- | ing of some of the bogles. I First, let us remember that in this I country there has always been a surplus of women. From time to time we have been reminded of it. by hysterical writers and the industrious sweepers up of disagreeable truths.

THE HAPPY UNMARRIED. But nothing much happened owing to the surplus. A proportion of them married and fulfilled their functions o 1 ’ making homes and carrying on the species, while the others carried on too in various occupations or in none, living blameless and often supremely useful lives, without betraying to the world any particular angui h of loss or disappointment. Quite the reverse. Some of the happiest women I have known have been unmarried—a good many of them from choice. There are going to be a few more of them in the years to come; that is all. And I have no expectation that new and awful problems will stalk us by reason of it.

RESTRAINTS OF MATRIMONY. There is no doubt that matrimony as a career or occupation for women has fallen from its former high estate in the estimation of women. To begin with, matrimony is accompanied by a certain loss of personal freedom—especially for the women It affects both partners, but the woman suffer - : more by reason of it. She cannot any longer do what she would like, follow her inclinations or develop herself on her own lines—she belongs to somebody else, and is expected to develop on his lines, or at least to conform to his ideas of what the home life should be. There are many instances where the woman takes the lead, and where the home is her absolute creation, but in the main it is as I have said. The man is the head of the house, and proclaims the fact, if not by his voice, by the whole concertel actions of his life. I am not cavilling at this; in the great majority of cases it is a system which works quite happily and for the benefit of th: family. The women whom life is educating, and to whom during the last few years so many doors have opened, are found unwilling, in ever-increasing numbers, to enter the cage, however heavily it may be gilded. Ordinary intercourse with one’s kind brings this fact home every day. During the years of the great struggle they discovered the joy of comradeship with one another, once almost the exclusive possession and prerogative of men, and they have found it good—one of the few compensations of the war.

THE SHIRKING OF MOTHERHOOD. —-Then the instinct for motherhood is not highly developed in all women; in some, indeed, it is almost non-existent, though motherhood can bring it out, and on occasion develop it highly. The dormancy of this instinct is really one of the causes of the shirking of motherhood so prevalent today, and so fruitful a theme for the scaremongers. My belief and contention is that .there will always be sufficient mothers available for the perpetuation of the race. Nature will see to that, and the women who have a natural vocation for matrimony will find their niche in due course. The system of natural selection has not altogether been scotched by the war. There will of necessity be fewer marriages, at least within the next decade, owing to the shortage of husbands and the supreme difficulties surounding the making of new homes. But there is nothing to worry about. This is but one of the many passing phases in one of the greatest epochs of history. The world is being readjusted, not by gradual process, but by swift drastic processes kindred to the work of the surgeon’s knife. Never fear but that the best will survive, as it has survived in all ages and climes. The future of woman cannot be destroyed, nor yet even seriously menaced. She is the foundation of life. Without her, all must come to an end. She is merely being prepared now for the new phase of the world’s epic story. Watchers at the gate like myself, who have :een many changes and expect to see more, are not seriously disquieted, and are able to sense something finer than disaster and deefat in the signs and portents by which we are surrounded. Travail precedes all strong birth, and women must be ready to carry on under whatever handicap, so that they may help to secure the new era, which is going to remove so many ot the disabilities of the old.