WOMANS GOLDEN LAND

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 257, 30 October 1928, Page 11

WOMANS GOLDEN LAND

WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE KIGHTS IN CZECHO SLOVAKIA Czccho-Slovakia is the land of Woman’s Dream come true, writes Mrs Cecil Chesterton, in the Daily Express. The whole political, professional, and business world lies before her where to choose. She can be a State official, a Cabinet Minister, a civil engineer, a banker, and everything in between. Marriage is no bar to her career. The vexed queaiion whether a woman is also a wife can continue to act as a medical officer of health does not arise. All that is necessary is for her to appoint a deputy when she has to go away for the birth of a child or a serious illness. Salaries, State or otherwise, are the same for both sexes, though the married man has an allowance for his family. Divorce is simple and easy. One ?an rid oneself of his or her partner for ' fourteen, reasons, of which infidelity is only one. These include insanity, mental incoinpatability, cruelty, insulting behaviour, and. mental disease. This last is sibdivided. Epilepsy is one of the counts, but evidence must be forthcoming that the defendant has had at least six fits in the previous year! Alimony is decided on the same lines as in Britain, and the custody of the children lies within the discretion of the Judge, with their support. There are fourteen women M.P.’s and one woman senator. The deputies are distributd among the various parties. Politically speaking, feminine influence counts' for more in municipal than parliamentary issues. Women are well represented in the city councils, and prosecute a vigorous policy in regard, to housing and the proper provision of accommodation for the homeless, the sick, and the orphan. Municipal Lodging Houses The municipality of Prague runs lodging houses for women as well as for men, at which a trifling charge is made—three krones (44d) a night for a bed and a meal. If, however, the applicant is without means the amount is charged against the council. The management of this and similar institutions is in the hands of the women’s committee of the Red Cross, who work in with Zachrana (that is, safety) and kindred associations, including the Salvation Army. The freedom from political and professional disabilities seems to have bred a new tolerance in women. There is no inquisitorial search into the reason why a ‘ ‘ down-andi out ” has arrived at destitution. Whatever she or lie may have done, the primal right to a roof and a meal remains unquestioned, and adequate means are found not only to supply immediate needs, but to put the homeless ones upon their feet. The municipal council finds the money, the H'ed Cross and kindred societies are responsible for its administration.

This new tolerance accounts, perhaps, for the popularity in Czechoslovakia of the woman doctor among her own sex.

There are a number of women specialists, particu’arly for mental and nervous diseases, and their consulting rooms are always full. A woman professor occupies the medical chair atone of the universities, and there are a fair proportion of women health officials. The Woman’s View At present women can only claim i one member of the Bar. There are, however, a number of women qualified as notaries who ho d positions in I banks and public companies. Some thirty-four law students, however, will shortly blossom into barristers, and it is thought that women will eventually be appointed as Judges in the Courts reserved for juvenile offenders —by way of a beginning. The woman’s view has undoubtedly influenced the new penal code. A biil for the abolition of capital punishment will come before Parliament next session, and will inevitably be carried. Further, persons suffering from an incurable disease who desire death may, on the testimony of two medical men, find euthanasia. Side by side with the full emancipation of the business and professional woman there is a strict embargo against women in industry. The trade unions, as in England, will not admit her to any of the skilled occupations save in the cotton trade. She must not be a impositor, a bricklayer. or a mechanic. She may, however, be a labourer to a’l three, and she very generally is. There is little or no discontent among the women of the workingclass because of this, and for a good reason. The disparity between the sexes in point of numbers is even more marked in Czecho-Slovakia, with its fourteen millions, than in Britain, and the working woman recognises that if she displaces a man at his job there will be less and less chance for her and for her sisters. Age Limit for Legislators Youth is not actively interested in politics, either parliamentary or municipal. One reason for this is that while there is adult, suffrage there is also an age limit for a deputy and a senator. No one may stand for the first duty under thirty; for the second he or she must be thirty-five. There is, however, no limit at the other end, and as a young man “Y’ou can go on governing till you are as okl as Methuselah.” Y'outh feels, indeed, that there is a conspiracy among their elders to keep them under. Criticism comes from the same quarter with regard to the wives who retain their jobs. It is felt that every married woman who holds a salaried position dispossesses a man and prevents the founding of another home and the rcaringf of a family. CzcchoSlovakia is a land of promise for the woman rather than the girl. Y'outh has sti'l to come ifito its own.