Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] TUESDAY, 16th APRIL, 1935. WOMAN LEADERSHIP.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 16 April 1935, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] TUESDAY, 16th APRIL, 1935. WOMAN LEADERSHIP.

Nothing is perhaps more astonishing among the changes wrought in society by the last hundred years than the new position of woman in the world. In the days of our grandfathers, and even of our fathers, woman was looked upon as “the weaker sex.” Her place was in the home, and nowhere else. When Florence Nightingale took the lead in organising nursing aid to the wounded in the Crimea, she was regarded as an eccentric, almost something unnatural. The emancipation of women came slowly, and only after many bitter and long-drawn-out sti’uggles. But to-day woman not only takes her place alongside man as an equal in the commercial, political and intellectual worlds, but she challenges his supremacy to assert her own. Individual women of genius and ability have taken the lead in literature, science, the learned professions and business. But perhaps there is no more striking example of feminine leadership than that which is now held in the religious field by Evangeline Booth, who was elected to the important position of General of the Salvation Army by the High Council in September of last year, and who, in her new capacity, is now conducting her first Dominions campaign. General Booth is now in command of an Army that is carrying on its work in ninety different countries, and preaching its message in eighty different languages. The Salvation Army conducts 15,931 evangelical stations, and 1582 social institutions. General Booth is a commander who rules over 27,000 commanding officers, 46,000 bandsmen, 68,543 songsters, and 26,266 officers and cadets. The responsibility for such an organisation must be tremendous. Yet General Evangeline Booth, who celebrated her 69th birthday last Christmas Day, holds lier leadership unquestioned.