STATUS OF WOMEN.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16817, 8 June 1926, Page 6

STATUS OF WOMEN.

IN BRITAIN AND AMERICA COMPARISON IMPOSSIBLE. (Times Correspondent) WELLINGTON, Monday. Rcplving to an interviewer to-day, Mrs Carnialt Jones, an rx-Doniinion president of the Women's National Council, who returned to New Zealand yesterday on the Arawa after an absence of two years, said that it was impossible to compare the status of women in England with that of the women of the United States. In America the women were recognised by their men-folk as "so much more equal." In England the subject was complicated by the very large number of women of so many different classes, and their emancipation was accordingly so much slower. As elsewhere, England was suffering from those who only worked for the cause for* selfadvertisement. If women want to be really successful they must work without any ulterior motive, in fact, they must prove themselves ir they want equality with men. When she had returned from England five year ago, said Mrs .lones, the tiling that struck her most forcibly was women's lack of knowledge of "procedure. For this there seemed no excuse when books can be bought with instructions on how to conduct meetings. She had met some admirable chairwomen on her travels, but one at an important conference impressed her most. This lady had a hammer, and she haDged it down when necessary, and there was no disorder at ail.

Mrs. Jones represented the Dunedin branch of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children at the Social Hygiene Council at Wembley in October last, and but for her return to New Zealand on business, would have now been attending the International Woman Suffrage Conference at Paris. As she herself was unable to he present on behalf of New Zealand she had arranged for Dr. Emily Baker and Miss Edwards to be the Dominion's representatives. Mrs Corhett Ashby is president of the conference, said Mrs Jones, and she is a splendid chairwoman. English, French and German are spoken at the conference, and if there is an excitable Frenchwoman talking all round the subject, as they are wont to do, a German with her guttural delivery, and perhaps a Swedish representative with a beautiful flow of diction, a shrewd brain and a good command of English, all wanting to speak at once, wits about her.

the chairwoman certainly requires her The length of her stay in the Dominion has not yet been decided by Mrs Jones. She had suffered a good deal from ill-helath while she was away, and this had prevented her from carrying out several important undertakings. Her idea she said, in conclusion, was not to work for "women's rights," but to "right women's wrongs," a different point of view entirely.