ON BRINGING UP WOMEN.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18902, 18 January 1927, Page 9

ON BRINGING UP WOMEN.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MESS. Sir,—With reference to your London cable, re Dr. J. Fenton and the serious mistake we are now making in encouraging women to leave their God ordaincd, or at least their natural position in the scheme of life, it is no use arguing otherwise. If women get disgusted with homo life and hate the idea of becoming mothers, that means the downfall of the nation, and no one with any degree of sense and obligation to honesty will dare dcuv it. Girls being brought up as they are" now. and allowed to do much as they please must get further and further from a desire to embrace home life as it should be done, and when tired of office life they look out for someone who they think will provide them with a good time and if they don't get it then its "hey" for the divorce court, and nine times out of ten it's the woman who has caused it by her neglect of home comforts and hei husband's comfort most of all. Theii the fellow takes to drink and gets all the blame. But let me refer to your cable of January 15th. Dr.JTenton has not done full justice to his ease. It's not alone the evils girls do by displacing men; it's the evil they do by breaking down their own constitution, unfitting them for the strain of motherhood, which should be no strain at all if brought up, as their grandmothers were, on plain living and regular sleep. Too much : freedom and too much money in their pockets is ruining the lives of our future sons. As to the views of the others, Gordon Leyridge's is no good. Of course, girls have ability, and he makes dollars out of it; iind ruins them.for after life; and Miss Ellen Wilkinson, M.P., seems to think

that throwing dirt at the doctor is all that i 3 required to get on top. She evidently objects to domestic service. In the name of all that is holy, who is to do the domestic work? Women havo done the domestic work ever since the world began, and did it well, and now she is shirking the job, and will, if allowed, cause the downfall of the nation. Miss S. Lawrence, M.P., says girls are playing a useful part in the ■work of the country. Quite so, making dollars for somebody; but has she enquired how much they are wrecking the life and comfort of the nation in doing this work? Miss F. Underwood—note that they are all Misses that think they know —says men fear the competition. What a short-sighted creature she is! She urges men to put more competition in the work, 'i.e., work harder and cheaper, and in the end kill each other by overwork. She is the glorious sort that the office and factory girls make M.P.'s of. Learned men all over the world are beginning to see that we have done a great wrong in bringing up the young girls as we are doing—too much freedom whilst young, educating them away from their position, causing dissatisfied women, and these women when they do marry, would like to sport a .servant, but, as they make the worst mistresses, no girls will go to them, and consequently, we get the odd one or two spoilt brats because we lose the domestic help. —Yours, etc.', ': ■ ' L.o. January 17th.