Aust. Housewives Social Deficient

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31081, 9 June 1966, Page 2

Aust. Housewives Social Deficient

(N.Z. Press Association— Copyright)

SYDNEY, June 8.

Too many Australian housewives are sloppily groomed, unimaginative with clothes and inexpert in entertaining.

They would be happier coping with three young children with measles than with a dinner party for two of their husband’s business associates. And they are developing a severe inferiority complex.

These are the views of a young woman who has made a study of the subject—Jan Sheedy, a Melbourne mannequin, TV personality, “Miss Australia” quest judge, and, for the second time, a judge of the present “Housewife of the Year” contest.

Miss Sheedy is in Sydney for the launching of the “Housewife of the Year” quest in which any Australian housewife, whether a career girl, widow, or mother of young children, can compete for an expensive wardrobe and a round-the-world trip.

“Last year I Interviewed hundreds of women, and although impressed with the general intelligence of housewives, they were lacking in many things," she said today.

“Most women were much better mothers than hostesses, and hostessing rather terrified them.

“When asked what they’d do if their husbands rang up late in the day saying they

were bringing three business associates home for dinner, the usual reaction was: T’d kill him.’

“They were thrown into a panic at the thought of entertaining, but not with the prospect of children coming down with measles.” At Low'Ebb

Miss Sheedy said she also found grooming at a very low ebb. “Few of the women cared about their grooming and tended to be unimaginative in their dressing,” she said.

“They bought dull clothes, when they could afford to buy interesting, up-to-date ones.” Miss Sheedy said she thought another great failing of housewives was they did not keep up with their husbands intellectually. “Many of the women had highly paid and skilled jobs before they were married—they were university graduates, schoolteachers, librarians and top secretaries.”