THE QERAIAN WOMAN.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 398, 6 January 1909, Page 3

THE QERAIAN WOMAN.

The poor Gorman woman; scema to be greatly in need of any emancipation that may/ como her way, according to all accounts;;. Apropos of the recent enlargement of;her' educational opportunities', a London paper gives a very dreary picture of her- ; llfe and prospects as they have hitherto been...,-'.-. ..:_ ".After marriage," says the article in question, "the whole existence of the German woman is a dreary round.of work and household cares. A German, husband would never tolerate a wife who read'novels and spent her time in the leisurely way that English and American wives spend theirs. The hausfrau has no leisure. Every hour'is" taken up with, household duties, and her only relaxation is the' kaffec-klatsch, or coffee scandal, when several women will congregate at the house of a friend and exchange gossip over their coffee and 'zwieback.'" ' •; The women referred to are not,those of the lower classes, it.is explained, but those of the best social position, and their slavery , begins before they are .married. Every German girl,.'it is stated,'-is sent'away from home when she. reaches the age:, of 17 '■ or 18 to'a family, which sends one of its-daughters .in exchange. The exchange lasts about three .years,", and ■■during that-time the young ;women, though treated as members of the family and addressed as ■" Fraulein," are in every other respects mere servants. While their/English and American sisters are playing tennis and golf, they are scrubbing and cooking, washing'and .mending, and looking ■ forward'to; the cheerful prospect of scrubbing and'cooking all their lives. The new. regime will, doubtless change all this in time, for "if'. a girl is to.be educated like, her brothers she/ cannot:spend:her>time cooking and scrubbing.;.:: . . ..... . ,