MAGAZINES & WOMEN.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1913, 22 November 1913, Page 11

MAGAZINES & WOMEN.

STEAM FROM THE MELTING-POT.

[By Imogen,]

Readers of magazines and periodicals generally cannot but be' struck with the amount of space that is now devoted to tho discussion of matters • in which women are vitally concerned. Articles may be written by women' themselves or by men who are usually well-qualified to . pronounco an opinion upon the matters they deal with, and editors who once would have curled with scorn to think that soveral of their precious magazine pages should be devoted to a grave consideration of the place that women we endeavouring to gain for' thomselves in the world, arc now quite ready to welcome these articles as tlioy are those touching upon the political aspects of Europe, China, or Australia, those upon Imperialism, upon Tariff Reform, and upon various other matters. It is well that this should be tho case, because, upon the re-adjustment of women's placc in the scheme of things, will undoubtedly hinge radical changes, when they havo had time to realise thomselves their powers, and .their relations to the world. Still another- change is that which is taking place in the, periodical literature that is designed especially for women. During the last decade or so there havo' appeared many suff rage and club magazines.. There are also magazines for, by, and about women, that do not limit themselves to suffrage propaganda, but deal as welt with women's interests in social, civic, and educational betterment, Each year, as other papers appear, it is becoming increasingly - bvideht that women's social and civic interests are strongly interwoven with her domestic, interests, Tho woman of today—the more thinking of them that is —are not at all ready to think or believe.that it- is their place to stay at home and suffer all things there while the world, in Which their children will one day make their battleground, is pervaded with preventable evils, wrongs, and injustices. While they are perfectly aware that they have home interests, they are certain that they have national and world interests to servo. . ,The Pioneers of the Road. Naturally, the very fact that, women are.-doing such fine things in art, science, literature,, philanthropy, even finance, acts as a stimulant to .many other women, ■ and lifts their interests to-ai higher plane. "Where these greater ones have gone, it may be possible for others to follow, and so,' by degrees, the rocky road trodden by tho leaders becomes. in time, one which others, less gifted, may'yet haltingly essay.' Such a'genius as a Madame Curie could only come to us once in a way, and genius lives upon a lonely pinnacle, but there are others who have achieved their su<y cess by she,er hard work, not by transcendant gifts, and it is these-women that are such a hope .and inspiration to their fellows. 1 Facing Facts Frankly. "Another striking thing in connection with these great quarterly and monthly publications that reach us in New Zealand from England, Europe, and from America is the entire frankness with' which they discuss from every point of view, but more especially as they affect women, the social problems of the day. Whether they are written .by women or by men, there is the same almost brutal frankness in dealing with their facts, and in placing their conclusions

before readers. And since, only by facing facts and going into their causes and effects, can any remedy be suggested or applied, it may be well that such should bo tho case. Tho old attitudo of refusing to face ugly things lias prevailed so long, with the facis and t'heir results,still.remaining, that something may be achieved by really facing them and endeavouring to reach down to their root causes. It is not pleasant— indeed, it must be heartbreaking—but people who wish to make the world a littlo easier and better for the generation to come, as well as for those who are thick-set in the morass, are ready to face linicQi more than can bo imagined. . That, evidently, is tho attitude wliich many gifted women are taking to-day, and they are no longer content to stand aloof, and live only in the sunshine of .life. Instead they are going down into the market place, into tho prisons, tho reformatories, and among the most outcast of' God's creatures upon tho earth, in t'heir endeavour to meet the evils that besot lifq in so many cities, and in so many countries. And because they have met these evils face to face, they do not hesitate to write of them, and to toll what they think of their causes, and of how they ar-> to bo swept away. Lady Henry Somerset, m one of the quarterlies, in tho course of an eloquent article upon the unrest- and the ileeds of the time 3, says: "Everywhere men and women arc reaching out hungry hands for bread, and never has a more plentiful supply'of stones been dealt out m its place." Out of the Hurly Burly. Here, in New Zealand, it is difficult to realise what women are doing at home because the atmosphere is—apart from the strike—so very soporific. There is not the stimulus to mental exertion that there is in the older norld, and,-as a result, mind, imagination, and sympathies suffer. People are comfortable —why bother about the world in general? And so they live, gently, sleepily, and quite pleasantly upon the surface of life. And certainly the world out here —tho part they know of it, or caTe about —wags very well, while underneath the

pleasant face of things arc sometimes very sad stories and very ugly sores. In our little back eddy of a country we cannot quite realise how intensely alive, how progressive, how independent--in their ideas educated Englishwomen are, apart from the large unawakeued mass remaining. Probably they aro the brainiest women in the world to-day, and at present they are in the thick of the seething whirlpool,' vVhere old ideas aro being challenged out of existence, and where old values are being altered, while at the same time the traditions and the fetters that have tied them hand and fcot are boiug trampled into the dust. At tho present time all is noise and dust and confusion to the onlooker, but it can hardly bo,doubted that when the goal is won, and the clamour of the battle stilled, a better era will come into being. At any rate, one can only hope so, and in the meantime gather from these magazines (the mirror of tho times) the aims and the achievements as well as tho'hope of the women on the other side of tho world.