THE FRENCH WOMAN IN WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2724, 20 March 1916, Page 3

THE FRENCH WOMAN IN WAR

SOCIAL BARRIERS,

Frenchmen work so well and bo hard when the world is at peace that to work much harder would bo impossible to many of them, states a writer jn the London "Tinios." Yet the war has made many work iu France who never worked before, and others are working at occupations which were quite unknown to them a year ago. The working men's wives and daughters are emj ployed in their men's work. Some are punching tickets in the Metro' or the trams, some are cleaning the windows of the big shops, a few are driving taxi-autos, many are working at munitions, others are carrying on the work of tho farms, and all places and all trades have a fair percentage of women who are taking advantage of the position to do nothing at all or as little as possible. They enjoy the State grant and the charities established for their special benefit. That they should do it is human enough, and even excusable, although the women of their own class who are not doing so rebuke them severely, and in no sense would they temper justice with mercy if they had to deal ivith them.

In the superior working classes shirking is far less common, probably for tho ■ reason that they havo something te live' up to, a reputation to keep up, and tho bread of charity in their mouths has a bitter tasto. Such women • are filling the places of male clerks and cashiers in the big shops, the post offices and all places of business which the war allows to go on at all. In certain trades they take 'full directions and _ prove themselves as capable as tradition says they are. Dressmaking, millinery, and all essentially feminine trades could obviously be run with complete success by women alone, even as I all the provision trades, except butcheries ancl bakeries .could be carried on by women workers. The financial sido of such businesses and tho actual direction are in the hands of women in the ordinary way, and it is only for tho hoavy labour connected with them that men are needed. . Dislike for Men's Work, ' But for all their capability, Frenchwomen do not like doing men's work, and theie is no rush of women in Franco for those more or less athlotio positions which attract' young Englishwomen of all classes. The reason is clear enough. Frenchwomen do not take to sport and out-of-door occupations as naturally as Englishwomen do, and you may as well expect a Frenchwoman to_ like looking unattractivo as to like doing work which she takes to bo essentially the task of a man. In her sphere the Frenchwoman is supreme, but she herself limits that sphere much more firmly than do Frenchmen and the laws of the country. Her instinctive intelligence prompts her to do so even as it moulds her to do the man's work she is forced to do, to suit her own feminine powers. A masculine woman in France is as rare as a woman , who is without something of masculine intelligence, and you have only to look at the faces of the women who sit opposite you in trams, trains, and the Metro' to see for yourself how virile the Frenchwoman's mind is behind her feminine vanities.

In the professions, women's. minds turn eveu more to the law than to medicine,. although the war will probably increase tho number of women medical students, and it may make nursing a profession possible for the i educated classes. So far, with the exception of the nuns, professional nurses | have been drawn from tho peoplo. Some of them are fine, capable women, a little rough und ready, and by no means fastidious in their ward work. all that, and in spite of adverse criticism of French hospital nursing, and even in tho face of its undoubted want of thoroughness and finish, those who know France and the French people well will maintaiu that it is not so I bad as it is painted, and that there is I now a • goodly number of first-rate I French nurses whose theatre work is second to none. «11, as it is hoped, a nursing school of recognised merit should be instituted, and educated women should take up the profession, there is small doubt that the French nurses would soon rank among the best in the world for intelligence and deftness. Invisible Barriers, The leisured women _of before the war who are now.working women are among the finest women in France. Time has tested them, and those who are still working after sixteen months of trial from shear. souse of duty and love of country, .deserve full acknowledgment of their work. Some, it is well known, have never been so contented as since they have been working' from ten to twelve hours a day, and many havo re-found their health in so doing. Others havo tired themselves out early in the race by over-estimat-ing their strength, and not a few havo Tost their first fine rapture. Whether the upper class women have fhe same spirit of Republicanism as marks the men of their race is much to be doubted. A Frenchman after the year's military service will undorstand, even if he does not sympathise with his fellow-soldiers of all ranks;' hence the good-fellowship in tho French army today. But the Frenchwomen 'are essentially given to moving in cliques, and class rfmitations in the social circles of Franco have defied all tho laws of the Republic. To be a "ieune fille de la societo" if you do not belong to society is a vain aspiration, and to hope to be one of the bourgeoisie without the attributes that mark that weighty body oT people is to hope in vain. Tlia Bame < strong invisible barriers divide the working classes, and place the artist world on a plane of its own. That, J too, is divided and subdivided.. Not so very long ago a cmedy actress was almost an outcast, and oven now duchesses do not receive celebrated actresses as theTr equals, and the "bourgeois id de race" has a wholesome contempt for the artist in private life. ffis the war done much to make these varied elements mix and fraternise? There aro many indications that such is not the case. Under tho stress of emotion womenkind meet on the same plane, but when the moral atmosphere drops and world exigencies resume their sway once more, we fall back Into our social pigeon-holes.

NO MORE TAT PEOPLE. Most fat people scorn to think that the only way to take off fat is to use dangerous drugs, follow a starvation diet, or take strenuous exercise. But all this k< nonsense, and, thanks to the recent discovery of an eminent scientist; thousands of men and women are taking off several pounds of useless fat a week, by simply rubbing on to the fat part—hips, arms, chin, or abdomen—a simple lotion made by pouring a cup of hot water over a drachm of quassia chips; let it stand for a miuute, then strain through a cloth and add 3 ounces of Cirola Bark Extract. Pour the mixture into a bottlo and apply night and morning, nibbing, it in v/th tho hands for about 10 min- j utes, using a circular motion, and the fat will almost seem to melt aw*y boforo your very eyes. The ingredients, which are inexpensive, may .be had of any chemist, and the results to ho obtained