MUSSOLINI & WOMEN

Hokitika Guardian, 27 June 1931, Page 7

MUSSOLINI & WOMEN

Signor Mussolini has handled many topics with singular energy. 'He now announces that woman's true place is in the home. Many a man who is out of work will applaud this sentiment. The plain fact is that two of the greatest contributory causes of unemployment are applied science and incursions by women into what was once proudly called “man’s world.’’ Signor Mussolini does not like to see women in factories and workshops. Who does? Yet here again the plain fact is that if machines and women have driven men out of employment they have- both increased the output of goods. Moreover, many a girl by her earnings in factory or workshop makes a very welcome contribution each pay day to the family exchequer. ■Signor .Mussolini, as a practical man, must know, despite his ideals for women, that immediate considerations of food and shelter always determine the first course of economic action in a primitive society, and that this course, once established, is not afterwards seriously abandoned. It is true apparently in some primitive races that decoration precedes dress; native races wear their full ' wardrobe (consisting ft.whaps of a nose-bone and an earpendant) not to stave off heat or cold, but for personal adornment. But necklaces, even when of pearl, will not keep off frost, unless they have what filmenterpreneurs call “a supporting programme’’ and this supporting .programme, in the case of dwellers in cold climates at all events, must have led to the adoption of wearing apparel, Skins of animals would be the most obvious dress. Primitive man got all his clothes ready-made from obliging bears and foxes and caribous. This custom has Hot d:ed out amongst us, and even the women workers whom Signor iMussokni would pemove from the deadening environm.nt of the factory retain the. penchant for the sealskin, the eiderdown, and the musquash habiliments, but with a reversion to the earlier motive of decora-

tion. Signor 'Mussolini thinks that women should .work in the fields, 'if they cannot rem:'in in the home. It is clear that they ,moot all remain in the home. The invention of printing by the 'Herman Guttenberg in the fifteenth , century and the discovery of steam by James Watt in the eighteenth century altered the world. The invention of the ' spindle for making thread probably .ccurred in Neolithic times ; the hand loom for weaving the thread infocloth must have been produced about the same time. The spinning wheel appeared in the fifteenth century. These inventions knit together the family and | kept women in the home. But when, in the eighteenth century, the spinning jenny appeared, as well as machinery for bleaching and dyeing, and the application of the steam engine to the textile industry, the era of home-lit a ■ for women began to see its eclipse. Signor Mussolini claims that after closely studying the effect of factory life on women he has concluded that it brings irregularity in home-life and a marked reduction in the birthrate, 'The . ; rregularty as far as it concerns time is obvious. The statement that a reduction in birthrate is due to th s cause may be challenged. During the nine* teenth century, or at least that part of it when the factory system was most { triumphant in England, the decline :n the birthrate had not begun. But the decline has certainly been great m recent years. To what cause is th's due? A negative answer may be given ; certainly not or not mainly to the factory system. The other factor that we have mentioned as of immense influence in modifying women’s life is the printing press. When women have their own books and their own journals, their own political and religious advisers, when they are daily stimulated by press notice to sport and adventure as well as to academic honours, it is certain that they will not only become classconscious, but will put forth efforts such as women never before had the opportunity of putting forth. It might be better, as the Duce suggests, that women should work in the fields as once they did and as they still do even in many parts of the civilised world. But the plain fact is that women will not work in the fields, not even with the prospect of being painted in Millet's “Angelas.” Nor do men desire them to work in the fields. Men like to see women neat, active, happy, and healthv. Nr, man would ob’ect if all women migrated from their factories and offices hack to the fam'Ty hearth. They are safe there, and their jnfhunce there is wholly on the side of good. But they will not return to ‘'•he wee bit ingle, blinkin’ bonnily.” They have chosen. 'Their will or tlivir fate or that mvster ions process called evolution has led them out from the seclusion and comparative dullness of the horn" to the brightness and the danger, the .leadening clash of machinery, the overlast'-ng click of the typing machine, the tennis racquet an cl tli? ei r vopln.n?. Man may suggest and adv'sT—-hut lo! h" . ; s even as Artennis Ward 01 h's atleumt to orga'nise Betsy Jane:—he concluded sadly that he must “<r"e lrr a Wt of leeway, which amounts to 1 ttm' h-r do "xactly as she nleas's.” Si•'»>'>’• Mussolini may donfinate the Black starts and oveawe tb» bomb-throwc a but when he tries to dicta! to w nmui B nd solid them to work, in the field, he ]nve a bout nv'di success e- JnTnnv W wi*h Cl-patra on th’ fisher Pbe saw to -t. tlmt Die only fish he caught were 'hose that h r own divers pnt no h’s bnoV r „