THE MODERN WOMAN.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 519, 20 November 1912, Page 6

THE MODERN WOMAN.

The Editor. Sir,—Whilst riding home from a clearance sale on a neighbouring farm to-day the following problem weighed heavily upon my mind and being unable to discover a solution, I resolved to bring the matter before your readers with the hope that others might take up the controversy and good results follow. The aforementioned settler, was selling off his dairy stock and plant, as he was unable to obtain help on the farm, or in the home, in the shape of either man or maid servant. We well understand the labour trouble has Been chronic in all industries for some considerable time, but these remarks apply entirely to the lack of domestic help in the country. This is a matter which is of vital importance to us as a nation. It is also a matter of grave concern that good settlers are annually driven back to the towns owing to their inability to obtain domestic help in the country. Why is it, Mr Editor, that our young women to-day rush the office and the shop, and fight shy of domestic duties? Why? This is the vexed question, Sir. Why, in a young country like ours, do our women folk turn their back upon the sphere for which they were created and ordained, and enter into unfair competition with man: underselling and outbidding him in the labour market? Perhaps it is partly owing to the fact that mothers to-day do not teach their daughters the dignity of household work, and the great importance of being efficient in what is pre-eminently a woman's sphere. What glaring cases of inefficiency do we frequently find in the homps of many young married women! Having spent ten years in private lodgings invarious parts of this country I have met with a few inefficient women, and have suffered many things at the hands of those who could neither cook a steak, boil a potato, or make a decent plate of porridge. It is only fair to say that they were all well meaning women, but altogether

useless in the sphere which should be the throne of a woman's power. On the other hand I have met many excellent efficient housewives able to do one thing in the way of home management, but the majority of these were trained in the home from girlhood. Bishop Crossley, in a sermon as a preface to the Girls' Friendly Society's Conference, in St. Sepulchre's Church, Auckland, on Sunday evening, November 4th, is reported to have said: —"The forced entrance into competition with man has changed woman's sphere. Two examples of the modern woman," continued the bishop, "have lately been before the eyes of the mode t n world: the Suffragettes in England and the Waihi woman in New Zealand. The former are not starved or ill-used, but preach the gospel of destruction and assault to secure a political end. The outcome of their gospel would be anarchist outrages like those in Russia, or the atrocities of the Turk in Bulgaria. The Waihi woman," continued his Lordship, "though using language that does not make pleasant reading, do just what their sister Suffragettes do in supporting the wage-earners. Woman cannot jostle man in all walks of life. I do not want to see the equality of thn sexes," declared the bishop. "I want to, see woman remain superior to man in those qualities which he lacks, and which are so essential to her own womanhood. These qualities which can be summed up in the words, 'Home, Wife, Mother, Child,' and be best trained and cared for in the woman of to morrow by sympathetic co-operation and help." |Jußtso! But hew can woman remain

superior to man, my Lord, when she rubs shoulders with him daily in every occupation and profession in life ? For this cause she has to stand in the tram car when business men refuse to give up their seats. She is employed in the same shop and is treated as their equal or oftentimes their inferior. It is estimated that one half the grown women in Great Britain are wage earners, of whom nearly a million are employed in mills and factories. They may be efficient factory hands. But how are they as women? What sort of wives and mothers do they make? Deplorable, helpless wives! Ailing mothers, delicate children and domestic misery. In America the competition of women with men has peached an alarming stage. I was astounded recently to read that out of 303 occupations and professions in the United States only three are exempt from women, viz.:

the army, the police, and the business of those workmen who climb telegraph poles and steeples. It rather staggers one to read that according to census records in America there are 126 female plumbers, 167 female bricklayers, 193 lady blacksmiths, 545 female carpenters, 1759 women house painters, 989 female quarriers, 3000 women porters, 186 female millers, 5574 women barbers, 8119 lady doctors, 3378 licensed female clergy. What women are doing in the United States to-day they may be doing here in a few years hence. I am not a pessimist, but I verily believe unless a radical change comes over our people we shall yet see the husband cooking the food and minding baby while the wife is away at work. This is precisely what ex-President Roosevelt termed race Buicide. To conclude, Mr Editor, I return to the starting point by again asking the same question, "Why do not more girls choose domestic service as their vocationT The advantages are) so manifest. Constant employment, board and lodging, womanly work, good homes, good wages, with reasonable holidays. Why, then, is domestic service despised by so many girls? Why do they prefer to grow pallid as dressmaker or shop girl, rather than buxom and, rosy, and winsome as a servant maid? Is the lack of liberty, hatred of restraint, desire to have all their evenings free to roam the street. Doubtless all these weigh with them. That

the conditions of domestic service were once forbidding and harsh I am prepared to admit, but now they are vastly improved, and such employment, to my mind, is far more desirable for girls than office or shop. It is an encouraging sign, however, tha\ educated girls of good family are accepting situations as housekeepers, cnnks, and lady helps, thus realising that a true woman's sphere is feeding the hungry, nursing the sick, and caring for the children and aged. But what of the ninety and nine who detest housework, who are unworthy of their pilgrim mothers, and on account of whom the outlook for the next generation is poor indeed? I would like to see this subject taken up by press and pulpit throughout the Dominion.—l am, etc., G. ELLIOTT, Mapiu.