Look To The Woman

NZ Truth, Issue 1194, 18 October 1928, Page 6

Look To The Woman

ALL, or at least nearly all, of us have been persuaded that the employment of feminine attributes should be confined to the laborious process of bridging recurrent gaps m Husbandly garments or to the miserable oscillation between scrubbing brushes and cake-making. Women who at first ploughed lonely furrows m the English Houses of Parliament have set brilliant standards of political sanity and stability/ raising themselves to a lofty point of public estimation— surely a fine example which their Dominion sisters may well emulate. Despite their attainments, their, broad, sympathetic philosophy, their clear perspective, there still remains a dyspeptic few among the menfolk of New Zealand, who, deprecating the supposed precocity of Miss or Mrs. 1925, cling piously t<j> the aged contention that woman's, sphere is among the pots and pans of life. It may be that the misguided activities of certain rabid women who pose as social workers m thiscountry have encouraged a feeling; of dismay. and derision m the ,hearts : of the menfolk, for, certain it is. that the misdirected efforts of these women have nonplussed a good maiiy male disciples ■of tolerance and good sense. It 'would be futile to stress -the innate suitableness of women m the many avenues of civic and national operation— their distinct pre-eminence m certain vocations of thought and public betterment, their faculty for directing an acute observation upon subjects which present many, abstruse and delicate angles— are too self-evir dent, but the merit m their .candidature for the House of Representatives must be left for the personal digestion of the men and women whose -thoughts remain parallel Vith the wide purview of to-day. .y ■■■ The thought that lonian must be kept at home now lies desolate beneath" the shambles of yesterday's shibboleths and byegone understanding. It ca^iiip.t;, be gainsaid, that where •. women politicals aspirants are gifted;^witK^, the qualities which go to ; in|ke up ' an entity, of sound^ statspraiisKii>> they should be .ehcoui^'|:ed and supported to : the;;./ end: tliat they niay succeed m; their endeavors".