The Home Circle

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 28, 6 October 1894, Page 11

The Home Circle

[Conducted by LINDA.]

THE REALLY STRONG-MINDED WOMAN.

The strong-minded woman is not as a rule a favourite with men. She has the audacity, the temerity to have a mind of her own and to use it as if it belonged to her, and men generally prefer women of the indiarubber doll type, that can be pulled in any direction and whose conscience may be stretched or contracted at will.

It is a popular fallacy, which must nevertheless be exploded soon, that a strong-minded woman must perforce be hard-hearted, and that a weak sentimental girl whose languishing eyes fill with tears at the very mention of suffering, it is the ideal of tender-hearted womanhood.

Was thei’e ever such a mistake P Who do you think would be appreciated most should an accident occur, or an occasion arise when nurses were wanted P Would it be the tender specimen, who is so susceptible that she shudders and faints at the sight of blood ? Ho, but the ‘ strongminded ’ woman who can stretch forth a steady hand and grasp the artery from which the life blood is ebbing. I wonder how many lives have been saved because there was a strong-minded woman to act , while the butterflies of this life were screaming for assistance. I think the terra strong-minded is often confused with narrow-minded. How a really strong-minded woman should have nothing narrow about her. Her soul should be large enough to grasp both sides of a question ; and while she must have the courage of her own opinions, will not condemn those who cannot agree with her. She will not neglect the ways of her household, leaving the narrow-

minded to prate from platforms on women’s rights and dress reform. At the same time she will exercise her rights in her own way, and as her conscience dictates. In books she ies generally depicted as an angular female, in extraordinary costume, and blue spectacles ; but the strong-minded woman, of real life, has an eye for the beautiful (which does not, however, extend to candle waists and bleached complexions) and will dress accordingly—following as fashions lead only so far as pleases herself, but refraining from making herself an object of ridicule, by wearing a ‘ uniform ’of any sort. Her mind is too strong to be affected by the petty jealousies of womenkind in general. She can weep with those that weep, and rejoice with them that do rejoice. She will extend a helping hand to the pilgrim who is toiling wearily along life’s pathway, and is not afraid of ‘ society’s ’ scornful finger. She may not be handsome, but those who know her best love every blemish of her face, and value her plain speaking more than the compliments of others. What a pity it is that we are not all brave enough to be strong-minded! But because we are afraid of being peculiar, we do in Rome as the Romans do, and for the same reason smile in an idiotic fashion when we encounter one who has the courage to have a mind of her own, and wishes to be something more than a mere mirror, reflecting whatever passes before it, but with no individual character. E. E. S.