WOMAN TO WOMAN

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 16, 9 April 1927, Page 5

WOMAN TO WOMAN

(By Hubert Bentinck.) Women have not changed outwardly; there has been an inward transformation, too. And because it is a matter of character —because it affects their whole outlook on life —it is of far greater importance than mere variations in fashion and all the trappings of emancipation. The difference is one of attitude towards others of their sex. It concerns the new friendliness, the spirit of camaraderie that has grown up woman to woman. Dip into literature up to the end of the 19th century, and you will find evidence of a subtle enmity between women generally. It was not necessarily voiced; in fact, rarely did it have such concrete expression; yet one detects the undercurrent of rivalry, the feeling that every other woman was a natural foe. The cause was the status of marriage as the sole object of a woman's existence —the narrow doctrine that debarred her from public life and focused her energies on the single goal. Since marriage, even then, was an overcrowded profession, victory could only be gained through the fiercest competition. Hence the forcing of the feline traits in women, of which once was heard so much and now so little.