YOUR CLUB AND MINE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 58, 31 May 1927, Page 5

YOUR CLUB AND MINE

AN OPEN PAGE Once a week we will reserve a corner for original contributions of general interest to womenfolk. The subject matter is for you to choose . . . perhaps you’ve an unusual hobby, a diverting experience that you would care to share with others, or maybe you can muse amusingly about the ordinary round of the day. Articles must be brief, and plainly written on one side only of the paper, and should be addressed to “Your Club and Mine,” Women’s Page, THE SUN Newspapers Ltd., Auckland. A new novel (title selected by the winner) will be given weekly to the sender of the best effort. This week the prize has been awarded to Mr. W. P. Harris, Pell Avenue, Remuera. THE “MODERN WOMAN” IS SHE A CATCHWORD? According to Robert Louis Stevenson, “Man is a creature who lives, not upon bread alone, but principally by catchwords.” Plow true it is in this enlightened age, when we find man ever eager to pounce upon each and e T catchword that opportunity brings within his grasp. He subjects it to the most exacting diagnosis possible, and when, to his mind, he has thoroughly digested the delta, he proceeds with great gusto to expound his views and ideas on all that such a word, or combination of words, may embrace. Pie simply cannot leave it alone. It grips him from the very moment he reads it in his newspaper. In tram and bus, theatre and club room, he must speak of it. To-day we have a hundred catchwords ever before us; but one which seems to man to provide greater food for thought and subsequently comment than any of its “kidney,” is, perhaps, that .of “Modern Woman.” Why has she become such a vogue? Hardly does a man attain eminence, when he is “run to cover” and his opinion sought, with regard to this “Modern-Woman.” She certainly exists, and is ever confronting us in what-so-ever sphere of life we chance to range. We read of her in every issue of every newspaper. We meet her in every city of every country. In everv phase of the daily routine she smilingly greets us. On her banner boldly writ is “Ambition ! ” We find her as business-woman, doctor of medicine, architect, solicitor, end journalist, while she will not even be denied the ranks of engineering. In fact, she has elbowed her way into every profession that man once so selfishly kept sacred unto himself. She comes forward as the resenter of an age-old wrong, introducing a new claim on behalf of her sisters the world over. The tacit assumption on the part of many, that she is man’s inferior, galls her. She insists upon—nay demands—the recognition of an all-round equality between the sexes. Why should not woman know what man knows? she asks. IPas she •not proved herself intellectually man’s equal . . . even under adverse conditions? Is she not holding her own in all branches of the business and professional life to which man has, grudgingly enough, only recently admitted her? If comparisons are to be drawn, what of the roughness of the grain in man—for the most part a creature of animal grossness—-who lias made for himself a law of laxity, in startling contrast to the severe moral perfection which he demanded from These thoughts have rankled into indignation in the mind of the “ModernWoman, until she feels it is her position to assert herself, to claim her freedom and rights, to teach man his place and redeem him from his weakness, and to raise him to the moral pedestal upon which she stands. Then perhaps, when man is made “sit up and take notice,” and woman is emancipated, will they be able to marry as equals, with love unsullied and without reserve? But in writing all this, I am, perhaps, raising antipathies of even women as well as men. \V hat do these “enemies” say of her? They accuse her of being upset °y vei fy little of the knowledge that she desires, and of being unable to bear the shock of the truths to which men are accustomed. They say that she draws sweeping conclusions from very meagre and scanty observation: Lhat she magnifies, perhaps insensibly, die weaknesses of man, and is blind to the part that woman takes in playing on these weaknesses. She will be accused of having discarded the fnost attractive of feminine qualities, sweetness and gentleness. Who cares, thev ask, to meet the “Modern-Woman” on the warpath, who has, in sharp contrast to the demure and unassuming stayat—home attitude of her Victorian sister, taken to forming clubs—women’s clubs!—where the dominant note is that of the intellectual shrew? What is she after all, they continue, but a self-torturing egoist wearying herself in vain with hysterical introspection, wanting she knows not what, crying she cannot tell why, making the most foolish of marriages in silfv guilelessness, and then crying out against the whole system of things? Truly a horrible picture they have portrayed her: and how unjust! Our consolation comes in our knowledge of the true facts as against their grave misrepresentations. She is not the half-man halfwoman type of creature, severe of face and sharp of tongue, that her “enemies” would have us imagine. No! Indeed she is a most delightful person, trim of figure and charming of countenance and manner: bright, vivacious, a ready wit. and. but not too loud, even coy. despite the fact that she is in business or profession. All in all, she is a catchword, and jan exhilarating tonic to boot. To the i rank and file of the male side of the J business and professional world she

is to be admitted; she cannot be kept out; and although man talks a great deal to the contrary, he knows that the time is not far off when women doctors, solicitors, engineers, surveyors. architects, journalists, etc., will be the accepted thing, far more so than A wife by marriage—why not a comrade-in-arms in the Legion of Commerce? > W. P. HARRIS.