IS LIFE EASIER?

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 950, 17 April 1930, Page 6

IS LIFE EASIER?

Dear Miss Rutledge,— We have had an argument in our circle as % to whether there is much more happiness in the world today rhanks to progress made along scientific lines. I refer particularly to women in New Zealand. Do you agree that their lot is easier, or do you think there is too much living at high tension for them actually to enjoy opportunity for greater freedom? FEMINIST. ANSWER. Undoubtedly our Fairy Godmothers have waved a magic wand in our favour, and women all over the world are living a fuller, freer life, owing to modern -inventions. than our grandmothers ever dreamed of. There will, quite naturally, always be disagreements on this matter, and arguments, pro and con, but it cannot be disputed that the drudgery of very day living has been considerably lightened by scientific machinery and newer ideas. Those who moan for the good old days only need to do without the gas range and get up on a cold, Icy morning to chop wood for the fire, to change their tune. Members of the “give me the days that are past*’ sisterhood, should be without the radio and the telephone for a few weeks to make them realise their blessings. Punching a button has lifted the curse of sweat from the brows of every son of Adam, and every daughter of Eve should profit from past experience and be thankful for the good things that modernity has brought us. Even the working man lives today far more luxuriously than kings and queens of earlier centuries ever dreamed of, and certainly he is cleaner. He is able to f uoe in at the radio and listen to a prizefight or political speech while the hot or cold water la filling his bath-tub. Brindle, the cow, is being milked by machinery and this has saved wife and children much drudgery. The poultryfarmer gets more eggs my making the liens work overtime through electriclight. There will always be the lachrymose Mary Anns who can t see good in anvthing, to reckon with, but even these women nowadays, are more cheerful than they were a generation ago. No more do they pine for faithless lovers, shutting themselves oft from the world, figures of grief, looking for bosoms to weep upon. In these enlightened times they put • mhappy-love affairs behind/them,-and rebuild their hopvs on the structure of past experience, because they know the truth of the saying “Laugh and the world laughs with you . . To those who study conditions carefully, it is plainly apparent that the world is a much happier place to live in through advancement and progress, hut before women can hope to come fully into their own there looms another problem in the form of utilising the extra time provided by labour-saving devices to the boat advantage. Be tter care of children should result from this easing of a mother’s life. ANNE RUTLEDGE.