WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 275, 17 May 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eilee»"). NOTES FROM LONDON MOTHERHOOD TRAINING. A lady doctor in Acton, a suburb where several thousand women earn their livings as laundresses, and so are compelled to be away from home every day, has suggested to the local Educati'onal'Commattee that lessons in "mothereraft" should be part of the school curriculum for girls, claiming that only girls who know how to take care of infants can be. expected to be good mothers. Cooking, washing, needlework, mending should all be taught in schools, Dr. Lilian Wilson thinks, and she further suggests that a creche in Acton should be used for practical demonstrations on the care, management, etc., of babies. GOVERNESSES' UNION.

A new body known as the Union of Private Governesses sprang into being a few days ago with the object not only of establishing a standard of efficiency, but also in the hope that social headquarters may be procured in the future, a loan training fund instituted, and the Union formed into a society which will be eligible for privileges under the Insurance Act. GREAT SUFFRAGE PAGEANT. A great suffrage demonstration—probably the largest and most elaborate ever held—is to take place in New York on May 4, and will be headed by 50 wellknown American Society girls riding astride spirited horses. Thirty thousand suffragists are to taka part, and special trains are being chartered by suffrage organisations all over the country. Several delegates will undertake on a ''Pacific suffrage special" the 3000 miles across-' country trip, which takes five days, in order to be present at the parade. POPULAR WOMEN GUARDIANS.

No less than nine women have been returned at the Birmingham Guardians' election, eight of them heading the poll in different wards. FATHER CHAPERONES.

At a crowded lecture at the Steinway I Hall a few days ago by a Miss Knowles on "Unmarried Daughters," the lecturer j pointed out that, under the present social system, girls at teas, croquet parties, etc., in England meet numbers of women, but very few men. This she would rectify by making the father instead of the mother a girl's chaperon, especially at dances, since, where there are no brothers, a girl's chances of partners are very poor when she has, as in some cases, only an elderly mother to depend on. PORTUGUESE WOMEN'S RIGHTS. A Bill now before the Portuguese Parliament dealing with women's rights pleads that, among the privileges too long withheld, women shall in future be allowed "equal rights with the father over their children. Up till now Portuguese women .have not been allowed to witness testaments or to go bail for anyone. These two impediments they are also asking should be removed. VISITING HOUSEKEEPERS. To an American woman is due the credit of the suggestion that a much better way of inculcating thrift into the minds of the women of the poorest classes than any now in operation would be the institution of visiting housekeepers—practical, tactful women, who would correct habits of extravagance and teach hygiene and carefulness—in short, would show families under their tuition' exactly how to make ends meet, and try ■ to save something out of whatever thev have. J WOMEN AS AGRICULTURALISTS. There is to be held next year a unique ' congress of women agriculturalists in Belgium, where more than half a million : are earning their living on the soil. It ; is hoped, by advertising these remark- ; able figures, to found schools of country crafts. ; A NEW r MATERNITY HOME. Following the example set by the friends of the late Mrs. Ramsav Macdonald, who founded a maternity home in ! memory of the great work she had done > among poor mothers and children in the diocese of Lichfield, by establishing a maternity home for mothers and babies, and affiliating it to the Lichfield Diocesan Church Mission for preventive and rescue work. WOMEN'S REAL EDUCATION. In her article on •'The Greatest of Women's Present Day Problems," the editor of the Girl's Own Paper points out the fact that every profession for women is woefully overcrowded, save one, and that one—the domestic branches of work—is entirely neglected. She adds: "To my mind the greatest hindrance to_ educated girls as a whole taking up this work is the absence of that definite status which has been accorded to the trained nurse from the very bcinnin" And the reason for this is that our educational bodies have only just begun to recognise the existence of the domestic profession, and even now give it no place in the 'Varsity curriculum, apart from a few lectures on the scientific aspect of the work, which are mere sidelights on tTie 'Varsity course, and in no way represent a complete practical training. What is needed is that the domestic profession should be placed on as high a plane by the educational, authorities as the teaching profession, the medical profession, etc. There ought to be a B.D.Se. degree (Bachelor of Domestic Science), that should rank on a par with B.Sc. and 8.A., or even higher, for it ought to carry a great deal more practical knowledge with it than either of the other degrees. We also want domestic colleges where educated girls could get a thorough practical training in whichever branch of domestic work they wish to take up—colleges where a girl would 'have to matriculate or hold some certificate for general subjects before she started her domestic course. Then the final degree or diploma issued by such a college would become a standard guarantee not only that the holder had been thoroughly trained in housewifery, but that she also was well educated." COST OF LIVING IN AMERICA. "An income of £SO a month means sheer destitution to a woman with three children in. the United States," was the statement made in an application for an increase of alimony in the New York courts by Mrs. Louisa Sutton, the divorced wife of a prosperous merchant. Mr.-. Sutton asked Mr. Justice Mareau to double her allowance, asserting that she and 'her children were on the verge of starvation. To prove this statement, she submitted a table of her monthly expenses, showing that the higher cost of living had forced the food bills to £3O, and that her rent was £2O, clothing £3O, servant £ll, and miscellaneous expenses £2O. "With a comfortable home," said Mrs. Sutton, "I am nevertheless almost destitute."