Women Hate War

Taranaki Daily News, 28 September 1940, Page 12

Women Hate War

But They Do Their Duty

War is the great" opponent of the women's movement and has been all down the ages. "You do not fight: therefore you shall not vote!" was the most persistent cry ever ' raised against us in our struggle for enfranchisement, writes Sylvia Pankhurst in the Christian Science Montior. It is only in a settled community where personal safety from violence is assured that a woman's movement can develop. We warited women to come into public life to promote the unity of the human family: the sense that all the world over we human beings are members one of another, with the same deep and ever resurgent desires, the same great virtues, courage, fidelity, generosity, which all races cherish and admire, the same urge for self-expression and experiment which has burned in the human breast through all the ages, and driven us on from the cave to the metropolis. The mission of women in public life has been to emphasise that childhood, youth, age, motherhood, are alike in every class and clime. Women have followed this mission nobly, toiling, often virtually unseen, seeking no praise or preferment. They were following it long before they got the vote anywhere in the world. Above all, women's mission was to prevent war. We have suffered unquestionably a grave defeat in the tragic fact that war still scourges the world; unquestionably we lost an important pass when the League of Nations, on which so many hopes rest.ed, failed to maintain world peace. The totalitarian militarist states, which have arisen in Italy and Germany, and have exercised extensive influence throughout Europe, like the ancient militarism of Japan, are definitely opposed to the emancipation of women and to their public social mission. "While man masters life, women ' master the pots and pans," says Joseph Goebbels. Hitler declares the duty of woman is to be "the recreation of the tired warrior." Mussolini says, "The crowd is woman," meaning that women and the mass of the people are to be dominated by those who rule by force of arms. These doctrines have a surprisingly wide currency to-day. The exclusion of women from Government and administrative positions, and of all save a fraction of women applicants from universities and professions in Nazi Germany; the loss of the married woman's personal freedom and her complete subjection to her husband's control in Fascist Italy, are phases in a complete reversal of the advance of women which was in full spate everywhere during the first quarter of the twentieth century. Happily, the movement to check the advance of women and to depress them to a lower staus than that they occupied in the pre-Victorian era has made no headway in Great Britain. Some attempts have been made, but they have misfired. It was the women of the Englishspeaking countries — Britain, the United States, and the British Dominions— who pioneered women's social and political emancipation. In these strongholds the adherence of women to their citizen rights is far too deeply rooted to be affected by propaganda, however, persistent. > An English suJfragette, who was very young when her mother endured imprisonment for the cause, 30 years ago, was at the winter sports in Switzerland shortly after Munch. She was impressed by the capacity and intelligence of a German woman who was teaching skating to the guests and was also definitely a propagandist of Nazi ideas, particularly among the numerous American visitors. • . The English suffragette at last mterposed: "I am surprised that you advocate the Nazi regime; it has put you back to the kitchen!" The Nazi propagandist turned away without a word. Later, however, she confessed to the suffragette, "It is true the Fuehrer has put us back • to the kitchen, but only for a time." To British women, who struggled so valiantly for citizenship, no national emergency appears a reason for surrendering the status we have won. On the contrary, the right to serve the nation on equal terms with men was, and is, always with us an essential claim. Our Women's War Emergency Council has bearded the Ministry of Food and the Board of Trade on the questiom. of prices, and has helped to brake somewhat the grievous upward tendency. Un the question of war allowances for the wives and families of men in the fighting services, we have again and again descended on Parliament, and have wrung from the Government an mcrease in the scale of children's allowances, a rent allowance for London, improvements in the payments to mothers and other dependents of the _ unmarried soldiers, and a substantial increase m the maximum allowed for special grants payment to meet hardship due to prewar commitments for rent, rates, house and furniture purchas;e, education, and so forth. . ■ The Army, Navy, and Air Force have all their Women's : Auxiliary Services, whose members serve as cooks, orderlies, clerks, and. drivers. The. women's Auxiliary Territorial Services (A.T.S.)_ is 25,000 strong. By the end of 1940 it is expected to number 40,000. Marriage is not a bar to service, but if the husband of a married member of the auxiliary services comes home requiring attendance she is given leave to be with him. Women are now eligible for the highest miliary distinction: the famous Victoria Cross (V.C.), the Military Medal, and the two British Empire medals, also the Royal Victorian Order,' and the Order of the British Empire. Many will say they think less of military distinctions than of the honours of peace. But we must contrast this recognilion of the merit and the capacity of women with the bitter hostility to Florence Nightingale when she instituted systematic nursing of the wounded in the Crimea. By reason of that hostility in the High Command she was obliged to break down a door locked against her to obtain essential stores. We may compare the present honours with the fact that in 1914 Dr. Flora Murray and Dr. Louisa Garrett Anderson were obliged to place the women's war hospital, whichthey' organised, at the disposal of .the French Government. because the British War Office had no use for their services. Only much later, when they had amply proved the value of their great work, they were given charge of a British military hospital in Endel Street. In air precautions women take at least as large a share as men, as wardens, and in running warden's canteens. In the work arising from the evacuation of mothers and children from the air raid danger zones women have naturally played the major part. It is they who are the hostesses in the reception areas, thereby bearins the brunt of all sorts of difficulties. The duties and responsibilities of teachers have been extended to cover the recreation as well as the school hours of the young evacuees. The clothing as well as the mid-day meal at school has come under their care. Women are in the majority among teachers and have proved themselves zealous and adaptable in these extra services. British women have met the great emereency very calmly, very capably. In Parliament. on the local governing bodies. in official and voluntary r.rganisations. and in the professions they are playins their nart, with dignitv and self-reliance. They abate not a jot of the ground thev, have gained for women and their mission.