For Average Women?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 341, 4 January 1946, Page 10

For Average Women?

S an hour of the most disconnected listening it’s possible to imagine, I would cite the morning session of serials from the ZB’s. It begins and ends on the hour, but there is only about 45 fhinutes of entertainment, the rest of the time being devoted to announcements, musical snippets, and advertising. A correspondent suggests that it is about time we said good-bye to Big Sister, whose story occupies a quarter

of this programme; I would go further, and say that it is time the whole hour's entertainment was altered. First, the authors of this session must suppose that the average woman has nothing to do all morning but sip tea and listen to the radio; second, they must suppose her to possess an extraordinarily com-~-petent memory and a versatile imagination, if she can sort out the various adventures of some dozens of characters and remember which ones belong to which serial and what they are supposed to be doing on any particular day; third, they must rate her intelligence at less than average, if they think to retain her interest by the sort of serials now being heard. Isn’t it time that the ZB’s awoke to the fact that women possess brains; that they often appreciate good music and literature, and would not stop buying someone’s soap if such fare were presented in a sponsored programme; and that they are interested, not in the novelettish adventures of hypothetical people in a serial, but in home-making, art, drama, politics, religion, sport, and many other subjects which are not treated with the seriousness they deserve, in the sessions designed to appeal to "women only." I’m speaking, of course, only for the women I know personally; and none of them stop work in the mornings to lap up Big Sister and Co. Am I wrong in supposing such women to be average? _