"PRISON WITHOUT BARS"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 410, 2 May 1947, Page 5

"PRISON WITHOUT BARS"

»sir,-The report of Caroline Webb’s talk inspired warm fellow feeling in me, and it was therefore with some astonishment that I read the letter from "Pro, Truman and Pro Bevin" who, I suspect, wears mutton chop whiskers and keeps a portrait of Mr. Barrett beneath the overmantel. — No man worthy of the name feels pleased that his wife is "too busily engaged in her little circle of domestic duties" to bother about outside interests, Rather, he would weltome any innovation to place housewives (particularly mothers) mofe nearly on an equal footing with her fellows who work a 40-hour week, It is neither fair.nor logical to expect thesé women to be content with the status of Victorians in a modern world. After all, women are now educated (compulsorily) to take a very catholic interest in life, and because they marry and have children they do not, strange as it may seem to "Pro Truman," suddenly lose all interest in their former pursuits. Mothers like to read, have hobbies, go to concerts, and enjoy the converse of their fellows just as much as anybody else. Surely life should be more than cooking, cleaning, washing, bearing and rearing children, and the other multifarious duties of the housewife-mother. ‘Nor, to my mind, is housework parScutarky "feminine." Much of it consists of heavy and dirty tasks. Nor, again, do home duties partake to any extent of Christianity Which, I understand) enjoins that the seventh day shall be one of rest. But for mothers: Surday still brings beds to be made, floors to be swept, meals prepared and babies to be attended. Women do ‘not seek alleviation of some of their many household tasks so as to become coalminers and train drivers, All they ask is a reasonable amount of freedom to enjoy life like intelligent human beings. Women’s emancipation is still a mere phrase. Mrs. Pankhurst would, I fear, sleep very uneasily in her grave if she could see the lot of mothers to-day.

ONE OF THE PRISONERS

(Auckland). ee

Sir-TI wish to remark on the letter by "Pro Truman and Bevin" appearing in The Listener. I have read Caroline Webb’s’ talk and, although I disagree violently with her suggestion for compulsory direction of girls for domestic service, I consider the remainder of her talk to be a sound, commonsense solution to many of the problems affecting the home to-day. From various other statements made in her letter, "Pro Truman and Bevin" appears to be living in the ‘past, a state in which so many diehards find themselves to-day. In any country which recognises democracy as its way of life, women should have equal opportunity to engage in any undertaking or profession they desire unhampered by the prejudice and ignorance of the

past.

E. A.

S.

(Brooklyn).

Sir-In an admirable talk on "Home Life for the Married Woman," the following passage occurs. (It may not be the private opinion of the speaker, Caroline Webb, but it is stated simply as a fact, to be taken into account in our everyday life). "Personal service of any sort, such as washing other people’s

dishes, waiting on them at table or making their beds, is felt to place the worker on a lower social-level than those he works for." In exactly the same week, thousands of New Zealanders were either reading, or hearing, another passage: "Jesus knowing .... that he came forth from God and goeth unto God, riseth from supper and layeth aside his garments; and he took a towel and girded himself. Then he poureth water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.’ New Zealand teally is a Christian country. is it not?

MARGARET E. J.

WALLIS

(Lower Hutt).

Sir-Your correspondent who signs himself "Pro Truman and Bevin" struck an amusingly old-fashioned note. I happen to be one of those "wives at home" who work about 80 hours a week, and I say, send on the cleaning companies, home helps, and anything else that will give one a little more time to enjoy the company of one’s husband and children, a little more leisure for books and music and friends, and even for one’s personal appearance. I can think of nothing better than a competent band of workers to clean my house now and then, and give me time for all the little jobs which accumulate. And by all means let the scheme be communal, so that we can all share-we might even have time to think of helping to’ build a Christian civilisation. "Pro Truman and Bevin" apparently thinks it exists already.

PRO COMMON SENSE

(Taumaranui).