Women Talking

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 735, 14 August 1953, Page 11

Women Talking

"HE women’s discussion panels, heard from the main stations each Wednesday, are now in their third year, so it is perhaps not surprising that they are becoming a little repetitious. In the first two years approximately 250 questions must have been dealt with, and it begins to appear as if the bottom of the barrel was reached some time ago. The inclusion of men in the panels, presumably intended to provide listeners with a masculine viewpoint, has had little effect — except an occasional increase in pomposity-since most of the women were sufficiently objective to be impartial. Although the "expert" has sometimes thrown extra light on the matter to be discussed, the disadvantages, felt by expert and listener" alike, were expressed by the medical man on the first panel of experts, who flatly stated that he had not the time at his disposal to explain fully his attitude on the question to the dissident layman, who must accept his professional authority. It seems to me that the women were better on their own-lighter in. touch and.» more interesting, and this

opinion was confirmed by ‘the newest panel, consisting of four Southland women who recently conducted a lively discussion that nevertheless managed to cover the ground of a_ previously discussed problem fairly thoroughly.