The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

4 WOMEN IN OUR SOCIETY TO-DAY By Irene H. McBride The other night I attended a meet- ing at which a panel discussion was to take place. Two additional members were needed for the panel and the chairman asked for volunteerszlin- niediately, a man in the audience responded. Then the chairman sug- gested that a lady volunteer. since there was only one woman but four men on the panel and, since there were more women than men in the audience. And what happened? You can guess. Not a woman made a move! Even when appealed to individually, by name, several refused. Finally, one did comply. This seemed to me a simple parable of the average wo- man's unwillingness to accept her share of responsibility in a group com- prised of men and women. And the situation raised in my mind the whole problem of the position of women in in our society to-day. ' For over a year, now, the magazines have bristled or blossomed, depending on the attitude of the writer. with articles on the "woman question.” You've all read them. Some of them picture the average woman of today as a discontented, restless parasite. Some of them present her as a stable, alert responsible citizen. 0n the one hand, woman is condemned, pitied or worried over. On the other. she is praised, envied, or her influence is seen as the best hope of peace in the world. As we look back over history we are struck by the many different con~ ceptions of womanhood which have existed in difl’erent ages and among difl'erent peoples. As M. R. Beard has well said, “Woman has been every kind of being in minds conscious of mind." But surely it remained for our age to show so many different conâ€" ceptions existing side by side at one and the same time! The terrific con: fusion as to what woman's role is, and should he, makes all women feel unsure of themselves as individuals and uncertain of woman’s destiny. But this confusion as to values and goals is not confined to women. We are living in a rapidly changing world, where it is difficult for anyone to feel secure or to preserve his or her feel- ing of personal worth. We do well to remember this is one of the causes of the current confusion in the attitude towards women. With the rise of special research in the modern world there have come simplified interpretations of women With regard to these different fields, e.g., biological, social, psychologicali There are differences between men and women in these fields and these dif- ferences have a significance when we come to consider woman‘s role in its several aspects. Woman to~day, as always, finds in her role of wife, mother and home- maker, her biggest contribution to the welfare of mankind. Although many, like Pearl Buck, must ask themselves, to 'what purpose do women satisfy their needs by child bearing as long as 'men seem to be able to satisfy theirs only by waging wars which deâ€" vour those children? This responsi- bility of wifehood and motherhood is hers by virtue of her biological W0» manhood. In the raising of children and in her homemaking, however, her discharge of responsibility differs markedly from what it did a couple or 50_ generations ago. Up to the indus» trial revolution, nearly all creative work was done both by men and women, and in the home. Women did not suffer from feelings of inferiority even though they did not have some of the qualities with men which they have to-day. The first relation of women is to their families and their homes. And it is in these relationships that there is the most difi‘erence between women and men. But we need to remember that individual women, and men. too. for that matter, show a wide range in the extent to which they are pri- marily concerned with basic human relationships. However, no man. (un- less he is unable to engage in other work) can, in our society, spend the HOME AND COUNTRY RECORD ATTENDANCE AT KIRKLAND LAKE AND GUELPH Fall. 1943 GUELPH AREA ‘ e ' ld t th 0.A.C. Delegates in attendance represented the districts of Bruce East, Nam, iii-hie[gidnéhrfaWSilglad‘dwNoldfh :nd Seouth; Wellington North, South and Centre; Perth North and Halton. ln u“. front row are Mrs. C. Robertson, Area Chairman, Mrs, J. R. Futcher. Prov. Pres; and Loren Guild, Area Secretary. KIRKLAND LAKE CONVENTION Kirkland Lake convention held in the Park Lane Hotel. Delegates were in attendance from the districts of t'ochi rane and Temiskaining. At the head table, seated left to right: Mrs. W. It. Peters, New Liskeard; Mrs. George Ash, Fredericklnulse; Miss Anna Lewis, Toronto; Mrs. Walter Little, Kirkland Lake; Mrs. J. R. Futcher, Thomas; Reeve Anne Slupley, Kirkland Lake; Mrs. Sam Farmer, Cochrane; Miss Constance Hayward, Citizenship Branch, Ottawa; Mrs, Ross Dodds, Clute; Mrs. H. Houston, Thornloe. major portion of his time in the fam- ily, and still be considered to be dis- charging his duties as a citizen. And yet, women are able to do this and those who do are considered by some people to be the most de- sirable type of womanhood. ”Wo» man’s place is in the homel" they say, and mean that she should con- fine herself to child-bearing and raising and homemaking. These are vital social functions and in the dis- charge of them women’s emotional needs are satisfied. But in the mod- ern world can she fulfil even these responsibilities if she has no interests or outlook beyond the four walls of her home? Besides, many women never have a chance to take their place in the home. What then, should be done with these? Or perhnns our “Woman's place is in the home” pro» ponents would allow this group to develop as human beings and satisfy those other needs which all women have, but the satisfaction of which they would deny to wives and moth- ers'! As wife and mother a woman lives in a world whose values. goals and rewards are largely intangible, and in our materialistic society she is apt to feel inferior because of this, especially if she tries to measure herself and her achievements in terms of the world outside the home. To be happy and content, she needs to cease trying to do this and realize that the values she is concerned with are fully as ini- portant. if not more so. than those of the outside world. Only the successful mother can appreciate the joy and satisfaction of having been largely responsible for the proper develop- ment of human personalities. The homemaker is ore-occupied with hu- man relationships and is sometimes ridiculed for this. Yet it is precisely in this field that our society and world have most conspicuously failed. But woman herself has other needs besides those satisfied in her role as wife and mother. Woman has intel- lectual needs as well as emotional ones. And society as a whole has needs which she. as a human being, has a responsibility to fill. Let’s consider some of the implications of these for woman, even in her role as wife and mother. She needs to recognize that woman’s life falls into different phases and that she needs to prepare herself. while living through each stage of life, for those that are to follow. Even in be:- formal education. this needs consideration. The girl should be given adequate training in the skills of homemaking and in the understand- ings necessary for doing a good job of child development and handling family relationships. But beyond that, for her career training and for her duties as a citizen, she needs an edu- cation in line with her abilities and interests and this education should be as diversified and extended as that open to boys, (who, of course also. need training for marriage and family life). As it is to-day, career training is open to woman, but, after she is trained, she cannot really have a career on equal terms with men even if she gives up the satisfantinn of her need to function as wife and mother. And those who do fulfil that need. usually find themselves, during the homemaking period. forced to com- pletely sacrifice their traininv and career. If it were possible for them to keep in touch with developments in their field, and not go "rusty", as it were. it thev would consider what was their vocation, as an avocation for a time, and accept their homemakina as their vocation for this period of their lives, when their children need considerable care, the outcome would be better. They would be more con- tent and more ready to accept the severe restriction of activities that comes to mothers of young children. They would realize the necessity, also. even at that of “building bridges back into the community" by which they could return when their children do not need so much of their time. Under present conditions, however. this is difiicult. Besides openings in volun- teer work, opportunities for part time or free lance work need to be created for women at all economic levels. All the resources of adult education are needed, too, to help in this work. And one more thing is needed. that men should be able. Willing and ready to take a greater share in the business of homemaking. This is the new pattern which is emerging and which seems to best meet the needs of both men and women and the needs of society to-day. Gruenherg describes it thus. “Both parents share in the iilwsiul care of their children, in the rlimpllne, in planning education and remuulion and in managing the budget. In such a partnership, the equality (luvs not call for a mathematical oi- mccltmnal division of all the burdens and all the benefits precisely by two: it tutu ur- count of sex differences as well of other difierences that are alway~‘ mes. cnt between any two persons The parents_seek a working halanw be- tween the fluctuatinz demands «in the continuous or chief earner and the changing needs of the bearer Ul chil- dren and the chief source of tlmr nur~ turc.” And when this period of child i'carin": is over, the woman can return to taking a larger share in the work of the outside world. V Let’s look at woman in that‘qlllslde world. There has been bewailmc In some quarters that women in bus 97‘5 and the professions and polit nlnl not raise the “tone” of these a “a. unreasonably, expected they V-Ol'ld‘ But we should remember that the dif’ ferences between men and women are least in these fields outside the home. Also, as someone has said, "Women in a masculine world have been some: what in the position of an 'outgmup and have thus tended to imitate and appropriate for their own. behaviour patterns. standards and valucsnlrom the dominant masculine society. But there are ways in which won‘t“ do differ from men which can be {$5915 in their playing their part in the eco- nomic and political fields. As a group women are more realistic, more con crete, practical-minded, less scares- sive, more alert to hpman relation- ships and find it easier to be conli cerned with detail. Would not 1:] these characteristics he of m'estima he value in conducting the affairs of t 1- world? . h Then there are types of work Will: make snecial demands on women 5; cause of special abilities or intetes which women as a group are male likely to have than are men. Even politics, law and medicine, for exan‘ll’h women find valuable work to do ‘Vd “E to some extent differs from that °"_ by men and which would remain as doni if women did not take up i 9 war . , But in all fields there is a Pfifllc‘mr (Continued on page 8 col. 1)