WOMEN'S MINDS
By ELIZABETH DUNN Has the progress made by women in the last thirty years justified the burning faith of these pioneers? Has the women's vote, for instance, influenced to any appreciable degree the policy of govern- ments? However optimistic an attitude one adopts, the answer to these questions is, I think, bound to be negative. The optimist will qualify such an answer by references to women councillors, women estate managers, women doctors and, doubiless, point triumphantly to Margaret Bondfield, Ellen Wilkinson or Florence Horsbrugh. The pessimist will be content to give the obvious answer that in 1943, twenty-six years after the grant of the franchise to women, there is but a handful of their sex in Parliament, with no likelihood of any great increase in their numbers in the near future.
In one respect, no doubt, women have triumphantly justified their emancipation. During the present war they have contributed more than ever before to. the life of the nation. They have taken over, and successfully accomplished, a thousand jobs formerly reserved for men only; in factories, on the land and in the services women are doing important work in helping to drive from these shores Hitler's threat of the three K's, Kinder, Kirche and as the only outlets for the energies of their sex. I recognise that women have done all these things and done them well, but when you probe beneath the surface achievement that is obvious to any observer, you find that they have given little evidence of developing their powers of thinking and reasoning, little evidence in fact, of any progress that is not purely material. They have proved that they can do man's physical labour, but in things philosophical, political or sociological they are, in the mass, completely uninter- ested. Nineteen hundred years ago Jesus of Nazareth demanded imperiously : " What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul "? Today, in the twentieth century, hailed by so many as an era of enlightenment and emancipation, women, by their complete disregard for the things of the spirit, are in grave danger of irrevocably losing hold on that soul, already atrophied by years of disuse. The very great majority of women today have a conventional, Sunday-best and Monday-nowhere faith in God, a praiseworthy interest in children, especially their own, a firm belief in the curative value of a new hat for what is really an incur- able sickness of the soul, an absorbing passion for domestic details, the cinema and cups.of tea. Et praeterea nihil.
These accusations are not flung haphazardly for the sake of sensa- tion, but after considerable observation of women in many walks of life, and, above all, as a result of my experiences as proprietor of a lending library. For every woman who borrows a non-fiction book from this library there are 99 (I might almost say 999) who refuse to look at anything but a novel. One educated woman asked me the other day if " a woman could read " War and Peace, and indeed, so widespread is the alarm with which women regard such a novel that I have transferred it to the non-fiction shelves. There, it has a much better chance of being borrowed by the men, who rarely take the trouble to look at ordinary fiction.
Admittedly this craze for fiction passes over the bounds of' sex and is symptomatic of our modern mechanically-educated com- munity, but the disease is a hundred times more prevalent amongst
women .than with men. Most well-educated men read chiefly non fiction, with an occasional novel of the heavier sort or a detectiv story to pass an hour in bed at night. Their wives and sisters, the other hand, read fiction three weeks out of four, varied- perhap by a travel book or war commentary, provided the style of th latter is easy and conversational. As for the not so well educated you will find that even in this class the men very often prefe biography, travel, war or technical books to the doubtful delight of a novel. It is, however, about ten thousand to one that the' wives and sisters want nothing but " love-stories," and thoug the couplet
" I like tea with lots of tannin, Sweet and strong like Ethel Mannin" may be a libel on that novelist, it certainly sums up fairly exact! the taste in literature of most women. The lush vulgarity and sexua titillation of a certain American novelist, for example, have achieve an almost frightening popularity amongst women of all classes.
Some time ago this library issued a booklet which gave, on th first page, a selection of recent books .available headed " Non- fiction." A Civil Servant member, well fed in body but empty mind, lthked for a moment at the first page, sniggered to her frien " Non-fiction! " (ten exclamation marks could scarcely convey th tone of voice) and hastily flicked over to the fiction pages. As an isolated example this incident would be worthless ; as an everyday occurrence it is a serious indictment against women, and unfor- tunately it finds abundant confirmation from other sources. A copy of Picture Post lies before me as I write. In this issue there is an interesting article on a London home for aged people. The writer points out that there is an excellent library in the hostel, adding as a matter of course: " The men are the serious readers- _ the women prefer magazines."
What a blue-print we have here for our future society. Women read magazines and novels, drink cups of tea and bear children, even rivet ships and drive trains, while men ponder on the mean- ing of the Universe, worry over social problems and lay plans for a better world. .With such an unequal division of labour between the sexes, with the non-co-operation of women in matters philo- sophical and political, will any such better world ever cease to be future and visionary and enter the sphere of the present and the practical? It is difficult not to -think that this is impossible under such conditions. Before that world can be born woman must be prepared to play her part in thinking as well as acting, in planning and philosophising as well as merely standing by, expecting enter- tainment and protection from the opposite sex rather than respect and co-operation.
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