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Show $ 1 1 Dorothy Dix Talks : kH I I WOMEN AFTER THE WAR j J By DOROTHY DIX. The World's Holiest Paid Woman Writer i K r No war tnat nas ever 1)0011 fought iOnf I; jjas been of such momentous console conso-le P quenco 10 womcn as tllis w;ir- 11 nas PrfCt A changed the wholo world for them. It 0 n has literally made for them a new 'OQ L earth, a new Heaven and a new Hell, '.' and when it is over they will find I themselves embarked upon a sea of life in which most of the landmarks j by which their grandmothers steered d will have been swept away.-ln8 away.-ln8 ! They will have gained the franchise f because those who are fighting to es-tablish es-tablish the democracy of the world fld 1 cannot deny the right of the ballot to half of the inhabitants thereof. The nl I walls of the harem in which women 7 ' have been literally, or figuratively, I shut up for centuries will bo broken I I down never to be rebuilt again. I Nobody can ever again talk about j woman's sacred sphere or the potency TO j I of woman's gentle, silent influence fe f! with a battalion of women going sing-A sing-A i t ing to certain death in a vain attempt ?; to shame their craven men soldiers to jjB fight for their country, and with worn-en worn-en driving motor lories on the batttle-M batttle-M Held and toiling like fiends in ammunl- V ( tion factories. The war has blotted out : the sex line and left us all just human r beings. I After the war many women who have been rich all their lives will find themselves poor. Many who have been poor will be rich. Many women who ; IK have always leaned upon the strong I nrnis of men will find themselves ob-, ob-, J liged to stand alone. Many women , who have lived futile, frivolous lives . and who have been stirred by the war ' .1 ; into doing great humanitarian work, will find when it is ended that they ; cannot go back and make a career of ' bridge fox trotting and clothes. ;." Poor women who have made only a small pittance as domestic servants lj or seamstresses will find out that they can earn big money doing oxpert work lkej 1 in factories that it has heretofore been uie I x inougnt oniy men couiu ao, ana women j If everywhere will find such opportunity Ir ies as they had neer hoped for in. 7" Ifj their wildest dreams. j ! I' All of this is going to make many j HI changes in the relationship between! L men and women changes that will ed t ' force us 10 altor our point of view on ere K manv subjects and this perhaps iton- e most momentous change of all that wiks:. (jic war wju bring to women. , i , 1 The big change is that it's going to( rJy, 5 doom to spinsterhood millions of oung women who,, but for this war, sMTii wou1(I nave married. The girl of to- ij-jMi' day can no longer look forward con- rr fldently to wifehood and motherhood' ilMjii : ias nPr predestined avocation in life. For0a couple of generations to come,. ae?J: at least, husbands will belong to the! m5&t. luxury class and not among the domes - tic necessities of the household. t& Before the war England and Ger- )WRy : many already had an immense sur- -Ork plus female population. How much this ?andi , has been augmented by the terrible asfieij- loss of men in battle Heaven only tles knows, but it is certain there will be ysjifc in every European country that is now! perjjS engaged in this bloody strife, millions i ildwt,' of women for whom there can be no & possible opportunity of marriage. s.vi : Conditions will not be quite so bad s,"fi in our own countr, but what with the 'L -; loss of young men who must Inevitably 7-"!; perish In the struggle, and those who will be too wrecked by war to think I of marrying, and "with the hord s of j 4 I foreign women who will undoubtedly! I emigrate to America at the close of( jjf the war. the matrimonial situation W ' -VUU UVLO Will U UCB1JCIUIO IUUtuu. ; These are discouraging facts, but they: ;M are facts. J The girl of today, therefore, is fool-j j , ish indeed if she does not see the 1 handwriting on the wall that spells I spinster and does not prepare herself: ' V'' to follow some gainful occupation' certi f thereby she may support herself In comfort, and "do herself," as our Eng-"f Eng-"f ' lish friends say, as well as a husband 1 'i54 would be able to do for her. eiv. Now aside from the census view of t eV lne matter, whether it is a misfor-tune misfor-tune or not for a girl to be an old ls0 maid depends entirely upon her own :kage attitude towards the subject. , The chief objection that most girls have to remaining single is ihat they art are ashamed of being old maids. They leeptj ".. think that it indicates that they are - 'I ; less attractive than their sisters who ' pocure husbands. If the truth were j told, the average woman would con- fess tUat she married not so much for v. I f- love as because all of her friends were 'iJ m' gcttmS married and were asking her '25i i why slle dIdll,t marry, and because she ; had gotten tired of trotting around to VM i- balls and parties and wanted some real ? ; work to do and some established place in the world to fill. iif Of course the traditional stigma Upon old mai(ls AVl11 be automatically ;JR removed when marriage becomes the ! exception, and not the rule, among -J ; young women, and when the fairest 1? flowers remain unplucked on the 3 parent bough. That will take away ' I one of lue m!lin objections to spinster-' spinster-' I IlQod. So will another disadvantage be v'.i i eliminated when girls nre not only able i I to make enough money to support , 25 I themselves iu comfort but have the 7e I interest and excitement of business to ike I fll1 in tueir days. . 20 J. Sirl 's foolish enough to believe ' $ X tllat marriage will inevitably secure j her happiness. On the contrary she knows it for what it is the most desperate des-perate gamble on earth Heaven if you win, rhe other place if you lose Furthermore, her observation among her friends show her that the average unmarritd woman looks about ten years younger and generally has better clothes and more peace of mind than her married sister. But the girl has been taught that if she doesn't marry she will miss the greatest good that could come to a woman; that the love of some man is the whole of life for a woman, and that if she does not have a romance she has nothing. Hence these tears over being an. old maid, instead of being chirpy as a man is about enjoying single blessedness. blessed-ness. And it's the man's point of view that the young women will have to acquire that real love and romance, if they come your way, are a thing to thank God for on your knees, but if they don't, life is full of excellent substitutes. sub-stitutes. Women have put too much stress on love and sentiment and live too much in their emotions, anyway, and it's going to do them good to have to set their teeth in the real meat of life instead of gorging themselves on sweetmeats and getting heart burn from them. When marriagebecomes a thing that isn't being done this season, women will not - fight, as has been prophesied, over the few available husbands. They will accept spinster-hood spinster-hood with resignation and devote their energies to business, to the professions, profes-sions, to civic reforms and to mothering mother-ing the universe. And whether they will be happier or unhappier than they are, no one knows. But. my. won't husbands be the spoiled and coddled creatures when "a woman will be glad to have even a piece of one to flaunt in her friends' face! nn |