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Show I Dorothy Dix- Talks j AFTER THE WAR j I By DOKOT1IV MX. The World's Highest Paid Wpman Writer 11 wish." said the gray haired woman, wom-an, "that I could live thirty years longer, long-er, so that I might sec what my sex -is going to do after the war. "For this war has made a new heaven and n. new earth for women, and a now hell, too, for that matter. It is going to make the world, r.ot only safe for democracy, but safe for women. wom-en. It is blotting out the sex line thot separates the masculino sheep from the feminine goats, and when it is over, the world "will not be inhabited by men and women, but by human beings. "It is amusing to think how all the ancient superstitions about women have shrivelled up and perished in th-a glare of battle. Formerly one of the arguments against giving women the suffrage, was that they couldn't bear arms or do anything to defend their country in time of warfare. Nobody has the nerve to advance that theory now, with women crowding the munition muni-tion factories, making high explosives, and doing the delicate work on airplanes, air-planes, and with Red Cross nurses, women ambulance drivers and canteen workers, going calmly about their business bus-iness with shrapnel falling about them. "And nobody trots out the old bugaboo buga-boo about women getting out of her sacred sphere in these times, when women are being employed to do every possible variety of worlc from digging coal to unloading cars and raising crops. "But it isn't what women have done or arc doing in the way of war worK it Is what they are going to do in the future that piques my curiosity and makes me wish that I was going to be there to see that effect, the great war will really have on moulding the destiny des-tiny of the coming woman. "To begin with, there arc hundreds of thousands of women to whom the war has brought the first touch of real life they have over known. For the first time in all their pampered existence ex-istence they have made sacrifices; for the first time they have heard the call of duty, for the first time their minds and hearts have been Inspired by a worth-while aim. "They have been butterflies, flitting about in the sunshine from flower to flower, with no thought except for their own pleasure, with literally no interests except in clothes and motors, mot-ors, and in fine houses and parties. In their war work these women have literally lit-erally found their souls. After it is over, will they be satisfied to go back to the flesh pots? Will they be content to spend aimless days, filled with nothing but the pursuit of amusements? amuse-ments? Will not the executive ability, that so many of them have developed, require a bigger outlet than running a town or country house? How will they dam up the energies the war has set free into the small circumference of a drawing room? "And there are millions of other women who have been engaged in piddling pid-dling women's work where they received re-ceived only starving wages. They have found out, since the war began, that they can do men's work and earn men's salaries. Are they going to be willing to give up the lathe and the big jobs they now have, and retire .-j- once more to the kitchen and wash H tub, and the dollar a day envelope? "And there are thousands of other women who chafed at domesticity, and who loathed women's traditional tools, H the cook stove and the sewing ma-Q ma-Q chine. Many of these women were married to husbands with no gift for n money-making. The war has given W these women a chance to see what H they can do, and they have made good. H Will any one be able to shoo these wm 'Women back Into the home to haggle I with husband over pennies when the war is over? The woman who has once known the joy of her own pocketbook is like the tiger who has tasted blood. "Will not the war change the whole theory as regards the proprletv of married women being wage earners and engaging in any kind of work for which they have a talent? The world will need all the skillful workers it 1MB can get to offset the economic waste Ilfl of war- msM "Will not the war also change our n ideas concerning women's status in m the household? Thousands of men will come back from "over there" incapa- citated for life for supporting a fam-m fam-m ily This will force many women to IB become the bread winners, and 1 n wonder how the men and women are Hj going to adjust themselves to this fm change. H"I wonder if the war Is going to give women a rational dress, and if wom- en are going to realize that people who have real work to do, and big affair-to affair-to decide, cannot waste their timo and energies on adorning themselves" in fripperies. Thousands of women are now wearing uniforms and are finding out for the first time the case of mint and body there is in plain, substantial, comfortable gowns and shoes. I wonder won-der if out of this will not come the standardization of clothing for working work-ing women whom this war will leave husbandless and childless. "I wonder what the millions of women wom-en arc going to do with their lives, tho .women who would have married and brought up families, the women nature designed for that purpose, .n who will never have a chanco : .-njw-ry, because the men who would, under normal conditions, have been their husbands, have been slain in battle. On what man will they feed their hungry hearts'' What interest will thoy devise for themselves? What outlet will lhy find Tor their thwarted mother lovo? "Oh, It is going to be an interesting world after this war," added the oTil woman, with a sigh, "and I am so so: -ry that I won't be here to see It." |