The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-01-09

WASHINGTON, d. c., jan 9-That
the task OF beng wife and mother
should be numbered among the learn
ed professions and taught in the high
schools and colleges is an idea that
seems to be steadily gaining ground.
1t got another recommendation the
other day when DR.. Simon Katzoff, a
well known psycho-analyst, told the
Bridgeport Board of Education that it
should Immediately establish high
school classes for the purpose of
training girls in the difficult business
of being wives. He said that Amer
lean girls get no training at home in
this line, and that therefore the
schools must give it. He placed all
the blame for divorce and the general
failure of marriage on the ignorance
of American girls.
Apparently DR. Katzoff was con-
cerned chiefly with the girls position
as wife rather than as mother, and
his criticism of the American wife
contained nothing new. He simply
limited what every international OBJ
server has stated, that the American
woman is a tyrant in her home, and
the American man the most petticoat
dominated man on earth. In the typic-
| al American household, the husband
is deprived of large part of his per-
sonal liberty in the matter of his as
sOciations, engagements and habits.
His wife's wishes are presented to
| him, not in the form of requests, but
of demands. Yet the average Amer
| lean male accepts this situation phil
| osophically. For one thing, he has
been trained to feminine domination
from early childhood, for the Amer
| lean youth is ruled by his mother far
more than by his father, and he is
commonly enslaved by his elder sis
| tiers as well. 1t seems quite natural
to him to have his wife take similar
attitude of ownership.
| In some cases doubtless he would
| feel lost without it. Certain it is that
he is generally shocked by the way a
! German or Frenchman treats his
wife, while the Oriental attitude of re-
garding her frankly as an inferior
seems horrible TO him.
Woman's Opportunity.
| Doubtless the American attitude is
in many ways admirable. 1t gives the
woman an unusual opportunity to real.
ize herself as an individual and de.
velop any abilities she may have. For
! a woman OF good character and IN
| telligence it is an excellent system
But the flaw in it is that the Amer
lean tradition does not demand enough
of the woman to justify the large
amount of freedom she is given.
The American girl today, stepping
out of high school or college, faces a
wealth of opportunity, such as women
have never enjoyed before in any age
or country. 1t is true that she has
certain legal disabilities, and that she
is apt TO be paid less for the same
Work than man But her sisters are
organized to remove those legal dis
abilities and her situation in all sorts
of work is steadily improving, while
there are few things in life from which
she is barred by her sex. She can get
as much education as any man. Sci
ence and medicine both offer her op
portuities of which many women have
already availed themselves. In journ
alism, literature and the other arts she
already enjoys almost as much sue
cess and influence as men. Business
/ opportunities are open to her on every
hand. She has almost as much socia