The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-01-09
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Director,
Washington, D. C.
SHOULD WIVES BE TRAINED?

TASK OF DelnS VIE anu HlOlueA
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 anbther recommendation the
other day when DIR. Simon Katzoff,
we'll known psycho-analyst, told the
Bridgeport board of education that it
should Immediately establish high
school aliases for the purpose of train
ing girls in the difficult business of
being wives. He said that American
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 Ameri-
can girls.
Apparently Doctor Katzoff was con-
cerned chiefly with the girls position
as wife rather than as mother, and his
criticism of the American wife con-
tanned nothing new. He simply limited
what every international observer has
stated, that the American woman is
q tyrant in her home. and the Ameri-
can man the most petticoat-dominated
man on earth. In the typical Aneri-
can household, the husband is de-
prived of a large part of his personal
liberty in the matter of his associa~
tons, engagements and habits. His
wife's wishes are presented to him, not
in the form of requests, but of de-
mands. Yet the average American
male accepts this situation philosoph-
ically. For one thing, he has been
trained to feminine domination from
early childhood, for the American
youth is ruled by his mother far more
than by his father, and he is common
| ly enslaved by his elder sisters as well
1t seems quite natural to him to have
his wife take a similar attitude of
| ownership.
In some cases doubtless he would
feel lost without it. Certain it is that
German or Frenchman treats his
wife, while the Oriental attitude of
regarding her frankly as an inferior
seems horrible to him.
Womans Opportunity.
Doubtless the American attitude is
in many ways admirable. 1t gives the
woman an unusual opportunity to
realize herself as an individual and
develop any abilities she may have.
For woman of good character and
Intelligence it is an excellent system
But the flaw in it is that the Ameri-
can 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 amy 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 a 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,
Science and medicine both offer her
opportunities of which many women
4 have already availed themselves. In
| journalism, literature and the other
arts she already enjoys almost as
much success and influence as men.
Business opportunities are open to
her on every hand. She has almost
as much social freedom as a man. She
can and does travel and go about
alone, and choose her own associa-
tons The chaperon and the escort
play just about as large a part in her
| life as she wishes them to play, and
no larger.
| This creates an ideal situation Nor
the woman of brains and energy, who
wants to enter q profession or bust
ness, who has a definite craving for
| independence and acknowledgements.
| There are many thousands of women
III America VINO nave dNdlleQ IneII-
selves of their unusual opportunities to
the full, and who present to the
world heartening spectacle of fem
mime achievement and independence.
But the great majority of women do
not strongly crave achievement and
independence. nor have they any con-
! siderable capacity for it. They prob
ably do not differ in this respect from
the great majority of men. But the
man is subject to a different tradition.
Even tho he has no strong original
bent, custom ordains that he must
that he must get a job and make a
living. Custom demands no such
thing of the woman. If she does not
feel any interest in learning and work
ing, she can stay at home and be a
lady. She can Ego into society" And
ultimately, of course, she can marry
Only Wives Unframed.
Now the strange part of it is that
this marriage is a business which is
supposed to require no training what
ever. The woman who wants to be a
doctor must study hard for four years.
She who succeeds in writing often
| serves a hard apprenticeship for
longer than that. Business, science,
nursing, welfare work-aIl of the lines
into which women go-require hard
and definite training. But she to
whose mercies the destinies of one
man and three or four children are
to be trusted. requires no training
whatever, according to the American
custom. Most of the training her
mother gives her is designed to teach
heF how to catch the man, not how
to take care of him OF raise his off
| spring. The high school teaches her
French and algebra, and the finishing
school adds music. classic dancing, and
Ltea-pouring.
It is true that she may find in either
of these places a course of instruction
known vaguely as domestic science, -
and it usually consists of a little in
struction in cookery. But of the reali-
ties and difficulties of married life, OF
the science of raising and educating
children, not one ADaerican girl in a
| thousand is ever Taught anything. No
doubt the bright ones learn from eX-
perience. No doubt many of them are
brilliantly successful wives and moth
ers in spite of everything. But Amer
lea leads the world in divorce II ba {