The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1924-03-04

This would seem to indicate
pulled down their banner.
They have, however, found it quite.
unnecessary to bolster up that ban.
ner with high collars and four-in-
hand ties. Militancy has disappear
ed. 1t has served its purpose and 10
no longer important to feminiAm.
With militancy Insecurity is also
passing. Women are realizing that
they do not have to make themselves
look like men to prove their equal
ity.
No "DOubleS'' of Men.
Nor does equality have the same
connotation that it once had. In the
early days of Votes for Women"
women not only attempted to con-
vince men, but had even convinced
themselves that they were not only
mems equals but their doubles.
Feminists are now beginning to
realize that the greatest argument
In their favor is the fact that they
have a purpose in life separate and
distinct from that Of men.
Rather than claiming mems func-
ton in the scheme Of things as their
own, they are now urging that their
function is as important as mans
because of Its very difference.
= Nature never intended woman to
step into mans shoes and wear
his tweeds and carry his walking
stick. Nature didn't intend for
woman to carry on wars. Nature
never wishes woman to pit herself
against man and create new
struggle for existence.
Nature gave man one function
and woman another. Perhaps she
never intended them to be compared
But If they must be compared, she
never questioned their equal impor-
lance in the scheme Of things. Ma.
ture created man and woman equal
on different planes.
1t is the gradual realization Of
this that has been somewhat in.
strumental in regaining for woman
was so very much ashamed in the
old days Of militant suffrage.
At that time she needed to assert
herself. She had temporarily to
fight men on their own ground.
Had she asked for the vote meekly,
sweetly and in an altogether
womanly way, it is extremely doubt.
full that she would ever have got
ten it.
Discard War Uniforms.
Masculinity and hardness were
necessary weapons Of campaign.
But the campaign is over and
women have discarded their war
uniform.
One hears a great deal about the
boylsh figure, the boyish bob and
the boyish suit. But everywhere
one sees emancipated flappers who
look boyish and act amazingly girl
ish. For all their attempts at flat
chestedness and hiplessness, young
girls today are very soft and
feminine.
Young feminine creatures today
have departed from the old aggres-
slveness and assertion of independ-
ence.
But 1 don't think that they are
any less independent than the early
suffragist that insisted upon paying
her own fare and aired cynical
views about the genus "homo."
Their independence is perhaps suf.
AASAOhIAy AA6I d1HSu " NC TAKEN IOr
granted.
The flapper may be somewhat
saucy with little sophisticated and
self-assured, but there Is more than
a hint Of softness and womanli-
ness in her makeup. She is less
extreme and more subtle than the
early feminists.
While there is no humility and
coIf n hac nj t.
ward men,. there is considerable
suasion and an appeal to dormant
chivalry.
Know What They Want.
In addition to the reasons that
women have come to understand
more clearly what they want, and
that the need for militancy and
hardness Is past, there is no doubt
an important psycho-analytical basis
for the return for feminity. And
now those of my sex may imagine
that I am giving them away. Per-
haps I am, but 1 have always felt
that the truth could never hurt US.
This is the secret: Women are
instinctively what men want them
to be. BY processes Of which they
themselves are unconscious, they
are soft and yielding, or hard and
strong as men wish them to be
one or the other.
OF course the exception to this
is such time when an intensely
personal need, such as suffrage,
arises. But with that need graft.
fled, women once more are making
themselves to fit the pattern de.
signed by men.
OF course it must be said that
men, no less than women, wish
to be what women expect them
to be. But with men the process
is a conscious and often Elundnr
ing one. With women it Is IN
instructive and intuitional one. II
Is, therefore, infinitely more sue
cessful and subtle.
More Women Than Men.
Nor must very practical reason
for the return of feminity be over
looked. There are many more wo
men living today than there are
men, as a result of that great
recent debauchery-the war.
There is great competition in the
search for mates. The girl who
Is not too obviously independent il
more apt to capture a husband than
her self-sufficient sister. The girl
who appeals to the protective in
stinct in the male IL more SUCCESS
ful than the strong-armed creature