Evening star., 1934-08-12


AA Haven't they had those equal
v rights for years? Equal rights
and superior privileges? Haven't
we given them the vote? What more. IN
heavens name, do they want? Unless they
want to run everything. of course"
No no my lads. You are quite wrong
Obtaining equal rights or, as one eminent psy-
chologist has put 1t, equal opportunity, is
very dificult legal procedure.
This is true, even though Congress did pass
q law just recently permitting an American
woman to bestow American nationality on her
children, even though she happened to be mar
ried to an alien and living abroad.
That all very good, SO far as 1t went
but it is only step in the long campaign
for equality as seen by the National Woman's
Party, which has been working for years for
o state of affairs in which there would be no
sex determinations at all
Why, points out the N. w. p, there are
still States where father may win away a
child from its mother where if child is in
jured in an accident, only the father may sue
and collect damages-should the father die
before the suit comes to trial. 1t is just too bad
far as the mother is concerned; where
father is sole heir of child who dies without
will or descendants.
THERE are States where the wife's earnings
UCAOAAS W TIC huSodi1O, HkCWtSe al ACI
personal possessions, jewelry and clothing"
says a party spokesman.
I'm some instances a married woman, sep
arated and living apart from her husband, can
not legally sign contract or go into business
without his consent. Needless to say, what is
legal sauce for the goose in such a case is not
sauce for the gander. In other words the hus-
band does not have to have his wifes consent
to sign contract.
There are States where If married woman
is injured and Is awarded damages, she can
not personally collect these. They belong to
her husband.
"one has only to glance at the divorce laws
to see how little the principle of equality before
the law now prevails"
Ex-husbands staggering under unjust all
mony loads viii probably echo Amen" to this
one; your complaint is seen as just by the
National Woman's Party, which really means
what 1t says about this equality business They
were thinking, when they said the above
however, about the more rigorous require
mentS for purity for women than for men in
the marital state In many Of these laws and
certain other crimes for which a man may
divorce his wife but which would be con-
doned legally in a husband
Women are barred from holding State Of
hce in some commonwealth. They are fire.
quenty kept from entering occupations for
which they feel themselves peculiarly fitted
The principle of equal pay for equal work
does not operate even in the new deals N r.
A. codes.
The depression has been used as an emo
tonal excuse to work new determinations
against women workers.
'Industrialists fan to see that when a vife,s
contributing income is cut on from support of
the home she must do her bit in domestic
work which, In turn, win force out of employ
ment men who have been working in laundries
baker1es, canneries, ice cream plants garment
factories, and so on"
But all these little old State laws against
women are practically non-operative today are
they not? asks the incredulous, hberal-minded
male. Just like some Of those other queer
state laws. In Pennsylvania for example IL
Is miSdemeanor to sing in the bathtub and I
understand it is Illegal 70 impersonate Santa
Claus on the street In Minneapolis: likewise to
sell Ice after pm. in Newark NJ J. without q
doctors prescription. to make ugly faces in
Zion. Ill, or 10 sneeze out loud on Sunday In
West Virginia"
a LAS and alaek, say the women, the funny
~ laws against the ladies are strictly ad-
hered TO-
1t Is fascinating to go back in history to seek
an answer to the whole riddle Of womans place
m the world today-how she has been relegated
70 the role of property after once ruling as 8