Evening star., 1940-04-15

Matrimonial
Prospects
OF Girls
Harder Than Ever
For Modern Miss
TOGet Husband
BY DOROTHY DIX.

Dy Do1No DkAs
The dean of one of our largest
Women's colleges says that getting
husbands is bigger worry to girls
today than it was generation ago.
This is no news to the girls. Getting
married in mothers time was about
the easiest thing girl could do. and
In grandmother day it took no
more than come-hither look in a
maiden's eye to tote a youth to the
altar. But now girl has to be
go-getter, use diplomacy. cajoleries
and pressure, and have luck, to boot,
to get wedding ring out of a man.
The reluctance of men to enter the
holy estate is strange because never
before have girls been more attrac-
tive nor more desirable as life COM
panionS than they are now. You
would think that they would be SIM
ply trampling each other down at
the Marriage License Bureau in
stead of walking high, wide and
handsome around it, but such. alas,
Is not the case. Everywhere there is
q slump in the matrimonial market,
which is hard to account for con-
Sldering the blue-chip stocks that
are offered. For, taking it by and
large, the average of feminine pull
chritude is at its peak The modern
girl Is better looking than her
mother was because she is stronger
and healthier, is better dressed and
has learned how to supply for her.
self the colored hair. the peaches
and-cream complexion, the rosy lips
and willowy figure that nature failed
TO give her. Hence there is no trou-
BILE in any man acquiring a wife who
will be easy on his eyes if what he
graves in marriage is living pic
ture.
Then the modern girl is far bet
ter fitted to be a companion to her
husband than the girl of the past
was to her man. Grandma's S activ-
tiles and her range of interests were
limited to strictly lady-like subjects.
Her conversational repertoire didn't
60 much further than Shakespeare
and the musical classics. Her diver
sions were mainly confined to
stroll in the garden and mild game
of whist.
But Miss Up-to-Date has a college
degree. She reads more than the
boy friend. Can discuss any topic
from the trend of stocks to the fut-
ure of democracy She can golf.
play tennis, fly an airplane and
drive car and is in every way
qualified to fill the bill for a man
who wants combined working
partner and entertainer.
Another selling point as a wife
that the modern girl has is that she
doesn't even have to be supported
as her predecessors did. Grandpa
had to be Grandma's meal ticket,
but granddaughter knows how to
earn her own bread and butter and
she is willing to keep on doing it
after marriage rather than be an old
maid.
Also, the modern wife is willing
not only to fry bacon but to help
bring 1t home, and so that excuse
for not ringing the wedding bells is
out.
I think the reason that men are
more loath to marry than they used
to be is because women themselves
have killed the goose that laid the
golden egg. They have marked down
their price tag and made themselves
too cheap, and that has decreased
their value in mems eyes. They have
thrown away their seven wells of
mystery and with that their allure
They chase men instead of making
men chase them, and in the matri-
monial race men outsprint them
Formerly man married for COM
panionship, because the only way he
could get woman's society was by
marrying her. And in particular
was wedding ring the price of her
kisses and careSses. But nowadays
when he works all day side by side
with women in Offices he gets all of
the feminine company he desires,
and when girls pay for being taken
to the movies with petting party,
what inducement is there for a man
to marry and assume the burden of
q family.