Evening star., 1941-04-24
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

By Thomas r. Henry.
The "old maid" is nearly extinct in
America.
She has been succeeded by a quite
different, economically independent type
of unmarried woman, says DR.. Clara
Thompson, New York psychiatrist, for
merly on the staffS of Johns Hopkins
and Vassar, in report to the William
A. White Psychiatric Foundation here.
First" she says, there are those to
whom work is everything. This woman
differs from her predecessor, the old
maid, in that she is economically inde-
pendent. She may, however, be even
more miserable because her life is often
very isolated, whereas the old maid of
the past generation usually lived in
family and had kind of vicarious life.
But many of these individuals do find
some kind of sublimated satisfaction,
such as working for some cause even
as their predecessors worked for religion.
This group might be characterized as
having found economic freedom without
emotional freedom"
Before the middle OF the last century,
DR.. Thompson says, the position of
women was clear-cut and stable. If she
did not marry she was branded failure
and must live on suffrance in the home
of her parents or of brother or sister,
where she might have a meager emo
tional life from the love of other peoples
children
She had an additional burden" says
DR.. Thompson, of inferiority feeling.
She had failed to achieve the goal de-
manded by the culture-and for women
there was only one goal.
"On the whole the number of women
who in one way or another became inde-
pendent of their families before 1900
was small The World War speeded the
process and gave the stamp of social
approval to economic independence of
women"
The present war, DR.. Thompson be-
lieves, may give an added push to the
change the world over.
Women, she stresses, are young in
their present role. They have had to
work out, she says, "a new way of life
with no precedent to follow and no
adequate training from early childhood
to help them take the work drive
seriously or fit it into their lives. 1t is
not strange that the outstanding sue
cesses are few and that the great major
ity of women effect some compromise
between the old and the new.
The majority still plan to work only
until they marry. This may mean that
the young woman not only does not do
her pre-marital job we'll and in way
to give her satisfaction, but also nothing
in her pre-marriage activity is helpful
in fitting her for the business of home
maker"
Perhaps the worst situation, DR..
Thompson indicates, is that of the mar
ried woman with nothing to do.
The life of the married woman today
with no special work interest is not
exciting she says. She has small
home, or in many cases only an apart
ment. She may have no children. She
may have at most three. Even if she
does her own housework, it is so simpli-
fed by modern invention that it can fill
only few hours of her day.
Because of the nature Of modern
business life she has very little snare
in her husbands interests. She may
make cult out of her child, or she may
play bridge or have some other play life,
or she may engage in some volunteer
employment. In this she is apt to be
no longer welcome since trained workers
are increasingly preferred. She may go
to work seriously. The last solution is
growing in popularity
1t often happens, she points out, that
intelligent and capable women find
themselves in this situation because they
have not been aware of the changed
conditions of life before marriage and
have made no preparation for any other
type of life.
These individuals" she says, married
with the fantasy that life after marriage
could be lived somewhat in the old
fashioned way. Many college women
are in this group.
Making a cult of the child Is I'M
fortunately a fairly frequent solution.
The mother goes to excessive lengths to
apply all modern hygienic and psyche
logical theories to the management of
her child's development. This can be
very destructive to the child"