Louise McKinney, "Where are Canadian Women Going—Back to
Their Homes or Continue in Business Life?" Canadian
Home Journal Aug. 1919. Woman's work and woman's
sphere have always furnished a favorite topic of
conversation. Her activities and resourcefulness during the
war exploded many of the old theories and gained for her
many of the privileges which for years she had claimed to be
her right. Now that the war is over the public mind is
seized with a new dread, and the subject for popular comment
is whether women will be willing to relinquish her newfound
liberty and wider sphere of activity and resume her place as
home-maker in the same old way or will she continue to claim
her present place in the industrial world and thus
constitute one more of the already numerous after-the-war
problems.
This, it is argued, would be a double tragedy, because
she would turn her back upon home life and would at the same
time keep out of employment vast numbers of men who would
otherwise be needed in the various positions now occupied by
women.
I have unbounded confidence in the women of Canada and in
the future of Canada and also in the modern woman movement,
and therefore have not the slightest doubt that present
conditions are merely a phase of the question that will
eventually work out for good and not for evil.
Speaking of lessons learned from the war, there is one
lesson that has become quite commonplace-it has been stated
so frequently and accepted so unquestioningly. It is
this-that the real strength of our men in Europe was their
wonderful "morale," which was due not only to the high moral
purpose for which they were fighting, but also to the morale
of the people at home. Indeed, it was this spirit at home
that made possible the spirit of our men in France.
Another lesson that has not been given quite so much
prominence, but is nevertheless quite as true, is this: The
signing of peace terms and the forming of a League of
Nations will be effective in maintaining peace only in so
far as there is developed within the various nations
involved those ideals that make for peace. Following this
thought a little further, we are ready to admit that such a
task can be undertaken by no machinery of government unless
that government has back of it a people of strong moral
purpose, and such a people can be produced by no other means
than through the homes of the nation.
Then, what is the message that comes clear and strong to
the women of Canada to-day-a message that transcends in
importance any other that may press its claims upon us. It
is simply this-if Canada is to maintain her place among the
nations of the world-a place purchased by the splendid
sacrifice of her noble sons and the equally splendid courage
of their heroic mothers-she must continue to foster the
institution that gave birth to her greatness-the Christian
home and her women can perform no higher form of national
service than this.
But how are we going to reconcile this with woman's
present ideas regarding her work? For answer, let us pause
and ask another question. What, after all, is the purpose of
woman's life? The purpose of woman's life is just the same
as the purpose of man's life-that she may make the best
possible contribution to the generation in which she is
living. Then, why all the striving and unrest? The answer to
this is two-fold. First, we have failed too often to
recognize this purpose and have felt we were here to seek
our own pleasure-in other words, that it was ours to be
ministered unto and not to minister, or to get out of the
world as much as possible in the line of comfort and give in
return as little as possible in the line of service.
The second cause of unrest is one that probably accounts
in great measure for the first, and, whether the individual
woman was conscious of it or not, was and is at the bottom
of all her struggles for wider liberty. This is the desire
for recognition as an individual: and no person can possibly
develop his best or contribute his best unless such
recognition is given. Now that such recognition is given, we
must admit that every society, not so that we believe that
we are running any risk by so doing, for the average woman
will continue to feel that her contribution can best be made
through the medium of the home, not because woman is so
intensely patriotic that she deliberately makes this choice,
but because in the very nature of things it is so, and the
average woman instinctively loves home life. So my message
is intended not so much to persuade women to enter homes as,
having done so, to recognize the dignity and importance of
that which they have undertaken, and to remember that any
task is noble which in any way tends to improve home
conditions or minister to the comfort of those included in
the home circle. |