A ROOM OF OUR OWN
Follete, Isabel B. La
A Room Of Our Own By ISABEL B. LA FOLLETTE Mrs. La Follette »» j T AVE you noticed," I asked a learned and wise lTTL gentlemen recently, "the change in emphasis on woman's role in the postwar...
...With the shift in the child-parent relationship comes the opportunity for association with the interesting and entertaining individuals who are emerging...
...It is a deep satisfaction to see one's children leave the home and make a success on their own—it is our real ambition for them...
...Nevertheless, we are reminded again that time is tapping us on the shoulder...
...Nature being what she is, woman's basic urge is to respond to that demand...
...I can't escape the conclusion that we, individually, as a family, as society, are a pool of resources...
...It isn't fair, but that's the way it is...
...Youth-like and male-like he demands an untrammelled existence so far as the home is concerned, returning from work on the railroad section gang like the lord to the manor, with mother and sisters to provide chocolate cakes, press pants, play a hand of bridge, and generally make themselves useful...
...Just understand that from the beginning, and you'll get along okay...
...What makes me so mad," spoke up a young woman present, "is the unfairness of it...
...Perhaps I am a weak, subservient female, but it seems to me both fruitless and dumb to work against nature...
...Yet that consciousness of the transitoriness of life can be a stimulus to us at all times...
...Judy, returning home ecstatic from a month of cherry-picking—good, hard work and a very active social life—remarked that she was fortunate to have learned about men from her brother and knew how to handle them...
...Bob laughed, "Like the guy who came back from four years of college and was surprised to find out how much the old man had learned in that time...
...she must be there when he wants her and yet make no demands upon him...
...Some seem to pursue a star, while others adapt themselves to their "lot," but wherever we put or find ourselves, there is limitless opportunity for growth, which is our basic yearning...
...What a woman accomplishes over and above her interpretation of that role depends on her energy, ambition, and the mutual arrangement with her particular man...
...La Follette for giving us who keep homes a pat and boost instead of the usual slur...
...What a man wants, in distinction from what he may think, is to have his mother and then his wife furnish a comfortable background...
...he should be able to go and come freely without being questioned...
...Perhaps we would have made different choices in some instances, but it would have been hard to crowd more of life's experiences into those years...
...I was telling Bob and Judy the other day about a conversation in a group of parents where the older ones assured the younger ones that the day would come when their children would again consider their parents worth something...
...One of our subscribers writes, "Many thanks to Mrs...
...Working With Nature I have thought many times in this war period that marriage is like food—there are innumerable tastes and arrangements depending on the individuals concerned, but if at all satisfactory it is taken for granted...
...But the slogan, "Let it be a challenge to you...
...La Follette »» j T AVE you noticed," I asked a learned and wise lTTL gentlemen recently, "the change in emphasis on woman's role in the postwar world...
...Our rewards are unspectacular but inestimable...
...The whole American way of life is founded on what the individual can do with his materials of life...
...The form of the expression, be it music, painting, other "professional" activities outside the home, will be as varied as individual tastes, but teaching ourselves as well as the young can be a soul-satisfying experience for all concerned...
...No one talks about the men considering what makes us happy or how to adjust to us, yet lots of us are carrying a job and a home too and would like to do a little leaning ourselves...
...In those first delicious moments of relaxation I faintly heard the peal of the bell and steps thundering down the stairs to answer it...
...The older man smiled...
...When Phil left for overseas and I faced all the risks entailed, I returned again and again to the fortifying thought that we had lived our life together as fully as we knew how...
...With the family as with farming, there are certain natural laws we have to accept, but what we can build by cooperating with nature is limited only by our own individual resources...
...On the basis of loving and being loved we can consider ourselves wearing a yoke, or travelling the most exciting and far-reaching of highways...
...And so with these passing weeks while Bob waits for induction, we are trying to make the most of our time...
...When the average woman finds herself in circumstances involving loved ones, be it husband or children, her first response and last ounce of energy will be spent in that direction...
...Yesterday after lunch I hopefully cautioned the family on answering the telephone and doorbell while I "caught a few winks...
...Opportunity For Growth Poor old mother, with a catch at her heart, senses that Judy also is spreading her wings...
...As I settled down to mending by the window I meditated again upon the human frailty that nothing enhances appreciation like the knowledge that time is fleeting...
...They're all alike," she announced happily with the worldly wisdom of success, "they do what they darn please, and you can take it or leave it...
...which has always been a joke in our family, comes to the rescue...
...Of course we approach this from .different angles...
...Next thing I knew a wrestling bout was in full swing outside my window, coaching instructions mingling with thuds, squeals, and groans to the effect that "he's sweatin' so I can't get a hold on him...
...Making The Most Of Time New voices were added from time to time, and when I finally gave up the idea of a nap and looked out the window, a tournament was in progress...
...I am glad that she gets a boost from this column, but I would urge her and all of us who have chosen this "calling" to avoid the pitfall of feeling sorry for ourselves...
...she should adapt herself to his mood, giving support when called for but never forcing him...
...When the normal state of affairs is upset, however, by the severing of men and women on the wholesale scale of total war, nature speaks up for herself...
...While the Government is still pushing for women to enter the services, and the women's rights-ists ^re doing their best to maintain the war-gains of 'working' women, more and more articles are appearing to the effect that 'peace will shrink jobs for women' and advising wives on how to handle their returning soldier husbands...
...And talk about variety...
Vol. 8 • August 1944 • No. 34
