A ROOM OF OUR OWN
Follette, Isabel B. La
A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B.La Follette "NEXT to the dinosaurs, Woman is probably na- ture's most outstanding failure. For the life of me, I cannot think of any sphere of activity in which she...
...And so far as "contentment" goes, I can't see that any one profession or craft, nor even our own prowess in a given field, is the secret of happiness...
...If Miss Wylie retorted'that Britain was clever enough to get that help and thus still deserved all the credit, I would still say that she is judging by her own set of values...
...Now calm yourself, Isabel," I admonished myself...
...What would Miss Wylie do without numbers of people like my neighbor and myself who raise our eyes from what we consider our useful and necessary labors to create her market...
...She writes constantly and sells everything she writes...
...cause us all to examine our perspectives...
...It's fine to think about," she replied, "but the blurbs don't say anything about Miss Wylie having a husband and children...
...Again my shackles began to rise but I recalled that I must get busy and telephone a list of women for a meeting...
...The life of a writer, an actor, and other artistic careers implies a mass of people to support them...
...Wylie speaking...
...Fortunately for Miss Wylie, dogs don't have paper routes...
...I then ran over to inquire about a sick child of a neighbor...
...Johnny was too small, so I took the book and he took the papers and I only hope we got them to the right places...
...still another has a child lying at death's door with a brain tumor and "simply can't stand anything more," and so on down the list...
...I picked it up after getting out a large washing, so perhaps I was not in the proper mood to be goaded to "higher things" by such a complete "success...
...She's quite right in saying that most of us are not 'content' al-theugh I don't think contentment is necessarily a male characteristic...
...This may not be enough, but it is a good start...
...Roosevelt spoke of herself, "useful...
...Worst of all, women are conscious failures and consequently in a chronic state of discontent which may be divine but is certainly uncomfortable...
...another works in a clinic, another in a store...
...It's provocative, all right," I replied...
...They suffer in a way which men—who, whatever mess they make of themselves and their environment are always self-satisfied—never suffer...
...If Miss Wylie has a sense of humor she would doubtless be very embarrassed over the publisher's blurb (doubtless written by some starry-eyed youngster aspiring to a literary career) of her "success from every viewpoint...
...Miss Wylie, like most of us, is judging other people according to her own values, overlooking or underestimating the infinite variety of circumstances that go to make up the lives of the other millions...
...It is true, in fairness to Miss Wylie's underlying thesis, that the past few years, culminating in the atomic bomb...
...It seems to me, however, that nothing has negated the value of the quality of individual mankind and its searching for a better life...
...MOST of us don't think of ourselves in the pages of history, but most women I know try to be, as Mrs...
...One had a small baby, a sick child and no help, another works at a switchboard nights...
...I was up before daylight this morning to peddle Mike's papers...
...A case in point is Miss Wylie's statement, "Habits of mind and body centuries old are not reversed in a decade, and the experience women have had of themselves-—as in Great Britain where they alone fought for their own emancipation and where, as citizens of the only country which challenged the enemy and remained undefeated, they have acquired a new pride in citizenship—may be too limited...
...Success" is another elusive will-o'-the-wisp since "women" as well as "men" have very personal and varying standards...
...The British put up a splendid effort, but it would be most unrealistic to overlook the essential help she got from millions all over the world...
...THE two paragraphs beginning this column are from Miss Wylie's article in the November Harper's entitled "The Little Woman" and are just a sample of said article...
...She loves picnics, sailing, good food, good company, dogs...
...To divert her T asked if she had read-the Wylie article and she replied, "Yes, over a bowl of soup yesterday...
...AS I meditated later...
...I've got a" very sick boy, Isen— his temperature is 104...
...In case you don't know who SHE is, the publishers' blurbs tell us that she is an Englishwoman now living on a farm in New Jersey and vacationing at Martha's Vineyard close to Katherine Cornell...
...And "discontent" or not, in any day or age just to "survive" is nothing to sneeze at...
...But I have felt increasingly that there ought to be some way I could get on top of the physical labors involved with a home and family...
...She is a success from every viewpoint...
...For the life of me, I cannot think of any sphere of activity in which she is even passibly successful except in the matter of surviving...
...Of course, she's just taking that tack to be provocative and sell an article...
...I don't want to be ungracious, but it occurs to me that Miss Wylie may be identifying herself with Britain in writing of it as "the only country which challenged the enemy and remained undefeated...
...Here she is," they tell us, "well on in middle life, wonderful company, full of good stories and sharp observations, abounding in health...
...Gals, this is I.A.R...
...Miss Wylie would be disgusted with the report en that telephone list...
...What form the individual's expression takes is still a personal matter, so long as democracy survives and he or she participates therein...
...You know perfectly well that you have gotten in a rut during these war years, cooking, sewing, washing, putting on storm windows, running up and down stairs 'pushing liquids' for sick children, etc...
...You know you need a fresh view...
...1 picked up the article again to read, "The habit of staying at home Tiad to be explained in noble and high sounding terms" as Miss Wylie lambasted the women for not "working shoulder to shoulder" as did our primitive ancestors with their mates...
...Neither the vote, too easily won, or the war, fought at too great a distance, have affected American women to any encouraging extent...
Vol. 9 • November 1945 • No. 47
