The Pittsburgh Press (May 9, 1941)
DRAFT FOR GIRLS?
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
In a recent magazine article, the First Lady advocates a year’s draft of young women for compulsory service, with the same age and subsistence drafted men now receive.
I doubt that this would be good for the girls, and the only results for the country might be to sink us a little deeper into debt.
It has been proved that military training conditions men to work in unison toward a common aim – and that aim is the creation of a powerful military machine. They learn to take and sometimes to give orders, but for this very reason often find it hard to adjust themselves later to the free ways of democracy.
Sometimes they lose mental initiative. This is not surprising, for we know how much easier it is to obey commands than to think things through for ourselves. All compulsory service results in a mechanized national mind, and this sort of thing is definitely dangerous to the democratic ideal.
I believe we should teach girls to be useful working members of their society, but surely Mrs. Roosevelt is well aware that such movements are already underway. Seldom in our history have women been so alert to their responsibilities. Young, old, and middle-aged, they are moving like a surging tide into every place where they are needed.
If we acted upon the advice of the President’s wife, we could be sure of only one outcome – the taxpayers would be saddled with another great financial burden. We realize the lure of working in groups. It is sometimes the best way to get results. However, women’s most important work, if our homes survive, will always have to be done individually instead of collectively.
I’m firmly convinced that anything designed to cause women further to imitate men will be detrimental to the nation’s welfare.