The Pittsburgh Press (September 2, 1941)
POST-WAR WOMAN
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
Another peace aim that should be discussed is:
…the post-war world from the woman’s angle.
I’ve never seen such publicity as we’re getting right now. Pages and pages and photographs and complimentary comments pour from the presses. There’s been nothing like it since the age of chivalry ended. A new kind of glamor seems aborning. It looks as if the girls are really in the grandstand, at last.
It’s the same in England, too. John Bull can’t say enough in praise of his women. The way they’ve buckled down to business, their courage, their ingenuity, their cheerfulness, their efficiency, comprises one of the truly stirring tales of this war, and I dare say, if we had the truth, the women of every other country, including Germany and Japan, would be equally praiseworthy.
Out of this crucible of fire, a new being will probably emerge – the post-war woman – a being so strange and different as the one who came into existence here after the last war. And she won’t be the flapper type, for this fresh creature will have demonstrated to the full her ability to stand foursquare beside man; will have proved her equality the hard way, grimly and gallantly. It will take some tall explaining by political leaders if she doesn’t get it.
But she won’t. Of that I am sure, unless out of this crucible of fire there is also born a new male being who will be ashamed to deny his sister the rights he possesses, and who will gladly share with her, not only his material possessions, but his political and economic privileges.
Nations can no longer wage wars without the help of women. Maybe, after this one, we will also realize they cannot make or maintain a decent peace, conduct a good political system or build a new world order without the same sort of assistance.