The Pittsburgh Press (November 21, 1944)
Ferguson: Job just started
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
The Brooklyn Red Cross chapter announces that the war’s end in Europe will make no difference to the number of hours that volunteer workers are giving now. The women have said they’d stuck to their jobs – and they will.
Heaven help us all to make the same decision. Women have done well during the emergency period, but their work is just started. Peace building will call for stupendous efforts by everyone. Rosie the Riveter may get back into her kitchen apron, but let’s hope she won’t put on mental blinders again.
The end of the war will not mean that peace is won. Something better than an armistice must come out of this one.
After World War I, the men wanted to get back to normalcy – the kind that left women looking after domestic matters and men attending to governments.
A large part of our activity during all that time was concentrated on an effort to obtain a few political and economic rights.
One fact is now clear: Unless women and men work as hard to build a stable country and a stable peace, our greatest activities will be just about as effective as a squirrel’s journey in a cage. He travels in a circle. So will we, only our circle leads to another war.
There’ll be no excuse for any woman to be idle or bored in the future. Community improvement must go on; efforts to restore moral values should be increased.
Government business must become a part of our homework. We’ve all volunteered for the duration and the duration won’t be over until the world is safe from war, pestilence, famine and tyranny.