The Pittsburgh Press (August 12, 1943)
Ferguson: The vines still cling
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
The War Department is asking power from Congress to investigate unjust claims against the Army man’s paycheck. These claims come most often from women who have lived apart from their husbands but waste no time in demanding a dependent’s share of his allotment the minute he is drafted.
Decent feminists will blush for their sex as they study the records. The whole thing is tied up with the alimony question, which is also due for an overhauling.
How can we justify demands for alimony along with demands for full economic equality? In a world where the feminine half of the population does everything but tote a gun into battle, it is absurd to go on expecting clinging-vine privileges. Yet court records disclose this amazing inconsistency.
While half of us yell for bigger pay envelopes, the other half cry to the judge for a larger slice of ex-husbands’ pay.
The war offers new chances to prove woman’s ability and independence, but it will also take away cherished soft snaps.
It is possible that the sheltered woman will be regarded as a social outcast in the post-war world, for we are moving into a period when each individual will be judged by the contribution he makes or the service he renders to society. And if equal rights prevail, will it not be illogical for a woman to ask support from an ex-husband unless she actually tends his children with her own hands?
A fair division of property, yes – but the future will probably see both father and mother, after divorce, contributing to the upkeep of the offspring, and the childless wife having no claim on an ex-husband’s earnings.