The Pittsburgh Press (January 16, 1946)
Ferguson: Wartime soft soap
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
Polls show mounting opposition to women in government. We can see how deep-seated out prejudice is when a majority of voters say they would not accept a woman as presidential candidate even though she were a member of their favorite party and seemed best qualified for the job.
Even women have little faith in their own leadership, for they also express opposition to one of their sex for such high office.
And that’s that – precisely what was to have been expected. It shouldn’t be a shock to women who understand the nature of humankind and have watched it hug its prejudices.
After the praise handed out by government propagandists, the Army and Navy and the general public, while the war was on and women were badly needed everywhere, it may startle some to find all that was soft soap. But it was the same after World War I. It follows the usual masculine “kiss-and-run” pattern.
Fortunately the overall picture is not so gloomy. Our spurts towards equality result in some pretty good gains, although like the frog in the fable, we always slip back after each one. A long-range view of the Woman’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor is that women will occupy a more favorable labor position in the post-war world. They also have extra legal safeguards.
And there’s little doubt that more men realize that women have a right to a paying job if they want it. But the age-old prejudice lives on. Against it laws are ineffectual. They help in he long run – but we must not expect them to overcome injustice immediately.