HONOURS FOR WOMEN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3282, 29 July 1911, Page 6

HONOURS FOR WOMEN.

WHY ARE THEY NEGLECTED

The Coronation has turned the thoughts of many active-minded women to the subject of honors, and there is a growing tendency to discuss the boycotting of women when notable distinctions are being awarded (says an English writer). The public work of women has been insufficiently recognised, and only as “the wives of their husbands” has honor come upon them-—and yet their work in many fields lias made history, and is (making history. The. suggestion of a special order for women will not meet with any great acclamation from women who matter. Tlie disinclination of the outstanding women to be grouped according to their sex is a growing one. In the, arts and’ sciences there is a universal demand on the part of those who have shaken themselves free of the amateur taint to be grouped amongst omen by right of their achievements, and not in a special department apart by virtue of their sex. Consequently any attempt to initiate a special honor for women which will do homage to feminity as well as to work is not likely to be welcomed. But there is a growing feeling that something must be done; there are at the present moment in the front rank of the drama both as makers and interpreters), of music, of literature, of the arts, and of medicine, recognised as equal in standing with those men whose names repeatedly appears on each now honors list, hut who, because of their sex, have been passed by. Beyond the occasional award of medals ix) nurses, one seldom sees a woman’s name in any civic list.

In connection with this almost general feeling that there might be. a greater catholicity! in the awarding of distinctions, it is interesting to note -that Mrs Humphrey Ward and Mr George Bernard Shaw, who differ so: strongly on the question, of the enfranchisement of women, are agreed that in the event of the formation of a British Academy of Letters women should be represented on the committee, Mrs Humphrey Ward declaring at the annual meeting of the Society of Authors that “whatever her views as to women in public affairs, she strongly asserted the equality, or the potential equality, of women in matters spiritual and intellectual.”