WILL THE WOMEN OF GERMANY SERVE A YEAR IN THE ARMY?
The greatest question before the German women is not, Shall they have the right to vote? but, Would it not be better for them if they had one year's special training by the Government as do the men when they serve their time in the army?
Compulsory military service has been a fine thing for men in the countries where it is enforced, and this is especially so of Germany where the men are inclined to be fond of studies rather than of sports and exercise. It makes them physically stronger, they are taught correct ways to exercise, and the way to care for their health.
And so this war has brought to the German women the consciousness that they, too, must have some practice and training in things, if they wish to fulfil their duty to their families and their country. They realize how much better they could do all the things that they are now forced to do if they had had some special training beforehand. And so the great question has come up: Shall the women of Germany have a year's training by the State?
Many of the greatest women of Germany are for this issue, and they have worked out plans for the service. All this does not mean that the women will have to learn to shoot guns and cannons, but that they shall be trained in the branches that make a more perfect womanhood and motherhood.
Women Giving Soldiers Cooking Lessons.
Society Girls Learning Gardening.
Society Women Helping the Poor Children.
The women will be divided into two classes for their army year—the first class being the higher and more educated German girls, and the second class being the poorer girls who must earn their own living. Naturally, the rich girl who stays at home would not be taught the same branches as a poor girl.
The better class girls will pay for their year of service. Buildings would have to be built for them, complete in every equipment, where they could live during that year. The other girls would be taught in the public schools, and their training would be free, the State paying for everything—clothes, food and training.
The most important thing for the women to learn in their year would be housekeeping. Not merely the keeping of the house in order, such as sweeping, dusting and scrubbing and all the branches that go with housekeeping. They must learn cooking, not only cooking for strong healthy people, but things that sick people can eat. They must learn to prepare food for infants. They must learn to do washing and ironing, and they must learn to make a bed properly.
They must learn to do scientific marketing, so that they will know what to buy without wasting, for Sparsamkeit, i. e., economy, is one of the fundamental things to learn. They will be taught what to do when there is no fat to be had, and they will be given different menus for times when certain foods are scarce.
Then the German women will be taught how to make a garden, when to plant different seeds and what grows best in certain seasons. Chicken raising will be taught to the girls who care to know about it, and for the country girls there will be training in the making of dairy products.
Society Women Learning to Cook.
After housekeeping the next important thing is nursing. The women must learn to take care of the sick, how to make bandages, and perhaps some knowledge of medicine. If this branch is distasteful to any of the women they will not be compelled to pursue it very far, but for those who like the branch they can continue it until they become graduate nurses.
The second branch of nursing which every girl must learn thoroughly is taking care of infants. They must be taught the proper dressing for young babies, what babies must eat and when they must sleep. Also they must know what to do in cases of light infants' diseases and what to do for fussy babies and for teething babies.
Then they must learn something of social settlement work, and how to entertain sick and crippled children. They must help in the care of orphans and be able to make things for them. They must know something of kindergartening and know stories and games for children. Many German women who have lost their husbands in the war will be glad to have a place to send their children, and the army girls can take care of them.
After nursing come lessons in sewing, and besides the making of the common things the better class of girls will learn to make lace and to do fancy work. In the year's service the better class girls will sew for the poor and the poorer girls will sew for themselves.
Women Learn Gardening.
One prominent German woman thinks that it would be a good plan to have the girls serve their first half year of service at the age of fourteen, when they leave public school. At this time they would be taught house-keeping and cooking. Then, later, between the age of seventeen and twenty when it is most convenient to the girls they could do their second half year.
Nursing, sewing and cooking will be the main branches taught to the better class girls, but each of the poorer girls will be taught a special branch by which she can earn her own living, and something she can use in filling the places of the men when it is necessary, as in this war.
The better grade of the poorer girls will be taught book-keeping and typewriting. They will be taught to be telephone operators, and how to wait on customers properly. But a girl will be taught only one of these branches, and she will be allowed to choose the one that she likes best.
Of course most German girls get married, but they must have some specialty to fall back on in case of the men going to war, or in the case of the loss of a husband, when they may be left with many little children to support. When a girl has learned any specialty she must serve the State in that capacity whenever she is called upon to do so. That will be her duty, the same as a man's.
A Home for Soldiers' Babies.
The plan so far is to have everything managed by women, and they are to have officers the same as the army. This will make the bright women more efficient in management and the duller women will learn to obey.
Already the society women of Germany have formed clubs for learning to do things. They are learning to make gardens, to cook and to sew. Women are now being drafted for the munition factories, and as most of these girls have before been housemaids, many German housewives are thrown upon their own resources.
That most of the German women would be benefitted by a year's training cannot be denied. It would help to make them stronger in body and in mind. This war has been a great example to the world of what military training means to the men, and the women of Germany feel that if they must do the work of a man, they should have the same benefits as a man.