Our pioneers were full of enthusiasm in their journey to the promised land where sex barriers should be removed and sex prejudices die away. Those of us who passed through the gates which they opened for us were (I am afraid it must be admitted) often unpopular among those we left behind and were delighted with the novelty of the country before us. The next generation are coming into the field under new conditions. To begin with, it is realised that work is work; next, that economic liberty is only obtained by the sacrifice of personal freedom; that there is nothing very glorious in doing work that any average man can do as well, now that we are no longer told we cannot do it. The glamour of economic independence has faded, although the necessity for it is greater than ever. Further, although it used to be true that a smaller proportion of the girls who distinguished themselves most at school and at college married than was the case among the girls in the lower forms, this no longer holds good. Now that all girls, as a matter of course, are taught Latin and mathematics, they are no longer regarded as necessarily disagreeable in consequence; nor is inability to do their school work considered a merit. Large numbers of middle-class women must remain unmarried, but there seem to me to be many signs that it is no longer the Sixth Form girl, but her duller schoolfellow, who must be trained to make her way alone in the world.
And this after all means progress for the race.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS BY
P. S. KING & SON, Westminster.
Public Health and Housing:
The Influence of the Dwelling upon Health in Relation to the Changing Style of Habitation. By John F. J. Sykes, M.D., D.Sc. (Public Health) Edin.; Medical Officer of Health, St. Pancras, etc., etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 224 pp.; numerous Diagrams and Statistical Tables. 5s. net.
Scotsman.—“The clear view given, both of the ascertained facts relating to the effects had upon health by varying conditions of habitation, and of the means devised by hygienic and architectural skill for preventing and remedying the public ills that spring from bad dwellings, recommend them not only to medical men but also to all sorts of publicists interested in the housing question; and the book deserves a hearty welcome from thoughtful students of its subject.”
The Cottage Homes of England:
The Case against the Housing System in Rural Districts. By W. Walter Crotch. Second Edition; revised and enlarged. Crown 8vo, cloth, 160 pp. 2s. net.
Pall Mall Gazette.—“A really useful book.... It deals with the housing problem in a plain, straightforward, practical fashion.”