Page 10
University Daily Kansan
Friday, April 26, 1963
Housewife Has Advantage in Careers; Diversity of Interests Easily Expressed
By Dolores Orman
What is the role of the American woman in today's society? Can she be both a successful career woman and mother? What about the unmarried woman?
Those were some of the questions discussed yesterday at the symposium on the roles of women in modern society sponsored by Associated Women Students (AWS).
The program, one of the All Women's Day activities, featured four guest panelists: Dr. Helen Gillis, a Lawrence pediatrician; Mrs. Charles Fordyce, a Kansas City probation officer; Emily Taylor, dean of women, and Mrs. Lewis Wheelock, wife of KU faculty member Lewis Wheelock, history lecturer.
"The concept of the woman in the home, kitchen, and church is gone," said Mrs. Wheelock.
THE TERM "housewife" doesn't fit the college-educated woman who chose not to pursue a career after marriage, Mrs. Wheelock said.
She said all women are housekeepers and that some women are wives.
"A woman works because she wants more money or because she has been prepared for a specialized field for which she is competent," Mrs. Wheelock said.
ALTHOUGH SHE HAS a degree in education and has done secretarial work, Mrs. Wheelock said she found filing papers and typing dull and termed it "idiot work."
"The housewife has more opportunity to jump from one interest to another than the career woman," she said.
Mrs. Wheelock recommended that women have a strong undergraduate background in liberal arts and specialize later.
"THE ROLE OF WOMAN is be coming more non-specialized," she said.
"The techniques of housekeeping and homemaking should not be offered in colleges, she said. "They do not belong in the college curriculum."
She explained that she returned to work for financial reasons after her husband's death in 1951. She has been a probation officer in Johnson county for 11 years.
Mrs. Fordyce, who graduated with a degree in education and sociology, spoke for the woman who had worked before marriage, had stopped and had then resumed working.
MRS. FORDYCE described juvenile work as social work which involved not only the children but the lives of the parents in attempting to solve the child's problems.
Freshman Women Want Home, Career
The average KU freshman woman considers 22 the ideal age for marriage, hopes to raise three children, would like to obtain a B.A. in education and is currently dating more than one man.
Those are a sample of the results of a survey of freshman women sponsored recently by the Associated Women Students Roles of Women Committee.
Donna Gould, Shawnee Mission junior, and head of the six-member committee, presented the preview at the AWS symposium on the roles of women in modern society yesterday.
The survey indicated that the average freshman woman would prefer to bear her first child at the age of 24, her last child at the age of 30, and anticipates working two years after college. She is either the youngest or the oldest child in her family and has a mother who is 43, has had some college work and has worked some, but is no longer working now.
The final results and exact percentages of the survey will be published later in the spring, Miss Gould said.
Approximately 735 freshman women responded to the survey questionnaire. Thirty-eight expressed a desire to raise seven children or more.
"The work has been demanding, frustrating, but quite often rewarding," she said. Occasionally the juvenile workers often find it necessary to consult with doctors, psychologists and mental health centers, she said.
She described two types of homes in which there are working mothers. In one the mother works out of the home because it is necessary and the children understand. The other, said Mrs. Fordyce, is a mother who works out of the home because she does not want to be a housekeeper or mother.
THE MOTHER WORKS so she can get away from home, said Mrs. Fordyce. It is in the latter home that trouble usually erupts.
Dr. Helen Gillis, who has combined a career and marriage, listed several decisions a woman must make when she is considering combining a career with marriage.
"First you should decide what kind of career you are going to have," she said. Dr. Gillis pointed out that some fields are easier to drop out of and return to later than other fields.
Secondly, she said, husband and wife should decide together whose work should come first. Other decisions that the woman should make concern how much she should work after marriage and after the children come.
COMMENTING UPON the latter point, Dr. Gillis said the readily available means of birth controls which are reasonably effective, make it easier for the woman to plan to work.
The woman must also consider her husband, her children and herself, Dr. Gillis said. "It is difficult for a woman to work and not have the full cooperation of her husband," she added.
"It would be difficult for a mother to work full time and devote the amount of time to her children that a mother should," Dr. Gillis said.
She said the woman who wants to combine a career and marriage would "have to have a considerable amount of energy and ability to organize."
DR. GILLIS described the medical field as difficult to go back into after being out for a while because it is constantly changing.
For this reason she has worked part time throughout her marriage. Dr. Gillis explained she married her husband, who has his Ph.D. in chemistry, her senior year in college and had her first child three weeks after she completed her internship.
Dean Taylor, representing the unmarried career woman, said statistics point out that over 90 per cent of the population's women get married. "We do not choose our way of life," she said, speaking of the roles of women. "Events move along and what seems to be free choice is not really free choice."
DEAN TAYLOR expressed that she was satisfied with her life as a single woman. "Statistics show that the average woman is a widow for 11 years," she said.
Speaking of her adopted child, Dean Taylor said she had not denied herself the job of rearing a child.
"One thing I cannot understand," she said, "is why a single woman's supposedly happily married friends feel it is their job to get her married, they don't care how, just get her married."
DEAN TAYLOR expressed the hope that society will some time permit free choice and will not present obstacles in one area and rewards in another.
In the question and answer session that followed the panel discussion one KU woman noted that some of the audience's women would be in the 10 per cent that will not marry and asked how such women can prepare psychologically for such a situation.
Dean Taylor said the answer may lie in the woman becoming more aggressive.
DR. GILLIS SAID if the woman found work that is creative and emotionally satisfying this would be a great help.
Another topic was brought up concerning the fact that when a woman graduates from college she is expected to be able "to do something."
Mrs. Wheelock said she thought the trend for women was toward
the more cultural end of a college education and away from the practical end.
DEAN TAYLOR disagreed, saying "that a college education is becoming a luxury we can't afford."
Dr. Gillis emphasized the time element. In speaking on the subject of specialization after one has received a liberal education, she pointed out that a woman's fertility decreases markedly after 30 years of age and that if a woman postponed having children too long she would not be physiologically prepared.
She added that a woman must take all this into consideration when she is deciding about a career and marriage.
NSF Grants Given To 7
Seven graduate students at the University of Kansas have been appointed National Science Foundation Cooperative Fellows for the 1963-64 year at the University of Kansas.
"BEST AMERICAN FILM OF 1962!"
Cooperative fellowships are placed by the NSF at universities and the selection of the recipient is made through competitive selection by the institution and the NSF.
The fellowships cover all fees and provide a basic stipend of $2,800 for 12 months or $2,100 for 9 months. There is a special research and travel allowance of $400.
Mary L. Wheat of Hastings, Neb,
whose field is mathematics, is the first woman to receive this 12-month fellowship at KU.
-Time Magazine
DAVID &LISA
Others honored are: Richard M. Kellogg, Arlington, chemistry, 12 months; Dean C. Luehrs, Lansing, Mich., chemistry, 12 months; James G. McCreary, Norman, Okla., chemical engineering, 12 months; Karl E. Spear II, Baldwin, chemistry, 9 months; and Donald O. Swenson, Clay Center, mechanical engineering, 12 months.
AN UNUSUAL LOVE STORY!
KEIR DULLEA
JANET MARGOLIN
HOWARD DA SILVA in
"DAVID & LISA"
Produced by PAUL HELLER
Directed by FRANK PERRY
A Continental Distributing Corp.
Waier Lease-Starring Group
"Best New Director!" Venice Film Festival
TRIPLE
AWARD
WINNER!
"Best Actor!"
"Best Actress!"
=San Francisco
Film Festival
NOW SHOWING!
- Shows at 7:00 and 9:00
- Adults only, please
All Seats, $1.00
M 7:00 & 9:15
Mat. Sat. at 2 p.m.
Cont. Sunday
Gregory
Peck
In His
Award Winning
Role!
PATRONIZE YOUR ADVERTISERS
Official Bulletin
Ph.D. Reading Examination in German,
Saturday, May 4, 9:30 a.m., Summerfield
411. Candidates must register in Fraser
405, by 4 a.m., Friday, April 26.
Ph.D. French Reading Examination,
fourth edition, April 27. No books accepted after April 24.
No books accepted after April 24.
TODAY
AURI Weekly Open House and Mixer,
9 a.m. Hashing, "The Whatehailam-
a"
TOMORROW
Episcopal Evening Prayer, 9:30 p.m.
Danforth Chapel.
SUNDAY
Catholic Masses, 7:00 a.m., 11:40 a.m.
St. Lawrence Catholic Chapel, 1910 Stratford
Newman Club Meeting, 6:30 p.m. St.
Louis Academy Student Center. 195
Stratford Road.
MONDAY
Sunday Evening Fellowship, 5:15 p.m.
Westminster Center, 1204 Oread.
Catholic Masses 8 a.m. St. Lawrence
Catholic Chapel, pallet Road;
9:30 and 11:00 Fraser Auditorium
Sunday Morning Worship, 10:45 a.m. *W*; Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. *W*; to be led by the Rev. Maynard Strothmamm, Ph.D., and Larry Blackman, senior in photography, will preach on the *Castles*.
College Life Lecture Series. 4:30 p.m.
Union Forum Room, Dr. J. Edwin Orr,
University of Oxford graduate in Philosophy.
Invited to Tour Nudist Camp
The invitation came, yesterday from John Fletcher of Joliette, Quebec, during a hearing before an overflow crowd on a bill to ban nudism in the state. He operates a camp at Milton.
PATRICIA OWENS - RED-BUTTONS - RICHDON MONTERILLE
MARTIN SCOOT - UHNIM OWENS - JAMES GARNER
Filmed in Japan in VECINIRAWA*
*TECHNICOLOR* presented by WARNER BROS
—AND—
Troy Donahue- Angie Dickinson
Rossano Brazzi- Suzanne Pleshette
A DEFINER DAES PRODUCTION
"ROME ADVENTURE"
TECHNICOLOR® PRESENTED BY WARNER BROS.
Two Bonus Hits Sat. & Mon.
THE MOST MARVELOUS MOVIE EVER MADE
IN THE PLAY THAT KEPT PLAYING FOR EVER
ROBERT PRESTON • SHIRREY JONES • BOSTON HACKETT
HERMIONE GINGOLD • PAUL FORD • TECHNIRAMA™
TECHNICOLOR™ • PRESENTED BY WARNER BROS.