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.
[Illustration: _Women Giving Soldiers Cooking Lessons._]
[Illustration: _Society Girls Learning Gardening._]
[Illustration: _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.
[Illustration: _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.
[Illustration: _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.
[Illustration: _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.