Among the Ukrainian women the beginnings of this process can be
observed, but in this case there is common effort on the part of the
most progressive men and women in behalf of the more backward women.
We are told that the Ukrainian women have much greater authority and
responsibility in the United States than in the Ukraine, so that some
men say that here "the laws are made for women." They spend the money,
discipline the children, and direct the household life. Many of the
women have been poorly fitted, by their inferior status at home, for
their new duties, and the Ukrainian Women's Alliance was organized in
1917 by both men and women in an attempt to meet this situation.
This organization, too, is based on the benefit idea, which all the
women can understand, but plans are already laid for a comprehensive
educational program to be carried out not only through educational
centers in the local lodges, but through a magazine of national
circulation. This is a complete innovation, as there has never before
existed among the Ukrainians a woman's association, nor has any
attention been paid to their interests in Ukrainian publications. The
organ of the Alliance had in October, 1919, put out four issues, and
met with so cordial a response that its next number was double the
size of the first numbers and the sales at news stands were sufficient
to cover the cost of these first numbers.
The contents of one number indicate the purposes sought by its
publication. Of the articles, one describes the organization of the
Alliance, one discusses the relation of the institution of the home to
the community, with special stress laid on the responsibilities of the
mother in the home, one explains the woman-suffrage movement and urges
the importance of woman's place in government. There is a department
devoted to diet, food values, and recipes, and one devoted to hygiene,
with special emphasis on child care.
In some of the other national groups the number of men is still so far
in excess of the number of women that the energies of the group seem
to have been absorbed in dealing with the problems of the men or of
getting a foothold as a group.