Sacred Heart College - Gradatim Yearbook (Belmont, NC)

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CJjc ©raDatim WOMEN! THEN WHAT? Women do about all the reading and play-going that is done in America. At least they are responsible for most of the play-going, since men mostly ' go along- under their influence. They keep up most of our music, they maintain most of our painting and sculpture, they are the mainstay of our churches, our educational, cultural and social institutions. They are the arbiters of taste and style for both sexes, and in all particulars. Women are the books, the arts, the academies, that show, contain, and nourish all the world. To the scientific reader, even if he or she be one who knows the sources for the foregoing quotations, it is only natural that the question will present it- self—of what value are arbitrary notions.? We would say, even at the com- mencement of this brief consideration, that opinions are of no value in the way of proof. Still, they are always indicative of conditions when they come from reliable sources. However, it will be the nature of this essay to consider the position of women, not as to what men thmk of them, but rather what the facts indicate that position to be. We are in a large field and it would be best if we would confine our in- quiry to finding just where women stand in America today—that is, women like we are. Going still further, let us limit that search to the position woman holds in the home, and in the social and political world. Such a limitation does away with the necessity of describing woman ' s place in the Church— we could hardly surpass the Scriptures. First of all, let it be said that women today occupy a place equal to that of men— if not in theory surely in point of fact. After all. what privileges do men enjoy today, especially in America, that cannot be attained too, by the opposite sex. Of course, man does make use of privileges which woman hesitates to employ— not because she is hampered by law, rather because her actions, ambitions and achievements are largely determined by rules of pro- priety. In the home, however, her role is fullest. Mother is surely the guid- ing spirit, the boss. She may, in her feminine way, let the ever-ready-to-be- flattered man think that he is an incarnation of a stately pharaoh, still, most of us know from our own experience, that Mother takes the lead. Whether it is true that the husband is designed to rule, the point is, that man fails often in this respect and woman must be ready to supplant him. In other words, when the wife is not in actual possession of the family reins, she must be ever prepared to grasp them. For in reality The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world. Page Twenty- two

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L Ct)c ©raoatim Page Twenty-one

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L. Cbc ©raDatim On the other hand — what about the social and political world ' Wc defy anyone to show us a position that man holds in this country which a woman would not be as equally qualified to hold. You may be able to point to some specific office — a woman has never been President, nor head of this or that, etc.: but does that prove that woman is not able to attain to all these things. ' The present state of affairs would have us believe that woman is coming into her own. or. as Herrick Johnson puts it. Christianity has lifted woman to a new place in the world . . . And just in proportion as Christianity has sway. will she arise to a high dignity in human life . . . What she has now. and all she shall have of privileges and true honor, she owes to that gospel which took those qualities which had been counted weak and unworthy, and gave them a divine glory in Christ. However, the title of this treatise leaves us a definite task. This is being written for us — young women of Sacred Heart Academy — some of us soon to go out and take our positions along with the other members of our sex. We are women! Then what: It is only natural that we will have the same pri- vileges that other women enjoy. We. though, are blessedly circumscribed in our status of being women by the one little word which, in reality, means everything — Catholic! And if we are not Catholic, at least we are representa- tives of a Catholic institution. There is where we all, Catholics and non- Catholics, are on an equal footing. And just what does Sacred Heart Acad- emy expect of us ' Does she want us to be living realities of the novelistic convent-school-type ' Does she want us to be always reserved, prudish, static? Or, from an economic point of view, does she want us to raise the torch and shout Sacred Heart Academy! to the world ' To all these questions wc answer, NO. Then, what does she want us to do. ' ... If you asked us that question before you got the last word out. we would have answered. She wants us to be Ladies of Mary. And what a wealth of admonition there would be in such an answer! She wants us to be living examples of all that Mary stands for — those principles which have been engendered by the spirit of Christ. Whether we take our position in religion, in a family, or in any other field of action, we are signed with a glorious sign — we are students of His Sacred Heart. What then? Wc must seek our work in the will of God. What then? We must live as Mary lived. What then? We must do and dare for God and neighbor. What then? We must breathe ever the atmosphere of Bel- mont. What then ' We must exemplify in our lives the very spirit of Sacred Heart Academy! Page Twenty- three