We published in last month's issue the first part of the survey on the problems of the Lebanese woman; below we publish the conclusion of this survey.

Answers of Mrs. Faiza Maalouf Antiba

(1) I do not believe that the educated Lebanese woman performs her mission of social reform in the fullest manner, because the Lebanese woman in general lacks two essential qualities without which her work cannot be complete.

The first is the spirit of cooperation and solidarity in work, and absorption in a task for the sake of com-pleting it, not for the sake of appearing through it.

The second is true sacrifice, which requires the woman to give of herself generously for the sake of completing the reform that is sought. Unless the woman can develop these two qualities in herself, she cannot accomplish any work of value and effectiveness in society.

And when the woman becomes worthy of the work, she must first fix the final goal toward which she aspires to lead her society. Then she selects the steps that lead to that goal. And once she has selected them, she must plant her feet firmly upon them, moving always forward, whatever efforts this costs her and whatever sacrifices she is forced to make in order to reach that goal.

No serious work can be accomplished without laying down studied programs that guarantee arrival at the end intended from that work, since every arbitrary piece of work, done on the margin, without studied programs laid down for it, cannot lead to a fruitful result, and may sometimes lead to errors that society finds difficult to correct afterward.

The mechanical services that the educated Lebanese woman performs today within the reform associa-tions cannot be called the performance of a mission in this life, because a mission presupposes serious work and continuous sacrifice that guarantee arrival at a tangible result. Woman's efforts today are very small compared with what her society demands of her, and the result of her work is smaller still, by far, than the efforts she expends.

Therefore, if the woman wishes to perform her reform mission, she must look upon it with seriousness and resolve, through a definite program, and place her unbending will in pledge to the realization of that mission.

(2) The problems that the Lebanese woman faces

today in the literary field do not differ in essence from the problems the man faces in this arena; they are in the first degree social, material problems. The writer today practices his literature as a secondary occupation, not a primary one, because he is obliged first of all to meet his material needs before turning to his literature. And true literature demands total devotion, of mind and body, if it is to be counted complete literature. Hence the first problem facing the woman of letters is the problem of recognition of the value of literature, and of rewarding it with a material reward that guarantees her a secure life.

(3) The most prominent problem of upbringing, I think, is the lack of complete understanding between the growing child and his parents, since the bond between them is usually severed at the very age when the child needs it most. Parents must attend to this problem early, so as to leave no room for it; for once relations are severed, it becomes very difficult afterward to establish a firm bond between them, and the child then turns, in solving his problems and in his private consultations, to his companions, who lack the very experience and knowledge that he lacks, and so he takes undesirable paths — not through any deficiency in himself, but through a deficiency in his relations with his parents.

(4) I do not believe that the Lebanese woman's participation in public life constitutes a danger to her home life; on the contrary, when the woman takes part in public life she has contributed to an important aspect of social life, one that guarantees the preservation of the family's existence, since we cannot separate work inside the home from work outside it, because the two together form one complete social unit. If the woman contributes to reforming the environment in which she lives, and to creating a sound social life, she will have contributed to preserving her family's existence in a respect no less important than her work within her family for the sake of preserving it. An advanced society is the greatest guarantee for the preservation of the home.

Besides this, the woman today finds that she has time enough to supervise the affairs of her house and to perform the duties required of her toward her family, and there remains to her an ample margin of time which, if she does not spend it in serious work for the reform of her society, she may spend in negative activity, becoming the cause, in the first degree, of corrupting that society and destroying its existence — and consequently of destroying the existence of her own family.