Our Women in the Field of Work!.. (A Report)

They charge woman with incompetence and want of skill in managing her home if she demands her rights and goes out into the field of professional or administrative work. They say that a man's life will become a hell if his wife shares with him her interest in associations or hospitals. They expect the streets to fill with children the moment the mother begins to take up duties other than her home and her children. But what will these people say if we bring them certain ladies who take pride in being guiding mothers inside their homes and conscious trainers outside them? We have mothers who still drink from the springs of learning on the student's bench at the very time that they are mothers and housewives — how, then, have these managed to reconcile the two exhausting labors? Our society is full of charitable associations headed only by ladies, by virtue of their gentle nature and their wise management — how, then, can the woman who is a mother 'carry two watermelons in one hand'?

This is what was running through my mind when I went knocking at the doors of some of the ladies who contribute to these noble works alongside the management of their little kingdoms. And from my meetings with them I make bold to say that every mother can share their efforts, if she knows how to divide her time and follow an ordered program in her private life. And here I set down, in the ink of pride, the delightful talk that passed between us — talk which, if it proves anything, proves a managing mind, a broad understanding, and a refutation of all that has been said and is still said against this creature, of whom it was no lie to say that 'she who rocks the cradle with her right hand rocks the world with her left.'

In a simple atmosphere far removed from affectation I sat with Mrs. Faiza Maalouf Antiba in her charming salon, putting to her the first round of questions. Mrs. Antiba is the mother of two children,

and at the end of this school year she received the B.A. degree with high distinction from Beirut College for Women. I questioned her and she answered me; I argued with her and she defended her views with great frankness and boldness.

Q — How were you able, being a housewife, to reconcile your work as a mother with your duties as a student?

A — My children are all of school age, so I am not obliged to stay at home to look after them. I drew up a program for each week covering the purchase of household needs, foodstuffs and the rest, and their keeping in a refrigerator. The maid does the cooking on modern appliances that are easy to use. As for my social duties, I performed them all — visits and receiving guests — on condition that each family visit me separately; and so my life went on in good order all year.

Q — Did no friction arise between you and your husband

because you were obliged to attend to your lessons and leave some of his affairs?

A — I felt nothing of the kind, because my husband, being a teacher, worked continuously. In his free hours I never let him feel that I had lessons; I joined him in visits and sat up extra hours to finish whatever duties had fallen behind. And by nature I know how to use every minute of my time.

Q — What do your children feel toward you when they see you studying like them?

A — Study has brought me and my children together more than it has parted us: we eat together in the morning and study together in the evening. My lessons taught them what study means, and the result was that they advanced in their results this year; I also created in them a desire for study and a delight in it. They are proud of me, and answer everyone who asks them about me that I am at the college in pursuit of learning.

Q — Do you advise other mothers to continue their education? I mean, have you profited from your experiences as a student after marriage?

A — There is no doubt of it, and I advise every mother not to hold back from continuing her studies — on condition that her circumstances be as favorable as mine. For I do not ask the mother of any infant to go to school, since I personally never took my eyes off my children for a single minute when they were small.

Q — Are you happy in your married life?

A — I have succeeded in my life completely, and my husband deserves great credit for what I have attained, for he followed my studies with pleasure and interest and helped me gladly to study and work.

*

I left Mrs. Antiba and went to call on Mrs. Sabiha Muhammad Ali Fares, a student at the American University of Beirut and mother of three children. Mrs. Fares will present her thesis for the Licence degree (M. A.) in the month of August. Since she is a student, I put to her the same questions I had discussed with Mrs. Antiba, and her answers were as follows:

— Carrying the burdens of study and managing a home is an easy matter for one who knows how to organize her time, and I personally have been used to organizing my time since childhood. A comprehensive order has ruled my life, and my work has been interwoven with great sacrifices — I sacrificed all my visits, which I believe revolve around nothing but fashions and empty talk — but I profited from this sacrifice, for I pursued my efforts to increase the learning and knowledge within me. I am very happy as a mother and as a student, and I shall remain so all my life — and not only at the university, for the life of learning is very wide, and one can always profit from it.

In answer to my second question Mrs. Fares said:

— Such frictions are bound to occur, but by my patience and endurance I overcame everything. My husband approved of my studies, but I never felt from him any interest in my results or my marks — and perhaps he was right in that, for every husband has the right to claim all of his wife's time.

When I asked her about her children's attitude toward her studies, she answered:

— They encouraged me greatly. At times, knowing that I was on the threshold of examinations, they would fall to praying for me; and I was greatly pleased when they accompanied me to the university — I would go my way while they went on theirs to their schools. But what pained me most sharply was being obliged at times to leave unwatched the meals of my daughter Maha — the youngest of my children, seven years of age.

Her answer to my fourth question was:

— I profited a great deal, and the university was a second life to me. I advise every lady who can continue her studies to exert her will and give some of her time to study. But if I were the mother of a nursing infant, and they made me a gift of the university and all that is in it, I would not give up my heart's own flesh for a single minute; for the child's mental, intellectual, and physical constitution begins to form in his second and third year, and this period is among the most important in the life of every child.

And Mrs. Fares said finally:

— I believe that happiness springs from within, and inwardly I am very happy, God be praised. I have been able to reconcile my husband's temperament with my working life, and this is a grace from God Almighty.

*

I left the student mothers and went to meet the presidents of the associations — and they are many. Here is Mrs. Habiba Shaaban Yakan, president of the Young Muslim Women's Association and mother of four children, receiving me with a radiant face and a smiling mouth. After she had learned of the errand on which I had come, and after I had taken my share of rest in her beautiful salon, I put my first question to her.

Q — When was your association founded, who contributed to founding it, and for how many years have you been its president?

A — The association was founded four years ago, and I was the author of the idea. I began my work with fifteen Lebanese lira, and the association was fifteen days old when we held our first public entertainment.

Q — Do you believe the association is fulfilling the aims for which it was created?

A — Yes, and on a wide scale — though we have not fulfilled them completely; but we are on the road, and we hope to reach our aims and so form worthy members for this dear homeland.

Q — How much time does your work in it claim, and what is the program you follow?

A — I have divided my hours between the home and the association: all my free hours, after finishing my household duties, belong to the association. I work night and day for these two lofty labors: motherhood and society. I call much upon the night for help, and I pay very few visits.

Q — Does your husband approve of your occupations, and is your family life a happy one?

A — My husband lives among his papers and his books, and sits up past midnight finishing his work; and he thanks God heartily for my occupation with the associations, so that I am not distressed by the press of his own work. Had my husband been other than he is, I could not have carried on this work; and had another woman lived with my husband, their life would have been a hell. Our whole life is sacrifices for the sake of our society, for which we work together.

And I do not believe that every lady can work alongside her married life; but I have succeeded in joining these two labors because I have strained myself and sacrificed much. I do not know whether I shall be able to keep up my work much longer, and I hope in the very near future to find someone to share with me the management of this association to which I have consecrated my efforts.