The American Woman

"What is your opinion of the American woman? Is she similar in her ways of life to the woman in your country?"

This question was put to me many times by American ladies, and my answer was: "It is very difficult to compare the two. The American woman lives in a country that has been working for her welfare for two hundred years, since the day America freed itself from English colonialism, while the Arab woman is still at the beginning of the road, and it cannot be said that her country has yet been entirely freed from foreign interference."

There is no doubt that the American woman has qualities by which she surpasses her Arab sister, while there are also qualities in the Arab woman that carry great weight in the casting of her character and personality.

The credit for America's present greatness and prosperity belongs to the activity of man and woman together. There is no country in the world where woman enjoys such comfort and security as the American woman — so much so that someone has gone as far as to say that America is "the woman's world, and the women in it are the rulers."

There is much truth in this claim, for seventy percent of the wealth of the United States is owned by its women; moreover, eighty percent of American industry is built upon woman's demands and directed toward her. Nor should we forget that the number of women there comes to 76 million, exceeding the number of men, which gives their votes in government elections the decisive say in determining the winner, whether in the elections for the presidency of the Republic or in the local elections of each state taken separately. This appeared plainly in Eisenhower's winning of the presidency, for women's balloting for him was among the most important factors in his success.

The American woman is equal to man before the law; and in the rules of inheritance and of legal right, the law in most states is more indulgent toward the woman than toward the man. Take, for example, the circumstances of divorce: the law in America requires, as a general rule, that the woman be given her children and her house, whether it was she who asked for the divorce or her husband. Thus — save in exceptional cases — the woman stays in her house with her children, while the husband leaves it carrying only a suitcase, like a guest! And on top of all this it is laid upon him to bear the children's maintenance!!

And if the American woman has obtained this ample share of her liberty, it is due not to the generosity of the law but to her own toil and perseverance. One of them commented on the Lebanese woman's obtaining her political rights, saying:

"Truly, you are the lucky ones. Here in America we fought hard, at home and in the street, and we went to the prisons too, before the government granted us our political rights. Whereas your women's activity was confined to sending petitions, and with one stroke of the government's pen your woman got her political rights by the easiest of roads!"

Never in my life have I seen a woman who works and bustles like the American woman. The easier the ways of American life become and the simpler the methods of household management in the American home, the more her activity outside the home increases and the more varied grow the branches of her interest, until today she combines the responsibilities of man and woman together. As for how far she has succeeded in combining these two responsibilities, the future and history will be the judge of that.

How, then, does the American woman live? What is her outlook on life, and what is the measure of her contribution to building the home, society, and the nation?

I asked an American mother: "What is your first responsibility toward your children?" She answered: "To nourish in them the spirit of self-reliance and the love of work."

These two qualities appear clearly in the conduct of the American girl and the ordering of her personality. Her confidence in herself is great, and her view of the future is filled with hope and ease of mind. She holds that so long as she is able to earn her living for herself, she is mistress and commander in her own affairs, and no one has the right to interfere in her business. And she finds a deficiency in her upbringing if she reaches twenty and her family still press their opinions upon her, or if she goes on relying on them to decide her future.

The American girl takes an early lesson in self-reliance. From the age of three, her mother accustoms her to bathing and dressing herself alone. When she reaches five, her mother has her join in choosing her clothes and buying them; and many a time, in shops selling children's clothes, I have seen a mother standing to one side while her small daughter busied herself turning over the kinds of dresses there, to choose for herself what pleased her.

Nor shall I forget the day I heard an American friend grumbling about her daughter's long hair, and then asking me to persuade the little one to cut it. And she was no more than five years old!

The American child is surrounded from his earliest years with all the kinds of books and magazines made for him, and the radio and television stations are filled with programs to delight him. There are cinema houses set aside for children's films, and the orchestras give special concerts at which they present classical pieces that children can easily enjoy.

The American mother never leaves out a museum or a zoological garden without taking her children to visit it. And there is no doubt that the absence of servants in the homes helps to develop the child's personality, since he is brought up at his mother's side instead of the maid's; and thus his relation with his parents is marked by much of the spirit of friendship and freedom from ceremony.

The scouting organizations have a great effect on the child's personality; their branches are spread through most of the schools there, and the child joins them from the age of seven. Nor should we forget the summer camps: rarely is there an institution that does not set up camps in summer for the young and for youth. The American mother considers sending her daughter there an effective step toward her self-reliance.

The American girl of fourteen may stand at a weaker level than her Lebanese counterpart in the field of her studies, but she is bolder than she and stronger in personality. At that age, moreover, she will already have begun earning the greater part of her own spending money. There are special bureaus in every elementary school which undertake to secure work for the girls and to look into the kind of families that ask a schoolgirl's help in caring temporarily for the children.

Since elementary and secondary education are free in the United States, the girl does not leave school before the age of 16 to 18, and by then she is prepared either to work as an employee or a simple secretary, or to complete her higher studies. The number of those entering the universities keeps increasing, but the university student most often takes on the payment of her study expenses herself. The proportion of girl students who do extra work to earn the costs of study is about 70 percent of the students. The university dining halls, for example, are empty of servants, so the girl students serve out the food and present it, and afterwards wash the dishes and plates there. You may see a girl working on her thesis for the doctorate in history, and yet she devotes three hours daily to working as a waiter in the town restaurant or a saleswoman in a grocery shop.

I once met a student who had reached her fifth year in the study of medicine, and she was working as a taxi driver three hours a day. When I showed my astonishment at the kind of work she did, she said: "In this trade I take a wage higher than what I might earn if I worked those three hours in the hospital; and then, do not forget that working as a driver rests my nerves each day from the strain of study!!"