The "Woman's Corner" on Nine of the World's Radio Stations!

Most of the world's radio stations set aside a part of their schedules for women's affairs, calling it the "Woman's Nook," or the "Woman's Corner," "the Woman's Program," and so on. They vary in importance: at times weekly, at times every day or two.

In the following article we shall take a quick look at the "Woman's Corner" on some of the world's radio stations: from what does this corner draw its inspiration, and who are the women entrusted with it?

1 — From the land of Thailand we are greeted by the face of Nilawan Pintong, editor-in-chief of the women's magazine "Satri Sarn" and supervisor of the "Woman's Corner" on Radio Thailand, to which sixty thousand families listen, the educated and the illiterate among them. Nilawan draws her programs from the people's need, filling them with music, news, and child care, and never forgetting her remarks on woman's beauty — her first concern.

"Our most successful programs with the women listeners," says Nilawan, "are the interviews with prominent personalities. I myself take charge of putting the questions and raising the problems with people of specialization and experience — doctors, nurses, and women leaders... And next June we shall be ready for television, which is beginning its regular transmission..."

Nilawan concludes her talk by saying: "We in Asia write to the radio stations to express our displeasure; what pleases us in them we meet with silence. And the silence of the women listeners about my programs is proof of their satisfaction with them!"

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2 — Mrs. Thurayya Sirri says that she began her work at the Egyptian radio in the year 1934, and that what encouraged her to stay was the response of the listeners and their intense admiration for her voice. After that, womankind poured into the radio until the number of women employees — announcers, supervisors of corners, and news editors — reached 72 ladies, which is equal to 35% of the total staff...

Woman at the Egyptian radio is responsible for a number of corners, the most important of which are "the General Culture Corner," "Variety," "To Fathers and Their Children," "Questions and Answers," and others...

And the six women announcers have insisted on being treated with the men announcers on the same footing, whether in working hours or in the relaying of outside broadcasts.

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3 — In Laos you can hear, at seven o'clock every evening, the news bulletin read by a woman — she is Mrs. Ourdon Sananikone, who translates the news from French and English into her own language, which she says resembles the Sanskrit tongue. Every three days the news bulletin is followed by a program devoted to woman, which she writes herself, drawing it from the need of woman in her country: economic or health information, or other subjects from the social field which it concerns woman to know.

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4 — Mrs. Doris Corwith was once asked: "What is your hobby?" She answered: "People, and working with people!" No wonder that she is the supervisor of public affairs programs at the National Broadcasting Company in New York!

"I fit my programs," says Doris, "to the need of the public, and I appreciate well the wide divergence in taste and inclination. I try to include in my programs something of everything, so that everyone may be pleased by this corner or by that... And the scientific, social, and cultural news is interspersed with musical interludes, plays, and comic surprises or amusing humor.

"In everything new that I introduce into the programs, my eye remains on the public, for whose sake and for whose benefit and pleasure we work... So I look into the standing problems — economic, social, health, and educational — and from them I draw my material, always seeking 'the new and the novel.' It has become clear to me that the public inclines toward discussions and the changing of voices. As for expository talks, they are the farthest thing from its inclinations, and small is the group that listens to them."

5 — In Toronto (Canada) Miss Elizabeth Long presents the "Woman's Corner" five days a week the year round... What she attends to most in her programs is the news; then she answers all the questions that reach her from women listeners in every field...

Among the series dear to the public is "Our Grandmothers," a charming series in which women from various countries tell of the tales and affairs of the bygone age; in this corner we have heard the voices of ladies from thirty different countries! And Elizabeth attaches importance to the "Health Corner," in which she reviews health problems on the scientific level, putting the questions to those with special training.

And in the morning broadcast five minutes are given every day to addressing the housewife about the market and shopping facilities; then a longer period is given, in which are read letters received from the station's correspondents, letters that arrive from various countries of the world for acquaintance's sake — from Holland, New Zealand, Mexico, Japan, etc...

6 — The women's element holds a strong place at the Dublin (Ireland) radio, for the majority of the responsible posts are in the charge of women.

But the "Woman's Hour" that attends to women's affairs and nothing else has no existence at the Dublin radio — for the programs of the daily "Woman's Hour" stand on a level higher than cooking, beauty, and fashion... For these matters only a weekly corner is set aside, repeated on Sunday morning.

As for the daily "Woman's Hour," to which everyone listens, it includes debates between a housewife and a woman of a liberal profession on "work after marriage," or the memoirs of a farmer's wife, general reports from Paris or Boston or London, a good short story, the review of a book about woman or from a woman's pen. And through all this runs music or song.

Miss Petronella O'Flanagan, the supervisor of this corner, insists that variety is most necessary, to send these programs forth in an engaging and delightful frame...

7 — As for the daily "Woman's Hour" on the BBC, Janet Quigley supervises it and prepares its programs; it is broadcast to the ladies of the house between two and three in the afternoon. Its chief programs turn on the affairs of the home, shopping, prices, and health and educational advice — and it makes room as well for the telling of news

and anecdotes, the reviewing of good books, criticism of the radio plays, etc...

And there is another women's corner for Sunday, distinguished by a light, merry spirit. Its aim is entertainment and nothing more.

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8 — "Words of a Woman" is the name given to the woman's corner on the Italian radio, and Anna Garofalo has supervised it for eight years. This corner is confined to her commentaries on daily life in the social, political, and sentimental spheres. The Italian woman, in her view, is not merely a housewife and a mother; she is, over and above that, a complete human being who exercises her political and civil right, and therefore the talk addressed to her must rise from the light feminine level to what keeps pace with the modern renaissance in its various aspects.

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9 — As for the radio in Denmark, it belongs to the Ministry of Education. Mrs. Anna Westergaard supervises the woman's corner, and she concentrates her attention on championing the women's movements and guiding them; so the ladies treat vital subjects such as the condition of labor, general culture, the care of the child and the family, and the many affairs of the house.

Over and above this corner, the Danish radio presents two documentary features every morning to solve the problem of the hour in home economics.

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This is a glimpse of the "Woman's Nook" on nine of the world's many radio stations. They meet at times, as we see, and part at other times, in step with woman's particular need — and in keeping with her mental, cultural, and social condition...