Letters to the Editor
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Surrender
This is similar to trying to talk to modern young Islamic women who subscribe to head coverings. "Feminists have made women unhappy, and it is the greatest joy to live for one's family."
I grew up with this bullshit in the fifties. My mother surrendered to my father, and as a result a feisty, intelligent woman, who had survived and cared for her ill mother and baby brother in war wracked Germany, ended up running away from it all through alcohol.
I can remember overhearing one of his strictures. He worked away from home a lot. She was not to have any friends, no man can just be friends with a woman. OK my mother agreed. And you can't have any women friends, because they'll feel sorry for you and introduce you to men. So there was my mother, having emigrated to the other side of the world, living in a house with children and absolutely friendless, isolated and alone.
And why did my mother surrender? To have peace. My dad had really stupid ideas sometimes, and my mother would object. "What would you know, you're only a woman," would be his comeback.
She was invited to teach at the local primary school while undertaking inservice training -(fifties baby boom). And she refused, because her husband's qualifications as an architect were not recognised!!
What a waste.