This organization, too, is based on the benefit idea, which all the
women can understand, but plans are already laid for a comprehensive
educational program to be carried out not only through educational
centers in the local lodges, but through a magazine of national
circulation. This is a complete innovation, as there has never before
existed among the Ukrainians a woman's association, nor has any
attention been paid to their interests in Ukrainian publications. The
organ of the Alliance had in October, 1919, put out four issues, and
met with so cordial a response that its next number was double the
size of the first numbers and the sales at news stands were sufficient
to cover the cost of these first numbers.
The contents of one number indicate the purposes sought by its
publication. Of the articles, one describes the organization of the
Alliance, one discusses the relation of the institution of the home to
the community, with special stress laid on the responsibilities of the
mother in the home, one explains the woman-suffrage movement and urges
the importance of woman's place in government. There is a department
devoted to diet, food values, and recipes, and one devoted to hygiene,
with special emphasis on child care.
In some of the other national groups the number of men is still so far
in excess of the number of women that the energies of the group seem
to have been absorbed in dealing with the problems of the men or of
getting a foothold as a group.
ITALIAN WOMEN UNORGANIZED
This does not apply to the Italian community. While benefit societies
among the Italians are very numerous, there has until recently been
little movement toward a national organization similar to those among
the Poles and Lithuanians. The deep division in dialect, custom, and
feeling between people from different sections of Italy accounts for
the number of societies as well as for the lack of affiliation among
them. Three of the largest societies in Chicago, in which membership
is largely Sicilian, are now affiliated, but no effort has been
discovered to make use of the organization as a basis for domestic
educational enterprise.
Women are admitted to many of the societies on the same terms as men,
but rarely attend meetings. There are many small self-assessment
societies for women alone, but they have no social or educational
feature; members seldom meet, and dues are often sent in by children.
The idea of using their own organizations as a means of carrying on
educational work among women is a novel one in the Italian community,
but it is being recognized as a possible method of attacking the great
need for education in maternal and infant welfare, in the care of
small children, and in sanitary housekeeping.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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