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At last month's Women's Lib conference at Oxford, the girls strung up banners that ranged from PHALLUSES ARE FASCIST to END PENAL SERVITUDE.
Then the 500 women who had gathered got down to the serious business of discussing unequal pay, problems of unmarried mothers and the dangers of false emancipation, in which a woman works both outside the home and inside as well. Even the Queen has encouraged the movement by declaring this spring that "it is becoming more generally recognized that the home is not the only place for women."
FRANCE. Although things have been getting progressively better for French women—they received the right to vote in 1946, to have bank accounts of their own in 1965, and can now legally receive mail without husbandly interference—they are still hampered by many thoughtless inequities. Day-care centers are scarce, businessmen are reluctant to hire women on a part-time basis. The French feminist movement is small but growing. One of the foremost groups is Le Mouvernent Démocratique Féminine. Their aim: to politicize women so that they will demand their rights from the government. The French fashion magazine Elle is sponsoring Women's Lib discussion groups around the country; this November, Elle will play host to a three-day meeting at Versailles on the subject of women's rights in France.
ITALY. Until last year, Italian women were subject to a year in prison for adultery, while a man risked no jail term at all for the same offense. In Italy, the male still has complete control over family matters, even after his death. There is no divorce (though the Chamber of Deputies may well approve a bill making it legal some time this fall), no legal abortion, and a wife with children must have her husband's permission to get a passport. Last February in Rome, the small, left-of-center Republican Party organized a series of eight weekly seminars on the liberation of women. Groups are now operating in Turin, Milan, Genoa and Bologna. In November, the first of a series of public rallies will be held in Rome to discuss the problems, particularly the adoption of birth control and abortion bills. There are indications of popular support for some of the feminist goals. More Italian men than women seem to favor the divorce bill, and males often join Women's Lib types in carrying signs proclaiming DIVORCE PREVENTS CRIME and DIVORCE NOW.
WEST GERMANY. A recent television program explained ways in which German women are discriminated against in factory jobs. It showed a woman and man spraying autos in a factory. The man received 20% more salary because he did "heavier" work. While the woman was spraying the doors, the man was spraying the chassis, supposedly a harder job. A few German women are beginning to challenge the country's traditional male autocracy. When Bundestag Vice President Richard Jaeger recently refused access to the rostrum to any female Deputy in slacks, Socialist Deputy Lenelotte von Bothmer arrived in a pants suit. Herr Doktor Jaeger diplomatically absented himself to avoid a confrontation.