putterings 365 < 366 > 367 index
a little bit interested in bridge, and wondering
... It has become apparent from experiments in education, they wrote,
that children feel more secure and contented when they have, along with the freedom for exploring and puttering and wondering, some definite framework within which they are expected to carry on their activities. The woman who is a little bit interested in bridge, a bit interested in the Women’s Town Improvement Association, a bit interested in the Garden Club or the Book Club, is something like the nursery school child who flits from crayoning to block building to climbing and then back to crayoning, spending only a few minutes at each activity, but never completing anything. They are both very busy creatures, but there is no aim or purpose and no satisfaction of achievement...
ex Sol Encel, Norman Ian MacKenzie and Margaret Tebbutt, chapter 16 “Organization Women,” in Women and Society : An Australian Study (1975) : 293 : link (snippet only)
but borrowable via archive.org : link
The quoted passage is from Sidonie M. Gruenberg and Hilda S. Krech, The Many Lives of Modern Women (1952) : 5
It is preceded by a passage from Louisa Lawson — 1848-1920; an Australian writer, suffragist, publisher, mother, feminist (wikipedia) — regarding women facing “middle life.”