The Detroit Times

A real womanly woman friend referring to a mutual acquaintance. "There aren't many of her kind left these days." I reflected, thinking of the round, mature face, the too sweet voice, and many "my dears" interspersed through the exceedingly commonplace and domestic remarks of the "real womanly woman."

I wondered if all men considered that type as embodying their ideal of a womanly woman.

"What makes you think she is the real womanly woman?" I asked.

"Why, she's so wrapped up in her children," he answered. "She never spends a minute away from them. Why, she has given up all social pleasures just to attend to her children, and she told me just the other day that she had to confine her literature to children's books now because she had no time for anything else. You don't see many women doing that these days."

"Heaven forbid!" I thought. Then I went on a questioning tour among a number of men acquaintances. "What is a womanly woman?" was the question.

Following are some of the answers:

"That's easy. She's the kind that stays home with the kids. She doesn't gad about. She doesn't cultivate fads. She doesn't spend money foolishly. She respects her husband as the head of the house. She is a good housekeeper, whether poor or wealthy."

"Huh! There ain't no such animal any more."

"She's the kind that knows how to sew on buttons and keep 'em on all right. If I was to put it in a nutshell, the womanly woman knows how to child where to spank."

"No, a real woman and there of course does not hesitate to sacrifice for her husband and children. She is always willing to stay in the background and to shine in the age who belongs to her."

"Can tell you what she isn't. She isn't the kind who she is. She isn't a backbiter, a spendthrift or a flirt."

"I'll tell you, she's the universal mother. It's about the only excitement allowed to a real womanly woman and she makes a good one."

I asked the sporting editor for his definition of a womanly