A Doctor Discusses Woman

Women on their own, by Olga Knopf, M.D. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. 306 pp. $2.75.

This new book by the author of “The Art of Being a Woman” discloses with refreshing frankness and broad common sense unmarred by scientific jargon, the position of the woman of today—her relationships with men and with other women, her attitude toward her work and her fellow workers, her choice of marriage or a career, the compatability of the two, as well as other phases of a woman’s life, illustrating her points with case records, always the most interesting part of such a book to the lay reader.

Dr. Olga Knopf, a graduate of a university of Vienna, served as a surgeon in a field hospital in Bulgaria, practiced as a specialist in gynecology in Vienna, became interested in psychiatry and during the last ten years has devoted herself to this subject, studying at one time under Dr. Alfred Adler.

In discussing the modern woman, Dr. Knopf states that the Nazis have inflicted on the women’s movement the most crushing blow it has ever experienced.

Although only a few women are now permitted to attend the universities in Germany, and that dismal old adage of the Kaiser has been revived—the only interests of women should be Children, Church and Chafing Dish — the Nazis go further, beyond even the familiar instance of women being reduced to sexual objects for the pleasure of men, as was their position in the Middle Ages and in Oriental countries until a few years ago. German women are not allowed to make themselves look pleasing, to wear lipstick or bright colors. In a fine burst of sarcasm, Dr. Knopf supposes that this is due to the fact that no chances are taken to sap the moral fibre of the heroic males.

There is much more than the German situation that is interesting in Dr. Knopf’s book, and one could go farther and fare worse than to spend an hour or so with this book.

Blanche Finley.