242 BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE 



themselves felt in the state organizations. Consequently, 

 in most of the states, women have lost, or rather never ac- 

 quired, the state-wide impetus to the study and the solu- 

 tion of their problems which has meant so much to men's 

 interests. If a type of county and state organization 

 which gives a reasonable recognition to the special prob- 

 lems of the home is provided, these same advantages will, 

 in time, come to women. 



There are many reasons why the work of women should 

 at the very least be recognized as one of the most impor- 

 tant departments of a state federation, if not as a division 

 of it coordinate with the men's work. It is chiefly to 

 women that we must look for the improvement of our 

 social and community life, as well as for the solution of 

 the more personal problems of food, clothing and of the 

 home life itself. The question of how rural women may 

 be adequately recognized and given a real opportunity to 

 function in a state-wide and national way in the proper 

 relation to the state and the American farm bureau fed- 

 erations has not as yet received the serious consideration 

 it deserves. 



As this is being written a national committee of women 

 appointed by President Howard of the American Federa- 

 tion is studying the problem. What this committee will 

 recommend, and how much the directors of the national 

 organization will accept and put into operation, cannot 

 of course be known or accurately forecasted at this time. 

 It would seem that the least that each state and the na- 

 tional federations could do would be to create strong de- 

 partments within themselves, very largely self-governing, 

 and with their own advisory directorates and secretaries 

 to have charge of women's work. If this is not done there 

 is grave danger either that women will not function at all 

 in the federation movement, and thus that many important 



