What marvels are the Finnish rural women — marvels of vitality, industry, robust interest! They seem to do all that any man can do, and then some. Cheerfully they tend the cows, feed them, milk them, clean their stalls, make cheese, make butter, care for their children, keep house; then weave, knit, read, go to school. They hold to their bosom ideals of art, learning, music, home, country. Boys bow and click their heels together. Girls modestly curtsy. Hospitality is naive, direct, neither stilted nor nervous.
What is the meaning of the barefoot women and girls in rural Finland? Is it a relic of age-old inferiority in the masculine mind? Is it an economic necessity? Why no running water in houses? Why no washing machines? Would rural sociological research mend matters any more quickly? Would statistics help? Must a country wait till a Grundtvig comes? Or a Snellman?
My drift into rural sociology : memoirs of Charles Josiah Galpin. (1938)
