The Waning of Competence . . .

Rumer Godden is a novelist probably best known nowadays for the book on which the Powell/Pressburger film Black Narcissus was based (a film which, by the way, she absolutely hated). Her importance and enduring appeal as a writer – she died in 1998, aged 90 - is shown by the fact that her books are still largely in print.

China Court is among the lesser books that she wrote, but that does not stop it containing the most powerful picture that I know of in fiction of what it was like to be a woman of ability in a (and I hate using this word) ‘patriarchal’ society, thwarted in every department of her life, yet, like a flower buried under a heap of stones, struggling through in the end to a certain crippled self-expression.

It is not exactly airport reading – in a sense, it is a slightly difficult book. A bit – a little bit – stream of consciousness, with a cast of characters, each taking turns in the foreground, so that sometimes for a few moments it can be somewhat confusing as to where one enters and another exits.

The secret of the book, I think (and I am working here from memory, for it is a long time since I read it), is that for much of its length it consists of the reveries of an old woman who is dying.

Now it is not a feminist tract, in the sense that it is, in the context we are discussing, about an individual woman and not all women writ large. Just as with men - for every woman of ability there is a more than balancing gaggle of those of little or no ability. In positions that demand a certain competence in life, better the woman of ability than the man of no ability. And vice versa, too.

The idea has been advanced over the years that it is the hostility of men that has held back the advancement of women, and while there may be a certain truth in this, there is also a more unisex antipathy that affects both men and women, especially those of any perceived ability. Jonathan Swift perhaps put it best: ‘When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him [or her] by this sign, that all the dunces are in confederacy against him.’

The reason why I bring this up is the appearance under the influence of modern feminism of what I can only describe as the ‘token woman.’ You know the situation: you have to consult someone professionally on an important matter, and nowadays, six or seven times out of ten, that person proves to be a woman – and often – I repeat, often, not always – the emotion you leave the meeting with is that in some way you have been stiffed.

It is easy to understand how such a situation might arise: under pressure for gender equality employers, for whatever reason – maybe ideological commitment or fear of equality legislation or just the desire not to appear out of step – increase their recruitment of women. But often, one suspects, the emphasis may be on ‘women,’ rather than on the competence of such women. And in case anyone thinks I’m being unfair here, I am speaking from hard experience.

But, of course, I am being unfair. Go consult a solicitor or dentist or accountant or whatever these days and as often as not, irrespective of sex, you come away with the feeling of having been dealing with somebody not in complete command of their brief. I put it down to the rise of practices – as opposed to the old days of individual practitioners. Years ago you went, say, to the dentist – nowadays you go to a dental practice; and unless you have some special line to the head honcho you are likely to find yourself submitted to the doubtful competence of the latest trainee or recruit.

There was a time, I believe, when people in need of free and urgent treatment might submit themselves to the dental schools (and I am not singling out dentists here, for what I am discussing seems a more general phenomenon) to play a part in the training of students. Nothing it seems has changed. Only you don’t have to leave your own locality now – and you have to pay for it too!

There was also a time when, as the Americans say, hanging a shingle outside one’s door meant something. It was an indication of competence. All that, I would suggest, has changed. Nowadays, as with builders and plumbers and mechanics, the merits of professionals are more a matter of word of mouth transmission than any automatic belief in the charters and degree parchments with which they adorn their walls.

There are of course reasons for this - and I am sure it is not a new phenomenon; it just seems now to be altogether more prevalent. To go into the causes, as I see them, would be to overburden this mailing - far too long as it is already. At some later date, and should my interest in blogging persist, I hope to return to it . . .