Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-01-20
MEMPHIS. TENN: MONDAY EVENING" JANUARY 2e 1873

Coventry, 10 the admission OF women
into the higher branches Of their labor,
and the threatened strike Of the china
painters, at Worcester il women were
allowed the use Of the maui stick, which
alone enables them to do the best work
and consequently get the best pay. j
wish, emphatically, 10 point out the me-
cessity for definite training Women
are already extensively employed
in various industrial pursuits; they
ought to have the advantage of special
training, and the most lucrative branches
Of their occupations ought to be opened
to them. They should not find them
selves shut out from any post merely
because they are women" Neither
are we justified in drawing upon their
physical strength and ignoring their
mental capacity-regarding them, in
short, as mere mechanics, hands with
out heads. | cannot enter at length on
one very serious consequence of the re-
striction of women to the inferior
branches OF industry, but must say, in
passing, that ] regard it as a two-fold
evil, for it deprives the workwoman of
the stimulus found Of value TO the most
conscientious and cultivated man in the
kingdom, and it prevents the younger
women from having the supervision Of
their own sex. IL girls saw older
women in positions of trust and author.
ity they would not only be encouraged to
develop that business-like capacity and
those qualities Of mind without which
they must remain Individually and So
cially in the lowest scale, but they would
feel themselves far more protected than
they can do at present, while they have
no other safeguard than their own prn-
dence. When men urge that the intro
duction of women into trades and pro-
fessions will diminish their wages, it is
necessary to remind them that the pro-
gress Of science and new forms of exist
euce have given into their hands the
former avocations ofwomen. The baking,
brewing spinning and weaving have
been transplanted fEpm the homes to the
mandatory; machinery spins, weaves
and grinds, and men undertake the work
in connection with labors which formerly
occupied all the women of the homes,
and enabled them, without leaving its
sacred precincts, to contribute to the
support of the family. When every
garment was spun and made at home,
domestic duties consumed the time of all
the women in the household, but in the
substitution of machine for hand labor
the class of women requiring out
side remunerative pursuits has grown
larger and larger, and has latterly
increased at an unparalleled rate. Our
ideas, language and arrangements have
not altered in any corresponding degree.
We have forgotten that this woman for
merly contributed to the support of the
household, and assumed that every
woman has been sought to be maintained
in idleness by her father, husband or
brother. In the ranks of the English
aristocracy some provision is made for
the female members of the family, but
when you quit the narrow confines of
this class you find hundreds Of women
compelled, like men, to seek their own
bread. "And it is a terrible incident of
our social existence" says the London
Times, " that the resources open to
women for gaining livelihood are so
few AT present, the language practically
held by modern society to destitute wo-
man is Marry, stitch, die or do worse.