Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-06-26
Women for Work.

If women want to be intrusted with busi-
ness, they must show that they have busi-
ness capacity, that they are punctual, that
they are to be relied on, that their accounts
are accurate, that they are personally polite,
obliging, willing to do their best, and that
that best is complete. II is but too true
that many women do not yet see the value OF
possessing such qualifications as these, and
that, instead of training themselves, or get
ting themselves trained into such good hab-
its, they take their stand upon the fact of
their being women, and expect that the i'm
perfections which would be unpardoned in
men, and would get men turned out of sit
nations, will be condoned in them, and
that they will still be intrusted with work
for which their only qualification is that
they desire the emolument which springs
from holding the post.
Women who want to be allowed to do
work must show that the work is an object
perhaps the object-of their lives. Here
we hit upon a condition which often inter
feres with the success of the majority OF
women as workers. "Ladies," said an old
workman to friend of ours, "are so trans
itory." To do good work, as men do it, re-
quires early and thorough preparation; de
votion to whatever is in hand, not as mat
ter by the way, but as sustained and alb
sorbing interest and generally long years
of practice before success comes. There is
| no transformers in such work. 1t must
| be confessed that the vast majority of young
women who work do so in a "transitory
and perfunctory fashion. They never make
| themselves thorough, because dimly there is
in their minds the idea that the "profes
sion of matron is that TO which they will
by-and-by attain, and their talk about thor
ough work blossoms, therefore, into no fruit
of thoroughness in the way of deeds. The
elder women who want to work all desire
some immediate occupation, and have nc
time or money for preparation. They won
der why their work is not accepted like tha
of men; but they have not gone through
the preparation, and have not the trained
business faculty which men who do accept
able work have acquired. If women's worl
is to be really good, they must give them
selves to it; not as something to be takel
up and thrown down, but as something rea
and earnest.
Harriet Martineau's idea was that "womer
like men, can obtain whatever they shoN
themselves fit for" 1t is this showing @
fitness which we think at the present tim
stands in so much need of extra demonstri
, ton. Nodoubt, when women begin to worl
especially if it is kind not usually done b
them, the fact OF their being women
against them. Until very recently it wa
against their receiving the education nece
sary to them, except under circumstances {
very great difficulty; and even now thel
{ are trades and professions in which wome
: however willing, cannot receive instruction
! Again, there is certainly the notion thi
: women will work less well and steadi
{ than men, and it is this idea which wome
$ must disprove. But good work, when show
Q TO be good, will never be rejected-at lea
. will not be permanently rejected-becau
d it is done by women.