Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-05-18
The Wife's Share Of the Work.

/ scarcely remember any writer who has
ever ventured to say the half OF the work OF |
the world is actually accomplished by wo-
men and very few husbands who would be |
otherwise than greatly startled and amazed, |
If not indignant, If not derisive, at the sug- |
gestion of such an idea as that the work of |
their wives was equal to their own. And |
yet for nv part | think it is. So far as /
can see, the workingman's wife, who has to
cook and clean and wash and mend, and do
all the primitive services of life for her
family, has harder and more constant work
than her husband has and, rising upward
in the ranks of life, l think the same bal
ance goes on, at least until the level of
wealth and leisure is reached, at which the
favorites of fortune like the lilies, =" toll not
neither do they spin" But | am not con-
cerned with these nights. What dukes and
duchesses do, and which of them works the
hardest, will scarcely tell upon the argu-
ment; nor am | deeply versed in the nat
ural history of millionaires. But, as far as
| am acquainted with the facts of existence,
the woman's hands are everywhere as full of
natural occupation as are those of the man.
| The mans work lasts certain number OF
hours, after which he has his well-earned
leisure, his evenings to himself, his hours of
recreation or Of lounging but his wife has
no such privileged amount of exemption
from toll Her work is "never DONE" She
has the evening meal, whatever it may be,
to prepare and to clear away, and the chill
dren to get to bed, and the mending to
to do, in the hours when he is altogether
free, and considers himself with justice to
have right to his freedom. In few cases
does it occur to the woman to grumble at
this, or to wonder why her lot should be
harder than his. 1t is natural, it is her
share. The whole compact of their married
life is based upon this, that she should do
her work while he does his and hers is the
share which is "never DONE" | do not say
word against this law of nature; but OBJ
ect that, while this is the case, the poor
woman who works so hard is considered as
passive object of her husbands bounty
indebted to him for her living, and with nc
standingground or position of her own
She is so considered in the eye of the law
and, though the foolishness of the senti
ment is too manifest in her individual cas-
: to be insisted upon, yet she is implied il
the general sweeping assertion which in
!, cludes all married women. "Men mus
: work and women must weep" says the ba
:. lad. | would like to know what the fisher
. women OF our sea-coasts say to this lugr
: brious sentiment, or how much time the
! find TO indulge in that luxury Which O
the two does the reader suppose has tn
u most to do,-the merchants clerk, for il
. stance, who earns his salary by six or eigh
u hours work in his office, or his wife, VIII
,; has to pinch and scrape, and shape and sew
:, and sit late at nights and rise early in tn
u mornings, in order to keep neat and chee
v v full house, and turn out the children in sue
- a guise as to do no discredit to their father
L., s II Ill --l l-A.-
~ two, should choose the husbands share an
- !. not the wife's. The man is more expose
~ :. to outside risks and discomforts; but th
IL moment he enters his house he is privilege
to rest and be waited on as much as if
were a sultan. The same rule exists ever,
where. Among shopkeepers Of all but tt
highest class, the wife in addition to b,
IN natural work takes her share in the bushes
Id and such is the case in a great many occ
"a pations. She keeps the books she make
8 out the bills; in one way or another, 81
i'd overiiows from her own share of the wor
he into his. Usually wealth means cessatic
k more or less of labor. But great lawy,
or or a great doctor, for instance may ha'
he reached the very hight of success witho
- having his actual toll diminished; and
no wife in that case may be carried high up
IS, the tide of his success to position of ca
'e- and luxury which he bears little proportiC
az to the labor with which he must still go o
81, keeping up the reputation and career whi,
Ii he has made. Even in that case, she W
x have great establishment to manage, Sc
he wants to rule and social duties to perforl
n and always the first and most sacred du
tie of all, the children to care for, which max
ed her life anything but an unoccupied Oh
* But the wife of professional man who
IS, struggling into work and celebrity has
h tough task as her humber neighbor.
ly Mrs. Oiphant in Frazer's Magazine.