Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1881-03-23
Woman and Her Work.

t Tor little exercise of muscle in handling
, articles which women are quite competel
, to handle and to sell, and it is commo
t to hear the remark that these man ougl
to he engaged in some muscular pursui
and that women ought 10 do their preser
work. But do we remember how man
hours day these men are obliged to be O
their feet? Do we remember how impos
slble 1t is for women to stand all da
without serious damage to themselve.
especially if they be young, and in tn
formative period of their livesp We
man is endowed with constitution an
charged with n function which make
quite impossible for her to do certain
classes of work for which her mind anC
her hands. if we consider them alone, ar
entirely sufficient. Not impossible, per
haps, for she undoubtedly does much tina
inaicts infinite damage upon her, an,
those that are born of her.
The effects upon women and upon til
ittCt Cinoa.gh- her, of female employment
constitute n great subject, which cannot b
competently treated in an editorial, but W
can at least call the attention of employer
to the needs of the women engaged il
doing their work. All empoymenls in
volving long standing upon the feet ar,
bad for women, and this all intelligen
employers. if they are humane as we'll
will remember No woman should b,
obliged to stand all day. Women that Sc
type, and stand while doing it, like men
invariably acquire physical ills that at las
become uubearable. Factory work which
involves long periods of standing upor
the feet, is ruinous to health. Employers
should remember that the girls engaged
in their service must have periods of rest
in a sitting position, or wear them
selves out, or make themselves unfi
for the duties and functions of women
Even constrained positions while sitting
with no liberty of movement upon the
feet are bad for women. The restraints
that are often put upon them in great
establishments, with regard to their atten.
ton to matters that call for privacy are
terrible foes to health. To compel wo-
man to run the gauntlet of great compa
ny of men 10 reach the seclusions neces
sary to her is Il brutal cruelty, for which
any employer ought TO be ashamed and
legally punished.
1t has been dream of certain men and
women whom we know, that women need
only to be developed through number of
generations to enable them to engage in a
large variety of employments now ex.
clusively pursued by men. They have
almost quarreled with those disabilities
that now attach to the sex. They have
quite quarrelel with those who insist that
those disabilities inhere in the nature of
women, and can never be removed. There
are those who say that woman has right
to do anything she can do. There are
women who insist on this right. This
goes without saying of course, provided
they will qualify the claim little.
A woman has right to do everything
which will unfit her for bearing and rails
ing healthy children. The future of the
nation and the race depends upon the
mothers, and any woman who consents to
be mother has no moral right to engage
in any employment which will unfit her
for that function. We speak, of course,
of women whose circumstances give
them the control of themselves. 1t is
pititul to think that there are multitudes
who have no choice between employments
that unfit them for motherhood and want.
1t i, pitiful to think that there are mothers
who live their whole married lives in con-
dilions which utterly unfit them for the
functions and responsibilities of mater
nifty,
We have IL theory, which, we regret to
say, is not only unpopular among n
certain classs OF women, but exceedingly
offensive to them, viz, that every one of
them ought to he the mistress of home.
Women have a fashion in these days of
rebelilng against the idea that marriage
is the great end of II woman's life. They
claim the right to mark out for themselves
and attain in Independent career. We
appreciate the delicacies of their position,
and we bow to their choice and their
rights; nevertheless, we believe that in
the millennium women will all live 10
their homes, and that men will not only do
thai which is now regarded rs their own
peculiar work, but much of that which is
now done bv women. There has been in
these late years II great widening out of
the field of women's employment. We
have been inclined to rejoice in this "for
the present necessity" but we are sure
the better time is to come when man, the
real worker of the world, will do the work
of the world, or all of it that is done
outside of home, and that woman will, AS
wife and daughter and domestic, hold to
the house and to that variety of employ
ments which will best conserve her health
and fit her for the duties and delights of
wifehooh, and the functions of mother
hood Quarrel with the fact as she may,
woman's rights must all and always be
of humanity. She has no right. rs a
woman to do anything that will unfit her
to be Il mother. She may be compelled to
do some things for bread that will initiate
against her in this particular but this will
he phiful, and the legitimate subject of all
the ameliorating influences that practical
can commend.
We understand, appreciate and respect
that pride of independence which moves
women to desire to achieve the advantage
of self support, rs n release from the
necessity of marriage. We give assent to
her demand for the privilege 10 develop
herself in her own way, and to do those
things to which she finds her powers
adapted, but we must exceedingly lament
that degree of independence. and even that
love of it, which interferes with marriage.
Anything which renders the sexes less
necessary to each other, is much to be
deprecated. Now there is no question
that some of the pursuits which have been
adopted by women in these later days of
freedom unfit them in many ways for
and for maternity. There is
perhaps no better test for the propriety
and desirableness of womans calling than
the marriage test. A woman can say, if
she chooses: II will not marry prefer
the life of maiden. will take the liberty
it gives me, and live the life that seems
best to me, and cut myself forever loose
from all responsibility for the future of
my race We say she can say this, if
she chooses, and then settle the matter
with Him who made her woman; but if
she holds her heart open to men, and con-
5iders herself candidate for love and
she has no moral right to touch
any employment that will detract from
her modest maiden delicacy, or that will
in any degree unfit her for domestic life,
and AL the responsibilities that go with
Further than this, she posi-
lively owes it to the world, to herself, aud
to the possible husband and children of
her future, to seek for that kind of EN-
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