Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1883-11-07
Business Wsmen.

IL IL tstimated that in Great Britain
there are 7OO,OO more women than men.
or Vhese about One-third inherit means
OF support, and the other two-thirds must
earn for themselves or depend ON tho
earnings Of those who have little to di-
vide with them. 1t can be readily seen
that these 100000 women to whom mar
riage is impossible must have something
10 do with their lives, and that there will
be some among them who will see clearly
and advocate fearlessly the opening Of
new avenues for industry and success for
women-that the woman movement was
inevitable.
The preponderance of women over men
In the United States is not so large as it
is in Great Britain, though in some States
the proportion of the sexes is about the
same here as there, and in these States
the same questions that agitate the
British female mind agitate the Ameri-
can female mind. No one pretends to
say or to think that a happy marriage is
not the happiest lot of woman, or that
she was not born for domestic life. But
where there are not men enough to make
marriage possible, those women who do
not find husbands must find another
career than that of wife and mother.
The inventions of men in behalf of wo-
men have removed from feminine hands
the great processes of manufacture, and
machinery does better and more cheaply
than human muscle the heavy work that
was formerly done in the family. Tho
maiden sister, once so valuable member
of the family, finds her hands idle and
empty, and lest her mind and heart be-
come so, she must have something ade-
quate TO occupy mind and heart and
hands nobly and fully. This is the whole
secret of the woman movement, and
wherever in any enlightened community
there is preponderance of women over
men this movement must manifest itself
until women have chance to make for
themselves such careers as they arc capa-
bic of making.
There is class of men and women
who are not made for marriage, but
where the sexes are equal in number in
any State this class does not disturb the
balance of society, its members finding
easily enough congenial occupation.
Many women who are naturally in
clined to domestic life, fear to enter upon
business career lest il injure their
chances of marriage. A member of the
British Parliament, speaking of this
phase of the subject, gave it as ne result
of his observation that busr .ss women
had better chances in marriage than
their sisters not in business. They had a
wider outlook, a larger acquaintance
with, and better knowledge CT men,
and not being influenced by the desire of
being supported by husband, they were
able to choose with more judgment and
discrimination, and hence rarely made
shipwreck in their married lives.
The opening TO women of the avenues
of industry until within a few years mo-
nopolized by men has not been followed
by any assertion anywhere that women
have become less womanly, less feminine,
that they have been robbed in any way
of those charms that are deemed ex-
clusively theirs. On the other hand it is
admitted that they have been greatly
benefited every way by their enlarged OPP
portunities. There is nothing strange in
this The work partakes always of the
character of the worker, and good work
like fine character is of no sex. Though
there are many businesses for which
women are by nature unfit and unsuita-
BILE, yet there is scarcely any business in
which they may not become the helpers
of men. I'm every department of science,
from astronomy down, in every depart
ment of art and of industry, we find
women doing excellent work, and fitting
themselves to do still better work when
admitted TO branches of industry now not
open to them.
1t is granted on all sides that the asso-
citation of women with men in the busi-
nesses of life has been productive of only
good to men. Those in charge of col
lcges where the co-education of the sexes
is permitted, with scarcely dissenting
voice, agree that the presence of women
in college life refines, restrains and i'm
proves young men, and far from lowering
the standard of intellectual attainment,
the cases are numerous where the highest
prizes of merit have been awarded to
women.
The training Of business education is
| invaluable to every woman who receives
it. She becomes wider in her apprehen-
sion, larger in her sympathies firmer in
her convictions, and capable of graphing
with the problems and the labors of life.
Her patience, her endurance, her staying
qualities, are strengthened, and her con-
fdence in herself established. Called to
domestic life after such training, as
many women have been, she proves by
practical demonstration that her eU
periences have rendered her more capa
bic of performing with efficiency and per
fectness the duties of her position.
The time is not far distant when thc
majority of girls will look forward as
boys now do to some special occupation
as q means of certain livelihood. so that
they shall be independent of the muta.
tions of fortune, and sure of life of honor.
able industry and independence.-M y