Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-23
wAASsNoRK.
Some Hints as to Why Many Women Are III
Paid

Paid.
L. E. Holman in the Century.
It is a cheering sign for the great army
of women who are obliged to earn their
livelihood that the "wOman question is
being agitated in the light of woman s
work
But there is a side which, it seems to
me, as practical working and self sup
porting woman, is very little considered
This is the question. Glow does she do
it, and how should it be done?'
Women generally. as mass,
look upon self. support and
labor as a thing to be avoided and :,
only too often, to he ashamed of. 1t is a
melancholy comment upon this assertion
that, in the recent census III one of our
large cities, the house to house census
declared that the number of women who
earned their living or were engaged in
some daily wage earning avOcation was
only about half of that which the census
of the female employees in business houses
and factories declared, Can woman
complain that she is not considered equal
with man i'll the wage earning world if
she herself takes so little interest and
pride in her work that she denies it?
That there are thousands of ill-paid
women, there can be no question or a
shadow of doubt. But is not this rather
because these thousands of women only
do work which requires no skill beyond
that possessed by every other woman 3,
which requires no special training, and
which If She ahandOns it ANY other woman
can do as wellS
The woman physician is as well paid as
the man. | know a woman who is den
fist who makes more than most men, in
the profession The woman who is an
author, painter, an actress, or a singer
is as well paid rs Il man of equal talent
and opportunity. TO go lower in the
scale Q4aalent, the dressmaker, the mil
lipegs We skilled female worker in our
4itcfories, is paid on the average as well
as the male.
But l would say, let a girl feel that it is
as natural and praiseworthy for her to
earn her living as that her brother should +,
that if she would be as well paid as her
brother she must be willing to give the
same time, attention, effort, and endea
vOr to make herself a success and valua-
BILE to her employer as her brother does.
She must be thorough.
Women do not usually-I say it with
regfeI-DuG tneif hearts INTO Ineir WORK
as men do. They look upon it as tenn
porary affair.
There is but one remedy for this. AS
I have said before, let our young women
and girls be taught that it is as necessary
for them to know how to earn their
livings with some true business as it is for
their brothers.
Do not bring them up TO believe that
marriage is the aim of Il woman's life
any more than ii is of n man 3, or that it
is more honorable and dignified than
work Let them feel that the better they
can do their work the more account they
will be in the world and the more re-
spected; that they should put their whole
hearts into their employment and snake
themselves valuable as working factors,
leaving marriage 10 come or not, as'they
and fate will; and then, and not till then,
they viii become rs valuable working
factors as men, who always DIS all this.
There is always room and good pay at the
top Value will command value, and 81
worth viii generally bring 81.