Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1889-03-28
IS HOME A FAILURE7
Growing .Distaste Of American
Woniei fer Maternal Duties and
for nop,aetic uorE,

tGrowfng .Distaste Of American
WomieH fer Matornaf Duties and
for Domestic Work.
'.Is housekeeping failure, and II :.
why, and What is the renedyP' is tho
new question of the Gay. I'M thou
sands OF homes the careworn mistress
of the house attests that housekeeping
is a failure for her because OF ignorant
land Incompetent servants. The crowd
ed boarding houses attest that house
keeping is failure, and that the w6ri>
home will lose 1t significance in Ameri-
ca because housekeeping Is elassed as
drudgery and its duties as interfering
with culture" Whole books have
been written to solve the question OF
"How can American women enjoy the
pleasures Of culture" and al the same
time be housekecpers, and in the whole
book it is never once suggested that
''cultufe'' can be taken into housekeep-
ing and that pleasure end health as
we'll as intellectual advancement Would
result The simplifcation Of house
keeping, the subordination OF the
physical to the intellectual for the pur-
pose OF securing time for culture"
are the remedies advised for the over
taxed time and strength OF careful
housekeepers. The fact that good
housekeeping demands thorough educa-
ton and high culture is nowhere con-
/ oo1nl. h,,t ~ e., g.,
housekeeping will continue to be
failure.
The growing distaste OF American
women for domestic work and their
habitual stunning OF the duties of
home and maternity has become one OF
the crying evils of the times. 1t has
brought in its train overcrowded work.
shops, starvation wages, and unneces-
sary competition with the Work Of men.
In the middle classes OF society IL lie
making marriage almost an impossible
ity, or substituting boarding houses for
homes. The poor, catching the iufec-
ton from their well-to-do neighbors,
will take any employment at any wages,
and submit to any amount Of tyranny
from brutal taskmasters rather than to
submit to what they are taught to
think degrading servitude, though &C
companied by good wages, abundant
food, and comfortable lodging.
One formidable relic of barbarism
and African slavery which the Ameri-
can people have yet to overcome is the
rating of domestic employment with
servitude. Much progress has been
made in the ''eradicatior Of that pesti-
lent feeling of contempt for work."
which is an inheritance from slavery,
and still more has been gained in Sc
curing to women the right to earn
money without the loss of caste, but
while every avenue TO self-supporting
work has been opened to women, all
have been made respectable except
housewofk.
The root Of the great wreng lies en-
bedded in the overfertilized field Of
wofItan's rights, which while it has
produced Il go6dly crop of needed re-
forms has grown some bitter fruit
Every avenue to money getting by
trade or skill or intellect has been
opened wide to women. Colleges and
universities have been compelled to
admit them to equal opportunities with
men for higher education. They have
secured honorable recognition In all
the learned professions, but no effort
has been made to advance or etnoble
their own distinctive profession of
housekeeping. .'Woman's clubs, wo-
mans conventions, woman's congresses,
met 10 discuss any and every topic
connected with woman's welfare, ex-
cept the one great interest in which
nine enths OF the women OF the world
are absorbed
BY virtus Of the agitation Of the
subject of woman's rights women are
now occupying thousands of positions
which men could fill as well, and in
most Instances better, thus increasing
competition and lowering wages, while
the one distinctive field for woman's
work has been so habitually disparaged
and moderated that no girl who hopes
to retain her own selfsrespect, or who
cares at all for her position in society,
can be induced 20 take any domestic
employment in any home but her own
and even there feels that she is doing
mental service. If q portion OF the
effort expended in increasing the area
of woman's work had been devoted to
elevating the work already hers to its
proper place as an art, requiring
education, intellect, and culture; il in
stead of charging woman's sphere her
natural vocation had been dignified
and ennobled, thousands OF women
now filling underpaid, health-destroy-
ing places in shops or factories, places
from which they have driven fathers
and brothers, would, with advantage to
themselves anu AM, . .,.c world, be helping
TO make comfortable homes where now
ignorant and degraded servants are de-
stroying the home life OF tfe land. II,
instead Of giving our kitchens over
to ignorant negroes and foreign
ers; our native girls of good
birth and education, the class who now
seek positions as stenographers, book
keepers, telegraph operators, ETC.,
would prepare themselves by thorough
education for cooks and nurses, bringing
to these positions culture and refine.
ment, tie work would no longer be con-
sidered servile, and thousands of homes
would welcome them to social equality.
The establishment OF charity schools for
training SERVANTS" will not prove a
remedy. The profession must be ele-
waited, and educated women must seek
positions In It's ranks. There is no pro-
fession in which so many OF the branch
as If a liharal adupa tiOn can be nut 10