The record-union., 1891-08-26
A SOCIAL QUESTION.

The New York Commercial Advertiser
was referred to by the RECORD UNION
not long ago as having gathered some
very interesting statistics in New York
City, going to show that the drive of
women into the employments of men is
prejudicial TO social interests, destructive
to dOmesticity, in avoidance of matri-
mony and generally a drift in the di-
rection Of unsexing the sex. The same
journal with commendable courage has
Kept up the hammering upon the subject.
Its latest utterance is the statement of
this conclusion:
The fact is that the economic law which
likes the wages of woman below those of men
cannot satisfactorily be explained NeVerthe-
less, we stand face to face with the difficulty
llat large proportion of our women must
engage IN labor for daily bread, and so tar as
their power goes, must cOmuete with men,
But thls condition must not be endured as
natural or acceptable. It is a false condition ;
the accident of our civilization must strive to
overcome it. Man is the natural bread
winner.
But if it is question mot to be en-
dured," what are we going to do about it :?
The only reform possible, since the very
thought of legislation concerning it is alb
surd, is that those who, with the RECORD
UNION, believe the drift of women into
business to be a baleful tendency, must
hopefully and persistently preach the
doctrine, that in time by conviction this
false condition." this accident of our
civilization" may be overcome. Women
are increasing in number more rapidly
than men. The wages of women are less
always than those OF men in the same
employment, and the temptation of trade
TO make profit Of the fact is all but ire
sistible. AS the true bread-winners are
crowded out by women, the need presses
more and more upon families to put their
and thus the evil of which we complain
actually serves as its own stimulant.
The wages of women are less than those
of men because of the sharp competition
between women, and because of their in
capacity to accomplish compared with
the vigor and persistence of their male
competitors.
The i dUertiSe7 thinks that one reason
for the inferiority of woman's remuner-
alton is that men have a larger field of
action, and that women are limited in
their competition with each other to a
few callings. But this is by no means
certain. 1t is probable that the trades
and callings for men do outnumber those
for women, but at the present pace this
viii not long be true in any very appreci-
able degree. We may not expect to see
women in the blacksmith shop, or at the
lathe, or any Of the heavier employments,
but in about all the lighter ones she is
taking place. 1t may not be too much
to say that in shop and counter and cleri-
cal employment she is now the equal in
number with men.
If women could be put upon wage
equalitywith men, like pay for like po-
sition, the question would speedily settle
itself, since employers would then prefer
men because of woman's physical inca
pacity, and the notorious fact that they
do not grasp broadly in business, as do
men, but, as rule, must be limited to
definite bounds Of duty. Women accept
the lower wage law as unalterable, and
men do not manifest any notable disposi-
ton to change it.
So that the sociological question is the
real one to contend with in this matter.
and perhaps some generations must
wrestle with it before it is settled. 1t
means long and chivalric devotion to the
subject. 1t must be made and kept
prominent before the people that the
tendency of the times in this matter oi
the employment Of women in vocations
properly belonging to men, as well as in
some others for which women are capac-
itated, is TO discourage matrimony, Gre
ate distasto for domesticfty and to make
the conditions and opportunity of the
male wage-earner harder. That there
is enough for woman to do within lines
unohjectionable, and that her highest
Office is in the home, which her drift into
business tends to destroy.