St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-01-24

a woman, too, Well, at least. it is from
a woman who believes what she says;
who believed so ten years ago. and
whose belief has only deepened with
every working day that has passed over
her read. Women are not paid as much
as men because they do not really earn
as much as men. That is a generallZed
statement. Let US qualify as follows:
A few women are paid more than some
men. That is because they are doing
something that Il man can't do as well
as a woman can. They are paid for the
advantage of sex. Sumo women get
just as much for their work as man
would get That is because the work
is one in which there is no advantage
or disadvantage of sex either way. Most
women are paid less than most men be-
cause men have the advantage of their
sex. What is the advantage of their
sex? Strength: of body and of muscles;
units of horse power.
Bear in mind that what both men and
women are paid for is work, and that
work is matter of body as well as of
brains. The reason why things get SO
obscured when people begin to talk
about this matter is that they insist
upon treating it as if ability were purely
a matter of brains, as if the concession
that wOman'S work isn't worth so
much as mans in the money market
(bear in mind that we are talking about
money worth alone. not about the higher
WORTH is because she hasn't as much
brains as man. Nonsense! The very
fact that women hold their own against
men as they do in this competitive
period, with less physical strength,
proves that they have more brains than
man, If 1t proves anything at all.
Snm1 OF
as men. But the mass of women are
not. And the law of political economy
which has set the wage mark for men
and women deals with the rule and not
with exception. Take those ORANGES of
work in which both men and women
engage and yo will find IN the great
majority of them that man can do all
woman can do and more. This is true
even in cases oil which at first glance
it seems to have no bearing. Take, for
example, the question of teaching. The
success of women as teachers is emil
nent, and yet man in that profess
sion is always paid more than a
woman for what seems like the
same work. But there is a
reserve power in the man that
there is not in the woman II
something which he may never be called
upon to do, but which he could do if it
were necessary. She can teach as well
as he: sometimes she teaches better, be-
cause she is more likely to have that
tact of the soul and that happy inspira-
ton which will rouse the young mind
into glad learning. But-she can't en-
force her own authority beyond GER
tain limit, and a man can. He can
thrash all unruly boy into obedience,
and she can't. And, although that
of &c 10 1o
tolled, yet it must be confessed that
there is an irresistible responsiveness
about 1t. His advantage is in his mus
Giles, not his brains, but it iS-there.
The same principle applies to other
fields of work. A man clerk may not be
able to sell more yards of lace or cloth
In day than woman clerk. but he can
handle bales of cloth and bigger bundles
than she can. He can do the heavy
work of a porter If necessity came.
True, he may never do it, but he could
do 1t, and that very potentiality makes
him worth more.
In nearly all the kinds of work in
which both men and women are en-
gagged, the same potentiality in physical
strength plays part-in the greater
endurance of long hours or greater rush.
In these branches into which it does not
enter, women are paid as much as men.
A woman physician gets as much as
man. A woman writer gets as much
for her novel, if it is as good; woman
artist gets as much for picture if it is
worth it.
But in the greater part of the work of
the world, physical strength does play
great part, therefore it is that the
wagemark of men will always be higher
than that of women. And it should be
SO. The truth is that women's work
was not meant to be measured by COM
parison with mems and by dollar stand
ards alone. Women were not put into
the world to compete with men. but to
compliment them. Not to Show that
they are capable of doing what man
can do. but to show that they can do
what man can't do.
And the rewards of her work are the
rewards of the kingdom of heaven quite
as much as they are of the kingdom of
this world.