Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1892-03-03
IN W0MAN'S BEHALF.
WAY WOMEN GETS LESS PAY.
They Are Not Worth So Much Because
They Are Weaker, u Woman Says.


They Are Not Worth So Much Because
They Are Weaker, Woman Says.
The reason why most women work
ers are not paid so much as most men
workers is because they are not worth |
so much, says a woman who believes |
what she says, who believed so ten
years ago, whose belief has only deep
ened with every working year that has
passed over her head. Women are not
paid so much as men because they do
not really earn so much as men. That
is a generalized statement A few
women are paid more than some men,
because they are doing something that
man can't do so well as woman can
They are paid for the advantage of SEX
Some women get just as much for their
work as a man would get, because the
work has no advantage or disadvan-
tage of sex either way, Most women
are paid less than most men because
men have the advantage of their sex in
strength, strength of body and of
muscles, units of horse power.
Men and women are paid for work,
and that work is matter of body as
well as of brains When people begin
to talk about this matter they insist
upon treating it as if ability were
purely matter of brains, as if the con-
cession that woman's work isn't
worth so much as a mans in the money
market is because she hasn't so 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
men, if it proves anything at all
Some women, to be sure, are as
strong 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 the exception. Take
the branches of work in which men
and women engage, and in the great
majority of them man can do all a
woman can do, and more. That is true
even in cases on 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 profession
is always paid more than woman for
what seems like the same work. But a
reserve power is in the man that is not
in the woman-a 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, because she is more
likely to have that tact of the soul and
that happy inspiration which will
rouse the young mind into glad learn
ing. But she can't enforce her own
authority beyond a certain limit, and Q
man can He can thrash an unruly boy
into obedience, and she can't. AnC
although that method Of controlling is
not to be extolled, yet it must be con
fessed that there is an irresistible per
suasiveness about it. His advantage il
in his muscles, not his brains.
The same principle applies in othe
fields of work man clerk may not b,
able to sell more yards of lace or o
cloth in a day than woman clerk, Blu
he can handle bales of cloth and bigge
bundles than she can He can do tn
heavy work of porter if necessity re
quires. He may never do it, but h
could do it, and that very potentialit,
makes him worth more.
In nearly all the kinds of work i
which both men and women are en-
gagged, the same potentially in physica
strength plays part-in the create
endurance of long hours or create
rush. In these branches into which
; does not enter women are paid as muc
rs men. A woman physician gets a
much as man. A woman writer gets a
!, much for her novel, if it be as good;
woman artist gets as much for pictur
: if it be worth it.
But in most of the work of the worl
, physical strength does play a grea
part, therefore the wage mark of me
1 will always be higher than that O
women And it should be so. Won
ems work was not meant to be mea
ured by comparison with mems and b
d dollar standards alone. Women wei
a not put into the world to compete wit
It men, but to complement them; not I
: show that they are capable of doin
what man can do, but to show tn;
l. they can do what a man can't do.
= The rewards of her work are the r.
t wards of the Kingdom of Heaven quiz
y as much as they are of the kingdom
this world. There must be other r
3, wards certainly as long as the wor
is stands as it does, and men and wome
l. work side by side for money But IL
n fact can not be altered that this is NJ
- the way in which men and women we
meant to work. The fact, also, ca
" not be altered that men must do IL
D. hard physical work in the world I'll
o last fact is that since work is quite
g much matter of body as of brains, Il
A. mass of men will always be paid mo
than the mass of women N. Y. Su