Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-17
VALUE OF WOMAN'S WORK.


Not So Well Paid Because They Haven't the
MuscIe-Man's Potenriality Makes Him
Worth More-Not a Matter of Brains-
Concrete Examples.
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPArcH.l
The reason why most women-workers
are not paid so much as most men-workers
is because they are not worth so much.
Here is heresy of heresies, and from womaD
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 deep
ened with every working year that has
passed over her head Women are not paid
as much as men because they do not really
earn as much as men.
That is generalized statement. Let US
qualify it as follows: A few women are paid
more than some men. That is because they
are doing something that man can't DO as
well as a woman can. They are paid FOR the
advantage of sex. Some 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 pa1d less
than most men because men nave the ad-
vantage of their sex. What is the advantage
Of their sex? Strength; strength OF body
and Of muscles; units of horse power.
Women Have More Brains Than Men.
Bear in mind that what both men and
women are paid for is work and that work
is a matter of body 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 1t as II aplllty
were purely q matter of brains, as If the
concession that a woman's work isn'tsworth
so much as q mans in the money market
in min IA w talking
money-worth alone, not about the higher
worthy is because she hasn't as much brains
as a man. Nonsense! the very fact that
women hold their own against men as they
do in this competitive period, with loss ply
scal strength proves that they have moro
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 ana women deals
with the rule and not with the exception.
Take those branches of work in which both
men and women engage and you will find in
the great majority of them that man can
do all woman can do, and more. This is
true even in cases on which at first glance it
seems to have no bearing.
d. Muscles Earning Power In Teaching.
Take, for example, the question OF
teaching The success of women as teach
ers is eminent, and yet a man in that pro-
fession is always paid more than woman
for what seems like the same work. But
there is a reserve power in the man that
there 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 learning. But-she
can't enforce her own Authority beyond
certain limit and a man can. He can thrash
an unruly boy into obedience and she can't.
And although that method of controlling is
not to be extolled, yet it must be confessed
that there is an irresistible persuasiveness
about it. His advantage is in his muscles,
not his brains, but it is there.
The same principle applies in other fields
of work. A man clerk may not be able to
sell more yards of lace or of cloth in day
than a woman clerk, but he can handle
bales of cloth and bigger bundles than she
can. He can do the heavy work of porter
il necessity came. True, he may never do
it, but he could do it, and that very poteH-
tiality makes him worth more. In nearly
all the kinds of work in which both men and
women are engaged, the same potentiality
greater endurance of long hours or greater
rush.
Where Potentially Doesn't Count.
I'm 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;a woman artist getsas much
for picture if it is worth it. But in the
greater part of the work of the world, physi-
cal strength does play a great part there
fore it is that the wagemark of men will al
ways be higher than that of women.
And it should be So The truth is that
woman's work was not meant to be meas
ured in comparison with mems and by dol
lar standards alone. Women were not put
into the world to compete with men, but to
complement them. Not to show that they
are capable of doing what a man can do, but
to show that they can do what q 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.
There must be other rewards certainly, so
long as the world stands as it does, and men
and women work side by side, for money.
But the TACT cannot be altered that this is
not the way in which men and women were
meant to work The fact, also, cannot be
altered that men must do the hard physical
work in the world-this is the law OF adapta.
ton. The last fact is that, since work is
quite as much matter of body as of brains,
the mass OF men will always be paid more
than the mass Of women. This is political
economy HELEN WATrFRsoN