The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-02-10
AS 1T LOOKS TO WCM5N
WHY Their Wages Are Less Than
Those Of Men.
HER HAT PIN HER WEAPON
How the Lover of Good Egg should
Cook the Favorl Dainty-scott Was
Fond only of Young D. r'incs Bring
ing Up Boy by k"le'

The reason why most women workers ar
moi paid 80 much as men workers is be
canse they are not worth 50 much, says n
>Vornan who believes what she says. who
believed so ten years ago, whore belief has
o,iv deenened with every working yeal
,bat has passed over her head. Women
.rn not mid so much as men because they
a. not really earn so much as men. That
A. generalized statement. A few women
ar naid more than some men, because they
are doing something that man can't do
SO well AZ a woman. They are paid for the
advantage Of sex.
some women get just rs much for their
work as a man would get, because the
work has no advantage or disadvantage of
sex either way. Most women are paid less
shan most men because men have the al.
vantage OF their sex in strength-strength
of body and Of muscles, units of horse
power.
tba. work is n matter of body ms well rs of
brains. When people begin TO Talk about
this matter they insist upon treating it MS
if ability were purely "A matter of brains,
as n the concession that "A 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. Nonsensel The
very fact that women hold their own
nguinst 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 ex-
ception. Take the branches OF work in
which men and women engage, and in the
great majority of them man can do all
woman can do and more. That is true
even in cases on which at first glance it
seems to have no bearing. Take, for ex-
ample the question Of teaching. The sue.
cess of women as teachers is eminent, and
vet man in that profession is always paid
more than woman for what seems like
the same work. But reserve power is in
the man that is not in the woman--a some
thing 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, aud man can. He can
thrash an unruly boy into obedience, and
she can't. And although that method Of
controlling is not to be extoiled, yet IL
must be confessed that there is an irresist
ihle responsiveness about it. His advan
tare is in his muscles, not in his brains.
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 be can handle
bales OF cloth and bigger bundles than she
can He can do the heavy work of u porter
IL necessity requires. He may never do it,
but he could do it, and that very potential
ity makes him worth more.
In nearly all the kinds of work in which
both men and women are engaged the same
potentiaity in physical strength plays n
pnrt--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 rs man. A woman writer
gets as much for her novel, if it be as good.
A woman artist gets as much for a picture.
II It be worth it..
But in most Of the work OF the world
physical strength does play great part.
Therefore the wage mark Of men will al
ways be higher than that of women, and
IL should be so. Womans work was not
meant to be measured by comparison with
mems and by dollar 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 man can do but to show that
they can do what man can't do-New
York Sun.