Huntsville gazette., 1892-02-20
IN WOMAN'S BEHALF.
WHY WOMEN GETS LESS PAY.

WHY WOMEN GETS LESS PAY.
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 generalizei statement. A few
women are paid more than some men,
because they are doing something that
a man can't do so we'll as woman can.
They are paid for the advantage of sex.
Some women get just as much for their
work as 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 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 any thing 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
ma jority of them a 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
exam pie. the question of teaching. The
success of women as teachers is emf
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; some times
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 certain limit, and
man can. He can thrash an unru1y boy
into obedience, and sAe can't And
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 is
in his muscles not 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
he can handle bales of cloth and bigger
bundles than she can. He can do the
heavy work of porter if necessity re-
quires. He may never do it, but he
could do it, 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 potentially in physical
| strength plays a 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 be as good
woman artist gets as much for picture
if it be worth it.
But in most of the work of the world
physical strength does play a great
part, therefore the wage mark of men
will always be higher than that of
women. And it should be so. Wom-
ems work was not meant to be meas
ured 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 a man can do, but to show that
they can do what a man can't do.
The rewards Of her work are the re-
wards of the Kingdom of Heaven quite
as much as they are of the kingdom of
this world. There must be other re-
wards certainly, as long as the world
stands as it does, and men and women
work side by side for money. But the
fact can not be altered that this is not
the way in which men and women were
meant to work. The fact, also, can
not be altered that men must do the
hard physical work in the world. 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.-N. Y. Sun.
WORKING GIRLS SOCIETIES.