Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1897-06-29

of the Burden Attendant Upol
Earning Daily Bread Than Al
Generally Supposed. az
(By LADY Cook, nee %TEENEssEE CHAPLIN.
Whenever the advocates Of III,
"Women's Rights" movement urg,
upon the British public the desirability
and justice Of admitting women to I
legal and social equality with men. the,
are frequently met by the retort: Mer
are the world's work Sra, and should
therefore hold the reins OF power; or
woman's function is marriage and
motherhood, and woman's place. the
home. Very pretty sentiments II they
were true. But unfortunately, the
majority OF women are denied mar
rage, and the larger proportion OF
those who do marry have to work for
a livelihood. Marriage, therefore.
though desirable for all who are suit
able, is impossible to most, and mother
hood can only be accepted under many
degrading circumstances and social
sacrifices. For the majority, also, there
is no homs besides that shifty mi pro-
vided by their own exertions. And to
crown all, 1t Is the easiest thing IN the
world to prove that women do a large
proportion Of the bulk of the worlds
work, Notwithstanding almost all is
claimed by the men. On this occasion,
however, and not to be too discursive,
we shall confne our argument to the
British Islands, and shall rely for our
proofs mainly upon government
statistics.
If we take associated. labor in textile
and clothing manufactures. comprising
Upwards of Due hundred kinds of oc-
cupation, up to 1871, we find that in
England and Wales the female work
ers numbered 1,136,435 against
$3.50 ,449 males. In Scotland they were
1853 against 1923. 067 males. Ia
lr md the number of women
factory hands nearly doubled that OF
men, having been 2ll,656 againsi
-112 678. So that out Of a total Of O.
634 764 of both sexes engaged in
various factory work, the women ex.
ceeded the men by nearly four hundred
and twenty thousand. The factory
returns for 1874 showed an immense
Increase in the number OF textile
workers, chiefly consisting of women
aud children. And, from 1850 10 1875
the number increased of female work |
ers above thirteen years of age had
nearly doubled, VIII lie the males had
only slightly increased.
la the food industries, the census of
1871 gave a total tor the British Islands
of 3,Gl8 764, of whom the women only
nu % bered 597, 439. The disparity
here is more seeming than real, aud is
no doubt caused by the imperfect re-
turns, especially for Ireland, where
mi are by far more numerous
but, as their labor is less regular, they
do not appear to have been entered.
1t IS a singular fact, that while the
Islands contained 62 SAC female
farmers and graders, $50 female
.'nurserymen," and PASS female
gardeners, the census did not give .
shepherdess. Thus it a~ttests
that the pastoral age OF the p,ets is
here absolutely dead. and not . single
British Amaryllis or Phyllis remains TO
be wooed by the amorou shepherds as
as OF old.
Those who catered for the public In
inns and hotels numbered 152, 22O;
and of these 57,941 were women
The total number returned 10 1871
for all regular occupants IN the Uoited
Kiogdom was 1864. 600 males aud A.
T20, 900 females. But no account is
of the great number OF
single women who assist at
home in domestic work, nor
Of the married women who either con-
duct their households, or, as 10 the
ranks Of life, do the whole or
OF the drudgery connected with
them. IL cannot be said that the con- |
troll of a family is less onerous than
of an office, or the duties OF a
working vile less labOrious than her
Taking Only the wives
and widows into account, we shall ADD [
them to the former numbers after hav-
ing first subtracted the number Of wo-
men already given as engaged IN PAID
occupations. This would al ,rd an
increase OF about 5000, 900 to the wo- {
men workers. bringinx them up to :
200, 900. But II we also add those 8
ovsr fifteen unmarried, tho number !
would rise TO 1000, 600. and the men {
do not much exceed this. So that by
The most generous computation as re-
CARDS the latter, for. every ten male I
there are nine female workers. A. the :
population contains q 1000, 900 more
women than men this leaves q very
vide margin for that class OF women !
whose lives are aItogetner useless or :
simply ornamental. and does not in I
;lude a host Of spinsters who give 90. !
.asional assistance in nursing ano !
other domestic concerns. c
We ch~eerfully concede that many r
male occupations require an amount o. =
muscular strength not possessed ny the {
ordinary British workwoman. Never a
heless, many avocations OF women' b
Iuch as Laundry work, require great /; !
physical exertiop, and the wear and
ear OF others with their long hours
Ind incessant strain, would produce i
exhaustion even in strong .
men. Nor must it be forgotten that
While men complain that women are
INVADING their en,ployments 10 various I
directions, they were the first totrencn 7
mon thoaa ~ ~ ,mep and still In their T