The evening times., 1898-12-31
by the Americans in the driving out OIL the
Spaniards was too small to deserve even
formal vote OF thanks.
The woman Worker.

this so-called woman question than on any
other subject except religion, and, as IN
the case of religion, the reason probably
lis that those who really understand the
subject are altogether too busy to talh
However, there is one thing which may be
asserted with absolute certainty, and that
is, that the matter viii never receive
proper consideration unless the view OF the
typical woman worker is obtained. BY the
typical worker is meant the woman VINO
has been trained to work from Childhood,
who has always expected to support herseif
unless incapacitated by disease, and VINO
has usually been able not only to support
herself but to take care Of someone else.
There are many millions of such women
in the civilized world; there have always
been such women, and they furnish the
permanent element in the great mass OF
population known as working women.
One difficulty in the discussion of this
question is that theorists are apt TO con-
slider only small percentage of all wo-
men workers in making their statements
Harry Thurston Peck, in a well-meant ar
ticle which appears in the last Cosmopoli-
ldIl, uldhtS just ILLS lntsidht. iiC SoiioiN
ers the question whether woman is fitted
to do the work of high-class specialist
in science; and he then makes the asser-
tion that the natural limitations of wo-
men ought 10 prevent them from working
at all outside the home. AS matter OF
fact-and man as well educated as Mr.
Peck ought to know 1.-THE number of wo-
-bo a,-ar of fhp work nf
scientific specialists is so small that it is
useless to consider the question of their
employment at all. That is not the line
in which women are most useful or most
successful. 1t is bristling with difficulties
for women. There have been successful
women scientists but they were of an
exceptional type, and it may be added that
the successful male scientist is very apt to
be exceptional also. To consider this type
of workers in a general question, such as
the economic status of women, is dragging
in side issue in precisely the way which
such theorists as Professor Peck are wont
to consider feminine. But that is a good
example OF the way in which the question
is usually discussed.
standpoint, is just this: How are women
to support themselves? They must work
the great majority of them must-or they
may not eat; and hunger is just as de-
pressing for a woman as for man. Fifty
years ago they could nearly all earn their
living within the walls of the home. There
was work at tailoring. dressmaking, cook
ing of a hundred different sorts. poultry
raising even farm work, which would oc
cupy the brains and the fingers of the
daughters of the household, and sometimes
one or more neighbor women. A genera
tion earlier there was spinning and weav-
ing as we'll. Any woman with two hands
and a willing spirit could find employment
in those days. Now, while wages are
higher than they were in the old times,
wants have multiplied and fashions have
changed. What man would now be willing
to wear clothing spun and woven, cut and
made by his wife. even if she were able
to accomplish the task? How can there be
employment in the home for all the women
of a household? How can man, be his
wages double what his grandfather earned,
give home to wife, with two or three
grown daughters, or a sister and mother
unless the single women aid in their own
support? The trouble is not that women
have rushed" into the shops and the
factories, but that they have been driven
there by economic conditions, which most
of them do not in the least understand;
and the alacrity with which they still ex-
change their independence for matrimeny
when the right man appears proves that,
after all, they do not encounter the myriad
difficulties of self-support altogether from
choice. 1t is just as natural for a woman
as for a man to enjoy independence in
financial matters; that is, not to be obliged
TO ask an unsympathetic father or uncle
or brother for every cent she needs And
surely this is healthy human trait which
should be encouraged.
The argument most often heard against
women's employment outside the home is
that they drive the men out of the trades
But if a correct statement were made, It
would probably be found that the estab-
lishment of factories for cloth-weaving and
stocking knitting, of tailor shops, canning
factories, bakeries, breweries, large poul-
try farms, clubs, laundries and other estab-
lishments for doing work formerly done
at home, has furnished employment to ar
least as many men as have been driven
out of the trade by women and that they
get better wages than they would in those
trades. The change is, on the whole, a
good one for all parties, but the present
transition stage presents difficulties.
AS for woman's natural limitations"
they have never counted for much among
real working women. The housekeeper
usually does as long and hard a days work
as the mechanic; the mother or nurse who
has the care Of young children works about
twenty hours out of the twenty-four. If
women did not earn their wages the wages
would not be paid; economic law regulates
that. The whole question is, in fact, an
economic question, produced by conditions
somewhat different from any which the
world has seen before, and it must,
in time, settle itself. To throw all the re-
sponsibility on a mythical creature called
the new woman supposed to be melting
her sisters to rush into the labor field and
snatch their bread from the hands of man,
by becoming pugilists, railway engineers,
explorers and blacksmiths, simply for
amusement-that sort of thing is balder-
dash of which no wideawake man or wom-
an ought to be guilty.