The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-02-10
OUR SOCIAL EQUILIBRIUM.
Is Ii to be Upset by the Working
Woman.

4
! Learned writer's who are at this time
| striving to point out the greatest dangers
which the new century has for them
| should find a prominent place for the evil
which must follow in consequence of the
large and constantly increasing number
| of women employed in business life.
That many OF them are well adapted to
| that life is evident to Inen familiar with
| Office work. That the influence OF good
women upon the moral tone of Office life
| is very beneficial one is fact which is
cheerfuily conceded. Necessity comp Is,
and always will compel many women to
| seek livelihood through employment in
| business. Yet beyond the extent to which
| they are, by actual necessity impelied to
| enter the field of business labor, they
| should make the home the centre Of their
work
This criticism does not. OF course. apply
| to young women of rich families, for they
do not seek such occupation of their time:
! nor does it apply to the daughters of the
very poor. for they must have it; but to
these in the middle walks of life-thcse
whose homes are Of the class constitute
ing a vast majority of the nation, and who
of their own class and generation ard the
mothers of the generation to come.
Twenty years ago woman was very
rarely to be seen at work in an office,
and those who were there were not de-
voting their time in that way from choice,
but because. they were obliged to do so,
having perhaps, lost father or a hus-
band.
Today the education of the young wo-
man in these middle walks has in view
her taking up a business life and is not
complete until she has learned bookkeep-
ing or stenography; she gets position,
becomes 4 source of income to the family,
and, also, she acquires certain feeling
of independence.
She expects to spend few years of her
young womanhood in this way, and feels
that later. and all in good time, she will
be married. At all events, this is true Of
q large proportion OF the young women
so employed.
She becomes infatuated with the excite
meut of going TO and coming from bust
ness duties every day; the home life; home
duties, and the requirement of ability to
manage the home affairs are almost en-
tirely neglected. She puts herself in di-
rect competition with the young men who.
with consequently diminished salaries, find
themselves lacking in income and in saw
ings to justify in them thoughts OF mar
Tying. She drives them, therefore, to seek
most of their comprehensive and pleas
uTes in their clubs.
Every year that she and her family re-
ceiye the benefit of her income the ex-
penses of living (based in part upon that
incOme), become more firmly fixed, and her
continuance at work Is made the more
clearly necessary. She grows each year
more and more reluctant to think of TAX
Inc hon ffoir nd CHI Erd=
her young life is gone and that she must,
whether she wishes to or not, keep at her
work until she is no longer wanted.
AS We look forward in the lives Of those
young women thus engaged to the results
which seem to be plainly manifest it
is evident that not only are they saerifc
ing their life welfare to the temporary ad-
vantage Of few years. but the American
home of today and of the future is SUI
fering incaIculable injury
1t was. surely, not the divine plan that
woman, having more delicate organiza-
lion than man and being possessed of
finer sensibllities than he. should take up
the business end OF LIES problems. In
every other field of life's experiences are
cares, duties, and far-reaching response
bilities which belong to her, and in the
full performance Of which is room for the
use of the largest talents and the highest
ambitions.
Certainly a familiarity with home life,
with a development on social lines and
those of religious and philanthropic ac-
tivity. must serve to lead a young woman
toward her highest possibilities while
few years Of her young womanhood de-
voted to business life must lead her away
from, and make it very difficult for her
ever to reach, those attainments of home
and social attractiveness and of power for
good which are Sc much to be admired
There is, perhaps, no organization
which could exert so much influence on
this line upon the mothers and upon the
young women themselves as that of the
Federated Womens Clubs. 1t would seem
they might well begin the century in 4
sCrong effort to persuade young women to
avoid the business life so far as it is pos
sible and to renew attractiyeness in the
home life. to the end that the American
home shall be in the years to come. as it
has been in the past. the strength, safe
guard, and pride of the American people.
FOR LITERARY FLEDGLINGS.