Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-03-30
Hundreds Of Occupations Are Now
Open to Her.
HER INFLUENCE IN CIVIC MATTERS
How She Can Best Help Herself
by Helping Others.
SOME PRACTICAL ADVICE

Written for The Evening Star by Mary Lowe Dick
inson.
Many readers can go back forty years
to the time when the lines of work for
women included household service, home
nursing and neighborly nursing from
house to house, sewing and comparatively
minor lines of teaching. Following down a
few decades we find between five and six
hundred wage-earning occupations open
to women, and our problem becomes not so
much what women can do as how
shall women choose that work which they
are best fitted to perform? This choice
must depend necessarily upon such factors
as her degree of wealth, of education, her
social position, her health. her breadth of
mind, her practical knowledge and her
sense of moral responsibility.
Therefore it Is idle to ask what can
women do. because the answer must neces-
sarily apply to only very small class Of
women. There will be as much variety in
the possibilities as in capabilities. We can
only outline some of the possibilities, and
leave the question of her capability to be
settled by the woman herself.
Starting at the very highest power in a
woman's nature-her moral influence in her
own home, in the church and in society
the faintest hint will suffice. Women know
already that they cannot, in public affairs
accomplish great reforms or develop great
schemes except as they are able to inf1u-
ence those who have the rights of citizen
snip and the control of wealth. Happily
the mind of intelligent and truly noble
manhood, that cares for general welfare is
always open to the views and influence Of
truly noble and intelligent womanhood
What woman can do in this line, therefore,
is TO put herself In touch with civic and
phlianthrop1c and educational needs
She cannot clean the streets, nor can
she vote that the street cleaning shall be
in the hands Of the right man; but she can
understand all those things that pertain
to street sanitation and house sanitation.
Two-thirds of the women of the world bat
tie with dirt with their hands unon a
broom-handle. The knowledge of what
ought to be done, which every Intelligent
woman can acquire, can be welded much
more effectively than can the broom-stick.
we nave abundant instances in different
cities OF Women'S stirring such currents of
public opinion as might be called raising
the wind Raising the wind means rails
ing the dust, and when the discomfort of
the dirt and filth are fairly in the air. men
Will hurry up the Scavenger and work for
it's removal. For women, therefore the
one word Is. keep your eyes open for
actual conditions study work, learn. find
out for yourselves. Then talk it or write
l. to the men who are too busy to find
out otherwise.
In Philanthropic Work.
And the same suggestion that applies TO
sanitary and civic conditions applies also
to philanthropic work. If women know
what actually goes on In hospitals and in
hrmaries, in institutions for the aged for
the paupers, for the little children and
even for the criminals, they have the ba sic
n wi
Things they can only influence morally. In
philanthropic things they will be allowed
sometimes share in the management Of
institutions, always a share in the raisina
of the money therefor and occasionail1
voice in saying how that money can he
wisely expended. ~ w
II her heart Is really set on the better
i ~ OF human conditions, and her head
Is NOT SO obstinate that she believes that
the SINNERS can be converted by the scoId-
Tag OF the saints, and she unites her NO.
manly discrimination to her genuine DC
sire 10 nave things made the best possible
~ ins wan ana Wretched world. her field
OF influence along all the philantbronic
ilnes Is very broad. 1t would take q hnnL
TO write what she might do in these diran
lions; Like Zenobia, her kingdom here 10
"a az -, Dioao as the genius that can devise
or the power that can win" but lilo Hano
Dia, her Kingdom must be based not ,,-no,,
her power, put her love. EspeciaIIv IN IL
whole region of work for childhoo1 10 ia +hie
Tue. Sne can lind out what sick chiIdran
poor children, suffering children Val o yn,
can, to very great extent oontu; que
supply, because mems hearts will he ,;.,,
ones. AL Tie Httle
Care of Crippled Children.
lake Tor example. one work Just bee,n-
mug u make Its way in the city of New
ioih anu soon to spread. we hope. to other
i'ies' reier TO the care Of crippled chill.
uieh. beginning with one woman, whose
ieai' went out In sympathy to these LITTLE
fa,,, -, oo.ates: arousing the interest Of q
re" men, until a little home bv the soo ~.
received few of them In the snn,, neasiq Ie
ias now developed into a svstem ~
smoula ultimately include an auxiliarv a.,
fnxast, part OF the city. The very sort nf
showed that Greater New y Vol a1n
apout a'OOO crippled children Manba+tan
1 apout o,oOo the great majority ~ 4hoaa
, LYLE IN tenement houses with insnfticien9
10 send the wagonette and ..+h
groups or these children: to tale IT,. ~
.ne school where the kindergarten ana th ho
una ia training and the comfortable lunch
and the G bear rao ns OF the day are supplied.
cnlid are developed: to put them in charn e
OF nurses: to give them proper rnadinaI
e4ir, 70 become renovating and regener-
dren-this Is only one of the 1,ttie eh Gnli-
gelng done In the great city of New Ynrt
l mention It because In many other wavs
similar needs may be studied, plans devtseS
Tor the amelioration Of conditIons ran6
dlrect an appeal to those who can controi
II Tor the use Of wealth. and to the nronar
civic authorities to aid in beneflcent WORK
IN this way women can help And. also In
the question of amusements, playeronnds
provision for country outings for nature
studies and thousand ways Of which ths
limits OF this space do not permit even the
faintest outline. -" tA0
The Best Epitaph. = -
II Is not question Of what can women
DO. There are hundred things waiting at
her hand. and each woman must herself az.
eide what under her own circumstances and
conditions she can do. That the obligation
Is upon her to do whatever she can. that
the best epitaph she can ever have ts "she
did what she could" needs no emphasis.
Leaving the moral and philanthropic and
educational side and turning for a moment
TO the question OF what woman can do for
others through what she can do for herself.
we strike that great line of Industries nv
which good can be done to others through
her securing support for herself. We can
say nothing Of the noblest PROCESSION ~ All
that OF wifehood and motherhood. Unoues.
tionably women can do most and best in
this line. Next. the teaching Of Childhood.