The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-04-19
FOR FEMININE READERS
POSITION OF WOMEN IN MODERN
LIFE SHOWS 4 REVOLUTION.
Useful school Which Might Serve as
a Model for Others-Another Chi
cago Professor Breaks Loose.

A slow and silent, but very radical. revO-
luton has been going forward in modern
society as 10 the place of woman in the So
cial order. says the Brooklyn Eagle. Far
reaching consequences, both in the econom-
ical and social spheres. are involved in it.
The strenuous German Emperor brandishes
his scepter against the movement as old
Knute forbade the rising of the tide, and
with about the same result. He bids wom-
en-. in his imperial style. to go back ito
church. children and cooking" Not a few
sober-minded folk secretly wish that the
Emperor's might were equal to his will, but
the genii have escaped from the bottle and
are not likely TO be corked in again. To a
marvellous extent the woman of to-day has
been set fire from the burden of work. The
fact that so many women are engaged in
wage-earning occupations does not affect
the truth of the statement. A century ago
woman's domestic work was never done,
and was done at a maximum Of inconven-
fence and labor. Try 10 fancy the time
when there was not a cooking range. or hot
and cold water in the kitchen and bath
room and laundry, when there was not a
washing machine or a sewing machine or a
hlltlltn elevator NlGH WOIltn were COil-
PEELED TO make their husbands shirts, their
own dresses and mend their children's
clothes.
The invention of labor saving machinery
has affected woman's life profoundly. 1t
has been probably the most potent of all
the causes which have brought about her
emancipation" 1t has some curious and
interesting complications. The alleged in
competence of the servant girls is due
not a little, where il exists, to the fact that
the instruments with which the girl works
are so excellent, being almost
that her former skill is not required and
has no place for its display. The result is
greatly forwarded by the rapidly growing
custom of living In apartments and flats.
Domestic labor, In a word, tends to be re-
duced. and the woman is set free from her
hereditary task more and more hours every
day. Mems work, on the other hand, tends
TO become more and more eXacting. Labor
saving machinery has not given him leis-
ure. 1t make work faster rather than
saves il. 1t is true that I'm some Depart
ments hours have been shortened. but even
then it is only on the alleged ground that
he works harder during the shorter hours.
Now that the woman has found leisure,
what is she doing with it? She is using it
largely for the benefit Of society. The
woman of the day is managing hospitals,
homes, reformatories, village Improvement
societies, municipal reforms. She is also
improving her mind, and withal having a
fine time. She continues her studies at the
nigh school until she is twenty, while her
brother leaves Ii TO go TO work at sixteen.
Taking the whole course of public educa-
ton in the city, more than 80 per cent.
of its cost is expended upon girls and
women and less than 40 upon boys and
young men. She reads books, while her
husband and brother read newspapers.
She attends literary classes, while her hus-
band watches the ticker. In the largest
circulating library in the country this ques-
tion was asked: who reads all these
hooks?' The reply was: Women and
clergymen mostly" About four to one is
probably the proportion of readers of cur
rent popular novels issued i'm editions of
the hundred thousand, the four being wom-
en-. Those who move about much among
people of average cultivation can find more
topics of literary conversation among wom-
en- than among men. If the conversation Is
upon the topics of the days news the man
will be the better informed, but if it be
other things the women take up the theme.
All this has come about so noiselessly that
1t has not attracted the attention 1t de-
serves. But IL is something quite new.
The result OF this condition upon the
moral and emotional side of life must of
necessity be very great. II has an intimate
relation with the happiness and content
ment of married life. and Ii has TO do
with the moral life Of the sexes in ways
which. for obvious reasons. forbid free
discussion. A generation ago it was gen.
orally assumed that this emancipation of
woman from the drudgery of domestic life
would allow her TO enter upon a life of
self-support. For awhile there was ar
increase of women I'm those occu-
pations where they could earn their own
livelihood. There is now a distinct reac-
ton from this movement. They are grad
ually but steadily being eliminated from
those ayocations. Experience and the
ruthless operation Of natural and economic
laws tend 10 drive them out of occupations
which even ten years ago II was thought
they had captured permanently. 1t is much
more difficult for a woman to find a posi-
ton to-day than Ii was a few years ago,
There seems also to be a decline I'm the
wish TO find employment. The next phase
Of the movement is still below the horizon,