Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-17


and will find other occupations.
Emerson well said: Every man 70 a.
lazy a. he dares to be-" He meant every
woman. also. The very powerful Impulse
that Is acting upon the woman. bred to
idleness and genteel inertia. IL found In the
passion for independence and the passion
men to work that they may be free and
may have the luxuriea and comforts which
must be earned. These two passions impel
men to refuse to burden themselves with
the dead weight OF the support Of idle, In
competent women.
Men Also DISPLAYING Women.
Thus We have a social organization which
Is In process OF revolutionary change. The
women are rapidly going to work at occu-
pations which have been transferred from
the domestic to the general sphere, and At
the occupations. new and old. which 1t was
expected few years ago would be in pos
session OF the men only. The men, on their
part are not only working a. formerly,
but also entering occupations once followed
exclusively by the women. Some OF the
new employments Of women have already
been enumerated. The new employments
Of men in this country include laundry
work. cooking, general housework, nursing.
keeping boarding houses. teaching pri-
mary and kindergarten pupils, dressmaking,
millinery and sewing. The list Is far
shorter and from the old viewpoint where
was derived, seems far less digntfed than
the women's list The reason for this u.s. of
course: that the men had small room to
expand their already multiform activities.
while the women had all the room In the
world.
The underlying principle Of this redistri-
button Of activities Is the common sense
principle that every unit in a society should
do the work at hand for which it IL best
fitted. This principle explains every case.
Where we find a man busting. scrubbing.
nd nd dol Ian dry 10
because he could find nothing more remu-
nerative to do and could outbid the women
applying for that particular task. Wher-
ever We find woman plaStering. or keep
Ing books, or driving a street car, or man.
aging a store or corporation, 1t Is for the
same reason. And this modern principle
wholly ignores sex and looks only at the
work to be done and the comparative skill
Of the male and female applicants for 1t.
1t is not prophecy to say that. as moro
and more millions Of women enter the in
divisions, these INSCRIPTIONS of some occu-
pations by women and Of other occupations
by men. will go on apace. We may not
like it: but We can no more stop 1t than We
ment OF woman, or the use Of steam and
electricity.
Better Equipped Than Men.
Fully to grasp what is even now in sight
as to the future one must consider the
rapidity with which women are educating
themselves. There is evidence Of this from
the statistics of colleges-aiready one wo-
man college graduate to every three men.
But that is not all. In higher education In
any proper sense must be included the
thousands Of high schools. There We find
the women outnumbering the men four and
five and six to one. These are most con-
sentative proportions. This means that in
civilization where education counts heav
ia~ haoxy inrn ir,Itr rtn1 nofn fh.A
women are equipping themselves better
than the men. And as our civilization de-
velops along its now clearly defined lines.
as the Importance OF coarse labor and even
Of skilled manual labor declines, the
higher wages go ever more and more to
those who can minister to what were once
regarded as luxuries and extrayagances,
will not the women inevitably assume an
ever more important position2 Will not the
men be harder and harder put to 1t to main
tain their ground? They may retain the
most Of the few originating and directing
positions; but how can they prevent the wo-
men from dividing with them the positions
where the intelligent execution of plans and
purposes formed by others is all that Is re-
| CURED? Does not woman's intelligent
ceptiveness of ideas peculiarly fit her to
excel In such work?
The great advantage the men have had
thus far in this country has been not their
superior strength or skill or faithfulness or
industry, but that woman has worked mere
ly as temporary expedient. She has ten
aciously assumed that she would presently
quit work" and be supported by some man.
This dream has been largely fanciful The
woman, married. has too often found that
she has not stopped working, but has under
taken far more laborious and ever grudg-
ingly paid occupation. But her Indulgence
In this dream has not only made her wages
smaller-wlho will not pay more to a work
er who expects to go on working than a
worker who expects presently to quit and Ia
meanwhile giving at least half the energy
fhcf Of tOI,i
husband? Indulgence In this dream has
also prevented woman from cultiyating am
blt1on-why struggle to rise in an occupa-
ton which one hopes and intends presently
to abandon for another that is wholly diff
ferent?
Astonishing Changes in the Future. -
We have an astounding increase in the
| number of divorces We have the increas-
ing frequency of families where both the
husband and the wife work. contributing
to the family income We have more and
more families where the woman's earn
ings are larger than the mans. We have
the familiar reStlessness OF woman as she
views her own condition and compares 1t
with mans Are not these unmista TAXA BILE
evidences Of a coming race Of women who
will have the same ambitions for careers.
for getting on. for Industrial and social
independence that men can haye2
To be prepared for astonishing changes
and developments In the relations Of men
and women to each other and to the social
organization, which is ever moro a purely
| industrial organization. one has only to
compare half a century ago with today, the
time when our mothers and fathers were
! young, with this generation Of ours. Then.
| the woman who showed herself in any de-
| partment of life not Immediately related to
I the household was looked on as suspicious
character, If there was any reason or ex-
cuse for thinking she might have remained
In seclusion without starving. A girl was
the close-kept ward of her parents until
she was married. A married woman was,
to the legal phrase. in the condition
where husband and wife are one, and that
one is the husband Woman worked as hard
as she does now probably much harder SO
far as physical toll Is concerned, but she
was 1.-THE great unpaid laborer Of the
world" Today all one has to do to find out
woman's Industrial position Is to glance
about him as he walks the busy streets and
goes in and out of the bee-hives Of any
American city or town.
There will be irritation and suffering, loud
outcry, fierce protest, while the new order
| is establishing. Change always means dis
comfort. But In the end, since work Is the
secret of human content and since work at
fitting, time-f1lling occupation with a
f,,t,,ro in # Ia the secret of human haDpi-