The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-07-12
Women in Business World.
BY PHlNEAs FLETCHER.

ceptible at first becomes at length ire sistible. Women, on the other hand, may be said to be immune against the great majority of these perils, the breakers upon which so many business careers are wrecked Her sex is a panoply against them Commercial pursuits does not emancipate her from the social code that enacts what she> may or may not do. 80 far sfrom that, they impose, If possible more rigorous observance of It's man. dates. The very independence she has assumed makes incumbent upon her greater circumspection than her sisters, whose paths lie within the metes and bounds of the purely domestic duties are compelled to observe. All this tends to develop strength and character without the loss of any feminine quality whatever. These qualities, thus acquired, command deference respect, admiration, the admi- ration that intellect invariably receives as a tribute due it. No wonder that in many departments of modern business, women are supplanting men and for their services obtaining equal financial compensation with them.
 Women are winning in business for the reason that they have prepared them- selves as thoroughly as they can for the work they undertake. When they seek employment in any line, I mean the se- rious, sensible women, they go not with a petition to be allowed to try. that they can learn and will do their best That sort of entreaty does not weigh with business men in these days, and women who mean to succeed know It. They go with proofs or credentials of some kind or another showing their capability. They present diplomas or certificates from institutions which prove the truth of their assertions. Rejection under circumstances of this character Is rare They get the chance, and ,as results show, the percentage of failure is small. Another thing in their favor is the specialization of business ev- anywhere at the present time. It goes without saying that there are many branches of it to which women are nat urally better adapted than men, and in which the training being equal, the wo- man must perforce be more successful than her brother. That is what is carry ing her onward to victory. The great captains of industry see and realize it. The conflicts of competition in which they are engaged require that the battle shall be fought out with the best instrument talities available, unless they desire to run the chance of defeat and ruin. In the old days the young woman of thirty who had not married saw dreary prospect before her. No matter what her ability was she could not find employment for it ex- cept along very contracted lines which starved out all the aspiration in her. For women of this class the new century is rapidly becoming a golden age It has place and opportunity, ample reward for them in nearly all the great activities of life. If the brains and the adequate prepa- ration are in evidence. No door is closed against woman No field whatever is ex- clusively occupied by man, at least 20 field whose possession Is worth having Those who deplore 1t all as a terrible rev. olution can never set backward the hands on the clock. Woman has come into bus mess to stay and to conquer.