The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-09-03
A woMAN,s POINT OF VIEW.

A WOAIAN'S POINT OF VIEW.
A big roar has risen from the sociolo-
gists who have visions whenever they
are reminded of the feminine invasion
Of the industrial world on account of a
recent list of occupations followed by
American women published by Mrs.
Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman in a
recent edition of her magazine, the
Woman's World. Mrs. Gilman points
with pride and her opponents view
with alarm and all because it is found
that there are in the United States
women who follow the business of I'M
dertaker, butcher, blacksmith, car
penter and other trades not commonly
regarded as exactly Womanly. Mrs.
Gilman shouts Hallelujan at this evil
dence of the emancipation of her sex
from the cookstove and the cradle and
declares that the woman cause is
marching on. But many editorials and
magazine articles are being written in
opposition to her view and it has been
learned that Henry Thurston Peck
doesn't like it a bit. What" growls
the Tyrant Man from behind his news
paper, lis the matter with you women?
In what way is the business of 6
| butcher or an undertaken superior to
the oId-fashioned duties for which ma
ture intended woman?"
| To this Mrs. Gilman and Mrs. Carrie
Chapman Gait reply that women did
not abandon the "old-fasnioned duties"
but that their work was taken from
them by the evolution of industrialism
and that when they could no longer
i bake, brew, spin and weave at home it
was impossible for them, workers since
the beginning of time, to sit idle at
home, so they followed their old labors
to the factories, mills and shops. The
| result, they declare, will be the final
complete a abandonment by women Of
| the domestic career and their admis-
sion on equal terms with men to every
profession. business and trade under
the sun, a better class of women and
d better class of men in every rank of
life and the wiping out of many social
evils The opponents of this theory say,
on the contrary. that the Home is be-
ing destroyed, the race allowed to die
out, that women as a sex are losing
their charms and virtues, that men as
sex are suffering a corresponding de-
terioration, that wages are being low
cred and economic conditions are grow
ing more and more alarming and that
you can't shy a stone without hitting
a Lady Stenographer.
But, without entering into the contro
versy as to the effects of these con0i-
| lions, whose fault are they? The New
Women say the men started it when
they invented machines which did the
work of a hundred women, built fac
tories and mills, effected trade com
binations and the Capitalization of in
dustries and destroyed woman's inn
portant and dignified position in the
home. The men say it is all women's
fault and to be traced directly to her
vanity. She will have silk petticoats
and bows in her hair and isn't satisfied
with the clothes her father or husband
can buy her so goes out to work in
SHOP or factory OF office for SIS a week
which, as every one knows is sufficient
to dress any woman magnificently. In
support of this theory too. notice how
magnificently working women do dress
ana in what ease and luxury they live,
going to their place of business not
later than o'clock in the morning and
quitting when work is called on ac-
count of darkness" as George AIDE
would say, and having nothing to do
all the evening but wash their hair,
make their shirt waists, put neE bind
ings on their skirts and amuse them
selves. No wonder they refuse to ex-
change such a situation for the slavery
of keeping house for two in a steam
heated fiat with hot and cold water and
janitor service, laundry put out and
bread sent in from the Ladies' Ex-
changei
You have heard a great many
times that marriage is on the decrease
and the old maid age limit has been
raised to thirty-five, because well to
do women whose fathers are able to
support them in comfort have refused
to marry, taken positions and lowered
wages so that the average man is not
able to support a wife in the style
to which her job as clerk, or stenog-
rapher or factory girl at from three
to twelve dollars a week has accus-
toned her. But as a matter of fact,
how many rich girls do you know
who work for wages? How many
working women do you know who
haven't some one besides themselves
dependent upon their earnings? How
many proposals of marriage have you
known to be turned down by girls
because they preferred earning their
own car fare to holding their hus-
bands up for it? Indeed, don't you
know any number of women who are