Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1904-11-10

longer thought fit for the work Why
Nothing seems to have altered unless
Ii is the size of the operations"
| And nearly all will agree
that "men are doing women's
week." Hear this: "Our argument is
further reinforced by the observation
that, while women have been invading
the fields of labor outside Of the home,
men have been invading the fields
heretofore sacred to the women of the
house. Men now run our laundries,
| cook our breakfast cereals, bring our
groceries to the door, bake our bread
wholesale, dress our meats, grind our
grains, paper our wallis paint our wood
work do our housekeeping and sweep
ing by means of compressed air, run
our furnaces, supply us with electricity,
fetch water to our doors, and make
themselves pretty useful generally.
But we want more. We want them to
take up the problem of dish washing,
and come into council with us on the
servant girl question. And, recogniz-
ing. as we do from our hearts, that we
can not carry on the house and the
family all alone, although it is suppos-
ed to be our peculiar sphere, it natur-
ally occurs to US that what is usually
supposed to be mans peculiar sphere
may likewise be suffering for lack Of
u.s."
We must assume that the writer of
the above, seriously utters these words.
One can go farther and admit she
speaks the real sentiments Of her sex,
and that they do want more" She
wants man ito take up the problem of
dish washing" and Council with us on
the servant girl question" And in this
claim she sees nothing homogeneous and
worse still, the average man, the faith
ers and husbands of today are about
converted to the idea that men not only
do all of the things mentioned above,
but the times and age in which we
live, have made it possible for the
modern housewife to keep house with
out doing any homework. And strange
it is, that the women OF today fail to
realize that just this condition OF at
fairs is, the one reason why so many
young women today, instead of being
wives and mothers, are putting In the
best part of their lives working for
the lowest of wages. in factories, stores
offices, and the thousand other occu-
pations now open to women. Young
men today, this referring more partic-
uIarly to town life, hesitate to marry
a young woman accustomed in her
home family life, to having "men do
the washing, men to cook breakfast
food, men to bring the groceries. bake
the bread, dress the meats, clean the
NV pnrroaSa1 air
the furnaces, and make themselves
generally useful" And the young man
of today knows too, 1--WE want more"
The young man of today knows that
all of these things cost money. More
money than at present he is capable
of earning.
And here is another very bad feat
ure of this "men's work" In the nome.
If with this relief from 1.-THE drudgery
Of house keeping" other home occupa-
lions took it's place, 1t would not be so
bad. But today, even the moderat-
ely we'll to do woman, finds 1T cheaper
not only to have her own clothes made
to order, but she can and does puy
everything her children wear. Mems
work" not only provides food for her
children, but "men's work" clothes
them. This from the instant they en-
ter the world till they leave the par
entail roof. But there was chance
up till within few years for woman
to act as a teacher at home for her
little ones. Now she is even denied
this privilege. The nurse girl has
charge of her children's education for
the first three years; then the kinder
garten teacher succeeds the nurse girl;
then the public school. the college, the
convent or the university In rapid
succession. Think what all of this
means. man in moderate circum-
stances can have a home and raise a
family. and be almost Independent of
his wife. Is such condition of AFT
fairs one that is desirable? Put In
another way Does such a lack of de-
pendence ON the mother and the wife
appreciation of the wife Of the
mother?
This lack of home occupation for
our wives and daughters shows itself
in many ways. Nowadays 1t is Moth
ing uncommon for q woman to belong
to enough women clubs to occupy eV-
cry afternoon on week days. 1t is not
unusual for a woman, a housewife, to
play cards four or five afternoons each
week. And with such amusement to
also Ego OUT to the theatre, or some
club dance as many evenings during
the same period. Perhaps the house.
wife has more serious cast of mind.
Then it takes the form of reading,
clubs, lectures on art, "home travel So
cieties," musical gatherings, etc. The
fact remains, "mens work" to do the
houseworlS leaving her free afternoons
and evenings. That such state of
a ffairs results in trend of Thought
impossible In the feminine mind few
wears ago is forcibly shown in the
closing paragraph of "a defense of
women workers."