The Saint Paul globe., 1904-05-10
WORK FOR WOMEN
A WOMAN WRITER SAYS HER SEX
HAS FAILED
Women Demand Equality With Men
and Then Fall Back on the Fact of
Their Sex to Save Them From Hard
Work.

In the North American Review for
May, Flora Mcdonald Thompson writes
in anything but a cheerful vein of
women in the Industrial world. The
woman who works in any line will
sigh when she reads this array Of cold
facts as to why her sex is failure in
business. OF course 1t goes without
saying that all women are not failures
in business, but the writer of this
gloomy TRADE thinks that the few ex
ceptions where women have been able
to rise above the handicap Of sex, have
proved the general rule of failure.
She does not believe-and who does
that women should claim special i'm
munity from the rules that bind men
workers, because of their sex, and yet
she claims that they trade upon being
women all the time claiming equality
with their brothers. Alas, this is pain
fully and unpleasantly true and is the
great weakness of the very women who
are loudest in their protests of being
Disseminated against in suffrage and
other matters. The writer says that in
factories and other places where they
are employed, women are constantly
complaining that they are not allowed
to receive visitors or that the men
illtreat them. One reason of their
failure in industry, according to this
writer, is that most women work pend
ing marriage. Few of them expect to
make their occupation life work. The
result Of this is inferior work half
heartedly done. She says they claim
all the advantages of working shoulder
to shoulder with men, and yet do not
care to bear the same burdens under
like conditions. This Is a severe ar
raignment Of women workers and some
of the charges are all too true. About
the only answer to be made Is that the
writer has made her statements too
general and has left out of account evt-
IDENTIFY the stern necessity which often
exists for the presence of women in
factories and shops. The writer we
have been considering, thinks that men
are too often displaced by women and
the effect of a wifes working is de-
moralizing on her husband. She says
nothing, however of the worthless men
whose actual souls and bodies are kept
together by a Woodworking woman,
who becomes tired of the hand to-
mouth SUPPORT given her by an incom-
petent man. She seems to ignore the
question of necessity for work entirely.
How many women prefer standing
wearily all day behind counter to re-
manning at home and attending to the
duties which are natural to women
Not one in a. hundred There is now
and then woman who. is not do
mestic in her tastes and who likes the
little excitement about a store or fac
tory, prefers it indeed to the humdrum
of home. But these women are rare
The great bulk of women, working OF
doing nothing, are normal, not alb
normal. They work because they have
to, and when they support the men OF
the family it is because the latter have
proved incapable of the task.
The chief charges which this woman
makes against her sisters are: taking
the places of men, doing poorer work
and expecting the same wage, and la
boring with the constant hope that they
may be able to marry and leave the
factory. Physically, she believes that
hard work impairs woman and makes
her unfit to bear her natural burdens,
all very terrible charges, but the ques-
ton is, how are these things to be
changed and what is the remedy? No
hint of remedy is offered by the
writer. 1t might not be inapt to sug-
gest that men should improve, and
where they are heads of families, in
sist upon their daughters remaining al
home until they are married. Where a
girl who has a home works in a factory
or shop it is often that she may wear
better clothes than her father can af-
ford to buy her. The remedy of the
whole matter lies in the hands of men.