The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-07-06
Copyright by the American Examin-


ern evolution Of woman is to be found
in her yearning to disport herself in
masculine fields. and her contempt for
her own province.
All of woman's envy is of men. All
of her ambition Is to do like men.
Most of her progress has been along
masuline lines. There are more good
business women than there are good
cooks.
Women exalt everything mascu-
| line, and deprecate everything femi-
nine. They act as if their sex was a
disgrace as we'll as handicap.
If given a choice between a good
husband and career, the majority
| of girls would unhesitatingly choose
| the career.
The women that other women
| glorify is not the good housekeeper
and the good wife and mother, but
| the woman who has explored Darkest
Africa, or struck gold in the Klon-
dixie, or runs a big factory, or does
something else that has heretofore
| been done by men only.
If you want to fiatter woman
writer, you can bunch all possible
compliments into one by telling her
| that she has virile style.
If you want to please the woman
musician, you've only to say that she
| has a masculine touch.
When a woman thinks about choos-
| ing some occupation at which to make
a living, she picks out the most man.
nish job within her range of vision.
This admiration and envy of mas
culine perogatives and perquisites
amounts to almost a feminine mania
and ii explains as nothing else does
why womans progress is SO slow.
She is not developing along the
| lines of least resistance. but she is
| fighting all the obstacles that nature
and sex. as we'll as circumstances
have put in her path.
| 1t is strange thing that women
have never seemed to grasp the fact
that there is a necessity for diversity
| of labor, and that the world needs wo-
| mans work just as much as 1T needs
| mans and the more feminine II is the
better II is.
A woman, trying to do a mans
| work, in a mans way, is always more
or less a failure, but when she puts
| her sex into it, and does woman 8
work in a womans way she gives it
value.
| On their own ground, men can al
| ways excel women, and women are
| foolish to compete with them, instead
| of sticking to their own particular
| line 1t takes a course in physical
instruction and higher mathematics
to enable a woman to throw a rock
as straight as little freckled-face
street garmin does by intuition. but
when it comes to putting I'm pin
| so that it will hold things together.
and not stick into a vital part of ones
anatomy, any girl child can DO what
an Edison or a Santos Dumont cannot
do.
A woman writer, attempting to
write from a mans point of view. is
| indulging in a series of guesses, but
| she becomes convincing when she In
| terpretS for us the essentially feminine
the inner thoughts and emotions of
woman's heart. and the things of the
world as they look to a Womans eyes.
The same thing is true of all art
The best pictures that women have
painted are those which express some
subtle feminine quality. too Elusive,
and intangible for a man to have
grasped. The best actresses are those
whose portrayals of character are most
markedly saturated with their sex. and
this is true whether it is the fierce
tigress fury of q Sarah Bernhardt, the
coquetry of a Julia Marbwe or the
airy grace of girlhood of Maude
Adams. They are greatest when they
are most womanly.
1t is, of course easy to see why
women have envied men. and have
has been because men have been sue
cessful. Men have been the money
makers. Men have ruled the world
and So women who needed to make
money and wanted to have some in
fluence, have felt that this was only
to be achieved by initiating those who
had already arrived.
Hence women have crowded into all
sorts of masculine occupations while
no mi I,ac ut
neglected. This is most unfortunate
for the man worker and the woman
worker. 1t is a great waste, because
| 1t forces women to throw away an
Inherited aptitude for certain
branches of labor that has come down
to them through countless genera
tons of their foremothers 1t is a
great financial mistake, because wo-
men are never SO successful as when
they stick to woman'S work
The financial independence of wo-
man, and the industrial emancipation
OF woman is one of the movements
that Will go forward instead of back
ward. 1t has come to stay No Wo-
man who has known the joy of owning
her own pocket-book is ever going to
give it up. and so the question of
where she shall work becomes a most
important one.
Let us consider some OF the femin-
me industries, and see what womans
chance of success is in them.
The foolish ambition of women to
do mems work instead of women's
work, is never so banefully Illustrated
as in the matters that pertain espe-
cially to their own sex
There is no greater misfortune to
civilization than that the best femi-
nine brains. and the greatest femi-
nine efforts. should be devoted to solv-
ing mems problems instead Of wo-
mems for if the vital questions that
affect women are ever settled they
must be settled by women, for wo-
men.
The moment, however, woman
feels in herself the talent and the
ability to do things. she sets about
laboring in mans vineyard instead
| of her own. Thus the tide Of femi-
nine intelligence that ought to turn
the wheels of progress in woman s
| own peculiar sphere is diverted to
another course. and while woman's
advancement along masculine lines
has been marvellous. woman's advance
| ment along feminine lines has been
| almost nil.