The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-07-06
SOME FOOLISH AMBITIONS OF WOMEN
BY DOROTHY DIX

this profession, yet those who talk OF
women $ advancement will not point
you 10 the home as an Illustration Of
It.
The home is no better kept, # Is
no more economically or scientifically
managed than it was fifty years ago.
! women nave learned nothing further
OF the art of getting along peacefully
With their husbands, as is proved by
the increase in divorce, while the mod
ern child that is taught neither ODE
dfence, Difference to age. nor respect
TOR the rights of others, is incompara-
bly, the worst raised child in the entire
history of the world.
Why do women who can do the
work OF the world so well, do their
own work SO badly?
1t is because women have no re-
spect for their own work, and no
ambition TO succeed in it. Whenever
you can make woman realize that
there is just as much credit and glory
in IL, and that it requires just as much
executive ability to manage a house
and servants so that everything goes
along smoothly and without bitches as
settle the servant problem because
it does TO manage a department in
store, we shall have women who will
they will bring their intelligence to
bear upon il.
Whenever you can make women
understand that it is worth while to
study a husbands peculiarities and
try as hard TO avoid rubbing him
the wrong way as if he were her en-
ployer, we shall hear no more of the
domestic Spat, for the woman will
think it worth while to use the Same
tact and diplomacy in getting along
with her husband that she does in
getting along with her boss.
Whenever women put in as much
good hard thought on trying TO make
their own children behave as they
do on their abstract study of the
prevention Of crime. we shall see the
infant reign of terror that makes
it impossible for people with children
to get admission into hotels and de-
partment houses abolished.
When women want to do things
we'll. they do them well. They are
good clerks, good writer's. good bust
ness women. because their ambitions
are involved, and they are poor house
keepers. poor wives poor mothers be
cause they are not anxious or ambi
tlous to succeed in those lines.
1t is the strangest possible miscon-
ception of the relative value of things,
because there is no other occupation
that is so Well worth doing to the
best OF ones ability, nothing else that
brings in such enormous dividends in
happiness as to create a beautiful and
restful home, to make a man happy
and contented, and to raise up chill
d zen that AZ an honor and a credit
to one.
But women do not take this view of
the matter. Their ambition is to do
something like a man. Their envy is
of the woman who is doing a mans
work, and a queer side light is thrown
upon the contempt with which domes-
| tic labor is regarded by the fact that
they do not even call it work" When
women speak Of that feminine fetch
the working Woman-they invariably
refer TO one who follows some trade
or occupation outside of her home,
not the one who tolls eighteen hours
day within il.
Nothing women can do in the out
side world of labor-not even though
they should become as great financiers
as Mr.. Rockefeller, or as great in
ventors as Edison, or as great mer-
chants as Mr.. anamaker-compare
i'm Importance with what they can do
for the world if they become great
home makers, great wives and great
mothers.
1t is a platitude TO say that the we'll
DtliIB oil All humanity lies III the nanuS
of the woman who makes the home.
There can be no health unless the
home is clean and sanitary, and its
table supplied with nourishing and
wholesome food.
There can be no wealth and no pros
perity unless a woman knows how to
judiciously administer the affairs of
the house. There can be no happiness
for man unless he finds peace and
content in his home and love and
tenderness in his wife, and there can
be no virtue and morality in a COM
munity unless a mother instills the
precepts of right living in her chill
dren, and teaches them high ideals
and self-control.
There are many things that man can
do but one of the things that he
cannot DO is to make a home. and
bring up children properly. This is
woman's part in the division of labor
and the most momentous question of
our day is how to turn her from her
false ambitions to do mans work, and
to induce her to devote her talents,
her ability, and her energy to doing
her own work better.
DOROTHY DIX