The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-02-21
The Woman Without a Home
Problem OF Destuton That Faces the Independent
WorkerWhat is the Solution



ing for the Independent woman who
desires to win her own way in the
world. What Is to become of her
when she is Obliged to step aside be-
cause of age and through her inde-
pendence has lost her foothold in
some home? Woman, as a sex, has
been working long enough now to
bring this question to the front. Mrs.
Gabrielle Stewart Mulliner, lawyer.
of this city, has discovered in her
practice that there is such problem
here, and she is trying to find some
solution that she can offer to those
who find themselves face to face with
it.
'In the evolution of the woman
question, which was started when
education was first permitted to
women, and the early colleges and
schools were opened to them to give
some outlook beyond their domestic
duties," said she, there have been
many unexpected and interesting de-
velopments. One that is only now
making itself apparent is the dis
posal of the Independent women
wage earners who find themselves
after life of independence pushed
aside for other and younger women
and without the means Of making a
livelihood.
"In my own acquaintance there
are about one hundred such women
who are the natural outcome of the
breaking up OF the home in which in
the last generation there was CEN
ire about which revolved sisters,
daughters, aunts, cousins or other re-
lations who earned their living by
being useful In the home making,
and who had a distinct and valued
place in the economics of the house.
In those days a man was expected to
have home and to support the wom-
en- in 1t. He probably thought that
he did actually support any addi-
tional member Of the family who, for
her board and lodging, was like a
second mother to the children and
did share of the housework other
wise apportioned to servants.
when, however, the woman rela-
tion started out to earn dollars and to
pay her board the servant girl ques-
tion became aggressive, for the rea-
son, think, that paid servant could
not fill the place made vacant by the
willing relative. And that meant in
many instances the breaking up of
the home life and the moving into
small apartments.
From the standpoint of the wom-
an relative 1t looked very much
brighter, 1 have no doubt, for time.
She learned all the various profess
sions and trades, and earned enough
to pay her board In house where she
had no care. She was free and in
dependent, and that was good SO long
as it lasted. We have only now be-
gun to see what the next turn of the
wheel will bring, as the system OF in
dependent life for women is only now
rounding up.
THE women of independence,
whether in trade or profession, have
been free lances just long enough to
grow old, and by scores they are ar
irving at the time when the next
generation is coming on to take their
places. They find themselves dis
missed from their places because they
are not so active as they were, or be-
cause new methods are learned by
the newer employees, or because they
are not as attractive to look upon as
the younger women, or because they
/ show signs of tire or inactivity, or
nerves. or because of other reasons.
The reasons may or may not be arbi-
trary, but the fact remains that the
older women are forced out of their
| positions. And when, with their
small savings, they set about to find
other work they discover that they
are not wanted.
I'm a short time their carvings
dwindle and they find themselves
without the ability to pay the weekly
demand for board. They are asked
to leave to make way for better pay
ing boarders, and before they realize
quite what has happened they are ac-
tually beggars. All the ignis fatuus
of independence. of freedom from
home ties, of ability to buy ready
made dresses and restaurant food
comes to nothing in the face of the
actual result of the system which not
only allows women to be pushed into
the world, but forces them in.
Il have seen this tragedy enacted
so frequently in the last year or two
that it ceases to be individual, but
rather a class distinction.
THE appalling thing about It is
that it faces every woman who has
not her established home connections,
where there is a breadwinner making
1t possible for her to earn her living
by domestic arts, where she Is not
subject to dismissal or the whim of
some one higher up. The most inde-
| pendent woman who is earning her
own living by her own efforts is com
ing to the same crossroad, and Will
find that she is not able to earn her
living in competition with the
younger women, and that unless she
marries and makes a home OF her
own, or forms a family connection
with some other persons home, in
which she makes herself good other
than by paying board, she will also
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