Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1910-09-30
THE BUSINESS GIRL IS IS
THE THING MONDAYS
Even the Most Old Fashioned
Notions About the Seclusion
of Women Are Vanishing.

so long as q patient fanny proNlueI
could keep the wolf from the door. 1t
was better to suffer privations n lead
a starved and discontinued existence
than to disgrace the family as an in
dependent wage Garner. Middle class
people of limited means made many
sacrifices to the ideal of responsibility
which demanded that a woman should
be sheltered from contact with the
world and perform her work only in
her own home. The notion was merely
a convention, not n deep seated racial
reverence for woman and an instructive
desire TO protect her from hardshipS,
because nobody cared how hard she
labored at home, nor what comforts
she lie without.
But we have changed all that. Wom-
Ell who wouldn't exactly StarVe to
death il they didn't are working. The
business colleges are turning out thou
sands of young women. driven not so
much by individual necessity as by the
spirit of the times, which recognizes 81
woman's right to economic indepen-
dence, to do the work of her choice
and receive the remuneration 1t COM
mands.
Stenography is now the leading oc-
cupatiOn OF wage earning women. There
are about 10000 woman stenographers
IN htISdS lily. u NOullS NOIIldu w IlO
has no particular talent, no money. for
expensive special training, but some ed
ucation. the ability to spell and pune
tuate and compose an Ineligible letter,
who has common sense and the desire
40 make herself useful, can't do bet
ter than to take up ste~nography. 1t Is
her one best bet. 1t opens the door
TO more opportunities in a business
way than any other occupation she
could follow. In spite Of the number
Of women stenOgraphers the demand
for good ones is always in excess of
the supply and it remains one of the
best occupations Of M
A st~cnOgrapher is like a cook in this
respect; she car always get a job. A
woman with the rowing foot can't do
better than to learn s~tenography n
typewriting. She can roam this CONT
nent and take her business with her.
1t requires not a cent of capital and If
she is a competent s~tenOgrapher
she can find a position at a living wage
In any city where the English language
is spoken within "a hours Of her arrival
there. This is not to say that the roll
ing stone will gather more moss, in
these circumstances, than in others.
She might do better. financially, if she
stuck to n position. But this IS n
Df the advantages of the occupation to
n woman of that temperament. The
working woman who likes to travel
finds it difficult to get both the time
and the money. Having lived comfort
ably only the most successful wage
earning women can save for travel.
The usual yearly vacation is two weeks,
which will not allow much globe trOt-
ting. Teachers are the only exception
and the trouble for them is that their
salary stops when their vacation time
begins. K
DE- - ooo1 stoporr,rbar ,,o1, nitob
ger tent first in this city hen in that;
stay on the job as long as she likes and
move III, assured Of q position in IL
city of any size. She can live in New
York one winter, in San Francisco the
next and in New Orleans the neXt. She
can take the civil service examination
n go to the Philippines. Honolulu,
Cuba or Panama. There are opportu-
mites for employment for her in Mexi-
co, in Canada, in Central and South
America, in Alaska, wherever English
or American capital has planted a
typewriter in the wilderness.
Education Now Is Essential.
1T is sometimes said that the schools
are turning out too many ~stenogra-
piers" said a man who is at the hea
Vt a Kansas City business college, but
We have more demands for ~stenogra-
pliers than we can supply. A good
stenographer is sure of employment.
We encourage only girls of high school
education to take up the study OF type
writing and stenOgraphy. A grade
school education is a necessity. We
don't accept pupils with less education
al equipment, Nevertheless some
schools do, and the result is little short
of tragic. Illiterate girls are persuaded
TO pay money they have skimped and
saved for a course in stenography.
They will never make ste~nographers
md tlAHr rArfnfn fnfl,,ro &C. n I;+A1 Z
appointment.
The better the education the better
the s~tenographer, of course. Half our
applications nowadays from business
men and firms who want stenographers
stipulate a high school graduate Lots
OF the high schools, young women's
academies and colleges are introducing
a business course. 1t is the right idea
and shows that they are abreast of the
times. We nave many boarding school
graduates among our pupils. We have
many girls come to us for business
training whose parents have the old
fashioned idea that for a woman to
work is. somehow, q disgrace to the
family n therefore oppose their en-
tering upon II business career. For
~tunately the girls are more sensible.
They have looked around them, seen
the respect in which working women
are held, and the freedom and indie
penuenCe tney ENJOY, oDJecl 10 likeness
without the opportunities OF wealth. or
resent the idea OF their parents making
sacrifices to support them in a position
they really can afford, and insist on
going to work. We are often impor-
ruined by girls who want to take a bust
ness course to persuade their parents to
give their consent to their daughters
becoming independent wage earners.
ITO us who know business women,
the men they work for and the offices
they work in, the perfectly wholesome
environment OF their useful. contented
lives, the absolute safety and respecta-
bility of their position, such old-fash-
toned, maudlin ~prejudices seem ridicu-
lous.
Have women lost anything in wom-
anliness through their invasion OF the
Industrial world? If you think so, o
will find nobody who knows the bust
mes woman as she Is. who will agree
with you. Women ave been vastly inn
proved by business life. They are
broader. more capable, more sympa-
thetic. more appreciative and certainly
more intelligent and practical than the
average stay-at-home m
"Stenographers are well paid In COM
IL - AfAnr n., =