The Washington herald., 1912-08-28
BY JULIA CHANDLER MANz.

man interested In the business and
| home life of women has written me a
letter which in length and number Of
interrogations reminds one of a church
| catechism. but simmered down TO hard
tacks the thing he most wants to know
| is my opinion of wage earning women
| and their fitness for home life. wife,
hood, and motherhood.
DO you believe long period Of years
spent successfully in business tends to
make a woman a better wife and moth
er?' he asks at the end Of category
leading up to this question.
Put in the exact phraseology OF the
question quoted, my observation would
| force me to give a negative answer.
I do not believe that the woman .who
has spent long years in a successful
business is fitted for wifehood and
motherhood.
As startling as this statement may
sound 1t does not dsparage the great
army of American girls and whomen
who earn their own liveliehood. In fact.
1t applies to few of them, for one would
not refer to the department store clerk,
the girl who spends a few years in Of
flee as stenographer. secretary, or in
some similar position, "a woman who
has spent long years successfully In
business"
Benefited by Business Experience.
The girl who is not needed at home
may spend a few years in the CONNER
cial world without affecting her ability
TO become n good wife and mother. The
fact of the matter. As pointed out TO
me by my observation, is that a girl is
benefited by few years in the business
world before she enters upon her life
business of home-making. She comes in
contact with able men. learns how to
look at the world from the masculine
angle, finds out the byways and high |
ways of a mans life outside OF his |
home, so that when she accepts some |
chaps proposal to become his wife she |
enters the state of matrimony with a |
keener understanding OF the amount OF
labor required on his part to supply the |
money with which the home is run, and |
is not SO liable to spend extravagantly |
as is the girl who has had no contact \
with business and knows in consequence |
little of the value of a dollar.
was only this summer that busi- |
ness woman declared to me that no |
woman appreciates the value of dollar |
until she has earned a few for herself, |
and I believe this statement is true
In addition to this short period in |
business rubs off a few of the ragged |
edges of sensitiveness which usually |
makes SO much trouble during the first
year of a girls married life.
Give Her Broader Outlook.
Contact with men in a business way /
gives her a broader outlook; a clearer |
vision of proportionate values in life: a |
more perfect understanding of men and |
keener appreciation of their work. Know |
ing something of the business world goes
a long way toward fitting young wo- |
man for companionship in its highest |
sense and so broadens her understand |
ing of life and the conditions under which |
the human race struggles that she is bet |
ter equipped to guide and shield the |
little lives which God may in the future |
years give into her keeping.
But this is a. depression from the real |
point of the question propounded by my |
masculine reader who plainly designates |
long years spent successfully in busi-
ness"
This implies to the woman who has |
achieved a real success among men in !
their everyday business world; the |
woman who is either In business for her |
self. having acquired it through long /
years of work and ambition, or the pro-
fessionai woman who has won a foot
hold high up in the mountain of success.
Having given her energies, her enthu-
siasms, and her affiliations through many
years to a certain line of work a
woman's heart becomes SO rooted in that
work that she could not give it up with
out tearing at her very vitals-
Antagonistic Occupations.
Business life and domestic duties are
anita gonistic. The girl who chooses both
expecting to make any real success Of
either makes a tremendous mistake un-
less she has the strength of a Samson
and a will of iron. / have known cases
in which women have successfully
climbed in the business world while they
were rearing families, but they were the
exceptions which prove the rule. And
1 am not sure that have yet found one
such whom ! could call happy and
contented woman.
One day last week I met a young
woman whom I have known for a losg
time. She has worked through eight
years to a professional success which
means salary of from $500 to 5000
3 year. I had heard that she was en-
gagged to a s1.5oo a year government
clrek, and she confirmed the report.
When left her I began thinking over
her chances for happiness. and have
come to the conclusion that they are
few and far between. First of all, she
has given many of the best years of
her life to an altogether congenial work.
in which she has been entirely happy.
When she makes the shift from her
Office. where she has been for eight
years so engrossed in the game of
business, there is not one chance in a
that her whole being will not
yearn for the life which has been so
SO filled with action and
contact with clever and interesting peo-
pie.
Difficult to he Satisfied.
In comparison to the lure of a sue
cessful business or professional career
domestic duties are decidedly prosaic,
and it is difficult matter for the wom-
an who has drunk deep of the one to be
ga tisfied with the other.
/ have seen too many examples of the
stronger attraction of business life calling
the woman who has left it for domestic
duties back to the scene of her former
business operations. to the neglect OF the
newer and less active life. ,
In addition to this the woman who is ,