The Washington herald., 1912-06-29
By FRANCES sHAFFER.

One believes II Is true that the aver
age woman Grows weary of the strenu'
ouEness Of business life earlier than does
q man. and IT is not all q matter Of ply
sical endurance or OF liking for the work
There are a great many eontributory
reasons, and It is hard to tell which
counts the heaviest Of all
Maybe uature did her part in making
It very attractive to most women TO live
and work right at home. We are told
that women were never intended for the
hustle and turmoil of strenuous COM
petition. in the world OF big enterprises
where the survival OF the fttest is the
keynote on every hand. and where the
weak early succumb in the struggle
Possibly they were not, but something
went wrong in the apportionment Of
things, and they are out, working In
large numbers, registering successes and
failures in places high up and in labors
away down. They do grow weary and
their thoughts turn homeward rather
longingly, away from the noise, the COM
petition and the stress Of it all.
But there are other influences at work.
too.
Men Expected to Remain.
One expects a man TO remain in work
ing harness all his life, and except in
rare instances retirement comes only
when IL must From the very start while
yet a boy, unprepared for anything seri-
Gus, still at books and play, he gets the
notion we'll in mind that his aim in life
is work, his sphere the big outside world.
And he soon learns that the better he
can achieve there, the more honor and
wealth he can accumulate, the bigger
man he will be. Soon his attitude grows
TO ft that Of his world, and by the time
he has reached mans estate he is ready
and anxious to take his place. His
father and his fathers friends never
think Of retirement from business activi-
ties They losa the fresh bouyancy of
younger days, their hair whitens and
they are plainly on the downward scale,
but everybody expects them to stay in
their world. because home Is no place for
men until the tide OF physical strength
has ses well against them.
And It is matter of pride TO see
the years roll by the age-marks come
and still to live and work at their busi-
ness-post almost as effectively as in the
early flush Of manhood.
But with a woman IL is quite different.
Her world does not expect her to turn
TO the great pursuits Of business unless
there is need for it. 1t. first OF all.
expects her to marry and help in the
making Of a home; ans 50, from the
time Of early girlhood, she hears more
about dress than her future career, more
Of her obligations as a prospective hos
tess than OF her duties as q coming
business-woman.
Her mother and her mothers friends
are in the home, and many Of them
assure her. early and late, that she Is
predestined for work right there; that
there her heart and her interests be-
long and that the great outside world
is for men alone. They tell her, at
best, It is only a stepping-stone to her
ultimate mission In life and at worst
a business life viii steal from her the
woms nliness which is her bIrthright.
And unless the idea somehow crowds
itself into her consciousness, without any
assistance from her world, she rarely
thinks OF business life as stretching
over all her years OF activity, because