The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-08-17

Changed pOSlClOn OF women ana Oy new
economic and social conditions which
the eighteenth-century educator could
not have foreseen.
The women who were denied liberal
education in the years preceding the
modern aWakenment were essentially
domestic To them, as Olive Schreiner
has pointed out, was given the task of
weaving the cloth and making the
clothes, Of brewing and baking, Of
cooking and mending and sometimes Of
laboring in the field. Even among
those Of the weather. class there was
work enough for the women in super
vising all the domestics, in nursing the
sick, in directing household affairs
There was little time for education, and
consequently there seemed little reason
for it.
But these times changed rapidly.
Inventions reduced household cares,
laborsaving devices minimized manual
exertion, woman's work in the home,
her natural sphere, was taken from
her. She ceased to make her husbands
clothes because he could buy them
better and cheaper at the clothiers She
ceased to brew and to bake because as
the community developed into the city
this could be done with less expense by
those who made it a speciality. The
result of all this was that by the
beginning Of the eighteenth century
woman's occupation was largely gone.
She could not occupy herself with the
work, and the thoughts which had
engrossed her for centuries. newt
ably she turned to books and devoted to
mental pursuits the time she had given
to manual labor in the home.
The Industrial Revolution.
Along with this came the great
economic changes which brought
woman into industry-change so great
and SO farreaching that their full effect
is not yet manifest. AS our population
increased, the difficulty of making a
living increased proportionately; our
standards of life improved enormously;
the expense Of caring for daughter
was doubled and redoubed. In such
circumstances even the proud Anglo
Saxon began to abandon the idea that
woman should work at home or not
at ALL Necessity overruled sentiment.
AS it happened, too, this came at a time
when the industrial revolution had
placed at our disposal tools and
machines which made it possible for
woman to do the work which had
previously taxed a man. Inevitably,
with a new supply of labor and with
new means of employing that labor
profitably, there was a tremendous
increase in the number of women
engaged in industry. First they left
the loom at home to work in the
factories-to cite an English case
then they found that they could
underbid male clerical labor and per-
form the service demanded Forthwith
there were thousands Of recruits to the
ranks of young girls employed in
business life.
Soon these two currents met: women
women who were forced to work away
from home reached the same conclu-
sion. Either because they had to work
or else because they had nothing else
to do, they saw the need of the educa-
ton which had been kept from them.
The woman who had servants to do her
labor and the girl who had to make her
living in an office found that knowledge
would make them happier, more useful
and more successful.
Earned, Not Given.
Just here one point must be made
clear. The beginning Of the new educa-
tional movement came as a result of
women's efforts, rather than as result
of mans concessions. Idle or busy,
women demanded to know, and they
left to the test the judgment of their
right to know. What was given them
was given grudgingly; every gain,
within the first fifty years of the move
mant came at their. IN sist anca