South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-12-13
Tea Table Talks
EFFICIENCY FOR WOMEN.
BY May De Witt Talmage

EFFICIENCY FOR WOMEN.
The word efficiency has been
creeping into all the walks of life
and with it goes better work and
bigger results. 1t is only when they
attempt to apply the efficiency test
to women that the world cries. Halt
Woman's place is in the home. She
can excel as a mother or as a house
keeper"
There are some women who never
get the chance to be either of these.
There are others. who. when they
get the chance. make a very poor
success of il. There is another class
Of women who must be wage earn
ers. not because they want TO escape
housekeeping or the care Of children.
which they are often accused of, but
because hard necessity cOmpels them
to help pay for the daily living.
Then there is a class OF women 10
whom the Creator has given the
power to do brain work, creative
work. The genius TO do specialized
and concentrated work, instead Of
the distributed energy of the mother
and housekeeper, that demands that
woman be the captain of the home,
the steward. the pay master, the
nurse. the first aid TO the cook keep
her temper. and, under all cOndi-
tons have all the tact and diplomacy
possible to meet every kind of ma
ture and disposition. and 10 ANAL
eamate il all into a happy home.
There is no need 10 apply the eff
dciency test to a mother with young
children. Her contract is all made
out for her. She has no time for
anything but home and children, but
that time does not cover the whole
of a lifetime. There is much time
before and after Then, too. many
women never have any married life.
At one of the training schools for
girls the head of the department said
to me: Girls so often want to do
something they are absolutely unfit
ted for. Girls with big clumsy
fingers and hands, want to be mil
liners, a vocation which requires the
delicate touch. Girls capable of be-
ing in subordinate positions where
everything is planned for them are
discontinued because they want posi-
tons that require execution, ability,
planning and thought They do not
stop TO think that a master mechanic
could never be a bank president.
and that a man might be an expert
bookkeeper but a failure as a bus
mess manager.
There is the same difference in
women. Why not put the test on
her and find out what line she can
excel in and then try to smooth out
the path for her. \ man has his
sanctum where nothing outside of
his particular line % work is allow
ed 10 tintrude a place where he can
retire and think out his brain prob
lens. A place where he can be alone
and his thoughts can simmer and
brew and where he can be free from
interruption. How many women
have this2
Who is tanning any spark of ge-
MUS she may have? Genius must
have its favored conditions. and
many a woman who has tried TO do
some work along a line that has de-
manded her undivided attention and
concentration. without interruption
or aggression. has abdicated all am
hition along those lines before the
onslaughts of domestic duties. and
the question. what shall we eat.
what shall we drink, and where
withau shall ne be clothed"
1t is one thing 10 be old fashioned.
IL is another 10 be primitive. Why.
then. should woman's ways and
needs be the only thing TO stand
still? Why. when any radical
changes are suggested; should there
be such a hue and cry about woman's
sphere being the home. Let us hope
domesticity VIII always DE the inner
ent womanly trait bat let the word
efficiency be the help 10 the woman
that il has been 10 the man