The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-08-02
OF INTEREST TO WOMEN
Wh0t Should
Young Woman,
Glue Husband

ferry boa; late one afternoon recently,
md the proximity of group OF three
women and two young men made me
listen inv0luntarily to their CONVEX
Sation.
The pretty girl. although the young
est OF tho party. did by far the most
Of the talking by the right which
pretty girls are conceded everywhere
In this country.
'Gec," exclaimed the prettiest girl.
i've worked hard this week. Had
to do all Miss Browns work on top
of my own just because she's taken
two weeks off to go on her honey
moon. That's something III never
dol" she added with challenging
smile at the young men. when
marry I'll never do another lick Of
work. The man choose will have
to support me. can tell you, and
make asgood job OF 1t. too"
The young men did not appear as
much detected by this announcement
as was altogether gallant. They just.
erinned and remained silent.
But wanted to say to her-"My
dear little girl you are fairly pretty.
but you are not neat. Your clothes
show that they have not been cared
for properly. They need sewing,
pressing and brushing. Such beauty
as you have will not survive two years
of marriage If you do your own work
and bear children, which is what
is most likely to happen to you. 1t
as evident that you are one OF the
nnmberless girls who are utterly un-
skilled in household and domestic
arts. that you cannot cook or sew and
would not know how to take care of q
baby. You do not look very strong and
YOU might not be able to bring a child
into the world with fair start. A
French girl would be trained in house,
hold ways and in addition to the skill
she would bring to her home she
would contribute dover which
might enable her husband to 60 into
business for himself, or at any rate
would give him some sort of a start.
She would help in the business tend
ing the shop or sitting behind the
cashiers window in the restaurant.
Yet she would have children and bring
them up better than you will. What
have you so wonderful to offer a man
that you can take a life mortgage on
his earning capacity in exchange for
it? Why should man marry you?
This girl had criticised fellow
worker who married and kept her
job. Now, l don't agree with Charlotte
Perkins Gilman and other American
feminists that all wives should work
for money outside the home. In our
present state of society this question
nct "A ar mo 70 no
earning capacity of the wife before
should accept the double burden OF
maternity and work. But there are
thousands and thousands of women
who marry with no intention of hav-
ing children. but nevertheless expect
to be supported. What for? If a
woman's services are worth more to
should stay at home and work for
him. No one but a husband will pay
more than $50 or $35 month for
general housework.
But wives are not paid for work. |
You say Indignantly there can be no
question of pay in marriage. The hus-
band loves her, &c. Well. If were !
going to take more money than / had |
from a man, I'd far rather
take it from any other man in the |
world than the man I loved.
But perhaps a woman's husband can |
afford to give her a servant or erv- |
ants, and she stays at home to peek |
his house. What are her services worth |
then? If she manages the house well, I!
she is a housekeeper and might get |
anywhere from $50 to $50 a month |
outside her home for the same Job. |
But she never does take only what |
she could earn outside. The husband |
pays her much more money than she |
could get in the open market for the
same work. The poor mans wife who |
does the most work gets the least for
her services, and the wife of q man
who can afford from to to 80 servants
has the largest returns-just what for
1t is not particularly pleasant to con-
slider.
Maternity even on the grand scale
need not consume more than ten years
Of woman's life. During these ten
years she should be supported by her
husband or by the state. incline per-
sonally to the belief that children
would be better cared for If the burden
Of their maintenance were shared by
al of us. At any rate a disability
covering perhaps ten years should not
he stretched over a lifetime. Women
we're not made just to be mothers. If
they were Nature would not permit
hem to survive their usefulness as
ong as she does-they would die off
when they had ceased to bear.
Most of the energy, power and wis
ION of the middle aged women still Is
ost to the world because of the gen.
oral adherence to the notion that
motherhood Is woman's sole excuse
many women encourage
he notion of motherhood as a life
work. 1t Is after all not unnatural to
foster state of mind in men which
teeps them more or less contentedly II
1T work for women all their lives.
While it may be natural, 1t is not
And after a while men and women
both will realize that the So called
of women will bring the
greatest of all his liberations to man.
AK AnvonA wha Has Head IL