The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-08-09
Dorothy Da1 Says
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer
Cinderella and Her Mamma.

same subject
In one a girl asks: Should a girl
who has worked hard all day in a
store and who turns over most of the
money she makes to her mother, be
expected to wash the dishes and help
with the homework at night after she
gets home ?"
| In the other letter a mother says:
| What shall 1 do about my daughter
who is employed as a stenographer in
an office all day, and who thinks that
| because she gives me ten dollars a
week to help run the house on that
she should be treated like a lady
boarder and not help with the house
work at all? She thinks that all she
ought to do of an evening is to amuse
herself, going to the movies or to see
some of her friends. or having her
friends come to see her."
The problem of the working girl
and her mother is one of the COM
! plications in domestic life that is
Icausing much friction in the family
circle, because it is so new that we
| have not had time yet for either par
ents or children to adjust themselves
! to it.
/ With parents the old idea still
holds that prevailed when they We're
tyoung-that it is girls duty to help
mother with the homework and the
sewing and the care of the younger
children, and to make herself gem
orally useful in fetching and carrying.
L
conduct as long as the girl was a de-
pendent supported by her parents. In
helping mother with the homework
she earned her board and keep.
But the business girl who has be-
come a money Garner and who con-
I tributes her quota of cash towards the
upkeep of the household is in an en-
tirely different status. If she pays in
good hard money what is the equiva-
lent of her board, she is a boarder just
STR ha nd
is entitled to be treated on the same
plane. Whatever she does towards
helping her mother is a matter of af-
lection and not the performance of
Mothers are often singuIarly unjust
in the way in which they treat their
daughters who work outside of the
home. No mother would expect her
son to clear up the table after dinner,
or do the chores she had left undone,
or put in the evening nursing the
baby. If by any chance a mother
did have boy who would do such
things for her she would chant his
praises to high Heaven and never be
done telling what a paragon of a son
he was.
Yet she expects her daughter to come
| nome from work and do all of these
things, and if the girl rebels mother
| considers her a most undutiful, cold
hearted and selfish girl. and COM
plains to the neighbors about how her
Mamie treats her. Yet if either son OF
daughter is going to be burdened with
domestic labor on top of hard days
work in office or store, goodness
knows it should be the boy. He's
physically ten times strong and bet
ter able to do it.
To the everlasting honor and credit
of the working girl it must be said
that she is generosity itself and help
fitness personified when it comes tC
her own home. The majority of bust
ness girls turn over their pay en-
velopes to their mothers and get out
of their hard labor only what theil
| mothers choose to give them.
60 into any family where the girl!
work and you will see how unselfishly
they spend their money. The families
move to decent neighborhood Th'
food is better. There are nice pieces
of furniture. The younger children
are being kept longer at school so tina
they may have better chance thai
the older girls had. The girls hav,
spent their earnings on their families
instead of in saloons as the boys have
Mother isn't satisfied, however
neither is father. because they hav,
still somehow got it in the backs O
their heads that girl ought to d.
housework no matter what else sh
| does
OF course, if the mother is an in
t valid and the girl cannot earn enough
: to pay for a servant, it is her duty t
help her mother with the housework
no matter how tired she is when sh
| gets home from her work. 1t is a cas-
of dire necessity in which one cal
only do the best one can. But in case
where the mother is strong and able
bodied, and the girl contributes to tn
l. household expenses, her mother ha
e no right to cali on her for any extr
assistance.
1t is making an additional drain Of
the girls vitality and strength tina
# should not be made-she is not ofte
able TO endure it. One of the mai
-, reasons that women break down s
often in business is because they su
perimpose the .work of a woman o
top of the work of man and nobod
l, has got the physique to stand that sor
of a strain.
When a man gets home at nigh
=, after his days labor he find a com
Portable meal ready for him to ca
and after he has eaten it he sits dow
| in quiet and comfort and reads tn
| paper and rests until he is ready t
. go to bed or to go out for an hour G
two's diversion.
i Nobody expects him to rush an
- help cook the dinner and then was
n the dishes. and then trim a new ha
"a for little Sally or run sewing ma
fe chine till bed time making father
N shirt. But that's exactly what three
+ fourths of the mothers of workin
re girls demand of their daughters
wonder the girls nave nervous co
n, lapses: no wonder they come to wor
Iy tired and listless; no wonder they ar
b. not as bright and energetic and don
f go as far as boys.
,e They are trying to climb with
m family on their backs. And so it's u
~ to the mother who wants her daugf
- ter to get on in business and arriy
- at the place that has a worth Will
-. salary attached to it. to relieve til
le girl of every possible domestic burde
50 so that she may have all of he
Sc strength and vitality to give to he
n job. She can't use up her strength
Mt the dish pan and still have it to Civ
Is to the store
n. There are very very few mother
is who are Intentionally selfish toward
c. their daughters 1t is lust that the
TX feel that their daughters belong 4
hi,