The Washington herald., 1918-07-15

Now that the war has forever
cumscribed circle that was called
'woman's sacred sphere" and has
forced hundreds of thousands of
women into occupations heretofore
exclusively followed by men, en-
p1oyers are beginning to note with
interest the essential differences be-
tween the two sexes.
They say that girls learn more
quickly than boys, that they are
more accurate. more faithful and
better at routine work than boys.
They are more careful in handling
goods. they break and waste less.
but they have less initiative than
boys, and no desire whatever, APP
parently. to know why they do such
and such thing.
They seldom try to understand
the mechanism of the machine they
operate, or TO learn the history Of
the goods they are trying to sell.
They are content to do their little
part and get their little pay en-
velope, without visualizing the busi-
ness as a whole, or feeling that they
are an important cog in the wheels
of a great enterprise.
But, according to the consensus of
opinion among these new employers
of feminine labor, while the boys are
Indifferent to the men over them ex-
cept in so far as they are good
bosses or bad BOSSES" the girls
take a lively personal interest in
their superior officers, and will do
appreciably more and better work
for superintendent that they like
than for those they do not like. Also
the girls are found most effective in
work that brings them in contact
with other people.
In other words, boys are interest
ed in things and girls are interested
in people. This is one of the fun
damental differences between the
sexes that you may see illustrated
from the cradle up. 1t is never the
little girl who takes the clock apart
to see what made the tick inside of
ii. nor is II the little boy who plays
lady-come-to-see and pretends that
she is mother gone a-visiting.
or course there is a biological
principle at the root of this differ
ence between the sexes. Nature
decreed that mans chief interest
should be in things and. in learning
how to do them, because 1t is his
business in the world to provide
the shelter and the food for the
sustaining Of a helpless family Of
young ones. And nature implants
an undying interest in people in
woman's breast, because 1t is her
province to manufacture human be-
ings.
When a group of men get together
they talk business, politics, art, lit
.erature; they tell each other hu-
morous stories. When they talk
about the war their minds dwell
on the marvellous mechanism of the
big guns; they speculate about the
best types of airplanes; they dis
cuss the raising OF the billions of
dollars that must be had to carry
on the fight. So far as a personal
element enters into it, 1t is chiefly
an appreciation of the bravery of
some hero. or a weighing of the
relative merits of the great COM
manders.
/ When women get together their
talk is invariably confined to the
personal note. They talk inces-
sanity about themselves. their chill
dren, their husbands, their friends.
They are equally keen about hear
ing every detail of their friends
lives. They discuss hygiene. pure
food. antituberculosis leagues and
SO on, because these directly AFFECT
their own children and other
women's children.
When they talk of the war they
pass over all the engines of death
that the ingenuity of man has con-
trived. and they speak only of the
suffering Of the men in the trenches
and of the sorrow that wrings the
mother heart of the world. The
majority OF women don't even try
to understand how this great ca
lamity was brought about. 1t is
enough for them to know that hu-
man beings are being slaughtered,
without asking why.
Another reason why women are
more interested in people than they
are in things is because, up to the
present moment. woman has all
ways had to get her livelihood from