The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-02
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
By DOROTHY DIX
woridss Highest Paid Woman Writer.
Moments Work.


men to the battle line, has thrust
millions of women into occupations
that they have never followed before. |
and fear is exp, essed that when the
war is over and the men return to
their peaceful vocations. these women
will refuse to surrender their jobs to
their former incumbents.
Probably this will be true in many
cases, and many occupations that have
been heretofore monopolized by men
will have passed forever into feminine
hands. Doubtless there will also be
few wOmen who, on account of
peculiar fitness, will continue to follow
masculine professions, and there will
be sporadic cases of lady longshore-
men, lady steeplejacks and LADY trench
diggers.
For the most part, however. each
sex in the final readjustmenl of con-
ditions will so back to its own field of
labor for the simple reason that each
will find it more profitable to do the
kind of labor for which 1t is designed.
And this is particularly true of
women. for when woman trles to do
a mans work she develops along the
line of greatest resistance, and has to
fight all the obstacles that nature and
sex. as well as circumstances have put
in her pathway. while when she does
her own work she brings to it all the
of inherited aptitude.
A woman trying to do a mans work
in mans way is always more ors1ess
of failure. Her achievement is that
of the dancing dog-not that she does
it so we'll, but that she does it at all
But when she puts her sex behind
her work and does a woman's work in
a woman's way, she gives it untold
value.
On their own ground men can al
ways excel women. and women are
foolish to compete with then. instead
of sticking to their own particular
lines. 1t takes a course in physical
instruction and a knowledge of higher
mathematics to enable a woman to
throw a rock as straight as a little
freckle faced, double listed boy does
by intuition.
But when it comes to pinning on a
collar in such a way that it will hold
together. and the pin will not pierce
the jugular vein, any girl child could
beat Mr. Edison a city block.
In laying out the work of the world
the great master architect intended
that certain portions of it should be
done by men and other portions by
women, and each sex labors best and
most prosperously when it sticks to its
own job.
Women, however. refuse to recog-
nize this palpable truth. and so they
expend their energy and Intelligence
in doing a thing badly that they were
never intended to do at all. and leav-
ing undone the things which they
could do gloriously.
There are few things sadder than
this wasteful feminine force, for in
trying to do a mans work woman
gives qualities out of all proportion to
the result 1t takes. for instance. a
woman of remarkable physique, un-
usual personal bravery. rare executive
ability, and intrepid determination to
7 be the foreman of a railroad track
construction crew. whereas any ordi-
nary Irishman with a fist like a sledge
hammer and an unabridged vocabu-
larry can do it without turning a hair.
OF course women say that the rea-
son that they wish to work at mems
occupations, instead of their own. is
because there is more money in doing
mems work than women's work.
Never was there a greater error.
Practically, every woman who ac-
cumulates a fortune does it by fol-
lowing some one of the hereditary &C.
cupa tons of her sex.
And / commend this view of the
subject to women who, when the war
is over, will have to choose between
doing mans work and women's work.
The crying need of teh day is women's
work well done, and when it is well
done it commands exorbitant prices.
! You doubt that? Let us begin with
the most elementary of all feminine
occupations and consider cookery.
Women don't like to cook. Most of
| them don't know how to cook If
you advertise for a stenographer, a
saleswoman, and a cook, you will get
a hundred applications for positions
before your typewriter, or behind your
counter, where you will get one ap-
| plication for the position beside your
| kitchen range
Yet what are the relative opportu--
tiles for making money? The mex
perienced cook, the inexperienced
stenographer and saleswoman start
out at the same salary. but if the
cook put as much intelligent study
and work into learning her occupa-
ton as the saleswoman does into rers
! before she gets to be forewoman in a
department, or the stenographer Iues
| in hers before she gets to the pla ee
where she is private secretary she
would be naming her own price as
| chef to millionaire.
The same thing may be said of
dressmaking and millinery, two other
occupations scorned of the feminine
sex. yet what mans work is half SO
well paid as that of the milliner and
| dressmaker who bring skill and brains
| to their work?
Look in any fashionable shop WIN
| dow and you can see hats marked $50.
SIS and 500. the raw material of
which do not cost $500. but they were
put together by a woman who knew
her business. and other women were
willing-nay, glad to pay these prices
for good workmanship.
As for dressmakers, any woman WIN
can put a gown together so It VIII
pass muster in crowd can get ali
the work she can do. If she car ron
struct dress that win not hike ID in
the back and down in the front. or
isn't too short or too long in the
| sleeves, and that doesn't have to 20
back three times for alterations be-
fore it is wearable at all, she will be
overrun with customers
Any dressmaker who will study her
business as a profession as she wouId
| study law or medicine and will Dut
into her work craftsmanship, subtle
ty and thought, may be as extortienate
as she pleases. and women will cheer
\ fully lay down their pocket books be-