The Washington herald., 1920-04-29
WOMEN EAGER
TO FIND WORK
Those Who Gave Up Jobs
To .Interned Soldiers
Need Employment.
MANY PREFER HOME
independence That Goes
With Positions Causes
Demand for Them.
MANY PREFER HOME
(waxhinEton Herald-Cross Atlantic
Service, Special Gable Dispateh0
By LYDIA X. COMMANDER

London. April 2s.-To work or
not to work. that is the question
disturbing hosts OF women the
world over today.
In England here. great numbers
CT women who have resigned their
war jobs to make way for the
-demobbed" soldiers. now fnd
themselves with a noble sense oi
sacrifice and a very fiat purse.
With slight apologies to Shake
speare. they wonder:
whether tits better in the home to
suffer
Tho slings and arrows Of outrage
Gus fortune
Or to take arms against a sea OF
economics
And by getting a job. end them"
The argument centers about the
married woman. The propriety OF
single women working has beer
more or less conceded although by
no means universally acknowl-
edged
Different Before War.
Before the war. the question OF
wiyes working out of their homes
was scarcely considered. Those who
did were few in number, and al
ways some exceptional circum-
stance explained this action
Usually, the husband was i'll, OF
unfortunate or incompetent, or the
wife was in business with him.
Today. many sensible people are
advocating the right of married
women to work. and urge the ad-
vantage of this for the good Of
society.
Many are the arguments pro anC
con- One finds the question invad.
ing fiction. On the one hand We
read a story of a young couple In
endless difficulties on account oi
high prices. Then the girl wife
trained in work, gets a job. With
her earnings all financial difficultie:
vanish: poverty flies back out oi
the window: love comes back in the
door and all is happiness again
Gives Another Picture.
The next magazine presents the
reverse of the picture. The young
wife, devoted to her job. refuses tc
stay at home. The meals are late
the rooms are dusty. the fire is out
and the husband who has dreamed
in the trenches of home happiness
is disillusioned and broken-hearted
Just when domestic disaster seems
imminent, some wise and kind
friend opens the eyes of the work
ing wife. She resigns her job. dusts
the piano. puts on a clean table
cloth. builds up the fire and makes
a meat pie. Presto. - the happy
husband, joy, Cupid smiling!
With prices high and still rising
one salary seems almost inadequate
to provide for the needs of a home
wives find it impossible to pay
their household bills and have q
balance for their own expenses ou
of what the husband can provide
So. the modern wife, with a trade oil
profession at her command fills thC
languid pause between income ant
OutgO with the contents of a neat
pay envelope. She spends her ener'
giles in useful work instead of ir
useless worry. She makes obstinate
ends meet, and has a margin lef
for recreation and pleasure.
Women Prefer Positions
There is no doubt many womer
prefer the activities OF a paid po.
sition with its independence to the
economics and limitations of un-
salaried housekeeping.
Also, women's work has. as In
England. been proved to be a tre-
nlendously valuable national asset
Women as lth-produceTs can be
of as much service in this trying
period of world reconstruction a.
they were in the war crisis.
The worlds great need today i: