The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-06-22
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
washington, d. @.
A GOVERNMENT BLOW AT
MARRIAGE?


red women in cutting down their
office forces, are in effect penalizing
marriage for those who are already
married, and making it less attractive
for those who might be, is the claim
| of women here who are active In the
movement to get women working OPP
portunities equal to those enjoyed by
men.
Miss Elsie Hill, of the National
Woman's party, states that several of
the government departments which
are now reducing their pay rolls have
issued questionnaires to their women
employees in order to find out which
are married and which are single. A
QUESTIONABLE sent out by the air serV-
ice, of which we have a copy, is evil
IDENTIFY designed to gain further infor-
nation about the circumstances Of the
married women. 1t asks each of these
to tell whether she is living with her
husband; If not, whether she is legally
separated from him; whether the hus-
band is dependent upon her for sup
port; and whether any members of
her immediate family are employed by
the government, and If SO, how much
each earns.
Following the issuance of these
questionnaires, Miss Hill states, large
number of married women have been
dropped from the rolls of the depart
ments, without regard to their eff
cheney. In many cases, she says, mar
ried women of long experience and
established value, have been dropped
for no other discoverable reason than
that they are married. AT the same
time, she says. the civil service is hold
ing examinations for employees of SINH
lar grade and kind.
The object of the various depart
ments in dropping married women
from their rolls is plain. They are
compelled to drop some employees and
are eager to drop those who will suf-
fer least hardship as result. OBJ
viously the married woman who has
an employed husband is less apt to
suffer from the loss of her job than
the single woman entirely dependent
upon her own resources.
Good Intentions.
The women recognize this motive
and its practical justification. They
realize that the bureau chiefs are not
trying to strike a blow at marriage.
But they claim that in effect it is a
blow at marriage, and also at the right
of a woman to work and be indie
pendent.
1t is this latter phase of the ques-
ton which chiefly interests the women
politicians. AS far as the effect on
marriage is concerned they simply
point out that the same conservatives,
who contend that woman's place is in
the home, are often keeping her out
of it, when, by measures like this one,
they destroy her earning capacity.
For the modern American woman
generally works because she must.
She may also work because she wants
to do so, but it is necessity far more
than choice that has brought women
| into the working world. In American
cities the number of men who can
support a wife and children in really
adequate way has been on the de-
cline for a long time, as both prices
- Js-rf,a 1ax r-ic
while salaries and wages have climbed
slowly after them. The departments
| at Washington, like the offices of
| other American cities, are filled with
| unmarried girls between the ages or
| 20 and 80.
these girls are working because they
| love their independence, and that
thew, would want to continue to work
and be self-supporting even tho they
married. Unprecedented observers, on
the other hand, have estimated that
an offer of marriage and support
from an attractive man with an as
sured income of ten thousand year
would be rejected by only about one
| tenth of one per cent of these bache-
i 1or girls.
Most of them are working because
they have to, and most of them have
not married because the good chance
! has not come along. No doubt many
of them do appreciate their indie
| pendence and they probably appre-
ciate it more after they have made
some progress in their work and have
| become accustomed to the blessings
| of freedom. But they are workers
above all from necessity. Not only
ten thousand dollar men, but even
| five thousand dollar men are lament
| ably scarce. They are quickly cap
tured by the more attractive girls. and
usually by girls with social setting
and enough money to dress in style.
| rather than by stenographers living
on $25 a week. What the stenog-
rapher actually finds available in the
way of spouse is usually clerk in
the same office, making anywhere
from twenty-five hundred to four
| thousand a year. She herself may be
making as much as two thousand. If
she is past the flapper stage of in
| discreet enthusiasm, she will think a
long time before giving up her inde-
pendent income to share one less than
| twice as large. Yet that is often what
the man wants her to do. He does
not want his wife to hold a job.
! Working Couples.
But there are more and more cases
| in which the man abandons this
point of view for the more sensible
one. They marry and on their COM
| btned incomes are able to establish an
attractive home and to save money
for. the deferred enterprise of having
| children. The resultant home and
family is just as much founded or
the woman's earnings as on the mans
There is, in such a case-and there
are now many such caSeS-no more
justification for discharging the wo.
man because she has a husband thar
there would be for discharging the
man because he has a wife.
The whole argument was vigorous
| ly threshed out a few years ago wher
there was widespread effort to de.
prive married teachers OF their jobs
The conclusion in both cases seem.
to be unmistakable. Leaving out al
feminist theory, women in this coun.
try more and more have to have gain
full employment in order to live
Often they have to work in order Il
marry. and have children. You may
deplore this If you please, as a con
dition which threatens the home ant