The Indianapolis times., 1934-02-23

afternoon has never registered yet;
for. according to her code, any
woman who has what is elegantly
termed a career must always be
out somewhere neglecting her WOm-
anly duties.
yet I would not think of trying
to get her between 10 and or Of
any day. She is invariably out,
either doing something really i'm
pOrtant, like finding just the right
shade of nubia' or 'sunray' stocking
to go with her new evening slip
pers or sitting at the feet Of the
latest lecturer from across the seas
or just relaxing over a bridge table
or a matinee.
Housewives Less Domestic
"All of which are grand things
to do. But they are not staying
at home and I insist that they
are not as domestic really as check
ing diet lists in a hospital or shirts
in a laundry or as maternal as wip-
ing noses in a day nursery. Nor
do they keep one at home as much
as being tied to a typewriter by an
editors contract; nor are they any
more worthy than making chemical
analyses in a laboratory or direct
ing programs in a radio studio.
MY friend probably would be as
appalled, to find out how little time
she really spends on her household
as 1 was when I attempted, few
- n
naire on the subject. This ques-
tionnaire brought out that many
whose sole job it was to run home
spent no more time than did others
who managed both a home and a
job"
There are exceptions. of course.
There is a maidlesS mother OF two
small and agile children, who proba-
bly, orders her stockings over the
telephone, never quite catches up
on her darning and has forgotten
that such things as matineeS exist
But the wife whose children have
attained to school age and the wife
who has no children at all are
rarely in a position to look down
their noses at the working women
on the plea that womans place is
in the home. For they themselves
are hardly ever there.
Woman of Leisure Is Novelty
It has always seemed unreason-
able to regard the modern woman
with a job as if she were a revo-
lutionary, breaking with the tradi-
tions of her sex. For there has
never been a time. until very re-
Gently, when the middle-claSS wom-
an did not work. and work hard.
Before household tasks were light
ened by labOr-saving machinery, be-
fore families were made smaller by
modern knowledge, the average
housewife worked as hard as
stevedore. There was no talk of
the possibility of her going out of
her home to find wOrk-She had
more than enough to occupy her
by her own hearth.
It is the woman of leisure who
is a novelty-the woman who, with
out enormous wealth or the pat
entS of nobility, is still relieved of
the burden of hard work, which
was the lot of her kind in every
generation up till now 1t is she,
with her endless shopping and
movie-going, who has introduced an
innovation into the rhythm Of the
vOmen's history-and not a happy
innovation, either. if her general
discomfort is any fair measuring
stick.
Woman's place ceased to be the
home as soon as her traditional
chores moved out of it into the fac
tory. The women who have fol-
lowed their work to whatever in
Stitution it might lead them are
leading the life of balanced work
and play which has been woman's
lot at all times. although they GER
tainly are not at home.
But neither are the jobless but
terflieS.