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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16577-8.txt b/16577-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3991ff0 --- /dev/null +++ b/16577-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4010 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Business of Being a Woman, by Ida M. +Tarbell + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Business of Being a Woman + + +Author: Ida M. Tarbell + + + +Release Date: August 21, 2005 [eBook #16577] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN*** + + +E-text prepared by Audrey Longhurst, Jeannie Howse, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +Transcriber's note: The few spelling mistakes found in this text + were left intact. + + + + + +THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN + +by + +IDA M. TARBELL + +Associate Editor of the "American Magazine" +Author of "Life of Abraham Lincoln" +"History of the Standard Oil Co." +"He Knew Lincoln," etc. + +New York +The MacMillan Company +New York · Boston · Chicago +Dallas · San Francisco +Macmillan & Co., Limited +London · Bombay · Calcutta +Melbourne +The Macmillan Co. of Canada, Ltd. +Toronto +Norwood Press +J.S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. +Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. + +1921 + + + + + + + +TO + +E.I.T. AND C.C.T. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The object of this little volume is to call attention to a certain +distrust, which the author feels in the modern woman, of the +significance and dignity of the work laid upon her by Nature and by +society. Its ideas are the result of a long, if somewhat desultory, +observation of the professional, political, and domestic activities of +women in this country and in France. These observations have led to +certain definite opinions as to those phases of the woman question +most in need of emphasis to-day. + +A great problem of human life is to preserve faith in and zest for +everyday activities. The universal easily becomes the vulgar and the +burdensome. The highest civilization is that in which the largest +number sense, and are so placed as to realize, the dignity and the +beauty of the common experiences and obligations. + + * * * * * + +The courtesy of the publishers of the _American Magazine_, in +permitting the use here of chapters which have appeared in that +periodical, is gratefully acknowledged. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I. THE UNEASY WOMAN 1 + + II. ON THE IMITATION OF MAN 30 + + III. THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN 53 + + IV. THE SOCIALIZATION OF THE HOME 84 + + V. THE WOMAN AND HER RAIMENT 109 + + VI. THE WOMAN AND DEMOCRACY 142 + + VII. THE HOMELESS DAUGHTER 164 + +VIII. THE CHILDLESS WOMAN AND THE FRIENDLESS CHILD 190 + + IX. ON THE ENNOBLING OF THE WOMAN'S BUSINESS 216 + + + + +THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN + + +CHAPTER I + +The Uneasy Woman + + +The most conspicuous occupation of the American woman of to-day, +dressing herself aside, is self-discussion. It is a disquieting +phenomenon. Chronic self-discussion argues chronic ferment of mind, +and ferment of mind is a serious handicap to both happiness and +efficiency. Nor is self-discussion the only exhibit of restlessness +the American woman gives. To an unaccustomed observer she seems always +to be running about on the face of things with no other purpose than +to put in her time. He points to the triviality of the things in which +she can immerse herself--her fantastic and ever-changing raiment, the +welter of lectures and other culture schemes which she supports, the +eagerness with which she transports herself to the ends of the +earth--as marks of a spirit not at home with itself, and certainly not +convinced that it is going in any particular direction or that it is +committed to any particular worth-while task. + +Perhaps the most disturbing side of the phenomenon is that it is +coincident with the emancipation of woman. At a time when she is freer +than at any other period of the world's history--save perhaps at one +period in ancient Egypt--she is apparently more uneasy. + +Those who do not like the exhibit are inclined to treat her as if she +were a new historical type. The reassuring fact is, that ferment of +mind is no newer thing in woman than in man. It is a human ailment. +Its attacks, however, have always been unwelcome. Society distrusts +uneasiness in sacred quarters; that is, in her established and +privileged works. They are the best mankind has to show for itself. At +least they are the things for which the race has slaved longest and +which so far have best resisted attack. We would like to pride +ourselves that they were permanent, that we had settled some things. +And hence society resents a restless woman. And this is logical +enough. + +Embroiled as man is in an eternal effort to conquer, understand, and +reduce to order both nature and his fellows, it is imperative that he +have some secure spot where his head is not in danger, his heart is +not harassed. Woman, by virtue of the business nature assigns her, +has always been theoretically the maker and keeper of this necessary +place of peace. But she has rarely made it and kept it with full +content. Eve was a revoltée, so was Medea. In every century they have +appeared, restless Amazons, protesting and remolding. Out of their +uneasy souls have come the varying changes in the woman's world which +distinguish the ages. + +Society has not liked it--was there to be no quiet anywhere? It is +poor understanding that does not appreciate John Adams' parry of his +wife Abigail's list of grievances, which she declared the Continental +Congress must relieve if it would avoid a woman's rebellion. Under the +stress of the Revolution children, apprentices, schools, colleges, +Indians, and negroes had all become insolent and turbulent, he told +her. What was to become of the country if women, "the most numerous +and powerful tribe in the world," grew discontented? + +Now this world-old restlessness of the women has a sound and a tragic +cause. Nature lays a compelling hand on her. Unless she obeys freely +and fully she must pay in unrest and vagaries. For the normal woman +the fulfillment of life is the making of the thing we best describe as +a home--which means a mate, children, friends, with all the radiating +obligations, joys, burdens, these relations imply. + +This is nature's plan for her; but the home has got to be founded +inside the imperfect thing we call society. And these two, nature and +society, are continually getting into each other's way, wrecking each +other's plans, frustrating each other's schemes. The woman almost +never is able to adjust her life so as fully to satisfy both. She is +between two fires. Euripides understood this when he put into Medea's +mouth a cry as modern as any that Ibsen has conceived:-- + + Of all things upon earth that grow, + A herb most bruised is woman. We must pay + Our store of gold, hoarded for that one day, + To buy us some man's love; and lo, they bring + A master of our flesh! There comes the sting + Of the whole shame. And then the jeopardy, + For good or ill, what shall that master be; + 'Tis magic she must have or prophecy-- + Home never taught her that--how best to guide + Toward peace this thing that sleepeth at her side. + And she who, laboring long, shall find some way + Whereby her lord may bear with her, nor fray + His yoke too fiercely, blessed is the breath + That woman draws! + +Medea's difficulty was that which is oftenest in the way of a woman +carrying her business in life to a satisfactory completion--false +mating. It is not a difficulty peculiar to woman. Man knows it as +often. It is the heaviest curse society brings on human beings--the +most fertile cause of apathy, agony, and failure. If the woman's cry +is more poignant under it than the man's, it is because the machine +which holds them both allows him a wider sweep, more interests outside +of their immediate alliance. "A man, when he is vexed at home," +complains Medea, "can go out and find relief among his friends or +acquaintances, but we women have none to look at but him." + +And when it is impossible longer to "look" at him, what shall she do! +Tell her woe to the world, seek a soporific, repudiate the scheme of +things, or from the vantage point of her failure turn to the untried +relations of her life, call upon her unused powers? + +From the beginning of time she has tried each and all of these methods +of meeting her purely human woe. At times the women of whole peoples +have sunk into apathy, their business reduced to its dullest, +grossest forms. Again, whole groups have taken themselves out of the +partnership which both Nature and Society have ordered. The Amazons +refused to recognize man as an equal and mated simply that they might +rear more women like themselves. Here the tables were turned and the +boy baby turned out--not to the wolves, but to man! The convent has +always been a favorite way of escape. + +It has never been a majority of women who for a great length of time +have shirked this problem by any one of these methods. By individuals +and by groups woman has always been seeking to develop the business of +life to such proportions, to so diversify, refine, and broaden it that +no half failure or utter failure of its fundamental relations would +swamp her, leave her comfortless, or prevent her working out that +family which she knew to be her part in the scheme of things. It is +from her conscious attempt to make the best of things when they are +proved bad, that there has come the uneasiness which trails along her +path from Eve to Mrs. Pankhurst. + +When great changes have come in the social system, her quest has +responded to them, taken its color and direction from them. The +peculiar forms of uneasiness in the American woman of to-day come +naturally enough from the Revolution of 1776. That movement upset +theoretically everything which had been expected of her before. +Theoretically, it broke down the division fences which had kept her in +sets and groups. She was no longer to be a woman of class; she was a +woman of the people. This was striking at the very underpinning of +femininity, as the world knew it. Theoretically, too, her ears were no +longer to be closed to all ideas save those of her church or +party,--a new thing, freedom of speech, was abroad,--her lips were +opened with man's. Moreover, her business of family building was +modified, as well as her attitude towards life. The necessity of all +women educating themselves that they might be able to educate their +children was an obligation on the face of the new undertaking. Another +revolutionary duty put upon her was--_paying her way_. There can be no +real democracy where there is parasitism. She must achieve conscious +independence whether in or out of the family. Unquestionably there +came with the Revolution a vision of a new woman--a woman from whom +all of the willfulness and frivolity and helplessness of the "Lady" of +the old régime should be stripped, while all her qualities of +gentleness and charm should be preserved. The old-world lady was to +be merged into a woman strong, capable, severely beautiful, a creature +who had all of the virtues and none of the follies of femininity. + +It was strong yeast they put into the pot in '76. + +A fresh leaven in a people can never be distributed evenly. Moreover, +the mass to which it is applied is never homogeneous. There are spots +so hard no yeast can move them; there are others so light the yeast +burns them out. Taken as a whole, the change is labored and painful. +So our new notions worked on women. There were groups which resented +and refused them, became reactionary at the stating of them. There +were those which grew grave and troubled under them, shrinking from +the portentous upheaval they felt in their touch, yet sensing that +they must be accepted. There were still others where the notion +frothed and foamed, turning up unexpected ideas, revealing depths of +dissatisfaction, of desire, of unsuspected powers in woman that +startled the staid old world. It was in these quarters that there was +produced the uneasy woman typical of the day. + +Her ferment went to the bottom of things this time. Not since the age +of the Amazon had a body of women broken more utterly with things as +they are. And like the Amazon, the revolt was against man and his +pretensions. + +It was no unorganized revolt. It was deliberate. It presented her case +in a carefully prepared List of Grievances, and an eloquent +Declaration of Sentiments[1] both adopted in a strictly parliamentary +way, and made the basis of an organized revolt, which has gone on +systematically ever since. The essence of her complaint, as embodied +in the above expression, is that man is a conscious tyrant holding +woman an unwilling captive--cutting her off from the things in life +which really matter: education, freedom of speech, the ballot; that +she can never be his equal until she does the same things her tyrant +does, studies the book he studies, practices the trades and +professions he practices, works with him in government. + +The inference from all this is that the Business of Being a Woman, as +it has been conducted heretofore by society, is of less importance +than the Business of Being a Man, and that the time has come to enter +his world and prove her equality. + +There are certain assumptions in her program which will bear +examination. Is man the calculating tyrant the modern uneasy woman +charges? Are her fetters due only to his unfair domination? Or is she +suffering from the generally bungling way things go in the world? And +is not man a victim as well as she--caught in the same trap? +Moreover, is woman never a tyrant? One of the first answers to her +original revolt came from the most eminent woman of the day, Harriet +Beecher Stowe, and it was called "_Pink and White_ Tyranny!" "I have +seen a collection of medieval English poems," says Chesterton, "in +which the section headed 'Poems of Domestic Life' consisted entirely +(literally entirely) of the complaints of husbands bullied by their +wives." + +Again, will doing the same things a man does work as well in stifling +her unrest as she fancies it has in man's case? If a woman's +temperamental and intellectual operations were identical with a man's, +there would be hope of success,--but they are not. She is a different +being. Whether she is better or worse, stronger or weaker, primary or +secondary, is not the question. She is different. + +And she tries to ease a world-old human curse by imitating the +occupations, points of views, and methods of a radically different +being. Can she realize her quest in this way? Generally speaking, +nothing is more wasteful in human operations than following a course +which is not native and spontaneous, not according to the law of the +being. + +If she demonstrates her points, successfully copies man's activities, +can she impress her program on any great body of women? The mass of +women believe in their task. Its importance is not capable of argument +in their minds. Nor do they see themselves dwarfed by their business. +They know instinctively that under no other circumstances can such +ripeness and such wisdom be developed, that nowhere else is the full +nature called upon, nowhere else are there such intricate, delicate, +and intimate forces in play, calling and testing them. + +To bear and to rear, to feel the dependence of man and child--the +necessity for themselves--to know that upon them depend the health, +the character, the happiness, the future of certain human beings--to +see themselves laying and preserving the foundations of so imposing a +thing as a family--to build so that this family shall become a strong +stone in the state--to feel themselves through this family +perpetuating and perfecting church, society, republic,--this is their +destiny,--this is worth while. They may not be able to state it, but +all their instincts and experiences convince them of the supreme and +eternal value of their place in the world. They dare not tamper with +it. Their opposition to the militant program badly and even cruelly +expressed at times has at bottom, as an opposition always has, the +principle of preservation. It is not bigotry or vanity or a petty +notion of their own spheres which has kept the majority of women from +lending themselves to the radical wing of the woman's movement. It is +fear to destroy a greater thing which they possess. The fear of change +is not an irrational thing--the fear of change is founded on the risk +of losing what you have, on the certainty of losing much temporarily +at least. It sees the cost, the ugly and long period of transition. + +Moreover, respect for your calling brings patience with its burden and +its limitations. The change you desire you work for conservatively, if +at all. The women who opposed the first movement for women's rights in +this country might deplore the laws that gave a man the power to beat +his wife--but as a matter of fact few men did beat their wives, and +popular opinion was a powerful weapon. They might deplore the laws of +property--but few of them were deeply touched by them. The husband, +the child, the home, the social circle, the church, these things were +infinitely more interesting and important to them than diplomas, +rights to work, rights to property, rights to vote. All the sentiments +in the revolting women's program seemed trivial, cold, profitless +beside the realities of life as they dreamed them and struggled to +realize them. + +It is this same intuitive loyalty to her Business of Being a Woman, +her unwillingness to have it tampered with, that is to-day the great +obstacle to our Uneasy Woman putting her program of relief into force. +And it is the effort to move this mass which she derides as inert that +leads to much of the overemphasis in her program and her methods. If +she is to attract attention, she must be extreme. The campaigner is +like the actor--he must exaggerate to get his effect over the +footlights. Moreover, there are natures like that of the actor who +could not play Othello unless his whole body was blackened. Nor is the +extravagance of the methods, which the militant lady follows to put +over her program, so foreign to her nature as it may seem. The +suffragette adapts to her needs a form of feminine coquetry as old as +the world. To defy and denounce the male has always been one of +woman's most successful provocative ways! + +However much certain of the assumptions in her program may seem to be +against its success, there is much for it. It gives her a +scapegoat--an outside, personal, attackable cause for the limitations +and defeats she suffers. And there is no greater consolation than +fixing blame. It is half a cure in itself to know or to think you know +the cause of your difficulties. Moreover, it gives her a scapegoat +against whom it is easy to make up a case. She knows him too well, +much better than he knows her, much better than she knows herself; at +least her knowledge of him is better formulated. And she has this +advantage: custom makes it cowardly for a man to attempt to +demonstrate that woman is a tyrant--it laughs and applauds woman's +attempt to fix the charge on man. + +It gives her a definite program of relief. To attack life as man does: +to secure the same kind of training, enter a trade or profession where +she can support herself, mingle with the crowd as he does, get into +politics--that she assumes to be the practical way of curing the +inferiority of position and of powers which she is willing to admit, +even willing to demonstrate. That a man's life may not be altogether +satisfactory, she declines to believe. The uneasy woman has always +taken it for granted that man is happier than woman. It is an +assumption which is at least discussible. + +Her program, too, has the immense advantage of including all that the +new order of things in this country, instituted by the Revolution, +made imperative for women--the schooling, the liberty of action, the +independent pocket book. Because she has formulated these notions so +definitely and has hammered on them so hard, the militant woman +frequently claims that they originated with her, that she is the +_cause_ of the great development in educational opportunities, in +freedom to work and to circulate, in the increasing willingness to +face the facts of life and speak the truth. This claim she should +drop. She is rather the logical result of these notions, their extreme +expression. She has, however, had an enormous influence in keeping +them alive in the great slow-moving mass of women, where the fate of +new ideas rests and where they are always tried out with extreme +caution. Without her the vision of enlarging and liberalizing their +own particular business to meet the needs of the New Democracy which +so exalted the women of the Revolution, would not to-day be as nearly +realized as it is. To speak slightingly of her part in the women's +movement is uncomprehending. She was then, and always has been, a +tragic figure, this woman in the front of the woman's movement--driven +by a great unrest, sacrificing old ideals to attain new, losing +herself in a frantic and frequently blind struggle, often putting back +her cause by the sad illustration she was of the price that must be +paid to attain a result. Certainly no woman who to-day takes it as a +matter of course that she should study what she chooses, go and come +as she will, support herself unquestioned by trade, profession, or +art, work in public or private, handle her own property, share her +children on equal terms with her husband, receive a respectful +attention on platform or before legislature, live freely in the world, +should think with anything but reverence particularly of the early +disturbers of convention and peace, for they were an essential element +in the achievement. + +The great strength of the radical program is now, as it has always +been, the powerful appeal it makes to the serious young woman. Man and +marriage are a trap--that is the essence the young woman draws from +the campaign for woman's rights. All the vague terror which at times +runs through a girl's dream of marriage, the sudden vision of probable +agonies, of possible failure and death, become under the teachings of +the militant woman so many realities. She sees herself a "slave," as +the jargon has it, putting all her eggs into one basket with the +certainty that some, perhaps all, will be broken. + +The new gospel offers an escape from all that. She will be a "free" +individual, not one "tied" to a man. The "drudgery" of the household +she will exchange for what she conceives to be the broad and inspiring +work which men are doing. For the narrow life of the family she will +escape to the excitement and triumph of a "career." The Business of +Being a Woman becomes something to be apologized for. All over the +land there are women with children clamoring about them, apologizing +for never having _done_ anything! Women whose days are spent in trade +and professions complacently congratulate themselves that they at +least have _lived_. There were girls in the early days of the +movement, as there no doubt are to-day, who prayed on their knees that +they might escape the frightful isolation of marriage, might be free +to "live" and to "work," to "know" and to "do." + +What it was really all about they never knew until it was too late. +That is, they examined neither the accusations nor the premises. They +accepted them. Strong young natures are quick to accept charges of +injustice. To them it is unnatural that life should be hampered, that +it should be anything but radiant. Curing injustice, too, seems +particularly easy to the young. It is simply a matter of finding a +remedy and putting it into force! The young American woman of +militant cast finds it is easy to believe that the Business of Being a +Woman is slavery. She has her mother's pains and sacrifices and tears +before her, and she resents them. She meets the theory on every hand +that the distress she loathes is of man's doing, that it is for her to +revolt, to enter his business, and so doing escape his tyranny, find a +worth-while life for herself, and at the same time help "liberate" her +sex. + +And so for sixty years she has been working on this thesis. That she +has not demonstrated it sufficiently to satisfy even herself is shown +by the fact that she is still the most conspicuous of Uneasy Women. +But that she has produced a type and an influential one is certain. +Indeed, she may be said to have demonstrated sufficiently for +practical purposes what there is for her in imitating the activities +of man. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS + + When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one + portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the + earth a position different from that which they have hitherto + occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God + entitles them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind + requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to + such a course. + + We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women + are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with + certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, + and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights + governments are instituted, deriving their just power from the + consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes + destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer + from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the + institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such + principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them + shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. + Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established + should not be changed for light and transient causes; and + accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more + disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right + themselves by abolishing the forms to which they were accustomed. + But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing + invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under + absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government, + and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been + the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and + such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the + equal station to which they are entitled. + + The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and + usurpations on the part of man towards woman, having in direct + object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove + this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. + + He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to + the elective franchise. + + He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which + she has no voice. + + He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most + ignorant and degraded men--both natives and foreigners. + + Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective + franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls + of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides. + + He has made her, if married, in the eyes of the law, civilly dead. + + He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she + earns. + + He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as she can + commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the + presence of her husband. In the covenant of marriage, she is + compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all + intents and purposes, her master--the law giving him power to + deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement. + + He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the + proper causes, and in case of separation, to whom the guardianship + of the children shall be given, as to be wholly regardless of the + happiness of women--the law, in all cases, going upon a false + supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all power into his + hands. + + After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single, + and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support a + government which recognizes her only when her property can be made + profitable to it. + + He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from + those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty + remuneration. He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and + distinction which he considers most honorable to himself. As a + teacher of theology, medicine, or law, she is not known. + + He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough + education, all colleges being closed against her. + + He allows her in Church, as well as State, but a subordinate + position, claiming Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the + ministry, and, with some exception, from any public participation + in the affairs of the Church. + + He has created a false sentiment by giving to the world a + different code of morals for men and women, by which moral + delinquencies which exclude women from society are not only + tolerated, but deemed of little account in man. + + He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as + his right to assign for her a sphere of action, when that belongs + to her conscience and to her God. + + He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her + confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to + make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ON THE IMITATION OF MAN + + +Fresh attacks on life, like chemical experiments, turn up unexpected +by-products. The Uneasy Woman, driven by the thirst for greater +freedom, and believing man's way of life will assuage it, lays siege +to his kingdom. Some of the unexpected loot she has carried away still +embarrasses her. Not a little, however, is of such undeniable +advantage that she may fairly contend that its capture alone justifies +her campaign. + +Go to-day into many a woman's club house, into many a drawing-room or +studio at, let us say, the afternoon tea hour, and what will you see? +One or probably more women in mannish suits and boots calmly smoking +cigarettes while they talk, and talk well, about things in which women +are not supposed to be interested, but which it is apparent they +understand. + +Look the exhibit over. It is made, you at once recognize, by women of +character, position, and sense. They have simply found certain +masculine ways to their liking and adopted them. The probability is +that if anybody should object to their habits, many of them would be +as bewildered as are the great majority of Americans by the +demonstration that "nice" women can smoke and think nothing of it! + +The cigarette, the boot, and much of the talk are only by-products of +the woman's invasion of the man's world. She did not set out to win +these spoils. They came to her in the campaign! + +The objects of her attack were things she considered more +fundamental. She was dissatisfied with the way her brain was being +trained, her time employed, her influence directed. "Give us the man's +way," was her demand, "then we shall understand real things, can fill +our days with important tasks, will count as human beings." + +There was no uncertainty in her notion of how this was to be +accomplished. A woman rarely feels uncertainty about methods. She +instinctively sees a way and follows it with assurance. Half her +irritation against man has always been that he is a spendthrift with +time and talk. Madame Roland, sitting at her sewing table listening to +the excited debate of the Revolutionists in her salon, mourned that +though the ideas were many, the resulting measures were few. It is the +woman's eternal complaint against discussion--nothing comes of it. In +a country like our own, where reflection usually follows action, the +woman's natural mental attitude is exaggerated. It is one reason why we +have so few houses where there is anything like conversation, why with +us the salon as an institution is out of question. The woman wants +immediately to incorporate her ideas. She is not interested in turning +them over, letting her mind play with them. She has no patience with +other points of view than her own. They are _wrong_--therefore why +consider them? She detests uncertainties--questions which cannot be +settled. Only by man and the rare woman is it accepted that talk is a +good enough end in itself. + +The strength of woman's attack on man's life, apart from the essential +soundness of the impulse which drove her to make it, lay then in its +directness and practicality. She began by asking to be educated in +the same way that man educated himself. Preferably she would enter his +classroom, or if that was denied her, she would follow the +"just-as-good" curriculum of the college founded for her. In the last +sixty or seventy years tens of thousands of women have been students +in American universities, colleges, and technical schools, taking +there the same training as men. In the last twenty years the annual +crescendo of numbers has been amazing; over ten thousand at the +beginning of the period, over fifty-two thousand at the end. Over +eight thousand degrees were given to women in 1910, nearly half as +many as were given to men. Fully four fifths of these women students +and graduates have worked side by side with men in schools which +served both equally. + +Here, then, is a great mass of experience from which it would seem +that we ought to be able to say precisely how the intellects of the +two sexes act and react under the stimulus of serious study, to decide +definitely whether their attack on problems is the same, whether they +come out the same. Nevertheless, he would be a rash observer who would +pretend to lay down hard-and-fast generalizations. Assert whatever you +will as to the mind of woman at work and some unimpeachable authority +will rise up with experience that contradicts you. But the same may be +said of the mind of man. The mind--_per se_--is a variable and +disconcerting organ. + +But admitting all this--certain generalizations, on the whole correct, +may be made from our experience with coeducation. + +One of the first of these is that at the start the woman takes her +work more seriously than her masculine competitor. Fifty years ago +there was special reason for this. The few who in those early days +sought a man's education had something of the spirit of pioneers. They +had set themselves a lofty task: to prove themselves the equal of +man--to win privileges which they believed were maliciously denied +their sex. The spirit with which they attacked their studies was +illumined by the loftiness of their aim. The girl who enters college +nowadays has rarely the opportunity to be either pioneer or martyr. +She is doing what has come to be regarded as a matter of course. +Nevertheless, to-day as then, in the coeducational institution she is +more consciously on her mettle than the man. + +Her attention, interest, respectfulness, docility, will be ahead of +his. It will at once be apparent that she carries the larger stock of +_untaught_ knowledge. In the classroom she will usually outstep him in +mathematics. It is an ideal subject for her, satisfying her talent +for order, for making things "come out right." Her memory will serve +her better. She can depend upon it to carry more exceptions to rules, +more fantastic irregular verbs, more dates, more lists of kings and +queens, battles and generals, and on the whole she will treat this +sort of impedimenta with more respect. She will know less of abstract +ideas, of philosophies and speculations. They will interest her less. +The chances are that she will be less skillful with microscope and +scalpel, though this is not certain. She will show less enthusiasm for +technical problems, for machinery and engineering; more for social +problems, particularly when it is a question of meeting them with +preventives or remedies. In the first two or three years after +entering college, she will almost invariably appear superior to the +men of her age, more grown up, more interested, surer of herself, +readier. Later you will find her on the whole less inclined to +experiment with her gifts, to feel her wings, to make unexpected +dashes into life. It begins to look as if he were the experimenter, +she the conservator. And by the time she is a senior, look out! The +chances are she will have less interest from now on with man's +business and more with her own! In any case she will rarely develop as +rapidly in his field from this point as he is doing. + +He becomes assertive, confident, dominating; the male taking a male's +place. He discovers that his intellectual processes are more +scientific than hers, therefore he concludes they are superior. He +finds he can outargue her, draw logical conclusions as she cannot. He +can do anything with her but convince her, for she jumps the process, +lands on her conclusion, and there she sits. Things are so because +they are so. And the chances are she is right, in spite of the +irregular way she got there. Something superior to reason enters into +her operations--an intuition of truth akin to inspiration. In early +ages women unusually endowed with this quality of perception were +honored as seers. To-day they are recognized as counselors of +prophetic wisdom. "If I had taken my wife's advice!" How often one +hears it! + +One most important fact has come out of our great coeducational +experiment: The college cannot entirely rub feminity out and +masculinity into a woman's brain. The woman's mind is still the +woman's mind, although she is usually the last to recognize it. It is +another proof of the eternal fact that Nature looks after her own good +works! + +But it takes more than a college course to make an efficient, +flexible, and trustworthy organ from a mind, masculine or feminine. +It must be applied to productive labor in competition with other +trained minds, before you can decide what it is worth. Set the +man-trained woman's mind at what is called man's business, let it be +what you will--keeping a shop, practicing medicine or law, editing, +running a factory--let her do it in what she considers to be a man's +way, and with fidelity to her original theory that his way is more +desirable than hers; that is, let her succeed in the task of making a +man of herself--what about her?--what kind of a man does she become? + +Here again there is ample experience to go on. For seventy years we +have had them with us--the stern disciples of the militant program. +Greater fidelity to a task than they show it would be impossible to +find--a fidelity so unwavering that it is often painful. Their care +for detail, for order, for exactness, is endless. Dignity, respect for +their undertaking, devotion to professional etiquette they may be +counted on to show in the highest degree. These are admirable +qualities. They have led hundreds of women into independence and good +service. Almost never, however, have they led one to the top. In free +fields such as merchandising, editing, and manufacturing we have yet +to produce a woman of the first caliber; that is, daring, +experimenting, free from prejudice, with a vision of the future great +enough to lead her to embody something of the future in her task. + +In every profession we have scores of successful women--almost never a +_great_ woman, and yet the world is full of great women! That is, of +women who understand, are familiar with the big sacrifices, +appreciative of the fine things, far-seeing, prophetic. Why does this +greatness so rarely find expression in their professional +undertakings? + +The answer is no doubt complex, but one factor is the general notion +of the woman that if she succeeds she must suppress her natural +emotions and meet the world with a surface as non-resilient as she +conceives that of man to be in his dealings with the world. She is +strengthened in this notion by hard necessity. No woman could live and +respond as freely as her nature prompts to the calls on her sympathy +which come in the contact with all conditions of life involved in +practicing a trade or a profession. She must save herself. To do it +she incases herself in an unnatural armor. For the normal, healthy +woman this means the suppression of what is strongest in her nature, +that power which differentiates her chiefly from man, her power of +emotion, her "affectability" as the scientists call it. She must +overcome her own nature, put it in bonds, cripple it, if she is to do +her work. Here is a fundamental reason for the failure of woman to +reach the first rank. She has sacrificed the most wonderful part of +her endowment, that which when trained gives her vision, sharpens her +intuitions, reveals the need and the true course. This superior +affectability crushed, leaves her atrophied. + +The common characterization of this atrophied woman is that she is +"cold." It is the exact word. She _is_ cold, also she is self-centered +and intensely personal. Let a woman make success in a trade or +profession her exclusive and sufficient ambition, and the result, +though it may be brilliant, is repellent. + +She gives to her task an altogether disproportionate place in her +scheme of things. Life is not made by work, important as is work in +life. Human nature has varied needs. It calls imperatively for a task, +something to do with brain and hands--a productive something which +fits the common good, without which the world would not be as orderly +and as happy. Say what we will, it matters very little what the task +is--if it contributes in some fashion to this superior orderliness and +happiness. But it means more. It means leisure, pleasure, excitements; +it means feeding of the taste, the curiosity, the emotions, the +reflective powers; and it means love, love of the mate, the child, the +friend, and neighbor. It means reverence for the scheme of things and +one's place in it; worship of the author of it, religion. + +But the woman sternly set to do a man's business, believing it better +than the woman's, too often views life as made up of business. She +throws her whole nature to the task. Her work is her child. She gives +it the same exclusive passionate attention. She is as fiercely jealous +of interference in it as she would be if it were a child. She resents +suggestions and change. It is hers, a personal thing to which she +clings as if it were a living being. That attitude is the chief reason +why working with women in the development of great undertakings is as +difficult as coöperating with them in the rearing of a family. It is +also a reason why they rarely rise to the first rank. They cannot get +away from their undertakings sufficiently to see the big truths and +movements which are always impersonal. + +Brilliant and satisfying as her triumph may be to her personally, she +frequently finds that it is resented by nature and by society. She +finds that nature lays pitfalls for her, cracks the ice of her heart +and sets it aflame, often for absurd and unworthy causes. She finds +that the great mass of unconscious women commiserate or scorn her as +one who has missed the fullness of life. She finds that society +regards her as one who shirked the task of life, and who, therefore, +should not be honored as the woman who has stood up to the common +burden. When she senses this--which is not always--she treats it as +prejudice. As a matter of fact, the antagonism of Nature and Society +to the militant woman is less prejudice than self-defense. It is a +protest against the wastefulness and sacrifice of her career. It is a +right saving impulse to prevent perversion of the qualities and powers +of women which are most needed in the world, those qualities and +powers which differentiate her from man, which make for the variety, +the fullness, the charm, and interest of life. + +Moreover, Nature and Society must not permit her triumph to appear +desirable to the young. They must be made to understand what her +winnings have cost in lovely and desirable things. They must know that +the unrest which drove her to the attempt is not necessarily satisfied +by her triumph, that it is merely stifled and may break out at any +time in vagaries and follies. They must be made to realize the +essential barrenness of her triumph, its lack of the savor and tang of +life, the multitude of makeshifts she must practice to recompense her +for the lack of the great adventure of natural living. + +And they see it, many of them, before they are out of college, and +their militancy falls off like the cloak it generally is. The girl +abandons her quest. In the early days she was likely to be treated as +an apostate if, instead of following the "life work" she had picked +out, she slipped back into matrimony. I can remember the dismay among +certain militant friends when Alice Freeman married. "Our first +college president," they groaned. "A woman who so vindicated the sex." +It was like the grieving of Miss Anthony that Mrs. Stanton wasted so +much time having babies! + +The militant theory, as originally conceived, instead of increasing in +favor, has declined. There is little likelihood now that any great +number of women will ever regard it as a desirable working formula for +more than a short period of their lives. But I am not saying that this +theory is no longer influential. It is probable that in a modified +form it was never more influential than it is to-day. For, while the +Uneasy Woman has practically demonstrated that "making a man of +herself" does not solve her problem, she has by no means given up the +notion that the Business of Being a Woman is narrowing and +unsatisfying. Nor has she ceased to consider man's life more desirable +than woman's. + +The present effort of the serious-minded to meet the case takes two +general directions, natural enough outgrowths of the original +militancy. The first of these is a frank advocacy of celibacy. +"_Celibacy is the aristocracy of the future_," is the preaching of one +European feminist. It is a modification of the scheme by which the +medieval woman sought to escape unrest. Four hundred years ago a woman +sought celibacy as an escape from sin; service and righteousness were +her aim. To-day she adopts it to escape inferiority and servitude; +superiority and freedom her aim. + +The ranks of the woman celibates are not full. Many a candidate falls +out by the way, confronted by something she had not reckoned with--the +eternal command that she be a woman. She compromises--grudgingly. She +will be a woman on condition that she is guaranteed economic freedom, +opportunity for self-expressive work, political recognition. What this +amounts to is that she does not see in the woman's life a satisfying +and permanent end. There are various points at which she claims it +fails. It is antagonistic to personal ambition. It makes a dependent +of her. It leaves her in middle life without an occupation. It keeps +her out of the great movements of her day--gives her no part in the +solution of the ethical and economical problems which affect her and +her children. She declares that she wants fuller participation in +life, and by life she seems to mean the elaborate machinery by which +human wants are supplied and human beings kept in something like +order; the movements of the market place, of politics, and of +government. + +Now if there were not something in her contention, the Uneasy Woman +would not be with us as she is to-day, more vociferous, more insistent +than ever in the world's history. What is there in her case? + +If the cultivation of individual tastes and talents to a useful, +productive point is out of question in the woman's business, if it is +not a part of it, something is weak in the scheme. Something is weak +if the woman is or feels that she is not paying her way. Both are not +only individual rights; they are individual duties. + +Moreover, she is certainly right to be dissatisfied, if, after +spending twenty-five years, more or less, she is to be left in middle +life, her forces spent, without interests and obligations which will +occupy brain and heart to the full, without important tasks which are +the logical outcome of her experience and which she must carry on in +order to complete that experience. + +But what is the truth about it? What is the Business of Being a Woman? +Is it something incompatible with free and joyous development of one's +talents? Is there no place in it for economic independence? Has it no +essential relation to the world's movements? Is it an episode which +drains the forces and leaves a dreary wreck behind? Is it something +that cannot be organized into a profession of dignity, and opportunity +for service and for happiness? + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN + + +Respect for the Creator of this world is basic among all civilized +people. The longer one lives, the more thoroughly one realizes the +soundness of this respect. The earth and its works _are_ good. Most +human conceptions are barred by strange inconsistencies. The man who +praises the works of the Creator as all wise not infrequently treats +His arrangement for carrying on the race as if it were unfit to be +spoken of in polite society. Nowhere does the modern God-fearing man +come nearer to sacrilege than in his attitude toward the divine plan +for renewing life. + +A strange mixture of sincerity and hypocrisy, self-flagellation and +lust, aspiration and superstition, has gone into the making of this +attitude. With the development of it we have nothing to do here. What +does concern us is the effect of this profanity on the Business of +Being a Woman. + +The central fact of the woman's life--Nature's reason for her--is the +child, his bearing and rearing. There is no escape from the divine +order that her life must be built around this constraint, duty, or +privilege, as she may please to consider it. But from the beginning to +the end of life she is never permitted to treat it naturally and +frankly. As a child accepting all that opens to her as a matter of +course, she is steered away from it as if it were something evil. Her +first essays at evasion and spying often come to her in connection +with facts which are sacred and beautiful and which she is perfectly +willing to accept as such if they were treated intelligently and +reverently. If she could be kept from all knowledge of the procession +of new life except as Nature reveals it to her, there would be reason +in her treatment. But this is impossible. From babyhood she breathes +the atmosphere of unnatural prejudices and misconceptions which +envelop the fact. + +Throughout her girlhood the atmosphere grows thicker. She finally +faces the most perilous and beautiful of experiences with little more +than the ideas which have come to her from the confidences of +evil-minded servants, inquisitive and imaginative playmates, or the +gossip she overhears in her mother's society. Every other matter of +her life, serious and commonplace, has received careful attention, but +here she has been obliged to feel her way and, worst of abominations, +to feel it with an inner fear that she ought not to know or seek to +know. + +If there were no other reason for the modern woman's revolt against +marriage, the usual attitude toward its central facts would be +sufficient. The idea that celibacy for woman is "the aristocracy of +the future" is soundly based if the Business of Being a Woman rests on +a mystery so questionable that it cannot be frankly and truthfully +explained by a girl's mother at the moment her interest and curiosity +seeks satisfaction. That she gets on as well as she does, results, of +course, from the essential soundness of the girl's nature, the armor +of modesty, right instinct, and reverence with which she is endowed. + +The direst result of ignorance or of distorted ideas of this +tremendous matter of carrying on human life is that it leaves the girl +unconscious of the supreme importance of her mate. So heedlessly and +ignorantly is our mating done to-day that the huge machinery of Church +and State and the tremendous power of public opinion combined have +been insufficient to preserve to the institution of marriage anything +like the stability it once had, or that it is desirable that it should +have, if its full possibilities are to be realized. The immorality and +inhumanity of compelling the obviously mismated to live together, grow +on society. Divorce and separation are more and more tolerated. Yet +little is done to prevent the hasty and ill-considered mating which is +at the source of the trouble. + +Rarely has a girl a sound and informed sense to guide her in accepting +her companion. The corollary of this bad proposition is that she has +no sufficient idea of the seriousness of her undertaking. She starts +out as if on a lifelong joyous holiday, primarily devised for her +personal happiness. And what is happiness in her mind? Certainly it is +not a good to be conquered--a state of mind wrested from life by +tackling and mastering its varied experiences, the _end_, not the +beginning, of a great journey. Too often it is that of the modern +Uneasy Woman--the attainment of something _outside_ of herself. She +visualizes it, as possessions, as ease, a "good time," opportunities +for self-culture, the exclusive devotion of the mate to her. Rarely +does she understand that happiness in her undertaking depends upon the +wisdom and sense with which she conquers a succession of hard +places--calling for readjustment of her ideas and sacrifice of her +desires. All this she must discover for herself. She is like a voyager +who starts out on a great sea with no other chart than a sailor's +yarns, no other compass than curiosity. + +The budget of axioms she brings to her guidance she has picked up +helter-skelter. They are the crumbs gathered from the table of the +Uneasy Woman, or worse, of the pharisaical and satisfied woman, from +good and bad books, from newspaper exploitations of divorce and +scandal, from sly gossip with girls whose budget of marital wisdom is +as higgledy-piggledy as her own. + +And a pathetically trivial budget it is:-- + +"He must _tell_ her everything." "He must always pick up what she +drops." "He must dress for dinner." "He must remember her birthday." +That is, she begins her adventure with a set of hard-and-fast +rules,--and nothing in this life causes more mischief than the effort +to force upon another one's own rules! + +That marriage gives the finest opportunity that life affords for +practicing, not rules, but principles, she has never been taught. +Flexibility, adaptation, fair-mindedness, the habit of supplementing +the weakness of the one by the strength of the other, all the fine +things upon which the beauty, durability, and growth of human +relations depend,--these are what decide the future of her marriage. +These she misses while she insists on her rules; and ruin is often the +end. Study the causes back of divorces and separations, the brutal +criminal causes aside, and one finds that usually they begin in +trivial things,--an irritating habit or an offensive opinion persisted +in on the one side and not endured philosophically on the other; a +petty selfishness indulged on the one side and not accepted humorously +on the other,--that is, the marriage is made or unmade by small, not +great, things. + +It is a lack of any serious consideration of the nature of the +undertaking she is going into which permits her at the start to accept +a false notion of her economic position. She agrees that she is being +"supported"; she consents to accept what is given her; she even +consents to ask for money. Men and society at large take her at her +own valuation. Loose thinking by those who seek to influence public +opinion has aggravated the trouble. They start with the idea that she +is a parasite--does not pay her way. "Men hunt, fish, keep the cattle, +or raise corn," says a popular writer, "for women to eat the game, the +fish, the meat, and the corn." The inference is that the men alone +render useful service. But neither man nor woman eats of these things +until the woman has prepared them. The theory that the man who raises +corn does a more important piece of work than the woman who makes it +into bread is absurd. The theory that she does something more +difficult and less interesting is equally absurd. + +The practice of handing over the pay envelope at the end of the week +to the woman, so common among laboring people, is a recognition of her +equal economic function. It is a recognition that the venture of the +two is common and that its success depends as much on the care and +intelligence with which she spends the money as it does on the energy +and steadiness with which he earns it. Whenever one or the other +fails, trouble begins. The failure to understand this business side of +the marriage relation almost inevitably produces humiliation and +irritation. So serious has the strain become because of this false +start that various devices have been suggested to repair it--Mr. +Wells' "Paid Motherhood" is one; weekly wages as for a servant is +another. Both notions encourage the primary mistake that the woman has +not an equal economic place with the man in the marriage. + +Marriage is a business as well as a sentimental partnership. But a +business partnership brings grave practical responsibilities, and +this, under our present system, the girl is rarely trained to face. +She becomes a partner in an undertaking where her function is +spending. The probability is she does not know a credit from a debit, +has to learn to make out a check correctly, and has no conscience +about the fundamental matter of living within the allowance which can +be set aside for the family expenses. When this is true of her, she at +once puts herself into the rank of an incompetent--she becomes an +economic dependent. She has laid the foundation for becoming an Uneasy +Woman. + +It is common enough to hear women arguing that this close grappling +with household economy is narrowing, not worthy of them. Why keeping +track of the cost of eggs and butter and calculating how much your +income will allow you to buy is any more narrowing than keeping track +of the cost and quality of cotton or wool or iron and calculating how +much a mill requires, it is hard to see. It is the same kind of a +problem. Moreover, it has the added interest of being always an +independent _personal_ problem. Most men work under the deadening +effect of impersonal routine. They do that which others have planned +and for results in which they have no permanent share. + +But the woman argues that her task has no relation to the state. Her +failure to see that relation costs this country heavily. Her concern +is with retail prices. If she does her work intelligently, she +follows and studies every fluctuation of price in standards. She also +knows whether she is receiving the proper quality and quantity; and +yet so poorly have women discharged these obligations that dealers for +years have been able to manipulate prices practically to please +themselves, and as for quality and quantity we have the scandal of +American woolen goods, of food adulteration, of false weights and +measures. No one of these things could have come about in this country +if woman had taken her business as a consumer with anything like the +seriousness with which man takes his as a producer. + +Her ignorance in handling the products of industry has helped the +monopolistically inclined trust enormously. I can remember the day +when the Beef Trust invaded a certain Middle Western town. The war on +the old-time butchers of the village was open. "Buy of us," was the +order, "or we'll fill the storage house so full that the legs of the +steers will hang out of the windows, and we'll give away the meat." +The women of the town had a prosperous club which might have resisted +the tyranny which the members all deplored, but the club was busy that +winter with the study of the Greek drama! They deplored the tyranny, +but they bought the cut-rate meat--the old butchers fought to a +finish, and the housekeepers are now paying higher prices for poorer +meat and railing at the impotency of man in breaking up the Beef +Trust! + +If two years ago when the question of a higher duty on hosiery was +before Congress any woman or club of women had come forward with +carefully tabulated experiments, showing exactly the changes which +have gone on of late years in the shape, color, and wearing quality of +the 15-, 25-, and 50-cent stockings, the stockings of the poor, she +would have rendered a genuine economic service. The women held mass +meetings and prepared petitions instead, using on the one side the +information the shopkeepers furnished, on the other that which the +stocking manufacturers furnished. Agitation based upon anything but +personal knowlledge is not a public service. It may be easily a grave +public danger. The facts needed for fixing the hosiery duty the women +should have furnished, for they buy the stockings. + +If the Uneasy American Woman were really fulfilling her economic +functions to-day, she would never allow a short pound of butter, a +yard of adulterated woolen goods, to come into her home. She would +never buy a ready-made garment which did not bear the label of the +Consumer's League. She would recognize that she is a guardian of +quality, honesty, and humanity in industry. + +A persistent misconception of the nature and the possibilities of this +practical side of the Business of Being a Woman runs through all +present-day discussions of the changes in household economy. The woman +no longer has a chance to pay her way, we are told, because it is +really cheaper to buy bread than to bake it, to buy jam than to put it +up. Of course, this is a part of the vicious notion that a woman only +makes an economic return by the manual labor she does. The Uneasy +Woman takes up the point and complains that she has nothing to do. But +this release from certain kinds of labor once necessary, merely puts +upon her the obligation to apply the ingenuity and imagination +necessary to make her business meet the changes of an ever changing +world. Because the conditions under which a household must be run now +are not what they were fifty years ago is no proof that the woman no +longer has here an important field of labor. There is more to the +practical side of her business than preparing food for the family! It +means, for one thing, the directing of its wants. The success of a +household lies largely in its power of selection. To-day selection has +given way to accumulation. The family becomes too often an +incorporated company for getting things--with frightful results. The +woman holds the only strong strategic position from which to war on +this tendency, as well as on the habits of wastefulness which are +making our national life increasingly hard and ugly. She is so +positioned that she can cultivate and enforce simplicity and thrift, +the two habits which make most for elegance and for satisfaction in +the material things of life. + +Whenever a woman does master this economic side of her business in a +manner worthy of its importance, she establishes the most effective +school for teaching thrift, quality, management, selection--all the +factors in the economic problem. Such scientific household management +is the rarest kind of a training school. And here we touch the most +vital part in the Woman's Business--that of education. + +Every home is perforce a good or bad educational center. It does its +work in spite of every effort to shirk or supplement it. No teacher +can entirely undo what it does, be that good or bad. The natural +joyous opening of a child's mind depends on its first intimate +relations. These are, as a rule, with the mother. It is the mother +who "takes an interest," who oftenest decides whether the new mind +shall open frankly and fearlessly. How she does her work, depends less +upon her ability to answer questions than her effort not to discourage +them; less upon her ability to lead authoritatively into great fields +than her efforts to push the child ahead into those which attract him. +To be responsive to his interests is the woman's greatest contribution +to the child's development. + +I remember a call once made on me by two little girls when our time +was spent in an excited discussion of the parts of speech. They were +living facts to them, as real as if their discovery had been printed +that morning for the first time in the newspaper. I was interested to +find who it was that had been able to keep their minds so naturally +alive. I found that it came from the family habit of treating with +respect whatever each child turned up. Nothing was slurred over as if +it had no relation to life--not even the parts of speech! They were +not asked or forced to load themselves up with baggage in which they +soon discovered their parents had no interest. Everything was treated +as if it had a permanent place in the scheme to which they were being +introduced. It is only in some such relation that the natural bent of +most children can flower, that they can come early to themselves. +Where this warming, nourishing intimacy is wanting, where the child is +turned over to schools to be put through the mass drill which numbers +make imperative--it is impossible for the most intelligent teacher to +do a great deal to help the child to his own. What the Uneasy Woman +forgets is that no two children born were ever alike, and no two +children who grow to manhood and womanhood will ever live the same +life. The effort to make one child like another, to make him what his +parents want, not what he is born to be, is one of the most cruel and +wasteful in society. It is the woman's business to prevent this. + +The Uneasy Woman tells you that this close attention to the child is +too confining, too narrowing. "I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness +of her task," says Chesterton; "I will never pity her for its +smallness." A woman never lived who did all she might have done to +open the mind of her child for its great adventure. It is an +exhaustless task. The woman who sees it knows she has need of all the +education the college can give, all the experience and culture she can +gather. She knows that the fuller her individual life, the broader her +interests, the better for the child. She should be a person in his +eyes. The real service of the "higher education," the freedom to take +a part in whatever interests or stimulates her--lies in the fact that +it fits her intellectually to be a companion worthy of a child. She +should know that unless she does this thing for him he goes forth with +his mind still in swaddling clothes, with the chances that it will not +be released until relentless life tears off the bands. + +The progress of society depends upon getting out of men and women an +increasing amount of the powers with which they are born and which bad +surroundings at the start blunt or stupefy. This is what all systems +of education try to do, but the result of all systems of education +depends upon the material that comes to the educator. Opening the mind +of the child, that is the delicate task the state asks of the mother, +and the quality of the future state depends upon the way she +discharges this part of her business. + +I think it is historically correct to say that the reason of the +sudden and revolutionary change in the education of American women, +which began with the nineteenth century and continued through it, was +the realization that if we were to make real democrats, we must begin +with the child, and if we began with the child, we must begin with the +mother! + +Everybody saw that unless the child learned by example and precept the +great principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity, he was going to +remain what by nature we all are,--imperious, demanding, and +self-seeking. The whole scheme must fail if his education failed. It +is not too much to say that the success of the Declaration of +Independence and the Constitution depended, in the minds of certain +early Democrats, upon the woman. The doctrines of these great +instruments would be worked out according to the way she played her +part. Her serious responsibility came in the fact that her work was +one that nobody could take off her hands. This responsibility required +a preparation entirely different from that which had been hers. She +must be given education and liberty. The woman saw this, and the story +of her efforts to secure both, that she might meet the requirements, +is one of the noblest in history. There was no doubt, then, as to the +value of the tasks, no question as to their being worthy national +obligations. It was a question of fitting herself for them. + +But what has happened? In the process of preparing herself to +discharge more adequately her task as a woman in a republic, her +respect for the task has been weakened. In this process, which we call +emancipation, she has in a sense lost sight of the purposes of +emancipation. Interested in acquiring new tools, she has come to +believe the tools more important than the thing for which she was to +use them. She has found out that with education and freedom, pursuits +of all sorts are open to her, and by following these pursuits she can +preserve her personal liberty, avoid the grave responsibility, the +almost inevitable sorrows and anxieties, which belong to family life. +She can choose her friends and change them. She can travel, and +gratify her tastes, satisfy her personal ambitions. The snare has been +too great; the beauty and joy of free individual life have dulled the +sober sense of national obligation. The result is that she is +frequently failing to discharge satisfactorily some of the most +imperative demands the nation makes upon her. + +Take as an illustration the moral training of the child. The most +essential obligation in a Woman's Business is establishing her +household on a sound moral basis. If a child is anchored to basic +principles, it is because his home is built on them. If he understands +integrity as a man, it is usually because a woman has done her work +well. If she has not done it well, it is probable that he will be a +disturbance and a menace when he is turned over to society. Sending +defective steel to a gunmaker is no more certain to result in unsafe +guns than turning out boys who are shifty and tricky is to result in a +corrupt and unhappy community. + +Appalled by the seriousness of the task, or lured from it by the joys +of liberty and education, the woman has too generally shifted it to +other shoulders--shoulders which were waiting to help her work out the +problem, but which could never be a substitute. She has turned over +the child to the teacher, secular and religious, and fancied that he +might be made a man of integrity by an elaborate system of teaching in +a mass. Has this shifting of responsibility no relation to the general +lowering of our commercial and political morality? + +For years we have been bombarded with evidence of an appalling +indifference to the moral quality of our commercial and political +transactions. It is not too much to say that the revelations of +corruption in our American cities, the use of town councils, State +legislatures, and even of the Federal Government in the interests of +private business, have discredited the democratic system throughout +the world. It has given more material for those of other lands who +despise democracy to sneer at us than anything that has yet happened +in this land. And _this has come about under the régime of the +emancipated woman_. Is she in no way responsible for it? If she had +kept the early ideals of the woman's part in democracy as clearly +before her eyes as she has kept some of her personal wants and needs, +could there have been so disastrous a condition? Would she be the +Uneasy Woman she is if she had kept faith with the ideals that forced +her emancipation?--if she had not substituted for them dreams of +personal ambition, happiness, and freedom! + +The failure to fulfill your function in the scheme under which you +live always produces unrest. Content of mind is usually in proportion +to the service one renders in an undertaking he believes worth while. +If our Uneasy Woman could grasp the full meaning of her place in this +democracy, a place so essential that democracy must be overthrown +unless she rises to it--a part which man is not equipped to play and +which he ought not to be asked to play, would she not cease to +apologize for herself--cease to look with envy on man's occupations? +Would she not rise to her part and we not have at last the "new woman" +of whom we have talked so long? + +Learning, business careers, political and industrial activities--none +of these things is more than incidental in the national task of woman. +Her great task is to prepare the citizen. The citizen is not prepared +by a training in practical politics. Something more fundamental is +required. The meaning of honor and of the sanctity of one's word, the +understanding of the principles of democracy and of the society in +which we live, the love of humanity, and the desire to serve,--these +are what make a good citizen. The tools for preparing herself to give +this training are in the woman's hands. It calls for education, and +the nation has provided it. It calls for freedom of movement and +expression, and she has them. It calls for ability to organize, to +discuss problems, to work for whatever changes are essential. She is +developing this ability. It may be that it calls for the vote. I do +not myself see this, but it is certain that she will have the vote as +soon as not a majority, but an approximate half, not of men--but of +women--feel the need of it. + +What she has partially at least lost sight of is that education, +freedom, organization, agitation, the suffrage, are but tools to an +end. What she now needs is to formulate that end so nobly and clearly +that the most ignorant woman may understand it. The failure to do +this is leading her deeper and deeper into fruitless unrest. It is +also dulling her sense of the necessity of keeping her business +abreast with the times. At one particular and vital point this shows +painfully, and that is her slowness in socializing her home. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE SOCIALIZATION OF THE HOME + + +It is only by much junketing about that one comes to the full +realization of what men and women in the main are doing in this +country. One learns as he passes from town to town, through cities and +across plains, that the general reason for industry everywhere is to +get the means to build and support a home. Row upon row, street upon +street, they run in every village you traverse. They dot the hills and +valleys, they break up the mountain side. + +Every night they draw to their shelter millions of men who have toiled +since morning to earn the money to build and keep them running. All +day they shelter millions of women who toil from dawn to dark to put +meaning into them. To shelter two people and the children that come to +them, to provide them a place in which to eat and sleep, is that the +only function of these homes? If that were all, few homes would be +built. When that becomes all, the home is no more! To furnish a body +for a soul, that is the physical function of the home. + +There are certain people who cry out that for a woman this undertaking +has no meaning--that for her it is a cook stove and a dustpan, a +childbed, and a man who regards her as his servant. One might with +equal justice say that for the man it is made up of ten, twelve, or +more hours, at the plow, the engine, the counter, or the pen for the +sake of supporting a woman and children whom he rarely sees! +Unhappily, there are such combinations; they are not homes! They are +deplorable failures of people who have tried to make homes. To insist +that they are anything else is to overlook the facts of life, to doubt +the sanity of mankind which hopefully and courageously goes on +building, building, building, sacrificing, binding itself forever and +ever to what?--a shell? No, to the institution which its observation +and experience tell it, is the one out of which men and women have +gotten the most hope, dignity, and joy,--the place through which, +whatever its failures and illusions, they get the fullest development +and the opportunity to render the most useful social service. + +It is this grounded conviction that the home takes first rank among +social institutions which gives its tremendous seriousness to the +Business of Being a Woman. She is the one who must sit always at its +center, the one who holds a strategic position for dealing directly +with its problems. Far from these problems being purely of a menial +nature, as some would have us believe, they are of the most delicate +social and spiritual import. A woman in reality is at the head of a +social laboratory where all the problems are of primary, not +secondary, importance, since they all deal directly with human life. + +One of the most illuminating experiences of travel is visiting the +great chateaux of France. One goes to see "historical monuments," the +scenes of strange and tragic human experiences; he finds he is in +somebody's private house, which by order of the government is opened +to the public one day of the week! He probably will not realize this +fully unless he suddenly opens a door, not intended to be opened, +behind which he finds a mass of children's toys--go-carts and dolls, +balls and tennis rackets--or stumbles into a room supposed to be +locked where framed photographs, sofa cushions, and sewing tables +abound! + +To the average American it comes almost as a shock that these open +homes are the _logic of democracy_. It is almost sure to set him +thinking that after all the home, anybody's home, even one in such big +contrast to this chateau as a two-story frame house, on Avenue A, in +B-ville, has a relation to the public. He has touched a great social +truth. + +To socialize her home, that is the high undertaking a woman has on her +hands if she is to get at the heart of her Business. And what do we +mean by socialization? Is it other than to put the stamp of +affectionate, intelligent human interest upon all the operations and +the intercourse of the center she directs? To make a place in which +the various members can live freely and draw to themselves those with +whom they are sympathetic--a place in which there is spiritual and +intellectual room for all to grow and be happy each in his own way? + +I doubt if there is any problem in the Woman's Business which requires +a higher grade of intelligence, and certainly none that requires +broader sympathies, than this of giving to her home that quality of +stimulation and joyousness which makes young and old seek it gladly +and freely. + +To do this requires money, freedom, time, and strength? No, what I +mean does not depend upon these things. It is the notion that it does +that often prevents its growth. For it is a spirit, an attitude of +mind, and not a formula or a piece of machinery. As far as my +observation goes it is quite, if not more likely, to be found in a +three-room apartment, where a family is living on fifteen dollars a +week, as in an East Central Park mansion! In these little families +where love prevails--it usually does exist. It is the kind of an +atmosphere in which a man prefers to smoke his pipe rather than go to +the saloon; where the girl brings her young man home rather than walk +with him. Mutual interest and affection is its note. Such homes do +exist by the tens of thousands; even in New York City. It is not from +them that girls go to brothels or boys to the Tombs. + +Externally, these homes are often pretty bad to look at--overcrowded, +disorderly, and noisy. Cleanliness, order, and space are good things, +but it is a mistake to think that there is no virtue without them. +There are more primary and essential things; things to which they +should be added, but without which they are lifeless virtues. In one +of Miss Loane's reports on the life of the English poor, she makes +these truthful observations:-- + + One learns to understand how it is that the dirty, untidy young + wife, who, when her husband returns hungry and tired from a long + day's work, holds up a smilingly assured face to be kissed, + exclaiming, "Gracious! if I hadn't forgot all about your tea!" and + clatters together an extravagant and ill-chosen meal while she + pours out a stream of cheerful and inconsequent chatter, is more + loved, and dealt with more patiently, tenderly, and faithfully, + than her clean and frugal neighbor, who has prepared a meal that + ought to turn the author of Twenty Satisfying Suppers for Sixpence + green with envy, but who expects her husband to be eternally + grateful because "he could eat his dinner off the boards,"--when + all that the poor man asks is to be allowed to walk over them + unreproached. + +Peace and good will may go with disorder and carelessness! They may +fly order and thrift. They will fly them when order and thrift are +held as the more desirable. A woman is often slow to learn that good +housekeeping alone cannot produce a milieu in which family happiness +thrives and to which people naturally gravitate. She looks at it as +the fulfillment of the law--the end of her Business. It is the +exaggerated place she gives it in the scheme of things, which brings +disaster to her happiness and gives substance to the argument that +woman's lot in life is fatal to her development. Housekeeping is only +the shell of a Woman's Business. Women lose themselves in it as men +lose themselves in shopkeeping, farming, editing. Knowing nothing but +your work is one of the commonest human mistakes. Pitifully enough it +is often a deliberate mistake--the only way or the easiest way one +finds to quiet an unsatisfied heart. The undue place given good +housekeeping in many a woman's scheme of life is the more tragic +because it is a distortion of one of the finest things in the human +experience--the satisfaction of doing a thing well. It is a +satisfaction which the worker must have if he is to get joy from his +labor. But labor is not for the sake of itself. It must have its human +reason. You rejoice in a "deep-driven plow"--but if there was to be no +harvest, your straight, full furrows would be little comfort. You +rejoice to build a stanch and beautiful house, but if you knew it was +to stand forever vacant, joy would go from your task. An end work must +have. One does not keep house for its own sake. It is absorption in +the process--the refusal to allow it to be forgotten or utilized +freely, that makes the work barren. It is like becoming so absorbed in +a beautiful frame that you are unconscious of the picture--unconscious +that there is a picture. Things must serve their purpose if they are +to convince of their beauty. Try living in a room with a wonderfully +fitted fireplace; its mantel of exquisite design and workmanship, its +fire irons masterpieces of art--and no heat from it! Note how utterly +distasteful it all becomes. It is no longer beautiful because it does +not do the work it was made beautiful to do. + +One of the most repellent houses in which I have ever visited was one +in which there was, from garret to cellar, so far as I discovered, not +one article which was not of the period imitated, not one streak of +color which was not "right." It was a masterpiece of correct +furnishing, but it gave one a curious sense of limitation. One could +not escape the scheme. The inelasticity of it hampered sociability--and +there grew on one, too, a sense of unfitness. His clothes were an +anachronism! They were the only thing which did not belong! + +There is an old-fashioned adjective which describes better than any +other this preoccupation with things, which so often prevents a +woman's coming to an understanding of the heart of her Business. It is +_old maidish_. It has often been the pathetic fate of single women to +live alone. To minister to themselves becomes their occupation. The +force of their natures turns to their belongings. If in straitened +circumstances they give their souls to spotless floors; if rich, to +flawless mahogany and china, to perfect household machinery. Wherever +you find in woman this perversion--old maidish is perhaps the most +accurate word for her--it is a sacrifice of the human to the material. +A house without sweet human litter, without the trace of many varying +tastes and occupations, without the trail of friends who perhaps have +no sense of beauty but who love to give, without the scars of use, +and the dust of running feet--what is it but a meatless shell! + +This devotion to "things" may easily become a ghoulish passion. It is +such that Ibsen hints at in the _Master Builder_, when he makes Aline +Solness attribute her perpetual black, her somber eyes and smileless +lips, not to the death of her two little boys which has come about +through the burning of her home, _that_ was a "dispensation of +Providence" to which she "bows in submission," but to the destruction +of the _things_ which were "mine"--"All the old portraits were burnt +upon the walls, and all the old silk dresses were burnt that had +belonged to the family for generations and generations. And all +mother's and grandmother's lace--that was burnt, too, and only think, +the jewels too." + +One of the most disastrous effects of this preocccupation with the +things and the labors of the household is the killing of conversation. +There is perhaps no more general weakness in the average American +family than glumness! The silent newspaper-reading father, the worried +watchful mother, the surly boy, the fretful girl, these are characters +typical in both town and country. In one of Mrs. Daskam Bacon's lively +tales, "Ardelia in Arcadia," the little heroine is transplanted from a +lively, chattering, sweltering New York street to the maddening +silence of an overworked farmer's table. She stands it as long as she +can, then cries out, "For Gawd's sake, _talk_!" + +One secret of the attraction for the young of the city over the +country or small town is contact with those who talk. They are +conscious of the exercise of a freedom they have never known--the +freedom to say what rises to the lips. They experience the unknown joy +of play of mind. According to their observation the tongue and mind +are used only when needed for serious service: to keep them active, to +allow them to perform whatever nimble feats their owners fancy--this +is a revelation! + +Free family talk is sometimes ruined by a mistaken effort to direct it +according to some artificial notions of what conversation means. +Conversation means free giving of what is uppermost in the mind. The +more spontaneous it is the more interesting and genuine it is. It is +this freedom which gives to the talk of the child its surprises and +often its startling power to set one thinking. Holding talk to some +severe standard of consistency, dignity, or subject is sure to stiffen +and hamper it. There could have been nothing very free or joyful +about talking according to a program as the ladies of the +eighteenth-century salons were more or less inclined. Good +conversation runs like water; nothing is foreign to it. "Farming is +such an unintellectual subject," I heard a critical young woman say to +her husband, whose tastes were bucolic. The young woman did not +realize that one of the masterpieces of the greatest of the world's +writers was on farming--most practical farming, too! That which +relates to the life of each, interests each, concerns each--that is +the material for conversation, if it is to be enjoyable or productive. + +One of a woman's real difficulties in creating a free-speaking +household is her natural tendency to regard opinions as personal. To +differ is something she finds it difficult to tolerate. To her mind it +is to be unfriendly. This propensity to give a personal turn to +things is an expression of that intensity of nature which makes her, +as Mr. Kipling has truthfully put it, "more deadly than the male!" She +_must_ be that--were she not, the race would dwindle. _He_ would never +sacrifice himself as she does for the preservation of the young! This +necessity of concentrating her whole being on a little group makes her +personal. The wise woman is she who recognizes that like all great +forces this, too, has its weakness. Because a woman must be "more +deadly than the male" in watching her offspring is no reason she +should be so in guarding an opinion. Certainly if she is so, +conversation is cut off at the root. + +Not infrequently she is loath to encourage free expression because it +seems to her to disturb the peace. Certainly it does disturb fixity of +views. It does prevent things becoming settled in the way that the +woman, as a rule, loves to have them, but this disturbance prevents +the rigid intellectual and spiritual atmosphere which often drives the +young from home. Peace which comes from submission and restraint is a +poor thing. In the long run it turns to revolt. The woman, if she +examines her own soul, knows the effect upon it of habitual submission +to a husband's opinion. She knows it is a habit fatal to her own +development. While at the beginning she may have been willing enough +to sacrifice her ideas, later she makes the painful discovery that +this hostage to love, as she considered it, has only made her less +interesting, less important, both to herself and to him. It has made +it the more difficult, also, to work out that socialization of her +home which, as her children grow older, she realizes, if she thinks, +is one of her most imperative duties. + +A woman is very prone to look on marriage as a merger of +personalities, but there can be no great union where an individuality +permits itself to be ruined. The notion that a woman's happiness +depends on the man--that he must "make her happy"--is a basic untruth. +Life is an individual problem, and consequently happiness must be. +Others may hamper it, but in the final summing up it is you, not +another, who gives or takes it--no two people can work out a high +relation if the precious inner self of either is sacrificed. + +Emerson has said the great word:-- + + Leave all for love; + _Yet, hear me, yet, + Keep thee to-day, + To-morrow, forever, + Free as an Arab! + Of thy beloved_. + +The "open house," that is, the socialized house, depends upon this +free mind to a degree only second to that spirit of "good will to +man," upon which it certainly must, like all institutions in a +democratic Christian nation, be based. This good will is only another +name for neighborliness--the spirit of friendly recognition of all +those who come within one's radius. Neighborliness is based upon the +Christian and democratic proposition that all men are brothers--a +proposition with which the sects and parties of Christianity and +democracy often play havoc. In their zeal for an interpretation or +system they sacrifice the very things they were devised to perpetuate +and extend among men. A sectarian or partisan household cannot be a +genuinely neighborly household. It has cut off too large a part of its +source of supply. + +The most perfect type of this spirit of neighborliness which we have +worked out in this country, outside of the thousands of little homes +where it exists and of which, in the nature of the case, only those +who have felt their influence can know, is undoubtedly Hull House, the +Chicago Settlement under the direction of Jane Addams. Hull House is +an "open house" for its neighborhood. It is a place where men and +women of all ages, conditions, and points of view are welcome. So far +as I have been able to discover, genuine freedom of mind and +friendliness of spirit are what have made Hull House possible and are +what will decide its future after the day of the great woman who has +mothered it and about whom it revolves. There is no formula for +building a Hull House--any more than there is a home. Both are the +florescence of a spirit and a mind. Each will form itself according to +the ideas, the tastes, and the cultivation of the individuality at +its center. Its activities will follow the peculiar needs which she +has the brains and heart to discover, the ingenuity and energy to +meet. + +Hull House serves its neighborhood, and in so doing it serves most +fully its own household. Its own members are the ones whose minds get +the most illumination from its activities. Moreover, Hull House from +its first-hand sympathetic dealing with men and women in its +neighborhood learns the needs of the neighborhood. It is and for years +has been a constant source of suggestion and of agitation for the +betterment of the conditions under which its neighbors--and indirectly +the whole city, even nation--live and work. Health, mind, morals, all +are in its care. It is practical in the plans it offers. It can back +up its demands with knowledge founded on actual contact. It can rally +all of the enlightened and decent forces of the city to its help. Hull +House, indeed, is a very source of pure life in the great city where +it belongs. + +So far as attitude of mind and spirit go, the home should be to the +little neighborhood in which it works what Hull House is to its great +field. In its essential structure it is the same thing; _i.e._ Hull +House is really modeled after the home. Most interesting is the +parallel between its organization and its activities and those of many +a great home which we know through the lives of their mistresses, that +of Margaret Winthrop, of Eliza Pinckney, of Mrs. John Adams. + +The social significance of Hull House is in its relative degree the +possible social significance of every home in this land. The +realization depends entirely upon the conception the woman in a +particular house has of this side of her Business--whether or no she +sees neighborliness in this big sense. That she does not see it is too +often due to the fact that even though she may have "gone through +college," she has no notion of society as a living structure made up +of various interdependent institutions, the first and foremost of +which is a family or home. + +Absurd as it is, Society, which is founded on the family, is to-day +giving only perfunctory and half-hearted attention to the family. The +whole vocabulary of the institution has taken on such a quality of +cant, that one almost hesitates to use the words "home" and "mother"! +A girl's education should contain at least as much serious instruction +on the relation of the family to Society as it does on the relation of +the Carboniferous Age to the making of the globe. At present, it +usually has less. It is but another evidence of the pressing need +there is of giving to the Woman's Business a more scientific +treatment--of revitalizing its vocabulary, reformulating its problems, +of giving it the dignity it deserves, that of a great profession. It +is the failure to do this which is at the bottom of woman's present +disorderly and antisocial handling of three of the leading occupations +of her life--her clothes, her domestics, and her daughter. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A WOMAN AND HER RAIMENT + + +One of the most domineering impulses in men and women is that bidding +them to make themselves beautiful. In the normal girl-child it comes +out, as does her craving for a doll. Nature is telling her what her +work in the world is to be. It stays with her to the end, its flame +often flickering long after her arms have ceased their desire to +cradle a child. Scorn it, ridicule it, deny it, it is nature's will, +and as such must be obeyed, and in the obeying should be honored. + +But this instinct, which has led men and women from strings of shells +to modern clothes, like every other human instinct, has its +distortions. It is in the failure to see the relative importance of +things, to keep the proportions, that human beings lose control of +their endowment. Give an instinct an inch, and it invariably takes its +ell! The instinct for clothes, from which we have learned so much in +our climb from savagery, has more than once had the upper hand of us. +So dangerous to the prosperity and the seriousness of peoples has its +tyranny been, that laws have again and again been passed to check it; +punishments have been devised to frighten off men from indulging it; +whole classes have been put into dull and formless costumes to crucify +it. + +Man gradually and in the main has conquered his passion for ornament. +To-day, in the leading nations of the world, he clothes rather than +arrays himself. Woman has not harnessed the instinct. She still allows +it to drive her, and often to her own grave prejudice. Even in a +democracy like our own, woman has not been able to master this problem +of clothes. In fact, democracy has complicated the problem seriously. + +Under the old régime costumes had been worked out for the various +classes. They were adapted both to the purse and to the pursuit. They +were fitting--that is, silk was not worn in huts or homespun in +palaces; slippers were for carriages and _sabots_ for streets. The +garments of a class were founded on good sound principles on the +whole--but they marked the class. Democracy sought to destroy outward +distinctions. The proscribed costumes went into the pot with +proscribed positions. Under democracy we can cook in silk petticoats +and go to the White House in a cap and apron, if we will. And we often +will, that being a way to advertise our equality! + +Class costumes destroyed, the principles back of them, that is, +fitness, quality, responsibility, were forgotten. The old instinct for +ornament broke loose. Its tyranny was strengthened by the eternal +desire of the individual to prove himself superior to his fellows. +Wealth is the generally accepted standard of measurement of value in +this country to-day, and there is no way in which the average man can +show wealth so clearly as in encouraging his women folk to array +themselves. Thus we have the anomaly in a democracy of a primitive +instinct let loose, and the adoption of discarded aristocratic devices +for proving you are better than your neighbor, at least in the one +revered particular of having more money to spend! + +The complication of the woman's life by this domination of clothes is +extremely serious. In many cases it becomes not one of the sides of +her business, but _the_ business of her life. Such undue proportion +has the matter taken in the American Woman's life under democracy that +one is sometimes inclined to wonder if it is not the real "woman +question." Certainly in numbers of cases it is the rock upon which a +family's happiness splits. The point is not at all that women should +not occupy themselves seriously with dress, that they should not look +on it as an art, as legitimate as any other. The difficulty comes in +not mastering the art, in the entirely disproportionate amount of +attention which is given to the subject, in the disregard of sound +principles. + +The economic side of the matter presses hard on the whole country. It +is not too much to say that the chief economic concern of a great body +of women is how to get money to dress, not as they should, but as they +want to. It is to get money for clothes that drives many, though of +course not the majority, of girls, into shops, factories, and offices. +It is because they are using all they earn on themselves that they are +able to make the brave showing that they do. Many a girl is misjudged +by the well-meaning observer or investigator because of this +fact--"She could never dress like that on $6, $8, or $15 a week and +support herself," they tell you. She does not support herself. She +works for clothes, and clothes alone. Moreover, the girl who has the +pluck to do hard regular work that she may dress better has interest +enough to work at night to make her earnings go farther. No one who +has been thrown much with office girls but knows case after case of +girls who with the aid of some older member of the family cut and make +their gowns, plan and trim their hats. Moreover, this relieving the +family budget of dressing the girl is a boon to fathers and mothers. + +It is hard on industry, however, for the wage earner who can afford to +take $6 or $8 helps pull down the wages of other thousands who support +not only themselves, but others. + +Moreover, to put in one's days in hard labor simply to dress well, for +that is the amount of it, is demoralizing. It is this emphasis on the +matter which impels a reckless girl sometimes to sell herself for +money to buy clothes. "I wanted the money," I heard a girl, arrested +for her first street soliciting, tell the judge. "Had you no home?" +"Yes." "A good home?" "Yes." "For what did you want money?" "Clothes." + +"Gee, but I felt as if I would give anything for one of them willow +plumes," a pretty sixteen-year-old girl told the police matron who had +rescued her from a man with whom she had left home, because he +promised her silk gowns and hats with feathers. + +This ugly preoccupation with dress does not begin with the bottom of +society. It exists there because it exists at the top and filters +down. In each successive layer there are women to whom dress is as +much of a vice as it was for the poor little girls I quote above. It +is a vice curiously parallel to that of gambling among men. Women of +great wealth not infrequently spend princely allowances and then run +accounts which come into the courts by their inability or +unwillingness to pay them. It is curious comment on women in a +democracy that it should be possible to mention them in the same +breath with Josephine, Empress of the French. Napoleon at the +beginning of the Empire allowed Josephine $72,000 a year for her +toilet; later he made it $90,000. But there was never a year she did +not far outstrip the allowance. Masson declares that on an average she +spent $220,000 a year, and the itemized accounts of the articles in +her wardrobe give authority for the amount. + +Josephine's case is of course exceptional in history. She was an +untrained woman, generous and pleasure-loving, utterly without a sense +of responsibility. She had all the instincts and habits of a +demi-mondaine; moreover, she had been thrust into a position where she +was expected to live up to traditions of great magnificence. Her +passion for ornament had every temptation and excuse, for it was +constantly excited by the hoards of greedy tradesmen and of no less +greedy ladies-in-waiting who hung about her urging her to buy and +give. It is hard to believe that Josephine's case could be even +remotely suggested in our democracy; yet one woman in American +society bought last summer in Europe a half-dozen nightgowns for which +she paid a thousand dollars apiece. There are women who will start on +a journey with a hundred or a hundred and fifty pairs of shoes. There +are others who bring back from Europe forty or fifty new gowns for a +season! What can one think of a bill of $500 for stockings in one +season, of $20,000 for a season's gowns, coats and hats from one shop +and as much more in the aggregate for the same articles in the same +period from other shops; this showing was made in a recent divorce +case. + +What can one think of duties of over $30,000 paid on personal articles +by one woman who yearly brings back similar quantities of jewelry and +clothes. This $30,000 in duties meant an expenditure of probably about +$100,000. It included over $1200 for hats, over $3000 for corsets and +lingerie. This was undoubtedly exceptional; that is, few women of even +great wealth buy so lavishly. Yet good round sums, even if they are +small in comparison, are spent by many women in their European +outings. They will bring from six to twelve gowns which will average +at least $150 apiece, and an occasional woman will have a half-dozen +averaging from $450 to $500 apiece. One might say that eight to twelve +hats, costing $25 to $50 apiece, was a fair average, though $800 to +$1200 worth is not so rare as to cause a panic at the customhouse. + +The comparative amounts which men and women spend affords an +interesting comment on the relative importance which men and women +attach to clothes. In one case of which I happen to know Mr. A. +brought in $840 worth of wearing apparel: Mrs. A. nearly $10,000 +worth, of which $7000 was for gowns. A man may have eight to ten suits +of pajamas which cost him $10 apiece, a dozen or two waistcoats, a +dozen or two shirts, a few dozen handkerchiefs and gloves, a dozen or +so ties, eight or ten suits of clothes, but from $500 to $1000 will +cover his wardrobe; his wife will often spend as much for hats alone +as he does for an entire outfit! + +The difficulty in these great expenditures is that they set a pace. To +many women of wealth they are no doubt revolting. They recognize that +there are only two classes of women who can justify them--the actress +and the demi-mondaine. Yet insensibly many of these women yield to the +pressure of temptation. The influence is subtle, often unconscious, +and for this reason spreads the more widely. Women all over the +country find that the pressure is to spend more for clothes each year. +The standard changes. Occasions multiply. Fantasies entice. Before +they know it their clothes are costing them a disproportionate +sum--more than they can afford if their budget is to balance. + +This does not apply to one class, it creeps steadily down to the very +poor. Investigators of small household budgets lay it down as a rule +that as the income increases the percentage spent for clothing +increases more rapidly than for any other item. It is true in the +professional classes, and especially burdensome there; for the income +is usually small, but the social demand great. + +There are certain industrial and ethical results from this +preoccupation with clothes which should not be overlooked, +particularly the indifference to quality which it has engendered. The +very heart of the question of clothes of the American woman is +imitation. That is, we are not engaged in an effort to work out +individuality. We are not engaged in an effort to find costumes which +by their expression of the taste and the spirit of this people can be +fixed upon as appropriate American costumes, something of our own. +From top to bottom we are copying. The woman of wealth goes to Paris +and Vienna for the real masterpieces in a season's wardrobe. The great +dressmakers and milliners go to the same cities for their models. +Those who cannot go abroad to seek inspiration and ideas copy those +who have gone or the fashion plates they import. The French or +Viennese mode, started on upper Fifth Avenue, spreads to 23d St., from +23d St. to 14th St., from 14th St. to Grand and Canal. Each move sees +it reproduced in materials a little less elegant and durable, its +colors a trifle vulgarized, its ornaments cheapened, its laces poorer. +By the time it reaches Grand Street the $400 gown in brocaded velvet +from the best looms in Europe has become a cotton velvet from Lawrence +or Fall River, decorated with mercerized lace and glass ornaments from +Rhode Island! A travesty--and yet a recognizable travesty. The East +Side hovers over it as Fifth Avenue has done over the original. The +very shop window, where it is displayed, is dressed and painted and +lighted in imitation of the uptown shop. The same process goes on +inland. This same gown will travel its downward path from New York +westward, until the Grand St. creation arrives in some cheap and gay +mining or factory town. From start to finish it is imitation, and on +this imitation vast industries are built--imitations of silk, of +velvet, of lace, of jewels. + +These imitations, cheap as they are, are a far greater extravagance, +for their buyers, than the original model was for its buyer, for the +latter came from that class where money does not count--while the +former is of a class where every penny counts. The pity of it is that +the young girls, who put all that they earn into elaborate lingerie at +seventy-nine cents a set (the original model probably sold at $50 or +$100), into open-work hose at twenty-five cents a pair (the original +$10 a pair), into willow plumes at $1.19 (the original sold at $50), +never have a durable or suitable garment. They are bravely ornamented, +but never properly clothed. Moreover, they are brave but for a day. +Their purchases have no goodness in them; they tear, grow rusty, fall +to pieces with the first few wearings, and the poor little victims are +shabby and bedraggled often before they have paid for their +belongings, for many of these things are bought on the installment +plan, particularly hats and gowns. Under these circumstances, it is +little wonder that one hears, often and often among their class, the +bitter cry, "Gee, but it's hell to be poor!"--that one finds so often +assigned by a girl as the cause of her downfall, the natural +reason--"Wanted to dress like other girls"--"Wanted pretty clothes." + +This habit of buying poor imitations does not end in the girl's life +with her clothes. When she marries, she carries it into her home. +Decoration, not furnishing, is the keynote of all she touches. It is +she who is the best patron of the elaborate and monstrous cheap +furniture, rugs, draperies, crockery, bric-a-brac, which fill the +shops of the cheaper quarters of the great cities, and usually all +quarters of the newer inland towns. + +Has all this no relation to national prosperity--to the cost of +living? The effect on the victim's personal budget is clear--the +effect it has on the family budget, which it dominates, is clear. In +both cases nothing of permanent value is acquired. The good linen +undergarments, the "all wool" gown, the broadcloth cape or coat, those +standard garments which the thrifty once acquired and cherished, only +awaken the mirth of the pretty little spendthrift on $8 a week. Solid +pieces of furniture such as often dignify even the huts of European +peasants and are passed down from mother to daughter for +generations--are objects of contempt by the younger generation here. +Even the daughters of good old New England farmers are found to-day +glad to exchange mahogany for quartered oak and English pewter for +pressed glass and stamped crockery. True, another generation may come +in and buy it all back at fabulous prices, but the waste of it! + +This production of shoddy cloth, cotton laces, cheap furniture, what +is it but waste! Waste of labor and material! Time and money and +strength which might have been turned to producing things of permanent +values, have been spent in things which have no goodness in them, +things which because of their lack of integrity and soundness must be +forever duplicated, instead of freeing industry to go ahead, producing +other good and permanent things. + +What it all amounts to is that the instinct for ornament has gotten +the upper hand of a great body of American women. We have failed so +far to develop standards of taste, fitness, and quality, strong, sure, +and good enough effectually to impose themselves. There is no +national taste in dress; there is only admirable skill in adapting +fashions made in other countries. There is no national sense of +restraint and proportion. It is pretty generally agreed that getting +all you can is entirely justifiable. There is no national sense of +quality; even the rich to-day in this country wear imitation laces. +The effect of all this is a bewildering restlessness in costume--a +sheeplike willingness to follow to the extreme the grotesque and the +fantastic. The very general adoption of the ugly and meaningless +fashions of the last few years--peach-basket hats, hobble skirts, +slippers for the street--is a case in point. From every side this is +bad--defeating its own purpose--corrupting national taste and wasting +national substance. + +Moreover, the false standard it sets up socially is intolerable. It +sounds fantastic to say that whole bodies of women place their chief +reliance for social advancement on dress, but it is true. They are, or +are not, as they are gowned! The worst of this fantasy is not only +that it forces too much attention from useful women, but that it gives +such poise and assurance to the ignorant and useless! If you look like +the women of a set, you are as "good" as they, is the democratic +standard of many a young woman. If for any reason she is not able to +produce this effect, she shrinks from contact, whatever her talent or +charm! And she is often not altogether wrong in thinking she will not +be welcome if her dress is not that of the circle to which she +aspires. Many a woman indifferently gowned has been made to feel her +difference from the elegant she found herself among. If she is sure of +herself and has a sense of humor, this may be an amusing experience. +To many, however, it is an embittering one! + +Now these observations are not presented as discoveries! They were +true, at least, as far back as the Greeks. In fact, there is nothing +in the so-called woman's movement, which in its essence did not exist +then. The stream of human aspirations, with its stretches of wisdom +and of folly, has flowed steadily through the ages, and on its +troubled surface men and women have always struggled together as they +are struggling to-day. These little comments simply seem to the writer +worth making because for the moment the truths behind them are not +getting as much attention as they deserve. Certainly the tyranny dress +exercises over the woman in this American democracy is an old enough +theme. Indeed, it has always formed a part of her program of +emancipation. Out of her revolt against its absurdities has come the +most definite development in American costume which we have had, and +that is the sensible street costume, which in spite of efforts to +distort and displace it, a woman still may wear without +differentiating herself from her fellows. + +The short skirt and jacket, the shirt waist and stout boots, a woman +is allowed to-day, are among the good things which the Woman's Rights +movement of the 40's and 50's helped secure for us. When those able +leaders made their attack on man, demanding that the world in which he +moved be opened to them, they were quick enough to see that if they +succeeded in their undertaking they would be hampered by their +clothes. They revolted! True, they did not voice this revolt in their +historic list of "injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward +woman." They did not say, "He has compelled her to hamper herself +with skirts and stays, to decorate her head with rats and puffs, to +paint her face with poisonous compounds, to walk the street in +footwear which is neither suitable nor comfortable!" + +This statement, however, would have had the same quality of truth as +several which were included in the "List of Grievances"; the same as +the declaration: "He has compelled her to submit to laws in the +formation of which she has had no voice," or, "He has denied her the +facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being +closed against her." + +Dress reformers were admitted to the ranks of the agitators. The +initial revolt was thoroughgoing. They discarded the corset, discarded +it when it was still improper to speak the word! They cut off their +hair, cut it off in a day when every woman owned a chignon. They +discarded the corset, cut off their hair, and adopted bloomers! + +The story of the bloomer is piquant. It was launched and worn. It +became the subject of platform oratory and had its organ. Why is it +not worn to-day? No woman who has ever masqueraded in man's dress or +donned it for climbing will ever forget the freedom of it. Yet the +only woman in the Christian world who ever wore it at once naturally +and with that touch of coquetry which is necessary to carry it off, as +far as this writer's personal observation goes, was Madame Dieulafoy, +and Madame Dieulafoy was protected by the French government and an +exclusive circle. + +Bloomers proved too much for even the courage of dear Miss Anthony. +For two years she wore them, and then with tears and lamentations +resigned them. In that resignation Miss Anthony paid tribute, +unconsciously no doubt, to something deeper than she ever grasped in +the woman question. Her valiant soul met its master in her own nature, +but she did not recognize it. She abandoned her convenient and +becoming costume because of prejudice, she said. What other prejudice +ever dismayed her! She thrived on fighting them; she met her woman's +soul, and did not know it! + +But from the experiments and blunders and travail of some of these +noble and early militants over the dress question, has come, as I have +said, our present useful, and probably permanent type of street suit. +In this particular the American woman has achieved a genuine +democratization of her clothes. The experience of the last two +years--fashion's open attempt to make the walking suit useless by +tightening the skirts, and bizarre by elaborate decorations, has in +the main failed. Here, then, is a standard established, and +established on one of the great principles of sensible clothing, and +that is fitness. It shows that the true attack on the tyranny and +corruption of clothes lies in the establishment of principles. + +These principles are, briefly:-- + +The fitness of dress depends upon the occasion. + +The beauty of dress depends upon line and color. + +The ethics of dress depends upon quality and the relation of cost to +one's means. + +In time we may get into the heads of all women, rich and poor, that an +open-work stocking and low shoe for winter street wear are as unfit as +they all concede a trailing skirt to be. In time we may even hope to +train the eye until it recognizes the difference between a beautiful +and a grotesque form, between a flowing and a jagged line. In time we +may restore the sense of quality, which our grandmothers certainly +had, and which almost every European peasant brings with her to this +country. + +These principles are teachable things. Let her once grasp them and the +vagaries of style will become as distasteful as poor drawing does to +one whose eye has learned what is correct, as lying is to one who has +cultivated the taste for the truth. + +Martha Berry tells of an illuminating experience in her school of +Southern mountain girls. She had taken great pains to teach them +correct standards and principles of dress. She had been careful to see +that simplicity and quality and fitness were all that they saw in the +dress of their teachers. Then one day they had visitors, fashionable +visitors, in hobble skirts and strange hats and jingling with many +ornaments. They were good and interesting women, and they talked +sympathetically and well to the girls. Miss Berry was crushed. "What +will the girls think of my teachings?" she asked herself. "They will +believe I do not know." But that night one of her assistants said to +her: "I have just overheard the girls discussing our visitors. They +liked them so much, but they are saying that it is such a pity that +they could not have had you to _teach them how to dress_." + +As a method of education, instruction in the principles of dress is +admirable for a girl. Through it she can be made to grasp the truth +which women so generally suspect to-day; that is, the _importance of +the common and universal things of life_; the fact that all these +everyday processes are the expressions of the great underlying truths +of life. A girl can be taught, too, through this matter of dress, as +directly perhaps as through anything that concerns her, the importance +of studying human follies! Follies grow out of powerful human +instincts, ineradicable elements of human nature. They would not exist +if there were not at the bottom of them some impulse of nature, right +and beautiful and essential. The folly of woman's dress lies not in +her instinct to make herself beautiful, it lies in her ignorance of +the principles of beauty, of the intimate and essential connection +between utility and beauty. It lies in the pitiful assumption that she +can achieve her end by imitation, that she can be the thing she envies +if she look like that thing. + +The matter of dress is the more important, because bound up with it is +a whole grist of social and economic problems. It is part and parcel +of the problem of the cost of living, of woman's wages, of wasteful +industries, of the social evil itself. It is a woman's most direct +weapon against industrial abuses, her all-powerful weapon as a +consumer. At the time of the Lawrence strike, Miss Vida Scudder, of +Wellesley College, is reported to have said in a talk to a group of +women citizens in Lawrence:-- + +"I speak for thousands besides myself when I say that I would rather +never again wear a thread of woolen than know my garments had been +woven at the cost of such misery as I have seen and known, past the +shadow of a doubt, to have existed in this town." + +Miss Scudder might have been more emphatic and still have been +entirely within the limit of plain obligation; she might have said, "I +will never again wear a thread of woolen woven at the cost of such +misery as exists in this town." Women will not be doing their duty, +as citizens in this country, until they recognize fully the +obligations laid upon them by their control of consumption. + +The very heart of the question of the dress is, then, economic and +social. It is one of those great everyday matters on which the moral +and physical well-being of society rests. One of those matters, which, +rightly understood, fill the everyday life with big meanings, show it +related to every great movement for the betterment of man. + +Like all of the great interests in the Business of Being a Woman, it +is primarily an individual problem, and every woman who solves it for +herself, that is, arrives at what may be called a sound mode of dress, +makes a real contribution to society. There is a tendency to overlook +the value of the individual solution of the problems of life, and yet, +the successful individual solution is perhaps the most genuine and +fundamental contribution a man or woman can make. The end of living is +a life--fair, sound, sweet, complete. The vast machinery of life to +which we give so much attention, our governments and societies, our +politics and wrangling, is nothing in itself. It is only a series of +contrivances to insure the chance to grow a life. He who proves that +he can conquer his conditions, can adjust himself to the machinery in +which he finds himself, he is the most genuine of social servants. He +realizes the thing for which we talk and scheme, and so proves that +our dreams are not vain! + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE WOMAN AND DEMOCRACY + + +The one notion that democracy has succeeded in planting firmly in the +mind of the average American citizen is his right and duty to rise in +the world. Tested by this conception the American woman is an ideal +democrat. Give her a ghost of a chance and she almost never fails to +better herself materially and socially. Nor can she be said to do it +by the clumsy methods we describe as "pushing." She does it by a +legitimate, if rather literal, application of the national formula for +rising,--get schooling and get money. + +The average American man reverses the order of the terms in the +formula. He believes more in money. The time that boys and girls are +kept in school after the fourteen-or sixteen-year-age limit is +generally due to the insistence of the mother, her confidence that the +more education, the better the life chance. What it amounts to is that +the man has more faith in life as a teacher, the woman more faith in +schools. Both, however, seek the same goal, pin their faith to the +same tools. Both take it for granted that if they work out the +formulas, they thereby earn and will receive letters patent to the +aristocracy of the democracy! + +The weakness of this popular conception of the democratic scheme is +that it gives too much attention to what a man gets and too little to +what he gives. Democracy more than any other scheme under which men +have tried to live together depends on what each returns--returns not +in material but in spiritual things. Democracy is not a shelter, a +garment, a cash account; it is a spirit. The real test of its +followers must be sought in their attitude of mind toward life, labor, +and their fellows. + +Where does the average American woman come out in applying this test? +Take her attitude toward labor,--where does it place her? Labor +according to democracy is a badge of respectability. You cannot poach +or sponge in a democracy; if you do, you violate the fundamental right +of the other man. You cannot ask him to help support you by indirect +or concealed devices; if you do, you are hampering the free +opportunity the scheme promises him. + +Moreover, the kind of work you do must not demean you. Nothing useful +is menial. It is in the quality of the work and the spirit you give it +that the test lies. Poor work brings disrespect and so hurts not only +you but the whole mass. Contempt for a task violates the principle +because it is contempt for a thing which the system recognizes as +useful. Classification based on tasks falls down in a democracy. A +poor lawyer falls below a good clerk, a poor teacher below a good +housemaid, since one renders a sound and the other an unsound service. + +Now this ideal of labor it was for the woman to work out in the +household. To do this she must reconstruct the ideas to which she and +all her society had been trained. In the nature of the task there +could be no rules for it. It could be accomplished only by creating in +the household a genuine democratic spirit. This meant that she must +bring herself to look upon domestic service as a dignified employment +in no way demeaning the person who performed it. Quite as difficult, +she must infuse into those who performed the labor of the household +respect and pride in their service. + +What has happened? Has the woman democratized the department of labor +she controls? If we are to measure her understanding of the system +under which she lives by what she has done with her own particular +labor problem, we must set her down as a poor enough democrat. This +great department of national activity is generally (though by no means +universally) in a poorer estate to-day than ever before in the history +of the country; that is, tested by the ideals of labor toward which we +are supposed to be working, it shows less progress. + +Instead of being dignified, it has been demeaned. No other honest work +in the country so belittles a woman socially as housework performed +for money. It is the only field of labor which has scarcely felt the +touch of the modern labor movement; the only one where the hours, +conditions, and wages are not being attacked generally; the only one +in which there is no organization or standardization, no training, no +regular road of progress. It is the only field of labor in which there +seems to be a general tendency to abandon the democratic notion and +return frankly to the standards of the aristocratic régime. The +multiplication of livery, the tipping system, the terms of address, +all show an increasing imitation of the old world's methods. Unhappily +enough, they are used with little or none of the old world's ease. +Being imitations and not natural growths, they, of course, cannot be. + +More serious still is the relation which has been shown to exist +between criminality and household occupations. Nothing, indeed, which +recent investigation has established ought to startle the American +woman more. Contrary to public opinion, it is not the factory and +shop which are making the greatest number of women offenders of all +kinds; it is the household. In a recent careful study of over 3000 +women criminals, the Bureau of Labor found that 80 per cent came +directly from their own homes or from the traditional pursuits of +women![2] + +The anomaly is the more painful because women are so active in trying +to better the conditions in trades which men control. Feminine circles +everywhere have been convulsed with sympathy for shop and factory +girls. Intelligent and persistent efforts are making to reach and aid +them. This is, of course, right, and it would be a national calamity +if such organizations as the Woman's Trade Union League and the +Consumer's League should lose anything of their vigor. But the need +of the classes they reach is really less than the need of household +workers. In the first place, the number affected is far less. + +It is customary, in presenting the case of the shop and factory girl, +to speak of them as "an army 7,000,000 strong." It is a misleading +exaggeration. The whole number of American women and girls over ten +years of age earning their living wholly or partially is about +7,000,000.[3] Of this number from 20 per cent to 25 per cent belong +to the "army" in shops and factories; moreover, a goodly percentage of +this proportion are accountants, bookkeepers, and stenographers,--a +class which on the whole may be said to be able to look after its own +needs. The number in domestic service is nearly twice as great, +something like 40 per cent of the 7,000,000. + +There are almost as many dressmakers, milliners, and seamstresses as +there are factory operators in this 7,000,000. There are nearly twice +as many earning their living in dairies, greenhouses, and gardens as +there are in shops and offices. + +The greater number in domestic service is not what gives this class +its greater importance. Its chief importance comes from the fact that +it is in a _permanent_ woman's employment; that is, the household +worker becomes on marriage a housekeeper and in this country +frequently an employer of labor. The intelligence and the ideals which +she will give to her homemaking will depend almost entirely on what +she has seen in the houses where she has worked; that is, our domestic +service is _self-perpetuating_, and upon it American homes are in +great numbers being annually founded. In sharp contrast to this +permanent character of housework is the transientness of factory and +shop work. The average period which a girl gives to this kind of labor +is probably less than five years. What she learns has little or no +relation to her future as a housekeeper--indeed, the tendency is +rather to unfit than to fit her for a home. + +But why is the American woman not stirred by these facts? Why does she +not recognize their meaning and grapple with her labor problem? It is +certain that at the beginning of the republic she did have a pretty +clear idea of the kind of household revolution the country needed. Our +great-grandmothers, that is, the serious ones among them, made a brave +dash at it. There is no family, at least of New England tradition, who +does not know the methods they adopted. They changed the nomenclature. +There were to be no more "servants"--we were to have helpers. There +were to be no divisions in the household. The helper was to sit at the +table, at the fireside. (They thought to change the nature of a +relation as old as the world by changing its name and form.) It was +like the French Revolutionists' attempt to make a patriot by taking +away his ruffles and shoe buckles and calling him "citizen"! + +Of course it failed. The family meal, the fireside hour, are personal +and private institutions in a home. Much of the success of the family +in building up an intimate comradeship depends upon preserving them. +We admit friends to them as a proof of affection, strangers as a proof +of our regard. The notion that those who come into a household solely +to aid in its labor should be admitted into personal relations which +depend for their life upon privacy and affection, was always +fantastic. It could not endure, because it violated something as +important as the dignity of labor, and that was the sacredness of +personal privacy. Moreover, it was bound to fail because it made the +dignity of labor depend on artificial things--such as the name by +which one is called, the place where one sits. + +The good sense of the country might very well have regulated whatever +was artificial in the attempt, if it had not been for the crushing +interference of slavery. In the South all service was performed by +slaves. In many parts of the North, at the founding of the republic, +in Connecticut, in New York, New Jersey, slaves were held. It was +practically impossible to work out a democratic system of domestic +service side by side with this institution. + +Slavery passed, but we were impeded by the fact that, liberated, the +slave was still a slave in spirit and that his employer, North and +South, was still an aristocrat in her treatment of him. With this +situation to cope with, the woman's labor problem was still further +complicated by immigration. + +For years we have been overrun by thousands of untrained girls who are +probably to be heads of American homes and mothers of American +citizens. Most of them are of good, healthy, honest, industrious +stock, but they are ignorant of our ways and ideas. The natural place +for these girls to get their initiation into American democracy is in +the American household. The duty of American women toward these +foreign girls is plainly to help them understand our ideals. The +difficulty of this is apparent; but the failure to accomplish it has +been due less to its difficulty than to the fact that not one woman in +a thousand has recognized that she has an obligation to make a fit +citizen of the girl who comes into her home. + +Generally speaking, the foreign servant girl has been exploited in +this country almost if not quite as ruthlessly and unintelligently as +the foreign factory girl and the foreign steel mill worker. Domestic +service, which ought to be the best school for the newcomer, has +become the worst; exploited, she learns to exploit; suspected, she +learns to suspect. The result has been that the girl has soon +acquired a confused and grotesque notion of her place. She soon +becomes insolent and dissatisfied, grows more and more indifferent to +the quality of her work and to the cultivation of right relations. + +What we have lost in our treatment of the immigrant women can never be +regained. We forget that almost invariably these girls have the habit +of thrift. They have never known anything else. Thrift as a principle +is ingrained in them. But the American household is notoriously +thriftless. As a rule it destroys the quality in the untrained +immigrant girl. It is American not to care for expense--and she +accepts the method--as far as her mistress' goods are concerned--if +not her own. + +The general stupid assumption that because the immigrant girl does not +know our ways she knows nothing, has deprived us of much that she +might have contributed to our domestic arts and sciences. It is with +her as it is with any newcomer in a strange land of strange +tongue--she is shy, dreads ridicule. Instead of encouraging her to +preserve and develop that which she has learned at home, we drive her +to abandon it by our ignorant assumption that she knows nothing worth +our learning. The case of peasant handicraft is in point. It is only +recently that we have begun to realize that most women immigrants know +some kind of beautiful handicraft which they have entirely dropped for +fear of being laughed at. + +A very frequent excuse for the lack of pains that the average woman +gives to the training of the raw girl is that she marries as soon as +she becomes useful. But is it not part of the woman's business in this +democracy to help the newcomer to an independent position? Is it not +part of her business to help settle her servants in matrimony? +Certainly any large and serious conception of her business must +include this obligation. + +It is the failure to recognize opportunities for public service of +this kind that makes the woman say her life is narrow. It is parallel +to her failure to understand the relation of household economy to +national economy. She seems to lack the imagination to relate her +problem to the whole problem. She will read books and follow lecture +courses on Labor and come home to resent the narrowness of her life, +unconscious that she personally has the labor problem on her own hands +and that her failure to see that fact is complicating daily the +problems of the nation. It is the old false idea that the interesting +and important thing is somewhere else--never at home--while the truth +is that the only interesting and important thing for any one of us is +in mastering our own particular situation,--moreover, the only real +contribution we ever make comes in doing that. + +The failure to dignify and professionalize household labor is +particularly hard on the unskilled girl of little education who +respects herself, has pretty clear ideas of her "rights" under our +system of government, and who expects to make something of herself. +There are tens of thousands of such in the country; very many of them +realize clearly the many advantages of household labor. They know that +it _ought_ to be more healthful, is better paid, is more interesting +because more varied. They see its logical relation to the future to +which they look forward. + +But such a girl feels keenly the cost to herself of undertaking what +she instinctively feels ought to be for her the better task. She +knows the standards and conditions are a matter of chance; that, while +she may receive considerate treatment in one place, in another there +will be no apparent consciousness that she is a human being. She knows +and dreads the loneliness of the average "place." "It's breaking my +heart I was," sobbed an intelligent Irish girl, serving a term for +drunkenness begun in the kitchen, "alone all day long with never a one +to pass a good word." She finds herself cut off from most of the +benefits which are provided for other wage-earning girls. She finds +girls' clubhouses generally are closed to her. She is the pariah among +workers. + +What is there for this girl but the factory or the shop? Yet her +presence there is a disaster for the whole labor system, for she is a +_cheap laborer_--cheap not because she is a poor laborer--she is not; +generally she is an admirable one--quick to learn, faithful to +discharge. Her weakness in trade is that she is a transient who takes +no interest in fitting herself for an advanced position. The +demonstration of this statement is found in a town like Fall River, +where the admirable textile school has only a rare woman student, +although boys and men tax its capacity. There is no object for the +average girl to take the training. She looks forward to a different +life. The working girl has still to be convinced of the "aristocracy +of celibacy"! + +No more difficult or important undertaking awaits the American woman +than to accept the challenge to democratize her own special field of +labor. It is in doing this that she is going to make her chief +contribution to solving the problem of woman in industry. It is in +doing this that she is going to learn the meaning of democracy. It is +an undertaking in which every woman has a direct individual part--just +as every man has a direct part in the democratization of public life. + +Individual effort aside, though it is the most fundamental, she has +various special channels of power through which she can work--her +clubs, for instance. If the vast machinery of the Federation of +Woman's Clubs could be turned to this problem of the democratization +of domestic service, what an awakening might we not hope for! Yet it +is doubtful if it will be through the trained woman's organizations +that the needed revolution will come. It will come, as always, from +the ranks of the workers. + +Already there are signs that the woman's labor organizations are +willing to recognize the inherent dignity of household service. And +this is as it should be. The woman who labors should be the one to +recognize that all labor is _per se_ equally honorable--that there is +no stigma in any honestly performed, useful service. If she is to +bring to the labor world the regeneration she dreams, she must begin +not by saying that the shop girl, the clerk, the teacher, are in a +higher class than the cook, the waitress, the maid, but that we are +all laborers alike, sisters by virtue of the service we are rendering +society. That is, labor should be the last to recognize the canker of +caste.[4] + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [2] Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the + United States, Vol. XV. Relation between Occupation and + Criminality of Women. 1911. + + [3] The number of people in 1910 in what is called "gainful + occupations" has not as yet been compiled by the Census Bureau. + This figure of 7,000,000 is arrived at by the following method, + suggested to the writer by Director Durand. It is known that there + are about 44,500,000 females in the present population. Now in + 1900 there were about 14½ per cent of all the girls and women in + the country over ten years of age at work a part or all of the + time. Apply to the new figure this proportion, and you have + between six and seven millions, which is called 7,000,000 here, on + the supposition that the proportion may have increased. The + percentage of women in each of the various occupations in 1900 is + assumed still to exist. + + [4] The National Women's Trades Union League has domestic workers + among its members, though not as yet, I believe, in any large + numbers. Its officials are strong believers in a Domestic Workers' + Union. There are several such unions in New Zealand, and they have + done much to regulate hours, conditions, and wages. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE HOMELESS DAUGHTER + + +One of the severest strains society makes on human life is that of +adapting itself to ever changing conditions: yesterday it dragged us +in a stagecoach; to-day it hurls us across country in limited +expresses; to-morrow we shall fly! Once twilight and darkness were +without, shadows and dim recesses within; now, wherever men gather +there is one continuous blazing day. He who would keep his task +abreast with the day must accept speed and light; for the law is, +think, feel, do in the terms of your day, if you would keep your hold +on your day. + +It is a law often resented as if it were an immorality, but those who +refuse the new way on principle, confuse form with principle. It is +the form which changes, not the essence. The few great underlying +elements from which character and happiness are evolved are +permanent--their mutations are endless. Dull-minded, we take the +mutations to mean shifting of principle. That is, we do not square up +by truth, but by the forms of truth. + +The Woman's Business has always suffered from lack of facility in +adapting itself to new forms of expression. The natural task found, a +method of handling it in a fashion sufficiently acceptable to prevent +family revolts mastered, and the woman usually is as fixed as a star +in its orbit. She resents changes of method, new interpretations, and +fresh expressions. It is she, not man, who stands an immovable +mountain in the path of militant feminism. + +In this course she is following her nature. An instinct more powerful +than logic tells her that she must preserve the thing she is making, +that center for which she is responsible, that place where her child +is born and reared, where her mate retreats, to be reassured that the +effort to which he has committed himself is worth while, where all the +community to which she belongs is served and strengthened. If this +place is preserved, she must do it. Man, an experimenter and +adventurer, cannot. + +Changes she fears. She sees them as disturbers of her plans and her +ideals. But the changes will not stay. They gather about her retreat, +beat at the doors, creep in at the windows, win her husband and +children from her very arms. The home on which she depended to keep +them becomes impotent. While she stands an implacable guardian of a +form of truth, truth has moved on, broadened its outlook, and clothed +itself in new expressions. + +It is entirely understandable that the woman who sees herself left +behind with her dead gods should cry out against change as the ruin of +her hopes. It is equally understandable that those who find themselves +adrift should doubt the home as an institution. At the bottom of the +revolt of thousands of our "uneasy women" of to-day lies this doubt. +The home failed them, and with the logic of limited experience they +cast it out of their calculations. + +But the home is one of the unescapable facts of nature and +society--unescapable because the child demands it. One of the earliest +convictions of the child is that he has a _right_ to a home. To him it +appears as the great necessity. He cannot see himself outside of it. +To be at large in the world throws him into panic. The sacrifices and +pains very young children suffer uncomplainingly, particularly in +great cities and factory towns, is a pathetic enough demonstration of +what the word means to them. Mere children by the hundreds support +families terrified by the thought of their collapse. The orphan +forever dreams of the day when a home will be found for him. The child +whose parents seek freedom, leaving him to school or servants, never +fails to nourish a sense of injustice. Whatever one generation may +decide as to the futility or burdensomeness of the home, the oncoming +child will force its return. + +To keep this permanent place abreast with growing truth, that is the +obligation of the woman. It is the failure to do this that produces +what we may call the homeless daughter; that girl who loved and often +served to the point of folly, finds herself in a group where none of +the imperative needs the day has awakened in her are met. + +One of the first of these needs is for what we call "economic +independence." The spirit of our day and of our system of government +is personal, material independence for all. Under the old régime the +girl had her economic place. The family was a small community. It +provided for most of its own wants, hence the girl must be taught +household arts and science, all of the fine traditional knowledge and +skill which made, not drudges, but skilled managers, skilled cooks and +needlewomen, skilled hostesses and nurses. She had a _business_ to +learn under the old régime, and there was an authority, often severely +enforced no doubt, which made her learn it well. There was the same +appraising of the efficiency of the girl for her business there was +of the boy for his. + +The girl of to-day rarely has any such systematic training for the +material side of her business, nor is a dignified place provided for +her in well-to-do families. Her place is parasitical and demoralizing. +Take the young girl who has been what we call "educated"; that is, one +who has gone through college and has not found a talent which she is +eager to develop. The spirit of the times makes her less keen for +marriage, puts no feeling of obligation of marriage upon her. She +finds herself in a home which is not regarded as a serious industrial +undertaking. Things go on more or less accidentally, according to +traditions or conventions. Her ideas of scientific management, if she +has any, are treated as revolutionary. Her help is not needed. There +is no place for her. + +The daughters of the very poor often have better fortune than she in +this respect. They, from very early years, have known that they were +necessary to the family. Almost invariably they accept heavy and +sometimes cruel burdens cheerfully, even proudly. It is the pride of +knowing themselves important to those whom they love. One of the +difficult things to combat in enforcing the laws which forbid children +under fourteen working, is the child's desire to help. He may hate the +hardship, but at least there is in his lot none of that hopeless sense +of futility which comes over the girl of high spirit when she realizes +she has no practical value in the group to which she belongs. "Not +needed"--that is one of the tragic experiences of the young girl in +the well-to-do family. To save herself, to meet the truth of her day +which has taken hold of her, she must seek a productive place; that +is, leave home, seek work. If she has some special talent, knows what +she wants to do, she is fortunate indeed. With the majority it is +work, something to do, a place where they can be independently +productive, that is sought. + +The girl of the family in moderate circumstances is no better off. She +must contribute in some way, and there is no scientific management in +her home--no study of ways and means which enables her to contribute +and remain at home. She is driven outside in order to support herself. +I cannot but believe that here is one of the gravest weaknesses in our +educational machinery, this failure to give the girl inclined to +remain at home a training which would enable her to help make more of +a limited income. Nothing is so rare to-day as the fine habit of +making much of little. A dollar mixed with brains is worth five in +every place where dollars are used. Particularly is this true in the +household. The failure to teach how to mix brains and dollars, and to +inspire respect for the undertaking, annually drives thousands of +girls into our already overburdened industrial system who would be +healthier and happier at home and who would render there a much +greater economic service. Such work as is being done in certain +Western agricultural colleges for girls, in the Carnegie School for +Women in Pittsburg, in Miss Kittridge's Household Centers in New York +City, is a recognition of this need of making scientific +managers--trained household workers--of young women. There is no more +practical way of relieving the industrial strain. + +It is not always the dependent and so humiliating position a girl +finds herself in that drives her from home. It is frequently the +discovery that she is a member of a group that has no responsible +place in the community; that regards itself as a purely isolated, +unrelated, irresponsible unit,--an atom without affinities! The home +can be, if it will, the most antisocial force in existence, for it +can, if it will, exist practically for itself. That excessive +individualism, which is responsible for so many evils in our country, +has encouraged this isolation. The girl who finds herself without a +productive place at home at the same time finds none of the fine +inspiration which comes from fitting herself into a social scheme and +helping to do its work. The spirit of the age is social. She feels its +call, she sees how unresponsive, even antipathetic, to it her home is. +She concludes that if she is to serve she must seek something to do in +some remote city. The attraction the Social Settlement has for the +girl finds its base here. The loss to communities of their educated +young women, who find no response to their need, no place to serve in +their own society, is incalculable. + +It is not infrequent that a girl who may have by some chance of +fortune a sufficient sense of independence in her home, who knows +herself needed there, and is ready to perform the service, is driven +out by the persistence of that spirit of parental authority, which +looks upon it as a duty to rule the life, particularly of the +daughter, as long as she is at home. There is nothing clearer than +that the old domination of one person by another is a thing of the +past. A new spirit of coöperation and friendly direction has come into +the world. The home which it does not pervade cannot keep its young. + +The most essential thing for a woman to understand is that her +business is _not to order_ her daughter's life, but to assist that +daughter to shape it herself. She should be prepared to say to her: +"The most interesting and important thing in the world for you is to +work out your own particular life. You must build it from the place +where you stand and with the materials in your hands. Nobody else ever +stood in your particular place or ever will stand in one identical; +nobody ever has or can possess the same materials. You alone can fuse +the elements. Hold your place; do not try to shift into the place that +another occupies. Keep your eye on what you have to work with, not on +what somebody else has. The ultimate result, the originality, flavor, +distinction, usefulness of your life, depend on the care, the +reverence, and the intelligence with which you work up and out from +where you are and with what you have." + +It is only the woman who is prepared to say something like that to her +daughter, to help her to see it, and to rise to it that has brought +into her home the spirit of to-day. + +Where there is failure at any one of these points, and if one fails, +all probably will, since they are obvious elements in the liberal view +of life, the girl must go forth if her life is to go progressively on. +She must seek work, less for the sake of work than for the sake of +life. To remain where she is, unproductive in a group which does not +recognize the calls of the present world and where _another +person_--for the mother who tries to force the individuality becomes +another person--insists on shaping her course,--to do this is to +quench the spirit, stop the very breath of life. + +The girl goes forth to seek work. She has almost invariably the idea +that work outside the home has less of drudgery in it, _i.e._ less +routine and meanness, more excitement. She is unprepared for the years +of steady grinding labor which she must go through to earn her bread +in any trade or profession. She learns that work is work whether done +in kitchen, sewing room, countinghouse, studio, or editor's sanctum, +and all that keeps the operations which consume the bulk of the +worker's time in any of these places from being drudgery is that he +keeps before him the end for which they are performed. The first +disillusionment comes, then, when she faces the necessity of a long +steady pull for years if she is to "arrive." + +A second comes when she finds she must prove to a busy, driven world +that she is worth its attention; she must do more than simply knock +for admission and declare her fealty to its ideals. She realizes +sooner or later that she is an outsider and must delve her way in. No +sapper works harder to make his trench than most young women do to +make stable places for themselves in strange communities. + +The gnawing loneliness of the girl who has left home to make her way +is one of the most fruitful causes of the questionable relations which +well-born girls form more often than society realizes. The girl seizes +eagerly every chance for companionship or pleasure. Her keen need of +it makes her overappreciative and undercritical. Moreover, she has the +confidence of ignorance. Most American girls are brought up as if +wrongdoing were impossible to them. Nobody has ever suggested to them +that they have the possibility of all crimes in their makeup! Parents +and teachers ordinarily have extraordinary skill in evading, but +little in facing, the facts of life. + +Disarmed by her ignorance, the girl goes out to a freedom such as no +country has ever before believed it safe to allow the young, either +girl or boy. This freedom is of course the logical result of what we +call the "emancipation of women." It is the swinging of the pendulum +from the old system of chaperonage and authority. The weak point is in +the fact that the girl has not knowledge enough for her freedom. It is +not a return of the old system of guarded girls which is needed. That +is impossible under modern conditions, out of harmony with modern +ideas. The great need is that the women of the country realize that +freedom unaccompanied by knowledge is one of the most dangerous tools +that can be put into a human being's hands. The reluctance of women +to face this fact is the most discouraging side of the woman question. + +The girl who goes forth should go armed with knowledge. Moreover, in +moments of loneliness, when she is ready to slip, she should be +literally jerked back by the pull of the home. This hold of the home +is no chimerical thing. It is a positive, living reality. The home has +a power of projecting itself into the lives of those who go out from +it. It is where the girl does not carry away a sense of an +uninterrupted relation--a certainty that she is a part of that group +and that achievement, that she is only carrying on, enlarging, helping +to extend, beautify, and ripen its work, that she is not homeless. +Nothing can so hold her in her isolation as that sense. + +The Uneasy Woman of to-day who has fulfilled to the letter, as she +understands it, the Woman's Business, is frequently heard to say: "My +boys are in college; they do not need me. My girls are married or at +work, and they do not need me. I have nothing to do. My business is +complete, I am retired, sidetracked. It is for this reason that I ask +a part in politics." But her argument proves that she does not +understand her business. She may want and need some outside occupation +for the very health of her business, politics perhaps, but certainly +not because her business is done. + +There is no more critical time for her than when her young people go +out to try themselves in the world. The girl particularly needs this +pull of the home, not only to keep her on a straight path, but to keep +her from the narrowness and selfishness which overtake so many +self-supporting women who have no close family responsibilities. The +fetich which has been made, for many years now, of work for women, +that is, of work outside of the home, frequently leads the woman to +take some particular virtue to herself for self-support. She feels +that it entitles her to special consideration, releases her from +obligations which she does not voluntarily assume. The attitude is +enough to narrow and harden her life. The great preventive of this +disaster is a responsible home relation. If she must share her +earnings, it is a blessed thing for her. If not, she should share its +burdens and its hopes, in order to have a continued source of outside +interest to broaden and soften her, to keep her out of the ranks of +the charmless, self-centered, single women, whose only occupations are +self-support and self-care. + +The problems involved in keeping the girl who has a home from being +homeless are not simple. They are as intricate as anything a woman +can face. They call for the highest understanding, responsiveness, and +activity. No futile devices will meet them. "My daughter is not coming +home to be idle," I heard a fine-intentioned woman say recently. "I +insist that she take all the care of her room, save the weekly +cleaning, and that she keep the living-room tidy." But what an +occupation for a young woman with a college degree, who for four years +has led a busy, well-organized life in which each task was directed +toward some definite purpose! What a commentary on the mother's +understanding of "economic independence," a matter of which she talks +eloquently at her club! All that it proved was that the woman had +never realized the girl's case, had never given consecutive, serious +thought to its handling. + +How little chance there will probably be for this same girl to do at +home any serious work in case she develops a talent for it. The home +of the prosperous, energetic American woman is pervaded by a spirit of +eager and generally happy excitement. Good works and gay pleasures +fill its days in a wild jumble. There is little or no order, +selection, or discretion discernible in the result. "Something doing" +all the time seems to be the motto, and to take part in this headless +procession of unrelated events becomes the first law of the household. +The daughter has been living an organized life in college. She wants +to study or write, or do regular work of some kind. But there is no +order in the spirit of the place, no respect for order, no respect for +a regular occupation. "I cannot work at home"--one hears the cry often +enough. It is not always because of this atmosphere of helter-skelter +activity. It is often because of something worse,--an atmosphere of +slothful, pleasure-loving indifference to activities of all kinds, or +one of tacit or expressed discontent with the burdens and the +limitations which are an inescapable part of the Business of Being a +Woman. + +The problems connected with a girl's desire to be of social service +are even more difficult. There is a curious blindness or indifference +in our town and country districts to social needs. There is still +alive the notion that sending flowers and jellies to the hospital, +distributing old clothes wisely, and packing generous Christmas +baskets meet all obligations. Social service--of which one may, and +generally does, hear a great deal in the women's clubs--is vaguely +supposed to be something which has to do with great cities and factory +towns, not with the small community. Yet one reason that social +problems are so acute in great groups of men and women is that they +are so poorly met in small and scattered groups. There is the same +need of industrial training, of efficient schools, of books, of +neighborliness, of innocent amusements, of finding opportunities for +the exceptional child, of looking after the adenoids and teeth, of +segregating the tubercular, of doing all the scores of social services +in the small town as in the great. Work is really more hopeful there +because there is some possibility of knowing approximately _all_ the +cases, which is never possible in the city. And yet how far from +general it is to find anything like organized efforts at real social +service in the small community. If a girl serves in such a community, +it is because she has the parts of a pioneer--and few have. + +It is not the girl who, having a home, yet is homeless, who is +responsible for her situation. Her necessity is to see herself acting +as a responsible and useful factor in an intelligent plan. If the +family does not present itself to her as a grave, dignified +undertaking on which several persons dear to her have embarked, how +can she be expected to tie to it? The old phrases which she may hear +now and then--"the honor of the family"--"duty to parents"--only savor +of cant to her. They have no pricking vitality in them. She gets no +acute reaction from them. She sees herself merely as an accident in an +accidental group, headed nowhere in particular. + +What it all amounts to is that the greatest art in the Woman's +Business is _using_ youth. It is no easy matter. Youth is a terrible +force, confident, selfish, unknowing. Rarely has it real courage, +real interest in aught but itself. It has all to learn, but it is +youth, the most beautiful and hopeful thing in life. And it is the +thing upon which the full development of life for a woman depends. She +must have it always at her side, if she is to know her own full +meaning in the scheme of things. It is part of her tragedy that she +fails so often to understand how essential is youth to her as an +individual, her happiness and her growth. + +The fact that a woman is childless is no reason in the present world +why she should be cut off from the developing and ennobling +association. Indeed, the childless woman of to-day, in addition to her +obligation to herself, has a peculiar obligation to society in the +matter of the friendless child. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE CHILDLESS WOMAN AND THE FRIENDLESS CHILD + + +One of the first conclusions forced on a thoughtful unprejudiced +observer of society is that the major percentage of its pains and its +vices result from a failure to make good connections. Children pine +and even die for fruit in the cities, while a hundred miles away +thousands of barrels of apples are rotting on the ground. Famine +devastates one country, while the granaries of another are bursting +with food. Men and women drink themselves into the gutter from sheer +loneliness, while other men and women shrivel up in isolated comfort. +One of the most pitiful examples of this failure to connect is that +of the childless woman and the friendless, uncared-for child. + +There never at any time in any country in the world's history existed +so large a group of women with whom responsibility and effort were a +matter of choice, as exists to-day in the United States. While a large +number of these free women are devoting themselves whole-heartedly to +public service of the most intelligent and ingenious kind, the great +majority recognize no obligation to make any substantial return to +society for its benefits. A small percentage of these are +self-supporting, but the majority are purely parasitical. Indeed, the +heaviest burden to-day on productive America, aside from the burden +imposed by a vicious industrial system, is that of its nonproductive +women. They are the most demanding portion of our society. They spend +more money than any other group, are more insistent in their cry for +amusement, are more resentful of interruptions of their pleasures and +excitements; they go to greater extremes of indolence and of +uneasiness. + +The really serious side to the existence of this parasitical group is +that great numbers of other women, not free, forced to produce, accept +their standards of life. We hear women, useful women, everywhere +talking about the desirability of not being obliged to do anything, +commiserating women who must work, commiserating those who have heavy +household responsibilities, and by the whole gist of their words and +acts influencing those younger and less experienced than themselves to +believe that happiness lies in irresponsible living. + +Various gradations of the theory of which this is the extreme +expression show themselves. Thus there are great numbers of women of +moderate means, who by a little daily effort can keep comfortable and +attractive homes for themselves and their husbands, and yet who are +utterly regardless of outside responsibilities, who are practically +isolated in the community. They pass their lives in a little round of +household activities, sunning and preening themselves in their long +hours of leisure like so many sleek cats. + +There is still another division of this irresponsible class, who build +up frenzied existences for themselves in all sorts of outside +activities. They plunge headlong into each new proposition for +pleasure or social service only to desert it as something more novel +and exciting and, for the instant, popular, appears. Steady, +intelligent standing by an undertaking through its ups and downs, its +dull seasons and its unpopular phases, they are incapable of. Their +efforts have no relation to an intelligently conceived purpose. With +them may be grouped those women who, by their canonization of the +unimportant, construct heavily burdened but utterly fruitless lives. +They laboriously pad out their days with trivial things, vanities, +shams, and shadows, to which they give the serious undivided attention +which should be bestowed only on real enterprises. + +There are others who seek soporifics, release from a hearty tackling +of their individual situations, in absorbing work, a work which +perhaps fills their minds, but which is mere occupation--something to +make them forget--not an art for art's sake, not labor for its useful +fruits, but a protective, separating shield to shut out the insistent +demands of life in the place where they find themselves. + +All of these women are rightfully classed as irresponsible, whether +they are moved by vanity, indolence, purposelessness, social +blindness, or, most pitiful, a sense of the emptiness of life +unattended by the imagination which reveals the sources from which +life is filled. No one of them is building a "House of Life" for +herself. They are building gimcrack palaces, gingerbread cottages, +structures which the first full blast of life will level to the +ground. + +These women are not peculiar to city or to country. They are scattered +nation-wide. You find them on farms and in mansions, in offices and in +academic halls. In startling contrast there exists almost under the +very eaves of the roofs which shelter them a vast and pitiful group of +friendless children,--the deserted babe, the "little mother," the boys +and girls running wild on side streets in every village in our land +and in every slum in the cities, the factory child, the shop girl who +has no home. Let us remember that a goodly percentage of those at work +have homes and that they are engaged in a stimulating, if hard, effort +to "help," that they have the steadying consciousness that they are +needed. Nevertheless, this mass of youth is on the whole in an +unnatural position--an antisocial relation. + +Society can never run rightfully until all its members are performing +their natural functions. No woman, whatever her condition, can escape +her obligation to youth without youth suffering, and without suffering +herself. One of the crying needs of to-day is a crusade, a jar, which +will force upon our free women the friendless children of the country, +give them some sense of the undeniable relation they bear to them, +show them that they are in a sense the cause of this pathetic group +and that it is their work to relieve it. + +True, for a woman there is nothing more painful than putting herself +face to face with the suffering of children. Yet for many years now we +have had in this country a large and increasing number who were going +through the daily pain of grappling with every phase of the +distressing problems which come from the poverty, friendlessness, and +overwork of the young. Out of their heartbreaking scrutinies there +have come certain determinations which are being adopted rapidly +wherever the social sense is aroused. We may roughly sum up these +conclusions or determinations to be these:-- + +It is not necessary or endurable that children grow up starved and +overworked, that boys and girls be submitted to vicious surroundings, +that talent be crushed, that young men and young women be devoured by +crime and greed. Youth, its nurturing and developing, has become the +passion of the day. This is the meaning of our bureaus of Child Labor, +of our Children's Courts, our Houses of Correction, our Fresh-Air +Funds and Vacation Homes, our laws regulating hours and conditions, +our Social Settlements. + +At its very best, however, legislation, organization, work in groups, +only indirectly reach the base of the trouble. These homeless babes +and children, these neglected boys and girls, these reckless shop and +factory girls, are generally the pain and menace that they are because +they have not had, as individuals, that guidance and affection of +women to which each has a natural right. No collective work, however +good it may be, can protect or guide these children properly. +Rightfully they should be the charge of that body of women who are +unhampered, "free." These women have more, or less, intelligence, +time, and means. They owe society a return for their freedom, their +means, and their education. Nature has made them the guardians of +childhood. Can they decently shirk the obligation any more than a man +can decently shirk his duty as a citizen? Indeed, the case of the +woman unresponsive to her duty toward youth is parallel to that of the +man unresponsive to his duty toward public affairs. One is as +profitless and parasitical as the other. + +The man who has no notion of what is doing politically in his own +ward, who does not sense the malign influences which may be working in +his neighborhood, in his very street, perhaps in the next house, who +has not his eye on the unscrupulous small politician who leads the +ward by the nose, who knows nothing of the records of the local +candidates, never goes to the primaries,--this man is one of the most +dangerous citizens we have. It is he who makes the machine possible. +If he did his work, the governmental machine, which starts there with +him, would be sound. It would be begun by honest men interested in +serving the country to the best of their ability, and on such a +foundation no future solidarity of corruption would be possible. + +The individual woman's obligation toward the children and young people +in her neighborhood is very like this obligation of the man to public +affairs. It is for her to know the conditions under which the +children, the boys and girls, young men and maids, in her vicinity are +actually living. It is for her to be alert to their health, +amusements, and general education. It is for her to find the one--and +there always is one--that actually needs her. It is for her to +correlate her personal discoveries and experiences with the general +efforts of the community. + +This is no work for an occasional morning. It does not mean sporadic +or even regular "neighborhood visiting." It means observation, +reflection, and study. It has nothing to do save indirectly with +societies, or groups, or laws. It is a personal work, something nobody +else can do, and something which, if it is neglected, adds just so +much more to the stream of uncared-for youth. How is it to be done? +Have you ever watched a woman interested in birds making her +observations? She will get up at daylight to catch a note of a new +singer. She will study in detail the little family that is making its +home on her veranda. From the hour that the birds arrive in the spring +until the hour that they leave in the fall she misses nothing of their +doings. It is a beautiful and profitable study, and it is a type of +what is required of a woman who would fulfill her obligation toward +the youth of her neighborhood. + +Could we have such study everywhere in country and town, what +tragedies and shames we might be spared! A few months ago the whole +nation was horrified by a riot in a prosperous small city of the +Middle West which ended in the lynching of a young man, a mere boy, +who in trying to discharge his duty as a public official had killed a +man. Some thirty persons, _over half of them boys under twenty years +of age_, are to-day serving terms of from fifteen to twenty years in +the penitentiary for their part in this lynching. + +Their terrible work was no insane outbreak. Analyzed, it was a logical +consequence of the social and political conditions under which the +boys had been brought up. In a pretty, rich, busy town of 30,000 +people proud of its churches and its schools, _eighty saloons_ +industriously plied their business--and part of their business, as it +always is, was to train youths to become their patrons. + +What were the women doing in the town? I asked the question of one who +knew it. "Why," he said, "they were doing just what women do +everywhere, no better, no worse. They had their clubs; I suppose a +dozen literary clubs, several sewing clubs, several bridge clubs, and +a number of dancing clubs. I think they cared a little more for bridge +than for literature, many of them at least. They took little part in +civic work, though they had done much for the city library and city +hospital. Many girls went to college, to the State Institute, to +Vassar and Smith. They came back to teach and to marry. It was just as +it is everywhere." + +Another to whom I put the same question, answered me in a sympathetic +letter full of understanding comment. The mingled devotion, energy, +and blindness of the women the letter described, spoke in its every +line. They built charming homes, reared healthy, active children whom +they educated at any personal sacrifice--all within a circle of eighty +saloons! To offset the saloons they built churches--a church for each +sect--each more gorgeous than its neighbor. It was in building +churches that they showed the "greatest tenacity of purpose." They had +a large temperance organization. It supported a rest room and met +fortnightly to pray "ardently and sincerely." How little this body of +good women sensed their problem, how little they were fitted to deal +with it, my informant's comment reveals. "You doubtless remember the +story," the letter runs, "of the old lady who deplored the shooting +of craps because, though she didn't know what they were, 'life was +probably as dear to them as to anybody.'" + +"It was just as it is everywhere." Busy with self and their immediate +circles, they went their daily ways unseeing, though these ways were +hedged with a corruption whose rank and horrible offshoots at every +step clutched the feet of the children for whom they were responsible. + +Perhaps there is nothing to-day needed in this country more than +driving into the minds of women this personal obligation to do what +may be called intensive gardening in youth. Whether a woman wishes to +see it or not, she is the center of a whirl of life. The health, the +happiness, and the future of those that are in this whirl are affected +vitally by what she is and does. To know all of the elements which +are circulating about her as a man knows, if he does his work, the +political and business elements in his own group, this is her +essential task. That she should adjust her discoveries to the +organizations, political, educational, and religious, which are about +her, goes without saying, but these organizations are not the heart of +her matter. The heart of her matter lies in what she does for those +who come into immediate contact with her. + +Her business firmly established in her immediate group should grow as +a man's business does in the outer circle where he naturally operates. +It will become stable or unstable exactly as trade or profession +becomes stable or unstable. Every year it should take on new elements, +ramify, turn up new obligations, knit itself more firmly into the life +of the community. With every year it should become necessarily more +complicated, broader in interests, more demanding on her intellectual +and spiritual qualities. Each one of the original members of her group +gathers others about himself. In the nature of the case she will +become one of the strongest influences in these new groups. As a +member goes out she will project herself into other communities or +perhaps other lands, into all sorts of industries, professions, and +arts. Her growth is absolutely natural. It is, too, one of the most +economical growths the world knows. Nothing is lost in it. She spreads +literally like the banyan tree. + +Yet in spite of this perfectly obvious fact, there are people to-day +asking, with all appearance of sincerity, what a woman of fifty or +more can _do_! Their confining work in the home, say these observers, +is done. A common suggestion is that they be utilized in politics. +This suggestion has its comical side. A person who has nothing to do +after fifty years of life in a business as many-sided and demanding as +that of a woman, can hardly be expected to be worth much in a business +as complicated and uncertain as politics, and for which she has had no +training. The notion that the woman's business is ended at fifty or +sixty is fantastic. It only ends there if she has been blind to the +meaning of her own experiences; if she has never gone below the +surface of her task--never seen in it anything but physical relations +and duties; has sensed none of its intimate relations to the +community, none of its obligations toward those who have left her, +none of those toward the oncoming generations. If it ends there, she +has failed to realize, too, the tremendous importance to all those +who belong in her circle or who touch it _of what she makes of +herself_, of her personal achievement. + +A woman of fifty or sixty who has succeeded, has come to a point of +sound philosophy and serenity which is of the utmost value in the +mental and spiritual development of the group to which she belongs. +Life at every one of its seven stages has its peculiar harrowing +experiences; hope mingles with uncertainty in youth; fear and struggle +characterize early manhood; disillusionment, the question whether it +is worth while, fill the years from forty to fifty,--but resolute +grappling with each period brings one out almost inevitably into a +fine serene certainty which cannot but have its effect on those who +are younger. Ripe old age, cheerful, useful, and understanding, is one +of the finest influences in the world. We hang Rembrandt's or +Whistler's picture of his mother on our walls that we may feel its +quieting hand, the sense of peace and achievement which the picture +carries. We have no better illustration of the meaning of old age. + +Family and social groups should be a blend of all ages. One of the +present weaknesses of our society is that we herd each age together. +The young do not have enough of the stimulating intellectual influence +of their elders. The elders do not have enough of the vitalizing +influence of the young. We make up our dinner party according to age, +with the result that we lose the full, fine blend of life. + +The notion that a woman has no worthy place or occupation after she is +fifty or sixty, and that she can be utilized in public affairs, could +only be entertained by one who has no clear conception of either +private or public affairs--no vision of the infinite reaches of the +one or the infinite complexities of the other. Human society may be +likened to two great circles, one revolving within the other. In the +inner circle rules the woman. Here she breeds and trains the material +for the outer circle, which exists only by and for her. That accident +may throw her into this outer circle is of course true, but it is not +her natural habitat, nor is she fitted by nature to live and circulate +freely there. We underestimate, too, the kind of experience which is +essential for intelligent citizenship in this outer circle. To know +what is wise and needed there one should circulate in it. The man at +his labor in the street, in the meeting places of men, learns +unconsciously, as a rule, the code, the meaning, the need of public +affairs as woman learns those of private affairs. What it all amounts +to is that the labor of the world is naturally divided between the +two different beings that people the world. It is unfair to the woman +that she be asked to do the work of the outer circle. The man can do +that satisfactorily if she does her part; that is, if she prepares him +the material. Certainly, he can never come into the inner circle and +do her work. + +The idea that there is a kind of inequality for a woman in minding her +own business and letting man do the same, comes from our confused and +rather stupid notion of the meaning of equality. Popularly we have +come to regard being alike as being equal. We prove equality by +wearing the same kind of clothes, studying the same books, regardless +of nature or capacity or future life. Insisting that women do the same +things that men do, may make the two exteriorly more alike--it does +not make them more equal. Men and women are widely apart in functions +and in possibilities. They cannot be made equal by exterior devices +like trousers, ballots, the study of Greek. The effort to make them so +is much more likely to make them unequal. One only comes to his +highest power by following unconsciously and joyfully his own nature. +We run the risk of destroying the capacity for equality when we +attempt to make one human being like another human being. + +The theory that the class of free women considered here would be fired +to unselfish interest in uncared-for youth if they were included in +the electorate of the nation is hardly sustainable. The ballot has not +prevented the growth of a similar class of men. Something more biting +than a new tool is needed to arouse men and women who are absorbed in +self--some poignant experience which thrusts upon their indolent +minds and into their restricted visions the actualities of life. + +It should be said, however, that the recent agitation for the ballot +has served as such an experience for a good many women, particularly +in the East. Perhaps for the first time they have heard from the +suffrage platform of the "little mother," the factory child, the girl +living on $6 a week. They have done more than espouse the suffrage +cause for the sake of the child; they have gone out to find where they +could serve. + +It is a new knowledge of that tide of life which breaks at her very +gate that the childless and the free American woman needs, if she is +to discharge her obligation to the uncared-for child. To force these +facts upon her, to cry to her, "You are the woman,--you cannot escape +the guilt of the woe and crime which must come from the neglect of +childhood in your radius,"--this is the business of every man and +woman who has had the pain and the privilege of seeing something of +the actual life of the people of this world. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +ON THE ENNOBLING OF THE WOMAN'S BUSINESS + + +That the varied, delicate, and difficult problems which crowd the +attention of the woman in her social laboratory should ever be +considered unworthy of first-class brains and training is but proof of +the difficulty the human mind has in distinguishing values when in the +throes of social change. We rightly believe to-day that the world is +not nearly so well run as it would be if we could--or would--apply +unselfishly what we already know. Each of us advocates his own pet +theory of betterment, often to the exclusion of everybody else's +theory. + +One of the most disconcerting characteristics of advocates, +conservative and radical, is their conscienceless treatment of facts. +Rarely do they allow full value to that which qualifies or contradicts +their theories. The ardent and single-minded reformer is not +infrequently the worst sinner in this respect. To stir indignation +against conditions, he paints them without a background and with utter +disregard of proportion. + +He wins, but he loses, by this method. He makes converts of those of +his own kind, those who like him have rare powers for indignation and +sacrifice, but little capacity or liking for the exact truth or for +self-restraint. He turns from him many who are as zealous as he to +change conditions, but who demand that they be painted as they are and +that justice be rendered both to those who have fought against them in +the past and to those who are in different ways doing so to-day. + +The movement for a fuller life for American women has always suffered +from the disregard of some of its noblest followers, both for things +as they are and for things as they have been. The persistent +belittling for campaign purposes of the Business of Being a Woman I +have repeatedly referred to in this little series of essays; indeed, +it has been founded on the proposition that the Uneasy Woman of to-day +is to a large degree the result of the belittlement of her natural +task and that her chief need is to dignify, make scientific, +professionalize, that task. + +I doubt if there is to-day a more disintegrating influence at +work--one more fatal to sound social development--than that which +belittles the home and the position of the woman in it. As a social +institution nothing so far devised by man approaches the home in its +opportunity, nor equals it in its successes. + +The woman's position at its head is hard. The result of her pains and +struggles are rarely what she hopes, either for herself or for any one +connected with her, but this is true of all human achievement. There +is nothing done that does not mean self-denial, routine, +disillusionment, and half realization. Even the superman goes the same +road, coming out at the same halfway-up house! It is the meaning of +the effort, not the half result, that counts. + +The pain and struggle of an enterprise are not what takes the heart +out of a soldier; it is telling him his cause is mean, his fight in +vain. Show him a reason, and he dies exultant. The woman is the +world's one permanent soldier. After all war ceases she must go daily +to her fight with death. To tell her this giving of her life for life +is merely a "female function," not a human part, is to talk nonsense +and sacrilege. It is the clear conviction of even the most thoughtless +girl that this way lies meaning and fulfillment of life, that gives +her courage to go to her battle as a man-in-line to his, and like him +she comes out with a new understanding. The endless details of her +life, its routine and its restraints, have a reason now, as routine +and discipline have for a soldier. She sees as he does that they are +the only means of securing the victory bought so dearly--of winning +others. + +From this high conviction the great mass of women never have and never +can be turned. What does happen constantly, however, is loss of joy +and courage in their undertaking. When these go, the vision goes. The +woman feels only her burdens, not the big meaning in them. She +remembers her daily grind, not the possibilities of her position. She +falls an easy victim now to that underestimation of her business which +is so popular. If she is of gentle nature, she becomes apologetic, she +has "never done anything." If she is aggressive, she becomes a +militant. In either case, she charges her dissatisfaction to the +nature of her business. What has come to her is a common human +experience, the discovery that nothing is quite what you expected it +to be, that if hope is to be even halfway realized, it will be by +courage and persistency. It is not the woman's business that is at +fault; it is the faulty handling of it and the human difficulty in +keeping heart when things grow hard. What she needs is a strengthening +of her wavering faith in her natural place in the world, to see her +business as a profession, its problems formulated and its relations +to the work of society, as a whole, clearly stated. + +Quite as great an injustice to her as the belittling of her business +has been the practice, also for campaigning purposes, of denying her a +part in the upbuilding of civilization. There was a time "back of +history," says one of the popular leaders in the Woman's movement, +"when men and women were friends and comrades--but from that time to +this she (woman) has held a subsidiary and exclusively feminine +position. The world has been wholly in the hands of men, and they have +believed that men alone had the ability, felt the necessity, for +developing civilization, the business, education, and religion of the +world." + +Women's present aim she declares to be the "reassumption of their +share in human life." This is, of course, a modern putting of the +List of Grievances with which the militant campaign started in this +country in the 40's, reënforced by the important point that women +"back of history" enjoyed the privileges which the earlier militants +declared that man, "having in direct object the establishment of an +absolute tyranny over her," had always usurped. + +Just how the lady knows that "back of history" women and men were more +perfect comrades than to-day, I do not know. Her proofs would be +interesting. If this is true, it reverses the laws which have governed +all other human relations. Certainly, since history began, the only +period where I can pretend to judge what has happened, the records +show that comradeship between men and women has risen and fallen with +the rise and fall of cultivation and of virtue. The general level is +probably higher to-day than ever before. + +Moreover, from these same records one might support as plausibly--and +as falsely--the theory of a Woman-made World as the popular one of a +Man-made World. There has been many a teacher and philosopher who has +sustained some form of this former thesis, disclaiming against the +excessive power of women in shaping human affairs. The teachings of +the Christian Church in regard to women, the charge that she keep +silent, that she obey, that she be meek and lowly--all grew out of the +fear of the power she exercised at the period these teachings were +given--a power which the saints believed prejudicial to good order and +good morals. There is more than one profound thinker of our own period +who has arraigned her influence--Strindberg and Nietzsche among them. +You cannot turn a page of history that the woman is not on it or +behind it. She is the most subtle and binding thread in the pattern +of Human Life! + +For the American Woman of to-day to allow woman's part in the making +of this nation to be belittled is particularly unjust and cowardly. +The American nation in its good and evil is what it is, as much +because of its women as because of its men. The truth of the matter +is, there has never been any country, at any time, whatever may have +been their social limitations or political disbarments, that women +have not ranked with the men in actual capacity and achievement; that +is, men and women have risen and fallen together, whatever the +apparent conditions. The failure to recognize this is due either to +ignorance of facts or to a willful disregard of them; usually it is +the former. For instance, one constantly hears to-day the exultant cry +that women finally are beginning to take an interest and a part in +political and radical discussions. But there has never been a time in +this country's history when they were not active factors in such +discussion. The women of the American Revolutionary Period certainly +challenge sharply the women of to-day, both by their intelligent +understanding of political issues and by their sympathetic coöperation +in the struggle. It was the letters of women which led to that most +important factor in centralizing and instructing pre-revolutionary +opinion in New England, the Committee of Correspondence. There were +few more powerful political pamphleteers in that period than Mercy +Warren. We might very well learn a lesson which we need very much to +learn from the way women aided the Revolutionary cause through their +power as consumers. As for sacrifice and devotion, that of the woman +loses nothing in nobility when contrasted with that of the man. + +If we jump fifty years in the nation's history to the beginning of the +agitation against slavery, we find women among the first and most +daring of the protestants against the institution. It was for the sake +of shattering slavery that they broke the silence in public which by +order of the Christian Church they had so long kept--an order made, +not for the sake of belittling women, but for the sake of establishing +order in churches and better insuring the new Christian code of +morality. The courage and the radicalism of women of the 30's, 40's, +and 50's in this country compare favorably with that of the men and +women in any revolutionary period in any country that we may select. + +The American woman has played an honorable part in the making of our +country, and for this part she should have full credit. If she had +been as poor a stick, as downtrodden and ineffective as sometimes +painted, she would not be a fit mate for the man beside whom she has +struggled, and she would be as utterly unfit for the larger life she +desires as the most bigoted misogynist pictures her to be. + +Moreover, all things considered, she has been no greater sufferer from +injustice than man. I do not mean in saying this that she has not had +grave and unjust handicaps, legal and social; I mean that when you +come to study the comparative situations of men and women as a mass at +any time and in any country you will find them more nearly equal than +unequal, all things considered. Women have suffered injustice, but +parallel have been the injustices men were enduring. It was not the +fact that she was a woman that put her at a disadvantage so much as +the fact that might made right, and the physically weaker everywhere +bore the burden of the day. Go back no further than the beginnings of +this Republic and admit all that can be said of the wrong in the laws +which prevented a woman controlling the property she had inherited or +accumulated by her own efforts, which took from her a proper share in +the control of her child,--we must admit, too, the equal enormity of +the laws which permitted man to exploit labor in the outrageous way he +has. It was not because he was a man that the labor was exploited--it +was because he was the weaker in the prevailing system. Woman's case +was parallel--she was the weaker in the system. It had always been the +case with men and women in the world that he who could took and the +devil got the hindermost. The way the laborer's cause has gone hand +in hand in this country the last hundred years with the woman's cause +is a proof of the point. In the 30's of the nineteenth century, for +illustration, the country was torn by a workingman's party which +carried on a fierce agitation against banks and monopolies. Many of +its leaders were equally ardent in their support of Women's Rights as +they were then understood. The slavery agitation was coupled from the +start with the question of Women's Rights. It was injustice that was +being challenged--the right of the stronger to put the weaker at a +disadvantage for any reason--because he was poor, not rich; black, not +white; female, not male,--that is, there has been nothing special to +women in the injustice she has suffered except its particular form. +Moreover, it was not man alone who was responsible for this injustice. +Stronger women have often imposed upon the weak--men and women--as +strong men have done. In its essence, it is a human, not a sex, +question--this of injustice. + +The hesitation of this country in the earlier part of the nineteenth +century to accord to women the same educational facilities as to men +is often cited as a proof of a deliberate effort to disparage women. +But it should not be forgotten that the wisdom of universal male +education was hotly in debate. One of the ideals of radical reformers +for centuries had been to give to all the illumination of knowledge. +But to teach those who did the labor of the world, its peasants and +its serfs, was regarded by both Church and State as a folly and a +menace. It was the establishment of a pure democracy that forced the +experiment of universal free instruction in this country. It has met +with opposition at every stage, and there is to-day a Mr. Worldly +Wiseman at every corner bewailing the evils it has wrought. He must, +too, be a hopeless Candide who can look on our experiment, wonderful +and inspiring as it is, and say its results have been the best +possible. + +It was entirely logical, things beings as they were, that there should +have been strong opposition to giving girls the same training in +schools as boys. That objection holds good to-day in many reflective +minds. He again must be a hopeless optimist who believes that we have +worked out the best possible system of education for women. But that +there was opposition to giving women the same educational facilities +as men was not saying that there was or ever had been a conspiracy on +foot to keep her in intellectual limbo because she was a woman. The +history of learning shows clearly enough that women have always +shared in its rise. In the great revival of the sixteenth century +they took an honorable part. "I see the robbers, hangmen, adventurers, +hostlers of to-day more learned than the doctors and preacher of my +youth," wrote Rabelais, and he added, "why, women and girls have +aspired to the heavenly manna of good learning." Whenever aspiration +has been in the air, women have responded to it as men have, and have +found, as men have found, a way to satisfy their thirst. + +To come down to the period which concerns us chiefly, that of our own +Republic, it is an utter misrepresentation of the women of the +Revolution to claim that they were uneducated. All things considered, +they were quite as well educated as the men. The actual achievements +of the eminent women produced by the system of training then in vogue +is proof enough of the statement. Far and away the best letters by a +woman, which have found their way into print in this country, are +those of Mrs. John Adams, written late in the eighteenth century and +early in the nineteenth. They deserve the permanent place in our +literature which they have. But it was a period of good letter writing +by women--if weak spelling and feminine spelling was, on the whole, +quite as strong as masculine! + +Out of that early system of education came the woman who was to write +the book which did more to stir the country against slavery than all +that ever had been written, Harriet Beecher Stowe. That system +produced the scientist, who still represents American women in the +mind of the world, Maria Mitchell, the only American woman whose name +appears among the names of the world's great scholars inscribed on the +Boston Public Library. It produced Dorothea Dix, who for twenty years +before the Civil War carried on perhaps the most remarkable +investigation of conditions that has ever been made in this country by +man or woman,--the one which required the most courage, endurance, and +persistency,--her investigation of the then barbaric system for +caring--or not caring--for the insane. State after state enacted new +laws and instituted new methods solely on the showing of this one +woman. If there were no other case to offer to the frequent cry that +women have never had an influence on legislation, this would be +enough. Moreover, this is but the most brilliant example of the kind +of work women had been doing from the beginning of the Republic. + +To my mind there is no phase of their activities which reveals better +the genuineness of their training than the initiative they took in +founding schools of advanced grades for girls, and in organizing +primary and secondary schools on something like a national scale. Mary +Lyon's work for Mt. Holyoke College and Catherine Beecher's for the +American Woman's Education Association are the most substantial +individual achievements, though they are but types of what many women +were doing and what women in general were backing up. It was work of +the highest constructive type--original in its conception, full of +imagination and idealism, rich in its capacity for growth--a work to +fit the aspiration of its day and so full of the future! + +Now, when conditions are such that a few rise to great eminence from +the ordinary ranks of life, it means a good general average. The +multitude of women of rare achievements, distinguishing the +Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary periods of American history are +the best evidences of the seriousness, idealism, and intelligence of +the women in general. Their services in the war are part of the +traditions of every family whose line runs back to those days. Loyal, +spirited, ingenious, and uncomplaining, they are one of the finest +proofs in history of the capacity of the women of the mass to respond +whole-heartedly to noble ideals,--one of the finest illustrations, +too, of the type of service needed from women in great crises. But the +rank and file which conducted itself so honorably in the Revolution +was not a whit more noble and intelligent than the rank and file of +the succeeding period. It would have been impossible ever to have +established as promptly as was done the higher and the general schools +for girls if women had not given them the support they did, had not +been willing, as one great educator of the early part of the +nineteenth century has recorded--"to rise up early, to sit up late, to +eat the bread of the most rigid economy, that their daughters might be +favored with means of improvement superior to what they themselves +possessed." And back of this self-denial was what? A desire that life +be made easier for the daughter? Not at all--a desire that the +daughter be better equipped to "form the character of the future +citizen of the Republic." + +It is not alone that justice is wounded by denying women a part in the +making of the civilized world--a more immediate wrong is the way the +movement for a fuller, freer life for all human beings is hampered. A +woman with a masculine chip on her shoulder gives a divided attention +to the cause she serves. She complicates her human fight with a sex +fight. However good tactics this may have been in the past, and I am +far from denying that there were periods it may have been good +politics, however poor morals, surely in this country to-day there is +no sound reason for introducing such complications into our struggles. +The American woman's life is the fullest in its opportunity, all +things considered, that any human beings harnessed into a complicated +society have ever enjoyed. To keep up the fight against man as the +chief hindrance to the realization of her aspiration is merely to +perpetuate in the intellectual world that instinct of the female +animal to be ever on guard against the male, save in those periods +when she is in pursuit of him! + +But complicating her problem is not the only injury she does her cause +by this ignoring or belittling of woman's part in civilization. She +strips herself of suggestion and inspiration--a loss that cannot be +reckoned. The past is a wise teacher. There is none that can stir the +heart more deeply or give to human affairs such dignity and +significance. The meaning of woman's natural business in the +world--the part it has played in civilizing humanity--in forcing good +morals and good manners, in giving a reason and so a desire for +peaceful arts and industries, the place it has had in persuading men +and women that only self-restraint, courage, good cheer, and reverence +produce the highest types of manhood and womanhood,--this is written +on every page of history. + +Women need the ennobling influence of the past. They need to +understand their integral part in human progress. To slur this over, +ignore, or deny it, cripples their powers. It sets them at the foolish +effort of enlarging their lives by doing the things man does--not +because they are certain that as human beings with a definite task +they need--or society needs--these particular services or operations +from them, but because they conceive that this alone will prove them +equal. The efforts of woman to prove herself equal to man is a work of +supererogation. There is nothing he has ever done that she has not +proved herself able to do equally well. But rarely is society well +served by her undertaking his activities. Moreover, if man is to +remain a civilized being, he must be held to his business of producer +and protector. She cannot overlook her obligation to keep him up to +his part in the partnership, and she cannot wisely interfere too much +with that part. The fate of the meddler is common knowledge! + +A few women in every country have always and probably always will find +work and usefulness and happiness in exceptional tasks. They are +sometimes women who are born with what we call "bachelor's souls"--an +interesting and sometimes even charming, though always an incomplete, +possession! More often they are women who by the bungling machinery of +society have been cast aside. There is no reason why these women +should be idle, miserable, selfish, or antisocial. There are rich +lives for them to work out and endless needs for them to meet. But +they are not the women upon whom society depends; they are not the +ones who build the nation. The women who count are those who outnumber +them a hundred to one--the women who are at the great business of +founding and filling those natural social centers which we call homes. +Humanity will rise or fall as that center is strong or weak. It is the +human core. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN*** + + +******* This file should be named 16577-8.txt or 16577-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/5/7/16577 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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Tarbell</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .5em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .5em; + text-indent: 1em; + } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */ + } + h1.pg { + text-align: center; font-family: Times Roman, serif; /* all headings centered */ + } + h3.pg { + text-align: center; font-family: Times Roman, serif; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + a {text-decoration: none} /* no lines under links */ + div.center {text-align: center;} + div.content {width: 69%; margin-left: auto; text-align: left;} + div.centered {text-align: center;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 1 */ + div.centered table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 2 */ + + .cen {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;} /* centering paragraphs */ + .sc {font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 100%;} /* small caps, normal size */ + .noin {text-indent: 0em;} /* no indenting */ + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .totoc {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: 75%; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .img {text-align: center; padding: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} /* centering images */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + .tdr {text-align: right;} /* aligning cell content to the right */ + .tdc {text-align: center;} /* aligning cell content to the center */ + .tdl {text-align: left;} /* aligning cell content to the left */ + .tdlsc {text-align: left; font-variant: small-caps;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */ + .tdrsc {text-align: right; font-variant: small-caps;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */ + .tdcsc {text-align: center; font-variant: small-caps;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */ + .tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 1em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} /* transcriber's notes */ + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 90%;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: 80%; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:15%; margin-right:15%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + hr.full { width: 100%; } + pre {font-size: 8pt;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Business of Being a Woman, by Ida M. +Tarbell</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Business of Being a Woman</p> +<p>Author: Ida M. Tarbell</p> +<p>Release Date: August 21, 2005 [eBook #16577]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3 class="pg">E-text prepared by Audrey Longhurst, Jeannie Howse,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (https://www.pgdp.net/)</h3> +<p> </p> +<div class="tr"> +<p class="noin">Transcriber's Note: +The few spelling mistakes found in this text were left intact.</p> +</div> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<br /> +<h1><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i"></a>THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN</h1> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + + +<h5><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii"></a>THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br /> +<br /> +NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO<br /> +DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO<br /> +<br /> +MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED<br /> +<br /> +LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA<br /> +MELBOURNE<br /> +<br /> +THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.<br /> +TORONTO</h5> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<h1><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii"></a>THE<br /> +BUSINESS OF BEING<br /> +A WOMAN</h1> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4>BY</h4> +<br /> +<h2>IDA M. TARBELL</h2> +<br /> +<h4>ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF THE "AMERICAN MAGAZINE"<br /> +AUTHOR OF "LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN"<br /> +"HISTORY OF THE STANDARD OIL CO."<br /> +"HE KNEW LINCOLN," ETC.</h4> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<h5>New York<br /> +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br /> +1921</h5> +<br /> +<h6><i>All rights reserved</i></h6> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h5><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv"></a>1912,<br /> +<span class="smcap">By</span> THE PHILLIPS PUBLISHING COMPANY.</h5> + +<h5>1912,<br /> +<span class="smcap">By</span> THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.</h5> + +<h5>Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1912.</h5> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<h5>Norwood Press<br /> +J.S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.<br /> +Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.</h5> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<h3><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v"></a>TO<br /> +<br /> +E.I.T. AND C.C.T.</h3> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi"></a> +<a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii"></a> +<h3><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The object of this little volume is to call attention to a certain +distrust, which the author feels in the modern woman, of the +significance and dignity of the work laid upon her by Nature and by +society. Its ideas are the result of a long, if somewhat desultory, +observation of the professional, political, and domestic activities of +women in this country and in France. These observations have led to +certain definite opinions as to those phases of the woman question +most in need of emphasis to-day.</p> + +<p>A great problem of human life is to preserve faith in and zest for +everyday activities. The universal easily becomes the vulgar and the +burdensome. The <a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii"></a>highest civilization is that in which the largest +number sense, and are so placed as to realize, the dignity and the +beauty of the common experiences and obligations.</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%;' /> + +<p>The courtesy of the publishers of the <i>American Magazine</i>, in +permitting the use here of chapters which have appeared in that +periodical, is gratefully acknowledged.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix"></a> +<h2>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h2> +<br /> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" width="70%" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr> +<td width="10%" class="tdr" style="font-size: 90%;">CHAPTER</td> +<td width="80%"> </td> +<td width="10%" class="tdr" style="font-size: 90%;">PAGE</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></td> +<td class="tdlsc">The Uneasy Woman</td> +<td class="tdr">1</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></td> +<td class="tdlsc">On the Imitation of Man</td> +<td class="tdr">30</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a></td> +<td class="tdlsc">The Business of Being a Woman</td> +<td class="tdr">53</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a></td> +<td class="tdlsc">The Socialization of the Home</td> +<td class="tdr">84</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a></td> +<td class="tdlsc">The Woman and her Raiment</td> +<td class="tdr">109</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a></td> +<td class="tdlsc">The Woman and Democracy</td> +<td class="tdr">142</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a></td> +<td class="tdlsc">The Homeless Daughter</td> +<td class="tdr">164</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII.</a></td> +<td class="tdlsc">The Childless Woman and the Friendless Child</td> +<td class="tdr">190</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX.</a></td> +<td class="tdlsc">On the Ennobling of the Woman's Business</td> +<td class="tdr">216</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a> +<h2>THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN</h2> + +<h3>CHAPTER I<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h3>The Uneasy Woman</h3> +<br /> + +<p>The most conspicuous occupation of the American woman of to-day, +dressing herself aside, is self-discussion. It is a disquieting +phenomenon. Chronic self-discussion argues chronic ferment of mind, +and ferment of mind is a serious handicap to both happiness and +efficiency. Nor is self-discussion the only exhibit of restlessness +the American woman gives. To an unaccustomed observer she seems always +to be running about on the face of things with no other purpose <a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a>than +to put in her time. He points to the triviality of the things in which +she can immerse herself—her fantastic and ever-changing raiment, the +welter of lectures and other culture schemes which she supports, the +eagerness with which she transports herself to the ends of the +earth—as marks of a spirit not at home with itself, and certainly not +convinced that it is going in any particular direction or that it is +committed to any particular worth-while task.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most disturbing side of the phenomenon is that it is +coincident with the emancipation of woman. At a time when she is freer +than at any other period of the world's history—save perhaps at one +period in ancient Egypt—she is apparently more uneasy.</p> + +<p>Those who do not like the exhibit are inclined to treat her as if she +were a new historical type. The reassuring fact is, <a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a>that ferment of +mind is no newer thing in woman than in man. It is a human ailment. +Its attacks, however, have always been unwelcome. Society distrusts +uneasiness in sacred quarters; that is, in her established and +privileged works. They are the best mankind has to show for itself. At +least they are the things for which the race has slaved longest and +which so far have best resisted attack. We would like to pride +ourselves that they were permanent, that we had settled some things. +And hence society resents a restless woman. And this is logical +enough.</p> + +<p>Embroiled as man is in an eternal effort to conquer, understand, and +reduce to order both nature and his fellows, it is imperative that he +have some secure spot where his head is not in danger, his heart is +not harassed. Woman, by virtue of the business nature assigns her, +has <a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a>always been theoretically the maker and keeper of this necessary +place of peace. But she has rarely made it and kept it with full +content. Eve was a revoltée, so was Medea. In every century they have +appeared, restless Amazons, protesting and remolding. Out of their +uneasy souls have come the varying changes in the woman's world which +distinguish the ages.</p> + +<p>Society has not liked it—was there to be no quiet anywhere? It is +poor understanding that does not appreciate John Adams' parry of his +wife Abigail's list of grievances, which she declared the Continental +Congress must relieve if it would avoid a woman's rebellion. Under the +stress of the Revolution children, apprentices, schools, colleges, +Indians, and negroes had all become insolent and turbulent, he told +her. What was to become of the country if women, "the <a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a>most numerous +and powerful tribe in the world," grew discontented?</p> + +<p>Now this world-old restlessness of the women has a sound and a tragic +cause. Nature lays a compelling hand on her. Unless she obeys freely +and fully she must pay in unrest and vagaries. For the normal woman +the fulfillment of life is the making of the thing we best describe as +a home—which means a mate, children, friends, with all the radiating +obligations, joys, burdens, these relations imply.</p> + +<p>This is nature's plan for her; but the home has got to be founded +inside the imperfect thing we call society. And these two, nature and +society, are continually getting into each other's way, wrecking each +other's plans, frustrating each other's schemes. The woman almost +never is able to adjust her life so as fully to satisfy both. She is +between two fires. Euripides understood this when he put into <a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a>Medea's +mouth a cry as modern as any that Ibsen has conceived:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Of all things upon earth that grow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A herb most bruised is woman. We must pay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our store of gold, hoarded for that one day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To buy us some man's love; and lo, they bring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A master of our flesh! There comes the sting<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the whole shame. And then the jeopardy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For good or ill, what shall that master be;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis magic she must have or prophecy—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Home never taught her that—how best to guide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Toward peace this thing that sleepeth at her side.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And she who, laboring long, shall find some way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whereby her lord may bear with her, nor fray<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His yoke too fiercely, blessed is the breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That woman draws!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Medea's difficulty was that which is oftenest in the way of a woman +carrying her business in life to a satisfactory completion—false +mating. It is not a difficulty peculiar to woman. Man knows it as +often. It is the heaviest curse society brings on human beings—the +most fertile cause of apathy, agony, <a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a>and failure. If the woman's cry +is more poignant under it than the man's, it is because the machine +which holds them both allows him a wider sweep, more interests outside +of their immediate alliance. "A man, when he is vexed at home," +complains Medea, "can go out and find relief among his friends or +acquaintances, but we women have none to look at but him."</p> + +<p>And when it is impossible longer to "look" at him, what shall she do! +Tell her woe to the world, seek a soporific, repudiate the scheme of +things, or from the vantage point of her failure turn to the untried +relations of her life, call upon her unused powers?</p> + +<p>From the beginning of time she has tried each and all of these methods +of meeting her purely human woe. At times the women of whole peoples +have sunk into apathy, their business reduced to <a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>its dullest, +grossest forms. Again, whole groups have taken themselves out of the +partnership which both Nature and Society have ordered. The Amazons +refused to recognize man as an equal and mated simply that they might +rear more women like themselves. Here the tables were turned and the +boy baby turned out—not to the wolves, but to man! The convent has +always been a favorite way of escape.</p> + +<p>It has never been a majority of women who for a great length of time +have shirked this problem by any one of these methods. By individuals +and by groups woman has always been seeking to develop the business of +life to such proportions, to so diversify, refine, and broaden it that +no half failure or utter failure of its fundamental relations would +swamp her, leave her comfortless, or prevent her working out that +family <a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>which she knew to be her part in the scheme of things. It is +from her conscious attempt to make the best of things when they are +proved bad, that there has come the uneasiness which trails along her +path from Eve to Mrs. Pankhurst.</p> + +<p>When great changes have come in the social system, her quest has +responded to them, taken its color and direction from them. The +peculiar forms of uneasiness in the American woman of to-day come +naturally enough from the Revolution of 1776. That movement upset +theoretically everything which had been expected of her before. +Theoretically, it broke down the division fences which had kept her in +sets and groups. She was no longer to be a woman of class; she was a +woman of the people. This was striking at the very underpinning of +femininity, as the world knew it. Theoretically, too, her ears were no +longer to <a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a>be closed to all ideas save those of her church or +party,—a new thing, freedom of speech, was abroad,—her lips were +opened with man's. Moreover, her business of family building was +modified, as well as her attitude towards life. The necessity of all +women educating themselves that they might be able to educate their +children was an obligation on the face of the new undertaking. Another +revolutionary duty put upon her was—<i>paying her way</i>. There can be no +real democracy where there is parasitism. She must achieve conscious +independence whether in or out of the family. Unquestionably there +came with the Revolution a vision of a new woman—a woman from whom +all of the willfulness and frivolity and helplessness of the "Lady" of +the old régime should be stripped, while all her qualities of +gentleness and charm should be preserved. <a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>The old-world lady was to +be merged into a woman strong, capable, severely beautiful, a creature +who had all of the virtues and none of the follies of femininity.</p> + +<p>It was strong yeast they put into the pot in '76.</p> + +<p>A fresh leaven in a people can never be distributed evenly. Moreover, +the mass to which it is applied is never homogeneous. There are spots +so hard no yeast can move them; there are others so light the yeast +burns them out. Taken as a whole, the change is labored and painful. +So our new notions worked on women. There were groups which resented +and refused them, became reactionary at the stating of them. There +were those which grew grave and troubled under them, shrinking from +the portentous upheaval they felt in their touch, yet sensing that +they must be accepted. <a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a>There were still others where the notion +frothed and foamed, turning up unexpected ideas, revealing depths of +dissatisfaction, of desire, of unsuspected powers in woman that +startled the staid old world. It was in these quarters that there was +produced the uneasy woman typical of the day.</p> + +<p>Her ferment went to the bottom of things this time. Not since the age +of the Amazon had a body of women broken more utterly with things as +they are. And like the Amazon, the revolt was against man and his +pretensions.</p> + +<p>It was no unorganized revolt. It was deliberate. It presented her case +in a carefully prepared List of Grievances, and an eloquent +Declaration of Sentiments<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> both adopted in a strictly <a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>parliamentary +way, and made the basis of an organized revolt, which has gone on +systematically ever since. The essence of her complaint, as embodied +in the <a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a>above expression, is that man is a conscious tyrant holding +woman an unwilling captive—cutting her off from <a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a>the things in life +which really matter: education, freedom of speech, the ballot; that +she can never be his equal until <a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>she does the same things her tyrant +does, studies the book he studies, practices the trades and +professions he practices, works with him in government.</p> + +<p>The inference from all this is that the Business of Being a Woman, as +it has been conducted heretofore by society, is of less importance +than the Business of Being a Man, and that the time has come to enter +his world and prove her equality.</p> + +<p>There are certain assumptions in her program which will bear +examination. Is man the calculating tyrant the modern uneasy woman +charges? Are her fetters due only to his unfair domination? Or is she +suffering from the generally bungling way things go in the world? And +is not man a victim as well as <a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a>she—caught in the same trap? +Moreover, is woman never a tyrant? One of the first answers to her +original revolt came from the most eminent woman of the day, Harriet +Beecher Stowe, and it was called "<i>Pink and White</i> Tyranny!" "I have +seen a collection of medieval English poems," says Chesterton, "in +which the section headed 'Poems of Domestic Life' consisted entirely +(literally entirely) of the complaints of husbands bullied by their +wives."</p> + +<p>Again, will doing the same things a man does work as well in stifling +her unrest as she fancies it has in man's case? If a woman's +temperamental and intellectual operations were identical with a man's, +there would be hope of success,—but they are not. She is a different +being. Whether she is better or worse, stronger or weaker, primary or +secondary, is not the question. She is different.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>And she tries to ease a world-old human curse by imitating the +occupations, points of views, and methods of a radically different +being. Can she realize her quest in this way? Generally speaking, +nothing is more wasteful in human operations than following a course +which is not native and spontaneous, not according to the law of the +being.</p> + +<p>If she demonstrates her points, successfully copies man's activities, +can she impress her program on any great body of women? The mass of +women believe in their task. Its importance is not capable of argument +in their minds. Nor do they see themselves dwarfed by their business. +They know instinctively that under no other circumstances can such +ripeness and such wisdom be developed, that nowhere else is the full +nature called upon, nowhere else are there such intricate, delicate, +and <a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>intimate forces in play, calling and testing them.</p> + +<p>To bear and to rear, to feel the dependence of man and child—the +necessity for themselves—to know that upon them depend the health, +the character, the happiness, the future of certain human beings—to +see themselves laying and preserving the foundations of so imposing a +thing as a family—to build so that this family shall become a strong +stone in the state—to feel themselves through this family +perpetuating and perfecting church, society, republic,—this is their +destiny,—this is worth while. They may not be able to state it, but +all their instincts and experiences convince them of the supreme and +eternal value of their place in the world. They dare not tamper with +it. Their opposition to the militant program badly and even cruelly +expressed at times has at <a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>bottom, as an opposition always has, the +principle of preservation. It is not bigotry or vanity or a petty +notion of their own spheres which has kept the majority of women from +lending themselves to the radical wing of the woman's movement. It is +fear to destroy a greater thing which they possess. The fear of change +is not an irrational thing—the fear of change is founded on the risk +of losing what you have, on the certainty of losing much temporarily +at least. It sees the cost, the ugly and long period of transition.</p> + +<p>Moreover, respect for your calling brings patience with its burden and +its limitations. The change you desire you work for conservatively, if +at all. The women who opposed the first movement for women's rights in +this country might deplore the laws that gave a man the power to beat +his wife—but as a matter of fact <a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a>few men did beat their wives, and +popular opinion was a powerful weapon. They might deplore the laws of +property—but few of them were deeply touched by them. The husband, +the child, the home, the social circle, the church, these things were +infinitely more interesting and important to them than diplomas, +rights to work, rights to property, rights to vote. All the sentiments +in the revolting women's program seemed trivial, cold, profitless +beside the realities of life as they dreamed them and struggled to +realize them.</p> + +<p>It is this same intuitive loyalty to her Business of Being a Woman, +her unwillingness to have it tampered with, that is to-day the great +obstacle to our Uneasy Woman putting her program of relief into force. +And it is the effort to move this mass which she derides as inert that +leads to much of the overemphasis in <a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>her program and her methods. If +she is to attract attention, she must be extreme. The campaigner is +like the actor—he must exaggerate to get his effect over the +footlights. Moreover, there are natures like that of the actor who +could not play Othello unless his whole body was blackened. Nor is the +extravagance of the methods, which the militant lady follows to put +over her program, so foreign to her nature as it may seem. The +suffragette adapts to her needs a form of feminine coquetry as old as +the world. To defy and denounce the male has always been one of +woman's most successful provocative ways!</p> + +<p>However much certain of the assumptions in her program may seem to be +against its success, there is much for it. It gives her a +scapegoat—an outside, personal, attackable cause for the limitations +and defeats she suffers. And there <a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>is no greater consolation than +fixing blame. It is half a cure in itself to know or to think you know +the cause of your difficulties. Moreover, it gives her a scapegoat +against whom it is easy to make up a case. She knows him too well, +much better than he knows her, much better than she knows herself; at +least her knowledge of him is better formulated. And she has this +advantage: custom makes it cowardly for a man to attempt to +demonstrate that woman is a tyrant—it laughs and applauds woman's +attempt to fix the charge on man.</p> + +<p>It gives her a definite program of relief. To attack life as man does: +to secure the same kind of training, enter a trade or profession where +she can support herself, mingle with the crowd as he does, get into +politics—that she assumes to be the practical way of curing the +inferiority of position and of powers which she is <a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>willing to admit, +even willing to demonstrate. That a man's life may not be altogether +satisfactory, she declines to believe. The uneasy woman has always +taken it for granted that man is happier than woman. It is an +assumption which is at least discussible.</p> + +<p>Her program, too, has the immense advantage of including all that the +new order of things in this country, instituted by the Revolution, +made imperative for women—the schooling, the liberty of action, the +independent pocket book. Because she has formulated these notions so +definitely and has hammered on them so hard, the militant woman +frequently claims that they originated with her, that she is the +<i>cause</i> of the great development in educational opportunities, in +freedom to work and to circulate, in the increasing willingness to +face the facts of life and speak the truth. This claim she <a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>should +drop. She is rather the logical result of these notions, their extreme +expression. She has, however, had an enormous influence in keeping +them alive in the great slow-moving mass of women, where the fate of +new ideas rests and where they are always tried out with extreme +caution. Without her the vision of enlarging and liberalizing their +own particular business to meet the needs of the New Democracy which +so exalted the women of the Revolution, would not to-day be as nearly +realized as it is. To speak slightingly of her part in the women's +movement is uncomprehending. She was then, and always has been, a +tragic figure, this woman in the front of the woman's movement—driven +by a great unrest, sacrificing old ideals to attain new, losing +herself in a frantic and frequently blind struggle, often putting back +her cause by the sad illustration <a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a>she was of the price that must be +paid to attain a result. Certainly no woman who to-day takes it as a +matter of course that she should study what she chooses, go and come +as she will, support herself unquestioned by trade, profession, or +art, work in public or private, handle her own property, share her +children on equal terms with her husband, receive a respectful +attention on platform or before legislature, live freely in the world, +should think with anything but reverence particularly of the early +disturbers of convention and peace, for they were an essential element +in the achievement.</p> + +<p>The great strength of the radical program is now, as it has always +been, the powerful appeal it makes to the serious young woman. Man and +marriage are a trap—that is the essence the young woman draws from +the campaign for woman's rights. All the vague terror <a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a>which at times +runs through a girl's dream of marriage, the sudden vision of probable +agonies, of possible failure and death, become under the teachings of +the militant woman so many realities. She sees herself a "slave," as +the jargon has it, putting all her eggs into one basket with the +certainty that some, perhaps all, will be broken.</p> + +<p>The new gospel offers an escape from all that. She will be a "free" +individual, not one "tied" to a man. The "drudgery" of the household +she will exchange for what she conceives to be the broad and inspiring +work which men are doing. For the narrow life of the family she will +escape to the excitement and triumph of a "career." The Business of +Being a Woman becomes something to be apologized for. All over the +land there are women with children clamoring about them, apologizing +for never having <i>done</i> <a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a>anything! Women whose days are spent in trade +and professions complacently congratulate themselves that they at +least have <i>lived</i>. There were girls in the early days of the +movement, as there no doubt are to-day, who prayed on their knees that +they might escape the frightful isolation of marriage, might be free +to "live" and to "work," to "know" and to "do."</p> + +<p>What it was really all about they never knew until it was too late. +That is, they examined neither the accusations nor the premises. They +accepted them. Strong young natures are quick to accept charges of +injustice. To them it is unnatural that life should be hampered, that +it should be anything but radiant. Curing injustice, too, seems +particularly easy to the young. It is simply a matter of finding a +remedy and putting it into force! The young American woman of +<a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a>militant cast finds it is easy to believe that the Business of Being a +Woman is slavery. She has her mother's pains and sacrifices and tears +before her, and she resents them. She meets the theory on every hand +that the distress she loathes is of man's doing, that it is for her to +revolt, to enter his business, and so doing escape his tyranny, find a +worth-while life for herself, and at the same time help "liberate" her +sex.</p> + +<p>And so for sixty years she has been working on this thesis. That she +has not demonstrated it sufficiently to satisfy even herself is shown +by the fact that she is still the most conspicuous of Uneasy Women. +But that she has produced a type and an influential one is certain. +Indeed, she may be said to have demonstrated sufficiently for +practical purposes what there is for her in imitating the activities +of man.</p> + +<br /> +<a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<br /> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a></p> +<p class="cen">DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS</p> +<p>When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one +portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the +earth a position different from that which they have hitherto +occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God +entitles them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind +requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to +such a course.</p> + +<p>We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women +are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with +certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, +and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights +governments are instituted, deriving their just power from the +consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes +destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer +from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the +institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such +principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them +shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. +Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established +should not be changed for light and transient causes; and +accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more +disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right +themselves by abolishing the forms to which they were accustomed. +But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing +invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under +absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government, +and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been +the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and +such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the +equal station to which they are entitled.</p> + +<p>The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and +usurpations on the part of man towards woman, having in direct +object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove +this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.</p> + +<p>He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to +the elective franchise.</p> + +<p>He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which +she has no voice.</p> + +<p>He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most +ignorant and degraded men—both natives and foreigners.</p> + +<p>Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective +franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls +of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides.</p> + +<p>He has made her, if married, in the eyes of the law, civilly dead.</p> + +<p>He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she +earns.</p> + +<p>He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as she can +commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the +presence of her husband. In the covenant of marriage, she is +compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all +intents and purposes, her master—the law giving him power to +deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement.</p> + +<p>He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the +proper causes, and in case of separation, to whom the guardianship +of the children shall be given, as to be wholly regardless of the +happiness of women—the law, in all cases, going upon a false +supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all power into his +hands.</p> + +<p>After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single, +and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support a +government which recognizes her only when her property can be made +profitable to it.</p> + +<p>He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from +those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty +remuneration. He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and +distinction which he considers most honorable to himself. As a +teacher of theology, medicine, or law, she is not known.</p> + +<p>He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough +education, all colleges being closed against her.</p> + +<p>He allows her in Church, as well as State, but a subordinate +position, claiming Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the +ministry, and, with some exception, from any public participation +in the affairs of the Church.</p> + +<p>He has created a false sentiment by giving to the world a +different code of morals for men and women, by which moral +delinquencies which exclude women from society are not only +tolerated, but deemed of little account in man.</p> + +<p>He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as +his right to assign for her a sphere of action, when that belongs +to her conscience and to her God.</p> + +<p>He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her +confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to +make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life.</p></div> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<h3>CHAPTER II<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h3>ON THE IMITATION OF MAN</h3> +<br /> + +<p>Fresh attacks on life, like chemical experiments, turn up unexpected +by-products. The Uneasy Woman, driven by the thirst for greater +freedom, and believing man's way of life will assuage it, lays siege +to his kingdom. Some of the unexpected loot she has carried away still +embarrasses her. Not a little, however, is of such undeniable +advantage that she may fairly contend that its capture alone justifies +her campaign.</p> + +<p>Go to-day into many a woman's club house, into many a drawing-room or +studio at, let us say, the afternoon tea hour, and what will you see? +One or probably more women in mannish suits <a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>and boots calmly smoking +cigarettes while they talk, and talk well, about things in which women +are not supposed to be interested, but which it is apparent they +understand.</p> + +<p>Look the exhibit over. It is made, you at once recognize, by women of +character, position, and sense. They have simply found certain +masculine ways to their liking and adopted them. The probability is +that if anybody should object to their habits, many of them would be +as bewildered as are the great majority of Americans by the +demonstration that "nice" women can smoke and think nothing of it!</p> + +<p>The cigarette, the boot, and much of the talk are only by-products of +the woman's invasion of the man's world. She did not set out to win +these spoils. They came to her in the campaign!</p> + +<p>The objects of her attack were things <a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>she considered more +fundamental. She was dissatisfied with the way her brain was being +trained, her time employed, her influence directed. "Give us the man's +way," was her demand, "then we shall understand real things, can fill +our days with important tasks, will count as human beings."</p> + +<p>There was no uncertainty in her notion of how this was to be +accomplished. A woman rarely feels uncertainty about methods. She +instinctively sees a way and follows it with assurance. Half her +irritation against man has always been that he is a spendthrift with +time and talk. Madame Roland, sitting at her sewing table listening to +the excited debate of the Revolutionists in her salon, mourned that +though the ideas were many, the resulting measures were few. It is the +woman's eternal complaint against discussion—nothing comes of it. In +a <a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>country like our own, where reflection usually follows action, the +woman's natural mental attitude is exaggerated. It is one reason why +we have so few houses where there is anything like conversation, why +with us the salon as an institution is out of question. The woman +wants immediately to incorporate her ideas. She is not interested in +turning them over, letting her mind play with them. She has no +patience with other points of view than her own. They are +<i>wrong</i>—therefore why consider them? She detests +uncertainties—questions which cannot be settled. Only by man and the +rare woman is it accepted that talk is a good enough end in itself.</p> + +<p>The strength of woman's attack on man's life, apart from the essential +soundness of the impulse which drove her to make it, lay then in its +directness and practicality. She began by asking to <a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>be educated in +the same way that man educated himself. Preferably she would enter his +classroom, or if that was denied her, she would follow the +"just-as-good" curriculum of the college founded for her. In the last +sixty or seventy years tens of thousands of women have been students +in American universities, colleges, and technical schools, taking +there the same training as men. In the last twenty years the annual +crescendo of numbers has been amazing; over ten thousand at the +beginning of the period, over fifty-two thousand at the end. Over +eight thousand degrees were given to women in 1910, nearly half as +many as were given to men. Fully four fifths of these women students +and graduates have worked side by side with men in schools which +served both equally.</p> + +<p>Here, then, is a great mass of experience from which it would seem +that we ought <a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a>to be able to say precisely how the intellects of the +two sexes act and react under the stimulus of serious study, to decide +definitely whether their attack on problems is the same, whether they +come out the same. Nevertheless, he would be a rash observer who would +pretend to lay down hard-and-fast generalizations. Assert whatever you +will as to the mind of woman at work and some unimpeachable authority +will rise up with experience that contradicts you. But the same may be +said of the mind of man. The mind—<i>per se</i>—is a variable and +disconcerting organ.</p> + +<p>But admitting all this—certain generalizations, on the whole correct, +may be made from our experience with coeducation.</p> + +<p>One of the first of these is that at the start the woman takes her +work more seriously than her masculine competitor. Fifty years ago +there was special reason <a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a>for this. The few who in those early days +sought a man's education had something of the spirit of pioneers. They +had set themselves a lofty task: to prove themselves the equal of +man—to win privileges which they believed were maliciously denied +their sex. The spirit with which they attacked their studies was +illumined by the loftiness of their aim. The girl who enters college +nowadays has rarely the opportunity to be either pioneer or martyr. +She is doing what has come to be regarded as a matter of course. +Nevertheless, to-day as then, in the coeducational institution she is +more consciously on her mettle than the man.</p> + +<p>Her attention, interest, respectfulness, docility, will be ahead of +his. It will at once be apparent that she carries the larger stock of +<i>untaught</i> knowledge. In the classroom she will usually outstep him in +mathematics. It is an ideal subject <a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a>for her, satisfying her talent +for order, for making things "come out right." Her memory will serve +her better. She can depend upon it to carry more exceptions to rules, +more fantastic irregular verbs, more dates, more lists of kings and +queens, battles and generals, and on the whole she will treat this +sort of impedimenta with more respect. She will know less of abstract +ideas, of philosophies and speculations. They will interest her less. +The chances are that she will be less skillful with microscope and +scalpel, though this is not certain. She will show less enthusiasm for +technical problems, for machinery and engineering; more for social +problems, particularly when it is a question of meeting them with +preventives or remedies. In the first two or three years after +entering college, she will almost invariably appear superior to the +men of her age, more grown up, more <a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a>interested, surer of herself, +readier. Later you will find her on the whole less inclined to +experiment with her gifts, to feel her wings, to make unexpected +dashes into life. It begins to look as if he were the experimenter, +she the conservator. And by the time she is a senior, look out! The +chances are she will have less interest from now on with man's +business and more with her own! In any case she will rarely develop as +rapidly in his field from this point as he is doing.</p> + +<p>He becomes assertive, confident, dominating; the male taking a male's +place. He discovers that his intellectual processes are more +scientific than hers, therefore he concludes they are superior. He +finds he can outargue her, draw logical conclusions as she cannot. He +can do anything with her but convince her, for she jumps the process, +lands on her conclusion, and there she sits. Things are <a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a>so because +they are so. And the chances are she is right, in spite of the +irregular way she got there. Something superior to reason enters into +her operations—an intuition of truth akin to inspiration. In early +ages women unusually endowed with this quality of perception were +honored as seers. To-day they are recognized as counselors of +prophetic wisdom. "If I had taken my wife's advice!" How often one +hears it!</p> + +<p>One most important fact has come out of our great coeducational +experiment: The college cannot entirely rub feminity out and +masculinity into a woman's brain. The woman's mind is still the +woman's mind, although she is usually the last to recognize it. It is +another proof of the eternal fact that Nature looks after her own good +works!</p> + +<p>But it takes more than a college course to make an efficient, +flexible, and <a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a>trustworthy organ from a mind, masculine or feminine. +It must be applied to productive labor in competition with other +trained minds, before you can decide what it is worth. Set the +man-trained woman's mind at what is called man's business, let it be +what you will—keeping a shop, practicing medicine or law, editing, +running a factory—let her do it in what she considers to be a man's +way, and with fidelity to her original theory that his way is more +desirable than hers; that is, let her succeed in the task of making a +man of herself—what about her?—what kind of a man does she become?</p> + +<p>Here again there is ample experience to go on. For seventy years we +have had them with us—the stern disciples of the militant program. +Greater fidelity to a task than they show it would be impossible to +find—a fidelity so unwavering that <a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a>it is often painful. Their care +for detail, for order, for exactness, is endless. Dignity, respect for +their undertaking, devotion to professional etiquette they may be +counted on to show in the highest degree. These are admirable +qualities. They have led hundreds of women into independence and good +service. Almost never, however, have they led one to the top. In free +fields such as merchandising, editing, and manufacturing we have yet +to produce a woman of the first caliber; that is, daring, +experimenting, free from prejudice, with a vision of the future great +enough to lead her to embody something of the future in her task.</p> + +<p>In every profession we have scores of successful women—almost never a +<i>great</i> woman, and yet the world is full of great women! That is, of +women who understand, are familiar with the big sacrifices, +appreciative of the fine things, <a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>far-seeing, prophetic. Why does this +greatness so rarely find expression in their professional +undertakings?</p> + +<p>The answer is no doubt complex, but one factor is the general notion +of the woman that if she succeeds she must suppress her natural +emotions and meet the world with a surface as non-resilient as she +conceives that of man to be in his dealings with the world. She is +strengthened in this notion by hard necessity. No woman could live and +respond as freely as her nature prompts to the calls on her sympathy +which come in the contact with all conditions of life involved in +practicing a trade or a profession. She must save herself. To do it +she incases herself in an unnatural armor. For the normal, healthy +woman this means the suppression of what is strongest in her nature, +that power which differentiates her chiefly from man, her <a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a>power of +emotion, her "affectability" as the scientists call it. She must +overcome her own nature, put it in bonds, cripple it, if she is to do +her work. Here is a fundamental reason for the failure of woman to +reach the first rank. She has sacrificed the most wonderful part of +her endowment, that which when trained gives her vision, sharpens her +intuitions, reveals the need and the true course. This superior +affectability crushed, leaves her atrophied.</p> + +<p>The common characterization of this atrophied woman is that she is +"cold." It is the exact word. She <i>is</i> cold, also she is self-centered +and intensely personal. Let a woman make success in a trade or +profession her exclusive and sufficient ambition, and the result, +though it may be brilliant, is repellent.</p> + +<p>She gives to her task an altogether disproportionate place in her +scheme of <a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a>things. Life is not made by work, important as is work in +life. Human nature has varied needs. It calls imperatively for a task, +something to do with brain and hands—a productive something which +fits the common good, without which the world would not be as orderly +and as happy. Say what we will, it matters very little what the task +is—if it contributes in some fashion to this superior orderliness and +happiness. But it means more. It means leisure, pleasure, excitements; +it means feeding of the taste, the curiosity, the emotions, the +reflective powers; and it means love, love of the mate, the child, the +friend, and neighbor. It means reverence for the scheme of things and +one's place in it; worship of the author of it, religion.</p> + +<p>But the woman sternly set to do a man's business, believing it better +than the woman's, too often views life as made <a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>up of business. She +throws her whole nature to the task. Her work is her child. She gives +it the same exclusive passionate attention. She is as fiercely jealous +of interference in it as she would be if it were a child. She resents +suggestions and change. It is hers, a personal thing to which she +clings as if it were a living being. That attitude is the chief reason +why working with women in the development of great undertakings is as +difficult as coöperating with them in the rearing of a family. It is +also a reason why they rarely rise to the first rank. They cannot get +away from their undertakings sufficiently to see the big truths and +movements which are always impersonal.</p> + +<p>Brilliant and satisfying as her triumph may be to her personally, she +frequently finds that it is resented by nature and by society. She +finds that nature lays <a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>pitfalls for her, cracks the ice of her heart +and sets it aflame, often for absurd and unworthy causes. She finds +that the great mass of unconscious women commiserate or scorn her as +one who has missed the fullness of life. She finds that society +regards her as one who shirked the task of life, and who, therefore, +should not be honored as the woman who has stood up to the common +burden. When she senses this—which is not always—she treats it as +prejudice. As a matter of fact, the antagonism of Nature and Society +to the militant woman is less prejudice than self-defense. It is a +protest against the wastefulness and sacrifice of her career. It is a +right saving impulse to prevent perversion of the qualities and powers +of women which are most needed in the world, those qualities and +powers which differentiate her from man, which make for the <a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a>variety, +the fullness, the charm, and interest of life.</p> + +<p>Moreover, Nature and Society must not permit her triumph to appear +desirable to the young. They must be made to understand what her +winnings have cost in lovely and desirable things. They must know that +the unrest which drove her to the attempt is not necessarily satisfied +by her triumph, that it is merely stifled and may break out at any +time in vagaries and follies. They must be made to realize the +essential barrenness of her triumph, its lack of the savor and tang of +life, the multitude of makeshifts she must practice to recompense her +for the lack of the great adventure of natural living.</p> + +<p>And they see it, many of them, before they are out of college, and +their militancy falls off like the cloak it generally is. The girl +abandons her quest. In the <a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>early days she was likely to be treated as +an apostate if, instead of following the "life work" she had picked +out, she slipped back into matrimony. I can remember the dismay among +certain militant friends when Alice Freeman married. "Our first +college president," they groaned. "A woman who so vindicated the sex." +It was like the grieving of Miss Anthony that Mrs. Stanton wasted so +much time having babies!</p> + +<p>The militant theory, as originally conceived, instead of increasing in +favor, has declined. There is little likelihood now that any great +number of women will ever regard it as a desirable working formula for +more than a short period of their lives. But I am not saying that this +theory is no longer influential. It is probable that in a modified +form it was never more influential than it is to-day. For, while the +Uneasy <a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a>Woman has practically demonstrated that "making a man of +herself" does not solve her problem, she has by no means given up the +notion that the Business of Being a Woman is narrowing and +unsatisfying. Nor has she ceased to consider man's life more desirable +than woman's.</p> + +<p>The present effort of the serious-minded to meet the case takes two +general directions, natural enough outgrowths of the original +militancy. The first of these is a frank advocacy of celibacy. +"<i>Celibacy is the aristocracy of the future</i>," is the preaching of one +European feminist. It is a modification of the scheme by which the +medieval woman sought to escape unrest. Four hundred years ago a woman +sought celibacy as an escape from sin; service and righteousness were +her aim. To-day she adopts it to escape inferiority and servitude; +superiority and freedom her aim.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a>The ranks of the woman celibates are not full. Many a candidate falls +out by the way, confronted by something she had not reckoned with—the +eternal command that she be a woman. She compromises—grudgingly. She +will be a woman on condition that she is guaranteed economic freedom, +opportunity for self-expressive work, political recognition. What this +amounts to is that she does not see in the woman's life a satisfying +and permanent end. There are various points at which she claims it +fails. It is antagonistic to personal ambition. It makes a dependent +of her. It leaves her in middle life without an occupation. It keeps +her out of the great movements of her day—gives her no part in the +solution of the ethical and economical problems which affect her and +her children. She declares that she wants fuller participation in +life, and by life she <a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a>seems to mean the elaborate machinery by which +human wants are supplied and human beings kept in something like +order; the movements of the market place, of politics, and of +government.</p> + +<p>Now if there were not something in her contention, the Uneasy Woman +would not be with us as she is to-day, more vociferous, more insistent +than ever in the world's history. What is there in her case?</p> + +<p>If the cultivation of individual tastes and talents to a useful, +productive point is out of question in the woman's business, if it is +not a part of it, something is weak in the scheme. Something is weak +if the woman is or feels that she is not paying her way. Both are not +only individual rights; they are individual duties.</p> + +<p>Moreover, she is certainly right to be dissatisfied, if, after +spending twenty-five years, more or less, she is to be left in <a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a>middle +life, her forces spent, without interests and obligations which will +occupy brain and heart to the full, without important tasks which are +the logical outcome of her experience and which she must carry on in +order to complete that experience.</p> + +<p>But what is the truth about it? What is the Business of Being a Woman? +Is it something incompatible with free and joyous development of one's +talents? Is there no place in it for economic independence? Has it no +essential relation to the world's movements? Is it an episode which +drains the forces and leaves a dreary wreck behind? Is it something +that cannot be organized into a profession of dignity, and opportunity +for service and for happiness?</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER III<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h3>THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN</h3> +<br /> + +<p>Respect for the Creator of this world is basic among all civilized +people. The longer one lives, the more thoroughly one realizes the +soundness of this respect. The earth and its works <i>are</i> good. Most +human conceptions are barred by strange inconsistencies. The man who +praises the works of the Creator as all wise not infrequently treats +His arrangement for carrying on the race as if it were unfit to be +spoken of in polite society. Nowhere does the modern God-fearing man +come nearer to sacrilege than in his attitude toward the divine plan +for renewing life.</p> + +<p>A strange mixture of sincerity and <a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a>hypocrisy, self-flagellation and +lust, aspiration and superstition, has gone into the making of this +attitude. With the development of it we have nothing to do here. What +does concern us is the effect of this profanity on the Business of +Being a Woman.</p> + +<p>The central fact of the woman's life—Nature's reason for her—is the +child, his bearing and rearing. There is no escape from the divine +order that her life must be built around this constraint, duty, or +privilege, as she may please to consider it. But from the beginning to +the end of life she is never permitted to treat it naturally and +frankly. As a child accepting all that opens to her as a matter of +course, she is steered away from it as if it were something evil. Her +first essays at evasion and spying often come to her in connection +with facts which are sacred and beautiful and which <a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a>she is perfectly +willing to accept as such if they were treated intelligently and +reverently. If she could be kept from all knowledge of the procession +of new life except as Nature reveals it to her, there would be reason +in her treatment. But this is impossible. From babyhood she breathes +the atmosphere of unnatural prejudices and misconceptions which +envelop the fact.</p> + +<p>Throughout her girlhood the atmosphere grows thicker. She finally +faces the most perilous and beautiful of experiences with little more +than the ideas which have come to her from the confidences of +evil-minded servants, inquisitive and imaginative playmates, or the +gossip she overhears in her mother's society. Every other matter of +her life, serious and commonplace, has received careful attention, but +here she has been obliged to feel her way and, worst of abominations, +<a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a>to feel it with an inner fear that she ought not to know or seek to +know.</p> + +<p>If there were no other reason for the modern woman's revolt against +marriage, the usual attitude toward its central facts would be +sufficient. The idea that celibacy for woman is "the aristocracy of +the future" is soundly based if the Business of Being a Woman rests on +a mystery so questionable that it cannot be frankly and truthfully +explained by a girl's mother at the moment her interest and curiosity +seeks satisfaction. That she gets on as well as she does, results, of +course, from the essential soundness of the girl's nature, the armor +of modesty, right instinct, and reverence with which she is endowed.</p> + +<p>The direst result of ignorance or of distorted ideas of this +tremendous matter of carrying on human life is that it leaves the girl +unconscious of the supreme <a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a>importance of her mate. So heedlessly and +ignorantly is our mating done to-day that the huge machinery of Church +and State and the tremendous power of public opinion combined have +been insufficient to preserve to the institution of marriage anything +like the stability it once had, or that it is desirable that it should +have, if its full possibilities are to be realized. The immorality and +inhumanity of compelling the obviously mismated to live together, grow +on society. Divorce and separation are more and more tolerated. Yet +little is done to prevent the hasty and ill-considered mating which is +at the source of the trouble.</p> + +<p>Rarely has a girl a sound and informed sense to guide her in accepting +her companion. The corollary of this bad proposition is that she has +no sufficient idea of the seriousness of her undertaking. She starts +out as if on a lifelong joyous <a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a>holiday, primarily devised for her +personal happiness. And what is happiness in her mind? Certainly it is +not a good to be conquered—a state of mind wrested from life by +tackling and mastering its varied experiences, the <i>end</i>, not the +beginning, of a great journey. Too often it is that of the modern +Uneasy Woman—the attainment of something <i>outside</i> of herself. She +visualizes it, as possessions, as ease, a "good time," opportunities +for self-culture, the exclusive devotion of the mate to her. Rarely +does she understand that happiness in her undertaking depends upon the +wisdom and sense with which she conquers a succession of hard +places—calling for readjustment of her ideas and sacrifice of her +desires. All this she must discover for herself. She is like a voyager +who starts out on a great sea with no other chart than a sailor's +yarns, no other compass than curiosity.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a>The budget of axioms she brings to her guidance she has picked up +helter-skelter. They are the crumbs gathered from the table of the +Uneasy Woman, or worse, of the pharisaical and satisfied woman, from +good and bad books, from newspaper exploitations of divorce and +scandal, from sly gossip with girls whose budget of marital wisdom is +as higgledy-piggledy as her own.</p> + +<p>And a pathetically trivial budget it is:—</p> + +<p>"He must <i>tell</i> her everything." "He must always pick up what she +drops." "He must dress for dinner." "He must remember her birthday." +That is, she begins her adventure with a set of hard-and-fast +rules,—and nothing in this life causes more mischief than the effort +to force upon another one's own rules!</p> + +<p>That marriage gives the finest opportunity that life affords for +practicing, <a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a>not rules, but principles, she has never been taught. +Flexibility, adaptation, fair-mindedness, the habit of supplementing +the weakness of the one by the strength of the other, all the fine +things upon which the beauty, durability, and growth of human +relations depend,—these are what decide the future of her marriage. +These she misses while she insists on her rules; and ruin is often the +end. Study the causes back of divorces and separations, the brutal +criminal causes aside, and one finds that usually they begin in +trivial things,—an irritating habit or an offensive opinion persisted +in on the one side and not endured philosophically on the other; a +petty selfishness indulged on the one side and not accepted humorously +on the other,—that is, the marriage is made or unmade by small, not +great, things.</p> + +<p>It is a lack of any serious consideration <a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>of the nature of the +undertaking she is going into which permits her at the start to accept +a false notion of her economic position. She agrees that she is being +"supported"; she consents to accept what is given her; she even +consents to ask for money. Men and society at large take her at her +own valuation. Loose thinking by those who seek to influence public +opinion has aggravated the trouble. They start with the idea that she +is a parasite—does not pay her way. "Men hunt, fish, keep the cattle, +or raise corn," says a popular writer, "for women to eat the game, the +fish, the meat, and the corn." The inference is that the men alone +render useful service. But neither man nor woman eats of these things +until the woman has prepared them. The theory that the man who raises +corn does a more important piece of work than the woman who makes it +<a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a>into bread is absurd. The theory that she does something more +difficult and less interesting is equally absurd.</p> + +<p>The practice of handing over the pay envelope at the end of the week +to the woman, so common among laboring people, is a recognition of her +equal economic function. It is a recognition that the venture of the +two is common and that its success depends as much on the care and +intelligence with which she spends the money as it does on the energy +and steadiness with which he earns it. Whenever one or the other +fails, trouble begins. The failure to understand this business side of +the marriage relation almost inevitably produces humiliation and +irritation. So serious has the strain become because of this false +start that various devices have been suggested to repair it—Mr. +Wells' "Paid Motherhood" is one; weekly wages as <a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a>for a servant is +another. Both notions encourage the primary mistake that the woman has +not an equal economic place with the man in the marriage.</p> + +<p>Marriage is a business as well as a sentimental partnership. But a +business partnership brings grave practical responsibilities, and +this, under our present system, the girl is rarely trained to face. +She becomes a partner in an undertaking where her function is +spending. The probability is she does not know a credit from a debit, +has to learn to make out a check correctly, and has no conscience +about the fundamental matter of living within the allowance which can +be set aside for the family expenses. When this is true of her, she at +once puts herself into the rank of an incompetent—she becomes an +economic dependent. She has laid the foundation for becoming an Uneasy +Woman.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a>It is common enough to hear women arguing that this close grappling +with household economy is narrowing, not worthy of them. Why keeping +track of the cost of eggs and butter and calculating how much your +income will allow you to buy is any more narrowing than keeping track +of the cost and quality of cotton or wool or iron and calculating how +much a mill requires, it is hard to see. It is the same kind of a +problem. Moreover, it has the added interest of being always an +independent <i>personal</i> problem. Most men work under the deadening +effect of impersonal routine. They do that which others have planned +and for results in which they have no permanent share.</p> + +<p>But the woman argues that her task has no relation to the state. Her +failure to see that relation costs this country heavily. Her concern +is with <a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a>retail prices. If she does her work intelligently, she +follows and studies every fluctuation of price in standards. She also +knows whether she is receiving the proper quality and quantity; and +yet so poorly have women discharged these obligations that dealers for +years have been able to manipulate prices practically to please +themselves, and as for quality and quantity we have the scandal of +American woolen goods, of food adulteration, of false weights and +measures. No one of these things could have come about in this country +if woman had taken her business as a consumer with anything like the +seriousness with which man takes his as a producer.</p> + +<p>Her ignorance in handling the products of industry has helped the +monopolistically inclined trust enormously. I can remember the day +when the Beef Trust invaded a certain Middle Western town. <a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a>The war on +the old-time butchers of the village was open. "Buy of us," was the +order, "or we'll fill the storage house so full that the legs of the +steers will hang out of the windows, and we'll give away the meat." +The women of the town had a prosperous club which might have resisted +the tyranny which the members all deplored, but the club was busy that +winter with the study of the Greek drama! They deplored the tyranny, +but they bought the cut-rate meat—the old butchers fought to a +finish, and the housekeepers are now paying higher prices for poorer +meat and railing at the impotency of man in breaking up the Beef +Trust!</p> + +<p>If two years ago when the question of a higher duty on hosiery was +before Congress any woman or club of women had come forward with +carefully tabulated experiments, showing exactly the changes <a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a>which +have gone on of late years in the shape, color, and wearing quality of +the 15-, 25-, and 50-cent stockings, the stockings of the poor, she +would have rendered a genuine economic service. The women held mass +meetings and prepared petitions instead, using on the one side the +information the shopkeepers furnished, on the other that which the +stocking manufacturers furnished. Agitation based upon anything but +personal knowlledge is not a public service. It may be easily a grave +public danger. The facts needed for fixing the hosiery duty the women +should have furnished, for they buy the stockings.</p> + +<p>If the Uneasy American Woman were really fulfilling her economic +functions to-day, she would never allow a short pound of butter, a +yard of adulterated woolen goods, to come into her home. She would +never buy a ready-made <a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a>garment which did not bear the label of the +Consumer's League. She would recognize that she is a guardian of +quality, honesty, and humanity in industry.</p> + +<p>A persistent misconception of the nature and the possibilities of this +practical side of the Business of Being a Woman runs through all +present-day discussions of the changes in household economy. The woman +no longer has a chance to pay her way, we are told, because it is +really cheaper to buy bread than to bake it, to buy jam than to put it +up. Of course, this is a part of the vicious notion that a woman only +makes an economic return by the manual labor she does. The Uneasy +Woman takes up the point and complains that she has nothing to do. But +this release from certain kinds of labor once necessary, merely puts +upon her the obligation to apply the <a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a>ingenuity and imagination +necessary to make her business meet the changes of an ever changing +world. Because the conditions under which a household must be run now +are not what they were fifty years ago is no proof that the woman no +longer has here an important field of labor. There is more to the +practical side of her business than preparing food for the family! It +means, for one thing, the directing of its wants. The success of a +household lies largely in its power of selection. To-day selection has +given way to accumulation. The family becomes too often an +incorporated company for getting things—with frightful results. The +woman holds the only strong strategic position from which to war on +this tendency, as well as on the habits of wastefulness which are +making our national life increasingly hard and ugly. She is so +positioned that she can cultivate <a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a>and enforce simplicity and thrift, +the two habits which make most for elegance and for satisfaction in +the material things of life.</p> + +<p>Whenever a woman does master this economic side of her business in a +manner worthy of its importance, she establishes the most effective +school for teaching thrift, quality, management, selection—all the +factors in the economic problem. Such scientific household management +is the rarest kind of a training school. And here we touch the most +vital part in the Woman's Business—that of education.</p> + +<p>Every home is perforce a good or bad educational center. It does its +work in spite of every effort to shirk or supplement it. No teacher +can entirely undo what it does, be that good or bad. The natural +joyous opening of a child's mind depends on its first intimate +relations. These are, <a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a>as a rule, with the mother. It is the mother +who "takes an interest," who oftenest decides whether the new mind +shall open frankly and fearlessly. How she does her work, depends less +upon her ability to answer questions than her effort not to discourage +them; less upon her ability to lead authoritatively into great fields +than her efforts to push the child ahead into those which attract him. +To be responsive to his interests is the woman's greatest contribution +to the child's development.</p> + +<p>I remember a call once made on me by two little girls when our time +was spent in an excited discussion of the parts of speech. They were +living facts to them, as real as if their discovery had been printed +that morning for the first time in the newspaper. I was interested to +find who it was that had been able to keep their minds so naturally +alive. I <a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a>found that it came from the family habit of treating with +respect whatever each child turned up. Nothing was slurred over as if +it had no relation to life—not even the parts of speech! They were +not asked or forced to load themselves up with baggage in which they +soon discovered their parents had no interest. Everything was treated +as if it had a permanent place in the scheme to which they were being +introduced. It is only in some such relation that the natural bent of +most children can flower, that they can come early to themselves. +Where this warming, nourishing intimacy is wanting, where the child is +turned over to schools to be put through the mass drill which numbers +make imperative—it is impossible for the most intelligent teacher to +do a great deal to help the child to his own. What the Uneasy Woman +forgets is that no two children b<a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a>orn were ever alike, and no two +children who grow to manhood and womanhood will ever live the same +life. The effort to make one child like another, to make him what his +parents want, not what he is born to be, is one of the most cruel and +wasteful in society. It is the woman's business to prevent this.</p> + +<p>The Uneasy Woman tells you that this close attention to the child is +too confining, too narrowing. "I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness +of her task," says Chesterton; "I will never pity her for its +smallness." A woman never lived who did all she might have done to +open the mind of her child for its great adventure. It is an +exhaustless task. The woman who sees it knows she has need of all the +education the college can give, all the experience and culture she can +gather. She knows that the fuller her individual life, the broader her +interests, <a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a>the better for the child. She should be a person in his +eyes. The real service of the "higher education," the freedom to take +a part in whatever interests or stimulates her—lies in the fact that +it fits her intellectually to be a companion worthy of a child. She +should know that unless she does this thing for him he goes forth with +his mind still in swaddling clothes, with the chances that it will not +be released until relentless life tears off the bands.</p> + +<p>The progress of society depends upon getting out of men and women an +increasing amount of the powers with which they are born and which bad +surroundings at the start blunt or stupefy. This is what all systems +of education try to do, but the result of all systems of education +depends upon the material that comes to the educator. Opening the mind +of the child, that is the delicate <a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a>task the state asks of the mother, +and the quality of the future state depends upon the way she +discharges this part of her business.</p> + +<p>I think it is historically correct to say that the reason of the +sudden and revolutionary change in the education of American women, +which began with the nineteenth century and continued through it, was +the realization that if we were to make real democrats, we must begin +with the child, and if we began with the child, we must begin with the +mother!</p> + +<p>Everybody saw that unless the child learned by example and precept the +great principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity, he was going to +remain what by nature we all are,—imperious, demanding, and +self-seeking. The whole scheme must fail if his education failed. It +is not too much to say that the success of the Declaration of +Independence and the <a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a>Constitution depended, in the minds of certain +early Democrats, upon the woman. The doctrines of these great +instruments would be worked out according to the way she played her +part. Her serious responsibility came in the fact that her work was +one that nobody could take off her hands. This responsibility required +a preparation entirely different from that which had been hers. She +must be given education and liberty. The woman saw this, and the story +of her efforts to secure both, that she might meet the requirements, +is one of the noblest in history. There was no doubt, then, as to the +value of the tasks, no question as to their being worthy national +obligations. It was a question of fitting herself for them.</p> + +<p>But what has happened? In the process of preparing herself to +discharge more adequately her task as a woman in a <a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a>republic, her +respect for the task has been weakened. In this process, which we call +emancipation, she has in a sense lost sight of the purposes of +emancipation. Interested in acquiring new tools, she has come to +believe the tools more important than the thing for which she was to +use them. She has found out that with education and freedom, pursuits +of all sorts are open to her, and by following these pursuits she can +preserve her personal liberty, avoid the grave responsibility, the +almost inevitable sorrows and anxieties, which belong to family life. +She can choose her friends and change them. She can travel, and +gratify her tastes, satisfy her personal ambitions. The snare has been +too great; the beauty and joy of free individual life have dulled the +sober sense of national obligation. The result is that she is +frequently failing to <a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a>discharge satisfactorily some of the most +imperative demands the nation makes upon her.</p> + +<p>Take as an illustration the moral training of the child. The most +essential obligation in a Woman's Business is establishing her +household on a sound moral basis. If a child is anchored to basic +principles, it is because his home is built on them. If he understands +integrity as a man, it is usually because a woman has done her work +well. If she has not done it well, it is probable that he will be a +disturbance and a menace when he is turned over to society. Sending +defective steel to a gunmaker is no more certain to result in unsafe +guns than turning out boys who are shifty and tricky is to result in a +corrupt and unhappy community.</p> + +<p>Appalled by the seriousness of the task, or lured from it by the joys +of liberty and education, the woman has too <a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a>generally shifted it to +other shoulders—shoulders which were waiting to help her work out the +problem, but which could never be a substitute. She has turned over +the child to the teacher, secular and religious, and fancied that he +might be made a man of integrity by an elaborate system of teaching in +a mass. Has this shifting of responsibility no relation to the general +lowering of our commercial and political morality?</p> + +<p>For years we have been bombarded with evidence of an appalling +indifference to the moral quality of our commercial and political +transactions. It is not too much to say that the revelations of +corruption in our American cities, the use of town councils, State +legislatures, and even of the Federal Government in the interests of +private business, have discredited the democratic system throughout +the world. It has given more <a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a>material for those of other lands who +despise democracy to sneer at us than anything that has yet happened +in this land. And <i>this has come about under the régime of the +emancipated woman</i>. Is she in no way responsible for it? If she had +kept the early ideals of the woman's part in democracy as clearly +before her eyes as she has kept some of her personal wants and needs, +could there have been so disastrous a condition? Would she be the +Uneasy Woman she is if she had kept faith with the ideals that forced +her emancipation?—if she had not substituted for them dreams of +personal ambition, happiness, and freedom!</p> + +<p>The failure to fulfill your function in the scheme under which you +live always produces unrest. Content of mind is usually in proportion +to the service one renders in an undertaking he believes worth while. +If our Uneasy Woman <a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a>could grasp the full meaning of her place in this +democracy, a place so essential that democracy must be overthrown +unless she rises to it—a part which man is not equipped to play and +which he ought not to be asked to play, would she not cease to +apologize for herself—cease to look with envy on man's occupations? +Would she not rise to her part and we not have at last the "new woman" +of whom we have talked so long?</p> + +<p>Learning, business careers, political and industrial activities—none +of these things is more than incidental in the national task of woman. +Her great task is to prepare the citizen. The citizen is not prepared +by a training in practical politics. Something more fundamental is +required. The meaning of honor and of the sanctity of one's word, the +understanding of the principles of democracy and of the society in +which we live, the <a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a>love of humanity, and the desire to serve,—these +are what make a good citizen. The tools for preparing herself to give +this training are in the woman's hands. It calls for education, and +the nation has provided it. It calls for freedom of movement and +expression, and she has them. It calls for ability to organize, to +discuss problems, to work for whatever changes are essential. She is +developing this ability. It may be that it calls for the vote. I do +not myself see this, but it is certain that she will have the vote as +soon as not a majority, but an approximate half, not of men—but of +women—feel the need of it.</p> + +<p>What she has partially at least lost sight of is that education, +freedom, organization, agitation, the suffrage, are but tools to an +end. What she now needs is to formulate that end so nobly and clearly +that the most ignorant woman <a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a>may understand it. The failure to do +this is leading her deeper and deeper into fruitless unrest. It is +also dulling her sense of the necessity of keeping her business +abreast with the times. At one particular and vital point this shows +painfully, and that is her slowness in socializing her home.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER IV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h3>THE SOCIALIZATION OF THE HOME</h3> +<br /> + +<p>It is only by much junketing about that one comes to the full +realization of what men and women in the main are doing in this +country. One learns as he passes from town to town, through cities and +across plains, that the general reason for industry everywhere is to +get the means to build and support a home. Row upon row, street upon +street, they run in every village you traverse. They dot the hills and +valleys, they break up the mountain side.</p> + +<p>Every night they draw to their shelter millions of men who have toiled +since morning to earn the money to build and keep them running. All +day they shelter <a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>millions of women who toil from dawn to dark to put +meaning into them. To shelter two people and the children that come to +them, to provide them a place in which to eat and sleep, is that the +only function of these homes? If that were all, few homes would be +built. When that becomes all, the home is no more! To furnish a body +for a soul, that is the physical function of the home.</p> + +<p>There are certain people who cry out that for a woman this undertaking +has no meaning—that for her it is a cook stove and a dustpan, a +childbed, and a man who regards her as his servant. One might with +equal justice say that for the man it is made up of ten, twelve, or +more hours, at the plow, the engine, the counter, or the pen for the +sake of supporting a woman and children whom he rarely sees! +Unhappily, there are such combinations; they are not homes! They <a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a>are +deplorable failures of people who have tried to make homes. To insist +that they are anything else is to overlook the facts of life, to doubt +the sanity of mankind which hopefully and courageously goes on +building, building, building, sacrificing, binding itself forever and +ever to what?—a shell? No, to the institution which its observation +and experience tell it, is the one out of which men and women have +gotten the most hope, dignity, and joy,—the place through which, +whatever its failures and illusions, they get the fullest development +and the opportunity to render the most useful social service.</p> + +<p>It is this grounded conviction that the home takes first rank among +social institutions which gives its tremendous seriousness to the +Business of Being a Woman. She is the one who must sit always at its +center, the one who holds a strategic position for dealing directly +<a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a>with its problems. Far from these problems being purely of a menial +nature, as some would have us believe, they are of the most delicate +social and spiritual import. A woman in reality is at the head of a +social laboratory where all the problems are of primary, not +secondary, importance, since they all deal directly with human life.</p> + +<p>One of the most illuminating experiences of travel is visiting the +great chateaux of France. One goes to see "historical monuments," the +scenes of strange and tragic human experiences; he finds he is in +somebody's private house, which by order of the government is opened +to the public one day of the week! He probably will not realize this +fully unless he suddenly opens a door, not intended to be opened, +behind which he finds a mass of children's toys—go-carts and dolls, +balls and tennis <a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a>rackets—or stumbles into a room supposed to be +locked where framed photographs, sofa cushions, and sewing tables +abound!</p> + +<p>To the average American it comes almost as a shock that these open +homes are the <i>logic of democracy</i>. It is almost sure to set him +thinking that after all the home, anybody's home, even one in such big +contrast to this chateau as a two-story frame house, on Avenue A, in +B-ville, has a relation to the public. He has touched a great social +truth.</p> + +<p>To socialize her home, that is the high undertaking a woman has on her +hands if she is to get at the heart of her Business. And what do we +mean by socialization? Is it other than to put the stamp of +affectionate, intelligent human interest upon all the operations and +the intercourse of the center she directs? To make a place in which +the various members can live freely and draw to themselves <a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>those with +whom they are sympathetic—a place in which there is spiritual and +intellectual room for all to grow and be happy each in his own way?</p> + +<p>I doubt if there is any problem in the Woman's Business which requires +a higher grade of intelligence, and certainly none that requires +broader sympathies, than this of giving to her home that quality of +stimulation and joyousness which makes young and old seek it gladly +and freely.</p> + +<p>To do this requires money, freedom, time, and strength? No, what I +mean does not depend upon these things. It is the notion that it does +that often prevents its growth. For it is a spirit, an attitude of +mind, and not a formula or a piece of machinery. As far as my +observation goes it is quite, if not more likely, to be found in a +three-room apartment, where a family is living <a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a>on fifteen dollars a +week, as in an East Central Park mansion! In these little families +where love prevails—it usually does exist. It is the kind of an +atmosphere in which a man prefers to smoke his pipe rather than go to +the saloon; where the girl brings her young man home rather than walk +with him. Mutual interest and affection is its note. Such homes do +exist by the tens of thousands; even in New York City. It is not from +them that girls go to brothels or boys to the Tombs.</p> + +<p>Externally, these homes are often pretty bad to look at—overcrowded, +disorderly, and noisy. Cleanliness, order, and space are good things, +but it is a mistake to think that there is no virtue without them. +There are more primary and essential things; things to which they +should be added, but without which they are lifeless virtues. In one +of Miss Loane's <a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a>reports on the life of the English poor, she makes +these truthful observations:—</p> + +<blockquote> +<p class="noin">One learns to understand how it is that the dirty, untidy young +wife, who, when her husband returns hungry and tired from a long +day's work, holds up a smilingly assured face to be kissed, +exclaiming, "Gracious! if I hadn't forgot all about your tea!" and +clatters together an extravagant and ill-chosen meal while she +pours out a stream of cheerful and inconsequent chatter, is more +loved, and dealt with more patiently, tenderly, and faithfully, +than her clean and frugal neighbor, who has prepared a meal that +ought to turn the author of Twenty Satisfying Suppers for Sixpence +green with envy, but who expects her husband to be eternally +grateful because "he could eat his dinner off the boards,"—when +all that the poor man asks is to be allowed to walk over them +unreproached.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Peace and good will may go with disorder and carelessness! They may +fly order and thrift. They will fly them when order and thrift are +held as the more desirable. A woman is often slow to <a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a>learn that good +housekeeping alone cannot produce a milieu in which family happiness +thrives and to which people naturally gravitate. She looks at it as +the fulfillment of the law—the end of her Business. It is the +exaggerated place she gives it in the scheme of things, which brings +disaster to her happiness and gives substance to the argument that +woman's lot in life is fatal to her development. Housekeeping is only +the shell of a Woman's Business. Women lose themselves in it as men +lose themselves in shopkeeping, farming, editing. Knowing nothing but +your work is one of the commonest human mistakes. Pitifully enough it +is often a deliberate mistake—the only way or the easiest way one +finds to quiet an unsatisfied heart. The undue place given good +housekeeping in many a woman's scheme of life is the more tragic +because it is a distortion of one of the finest things <a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>in the human +experience—the satisfaction of doing a thing well. It is a +satisfaction which the worker must have if he is to get joy from his +labor. But labor is not for the sake of itself. It must have its human +reason. You rejoice in a "deep-driven plow"—but if there was to be no +harvest, your straight, full furrows would be little comfort. You +rejoice to build a stanch and beautiful house, but if you knew it was +to stand forever vacant, joy would go from your task. An end work must +have. One does not keep house for its own sake. It is absorption in +the process—the refusal to allow it to be forgotten or utilized +freely, that makes the work barren. It is like becoming so absorbed in +a beautiful frame that you are unconscious of the picture—unconscious +that there is a picture. Things must serve their purpose if they are +to <a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a>convince of their beauty. Try living in a room with a wonderfully +fitted fireplace; its mantel of exquisite design and workmanship, its +fire irons masterpieces of art—and no heat from it! Note how utterly +distasteful it all becomes. It is no longer beautiful because it does +not do the work it was made beautiful to do.</p> + +<p>One of the most repellent houses in which I have ever visited was one +in which there was, from garret to cellar, so far as I discovered, not +one article which was not of the period imitated, not one streak of +color which was not "right." It was a masterpiece of correct +furnishing, but it gave one a curious sense of limitation. One could +not escape the scheme. The inelasticity of it hampered sociability—and +there grew on one, too, a sense of unfitness. His clothes were an +anachronism! They were the only thing which did not belong!</p> + +<p><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a>There is an old-fashioned adjective which describes better than any +other this preoccupation with things, which so often prevents a +woman's coming to an understanding of the heart of her Business. It is +<i>old maidish</i>. It has often been the pathetic fate of single women to +live alone. To minister to themselves becomes their occupation. The +force of their natures turns to their belongings. If in straitened +circumstances they give their souls to spotless floors; if rich, to +flawless mahogany and china, to perfect household machinery. Wherever +you find in woman this perversion—old maidish is perhaps the most +accurate word for her—it is a sacrifice of the human to the material. +A house without sweet human litter, without the trace of many varying +tastes and occupations, without the trail of friends who perhaps have +no sense of beauty but <a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a>who love to give, without the scars of use, +and the dust of running feet—what is it but a meatless shell!</p> + +<p>This devotion to "things" may easily become a ghoulish passion. It is +such that Ibsen hints at in the <i>Master Builder</i>, when he makes Aline +Solness attribute her perpetual black, her somber eyes and smileless +lips, not to the death of her two little boys which has come about +through the burning of her home, <i>that</i> was a "dispensation of +Providence" to which she "bows in submission," but to the destruction +of the <i>things</i> which were "mine"—"All the old portraits were burnt +upon the walls, and all the old silk dresses were burnt that had +belonged to the family for generations and generations. And all +mother's and grandmother's lace—that was burnt, too, and only think, +the jewels too."</p> + +<p>One of the most disastrous effects of <a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a>this preocccupation with the +things and the labors of the household is the killing of conversation. +There is perhaps no more general weakness in the average American +family than glumness! The silent newspaper-reading father, the worried +watchful mother, the surly boy, the fretful girl, these are characters +typical in both town and country. In one of Mrs. Daskam Bacon's lively +tales, "Ardelia in Arcadia," the little heroine is transplanted from a +lively, chattering, sweltering New York street to the maddening +silence of an overworked farmer's table. She stands it as long as she +can, then cries out, "For Gawd's sake, <i>talk</i>!"</p> + +<p>One secret of the attraction for the young of the city over the +country or small town is contact with those who talk. They are +conscious of the exercise of a freedom they have never <a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a>known—the +freedom to say what rises to the lips. They experience the unknown joy +of play of mind. According to their observation the tongue and mind +are used only when needed for serious service: to keep them active, to +allow them to perform whatever nimble feats their owners fancy—this +is a revelation!</p> + +<p>Free family talk is sometimes ruined by a mistaken effort to direct it +according to some artificial notions of what conversation means. +Conversation means free giving of what is uppermost in the mind. The +more spontaneous it is the more interesting and genuine it is. It is +this freedom which gives to the talk of the child its surprises and +often its startling power to set one thinking. Holding talk to some +severe standard of consistency, dignity, or subject is sure to stiffen +and hamper it. There could have been nothing <a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>very free or joyful +about talking according to a program as the ladies of the +eighteenth-century salons were more or less inclined. Good +conversation runs like water; nothing is foreign to it. "Farming is +such an unintellectual subject," I heard a critical young woman say to +her husband, whose tastes were bucolic. The young woman did not +realize that one of the masterpieces of the greatest of the world's +writers was on farming—most practical farming, too! That which +relates to the life of each, interests each, concerns each—that is +the material for conversation, if it is to be enjoyable or productive.</p> + +<p>One of a woman's real difficulties in creating a free-speaking +household is her natural tendency to regard opinions as personal. To +differ is something she finds it difficult to tolerate. To her mind it +is to be unfriendly. This <a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a>propensity to give a personal turn to +things is an expression of that intensity of nature which makes her, +as Mr. Kipling has truthfully put it, "more deadly than the male!" She +<i>must</i> be that—were she not, the race would dwindle. <i>He</i> would never +sacrifice himself as she does for the preservation of the young! This +necessity of concentrating her whole being on a little group makes her +personal. The wise woman is she who recognizes that like all great +forces this, too, has its weakness. Because a woman must be "more +deadly than the male" in watching her offspring is no reason she +should be so in guarding an opinion. Certainly if she is so, +conversation is cut off at the root.</p> + +<p>Not infrequently she is loath to encourage free expression because it +seems to her to disturb the peace. Certainly it does disturb fixity of +views. It does <a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></a>prevent things becoming settled in the way that the +woman, as a rule, loves to have them, but this disturbance prevents +the rigid intellectual and spiritual atmosphere which often drives the +young from home. Peace which comes from submission and restraint is a +poor thing. In the long run it turns to revolt. The woman, if she +examines her own soul, knows the effect upon it of habitual submission +to a husband's opinion. She knows it is a habit fatal to her own +development. While at the beginning she may have been willing enough +to sacrifice her ideas, later she makes the painful discovery that +this hostage to love, as she considered it, has only made her less +interesting, less important, both to herself and to him. It has made +it the more difficult, also, to work out that socialization of her +home which, as her children grow older, she realizes, if she <a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a>thinks, +is one of her most imperative duties.</p> + +<p>A woman is very prone to look on marriage as a merger of +personalities, but there can be no great union where an individuality +permits itself to be ruined. The notion that a woman's happiness +depends on the man—that he must "make her happy"—is a basic untruth. +Life is an individual problem, and consequently happiness must be. +Others may hamper it, but in the final summing up it is you, not +another, who gives or takes it—no two people can work out a high +relation if the precious inner self of either is sacrificed.</p> + +<p>Emerson has said the great word:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Leave all for love;<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Yet, hear me, yet,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Keep thee to-day,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>To-morrow, forever,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Free as an Arab!</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Of thy beloved</i>.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a>The "open house," that is, the socialized house, depends upon this +free mind to a degree only second to that spirit of "good will to +man," upon which it certainly must, like all institutions in a +democratic Christian nation, be based. This good will is only another +name for neighborliness—the spirit of friendly recognition of all +those who come within one's radius. Neighborliness is based upon the +Christian and democratic proposition that all men are brothers—a +proposition with which the sects and parties of Christianity and +democracy often play havoc. In their zeal for an interpretation or +system they sacrifice the very things they were devised to perpetuate +and extend among men. A sectarian or partisan household cannot be a +genuinely neighborly household. It has cut off too large a part of its +source of supply.</p> + +<p>The most perfect type of this spirit of <a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a>neighborliness which we have +worked out in this country, outside of the thousands of little homes +where it exists and of which, in the nature of the case, only those +who have felt their influence can know, is undoubtedly Hull House, the +Chicago Settlement under the direction of Jane Addams. Hull House is +an "open house" for its neighborhood. It is a place where men and +women of all ages, conditions, and points of view are welcome. So far +as I have been able to discover, genuine freedom of mind and +friendliness of spirit are what have made Hull House possible and are +what will decide its future after the day of the great woman who has +mothered it and about whom it revolves. There is no formula for +building a Hull House—any more than there is a home. Both are the +florescence of a spirit and a mind. Each will form itself according to +the <a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a>ideas, the tastes, and the cultivation of the individuality at +its center. Its activities will follow the peculiar needs which she +has the brains and heart to discover, the ingenuity and energy to +meet.</p> + +<p>Hull House serves its neighborhood, and in so doing it serves most +fully its own household. Its own members are the ones whose minds get +the most illumination from its activities. Moreover, Hull House from +its first-hand sympathetic dealing with men and women in its +neighborhood learns the needs of the neighborhood. It is and for years +has been a constant source of suggestion and of agitation for the +betterment of the conditions under which its neighbors—and indirectly +the whole city, even nation—live and work. Health, mind, morals, all +are in its care. It is practical in the plans it offers. It can back +up its demands with knowledge founded on <a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a>actual contact. It can rally +all of the enlightened and decent forces of the city to its help. Hull +House, indeed, is a very source of pure life in the great city where +it belongs.</p> + +<p>So far as attitude of mind and spirit go, the home should be to the +little neighborhood in which it works what Hull House is to its great +field. In its essential structure it is the same thing; <i>i.e.</i> Hull +House is really modeled after the home. Most interesting is the +parallel between its organization and its activities and those of many +a great home which we know through the lives of their mistresses, that +of Margaret Winthrop, of Eliza Pinckney, of Mrs. John Adams.</p> + +<p>The social significance of Hull House is in its relative degree the +possible social significance of every home in this land. The +realization depends entirely upon the conception the woman in a +particular <a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></a>house has of this side of her Business—whether or no she +sees neighborliness in this big sense. That she does not see it is too +often due to the fact that even though she may have "gone through +college," she has no notion of society as a living structure made up +of various interdependent institutions, the first and foremost of +which is a family or home.</p> + +<p>Absurd as it is, Society, which is founded on the family, is to-day +giving only perfunctory and half-hearted attention to the family. The +whole vocabulary of the institution has taken on such a quality of +cant, that one almost hesitates to use the words "home" and "mother"! +A girl's education should contain at least as much serious instruction +on the relation of the family to Society as it does on the relation of +the Carboniferous Age to the making of the globe. At present, it +usually has less. It is but another <a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a>evidence of the pressing need +there is of giving to the Woman's Business a more scientific +treatment—of revitalizing its vocabulary, reformulating its problems, +of giving it the dignity it deserves, that of a great profession. It +is the failure to do this which is at the bottom of woman's present +disorderly and antisocial handling of three of the leading occupations +of her life—her clothes, her domestics, and her daughter.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER V<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h3>A WOMAN AND HER RAIMENT</h3> +<br /> + +<p>One of the most domineering impulses in men and women is that bidding +them to make themselves beautiful. In the normal girl-child it comes +out, as does her craving for a doll. Nature is telling her what her +work in the world is to be. It stays with her to the end, its flame +often flickering long after her arms have ceased their desire to +cradle a child. Scorn it, ridicule it, deny it, it is nature's will, +and as such must be obeyed, and in the obeying should be honored.</p> + +<p>But this instinct, which has led men and women from strings of shells +to modern clothes, like every other human instinct, has its +distortions. It is in <a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></a>the failure to see the relative importance of +things, to keep the proportions, that human beings lose control of +their endowment. Give an instinct an inch, and it invariably takes its +ell! The instinct for clothes, from which we have learned so much in +our climb from savagery, has more than once had the upper hand of us. +So dangerous to the prosperity and the seriousness of peoples has its +tyranny been, that laws have again and again been passed to check it; +punishments have been devised to frighten off men from indulging it; +whole classes have been put into dull and formless costumes to crucify +it.</p> + +<p>Man gradually and in the main has conquered his passion for ornament. +To-day, in the leading nations of the world, he clothes rather than +arrays himself. Woman has not harnessed the instinct. She still allows +it to drive her, and often <a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a>to her own grave prejudice. Even in a +democracy like our own, woman has not been able to master this problem +of clothes. In fact, democracy has complicated the problem seriously.</p> + +<p>Under the old régime costumes had been worked out for the various +classes. They were adapted both to the purse and to the pursuit. They +were fitting—that is, silk was not worn in huts or homespun in +palaces; slippers were for carriages and <i>sabots</i> for streets. The +garments of a class were founded on good sound principles on the +whole—but they marked the class. Democracy sought to destroy outward +distinctions. The proscribed costumes went into the pot with +proscribed positions. Under democracy we can cook in silk petticoats +and go to the White House in a cap and apron, if we will. And we often +will, that being a way to advertise our equality!</p> + +<p><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a>Class costumes destroyed, the principles back of them, that is, +fitness, quality, responsibility, were forgotten. The old instinct for +ornament broke loose. Its tyranny was strengthened by the eternal +desire of the individual to prove himself superior to his fellows. +Wealth is the generally accepted standard of measurement of value in +this country to-day, and there is no way in which the average man can +show wealth so clearly as in encouraging his women folk to array +themselves. Thus we have the anomaly in a democracy of a primitive +instinct let loose, and the adoption of discarded aristocratic devices +for proving you are better than your neighbor, at least in the one +revered particular of having more money to spend!</p> + +<p>The complication of the woman's life by this domination of clothes is +extremely serious. In many cases it becomes not one of the sides of +her business, but <i>the</i> <a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a>business of her life. Such undue proportion +has the matter taken in the American Woman's life under democracy that +one is sometimes inclined to wonder if it is not the real "woman +question." Certainly in numbers of cases it is the rock upon which a +family's happiness splits. The point is not at all that women should +not occupy themselves seriously with dress, that they should not look +on it as an art, as legitimate as any other. The difficulty comes in +not mastering the art, in the entirely disproportionate amount of +attention which is given to the subject, in the disregard of sound +principles.</p> + +<p>The economic side of the matter presses hard on the whole country. It +is not too much to say that the chief economic concern of a great body +of women is how to get money to dress, not as they should, but as they +want to. It is to <a name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></a>get money for clothes that drives many, though of +course not the majority, of girls, into shops, factories, and offices. +It is because they are using all they earn on themselves that they are +able to make the brave showing that they do. Many a girl is misjudged +by the well-meaning observer or investigator because of this +fact—"She could never dress like that on $6, $8, or $15 a week and +support herself," they tell you. She does not support herself. She +works for clothes, and clothes alone. Moreover, the girl who has the +pluck to do hard regular work that she may dress better has interest +enough to work at night to make her earnings go farther. No one who +has been thrown much with office girls but knows case after case of +girls who with the aid of some older member of the family cut and make +their gowns, plan and trim their hats. Moreover, this <a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></a>relieving the +family budget of dressing the girl is a boon to fathers and mothers.</p> + +<p>It is hard on industry, however, for the wage earner who can afford to +take $6 or $8 helps pull down the wages of other thousands who support +not only themselves, but others.</p> + +<p>Moreover, to put in one's days in hard labor simply to dress well, for +that is the amount of it, is demoralizing. It is this emphasis on the +matter which impels a reckless girl sometimes to sell herself for +money to buy clothes. "I wanted the money," I heard a girl, arrested +for her first street soliciting, tell the judge. "Had you no home?" +"Yes." "A good home?" "Yes." "For what did you want money?" "Clothes."</p> + +<p>"Gee, but I felt as if I would give anything for one of them willow +plumes," a pretty sixteen-year-old girl told the police matron who had +rescued her from <a name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></a>a man with whom she had left home, because he +promised her silk gowns and hats with feathers.</p> + +<p>This ugly preoccupation with dress does not begin with the bottom of +society. It exists there because it exists at the top and filters +down. In each successive layer there are women to whom dress is as +much of a vice as it was for the poor little girls I quote above. It +is a vice curiously parallel to that of gambling among men. Women of +great wealth not infrequently spend princely allowances and then run +accounts which come into the courts by their inability or +unwillingness to pay them. It is curious comment on women in a +democracy that it should be possible to mention them in the same +breath with Josephine, Empress of the French. Napoleon at the +beginning of the Empire allowed Josephine $72,000 a year for her +toilet; later he made it $90,000. But <a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a>there was never a year she did +not far outstrip the allowance. Masson declares that on an average she +spent $220,000 a year, and the itemized accounts of the articles in +her wardrobe give authority for the amount.</p> + +<p>Josephine's case is of course exceptional in history. She was an +untrained woman, generous and pleasure-loving, utterly without a sense +of responsibility. She had all the instincts and habits of a +demi-mondaine; moreover, she had been thrust into a position where she +was expected to live up to traditions of great magnificence. Her +passion for ornament had every temptation and excuse, for it was +constantly excited by the hoards of greedy tradesmen and of no less +greedy ladies-in-waiting who hung about her urging her to buy and +give. It is hard to believe that Josephine's case could be even +remotely suggested in our <a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"></a>democracy; yet one woman in American +society bought last summer in Europe a half-dozen nightgowns for which +she paid a thousand dollars apiece. There are women who will start on +a journey with a hundred or a hundred and fifty pairs of shoes. There +are others who bring back from Europe forty or fifty new gowns for a +season! What can one think of a bill of $500 for stockings in one +season, of $20,000 for a season's gowns, coats and hats from one shop +and as much more in the aggregate for the same articles in the same +period from other shops; this showing was made in a recent divorce +case.</p> + +<p>What can one think of duties of over $30,000 paid on personal articles +by one woman who yearly brings back similar quantities of jewelry and +clothes. This $30,000 in duties meant an expenditure of probably about +$100,000. It <a name="Page_119" id="Page_119"></a>included over $1200 for hats, over $3000 for corsets and +lingerie. This was undoubtedly exceptional; that is, few women of even +great wealth buy so lavishly. Yet good round sums, even if they are +small in comparison, are spent by many women in their European +outings. They will bring from six to twelve gowns which will average +at least $150 apiece, and an occasional woman will have a half-dozen +averaging from $450 to $500 apiece. One might say that eight to twelve +hats, costing $25 to $50 apiece, was a fair average, though $800 to +$1200 worth is not so rare as to cause a panic at the customhouse.</p> + +<p>The comparative amounts which men and women spend affords an +interesting comment on the relative importance which men and women +attach to clothes. In one case of which I happen to know Mr. A. +brought in $840 worth of wearing <a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"></a>apparel: Mrs. A. nearly $10,000 +worth, of which $7000 was for gowns. A man may have eight to ten suits +of pajamas which cost him $10 apiece, a dozen or two waistcoats, a +dozen or two shirts, a few dozen handkerchiefs and gloves, a dozen or +so ties, eight or ten suits of clothes, but from $500 to $1000 will +cover his wardrobe; his wife will often spend as much for hats alone +as he does for an entire outfit!</p> + +<p>The difficulty in these great expenditures is that they set a pace. To +many women of wealth they are no doubt revolting. They recognize that +there are only two classes of women who can justify them—the actress +and the demi-mondaine. Yet insensibly many of these women yield to the +pressure of temptation. The influence is subtle, often unconscious, +and for this reason spreads the more widely. Women all over the +<a name="Page_121" id="Page_121"></a>country find that the pressure is to spend more for clothes each year. +The standard changes. Occasions multiply. Fantasies entice. Before +they know it their clothes are costing them a disproportionate +sum—more than they can afford if their budget is to balance.</p> + +<p>This does not apply to one class, it creeps steadily down to the very +poor. Investigators of small household budgets lay it down as a rule +that as the income increases the percentage spent for clothing +increases more rapidly than for any other item. It is true in the +professional classes, and especially burdensome there; for the income +is usually small, but the social demand great.</p> + +<p>There are certain industrial and ethical results from this +preoccupation with clothes which should not be overlooked, +particularly the indifference to quality which it has engendered. The +very heart <a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"></a>of the question of clothes of the American woman is +imitation. That is, we are not engaged in an effort to work out +individuality. We are not engaged in an effort to find costumes which +by their expression of the taste and the spirit of this people can be +fixed upon as appropriate American costumes, something of our own. +From top to bottom we are copying. The woman of wealth goes to Paris +and Vienna for the real masterpieces in a season's wardrobe. The great +dressmakers and milliners go to the same cities for their models. +Those who cannot go abroad to seek inspiration and ideas copy those +who have gone or the fashion plates they import. The French or +Viennese mode, started on upper Fifth Avenue, spreads to 23d St., from +23d St. to 14th St., from 14th St. to Grand and Canal. Each move sees +it reproduced in materials a little less elegant and <a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a>durable, its +colors a trifle vulgarized, its ornaments cheapened, its laces poorer. +By the time it reaches Grand Street the $400 gown in brocaded velvet +from the best looms in Europe has become a cotton velvet from Lawrence +or Fall River, decorated with mercerized lace and glass ornaments from +Rhode Island! A travesty—and yet a recognizable travesty. The East +Side hovers over it as Fifth Avenue has done over the original. The +very shop window, where it is displayed, is dressed and painted and +lighted in imitation of the uptown shop. The same process goes on +inland. This same gown will travel its downward path from New York +westward, until the Grand St. creation arrives in some cheap and gay +mining or factory town. From start to finish it is imitation, and on +this imitation vast industries are built—imitations of silk, of +velvet, of lace, of jewels.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124"></a>These imitations, cheap as they are, are a far greater extravagance, +for their buyers, than the original model was for its buyer, for the +latter came from that class where money does not count—while the +former is of a class where every penny counts. The pity of it is that +the young girls, who put all that they earn into elaborate lingerie at +seventy-nine cents a set (the original model probably sold at $50 or +$100), into open-work hose at twenty-five cents a pair (the original +$10 a pair), into willow plumes at $1.19 (the original sold at $50), +never have a durable or suitable garment. They are bravely ornamented, +but never properly clothed. Moreover, they are brave but for a day. +Their purchases have no goodness in them; they tear, grow rusty, fall +to pieces with the first few wearings, and the poor little victims are +shabby and bedraggled often before they <a name="Page_125" id="Page_125"></a>have paid for their +belongings, for many of these things are bought on the installment +plan, particularly hats and gowns. Under these circumstances, it is +little wonder that one hears, often and often among their class, the +bitter cry, "Gee, but it's hell to be poor!"—that one finds so often +assigned by a girl as the cause of her downfall, the natural +reason—"Wanted to dress like other girls"—"Wanted pretty clothes."</p> + +<p>This habit of buying poor imitations does not end in the girl's life +with her clothes. When she marries, she carries it into her home. +Decoration, not furnishing, is the keynote of all she touches. It is +she who is the best patron of the elaborate and monstrous cheap +furniture, rugs, draperies, crockery, bric-a-brac, which fill the +shops of the cheaper quarters of the great cities, and usually all +quarters of the newer inland towns.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126"></a>Has all this no relation to national prosperity—to the cost of +living? The effect on the victim's personal budget is clear—the +effect it has on the family budget, which it dominates, is clear. In +both cases nothing of permanent value is acquired. The good linen +undergarments, the "all wool" gown, the broadcloth cape or coat, those +standard garments which the thrifty once acquired and cherished, only +awaken the mirth of the pretty little spendthrift on $8 a week. Solid +pieces of furniture such as often dignify even the huts of European +peasants and are passed down from mother to daughter for +generations—are objects of contempt by the younger generation here. +Even the daughters of good old New England farmers are found to-day +glad to exchange mahogany for quartered oak and English pewter for +pressed glass and stamped crockery. <a name="Page_127" id="Page_127"></a>True, another generation may come +in and buy it all back at fabulous prices, but the waste of it!</p> + +<p>This production of shoddy cloth, cotton laces, cheap furniture, what +is it but waste! Waste of labor and material! Time and money and +strength which might have been turned to producing things of permanent +values, have been spent in things which have no goodness in them, +things which because of their lack of integrity and soundness must be +forever duplicated, instead of freeing industry to go ahead, producing +other good and permanent things.</p> + +<p>What it all amounts to is that the instinct for ornament has gotten +the upper hand of a great body of American women. We have failed so +far to develop standards of taste, fitness, and quality, strong, sure, +and good enough effectually to impose <a name="Page_128" id="Page_128"></a>themselves. There is no +national taste in dress; there is only admirable skill in adapting +fashions made in other countries. There is no national sense of +restraint and proportion. It is pretty generally agreed that getting +all you can is entirely justifiable. There is no national sense of +quality; even the rich to-day in this country wear imitation laces. +The effect of all this is a bewildering restlessness in costume—a +sheeplike willingness to follow to the extreme the grotesque and the +fantastic. The very general adoption of the ugly and meaningless +fashions of the last few years—peach-basket hats, hobble skirts, +slippers for the street—is a case in point. From every side this is +bad—defeating its own purpose—corrupting national taste and wasting +national substance.</p> + +<p>Moreover, the false standard it sets up socially is intolerable. It +sounds <a name="Page_129" id="Page_129"></a>fantastic to say that whole bodies of women place their chief +reliance for social advancement on dress, but it is true. They are, or +are not, as they are gowned! The worst of this fantasy is not only +that it forces too much attention from useful women, but that it gives +such poise and assurance to the ignorant and useless! If you look like +the women of a set, you are as "good" as they, is the democratic +standard of many a young woman. If for any reason she is not able to +produce this effect, she shrinks from contact, whatever her talent or +charm! And she is often not altogether wrong in thinking she will not +be welcome if her dress is not that of the circle to which she +aspires. Many a woman indifferently gowned has been made to feel her +difference from the elegant she found herself among. If she is sure of +herself and has a sense of humor, this may be an amusing <a name="Page_130" id="Page_130"></a>experience. +To many, however, it is an embittering one!</p> + +<p>Now these observations are not presented as discoveries! They were +true, at least, as far back as the Greeks. In fact, there is nothing +in the so-called woman's movement, which in its essence did not exist +then. The stream of human aspirations, with its stretches of wisdom +and of folly, has flowed steadily through the ages, and on its +troubled surface men and women have always struggled together as they +are struggling to-day. These little comments simply seem to the writer +worth making because for the moment the truths behind them are not +getting as much attention as they deserve. Certainly the tyranny dress +exercises over the woman in this American democracy is an old enough +theme. Indeed, it has always formed a part of her program of +emancipation. Out of her <a name="Page_131" id="Page_131"></a>revolt against its absurdities has come the +most definite development in American costume which we have had, and +that is the sensible street costume, which in spite of efforts to +distort and displace it, a woman still may wear without +differentiating herself from her fellows.</p> + +<p>The short skirt and jacket, the shirt waist and stout boots, a woman +is allowed to-day, are among the good things which the Woman's Rights +movement of the 40's and 50's helped secure for us. When those able +leaders made their attack on man, demanding that the world in which he +moved be opened to them, they were quick enough to see that if they +succeeded in their undertaking they would be hampered by their +clothes. They revolted! True, they did not voice this revolt in their +historic list of "injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward +woman." They did not say, "He <a name="Page_132" id="Page_132"></a>has compelled her to hamper herself +with skirts and stays, to decorate her head with rats and puffs, to +paint her face with poisonous compounds, to walk the street in +footwear which is neither suitable nor comfortable!"</p> + +<p>This statement, however, would have had the same quality of truth as +several which were included in the "List of Grievances"; the same as +the declaration: "He has compelled her to submit to laws in the +formation of which she has had no voice," or, "He has denied her the +facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being +closed against her."</p> + +<p>Dress reformers were admitted to the ranks of the agitators. The +initial revolt was thoroughgoing. They discarded the corset, discarded +it when it was still improper to speak the word! They cut off their +hair, cut it off in a day when every <a name="Page_133" id="Page_133"></a>woman owned a chignon. They +discarded the corset, cut off their hair, and adopted bloomers!</p> + +<p>The story of the bloomer is piquant. It was launched and worn. It +became the subject of platform oratory and had its organ. Why is it +not worn to-day? No woman who has ever masqueraded in man's dress or +donned it for climbing will ever forget the freedom of it. Yet the +only woman in the Christian world who ever wore it at once naturally +and with that touch of coquetry which is necessary to carry it off, as +far as this writer's personal observation goes, was Madame Dieulafoy, +and Madame Dieulafoy was protected by the French government and an +exclusive circle.</p> + +<p>Bloomers proved too much for even the courage of dear Miss Anthony. +For two years she wore them, and then with tears and lamentations +resigned them. <a name="Page_134" id="Page_134"></a>In that resignation Miss Anthony paid tribute, +unconsciously no doubt, to something deeper than she ever grasped in +the woman question. Her valiant soul met its master in her own nature, +but she did not recognize it. She abandoned her convenient and +becoming costume because of prejudice, she said. What other prejudice +ever dismayed her! She thrived on fighting them; she met her woman's +soul, and did not know it!</p> + +<p>But from the experiments and blunders and travail of some of these +noble and early militants over the dress question, has come, as I have +said, our present useful, and probably permanent type of street suit. +In this particular the American woman has achieved a genuine +democratization of her clothes. The experience of the last two +years—fashion's open attempt to make the walking suit useless by +tightening the skirts, and <a name="Page_135" id="Page_135"></a>bizarre by elaborate decorations, has in +the main failed. Here, then, is a standard established, and +established on one of the great principles of sensible clothing, and +that is fitness. It shows that the true attack on the tyranny and +corruption of clothes lies in the establishment of principles.</p> + +<p>These principles are, briefly:—</p> + +<p>The fitness of dress depends upon the occasion.</p> + +<p>The beauty of dress depends upon line and color.</p> + +<p>The ethics of dress depends upon quality and the relation of cost to +one's means.</p> + +<p>In time we may get into the heads of all women, rich and poor, that an +open-work stocking and low shoe for winter street wear are as unfit as +they all concede a trailing skirt to be. In time we may even hope to +train the eye until it <a name="Page_136" id="Page_136"></a>recognizes the difference between a beautiful +and a grotesque form, between a flowing and a jagged line. In time we +may restore the sense of quality, which our grandmothers certainly +had, and which almost every European peasant brings with her to this +country.</p> + +<p>These principles are teachable things. Let her once grasp them and the +vagaries of style will become as distasteful as poor drawing does to +one whose eye has learned what is correct, as lying is to one who has +cultivated the taste for the truth.</p> + +<p>Martha Berry tells of an illuminating experience in her school of +Southern mountain girls. She had taken great pains to teach them +correct standards and principles of dress. She had been careful to see +that simplicity and quality and fitness were all that they saw in the +dress of their teachers. Then one day they had visitors, fashionable +visitors, in <a name="Page_137" id="Page_137"></a>hobble skirts and strange hats and jingling with many +ornaments. They were good and interesting women, and they talked +sympathetically and well to the girls. Miss Berry was crushed. "What +will the girls think of my teachings?" she asked herself. "They will +believe I do not know." But that night one of her assistants said to +her: "I have just overheard the girls discussing our visitors. They +liked them so much, but they are saying that it is such a pity that +they could not have had you to <i>teach them how to dress</i>."</p> + +<p>As a method of education, instruction in the principles of dress is +admirable for a girl. Through it she can be made to grasp the truth +which women so generally suspect to-day; that is, the <i>importance of +the common and universal things of life</i>; the fact that all these +everyday processes are the expressions of the great underlying truths +of life. <a name="Page_138" id="Page_138"></a>A girl can be taught, too, through this matter of dress, as +directly perhaps as through anything that concerns her, the importance +of studying human follies! Follies grow out of powerful human +instincts, ineradicable elements of human nature. They would not exist +if there were not at the bottom of them some impulse of nature, right +and beautiful and essential. The folly of woman's dress lies not in +her instinct to make herself beautiful, it lies in her ignorance of +the principles of beauty, of the intimate and essential connection +between utility and beauty. It lies in the pitiful assumption that she +can achieve her end by imitation, that she can be the thing she envies +if she look like that thing.</p> + +<p>The matter of dress is the more important, because bound up with it is +a whole grist of social and economic problems. It is part and parcel +of the <a name="Page_139" id="Page_139"></a>problem of the cost of living, of woman's wages, of wasteful +industries, of the social evil itself. It is a woman's most direct +weapon against industrial abuses, her all-powerful weapon as a +consumer. At the time of the Lawrence strike, Miss Vida Scudder, of +Wellesley College, is reported to have said in a talk to a group of +women citizens in Lawrence:—</p> + +<p>"I speak for thousands besides myself when I say that I would rather +never again wear a thread of woolen than know my garments had been +woven at the cost of such misery as I have seen and known, past the +shadow of a doubt, to have existed in this town."</p> + +<p>Miss Scudder might have been more emphatic and still have been +entirely within the limit of plain obligation; she might have said, "I +will never again wear a thread of woolen woven at the cost of such +misery as exists in this town." <a name="Page_140" id="Page_140"></a>Women will not be doing their duty, +as citizens in this country, until they recognize fully the +obligations laid upon them by their control of consumption.</p> + +<p>The very heart of the question of the dress is, then, economic and +social. It is one of those great everyday matters on which the moral +and physical well-being of society rests. One of those matters, which, +rightly understood, fill the everyday life with big meanings, show it +related to every great movement for the betterment of man.</p> + +<p>Like all of the great interests in the Business of Being a Woman, it +is primarily an individual problem, and every woman who solves it for +herself, that is, arrives at what may be called a sound mode of dress, +makes a real contribution to society. There is a tendency to overlook +the value of the individual solution of the problems of life, and yet, +the successful individual <a name="Page_141" id="Page_141"></a>solution is perhaps the most genuine and +fundamental contribution a man or woman can make. The end of living is +a life—fair, sound, sweet, complete. The vast machinery of life to +which we give so much attention, our governments and societies, our +politics and wrangling, is nothing in itself. It is only a series of +contrivances to insure the chance to grow a life. He who proves that +he can conquer his conditions, can adjust himself to the machinery in +which he finds himself, he is the most genuine of social servants. He +realizes the thing for which we talk and scheme, and so proves that +our dreams are not vain!</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_142" id="Page_142"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER VI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h3>THE WOMAN AND DEMOCRACY</h3> + + +<p>The one notion that democracy has succeeded in planting firmly in the +mind of the average American citizen is his right and duty to rise in +the world. Tested by this conception the American woman is an ideal +democrat. Give her a ghost of a chance and she almost never fails to +better herself materially and socially. Nor can she be said to do it +by the clumsy methods we describe as "pushing." She does it by a +legitimate, if rather literal, application of the national formula for +rising,—get schooling and get money.</p> + +<p>The average American man reverses the order of the terms in the +formula. He <a name="Page_143" id="Page_143"></a>believes more in money. The time that boys and girls are +kept in school after the fourteen-or sixteen-year-age limit is +generally due to the insistence of the mother, her confidence that the +more education, the better the life chance. What it amounts to is that +the man has more faith in life as a teacher, the woman more faith in +schools. Both, however, seek the same goal, pin their faith to the +same tools. Both take it for granted that if they work out the +formulas, they thereby earn and will receive letters patent to the +aristocracy of the democracy!</p> + +<p>The weakness of this popular conception of the democratic scheme is +that it gives too much attention to what a man gets and too little to +what he gives. Democracy more than any other scheme under which men +have tried to live together depends on what each returns—returns not +in material but in spiritual <a name="Page_144" id="Page_144"></a>things. Democracy is not a shelter, a +garment, a cash account; it is a spirit. The real test of its +followers must be sought in their attitude of mind toward life, labor, +and their fellows.</p> + +<p>Where does the average American woman come out in applying this test? +Take her attitude toward labor,—where does it place her? Labor +according to democracy is a badge of respectability. You cannot poach +or sponge in a democracy; if you do, you violate the fundamental right +of the other man. You cannot ask him to help support you by indirect +or concealed devices; if you do, you are hampering the free +opportunity the scheme promises him.</p> + +<p>Moreover, the kind of work you do must not demean you. Nothing useful +is menial. It is in the quality of the work and the spirit you give it +that the test lies. Poor work brings disrespect and so <a name="Page_145" id="Page_145"></a>hurts not only +you but the whole mass. Contempt for a task violates the principle +because it is contempt for a thing which the system recognizes as +useful. Classification based on tasks falls down in a democracy. A +poor lawyer falls below a good clerk, a poor teacher below a good +housemaid, since one renders a sound and the other an unsound service.</p> + +<p>Now this ideal of labor it was for the woman to work out in the +household. To do this she must reconstruct the ideas to which she and +all her society had been trained. In the nature of the task there +could be no rules for it. It could be accomplished only by creating in +the household a genuine democratic spirit. This meant that she must +bring herself to look upon domestic service as a dignified employment +in no way demeaning the person who performed it. Quite as difficult, +she must infuse into those who <a name="Page_146" id="Page_146"></a>performed the labor of the household +respect and pride in their service.</p> + +<p>What has happened? Has the woman democratized the department of labor +she controls? If we are to measure her understanding of the system +under which she lives by what she has done with her own particular +labor problem, we must set her down as a poor enough democrat. This +great department of national activity is generally (though by no means +universally) in a poorer estate to-day than ever before in the history +of the country; that is, tested by the ideals of labor toward which we +are supposed to be working, it shows less progress.</p> + +<p>Instead of being dignified, it has been demeaned. No other honest work +in the country so belittles a woman socially as housework performed +for money. It is the only field of labor which has scarcely felt the +touch of the modern labor <a name="Page_147" id="Page_147"></a>movement; the only one where the hours, +conditions, and wages are not being attacked generally; the only one +in which there is no organization or standardization, no training, no +regular road of progress. It is the only field of labor in which there +seems to be a general tendency to abandon the democratic notion and +return frankly to the standards of the aristocratic régime. The +multiplication of livery, the tipping system, the terms of address, +all show an increasing imitation of the old world's methods. Unhappily +enough, they are used with little or none of the old world's ease. +Being imitations and not natural growths, they, of course, cannot be.</p> + +<p>More serious still is the relation which has been shown to exist +between criminality and household occupations. Nothing, indeed, which +recent investigation has established ought to startle the American +woman more. Contrary to public <a name="Page_148" id="Page_148"></a>opinion, it is not the factory and +shop which are making the greatest number of women offenders of all +kinds; it is the household. In a recent careful study of over 3000 +women criminals, the Bureau of Labor found that 80 per cent came +directly from their own homes or from the traditional pursuits of +women!<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>The anomaly is the more painful because women are so active in trying +to better the conditions in trades which men control. Feminine circles +everywhere have been convulsed with sympathy for shop and factory +girls. Intelligent and persistent efforts are making to reach and aid +them. This is, of course, right, and it would be a national calamity +if such organizations as the Woman's Trade Union League and the +Consumer's League <a name="Page_149" id="Page_149"></a>should lose anything of their vigor. But the need +of the classes they reach is really less than the need of household +workers. In the first place, the number affected is far less.</p> + +<p>It is customary, in presenting the case of the shop and factory girl, +to speak of them as "an army 7,000,000 strong." It is a misleading +exaggeration. The whole number of American women and girls over ten +years of age earning their living wholly or partially is about +7,000,000.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Of this number from 20 per cent <a name="Page_150" id="Page_150"></a>to 25 per cent belong +to the "army" in shops and factories; moreover, a goodly percentage of +this proportion are accountants, bookkeepers, and stenographers,—a +class which on the whole may be said to be able to look after its own +needs. The number in domestic service is nearly twice as great, +something like 40 per cent of the 7,000,000.</p> + +<p>There are almost as many dressmakers, milliners, and seamstresses as +there are factory operators in this 7,000,000. There are nearly twice +as many earning their living in dairies, greenhouses, and gardens as +there are in shops and offices.</p> + +<p>The greater number in domestic service is not what gives this class +its greater importance. Its chief importance comes from the fact that +it is in a <i>permanent</i> woman's employment; that is, the household +worker becomes on marriage a housekeeper and in this country +<a name="Page_151" id="Page_151"></a>frequently an employer of labor. The intelligence and the ideals which +she will give to her homemaking will depend almost entirely on what +she has seen in the houses where she has worked; that is, our domestic +service is <i>self-perpetuating</i>, and upon it American homes are in +great numbers being annually founded. In sharp contrast to this +permanent character of housework is the transientness of factory and +shop work. The average period which a girl gives to this kind of labor +is probably less than five years. What she learns has little or no +relation to her future as a housekeeper—indeed, the tendency is +rather to unfit than to fit her for a home.</p> + +<p>But why is the American woman not stirred by these facts? Why does she +not recognize their meaning and grapple with her labor problem? It is +certain that at the beginning of the republic <a name="Page_152" id="Page_152"></a>she did have a pretty +clear idea of the kind of household revolution the country needed. Our +great-grandmothers, that is, the serious ones among them, made a brave +dash at it. There is no family, at least of New England tradition, who +does not know the methods they adopted. They changed the nomenclature. +There were to be no more "servants"—we were to have helpers. There +were to be no divisions in the household. The helper was to sit at the +table, at the fireside. (They thought to change the nature of a +relation as old as the world by changing its name and form.) It was +like the French Revolutionists' attempt to make a patriot by taking +away his ruffles and shoe buckles and calling him "citizen"!</p> + +<p>Of course it failed. The family meal, the fireside hour, are personal +and private institutions in a home. Much of the success of the family +in building up an <a name="Page_153" id="Page_153"></a>intimate comradeship depends upon preserving them. +We admit friends to them as a proof of affection, strangers as a proof +of our regard. The notion that those who come into a household solely +to aid in its labor should be admitted into personal relations which +depend for their life upon privacy and affection, was always +fantastic. It could not endure, because it violated something as +important as the dignity of labor, and that was the sacredness of +personal privacy. Moreover, it was bound to fail because it made the +dignity of labor depend on artificial things—such as the name by +which one is called, the place where one sits.</p> + +<p>The good sense of the country might very well have regulated whatever +was artificial in the attempt, if it had not been for the crushing +interference of slavery. In the South all service was performed by +<a name="Page_154" id="Page_154"></a>slaves. In many parts of the North, at the founding of the republic, +in Connecticut, in New York, New Jersey, slaves were held. It was +practically impossible to work out a democratic system of domestic +service side by side with this institution.</p> + +<p>Slavery passed, but we were impeded by the fact that, liberated, the +slave was still a slave in spirit and that his employer, North and +South, was still an aristocrat in her treatment of him. With this +situation to cope with, the woman's labor problem was still further +complicated by immigration.</p> + +<p>For years we have been overrun by thousands of untrained girls who are +probably to be heads of American homes and mothers of American +citizens. Most of them are of good, healthy, honest, industrious +stock, but they are ignorant of our ways and ideas. The natural <a name="Page_155" id="Page_155"></a>place +for these girls to get their initiation into American democracy is in +the American household. The duty of American women toward these +foreign girls is plainly to help them understand our ideals. The +difficulty of this is apparent; but the failure to accomplish it has +been due less to its difficulty than to the fact that not one woman in +a thousand has recognized that she has an obligation to make a fit +citizen of the girl who comes into her home.</p> + +<p>Generally speaking, the foreign servant girl has been exploited in +this country almost if not quite as ruthlessly and unintelligently as +the foreign factory girl and the foreign steel mill worker. Domestic +service, which ought to be the best school for the newcomer, has +become the worst; exploited, she learns to exploit; suspected, she +learns to suspect. The result has been that the girl has soon +<a name="Page_156" id="Page_156"></a>acquired a confused and grotesque notion of her place. She soon +becomes insolent and dissatisfied, grows more and more indifferent to +the quality of her work and to the cultivation of right relations.</p> + +<p>What we have lost in our treatment of the immigrant women can never be +regained. We forget that almost invariably these girls have the habit +of thrift. They have never known anything else. Thrift as a principle +is ingrained in them. But the American household is notoriously +thriftless. As a rule it destroys the quality in the untrained +immigrant girl. It is American not to care for expense—and she +accepts the method—as far as her mistress' goods are concerned—if +not her own.</p> + +<p>The general stupid assumption that because the immigrant girl does not +know our ways she knows nothing, has deprived us of much that she +might have <a name="Page_157" id="Page_157"></a>contributed to our domestic arts and sciences. It is with +her as it is with any newcomer in a strange land of strange +tongue—she is shy, dreads ridicule. Instead of encouraging her to +preserve and develop that which she has learned at home, we drive her +to abandon it by our ignorant assumption that she knows nothing worth +our learning. The case of peasant handicraft is in point. It is only +recently that we have begun to realize that most women immigrants know +some kind of beautiful handicraft which they have entirely dropped for +fear of being laughed at.</p> + +<p>A very frequent excuse for the lack of pains that the average woman +gives to the training of the raw girl is that she marries as soon as +she becomes useful. But is it not part of the woman's business in this +democracy to help the newcomer to an independent position? Is it not +part of <a name="Page_158" id="Page_158"></a>her business to help settle her servants in matrimony? +Certainly any large and serious conception of her business must +include this obligation.</p> + +<p>It is the failure to recognize opportunities for public service of +this kind that makes the woman say her life is narrow. It is parallel +to her failure to understand the relation of household economy to +national economy. She seems to lack the imagination to relate her +problem to the whole problem. She will read books and follow lecture +courses on Labor and come home to resent the narrowness of her life, +unconscious that she personally has the labor problem on her own hands +and that her failure to see that fact is complicating daily the +problems of the nation. It is the old false idea that the interesting +and important thing is somewhere else—never at home—while the truth +is that the only interesting <a name="Page_159" id="Page_159"></a>and important thing for any one of us is +in mastering our own particular situation,—moreover, the only real +contribution we ever make comes in doing that.</p> + +<p>The failure to dignify and professionalize household labor is +particularly hard on the unskilled girl of little education who +respects herself, has pretty clear ideas of her "rights" under our +system of government, and who expects to make something of herself. +There are tens of thousands of such in the country; very many of them +realize clearly the many advantages of household labor. They know that +it <i>ought</i> to be more healthful, is better paid, is more interesting +because more varied. They see its logical relation to the future to +which they look forward.</p> + +<p>But such a girl feels keenly the cost to herself of undertaking what +she instinctively feels ought to be for her the better <a name="Page_160" id="Page_160"></a>task. She +knows the standards and conditions are a matter of chance; that, while +she may receive considerate treatment in one place, in another there +will be no apparent consciousness that she is a human being. She knows +and dreads the loneliness of the average "place." "It's breaking my +heart I was," sobbed an intelligent Irish girl, serving a term for +drunkenness begun in the kitchen, "alone all day long with never a one +to pass a good word." She finds herself cut off from most of the +benefits which are provided for other wage-earning girls. She finds +girls' clubhouses generally are closed to her. She is the pariah among +workers.</p> + +<p>What is there for this girl but the factory or the shop? Yet her +presence there is a disaster for the whole labor system, for she is a +<i>cheap laborer</i>—cheap not because she is a poor laborer—she is <a name="Page_161" id="Page_161"></a>not; +generally she is an admirable one—quick to learn, faithful to +discharge. Her weakness in trade is that she is a transient who takes +no interest in fitting herself for an advanced position. The +demonstration of this statement is found in a town like Fall River, +where the admirable textile school has only a rare woman student, +although boys and men tax its capacity. There is no object for the +average girl to take the training. She looks forward to a different +life. The working girl has still to be convinced of the "aristocracy +of celibacy"!</p> + +<p>No more difficult or important undertaking awaits the American woman +than to accept the challenge to democratize her own special field of +labor. It is in doing this that she is going to make her chief +contribution to solving the problem of woman in industry. It is in +doing this that she is going to learn the meaning of <a name="Page_162" id="Page_162"></a>democracy. It is +an undertaking in which every woman has a direct individual part—just +as every man has a direct part in the democratization of public life.</p> + +<p>Individual effort aside, though it is the most fundamental, she has +various special channels of power through which she can work—her +clubs, for instance. If the vast machinery of the Federation of +Woman's Clubs could be turned to this problem of the democratization +of domestic service, what an awakening might we not hope for! Yet it +is doubtful if it will be through the trained woman's organizations +that the needed revolution will come. It will come, as always, from +the ranks of the workers.</p> + +<p>Already there are signs that the woman's labor organizations are +willing to recognize the inherent dignity of household service. And +this is as it should <a name="Page_163" id="Page_163"></a>be. The woman who labors should be the one to +recognize that all labor is <i>per se</i> equally honorable—that there is +no stigma in any honestly performed, useful service. If she is to +bring to the labor world the regeneration she dreams, she must begin +not by saying that the shop girl, the clerk, the teacher, are in a +higher class than the cook, the waitress, the maid, but that we are +all laborers alike, sisters by virtue of the service we are rendering +society. That is, labor should be the last to recognize the canker of +caste.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<br /> +<a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<br /> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners +in the United States, Vol. XV. Relation between Occupation and +Criminality of Women. 1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The number of people in 1910 in what is called +"gainful occupations" has not as yet been compiled by the Census +Bureau. This figure of 7,000,000 is arrived at by the following +method, suggested to the writer by Director Durand. It is known +that there are about 44,500,000 females in the present population. +Now in 1900 there were about 14½ per cent of all the girls and +women in the country over ten years of age at work a part or all +of the time. Apply to the new figure this proportion, and you have +between six and seven millions, which is called 7,000,000 here, on +the supposition that the proportion may have increased. The +percentage of women in each of the various occupations in 1900 is +assumed still to exist.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The National Women's Trades Union League has domestic +workers among its members, though not as yet, I believe, in any +large numbers. Its officials are strong believers in a Domestic +Workers' Union. There are several such unions in New Zealand, and +they have done much to regulate hours, conditions, and wages.</p></div> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_164" id="Page_164"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER VII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h3>THE HOMELESS DAUGHTER</h3> +<br /> + +<p>One of the severest strains society makes on human life is that of +adapting itself to ever changing conditions: yesterday it dragged us +in a stagecoach; to-day it hurls us across country in limited +expresses; to-morrow we shall fly! Once twilight and darkness were +without, shadows and dim recesses within; now, wherever men gather +there is one continuous blazing day. He who would keep his task +abreast with the day must accept speed and light; for the law is, +think, feel, do in the terms of your day, if you would keep your hold +on your day.</p> + +<p>It is a law often resented as if it were an immorality, but those who +refuse the <a name="Page_165" id="Page_165"></a>new way on principle, confuse form with principle. It is +the form which changes, not the essence. The few great underlying +elements from which character and happiness are evolved are +permanent—their mutations are endless. Dull-minded, we take the +mutations to mean shifting of principle. That is, we do not square up +by truth, but by the forms of truth.</p> + +<p>The Woman's Business has always suffered from lack of facility in +adapting itself to new forms of expression. The natural task found, a +method of handling it in a fashion sufficiently acceptable to prevent +family revolts mastered, and the woman usually is as fixed as a star +in its orbit. She resents changes of method, new interpretations, and +fresh expressions. It is she, not man, who stands an immovable +mountain in the path of militant feminism.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166"></a>In this course she is following her nature. An instinct more powerful +than logic tells her that she must preserve the thing she is making, +that center for which she is responsible, that place where her child +is born and reared, where her mate retreats, to be reassured that the +effort to which he has committed himself is worth while, where all the +community to which she belongs is served and strengthened. If this +place is preserved, she must do it. Man, an experimenter and +adventurer, cannot.</p> + +<p>Changes she fears. She sees them as disturbers of her plans and her +ideals. But the changes will not stay. They gather about her retreat, +beat at the doors, creep in at the windows, win her husband and +children from her very arms. The home on which she depended to keep +them becomes impotent. While she stands an implacable guardian of a +<a name="Page_167" id="Page_167"></a>form of truth, truth has moved on, broadened its outlook, and clothed +itself in new expressions.</p> + +<p>It is entirely understandable that the woman who sees herself left +behind with her dead gods should cry out against change as the ruin of +her hopes. It is equally understandable that those who find themselves +adrift should doubt the home as an institution. At the bottom of the +revolt of thousands of our "uneasy women" of to-day lies this doubt. +The home failed them, and with the logic of limited experience they +cast it out of their calculations.</p> + +<p>But the home is one of the unescapable facts of nature and +society—unescapable because the child demands it. One of the earliest +convictions of the child is that he has a <i>right</i> to a home. To him it +appears as the great necessity. He cannot see himself outside of it. +To be <a name="Page_168" id="Page_168"></a>at large in the world throws him into panic. The sacrifices and +pains very young children suffer uncomplainingly, particularly in +great cities and factory towns, is a pathetic enough demonstration of +what the word means to them. Mere children by the hundreds support +families terrified by the thought of their collapse. The orphan +forever dreams of the day when a home will be found for him. The child +whose parents seek freedom, leaving him to school or servants, never +fails to nourish a sense of injustice. Whatever one generation may +decide as to the futility or burdensomeness of the home, the oncoming +child will force its return.</p> + +<p>To keep this permanent place abreast with growing truth, that is the +obligation of the woman. It is the failure to do this that produces +what we may call the homeless daughter; that girl who loved and <a name="Page_169" id="Page_169"></a>often +served to the point of folly, finds herself in a group where none of +the imperative needs the day has awakened in her are met.</p> + +<p>One of the first of these needs is for what we call "economic +independence." The spirit of our day and of our system of government +is personal, material independence for all. Under the old régime the +girl had her economic place. The family was a small community. It +provided for most of its own wants, hence the girl must be taught +household arts and science, all of the fine traditional knowledge and +skill which made, not drudges, but skilled managers, skilled cooks and +needlewomen, skilled hostesses and nurses. She had a <i>business</i> to +learn under the old régime, and there was an authority, often severely +enforced no doubt, which made her learn it well. There was the same +appraising of the <a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></a>efficiency of the girl for her business there was +of the boy for his.</p> + +<p>The girl of to-day rarely has any such systematic training for the +material side of her business, nor is a dignified place provided for +her in well-to-do families. Her place is parasitical and demoralizing. +Take the young girl who has been what we call "educated"; that is, one +who has gone through college and has not found a talent which she is +eager to develop. The spirit of the times makes her less keen for +marriage, puts no feeling of obligation of marriage upon her. She +finds herself in a home which is not regarded as a serious industrial +undertaking. Things go on more or less accidentally, according to +traditions or conventions. Her ideas of scientific management, if she +has any, are treated as revolutionary. Her help is not needed. There +is no place for her.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></a>The daughters of the very poor often have better fortune than she in +this respect. They, from very early years, have known that they were +necessary to the family. Almost invariably they accept heavy and +sometimes cruel burdens cheerfully, even proudly. It is the pride of +knowing themselves important to those whom they love. One of the +difficult things to combat in enforcing the laws which forbid children +under fourteen working, is the child's desire to help. He may hate the +hardship, but at least there is in his lot none of that hopeless sense +of futility which comes over the girl of high spirit when she realizes +she has no practical value in the group to which she belongs. "Not +needed"—that is one of the tragic experiences of the young girl in +the well-to-do family. To save herself, to meet the truth of her day +which has taken hold <a name="Page_172" id="Page_172"></a>of her, she must seek a productive place; that +is, leave home, seek work. If she has some special talent, knows what +she wants to do, she is fortunate indeed. With the majority it is +work, something to do, a place where they can be independently +productive, that is sought.</p> + +<p>The girl of the family in moderate circumstances is no better off. She +must contribute in some way, and there is no scientific management in +her home—no study of ways and means which enables her to contribute +and remain at home. She is driven outside in order to support herself. +I cannot but believe that here is one of the gravest weaknesses in our +educational machinery, this failure to give the girl inclined to +remain at home a training which would enable her to help make more of +a limited income. Nothing is so rare to-day as the fine habit of +making much of little. A dollar <a name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></a>mixed with brains is worth five in +every place where dollars are used. Particularly is this true in the +household. The failure to teach how to mix brains and dollars, and to +inspire respect for the undertaking, annually drives thousands of +girls into our already overburdened industrial system who would be +healthier and happier at home and who would render there a much +greater economic service. Such work as is being done in certain +Western agricultural colleges for girls, in the Carnegie School for +Women in Pittsburg, in Miss Kittridge's Household Centers in New York +City, is a recognition of this need of making scientific +managers—trained household workers—of young women. There is no more +practical way of relieving the industrial strain.</p> + +<p>It is not always the dependent and so humiliating position a girl +finds herself <a name="Page_174" id="Page_174"></a>in that drives her from home. It is frequently the +discovery that she is a member of a group that has no responsible +place in the community; that regards itself as a purely isolated, +unrelated, irresponsible unit,—an atom without affinities! The home +can be, if it will, the most antisocial force in existence, for it +can, if it will, exist practically for itself. That excessive +individualism, which is responsible for so many evils in our country, +has encouraged this isolation. The girl who finds herself without a +productive place at home at the same time finds none of the fine +inspiration which comes from fitting herself into a social scheme and +helping to do its work. The spirit of the age is social. She feels its +call, she sees how unresponsive, even antipathetic, to it her home is. +She concludes that if she is to serve she must seek something to do in +some remote <a name="Page_175" id="Page_175"></a>city. The attraction the Social Settlement has for the +girl finds its base here. The loss to communities of their educated +young women, who find no response to their need, no place to serve in +their own society, is incalculable.</p> + +<p>It is not infrequent that a girl who may have by some chance of +fortune a sufficient sense of independence in her home, who knows +herself needed there, and is ready to perform the service, is driven +out by the persistence of that spirit of parental authority, which +looks upon it as a duty to rule the life, particularly of the +daughter, as long as she is at home. There is nothing clearer than +that the old domination of one person by another is a thing of the +past. A new spirit of coöperation and friendly direction has come into +the world. The home which it does not pervade cannot keep its young.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176"></a>The most essential thing for a woman to understand is that her +business is <i>not to order</i> her daughter's life, but to assist that +daughter to shape it herself. She should be prepared to say to her: +"The most interesting and important thing in the world for you is to +work out your own particular life. You must build it from the place +where you stand and with the materials in your hands. Nobody else ever +stood in your particular place or ever will stand in one identical; +nobody ever has or can possess the same materials. You alone can fuse +the elements. Hold your place; do not try to shift into the place that +another occupies. Keep your eye on what you have to work with, not on +what somebody else has. The ultimate result, the originality, flavor, +distinction, usefulness of your life, depend on the care, the +reverence, and the intelligence with which <a name="Page_177" id="Page_177"></a>you work up and out from +where you are and with what you have."</p> + +<p>It is only the woman who is prepared to say something like that to her +daughter, to help her to see it, and to rise to it that has brought +into her home the spirit of to-day.</p> + +<p>Where there is failure at any one of these points, and if one fails, +all probably will, since they are obvious elements in the liberal view +of life, the girl must go forth if her life is to go progressively on. +She must seek work, less for the sake of work than for the sake of +life. To remain where she is, unproductive in a group which does not +recognize the calls of the present world and where <i>another +person</i>—for the mother who tries to force the individuality becomes +another person—insists on shaping her course,—to do this is to +quench the spirit, stop the very breath of life.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178"></a>The girl goes forth to seek work. She has almost invariably the idea +that work outside the home has less of drudgery in it, <i>i.e.</i> less +routine and meanness, more excitement. She is unprepared for the years +of steady grinding labor which she must go through to earn her bread +in any trade or profession. She learns that work is work whether done +in kitchen, sewing room, countinghouse, studio, or editor's sanctum, +and all that keeps the operations which consume the bulk of the +worker's time in any of these places from being drudgery is that he +keeps before him the end for which they are performed. The first +disillusionment comes, then, when she faces the necessity of a long +steady pull for years if she is to "arrive."</p> + +<p>A second comes when she finds she must prove to a busy, driven world +that she is worth its attention; she must do <a name="Page_179" id="Page_179"></a>more than simply knock +for admission and declare her fealty to its ideals. She realizes +sooner or later that she is an outsider and must delve her way in. No +sapper works harder to make his trench than most young women do to +make stable places for themselves in strange communities.</p> + +<p>The gnawing loneliness of the girl who has left home to make her way +is one of the most fruitful causes of the questionable relations which +well-born girls form more often than society realizes. The girl seizes +eagerly every chance for companionship or pleasure. Her keen need of +it makes her overappreciative and undercritical. Moreover, she has the +confidence of ignorance. Most American girls are brought up as if +wrongdoing were impossible to them. Nobody has ever suggested to them +that they have the possibility of all crimes in their <a name="Page_180" id="Page_180"></a>makeup! Parents +and teachers ordinarily have extraordinary skill in evading, but +little in facing, the facts of life.</p> + +<p>Disarmed by her ignorance, the girl goes out to a freedom such as no +country has ever before believed it safe to allow the young, either +girl or boy. This freedom is of course the logical result of what we +call the "emancipation of women." It is the swinging of the pendulum +from the old system of chaperonage and authority. The weak point is in +the fact that the girl has not knowledge enough for her freedom. It is +not a return of the old system of guarded girls which is needed. That +is impossible under modern conditions, out of harmony with modern +ideas. The great need is that the women of the country realize that +freedom unaccompanied by knowledge is one of the most dangerous tools +that can be put into a human being's hands. <a name="Page_181" id="Page_181"></a>The reluctance of women +to face this fact is the most discouraging side of the woman question.</p> + +<p>The girl who goes forth should go armed with knowledge. Moreover, in +moments of loneliness, when she is ready to slip, she should be +literally jerked back by the pull of the home. This hold of the home +is no chimerical thing. It is a positive, living reality. The home has +a power of projecting itself into the lives of those who go out from +it. It is where the girl does not carry away a sense of an +uninterrupted relation—a certainty that she is a part of that group +and that achievement, that she is only carrying on, enlarging, helping +to extend, beautify, and ripen its work, that she is not homeless. +Nothing can so hold her in her isolation as that sense.</p> + +<p>The Uneasy Woman of to-day who has fulfilled to the letter, as she +understands <a name="Page_182" id="Page_182"></a>it, the Woman's Business, is frequently heard to say: "My +boys are in college; they do not need me. My girls are married or at +work, and they do not need me. I have nothing to do. My business is +complete, I am retired, sidetracked. It is for this reason that I ask +a part in politics." But her argument proves that she does not +understand her business. She may want and need some outside occupation +for the very health of her business, politics perhaps, but certainly +not because her business is done.</p> + +<p>There is no more critical time for her than when her young people go +out to try themselves in the world. The girl particularly needs this +pull of the home, not only to keep her on a straight path, but to keep +her from the narrowness and selfishness which overtake so many +self-supporting women who have no close family responsibilities. The +fetich which <a name="Page_183" id="Page_183"></a>has been made, for many years now, of work for women, +that is, of work outside of the home, frequently leads the woman to +take some particular virtue to herself for self-support. She feels +that it entitles her to special consideration, releases her from +obligations which she does not voluntarily assume. The attitude is +enough to narrow and harden her life. The great preventive of this +disaster is a responsible home relation. If she must share her +earnings, it is a blessed thing for her. If not, she should share its +burdens and its hopes, in order to have a continued source of outside +interest to broaden and soften her, to keep her out of the ranks of +the charmless, self-centered, single women, whose only occupations are +self-support and self-care.</p> + +<p>The problems involved in keeping the girl who has a home from being +homeless <a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></a>are not simple. They are as intricate as anything a woman +can face. They call for the highest understanding, responsiveness, and +activity. No futile devices will meet them. "My daughter is not coming +home to be idle," I heard a fine-intentioned woman say recently. "I +insist that she take all the care of her room, save the weekly +cleaning, and that she keep the living-room tidy." But what an +occupation for a young woman with a college degree, who for four years +has led a busy, well-organized life in which each task was directed +toward some definite purpose! What a commentary on the mother's +understanding of "economic independence," a matter of which she talks +eloquently at her club! All that it proved was that the woman had +never realized the girl's case, had never given consecutive, serious +thought to its handling.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185"></a>How little chance there will probably be for this same girl to do at +home any serious work in case she develops a talent for it. The home +of the prosperous, energetic American woman is pervaded by a spirit of +eager and generally happy excitement. Good works and gay pleasures +fill its days in a wild jumble. There is little or no order, +selection, or discretion discernible in the result. "Something doing" +all the time seems to be the motto, and to take part in this headless +procession of unrelated events becomes the first law of the household. +The daughter has been living an organized life in college. She wants +to study or write, or do regular work of some kind. But there is no +order in the spirit of the place, no respect for order, no respect for +a regular occupation. "I cannot work at home"—one hears the cry often +enough. It is not always because of <a name="Page_186" id="Page_186"></a>this atmosphere of helter-skelter +activity. It is often because of something worse,—an atmosphere of +slothful, pleasure-loving indifference to activities of all kinds, or +one of tacit or expressed discontent with the burdens and the +limitations which are an inescapable part of the Business of Being a +Woman.</p> + +<p>The problems connected with a girl's desire to be of social service +are even more difficult. There is a curious blindness or indifference +in our town and country districts to social needs. There is still +alive the notion that sending flowers and jellies to the hospital, +distributing old clothes wisely, and packing generous Christmas +baskets meet all obligations. Social service—of which one may, and +generally does, hear a great deal in the women's clubs—is vaguely +supposed to be something which has to do with great cities and factory +towns, not with the <a name="Page_187" id="Page_187"></a>small community. Yet one reason that social +problems are so acute in great groups of men and women is that they +are so poorly met in small and scattered groups. There is the same +need of industrial training, of efficient schools, of books, of +neighborliness, of innocent amusements, of finding opportunities for +the exceptional child, of looking after the adenoids and teeth, of +segregating the tubercular, of doing all the scores of social services +in the small town as in the great. Work is really more hopeful there +because there is some possibility of knowing approximately <i>all</i> the +cases, which is never possible in the city. And yet how far from +general it is to find anything like organized efforts at real social +service in the small community. If a girl serves in such a community, +it is because she has the parts of a pioneer—and few have.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188"></a>It is not the girl who, having a home, yet is homeless, who is +responsible for her situation. Her necessity is to see herself acting +as a responsible and useful factor in an intelligent plan. If the +family does not present itself to her as a grave, dignified +undertaking on which several persons dear to her have embarked, how +can she be expected to tie to it? The old phrases which she may hear +now and then—"the honor of the family"—"duty to parents"—only savor +of cant to her. They have no pricking vitality in them. She gets no +acute reaction from them. She sees herself merely as an accident in an +accidental group, headed nowhere in particular.</p> + +<p>What it all amounts to is that the greatest art in the Woman's +Business is <i>using</i> youth. It is no easy matter. Youth is a terrible +force, confident, selfish, unknowing. Rarely has it real <a name="Page_189" id="Page_189"></a>courage, +real interest in aught but itself. It has all to learn, but it is +youth, the most beautiful and hopeful thing in life. And it is the +thing upon which the full development of life for a woman depends. She +must have it always at her side, if she is to know her own full +meaning in the scheme of things. It is part of her tragedy that she +fails so often to understand how essential is youth to her as an +individual, her happiness and her growth.</p> + +<p>The fact that a woman is childless is no reason in the present world +why she should be cut off from the developing and ennobling +association. Indeed, the childless woman of to-day, in addition to her +obligation to herself, has a peculiar obligation to society in the +matter of the friendless child.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_190" id="Page_190"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER VIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h3>THE CHILDLESS WOMAN AND THE FRIENDLESS CHILD</h3> +<br /> + +<p>One of the first conclusions forced on a thoughtful unprejudiced +observer of society is that the major percentage of its pains and its +vices result from a failure to make good connections. Children pine +and even die for fruit in the cities, while a hundred miles away +thousands of barrels of apples are rotting on the ground. Famine +devastates one country, while the granaries of another are bursting +with food. Men and women drink themselves into the gutter from sheer +loneliness, while other men and women shrivel up in isolated comfort. +One of the most pitiful examples of this failure to connect is that +<a name="Page_191" id="Page_191"></a>of the childless woman and the friendless, uncared-for child.</p> + +<p>There never at any time in any country in the world's history existed +so large a group of women with whom responsibility and effort were a +matter of choice, as exists to-day in the United States. While a large +number of these free women are devoting themselves whole-heartedly to +public service of the most intelligent and ingenious kind, the great +majority recognize no obligation to make any substantial return to +society for its benefits. A small percentage of these are +self-supporting, but the majority are purely parasitical. Indeed, the +heaviest burden to-day on productive America, aside from the burden +imposed by a vicious industrial system, is that of its nonproductive +women. They are the most demanding portion of our society. They spend +more money than any other group, <a name="Page_192" id="Page_192"></a>are more insistent in their cry for +amusement, are more resentful of interruptions of their pleasures and +excitements; they go to greater extremes of indolence and of +uneasiness.</p> + +<p>The really serious side to the existence of this parasitical group is +that great numbers of other women, not free, forced to produce, accept +their standards of life. We hear women, useful women, everywhere +talking about the desirability of not being obliged to do anything, +commiserating women who must work, commiserating those who have heavy +household responsibilities, and by the whole gist of their words and +acts influencing those younger and less experienced than themselves to +believe that happiness lies in irresponsible living.</p> + +<p>Various gradations of the theory of which this is the extreme +expression show themselves. Thus there are great <a name="Page_193" id="Page_193"></a>numbers of women of +moderate means, who by a little daily effort can keep comfortable and +attractive homes for themselves and their husbands, and yet who are +utterly regardless of outside responsibilities, who are practically +isolated in the community. They pass their lives in a little round of +household activities, sunning and preening themselves in their long +hours of leisure like so many sleek cats.</p> + +<p>There is still another division of this irresponsible class, who build +up frenzied existences for themselves in all sorts of outside +activities. They plunge headlong into each new proposition for +pleasure or social service only to desert it as something more novel +and exciting and, for the instant, popular, appears. Steady, +intelligent standing by an undertaking through its ups and downs, its +dull seasons and its unpopular phases, they are <a name="Page_194" id="Page_194"></a>incapable of. Their +efforts have no relation to an intelligently conceived purpose. With +them may be grouped those women who, by their canonization of the +unimportant, construct heavily burdened but utterly fruitless lives. +They laboriously pad out their days with trivial things, vanities, +shams, and shadows, to which they give the serious undivided attention +which should be bestowed only on real enterprises.</p> + +<p>There are others who seek soporifics, release from a hearty tackling +of their individual situations, in absorbing work, a work which +perhaps fills their minds, but which is mere occupation—something to +make them forget—not an art for art's sake, not labor for its useful +fruits, but a protective, separating shield to shut out the insistent +demands of life in the place where they find themselves.</p> + +<p>All of these women are rightfully <a name="Page_195" id="Page_195"></a>classed as irresponsible, whether +they are moved by vanity, indolence, purposelessness, social +blindness, or, most pitiful, a sense of the emptiness of life +unattended by the imagination which reveals the sources from which +life is filled. No one of them is building a "House of Life" for +herself. They are building gimcrack palaces, gingerbread cottages, +structures which the first full blast of life will level to the +ground.</p> + +<p>These women are not peculiar to city or to country. They are scattered +nation-wide. You find them on farms and in mansions, in offices and in +academic halls. In startling contrast there exists almost under the +very eaves of the roofs which shelter them a vast and pitiful group of +friendless children,—the deserted babe, the "little mother," the boys +and girls running wild on side streets in every village in our land +and in every <a name="Page_196" id="Page_196"></a>slum in the cities, the factory child, the shop girl who +has no home. Let us remember that a goodly percentage of those at work +have homes and that they are engaged in a stimulating, if hard, effort +to "help," that they have the steadying consciousness that they are +needed. Nevertheless, this mass of youth is on the whole in an +unnatural position—an antisocial relation.</p> + +<p>Society can never run rightfully until all its members are performing +their natural functions. No woman, whatever her condition, can escape +her obligation to youth without youth suffering, and without suffering +herself. One of the crying needs of to-day is a crusade, a jar, which +will force upon our free women the friendless children of the country, +give them some sense of the undeniable relation they bear to them, +show them that they are in a sense the cause of this <a name="Page_197" id="Page_197"></a>pathetic group +and that it is their work to relieve it.</p> + +<p>True, for a woman there is nothing more painful than putting herself +face to face with the suffering of children. Yet for many years now we +have had in this country a large and increasing number who were going +through the daily pain of grappling with every phase of the +distressing problems which come from the poverty, friendlessness, and +overwork of the young. Out of their heartbreaking scrutinies there +have come certain determinations which are being adopted rapidly +wherever the social sense is aroused. We may roughly sum up these +conclusions or determinations to be these:—</p> + +<p>It is not necessary or endurable that children grow up starved and +overworked, that boys and girls be submitted to vicious surroundings, +that talent be crushed, that <a name="Page_198" id="Page_198"></a>young men and young women be devoured by +crime and greed. Youth, its nurturing and developing, has become the +passion of the day. This is the meaning of our bureaus of Child Labor, +of our Children's Courts, our Houses of Correction, our Fresh-Air +Funds and Vacation Homes, our laws regulating hours and conditions, +our Social Settlements.</p> + +<p>At its very best, however, legislation, organization, work in groups, +only indirectly reach the base of the trouble. These homeless babes +and children, these neglected boys and girls, these reckless shop and +factory girls, are generally the pain and menace that they are because +they have not had, as individuals, that guidance and affection of +women to which each has a natural right. No collective work, however +good it may be, can protect or guide these children properly. +Rightfully they should be the charge of <a name="Page_199" id="Page_199"></a>that body of women who are +unhampered, "free." These women have more, or less, intelligence, +time, and means. They owe society a return for their freedom, their +means, and their education. Nature has made them the guardians of +childhood. Can they decently shirk the obligation any more than a man +can decently shirk his duty as a citizen? Indeed, the case of the +woman unresponsive to her duty toward youth is parallel to that of the +man unresponsive to his duty toward public affairs. One is as +profitless and parasitical as the other.</p> + +<p>The man who has no notion of what is doing politically in his own +ward, who does not sense the malign influences which may be working in +his neighborhood, in his very street, perhaps in the next house, who +has not his eye on the unscrupulous small politician who leads the +ward by the nose, who knows nothing of the records <a name="Page_200" id="Page_200"></a>of the local +candidates, never goes to the primaries,—this man is one of the most +dangerous citizens we have. It is he who makes the machine possible. +If he did his work, the governmental machine, which starts there with +him, would be sound. It would be begun by honest men interested in +serving the country to the best of their ability, and on such a +foundation no future solidarity of corruption would be possible.</p> + +<p>The individual woman's obligation toward the children and young people +in her neighborhood is very like this obligation of the man to public +affairs. It is for her to know the conditions under which the +children, the boys and girls, young men and maids, in her vicinity are +actually living. It is for her to be alert to their health, +amusements, and general education. It is for her to find the one—and +there always is one—that actually <a name="Page_201" id="Page_201"></a>needs her. It is for her to +correlate her personal discoveries and experiences with the general +efforts of the community.</p> + +<p>This is no work for an occasional morning. It does not mean sporadic +or even regular "neighborhood visiting." It means observation, +reflection, and study. It has nothing to do save indirectly with +societies, or groups, or laws. It is a personal work, something nobody +else can do, and something which, if it is neglected, adds just so +much more to the stream of uncared-for youth. How is it to be done? +Have you ever watched a woman interested in birds making her +observations? She will get up at daylight to catch a note of a new +singer. She will study in detail the little family that is making its +home on her veranda. From the hour that the birds arrive in the spring +until the hour that they leave in the fall she misses nothing of their +doings. <a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"></a>It is a beautiful and profitable study, and it is a type of +what is required of a woman who would fulfill her obligation toward +the youth of her neighborhood.</p> + +<p>Could we have such study everywhere in country and town, what +tragedies and shames we might be spared! A few months ago the whole +nation was horrified by a riot in a prosperous small city of the +Middle West which ended in the lynching of a young man, a mere boy, +who in trying to discharge his duty as a public official had killed a +man. Some thirty persons, <i>over half of them boys under twenty years +of age</i>, are to-day serving terms of from fifteen to twenty years in +the penitentiary for their part in this lynching.</p> + +<p>Their terrible work was no insane outbreak. Analyzed, it was a logical +consequence of the social and political conditions under which the +boys had been <a name="Page_203" id="Page_203"></a>brought up. In a pretty, rich, busy town of 30,000 +people proud of its churches and its schools, <i>eighty saloons</i> +industriously plied their business—and part of their business, as it +always is, was to train youths to become their patrons.</p> + +<p>What were the women doing in the town? I asked the question of one who +knew it. "Why," he said, "they were doing just what women do +everywhere, no better, no worse. They had their clubs; I suppose a +dozen literary clubs, several sewing clubs, several bridge clubs, and +a number of dancing clubs. I think they cared a little more for bridge +than for literature, many of them at least. They took little part in +civic work, though they had done much for the city library and city +hospital. Many girls went to college, to the State Institute, to +Vassar and Smith. They came back to teach and to marry. It was just as +it is everywhere."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204"></a>Another to whom I put the same question, answered me in a sympathetic +letter full of understanding comment. The mingled devotion, energy, +and blindness of the women the letter described, spoke in its every +line. They built charming homes, reared healthy, active children whom +they educated at any personal sacrifice—all within a circle of eighty +saloons! To offset the saloons they built churches—a church for each +sect—each more gorgeous than its neighbor. It was in building +churches that they showed the "greatest tenacity of purpose." They had +a large temperance organization. It supported a rest room and met +fortnightly to pray "ardently and sincerely." How little this body of +good women sensed their problem, how little they were fitted to deal +with it, my informant's comment reveals. "You doubtless remember the +story," the <a name="Page_205" id="Page_205"></a>letter runs, "of the old lady who deplored the shooting +of craps because, though she didn't know what they were, 'life was +probably as dear to them as to anybody.'"</p> + +<p>"It was just as it is everywhere." Busy with self and their immediate +circles, they went their daily ways unseeing, though these ways were +hedged with a corruption whose rank and horrible offshoots at every +step clutched the feet of the children for whom they were responsible.</p> + +<p>Perhaps there is nothing to-day needed in this country more than +driving into the minds of women this personal obligation to do what +may be called intensive gardening in youth. Whether a woman wishes to +see it or not, she is the center of a whirl of life. The health, the +happiness, and the future of those that are in this whirl are affected +vitally by what <a name="Page_206" id="Page_206"></a>she is and does. To know all of the elements which +are circulating about her as a man knows, if he does his work, the +political and business elements in his own group, this is her +essential task. That she should adjust her discoveries to the +organizations, political, educational, and religious, which are about +her, goes without saying, but these organizations are not the heart of +her matter. The heart of her matter lies in what she does for those +who come into immediate contact with her.</p> + +<p>Her business firmly established in her immediate group should grow as +a man's business does in the outer circle where he naturally operates. +It will become stable or unstable exactly as trade or profession +becomes stable or unstable. Every year it should take on new elements, +ramify, turn up new obligations, knit itself more firmly into the life +of the <a name="Page_207" id="Page_207"></a>community. With every year it should become necessarily more +complicated, broader in interests, more demanding on her intellectual +and spiritual qualities. Each one of the original members of her group +gathers others about himself. In the nature of the case she will +become one of the strongest influences in these new groups. As a +member goes out she will project herself into other communities or +perhaps other lands, into all sorts of industries, professions, and +arts. Her growth is absolutely natural. It is, too, one of the most +economical growths the world knows. Nothing is lost in it. She spreads +literally like the banyan tree.</p> + +<p>Yet in spite of this perfectly obvious fact, there are people to-day +asking, with all appearance of sincerity, what a woman of fifty or +more can <i>do</i>! Their confining work in the home, say these <a name="Page_208" id="Page_208"></a>observers, +is done. A common suggestion is that they be utilized in politics. +This suggestion has its comical side. A person who has nothing to do +after fifty years of life in a business as many-sided and demanding as +that of a woman, can hardly be expected to be worth much in a business +as complicated and uncertain as politics, and for which she has had no +training. The notion that the woman's business is ended at fifty or +sixty is fantastic. It only ends there if she has been blind to the +meaning of her own experiences; if she has never gone below the +surface of her task—never seen in it anything but physical relations +and duties; has sensed none of its intimate relations to the +community, none of its obligations toward those who have left her, +none of those toward the oncoming generations. If it ends there, she +has failed to realize, too, the tremendous <a name="Page_209" id="Page_209"></a>importance to all those +who belong in her circle or who touch it <i>of what she makes of +herself</i>, of her personal achievement.</p> + +<p>A woman of fifty or sixty who has succeeded, has come to a point of +sound philosophy and serenity which is of the utmost value in the +mental and spiritual development of the group to which she belongs. +Life at every one of its seven stages has its peculiar harrowing +experiences; hope mingles with uncertainty in youth; fear and struggle +characterize early manhood; disillusionment, the question whether it +is worth while, fill the years from forty to fifty,—but resolute +grappling with each period brings one out almost inevitably into a +fine serene certainty which cannot but have its effect on those who +are younger. Ripe old age, cheerful, useful, and understanding, is one +of the finest influences in the <a name="Page_210" id="Page_210"></a>world. We hang Rembrandt's or +Whistler's picture of his mother on our walls that we may feel its +quieting hand, the sense of peace and achievement which the picture +carries. We have no better illustration of the meaning of old age.</p> + +<p>Family and social groups should be a blend of all ages. One of the +present weaknesses of our society is that we herd each age together. +The young do not have enough of the stimulating intellectual influence +of their elders. The elders do not have enough of the vitalizing +influence of the young. We make up our dinner party according to age, +with the result that we lose the full, fine blend of life.</p> + +<p>The notion that a woman has no worthy place or occupation after she is +fifty or sixty, and that she can be utilized in public affairs, could +only be entertained by one who has no clear conception of <a name="Page_211" id="Page_211"></a>either +private or public affairs—no vision of the infinite reaches of the +one or the infinite complexities of the other. Human society may be +likened to two great circles, one revolving within the other. In the +inner circle rules the woman. Here she breeds and trains the material +for the outer circle, which exists only by and for her. That accident +may throw her into this outer circle is of course true, but it is not +her natural habitat, nor is she fitted by nature to live and circulate +freely there. We underestimate, too, the kind of experience which is +essential for intelligent citizenship in this outer circle. To know +what is wise and needed there one should circulate in it. The man at +his labor in the street, in the meeting places of men, learns +unconsciously, as a rule, the code, the meaning, the need of public +affairs as woman learns those of private affairs. What it all amounts +to <a name="Page_212" id="Page_212"></a>is that the labor of the world is naturally divided between the +two different beings that people the world. It is unfair to the woman +that she be asked to do the work of the outer circle. The man can do +that satisfactorily if she does her part; that is, if she prepares him +the material. Certainly, he can never come into the inner circle and +do her work.</p> + +<p>The idea that there is a kind of inequality for a woman in minding her +own business and letting man do the same, comes from our confused and +rather stupid notion of the meaning of equality. Popularly we have +come to regard being alike as being equal. We prove equality by +wearing the same kind of clothes, studying the same books, regardless +of nature or capacity or future life. Insisting that women do the same +things that men do, may make the two exteriorly more alike—it does +not make them more <a name="Page_213" id="Page_213"></a>equal. Men and women are widely apart in functions +and in possibilities. They cannot be made equal by exterior devices +like trousers, ballots, the study of Greek. The effort to make them so +is much more likely to make them unequal. One only comes to his +highest power by following unconsciously and joyfully his own nature. +We run the risk of destroying the capacity for equality when we +attempt to make one human being like another human being.</p> + +<p>The theory that the class of free women considered here would be fired +to unselfish interest in uncared-for youth if they were included in +the electorate of the nation is hardly sustainable. The ballot has not +prevented the growth of a similar class of men. Something more biting +than a new tool is needed to arouse men and women who are absorbed in +self—some poignant experience which <a name="Page_214" id="Page_214"></a>thrusts upon their indolent +minds and into their restricted visions the actualities of life.</p> + +<p>It should be said, however, that the recent agitation for the ballot +has served as such an experience for a good many women, particularly +in the East. Perhaps for the first time they have heard from the +suffrage platform of the "little mother," the factory child, the girl +living on $6 a week. They have done more than espouse the suffrage +cause for the sake of the child; they have gone out to find where they +could serve.</p> + +<p>It is a new knowledge of that tide of life which breaks at her very +gate that the childless and the free American woman needs, if she is +to discharge her obligation to the uncared-for child. To force these +facts upon her, to cry to her, "You are the woman,—you cannot escape +the guilt of the woe and crime which <a name="Page_215" id="Page_215"></a>must come from the neglect of +childhood in your radius,"—this is the business of every man and +woman who has had the pain and the privilege of seeing something of +the actual life of the people of this world.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_216" id="Page_216"></a> +<h3>CHAPTER IX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> + +<h3>ON THE ENNOBLING OF THE WOMAN'S BUSINESS</h3> +<br /> + +<p>That the varied, delicate, and difficult problems which crowd the +attention of the woman in her social laboratory should ever be +considered unworthy of first-class brains and training is but proof of +the difficulty the human mind has in distinguishing values when in the +throes of social change. We rightly believe to-day that the world is +not nearly so well run as it would be if we could—or would—apply +unselfishly what we already know. Each of us advocates his own pet +theory of betterment, often to the exclusion of everybody else's +theory.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217"></a>One of the most disconcerting characteristics of advocates, +conservative and radical, is their conscienceless treatment of facts. +Rarely do they allow full value to that which qualifies or contradicts +their theories. The ardent and single-minded reformer is not +infrequently the worst sinner in this respect. To stir indignation +against conditions, he paints them without a background and with utter +disregard of proportion.</p> + +<p>He wins, but he loses, by this method. He makes converts of those of +his own kind, those who like him have rare powers for indignation and +sacrifice, but little capacity or liking for the exact truth or for +self-restraint. He turns from him many who are as zealous as he to +change conditions, but who demand that they be painted as they are and +that justice be rendered both to those who have fought against them in +the past and to <a name="Page_218" id="Page_218"></a>those who are in different ways doing so to-day.</p> + +<p>The movement for a fuller life for American women has always suffered +from the disregard of some of its noblest followers, both for things +as they are and for things as they have been. The persistent +belittling for campaign purposes of the Business of Being a Woman I +have repeatedly referred to in this little series of essays; indeed, +it has been founded on the proposition that the Uneasy Woman of to-day +is to a large degree the result of the belittlement of her natural +task and that her chief need is to dignify, make scientific, +professionalize, that task.</p> + +<p>I doubt if there is to-day a more disintegrating influence at +work—one more fatal to sound social development—than that which +belittles the home and the position of the woman in it. As a <a name="Page_219" id="Page_219"></a>social +institution nothing so far devised by man approaches the home in its +opportunity, nor equals it in its successes.</p> + +<p>The woman's position at its head is hard. The result of her pains and +struggles are rarely what she hopes, either for herself or for any one +connected with her, but this is true of all human achievement. There +is nothing done that does not mean self-denial, routine, +disillusionment, and half realization. Even the superman goes the same +road, coming out at the same halfway-up house! It is the meaning of +the effort, not the half result, that counts.</p> + +<p>The pain and struggle of an enterprise are not what takes the heart +out of a soldier; it is telling him his cause is mean, his fight in +vain. Show him a reason, and he dies exultant. The woman is the +world's one permanent soldier. After all war ceases she must go daily +<a name="Page_220" id="Page_220"></a>to her fight with death. To tell her this giving of her life for life +is merely a "female function," not a human part, is to talk nonsense +and sacrilege. It is the clear conviction of even the most thoughtless +girl that this way lies meaning and fulfillment of life, that gives +her courage to go to her battle as a man-in-line to his, and like him +she comes out with a new understanding. The endless details of her +life, its routine and its restraints, have a reason now, as routine +and discipline have for a soldier. She sees as he does that they are +the only means of securing the victory bought so dearly—of winning +others.</p> + +<p>From this high conviction the great mass of women never have and never +can be turned. What does happen constantly, however, is loss of joy +and courage in their undertaking. When these go, the vision goes. The +woman feels only <a name="Page_221" id="Page_221"></a>her burdens, not the big meaning in them. She +remembers her daily grind, not the possibilities of her position. She +falls an easy victim now to that underestimation of her business which +is so popular. If she is of gentle nature, she becomes apologetic, she +has "never done anything." If she is aggressive, she becomes a +militant. In either case, she charges her dissatisfaction to the +nature of her business. What has come to her is a common human +experience, the discovery that nothing is quite what you expected it +to be, that if hope is to be even halfway realized, it will be by +courage and persistency. It is not the woman's business that is at +fault; it is the faulty handling of it and the human difficulty in +keeping heart when things grow hard. What she needs is a strengthening +of her wavering faith in her natural place in the world, to see her +business as a profession, <a name="Page_222" id="Page_222"></a>its problems formulated and its relations +to the work of society, as a whole, clearly stated.</p> + +<p>Quite as great an injustice to her as the belittling of her business +has been the practice, also for campaigning purposes, of denying her a +part in the upbuilding of civilization. There was a time "back of +history," says one of the popular leaders in the Woman's movement, +"when men and women were friends and comrades—but from that time to +this she (woman) has held a subsidiary and exclusively feminine +position. The world has been wholly in the hands of men, and they have +believed that men alone had the ability, felt the necessity, for +developing civilization, the business, education, and religion of the +world."</p> + +<p>Women's present aim she declares to be the "reassumption of their +share in human life." This is, of course, a <a name="Page_223" id="Page_223"></a>modern putting of the +List of Grievances with which the militant campaign started in this +country in the 40's, reënforced by the important point that women +"back of history" enjoyed the privileges which the earlier militants +declared that man, "having in direct object the establishment of an +absolute tyranny over her," had always usurped.</p> + +<p>Just how the lady knows that "back of history" women and men were more +perfect comrades than to-day, I do not know. Her proofs would be +interesting. If this is true, it reverses the laws which have governed +all other human relations. Certainly, since history began, the only +period where I can pretend to judge what has happened, the records +show that comradeship between men and women has risen and fallen with +the rise and fall of cultivation and of virtue. The general level is +probably higher to-day than ever before.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224"></a>Moreover, from these same records one might support as plausibly—and +as falsely—the theory of a Woman-made World as the popular one of a +Man-made World. There has been many a teacher and philosopher who has +sustained some form of this former thesis, disclaiming against the +excessive power of women in shaping human affairs. The teachings of +the Christian Church in regard to women, the charge that she keep +silent, that she obey, that she be meek and lowly—all grew out of the +fear of the power she exercised at the period these teachings were +given—a power which the saints believed prejudicial to good order and +good morals. There is more than one profound thinker of our own period +who has arraigned her influence—Strindberg and Nietzsche among them. +You cannot turn a page of history that the woman is not on it or +behind it. She is the most <a name="Page_225" id="Page_225"></a>subtle and binding thread in the pattern +of Human Life!</p> + +<p>For the American Woman of to-day to allow woman's part in the making +of this nation to be belittled is particularly unjust and cowardly. +The American nation in its good and evil is what it is, as much +because of its women as because of its men. The truth of the matter +is, there has never been any country, at any time, whatever may have +been their social limitations or political disbarments, that women +have not ranked with the men in actual capacity and achievement; that +is, men and women have risen and fallen together, whatever the +apparent conditions. The failure to recognize this is due either to +ignorance of facts or to a willful disregard of them; usually it is +the former. For instance, one constantly hears to-day the exultant cry +that women finally are beginning to take an interest <a name="Page_226" id="Page_226"></a>and a part in +political and radical discussions. But there has never been a time in +this country's history when they were not active factors in such +discussion. The women of the American Revolutionary Period certainly +challenge sharply the women of to-day, both by their intelligent +understanding of political issues and by their sympathetic coöperation +in the struggle. It was the letters of women which led to that most +important factor in centralizing and instructing pre-revolutionary +opinion in New England, the Committee of Correspondence. There were +few more powerful political pamphleteers in that period than Mercy +Warren. We might very well learn a lesson which we need very much to +learn from the way women aided the Revolutionary cause through their +power as consumers. As for sacrifice and devotion, that of the woman +loses <a name="Page_227" id="Page_227"></a>nothing in nobility when contrasted with that of the man.</p> + +<p>If we jump fifty years in the nation's history to the beginning of the +agitation against slavery, we find women among the first and most +daring of the protestants against the institution. It was for the sake +of shattering slavery that they broke the silence in public which by +order of the Christian Church they had so long kept—an order made, +not for the sake of belittling women, but for the sake of establishing +order in churches and better insuring the new Christian code of +morality. The courage and the radicalism of women of the 30's, 40's, +and 50's in this country compare favorably with that of the men and +women in any revolutionary period in any country that we may select.</p> + +<p>The American woman has played an honorable part in the making of our +<a name="Page_228" id="Page_228"></a>country, and for this part she should have full credit. If she had +been as poor a stick, as downtrodden and ineffective as sometimes +painted, she would not be a fit mate for the man beside whom she has +struggled, and she would be as utterly unfit for the larger life she +desires as the most bigoted misogynist pictures her to be.</p> + +<p>Moreover, all things considered, she has been no greater sufferer from +injustice than man. I do not mean in saying this that she has not had +grave and unjust handicaps, legal and social; I mean that when you +come to study the comparative situations of men and women as a mass at +any time and in any country you will find them more nearly equal than +unequal, all things considered. Women have suffered injustice, but +parallel have been the injustices men were enduring. It was not the +fact that she was a woman <a name="Page_229" id="Page_229"></a>that put her at a disadvantage so much as +the fact that might made right, and the physically weaker everywhere +bore the burden of the day. Go back no further than the beginnings of +this Republic and admit all that can be said of the wrong in the laws +which prevented a woman controlling the property she had inherited or +accumulated by her own efforts, which took from her a proper share in +the control of her child,—we must admit, too, the equal enormity of +the laws which permitted man to exploit labor in the outrageous way he +has. It was not because he was a man that the labor was exploited—it +was because he was the weaker in the prevailing system. Woman's case +was parallel—she was the weaker in the system. It had always been the +case with men and women in the world that he who could took and the +devil got the hindermost. The way <a name="Page_230" id="Page_230"></a>the laborer's cause has gone hand +in hand in this country the last hundred years with the woman's cause +is a proof of the point. In the 30's of the nineteenth century, for +illustration, the country was torn by a workingman's party which +carried on a fierce agitation against banks and monopolies. Many of +its leaders were equally ardent in their support of Women's Rights as +they were then understood. The slavery agitation was coupled from the +start with the question of Women's Rights. It was injustice that was +being challenged—the right of the stronger to put the weaker at a +disadvantage for any reason—because he was poor, not rich; black, not +white; female, not male,—that is, there has been nothing special to +women in the injustice she has suffered except its particular form. +Moreover, it was not man alone who was responsible for this injustice. +Stronger <a name="Page_231" id="Page_231"></a>women have often imposed upon the weak—men and women—as +strong men have done. In its essence, it is a human, not a sex, +question—this of injustice.</p> + +<p>The hesitation of this country in the earlier part of the nineteenth +century to accord to women the same educational facilities as to men +is often cited as a proof of a deliberate effort to disparage women. +But it should not be forgotten that the wisdom of universal male +education was hotly in debate. One of the ideals of radical reformers +for centuries had been to give to all the illumination of knowledge. +But to teach those who did the labor of the world, its peasants and +its serfs, was regarded by both Church and State as a folly and a +menace. It was the establishment of a pure democracy that forced the +experiment of universal free instruction in this country. It has met +with opposition at every stage, and <a name="Page_232" id="Page_232"></a>there is to-day a Mr. Worldly +Wiseman at every corner bewailing the evils it has wrought. He must, +too, be a hopeless Candide who can look on our experiment, wonderful +and inspiring as it is, and say its results have been the best +possible.</p> + +<p>It was entirely logical, things beings as they were, that there should +have been strong opposition to giving girls the same training in +schools as boys. That objection holds good to-day in many reflective +minds. He again must be a hopeless optimist who believes that we have +worked out the best possible system of education for women. But that +there was opposition to giving women the same educational facilities +as men was not saying that there was or ever had been a conspiracy on +foot to keep her in intellectual limbo because she was a woman. The +history of learning shows clearly enough that women have always +shared <a name="Page_233" id="Page_233"></a>in its rise. In the great revival of the sixteenth century +they took an honorable part. "I see the robbers, hangmen, adventurers, +hostlers of to-day more learned than the doctors and preacher of my +youth," wrote Rabelais, and he added, "why, women and girls have +aspired to the heavenly manna of good learning." Whenever aspiration +has been in the air, women have responded to it as men have, and have +found, as men have found, a way to satisfy their thirst.</p> + +<p>To come down to the period which concerns us chiefly, that of our own +Republic, it is an utter misrepresentation of the women of the +Revolution to claim that they were uneducated. All things considered, +they were quite as well educated as the men. The actual achievements +of the eminent women produced by the system of training then in vogue +is proof enough of the statement. Far <a name="Page_234" id="Page_234"></a>and away the best letters by a +woman, which have found their way into print in this country, are +those of Mrs. John Adams, written late in the eighteenth century and +early in the nineteenth. They deserve the permanent place in our +literature which they have. But it was a period of good letter writing +by women—if weak spelling and feminine spelling was, on the whole, +quite as strong as masculine!</p> + +<p>Out of that early system of education came the woman who was to write +the book which did more to stir the country against slavery than all +that ever had been written, Harriet Beecher Stowe. That system +produced the scientist, who still represents American women in the +mind of the world, Maria Mitchell, the only American woman whose name +appears among the names of the world's great scholars inscribed on the +Boston <a name="Page_235" id="Page_235"></a>Public Library. It produced Dorothea Dix, who for twenty years +before the Civil War carried on perhaps the most remarkable +investigation of conditions that has ever been made in this country by +man or woman,—the one which required the most courage, endurance, and +persistency,—her investigation of the then barbaric system for +caring—or not caring—for the insane. State after state enacted new +laws and instituted new methods solely on the showing of this one +woman. If there were no other case to offer to the frequent cry that +women have never had an influence on legislation, this would be +enough. Moreover, this is but the most brilliant example of the kind +of work women had been doing from the beginning of the Republic.</p> + +<p>To my mind there is no phase of their activities which reveals better +the genuineness of their training than the <a name="Page_236" id="Page_236"></a>initiative they took in +founding schools of advanced grades for girls, and in organizing +primary and secondary schools on something like a national scale. Mary +Lyon's work for Mt. Holyoke College and Catherine Beecher's for the +American Woman's Education Association are the most substantial +individual achievements, though they are but types of what many women +were doing and what women in general were backing up. It was work of +the highest constructive type—original in its conception, full of +imagination and idealism, rich in its capacity for growth—a work to +fit the aspiration of its day and so full of the future!</p> + +<p>Now, when conditions are such that a few rise to great eminence from +the ordinary ranks of life, it means a good general average. The +multitude of women of rare achievements, distinguishing the +Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary <a name="Page_237" id="Page_237"></a>periods of American history are +the best evidences of the seriousness, idealism, and intelligence of +the women in general. Their services in the war are part of the +traditions of every family whose line runs back to those days. Loyal, +spirited, ingenious, and uncomplaining, they are one of the finest +proofs in history of the capacity of the women of the mass to respond +whole-heartedly to noble ideals,—one of the finest illustrations, +too, of the type of service needed from women in great crises. But the +rank and file which conducted itself so honorably in the Revolution +was not a whit more noble and intelligent than the rank and file of +the succeeding period. It would have been impossible ever to have +established as promptly as was done the higher and the general schools +for girls if women had not given them the support they did, had not +been willing, as one <a name="Page_238" id="Page_238"></a>great educator of the early part of the +nineteenth century has recorded—"to rise up early, to sit up late, to +eat the bread of the most rigid economy, that their daughters might be +favored with means of improvement superior to what they themselves +possessed." And back of this self-denial was what? A desire that life +be made easier for the daughter? Not at all—a desire that the +daughter be better equipped to "form the character of the future +citizen of the Republic."</p> + +<p>It is not alone that justice is wounded by denying women a part in the +making of the civilized world—a more immediate wrong is the way the +movement for a fuller, freer life for all human beings is hampered. A +woman with a masculine chip on her shoulder gives a divided attention +to the cause she serves. She complicates her human fight with a sex +fight. However good tactics this may <a name="Page_239" id="Page_239"></a>have been in the past, and I am +far from denying that there were periods it may have been good +politics, however poor morals, surely in this country to-day there is +no sound reason for introducing such complications into our struggles. +The American woman's life is the fullest in its opportunity, all +things considered, that any human beings harnessed into a complicated +society have ever enjoyed. To keep up the fight against man as the +chief hindrance to the realization of her aspiration is merely to +perpetuate in the intellectual world that instinct of the female +animal to be ever on guard against the male, save in those periods +when she is in pursuit of him!</p> + +<p>But complicating her problem is not the only injury she does her cause +by this ignoring or belittling of woman's part in civilization. She +strips herself of suggestion and inspiration—a loss <a name="Page_240" id="Page_240"></a>that cannot be +reckoned. The past is a wise teacher. There is none that can stir the +heart more deeply or give to human affairs such dignity and +significance. The meaning of woman's natural business in the +world—the part it has played in civilizing humanity—in forcing good +morals and good manners, in giving a reason and so a desire for +peaceful arts and industries, the place it has had in persuading men +and women that only self-restraint, courage, good cheer, and reverence +produce the highest types of manhood and womanhood,—this is written +on every page of history.</p> + +<p>Women need the ennobling influence of the past. They need to +understand their integral part in human progress. To slur this over, +ignore, or deny it, cripples their powers. It sets them at the foolish +effort of enlarging their lives by doing the things man does—not +<a name="Page_241" id="Page_241"></a>because they are certain that as human beings with a definite task +they need—or society needs—these particular services or operations +from them, but because they conceive that this alone will prove them +equal. The efforts of woman to prove herself equal to man is a work of +supererogation. There is nothing he has ever done that she has not +proved herself able to do equally well. But rarely is society well +served by her undertaking his activities. Moreover, if man is to +remain a civilized being, he must be held to his business of producer +and protector. She cannot overlook her obligation to keep him up to +his part in the partnership, and she cannot wisely interfere too much +with that part. The fate of the meddler is common knowledge!</p> + +<p>A few women in every country have always and probably always will find +work and usefulness and happiness in <a name="Page_242" id="Page_242"></a>exceptional tasks. They are +sometimes women who are born with what we call "bachelor's souls"—an +interesting and sometimes even charming, though always an incomplete, +possession! More often they are women who by the bungling machinery of +society have been cast aside. There is no reason why these women +should be idle, miserable, selfish, or antisocial. There are rich +lives for them to work out and endless needs for them to meet. But +they are not the women upon whom society depends; they are not the +ones who build the nation. The women who count are those who outnumber +them a hundred to one—the women who are at the great business of +founding and filling those natural social centers which we call homes. +Humanity will rise or fall as that center is strong or weak. It is the +human core.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 16577-h.txt or 16577-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/5/7/16577">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/7/16577</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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Tarbell + + + +Release Date: August 21, 2005 [eBook #16577] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN*** + + +E-text prepared by Audrey Longhurst, Jeannie Howse, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +Transcriber's note: The few spelling mistakes found in this text + were left intact. + + + + + +THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN + +by + +IDA M. TARBELL + +Associate Editor of the "American Magazine" +Author of "Life of Abraham Lincoln" +"History of the Standard Oil Co." +"He Knew Lincoln," etc. + +New York +The MacMillan Company +New York . Boston . Chicago +Dallas . San Francisco +Macmillan & Co., Limited +London . Bombay . Calcutta +Melbourne +The Macmillan Co. of Canada, Ltd. +Toronto +Norwood Press +J.S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. +Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. + +1921 + + + + + + + +TO + +E.I.T. AND C.C.T. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The object of this little volume is to call attention to a certain +distrust, which the author feels in the modern woman, of the +significance and dignity of the work laid upon her by Nature and by +society. Its ideas are the result of a long, if somewhat desultory, +observation of the professional, political, and domestic activities of +women in this country and in France. These observations have led to +certain definite opinions as to those phases of the woman question +most in need of emphasis to-day. + +A great problem of human life is to preserve faith in and zest for +everyday activities. The universal easily becomes the vulgar and the +burdensome. The highest civilization is that in which the largest +number sense, and are so placed as to realize, the dignity and the +beauty of the common experiences and obligations. + + * * * * * + +The courtesy of the publishers of the _American Magazine_, in +permitting the use here of chapters which have appeared in that +periodical, is gratefully acknowledged. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I. THE UNEASY WOMAN 1 + + II. ON THE IMITATION OF MAN 30 + + III. THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN 53 + + IV. THE SOCIALIZATION OF THE HOME 84 + + V. THE WOMAN AND HER RAIMENT 109 + + VI. THE WOMAN AND DEMOCRACY 142 + + VII. THE HOMELESS DAUGHTER 164 + +VIII. THE CHILDLESS WOMAN AND THE FRIENDLESS CHILD 190 + + IX. ON THE ENNOBLING OF THE WOMAN'S BUSINESS 216 + + + + +THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN + + +CHAPTER I + +The Uneasy Woman + + +The most conspicuous occupation of the American woman of to-day, +dressing herself aside, is self-discussion. It is a disquieting +phenomenon. Chronic self-discussion argues chronic ferment of mind, +and ferment of mind is a serious handicap to both happiness and +efficiency. Nor is self-discussion the only exhibit of restlessness +the American woman gives. To an unaccustomed observer she seems always +to be running about on the face of things with no other purpose than +to put in her time. He points to the triviality of the things in which +she can immerse herself--her fantastic and ever-changing raiment, the +welter of lectures and other culture schemes which she supports, the +eagerness with which she transports herself to the ends of the +earth--as marks of a spirit not at home with itself, and certainly not +convinced that it is going in any particular direction or that it is +committed to any particular worth-while task. + +Perhaps the most disturbing side of the phenomenon is that it is +coincident with the emancipation of woman. At a time when she is freer +than at any other period of the world's history--save perhaps at one +period in ancient Egypt--she is apparently more uneasy. + +Those who do not like the exhibit are inclined to treat her as if she +were a new historical type. The reassuring fact is, that ferment of +mind is no newer thing in woman than in man. It is a human ailment. +Its attacks, however, have always been unwelcome. Society distrusts +uneasiness in sacred quarters; that is, in her established and +privileged works. They are the best mankind has to show for itself. At +least they are the things for which the race has slaved longest and +which so far have best resisted attack. We would like to pride +ourselves that they were permanent, that we had settled some things. +And hence society resents a restless woman. And this is logical +enough. + +Embroiled as man is in an eternal effort to conquer, understand, and +reduce to order both nature and his fellows, it is imperative that he +have some secure spot where his head is not in danger, his heart is +not harassed. Woman, by virtue of the business nature assigns her, +has always been theoretically the maker and keeper of this necessary +place of peace. But she has rarely made it and kept it with full +content. Eve was a revoltee, so was Medea. In every century they have +appeared, restless Amazons, protesting and remolding. Out of their +uneasy souls have come the varying changes in the woman's world which +distinguish the ages. + +Society has not liked it--was there to be no quiet anywhere? It is +poor understanding that does not appreciate John Adams' parry of his +wife Abigail's list of grievances, which she declared the Continental +Congress must relieve if it would avoid a woman's rebellion. Under the +stress of the Revolution children, apprentices, schools, colleges, +Indians, and negroes had all become insolent and turbulent, he told +her. What was to become of the country if women, "the most numerous +and powerful tribe in the world," grew discontented? + +Now this world-old restlessness of the women has a sound and a tragic +cause. Nature lays a compelling hand on her. Unless she obeys freely +and fully she must pay in unrest and vagaries. For the normal woman +the fulfillment of life is the making of the thing we best describe as +a home--which means a mate, children, friends, with all the radiating +obligations, joys, burdens, these relations imply. + +This is nature's plan for her; but the home has got to be founded +inside the imperfect thing we call society. And these two, nature and +society, are continually getting into each other's way, wrecking each +other's plans, frustrating each other's schemes. The woman almost +never is able to adjust her life so as fully to satisfy both. She is +between two fires. Euripides understood this when he put into Medea's +mouth a cry as modern as any that Ibsen has conceived:-- + + Of all things upon earth that grow, + A herb most bruised is woman. We must pay + Our store of gold, hoarded for that one day, + To buy us some man's love; and lo, they bring + A master of our flesh! There comes the sting + Of the whole shame. And then the jeopardy, + For good or ill, what shall that master be; + 'Tis magic she must have or prophecy-- + Home never taught her that--how best to guide + Toward peace this thing that sleepeth at her side. + And she who, laboring long, shall find some way + Whereby her lord may bear with her, nor fray + His yoke too fiercely, blessed is the breath + That woman draws! + +Medea's difficulty was that which is oftenest in the way of a woman +carrying her business in life to a satisfactory completion--false +mating. It is not a difficulty peculiar to woman. Man knows it as +often. It is the heaviest curse society brings on human beings--the +most fertile cause of apathy, agony, and failure. If the woman's cry +is more poignant under it than the man's, it is because the machine +which holds them both allows him a wider sweep, more interests outside +of their immediate alliance. "A man, when he is vexed at home," +complains Medea, "can go out and find relief among his friends or +acquaintances, but we women have none to look at but him." + +And when it is impossible longer to "look" at him, what shall she do! +Tell her woe to the world, seek a soporific, repudiate the scheme of +things, or from the vantage point of her failure turn to the untried +relations of her life, call upon her unused powers? + +From the beginning of time she has tried each and all of these methods +of meeting her purely human woe. At times the women of whole peoples +have sunk into apathy, their business reduced to its dullest, +grossest forms. Again, whole groups have taken themselves out of the +partnership which both Nature and Society have ordered. The Amazons +refused to recognize man as an equal and mated simply that they might +rear more women like themselves. Here the tables were turned and the +boy baby turned out--not to the wolves, but to man! The convent has +always been a favorite way of escape. + +It has never been a majority of women who for a great length of time +have shirked this problem by any one of these methods. By individuals +and by groups woman has always been seeking to develop the business of +life to such proportions, to so diversify, refine, and broaden it that +no half failure or utter failure of its fundamental relations would +swamp her, leave her comfortless, or prevent her working out that +family which she knew to be her part in the scheme of things. It is +from her conscious attempt to make the best of things when they are +proved bad, that there has come the uneasiness which trails along her +path from Eve to Mrs. Pankhurst. + +When great changes have come in the social system, her quest has +responded to them, taken its color and direction from them. The +peculiar forms of uneasiness in the American woman of to-day come +naturally enough from the Revolution of 1776. That movement upset +theoretically everything which had been expected of her before. +Theoretically, it broke down the division fences which had kept her in +sets and groups. She was no longer to be a woman of class; she was a +woman of the people. This was striking at the very underpinning of +femininity, as the world knew it. Theoretically, too, her ears were no +longer to be closed to all ideas save those of her church or +party,--a new thing, freedom of speech, was abroad,--her lips were +opened with man's. Moreover, her business of family building was +modified, as well as her attitude towards life. The necessity of all +women educating themselves that they might be able to educate their +children was an obligation on the face of the new undertaking. Another +revolutionary duty put upon her was--_paying her way_. There can be no +real democracy where there is parasitism. She must achieve conscious +independence whether in or out of the family. Unquestionably there +came with the Revolution a vision of a new woman--a woman from whom +all of the willfulness and frivolity and helplessness of the "Lady" of +the old regime should be stripped, while all her qualities of +gentleness and charm should be preserved. The old-world lady was to +be merged into a woman strong, capable, severely beautiful, a creature +who had all of the virtues and none of the follies of femininity. + +It was strong yeast they put into the pot in '76. + +A fresh leaven in a people can never be distributed evenly. Moreover, +the mass to which it is applied is never homogeneous. There are spots +so hard no yeast can move them; there are others so light the yeast +burns them out. Taken as a whole, the change is labored and painful. +So our new notions worked on women. There were groups which resented +and refused them, became reactionary at the stating of them. There +were those which grew grave and troubled under them, shrinking from +the portentous upheaval they felt in their touch, yet sensing that +they must be accepted. There were still others where the notion +frothed and foamed, turning up unexpected ideas, revealing depths of +dissatisfaction, of desire, of unsuspected powers in woman that +startled the staid old world. It was in these quarters that there was +produced the uneasy woman typical of the day. + +Her ferment went to the bottom of things this time. Not since the age +of the Amazon had a body of women broken more utterly with things as +they are. And like the Amazon, the revolt was against man and his +pretensions. + +It was no unorganized revolt. It was deliberate. It presented her case +in a carefully prepared List of Grievances, and an eloquent +Declaration of Sentiments[1] both adopted in a strictly parliamentary +way, and made the basis of an organized revolt, which has gone on +systematically ever since. The essence of her complaint, as embodied +in the above expression, is that man is a conscious tyrant holding +woman an unwilling captive--cutting her off from the things in life +which really matter: education, freedom of speech, the ballot; that +she can never be his equal until she does the same things her tyrant +does, studies the book he studies, practices the trades and +professions he practices, works with him in government. + +The inference from all this is that the Business of Being a Woman, as +it has been conducted heretofore by society, is of less importance +than the Business of Being a Man, and that the time has come to enter +his world and prove her equality. + +There are certain assumptions in her program which will bear +examination. Is man the calculating tyrant the modern uneasy woman +charges? Are her fetters due only to his unfair domination? Or is she +suffering from the generally bungling way things go in the world? And +is not man a victim as well as she--caught in the same trap? +Moreover, is woman never a tyrant? One of the first answers to her +original revolt came from the most eminent woman of the day, Harriet +Beecher Stowe, and it was called "_Pink and White_ Tyranny!" "I have +seen a collection of medieval English poems," says Chesterton, "in +which the section headed 'Poems of Domestic Life' consisted entirely +(literally entirely) of the complaints of husbands bullied by their +wives." + +Again, will doing the same things a man does work as well in stifling +her unrest as she fancies it has in man's case? If a woman's +temperamental and intellectual operations were identical with a man's, +there would be hope of success,--but they are not. She is a different +being. Whether she is better or worse, stronger or weaker, primary or +secondary, is not the question. She is different. + +And she tries to ease a world-old human curse by imitating the +occupations, points of views, and methods of a radically different +being. Can she realize her quest in this way? Generally speaking, +nothing is more wasteful in human operations than following a course +which is not native and spontaneous, not according to the law of the +being. + +If she demonstrates her points, successfully copies man's activities, +can she impress her program on any great body of women? The mass of +women believe in their task. Its importance is not capable of argument +in their minds. Nor do they see themselves dwarfed by their business. +They know instinctively that under no other circumstances can such +ripeness and such wisdom be developed, that nowhere else is the full +nature called upon, nowhere else are there such intricate, delicate, +and intimate forces in play, calling and testing them. + +To bear and to rear, to feel the dependence of man and child--the +necessity for themselves--to know that upon them depend the health, +the character, the happiness, the future of certain human beings--to +see themselves laying and preserving the foundations of so imposing a +thing as a family--to build so that this family shall become a strong +stone in the state--to feel themselves through this family +perpetuating and perfecting church, society, republic,--this is their +destiny,--this is worth while. They may not be able to state it, but +all their instincts and experiences convince them of the supreme and +eternal value of their place in the world. They dare not tamper with +it. Their opposition to the militant program badly and even cruelly +expressed at times has at bottom, as an opposition always has, the +principle of preservation. It is not bigotry or vanity or a petty +notion of their own spheres which has kept the majority of women from +lending themselves to the radical wing of the woman's movement. It is +fear to destroy a greater thing which they possess. The fear of change +is not an irrational thing--the fear of change is founded on the risk +of losing what you have, on the certainty of losing much temporarily +at least. It sees the cost, the ugly and long period of transition. + +Moreover, respect for your calling brings patience with its burden and +its limitations. The change you desire you work for conservatively, if +at all. The women who opposed the first movement for women's rights in +this country might deplore the laws that gave a man the power to beat +his wife--but as a matter of fact few men did beat their wives, and +popular opinion was a powerful weapon. They might deplore the laws of +property--but few of them were deeply touched by them. The husband, +the child, the home, the social circle, the church, these things were +infinitely more interesting and important to them than diplomas, +rights to work, rights to property, rights to vote. All the sentiments +in the revolting women's program seemed trivial, cold, profitless +beside the realities of life as they dreamed them and struggled to +realize them. + +It is this same intuitive loyalty to her Business of Being a Woman, +her unwillingness to have it tampered with, that is to-day the great +obstacle to our Uneasy Woman putting her program of relief into force. +And it is the effort to move this mass which she derides as inert that +leads to much of the overemphasis in her program and her methods. If +she is to attract attention, she must be extreme. The campaigner is +like the actor--he must exaggerate to get his effect over the +footlights. Moreover, there are natures like that of the actor who +could not play Othello unless his whole body was blackened. Nor is the +extravagance of the methods, which the militant lady follows to put +over her program, so foreign to her nature as it may seem. The +suffragette adapts to her needs a form of feminine coquetry as old as +the world. To defy and denounce the male has always been one of +woman's most successful provocative ways! + +However much certain of the assumptions in her program may seem to be +against its success, there is much for it. It gives her a +scapegoat--an outside, personal, attackable cause for the limitations +and defeats she suffers. And there is no greater consolation than +fixing blame. It is half a cure in itself to know or to think you know +the cause of your difficulties. Moreover, it gives her a scapegoat +against whom it is easy to make up a case. She knows him too well, +much better than he knows her, much better than she knows herself; at +least her knowledge of him is better formulated. And she has this +advantage: custom makes it cowardly for a man to attempt to +demonstrate that woman is a tyrant--it laughs and applauds woman's +attempt to fix the charge on man. + +It gives her a definite program of relief. To attack life as man does: +to secure the same kind of training, enter a trade or profession where +she can support herself, mingle with the crowd as he does, get into +politics--that she assumes to be the practical way of curing the +inferiority of position and of powers which she is willing to admit, +even willing to demonstrate. That a man's life may not be altogether +satisfactory, she declines to believe. The uneasy woman has always +taken it for granted that man is happier than woman. It is an +assumption which is at least discussible. + +Her program, too, has the immense advantage of including all that the +new order of things in this country, instituted by the Revolution, +made imperative for women--the schooling, the liberty of action, the +independent pocket book. Because she has formulated these notions so +definitely and has hammered on them so hard, the militant woman +frequently claims that they originated with her, that she is the +_cause_ of the great development in educational opportunities, in +freedom to work and to circulate, in the increasing willingness to +face the facts of life and speak the truth. This claim she should +drop. She is rather the logical result of these notions, their extreme +expression. She has, however, had an enormous influence in keeping +them alive in the great slow-moving mass of women, where the fate of +new ideas rests and where they are always tried out with extreme +caution. Without her the vision of enlarging and liberalizing their +own particular business to meet the needs of the New Democracy which +so exalted the women of the Revolution, would not to-day be as nearly +realized as it is. To speak slightingly of her part in the women's +movement is uncomprehending. She was then, and always has been, a +tragic figure, this woman in the front of the woman's movement--driven +by a great unrest, sacrificing old ideals to attain new, losing +herself in a frantic and frequently blind struggle, often putting back +her cause by the sad illustration she was of the price that must be +paid to attain a result. Certainly no woman who to-day takes it as a +matter of course that she should study what she chooses, go and come +as she will, support herself unquestioned by trade, profession, or +art, work in public or private, handle her own property, share her +children on equal terms with her husband, receive a respectful +attention on platform or before legislature, live freely in the world, +should think with anything but reverence particularly of the early +disturbers of convention and peace, for they were an essential element +in the achievement. + +The great strength of the radical program is now, as it has always +been, the powerful appeal it makes to the serious young woman. Man and +marriage are a trap--that is the essence the young woman draws from +the campaign for woman's rights. All the vague terror which at times +runs through a girl's dream of marriage, the sudden vision of probable +agonies, of possible failure and death, become under the teachings of +the militant woman so many realities. She sees herself a "slave," as +the jargon has it, putting all her eggs into one basket with the +certainty that some, perhaps all, will be broken. + +The new gospel offers an escape from all that. She will be a "free" +individual, not one "tied" to a man. The "drudgery" of the household +she will exchange for what she conceives to be the broad and inspiring +work which men are doing. For the narrow life of the family she will +escape to the excitement and triumph of a "career." The Business of +Being a Woman becomes something to be apologized for. All over the +land there are women with children clamoring about them, apologizing +for never having _done_ anything! Women whose days are spent in trade +and professions complacently congratulate themselves that they at +least have _lived_. There were girls in the early days of the +movement, as there no doubt are to-day, who prayed on their knees that +they might escape the frightful isolation of marriage, might be free +to "live" and to "work," to "know" and to "do." + +What it was really all about they never knew until it was too late. +That is, they examined neither the accusations nor the premises. They +accepted them. Strong young natures are quick to accept charges of +injustice. To them it is unnatural that life should be hampered, that +it should be anything but radiant. Curing injustice, too, seems +particularly easy to the young. It is simply a matter of finding a +remedy and putting it into force! The young American woman of +militant cast finds it is easy to believe that the Business of Being a +Woman is slavery. She has her mother's pains and sacrifices and tears +before her, and she resents them. She meets the theory on every hand +that the distress she loathes is of man's doing, that it is for her to +revolt, to enter his business, and so doing escape his tyranny, find a +worth-while life for herself, and at the same time help "liberate" her +sex. + +And so for sixty years she has been working on this thesis. That she +has not demonstrated it sufficiently to satisfy even herself is shown +by the fact that she is still the most conspicuous of Uneasy Women. +But that she has produced a type and an influential one is certain. +Indeed, she may be said to have demonstrated sufficiently for +practical purposes what there is for her in imitating the activities +of man. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS + + When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one + portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the + earth a position different from that which they have hitherto + occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God + entitles them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind + requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to + such a course. + + We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women + are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with + certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, + and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights + governments are instituted, deriving their just power from the + consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes + destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer + from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the + institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such + principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them + shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. + Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established + should not be changed for light and transient causes; and + accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more + disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right + themselves by abolishing the forms to which they were accustomed. + But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing + invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under + absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government, + and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been + the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and + such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the + equal station to which they are entitled. + + The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and + usurpations on the part of man towards woman, having in direct + object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove + this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. + + He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to + the elective franchise. + + He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which + she has no voice. + + He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most + ignorant and degraded men--both natives and foreigners. + + Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective + franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls + of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides. + + He has made her, if married, in the eyes of the law, civilly dead. + + He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she + earns. + + He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as she can + commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the + presence of her husband. In the covenant of marriage, she is + compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all + intents and purposes, her master--the law giving him power to + deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement. + + He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the + proper causes, and in case of separation, to whom the guardianship + of the children shall be given, as to be wholly regardless of the + happiness of women--the law, in all cases, going upon a false + supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all power into his + hands. + + After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single, + and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support a + government which recognizes her only when her property can be made + profitable to it. + + He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from + those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty + remuneration. He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and + distinction which he considers most honorable to himself. As a + teacher of theology, medicine, or law, she is not known. + + He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough + education, all colleges being closed against her. + + He allows her in Church, as well as State, but a subordinate + position, claiming Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the + ministry, and, with some exception, from any public participation + in the affairs of the Church. + + He has created a false sentiment by giving to the world a + different code of morals for men and women, by which moral + delinquencies which exclude women from society are not only + tolerated, but deemed of little account in man. + + He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as + his right to assign for her a sphere of action, when that belongs + to her conscience and to her God. + + He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her + confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to + make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ON THE IMITATION OF MAN + + +Fresh attacks on life, like chemical experiments, turn up unexpected +by-products. The Uneasy Woman, driven by the thirst for greater +freedom, and believing man's way of life will assuage it, lays siege +to his kingdom. Some of the unexpected loot she has carried away still +embarrasses her. Not a little, however, is of such undeniable +advantage that she may fairly contend that its capture alone justifies +her campaign. + +Go to-day into many a woman's club house, into many a drawing-room or +studio at, let us say, the afternoon tea hour, and what will you see? +One or probably more women in mannish suits and boots calmly smoking +cigarettes while they talk, and talk well, about things in which women +are not supposed to be interested, but which it is apparent they +understand. + +Look the exhibit over. It is made, you at once recognize, by women of +character, position, and sense. They have simply found certain +masculine ways to their liking and adopted them. The probability is +that if anybody should object to their habits, many of them would be +as bewildered as are the great majority of Americans by the +demonstration that "nice" women can smoke and think nothing of it! + +The cigarette, the boot, and much of the talk are only by-products of +the woman's invasion of the man's world. She did not set out to win +these spoils. They came to her in the campaign! + +The objects of her attack were things she considered more +fundamental. She was dissatisfied with the way her brain was being +trained, her time employed, her influence directed. "Give us the man's +way," was her demand, "then we shall understand real things, can fill +our days with important tasks, will count as human beings." + +There was no uncertainty in her notion of how this was to be +accomplished. A woman rarely feels uncertainty about methods. She +instinctively sees a way and follows it with assurance. Half her +irritation against man has always been that he is a spendthrift with +time and talk. Madame Roland, sitting at her sewing table listening to +the excited debate of the Revolutionists in her salon, mourned that +though the ideas were many, the resulting measures were few. It is the +woman's eternal complaint against discussion--nothing comes of it. In +a country like our own, where reflection usually follows action, the +woman's natural mental attitude is exaggerated. It is one reason why we +have so few houses where there is anything like conversation, why with +us the salon as an institution is out of question. The woman wants +immediately to incorporate her ideas. She is not interested in turning +them over, letting her mind play with them. She has no patience with +other points of view than her own. They are _wrong_--therefore why +consider them? She detests uncertainties--questions which cannot be +settled. Only by man and the rare woman is it accepted that talk is a +good enough end in itself. + +The strength of woman's attack on man's life, apart from the essential +soundness of the impulse which drove her to make it, lay then in its +directness and practicality. She began by asking to be educated in +the same way that man educated himself. Preferably she would enter his +classroom, or if that was denied her, she would follow the +"just-as-good" curriculum of the college founded for her. In the last +sixty or seventy years tens of thousands of women have been students +in American universities, colleges, and technical schools, taking +there the same training as men. In the last twenty years the annual +crescendo of numbers has been amazing; over ten thousand at the +beginning of the period, over fifty-two thousand at the end. Over +eight thousand degrees were given to women in 1910, nearly half as +many as were given to men. Fully four fifths of these women students +and graduates have worked side by side with men in schools which +served both equally. + +Here, then, is a great mass of experience from which it would seem +that we ought to be able to say precisely how the intellects of the +two sexes act and react under the stimulus of serious study, to decide +definitely whether their attack on problems is the same, whether they +come out the same. Nevertheless, he would be a rash observer who would +pretend to lay down hard-and-fast generalizations. Assert whatever you +will as to the mind of woman at work and some unimpeachable authority +will rise up with experience that contradicts you. But the same may be +said of the mind of man. The mind--_per se_--is a variable and +disconcerting organ. + +But admitting all this--certain generalizations, on the whole correct, +may be made from our experience with coeducation. + +One of the first of these is that at the start the woman takes her +work more seriously than her masculine competitor. Fifty years ago +there was special reason for this. The few who in those early days +sought a man's education had something of the spirit of pioneers. They +had set themselves a lofty task: to prove themselves the equal of +man--to win privileges which they believed were maliciously denied +their sex. The spirit with which they attacked their studies was +illumined by the loftiness of their aim. The girl who enters college +nowadays has rarely the opportunity to be either pioneer or martyr. +She is doing what has come to be regarded as a matter of course. +Nevertheless, to-day as then, in the coeducational institution she is +more consciously on her mettle than the man. + +Her attention, interest, respectfulness, docility, will be ahead of +his. It will at once be apparent that she carries the larger stock of +_untaught_ knowledge. In the classroom she will usually outstep him in +mathematics. It is an ideal subject for her, satisfying her talent +for order, for making things "come out right." Her memory will serve +her better. She can depend upon it to carry more exceptions to rules, +more fantastic irregular verbs, more dates, more lists of kings and +queens, battles and generals, and on the whole she will treat this +sort of impedimenta with more respect. She will know less of abstract +ideas, of philosophies and speculations. They will interest her less. +The chances are that she will be less skillful with microscope and +scalpel, though this is not certain. She will show less enthusiasm for +technical problems, for machinery and engineering; more for social +problems, particularly when it is a question of meeting them with +preventives or remedies. In the first two or three years after +entering college, she will almost invariably appear superior to the +men of her age, more grown up, more interested, surer of herself, +readier. Later you will find her on the whole less inclined to +experiment with her gifts, to feel her wings, to make unexpected +dashes into life. It begins to look as if he were the experimenter, +she the conservator. And by the time she is a senior, look out! The +chances are she will have less interest from now on with man's +business and more with her own! In any case she will rarely develop as +rapidly in his field from this point as he is doing. + +He becomes assertive, confident, dominating; the male taking a male's +place. He discovers that his intellectual processes are more +scientific than hers, therefore he concludes they are superior. He +finds he can outargue her, draw logical conclusions as she cannot. He +can do anything with her but convince her, for she jumps the process, +lands on her conclusion, and there she sits. Things are so because +they are so. And the chances are she is right, in spite of the +irregular way she got there. Something superior to reason enters into +her operations--an intuition of truth akin to inspiration. In early +ages women unusually endowed with this quality of perception were +honored as seers. To-day they are recognized as counselors of +prophetic wisdom. "If I had taken my wife's advice!" How often one +hears it! + +One most important fact has come out of our great coeducational +experiment: The college cannot entirely rub feminity out and +masculinity into a woman's brain. The woman's mind is still the +woman's mind, although she is usually the last to recognize it. It is +another proof of the eternal fact that Nature looks after her own good +works! + +But it takes more than a college course to make an efficient, +flexible, and trustworthy organ from a mind, masculine or feminine. +It must be applied to productive labor in competition with other +trained minds, before you can decide what it is worth. Set the +man-trained woman's mind at what is called man's business, let it be +what you will--keeping a shop, practicing medicine or law, editing, +running a factory--let her do it in what she considers to be a man's +way, and with fidelity to her original theory that his way is more +desirable than hers; that is, let her succeed in the task of making a +man of herself--what about her?--what kind of a man does she become? + +Here again there is ample experience to go on. For seventy years we +have had them with us--the stern disciples of the militant program. +Greater fidelity to a task than they show it would be impossible to +find--a fidelity so unwavering that it is often painful. Their care +for detail, for order, for exactness, is endless. Dignity, respect for +their undertaking, devotion to professional etiquette they may be +counted on to show in the highest degree. These are admirable +qualities. They have led hundreds of women into independence and good +service. Almost never, however, have they led one to the top. In free +fields such as merchandising, editing, and manufacturing we have yet +to produce a woman of the first caliber; that is, daring, +experimenting, free from prejudice, with a vision of the future great +enough to lead her to embody something of the future in her task. + +In every profession we have scores of successful women--almost never a +_great_ woman, and yet the world is full of great women! That is, of +women who understand, are familiar with the big sacrifices, +appreciative of the fine things, far-seeing, prophetic. Why does this +greatness so rarely find expression in their professional +undertakings? + +The answer is no doubt complex, but one factor is the general notion +of the woman that if she succeeds she must suppress her natural +emotions and meet the world with a surface as non-resilient as she +conceives that of man to be in his dealings with the world. She is +strengthened in this notion by hard necessity. No woman could live and +respond as freely as her nature prompts to the calls on her sympathy +which come in the contact with all conditions of life involved in +practicing a trade or a profession. She must save herself. To do it +she incases herself in an unnatural armor. For the normal, healthy +woman this means the suppression of what is strongest in her nature, +that power which differentiates her chiefly from man, her power of +emotion, her "affectability" as the scientists call it. She must +overcome her own nature, put it in bonds, cripple it, if she is to do +her work. Here is a fundamental reason for the failure of woman to +reach the first rank. She has sacrificed the most wonderful part of +her endowment, that which when trained gives her vision, sharpens her +intuitions, reveals the need and the true course. This superior +affectability crushed, leaves her atrophied. + +The common characterization of this atrophied woman is that she is +"cold." It is the exact word. She _is_ cold, also she is self-centered +and intensely personal. Let a woman make success in a trade or +profession her exclusive and sufficient ambition, and the result, +though it may be brilliant, is repellent. + +She gives to her task an altogether disproportionate place in her +scheme of things. Life is not made by work, important as is work in +life. Human nature has varied needs. It calls imperatively for a task, +something to do with brain and hands--a productive something which +fits the common good, without which the world would not be as orderly +and as happy. Say what we will, it matters very little what the task +is--if it contributes in some fashion to this superior orderliness and +happiness. But it means more. It means leisure, pleasure, excitements; +it means feeding of the taste, the curiosity, the emotions, the +reflective powers; and it means love, love of the mate, the child, the +friend, and neighbor. It means reverence for the scheme of things and +one's place in it; worship of the author of it, religion. + +But the woman sternly set to do a man's business, believing it better +than the woman's, too often views life as made up of business. She +throws her whole nature to the task. Her work is her child. She gives +it the same exclusive passionate attention. She is as fiercely jealous +of interference in it as she would be if it were a child. She resents +suggestions and change. It is hers, a personal thing to which she +clings as if it were a living being. That attitude is the chief reason +why working with women in the development of great undertakings is as +difficult as cooeperating with them in the rearing of a family. It is +also a reason why they rarely rise to the first rank. They cannot get +away from their undertakings sufficiently to see the big truths and +movements which are always impersonal. + +Brilliant and satisfying as her triumph may be to her personally, she +frequently finds that it is resented by nature and by society. She +finds that nature lays pitfalls for her, cracks the ice of her heart +and sets it aflame, often for absurd and unworthy causes. She finds +that the great mass of unconscious women commiserate or scorn her as +one who has missed the fullness of life. She finds that society +regards her as one who shirked the task of life, and who, therefore, +should not be honored as the woman who has stood up to the common +burden. When she senses this--which is not always--she treats it as +prejudice. As a matter of fact, the antagonism of Nature and Society +to the militant woman is less prejudice than self-defense. It is a +protest against the wastefulness and sacrifice of her career. It is a +right saving impulse to prevent perversion of the qualities and powers +of women which are most needed in the world, those qualities and +powers which differentiate her from man, which make for the variety, +the fullness, the charm, and interest of life. + +Moreover, Nature and Society must not permit her triumph to appear +desirable to the young. They must be made to understand what her +winnings have cost in lovely and desirable things. They must know that +the unrest which drove her to the attempt is not necessarily satisfied +by her triumph, that it is merely stifled and may break out at any +time in vagaries and follies. They must be made to realize the +essential barrenness of her triumph, its lack of the savor and tang of +life, the multitude of makeshifts she must practice to recompense her +for the lack of the great adventure of natural living. + +And they see it, many of them, before they are out of college, and +their militancy falls off like the cloak it generally is. The girl +abandons her quest. In the early days she was likely to be treated as +an apostate if, instead of following the "life work" she had picked +out, she slipped back into matrimony. I can remember the dismay among +certain militant friends when Alice Freeman married. "Our first +college president," they groaned. "A woman who so vindicated the sex." +It was like the grieving of Miss Anthony that Mrs. Stanton wasted so +much time having babies! + +The militant theory, as originally conceived, instead of increasing in +favor, has declined. There is little likelihood now that any great +number of women will ever regard it as a desirable working formula for +more than a short period of their lives. But I am not saying that this +theory is no longer influential. It is probable that in a modified +form it was never more influential than it is to-day. For, while the +Uneasy Woman has practically demonstrated that "making a man of +herself" does not solve her problem, she has by no means given up the +notion that the Business of Being a Woman is narrowing and +unsatisfying. Nor has she ceased to consider man's life more desirable +than woman's. + +The present effort of the serious-minded to meet the case takes two +general directions, natural enough outgrowths of the original +militancy. The first of these is a frank advocacy of celibacy. +"_Celibacy is the aristocracy of the future_," is the preaching of one +European feminist. It is a modification of the scheme by which the +medieval woman sought to escape unrest. Four hundred years ago a woman +sought celibacy as an escape from sin; service and righteousness were +her aim. To-day she adopts it to escape inferiority and servitude; +superiority and freedom her aim. + +The ranks of the woman celibates are not full. Many a candidate falls +out by the way, confronted by something she had not reckoned with--the +eternal command that she be a woman. She compromises--grudgingly. She +will be a woman on condition that she is guaranteed economic freedom, +opportunity for self-expressive work, political recognition. What this +amounts to is that she does not see in the woman's life a satisfying +and permanent end. There are various points at which she claims it +fails. It is antagonistic to personal ambition. It makes a dependent +of her. It leaves her in middle life without an occupation. It keeps +her out of the great movements of her day--gives her no part in the +solution of the ethical and economical problems which affect her and +her children. She declares that she wants fuller participation in +life, and by life she seems to mean the elaborate machinery by which +human wants are supplied and human beings kept in something like +order; the movements of the market place, of politics, and of +government. + +Now if there were not something in her contention, the Uneasy Woman +would not be with us as she is to-day, more vociferous, more insistent +than ever in the world's history. What is there in her case? + +If the cultivation of individual tastes and talents to a useful, +productive point is out of question in the woman's business, if it is +not a part of it, something is weak in the scheme. Something is weak +if the woman is or feels that she is not paying her way. Both are not +only individual rights; they are individual duties. + +Moreover, she is certainly right to be dissatisfied, if, after +spending twenty-five years, more or less, she is to be left in middle +life, her forces spent, without interests and obligations which will +occupy brain and heart to the full, without important tasks which are +the logical outcome of her experience and which she must carry on in +order to complete that experience. + +But what is the truth about it? What is the Business of Being a Woman? +Is it something incompatible with free and joyous development of one's +talents? Is there no place in it for economic independence? Has it no +essential relation to the world's movements? Is it an episode which +drains the forces and leaves a dreary wreck behind? Is it something +that cannot be organized into a profession of dignity, and opportunity +for service and for happiness? + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN + + +Respect for the Creator of this world is basic among all civilized +people. The longer one lives, the more thoroughly one realizes the +soundness of this respect. The earth and its works _are_ good. Most +human conceptions are barred by strange inconsistencies. The man who +praises the works of the Creator as all wise not infrequently treats +His arrangement for carrying on the race as if it were unfit to be +spoken of in polite society. Nowhere does the modern God-fearing man +come nearer to sacrilege than in his attitude toward the divine plan +for renewing life. + +A strange mixture of sincerity and hypocrisy, self-flagellation and +lust, aspiration and superstition, has gone into the making of this +attitude. With the development of it we have nothing to do here. What +does concern us is the effect of this profanity on the Business of +Being a Woman. + +The central fact of the woman's life--Nature's reason for her--is the +child, his bearing and rearing. There is no escape from the divine +order that her life must be built around this constraint, duty, or +privilege, as she may please to consider it. But from the beginning to +the end of life she is never permitted to treat it naturally and +frankly. As a child accepting all that opens to her as a matter of +course, she is steered away from it as if it were something evil. Her +first essays at evasion and spying often come to her in connection +with facts which are sacred and beautiful and which she is perfectly +willing to accept as such if they were treated intelligently and +reverently. If she could be kept from all knowledge of the procession +of new life except as Nature reveals it to her, there would be reason +in her treatment. But this is impossible. From babyhood she breathes +the atmosphere of unnatural prejudices and misconceptions which +envelop the fact. + +Throughout her girlhood the atmosphere grows thicker. She finally +faces the most perilous and beautiful of experiences with little more +than the ideas which have come to her from the confidences of +evil-minded servants, inquisitive and imaginative playmates, or the +gossip she overhears in her mother's society. Every other matter of +her life, serious and commonplace, has received careful attention, but +here she has been obliged to feel her way and, worst of abominations, +to feel it with an inner fear that she ought not to know or seek to +know. + +If there were no other reason for the modern woman's revolt against +marriage, the usual attitude toward its central facts would be +sufficient. The idea that celibacy for woman is "the aristocracy of +the future" is soundly based if the Business of Being a Woman rests on +a mystery so questionable that it cannot be frankly and truthfully +explained by a girl's mother at the moment her interest and curiosity +seeks satisfaction. That she gets on as well as she does, results, of +course, from the essential soundness of the girl's nature, the armor +of modesty, right instinct, and reverence with which she is endowed. + +The direst result of ignorance or of distorted ideas of this +tremendous matter of carrying on human life is that it leaves the girl +unconscious of the supreme importance of her mate. So heedlessly and +ignorantly is our mating done to-day that the huge machinery of Church +and State and the tremendous power of public opinion combined have +been insufficient to preserve to the institution of marriage anything +like the stability it once had, or that it is desirable that it should +have, if its full possibilities are to be realized. The immorality and +inhumanity of compelling the obviously mismated to live together, grow +on society. Divorce and separation are more and more tolerated. Yet +little is done to prevent the hasty and ill-considered mating which is +at the source of the trouble. + +Rarely has a girl a sound and informed sense to guide her in accepting +her companion. The corollary of this bad proposition is that she has +no sufficient idea of the seriousness of her undertaking. She starts +out as if on a lifelong joyous holiday, primarily devised for her +personal happiness. And what is happiness in her mind? Certainly it is +not a good to be conquered--a state of mind wrested from life by +tackling and mastering its varied experiences, the _end_, not the +beginning, of a great journey. Too often it is that of the modern +Uneasy Woman--the attainment of something _outside_ of herself. She +visualizes it, as possessions, as ease, a "good time," opportunities +for self-culture, the exclusive devotion of the mate to her. Rarely +does she understand that happiness in her undertaking depends upon the +wisdom and sense with which she conquers a succession of hard +places--calling for readjustment of her ideas and sacrifice of her +desires. All this she must discover for herself. She is like a voyager +who starts out on a great sea with no other chart than a sailor's +yarns, no other compass than curiosity. + +The budget of axioms she brings to her guidance she has picked up +helter-skelter. They are the crumbs gathered from the table of the +Uneasy Woman, or worse, of the pharisaical and satisfied woman, from +good and bad books, from newspaper exploitations of divorce and +scandal, from sly gossip with girls whose budget of marital wisdom is +as higgledy-piggledy as her own. + +And a pathetically trivial budget it is:-- + +"He must _tell_ her everything." "He must always pick up what she +drops." "He must dress for dinner." "He must remember her birthday." +That is, she begins her adventure with a set of hard-and-fast +rules,--and nothing in this life causes more mischief than the effort +to force upon another one's own rules! + +That marriage gives the finest opportunity that life affords for +practicing, not rules, but principles, she has never been taught. +Flexibility, adaptation, fair-mindedness, the habit of supplementing +the weakness of the one by the strength of the other, all the fine +things upon which the beauty, durability, and growth of human +relations depend,--these are what decide the future of her marriage. +These she misses while she insists on her rules; and ruin is often the +end. Study the causes back of divorces and separations, the brutal +criminal causes aside, and one finds that usually they begin in +trivial things,--an irritating habit or an offensive opinion persisted +in on the one side and not endured philosophically on the other; a +petty selfishness indulged on the one side and not accepted humorously +on the other,--that is, the marriage is made or unmade by small, not +great, things. + +It is a lack of any serious consideration of the nature of the +undertaking she is going into which permits her at the start to accept +a false notion of her economic position. She agrees that she is being +"supported"; she consents to accept what is given her; she even +consents to ask for money. Men and society at large take her at her +own valuation. Loose thinking by those who seek to influence public +opinion has aggravated the trouble. They start with the idea that she +is a parasite--does not pay her way. "Men hunt, fish, keep the cattle, +or raise corn," says a popular writer, "for women to eat the game, the +fish, the meat, and the corn." The inference is that the men alone +render useful service. But neither man nor woman eats of these things +until the woman has prepared them. The theory that the man who raises +corn does a more important piece of work than the woman who makes it +into bread is absurd. The theory that she does something more +difficult and less interesting is equally absurd. + +The practice of handing over the pay envelope at the end of the week +to the woman, so common among laboring people, is a recognition of her +equal economic function. It is a recognition that the venture of the +two is common and that its success depends as much on the care and +intelligence with which she spends the money as it does on the energy +and steadiness with which he earns it. Whenever one or the other +fails, trouble begins. The failure to understand this business side of +the marriage relation almost inevitably produces humiliation and +irritation. So serious has the strain become because of this false +start that various devices have been suggested to repair it--Mr. +Wells' "Paid Motherhood" is one; weekly wages as for a servant is +another. Both notions encourage the primary mistake that the woman has +not an equal economic place with the man in the marriage. + +Marriage is a business as well as a sentimental partnership. But a +business partnership brings grave practical responsibilities, and +this, under our present system, the girl is rarely trained to face. +She becomes a partner in an undertaking where her function is +spending. The probability is she does not know a credit from a debit, +has to learn to make out a check correctly, and has no conscience +about the fundamental matter of living within the allowance which can +be set aside for the family expenses. When this is true of her, she at +once puts herself into the rank of an incompetent--she becomes an +economic dependent. She has laid the foundation for becoming an Uneasy +Woman. + +It is common enough to hear women arguing that this close grappling +with household economy is narrowing, not worthy of them. Why keeping +track of the cost of eggs and butter and calculating how much your +income will allow you to buy is any more narrowing than keeping track +of the cost and quality of cotton or wool or iron and calculating how +much a mill requires, it is hard to see. It is the same kind of a +problem. Moreover, it has the added interest of being always an +independent _personal_ problem. Most men work under the deadening +effect of impersonal routine. They do that which others have planned +and for results in which they have no permanent share. + +But the woman argues that her task has no relation to the state. Her +failure to see that relation costs this country heavily. Her concern +is with retail prices. If she does her work intelligently, she +follows and studies every fluctuation of price in standards. She also +knows whether she is receiving the proper quality and quantity; and +yet so poorly have women discharged these obligations that dealers for +years have been able to manipulate prices practically to please +themselves, and as for quality and quantity we have the scandal of +American woolen goods, of food adulteration, of false weights and +measures. No one of these things could have come about in this country +if woman had taken her business as a consumer with anything like the +seriousness with which man takes his as a producer. + +Her ignorance in handling the products of industry has helped the +monopolistically inclined trust enormously. I can remember the day +when the Beef Trust invaded a certain Middle Western town. The war on +the old-time butchers of the village was open. "Buy of us," was the +order, "or we'll fill the storage house so full that the legs of the +steers will hang out of the windows, and we'll give away the meat." +The women of the town had a prosperous club which might have resisted +the tyranny which the members all deplored, but the club was busy that +winter with the study of the Greek drama! They deplored the tyranny, +but they bought the cut-rate meat--the old butchers fought to a +finish, and the housekeepers are now paying higher prices for poorer +meat and railing at the impotency of man in breaking up the Beef +Trust! + +If two years ago when the question of a higher duty on hosiery was +before Congress any woman or club of women had come forward with +carefully tabulated experiments, showing exactly the changes which +have gone on of late years in the shape, color, and wearing quality of +the 15-, 25-, and 50-cent stockings, the stockings of the poor, she +would have rendered a genuine economic service. The women held mass +meetings and prepared petitions instead, using on the one side the +information the shopkeepers furnished, on the other that which the +stocking manufacturers furnished. Agitation based upon anything but +personal knowlledge is not a public service. It may be easily a grave +public danger. The facts needed for fixing the hosiery duty the women +should have furnished, for they buy the stockings. + +If the Uneasy American Woman were really fulfilling her economic +functions to-day, she would never allow a short pound of butter, a +yard of adulterated woolen goods, to come into her home. She would +never buy a ready-made garment which did not bear the label of the +Consumer's League. She would recognize that she is a guardian of +quality, honesty, and humanity in industry. + +A persistent misconception of the nature and the possibilities of this +practical side of the Business of Being a Woman runs through all +present-day discussions of the changes in household economy. The woman +no longer has a chance to pay her way, we are told, because it is +really cheaper to buy bread than to bake it, to buy jam than to put it +up. Of course, this is a part of the vicious notion that a woman only +makes an economic return by the manual labor she does. The Uneasy +Woman takes up the point and complains that she has nothing to do. But +this release from certain kinds of labor once necessary, merely puts +upon her the obligation to apply the ingenuity and imagination +necessary to make her business meet the changes of an ever changing +world. Because the conditions under which a household must be run now +are not what they were fifty years ago is no proof that the woman no +longer has here an important field of labor. There is more to the +practical side of her business than preparing food for the family! It +means, for one thing, the directing of its wants. The success of a +household lies largely in its power of selection. To-day selection has +given way to accumulation. The family becomes too often an +incorporated company for getting things--with frightful results. The +woman holds the only strong strategic position from which to war on +this tendency, as well as on the habits of wastefulness which are +making our national life increasingly hard and ugly. She is so +positioned that she can cultivate and enforce simplicity and thrift, +the two habits which make most for elegance and for satisfaction in +the material things of life. + +Whenever a woman does master this economic side of her business in a +manner worthy of its importance, she establishes the most effective +school for teaching thrift, quality, management, selection--all the +factors in the economic problem. Such scientific household management +is the rarest kind of a training school. And here we touch the most +vital part in the Woman's Business--that of education. + +Every home is perforce a good or bad educational center. It does its +work in spite of every effort to shirk or supplement it. No teacher +can entirely undo what it does, be that good or bad. The natural +joyous opening of a child's mind depends on its first intimate +relations. These are, as a rule, with the mother. It is the mother +who "takes an interest," who oftenest decides whether the new mind +shall open frankly and fearlessly. How she does her work, depends less +upon her ability to answer questions than her effort not to discourage +them; less upon her ability to lead authoritatively into great fields +than her efforts to push the child ahead into those which attract him. +To be responsive to his interests is the woman's greatest contribution +to the child's development. + +I remember a call once made on me by two little girls when our time +was spent in an excited discussion of the parts of speech. They were +living facts to them, as real as if their discovery had been printed +that morning for the first time in the newspaper. I was interested to +find who it was that had been able to keep their minds so naturally +alive. I found that it came from the family habit of treating with +respect whatever each child turned up. Nothing was slurred over as if +it had no relation to life--not even the parts of speech! They were +not asked or forced to load themselves up with baggage in which they +soon discovered their parents had no interest. Everything was treated +as if it had a permanent place in the scheme to which they were being +introduced. It is only in some such relation that the natural bent of +most children can flower, that they can come early to themselves. +Where this warming, nourishing intimacy is wanting, where the child is +turned over to schools to be put through the mass drill which numbers +make imperative--it is impossible for the most intelligent teacher to +do a great deal to help the child to his own. What the Uneasy Woman +forgets is that no two children born were ever alike, and no two +children who grow to manhood and womanhood will ever live the same +life. The effort to make one child like another, to make him what his +parents want, not what he is born to be, is one of the most cruel and +wasteful in society. It is the woman's business to prevent this. + +The Uneasy Woman tells you that this close attention to the child is +too confining, too narrowing. "I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness +of her task," says Chesterton; "I will never pity her for its +smallness." A woman never lived who did all she might have done to +open the mind of her child for its great adventure. It is an +exhaustless task. The woman who sees it knows she has need of all the +education the college can give, all the experience and culture she can +gather. She knows that the fuller her individual life, the broader her +interests, the better for the child. She should be a person in his +eyes. The real service of the "higher education," the freedom to take +a part in whatever interests or stimulates her--lies in the fact that +it fits her intellectually to be a companion worthy of a child. She +should know that unless she does this thing for him he goes forth with +his mind still in swaddling clothes, with the chances that it will not +be released until relentless life tears off the bands. + +The progress of society depends upon getting out of men and women an +increasing amount of the powers with which they are born and which bad +surroundings at the start blunt or stupefy. This is what all systems +of education try to do, but the result of all systems of education +depends upon the material that comes to the educator. Opening the mind +of the child, that is the delicate task the state asks of the mother, +and the quality of the future state depends upon the way she +discharges this part of her business. + +I think it is historically correct to say that the reason of the +sudden and revolutionary change in the education of American women, +which began with the nineteenth century and continued through it, was +the realization that if we were to make real democrats, we must begin +with the child, and if we began with the child, we must begin with the +mother! + +Everybody saw that unless the child learned by example and precept the +great principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity, he was going to +remain what by nature we all are,--imperious, demanding, and +self-seeking. The whole scheme must fail if his education failed. It +is not too much to say that the success of the Declaration of +Independence and the Constitution depended, in the minds of certain +early Democrats, upon the woman. The doctrines of these great +instruments would be worked out according to the way she played her +part. Her serious responsibility came in the fact that her work was +one that nobody could take off her hands. This responsibility required +a preparation entirely different from that which had been hers. She +must be given education and liberty. The woman saw this, and the story +of her efforts to secure both, that she might meet the requirements, +is one of the noblest in history. There was no doubt, then, as to the +value of the tasks, no question as to their being worthy national +obligations. It was a question of fitting herself for them. + +But what has happened? In the process of preparing herself to +discharge more adequately her task as a woman in a republic, her +respect for the task has been weakened. In this process, which we call +emancipation, she has in a sense lost sight of the purposes of +emancipation. Interested in acquiring new tools, she has come to +believe the tools more important than the thing for which she was to +use them. She has found out that with education and freedom, pursuits +of all sorts are open to her, and by following these pursuits she can +preserve her personal liberty, avoid the grave responsibility, the +almost inevitable sorrows and anxieties, which belong to family life. +She can choose her friends and change them. She can travel, and +gratify her tastes, satisfy her personal ambitions. The snare has been +too great; the beauty and joy of free individual life have dulled the +sober sense of national obligation. The result is that she is +frequently failing to discharge satisfactorily some of the most +imperative demands the nation makes upon her. + +Take as an illustration the moral training of the child. The most +essential obligation in a Woman's Business is establishing her +household on a sound moral basis. If a child is anchored to basic +principles, it is because his home is built on them. If he understands +integrity as a man, it is usually because a woman has done her work +well. If she has not done it well, it is probable that he will be a +disturbance and a menace when he is turned over to society. Sending +defective steel to a gunmaker is no more certain to result in unsafe +guns than turning out boys who are shifty and tricky is to result in a +corrupt and unhappy community. + +Appalled by the seriousness of the task, or lured from it by the joys +of liberty and education, the woman has too generally shifted it to +other shoulders--shoulders which were waiting to help her work out the +problem, but which could never be a substitute. She has turned over +the child to the teacher, secular and religious, and fancied that he +might be made a man of integrity by an elaborate system of teaching in +a mass. Has this shifting of responsibility no relation to the general +lowering of our commercial and political morality? + +For years we have been bombarded with evidence of an appalling +indifference to the moral quality of our commercial and political +transactions. It is not too much to say that the revelations of +corruption in our American cities, the use of town councils, State +legislatures, and even of the Federal Government in the interests of +private business, have discredited the democratic system throughout +the world. It has given more material for those of other lands who +despise democracy to sneer at us than anything that has yet happened +in this land. And _this has come about under the regime of the +emancipated woman_. Is she in no way responsible for it? If she had +kept the early ideals of the woman's part in democracy as clearly +before her eyes as she has kept some of her personal wants and needs, +could there have been so disastrous a condition? Would she be the +Uneasy Woman she is if she had kept faith with the ideals that forced +her emancipation?--if she had not substituted for them dreams of +personal ambition, happiness, and freedom! + +The failure to fulfill your function in the scheme under which you +live always produces unrest. Content of mind is usually in proportion +to the service one renders in an undertaking he believes worth while. +If our Uneasy Woman could grasp the full meaning of her place in this +democracy, a place so essential that democracy must be overthrown +unless she rises to it--a part which man is not equipped to play and +which he ought not to be asked to play, would she not cease to +apologize for herself--cease to look with envy on man's occupations? +Would she not rise to her part and we not have at last the "new woman" +of whom we have talked so long? + +Learning, business careers, political and industrial activities--none +of these things is more than incidental in the national task of woman. +Her great task is to prepare the citizen. The citizen is not prepared +by a training in practical politics. Something more fundamental is +required. The meaning of honor and of the sanctity of one's word, the +understanding of the principles of democracy and of the society in +which we live, the love of humanity, and the desire to serve,--these +are what make a good citizen. The tools for preparing herself to give +this training are in the woman's hands. It calls for education, and +the nation has provided it. It calls for freedom of movement and +expression, and she has them. It calls for ability to organize, to +discuss problems, to work for whatever changes are essential. She is +developing this ability. It may be that it calls for the vote. I do +not myself see this, but it is certain that she will have the vote as +soon as not a majority, but an approximate half, not of men--but of +women--feel the need of it. + +What she has partially at least lost sight of is that education, +freedom, organization, agitation, the suffrage, are but tools to an +end. What she now needs is to formulate that end so nobly and clearly +that the most ignorant woman may understand it. The failure to do +this is leading her deeper and deeper into fruitless unrest. It is +also dulling her sense of the necessity of keeping her business +abreast with the times. At one particular and vital point this shows +painfully, and that is her slowness in socializing her home. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE SOCIALIZATION OF THE HOME + + +It is only by much junketing about that one comes to the full +realization of what men and women in the main are doing in this +country. One learns as he passes from town to town, through cities and +across plains, that the general reason for industry everywhere is to +get the means to build and support a home. Row upon row, street upon +street, they run in every village you traverse. They dot the hills and +valleys, they break up the mountain side. + +Every night they draw to their shelter millions of men who have toiled +since morning to earn the money to build and keep them running. All +day they shelter millions of women who toil from dawn to dark to put +meaning into them. To shelter two people and the children that come to +them, to provide them a place in which to eat and sleep, is that the +only function of these homes? If that were all, few homes would be +built. When that becomes all, the home is no more! To furnish a body +for a soul, that is the physical function of the home. + +There are certain people who cry out that for a woman this undertaking +has no meaning--that for her it is a cook stove and a dustpan, a +childbed, and a man who regards her as his servant. One might with +equal justice say that for the man it is made up of ten, twelve, or +more hours, at the plow, the engine, the counter, or the pen for the +sake of supporting a woman and children whom he rarely sees! +Unhappily, there are such combinations; they are not homes! They are +deplorable failures of people who have tried to make homes. To insist +that they are anything else is to overlook the facts of life, to doubt +the sanity of mankind which hopefully and courageously goes on +building, building, building, sacrificing, binding itself forever and +ever to what?--a shell? No, to the institution which its observation +and experience tell it, is the one out of which men and women have +gotten the most hope, dignity, and joy,--the place through which, +whatever its failures and illusions, they get the fullest development +and the opportunity to render the most useful social service. + +It is this grounded conviction that the home takes first rank among +social institutions which gives its tremendous seriousness to the +Business of Being a Woman. She is the one who must sit always at its +center, the one who holds a strategic position for dealing directly +with its problems. Far from these problems being purely of a menial +nature, as some would have us believe, they are of the most delicate +social and spiritual import. A woman in reality is at the head of a +social laboratory where all the problems are of primary, not +secondary, importance, since they all deal directly with human life. + +One of the most illuminating experiences of travel is visiting the +great chateaux of France. One goes to see "historical monuments," the +scenes of strange and tragic human experiences; he finds he is in +somebody's private house, which by order of the government is opened +to the public one day of the week! He probably will not realize this +fully unless he suddenly opens a door, not intended to be opened, +behind which he finds a mass of children's toys--go-carts and dolls, +balls and tennis rackets--or stumbles into a room supposed to be +locked where framed photographs, sofa cushions, and sewing tables +abound! + +To the average American it comes almost as a shock that these open +homes are the _logic of democracy_. It is almost sure to set him +thinking that after all the home, anybody's home, even one in such big +contrast to this chateau as a two-story frame house, on Avenue A, in +B-ville, has a relation to the public. He has touched a great social +truth. + +To socialize her home, that is the high undertaking a woman has on her +hands if she is to get at the heart of her Business. And what do we +mean by socialization? Is it other than to put the stamp of +affectionate, intelligent human interest upon all the operations and +the intercourse of the center she directs? To make a place in which +the various members can live freely and draw to themselves those with +whom they are sympathetic--a place in which there is spiritual and +intellectual room for all to grow and be happy each in his own way? + +I doubt if there is any problem in the Woman's Business which requires +a higher grade of intelligence, and certainly none that requires +broader sympathies, than this of giving to her home that quality of +stimulation and joyousness which makes young and old seek it gladly +and freely. + +To do this requires money, freedom, time, and strength? No, what I +mean does not depend upon these things. It is the notion that it does +that often prevents its growth. For it is a spirit, an attitude of +mind, and not a formula or a piece of machinery. As far as my +observation goes it is quite, if not more likely, to be found in a +three-room apartment, where a family is living on fifteen dollars a +week, as in an East Central Park mansion! In these little families +where love prevails--it usually does exist. It is the kind of an +atmosphere in which a man prefers to smoke his pipe rather than go to +the saloon; where the girl brings her young man home rather than walk +with him. Mutual interest and affection is its note. Such homes do +exist by the tens of thousands; even in New York City. It is not from +them that girls go to brothels or boys to the Tombs. + +Externally, these homes are often pretty bad to look at--overcrowded, +disorderly, and noisy. Cleanliness, order, and space are good things, +but it is a mistake to think that there is no virtue without them. +There are more primary and essential things; things to which they +should be added, but without which they are lifeless virtues. In one +of Miss Loane's reports on the life of the English poor, she makes +these truthful observations:-- + + One learns to understand how it is that the dirty, untidy young + wife, who, when her husband returns hungry and tired from a long + day's work, holds up a smilingly assured face to be kissed, + exclaiming, "Gracious! if I hadn't forgot all about your tea!" and + clatters together an extravagant and ill-chosen meal while she + pours out a stream of cheerful and inconsequent chatter, is more + loved, and dealt with more patiently, tenderly, and faithfully, + than her clean and frugal neighbor, who has prepared a meal that + ought to turn the author of Twenty Satisfying Suppers for Sixpence + green with envy, but who expects her husband to be eternally + grateful because "he could eat his dinner off the boards,"--when + all that the poor man asks is to be allowed to walk over them + unreproached. + +Peace and good will may go with disorder and carelessness! They may +fly order and thrift. They will fly them when order and thrift are +held as the more desirable. A woman is often slow to learn that good +housekeeping alone cannot produce a milieu in which family happiness +thrives and to which people naturally gravitate. She looks at it as +the fulfillment of the law--the end of her Business. It is the +exaggerated place she gives it in the scheme of things, which brings +disaster to her happiness and gives substance to the argument that +woman's lot in life is fatal to her development. Housekeeping is only +the shell of a Woman's Business. Women lose themselves in it as men +lose themselves in shopkeeping, farming, editing. Knowing nothing but +your work is one of the commonest human mistakes. Pitifully enough it +is often a deliberate mistake--the only way or the easiest way one +finds to quiet an unsatisfied heart. The undue place given good +housekeeping in many a woman's scheme of life is the more tragic +because it is a distortion of one of the finest things in the human +experience--the satisfaction of doing a thing well. It is a +satisfaction which the worker must have if he is to get joy from his +labor. But labor is not for the sake of itself. It must have its human +reason. You rejoice in a "deep-driven plow"--but if there was to be no +harvest, your straight, full furrows would be little comfort. You +rejoice to build a stanch and beautiful house, but if you knew it was +to stand forever vacant, joy would go from your task. An end work must +have. One does not keep house for its own sake. It is absorption in +the process--the refusal to allow it to be forgotten or utilized +freely, that makes the work barren. It is like becoming so absorbed in +a beautiful frame that you are unconscious of the picture--unconscious +that there is a picture. Things must serve their purpose if they are +to convince of their beauty. Try living in a room with a wonderfully +fitted fireplace; its mantel of exquisite design and workmanship, its +fire irons masterpieces of art--and no heat from it! Note how utterly +distasteful it all becomes. It is no longer beautiful because it does +not do the work it was made beautiful to do. + +One of the most repellent houses in which I have ever visited was one +in which there was, from garret to cellar, so far as I discovered, not +one article which was not of the period imitated, not one streak of +color which was not "right." It was a masterpiece of correct +furnishing, but it gave one a curious sense of limitation. One could +not escape the scheme. The inelasticity of it hampered sociability--and +there grew on one, too, a sense of unfitness. His clothes were an +anachronism! They were the only thing which did not belong! + +There is an old-fashioned adjective which describes better than any +other this preoccupation with things, which so often prevents a +woman's coming to an understanding of the heart of her Business. It is +_old maidish_. It has often been the pathetic fate of single women to +live alone. To minister to themselves becomes their occupation. The +force of their natures turns to their belongings. If in straitened +circumstances they give their souls to spotless floors; if rich, to +flawless mahogany and china, to perfect household machinery. Wherever +you find in woman this perversion--old maidish is perhaps the most +accurate word for her--it is a sacrifice of the human to the material. +A house without sweet human litter, without the trace of many varying +tastes and occupations, without the trail of friends who perhaps have +no sense of beauty but who love to give, without the scars of use, +and the dust of running feet--what is it but a meatless shell! + +This devotion to "things" may easily become a ghoulish passion. It is +such that Ibsen hints at in the _Master Builder_, when he makes Aline +Solness attribute her perpetual black, her somber eyes and smileless +lips, not to the death of her two little boys which has come about +through the burning of her home, _that_ was a "dispensation of +Providence" to which she "bows in submission," but to the destruction +of the _things_ which were "mine"--"All the old portraits were burnt +upon the walls, and all the old silk dresses were burnt that had +belonged to the family for generations and generations. And all +mother's and grandmother's lace--that was burnt, too, and only think, +the jewels too." + +One of the most disastrous effects of this preocccupation with the +things and the labors of the household is the killing of conversation. +There is perhaps no more general weakness in the average American +family than glumness! The silent newspaper-reading father, the worried +watchful mother, the surly boy, the fretful girl, these are characters +typical in both town and country. In one of Mrs. Daskam Bacon's lively +tales, "Ardelia in Arcadia," the little heroine is transplanted from a +lively, chattering, sweltering New York street to the maddening +silence of an overworked farmer's table. She stands it as long as she +can, then cries out, "For Gawd's sake, _talk_!" + +One secret of the attraction for the young of the city over the +country or small town is contact with those who talk. They are +conscious of the exercise of a freedom they have never known--the +freedom to say what rises to the lips. They experience the unknown joy +of play of mind. According to their observation the tongue and mind +are used only when needed for serious service: to keep them active, to +allow them to perform whatever nimble feats their owners fancy--this +is a revelation! + +Free family talk is sometimes ruined by a mistaken effort to direct it +according to some artificial notions of what conversation means. +Conversation means free giving of what is uppermost in the mind. The +more spontaneous it is the more interesting and genuine it is. It is +this freedom which gives to the talk of the child its surprises and +often its startling power to set one thinking. Holding talk to some +severe standard of consistency, dignity, or subject is sure to stiffen +and hamper it. There could have been nothing very free or joyful +about talking according to a program as the ladies of the +eighteenth-century salons were more or less inclined. Good +conversation runs like water; nothing is foreign to it. "Farming is +such an unintellectual subject," I heard a critical young woman say to +her husband, whose tastes were bucolic. The young woman did not +realize that one of the masterpieces of the greatest of the world's +writers was on farming--most practical farming, too! That which +relates to the life of each, interests each, concerns each--that is +the material for conversation, if it is to be enjoyable or productive. + +One of a woman's real difficulties in creating a free-speaking +household is her natural tendency to regard opinions as personal. To +differ is something she finds it difficult to tolerate. To her mind it +is to be unfriendly. This propensity to give a personal turn to +things is an expression of that intensity of nature which makes her, +as Mr. Kipling has truthfully put it, "more deadly than the male!" She +_must_ be that--were she not, the race would dwindle. _He_ would never +sacrifice himself as she does for the preservation of the young! This +necessity of concentrating her whole being on a little group makes her +personal. The wise woman is she who recognizes that like all great +forces this, too, has its weakness. Because a woman must be "more +deadly than the male" in watching her offspring is no reason she +should be so in guarding an opinion. Certainly if she is so, +conversation is cut off at the root. + +Not infrequently she is loath to encourage free expression because it +seems to her to disturb the peace. Certainly it does disturb fixity of +views. It does prevent things becoming settled in the way that the +woman, as a rule, loves to have them, but this disturbance prevents +the rigid intellectual and spiritual atmosphere which often drives the +young from home. Peace which comes from submission and restraint is a +poor thing. In the long run it turns to revolt. The woman, if she +examines her own soul, knows the effect upon it of habitual submission +to a husband's opinion. She knows it is a habit fatal to her own +development. While at the beginning she may have been willing enough +to sacrifice her ideas, later she makes the painful discovery that +this hostage to love, as she considered it, has only made her less +interesting, less important, both to herself and to him. It has made +it the more difficult, also, to work out that socialization of her +home which, as her children grow older, she realizes, if she thinks, +is one of her most imperative duties. + +A woman is very prone to look on marriage as a merger of +personalities, but there can be no great union where an individuality +permits itself to be ruined. The notion that a woman's happiness +depends on the man--that he must "make her happy"--is a basic untruth. +Life is an individual problem, and consequently happiness must be. +Others may hamper it, but in the final summing up it is you, not +another, who gives or takes it--no two people can work out a high +relation if the precious inner self of either is sacrificed. + +Emerson has said the great word:-- + + Leave all for love; + _Yet, hear me, yet, + Keep thee to-day, + To-morrow, forever, + Free as an Arab! + Of thy beloved_. + +The "open house," that is, the socialized house, depends upon this +free mind to a degree only second to that spirit of "good will to +man," upon which it certainly must, like all institutions in a +democratic Christian nation, be based. This good will is only another +name for neighborliness--the spirit of friendly recognition of all +those who come within one's radius. Neighborliness is based upon the +Christian and democratic proposition that all men are brothers--a +proposition with which the sects and parties of Christianity and +democracy often play havoc. In their zeal for an interpretation or +system they sacrifice the very things they were devised to perpetuate +and extend among men. A sectarian or partisan household cannot be a +genuinely neighborly household. It has cut off too large a part of its +source of supply. + +The most perfect type of this spirit of neighborliness which we have +worked out in this country, outside of the thousands of little homes +where it exists and of which, in the nature of the case, only those +who have felt their influence can know, is undoubtedly Hull House, the +Chicago Settlement under the direction of Jane Addams. Hull House is +an "open house" for its neighborhood. It is a place where men and +women of all ages, conditions, and points of view are welcome. So far +as I have been able to discover, genuine freedom of mind and +friendliness of spirit are what have made Hull House possible and are +what will decide its future after the day of the great woman who has +mothered it and about whom it revolves. There is no formula for +building a Hull House--any more than there is a home. Both are the +florescence of a spirit and a mind. Each will form itself according to +the ideas, the tastes, and the cultivation of the individuality at +its center. Its activities will follow the peculiar needs which she +has the brains and heart to discover, the ingenuity and energy to +meet. + +Hull House serves its neighborhood, and in so doing it serves most +fully its own household. Its own members are the ones whose minds get +the most illumination from its activities. Moreover, Hull House from +its first-hand sympathetic dealing with men and women in its +neighborhood learns the needs of the neighborhood. It is and for years +has been a constant source of suggestion and of agitation for the +betterment of the conditions under which its neighbors--and indirectly +the whole city, even nation--live and work. Health, mind, morals, all +are in its care. It is practical in the plans it offers. It can back +up its demands with knowledge founded on actual contact. It can rally +all of the enlightened and decent forces of the city to its help. Hull +House, indeed, is a very source of pure life in the great city where +it belongs. + +So far as attitude of mind and spirit go, the home should be to the +little neighborhood in which it works what Hull House is to its great +field. In its essential structure it is the same thing; _i.e._ Hull +House is really modeled after the home. Most interesting is the +parallel between its organization and its activities and those of many +a great home which we know through the lives of their mistresses, that +of Margaret Winthrop, of Eliza Pinckney, of Mrs. John Adams. + +The social significance of Hull House is in its relative degree the +possible social significance of every home in this land. The +realization depends entirely upon the conception the woman in a +particular house has of this side of her Business--whether or no she +sees neighborliness in this big sense. That she does not see it is too +often due to the fact that even though she may have "gone through +college," she has no notion of society as a living structure made up +of various interdependent institutions, the first and foremost of +which is a family or home. + +Absurd as it is, Society, which is founded on the family, is to-day +giving only perfunctory and half-hearted attention to the family. The +whole vocabulary of the institution has taken on such a quality of +cant, that one almost hesitates to use the words "home" and "mother"! +A girl's education should contain at least as much serious instruction +on the relation of the family to Society as it does on the relation of +the Carboniferous Age to the making of the globe. At present, it +usually has less. It is but another evidence of the pressing need +there is of giving to the Woman's Business a more scientific +treatment--of revitalizing its vocabulary, reformulating its problems, +of giving it the dignity it deserves, that of a great profession. It +is the failure to do this which is at the bottom of woman's present +disorderly and antisocial handling of three of the leading occupations +of her life--her clothes, her domestics, and her daughter. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A WOMAN AND HER RAIMENT + + +One of the most domineering impulses in men and women is that bidding +them to make themselves beautiful. In the normal girl-child it comes +out, as does her craving for a doll. Nature is telling her what her +work in the world is to be. It stays with her to the end, its flame +often flickering long after her arms have ceased their desire to +cradle a child. Scorn it, ridicule it, deny it, it is nature's will, +and as such must be obeyed, and in the obeying should be honored. + +But this instinct, which has led men and women from strings of shells +to modern clothes, like every other human instinct, has its +distortions. It is in the failure to see the relative importance of +things, to keep the proportions, that human beings lose control of +their endowment. Give an instinct an inch, and it invariably takes its +ell! The instinct for clothes, from which we have learned so much in +our climb from savagery, has more than once had the upper hand of us. +So dangerous to the prosperity and the seriousness of peoples has its +tyranny been, that laws have again and again been passed to check it; +punishments have been devised to frighten off men from indulging it; +whole classes have been put into dull and formless costumes to crucify +it. + +Man gradually and in the main has conquered his passion for ornament. +To-day, in the leading nations of the world, he clothes rather than +arrays himself. Woman has not harnessed the instinct. She still allows +it to drive her, and often to her own grave prejudice. Even in a +democracy like our own, woman has not been able to master this problem +of clothes. In fact, democracy has complicated the problem seriously. + +Under the old regime costumes had been worked out for the various +classes. They were adapted both to the purse and to the pursuit. They +were fitting--that is, silk was not worn in huts or homespun in +palaces; slippers were for carriages and _sabots_ for streets. The +garments of a class were founded on good sound principles on the +whole--but they marked the class. Democracy sought to destroy outward +distinctions. The proscribed costumes went into the pot with +proscribed positions. Under democracy we can cook in silk petticoats +and go to the White House in a cap and apron, if we will. And we often +will, that being a way to advertise our equality! + +Class costumes destroyed, the principles back of them, that is, +fitness, quality, responsibility, were forgotten. The old instinct for +ornament broke loose. Its tyranny was strengthened by the eternal +desire of the individual to prove himself superior to his fellows. +Wealth is the generally accepted standard of measurement of value in +this country to-day, and there is no way in which the average man can +show wealth so clearly as in encouraging his women folk to array +themselves. Thus we have the anomaly in a democracy of a primitive +instinct let loose, and the adoption of discarded aristocratic devices +for proving you are better than your neighbor, at least in the one +revered particular of having more money to spend! + +The complication of the woman's life by this domination of clothes is +extremely serious. In many cases it becomes not one of the sides of +her business, but _the_ business of her life. Such undue proportion +has the matter taken in the American Woman's life under democracy that +one is sometimes inclined to wonder if it is not the real "woman +question." Certainly in numbers of cases it is the rock upon which a +family's happiness splits. The point is not at all that women should +not occupy themselves seriously with dress, that they should not look +on it as an art, as legitimate as any other. The difficulty comes in +not mastering the art, in the entirely disproportionate amount of +attention which is given to the subject, in the disregard of sound +principles. + +The economic side of the matter presses hard on the whole country. It +is not too much to say that the chief economic concern of a great body +of women is how to get money to dress, not as they should, but as they +want to. It is to get money for clothes that drives many, though of +course not the majority, of girls, into shops, factories, and offices. +It is because they are using all they earn on themselves that they are +able to make the brave showing that they do. Many a girl is misjudged +by the well-meaning observer or investigator because of this +fact--"She could never dress like that on $6, $8, or $15 a week and +support herself," they tell you. She does not support herself. She +works for clothes, and clothes alone. Moreover, the girl who has the +pluck to do hard regular work that she may dress better has interest +enough to work at night to make her earnings go farther. No one who +has been thrown much with office girls but knows case after case of +girls who with the aid of some older member of the family cut and make +their gowns, plan and trim their hats. Moreover, this relieving the +family budget of dressing the girl is a boon to fathers and mothers. + +It is hard on industry, however, for the wage earner who can afford to +take $6 or $8 helps pull down the wages of other thousands who support +not only themselves, but others. + +Moreover, to put in one's days in hard labor simply to dress well, for +that is the amount of it, is demoralizing. It is this emphasis on the +matter which impels a reckless girl sometimes to sell herself for +money to buy clothes. "I wanted the money," I heard a girl, arrested +for her first street soliciting, tell the judge. "Had you no home?" +"Yes." "A good home?" "Yes." "For what did you want money?" "Clothes." + +"Gee, but I felt as if I would give anything for one of them willow +plumes," a pretty sixteen-year-old girl told the police matron who had +rescued her from a man with whom she had left home, because he +promised her silk gowns and hats with feathers. + +This ugly preoccupation with dress does not begin with the bottom of +society. It exists there because it exists at the top and filters +down. In each successive layer there are women to whom dress is as +much of a vice as it was for the poor little girls I quote above. It +is a vice curiously parallel to that of gambling among men. Women of +great wealth not infrequently spend princely allowances and then run +accounts which come into the courts by their inability or +unwillingness to pay them. It is curious comment on women in a +democracy that it should be possible to mention them in the same +breath with Josephine, Empress of the French. Napoleon at the +beginning of the Empire allowed Josephine $72,000 a year for her +toilet; later he made it $90,000. But there was never a year she did +not far outstrip the allowance. Masson declares that on an average she +spent $220,000 a year, and the itemized accounts of the articles in +her wardrobe give authority for the amount. + +Josephine's case is of course exceptional in history. She was an +untrained woman, generous and pleasure-loving, utterly without a sense +of responsibility. She had all the instincts and habits of a +demi-mondaine; moreover, she had been thrust into a position where she +was expected to live up to traditions of great magnificence. Her +passion for ornament had every temptation and excuse, for it was +constantly excited by the hoards of greedy tradesmen and of no less +greedy ladies-in-waiting who hung about her urging her to buy and +give. It is hard to believe that Josephine's case could be even +remotely suggested in our democracy; yet one woman in American +society bought last summer in Europe a half-dozen nightgowns for which +she paid a thousand dollars apiece. There are women who will start on +a journey with a hundred or a hundred and fifty pairs of shoes. There +are others who bring back from Europe forty or fifty new gowns for a +season! What can one think of a bill of $500 for stockings in one +season, of $20,000 for a season's gowns, coats and hats from one shop +and as much more in the aggregate for the same articles in the same +period from other shops; this showing was made in a recent divorce +case. + +What can one think of duties of over $30,000 paid on personal articles +by one woman who yearly brings back similar quantities of jewelry and +clothes. This $30,000 in duties meant an expenditure of probably about +$100,000. It included over $1200 for hats, over $3000 for corsets and +lingerie. This was undoubtedly exceptional; that is, few women of even +great wealth buy so lavishly. Yet good round sums, even if they are +small in comparison, are spent by many women in their European +outings. They will bring from six to twelve gowns which will average +at least $150 apiece, and an occasional woman will have a half-dozen +averaging from $450 to $500 apiece. One might say that eight to twelve +hats, costing $25 to $50 apiece, was a fair average, though $800 to +$1200 worth is not so rare as to cause a panic at the customhouse. + +The comparative amounts which men and women spend affords an +interesting comment on the relative importance which men and women +attach to clothes. In one case of which I happen to know Mr. A. +brought in $840 worth of wearing apparel: Mrs. A. nearly $10,000 +worth, of which $7000 was for gowns. A man may have eight to ten suits +of pajamas which cost him $10 apiece, a dozen or two waistcoats, a +dozen or two shirts, a few dozen handkerchiefs and gloves, a dozen or +so ties, eight or ten suits of clothes, but from $500 to $1000 will +cover his wardrobe; his wife will often spend as much for hats alone +as he does for an entire outfit! + +The difficulty in these great expenditures is that they set a pace. To +many women of wealth they are no doubt revolting. They recognize that +there are only two classes of women who can justify them--the actress +and the demi-mondaine. Yet insensibly many of these women yield to the +pressure of temptation. The influence is subtle, often unconscious, +and for this reason spreads the more widely. Women all over the +country find that the pressure is to spend more for clothes each year. +The standard changes. Occasions multiply. Fantasies entice. Before +they know it their clothes are costing them a disproportionate +sum--more than they can afford if their budget is to balance. + +This does not apply to one class, it creeps steadily down to the very +poor. Investigators of small household budgets lay it down as a rule +that as the income increases the percentage spent for clothing +increases more rapidly than for any other item. It is true in the +professional classes, and especially burdensome there; for the income +is usually small, but the social demand great. + +There are certain industrial and ethical results from this +preoccupation with clothes which should not be overlooked, +particularly the indifference to quality which it has engendered. The +very heart of the question of clothes of the American woman is +imitation. That is, we are not engaged in an effort to work out +individuality. We are not engaged in an effort to find costumes which +by their expression of the taste and the spirit of this people can be +fixed upon as appropriate American costumes, something of our own. +From top to bottom we are copying. The woman of wealth goes to Paris +and Vienna for the real masterpieces in a season's wardrobe. The great +dressmakers and milliners go to the same cities for their models. +Those who cannot go abroad to seek inspiration and ideas copy those +who have gone or the fashion plates they import. The French or +Viennese mode, started on upper Fifth Avenue, spreads to 23d St., from +23d St. to 14th St., from 14th St. to Grand and Canal. Each move sees +it reproduced in materials a little less elegant and durable, its +colors a trifle vulgarized, its ornaments cheapened, its laces poorer. +By the time it reaches Grand Street the $400 gown in brocaded velvet +from the best looms in Europe has become a cotton velvet from Lawrence +or Fall River, decorated with mercerized lace and glass ornaments from +Rhode Island! A travesty--and yet a recognizable travesty. The East +Side hovers over it as Fifth Avenue has done over the original. The +very shop window, where it is displayed, is dressed and painted and +lighted in imitation of the uptown shop. The same process goes on +inland. This same gown will travel its downward path from New York +westward, until the Grand St. creation arrives in some cheap and gay +mining or factory town. From start to finish it is imitation, and on +this imitation vast industries are built--imitations of silk, of +velvet, of lace, of jewels. + +These imitations, cheap as they are, are a far greater extravagance, +for their buyers, than the original model was for its buyer, for the +latter came from that class where money does not count--while the +former is of a class where every penny counts. The pity of it is that +the young girls, who put all that they earn into elaborate lingerie at +seventy-nine cents a set (the original model probably sold at $50 or +$100), into open-work hose at twenty-five cents a pair (the original +$10 a pair), into willow plumes at $1.19 (the original sold at $50), +never have a durable or suitable garment. They are bravely ornamented, +but never properly clothed. Moreover, they are brave but for a day. +Their purchases have no goodness in them; they tear, grow rusty, fall +to pieces with the first few wearings, and the poor little victims are +shabby and bedraggled often before they have paid for their +belongings, for many of these things are bought on the installment +plan, particularly hats and gowns. Under these circumstances, it is +little wonder that one hears, often and often among their class, the +bitter cry, "Gee, but it's hell to be poor!"--that one finds so often +assigned by a girl as the cause of her downfall, the natural +reason--"Wanted to dress like other girls"--"Wanted pretty clothes." + +This habit of buying poor imitations does not end in the girl's life +with her clothes. When she marries, she carries it into her home. +Decoration, not furnishing, is the keynote of all she touches. It is +she who is the best patron of the elaborate and monstrous cheap +furniture, rugs, draperies, crockery, bric-a-brac, which fill the +shops of the cheaper quarters of the great cities, and usually all +quarters of the newer inland towns. + +Has all this no relation to national prosperity--to the cost of +living? The effect on the victim's personal budget is clear--the +effect it has on the family budget, which it dominates, is clear. In +both cases nothing of permanent value is acquired. The good linen +undergarments, the "all wool" gown, the broadcloth cape or coat, those +standard garments which the thrifty once acquired and cherished, only +awaken the mirth of the pretty little spendthrift on $8 a week. Solid +pieces of furniture such as often dignify even the huts of European +peasants and are passed down from mother to daughter for +generations--are objects of contempt by the younger generation here. +Even the daughters of good old New England farmers are found to-day +glad to exchange mahogany for quartered oak and English pewter for +pressed glass and stamped crockery. True, another generation may come +in and buy it all back at fabulous prices, but the waste of it! + +This production of shoddy cloth, cotton laces, cheap furniture, what +is it but waste! Waste of labor and material! Time and money and +strength which might have been turned to producing things of permanent +values, have been spent in things which have no goodness in them, +things which because of their lack of integrity and soundness must be +forever duplicated, instead of freeing industry to go ahead, producing +other good and permanent things. + +What it all amounts to is that the instinct for ornament has gotten +the upper hand of a great body of American women. We have failed so +far to develop standards of taste, fitness, and quality, strong, sure, +and good enough effectually to impose themselves. There is no +national taste in dress; there is only admirable skill in adapting +fashions made in other countries. There is no national sense of +restraint and proportion. It is pretty generally agreed that getting +all you can is entirely justifiable. There is no national sense of +quality; even the rich to-day in this country wear imitation laces. +The effect of all this is a bewildering restlessness in costume--a +sheeplike willingness to follow to the extreme the grotesque and the +fantastic. The very general adoption of the ugly and meaningless +fashions of the last few years--peach-basket hats, hobble skirts, +slippers for the street--is a case in point. From every side this is +bad--defeating its own purpose--corrupting national taste and wasting +national substance. + +Moreover, the false standard it sets up socially is intolerable. It +sounds fantastic to say that whole bodies of women place their chief +reliance for social advancement on dress, but it is true. They are, or +are not, as they are gowned! The worst of this fantasy is not only +that it forces too much attention from useful women, but that it gives +such poise and assurance to the ignorant and useless! If you look like +the women of a set, you are as "good" as they, is the democratic +standard of many a young woman. If for any reason she is not able to +produce this effect, she shrinks from contact, whatever her talent or +charm! And she is often not altogether wrong in thinking she will not +be welcome if her dress is not that of the circle to which she +aspires. Many a woman indifferently gowned has been made to feel her +difference from the elegant she found herself among. If she is sure of +herself and has a sense of humor, this may be an amusing experience. +To many, however, it is an embittering one! + +Now these observations are not presented as discoveries! They were +true, at least, as far back as the Greeks. In fact, there is nothing +in the so-called woman's movement, which in its essence did not exist +then. The stream of human aspirations, with its stretches of wisdom +and of folly, has flowed steadily through the ages, and on its +troubled surface men and women have always struggled together as they +are struggling to-day. These little comments simply seem to the writer +worth making because for the moment the truths behind them are not +getting as much attention as they deserve. Certainly the tyranny dress +exercises over the woman in this American democracy is an old enough +theme. Indeed, it has always formed a part of her program of +emancipation. Out of her revolt against its absurdities has come the +most definite development in American costume which we have had, and +that is the sensible street costume, which in spite of efforts to +distort and displace it, a woman still may wear without +differentiating herself from her fellows. + +The short skirt and jacket, the shirt waist and stout boots, a woman +is allowed to-day, are among the good things which the Woman's Rights +movement of the 40's and 50's helped secure for us. When those able +leaders made their attack on man, demanding that the world in which he +moved be opened to them, they were quick enough to see that if they +succeeded in their undertaking they would be hampered by their +clothes. They revolted! True, they did not voice this revolt in their +historic list of "injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward +woman." They did not say, "He has compelled her to hamper herself +with skirts and stays, to decorate her head with rats and puffs, to +paint her face with poisonous compounds, to walk the street in +footwear which is neither suitable nor comfortable!" + +This statement, however, would have had the same quality of truth as +several which were included in the "List of Grievances"; the same as +the declaration: "He has compelled her to submit to laws in the +formation of which she has had no voice," or, "He has denied her the +facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being +closed against her." + +Dress reformers were admitted to the ranks of the agitators. The +initial revolt was thoroughgoing. They discarded the corset, discarded +it when it was still improper to speak the word! They cut off their +hair, cut it off in a day when every woman owned a chignon. They +discarded the corset, cut off their hair, and adopted bloomers! + +The story of the bloomer is piquant. It was launched and worn. It +became the subject of platform oratory and had its organ. Why is it +not worn to-day? No woman who has ever masqueraded in man's dress or +donned it for climbing will ever forget the freedom of it. Yet the +only woman in the Christian world who ever wore it at once naturally +and with that touch of coquetry which is necessary to carry it off, as +far as this writer's personal observation goes, was Madame Dieulafoy, +and Madame Dieulafoy was protected by the French government and an +exclusive circle. + +Bloomers proved too much for even the courage of dear Miss Anthony. +For two years she wore them, and then with tears and lamentations +resigned them. In that resignation Miss Anthony paid tribute, +unconsciously no doubt, to something deeper than she ever grasped in +the woman question. Her valiant soul met its master in her own nature, +but she did not recognize it. She abandoned her convenient and +becoming costume because of prejudice, she said. What other prejudice +ever dismayed her! She thrived on fighting them; she met her woman's +soul, and did not know it! + +But from the experiments and blunders and travail of some of these +noble and early militants over the dress question, has come, as I have +said, our present useful, and probably permanent type of street suit. +In this particular the American woman has achieved a genuine +democratization of her clothes. The experience of the last two +years--fashion's open attempt to make the walking suit useless by +tightening the skirts, and bizarre by elaborate decorations, has in +the main failed. Here, then, is a standard established, and +established on one of the great principles of sensible clothing, and +that is fitness. It shows that the true attack on the tyranny and +corruption of clothes lies in the establishment of principles. + +These principles are, briefly:-- + +The fitness of dress depends upon the occasion. + +The beauty of dress depends upon line and color. + +The ethics of dress depends upon quality and the relation of cost to +one's means. + +In time we may get into the heads of all women, rich and poor, that an +open-work stocking and low shoe for winter street wear are as unfit as +they all concede a trailing skirt to be. In time we may even hope to +train the eye until it recognizes the difference between a beautiful +and a grotesque form, between a flowing and a jagged line. In time we +may restore the sense of quality, which our grandmothers certainly +had, and which almost every European peasant brings with her to this +country. + +These principles are teachable things. Let her once grasp them and the +vagaries of style will become as distasteful as poor drawing does to +one whose eye has learned what is correct, as lying is to one who has +cultivated the taste for the truth. + +Martha Berry tells of an illuminating experience in her school of +Southern mountain girls. She had taken great pains to teach them +correct standards and principles of dress. She had been careful to see +that simplicity and quality and fitness were all that they saw in the +dress of their teachers. Then one day they had visitors, fashionable +visitors, in hobble skirts and strange hats and jingling with many +ornaments. They were good and interesting women, and they talked +sympathetically and well to the girls. Miss Berry was crushed. "What +will the girls think of my teachings?" she asked herself. "They will +believe I do not know." But that night one of her assistants said to +her: "I have just overheard the girls discussing our visitors. They +liked them so much, but they are saying that it is such a pity that +they could not have had you to _teach them how to dress_." + +As a method of education, instruction in the principles of dress is +admirable for a girl. Through it she can be made to grasp the truth +which women so generally suspect to-day; that is, the _importance of +the common and universal things of life_; the fact that all these +everyday processes are the expressions of the great underlying truths +of life. A girl can be taught, too, through this matter of dress, as +directly perhaps as through anything that concerns her, the importance +of studying human follies! Follies grow out of powerful human +instincts, ineradicable elements of human nature. They would not exist +if there were not at the bottom of them some impulse of nature, right +and beautiful and essential. The folly of woman's dress lies not in +her instinct to make herself beautiful, it lies in her ignorance of +the principles of beauty, of the intimate and essential connection +between utility and beauty. It lies in the pitiful assumption that she +can achieve her end by imitation, that she can be the thing she envies +if she look like that thing. + +The matter of dress is the more important, because bound up with it is +a whole grist of social and economic problems. It is part and parcel +of the problem of the cost of living, of woman's wages, of wasteful +industries, of the social evil itself. It is a woman's most direct +weapon against industrial abuses, her all-powerful weapon as a +consumer. At the time of the Lawrence strike, Miss Vida Scudder, of +Wellesley College, is reported to have said in a talk to a group of +women citizens in Lawrence:-- + +"I speak for thousands besides myself when I say that I would rather +never again wear a thread of woolen than know my garments had been +woven at the cost of such misery as I have seen and known, past the +shadow of a doubt, to have existed in this town." + +Miss Scudder might have been more emphatic and still have been +entirely within the limit of plain obligation; she might have said, "I +will never again wear a thread of woolen woven at the cost of such +misery as exists in this town." Women will not be doing their duty, +as citizens in this country, until they recognize fully the +obligations laid upon them by their control of consumption. + +The very heart of the question of the dress is, then, economic and +social. It is one of those great everyday matters on which the moral +and physical well-being of society rests. One of those matters, which, +rightly understood, fill the everyday life with big meanings, show it +related to every great movement for the betterment of man. + +Like all of the great interests in the Business of Being a Woman, it +is primarily an individual problem, and every woman who solves it for +herself, that is, arrives at what may be called a sound mode of dress, +makes a real contribution to society. There is a tendency to overlook +the value of the individual solution of the problems of life, and yet, +the successful individual solution is perhaps the most genuine and +fundamental contribution a man or woman can make. The end of living is +a life--fair, sound, sweet, complete. The vast machinery of life to +which we give so much attention, our governments and societies, our +politics and wrangling, is nothing in itself. It is only a series of +contrivances to insure the chance to grow a life. He who proves that +he can conquer his conditions, can adjust himself to the machinery in +which he finds himself, he is the most genuine of social servants. He +realizes the thing for which we talk and scheme, and so proves that +our dreams are not vain! + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE WOMAN AND DEMOCRACY + + +The one notion that democracy has succeeded in planting firmly in the +mind of the average American citizen is his right and duty to rise in +the world. Tested by this conception the American woman is an ideal +democrat. Give her a ghost of a chance and she almost never fails to +better herself materially and socially. Nor can she be said to do it +by the clumsy methods we describe as "pushing." She does it by a +legitimate, if rather literal, application of the national formula for +rising,--get schooling and get money. + +The average American man reverses the order of the terms in the +formula. He believes more in money. The time that boys and girls are +kept in school after the fourteen-or sixteen-year-age limit is +generally due to the insistence of the mother, her confidence that the +more education, the better the life chance. What it amounts to is that +the man has more faith in life as a teacher, the woman more faith in +schools. Both, however, seek the same goal, pin their faith to the +same tools. Both take it for granted that if they work out the +formulas, they thereby earn and will receive letters patent to the +aristocracy of the democracy! + +The weakness of this popular conception of the democratic scheme is +that it gives too much attention to what a man gets and too little to +what he gives. Democracy more than any other scheme under which men +have tried to live together depends on what each returns--returns not +in material but in spiritual things. Democracy is not a shelter, a +garment, a cash account; it is a spirit. The real test of its +followers must be sought in their attitude of mind toward life, labor, +and their fellows. + +Where does the average American woman come out in applying this test? +Take her attitude toward labor,--where does it place her? Labor +according to democracy is a badge of respectability. You cannot poach +or sponge in a democracy; if you do, you violate the fundamental right +of the other man. You cannot ask him to help support you by indirect +or concealed devices; if you do, you are hampering the free +opportunity the scheme promises him. + +Moreover, the kind of work you do must not demean you. Nothing useful +is menial. It is in the quality of the work and the spirit you give it +that the test lies. Poor work brings disrespect and so hurts not only +you but the whole mass. Contempt for a task violates the principle +because it is contempt for a thing which the system recognizes as +useful. Classification based on tasks falls down in a democracy. A +poor lawyer falls below a good clerk, a poor teacher below a good +housemaid, since one renders a sound and the other an unsound service. + +Now this ideal of labor it was for the woman to work out in the +household. To do this she must reconstruct the ideas to which she and +all her society had been trained. In the nature of the task there +could be no rules for it. It could be accomplished only by creating in +the household a genuine democratic spirit. This meant that she must +bring herself to look upon domestic service as a dignified employment +in no way demeaning the person who performed it. Quite as difficult, +she must infuse into those who performed the labor of the household +respect and pride in their service. + +What has happened? Has the woman democratized the department of labor +she controls? If we are to measure her understanding of the system +under which she lives by what she has done with her own particular +labor problem, we must set her down as a poor enough democrat. This +great department of national activity is generally (though by no means +universally) in a poorer estate to-day than ever before in the history +of the country; that is, tested by the ideals of labor toward which we +are supposed to be working, it shows less progress. + +Instead of being dignified, it has been demeaned. No other honest work +in the country so belittles a woman socially as housework performed +for money. It is the only field of labor which has scarcely felt the +touch of the modern labor movement; the only one where the hours, +conditions, and wages are not being attacked generally; the only one +in which there is no organization or standardization, no training, no +regular road of progress. It is the only field of labor in which there +seems to be a general tendency to abandon the democratic notion and +return frankly to the standards of the aristocratic regime. The +multiplication of livery, the tipping system, the terms of address, +all show an increasing imitation of the old world's methods. Unhappily +enough, they are used with little or none of the old world's ease. +Being imitations and not natural growths, they, of course, cannot be. + +More serious still is the relation which has been shown to exist +between criminality and household occupations. Nothing, indeed, which +recent investigation has established ought to startle the American +woman more. Contrary to public opinion, it is not the factory and +shop which are making the greatest number of women offenders of all +kinds; it is the household. In a recent careful study of over 3000 +women criminals, the Bureau of Labor found that 80 per cent came +directly from their own homes or from the traditional pursuits of +women![2] + +The anomaly is the more painful because women are so active in trying +to better the conditions in trades which men control. Feminine circles +everywhere have been convulsed with sympathy for shop and factory +girls. Intelligent and persistent efforts are making to reach and aid +them. This is, of course, right, and it would be a national calamity +if such organizations as the Woman's Trade Union League and the +Consumer's League should lose anything of their vigor. But the need +of the classes they reach is really less than the need of household +workers. In the first place, the number affected is far less. + +It is customary, in presenting the case of the shop and factory girl, +to speak of them as "an army 7,000,000 strong." It is a misleading +exaggeration. The whole number of American women and girls over ten +years of age earning their living wholly or partially is about +7,000,000.[3] Of this number from 20 per cent to 25 per cent belong +to the "army" in shops and factories; moreover, a goodly percentage of +this proportion are accountants, bookkeepers, and stenographers,--a +class which on the whole may be said to be able to look after its own +needs. The number in domestic service is nearly twice as great, +something like 40 per cent of the 7,000,000. + +There are almost as many dressmakers, milliners, and seamstresses as +there are factory operators in this 7,000,000. There are nearly twice +as many earning their living in dairies, greenhouses, and gardens as +there are in shops and offices. + +The greater number in domestic service is not what gives this class +its greater importance. Its chief importance comes from the fact that +it is in a _permanent_ woman's employment; that is, the household +worker becomes on marriage a housekeeper and in this country +frequently an employer of labor. The intelligence and the ideals which +she will give to her homemaking will depend almost entirely on what +she has seen in the houses where she has worked; that is, our domestic +service is _self-perpetuating_, and upon it American homes are in +great numbers being annually founded. In sharp contrast to this +permanent character of housework is the transientness of factory and +shop work. The average period which a girl gives to this kind of labor +is probably less than five years. What she learns has little or no +relation to her future as a housekeeper--indeed, the tendency is +rather to unfit than to fit her for a home. + +But why is the American woman not stirred by these facts? Why does she +not recognize their meaning and grapple with her labor problem? It is +certain that at the beginning of the republic she did have a pretty +clear idea of the kind of household revolution the country needed. Our +great-grandmothers, that is, the serious ones among them, made a brave +dash at it. There is no family, at least of New England tradition, who +does not know the methods they adopted. They changed the nomenclature. +There were to be no more "servants"--we were to have helpers. There +were to be no divisions in the household. The helper was to sit at the +table, at the fireside. (They thought to change the nature of a +relation as old as the world by changing its name and form.) It was +like the French Revolutionists' attempt to make a patriot by taking +away his ruffles and shoe buckles and calling him "citizen"! + +Of course it failed. The family meal, the fireside hour, are personal +and private institutions in a home. Much of the success of the family +in building up an intimate comradeship depends upon preserving them. +We admit friends to them as a proof of affection, strangers as a proof +of our regard. The notion that those who come into a household solely +to aid in its labor should be admitted into personal relations which +depend for their life upon privacy and affection, was always +fantastic. It could not endure, because it violated something as +important as the dignity of labor, and that was the sacredness of +personal privacy. Moreover, it was bound to fail because it made the +dignity of labor depend on artificial things--such as the name by +which one is called, the place where one sits. + +The good sense of the country might very well have regulated whatever +was artificial in the attempt, if it had not been for the crushing +interference of slavery. In the South all service was performed by +slaves. In many parts of the North, at the founding of the republic, +in Connecticut, in New York, New Jersey, slaves were held. It was +practically impossible to work out a democratic system of domestic +service side by side with this institution. + +Slavery passed, but we were impeded by the fact that, liberated, the +slave was still a slave in spirit and that his employer, North and +South, was still an aristocrat in her treatment of him. With this +situation to cope with, the woman's labor problem was still further +complicated by immigration. + +For years we have been overrun by thousands of untrained girls who are +probably to be heads of American homes and mothers of American +citizens. Most of them are of good, healthy, honest, industrious +stock, but they are ignorant of our ways and ideas. The natural place +for these girls to get their initiation into American democracy is in +the American household. The duty of American women toward these +foreign girls is plainly to help them understand our ideals. The +difficulty of this is apparent; but the failure to accomplish it has +been due less to its difficulty than to the fact that not one woman in +a thousand has recognized that she has an obligation to make a fit +citizen of the girl who comes into her home. + +Generally speaking, the foreign servant girl has been exploited in +this country almost if not quite as ruthlessly and unintelligently as +the foreign factory girl and the foreign steel mill worker. Domestic +service, which ought to be the best school for the newcomer, has +become the worst; exploited, she learns to exploit; suspected, she +learns to suspect. The result has been that the girl has soon +acquired a confused and grotesque notion of her place. She soon +becomes insolent and dissatisfied, grows more and more indifferent to +the quality of her work and to the cultivation of right relations. + +What we have lost in our treatment of the immigrant women can never be +regained. We forget that almost invariably these girls have the habit +of thrift. They have never known anything else. Thrift as a principle +is ingrained in them. But the American household is notoriously +thriftless. As a rule it destroys the quality in the untrained +immigrant girl. It is American not to care for expense--and she +accepts the method--as far as her mistress' goods are concerned--if +not her own. + +The general stupid assumption that because the immigrant girl does not +know our ways she knows nothing, has deprived us of much that she +might have contributed to our domestic arts and sciences. It is with +her as it is with any newcomer in a strange land of strange +tongue--she is shy, dreads ridicule. Instead of encouraging her to +preserve and develop that which she has learned at home, we drive her +to abandon it by our ignorant assumption that she knows nothing worth +our learning. The case of peasant handicraft is in point. It is only +recently that we have begun to realize that most women immigrants know +some kind of beautiful handicraft which they have entirely dropped for +fear of being laughed at. + +A very frequent excuse for the lack of pains that the average woman +gives to the training of the raw girl is that she marries as soon as +she becomes useful. But is it not part of the woman's business in this +democracy to help the newcomer to an independent position? Is it not +part of her business to help settle her servants in matrimony? +Certainly any large and serious conception of her business must +include this obligation. + +It is the failure to recognize opportunities for public service of +this kind that makes the woman say her life is narrow. It is parallel +to her failure to understand the relation of household economy to +national economy. She seems to lack the imagination to relate her +problem to the whole problem. She will read books and follow lecture +courses on Labor and come home to resent the narrowness of her life, +unconscious that she personally has the labor problem on her own hands +and that her failure to see that fact is complicating daily the +problems of the nation. It is the old false idea that the interesting +and important thing is somewhere else--never at home--while the truth +is that the only interesting and important thing for any one of us is +in mastering our own particular situation,--moreover, the only real +contribution we ever make comes in doing that. + +The failure to dignify and professionalize household labor is +particularly hard on the unskilled girl of little education who +respects herself, has pretty clear ideas of her "rights" under our +system of government, and who expects to make something of herself. +There are tens of thousands of such in the country; very many of them +realize clearly the many advantages of household labor. They know that +it _ought_ to be more healthful, is better paid, is more interesting +because more varied. They see its logical relation to the future to +which they look forward. + +But such a girl feels keenly the cost to herself of undertaking what +she instinctively feels ought to be for her the better task. She +knows the standards and conditions are a matter of chance; that, while +she may receive considerate treatment in one place, in another there +will be no apparent consciousness that she is a human being. She knows +and dreads the loneliness of the average "place." "It's breaking my +heart I was," sobbed an intelligent Irish girl, serving a term for +drunkenness begun in the kitchen, "alone all day long with never a one +to pass a good word." She finds herself cut off from most of the +benefits which are provided for other wage-earning girls. She finds +girls' clubhouses generally are closed to her. She is the pariah among +workers. + +What is there for this girl but the factory or the shop? Yet her +presence there is a disaster for the whole labor system, for she is a +_cheap laborer_--cheap not because she is a poor laborer--she is not; +generally she is an admirable one--quick to learn, faithful to +discharge. Her weakness in trade is that she is a transient who takes +no interest in fitting herself for an advanced position. The +demonstration of this statement is found in a town like Fall River, +where the admirable textile school has only a rare woman student, +although boys and men tax its capacity. There is no object for the +average girl to take the training. She looks forward to a different +life. The working girl has still to be convinced of the "aristocracy +of celibacy"! + +No more difficult or important undertaking awaits the American woman +than to accept the challenge to democratize her own special field of +labor. It is in doing this that she is going to make her chief +contribution to solving the problem of woman in industry. It is in +doing this that she is going to learn the meaning of democracy. It is +an undertaking in which every woman has a direct individual part--just +as every man has a direct part in the democratization of public life. + +Individual effort aside, though it is the most fundamental, she has +various special channels of power through which she can work--her +clubs, for instance. If the vast machinery of the Federation of +Woman's Clubs could be turned to this problem of the democratization +of domestic service, what an awakening might we not hope for! Yet it +is doubtful if it will be through the trained woman's organizations +that the needed revolution will come. It will come, as always, from +the ranks of the workers. + +Already there are signs that the woman's labor organizations are +willing to recognize the inherent dignity of household service. And +this is as it should be. The woman who labors should be the one to +recognize that all labor is _per se_ equally honorable--that there is +no stigma in any honestly performed, useful service. If she is to +bring to the labor world the regeneration she dreams, she must begin +not by saying that the shop girl, the clerk, the teacher, are in a +higher class than the cook, the waitress, the maid, but that we are +all laborers alike, sisters by virtue of the service we are rendering +society. That is, labor should be the last to recognize the canker of +caste.[4] + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [2] Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the + United States, Vol. XV. Relation between Occupation and + Criminality of Women. 1911. + + [3] The number of people in 1910 in what is called "gainful + occupations" has not as yet been compiled by the Census Bureau. + This figure of 7,000,000 is arrived at by the following method, + suggested to the writer by Director Durand. It is known that there + are about 44,500,000 females in the present population. Now in + 1900 there were about 141/2 per cent of all the girls and women in + the country over ten years of age at work a part or all of the + time. Apply to the new figure this proportion, and you have + between six and seven millions, which is called 7,000,000 here, on + the supposition that the proportion may have increased. The + percentage of women in each of the various occupations in 1900 is + assumed still to exist. + + [4] The National Women's Trades Union League has domestic workers + among its members, though not as yet, I believe, in any large + numbers. Its officials are strong believers in a Domestic Workers' + Union. There are several such unions in New Zealand, and they have + done much to regulate hours, conditions, and wages. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE HOMELESS DAUGHTER + + +One of the severest strains society makes on human life is that of +adapting itself to ever changing conditions: yesterday it dragged us +in a stagecoach; to-day it hurls us across country in limited +expresses; to-morrow we shall fly! Once twilight and darkness were +without, shadows and dim recesses within; now, wherever men gather +there is one continuous blazing day. He who would keep his task +abreast with the day must accept speed and light; for the law is, +think, feel, do in the terms of your day, if you would keep your hold +on your day. + +It is a law often resented as if it were an immorality, but those who +refuse the new way on principle, confuse form with principle. It is +the form which changes, not the essence. The few great underlying +elements from which character and happiness are evolved are +permanent--their mutations are endless. Dull-minded, we take the +mutations to mean shifting of principle. That is, we do not square up +by truth, but by the forms of truth. + +The Woman's Business has always suffered from lack of facility in +adapting itself to new forms of expression. The natural task found, a +method of handling it in a fashion sufficiently acceptable to prevent +family revolts mastered, and the woman usually is as fixed as a star +in its orbit. She resents changes of method, new interpretations, and +fresh expressions. It is she, not man, who stands an immovable +mountain in the path of militant feminism. + +In this course she is following her nature. An instinct more powerful +than logic tells her that she must preserve the thing she is making, +that center for which she is responsible, that place where her child +is born and reared, where her mate retreats, to be reassured that the +effort to which he has committed himself is worth while, where all the +community to which she belongs is served and strengthened. If this +place is preserved, she must do it. Man, an experimenter and +adventurer, cannot. + +Changes she fears. She sees them as disturbers of her plans and her +ideals. But the changes will not stay. They gather about her retreat, +beat at the doors, creep in at the windows, win her husband and +children from her very arms. The home on which she depended to keep +them becomes impotent. While she stands an implacable guardian of a +form of truth, truth has moved on, broadened its outlook, and clothed +itself in new expressions. + +It is entirely understandable that the woman who sees herself left +behind with her dead gods should cry out against change as the ruin of +her hopes. It is equally understandable that those who find themselves +adrift should doubt the home as an institution. At the bottom of the +revolt of thousands of our "uneasy women" of to-day lies this doubt. +The home failed them, and with the logic of limited experience they +cast it out of their calculations. + +But the home is one of the unescapable facts of nature and +society--unescapable because the child demands it. One of the earliest +convictions of the child is that he has a _right_ to a home. To him it +appears as the great necessity. He cannot see himself outside of it. +To be at large in the world throws him into panic. The sacrifices and +pains very young children suffer uncomplainingly, particularly in +great cities and factory towns, is a pathetic enough demonstration of +what the word means to them. Mere children by the hundreds support +families terrified by the thought of their collapse. The orphan +forever dreams of the day when a home will be found for him. The child +whose parents seek freedom, leaving him to school or servants, never +fails to nourish a sense of injustice. Whatever one generation may +decide as to the futility or burdensomeness of the home, the oncoming +child will force its return. + +To keep this permanent place abreast with growing truth, that is the +obligation of the woman. It is the failure to do this that produces +what we may call the homeless daughter; that girl who loved and often +served to the point of folly, finds herself in a group where none of +the imperative needs the day has awakened in her are met. + +One of the first of these needs is for what we call "economic +independence." The spirit of our day and of our system of government +is personal, material independence for all. Under the old regime the +girl had her economic place. The family was a small community. It +provided for most of its own wants, hence the girl must be taught +household arts and science, all of the fine traditional knowledge and +skill which made, not drudges, but skilled managers, skilled cooks and +needlewomen, skilled hostesses and nurses. She had a _business_ to +learn under the old regime, and there was an authority, often severely +enforced no doubt, which made her learn it well. There was the same +appraising of the efficiency of the girl for her business there was +of the boy for his. + +The girl of to-day rarely has any such systematic training for the +material side of her business, nor is a dignified place provided for +her in well-to-do families. Her place is parasitical and demoralizing. +Take the young girl who has been what we call "educated"; that is, one +who has gone through college and has not found a talent which she is +eager to develop. The spirit of the times makes her less keen for +marriage, puts no feeling of obligation of marriage upon her. She +finds herself in a home which is not regarded as a serious industrial +undertaking. Things go on more or less accidentally, according to +traditions or conventions. Her ideas of scientific management, if she +has any, are treated as revolutionary. Her help is not needed. There +is no place for her. + +The daughters of the very poor often have better fortune than she in +this respect. They, from very early years, have known that they were +necessary to the family. Almost invariably they accept heavy and +sometimes cruel burdens cheerfully, even proudly. It is the pride of +knowing themselves important to those whom they love. One of the +difficult things to combat in enforcing the laws which forbid children +under fourteen working, is the child's desire to help. He may hate the +hardship, but at least there is in his lot none of that hopeless sense +of futility which comes over the girl of high spirit when she realizes +she has no practical value in the group to which she belongs. "Not +needed"--that is one of the tragic experiences of the young girl in +the well-to-do family. To save herself, to meet the truth of her day +which has taken hold of her, she must seek a productive place; that +is, leave home, seek work. If she has some special talent, knows what +she wants to do, she is fortunate indeed. With the majority it is +work, something to do, a place where they can be independently +productive, that is sought. + +The girl of the family in moderate circumstances is no better off. She +must contribute in some way, and there is no scientific management in +her home--no study of ways and means which enables her to contribute +and remain at home. She is driven outside in order to support herself. +I cannot but believe that here is one of the gravest weaknesses in our +educational machinery, this failure to give the girl inclined to +remain at home a training which would enable her to help make more of +a limited income. Nothing is so rare to-day as the fine habit of +making much of little. A dollar mixed with brains is worth five in +every place where dollars are used. Particularly is this true in the +household. The failure to teach how to mix brains and dollars, and to +inspire respect for the undertaking, annually drives thousands of +girls into our already overburdened industrial system who would be +healthier and happier at home and who would render there a much +greater economic service. Such work as is being done in certain +Western agricultural colleges for girls, in the Carnegie School for +Women in Pittsburg, in Miss Kittridge's Household Centers in New York +City, is a recognition of this need of making scientific +managers--trained household workers--of young women. There is no more +practical way of relieving the industrial strain. + +It is not always the dependent and so humiliating position a girl +finds herself in that drives her from home. It is frequently the +discovery that she is a member of a group that has no responsible +place in the community; that regards itself as a purely isolated, +unrelated, irresponsible unit,--an atom without affinities! The home +can be, if it will, the most antisocial force in existence, for it +can, if it will, exist practically for itself. That excessive +individualism, which is responsible for so many evils in our country, +has encouraged this isolation. The girl who finds herself without a +productive place at home at the same time finds none of the fine +inspiration which comes from fitting herself into a social scheme and +helping to do its work. The spirit of the age is social. She feels its +call, she sees how unresponsive, even antipathetic, to it her home is. +She concludes that if she is to serve she must seek something to do in +some remote city. The attraction the Social Settlement has for the +girl finds its base here. The loss to communities of their educated +young women, who find no response to their need, no place to serve in +their own society, is incalculable. + +It is not infrequent that a girl who may have by some chance of +fortune a sufficient sense of independence in her home, who knows +herself needed there, and is ready to perform the service, is driven +out by the persistence of that spirit of parental authority, which +looks upon it as a duty to rule the life, particularly of the +daughter, as long as she is at home. There is nothing clearer than +that the old domination of one person by another is a thing of the +past. A new spirit of cooeperation and friendly direction has come into +the world. The home which it does not pervade cannot keep its young. + +The most essential thing for a woman to understand is that her +business is _not to order_ her daughter's life, but to assist that +daughter to shape it herself. She should be prepared to say to her: +"The most interesting and important thing in the world for you is to +work out your own particular life. You must build it from the place +where you stand and with the materials in your hands. Nobody else ever +stood in your particular place or ever will stand in one identical; +nobody ever has or can possess the same materials. You alone can fuse +the elements. Hold your place; do not try to shift into the place that +another occupies. Keep your eye on what you have to work with, not on +what somebody else has. The ultimate result, the originality, flavor, +distinction, usefulness of your life, depend on the care, the +reverence, and the intelligence with which you work up and out from +where you are and with what you have." + +It is only the woman who is prepared to say something like that to her +daughter, to help her to see it, and to rise to it that has brought +into her home the spirit of to-day. + +Where there is failure at any one of these points, and if one fails, +all probably will, since they are obvious elements in the liberal view +of life, the girl must go forth if her life is to go progressively on. +She must seek work, less for the sake of work than for the sake of +life. To remain where she is, unproductive in a group which does not +recognize the calls of the present world and where _another +person_--for the mother who tries to force the individuality becomes +another person--insists on shaping her course,--to do this is to +quench the spirit, stop the very breath of life. + +The girl goes forth to seek work. She has almost invariably the idea +that work outside the home has less of drudgery in it, _i.e._ less +routine and meanness, more excitement. She is unprepared for the years +of steady grinding labor which she must go through to earn her bread +in any trade or profession. She learns that work is work whether done +in kitchen, sewing room, countinghouse, studio, or editor's sanctum, +and all that keeps the operations which consume the bulk of the +worker's time in any of these places from being drudgery is that he +keeps before him the end for which they are performed. The first +disillusionment comes, then, when she faces the necessity of a long +steady pull for years if she is to "arrive." + +A second comes when she finds she must prove to a busy, driven world +that she is worth its attention; she must do more than simply knock +for admission and declare her fealty to its ideals. She realizes +sooner or later that she is an outsider and must delve her way in. No +sapper works harder to make his trench than most young women do to +make stable places for themselves in strange communities. + +The gnawing loneliness of the girl who has left home to make her way +is one of the most fruitful causes of the questionable relations which +well-born girls form more often than society realizes. The girl seizes +eagerly every chance for companionship or pleasure. Her keen need of +it makes her overappreciative and undercritical. Moreover, she has the +confidence of ignorance. Most American girls are brought up as if +wrongdoing were impossible to them. Nobody has ever suggested to them +that they have the possibility of all crimes in their makeup! Parents +and teachers ordinarily have extraordinary skill in evading, but +little in facing, the facts of life. + +Disarmed by her ignorance, the girl goes out to a freedom such as no +country has ever before believed it safe to allow the young, either +girl or boy. This freedom is of course the logical result of what we +call the "emancipation of women." It is the swinging of the pendulum +from the old system of chaperonage and authority. The weak point is in +the fact that the girl has not knowledge enough for her freedom. It is +not a return of the old system of guarded girls which is needed. That +is impossible under modern conditions, out of harmony with modern +ideas. The great need is that the women of the country realize that +freedom unaccompanied by knowledge is one of the most dangerous tools +that can be put into a human being's hands. The reluctance of women +to face this fact is the most discouraging side of the woman question. + +The girl who goes forth should go armed with knowledge. Moreover, in +moments of loneliness, when she is ready to slip, she should be +literally jerked back by the pull of the home. This hold of the home +is no chimerical thing. It is a positive, living reality. The home has +a power of projecting itself into the lives of those who go out from +it. It is where the girl does not carry away a sense of an +uninterrupted relation--a certainty that she is a part of that group +and that achievement, that she is only carrying on, enlarging, helping +to extend, beautify, and ripen its work, that she is not homeless. +Nothing can so hold her in her isolation as that sense. + +The Uneasy Woman of to-day who has fulfilled to the letter, as she +understands it, the Woman's Business, is frequently heard to say: "My +boys are in college; they do not need me. My girls are married or at +work, and they do not need me. I have nothing to do. My business is +complete, I am retired, sidetracked. It is for this reason that I ask +a part in politics." But her argument proves that she does not +understand her business. She may want and need some outside occupation +for the very health of her business, politics perhaps, but certainly +not because her business is done. + +There is no more critical time for her than when her young people go +out to try themselves in the world. The girl particularly needs this +pull of the home, not only to keep her on a straight path, but to keep +her from the narrowness and selfishness which overtake so many +self-supporting women who have no close family responsibilities. The +fetich which has been made, for many years now, of work for women, +that is, of work outside of the home, frequently leads the woman to +take some particular virtue to herself for self-support. She feels +that it entitles her to special consideration, releases her from +obligations which she does not voluntarily assume. The attitude is +enough to narrow and harden her life. The great preventive of this +disaster is a responsible home relation. If she must share her +earnings, it is a blessed thing for her. If not, she should share its +burdens and its hopes, in order to have a continued source of outside +interest to broaden and soften her, to keep her out of the ranks of +the charmless, self-centered, single women, whose only occupations are +self-support and self-care. + +The problems involved in keeping the girl who has a home from being +homeless are not simple. They are as intricate as anything a woman +can face. They call for the highest understanding, responsiveness, and +activity. No futile devices will meet them. "My daughter is not coming +home to be idle," I heard a fine-intentioned woman say recently. "I +insist that she take all the care of her room, save the weekly +cleaning, and that she keep the living-room tidy." But what an +occupation for a young woman with a college degree, who for four years +has led a busy, well-organized life in which each task was directed +toward some definite purpose! What a commentary on the mother's +understanding of "economic independence," a matter of which she talks +eloquently at her club! All that it proved was that the woman had +never realized the girl's case, had never given consecutive, serious +thought to its handling. + +How little chance there will probably be for this same girl to do at +home any serious work in case she develops a talent for it. The home +of the prosperous, energetic American woman is pervaded by a spirit of +eager and generally happy excitement. Good works and gay pleasures +fill its days in a wild jumble. There is little or no order, +selection, or discretion discernible in the result. "Something doing" +all the time seems to be the motto, and to take part in this headless +procession of unrelated events becomes the first law of the household. +The daughter has been living an organized life in college. She wants +to study or write, or do regular work of some kind. But there is no +order in the spirit of the place, no respect for order, no respect for +a regular occupation. "I cannot work at home"--one hears the cry often +enough. It is not always because of this atmosphere of helter-skelter +activity. It is often because of something worse,--an atmosphere of +slothful, pleasure-loving indifference to activities of all kinds, or +one of tacit or expressed discontent with the burdens and the +limitations which are an inescapable part of the Business of Being a +Woman. + +The problems connected with a girl's desire to be of social service +are even more difficult. There is a curious blindness or indifference +in our town and country districts to social needs. There is still +alive the notion that sending flowers and jellies to the hospital, +distributing old clothes wisely, and packing generous Christmas +baskets meet all obligations. Social service--of which one may, and +generally does, hear a great deal in the women's clubs--is vaguely +supposed to be something which has to do with great cities and factory +towns, not with the small community. Yet one reason that social +problems are so acute in great groups of men and women is that they +are so poorly met in small and scattered groups. There is the same +need of industrial training, of efficient schools, of books, of +neighborliness, of innocent amusements, of finding opportunities for +the exceptional child, of looking after the adenoids and teeth, of +segregating the tubercular, of doing all the scores of social services +in the small town as in the great. Work is really more hopeful there +because there is some possibility of knowing approximately _all_ the +cases, which is never possible in the city. And yet how far from +general it is to find anything like organized efforts at real social +service in the small community. If a girl serves in such a community, +it is because she has the parts of a pioneer--and few have. + +It is not the girl who, having a home, yet is homeless, who is +responsible for her situation. Her necessity is to see herself acting +as a responsible and useful factor in an intelligent plan. If the +family does not present itself to her as a grave, dignified +undertaking on which several persons dear to her have embarked, how +can she be expected to tie to it? The old phrases which she may hear +now and then--"the honor of the family"--"duty to parents"--only savor +of cant to her. They have no pricking vitality in them. She gets no +acute reaction from them. She sees herself merely as an accident in an +accidental group, headed nowhere in particular. + +What it all amounts to is that the greatest art in the Woman's +Business is _using_ youth. It is no easy matter. Youth is a terrible +force, confident, selfish, unknowing. Rarely has it real courage, +real interest in aught but itself. It has all to learn, but it is +youth, the most beautiful and hopeful thing in life. And it is the +thing upon which the full development of life for a woman depends. She +must have it always at her side, if she is to know her own full +meaning in the scheme of things. It is part of her tragedy that she +fails so often to understand how essential is youth to her as an +individual, her happiness and her growth. + +The fact that a woman is childless is no reason in the present world +why she should be cut off from the developing and ennobling +association. Indeed, the childless woman of to-day, in addition to her +obligation to herself, has a peculiar obligation to society in the +matter of the friendless child. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE CHILDLESS WOMAN AND THE FRIENDLESS CHILD + + +One of the first conclusions forced on a thoughtful unprejudiced +observer of society is that the major percentage of its pains and its +vices result from a failure to make good connections. Children pine +and even die for fruit in the cities, while a hundred miles away +thousands of barrels of apples are rotting on the ground. Famine +devastates one country, while the granaries of another are bursting +with food. Men and women drink themselves into the gutter from sheer +loneliness, while other men and women shrivel up in isolated comfort. +One of the most pitiful examples of this failure to connect is that +of the childless woman and the friendless, uncared-for child. + +There never at any time in any country in the world's history existed +so large a group of women with whom responsibility and effort were a +matter of choice, as exists to-day in the United States. While a large +number of these free women are devoting themselves whole-heartedly to +public service of the most intelligent and ingenious kind, the great +majority recognize no obligation to make any substantial return to +society for its benefits. A small percentage of these are +self-supporting, but the majority are purely parasitical. Indeed, the +heaviest burden to-day on productive America, aside from the burden +imposed by a vicious industrial system, is that of its nonproductive +women. They are the most demanding portion of our society. They spend +more money than any other group, are more insistent in their cry for +amusement, are more resentful of interruptions of their pleasures and +excitements; they go to greater extremes of indolence and of +uneasiness. + +The really serious side to the existence of this parasitical group is +that great numbers of other women, not free, forced to produce, accept +their standards of life. We hear women, useful women, everywhere +talking about the desirability of not being obliged to do anything, +commiserating women who must work, commiserating those who have heavy +household responsibilities, and by the whole gist of their words and +acts influencing those younger and less experienced than themselves to +believe that happiness lies in irresponsible living. + +Various gradations of the theory of which this is the extreme +expression show themselves. Thus there are great numbers of women of +moderate means, who by a little daily effort can keep comfortable and +attractive homes for themselves and their husbands, and yet who are +utterly regardless of outside responsibilities, who are practically +isolated in the community. They pass their lives in a little round of +household activities, sunning and preening themselves in their long +hours of leisure like so many sleek cats. + +There is still another division of this irresponsible class, who build +up frenzied existences for themselves in all sorts of outside +activities. They plunge headlong into each new proposition for +pleasure or social service only to desert it as something more novel +and exciting and, for the instant, popular, appears. Steady, +intelligent standing by an undertaking through its ups and downs, its +dull seasons and its unpopular phases, they are incapable of. Their +efforts have no relation to an intelligently conceived purpose. With +them may be grouped those women who, by their canonization of the +unimportant, construct heavily burdened but utterly fruitless lives. +They laboriously pad out their days with trivial things, vanities, +shams, and shadows, to which they give the serious undivided attention +which should be bestowed only on real enterprises. + +There are others who seek soporifics, release from a hearty tackling +of their individual situations, in absorbing work, a work which +perhaps fills their minds, but which is mere occupation--something to +make them forget--not an art for art's sake, not labor for its useful +fruits, but a protective, separating shield to shut out the insistent +demands of life in the place where they find themselves. + +All of these women are rightfully classed as irresponsible, whether +they are moved by vanity, indolence, purposelessness, social +blindness, or, most pitiful, a sense of the emptiness of life +unattended by the imagination which reveals the sources from which +life is filled. No one of them is building a "House of Life" for +herself. They are building gimcrack palaces, gingerbread cottages, +structures which the first full blast of life will level to the +ground. + +These women are not peculiar to city or to country. They are scattered +nation-wide. You find them on farms and in mansions, in offices and in +academic halls. In startling contrast there exists almost under the +very eaves of the roofs which shelter them a vast and pitiful group of +friendless children,--the deserted babe, the "little mother," the boys +and girls running wild on side streets in every village in our land +and in every slum in the cities, the factory child, the shop girl who +has no home. Let us remember that a goodly percentage of those at work +have homes and that they are engaged in a stimulating, if hard, effort +to "help," that they have the steadying consciousness that they are +needed. Nevertheless, this mass of youth is on the whole in an +unnatural position--an antisocial relation. + +Society can never run rightfully until all its members are performing +their natural functions. No woman, whatever her condition, can escape +her obligation to youth without youth suffering, and without suffering +herself. One of the crying needs of to-day is a crusade, a jar, which +will force upon our free women the friendless children of the country, +give them some sense of the undeniable relation they bear to them, +show them that they are in a sense the cause of this pathetic group +and that it is their work to relieve it. + +True, for a woman there is nothing more painful than putting herself +face to face with the suffering of children. Yet for many years now we +have had in this country a large and increasing number who were going +through the daily pain of grappling with every phase of the +distressing problems which come from the poverty, friendlessness, and +overwork of the young. Out of their heartbreaking scrutinies there +have come certain determinations which are being adopted rapidly +wherever the social sense is aroused. We may roughly sum up these +conclusions or determinations to be these:-- + +It is not necessary or endurable that children grow up starved and +overworked, that boys and girls be submitted to vicious surroundings, +that talent be crushed, that young men and young women be devoured by +crime and greed. Youth, its nurturing and developing, has become the +passion of the day. This is the meaning of our bureaus of Child Labor, +of our Children's Courts, our Houses of Correction, our Fresh-Air +Funds and Vacation Homes, our laws regulating hours and conditions, +our Social Settlements. + +At its very best, however, legislation, organization, work in groups, +only indirectly reach the base of the trouble. These homeless babes +and children, these neglected boys and girls, these reckless shop and +factory girls, are generally the pain and menace that they are because +they have not had, as individuals, that guidance and affection of +women to which each has a natural right. No collective work, however +good it may be, can protect or guide these children properly. +Rightfully they should be the charge of that body of women who are +unhampered, "free." These women have more, or less, intelligence, +time, and means. They owe society a return for their freedom, their +means, and their education. Nature has made them the guardians of +childhood. Can they decently shirk the obligation any more than a man +can decently shirk his duty as a citizen? Indeed, the case of the +woman unresponsive to her duty toward youth is parallel to that of the +man unresponsive to his duty toward public affairs. One is as +profitless and parasitical as the other. + +The man who has no notion of what is doing politically in his own +ward, who does not sense the malign influences which may be working in +his neighborhood, in his very street, perhaps in the next house, who +has not his eye on the unscrupulous small politician who leads the +ward by the nose, who knows nothing of the records of the local +candidates, never goes to the primaries,--this man is one of the most +dangerous citizens we have. It is he who makes the machine possible. +If he did his work, the governmental machine, which starts there with +him, would be sound. It would be begun by honest men interested in +serving the country to the best of their ability, and on such a +foundation no future solidarity of corruption would be possible. + +The individual woman's obligation toward the children and young people +in her neighborhood is very like this obligation of the man to public +affairs. It is for her to know the conditions under which the +children, the boys and girls, young men and maids, in her vicinity are +actually living. It is for her to be alert to their health, +amusements, and general education. It is for her to find the one--and +there always is one--that actually needs her. It is for her to +correlate her personal discoveries and experiences with the general +efforts of the community. + +This is no work for an occasional morning. It does not mean sporadic +or even regular "neighborhood visiting." It means observation, +reflection, and study. It has nothing to do save indirectly with +societies, or groups, or laws. It is a personal work, something nobody +else can do, and something which, if it is neglected, adds just so +much more to the stream of uncared-for youth. How is it to be done? +Have you ever watched a woman interested in birds making her +observations? She will get up at daylight to catch a note of a new +singer. She will study in detail the little family that is making its +home on her veranda. From the hour that the birds arrive in the spring +until the hour that they leave in the fall she misses nothing of their +doings. It is a beautiful and profitable study, and it is a type of +what is required of a woman who would fulfill her obligation toward +the youth of her neighborhood. + +Could we have such study everywhere in country and town, what +tragedies and shames we might be spared! A few months ago the whole +nation was horrified by a riot in a prosperous small city of the +Middle West which ended in the lynching of a young man, a mere boy, +who in trying to discharge his duty as a public official had killed a +man. Some thirty persons, _over half of them boys under twenty years +of age_, are to-day serving terms of from fifteen to twenty years in +the penitentiary for their part in this lynching. + +Their terrible work was no insane outbreak. Analyzed, it was a logical +consequence of the social and political conditions under which the +boys had been brought up. In a pretty, rich, busy town of 30,000 +people proud of its churches and its schools, _eighty saloons_ +industriously plied their business--and part of their business, as it +always is, was to train youths to become their patrons. + +What were the women doing in the town? I asked the question of one who +knew it. "Why," he said, "they were doing just what women do +everywhere, no better, no worse. They had their clubs; I suppose a +dozen literary clubs, several sewing clubs, several bridge clubs, and +a number of dancing clubs. I think they cared a little more for bridge +than for literature, many of them at least. They took little part in +civic work, though they had done much for the city library and city +hospital. Many girls went to college, to the State Institute, to +Vassar and Smith. They came back to teach and to marry. It was just as +it is everywhere." + +Another to whom I put the same question, answered me in a sympathetic +letter full of understanding comment. The mingled devotion, energy, +and blindness of the women the letter described, spoke in its every +line. They built charming homes, reared healthy, active children whom +they educated at any personal sacrifice--all within a circle of eighty +saloons! To offset the saloons they built churches--a church for each +sect--each more gorgeous than its neighbor. It was in building +churches that they showed the "greatest tenacity of purpose." They had +a large temperance organization. It supported a rest room and met +fortnightly to pray "ardently and sincerely." How little this body of +good women sensed their problem, how little they were fitted to deal +with it, my informant's comment reveals. "You doubtless remember the +story," the letter runs, "of the old lady who deplored the shooting +of craps because, though she didn't know what they were, 'life was +probably as dear to them as to anybody.'" + +"It was just as it is everywhere." Busy with self and their immediate +circles, they went their daily ways unseeing, though these ways were +hedged with a corruption whose rank and horrible offshoots at every +step clutched the feet of the children for whom they were responsible. + +Perhaps there is nothing to-day needed in this country more than +driving into the minds of women this personal obligation to do what +may be called intensive gardening in youth. Whether a woman wishes to +see it or not, she is the center of a whirl of life. The health, the +happiness, and the future of those that are in this whirl are affected +vitally by what she is and does. To know all of the elements which +are circulating about her as a man knows, if he does his work, the +political and business elements in his own group, this is her +essential task. That she should adjust her discoveries to the +organizations, political, educational, and religious, which are about +her, goes without saying, but these organizations are not the heart of +her matter. The heart of her matter lies in what she does for those +who come into immediate contact with her. + +Her business firmly established in her immediate group should grow as +a man's business does in the outer circle where he naturally operates. +It will become stable or unstable exactly as trade or profession +becomes stable or unstable. Every year it should take on new elements, +ramify, turn up new obligations, knit itself more firmly into the life +of the community. With every year it should become necessarily more +complicated, broader in interests, more demanding on her intellectual +and spiritual qualities. Each one of the original members of her group +gathers others about himself. In the nature of the case she will +become one of the strongest influences in these new groups. As a +member goes out she will project herself into other communities or +perhaps other lands, into all sorts of industries, professions, and +arts. Her growth is absolutely natural. It is, too, one of the most +economical growths the world knows. Nothing is lost in it. She spreads +literally like the banyan tree. + +Yet in spite of this perfectly obvious fact, there are people to-day +asking, with all appearance of sincerity, what a woman of fifty or +more can _do_! Their confining work in the home, say these observers, +is done. A common suggestion is that they be utilized in politics. +This suggestion has its comical side. A person who has nothing to do +after fifty years of life in a business as many-sided and demanding as +that of a woman, can hardly be expected to be worth much in a business +as complicated and uncertain as politics, and for which she has had no +training. The notion that the woman's business is ended at fifty or +sixty is fantastic. It only ends there if she has been blind to the +meaning of her own experiences; if she has never gone below the +surface of her task--never seen in it anything but physical relations +and duties; has sensed none of its intimate relations to the +community, none of its obligations toward those who have left her, +none of those toward the oncoming generations. If it ends there, she +has failed to realize, too, the tremendous importance to all those +who belong in her circle or who touch it _of what she makes of +herself_, of her personal achievement. + +A woman of fifty or sixty who has succeeded, has come to a point of +sound philosophy and serenity which is of the utmost value in the +mental and spiritual development of the group to which she belongs. +Life at every one of its seven stages has its peculiar harrowing +experiences; hope mingles with uncertainty in youth; fear and struggle +characterize early manhood; disillusionment, the question whether it +is worth while, fill the years from forty to fifty,--but resolute +grappling with each period brings one out almost inevitably into a +fine serene certainty which cannot but have its effect on those who +are younger. Ripe old age, cheerful, useful, and understanding, is one +of the finest influences in the world. We hang Rembrandt's or +Whistler's picture of his mother on our walls that we may feel its +quieting hand, the sense of peace and achievement which the picture +carries. We have no better illustration of the meaning of old age. + +Family and social groups should be a blend of all ages. One of the +present weaknesses of our society is that we herd each age together. +The young do not have enough of the stimulating intellectual influence +of their elders. The elders do not have enough of the vitalizing +influence of the young. We make up our dinner party according to age, +with the result that we lose the full, fine blend of life. + +The notion that a woman has no worthy place or occupation after she is +fifty or sixty, and that she can be utilized in public affairs, could +only be entertained by one who has no clear conception of either +private or public affairs--no vision of the infinite reaches of the +one or the infinite complexities of the other. Human society may be +likened to two great circles, one revolving within the other. In the +inner circle rules the woman. Here she breeds and trains the material +for the outer circle, which exists only by and for her. That accident +may throw her into this outer circle is of course true, but it is not +her natural habitat, nor is she fitted by nature to live and circulate +freely there. We underestimate, too, the kind of experience which is +essential for intelligent citizenship in this outer circle. To know +what is wise and needed there one should circulate in it. The man at +his labor in the street, in the meeting places of men, learns +unconsciously, as a rule, the code, the meaning, the need of public +affairs as woman learns those of private affairs. What it all amounts +to is that the labor of the world is naturally divided between the +two different beings that people the world. It is unfair to the woman +that she be asked to do the work of the outer circle. The man can do +that satisfactorily if she does her part; that is, if she prepares him +the material. Certainly, he can never come into the inner circle and +do her work. + +The idea that there is a kind of inequality for a woman in minding her +own business and letting man do the same, comes from our confused and +rather stupid notion of the meaning of equality. Popularly we have +come to regard being alike as being equal. We prove equality by +wearing the same kind of clothes, studying the same books, regardless +of nature or capacity or future life. Insisting that women do the same +things that men do, may make the two exteriorly more alike--it does +not make them more equal. Men and women are widely apart in functions +and in possibilities. They cannot be made equal by exterior devices +like trousers, ballots, the study of Greek. The effort to make them so +is much more likely to make them unequal. One only comes to his +highest power by following unconsciously and joyfully his own nature. +We run the risk of destroying the capacity for equality when we +attempt to make one human being like another human being. + +The theory that the class of free women considered here would be fired +to unselfish interest in uncared-for youth if they were included in +the electorate of the nation is hardly sustainable. The ballot has not +prevented the growth of a similar class of men. Something more biting +than a new tool is needed to arouse men and women who are absorbed in +self--some poignant experience which thrusts upon their indolent +minds and into their restricted visions the actualities of life. + +It should be said, however, that the recent agitation for the ballot +has served as such an experience for a good many women, particularly +in the East. Perhaps for the first time they have heard from the +suffrage platform of the "little mother," the factory child, the girl +living on $6 a week. They have done more than espouse the suffrage +cause for the sake of the child; they have gone out to find where they +could serve. + +It is a new knowledge of that tide of life which breaks at her very +gate that the childless and the free American woman needs, if she is +to discharge her obligation to the uncared-for child. To force these +facts upon her, to cry to her, "You are the woman,--you cannot escape +the guilt of the woe and crime which must come from the neglect of +childhood in your radius,"--this is the business of every man and +woman who has had the pain and the privilege of seeing something of +the actual life of the people of this world. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +ON THE ENNOBLING OF THE WOMAN'S BUSINESS + + +That the varied, delicate, and difficult problems which crowd the +attention of the woman in her social laboratory should ever be +considered unworthy of first-class brains and training is but proof of +the difficulty the human mind has in distinguishing values when in the +throes of social change. We rightly believe to-day that the world is +not nearly so well run as it would be if we could--or would--apply +unselfishly what we already know. Each of us advocates his own pet +theory of betterment, often to the exclusion of everybody else's +theory. + +One of the most disconcerting characteristics of advocates, +conservative and radical, is their conscienceless treatment of facts. +Rarely do they allow full value to that which qualifies or contradicts +their theories. The ardent and single-minded reformer is not +infrequently the worst sinner in this respect. To stir indignation +against conditions, he paints them without a background and with utter +disregard of proportion. + +He wins, but he loses, by this method. He makes converts of those of +his own kind, those who like him have rare powers for indignation and +sacrifice, but little capacity or liking for the exact truth or for +self-restraint. He turns from him many who are as zealous as he to +change conditions, but who demand that they be painted as they are and +that justice be rendered both to those who have fought against them in +the past and to those who are in different ways doing so to-day. + +The movement for a fuller life for American women has always suffered +from the disregard of some of its noblest followers, both for things +as they are and for things as they have been. The persistent +belittling for campaign purposes of the Business of Being a Woman I +have repeatedly referred to in this little series of essays; indeed, +it has been founded on the proposition that the Uneasy Woman of to-day +is to a large degree the result of the belittlement of her natural +task and that her chief need is to dignify, make scientific, +professionalize, that task. + +I doubt if there is to-day a more disintegrating influence at +work--one more fatal to sound social development--than that which +belittles the home and the position of the woman in it. As a social +institution nothing so far devised by man approaches the home in its +opportunity, nor equals it in its successes. + +The woman's position at its head is hard. The result of her pains and +struggles are rarely what she hopes, either for herself or for any one +connected with her, but this is true of all human achievement. There +is nothing done that does not mean self-denial, routine, +disillusionment, and half realization. Even the superman goes the same +road, coming out at the same halfway-up house! It is the meaning of +the effort, not the half result, that counts. + +The pain and struggle of an enterprise are not what takes the heart +out of a soldier; it is telling him his cause is mean, his fight in +vain. Show him a reason, and he dies exultant. The woman is the +world's one permanent soldier. After all war ceases she must go daily +to her fight with death. To tell her this giving of her life for life +is merely a "female function," not a human part, is to talk nonsense +and sacrilege. It is the clear conviction of even the most thoughtless +girl that this way lies meaning and fulfillment of life, that gives +her courage to go to her battle as a man-in-line to his, and like him +she comes out with a new understanding. The endless details of her +life, its routine and its restraints, have a reason now, as routine +and discipline have for a soldier. She sees as he does that they are +the only means of securing the victory bought so dearly--of winning +others. + +From this high conviction the great mass of women never have and never +can be turned. What does happen constantly, however, is loss of joy +and courage in their undertaking. When these go, the vision goes. The +woman feels only her burdens, not the big meaning in them. She +remembers her daily grind, not the possibilities of her position. She +falls an easy victim now to that underestimation of her business which +is so popular. If she is of gentle nature, she becomes apologetic, she +has "never done anything." If she is aggressive, she becomes a +militant. In either case, she charges her dissatisfaction to the +nature of her business. What has come to her is a common human +experience, the discovery that nothing is quite what you expected it +to be, that if hope is to be even halfway realized, it will be by +courage and persistency. It is not the woman's business that is at +fault; it is the faulty handling of it and the human difficulty in +keeping heart when things grow hard. What she needs is a strengthening +of her wavering faith in her natural place in the world, to see her +business as a profession, its problems formulated and its relations +to the work of society, as a whole, clearly stated. + +Quite as great an injustice to her as the belittling of her business +has been the practice, also for campaigning purposes, of denying her a +part in the upbuilding of civilization. There was a time "back of +history," says one of the popular leaders in the Woman's movement, +"when men and women were friends and comrades--but from that time to +this she (woman) has held a subsidiary and exclusively feminine +position. The world has been wholly in the hands of men, and they have +believed that men alone had the ability, felt the necessity, for +developing civilization, the business, education, and religion of the +world." + +Women's present aim she declares to be the "reassumption of their +share in human life." This is, of course, a modern putting of the +List of Grievances with which the militant campaign started in this +country in the 40's, reenforced by the important point that women +"back of history" enjoyed the privileges which the earlier militants +declared that man, "having in direct object the establishment of an +absolute tyranny over her," had always usurped. + +Just how the lady knows that "back of history" women and men were more +perfect comrades than to-day, I do not know. Her proofs would be +interesting. If this is true, it reverses the laws which have governed +all other human relations. Certainly, since history began, the only +period where I can pretend to judge what has happened, the records +show that comradeship between men and women has risen and fallen with +the rise and fall of cultivation and of virtue. The general level is +probably higher to-day than ever before. + +Moreover, from these same records one might support as plausibly--and +as falsely--the theory of a Woman-made World as the popular one of a +Man-made World. There has been many a teacher and philosopher who has +sustained some form of this former thesis, disclaiming against the +excessive power of women in shaping human affairs. The teachings of +the Christian Church in regard to women, the charge that she keep +silent, that she obey, that she be meek and lowly--all grew out of the +fear of the power she exercised at the period these teachings were +given--a power which the saints believed prejudicial to good order and +good morals. There is more than one profound thinker of our own period +who has arraigned her influence--Strindberg and Nietzsche among them. +You cannot turn a page of history that the woman is not on it or +behind it. She is the most subtle and binding thread in the pattern +of Human Life! + +For the American Woman of to-day to allow woman's part in the making +of this nation to be belittled is particularly unjust and cowardly. +The American nation in its good and evil is what it is, as much +because of its women as because of its men. The truth of the matter +is, there has never been any country, at any time, whatever may have +been their social limitations or political disbarments, that women +have not ranked with the men in actual capacity and achievement; that +is, men and women have risen and fallen together, whatever the +apparent conditions. The failure to recognize this is due either to +ignorance of facts or to a willful disregard of them; usually it is +the former. For instance, one constantly hears to-day the exultant cry +that women finally are beginning to take an interest and a part in +political and radical discussions. But there has never been a time in +this country's history when they were not active factors in such +discussion. The women of the American Revolutionary Period certainly +challenge sharply the women of to-day, both by their intelligent +understanding of political issues and by their sympathetic cooeperation +in the struggle. It was the letters of women which led to that most +important factor in centralizing and instructing pre-revolutionary +opinion in New England, the Committee of Correspondence. There were +few more powerful political pamphleteers in that period than Mercy +Warren. We might very well learn a lesson which we need very much to +learn from the way women aided the Revolutionary cause through their +power as consumers. As for sacrifice and devotion, that of the woman +loses nothing in nobility when contrasted with that of the man. + +If we jump fifty years in the nation's history to the beginning of the +agitation against slavery, we find women among the first and most +daring of the protestants against the institution. It was for the sake +of shattering slavery that they broke the silence in public which by +order of the Christian Church they had so long kept--an order made, +not for the sake of belittling women, but for the sake of establishing +order in churches and better insuring the new Christian code of +morality. The courage and the radicalism of women of the 30's, 40's, +and 50's in this country compare favorably with that of the men and +women in any revolutionary period in any country that we may select. + +The American woman has played an honorable part in the making of our +country, and for this part she should have full credit. If she had +been as poor a stick, as downtrodden and ineffective as sometimes +painted, she would not be a fit mate for the man beside whom she has +struggled, and she would be as utterly unfit for the larger life she +desires as the most bigoted misogynist pictures her to be. + +Moreover, all things considered, she has been no greater sufferer from +injustice than man. I do not mean in saying this that she has not had +grave and unjust handicaps, legal and social; I mean that when you +come to study the comparative situations of men and women as a mass at +any time and in any country you will find them more nearly equal than +unequal, all things considered. Women have suffered injustice, but +parallel have been the injustices men were enduring. It was not the +fact that she was a woman that put her at a disadvantage so much as +the fact that might made right, and the physically weaker everywhere +bore the burden of the day. Go back no further than the beginnings of +this Republic and admit all that can be said of the wrong in the laws +which prevented a woman controlling the property she had inherited or +accumulated by her own efforts, which took from her a proper share in +the control of her child,--we must admit, too, the equal enormity of +the laws which permitted man to exploit labor in the outrageous way he +has. It was not because he was a man that the labor was exploited--it +was because he was the weaker in the prevailing system. Woman's case +was parallel--she was the weaker in the system. It had always been the +case with men and women in the world that he who could took and the +devil got the hindermost. The way the laborer's cause has gone hand +in hand in this country the last hundred years with the woman's cause +is a proof of the point. In the 30's of the nineteenth century, for +illustration, the country was torn by a workingman's party which +carried on a fierce agitation against banks and monopolies. Many of +its leaders were equally ardent in their support of Women's Rights as +they were then understood. The slavery agitation was coupled from the +start with the question of Women's Rights. It was injustice that was +being challenged--the right of the stronger to put the weaker at a +disadvantage for any reason--because he was poor, not rich; black, not +white; female, not male,--that is, there has been nothing special to +women in the injustice she has suffered except its particular form. +Moreover, it was not man alone who was responsible for this injustice. +Stronger women have often imposed upon the weak--men and women--as +strong men have done. In its essence, it is a human, not a sex, +question--this of injustice. + +The hesitation of this country in the earlier part of the nineteenth +century to accord to women the same educational facilities as to men +is often cited as a proof of a deliberate effort to disparage women. +But it should not be forgotten that the wisdom of universal male +education was hotly in debate. One of the ideals of radical reformers +for centuries had been to give to all the illumination of knowledge. +But to teach those who did the labor of the world, its peasants and +its serfs, was regarded by both Church and State as a folly and a +menace. It was the establishment of a pure democracy that forced the +experiment of universal free instruction in this country. It has met +with opposition at every stage, and there is to-day a Mr. Worldly +Wiseman at every corner bewailing the evils it has wrought. He must, +too, be a hopeless Candide who can look on our experiment, wonderful +and inspiring as it is, and say its results have been the best +possible. + +It was entirely logical, things beings as they were, that there should +have been strong opposition to giving girls the same training in +schools as boys. That objection holds good to-day in many reflective +minds. He again must be a hopeless optimist who believes that we have +worked out the best possible system of education for women. But that +there was opposition to giving women the same educational facilities +as men was not saying that there was or ever had been a conspiracy on +foot to keep her in intellectual limbo because she was a woman. The +history of learning shows clearly enough that women have always +shared in its rise. In the great revival of the sixteenth century +they took an honorable part. "I see the robbers, hangmen, adventurers, +hostlers of to-day more learned than the doctors and preacher of my +youth," wrote Rabelais, and he added, "why, women and girls have +aspired to the heavenly manna of good learning." Whenever aspiration +has been in the air, women have responded to it as men have, and have +found, as men have found, a way to satisfy their thirst. + +To come down to the period which concerns us chiefly, that of our own +Republic, it is an utter misrepresentation of the women of the +Revolution to claim that they were uneducated. All things considered, +they were quite as well educated as the men. The actual achievements +of the eminent women produced by the system of training then in vogue +is proof enough of the statement. Far and away the best letters by a +woman, which have found their way into print in this country, are +those of Mrs. John Adams, written late in the eighteenth century and +early in the nineteenth. They deserve the permanent place in our +literature which they have. But it was a period of good letter writing +by women--if weak spelling and feminine spelling was, on the whole, +quite as strong as masculine! + +Out of that early system of education came the woman who was to write +the book which did more to stir the country against slavery than all +that ever had been written, Harriet Beecher Stowe. That system +produced the scientist, who still represents American women in the +mind of the world, Maria Mitchell, the only American woman whose name +appears among the names of the world's great scholars inscribed on the +Boston Public Library. It produced Dorothea Dix, who for twenty years +before the Civil War carried on perhaps the most remarkable +investigation of conditions that has ever been made in this country by +man or woman,--the one which required the most courage, endurance, and +persistency,--her investigation of the then barbaric system for +caring--or not caring--for the insane. State after state enacted new +laws and instituted new methods solely on the showing of this one +woman. If there were no other case to offer to the frequent cry that +women have never had an influence on legislation, this would be +enough. Moreover, this is but the most brilliant example of the kind +of work women had been doing from the beginning of the Republic. + +To my mind there is no phase of their activities which reveals better +the genuineness of their training than the initiative they took in +founding schools of advanced grades for girls, and in organizing +primary and secondary schools on something like a national scale. Mary +Lyon's work for Mt. Holyoke College and Catherine Beecher's for the +American Woman's Education Association are the most substantial +individual achievements, though they are but types of what many women +were doing and what women in general were backing up. It was work of +the highest constructive type--original in its conception, full of +imagination and idealism, rich in its capacity for growth--a work to +fit the aspiration of its day and so full of the future! + +Now, when conditions are such that a few rise to great eminence from +the ordinary ranks of life, it means a good general average. The +multitude of women of rare achievements, distinguishing the +Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary periods of American history are +the best evidences of the seriousness, idealism, and intelligence of +the women in general. Their services in the war are part of the +traditions of every family whose line runs back to those days. Loyal, +spirited, ingenious, and uncomplaining, they are one of the finest +proofs in history of the capacity of the women of the mass to respond +whole-heartedly to noble ideals,--one of the finest illustrations, +too, of the type of service needed from women in great crises. But the +rank and file which conducted itself so honorably in the Revolution +was not a whit more noble and intelligent than the rank and file of +the succeeding period. It would have been impossible ever to have +established as promptly as was done the higher and the general schools +for girls if women had not given them the support they did, had not +been willing, as one great educator of the early part of the +nineteenth century has recorded--"to rise up early, to sit up late, to +eat the bread of the most rigid economy, that their daughters might be +favored with means of improvement superior to what they themselves +possessed." And back of this self-denial was what? A desire that life +be made easier for the daughter? Not at all--a desire that the +daughter be better equipped to "form the character of the future +citizen of the Republic." + +It is not alone that justice is wounded by denying women a part in the +making of the civilized world--a more immediate wrong is the way the +movement for a fuller, freer life for all human beings is hampered. A +woman with a masculine chip on her shoulder gives a divided attention +to the cause she serves. She complicates her human fight with a sex +fight. However good tactics this may have been in the past, and I am +far from denying that there were periods it may have been good +politics, however poor morals, surely in this country to-day there is +no sound reason for introducing such complications into our struggles. +The American woman's life is the fullest in its opportunity, all +things considered, that any human beings harnessed into a complicated +society have ever enjoyed. To keep up the fight against man as the +chief hindrance to the realization of her aspiration is merely to +perpetuate in the intellectual world that instinct of the female +animal to be ever on guard against the male, save in those periods +when she is in pursuit of him! + +But complicating her problem is not the only injury she does her cause +by this ignoring or belittling of woman's part in civilization. She +strips herself of suggestion and inspiration--a loss that cannot be +reckoned. The past is a wise teacher. There is none that can stir the +heart more deeply or give to human affairs such dignity and +significance. The meaning of woman's natural business in the +world--the part it has played in civilizing humanity--in forcing good +morals and good manners, in giving a reason and so a desire for +peaceful arts and industries, the place it has had in persuading men +and women that only self-restraint, courage, good cheer, and reverence +produce the highest types of manhood and womanhood,--this is written +on every page of history. + +Women need the ennobling influence of the past. They need to +understand their integral part in human progress. To slur this over, +ignore, or deny it, cripples their powers. It sets them at the foolish +effort of enlarging their lives by doing the things man does--not +because they are certain that as human beings with a definite task +they need--or society needs--these particular services or operations +from them, but because they conceive that this alone will prove them +equal. The efforts of woman to prove herself equal to man is a work of +supererogation. There is nothing he has ever done that she has not +proved herself able to do equally well. But rarely is society well +served by her undertaking his activities. Moreover, if man is to +remain a civilized being, he must be held to his business of producer +and protector. She cannot overlook her obligation to keep him up to +his part in the partnership, and she cannot wisely interfere too much +with that part. The fate of the meddler is common knowledge! + +A few women in every country have always and probably always will find +work and usefulness and happiness in exceptional tasks. They are +sometimes women who are born with what we call "bachelor's souls"--an +interesting and sometimes even charming, though always an incomplete, +possession! More often they are women who by the bungling machinery of +society have been cast aside. There is no reason why these women +should be idle, miserable, selfish, or antisocial. There are rich +lives for them to work out and endless needs for them to meet. But +they are not the women upon whom society depends; they are not the +ones who build the nation. The women who count are those who outnumber +them a hundred to one--the women who are at the great business of +founding and filling those natural social centers which we call homes. +Humanity will rise or fall as that center is strong or weak. It is the +human core. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN*** + + +******* This file should be named 16577.txt or 16577.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/5/7/16577 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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