"LABOR! ALL LABOR IS NOBLE AND HOLY!"
That man should provide and woman dispense are the radical conditions of
domestic service; conditions which I believe are highly favorable to
the development of the highest type of womanhood. But at the same
time they are far from embracing all women capable of high development,
nor are they perhaps suitable for every phase of character included
in that myriad-minded creature--woman.
For just as one tree attains its most perfect beauty through
sheltering care, and another strikes the deepest roots and lifts
the greenest boughs by self-reliant struggles, so also some women
reach their highest development through domestic duties, while
others hold their life most erect through public service and
enforced responsibilities.
It has taken the world, however, nearly 6,000 years to come to the
understanding that these latter souls must not be denied their proper
arena, that brains have no sex, and that it is well for the world to
have its work done irrespective of anything but the _capability_ of
the workers. But it has now so far accepted the doctrine that women
who must labor if they would live honestly and independently need no
longer do so under sufferance or suspicion. Wherever they can best
make their way the road is open, and they are encouraged to make it;
nor am I aware of any serious restriction laid on them, except one,
whose true kindness is in its apparent severity,--namely, that the
debutante must justify her work by her success in it. I call this
kind, because favor and toleration are here unkind; since she who
stands from any other reason than absolute fitness will sooner or
later fall by an inevitable law.
The great curse of women, educated and yet unprovided for, is not that
they have to labor, but that, having to work, they cannot find the
work to do. Nor is it generally their fault; they have probably been
miseducated in the old idea that marriage is the only social salvation
provided whereby woman can be saved; and no one having married them,
what are these compulsory social sinners to do?
A great number turn _instinctively_ to literature for help and
comfort; and their instinct in many respects is not at fault; for
literature is one of the few professions that from the first has dealt
kindly and honorably with women. Here the race is fair; if the female
pen is fleetest, it wins.
But writing _does not_ come by nature; it is an art to be seriously
and sedulously pursued. My own reflection and experience lead me to
believe that within the last thirty years its methods have radically
changed. That condition of inspiration and mental excitement once
considered the native air of genius has lost much of its importance;
and people now ordinarily write by the exercise of their reason and
reflection, and by the continual and faithful cultivation of such
natural powers as they are endowed with. Upon the whole, it is a mark
of rational progress, and opens the field to every woman who is
thoughtful and cultivated and willing to study industriously. Not
undervaluing the mood of inspiration, I yet honestly believe that for
practical bread-winning purposes reason and study are the most
effectual aids, and the hours devoted to personal culture by acquiring
information just so much "stock in trade" acquired.
The motives for writing, too, have either changed with the method, or
else writers have become more honest, as they have become more
reasonable. I can remember when every author imagined himself
influenced by some unworldly consideration, such as the desire to do
good, or to instruct, or at least because he had something to say
which constrained him to write. But people now sell their knowledge as
they sell any other commodity; the best and the greatest men write
simply for money, and no woman need feel any conscientious scruples
because her own pressing cares sometimes obliterate the full sense of
her responsibility. God does not work alone with model men and women.
He takes us just as we are; and I _know_ that the stray arrow shot
from the bow when the hand was weary and the mind halting has often
struck nearer home than those set with scrupulous exactness and sped
with careful aim.
Besides writing, there are other literary occupations specially suited
to women, such as index-makers, amanuenses, and proof-readers. The
first need a clear head and great patience, but the remuneration is
very good. An amanuensis must have a rapid hand, a fair education, and
such a quick, sympathetic mind as will enable her to readily adapt
herself to the author's moods, and in some measure follow his train of
thought. Proof-reading pre-supposes a general high cultivation, enough
knowledge of French, Latin, etc., to read and correct quotations, and
an intimate acquaintance with general literature, as well as grammar,
orthography, and punctuation. But though a responsible position,
women, both from physical and mental aptitude, fill it better than
men. They have a faculty of detecting errors immediately, often
without knowing why or how, and are both more patient and more expert.
The editors of the _Christian Union_ practically support me in this
opinion, and the carefully correct type of the paper is evidence of
the highest order. The conditions of these three employments being
present, the mere technicalities of each are of the simplest kind, and
very easily acquired.
"A fair field and no favor" has also been freely granted to women in
every department of music and art. But in its highest branches public
opinion is inexorable to mediocrity; and success is absolutely
dependent on great natural abilities, thoroughly and highly
cultivated. But there are many inferior branches in which women of
average ability, properly educated, may make honorable and profitable
livelihoods. Such, for instance, as engraving on wood and steel,
chasing gold and silver, cutting gems and cameos, and designing for
all these purposes.
Not a few women (and men too) make good livings by designing costumes
for the large dry-goods houses and the fashionable modistes; but the
good designer is a creator, and this faculty has always hitherto been
confined to a small number both of men and women. The ability to draw
by no means proves it; this is only the tool, the design is the
thought. Therefore schools of design, though they may furnish natural
designers with tools, cannot make designers. If designing, then, is a
woman's object, she must not deceive herself; for if the "faculty
divine" is not present she may devote years to study, and never rise
above the mere copyist.
It is usually conceded that antiquity and general "use and wont"
confer a kind of claim to any office. If so, then women have an
inherited right, almost wide as the world, and coeval with history, to
practise medicine. Every one recognizes them as the natural physicians
of the household, and under all our ordinary ailments it is to some
wise woman of our family we go for advice or assistance. As Miss Cobbe
says,--
"Who ever dreams of asking his grandfather, or his uncle, his footman,
or his butler what he shall do for his cold, or to be so kind as to
tie up his cut finger?" Yet women regard such requests as perfectly
natural, and are very seldom unable to gratify them.
Medicine as a profession for women has almost won its ground; and as
it is a science largely depending on insight into individual
peculiarities, it would seem to be specially their office. An
illustrious physician says, "There are no diseases, there are diseased
people;" and the remark explains why women--who instinctively read
mental characters--ought to be admirable physicians.
Indeed female physicians have already gained a position which entitles
them to demand their male opponents to "show cause why" they may not
share in all the honors and emoluments of the faculty. That the
profession, as a means of employment for women, is gaining favor is
evident from their large attendance at the free medical colleges for
women in this city, nor are there any facts to indicate that their
practice is less safe than that of men; and if accidents have taken
place, they were doubtless the result of ignorance, and not of sex.
Theodore Parker favored even the legal profession for women, giving it
as his opinion that "he must be rather an uncommon lawyer who thinks
no feminine head could compete with him." Most lawyers are rather
mechanics at law, than attorneys or scholars at law; and in the
mechanical part women could do as well as men, could be as good
conveyancers, could follow precedents as carefully and copy forms as
nicely. "I think," he adds, "their presence would mend the manners of
the court on the bench, not less than of the bar."
But though, if properly prepared, there would seem no reason why women
could not write out wills, deeds, mortgages, indentures, etc., yet I
doubt much whether they have the natural control and peculiar
aptitudes necessary for a counsellor at law. But no one will deny a
woman's capability to teach, even though so many have gone into the
office that have no right there; for mere ability is not enough.
Teachers, like artists, are born teachers, and the power to impart
knowledge is a free gift of nature.
Those, then, who accept the office without vocation for it, just for a
livelihood, both degrade themselves and it. The duties undertaken with
reluctance lack the spirit which gives light and interest; the
children suffer intelligently, the teacher morally. But if a woman
becomes a teacher, having a call which is unmistakable, she is doubly
blessed, and the world may drop the compassionate tone it is fond of
displaying toward her, or, if it is willing to do her justice, may pay
her more and pity her less.
The question of a woman's right to preach is one that conscience
rather than creeds or opinions must settle. It must be allowed that
her natural influence is, and always has been greater than any
delegated authority. She is born priestess over every soul she can
influence, and the question of her right to preach seems to be only
the question of her right to extend her influence. In this light she
has always been a preacher; it is her natural office, from which
nothing can absolve her. A woman must influence for good or evil every
one she comes in contact with; by no direct effort perhaps, but simply
because she must, it is her nature and her genius.
Whether women will ever do the world's highest work as well as men, I
consider, in all fairness, yet undecided. She has not had time to
recover from centuries of no-education and mis-education: She is only
just beginning to understand that neither beauty nor tact can take the
place of skill, and that to do a man's work she must prepare for it as
a man prepares; but even if time proves that in creative works she
cannot attain masculine grandeur of conception and power of execution,
she may be just as excellent in her own way; and there are and always
will be people who prefer Mrs. Browning to Milton, and George Eliot to
Lord Bacon.
At first sight there seems some plausibility in the assertion that
woman's physical inferiority will always render her unfit to do men's
work. But all physical excellence is a matter of cultivation; and it
would be very easy to prove that women are not naturally physically
weaker than men. In all savage nations they do the hardest work, and
Mr. Livingstone acknowledged that all his ideas as to their physical
inferiority had been completely overturned.
In China they do the work of men, with the addition of an infant tied
to their back. In Calcutta and Bombay, they act as masons, carry
mortar, and there are thousands of them in the mountain passes bearing
up the rocky heights baskets of stone and earth on their heads. The
women in Germany and the Low Countries toil equally with the men.
During the late war I saw American women in Texas keep the saddle all
day, driving cattle or superintending the operations in the
cotton-patch or the sugar-field. Nay, I have known them to plough,
sow, reap, and get wood from the cedar brake with their own hands.
Woman's physical strength has degenerated for want of exercise and
use; but it would be as unfair to condemn her to an inferior position
on this account as it was for the slave master to urge the necessity
of slavery because of the very vices slavery had produced. However, if
women are really to succeed they must give to their preparation for a
profession the freshest years of life. If it is only taken up because
marriage has been a failure, or if it is pursued with a divided mind,
they will always be behind-hand and inferior. But the compensation is
worth the sacrifice. A profession once acquired, they have home,
happiness, and independence in their hands; the future, as far as
possible, is secure, the serenity and calmness of assurance
strengthens the mind and sweetens the character, and from the
standpoint of a self-sustaining celibacy marriage itself assumes its
loftiest position; it is no longer the aim, but the crown and
completion of her life; for _she need not_, so she _will not_, marry
for anything but love, and thus her wifehood will lose nothing of the
grace and glory that belongs to it of right.