WOMEN IN BUSINESS
If all homes were ideal and all men likewise, there would be no question
of woman suffrage or woman in business. But this is not an ideal world;
all women who have kept their places and stayed at home, kept house and
taken care of their children have not led ideal lives. In too many
instances the home woman, the little wren, has been deserted for the gay
song-bird. The necessities of life have forced other women into the
business world--women whose preference would be for the ideal, quiet
home life. One must not think that because a woman is leading a public
life that she prefers it, that she has no desire for a home and little
ones. Often her choice has been the lesser of two evils,--more to be
desired than a life, married, but loveless; one in which she must slave
from morn till eve and then receive as recompense curses and
fault-finding.
The woman who refuses to so demean the married life as to enter into
such a marriage, preferring instead the busy life of a bachelor maid, is
to be admired rather than condemned. That she makes a success of her
business life tends to show what some man has missed by not proving
himself worthy to be her husband.
We hear so much about woman entering into business--just as though she
had not always been in business. Stop and think about our ancestors on
the farms. The woman shared the work equally with the man. He attended
to the heavier work, while she attended to that which required less
physical strength but more attention to details. The products of her
industry often brought as much ready cash as that derived from the sale
of the larger products of the farm. Many families depended for the
yearly supply of clothes and luxuries on the money thus obtained from
the sale of butter, eggs and chickens. In olden days, too, many a woman
derived an income from the sale of home-made rugs and counterpanes.
Just how men have conceived the idea that it is only the modern woman
who is a money earner, I cannot understand, nor can I understand how
some men expect women to be happy in idleness. The most unhappy women
in the world are the women who have a great deal of leisure time. Many a
man objects to his wife taking up any outside work even though it would
not interfere with her household duties. This usually is due to false
pride on his part. He is afraid of what others will say; afraid his
friends will think he is not capable of supporting his wife. Some of
these men forget to take into account the possibility that an accident
or illness may take him away, business failures may sweep away his
accumulations and then his wife must face the necessity of earning her
living. Alas, how seldom is she prepared to do this! If, during the
leisure time of her protected life, she had been perfecting herself in
some branch of industry, her future would be easily solved.
A woman can devote several hours a day to outside affairs and still not
neglect her home duties. Home-making does not necessarily mean that the
woman herself must do the washing, ironing, cooking, baking or sewing.
She must see that these are performed properly but the actual work may
all be done by others. A business man does not attempt to do all the
work of the office himself. He employs a bookkeeper, a clerk and a
stenographer to attend to the details while he directs. It is the same
way with a home, a woman may employ others to do the physical labor
while she directs.
Then as to the married woman earning money. Let me give you an
illustration. A woman has spent the early part of her life perfecting
herself in some branch of work, for instance, book cover designing. She
marries a man in moderate circumstances and does not feel that she can
afford to be idle and employ someone else to do her house work. She is a
slenderly built woman and it would be a great tax on her strength to
perform all the household duties--for some parts of housekeeping require
such hard physical labor that even many men would not care to attempt
them. It certainly would seem a very reasonable thing for this woman to
devote several hours a day to book cover designing and use the money so
earned to employ a strong woman to do the heavy housework. This
arrangement would be better for all concerned; first, the woman would be
happier and more contented; next, the man would enjoy his home more,
for any man certainly would rather come home and find his wife contented
and happy and with leisure time to devote to him, than to come home and
find her all tired out, and consequently cross, with the housework so
unfinished she must devote her evening to some household task.
If circumstances have given a woman home and children, they always must
come first, but this does not mean the woman must do housework if
conditions permit the employment of somebody to do it. She must do the
work for which she is best fitted both by nature and by training.
In whatever occupation a woman is engaged she should endeavor to make a
success of that work, to do it a little better than anyone else could;
for in every field of endeavor there is joy and reward for always being
and doing one's best. The great secret of success is _concentration_.
Too many women waste their energies thinking and talking about the
things they would like to do. Every time you talk about the thing you
would like to do you waste just that much energy and make your goal less
possible of achievement. That which seems difficult before is usually
found easy to accomplish, once undertaken. If you wish to accomplish
anything _hold the thought_ in your mind and concentrate all your powers
in that direction. Do not scatter your energies like chaff to be blown
hither and thither.