WOMAN'S PROBLEMS OF WORK
INTRODUCTORY
The outline given here may be amplified by taking up in the same general
way the conditions of life of women in several representative countries,
both the rich and poor, the workers and the women of leisure, closing
the year with an outlook on the whole woman question of the world.
The first point to be taken up is the life of the primitive woman. She
was the great laborer. The man hunted and fished and fought, and the
woman sowed and reaped, did the drudgery of the home, made clothing,
prepared food, and bore the responsibility. As civilization slowly crept
in she relinquished many of her out-of-door tasks and developed greater
ability to meet the steadily increasing problems within doors.
Notice where savagery still persists, women remain in the same condition
as in primitive times. Read of the African women, and the Bushmen of
Australia.
The study of the Hebrew women is the next point, for they advanced from
a comparatively obscure position to one of honor. The Greek women may be
compared with them. Read of the life of the Roman women. Next will come
the study of the Anglo-Saxon women, working with their hands, but
intelligent and forceful. Study the women of the next period, that of
the Crusades. Read of the romantic lives of some, and follow with a
paper on the women in convents and their occupations. From this point
on, women's work remained much the same for the leisure class; but as
life grew socially more complex, work became more intricate and varied.
The study of cottage industries may be mentioned here. Have several
papers showing the life of the time our own colonies were established,
and the work done by women. The important thing to be noticed is that
all women worked; idleness was not in fashion. They spun and wove, they
knitted and dyed, they made candles and table linen, and cotton and
woolen clothing. Some few still carried on cottage industries or taught
dames' schools, and a few managed farms or kept shops or taverns; but
most of them were employed in the home exclusively.
About the middle of the nineteenth century came the great world-wide
industrial revolution which forever changed women's work, and for a time
the work of men. Read of the introduction of machines into the English
districts where the hand looms had been in use. Have papers or talks on
conditions everywhere in this transition period. This was the beginning
of the great work of women in factories. Especially in New England,
factory work became a large part of life. Daughters of farmers, of
shop-keepers, of the owners of the mills themselves, and many
school-teachers in vacation, were employed from five o'clock in the
morning until seven o'clock in the evening. There was no social stigma
put upon them. Read from the early history of Mount Holyoke.
Mill towns were considered models of quietness and morality because of
the presence of hundreds of women. Their life was full of intellectual
stimulation; lyceums brought the best lecturers: Emerson, Lowell, and
other great writers and orators often spoke; the women edited and
published little newspapers of their own. Lucy Larcom was a mill girl;
read her poem called "An Idyl of Work," and her paper published in the
_Atlantic Monthly_, volume 48, called "Mill Girls' Magazines."
But the hours of work were too long, the boarding houses too poor, the
pay too meager. Gradually the American girl was replaced by the
foreigner, and this period of work was at an end.
From this point factory work, as we know it, will open before the club.
Study it especially in relation to cigar and cigarette and candy making,
and in clothing industries of all sorts. Describe conditions as factory
inspection has discovered them; notice the unsafe buildings, the long
hours, heavy fines, and low pay. Discuss what should be done to remedy
such evils. Have some of these questions taken up: Should Women Enter
Trade Unions, or Is Organization Unnecessary? Do Strikes Pay? Should
Women Insist on Compensation for Injuries and Old-Age Pensions? Can a
Woman Work All Day and Still Bear Healthy Children and Bring Them Up
Properly? Should There Be Mothers' Pensions? What of Night Work for
Women? Describe the life of the night scrub-woman in a city. Read "The
Long Day."
Turning to the work of women in shops, notice that it was about 1859
when the first women took this up. Compare the conditions then with
conditions to-day. Describe welfare work. Discuss the "living wage," and
question whether this should not depend on competence. What of lack of
recreation and social life? Does the low wage drive girls to immorality?
What can be done locally to better conditions in our shops?
This all leads up to the enormous subject of women's work to-day. It is
said that three hundred lines of work are open to them, and clubs should
select what they prefer to study. Among the many books of reference to
be found on these and similar topics are: "Woman and Labor," Olive
Schreiner (F. A. Stokes Co.); "Women and Economics," Charlotte Perkins
Stetson (Small, Maynard); "Women in Industry," Edith Abbott (D. Appleton
& Co.); "The American Business Woman," J. H. Cromwell (G. P. Putnam's
Sons); "Women's Share in Social Culture," Anna G. Spencer (Mitchell
Kennerley); "The Long Day," D. Richardson (Century Co.); "Woman and
Social Progress," Scott and Nellie Nearing (The Macmillan Co.); "The
Girl Who Earns Her Own Living," Anna Steese Richardson (Dodge); "How
Women May Earn a Living," Helen C. Candee (The Macmillan Co.); "The
Business of Being a Woman," Ida M. Tarbell (The Macmillan Co.); "Mrs.
Julia Ward Howe and the Suffrage Movement," by Florence Howe Hall (The
Page Company).