WOMAN IN BUSINESS RELATIONS
THE number of women who enter into business life and the number of
avenues open to them for earning a living are constantly increasing.
And however much we may be disposed to ridicule the agitation
concerning woman’s progress and the rights of woman, no fair-minded
person can fail to recognize the happy changes such agitation in the
last decade has wrought in the attitude of the world toward women who
make their own way in it. The old-fashioned prejudice of gentility
against a woman employing her powers to make money has very largely
disappeared. Many a delicate-minded woman of the old school has lived
in poverty or has incurred unwillingly financial obligations to family
connections because of the prejudice against her doing something for
herself, because of the feeling that her social position, a matter
naturally of high importance to a woman, would be injured by her
stepping out of the family niche and picking up something for herself
on the highway open to all. She feared more even than this, perhaps,
the loss of those particularly feminine attributes and charms so dear
to every real woman’s heart. In the old-fashioned conception of a woman
who worked outside of her own home, it used to be taken for granted
that she must be denied social consideration and must give up her share
of fun in the world.
[Sidenote: A LIBRARY ATTENDANT]
All this is now a matter of history, and is recalled only for the
purpose of showing the contrast between her former outlook and her
present one. Except in a few ultra fashionable communities in the
United States, the social position of a woman in business is not
affected unhappily by her work. Provided she has the qualities
requisite for social recognition and consideration, her business is no
detriment. She has the same general opportunities for social recreation
that offer themselves to a man of business, and it often happens that
her work gives a zest to the enjoyment of such opportunities, unknown
to women of idler habits. The writer has in mind, as an example, an
engaging young woman who serves most acceptably as attendant in the
public library of a western city. Her duties keep her from nine in
the morning till six in the evening, but they have not, in the least,
obscured her charmingly agreeable personal quality. She is much in
demand. The number of her masculine admirers is large enough to excite
the envy of many a girl whose father’s bank-account is a large one.
The attention she gives to her work seems to impart an added vivacity
to her playtime.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: BUSINESS IS BUSINESS]
Notwithstanding the fact, however, that a woman may enjoy the leisure
she has for social demands as much after entering business life as
before, she must not carry the little graces and amenities of society
into business life. Business is business with a woman as well as a
man, and the woman who succeeds in the calling she has chosen is the
one who does not attempt to mix its details with matters of a more
recreative nature. She must not expect to win favors by any but the
straightforward method of doing her work well. The prejudice which so
long existed among men against women in business relations was partly
caused by the thought that they could never forget that they were
women, could never discuss work or business relations on impersonal
and rational grounds. The first lesson a woman must learn in making
her own way financially is to appreciate the fact that the office, the
shop, whatever be her place of employment, is no place for superfluous
courtesies. The cultivation of a cool, matter-of-fact, unsentimental
way of looking at the work in hand, is the only path to honorable
achievement.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: GOOD DRESSING IMPORTANT]
What a woman wears, cheap moralists to the contrary, is always
important. It is especially important in business relations because
the impression she creates is, to a considerable degree, dependent
upon it. The self-supporting woman, when about her work, should not
dress elaborately or conspicuously. Bright colors, jewels, extreme
hats should be rigidly barred from her wardrobe. She should be dressed
quietly but becomingly, with exquisite neatness and, to a reasonable
extent, in the prevailing mode. A quiet elegance in style, care in the
manner of putting on her clothes,—these go a long way toward creating
the proper appearance for the woman in business. Human nature being as
it is, the properly gowned woman of business has a far better chance
than the one who is dowdily dressed.
* * * * *
The habit of many young girls in the business world of wearing sleeves
that do not come to the elbow and displaying an amount of chest that
would be proper only at an evening party, is a serious mistake. Another
mistake is the marked preference for wearing, even in winter time,
white shirt-waists. If these waists are to be really fresh and fit
for wear, a new one must be put on every day, and that is an expense
that the wearers clearly can not afford. Dark dresses, with touches
of white at neck and wrists, are a much wiser choice when one must
economize.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: OPPORTUNITIES IN BUSINESS]
It is very commonly said that men have larger interests than women,
and that one reason for this lies in the fact that, in their every-day
work, they form, naturally and easily, relations with many people;
whereas a woman’s relations with the world too often come through the
more artificial channels of pleasure. A woman in business has the same
opportunity for meeting people on real ground that a man has. She
should take advantage of these openings to healthful communication
with her kind. We have all come in contact with women who have been
thus broadened and have realized in them a kind of attraction not to
be found in women leading more secluded lives. It is well in summing
up the pros and cons of the business woman’s life to lay stress on her
advantages, and the one just named is one of which she should make the
most.
Women, as a class, are sometimes accused of a lack of method in the
performance of their tasks. This is owing to the fact that the duties
of domestic life may often be performed at any hour the housekeeper
chooses, and that attention to them is not rigidly fixed as to time.
A business career is often an effectual remedy for desultory habits.
And this is the reason that many women who have served a time as
wage-earners come back to housekeeping with renewed energy and ability.
The best housekeepers the writer has ever known were retired women
of business. They put into the tasks of the home the method, the
promptness they learned in a more exacting field.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: AFTER WORKING HOURS]
However, women who are engaged the greater part of the day in offices,
libraries, in shops, should not be expected to engage to any large
degree in household duties. It sometimes happens that the members of
a family circle, in which one woman goes out to earn her bread and
butter, have little consideration for her tired state of mind and body
when she leaves her work and returns to her home. They expect of her a
double duty, and this is manifestly unfair. It is most important that
a business woman have rest or diversion in her spare time, so that she
will not get into a rut, so that she may do justice to her work.
[Sidenote: A WORD OF ADVICE]
Her family should not forget that her money-making powers will be
crippled by forced attention to other duties. Men are treated far
more considerately in this regard than women. Nothing is allowed to
interfere with the average business man’s arrangements. To facilitate
these, everything possible is done by his family. This may be because
men are more insistent, because they have a way of demanding their
rights. It would be well for women in business, well also for their
families, that they should “look sharp” and pursue the same policy.