THINGS AS THEY MIGHT BE.
Supposing so much to be granted, it will be asked, What can be done?
Clearly, girls cannot be kept at school indefinitely till they marry.
When they leave school, say at eighteen, what are they to do next?
The answer must chiefly depend on circumstances. Where the resources
of the parents are such that there is a reasonable certainty of an
abundant provision for the future, an education corresponding with that
given by the universities to young men--in other words, ‘the education
of a lady,’ considered irrespectively of any specific uses to which
it may afterwards be turned--would appear to be the desideratum. And
clearly ‘the education of a lady’ ought to mean the highest and the
finest culture of the time. The accurate habits of thought and the
intellectual polish by which the scholar is distinguished, ought to
be no less carefully sought in the training of women than in that
of men. This would be true, even if only for the sake of the charm
which high culture gives to social intercourse, a charm attainable
in no other way. But apart from this consideration, the duties of
women of the higher class are such as to demand varied knowledge
as well as a disciplined mind and character. Difficult cases in
social ethics frequently arise, on which women are obliged to act
and to guide the action of others. However incompetent they may be,
they cannot escape the responsibility of judging and deciding. And
though natural sagacity and the happy impulses of which we hear so
much often come to their aid, prejudice and mistaken impulses ought
also to be taken into the account as disturbing elements of a very
misleading kind. In dealing with social difficulties, the value of a
cultivated judgment, able to unravel entangled evidence, and to give
due weight to a great variety of conflicting considerations, would
seem to be obvious enough. It would be well worth while to exchange
the wonderful unconscious instinct, by which women are supposed to
leap to right conclusions, no one knows how, for the conscious power
of looking steadily and comprehensively at the whole facts of a case,
and thereupon shaping a course of action, with a clear conception of
its probable issues. Of course, a merely literary education will not
give this power. Knowledge of the world and of human nature, only to be
gained by observation and experience, go farther than mere knowledge
of books. But the habit of impartiality and deliberation--of surveying
a wide field of thought--and of penetrating, so far as human eye can
see, into the heart of things--which is promoted by genuine study even
of books alone--tends to produce an attitude of mind favourable for
the consideration of complicated questions of any sort. A comparison
between the judgment of a scholar and that of an uneducated man on
matters requiring delicate discrimination and grasp of thought, shows
the degree in which the intellect may be fitted by training for tasks
of this nature. A large and liberal culture is probably also the best
corrective of the tendency to take petty views of things, and on this
account is especially to be desired for women on whom it devolves to
give the tone to ‘society.’
How far it may be desirable or justifiable for women to take part
in political affairs is a vexed question, into which it is the less
necessary here to enter, inasmuch as it is evident that the same
kind of intellectual training which forms the groundwork of the
education of a statesman is needed for other purposes. Women who think
at all can scarcely help thinking about the condition of the poor,
and to arrive at sound conclusions on so vast a subject involves an
acquaintance more or less complete with almost every consideration
which comes within the range of the politician. Unpaid work, such as
the management of hospitals, workhouses, prisons and reformatories,
and charitable societies, naturally devolves upon the leisurely
classes, and offers a field in which cultivated women may fitly labour.
And the moment they enter upon such work, or attempt in any way to
alleviate the sufferings of the poor, they find that a strong, clear
head is as necessary as a warm heart. The problem how to deal with
pauperism--the very same difficulty which has hitherto baffled the
wisest of our statesmen--meets them at the threshold of their works.
The encouragement or discouragement of the pauper spirit depends
in a great degree on the discretion of district visitors and other
charitable agents; and the women who act as the almoners of the rich
and the advisers of the poor need for their difficult task something
more than mere gushing benevolence. Or to take national education. ‘My
Lords’ make codes, revise and re-revise them, and Members of Parliament
exhaust themselves in debates upon them; but a large share of their
practical working devolves upon the wives and daughters of the clergy,
and other ladies. Similarly of sanitary reform, which now attracts much
attention. Sanitary laws and regulations have been enacted, and no
doubt with good effect, but boards of health and inspectors can do but
little without the intelligent co-operation of the women, on whom it
depends to enforce personal and household hygiene in every family. Many
other social questions might be mentioned on which women are required
to know and to act. It would, in fact, be difficult to point out any
measure of domestic policy which has been brought before Parliament
during the last few years, on which it is not as directly important
that right opinions should be formed by women as by men.
The higher education already spoken of would serve as a preparation
for literary work, and as a groundwork for more definite technical
instruction in every department of art. And, lastly, an extended course
of study is, above all things, necessary for those who are to undertake
the office of teaching others. The incompleteness of the education
of schoolmistresses and governesses is a drawback which no amount of
intelligence and goodwill can enable them entirely to overcome. It
is obvious that for those who have to impart knowledge the primary
requisite is to possess it; and it is one of the great difficulties
of female teachers that they are called upon to instruct others,
while very inadequately instructed themselves. The more earnest and
conscientious devote their leisure hours to continued study, and, no
doubt, much may be done in this way; but it is at the cost of overwork,
often involving the sacrifice of health, to say nothing of the
disadvantages of working alone, without a teacher, often without good
books, and without the wholesome stimulus of companionship.
These considerations lead up to the more distinctly professional side
of the question, that which relates to the pursuit of any particular
calling as a means of maintenance. Every one knows that there are
women, some even of the upper class, who must earn their own living;
and this being admitted, it will scarcely be disputed that they ought
to be put into the best way of doing it. The thing to find out seems to
be what professions are there, taking the word as including business of
all sorts, to which they might betake themselves with a fair prospect
of success? Perhaps we may gain some light by looking into history, and
seeing what went on in earlier times, before the advance of science,
with its infinite subdivisions of labour, had made it almost impossible
to carry on any profitable pursuit within the precincts of home.
Confining ourselves, for the sake of brevity, to English history, we
find among the ordinary avocations of women Medicine and Surgery,
including the compounding and dispensing of drugs; the service of the
afflicted and distressed in mind, body, or estate; farming; marketing;
and a variety of domestic manufactures, too numerous to recite in
detail.
Would the same pursuits, under regulations adapted to altered
conditions, be proper for women now? Among those which have been
mentioned, that of Medicine appears peculiarly desirable, as affording
scope for the exercise of the highest gifts, in a field in which
women’s close acquaintance with the details of domestic life would
be a valuable adjunct. The medical profession is now accessible to
any competent woman who is able to defray the cost of instruction.
The licence of the Court of Apothecaries, which constitutes a legal
qualification for general practice, is given on passing the required
examinations. There is no difficulty in the way of apprenticeship, and
lectures and hospital practice are attainable, though at a higher cost
to individual students, than would be incurred if the expense were
divided among several. The objection often urged against the practice
of medicine by women, that they have no confidence in each other, and
that a medical woman would therefore find herself without patients,
can only be conclusively answered by facts. _À priori_, there is some
reason to believe, that, always assuming the education to be equally
thorough and equally well attested, the services of a lady will be
preferred; but till women have full opportunity of choice, it is
impossible to say positively what they will choose. The experience of a
few years will decide. In the meantime, Miss Garrett’s very remarkable
success is at least encouraging to other aspirants in the same field.
Closely allied to the practice of medicine are the functions of
educated women in ministering to the poor, the insane, and the
criminal. These services, so far as they are paid, are now chiefly
carried on in workhouses, hospitals, reformatories, and penitentiaries.
The superintendence of nurses and the offices of matron and
schoolmistress are in the hands of women, and there seems room for
further development in this direction. It may be a question for
consideration whether in some cases it might not be desirable to
substitute the services of an educated Christian lady for those of the
chaplain. The duties of a workhouse chaplain are thus defined by the
Poor-Law Board:--
‘ART. 211. _Duties of the Chaplain._
‘The following shall be the duties of the chaplain:--
‘No. 1. To read prayers, and preach a sermon to the paupers and
other inmates of the workhouse on every Sunday, and on Good Friday
and Christmas-day, unless the guardians, with the consent of the
commissioners, may otherwise direct.
‘No. 2. To examine the children, and to catechise such as belong to
the Church of England, at least once in every month, and to make a
record of the same, and state the dates of his attendance, the general
progress and condition of the children, and the moral and religious
state of the inmates generally, in a book to be kept for that purpose,
to be laid before the guardians at their next ordinary meeting, and to
be termed “The Chaplain’s Report.”
‘No. 3. To visit the sick paupers, and to administer religious
consolation to them in the workhouse, at such periods as the guardians
may appoint, and when applied to for that purpose by the master or
matron.’
The work laid out under the two last clauses might certainly be done
as well, in some respects perhaps better, by a duly qualified lady;
and on the face of it, there seems to be no particular reason why
paupers should not attend their parish church and be visited by the
clergyman like other parishioners. The desirableness of workhouse
visiting by ladies has been much discussed, and is now beginning to
be acknowledged. The presence of a lady in an official capacity might
be still more valuable, both as being permanent and as waiving the
difficulties which are so apt to come in the way of philanthropic
interference in state institutions. A lady appointed expressly by
the guardians themselves could scarcely provoke jealousy, and her
representations, based on thorough knowledge of the matter in hand, and
modified by sympathy with the difficulties and scruples of authorities,
as well as with the claims of the suffering, would be comparatively
exempt from the charge of officiousness. That she would naturally
gather round her such helpers as she might need in an unofficial
capacity is an obvious advantage. The same observations would seem to
be applicable to hospitals and prisons, and all public institutions
where women are employed in a subordinate capacity. That the presence
and the active influence of a lady, by whatever name she might be
called, would be a valuable element, wherever the sick in mind or body
are congregated together, is generally admitted, though the theory has
not in England been acted upon to any considerable extent.
Next in our enumeration comes the business of farming. The social
prejudice against useful occupations of any sort, as distinguished
from those which are supposed to be ornamental, has here been actively
at work. The superintendence of farming operations is still, however,
largely shared by women, especially in the north of England. In
commercial dealings there is a good deal of work to be done which could
not, at any rate in our present very imperfect state of civilisation,
be properly undertaken by women. There are, however, branches of
mercantile and quasi-mercantile business, including that profession
of modern growth which has been called ‘management,’--in which wise
arrangements, carefully made, are all that is required to make them
suitable. In almost every kind of business, wholesale and retail, the
book-keeping and the correspondence might be very fitly carried on by
competent women.
With regard to the manufactures which now form so vast a portion of our
national industry, a great revolution has taken place, and it is here,
above all, that a re-adjustment of social and domestic arrangements,
involving some innovation on conventional ideas and usages, seems to
be imperatively needed. Down to a comparatively recent period, every
household was a workshop. It is within the present generation that
the sewing-machine has laid hold of the last remaining implement of
domestic manufacture. The home is no longer a manufactory. Spinning,
weaving, knitting, sewing, all are gone, or going. What has become
of the busy hands and brains? The hands are gone into factories, the
brains are idle. We cannot call back the hands, and again set them to
work in the domestic manufactory. Might it not be possible to bring
them again under womanly influence, and at the same time find fit
work for the brains, by introducing women of the employing class into
factories? Might we not restore the old order of things, under which
the payers of wages and the receivers of wages worked together, to
the mutual advantage of both--by replacing women in the position of
directors and overlookers of female labour? It is vain to say that a
factory is not a fit place for a lady. If it is not, it ought to be
made so. If the moral atmosphere of a workshop is necessarily debasing,
no human being ought to be exposed to its influence. But is it
_necessarily_ debasing? Are machines in themselves demoralising? What
is the moral difference between a spinning-jenny and a distaff? Are
knitting-needles refined, and knitting-machines coarse? Is there any
reason, in the nature of things, why the moral tone of a factory should
be less pure and elevating than that of the home? Is it not rather
that we want, in our modern workshops, the influence conveyed by
daily intercourse between women to whom wealth has given the means of
culture and refinement, and the labourers whom poverty obliges to work
with their hands, but who need not therefore part with any essential
feminine attribute? If, in all the works where women are employed in
the inferior departments, the daughters of the masters were instructed
in the business, made so thoroughly conversant with it as to be able to
take a real part in its direction, two advantages would be gained. The
higher class of workers would acquire larger sympathies, more living
interests, increased aptitude for affairs, and an exhilarating sense
of usefulness--of having a place in the world from which they would
be missed if they were withdrawn from it. The lower class would, on
their part, be elevated by the contact with a genuine refinement, not
too ‘fine’ to be useful. They would see that a lady is a lady, not in
virtue of her costly dress and luxurious habits, but in the gentleness,
the truthfulness, and the sensitive sympathy, which are among the most
precious fruits of high culture. And it can scarcely be doubted that
such an example, such an ideal, brought within the immediate and daily
contemplation of women and girls of the labouring class, would be more
effectual in rectifying their standard of morals and refinement than
any philanthropic agency, however well-intentioned and judicious,
which could be brought to bear from without. In some cases there might
be difficulties in the way of teaching women the practical parts of a
manufacture, but there can be few businesses in which some place might
not be found for them. Even where female labourers are not employed in
the lower departments--though there the case is the strongest--women
might often take part in the direction, with great advantage to
themselves, and at least without injury to any one else.
It appears, then, that a transference of the scene of action, and an
accommodation of old principles and practices to new circumstances, is
the task of the present generation, and the true answer to the appeal
of women for something to do. The change proposed, so far from being
a departure from the old ways, is, in fact, a recurrence to them. The
advocates of things as they are, are the innovators. Those who sigh
after things as they might be, are the old-fashioned people, eager to
retain, with only such modifications as advancing civilisation has made
indispensable, all that is best in things as they were.
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