Since women had been working since work began, they could not consent to
remain at home idle. The result is seen in the rush of the modern woman
into business life.
The last census shows that in the United States women are following every
trade and profession except the army and the navy. Even the army has a
woman physician, Dr. Anita McGee, who wears a uniform. In Europe, the
uniformed woman is by no means a rarity. Almost every royal woman wears
military honors.
It will be remembered that Queen Victoria was carried to her grave on a
gun-carriage like an officer, because as Queen of England and Empress of
India she was head of the British army and of the greatest navy in the
world.
To have an occupation is almost as natural to the American girl of to-day
as to her brother. For a woman to go into business used to be like
climbing a mountain; now it is almost like going down a toboggan slide.
When she leaves school she expects to work.
Sometimes she finishes her education in a public school and goes into a
shop, factory, or mill. She may become one of the 75,000 milliners, the
100,000 saleswomen, the 120,000 cotton workers, the 275,000 laundresses,
or the 340,000 dressmakers.
If she can stay longer in school, she may become one of the 320,000 school
teachers. Or she may go to a college, which sternly closed its doors in
the face of her grandmother, and carry off the prizes and the honors from
the men. She can enter a university, come out B.A., M.A., or Ph.D., and
join the thousand women who are already college professors.