Attention has been called to the fact that many housewives, either
because the husband's income is inadequate or because their standard
of family needs is relatively high, or because there is some special
family object to be attained, become wage earners and are away from
their home during the hours of the working day. The devices used by
these mothers for the care of the family during their absence have
been described. The previous discussion has also made clear the fact
that for many women of limited income who do not attempt wage earning,
the task of bearing children and of caring for the home is too heavy,
especially during the time when the children are coming one after the
other in fairly rapid succession.
The visiting nurse may help in time of illness; the midwife may come
in for a few days immediately after the child is born; the man may be
very handy and helpful; the older girl or boy may stay at home from
school; but it is evident that some agency should be devised for
rendering additional assistance to such mothers. The day nursery
suggests itself, and its possibilities are easily understood; but it
is an agency that has been developed in response to the demand of
married women for the chance to supplement the husband's earnings, or
of widows and deserted women to assume the place of breadwinner.
For the kind of assistance we have in mind, some such agency as the
mother's helper, proposed by the English Women's Co-operative Guild,
is suggested. This proposal was developed as an item in a program for
adequate maternity care, but has been extended in its application so
as to include all women who are attempting to carry the burden we have
described. It expresses the widening recognition that the volume of
tasks expected of the housewife as mother and caretaker is greater
than one woman can be expected to perform. It rests also on the
conviction that such assistance is professional in character and
should be standardized in skill.
Experiments in this field might well be undertaken by the same
agencies that attempt to receive and introduce the newly arrived
groups, and as rapidly as the method becomes established the functions
could be taken over by the appropriate specialized agency, whether
public or private.[71] For example, the two following recommendations
recently offered by official bodies in England illustrate the need to
which we are calling attention. The first is taken from a memorandum
prepared at the request and for the consideration of the Women's
Employment Committee.