WORK FOR THE GIRL AT HOME
We have been referring so far to girls who are earning a living in paid
employment, working usefully and happily in almost all the occupations
which make up the gigantic output of national activity. Many thousands
of girls at home are doing household work which is just as necessary
to national well-being.
Chapter Eighteen on The Home Employments, which follows this chapter on
Work for the Girl at Home, is intended to state more fully the importance
of the occupation of home making. The present chapter is planned to suggest
lines of remunerative work for girls who are helping in home making, but
who require spending money and a healthy, active interest in life and
people outside the home.
Every girl who is helping to make a home may be certain that she is one of
the world's necessary workers. The home people are dependent on her more
directly and to a far greater extent than the work of the office or factory
is dependent on the girl who is a paid employee. The girl at home may not
seem to have anything definite to show for all her daily tasks. As one home
maker said of her own work: "Just a lot of dishes washed and a lot of meals
cooked and eaten." But the working efficiency of all the members of the
household is dependent on this work, and not only their working efficiency,
but their happiness as well. The output of a factory can be expressed in so
many thousands of dollars and cents. But the work of a home is expressed in
a spiritual and mental, as well as in a physical, total.
The girl who is doing necessary work for the home should be paid an
allowance, unless the family income is so limited that it is impossible to
arrange for one. It should be understood in every case that the work of the
girl has a money value, as well as a value which cannot be recompensed
except by affection. When the family income does not permit of an adequate
allowance, happily the girl is often able not only to support herself with
work which allows her to continue her home occupation, but to make a
contribution to the upkeep of the home. The girl at home who is making an
income from other work should save part of what she makes for investment,
for some special training, or for recreation and travelling.
The home girl should remember that her expenses are small. She does not
pay for board and lodging as is generally the case with the girl in paid
employment. There are a hundred small incidental expenses met by the girl
who goes out to work which are not necessary for the girl at home. She has
no set hours to keep and she has time to sew, to make clothes and trim hats
without over-tiring herself as the wage-earning girl often does if she is
her own dressmaker and milliner. The working clothes of the girl at home
may be very simple. She does not need to go out every morning to her work,
and for this reason can dress more economically than her wage-earning
sister, and still be neat and fresh.
Let us suppose that the girl at home needs to earn an income, either small
or fairly large. The first step she should take is to think carefully over
her own possibilities, and the possibilities of the neighbourhood in which
she lives. What can she do that is worth payment, and where can she find
someone who is willing to buy what she has to sell?
She may have a gift for sewing and dressmaking. If she is really capable
and can do satisfactory work, she may easily build up a small business
among her friends and their friends in the making of smart blouses.
The girl should always remember that poor work is never worth while.
Her blouses should be better than anything her clients can buy at a store.
They should have distinction and style of their own, and a fineness and
individuality which the stores cannot rival. If her gift is undeniable but
her workmanship is poor, she should take lessons at a school of dressmaking
and make herself a first-class worker. She may possibly undertake dresses,
although blouses generally are more useful and more possible for the girl
at home. In the same way, the girl with a gift may specialize on hats, but
her hats must be professional in workmanship and individual in style.
Perhaps the girl at home is a born cook. Home-made bread is always in
demand. But it must be the best that can be produced. A specialty in
home-made cakes of certain kinds may be made profitable. Candy-making is
often carried on successfully as a home industry. But the home girl who
does work of any kind for profit must have business sense. She must
itemize her expenses accurately. Cakes or bread which have not turned out
well should never be offered for sale. To do so is not fair to the worker,
for one of her most valuable assets should be the fact that her work is
always satisfactory.
The work of the home has changed greatly in the last fifty years. Once
rugs, carpets, blankets, yarn, soap and candles were made at home. If the
girl can find a market for home-made rugs she might make rug weaving a
profitable employment. The same is true of soap. In these days of thrift
and economy, days when work must be better done than ever, a girl might
induce the women of a neighbourhood to let her become a local soapmaker.
But she would have to be certain of herself and of the work. A co-operative
canning kitchen would be a great benefit to the women of any community, and
two or three home girls who could count on a certain amount of time for
this work could manage the kitchen. This work would be specially suitable
for girls in a small town or country district. They could arrange for a
market in a neighbouring town or city. The arrangement could be made
through a local Women's Institute or Home Makers' Club. "Canning circles"
have been managed successfully in some parts of the country. If the girl
wants a small business of her own in preserving fruits and canning
vegetables, she may develop a market in her own neighbourhood. If her home
is in the country she may arrange to supply a store or a number of
housekeepers in a neighbouring town, or she may help to form a circle and
work with other girls.
Selling flowers, choice fruit and poultry may be made money-making
occupations by either country or city girls. First, the girl should know
her specialty. She should not merely know something about it, but she
should make herself an absolute mistress of it. Her flowers should be fine
in quality and colour. They should be properly handled and properly packed.
To begin with, of course, they should be properly grown. Nothing is left to
accident in a successful business, and the home girl should see that she is
not in any way behind professional dealers in her line. If she is selling
hand-picked fruit, the people who buy from her should know that they will
receive only the best. Those who buy are willing to pay a higher price for
any specialty which is the best of its kind.
Girls whose interests are of a different character may find other paying
employments. To find the employment depends largely on the study of one's
capacity and one's neighbourhood. Is there any opening for a lending
library? Then the girl who is fond of books and reading and who understands
the average taste in reading, provided she can find a little capital, may
start a lending library. It is possible that there may be a library in the
neighbourhood which would be glad to engage her services a few hours in the
day. There are villages and country districts where a girl living at home
could make a success of a small library.
The girl with a turn for keeping accounts might become a visiting
bookkeeper. Doctors and dentists often have their accounts kept by someone
who is not altogether in their employ. A good business connection of this
kind might be worked up in a neighbourhood. Or a girl might answer the
dentist's or doctor's doorbell and telephone during certain hours in the
day. She could give attendance in his office at the same time. A girl is
often able to find employment for some hours a day in a store in the
neighbourhood of her home. A village store which is also the post office
may engage her as an assistant for part of the day.
Mothers in a suburban neighbourhood are often glad to have some girl at
home look after their children one or two afternoons in the week. To
undertake work of this character successfully the girl should be fond of
children and able to manage them. If she can tell stories well, she might
form a circle of children to attend a children's hour. A visiting mother's
help would be a boon in many neighbourhoods.
The possibilities of paying employment for girls at home who have
initiative and some spare time are almost limitless. The girl's ingenuity
is the only measure of what she may do in the way of paying work. The field
of success of two such girls of the writer's acquaintance is the lovely,
old-fashioned home garden. One girl has made a specialty of poultry. Her
stock is of the best. She sells eggs, both for household use and as
"settings." The other girl grows roses in the garden and from her own
success as a rose grower she has become a seller of rose bushes. They are
both happy in their employments, and they continue to be home makers as
well as business women. The income is not the only benefit which the girl
at home receives from such work as this. Her work brings her into contact
with other people, broadens her interests, increases her usefulness, and,
moreover, is often a recreation. The home-maker needs outside interests.
The girl at home is never dull, or unhappy because she is dull, when she
has an avocation in addition to her work and life in the home.
To unite her home-making and her other employment successfully, the girl
should learn how to organize her time. A girl, for instance, might look
after poultry while she waits for the kettle to boil. The same time might
be taken for work in the garden. Heat that is used to cook dinner will
help to can or preserve. The day's work should be planned carefully if
time is to be put to the best use.