Analyzing Character: The New Science of Judging Men; Misfits in Business, the Home and Social LifeBlackford, Katherine M. H. (Katherine Melvina Huntsinger)
Science
Analyzing Character: The New Science of Judging Men; Misfits in Business, the Home and Social Life
Blackford, Katherine M. H. (Katherine Melvina Huntsinger)
Characters and characteristics; Success
Perhaps the saddest of all the misfits are to be found amongst women, or
it may be that their cases seem to us to be saddest because there are so
many of them. Under the old-time regime there was but one vocation open to
women--that of wife and mother. Regardless of aptitudes, physical strength
or weakness, personal likes or dislikes, all women were expected to marry
and bear children, and to qualify successfully for a vocation which
combined the duties of nursemaid, waitress, laundress, seamstress, baker,
cook, governess, purchasing agent, dietitian, accountant, and
confectioner. In the early days of this country, in addition to these
duties, women were also called upon to be butchers, sausage-makers,
tailors, spinners, weavers, shoemakers, candle-makers, cheese-makers,
soap-makers, dyers, gardeners, florists, shepherds, bee-keepers,
poultry-keepers, brewers, picklers, bottlers, butter-makers, mil-liners,
dressmakers, hatters, and first-aid physicians, surgeons and nurses. In
more modern times, women have entered nearly all vocations. But even yet
there is much prejudice against the woman who "descends" out of her
traditional "sphere." The woman who is not a wife, mother, and
house-keeper--or a domestic parasite, housekeeping by proxy--loses caste
among the patricians. Many men and, on their behalf, their mothers and
sisters, shudder at the sordid thought of marrying a girl who has been so
base as to "work for her living." And so stenographers, clerks,
accountants, saleswomen, factory workers, telephone operators, and all
other women in the business world are about 99 per cent temporary workers.
Even in executive positions and in the professions, most women look upon
wages and salaries as favoring breezes, necessary until they drop anchor
in the haven of matrimony. And even those who most sincerely proclaim
themselves wedded to their careers, in many instances, exercise their
ancient privilege, change their minds, and give up all else for husband
and home.
Every normal woman was intended by nature to marry. It is right that she
should marry. She does not truly and fully live unless she does marry. She
misses deep and true joy who is not happily married--and usually feels
cheated. But the same may be said of every normal man. The difference is
that, according to tradition, marriage is woman's career, while man may
choose a life work according to his aptitudes. Because of prejudice,
however, it is rarely that the happily married woman makes a business or
professional career. Husbands, except those who do so through necessity or
those who are unafraid of convention, do not permit their wives to work
outside of the home. Because of false pride, many men say: "I am the
bread-winner. If I cannot support my wife as she should be supported, then
I do not wish to marry." And so thousands of women sigh away their lives
at work they hate while a hungry, sad world suffers for what they would
love to do.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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