And here lies the great difference between men and women in the labour market. All that the average man demands is that his work should be honest and remunerative. It need not be interesting, or elevating, or heroic. Most women, on the other hand, who look forward to a long working career must have an occupation to which they can give both heart and mind. The reason is simple. The woman is living an isolated life; unless her work involves the exercise of what may be termed her maternal faculties, she is living an unnatural life. Men, on the other hand, whatever be their employment, are generally husbands and fathers. What they earn is of more importance than what they do. In measuring women’s economic advance this need for a human interest in their work must never be forgotten. Of any occupation it must be asked, What does it offer to women when the novelty has worn off, and they realise that for twenty or thirty years more nearly all their time must be given to it? Another fact, too, must be remembered--that although high pay may compensate for uninteresting work, a woman will never be worth high pay if the work does not interest her. And we find, therefore, the paradoxical result that, generally speaking, the women who earn the highest incomes are the women who have chosen their work for the work’s sake. Taking these points into consideration, I am inclined to think that we have made sufficient economic progress to be “good, useful, healthy and self-respecting” up to the age of thirty. But the great mass of middle-class women, if fated to earn their living as middle-aged spinsters, would, I am afraid, be unable to earn an income sufficient to keep either their utility or their health up to the standard. But optimists may fairly urge that the majority will not be called upon to go through this ordeal. The average woman marries; it is the exceptionally intellectual or the exceptionally feeble-minded who do not. The latter will be looked after by society, and the former can hold her own. That is true to some extent. But while I think we have made great strides in the right direction, I think we have some serious truths to face. We are constantly congratulating ourselves that our middle-aged spinsters have nothing in common with the old maid of the past, while we assume that the next half-century will see a still greater exaltation of the maiden lady. I doubt it very much, unless much more thought and effort are given to making the duller girls industrially competent.