The girl of seventeen is never helped in the same way, in many cases because it has never occurred to men that girls could be so assisted. There are many other reasons, which I do not propose to dwell on here. I am not addressing myself to those who do not wish women to earn their living, but to those who, having accepted the fact that many girls must work for a living, would be glad to help them in any way that might be suggested; and I am also speaking to those women who prefer, no matter what their private resources may be, to be trained for some occupation which will call for the exercise of mental powers which they know they possess. I am also confining my remarks to working women educated for their work in life, and am not referring to the large numbers of women who take up work without any other training than the general education acquired at school. If the woman, who from seventeen to twenty-two has been trained for her profession, cannot obtain the salary which, as Mr. Pollard has shown, is necessary to keep her in good health and provide for her old age, there is no need to say that the untrained schoolgirl enters the labour market at a greater disadvantage. Now, on what principles is a girl’s career determined? In a large number of cases the parents take it for granted that she will be married in a few years, and they feel they can support her at home in comfort until then. Fortunately the girl herself does not always take this view; she thinks it quite possible that she never will be married, and she also sees that in that case she may in middle life be left with an income quite inadequate and necessitating a total change in her habits of living. If she has any public spirit, she will not undersell her poorer competitors, and will see no reason why she should not be paid the full worth of her services; she will be glad to know that her services are really worth her living. But all that she sees before her, unless she has exceptional talent, is teaching. It is the same with girls who _have_ to earn their living and whose parents can only afford to give them an expensive training in the hope that a remunerative income may afterwards be obtained. They also must be teachers; it is the only brain-work offered them, and badly paid as it is, it is better paid than any other work done by women. The result is that we see girls following the stream and entering the teaching profession; after a few years, growing weary and sick of it, tired of training intellects, and doubtful about the practical value of the training, or altogether careless of it; discontented with a life for which they are naturally unsuited, and seeing no other career before them. We see others, who have a strong practical bent, giving themselves up to purely intellectual studies, because they are the only ones possible to them; and, on the other hand, clever girls, who have no scholastic ambitions, are left to fritter away their