Herself: Talks with Women Concerning ThemselvesLowry, E. B. (Edith Belle)
Science
Herself: Talks with Women Concerning Themselves
Lowry, E. B. (Edith Belle)
Sexual ethics; Women -- Health and hygiene
The woman who refuses to so demean the married life as to enter into
such a marriage, preferring instead the busy life of a bachelor maid, is
to be admired rather than condemned. That she makes a success of her
business life tends to show what some man has missed by not proving
himself worthy to be her husband.
We hear so much about woman entering into business--just as though she
had not always been in business. Stop and think about our ancestors on
the farms. The woman shared the work equally with the man. He attended
to the heavier work, while she attended to that which required less
physical strength but more attention to details. The products of her
industry often brought as much ready cash as that derived from the sale
of the larger products of the farm. Many families depended for the
yearly supply of clothes and luxuries on the money thus obtained from
the sale of butter, eggs and chickens. In olden days, too, many a woman
derived an income from the sale of home-made rugs and counterpanes.
Just how men have conceived the idea that it is only the modern woman
who is a money earner, I cannot understand, nor can I understand how
some men expect women to be happy in idleness. The most unhappy women
in the world are the women who have a great deal of leisure time. Many a
man objects to his wife taking up any outside work even though it would
not interfere with her household duties. This usually is due to false
pride on his part. He is afraid of what others will say; afraid his
friends will think he is not capable of supporting his wife. Some of
these men forget to take into account the possibility that an accident
or illness may take him away, business failures may sweep away his
accumulations and then his wife must face the necessity of earning her
living. Alas, how seldom is she prepared to do this! If, during the
leisure time of her protected life, she had been perfecting herself in
some branch of industry, her future would be easily solved.
A woman can devote several hours a day to outside affairs and still not
neglect her home duties. Home-making does not necessarily mean that the
woman herself must do the washing, ironing, cooking, baking or sewing.
She must see that these are performed properly but the actual work may
all be done by others. A business man does not attempt to do all the
work of the office himself. He employs a bookkeeper, a clerk and a
stenographer to attend to the details while he directs. It is the same
way with a home, a woman may employ others to do the physical labor
while she directs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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