A recent study of children of working mothers, soon to be published by
the United States Children's Bureau, carried on at the Chicago School
of Civics and Philanthropy, obtained the testimony of the mothers as
to the difficulties involved. This study showed that in many cases the
household duties could not be performed at the proper time; 60 women,
for example, of the 109 reporting on this question, said that they did
not make their beds until night; 105 said their dishes were not washed
after each meal, but in 41 cases were washed in the mornings, and in
56 not until night. Three washed them in the morning if they had time,
and five left them for the children, after school.
Many women who worked outside the home did their housekeeping without
assistance from other members of the family. This meant that they had
to get up early in the morning and frequently work late at night at
laundry or cleaning; 49 women, for example, washed in the evening; 25
washed either Saturday, Sunday, or evenings.
HOUSING IMPROVEMENT
Enough has probably been said to show that the work of caring for the
house under the conditions existing in most immigrant neighborhoods,
is unnecessarily difficult for the foreign-born housewife. The most
obvious point at which these burdens might be lightened so that the
housewife could have time for other duties, would appear to be through
improvement of housing. With an awakened realization of this fact,
both on the part of the foreign-born woman herself and the community
of which she is an inevitable part, will come the solution of these
difficulties. A protest, however inarticulate or indirectly expressed
by her, will find its response in a growing realization that plans for
improvement must be developed.
The several housing projects that have already been offered are
suggestive of the problems and possibilities along this line rather
than useful as hard-and-fast solutions. They not only meet the needs
of the more inadequate immigrant housing conditions, but provide
improvement upon most native-born conditions. In this connection
interest naturally centers on the war-time housing projects of the
United States government, on the experiment of the Massachusetts
Homestead Commission at Lowell, and on certain enterprises carried out
by so-called limited dividend companies. The first two are especially
interesting, in that they recognize that supplying houses to the
workers is not a function that can be wholly left to private
initiative.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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