Prisoners of Poverty: Women Wage-Workers, Their Trades and Their LivesCampbell, Helen
History
Prisoners of Poverty: Women Wage-Workers, Their Trades and Their Lives
Campbell, Helen
Women -- Employment; Women -- Employment -- United States
6. Such a manner of speaking to and of the server as shall show that
there is no contempt for housework, and that it is actually as
respectable as other occupations.
Were such a schedule as this printed, framed, and hung in every kitchen
in the land, and its provisions honestly met, household revolution and
anarchy would cease, and the whole question settle itself quietly and
once for all. And this in spite of a thousand inherent difficulties
known to every housekeeper, but which would prove self-adjusting so soon
as it was learned that service had found a rational basis. At present,
with the majority of mistresses, it is simply unending struggle to get
the most out of the unwilling and grudging server, hopelessly
unreasonable and giving warning on faintest provocation. Yet these very
women, turning to factory life, where fixed and inexorable law rules
with no appeal, submit at once and become often skilled and capable
workers. It is certain that domestic service must learn organization as
every other form of industry has learned it, and that mistresses must
submit to something of the same training that is needed by the maid. Nor
need it be feared that putting such service on a strictly business basis
will destroy such kindliness as now helps to make the relation less
intolerable. On the contrary, with justice the foundation and a rigorous
fulfilment of duty on both sides will come a far closer tie than exists
save in rarest instances, and homes will regain a quality long ago
vanished from our midst. Such training will be the first step toward the
co-operation which must be the ultimate solution of many social
problems.
It has failed in many earlier attempts because personal justice was
lacking; but even one generation of sustained effort to simplify
conditions would insure not only a different ideal for those who think
at all, but the birth of something better for every child of the
Republic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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