E-text prepared by Audrey Longhurst, Jeannie Howse, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) Transcriber's note: The few spelling mistakes found in this text were left intact. THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN by IDA M. TARBELL Associate Editor of the "American Magazine" Author of "Life of Abraham Lincoln" "History of the Standard Oil Co." "He Knew Lincoln," etc. New York The MacMillan Company New York . Boston . Chicago Dallas . San Francisco Macmillan & Co., Limited London . Bombay . Calcutta Melbourne The Macmillan Co. of Canada, Ltd. Toronto Norwood Press J.S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 1921 TO E.I.T. AND C.C.T. INTRODUCTION The object of this little volume is to call attention to a certain distrust, which the author feels in the modern woman, of the significance and dignity of the work laid upon her by Nature and by society. Its ideas are the result of a long, if somewhat desultory, observation of the professional, political, and domestic activities of women in this country and in France. These observations have led to certain definite opinions as to those phases of the woman question most in need of emphasis to-day. A great problem of human life is to preserve faith in and zest for everyday activities. The universal easily becomes the vulgar and the burdensome. The highest civilization is that in which the largest number sense, and are so placed as to realize, the dignity and the beauty of the common experiences and obligations. * * * * * The courtesy of the publishers of the _American Magazine_, in permitting the use here of chapters which have appeared in that periodical, is gratefully acknowledged. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE UNEASY WOMAN 1 II. ON THE IMITATION OF MAN 30 III. THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN 53 IV. THE SOCIALIZATION OF THE HOME 84 V. THE WOMAN AND HER RAIMENT 109 VI. THE WOMAN AND DEMOCRACY 142 VII. THE HOMELESS DAUGHTER 164 VIII. THE CHILDLESS WOMAN AND THE FRIENDLESS CHILD 190 IX. ON THE ENNOBLING OF THE WOMAN'S BUSINESS 216 THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN CHAPTER I The Uneasy Woman