The Canadian Girl at Work: A Book of Vocational GuidanceWillison, Marjory MacMurchy, Lady
History
The Canadian Girl at Work: A Book of Vocational Guidance
Willison, Marjory MacMurchy, Lady
Women -- Employment -- Canada; Women -- Vocational guidance -- Canada
The principal difficulty, according to one authority, for girls and women
in the business of farm production, is that they have to find out that
they must learn to understand facts with which they think they are already
familiar. A girl on a farm, for instance, makes up her mind to undertake
poultry farming as a business. She may be of the opinion that she knows
all about poultry, from the kind of buildings which ought to be used to
the nature of any disease likely to attack poultry. This believing that
she knows all about poultry, or vegetables, or fruit, when in reality a
good part of the knowledge she has is imperfect, will be a great obstacle
to the girl in such work. The girl of good judgment will set to work to
study her subject with enthusiasm and perseverance. As a rule people who
understand a subject best are slow to believe that they know all there is
to know on that subject.
The girl or woman who hopes to leave town or city life to engage in work
in the country should have a certain amount of capital, not less, it has
been said, than five thousand dollars; but the amount of capital required
depends on the locality. A greater amount than five thousand dollars may
easily be necessary. She will also need a small income, since she may not
be able to support herself wholly by this work for a number of years, if
indeed she does so ultimately. She should be strong physically and should
enjoy manual labour. She should be fond of an outdoor life and of whatever
kind of work is involved in her enterprise. She should like animals and
growing things, and be able to live without constant social stimulus.
The Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph has trained a number of young
women in different branches of agricultural production. Short courses may
be taken during the year, and the special classes during the summer months
are most useful and popular.
The special need for production which developed during the War induced
many girls and young women, including a number of women students from
universities, to volunteer for farm work. During the summer months some
hundreds of young women engaged in fruit picking and worked in canning
factories under government supervision, and were lodged in club houses
managed by the Young Women's Christian Association. Others undertook
various forms of work connected with agriculture, meeting with success in
their employment and with public approval. In the summer of 1918 a special
course of instruction for young women in farm work was arranged at the
Ontario Agricultural College, and later regular courses were established
throughout the year. Women now may qualify for the degree of Bachelor of
Science in Agriculture at the Ontario Agricultural College and at Macdonald
College, Quebec. Wider opportunities for women in agricultural employment
are thus being recognized.
CHAPTER XVI
THE LIBRARIAN
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