The College, the Market, and the Court: or, Woman's relation to education, labor and lawDall, Caroline Wells Healey
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The College, the Market, and the Court: or, Woman's relation to education, labor and law
Dall, Caroline Wells Healey
Women -- Education; Women -- Employment; Women -- Legal status, laws, etc.
Let us have a place where all kinds of female work can be sought and
found; an intelligent working committee first, who know what is wanted,
and how to get it, and who, most important of all, shall not be too wise
to accept diplomas from experience.
Let us have a committee of five; its quorum to be three. Let these
persons hire a large, clean, airy room, and appoint an intelligent
superintendent,--one who will be interested to have the experiment
thoroughly successful. Let them line the walls, and screen off the room
with frames, having glass covers, to lock and unlock. Let one frame be
devoted to cooks; another, to laundresses; another, to washerwomen,
window-washers, charwomen, seamstresses, dressmakers, copyists,
translators, or what you will; and under the glass the notices should be
posted. Each should contain the name, age, and residence of the
applicant; the situation last held, and for how long; the full address
of the reference; and the date of posting. The date should be printed
and movable, and changed semi-weekly, on the personal application of the
poster. Each woman should pay five cents for the privilege of posting;
should lose this privilege from misconduct, from neglect to report
herself, from proved falsehood. No date should be left unchanged more
than a week, and the superintendent should be responsible for the strict
observance of the regulations. No woman, not even a charwoman, should be
allowed to use the posting privilege, unless she has a reference.
"What!" you will say, "is that kind?" Yes, it is kind: the want of it is
doubly cruel. A woman who needs work can afford to offer a day's free
work to get a reference; and referees should be required to tell the
simple truth. A lady who once recommended a dishonest or incapable
servant without the proper qualification should be struck off the books,
not allowed to testify again in that court.
With regard to all transient labor, it should be the duty of the
superintendent to see that the references are reliable before posting,
so that those who apply in haste need not be delayed.
If a dressmaker or charwoman inform the superintendent that she has
worked for A, B, and C, let a printed circular, addressed to such
persons, inquiring if they can recommend her, and to what degree, be
placed in her hands. To this she should bring written answers before
being allowed to post.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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