The working girl is stepping out of the most intimate, the most mutually conscious type of family life that exists, that of humble people. This old patriarchal family has a strength and an intensive character that other families lack. Exceptions to the type in no way alter the general rule. The father is an unremitting toiler but his pleasures are centered in the home and the family. The mother is the disburser of the weekly income handed to her intact in the Saturday night envelope. Her power and influence are supreme as long as the family holds together. The children early absorb the traditional ideas of the parents undiluted by the variations presented to families of larger income where tutors, dancing instructors and music teachers share or supersede the parents’ care. There is thus built up a solid structure of tradition, interdependence and loyalty with which the family life of other economic groups cannot compare. This structure, seemingly almost absolutely firm, is undergoing under modern city conditions a strain never met before, and the family is not holding its own. What cause is at work to alter the ancient type? Undoubtedly the breakup is a byproduct of the industrial revolution. Many of the old duties and opportunities of women have been taken from them. The introduction of a greater variety of diet involving less cooking, the greater simplicity in decoration involving less cleaning, the communal care of garbage, the central system of heating and lighting, the cheapness of ready-made clothing, all these changes have lessened the burden of housework and to a certain extent have freed the housewife from drudgery. The care of children is increasingly being taken over by the community with its kindergartens, its public schools, its parks, its recreation centers, its nurses and its hospitals. Thus while the woman is still the dominating figure in the home, the center of gravity of that home so to speak has shifted; and we find the life that was once that of the home is now that of the community as well. It is the old process of differentiation from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous. It is because there is less to do at home that the children must of economic necessity find their life outside. The daughter who would once have stayed at home to help with the children now becomes the public school teacher and helps many children. The daughter who would once have made the clothes of her sister is now making the clothes of other sisters at the dressmaker’s or in the factory.