The home: its work and influenceGilman, Charlotte Perkins
General
The home: its work and influence
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins
Home
The boy who does not go to college goes to business, to work in some
way. To find an able-bodied intelligent boy in a home between breakfast
and supper would argue a broken leg. But girls we find by thousands and
thousands; "helping mother," if mother does the work; and if there are
servants to do the work, the girl does--what?
What is the occupation of the daughter of the house? Let us suppose her
to be healthy. Let us suppose her to have a fair share of ability and
education. She has no longer the school or the college, she has only
the home. Not that she is physically confined there. She may go out by
daylight, giving careful account of her steps, and visit other girls in
their homes. She may receive visits, both from girls and boys; and she
may go out continually to all manner of entertainments. Perhaps she is
expected to dust the parlour, to arrange the flowers, to "keep up her
music." She has enough to eat, enough and more than enough to wear; but
what exercise has she for body or brain? Perhaps in games and dances
she keeps her body active--but what sort of occupation is that for a
young human creature of this century, a creature of power? The young
woman has the same race inheritance of ability, the same large
brain-growth, as the man. The physical improvement of our times is
reflected in them too; fine stalwart girls we see, tall, straight,
broad-shouldered. She has had, in specific education, the same mental
training as the boy.
How would her brother be content with a day's work of dusting the
parlour and arranging the flowers; of calling and being called on?
Amusement is good, sometimes necessary; best and most necessary to the
tired, unhappy, and overworked. But youth--healthy, happy, and
vigorous, full of the press of unused power and the accumulating
ambition of all the centuries--why should youth waste its splendour in
such unsatisfying ways?
If you ask the father, he will merely say that it is the proper
position for a girl; he is "able to support her," she does not "have to
work," she can amuse herself, and as for a field for her abilities--she
will find that in her own home when she is married. Ask her mother--and
she will tell you, making a sad confession all unknowingly--"let her
enjoy herself now; she will have care enough later." There is a tacit
agreement that girls shall have all the "good time" possible while they
are girls, that they may have it to remember! Does this "good time"
satisfy the girl? Is she happy in her father's home, just passing the
time till she moves into her husband's?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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