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diff --git a/15595.txt b/15595.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4831cab --- /dev/null +++ b/15595.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6939 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Vocational Guidance for Girls, by Marguerite +Stockman Dickson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Vocational Guidance for Girls + + +Author: Marguerite Stockman Dickson + +Release Date: April 9, 2005 [eBook #15595] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE FOR GIRLS*** + + +E-text prepared by Audrey Longhurst, Jeannie Howse, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 15595-h.htm or 15595-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/5/9/15595/15595-h/15595-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/5/9/15595/15595-h.zip) + + + + + + + +-------------------------------------------------------+ + | | + | OTHER VOCATIONAL | + | GUIDANCE BOOKS | + | | + | J. ADAMS PUFFER, Editor | + | | + | _VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE--THE TEACHER AS A COUNSELOR_ | + | By J. Adams Puffer | + | | + | _A VOCATIONAL READER_ | + | By C. Park Pressey | + | | + | _VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE FOR THE PROFESSIONS_ | + | By Edwin Tenney Brewster | + | | + +-------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + "Vocational guidance seeks the largest realization of the + possibilities of every child and youth, measured in terms of + worthy service." + + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +CAMP FIRE GIRLS +The lessons of patriotism, kindness, and industry taught by the Camp +Fire Girls' organization make it a power for good] + + + + +VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE FOR GIRLS + +by + +MARGUERITE STOCKMAN DICKSON + +Author of _From the Old World to the New_, _A Hundred Years of +Warfare. 1689-1789_, _Stories of Camp and Trail_, _Pioneers and +Patriots in American History_ + +Rand Mcnally & Company +Chicago New York + +1919 + + + + + + +THE CONTENTS + + PAGE +A Foreword ix + +PART I. PRESENT-DAY IDEALS OF WOMANHOOD + +CHAPTER + I. WOMAN'S PLACE IN SOCIETY 3 + + II. THE IDEAL HOME 18 + + III. ESTABLISHING A HOME 27 + + IV. RUNNING THE DOMESTIC MACHINERY 49 + + +PART II. GUIDING GIRLS TOWARD THE IDEAL + + V. THE EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES INVOLVED 75 + + VI. TRAINING THE LITTLE CHILD 86 + + VII. TEACHING THE MECHANICS OF HOUSEKEEPING 102 + +VIII. THE GIRL'S INNER LIFE 122 + + IX. THE ADOLESCENT GIRL 130 + + X. THE GIRL'S WORK 151 + + XI. THE GIRL'S WORK (Continued)--CLASSIFICATION + OF OCCUPATIONS 163 + + XII. THE GIRL'S WORK (Continued)--VOCATIONS AS + AFFECTING HOMEMAKING 194 + +XIII. THE GIRL'S WORK (Continued)--VOCATIONS + DETERMINED BY TRAINING 203 + + XIV. MARRIAGE 218 + +Suggested Readings 241 + +The Index 243 + + + + +A LIST OF THE PORTRAITS + + PAGE +LOUISA M. ALCOTT 221 + +RUTH MCENERY STUART 223 + +LOUISE HOMER AND HER FAMILY 225 + +MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON 227 + +COLONEL AND MRS. ROOSEVELT WITH MEMBERS OF THEIR FAMILY 229 + +JULIA WARD HOWE AND HER GRANDDAUGHTER 231 + +CAROLINE BARTLETT CRANE 233 + +ALICE FREEMAN PALMER 235 + +AMELIA E. BARR 237 + + + + +A FOREWORD + + +Fortunate are we to have from the pen of Mrs. Dickson a book on the +vocational guidance of girls. Mrs. Dickson has the all-round life +experiences which give her the kind of training needed for a broad and +sympathetic approach to the delicate, intricate, and complex problems +of woman's life in the swiftly changing social and industrial world. + +Mrs. Dickson was a teacher for seven years in the grades in the city +of New York. She then became the partner of a superintendent of +schools in the business of making a home. In these early homemaking +years there came from the pen of Mrs. Dickson a series of historical +books for the grades which have placed her among the leading +educational writers of the country. During the long sickness of her +husband she filled for a while two administrative positions--homemaker +and superintendent of schools. + +Her three children are now in high school and are beginning to plan +for their own life work. With the broad training of homemaker, wife, +mother, teacher, writer, and administrator, Mrs. Dickson has the +combination of experiences to enable her to introduce teachers and +mothers to the very difficult problems of planning wisely big life +careers for our girls. + +The book is so plainly and guardedly written that it can also be used +as a textbook for the girls themselves in connection with civic and +vocational courses. The only difficulty with the book for a text is +that it is so attractively written on such vital problems that the +student will not stop reading at the end of the lesson. + +J. ADAMS PUFFER + + + + + "Vocational guidance has for its ideal the granting to + every individual of the chance to attain his highest + efficiency under the best conditions it is humanly possible + to provide." + + + + +PART I + +PRESENT-DAY IDEALS OF WOMANHOOD + + + + + "How to preserve to the individual his right to aspire, to + make of himself what he will, and at the same time find + himself early, accurately, and with certainty, is the + problem of vocational guidance." + + + + +VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE FOR GIRLS + + +CHAPTER I + +WOMAN'S PLACE IN SOCIETY + + +Any scheme of education must be built upon answers to two basic +questions: first, What do we desire those being educated to become? +second, How shall we proceed to make them into that which we desire +them to be? + +In our answers to these questions, plans for education fall naturally +into two great divisions. One concerns itself with ideals; the other, +with methods. No matter how complex plans and theories may become, we +may always reach back to these fundamental ideas: What do we want to +make? How shall we make it? + +Applying this principle to the education of girls, we ask, first: What +ought girls to be? And with this simple question we are plunged +immediately into a vortex of differing opinions. + +Girls ought to be--or ought to be in the way of becoming--whatever the +women of the next generation should be. So far all are doubtless +agreed. We therefore find ourselves under the necessity of restating +the question, making it: What ought women to be? + +Probably never in the world's history has this question occupied so +large a place in thought as it does to-day. In familiar discussion, in +the press, in the library, on the platform, the "woman question" is an +all-absorbing topic. Even the most cursory review of the literature +of the subject leads to a realization of its importance. It leads also +into the very heart of controversy. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +Suffrage parade in Washington. Women will parade or even fight for +their rights] + +It is safe to say that no woman, in our own country at least, escapes +entirely the unrest which this controversy has brought. Even the most +conservative and "old-fashioned" of women know that their daughters +are living in a world already changed from the days of their own young +womanhood; and few indeed fail to see that these changes are but +forerunners of others yet to come. They know little, perhaps, of the +right or wrong of woman's industrial position, but "woman in industry" +is all about them. They perhaps have never heard of Ellen Key's +arraignment of existing marriage and sex relations, but they cannot +fail to see unhappy marriages in their own circle. They may care +little about the suffrage question, but they can hardly avoid hearing +echoes of strife over the subject of "votes for women." And however +much or little women are personally conscious of the significance of +these questions, the questions are nevertheless of vital import to +them all. + +The "uneasy woman" is undeniably with us. We may account for her +presence in various ways. We may prophesy the outcome of her +uneasiness as the signs seem to us to point. But in the meantime--she +is here! + +Naturally both radical and conservative have panaceas to suggest. The +radicals would have us believe that the question of woman's status in +the world requires an upheaval of society for its settlement. Says +one, the "man's world" must be transformed into a human world, with no +baleful insistence on the femininity of women. It is the human +qualities, shared by both man and woman, which must be emphasized. The +work of the world--with the single exception of childbearing--is not +man's work nor woman's work, but the work of the race. Woman must be +liberated from the overemphasized feminine. Let women live and work as +men live and work, with as little attention as may be to the accident +of sex. + +Says another, it is the ancient and dishonored institution of marriage +which must feel the blow of the iconoclast. Reform marriage, and the +whole woman question will adjust itself. + +Says still another, do away with marriage. "Celibacy is the +aristocracy of the future." Let the woman be free forever from the +drudgery of family life, free from the slavery of the marriage +relation, free to "live," to "work," to have a "career." Men and women +were intended to be in all things the same, except for the slight +difference of sex. Let us throw away the cramping folly of the ages +and let woman take her place beside man. + +Not so, replies the conservative. In just so far as masculine and +feminine types approach each other, we shall see degeneracy. Men and +women were never intended to be alike. + +Thus we might go on. Without the radicals there would of course be no +progress. Without the conservatives our social fabric would scarcely +hold. Between the two extremes, however, in this as in all things, +stands the great middle class, believing and urging that not social +upheaval, but better understanding of existing conditions, is the +world remedy for unrest; that not new careers, but better adjustment +of old ones, will bring peace; that not formal political power, even +though that be their just due, but the better use of powers that women +have long possessed, is most needed for the betterment of mankind. + +It is not the province of this book to enter into controversy with +either radical or reactionary, but rather to search for truth which +may be used for adjusting to fuller advantage the relation of woman to +society. First of all must be recognized the fact that the "woman +movement" deserves the thoughtful attention of every teacher or other +social worker, and indeed of every thoughtful man or woman. The +movement can no longer be considered in the light of isolated surface +outbreaks. It is rather the result of deep industrial and social +undercurrents which are stirring the whole world. + +In our study of the modern woman movement, which as teachers in any +department of educational work we are bound to make, the fact is +immediately impressed upon us that home life has undergone marked +changes. Conditions once favorable to the existence of the home as a +sustaining economic unit are no longer to be found. New conditions +have arisen, compelling the home, like other permanent institutions, +to alter its mode of existence in order to meet them. + +Briefly reviewing the causes which have brought about these changes in +home life, we find, first, the industrial revolution. A large number +of the activities once carried on in the home have removed to other +quarters. In earlier times the mother of a family served as cook, +housemaid, laundress, spinner, weaver, seamstress, dairymaid, nurse, +and general caretaker. The father was about the house, at work in the +field, or in his workshop close at hand. The children grew up +naturally in the midst of the industries which provided for the +maintenance of the home, and for which, in part, the home existed. The +home, in those days, was the place where work was done. + +With the invention of labor-saving machinery came an entire revolution +in the place and manner of work. The father of the family has been +forced by this industrial change to follow his trade from the home +workshop to the mechanically equipped factory. One by one, many of the +housewife's tasks also have been taken from the home. To-day the +processes of cloth making are practically unknown outside the factory. +Knitting has become largely a machine industry. Ready-made clothing +has largely reduced the sewing done in the home. In the matter of +food, the housekeeper may, if she chooses, have a large part of her +work performed by the baker, the canner, and the delicatessen +shopkeeper. Even the care of her children, after the years of infancy, +has been partly assumed by the state. + +The home, as a place where work is done, has lost a large part of its +excuse for being. Among the poorer classes, women, like their +husbands, being obliged to earn, and no longer able to do so in their +homes, have followed the work to the factory. As a result we have +many thousands of them away from their homes through long days of +toil. Among persons of larger income, removal of the home industries +to the factory has resulted in increased leisure for the woman--with +what results we shall later consider. Practically the only +constructive work left which the woman may not shift if she will to +other shoulders, or shirk entirely, is the bearing of children and, to +at least some degree, their care in early years. The interests once +centered in the home are now scattered--the father goes to shop or +office, the children to school, the mother either to work outside the +home or in quest of other occupation and amusement to which leisure +drives her. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +Glove making. Women, like their husbands, have followed work to the +factories] + +A second change in the conditions affecting home life is found in the +increased educational aspirations of women. Once the accepted and +frankly anticipated career for a woman was marriage and the making of +a home. Her education was centered upon this end. To-day all this is +changed. A girl claims, and is quite free to obtain, an education in +all points like her brother's, and the career she plans and prepares +for may be almost anything he contemplates. She may, or may not, enter +upon the career for which she prepares. Marriage may--often +does--interfere with the career, although nearly as often the career +seems to interfere with marriage. Under the new alignment of ideals, +there is less interest shown in homemaking and more in "the world's +work," with a decided feeling that the two are entirely incompatible. + +[Illustration: Keystone View Co. +Employees leaving the Elgin Watch Company factory. Thousands of women +are away from their homes through long days of toil] + +The girl, educated to earn her living in the market of the world, no +longer marries simply because no other career is open to her; when +she does marry, she is less likely than formerly, statistics tell us, +to have children--the only remaining work which, in these days, +definitely requires a home. Marriage and homemaking, therefore, are no +longer inseparably connected in the woman's mind. Girls are willing to +undertake matrimony, but often with the distinct understanding that +their "careers" are not to be interfered with. To them, then, marriage +becomes more and more an incident in life rather than a life work. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +A typical tenement house. Congestion means discomfort within the home +and decreasing possibility for satisfying there either material or +social needs] + +A third disintegrating influence as affecting home life is the great +increase of city homes. Urban conditions are almost without exception +detrimental to home life. Congestion means discomfort within the home +and decreasing possibility for satisfying there either material or +social needs; while on every hand are increasing possibilities for +satisfying these needs outside the home. Family life under such +conditions often lacks, to an alarming degree, the quality of +solidarity which makes the dwelling place a home. No longer the place +where work is done, no longer the place where common interests are +shared, the home becomes only "the place where I eat and sleep," or +perhaps merely "where I sleep." The great increase of urban life +during the last half century is thus a very real menace, and, since +the agricultural communities constantly feed the towns, the menace +concerns the country-as well as the city-dweller. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +In the cities there are increasing opportunities for satisfying +material and social needs outside the home] + +Believing that for the good of coming generations the true home spirit +must be saved, we shall do well to admit at once that the old-time +home was an institution suited to its own day, but that we cannot now +call it back to being. Nor would we wish to do so. There is no +possible reason for wishing our women to spin, weave, knit, bake, +brew, preserve, clean, _if_ the products she formerly made can be +produced more cheaply and more efficiently outside the home. + +There is danger, however, of generalizing too soon in regard to these +industries. There is little doubt that in some directions, at least, +the factory method has not yet brought really satisfactory results. +How many women can give you reasons _why_ they believe that it no +longer "pays" to do this or that at home as they once did? Do the +factories always turn out as good a product as the housekeeper? If +they do, does the housekeeper obtain that product with as little +expenditure as when she made it? If she spends more, can she show that +the leisure she has thus bought has been a wise purchase? Is she +justified in accepting vague generalizations to the effect that it is +better economy to buy than to make, or should she test for herself, +checking up her individual conditions and results? + +The fact is that the pendulum has swung away from the "homemade" +article, and most of us have not taken the trouble to investigate +whether we are benefited or harmed. It may be that investigation will +show us that the pendulum has swung too far, and that, in spite of +factories mechanically equipped to serve us, some work may be done +much more advantageously at home. It is even possible, and in some +lines of work we know that it is a fact, that homes may be +mechanically equipped at very little cost to rival and even to +outclass the factory in producing certain kinds of products for home +consumption. + +Spinning, weaving, and knitting are doubtless best left in the hands +of the factory worker. But, under present conditions, buying ready +made all the garments needed for a family may be an expensive and +unsatisfactory method if the elements of worth, wear, finish, and +individuality are worthy of consideration, just as buying practically +all foodstuffs "ready made" presents a complex and disturbing problem +to the fastidious and conscientious housewife. There is at least a +possibility that it would be as well for the home of to-day to retain +or resume, systematize, and perfect some of the industries that are +slipping or have already slipped from its grasp. It is possible to +reduce some processes to a too purely mechanical basis. + +[Illustration: Keystone View Co. +Linen-mill workers. Spinning and weaving, whether of cotton, linen, +silk, or wool, are more satisfactorily done by factory workers than in +the home] + + + A woman lived in our town who wasn't very wise. + She had a reputation for making homemade pies. + And when she found her pies would sell, with all her might and main + She opened up a factory, and spoiled it all again. + +Nonsense? Yes--but with a strong element of sense, nevertheless. + +Entirely aside, however, from the industrial status of the home, +unless we are to see a practical cessation of childbearing and +rearing, homes must apparently continue to exist. No one has yet found +a substitute place for this particular industry. It is a commonly +accepted fact that young children do better, both mentally and +physically, in even rather poor homes than in a perfectly planned and +conducted institution. And we need go no farther than this in seeking +a sufficient reason for saving the home. This one is enough to enlist +our best service in aid of homemaking and home support. + +From earliest ages woman has been the homemaker. No plan for the +preservation of the home or for its evolution into a satisfactory +social factor can fail to recognize her vital and necessary connection +with the problem. Therefore in answer to the question "What ought +woman to be?" we say boldly, "A homemaker." Reduced to simplest terms, +the conditions are these: if homes are to be made more serviceable +tools for social betterment, women must make them what they ought to +be. Consequently homemaking must continue to be woman's +business--_the_ business of woman, if you like--a considerable, +recognized, and respected part of her "business of being a woman." Nor +may we overlook the fact that it is only in this work of making homes +and rearing offspring that either men or women reach their highest +development. Motherhood and fatherhood are educative processes, +greater and more vital than the artificial training that we call +education. In teaching their children, even in merely living with +their children, parents are themselves trained to lead fuller lives. + +"The central fact of the woman's life--Nature's reason for her--is the +child, his bearing and rearing. There is no escape from the divine +order that her life must be built around this constraint, duty, or +privilege, as she may please to consider it."[1] It is the fashion +among some women to assume that it is time all this were changed, and +that therefore it will be changed. They look forward to seeing +womankind released from this "constraint, duty, or privilege," and yet +see in their prophetic vision the race moving on to a future of +achievement. The fact, however, ignore it as we may, cannot be +gainsaid: no man-made or woman-made "emancipation" will change +nature's law. + +It was well that after centuries of repression and subjection woman +sought emancipation. She needed it. But the wildest flight of fancy +cannot long conceal the ultimate fact. Woman is the mother of the +race. "The female not only typifies the race, but, metaphor aside, she +_is_ the race."[2] Emancipation can never free her from this destiny. +In the United States, where woman has the largest freedom to enter the +industrial world and maintain herself in entire independence, the +percentage of those who marry is higher than in the countries where +woman is a slave. Ninety per cent of the mature women in our country +become homemakers for a certain period, and probably over 90 per cent +are assistant homemakers for another period of years before or after +marriage. + +Any vocational counselor who fails to reckon first with the homemaking +career of girls is therefore blind to the facts of life. All +education, all training, must be considered in its bearing on the one +vocation, homemaking. The time will come when the occupations of boys +and men must likewise be considered in relation to homemaking, but +that problem is not the province of this book. + +Women will bear and rear the children of the future, just as they have +borne and reared the children of the past. But _under what +conditions_--the best or those less worthy? And _what women_--again, +the best or those less worthy? Has woman been freed from subjection, +from an inferior place in the scheme of life, only to become so +intoxicated with a personal freedom, with her own personal ambition, +that she fails to see what emancipation really means? Will she be +contented merely to imitate man rather than to work out a destiny of +her own? We think not. When the first flush of freedom has passed, the +pendulum will turn again and woman will find a truer place than she +knows now or has known. + +Two obstacles to the successful pursuit of her ultimate vocation stand +prominently before the young woman of to-day: first, the instruction +of the times has imbued her with too little respect for her calling; +second, her education teaches her how to do almost everything except +how to follow this calling in the scientific spirit of the day. She +may scorn housework as drudgery, but no voice is raised to show her +that it may be made something else. With the advent of vocational +guidance, vocational training of necessity follows close behind. And +with vocational training must come a proper appreciation, among the +other businesses of life, of this "business of being a woman." + +Must we then educate the girl to be a homemaker, and keep her out of +the industrial life which has claimed her so swiftly and in which she +has found so much of her emancipation? No, we could not, if we would, +keep her from the outside life. We must rather recognize her double +vocation and, difficult though it seem, must educate her for both +phases of her "business." She will be not only the better woman, but +the better worker, because of the very breadth of her vocational +horizon. + +Training for homemaking, then, must go hand in hand with training for +some phase of industrial life. Vocational guides must consider not +only inclination and temperament, but physical condition and the +supply and demand of the industrial world. They will consider the girl +not merely as an industrial worker, but as a potential homemaker. They +will, therefore, also study the effect of various vocations upon +homemaking capabilities. + +How then shall the teaching of this double vocation be approached? How +shall we, as teachers of girls, make them capable of becoming +homemakers? How shall we make them see that homemaking and the world's +work may go hand in hand, so that they will desire in time to turn +from their industrial service to the later and better destiny of +making a home? This book offers its contribution toward answering +these questions. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Ida M. Tarbell, _The Business of Being a Woman_.] + +[Footnote 2: Lester F. Ward, _Pure Sociology_.] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE IDEAL HOME + + +That we may understand, and to some extent formulate, the problem +which we would have girls trained to solve, we must of necessity study +homes. What must girls know in order to be successful homemakers? + +A historical survey of the home leads us to the conclusion that +although times have changed, and homes have changed, and indeed all +outward conditions have changed, the spiritual ideal of home is no +different from what it has always been. The home is the seat of family +life. Its one object is the making of healthy, wise, happy, satisfied, +useful, and efficient people. The home is essentially a spiritual +factory, whether or not it is to remain to any degree whatever a +material one. "Home will become an atmosphere, a 'condition in which,' +rather than 'a place where,'" says Nearing in his _Woman and Social +Progress_. "The home is a factory to make citizenship in," writes Mrs. +Bruere. + +But although this spiritual significance of home has always existed, +we are sometimes inclined to overlook the fact. Because conditions +have changed, and because our external ideals of home have changed and +are still changing, we fail to see that the foundation of home life is +still unchanged. + +"I sometimes think that many women don't consciously know _why_ they +are running their homes," says Mrs. Frederick, author of _The New +Housekeeping_. We might add that many of those who do know, or think +they know, are struggling to attain to purely trivial or +fundamentally wrong ideals. It seems wise, then, for us to face at the +outset the question "What is the ideal home?" + +[Illustration: Copyright by Keystone View Co. +An attractive living room in which there is that atmosphere of peace +so conducive to a happy family life] + +Laying aside all preconceived notions, and remembering that changes +are coming fast in these days, let us look for the ideals which may be +common to all homes, in city or country, among rich or poor. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +A well-arranged kitchen forms an important part of the smoothly +running mechanism of the ideal home] + +First of all, the home must be comfortable, and its whole atmosphere +must be that of peace. In no other way can the tension of modern life +be overcome. This implies order and cleanliness, beauty, warmth, +light, and air; but it implies far more. It means a home planned for +the people who will occupy it, and so planned that father's needs, and +mother's, and the children's, will all be met. What does each member +of the family require of the house? A place to _live in_. And that +means far more than eating and sleeping and having a place for one's +clothes. There must be not only a place for everything, but a place +for everybody in the ideal house. The boys who wish to dabble in +electricity, the girls who wish to entertain their friends in their +own way, the tired father who wishes to read his newspaper "in peace," +the younger children who want to pop corn or blow bubbles or play +games, all must be planned for. There will be no room too good for +use, and no furnishings so delicate that mother worries over family +contact with them. There will be a minimum of "keeping up appearances" +and a maximum of comfort and cheer. There will be little formal +entertaining, but many spontaneous good times. In addition to being +comfortable, the ideal home must be convenient. There will be places +for things, and every appliance for making work easy. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +Contrast this old-fashioned kitchen with the modern one shown on the +opposite page] + +The ideal mother, who is the mainspring of the smoothly running +mechanism of the ideal home, will be scientifically trained for her +position. Her "domestic science" will no longer be open to the +criticism that it is not science at all, nor will she feel that her +business is unworthy of scientific treatment. Always she will keep +before her the object of her work--to make of her family, _including +herself_, good, happy, efficient people. She will not be overburdened +with housework, for overworked mothers have neither time nor strength +for the higher aspects of their work. She will know how to feed +bodies, but also how to develop souls. She will clothe her children +hygienically, but she will teach them to value more the more +important vestments of modesty and gentleness and courtesy. She will +require obedience, but, as their years increase, the requirement will +be less and less obedience to authority and more and more obedience to +a right spirit within. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +The wise mother will teach her children the true value of work by +making them wish to work with her] + +She will work for her children and will make them wish to work with +her, teaching them the true value of work and sacrifice. She will play +with them, for their pleasure and development, and she will also play, +in her own way, for her own rejuvenation and her soul's good. She will +study each member of her family as an individual problem, and, +abandoning forever the idea of pressing any child's soul into the mold +that she might choose, will rather strive to aid its growth toward its +natural ideal. She will strive to hold and to be worthy of her +children's confidence, that they may turn to her in those times that +try their souls. But she will always respect the personal liberty of +either child or husband to live his own life. + +She will interest herself in the interests of husband and children, +that she may remain a vital factor in their lives; and she will make +the home so delightful as to reduce to a minimum the scattering +influences that tend to destroy home life. She will weave intangible +but indestructible ties of affection, holding all together and to +herself. She will keep her interest in the outside world, so that she +may better prepare her children to live in it and may resist the +narrowing influence of her enforced temporary withdrawal. She will +take some part in civic work and social uplift, and, when her years of +child rearing are ended, in the leisure of middle age she will return +to the less circumscribed life of her youth, bending her matured +energies to the world's work. + +The father of this ideal family will be first of all a man happy in +his work. The plodding, weary slave to distasteful labor can be ideal +neither as husband nor as father. Overworked fathers are quite as +impossible in our scheme as overburdened mothers. In ideal conditions +the father will have time, strength, and willingness to be more of a +factor in the home life than he sometimes is at the present time. More +than that, his early education will have included definite preparation +for homemaking, so that his cooeperation will be intelligent and +therefore helpful. He will know more than he does now about the cost +of living and he will assist in making a preliminary division of the +year's income upon an intelligent basis. He will recognize the +necessity for equipment for the homemaking business and will +contribute his share of thought and labor to improving the home plant. + +He will be a companion as well as adviser to his boys and girls and +will retain their respect and love by his sympathetic understanding +and his remembrance of the boy's point of view. In all his dealings +with his children he will be careful that interference with his +comfort and convenience or the wounding of his pride by their +shortcomings does not obscure his sense of justice. He will be a +student of child nature and will keep in view the ultimate good and +usefulness of his child. He will regard his fatherhood as his greatest +service to the state. + +[Illustration: Pals. The wise father will be companion as well as +adviser to his children] + +The children reared by this ideal father and mother in their ideal +home will grow as naturally as plants in a well-cared-for garden. With +examples of courtesy and kindness, of cheerful work and +health-producing play, ever before them in the lives of their parents, +they may be led along the same paths to similar usefulness. Their +educational problems will be met by the combined effort of teachers +and parents, and natural aptitude as well as community needs will +dictate the choice of their life work. + +That this ideal family is far removed from many families of our +acquaintance merely proves the necessity of training for more +efficient homemaking, and indeed for a better conception of homemaking +ideals and problems. If we are to teach our girls and our boys to be +homemakers, we must consider carefully what they need to know. If we +are to counteract the tendencies of the past two or three decades away +from homemaking as a vocation, we must show the true value of the +homemaker to the community, and the opportunities which domestic life +presents to the scientifically trained mind. + +Education for homemaking necessarily implies teachers who are trained +for homemaking instruction; and we may pause here to notice that no +homemaking course in normal school or college can be sufficient to +give the teacher true knowledge of ideal homes. She must have seen +such homes, or those which approximate the ideal. Perhaps she has +grown up in such a home. More probably she has not. If not, it must +then necessarily follow that the lower have been the ideals in the +home where the teacher had her training, the more she should see of +other homes, and especially of good homes. Her whole outlook may be +changed by such contact; and with her outlook, her teaching; and with +her teaching, her influence. + +If all girls grew up in ideal homes, it seems probable that homemaking +would appeal to them quite naturally as the ultimate vocation. Indeed, +we know that many girls feel this natural drawing, in spite of most +unlovely conditions in their childhood homes. The task of mother, +teacher, and vocational counselor (who may be either) in this matter +is a complicated one. Some girls are not fitted by nature to be +homemakers. Some may with careful training overcome inherent defects +which stand in the way of their success. Some have the natural +endowment, but have their eyes fixed on other careers. Some have +unhappy ideals to overcome. The fact, however, confronts us that at +some time in their lives a very large majority of these girls will be +homemakers. It is the part of those who have charge of them in their +formative years to do two things for them: first, to train them so +that they may understand the tasks of the homemaker and perform them +creditably if they are called upon; second, to teach all those girls +who seem fitted for this high vocation to desire it, and to choose it +for at least part of their mature lives. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +ESTABLISHING A HOME + + +Certain very definite attempts are being made in these days to meet +the evident lack of homemaking knowledge in the rising generation. And +since definiteness of plan lends power to accomplishment, we cannot do +better than to analyze as carefully as possible the various lines of +knowledge required by the prospective homemaker in entering upon her +life work. + +What are the problems of homemaking? And how far can we provide the +girl with the necessary equipment to make her an efficient worker in +her chosen vocation? + +Country life and city life are apparently so far removed from each +other as to present totally different problems to the homemaker and to +the vocational educator of girls. And yet underlying the successful +management of both urban and rural homes are the same principles of +domestic economy and of social efficiency. The principles are there, +however widely their application may differ. While we may wisely train +country girls for country living, and city girls to face the problems +of urban life, we must not lose sight of the fact that country girls +often become homemakers in the city and that city girls are often +found establishing homes in the country. Nor should we overlook the +truth that some study of home conditions in other than familiar +surroundings will broaden the girl's knowledge and fit her in later +life to make conditions subservient to that knowledge. + +Both rural and urban homemakers must be taught to appreciate their +advantages and to make the most of them. They must also learn to face +their disadvantages and to work intelligently toward overcoming them. + +The country homemaker has no immediate need of studying the problems +of congestion in population which menace the millions of +city-dwellers. The country home has plenty of room and an abundance of +pure air. Yet it is often true that country homes are poorly +ventilated and that much avoidable sickness results from this fact. +The country home is often set in the midst of great natural beauty, +yet misses its opportunity to satisfy the eye in an artistic sense. +Its very isolation is sometimes a cause of the lack of attention to +its appearance to the passerby. + +The farmer's wife has an advantage in the matter of fresh vegetables, +eggs, and poultry, but the city housekeeper has the near-by market and +finds the question of sanitation, the preservation of food, and the +disposal of waste far easier of solution. + +The city housewife is often troubled in regard to the source of her +milk supply; the country-dweller has plenty of fresh milk, but +frequently finds it difficult to be sure of pure water. + +The country homemaker often lacks the conveniences which make +housekeeping easier; the city woman is often misled, by the ease of +obtaining the ready-made article, into buying inferior products in +order to avoid the labor of producing. + +The family in the farming community often has meager social life and +lack of proper recreations; the city-dweller is made restless and +improvident by an excess of opportunities for certain sorts of +amusement. + +Thus each type of community has its own problems. But practically all +of these problems fall under certain general heads which both city and +country homemakers should consider as part of their education. The +present turning of thought toward training in these directions is most +promising for the homes of the future. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +A country home which, though set in the midst of natural beauty, yet +fails to satisfy the eye in an artistic sense] + +[Illustration: Courtesy of Mrs. Joseph E. Wing +In contrast to the illustration above, this home shows what a few +artistic touches may do to enhance the natural beauty of the +surroundings] + +It is one of the misfortunes of existing conditions that the city and +the country are not better acquainted with each other. Scorn +frequently takes the place of understanding. The town or village girl +goes out to teach in the country school, knowing little of country +living and less of country homes. It is difficult, if not impossible, +for such a teacher to be an influence for good. Especially as she +approaches the homemaking problem is she without the knowledge which +must underlie successful work. It is important that the city girl +under such conditions should make a special effort to study country +life and country homes in a sympathetic, helpful spirit. + +Perhaps our analysis of homemaking problems can take no more practical +form than to follow from its hypothetical beginning the making of an +actual home. + +No more inspiring moment comes in the lives of most men and women than +that in which the first step is taken toward making their first home. +There is an instinctive recognition of the greatness of the occasion. +But ignorance will dull the glow of inspiration and wrong standards +will lead to wreck of highest hopes. Let us, therefore, be practical +and definite and face the facts. + +A home is to be established. The first question is: Where? To a +certain extent circumstances must answer this question. The character +and place of employment of the breadwinner, the income, social +relations already established, school, church, library, market, water +and sanitary conditions, must all be considered. Yet even these +regulating conditions must receive intelligent treatment. How many +young homemakers have any definite idea as to what proportion of the +income may safely be expended for shelter? How many can tell the +relative advantages of renting and owning? + +[Illustration: Copyright by Keystone View Co. +A tenement district. One of the greatest disadvantages in urban life +is the overcrowding in tenement houses] + +Probably the first consideration in selection is likely to be whether +the home is to be permanent or merely temporary. When the occupation +is likely to be permanent, the greatest comfort and well-being will +usually result from establishing early a permanent home; and this +involves a long look ahead to justify the selection of a site. Not +only must health and convenience be considered, but future questions +relative to the expanding requirements of the homemakers and to the +education and proper upbringing of a family as well. Then, too, young +people must usually begin modestly from a financial standpoint, and +they are therefore cut off from certain locations which they may +perhaps desire and which they might hope to attain in later years. In +the country, where the livelihood is often gained directly from the +land, a new element enters into selection and must to some extent take +precedence over others. Soil considerations aside, however, we have +health, beauty, social environment, educational advantages, and +expense to consider; and we should establish certain standards in +these directions for our young people to measure by. + +Considerations of health must include not only climatic conditions, +but questions of drainage, water supply, time and comfort of +transportation to work, and the sanitary condition of the +neighborhood. + +Prospective homemakers must learn, too, the value of reposeful +surroundings and of some degree of natural beauty. They must recognize +the value also of desirable social environment--that is, of such moral +and intellectual surroundings as will be uplifting for the homemakers +and safe for the future family. They will, it is hoped, learn that a +merely fashionable neighborhood is not necessarily a desirable +environment. The church, the school, the library, and proper +recreation centers are also to be considered in one's social outlook. +They are all distinctly worth paying for, as also is a good road. + +With the site selected, the great problem of building next confronts +the homemaker. Here again the principles of selection should be +sufficiently known to young people, boys and girls alike, to save them +from the mistakes so commonly made and frequently so regretted. + +The people who can afford to employ an architect to design their homes +are in a decided minority, and the only way to insure good houses for +the less well-to-do majority is to see that the less well-to-do do not +grow up without instruction as to what good houses are. The great +tendency of the day in building is fortunately toward increased +simplicity and toward a quality which we may call "livableness." This +tendency we shall do well to fix in our teaching. + +In general, the good house is plain, substantial, convenient, and +suited to its surroundings. Efficient housekeeping is largely +conditioned by such very practical details as closets and pantries, +the relative positions of sink and stove, the height of work tables +and shelves, the distance from range to dining table, the ease or +difficulty of cleaning woodwork, laundry facilities, and the like. +Housekeeping is made up of accumulated details of work, and adequate +preparation for comfort in working can be made only when the house is +in process of construction. + +Not less are the higher and more abstract duties of the homemaker +served by the kind of house she lives and works in. In a hundred +details the homemaker should be able to increase the efficiency of the +"place to make citizens in." A common mistake in building produces a +house which adds to, rather than lessens, the burdens of its inmates. +More often than not this is the result of a misapprehension of what +houses are for. + +There are many large mansions in our villages and cities built for +show and display of wealth in which no one will live today. These +houses are being torn down and sold for junk. The modern home is built +for one purpose only, a home. + +We must therefore teach our boys and girls that houses are for +shelter, work, comfort, and rest, and to satisfy our sense of beauty, +not to serve as show places nor to establish for us a standing in the +community proportionate to the size of our buildings. We must teach +them to measure their house needs and to avoid the uselessly ornate as +well as the hopelessly ugly. We must teach them to consider ease of +upkeep a distinctly valuable factor in building. But most of all must +the homemaker be taught that the comfort and well-being of the family +come first in the making of plans. + +Few persons possess sufficient originality to think out new and +valuable arrangements for houses; therefore we must see that their +minds are rendered alert to discover successful arrangements in the +houses they are constantly seeing and to adapt these arrangements to +their own needs. Unless their minds are awakened in this direction, +the majority will merely see the house problem in large units, +overlooking the finer points of detail which mean comfort or the +opposite. + +I recall spending a considerable number of drawing periods in my +grammar-school days upon copying drawings of houses. I recall that we +became sufficiently conversant with such terms as front elevation, +side elevation, and floor plan to feel that we were deep in technical +knowledge. But I do not recall that anyone suggested any question as +to the suitability of these houses for homes, or opened our minds to +consideration of the fact that house building was a proper concern for +our minds. It was merely a case in which educative processes failed to +function. They do things better now in many schools. But we should not +rest until all of our prospective homemakers have opportunity to +obtain practical instruction in home planning and building. + +Matters pertaining to heating, ventilating, and plumbing are easily +taught as resting upon certain definite, well-understood principles. +Here the personal element is less to be considered, and scientific +knowledge may be passed on with some degree of authority. Our courses +in physics, chemistry, and hygiene can be made thoroughly practical +without losing any of their scientific value. Especially in our rural +schools should matters of this sort receive careful and adequate +treatment. In times past it was considered inevitable that the +country-dweller should lack the advantages, found in most city houses, +of a plentiful supply of water, radiated heat for the whole house, +proper disposal of waste, and arrangements for cold storage. We know +now that these things are obtainable at less cost than we had +supposed; and we know also that it is not lack of means, but lack of +knowledge, which forces many to do without them. In many a farm home +the doctor's bills for one or two winters would pay for installing +proper systems of heat and ventilation. Everything that tends to +increase the comfort and safety of home life must be taught, as well +as everything that tends to lessen the labor of keeping a family +clean, warm, and properly fed. + +Accurate figures should be obtained to set before the boys and girls +who will be homemakers, showing the cost, in time, labor, and money, +of running a heating plant for the house as compared with several +stoves scattered about in the dwelling. To accompany these we must +have more figures, showing the comparative time spent in doing the +necessary work incidental to the operation of each type of apparatus. +We must consider the comparative cleanliness of both types of heating +plants, with their effect, first, upon the health of the family, and +secondly, upon the amount of cleaning necessary to keep the house in +proper condition. We must compare types of stoves with one other, +hot-air, steam, and hot-water plants with one another, and various +kinds of fuels, both as to cost and as to efficacy. + +The water question is one of real interest to both city-and +country-dweller, although the chances are that the country-dweller +knows less about his source of supply than the city-dweller can know +if he chooses to investigate. The city-dweller should know whence and +by what means the water flows from his faucet, if for no other reason +than that he may do his part in seeing that the money spent by his +city or town brings adequate return to the taxpayer. For the rural +homemaker, of course, the problem usually becomes an individual one. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +A dangerous well. The rural homemaker must make sure that his water +supply is at a safe distance from contaminating impurities] + +Is the water supply adequate? Is the water free from harmful bacteria? +Is the source a safe distance from contaminating impurities? Are we +obtaining the water for household and farm purposes without more labor +than is compatible with good management? Is not running water as +important for the house as for the barn? How much water does an +ordinary family need for all purposes in a day? How much time does it +take to pump and carry this quantity by hand or to draw it from a +well? How much strength and nerve force are thus expended that might +be saved for more important work? Does lack of time or strength cause +the homekeeper to "get along" with less water in the house than is +really needed? Is there any natural means at hand for pumping the +water--any "brook that may be put to work," any gravity system that +may be installed? If not, are there mechanical means available that +would really pay for themselves in increased water, time, and comfort +for all the family? + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +Where water must be pumped and carried by hand much strength and +nerve force are expended which might be kept for more important work] + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +A "brook put to work" may be utilized in supplying water to a +farmhouse] + +From a consideration of water supply we pass naturally to questions of +the disposal of waste, and here again is found a subject too often +neglected both in town and in rural communities. In the city the +problems are not individual ones in the main, but rather questions of +the best management and use of the public utilities concerned. Does +the average city householder know what becomes of the waste removed +from his door by the convenient arrival of the ash man, the garbage +man, the rubbish man? Does he know whether this waste is disposed of +in the most sanitary way? Does he consider whether it is removed in +such a way as to be inoffensive and without danger to the people +through whose streets it is carried? Does he know anything of the cost +to the city of waste disposal? Is it merely an expense, and a heavy +one, for him in common with other taxpayers to bear? Or is the +business made to pay for itself? If not, is it possible to make it +pay? Does any community make the waste account balance itself at the +end of the year? + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +An objectionable garbage wagon. Disposal of waste is a subject too +often neglected both in urban and in rural communities] + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +This new covered garbage wagon subjects the public to no danger] + +In the country, once more we face the individual problem rather than +that of the community. Here proper provision for the disposal of waste +often necessitates more knowledge of the subject than is possessed by +the homemaker, or sometimes it requires the installation of apparatus +whose cost seems prohibitive. A careful consideration of these matters +will possibly disclose the fact that a smaller expenditure may +accomplish the desired purpose. Or, if this is not true, it may be +found that the end accomplished is worth the expenditure of what +seemed a prohibitive sum. A water closet, for instance, has not only a +sanitary but a moral value. We must somehow educate people to +understand and to believe that the basis of family health and +usefulness is proper living conditions, and that some system of sewage +and garbage disposal is a necessary step toward proper living +conditions. With the urban population these matters are removed from +personal and immediate consideration, but every rural homemaker must +face his own problems, with the knowledge that since his conditions +are individual his solution must be equally his own. + +In the matters pertaining to decoration within the house as well as +beautifying its surroundings, the country-and the city-dweller meet on +equal terms. Their problems may differ in detail, but the principles +to be studied are the same. Here our art courses must be made to +contribute their share to the homemaker's training. We must strike the +keynote of simplicity, both within and without, and must teach girls +especially the value of carefully thought-out color schemes and +decorating plans, to be carried out by different people in the +materials and workmanship suited to their purses. They must learn that +expense is not necessarily a synonym for beauty; they must know the +characteristics of fabrics and other decorative materials; and they +must be trained to recognize the qualities for which expenditure of +money and effort are worth while. + +In the designing of school buildings nowadays close attention is paid +to beauty of architecture, symmetry of form, convenience of +arrangement, and durable but artistic furnishings. All unwittingly the +child receives an aesthetic training through his daily life in the +midst of attractive surroundings. + +Many of our rural schools are doing excellent work in teaching +children to beautify the school grounds. Some, of them go farther and +interest their pupils in attacking the problem of improving outside +conditions at home. Every child whose mind is thus turned in the +direction of attractive home grounds has unconsciously taken a step +toward one branch of efficient homemaking. If it were possible to give +pupils the foundation principles of landscape gardening, they might +learn to see with a trained eye the problems they will otherwise +attack blindly. + +[Illustration: An example of the newer architecture. An artistic +approach to a school has a daily effect on the mind of the child] + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +Rural school with flower bed. Many of the rural schools are doing +excellent work in teaching children to beautify the school grounds] + +With the house built and ready for its furniture, the selection of the +latter becomes both part of the scheme of decoration and part also of +the domestic plans for securing comfort and inspiring surroundings. +The same principles of beauty and utility, restfulness, comfort, and +suitability, are called into requisition. The trained housewife will +have an eye toward future dusting and will choose the less ornate +articles. The same person, in her capacity as the mother of citizens, +will see that chairs are comfortable to sit in, that tables and desks +are the right height for work, that book cases and cabinets are +sufficient in number and size to take care of the family treasures. +She will use pictures sparingly and choose them to inspire. Perhaps, +most of all, the woman with the trained mind will know how to avoid a +superfluity of furniture in her rooms. She will be educated to the +beauty of well-planned spaces and will not feel obliged to fill every +nook and corner with chairs or tables or sofas or other pieces of +furniture which merely "fill the space." + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +An artistic living room. The principles of beauty and utility, +restfulness, comfort, and suitability, must all be considered in the +furnishing of a home] + +Before furnishing is considered complete, the housekeeper must take +into account the matter of operating apparatus. Perhaps a large part +of this important department of house equipment has been built into +the house. The water system, the sewer connection or its substitute, +and the lighting apparatus are already installed, so that the turn of +a switch or a faucet, the pull of a chain, sets one or all to work for +us. We are now to consider whether we shall buy a vacuum cleaner or a +broom and dustpan; a washing machine and electric flatiron or the +services of a washerwoman, or shall telephone the laundry to call for +the wash. Shall we invest in a "home steam-canning outfit" at ten +dollars, or make up a list for the retailer of the products of the +canning factory? Shall we have a sewing machine, or plan to buy our +clothing from "the store"? + +Once upon a time practically the only labor-saving device possible to +the housekeeping woman was another woman. To-day many devices are +offered to take her place. Our homemaker must know about them, and +must compare their value with the older piece of operating machinery, +the domestic servant. She must know what it costs to keep a servant, +in money, in responsibility, and in all the various ways which cannot +be reduced to figures. + +Already the pros and cons of the "servant question" have caused much +and long-continued agitation. The woman of the future should be taught +to approach the matter with a scientific summing up of the facts and +with a readiness to lift domestic service to a standardized vocation +or to abandon it altogether in favor of the "labor-saving devices" and +the "public utilities." Certain of our home-efficiency experts assure +us that all "industries in the home are doomed." If this is true, the +domestic servant must of necessity cease to exist. Most persons, +however, cannot yet see how "public utilities" will be able to do all +of our work. We may send the washing out, but we cannot send out the +beds to be made, the eggs to be boiled, or the pictures, chairs, and +window sills to be dusted. The table must be set at home, and the +dishes washed there, until we approach the day of communal eating +places, which, as we all know, will be difficult to utilize for +infants and the aged, for invalids, and for the vast army of those who +are averse to faring forth three times daily in search of food. For a +long time yet the domestic servant, _or her substitute_, will be with +us, doing the work that even so great a power as "public utilities" +cannot remove from the home. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +Contrast the bad taste displayed in the furnishing of this hopelessly +inartistic room with the simplicity shown in that on page 43] + +At present there is much to indicate that the servant's substitute, in +the form of various labor-saving devices, will eventually fill the +place of the already vanishing domestic worker. Whether this proves to +be the case will rest largely with these girls whom we are educating +to-day. The pendulum is swinging rather wildly now, but by their day +of deciding things it may have settled down to a steady motion so that +their push will send it definitely in one direction or the other. + +There is no inherent reason why making cake should be a less honorable +occupation than making underwear or shoes; why a well-kept kitchen +should be a less desirable workroom than a crowded, noisy factory. But +under existing conditions the comparison from the point of view of the +worker is largely in favor of the factory. Among the facts to be faced +by the homemaker who wishes to intercept the flight of the housemaid +and the cook are these: + + 1. Hours for the domestic worker must be definite, as they are in + shop or factory work. + + 2. The working day must be shortened. + + 3. Time outside of working hours must be absolutely the worker's + own. + + 4. The worker must either live outside the home in which she + works, or must have privacy, convenience, comfort, and the + opportunity to receive her friends, as she would at home. + +In short, the houseworker must have definite work, definite hours, and +outside these must be free to live her own life, in her own way, and +among her own friends, as the factory girl lives hers when her day's +work is done. + +That women are already awaking to these responsibilities is shown by +the increasing number who choose the labor-saving devices in place of +the flesh-and-blood machine. Many of these women will tell you that +they make this choice to avoid the personal responsibility involved +in having a resident worker in the house. There _is_ comfort in not +having to consider "whether or not the vacuum cleaner likes to live in +the country," or the bread mixer "has a backache," or the electric +flatiron desires "an afternoon off to visit its aunt." It is the same +satisfaction we feel in urging the automobile to greater speed +regardless of the melting heat, the pouring rain, or the number of +miles it has already traveled to-day. Perhaps the future will see +machines for household work so improved and multiplied that we can +escape altogether this perplexing personal problem of "the woman who +works for us." + +Whether or not we escape this problem when we patronize the laundry, +the bakeshop, the underwear factory, is a matter for further thought. +To many it seems a simpler matter to face the problem of one cook, one +laundress, than to investigate conditions in factory, bakery, and +laundry, to agitate, to "use our influence," to urge legislation, to +follow up inspectors and their reports, to boycott the bakery, to be +driven into the establishment of a cooeperative laundry whether we will +or no, in order to fulfill our obligations to the "women who work for +us" in these various places. True, our duty to womankind requires that +we do all these things to a certain extent so long as the public +utilities exist, but with the multiplication of utilities to a number +sufficient to do a large portion of our work, it would seem that women +would be left little time for anything else than their supervision and +regulation. + +Problems relating to the establishing of a home would once have been +considered far from the province of the teacher in the public school. +Formerly we taught our children a little of everything except how to +live. Now we are realizing that the teacher should be a constructive +social force. Living is a more complicated thing than it once was, and +the school must do its share in fitting the children for their task. +All these matters we have been considering--the selection of a home +site, building, decorating, furnishing, sanitation, and all the +rest--represent constructive social work the teacher may do, which, if +she passes it by, may not be done at all. College courses should +prepare the teacher for such work, but even the girl who is not +college-trained will find, if she seeks it, help sufficient for her +training. And the work awaits her on every hand. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +RUNNING THE DOMESTIC MACHINERY + + +With a home established, the problems confronting the homemaker become +those of administration. The "place for making citizens" is built and +ready. The making of citizens must begin. + +One of the fundamental requisites for the efficient operation of the +home plant is that the homemaker shall have a firm grasp upon the +financial part of the business. To estimate the number of homes +wrecked every year by lack of this economic knowledge is of course +impossible; but you can call up without effort many cases in which +this lack was at least a contributing element to the wreck. + +Keeping expenditures within the income is only the _ABC_ of the +financial knowledge required, although, like other _ABC_'s, it is +essential to the acquirement of deeper knowledge. It is not enough +that the housekeeper merely succeeds in keeping out of debt. She must +know what to expect in return for the money that she spends, and she +must know whether or not she gets it. She must have definitely in mind +the results she expects, and she must know why she spends for certain +objects rather than for others. + +In the days of famine and fear, the individual was fortunate who had +food, shelter, and a skin to wrap about his shivering shoulders. In +these days it is not enough to have merely these things. Certain +standards of civilized life must be met, and we shall find that it +requires judgment and skill to apportion our funds properly. + +The common needs of civilized mankind are usually roughly classified +as follows: food; shelter; clothing; operating expenses, including +service, heat, light, water, repairs, refurnishing, and the general +upkeep of the plant; advancement, including education, recreation, +travel, charity, church, doctor, dentist, savings. + +The exact proportion of any income devoted to each of these is of +course a matter conditioned by the needs of the particular family as +well as by its tastes and desires. Figures are obtainable which throw +light upon proportions found advisable in what are considered typical +cases. We may learn the minimum amount of money which will feed a man +in New York or in various other cities and towns. We may find +estimates as to the prices of a "decent living" in various parts of +the country. Home-economics experts will furnish us with figures which +may be used as a basis for apportioning this amount among departments +of household expenses. That the figures offered by these experts +differ more or less widely need not disturb us. It is perhaps too +early in such work for final authoritative estimates. + +The following apportionment is taken from Chapin's _The Standard of +Living among Workingmen's Families in New York City_ and has to do +with the minimum income required for normal living for a family of +father, mother, and three children on Manhattan Island: + + Food $359.00 + Housing 168.00 + Fuel and light 41.00 + Clothing 113.00 + Carfare 16.00 + Health 22.00 + Insurance 18.00 + Sundry items 74.00 + ------- + $811.00 + +"Families having from $900 to $1,000 a year," concludes Dr. Chapin, +"are able, in general, to get food enough to keep body and soul +together, and clothing and shelter enough to meet the most urgent +demands of decency." Regarding incomes below $900, he says, "Whether +an income between $800 and $900 can be made to suffice is a question +to which our data do not warrant a dogmatic answer." + +The two apportionments given below have been made by the federal +government and concern the maintenance of a normal standard in two +industrial sections of the country. In each case the family is assumed +to be, as in Dr. Chapin's estimate,[1] made up of father, mother, and +three children. + + Fall River, Georgia and + Mass. North Carolina + Food $312.00 $286.67 + Housing 132.00 44.81 + Clothing 136.80 113.00 + Fuel and light 42.75 49.16 + Health 11.65 16.40 + Insurance 18.40 18.20 + Sundry items 78.00 72.60 + ------- ------- + $731.90 $600.74 + +These estimates do no more than suggest the minimum upon which the +various items of living expense can be met and the proportion to each +account. People who can do more upon their incomes than merely live +must look farther for help. + +Mrs. Bruere in her _Increasing Home Efficiency_ offers the following +as a minimum schedule[3] for efficient living: + + Food $ 344.93 + Shelter 144.00 + Clothing 100.00 + Operation 150.00 + Advancement 312.00 + Incidentals 46.85 + ------- + $1,097.78 + + +"When the income is over $1,200," Mrs. Bruere adds, "the family has +passed the line of mere decency in living and entered the realm of +choice. Their budget need not show how the entire income _must_ be +spent, but how it may be spent to gain whatever special end the family +has in view." + +That any estimated schedule for any income will fit exactly the needs +of any family of father, mother, and three children in any given town +in the United States no one supposes, but it is at least a basis upon +which to work. And perhaps the main point from an educational +standpoint is that it is a schedule at all. + +The happy-go-lucky, spend-as-you-go style of housekeeping does not +constitute efficiency. The homemaking expert we are training will have +a better plan. She will have been long familiar with the idea of +apportioning incomes. She will have applied the tests of efficient +decision to her personal income before she has to attack the problem +of spending for a family. The ideal homemaker of the future will be a +woman who has had a personal income, and preferably one that she has +earned herself and learned how to spend before she enters upon +matrimony and motherhood. + +By the less scientific plan of merely recording what one has spent, +when the spending is over, it is more than likely that some +departments of home expenditure will gain at the expense of others. If +we can afford only $150 for rent, and we pay $200, it is evident that +we must go without some portion of the food or clothing or advancement +that we need. If we dress extravagantly, we must pay for our +extravagance by sacrificing efficient living in some other direction. +The budget is not entirely or even in large measure for the sake of +saving, but rather for the sake of spending wisely. When women become +as businesslike in the administration of home finances as they must be +to succeed in business life, or as men usually are in their business +relations, home administration will be placed upon a secure financial +footing and will gain immeasurably in dignity thereby. + +Feeding and clothing a family are perhaps the fundamentals of the +homemaker's daily tasks. And upon neither of them will the application +of scientific principles be wasted. It is not enough that we merely +set food before our families in sufficient quantity to appease the +clamoring appetite. Children and adults may suffer from malnutrition +even though their consumption of food is normal in quantity three +times a day. No housewife is properly fitted for her task unless she +has some knowledge of dietetics. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +Teaching housewives food values. No housewife in these days need lack +the knowledge of dietetics which will fit her for her task] + +Many a notable housewife who has perhaps never even heard of dietetics +has nevertheless a practical working knowledge of some or many of its +principles. There are traditions among housewives that we should serve +certain foods at the same meal or should cook certain foods together. +Often these time-honored combinations rest upon the soundest of +dietetic principles. On the other hand, many cooks feed their families +by a hit-or-miss method which as often as not violates all the laws of +scientific feeding, and which farmers long ago discarded in the +feeding of their cows. + +[Illustration: Blackburn College students preparing dinner. +Fortunately girls may study dietetics in the school that teaches them +the law of gravity and the rules for forming French plurals] + +Fortunately the girl who so desires may now learn something of these +feeding laws in the same school that teaches her the law of +gravitation or the rules for forming French plurals. Fortunately, +also, the girls of to-day seem inclined to undertake such study. It is +not too much to expect that the girl of the future will be able to set +before her family meals scientifically planned or food wisely and +economically purchased, well cooked, and attractively served. Nor is +it too much to expect that teachers will be able to do these things +and to instruct others how to do them. That this ideal requires +considerable and varied knowledge is clear at the outset. The serving +of a single meal involves: (1) knowledge of food values, (2) skill in +making a "balanced ration," (3) knowledge of market conditions, (4) +skill in buying, with special reference to personal tastes and +financial conditions, (5) knowledge of the chemistry of cooking, (6) +skill in applying chemical knowledge, (7) skill in adapting knowledge +of cooking to existing conditions, (8) knowledge of serving a meal and +practice in service. + +The fact that a large proportion of deaths is directly due to +digestive troubles is certainly food for thought. Such a statement +alone would warrant action of some sort looking toward increased +knowledge of food values and food preparation. It is not necessarily +because people live upon homemade food that their digestions are +impaired, as we so often hear stated nowadays, but because we have +taken it for granted that, given a stove, a saucepan, and a spoon, any +woman could instinctively combine flour, water, and yeast into food. +There is little dependence upon instinct in producing the bread of +commerce. Bakers' bread is scientifically made, no doubt; but there is +no reason why the homemade article may not also be a product of +science. And there will always be this difference between the baker +and the housewife: the baker's profit must be expressed in dollars and +cents, while that of the housewife will be represented in increased +force and efficiency in the family that she feeds. With such differing +ends in view, the processes and results of each must continue to +differ as widely as we know they do at present. + +It is now some years since Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote of woman's +work: + + Six hours a day the woman spends on food, + Six mortal hours! + * * * * * + Till the slow finger of heredity + Writes on the forehead of each living man, + Strive as he may: "His mother was a cook!" + +[Illustration: A Blackburn College student mixing bread. There is no +reason why homemade bread may not be the product of science] + +Many women now doubtless spend less time on cooking than when Mrs. +Gilman wrote; perhaps her scorn has borne fruit. But the implication +that being a cook is unworthy loses all its force unless it can be +shown that "his mother was _nothing but_ a cook." Even so, there are +worse things one might be. It is true that women should not spend six +hours out of the working day on merely one department of their +household work. Yet the ill-fed family is out of the race for a place +among the efficient. Let us then teach the coming woman to use less +time, more science, and all the labor-savers there are available, and +still accomplish the same, or perhaps better, results. + +That the question of clothing is equally fundamental, perhaps few of +us will acknowledge. Yet we must not underrate its importance. Food +furnishes the fuel with which to support the fires of life. Clothes, +however, contribute not only to comfort and health, but to mental +well-being and self-respect. So long as we mingle with our fellow men +in civilized communities, raiment will continue to require "taking +thought." That much of the feminine part of the population devotes an +undue amount of thought to certain aspects of the clothing question we +cannot deny. It is equally certain that many women, if not most women, +devote too little thought to other phases of the problem. + +Present conditions seem to indicate that the average woman, of any +class of society, places the "prevailing mode" first in her personal +clothing problems. How to be "in style" absorbs much attention and +time. Surely it is overshadowing other very important considerations +relating to dress. When American women have awakened to the real +importance of these considerations, we shall observe a better +proportion in studying the clothes question. + +As a scientific foundation upon which to build her practical knowledge +of how to clothe herself and her family, the girl of the future must +be trained to an understanding of (1) the hygiene of clothes, (2) art +expressed in clothes, (3) the psychology of clothes, (4) ethics as +affected by clothes, (5) personality as expressed by clothes. + +There is no stage of life in which hygiene, art, psychology, and +ethics do not apply to clothes. The practical knowledge built upon +these as a foundation will guide the girl in choosing clothes which +are suitable to the occasion for which they are designed, are not +extravagant in either price or style, give good value for the money +expended, express the individuality of the wearer, and exert an +influence uplifting rather than the reverse upon the community at +large. + +[Illustration: Class in dressmaking at Blackburn College. With women +scientifically trained in the matter of clothing, we shall do away +with much of the absurdity of dress] + +With such a girl, the fact that "they" are wearing this or that will +be always a minor consideration. With women trained in matters of +clothing, we shall no longer be confronted by the absurdity of +identical styles for thick and thin, short and tall, middle-aged and +young, rich and poor. We shall no longer see dress dominating, as it +does to-day, the entire lives of thousands of women. From the woman of +wealth who spends a fortune every season upon her wardrobe, all the +way down the money scale to the young girl who strains every nerve and +spends every cent she can earn to buy and wear "the latest style," +slavery to fashion is an evil gigantic in its proportions and +far-reaching in its results. + +We have no right to interfere with the woman's instinct to make +herself beautiful. Rather we should encourage it, and should carefully +instruct her in her impressionable years as to what real beauty is. It +is almost safe to say that at present the principle by which the +modern woman is guided in deciding the great questions of feminine +attire is imitation. Incidentally, we may remark that nobody profits +by such a mistaken foundation except the manufacturer, who moves the +women of the world about like pawns on a chessboard merely to benefit +his business. The society woman brings the latest thing "from Paris." +The large New York establishments sell to their patrons copies of +"Paris models." The middle-class shops and the middle-class women copy +the copies. The cheap shops and the poor women copy the copy of the +copy. Every copy is made of less worthy material than its model, of +gaudier colors, with cheaper trimmings, until we have the pitiful +spectacle of girls who earn barely enough to keep body and soul +together spending their money for garments neither suitable nor +durable--sleazy, shabby after a single wearing, short-lived--yet for a +few ephemeral minutes "up to date." + +How far this heartbreaking habit of imitation extends in the poor +girl's life we can hardly say. She marries, and buys furniture, +crockery, and lace curtains cheap and unsuitable, like her clothes, +always imitations and soon gone, to be superseded by more of the same +sort. What thoughtful woman desires to feel herself part of an +influence which leads to so much that is insincere, uneconomical, +wasteful both of raw material and of the infinitely more important +material which makes women's souls? What teacher of young girls has a +right to hold back from setting her hand against the formation of +habits so undesirable? + +And what of the vast output of the factories which turn out cheap +cloth, cheaper trimmings, imitations of silk, imitations of velvet, +ribbons which will scarcely survive one tying, shoes with pasteboard +soles, and all the other intrinsically worthless products which now +find ready sale? When women have been educated to a standard of taste, +of suitability, of quality, which will forbid the use of cheap +imitations of elegant and costly articles, will not the world gain in +bringing such factories to the making of products of real worth +instead of their present output? + +The mother of the future will bring to bear upon the clothing question +not only more knowledge, but more serious thought, than she does +to-day. For the children she must provide comfortable, serviceable +play clothes in generous quantity, that they may pursue their +development unhampered in either body or mind. She must know the +hygiene of childhood and the psychology of children's clothes. For the +growing girls there must be a proper recognition of the growing +interest in adornment, avoiding the Scylla of vanity on one hand and +the Charybdis of unhappy consciousness of being "different from the +other girls" on the other. For the sons there must be careful +provision for the athletic life so dear to the boy, together with due +recognition of the approaching dignities of manhood, with special care +for the small details which mark the well-groomed man. + +As in the matter of the food supply, there must be knowledge of +markets and skill in buying. And, as in that case, there should be +knowledge of the process of transforming materials into the finished +product. Processes involving a great degree of technical skill, such +as the tailor's art, the average woman will not attempt; but the +simpler forms of garment making present no special difficulty to +those who wish to try them or who find it expedient to do so. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +Buying clothing ready made. The question of buying clothing ready +made or of making it will find individual solution according to means, +inclination, and ability] + +A wholesale assumption that it is only a question of a short time +before all garment making will be done in the factory is probably +without warrant. We read again and again of late, "The day of buying +instead of making _is here_! We may like it or not like it, but the +fact remains, _it is here_!" And then we look all about us, and find +that the day is apparently not here for at least several thousands of +people of whom we have personal knowledge. That discovery gives us +courage to look farther. We find paper-pattern companies flourishing; +dress goods selling in the retail departments as they have always +sold; seamstresses fully occupied; and we conclude that for some time +yet the question of buying or making will find individual solution, +according to means, inclination, and ability. What we wish to guard +against in the upbringing of our future mothers is the necessity of +buying because of a lack of the ability to make. The woman trained to +a knowledge of the making of garments is the only woman who can +intelligently decide the question for her own household. The others +are forced to a decision by their own limitations. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +In a community preserving kitchen questions of food supply may +sometimes be solved and community interests unified] + +Passing from the elemental needs, shelter, warmth, food, and clothing, +we enter upon the most complex of woman's duties--adjustment of her +home to community conditions and provision for her family's share in +community life. That these more abstract problems frequently overlap +the concrete ones already enumerated need not be said. It is +impossible, even if we so desire, to live "to ourselves alone." We +shall undoubtedly stand for something in the community, whether +consciously or otherwise. If it were given us to know the extent of +our influence, we should probably be appalled at the crossing and +recrossing of the lines emanating from our daily lives. + +In some households there are definite aims in the direction of +community life. These differ widely. In many the question seems to be +entirely, "What can I get from the community?" in some, "What can I +give?" in a few, "What can I share?" Of the three, the last is without +doubt the one which contributes most to community well-being. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +A community Christmas tree. Even the younger children may be given +the opportunity to take part in community work] + +The ordinary family of necessity touches community life at one time or +another at certain well-defined points. The efficient homemaker must +therefore make intelligent provision for these points of contact with +the community. + +Church and charity organizations have always been recognized in +American life as community matters and have provided community meeting +places and community work. Through them, especially in earlier days, +women often found their only common activities. The school furnished +the same common ground for the children. In the present time of +multiplied activity these organizations still stand in the foreground. +In them, both young and old find perhaps their best opportunity for +"team work." + +A parish in which all pull together is perhaps as rare as a school in +which every child truly desires to learn. Yet neither is beyond the +possibilities. To keep each family in a proper attitude toward these +community institutions is part of the homemaker's work--and a delicate +task it often is. It is not enough for a mother to adopt a cast-iron +policy of indiscriminate approval of pastor or teacher, although that +is often recommended. Do you remember your resentment as a child of +the inflexible judgment "The teacher _must_ be right"? Really there is +no "must" about it, and the child knows that as well as we. The +mother, therefore, who is able to review the matter in dispute calmly, +justly, and withal sympathetically, and who indorses the teacher's +action after such review, is a better conserver of the public peace +than the prejudging mother. + +Or suppose she fails to indorse the teacher's course. We have always +been led to expect that this failure ruins forever the teacher's +influence with the child. There are some of us, however, who doubt the +immediate destruction of a wise influence, even if we should say, "No, +I do not think I should have punished you in just that way. But +perhaps you have not told me all that occurred. Or perhaps you +overlook the fact that you had annoyed Miss ---- until, being human +like the rest of us, she lost her temper. Is it fair for you to treat +your teacher in such a way that you cause her to lose her +self-control?" It is usually possible for the wise mother to turn her +fire upon the child's own error without outraging the childish sense +of justice by indorsing something which does not really deserve +indorsement. + +There is, perhaps, no way in which the mother of a family can do so +much for the community institutions as by keeping up her own interest +in them and thus stimulating the other members of the family to a +willingness to do their part in the work of uplift. Where everybody is +really interested and working, the first great stumbling block in the +way of public enterprises has already been surmounted. + +In the case of the school, however, the well-trained mother will find +additional work to do. We who have been teachers know how vainly we +have sought for intimate acquaintance on the part of parents with the +school. And we who have been mothers know something of the +difficulties in the way of gaining such intimate acquaintance. In +spite of, or perhaps because of, my long years of schoolroom +experience, I am quite unable to conquer my reluctance to knock at a +classroom door. There is an aloofness about being a school visitor +which most mothers feel and few enjoy. However, it is possible to gain +so much of sympathetic understanding by persistent visiting that I +have found it worth while to disregard my reluctance. + +So often we hear mothers say, "I try to visit school at least once +each year." I wonder if they ever think of that one visit as an +injustice to the teacher? Suppose that, as is quite probable, the +visitor arrives at an inopportune moment, finding the children in the +midst of work which won't "show off," or the air heavy with the +echoes of a disciplinary encounter, or the children restless as the +session draws to a close, or dull and listless from the heat of an +unusually hot day. What the visitor needs to do is not to visit once a +year, but to get acquainted with the school as she does with her +next-door neighbor or her mother-in-law. Having done this, she may +attend the meetings of the parent-teacher association with a +consciousness of knowing something of the problems to be met and +solved. Until she has formed such acquaintance she deals with unknown +quantities and is therefore in danger of erroneous conclusions. + +[Illustration: Mothers visiting a school garden. Mothers need to +visit the schools often in order to know something of the problems to +be met and solved by the teachers] + +It is interesting to see how completely both teacher and pupils take +to their hearts the mother who really does get acquainted them. How +easy it is to appeal to her for advice and help; and what a sense of +familiar ownership she comes to have in the school. It is no longer +merely "what my child is learning" or whether "my children are getting +what they ought to get in school," but rather "what _we_ are doing in +our school." + +The activities of women in the church usually follow along well-worn +paths. The women help as they have always helped by their attendance +at service, by their ladies' aid society or guild, by their missionary +society, and by their aid to the poor of the town. Many struggling +churches depend almost solely upon their women's work for support. +That the woman whose problems we are studying should enter upon her +church duties armed with wisdom is quite as necessary as that she +should be earnest and enthusiastic. The church is not primarily a +neighborhood social center. It is first of all a means for spiritual +uplift. It must not, in a multiplicity of humanitarian activities, +lose its character of spiritual guide. Its women will therefore be +animated by a spiritual conception of the church and will base their +activities in church work upon such a conception. The church built +upon such a foundation will be foremost among local forces devoted to +community service and will be a true force in the individual lives of +its people. The women of the church need to use the church as an +effective instrument for community betterment--not merely material +welfare, but actual increase in spiritual worth. Perfunctory church +attendance has little part in such a program. It calls rather for +intelligent understanding of church problems and an application of +spiritual ideals to everyday life. + +Outside the organizations common to all communities the homekeeper +finds that she must keep in touch with her particular neighborhood +through its social life. It is here that her children are growing up, +here that they find their friends, here that they give and take +knowledge of themselves, of people, of ways to enjoy life and to meet +its problems. Here perhaps they will find their life mates and will +start out to be homemakers themselves. The mother of a family must +know her community thoroughly. She must do her share toward making it +a safe place and a pleasant place in which her children and other +children may grow up, and in which she and her husband, other women +and their husbands, may spend their lives. The mother who knows her +children's friends, who makes them welcome at her house, who "gets +acquainted" with their qualities good and bad, who is a "big sister" +to them all, will not find herself shut out from her children's social +life. If all the mothers were "big sisters" and all the fathers were +"big brothers," neighborhood society would be a safer thing than it +sometimes is. + +Nor should all the social life center about the young people. The +woman's club, the village improvement society, the men's civic league, +all have their places. Club life will menace neither the man nor the +woman whose first interest is the home; and every man and woman needs +the stimulus of contact with other minds. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +A road in DeKalb, Illinois, before improvements were made. Through +the agency of improvement societies, homemakers may often bring about +community reforms] + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +The same road after repairs were made through the efforts of members +of the community] + +Sometimes it will happen that the homemaker finds work to be done in +the line of community reform. Perhaps the roads are out of repair, or +the cemetery is neglected, or the school building insanitary. Perhaps +the water supply is not properly guarded, or milk inspection not +thoroughly looked after. Perhaps industrial conditions in the town are +not what they should be. Perhaps laws are not being enforced. New +conditions require new laws. There may be loafing places on streets +and in stores which are dangerous. The billiard halls may need a +thorough moral cleaning and a moral man placed in charge. The public +dance halls may need proper chaperonage. The moving pictures need +state and national censorship to eliminate the careless suggestions +leading toward both vice and crime. The homemaker must know under such +circumstances how to stir public opinion, how to make use of her +existing organizations, how to set on foot the various movements +necessary for reform. + +In connection with the subject of the homemaker's place in the +community we must return to the thought of woman as the buyer for the +home and of her consequent influence upon the economic standards of +the community. It is not unusual in these days to read or hear such +statements as the following: "The woman was no longer producer and +consumer.... She became the consumer and her entire economic function +changed.... The housewife is the buying agent for the home." Like many +statements in regard to woman and her function, this seems overdrawn, +since woman in her capacity as homemaker is still a producer as well +as a consumer in thousands of cases. That she will become, +economically, _merely_ a buying agent, some of us not only doubt, but +should consider a certain misfortune, should it occur. The fact +remains, however, that as buyer of both raw materials and finished +products the woman spends a very large percentage (some say +nine-tenths) of the money taken in by the retail merchants of the +country. This gives, or should give her, a commanding position in the +producing world. If the women of America should definitely decide +to-day that they would buy no more corn flakes, or mercerized crochet +cotton, or silk elastic, the factories now so busy turning out these +products would be shut down to-morrow until they could be converted to +other uses. Women often fail to realize their power in this +direction. When they do realize it, they are able to accomplish +quietly all sorts of reforms in the mercantile and industrial worlds. +There need be no crusade against adulterated foods other than real +education and the refusal of homemakers to buy from merchants who +carry them in stock. The same remedy will apply to overworked and +underpaid workers, to insanitary shops and factories. That it is the +woman's duty to control these matters is a necessary conclusion when +we consider her power as the "spender of the family income." Who else +has this power as she has it? + +We have already noted how this power might be used to regulate not +only the quality but the character of products in the factories. If +women merely passed by the outlandish hats, the high heels, the hobble +skirts, of fashion, their stay would necessarily be short. The woman, +therefore, _if she choose_, is absolutely the controller of production +along most lines of food and raiment. That she shall use this +controlling power wisely is one of her obligations. And to meet the +obligation she must be wisely trained. + +It would seem that the homemaker, as we have conceived her, has a part +in most of the concerns of the community. We speak of "woman and +citizenship." To many this means, perhaps, "woman and suffrage." Woman +in politics is already an accomplished fact in fourteen western +states. Suffrage has been granted her in the state of New York. That +her political influence will widen seems a foregone conclusion. She +must therefore be prepared for real service in civic concerns. Women +have already applied their housecleaning knowledge and skill to the +smaller near-by problems of civic life. As time goes on they must +render the same service to state and nation. + +We shall soon see nation-wide "votes for women," in our own country, +at least. But whether we do or not, or until we do, woman and +citizenship are, as they have always been, closely linked together. In +every community relation the homemaker is the good, or indifferent, or +bad citizen; and in every home relation she is the citizen still, and, +more than that, the mother of future citizens. + +In spite of the "uneasy women" who feel that the home offers +insufficient scope for their intellectual powers, the executive +ability required to run a home smoothly and well is of no mean order. +"This being a mother is a complicated business," as one mother of my +acquaintance expresses it. Can we afford to have homemaking underrated +as a vocation, to be avoided or entered into lightly, often with +neither natural aptitude nor training to serve as guide to the +"complications"? It would seem not. We must then consider "guidance +toward homemaking" as a necessary part of a girl's education and as a +possible solution of the home problems on every hand. + +We have thus far in this book concerned ourselves with making plain +our ideal of girlhood and womanhood and with considering the problems +which our girl and woman, when we have done our best to prepare her, +will have to meet. We have thus far not concerned ourselves with the +questions of how, when, and where the work of preparation is to be +done. A clear vision of the end to be attained, not obscured by +thought of the means used in reaching it, seems a necessity. From this +we may pass on to careful, detailed consideration of agencies and +methods. Knowing what we desire our girls to be, we may enlist all the +forces which react upon girls to make them into what we desire. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 3: No studies of present-day conditions are available. The +proportion spent for food, clothing, etc., will remain nearly the +same. It is safe to multiply the above estimates by two to obtain the +actual cost of living in the year 1919.] + + + + +PART II + +GUIDING GIRLS TOWARD THE IDEAL + + + + + "A vocational guide is one who helps other people to find + themselves. Vocational guidance is the science of this + self-discovery." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES INVOLVED + + +The three agencies most vitally concerned in this problem of "woman +making" are necessarily the home, the church, and the school--the home +and the church, because of their vital interest in the personal +result; the school, because, whatever public opinion has demanded, +schools have never been able to turn out merely educated human beings, +but always boys and girls, prospective men and women. And so they must +continue to do. Nature reasserts itself with every coming generation. +This being so, we must continue to "make women." If we desire to make +homemaking women, the most economical way to accomplish this is to use +the already existing machinery for making women of some sort. We +cannot begin too soon, nor continue our efforts too faithfully. The +school cannot leave the whole matter to the home, nor can the home +safely assume that the "domestic science" course or courses will do +all that is needed for the girl. Being a woman is a complex, +many-sided business for which training must be broad and +long-continued. + +The teacher has perhaps scarcely realized her responsibilities or her +opportunities in this matter. For years, and in fact until very +recently, the whole tendency in education for girls has been toward a +training which ignores sex and ultimate destiny. The teachers +themselves were so trained and are therefore the less prepared to see +the necessity for any special teaching along these lines. They may +even resent any demand for specialized instruction for girls. + +Yet we are confronted by the fact that the majority of girls do marry, +and that many of this majority are woefully lacking in the knowledge +and training they should have. Nor are these girls exclusively from +the poor and ignorant classes. There is no question about the +responsibility of the school in the matter. The state which "trains +for citizenship" cannot logically ignore the necessity for training +the mothers of future citizens. + +"While I sympathize profoundly with the claim of woman for every +opportunity which she can fill," says G. Stanley Hall in +_Adolescence_, "and yield to none in appreciation of her ability, I +insist that the cardinal defect in the woman's college is that it is +based upon the assumption, implied and often expressed, if not almost +universally acknowledged, that girls should primarily be trained to +independence and self-support; and matrimony and motherhood, if it +come, will take care of itself, or, as some even urge, is thus best +provided for." This criticism, of existing educational conditions is +quite as applicable to schools for younger girls as to those which Dr. +Hall has in mind. There is no reason why both school and college may +not fit girls for a broad and general usefulness, for "independence +and self-support," and at the same time give them the training for +that which, with the majority already mentioned, comes to be the great +work of their lives. + +Through all the lower grades of school life, and to a certain extent +through the whole course, the methods of instruction used will be +largely indirect. The child will-seldom be told, "This is to teach you +how to keep house." I can think of no field in which this indirect +method will produce greater results than the one we are considering. + +[Illustration: Montavilla School garden, Portland, Oregon, where boys +and girls raise vegetables for serving in the lunchroom. Here the +science of growing things is taught as part of the "training for +citizenship"] + +[Illustration: Lunchroom where vegetables grown in the Montavilla +School garden are prepared and eaten] + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +A model school home. One way of teaching children how to "keep house" +is by means of the model home where they are given instruction in all +the duties of the homemaker] + +The teacher, in most cases, must begin her homemaking training by +realizing that her own example is by the very nature of things opposed +to the homemaking principle, the unmarried teacher being the rule in +most of our schools. Her first care, then, must be to counteract her +own example. Her references to home life must be always of the most +appreciative and even reverent sort. If, as is quite possible, she +comes from unsatisfactory conditions in her own home, she must be +doubly careful lest her prejudices be passed on to her pupils. She +will find ways in which to let it be understood that her ideals of +home life are not wanting, although she has not as yet--perhaps for +some reason never will--become a homemaker. I have sometimes thought +that teachers, in their effort to impress children in more direct +ways, lose sight of the great effect of their unconscious influence. +After all, it is what the teacher does, rather than what she says, +that impresses; and what she _is_, regulates what she does. The +teacher must, therefore, have the right attitude toward homemaking and +domestic life. It may be of the greatest value in determining the +force of her influence in this direction for the children to catch +intimate little glimpses of her domestic accomplishments, of her +sewing, or of her cooking, or of her quick knowledge and deft handling +of emergency cases. The teacher whose influence is felt most and lasts +longest is the one whose "motherliness" supplements her academic +acquirements and supplies a sympathetic understanding of the child. + +[Illustration: Canning tomatoes at the Montavilla School. In such a +class the mothers of future citizens are given training in one of the +fundamental needs of the home--scientific cooking] + +[Illustration: Lunchroom where children benefit by the scientific +cooking of the vegetables they grow] + +With innate motherliness as a basis, the teacher must build up a +careful understanding not only of child nature, but of man and woman +nature as the developed product of child growth. She must be a student +of the "woman question" as a vital problem, always recognizing that +the whole social structure inevitably depends upon the status of woman +in the world. She must face without flinching her responsibilities in +sex matters. She may, or may not, be called upon to furnish sex +instruction to the girls under her care, but no rules can free her +from her moral responsibility in striving to keep the sex atmosphere +clean and invigorating. The "conspiracy of silence" on these subjects +is broken, and we must accept the fact that modesty does not require +an assumed or a real ignorance of the most wonderful of nature's laws. +"The idea that celibacy is the 'aristocracy of the future' is soundly +based if the Business of Being a Woman rests on a mystery so +questionable that it cannot be frankly and truthfully explained by a +girl's mother the moment her interest and curiosity seek +satisfaction."[4] And what the mother should tell, the teacher must +know. + +Practical use of the teacher's carefully worked-out theories will be +made all along the line of the girl's, and to a certain degree the +boy's, education. The indirect teaching of the primary grades will +give place in the higher grades to more direct dealing with the +science, or, better, sciences, upon which homemaking rests. The +classroom becomes a "school of theory." The home stands in the equally +vital position of a laboratory in which the girl sees the theory +worked out and in time performs her own experiments. The finest +teaching presupposes perfect cooeperation between school and home. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +Mothers' and daughters' meeting on sewing day. Cooeperation between +the home and the school makes for the best teaching of domestic +science] + +The first duty of the mother, like that of the teacher, is to preserve +always a right attitude toward home life. The girl who grows up in an +ideal home will be likely to look forward to making such a home some +day. Or, if the home is not in all respects ideal, the father or +mother who nevertheless recognizes ideal homes as possible may show +the girl directly or otherwise how to avoid the mischance of a less +than perfect home. + +The prevalence of divorce places before young men and women sad +examples of mismating, of incompetent homemakers, of wrecked homes. We +can scarcely estimate the blow struck at ideals of marriage in the +minds of girls and boys by these flaunted failures. Nor can we even +guess how many boys and girls are led to a cynical attitude toward all +marriage by their daily suffering in families where parents have +missed the real meaning of "home." However practical we may become, +therefore--and we must be practical in this matter--we must never +overlook the need for parents to give home life an atmosphere of +charm. No one else can take their place in doing this. Hence it is +their first duty to make homemaking seem worth while. + +The home must take the lead also in giving the idea of homemaking as a +definite and scientific profession. The school may teach the science, +but unless the home shows practical application of the scientific +principles, it would be much like teaching agriculture without showing +results upon real soil. Skillful teachers recognize the home as a +valuable adjunct to their school equipment and are able by wise +cooeperation to use it to its full value. + +The home, in its character of laboratory for the school of domestic +theory, must possess certain qualifications. Like all laboratories, it +should be well equipped. This does not mean necessarily with expensive +outfit, but with at least the best that means will allow. It implies +that the home shall be recognized as a teaching institution quite as +much as the school. Like other laboratories, it must be a place of +experiment, not merely a preserver of tradition. The efficient +laboratory presupposes an informed and open-minded presiding genius. + +[Illustration: Courtesy of L.A. Alderman +First crop of radishes and lettuce at the Alameda Park School, +Portland, Oregon, June, 1916. Even in the primary grades children may +learn much about the science of growing things] + +[Illustration: Bringing exhibits to a school fair in Tacoma, +Washington. Skillful teachers who recognize the home as a valuable +adjunct to the school equipment encourage the children to make gardens +at home] + +The greatest service that the home can render in the cause of training +girls for homemaking is probably close, painstaking study of its own +individual girl--her likes, dislikes, aptitudes, and limitations. +Home-mindedness shows itself nowhere so much as in the home; lack of +home-mindedness shows there quite as much. The results of such study +should throw great light upon the problem of the girl's future. +Combined with the observations recorded by her teacher during year +after year of the girl's school life, this study offers the strongest +arguments for or against this or that career. Frequent and sympathetic +conferences between parent and teacher become a necessity. There is +then less likelihood of opposing counsel when the girl seeks guidance +toward her life work. + +It is quite probable that, while the school undertakes to lay a +general foundation for homemaking efficiency, the home, when it +reaches the full measure of its power and responsibility, will be best +fitted to help the girl to specialize in the direction most suited to +her individual power. It can, if it will, _give_ the girl individual +opportunities such as the mere fact of numbers forbids the school to +give. + +The special work of the church in training the girl is necessarily +that which has to do with her spiritual concept of life, the +strengthening of her moral fiber. Here school, home, and church must +each contribute its share. None of them can undertake alone so +important and delicate a task. Any attempt to make arbitrary divisions +in the work of these three agencies is bound to be at least a partial +failure. Conditions differ so widely that we can only say of much of +the work, "at school or church or in the home," or, better, "at +school and church and home in cooeperation." Each must supplement the +efforts of the other, and where one fails, the other must take up the +task. It really matters little where the work is done, provided that +it _is_ done. The ensuing chapters of this book are written in the +hope that they may bring the vital problems of girl training and girl +guidance home to both teacher and parent; and especially that they may +convince both of the value of cooeperation in the inspiring work of +helping our daughters to make the most of their lives. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 4: Ida M. Tarbell, _The Business of Being a Woman_.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +TRAINING THE LITTLE CHILD + + +"Children are the home's highest product." That means at the outset +that we have children because we believe in them, and that we train +them, as the skilled workman shapes his wood and clay, to achieve the +greatest result of which the human material is capable. + +A factory's output can be standardized. An engine's power can be +measured. But he who trains a child can never fully know the mind he +works with nor the result he attains. We do know, however, that if it +is subject to certain influences, trained by certain laws, _the +chances are_ that this mind which we cannot fully know will react in a +certain way. + +To attempt in a chapter to outline a system of training for children +would be an attempt doomed to certain failure. Books are written on +this subject, and the shelves of the child-study and child-training +department in the libraries are rapidly filling. What I have in mind +here is rather a single line of the child's development--that which +leads toward making him a useful factor in the home life of which he +forms a part. The boy or girl who fills successfully a place in the +home of his childhood will be in a fair way to undertake successfully +the greater task of founding a home of his own. + +In the days of infancy and early childhood, training for boys and +girls may be more nearly identical than in later life. A large part of +the differentiation in the work and play of little boys and girls +would seem to be quite artificial. We give dolls to girls and drums +to boys, but only because of some preconceived notion of our own. The +girls will drum as loudly and the boys care for the baby quite as +tenderly, until some one ridicules them and they learn to simulate a +scorn for "boys' things" and "girls' things" which they do not really +feel. + +Throughout this chapter, therefore, it is to be assumed that the +training suggested is quite as applicable and quite as necessary for +one sex as for the other. + +Young mothers sometimes ask the family doctor, "When shall I begin to +train the baby to eat at regular intervals, to go to sleep without +rocking, in general to accept the plan of life we outline for him?" +The answer seldom varies: "Before he is twenty-four hours old." It is +therefore evident that all the basic principles of living, whether +physical or mental, must have their foundations far back in the +child's young life. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +Helping with the housework. The boy or girl who successfully fills a +place in the home of his childhood will be in a fair way to undertake +successfully the greater task of founding a home of his or her own] + +As a basis for all the rest, we must work for health. A truly +successful life, rounded and full, presupposes health. Regular habits, +nourishing food, plenty of sleep, are axiomatic in writings treating +of the care of young children, yet it is surprising how often these +rules are violated. "It is easier" to give the child what he wants or +what the others are having; easier to let him sit up than to put him +to bed; easier to regard the moment than the years ahead. + +[Illustration: Already well started on his education] + +Aside from the physical foundation, the training that we are to give +our little children will probably be based upon our conception of what +they need to make them good sons and daughters, good brothers and +sisters, good friends, good husbands and wives, and good fathers and +mothers. In other words, it is the social aspect of life that we have +in mind, and our social ideals. Whatever the boy "wants to be when he +grows up," he is sure to have social relations with his kind. Whether +the girl marries or remains single, she cannot entirely escape these +relations. Indeed they are thrust upon both boy and girl already. What +then do they need to enable them to be successful in the human +relations of living? + +We might enumerate here a long list of virtues that will help, but, +since long lists shatter concentration, let us narrow them to four: +(1) sympathy, (2) self-control, (3) unselfishness, (4) industry. + +I do not mean to say that, with these four qualities only, a man will +make a successful merchant or farmer, or that a woman will become a +good housekeeper or a skillful teacher. But I do mean that in family +relations these four qualities are worth more than intellectual +attainments or any sort of manual skill. It is really astonishing to +see how much these four will cover. We desire thrift--what is thrift +but self-control? Tolerance--what but sympathy--the "put yourself in +his place" feeling? Courtesy--what but unselfishness? + +Let us, then, in the child's early years concentrate upon sympathy, +self-control, unselfishness, and industry. You will doubtless remember +Cabot's summary of the four requirements of man[5]--work, play, love, +and worship. Suppose we could write on the wall of every nursery in +the land: + + Sympathy } { Work + Self-control } in { Play + Unselfishness } { Love + Industry } { Worship + +Would not this writing on the wall be a fruitful reminder to the +mothers? + +The period of early childhood is the one in which the home may act +with least interference as the child's teacher. Later, whether she +will or no, the mother must share the work of training with the +school, the church, and that indefinite influence we class vaguely as +society. During these few early years, then, the mother must use her +opportunity well. It will soon be gone. + +How shall she teach such abstract virtues as sympathy, unselfishness, +self-control? Recognizing the fact that the little child acts merely +as his instinct and feelings prompt, she must make all training at +this stage of his life take the form of developing the instincts. +Probably the strongest of these at this time is imitation. +Consequently most of the teaching must take advantage of the imitative +instinct. The first care should be to surround the child with the +qualities we desire him to possess. The mother who scolds, gives way +to temper, or is unwilling or unable to control her own emotions and +acts can hope for little self-control in her child. In the same way +the father who kicks the dog or lashes his horse or is hard and cold +in his dealings with his family may expect only that his child will +begin life by imitating his undesirable qualities. This necessary +supervision of the child's environment is a strong argument for direct +oversight of little children by the mother. It is often difficult even +for her to keep an ideal example before the child; and if she leaves +it to hired caretakers, they seldom realize its necessity or are +willing to take the pains she would herself. Especially is this true +of the young and ignorant girls who are often seen in sole charge of +little children. + +This first step being merely passive education, it is not enough. We +must not only set an example; we must go farther and strive to get +from the child acts or attitudes of mind based upon these examples. + +Let us take first the quality of sympathy, which is closely allied to +reflex imitation. It is difficult to say just when the child merely +reflects the emotions of those about him and when he consciously +thinks of others as having feelings like his own. This conscious +thought is, of course, the foundation of real sympathy, and it comes +early in the child's life--probably before the fourth year. + +[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood +Stories that broaden the child's conception of the lives and feelings +of others are of value in training for sympathy] + +A little girl of three was greatly interested and pleased at the +appearance of a roast chicken upon the family dinner table. She +chattered about the "birdie" as she had done before on similar +occasions. But when the carving knife was lifted over it, she +astonished everyone by her terrified cry of "Don't cut the birdie. +Hurt the birdie." No explanation or excuse satisfied her, and it was +finally necessary to remove the platter and have the carving done out +of her sight. Most children are naturally sympathetic _when they have +experienced or can imagine_ the feelings of others. The cruelty of +children, is usually due to their absorption in their own feelings +without a _realization_ of the pain they inflict. + +Training for sympathy then must consist of enlargement of experience +and cultivation of imagination. Some mothers do not talk enough with +their children. They talk _to_ them--that is, they reprimand or direct +them, but do not carry on conversations, as they might do greatly to +the child's advantage. Telling stories is one of the most fruitful +methods of training at this age. Even "this little pig went to market" +has possibilities in the hands of a skillful mother. The bedtime story +is a definite institution in many families. It deserves to be so in +all. Beginning with the nursery rimes, the stories will gradually +broaden in theme, and if their dramatic possibilities are at all +realized by the story-teller, the children will broaden in their +conception of the lives and feelings of others. Sympathy will thus in +most cases be a plant of natural and easy growth. + +Intercourse with other children and with the older members of the +child's family will also furnish constant material for the thoughtful +mother. The baby bumps its head, and the mother soothes it with +gentle, loving words. It is more than likely that the three-or +four-year-old will express his sympathy also. Surely he will if the +mother says, "Poor baby. See the great bump. How it must hurt!" Or +perhaps "big sister" is happy on her birthday. Again, the +three-year-old is likely to show happiness also, and the wise mother +will help the child by a timely word to take the step from reflex +imitation of happiness to true sympathy. Nor must we overlook the +occasions when some one in the nursery has been "naughty" and must be +punished. "Poor Bobby! He is sad because he cannot play with us this +morning. He feels the way you did when you were naughty and had to sit +so still in your little chair. I am sorry for Bobby--aren't you? We +hope he will be good next time, don't we?" + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +Kindergarten games afford the intercourse with other children +necessary to the child's development] + +Teaching self-control is quite a different matter from the foregoing, +and one which requires infinitely more work and patience. The first +step is, however, the same. If you would have sympathy, show sympathy. +If you would have self-control in a child, control yourself. Remember +the strength of the imitative instinct. Next, strive to obtain control +in the young child in some small matter where control is easy. Any +normal child will learn that control _pays_--_if you make it pay_. +Encourage the hungry child to stop crying while you prepare his food, +but prepare it quickly, or he will begin to cry again to make you +hurry. Mothers usually work hard to teach control of bodily functions, +but often far less to obtain control of mental and moral conditions. +Obedience, considered from time immemorial the chief virtue of +childhood, is really only of value as it conduces to self-control in +later life. The wise parent, therefore, while requiring obedience for +the convenience of the family and the safety of the child, will lay +far more stress upon teaching the child to control himself. The work +must be done almost entirely by indirect methods during the early +years. Offering artificial rewards and dealing out artificial +punishments are the crudest forms of encouraging effort. The natural +reward and the inevitable natural punishment are far better when they +can be employed. + +[Illustration: Courtesy of the United Charities of Chicago +A group of children at the Mary Crane Nursery, Chicago. Children +acquire self-control by learning to help themselves] + +The child who overcomes his tendency to play before or during his +dressing may be rewarded by some special morning privilege which will +automatically regulate itself. In our family it is the joyful task of +bringing in and distributing the morning mail. The child not dressed +"on time" necessarily loses the privilege. We are not punishing, but +"we can't wait." Lack of control of temper presupposes solitude. +"People can't have cross children about." Quarrels inevitably bring +cessation of group play or work--solitude again. The child's love of +approbation may also be made of great assistance. Always we must +remember that doing _what we tell him to do_ is not after all the main +thing. It is doing the right thing, being willing to do the right +thing, and being able to hold back the impulse to do the wrong thing, +that count. We are working "to train self-directed agents, not to make +soldiers." + +Unselfishness is a plant of slow growth. Indeed it is properly not a +childish trait at all, and the most we can probably get is its outward +seeming. But it is important that we at least acquaint the child with +ideals of unselfishness. We must find much in the child to appeal to, +even though altruistic motives do not appear until much later than +this. The love of approbation will prove a strong help again, also the +sense of justice with which children seem endowed from the beginning. +"Help him because he helped you," or "Give her some because she always +gives you part of hers," is often effective. Just as in the case of +self-control, the child will learn to overcome his innate selfishness +"if it pays" to do so. It may seem wrong to encourage any but the +highest motive, but a habit of unselfish acts, resting upon a desire +to win the approbation of others, is a better foundation upon which to +build than no foundation at all. Purely disinterested or altruistic +motives do not appear in the normal child much before the age of +adolescence, and by that time selfishness, which accords so well with +the individualistic instincts of the child, will have hardened into a +fixed habit if not vigorously checked. + +Care must be taken to _lead_ the child toward unselfish acts, but not +to _force_ them upon him. The common courtesies of life we may +require, but, beyond that, example, tactful suggestion, wisely chosen +stories, and judicious praise will do far more than force. + +The idea of kindness may be grasped by young children and, together +with the great ideal of service, should be emphasized in their home +life and in their intercourse with other children. The "only child" +suffers most from lack of opportunity to learn these two great needs +of his best self--kindness and service. Occasions should be +systematically made for such a child (indeed for all children) to meet +other children on some common ground. Playthings should be shared, +help given and received, and the idea of interdependence brought out. +"We must help each other" should be emphasized from early childhood. + +Much must be made of the little helps the child is able to give in the +home--bringing slippers for father, going on little errands about the +house for mother, picking up his own playthings, hanging up his coat +and hat, caring for the welfare of the family pets. Careful provision +should be made for the child's convenience in performing these little +services. There must be places for the toys, low hooks for the wraps, +and constant encouragement and recognition of the small helper. Some +day he may help you because he loves to help. Now he loves to be +praised for helping. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +Helping the little sister. Children will learn unselfishness and +kindness if they are early taught to help one another] + +Activity is a natural and absorbing part of a child's life. He is +always doing something. It remains for the parent to direct this +restless movement and to transform some of it into useful labor. Work, +in the sense of accomplishing results for the satisfaction and benefit +of the parent, is quite foreign to our plan for training the young +child. But work for the child's own satisfaction and for the formation +of the habit of industry must occupy our attention in large measure. +The child's playthings should from his earliest days be chosen in +recognition of his desire to do things and make things. The shops are +filled with showy toys, mechanical and otherwise, and children find +the toyshop a veritable fairyland. But once satiated with the sight of +any particular toy, however cunningly devised--and satiety comes +soon--the child forsakes the gorgeous plaything for his blocks, or +paper and a pair of scissors, or even his mother's clothespins. He can +do something with these. + +The Montessori materials are perhaps the most thoughtfully planned in +this direction of anything now obtainable; and no one having the care +of young children should be without some knowledge of this now famous +method. All the materials have this advantage: they offer definite +problems and consequently afford the child the joy of accomplishment. +A few of the occupations of life afford us unending enjoyment at every +stage of the doing, but not many. It is rather the achievement of our +end, the "lust of finishing," which carries us through the tiresome +details of our work. The child must therefore be early introduced to +the joy of accomplishment. Instead of unending toys, give him +something to work with. He will appreciate your thoughtfulness, and he +will find not only joy but real development in their use. + +At first the child's work will consist of fragmentary efforts, but at +a remarkably early age he will show evidence of a power of +concentration and persistence which will make possible the +accomplishment of finished undertakings. He begins to know what he +wants to do and to exhibit considerable ingenuity in finding and +combining materials. Most of all, he wants to imitate the activities +he sees around him. + +In the strain of modern life a widespread restlessness seems to have +seized mankind. Whatever people do, they want to be doing something +else, and the pathway of the average individual is strewn with crude +beginnings, half-finished jobs, abandoned work. The child very easily +falls into line with this tendency of his elders. Hence he needs +definite encouragement to see clearly what he has in hand and to bring +his industrial attempts to a worth-while conclusion. Avoid, even with +a little child, that inconsiderate habit of "grown-ups" of calling the +little worker away whenever you desire his attention or help, quite +regardless of the damage you may do to his work by your untimely +interruption. Keep the child, as far as possible, too, from +undertaking tasks too difficult or requiring too much time for +completion. Discourage aimless handling of tools. A cheerful "What are +you making?" sometimes crystallizes hitherto rambling desires. A +timely suggestion often meets with enthusiastic response. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +Helping in the home tasks. Wisely directed activity will teach the +child both unselfishness and industry] + +The working outfit of a child under school age may or may not include +kindergarten or Montessori material. Balls, blocks, pencils and paper, +paste, colored crayons, scissors, a blackboard, a cart, a wheelbarrow, +stout little garden tools, a sand tray or, better, in summer an +outdoor sandpile, will furnish endless work and endless delight to a +child or group of children. It is not so much what sort of material we +use as the way in which we use it. Even at this age the child longs to +be a producer, to "make things"; and his best development requires +that we train this inclination. There is a prevalent notion that women +especially are no longer required to be producers and that all our +energies should be bent toward the sole task of making them +intelligent consumers. There is, however, a joy in producing without +which no life is really complete. And no scheme of education can be a +true success which ignores or neglects the necessity of producing. The +joy of work, the delight in achievement, should be the keynote of all +industrial training. This should be kept constantly in view. + +To most people there is something wonderfully appealing about the +innocence of the little child. We watch with delight the marvelous +development of the little mind keeping pace with the growth of bodily +strength and dexterity. We are reluctant to see the day drawing near +when the child must begin his long course of training in school. +Sometimes we fail to recognize the fact that before school days come +the child has already received a considerable part of his education; +that the habits which will make or mar his future are often firmly +implanted and in a fair way to become masters of the young life. An +elaborate plan for the little child's training would probably be +abandoned even if undertaken, since elaborate plans involve endless +work. If, however, we attempt no more than I have outlined in this +chapter, we have some reasonable chance of success. Given good health, +with regular bodily habits, as a physical foundation, the child will +have had much done for him if we have begun to build the habits of +sympathy, self-control, industry, and service which will purify and +sweeten the family relations of later years and make the one-time +child worthy himself to undertake the important task of home building. + +It is naturally a matter for regret that the teacher into whose hands +the child comes first at school usually knows so little of the home +training he has had or failed to have. Children whose parents have +made little or no attempt to teach these fundamental qualities which +we have had under discussion are sometimes forever handicapped unless +the teacher can supply the deficiency. Children who have made a good +beginning may lose much of what they have been taught unless the +teacher recognizes and holds them to the ideal. The kindergarten or +primary teacher needs to know the homes of her pupils; and the time is +not far distant when the school will recognize the home as after all +the first grade in school life. Then mothers will receive the +inspiration of contact with the teachers and their ideals, not alone +when their children reach school age, but from the time the first +child arrives in the home. The Sunday school has its "cradle roll." +The day school may emulate its example. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 5: Cabot, _What Men Live By_.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +TEACHING THE MECHANICS OF HOUSEKEEPING + + +Going to school marks an epoch in every child's life. Hitherto, +however wide or narrow the child's contact with the world has been, +the mother has been, at least nominally and in most cases actually, +the controlling power. Now she gives her child over for an +increasingly large part of every day to outside influence. + +More and more we are coming to see that the evolution of a successful +homemaker requires that the school as well as the home keep the +homemaking ideal before it. And so the best schools of the country are +doing. The greatest needs of the little girl's early school days would +seem to be a definite understanding between teacher and mother of the +share each should assume in the homemaking training. This necessitates +personal conferences or mothers' meetings, or both. + +The little girl of primary-school age points the way for both teacher +and mother by her adaptation and imitation of home activities in her +play. In primary grades girls are approaching the height of the doll +interest, which Hall and others place at eight or nine years. A doll's +house, therefore, may be made the source of almost infinite enjoyment +and profit in these grades. Indeed it is hardly too much to say that +no primary room is complete without one. Nor is there any reason why +any school should remain without one, since its making is the simplest +of processes. Four wooden boxes, of the same size, obtained probably +from the grocer, the dry-goods merchant, or the local shoe dealer, +will make a most satisfactory house if placed in two tiers of two +each, with the open sides toward the front. This gives four rooms, +which may be furnished as kitchen, dining room, living room, and +bedroom. Windows may be cut in the ends or back, if the boys of the +school are sufficiently expert with tools or if outside assistance can +be secured for an hour or so. + +The best results with the doll's house are obtained if the children +are allowed to furnish it themselves, with the teacher's advice and +help, rather than to find it completely equipped and therefore merely +a "plaything" of the sort that children have less use for because they +can do little with it. An empty house presents exciting possibilities, +and perhaps for the first time these little girls look with seeing +eyes at the home furnishings, for they have wall paper to select, +curtains and rugs to make, and indeed no end of things to do. + +[Illustration: The little girl adapts and imitates home activities in +play] + +It is perhaps scarcely necessary to call to mind the educational +advantages possible in the planning and making of bedding, draperies, +table linen, towels, couches and pillows, window seats, and other +furnishings, as well as in the ingenuity brought into play in evolving +kitchen utensils and in stocking the cupboards with the necessities +for housekeeping. The free interchange of ideas should be encouraged, +and the spirit of seeking the best fostered. + +The conspicuous results in this work are two: we secure the child's +attention to details of housekeeping, and we build up a foundation +ideal of what housekeeping equipment should be. Children in poorly +equipped homes may find the most practical of training in this way. My +experience has been that teachers have only to begin this work in +order to arouse enthusiasm in any class of little girls. Once begun, +it carries itself along. There should be no compulsion in this work. +Choice and not necessity must be the rule in all our training for +homemaking. To compel a child's attention to that which she will later +do voluntarily, if at all, will at the very outset defeat our purpose. + +[Illustration: Making furniture for a doll's house affords +educational advantages in emphasizing the details of housekeeping] + +The finest sort of cooeperation arises in this work when parents are +led to provide the little girl at home with a doll's house fashioned +like the one at school. Perhaps they may go a step farther and find +space for a larger scheme of housekeeping, in the attic or elsewhere. +Cooeperation among the children means interchange of ideas, materials, +and labor, most helpful to social ideals. + +From the furnishing of the doll's house it is easy to pass to plays +involving the activities of home life. Children delight in sweeping, +dusting, washing dishes, arranging cupboards and pantries, and making +beds in their miniature houses, and if their efforts are wisely +directed, orderly habits easily begin to form. In all these varieties +of work the children must be led to feel that there is a right way, +and that only that way is good enough, even for play. + +The great result of all play housekeeping is the formation of ideals. +It is just as easy to learn at seven or eight the most efficient way +of washing dishes as it is to defer that knowledge until years of +inefficient work harden into inefficient habits. The teacher will find +abundant and interesting studies in household efficiency in recently +published books to inspire her guidance of the children's activity. + +The step from washing play dishes at school to washing real dishes at +home is easily taken, and children are delighted to take it. Here +again the school and home may--indeed must, for best results--work +together. Some schools are giving school credit for home work along +domestic lines. That there are complex elements entering into the +successful working out of such a plan one must admit. A school giving +credit for work it does not see may put a premium upon quantity rather +than quality. The teacher who asks her little pupils to wash the home +dishes according to school methods may encounter adverse comment from +certain parents who are quick to resent outside "management." +Nevertheless, home practice in accordance with school theory is the +ideal of any cooeperative education in the mechanics of housekeeping; +therefore some scheme must be worked out whereby the girls will +practice at home, and, having learned to do by doing, will continue to +do in the families where their doing will be a help. + +Let us consider for a moment the present condition of the +school-credit-for-home-work idea. Schemes are being worked out in +various places, under one or the other of the following plans. + +_Plan I_ (often known as the Massachusetts plan). Each pupil, with the +advice of his teacher and the consent of his parents, selects some one +definite piece of work to do at home regularly, under direction of the +school and with some study at school of the practical problems +involved. School credit depends upon approval by the teacher on the +occasion of a visit of inspection to the home. + +_Plan II_ (sometimes called the Oregon plan). This is more directly +concerned with the cultivation of a helpful spirit than with perfect +technique or broad knowledge. No attempt is made to correlate home and +school work. Credit is given merely for the fact that the dishes were +washed, the table set, or the baby bathed, the fact being properly +certified by the parent. Whether the work was acceptably done or not +rests entirely with the parent. In the carrying out of the latter plan +blanks are usually issued to be filled out and handed in once a week +or once a month. Each task carries a certain value in school credit. + +That either of these plans possesses certain weaknesses doubtless even +their makers would admit. But they are at least opening wedges. A plan +might be worked out whereby little girls are taught one household task +at a time, through their play housekeeping, after which credit may be +given for satisfactory performance of the task at home. Later another +household duty may be taught, and put into practice, with credit, at +home, thus building up a body of known duties for which the little +house-helper has been duly trained. For its highest efficiency such a +plan would require more than consent on the part of mothers. Its +success would depend upon cooeperative leadership and its value upon +the acceptance, for school credit, of only that work done in +conformity with school ideals. + +But at all events, whether school credit be given or not, the stimulus +of interest in home tasks may be given strength by the teacher's wise +suggestion, and thoughtful consideration of the matter in teachers' +and mothers' meetings will insure cooeperation of the most helpful +sort. The tactful teacher will find ways to suggest to mothers that +children be held up at home to the ideals of efficiency she has been +at pains to put before them at school. + +The suggestion has been recently made by several thoughtful educators +that the noon hour, in schools where children do not go home for +dinner, be made use of for the simplest of cooking lessons. The +children who at seven are quite content to play house soon pass into +the stage where they wish to see results from their work. They want to +"make things," real things, that they or some one can use. Children of +nine or ten can learn to cook cereals and eggs in various ways, to +make cocoa, and to prepare other simple dishes. Their pride and +delight in these accomplishments are intense. These activities are +equally suited to the small rural school and to the consolidated +schools which are happily taking the place of the one-room buildings. +In both, the teacher may find the lunch hour a real educational force +if it is used aright. If the teacher allows and guides these efforts +in the schoolroom, she must keep in mind her "ideal of efficiency." +Accurate measurements, logical processes, elimination of awkward and +unnecessary movements, care in following directions, neatness, and +precision are the real lessons to be learned. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +A school garden. The possibilities for good through school-garden +work are numberless] + +School gardens are perhaps already too familiar to require more than a +word. Their possibilities for good are numberless. In them many +children get their first insight into the joys of making things grow +and are led by this joy to undertake the care of a home garden and to +beautify the home surroundings as they had never thought of doing +before. School-garden work leads to beautifying the school grounds, +with resulting pride and interest in the school. + +Accompanying the activities we have suggested, teachers will find a +wide field in attractive stories of helpful cooeperative home life. +Extracts from many of Miss Alcott's stories, the Cratchits' Christmas +dinner from Dickens' _Christmas Carol_, and many other delightful +glimpses of home life can be read, or, better, dramatized, with little +effort and with good results. + +It may seem that the homemaking training here suggested for younger +children is too desultory, too slight, in fact, to affect the +situation much. But let us consider. Homemaking is an art, coming more +and more to be based on a foundation of science. For it is undoubtedly +true that, while the pessimists are telling us that the home is +doomed, we who are optimists see coming toward us a great wave of +homemaking knowledge which if seized upon will put the homemaker's art +upon a surer foundation than it has ever been. + +The elements of housekeeping are the _ABC_ of homemaking. We shall do +well to teach them early, incidentally, and with no undue exaggeration +of their place in the scheme of living. We simply familiarize the +girl, by long and quiet contact, with the tools of the homemaker, for +future scientific use, just as we teach the multiplication facts for +later use in the science of mathematics. + +A definite list of the simple homemaking tasks suitable for little +girls to undertake may not be out of place here: + + 1. Setting the table. (A card list of table necessities is + useful. Such a list may be given each little girl when she + undertakes home practice work.) + 2. Clearing the table. + 3. Washing the dishes. + 4. Sweeping the kitchen. Sweeping the piazza. + 5. Dusting. + 6. Making beds and caring for bedrooms. + 7. Arranging her own bureau drawers and closets. + 8. Simple cooking. + 9. Hemming towels and table linen. + 10. Ironing handkerchiefs and napkins. + +As the child grows older, methods of teaching grow increasingly +direct. Even here we shall perhaps not talk a great deal about +"preparing for homemaking." But we shall see that the tools grow +increasingly familiar, and that ideals once taught are retained and +added to. We shall see that our science, our mathematics, our art, all +contribute to the acquirement of homemaking knowledge. We shall give a +practical turn to these more or less abstract subjects. + +Sewing and cooking classes are by this time a recognized part of +grammar-school courses in many city schools. That they are not so +firmly intrenched in the country schools is due usually to +difficulties in the way of securing equipment and to the already +crowded condition of the school program. The ideal remedy is the +substitution of the consolidated school with its domestic science room +and its specially trained teacher for the scattered one-room +buildings. Wherever the consolidated school has come, it has been +enthusiastically received and supported. No one wishes to go back to +the old way. But in many localities the consolidated school has not +come and cannot be immediately looked for; and in these places the +need of the homemaking work is just as great. The teacher must find +the way to give these girls what they need. If no other way presents +itself, the teacher will do well to ask the help of the mothers of the +neighborhood. Perhaps one who is an expert needlewoman will give an +hour or two a week in the school or at her own home to carrying out +the sewing course which the teacher cannot crowd into her own already +overcrowded program. Perhaps another will do the same for the cooking, +making her own kitchen for one afternoon a week an annex of the +school. It is important, however, when such arrangements are made that +they be recognized as school work, and if possible the courses +followed should be planned and supervised by the regular teacher of +the school. Thus only can they be held to standardized accomplishment. + +The inadequacy of the "one-portion" method of teaching girls to cook +has aroused serious thought, and remedies of various sorts have been +applied. You know, perhaps, the story of the Chicago cooking-school +student who "had to make seven omelets in succession at home last +night" because one egg would not make enough omelet for the family. +The first remedy tried was cooking for the school lunch room. This +was, however, usually going from one extreme to the other, since the +lunch room is as a rule maintained only in large schools. +"Institutional cooking," some one calls it. Instead of one +egg-cooking, it became one-hundred-egg cooking, and the difficulty of +the average student in adapting school methods to family use was not +by any means at an end. + +The Central High School of Newark, New Jersey, has solved its problem +by putting its girls to work, not at the task of providing the +sandwiches, soups, and other luncheon dishes for its large lunch room, +but at providing "family dinners" at twenty-five cents a plate for the +faculty of the school. Other schools follow similar plans. + +The grammar-school girls of Leominster, Massachusetts, serve luncheon +to a limited number every day at their domestic science house. Here +the girls do the marketing, cook and serve the meal, and keep the +various rooms of the house in order. In Montclair, New Jersey, work of +this same sort is done. In each of these cases the cooking is done as +it would have to be in the home, not for one person, nor for hundreds, +but for approximately a family-sized group. + +Sewing courses also grow more and more practical. In some schools the +girls make their own graduating dresses as a final test of their +ability. Courses are definite, and girls completing them will have +definite knowledge of everyday processes of hand sewing. The schools +which add to their hand-sewing courses well-planned practice in the +use of the sewing machine are further adding to the accomplishment of +their girls. Those which go farther still and teach garment planning +and making may consider their sewing courses fairly complete. + +[Illustration: Teachers' luncheon cooked and served by pupils at the +Clinton Kelly School, Portland, Oregon. Other schools have adopted +similar plans for teaching girls how to cook] + +The formation of ideals must go hand in hand with practice in manual +processes. The girl must learn to know good work when she sees it, to +know a properly constructed garment from one carelessly put together, +and to value good work and construction. + +Time was when domestic science meant sewing and cooking, and these +alone. That time, however, is past. The care of a house is +practically taught in many schools throughout the country by the +maintenance of a model apartment in or near the school building. In +Public School No. 7, New York City, grammar-school girls, many of whom +are of foreign parentage and tradition, are thus introduced to the +American ideal of living. The school is thus establishing standards of +equipment, of food, of service, of comfortable living, that tend to +Americanize quite as much as the establishment of standards of speech, +of business methods, or of civic duties. The work done in this school +is typical of that prevailing in hundreds of towns and cities. + +[Illustration: A girls' sewing class. Work in sewing offers unlimited +possibilities] + +The question arises: How much of her housekeeping training should a +girl receive before entering upon her high-school course? After +careful consideration it seems wise to urge that the greater part of +the practical household work be taught during the period from eleven +to fourteen. This does not imply that homemaking training should +cease at fourteen, but rather that after that age attention shall be +centered upon the more difficult aspects of the subject--upon +"household economics" rather than the skillful doing of household +tasks. + +In view, however, of the fact that the majority of girls never reach +the high school, every bit of household science which they can grasp +should be given them in the elementary school. Knowing how to do is +only part of the housekeeper's work. Knowing what and when to do is +quite as important. Elementary study of food values is quite as +comprehensible as elementary algebra. Home sanitation and decoration +are no harder to understand than commercial geography. The principles +of infant feeding and care may be grasped by any girl who can +successfully study civil government or grammar. + +Shall we then crowd out commercial geography or government or grammar +to make room for these homemaking studies? Not necessarily, although, +if it came to a choice, much might be said for the practical studies +in learning to live. Fortunately it need not come to a choice. There +is room for both. We must, however, learn to adapt existing courses to +the requirements of girls. + +[Illustration: Courtesy of L.A. Alderman +A model school home where all the practical details of housekeeping +are taught] + +[Illustration: A domestic science class at work in the model school +home shown above] + +There is arithmetic, for instance. Most of us have already learned to +skip judiciously the pages in the textbook which deal with compound +proportion, averaging payments, partial payments, and cube root. Now +we must learn to insert the keeping of household accounts; the study +of apportioning incomes; the scientific spending of a dollar in food +or clothing value; the relative advantage of cash or credit systems of +paying the running expenses of a home; the dangers of the +"easy-payment plan"; the cost of running an automobile; comparison +with the upkeep of a horse and wagon; comparison of the two from the +point of view of their usefulness to a family; mortgaging homes, what +it means, and what it costs to borrow; when borrowing is justified; +the accumulation of interest in a savings account; the comparative +financial advantage of renting and owning a home; the cost of building +houses of various sorts; the cost of securing, under varying +conditions, a water supply in the country home; and other locally +important problems. We already have "applied science" in our courses, +and we are making a strenuous effort to apply arithmetic; but we have +not usually tried to apply it to the education of the prospective +homemaker. + +Take the one question of the "installment plan." Where, if not in the +public school, can we fight the menace offered to the inexperienced +young people of the land by this method of doing business? And where +in the public school if not in the arithmetic class? Consider the +possibility of lives spent in paying for shoes and hats already worn +out, of furniture double-priced because payment is to be on the "easy +plan," of families always in debt, with wages mortgaged for months in +advance. The pure science of mathematics will be of little avail in +fighting this possibility, but "applied arithmetic" can be a most +effective weapon. + +In our geography classes we may find time for the study of food and +clothing products, of their sources, their comparative usefulness, and +their cost. We may learn whether it is best to buy American-made +macaroni or the imported variety; whether French silks and gloves are +superior to those made in America; what "shoddy" is, what we may +expect from it if we buy it, how much it is worth in comparison with +long-wool fabrics, how to know whether shoddy is being offered us when +we buy. Countless other matters concerning the markets and products of +the world will repay the same sort of treatment. + +[Illustration: One of the class exercises in the model school home +shown on page 115] + +[Illustration: The correct serving of meals forms part of the class +work in this same home] + +Food questions are opened up by study of our meat, vegetable, and +fruit supply. Every town may make this a personal and immediate +problem. From whom did Mr. Blank, the local grocer, obtain his canned +tomatoes? It is sometimes possible to follow up those canned tomatoes +to their source. In one investigation of this sort they were found to +have passed through six hands. The arithmetic class may pass upon the +question of profits and comparative cost between this and the +"producer-to-consumer" method. + +The art work of the schools may also contribute generously to the body +of homemaking knowledge. For the average girl the designing and making +of Christmas cards and book covers, or even the prolonged study of +great paintings, is a less productive use of time than the designing +of cushion covers, curtains, bureau scarfs, or candle shades. In a +certain town in New England considerable effort was expended in +bringing about the introduction of art work in the schools a few years +ago. A normal-school art graduate took charge of the work. It has now +been abandoned because "the children took so little interest." And +really, if you knew the conditions, you could not blame them They +studied art and copied art and tried to cultivate an artistic sense in +ways as remote from their daily lives as could apparently be +contrived. And the pity of it all is that here were girls whose homes, +whose personal dress, were crying out for the application of art; +whose artistic sense was growing of failing to grow according as their +individual conditions would allow; and the public school has passed +its opportunity by. + +Art, as applied to school work, is divided usually into appreciative +and creative work. We place before children the best in picture and +sculpture and music. Why do we not teach them also the foundation +principles of good taste in matters less remote from the lives of many +of them? Why not teach the girl something of artistic color +combination? Why not apply the test of art to the lines of woman's +attire? Why not study the contour of heads and styles of hairdressing? + +Happily, in these days, these things also are being done. We have +"manual arts" rooms and teachers by whose aid girls are taught to use +the principles of design they study in their everyday planning of +everyday things. A visitor to the Central School of Auburn, +Washington, reports interesting work going on in such a room. On the +blackboard was written: + + The general aim of design work--order and beauty. + The three principles governing design are: + Balance--Harmony--Rhythm. + Balance: opposition of equal forms. + Rhythm: movement in direction--joint action--motion. + Harmony: similarity. + +In the room were girls doing various sorts of work--coloring designs +on fabrics for curtains and pillow covers; making original designs for +crocheted lace; hemstitching draperies; preparing color material for a +primary room; while on a table in the center of the room were many +finished articles, made by the girls and carrying out their principles +of design--"not one of which," says the visitor, "but would serve a +useful purpose in home or office." + +House building, interior decorating, and furnishing are all worthy of +serious attention in the art course. Simplicity, harmony, and +suitability may well be taught as the principles of good taste. Girls +must learn these principles somewhere to make the most of their homes +by and by. And again the public school, and probably the elementary +school, must do the work. + +Physiology and hygiene are already contributing to the knowledge which +makes for human betterment, but they also can be made to contribute +much more than they have sometimes done. The physiology of infancy +must be widely and insistently taught. + + With proper education she [the young mother] would know the + meaning of the words food and sleep; she would know + something of their overwhelming importance upon the future + being and career of her child, who in his turn is to be one + of the world's citizens with full capacity for good or evil. + Knowing what were normal functions, she would be able to + recognize and guard against deviations from them. No day + would pass in which she would not find opportunity to + exercise self-restraint, keen observation and sensible + knowledge in furthering the normal and healthful evolution + of her child.[6] + +The "little mother" classes in settlement houses, in community social +centers, and in some public schools are doing excellent work in +beginning this knowledge of infancy. No elementary school can really +afford to miss the opportunity such work holds out. Have we any right +to let a girl approach the care of her child with less than the best +that modern science can offer in this most important and exacting work +of her life? If not, it is again the public school which alone can be +depended upon to do the work, and we must get at least the beginning +of it done before the girl escapes us at the close of her +elementary-school course. + +If you are impatient with a program which presupposes that practically +all women will be homemakers and mothers, either trained or otherwise, +let me remind you that the majority of women do marry, that most of +these and many of the unmarried do become homemakers, and that it will +be far safer for society to train the few--less than 10 per cent--who +never enter the career than to pursue the economically wasteful plan +of assuming educationally that no women will be homemakers, or that if +they are they can successfully undertake the most complicated, +difficult, and most important profession open to women with no +preparation at all, or with only what they have unconsciously absorbed +at home in the brief pauses of the education which did not educate +them for life. + +The education for homemaking will never lose sight of the fact that +girls must really be prepared for a double vocation, since it is a +question whether or not they will become homemakers, and they must at +all events be prepared for the years intervening between school and +home. On the contrary, the education which prepares the homemaker will +exercise special care in training for those intervening years, or for +life work if it should prove to be such. Of all distinctly vocational +training, it is only fair, however, that the homemaking training +should come first, as a foundation for all later work. Whether the +girl thus trained ever presides over a home of her own or not, the +training will have made her a broader woman and a better worker, with +a finer understanding of the universal business of her sex. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 6: Oppenheim.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE GIRL'S INNER LIFE + + +While we are occupied in teaching the girl the "ways and means" by +which she is later to carry on the business of homemaking, we must not +overlook the fact that, although ways and means are vitally necessary, +it is after all the spirit of the girl which will supply the motive +power to make the home machinery run. With this in view we must so +plan the girl's training as to secure not only the concrete knowledge +of doing things, but also the more abstract qualities which will equip +her for her work. + +False ideals and ignorance of housekeeping processes are responsible +for thousands of homekeeping failures; but lack of fairness, of good +temper, patience, humor, courage, courtesy, stability, perseverance, +and initiative must be held accountable for thousands more. For these +qualities, then, the girl must be definitely and painstakingly +trained. In other words, we must work for the highest type of woman, +spiritually as well as industrially. + +It may seem that definite instruction in such abstract qualities as +good temper or stability or fairness is difficult or perhaps +impossible to Secure. Since, however, all the girl's intercourse with +her kind affords daily opportunity for practice of these qualities, +instruction may easily accompany and become a part of her daily life. +The lack of these qualities handicaps the girl even in her school life +and shows there plainly the handicap that, unless help is given her, +she will suffer for life. + +Her school work offers ample opportunity for the cultivation of +patience and perseverance. Teachers must combat vigorously the +"give-up" spirit, and the troublesome "changing her mind" which leads +the girl along a straight path from "trying another" essay subject or +embroidery stitch as soon as difficulties present themselves to trying +another husband when the first domestic cloud arises. Play hours as +well as work hours are invaluable in teaching the girl the difficult +art of getting along with the world. The educational value of games is +largely found in their social training. Experience teaches that +children require long and patient instruction to enable them to play +games. They have to learn fairness, courtesy, good temper; honesty, +kindness, sympathy. They have to learn to be good losers and to +consider the fun of playing a better end than winning the game. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +Play hours as well as work hours are invaluable in teaching the girl +the difficult art of getting on with the world] + +Games must be carefully distinguished from the more general term play. +All play not solitary has recognized social value; games, because the +idea of contest is involved, have a special value of their own. Close +observation of young children in their games, especially when +unsupervised, shows us self supreme. According to temperament, the +child either pushes his way savagely to the goal or furtively seeks to +win by cunning and craft. He must win, regardless of the process. How +many of these unsupervised games end in "I sha'n't play," in angry +bursts of tears, or even in blows! How many fail upon close scrutiny +to show some less assertive child, who never wins, who is never +"chosen," who might better not be playing at all than never to "have +his turn"! + +[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood +Hunter High School girls playing hockey in Central Park, New York. +The educational value of games lies in the fact that they teach fair +play, self-control, and proper consideration of others] + +During the individualistic period games must be for the satisfaction +of individualistic desires. Team work must await a later development +of child nature. But while each child may play to win, his future +welfare demands that his efforts be in harmony with certain +principles. + + 1. He must respect the rules of the game. + 2. He must "play fair." + 3. He must control anger, jealousy, boastfulness, and other of the + more elemental emotions. + 4. He must consider the handicaps suffered by some players, and + see that they get a "square deal." + +Girls' games and boys' games at this period happily show little +differentiation. Almost any game not prejudicial to health serves to +call into action the moral forces we strive to cultivate. The game to +a certain extent typifies the larger life--the life of effort, +contest, striving to win. Self-control and proper consideration of +others in the one must serve as a help in fitting for the other. + +[Illustration: Courtesy of L.A. Alderman +Drill work as well as games is beneficial to health and also teaches +self-control] + +Teachers are often inclined to overlook or undervalue the training of +girls in games. The fact is that girls especially need this training +as the woman's sphere in present-day life is widening. Men have always +had contact with the world. Women have in times past had to content +themselves with a single interest involving contest--the social game. + +How far we may safely go in utilizing the game element--that is, the +contest or competition element--in school work is a question for +thought. The "rules of the game" are less easy to enforce here; +jealousies are harder to control; handicaps are more in evidence and +less easy to make allowance for in contests; the discouragement of +failure may have more serious results. The mere fact of class grouping +involves a natural competition, healthful and beneficial and wisely +preparatory for future living. More emphasis than this upon rivalry +may produce feverish and unhealthful conditions, far removed from the +mental poise we desire for our girls. The school can give the girl few +things finer than the ability to attack work quietly and yet with +determination and a sense of power to meet and overcome obstacles. + +The school and the playground form the growing girl's community life. +In them she must learn to practice community virtues, to shun +community evils, and to accept community responsibilities. For her the +school and the playground are society. Here she will take her first +lessons in the pride of possessions, in the prestige accompanying +them, in the struggle for social supremacy, in doubtful ideals brought +from all sorts of doubtful sources. Here she will find exaggerated +notions of "style" and its value, impure English, whispered +uncleanness in regard to sex matters, and surreptitious reading of +forbidden books. Here also she will find worthier examples--clean, +pure thought, honesty and fair dealing, pride of achievement rather +than of externals, fine ideals exemplified in the best homes. And no +finer or more delicate task lies before teacher and mother than the +guidance of the girl in her choice. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +A school playground. The school and the playground form the growing +girl's community life] + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +A model playground. The model playgrounds in the parks are doing much +to aid the playground movement] + +Going to school is rightly considered an epoch in the child's life. No +longer confined to the narrow circle of home and family friends, the +child may lose all the tiny beginnings of desired virtues in this +larger life. Or, on the contrary, when the school recognizes and +continues home training, or supplies what has not been given, these +foundation virtues may be so applied to the old problems in new places +as to form a foundation for the life conduct of the girl and the woman +that is to be. + +Take the question of sex knowledge, so widely agitated of late. We +cannot guard our girls against contact with some who will exert a +harmful influence. We can only forearm them by natural, gradual +information on this subject as their young minds reach out for +knowledge, so that sex knowledge comes, as other knowledge comes, +without solemnity or sentimentality on the one hand or undue mystery +and a hint of shame on the other. No course in sex hygiene can take +the place of this early gradual teaching, answering each question as +it comes, in a perfectly natural way, and with due regard for the +child's wonder at all of nature's marvelous processes. The little girl +_who knows_ presents no possibilities to the perverted mind which +seeks to astonish and excite her. And if she knows because "my mother +told me," the guard is as nearly perfect as can be devised. + +Upon this foundation the formal course in sex hygiene may be built. +Such a course will then be a scientific summing up, with application +to personal ideals and requirements. It can easily, safely, and wisely +be deferred until the adolescent period. + +Teachers and mothers can find scarcely any field more worthy of their +thoughtful concentration than the cultivation of good temper in the +girls under their care. The number of marriages rendered failures, the +number of homes totally wrecked, by sulking or nagging or outbursts +of ill-temper, can probably not be estimated. Neither can we count the +number of innocent people in homes not apparently wrecked whose lives +are rendered more or less unhappy by association with the woman of +uncertain temper. Think of the families in which some undesirable +trait of this sort seems to pass from generation to generation, +accepted by each member calmly as an inheritance not to be thrown off. +"It's my disposition," one will tell you with a sigh. "Mother was just +the same." Surely the time to combat these undesirable traits is in +childhood, and probably the first step is for the mother, who looks +back to her mother as "being just the same," to stop talking or +thinking about inherited traits and at least to present an outward +show of good temper for the child to see. + +Then there is the teacher, who is under a strain and who finds +annoyances in every hour which tend to destroy her equanimity. Her +serenity, if she can accomplish it, will prove an excellent example. +And little by little the mother and the teacher who have accomplished +self-control for themselves may teach self-control and the beauties of +good temper to the little girls who live in the atmosphere they +create. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE ADOLESCENT GIRL + + +Adolescence, the critical period of the training of the boy and girl, +presents a complexity of problems before which parents and teachers +alike are often at a loss. + +The adolescent period, the growing-up stage of the girl's life, is +physically the time of rapid and important bodily changes. New cells, +new tissue, new glands, are forming. New functions are being +established. The whole nervous system is keyed to higher pitch than at +any previous time. Excessive drain upon body or nerve force at this +time must mean depletion either now or in the years of maturity. + +But, on the other hand, the keynote of the girl's adolescent mental +life is _awakening_. Her whole nature calls out for a larger, fuller, +more intense life. Home, school, society, dress, all take on new +aspects under the transforming power of the new sex life stirring and +perfecting itself within. The world is beckoning to the emerging +woman, and her every instinct leads her to follow the beckoning hand. + +Now, if ever, the girl needs the influence and guidance of some wise +and sympathetic woman friend. It may be--let us hope it is--her +mother; or, failing that, her teacher; or, better than either alone, +both mother and teacher working in sympathetic harmony. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +Camp Fire Girls. Outdoor life is one of the best means of +safeguarding the girl's health] + +The first care demanded for the maturing girl is the safeguarding of +her health. School demands at this age are likely to be excessive +under existing systems of instruction. In many ways the secondary +school, in which we may assume our adolescent girl to be, merits the +criticism constantly made, that it works its pupils too hard or, +perhaps more accurately, that it works them too long. Nothing but the +closest cooeperation between parents and teachers can afford either of +them the necessary data for working out this problem. It can never be +anything but an individual problem, since girls will always differ +whether school courses do so or not, and adjustment of one to the +other must be made every time the combination is effected. Some +schools content themselves with asking for a record of time spent on +school work at home. Many parents merely acquiesce in the girl's +statement that she does or doesn't have to study to-night, and the +matter rests. Other schools and other parents go into the question +with more or less detail, but usually quite independently of each +other in the investigation. It is only very recently that anything +like adequate knowledge of pupils has begun to be gathered and +recorded to throw light upon the home-study question. + +School girls naturally divide into fairly well-defined classes: the +girl who is overanxious or overconscientious about her work, the girl +who intends to comply with rules but has no special anxiety about +results, and the girl who habitually takes chances in evading the +preparation of lessons. How many parents know at all definitely to +which class their girl belongs? + +The same girls may be classified again with regard to activities +outside the school. They may help at home much or little or not at +all. They may have absorbing social interests or practically none. +They may be in normal health or may already be nervous wrecks from +causes over which the school has no control. + +There is no question about the value of definite information on all of +these points gathered by home and school acting together for the best +understanding of the child. The modern physician keeps a carefully +tabulated record of his patient's history and condition. The school +should do the same thing and should prescribe with due reference to +such record. + +It frequently happens, however, that the schoolgirl's health is +menaced less by her hours of school work than by misuse of the +remaining portion of the twenty-four hours. No mother has a right to +accuse the school of breaking down her daughter's health unless she is +duly careful that the girl has a proper amount of sleep, exercise in +the open air, and hygienic clothing, and that her life outside the +school is not of the sort that we describe in these days as +"strenuous." + +It is this strenuous life which our girls must be taught to avoid. Any +daily or weekly program which is crowded with activities is a +dangerous program for developing girlhood. The very atmosphere of many +modern homes is charged with the spirit of haste, and parents scarcely +realize that the daughter's time is too full, because their own is too +full also. They have no time to stop and realize anything. A quiet +home is an essential help in preserving a girl's health and +well-being. + +[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood +A mountain camp. Good health is conserved by outdoor games and +exercise] + +It need scarcely be said that the children of a family should be +troubled as little as possible with the worries of their elders. +Parents are often unaware how much of the family burden their sons and +daughters are secretly bearing, or how long sometimes they continue to +struggle under the burden after it has mercifully slipped from +father's or mother's shoulders. + +Good health means buoyancy, a springing to meet the future with a +tingle of joy in facing the unknown. The adolescent period is +essentially an unfolding time, in which probably for the first time +choice seems to present itself in a large way in ordering the girl's +life. In school she is confronted with a choice of studies or of +courses. To make these choices she must look farther ahead and ask +herself many questions as to the future. What is she to be? Nor is she +loath to face this question. Some of the very happiest of the girl's +dreams at this time are concerned with that problematical future. +There was a day when girls dreamed only of husbands, children, and +homes. Then, as the pendulum swung, they dreamed of careers, a hand in +the "world's work." Now they dream of either or both, or they halt +confused by the wide outlook. But of one thing we may be sure--our +girl is dreaming, and she seldom tells her dreams. + +It is during this period in a girl's life that she is most likely to +chafe at restraint, to picture a wonderful life outside her home +environment, and to demand the opportunity to make her own choice. As +she goes on through high school, she longs more and more for +"freedom," quite unconscious of the fact that what seems freedom in +her elders is, in reality, often farthest removed from that elusive +condition. Her imagination is taking wild flights in these days. +Sometimes we catch fleeting glimpses of its often disordered fancies, +although oftener we see only the most docile of exteriors standing +guard over an inner self of which we do not dream. + +The wise mother and the wise teacher are they whose adolescent +memories, longings, misapprehensions, and mistakes are not forgotten, +but are being sympathetically and understandingly searched for light +in guiding the girls whose guardians they are. They recognize once +and for all that normal girls are filled with what seem abnormal +notions, desires, and ideals. They recall how little they used to know +of life, and the pitfalls they barely escaped, if they did escape. +Thus only can they keep close to the girl in spirit and help her as +they once needed help. They respect her longing for freedom of choice +and they teach her how to choose. It is of little use to attempt to +clip the wings of the girl's imagination, however riotous. The wings +are safely hidden from our profaning touch. Instead we must teach her +to dream true dreams and to choose real things rather than shams. + +[Illustration: A study room. The life of the adolescent girl is by no +means bounded by the schoolroom walls] + +At this time the girl's life often seems to the casual observer to be +bounded by her schoolroom walls. As a matter of fact, however, school +work appeals to her much less than it has probably done earlier or +than it will do in her college days. Dress is becoming an absorbing +subject. "The boys," however little you may think it, are seldom far +from her thoughts. Intimate friendship with another adolescent girl +perhaps affords an outlet, beneficial or otherwise, for the crowding +life which is too precious to bear the unsympathetic touch of the +world of her elders. Or perhaps the girl becomes solitary in her +habits, living in a world of romance found in books or in her own +dreams, impatient with the world about her, feeling sure she is +"misunderstood." + +What can home, school, and society in general do for the adolescent +girl, that her awakening may be sweet and sane, that her future +usefulness may not be impaired or her life embittered by wrong choice +at the brink of womanhood? + +Any wise plan for the training of girls "in their teens" must include +provision for: + + 1. Outdoor play and exercise. In the country this is much more + easily accomplished. City problems bearing on this question + are among the most acute of all concerning boys and girls. + + 2. Systematic attention to the work of the schoolroom. Thus the + girl acquires habits of concentration and industry that she + will need all her life. + + 3. Some manual work in kitchen, garden, sewing room, or workshop. + Here the girl's natural tastes and inclination may be + discovered and trained. + + 4. Food for the imagination. Books, music, pictures, inspiring + plays. The Campfire Girls' movement is valuable in its + imaginative aspect. + + 5. Attention to dress. Laying the foundation for wise lifelong + habits. + + 6. Healthful social intercourse under the best conditions with + boys and with other girls, both at home and at school. Croquet, + tennis, skating, offer fine opportunities for such + intercourse. "Parties," dancing, present more difficulties, but + have their value under right conditions. Not all "fun" should + include the boys. Athletic contests between girls do much to + develop a neglected side of girl nature. + + 7. Companionship with her mother, or some other woman of + experience. Nothing can quite take the place of this. The girl + is sailing out upon an uncharted sea. She needs the help of + someone who has sailed that way before. + +[Illustration: A botanical laboratory in Portland, Oregon. Through +systematic attention to the work of the schoolroom the girl acquires +habits of concentration and industry] + + 8. Preparation for marriage and motherhood. Much that the girl + should know can come to her through no other medium than that + indicated in the preceding paragraph--confidential intercourse + with the woman of mature years. For the sake of the girls who + fail to find this woman elsewhere every school for adolescent + girls should have on its faculty a woman who will "mother" its + girls. + + 9. Acquaintance with the lives of some of the great women of + history, as well as of some who have lived inspiring lives in + the girl's own country and time. A long list of such women + might be made. + + 10. Some unoccupied time. Our girl must not be permitted to + acquire the bad habit of rushing through life. + + 11. Study of vocations and avocations for women. Avocations--the + work which serves as play--should be wisely studied, and some + avocation adopted by every girl. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +A quiet retreat. Every girl needs some unoccupied time in order that +she may not acquire the habit of rushing] + +Part of this training girls everywhere in this country may get if the +opportunities open to them are seized. The proportion of purely mental +work and of handwork will vary according to the locality in which the +girl finds herself. In general, however, such matters receive more +consideration than the more complex ones of direct social bearing. + +How a girl shall dress, with whom and under what conditions she shall +find her social life, what she shall know of herself, of woman in +general, of the opposite sex, what her relations with her mother shall +be--these things are more often than not left to chance or to the +girl's untrained inclination. + +The dress question rests fundamentally upon the personal question, +What do clothes mean to the girl? Behind that we usually find what +clothes mean to her mother, to her teachers, to the women who have a +part in her social life. Instinct teaches the girl to adorn her +person. Environment is largely responsible for the sort of adornment +she will choose. To bring the matter at once to a practical basis, +what standards shall we set up for our girls to see, to admire, and to +adopt as their own? + +"Well dressed" may be interpreted to mean simply, or serviceably, or +conspicuously, or becomingly, or fashionably, or cheaply, or +appropriately, according to the standard of the person who uses the +term. It would necessarily be impossible to establish a common +standard for any considerable group of women, since individual +conditions must govern individual choice. A wise standard for girls +and their mothers, however, will conform to certain principles, even +though the application of the principles be widely different. + +These principles may be expressed somewhat as follows: + + 1. Beauty in dress is expressed in line, color, and adaptation to + personal appearance, not in expense. + + 2. Fitness depends upon the occasion and upon the relation of cost + to the wearer's income. + + 3. Simplicity conduces to beauty, fitness, and to ease of upkeep. + + 4. Upkeep, including durability and cleansing possibilities, is as + important a consideration in selecting clothes as in selecting + buildings and automobiles. Freshness outranks elegance. + + 5. Individuality should be the keynote of expression in dress. + +Conformity to the foregoing principles in establishing a personal +standard will of necessity prevent slavish imitation and the striving +to reach some other woman's standard which bears again and again such +bitter fruit. The erroneous notion fostered by thousands of American +women, that if you can only look like the women of some social set to +which you aspire you are like them for all social purposes, is a +fallacy, in spite of its general acceptance. We might as well expect +blue eyes, straight noses, or number three shoes to form the basis of +a social group. + +The mother or the teacher who bases her instruction in this matter on +the assumption that pretty clothes of necessity breed vanity and all +its attendant evils is merely sowing the seed of her influence upon +stony ground when once the girl discovers her belief. Nature is +telling the girl to make herself beautiful. It is not only useless but +wrong to set ourselves against this instinct. Instead we must show her +what beauty in clothes means, and how to attain it without paying for +it more than she can afford, in money, in time, or in sacrifice of her +spiritual self. The school does its share when it teaches the general +theory of beauty, with practical illustration in study of line and +color schemes. The individual teacher and the mother have to impart +the far more delicate lessons concerning influence and cost--mental, +moral, and spiritual--in other words, the psychology of clothes. + +Our girl must grow up fully cognizant of what her clothes cost. When +she desires, as she doubtless will desire, silk petticoats, and an +"up-to-date" hat, and high-heeled shoes, and an absurdly beruffled +dress, and a wonderful array of ribbons, she must discover what each +and every one of these things costs and whether it is worth the price. +The high heels sometimes cost health; the conspicuous dress may cost +the good opinion or the admiration of those who value modesty above +style; the silk petticoat may be bought at the cost of mother's or +father's sacrifice of something needed far more; the trimming on the +hat may have cost the life of a beautiful mother bird and the slow +starvation of her nestlings. Nothing the girl wears costs money only. + +She must also learn that fine clothes are out of place on a girl whose +body is not finely cared for; that money is better expended for +quality than for show; and, most of all, that clothes are secondary +matters, when all is said. + +Wisdom and sympathy and tact are never more needed than in this sort +of teaching. The principles of good dressing cannot be laid down +baldly and coldly, like mathematical rules, for the guidance of a girl +palpitating with youthful and beauty-loving instincts. The mother who +says, merely, "Certainly not. You don't need them. I never had silk +stockings when I was a girl," is failing to meet her obligations quite +as much as the mother who allows her daughter to appear at school in a +costume suited only to some formal evening function. There are mothers +of each of these sorts. + +The wise mother whose daughter has developed a sudden scorn for the +stockings she has worn contentedly enough hitherto does not dismiss +the subject in the "certainly not" way, however kindly spoken. She +treats her daughter's request seriously, asks a few questions, in the +answers to which "the other girls" will probably figure largely, and +talks it over. + +"Of course, there is the first cost to consider. The price of three or +four pairs of silk stockings would give you a dozen pairs of fine +cotton. Yes, I know there are cheaper silk ones to be had, but their +quality is poor. We should scarcely want you to wear coarse, poorly +made ones. And of course you know silk ones do not last so long. They +are pretty, and pleasant to wear, and cool, I know. How would it do to +have silk ones to wear with your new party dress, and keep on with the +cotton ones for school? We don't want to be overdressed in business +hours, you know. Then, it seems to me, it is a little hard on the +really poor girls at school if the rest of you are inclined to +overdress. They are so likely to get into the habit of spending their +money for cheap imitations of what you other girls wear--or if they +are too sensible for that they are probably unhappy because they have +to look different. Wouldn't it be kinder not to wear expensive things +to school at all?" + +The object is not so much to keep the girl from having unsuitable +garments as to teach her to see all sides of the clothes question, to +realize her responsibilities, and to learn to choose wisely for +herself. + +It is highly desirable that mothers keep up their own standards of +dress as they approach middle life and their daughters enter the +adolescent period. Some women even make the mistake of dressing +shabbily that they may gown their daughters resplendently. They are +educating their daughters to a false standard and to a selfish life. + +Teachers also probably seldom realize how wide an influence they may +exercise upon their adolescent girl pupils in the matter of dress. +Many a girl forms her standard and her ideal from what her teacher +wears. Teachers must accept their responsibility and make good use of +the opportunities it gives them. + +It is approximately at the time of her awakening to the beautifying +instinct that the girl begins to take a special interest in social +matters. Here again she needs wise guidance, and usually more +_guidance_ and less _direction_ than most girls get. The American +mother is prone in social questions to trust her daughter too much, or +not enough, and to train her very little. + +[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood +Skating offers fine opportunity for healthful social intercourse] + +In many cases adolescent society centers about the school. There are +the everyday walks and talks of the boys and girls, the games and +meets and contests, with their attendant social features, the literary +societies and debating clubs, the school parties and dances. The +school thus comes to assume a considerable part in the boy's and +girl's social training, much more than was the case twenty or even ten +years ago; and the whole trend of educational movement in this matter +is toward doing more even than it now does. + +In some cases schools have merely drifted into this social work, +without definite aims and without conspicuously good results, just as +some parents have drifted into acceptance of the situation, with +little oversight and a comfortable shifting of responsibility. + +[Illustration: Games form an important part of the adolescent girl's +life] + +When this sort of school and this sort of parent happen to be the +joint guardians of a girl's social training, it usually happens that +the girl discovers some things by a painful if not heartbreaking +trial-and-error method, and other things she quite fails to discover +at all. Most of all, she needs her mother at this time--a wise, +interested, companionable mother, who knows much about what goes on at +school parties and at school generally, but who never forces +confidences and, indeed, who never needs to; an elder sister sort of +mother, who helps. And she needs also teachers who supervise and +chaperon social affairs with a full realization that social training +is in progress and that lives are being made or marred. + +There are schools and there are mothers who look upon every phase of +school life as contributing to the educative process, and these find +in the social affairs of the school their opportunities to teach some +vital lessons. Some schools are lengthening the free time between +periods, merely for the purpose of adding to the informal social +intercourse between pupils. + +Wise teachers as well as wise mothers will see that the social phase +of school life, especially in the evening, is not overdone. Not only +health but future usefulness and happiness suffer if the girl "goes +out" so much that going out becomes the rule and staying at home the +exception. It is not usually, however, the social affairs of the +school alone which cause the girl to develop the habit of too many +evenings away from home. It is the school party plus the church +social, plus the moving pictures, plus the girls' club, plus the +theater, plus choir practice, plus the informal evening at her chum's, +plus a dozen other dissipations, that in the course of a few years +change a quiet, home-loving little schoolgirl into a gadding, +overwrought, uneasy woman. + +Unless one has tried it, it is perhaps hard to realize how difficult +it is for an individual mother to regulate social custom in her +community even for her own daughter without causing the girl +unhappiness and possibly destroying her delight in her home. No girl +enjoys leaving the party at ten when "the other girls" stay until +twelve. Nor does she enjoy declining invitations when the other girls +all go. But what the individual mother finds difficult, community +sentiment can easily accomplish. The woman's club or the mothers' club +or the parent-teacher association, or better yet all three, may +profitably discuss the question, and may set about the creation of the +sentiment required. + +Quite as important as "How often shall she go?" is the question "With +whom is she going?" There are two ways of approaching the problem here +involved. One requires more knowledge for the girl herself, that she +may better judge what constitutes a worthy companion. The other is +reached by the better training of boys, that more of them may develop +into the sort of young men with whom we may trust our daughters. + +Parents who take the time and trouble to acquaint themselves with the +boys in their daughter's social circle will find themselves better +able to aid the girl in her choice of friends. The very best place for +this getting acquainted is the girl's own home, to which, therefore, +young people should often be informally invited. Nor should parents +neglect occasional opportunities to observe their daughter's friends +in other environment--at the church social or supper, at +entertainments, at school, or on the street. Fortunately the revolt +against a dual standard of purity for men and women holds promise of a +larger proportion of clean, controlled, trustworthy boys. + +It will never be quite safe, however, to trust either our boys or our +girls to resist instincts implanted by nature and restrained only by +the artificial barriers of society, unless we keep their imaginations +busy, and unless we implant ideals of conduct high enough to make them +desire self-control for ends which seem beautiful and good to +themselves. The adolescent period is especially favorable for the +formation of ideals, and a high conception of love and marriage will +probably prove the truest safeguard our boys and girls can have. + +The reading of the period is of special importance. At no other time +of life will altruism, self-sacrifice, high ideals of honor and of +love, make so strong an appeal as now. Adolescent reading must make +the most of this fact. Some of the great love stories of literature +and biography should be read, especially one or two which involve the +putting aside of desire at the call of a higher motive. At least one +story involving the world-old theme of the betrayed woman--_The +Scarlet Letter_, perhaps, or _Adam Bede_--should be "required reading" +for every adolescent girl, and should after reading be the subject of +thoughtful and loving discussion by the girl and her mother in one of +the confidential chats which should be frequent between them. + +Girls must learn from their mothers and teachers to distrust the boy +who shows any inclination to take liberties, and they must also learn +that girls, consciously or more often otherwise, daily put temptation +in the way of boys who desire to do right, and invite liberties from +the other sort. Restraint, in dress, in carriage, in manners, and in +conversation, _must be made to seem right and desirable to the girl_, +for her own sake and no less for the good of the other sex. This of +course means that teachers must set fine examples before the girl in +their own dress and deportment. + +To counteract the dangerous tendencies which have become intensified +by the wholesale breaking of social customs during the war, it is +necessary that parents and teachers give very careful attention to the +dress of girls and to the demeanor of boys and girls of the adolescent +period. Many teachers are improperly dressed and setting the wrong +example. Many parents are dressing carelessly and sending their girls +to high school improperly dressed. The boys are tempted--yes, are +forced--to observe the bodies of their girl classmates, in +study-rooms, halls, laboratories, and on playgrounds. These girls who +are immodestly dressed are not only exposing themselves to danger and +inviting familiarities, but are tempting the boys to go wrong. Many +of the tragedies in our schools can be traced to this source. + +To handle this very serious and very difficult problem it is necessary +that all mothers of high-school boys and girls organize and cooperate +with principals and teachers. The task is gigantic, for the customs +and suggestions which are responsible for present-day conditions are +many and permeate our magazines, books, moving pictures, dances, and +nearly all social gatherings. + +Many superintendents, teachers, and parents have been very seriously +studying these social and moral problems and making plans to start +reforms at once in the public schools. The most practical method thus +far presented appears to be the requirement of uniform dress for all +girls in the upper grades and in high school. This custom is already +established in some of our best private schools. Uniform dress has a +very democratic training which commends it. It is less expensive than +the present varied styles. It is practical, for it avoids +discrimination which would lead to many private difficulties. + +The girl has now reached the time when her bits of knowledge of sex +matters, gained gradually since the first stirrings of curiosity in +her little girlhood, should be gathered, summarized, and given +practical application to the mature life she will soon enter upon. + +Thoughtful investigation does not lead to the conclusion that girls +need especially a detailed physiological presentation of the subject +so much as a study of the psychological aspects of the sex life. +Personal purity is primarily a matter of mind. + +Girls who all their lives have been familiar with the mystery of +birth, who at puberty have been instructed in the delicacy of the +sexual organs and processes and in the care they must exercise to +bring them to normal development, are now ready to be taught the +vital necessity of subordinating the animal to the spiritual in the +sex life. + +It may seem unwise and unnecessary to put before young girls so dark +and distressing a subject as the social evil. Yet I know of no way to +combat this evil without teaching all girls what must be avoided. When +girls realize that the social evil + + 1. Rests upon a foundation of purely unrestrained animal + instinct; + + 2. That a single sexual misstep has ruined thousands upon + thousands of girls' lives; + + 3. That ignorance or the one misstep has led thousands to a + permanent life of shame; + + 4. That such a life means, sooner or later, sorrow, impaired or + destroyed health, disgrace, and early death to its woman + victims; + + 5. That the social evil destroys the efficiency and the moral + worth of men; + + 6. That it sets free deadly disease germs to permeate society, + causing untold misery among the innocent, + +then, and not until then, can they be taught + + 1. To recognize and fear animal instinct unrestrained by higher + motive; + + 2. To guard their own instincts; + + 3. To hold men to a high standard of social purity and to help + them attain it. + +Nor does this teaching necessitate morbid consideration of the +subject. It will, in fact, in many cases clear away the morbid +curiosity and surreptitious seeking after information in which +untaught girls indulge. Skillfully and delicately taught this +knowledge as an important and serious part of woman's work, girls will +be sweeter and more womanly for the knowledge of their responsibility +to society and to their unborn offspring. + +Schools that attempt such a course for girls are finding their chief +difficulty in discovering people properly endowed by nature and +properly trained to teach it. To give such work into any but the +wisest hands invites disaster. To make it a study of the physical +basis of sexual life is disaster in itself. Service, through making +one's self a pure member of society, and through helping others to +keep the same standard--this must be the keynote of the teaching, an +education toward social efficiency and social uplift. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE GIRL'S WORK + + +The adolescent girl, already the product of a general training which +has aimed at all-round development of body, mind, and spirit, is now +ready for the specializing which shall place her in tune with the +world of industry and help her to make for herself a permanent and +useful place in society. Henceforward the girl's training must face +her double possibilities. She must not be allowed to have an eye +single to making an industrial place for herself; nor can those who +educate her fail to see the double work she must do. + +Any consideration of the subject of girls' work outside the home or +work in the home for financial return must begin with a general survey +of the field of industry, discovering what women have done and are +doing, together with the effects of gainful occupation upon the +character and efficiency of women. + +The United States Census reports for 1910 give the following figures: + + Number of Females Ten Years and Over + Year Engaged in Gainful Occupations + 1880 2,647,157 + 1890 4,005,532 + 1900 5,319,397 + 1910 8,075,772 + +It is thus seen that gainful occupations for women have increased +greatly in the thirty years covered by the report. At present 21.2 per +cent of all females, or 23.4 of all over ten years of age, are engaged +in work for wages. Further tabulation brings out the fact that, +whereas the age period from twenty-one to forty-four shows the largest +percentage of men employed in gainful work, women show the largest +proportion of their numbers so employed during the age period from +sixteen to twenty. Evidently the girls are at work. The figures +follow: + + MALES TEN YEARS AND OVER FEMALES TEN YEARS AND OVER + Age Period Per Cent Age Period Per Cent + 10-13 16.6 10-13 8.0 + 14-15 41.4 14-15 19.8 + 16-20 79.2 16-20 39.9 + 21-44 96.7 21-44 26.3 + 45 and over 85.9 45 and over 15.7 + +Compare with these figures the following table: + +AGES AT WHICH WOMEN MARRY[7] + + 11.2 per cent, or 1/9, of all women marry before 20 + 47.3 " " " 1/2 " " " " " 25 + 72.4 " " " 3/4 " " " " " 30 + 83.3 " " " 5/6 " " " " " 35 + 88.8 " " " 8/9 " " " " " 45 + 92.1 " " " 11/12 " " " " " 55 + 93.3 " " " 14/15 " " " " " 65 + 93.8 " " " 15/16 " " " " " 100 + +It will be observed that since the percentage of women at work +decreases after twenty, the number of women who marry and presumably +become homemakers is very largely increased. + +These figures would seem to indicate that girls go to work early, that +as yet industry does not largely prevent marriage, and that marriage +does in many or most cases stop women's industrial careers. + +Inquiry as to what women are doing in the industrial world elicits +important facts. It would seem that Olive Schreiner's "For the present +we take all labor for our province" is very nearly a bare statement +of attested fact. The Census report includes 509 closely classified +occupations. Women are found in all but 43. Even allowing for the +inaccuracy of such figures, and passing over the occupations which +take in only an occasional woman, it is seen that "woman's sphere" can +no longer be arbitrarily defined. The following facts and figures for +women give us food for thought: + + Farm laborers (working out) 337,522 + Iron and steel industries 29,182 + Chemical industries 15,577 + Clay, glass, and stone industries 11,849 + Electrical supply factories 11,041 + Lumber and furniture industries 17,214 + Steam railroad laborers 3,248 + +[Illustration: Photograph by C. Park Pressey +The 1910 Census showed over three hundred and thirty thousand women +employed as farm laborers. This number did not include wives or +daughters of farm-owners] + +The foregoing facts concern occupations which were once associated +entirely with men. If we enter the ranks of more womanly work we shall +find: + + Dressmakers 447,760 + Milliners 122,070 + Sewers and sewing-machine operators 231,106 + Telephone operators 88,262 + Nurses 187,420 + Clerks and saleswomen in stores 362,081 + Stenographers and typists 263,315 + Bookkeepers, cashiers, and accountants 187,155 + Cooks 333,436 + Laundresses (not in laundries) 520,004 + Teachers 478,027 + +These are of course merely a few among the four hundred and fifty +kinds of work in which women are found. Any survey of women's work +comes close to a general survey of industry. We shall find that in +some occupations the proportion of men is much larger than that of +women. In others women have made rapid strides. The accompanying +diagram shows that in professional service, in domestic and personal +service, and in clerical occupations women are found in largest +numbers. In domestic and personal service the women outnumber the men +more than two to one. In professional service there are four women to +five men, a large proportion of the women being teachers. In the +clerical occupations we have one woman to each two men, in +manufacturing one woman to six men, in agriculture one woman to seven +men, and in trade one to eight. The occupations for women have been +changed somewhat by the new industrial conditions forced upon us by +the war, but it is very probable that in a few years the industrial +world will return to its normal status before the war for both men and +women. + +[Illustration: Proportions of men and women in the United States +engaged in special occupations] + +[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood +Farmerettes. During the World War women at home and abroad rendered +especially valuable services in agricultural work] + +If it is true that women are claiming and will continue to claim "all +labor" for their province, the claim must rest upon one of two +assumptions: Either women are physically, mentally, and morally +identical in their capabilities with men, or differences in physical, +mental, and moral make-up must be considered as not affecting work. +Most of us are not yet ready to agree to either of these premises. We +must therefore believe that some occupations are more suitable for one +sex than for the other. The fact is, however, that only a small group +of radical thinkers have made the opposite claim. Women are found, it +is true, in a large number of the occupations in which men are found. +But they are there for some other reason than that they claim all +labor as their sphere. Some are driven by the stern necessity of doing +whatever work is at hand; some by ignorance of their unfitness, or of +the unfitness of the work for them; some by the spirit of the age +which says, "Come, be free. Try these things that men do. See if they +suit you. Find your sphere." + +Probably, however, this last reason for entering unsuitable +occupations is the one least often underlying the choice. Girls select +vocations in the main as boys do. Until very lately chance has been +the ruling element far oftener than anything else. + +Studies in industry are now for the first time giving us adequate +information as to requirements for efficiency, working conditions, +wages, living possibilities, and the effects, moral and physical, of +various occupations upon both men and women. The problems arising out +of the crossing and recrossing of these various elements are as yet +but vaguely understood. The great gain lies in the fact that their +solution is being sought. + +The community is of necessity interested in workingwomen as it is in +workingmen. Without these workers the community does not exist. When +they are ill-paid, overworked, underfed, discontented, or inefficient, +the community necessarily suffers. When they work under proper +conditions, the community shares their prosperity. It is thus coming +to be seen that the condition of workers is the concern of all the +members of the community. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +Factory workers. Sewers and sewing-machine operators to the number of +over 230,000, according to the 1919 Census, are employed in the United +States] + +In the case of the woman worker, however, and especially of the young +woman worker, the community has a further interest because of the +service that women render as the mothers of the next and indeed of all +future generations. If, then, it is shown that women are physically +unfit for certain occupations that men may follow with safety, it +becomes the business of the community to protect women, even against +themselves if necessary, and to deter them from entering such lines of +work. + +The community must make use of various agencies in bringing about the +proper relations between women and their work. It may use legislation, +thereby securing, for example, factory inspectors to improve the +sanitary and moral conditions in the places where women and girls are +employed. It may use the school, the library, and various civic +improvement forces to inform both girls and their parents as to +conditions under which girls should work. It may employ vocational +guides to make proper connections between women and their work. + +For all these agencies to do satisfactory work, the first requisite is +knowledge of conditions. This means skillful work upon a vast and +rapidly increasing body of facts, and wide dissemination of the +results of such work. + +[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood +Unemployed utilizing their spare time to make themselves more +efficient. The community may make use of the schools for such +purposes] + +We may not stop here to consider what legislatures have done and are +doing to improve conditions, other than to mention that the number of +hours that women may work is restricted in some states, as is night +work, and that a minimum wage is required in some. + +Our question, however, is not so much what is forbidden women in the +way of work, as what women and girls will choose to do of the work +which is not forbidden. Facts as to what women are doing concern us +mainly as material from which to deduce information of value to the +girls who have not yet chosen. + +A serious obstacle to wise choice on the part of young girls who are +pushing into industrial occupations is the uncertainty of their +continuing as workers outside the home. The average length of the +girl's industrial life is computed to be only about five years. She +enters upon work at an age when it is often impossible to tell whether +she will marry or remain single. She is usually unable to know whether +or not she will desire to marry. The great majority of girls have +therefore no stable conditions upon which to build a choice. The work +girls choose and their instability in the work they enter upon are +direct results of these unstable conditions. Many girls feel the need +of little or no training, and apply for any work obtainable, merely +because they anticipate that their industrial career will soon be +over. + +A government report on the condition of woman and girl wage-earners in +the United States gives the following facts concerning 1,391 women +working in stores: + + Average length of service 5.17 years + Average wage: + First year $4.69 per week + Second year 5.28 " " + Tenth year 9.81 " " + + Among 3,421 factory women investigated: + + Average length of service 4.46 years + Average wage: + First year $4.62 per week + Second year 5.34 " " + Tenth year 8.48 " " + +These stores and factories were presumably filled by girls who seized +the most available source of a weekly wage regardless of all but the +pay envelope. Few of them remained more than five years, and those who +did remain did not receive adequate increase in their pay by the tenth +year for workers of ten years' experience. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +A cotton-mill worker. Unfortunately in the factories girls are too +often influenced by the pay envelope rather than by any special +fitness for the work they are to do] + +The whole industrial situation as it concerns women would indicate +that women even more than men show lack of discrimination in seeking +to place themselves, and that the sources of information for them have +been few if not entirely lacking. Happily these conditions are +changing. We have now to teach girls to avail themselves of the +information and the guidance at hand and to learn to discriminate in +their choice of work. + +Girls must realize that unskillful, mechanical work, done always with +a mental reservation that it is merely a temporary expedient, keeps +women's wages low, destroys confidence in female capacity, and has +definite bearing not only on the individual woman's earning capacity, +but on her character as well. Girls must learn to choose in such a way +that their work may be an opening into a life career or may be an +enlightening prelude to marriage and the making of a home. + +Some of the women who uphold the doctrine of equality between the +sexes make the mistake of thinking and of teaching that there can be +no equality without identical work. They take the attitude that unless +women do all the sorts of work that men do, they are unjustly deprived +of their rights. Our contention is rather that women have higher +rights than that of identical work with men. They, above all other +workers, should have the right of intelligent choice of work which +they can do to the advantage of themselves, their offspring, and the +community. Such a choice will ignore the question of sex as a +drawback, accepting it, on the other hand, merely as a condition +which, like other conditions, complicates but does not necessarily +hamper choice. No girl need feel hampered by her sex because she +chooses not to do work which fails either to utilize her peculiar +gifts or to lead in what seems to her a profitable direction. No girl +should feel that her industrial experience, however short, has nothing +to contribute to the home life of which she dreams. No girl need waste +the knowledge and skill gained in industrial life when she abandons +gainful occupation for the home. Homemaking education, with industrial +experience, ought to make the ideal preparation for life work. + +This, however, can be true only when the girl's industrial experience +is of the right sort. Girls must therefore be led to choose the +developing occupation. It is a part of the world's economy to lead +them to this choice. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 7: From Puffer, _Vocational Guidance_, based on Census +figures.] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE GIRL'S WORK (Continued)--CLASSIFICATION OF OCCUPATIONS + + +It is well at the outset to recognize that vocation choosing is at +best a complicated matter which, to be successfully carried out, +demands not only much information, but information from different +viewpoints. It is not enough to insure a living, even a good living, +in the work a girl chooses. We must take into consideration the girl's +effect upon society as a teacher, nurse, saleswoman, or office worker; +and no less, in view of her evident destiny as mother of the race, +must we consider society's effect upon her, as it finds her in the +place she has chosen. In other words, will she serve society to the +best of her ability, and will her service fit her to be a better +homemaker than she would have been had no vocation outside the home +intervened between her school training and her final settling in a +home of her own making? + +This double question must find answer in consideration of vocations +from each of several viewpoints. We may classify occupations open to +girls (1) from the standpoint of the girl's fitness, physical and +psychological; (2) from the standpoint of industrial conditions, the +sanitary, mental, and moral atmosphere, and the rewards obtainable; +(3) as factors increasing, decreasing, or not affecting the girl's +possible home efficiency or the likelihood of taking up home life; (4) +from the standpoint of the girl's education; (5) from the standpoint +of service to society. + +Our first classification concerns the girl's fitness for this or that +work. The everyday work of the world in which our girls are to find a +part may be separated into three fairly well-marked classes: making +things, distributing things, and service. The first question we must +ask concerning a girl desirous of finding work is, then: Toward which +of these classes does her natural ability and therefore probably her +inclination tend? Natural handworkers make poor saleswomen; natural +traders or saleswomen are likely to be uninterested and ineffective +handworkers. The girl whose interests are all centered in people must +not be condemned to spend her life in the production of things; nor, +as is far more common, must the girl who can make things, and enjoys +making them, spend her life in merely handling the things other people +have made, as she strives to make connection between these things and +the people who want them. Then there is the girl who is efficient and +who finds her pleasure in "doing things for people." Service--and we +must remember that service is a wide term, and that no stigma should +attach to the class of workers which includes the teacher, the +physician, and the minister--is clearly the direction in which such a +girl's vocational ambition should be turned. + +It would be idle to assert that all women are suited to marriage, +motherhood, and domestic life, although there is little doubt that +early training may develop in some a suitability which would otherwise +remain unsuspected. When, however, early training fails to bring out +any inclination toward these things, we may well consider seriously +before we exert the weight of our influence toward them. +Home-mindedness shows itself in many ways, and it should have been a +matter of observation years before the girl faces the choice of a +vocation. It is usually of little avail to attempt to turn the +attention of the girl who is definitely not thus minded toward the +domestic life. On the other hand, the girl who is naturally so minded +will respond readily to suggestions leading toward the occupations +which require and appeal to her domestic nature. The great majority of +girls, however, are not definitely conscious of either home-mindedness +or the opposite. They are in fact not yet definitely cognizant of any +natural bent. It is these girls who are especially open to the +influence of environment, of what may prove temporary inclination, or +of false notions of the advantage of certain occupations in choosing a +life work. These are the girls, too, who are likely to drift into +marriage as they are likely to drift into any other occupation, and +whose previous vocation may have added to or perfected their +homemaking training or, on the other hand, may have developed in them +habits and traits which will effectually kill their usefulness in the +home life. These, then, are the girls who are most of all in need of +wise assistance in choosing that which may prove to be a temporary +vocation or may become a life work. The temporary idea must be +combated vigorously in the girl's mind. Many an unwise choice would +have been avoided had the girl really faced the possibility of making +the work she undertook a life work. The temporary idea makes +inefficient workers and discontented women. + +There is in most cases, especially among the fairly well-to-do, no +dearth of assistance offered to the young girl in making her choice. +Much of the advice, unfortunately, is not based on real knowledge +either of vocations or of the girl. Knowledge is absolutely necessary +to successful judgment in this delicate matter. + +From a large number of letters written by high-school girls let me +quote the following typical answers to the question: Why have you +chosen the vocation for which you are preparing? + + "Ever since I could walk my uncle has been making plans for + me in music." + + "My first ambition was to be a stenographer, but my father + objected. My father's choice was for me to be a teacher, and + before long it was mine too." + + "My ambition until my Junior year in High School was to be a + teacher. From that time until now my ambition is to be a + good stenographer. My reason for changing is due partly to + my friends and parents. My parents do not want me to be a + teacher, as they consider it too hard a life." + + "I have been greatly influenced by my teacher, who thinks I + have a chance [as a dramatic art teacher]. I am willing to + take her word for it.". + + "Mother says it is a very ladylike occupation" + [stenography]. + + "My music instructor wishes for me to become a concert + player, or at least a good music teacher, and I now think I + wish the same." + +These answers all show the customary ease of throwing out advice, and +also the undue significance attached by girls to these probably +inexpert opinions. + +Parents often fail in their attempts to launch their children +successfully. Sometimes they attempt unwisely to thrust a child into +an occupation merely because "it is ladylike," or the "vacation is +long," or "the pay is good," regardless of the child's aptitude or +limitations. Quite often they await inspiration in the form of some +revelation of the child's desires, regardless of the demand of society +for such service as the child may elect to supply or the effect of the +vocation upon the child's health or character. Undue sacrifice on the +part of parents has without question swelled the ranks of mediocre +physicians and lawyers and clergymen. It has doubtless produced +thousands of teachers who cannot teach, nurses who are quite unsuited +to the sick-room, and office workers who have not the rudiments of +business ability. + +It would seem that truly successful guidance in a girl's search for a +vocation can come, like much of her training, only from wise +cooeperation of school and home. Teacher and parent see the girl from +different angles. Their combined judgment will consequently have +double value. + +As the time of vocational choice approaches, school records should +cover larger ground than before, and should be made with great care, +with constant appeal to parents for confirmation and additional facts. + +The record should cover: + +1. _Physical characteristics_: Height; weight; lung capacity; sight; +hearing; condition of nasal passages; condition of teeth; bodily +strength and endurance; nerve strength or weakness. + +2. _Health history_: Time lost from school by illness; school work as +affected by physical condition when the girl is in school; probable +ability or inability to bear the confinement of an indoor occupation; +any early illness, accident, or surgical operation which may affect +health and therefore vocational possibilities. + +3. _Mental characteristics_: The quality of school work; studious or +active in temperament; best suited for head work, handwork, or a +combination; ability to work independently of teacher or other guide; +studies most enjoyed; studies in which best work is done; evidences, +if any, of special talent, and whether or not sufficient to form basis +of life work. + +4. _Moral characteristics_: Honesty; moral courage; stability; tact; +combativeness; leader or follower. + +5. _Heredity_: Physical statistics in regard to parents, brothers, +sisters, grandparents, uncles, aunts; occupations followed by these, +with success or otherwise; family traditions as to work; special +abilities in family noted. + +6. _Vocational ambitions_. + +7. _Family resources for special training_. + +Without some such record as this--and it need scarcely be said that +the one given here is capable of wide adaptation to special +needs--teachers, parents, or other friends of the girl are poorly +equipped for giving advice as to the girl's future. And yet it is +common enough for such advice to be thrown out in the most casual +manner, with scarcely a thought of the ambitions awakened or of the +future to which they may lead. + +"You certainly ought to go on the stage," chorus the admiring friends +of the girl who excels in the work of the elocution class. And +sometimes with no other counsel than this, from people who really know +nothing about the matter, the girl struggles to enter the theatrical +world, only to find that her talent, sufficient to excite admiring +comment among her friends, has proved inadequate to make her a +worth-while actress. + +"Why don't you study art?" say the friends of another girl; or, "You +like to take care of sick people. Why don't you train for nursing?" +or, "You're so fond of books. I should think you would be a +librarian"--quite regardless of the fact that the girl advised to +study art has neither the perseverance nor the health to study +successfully; that the one advised to be a nurse lacks patience and +repose to a considerable degree; or that the one advised to be a +librarian is already suffering from strained eyes and should choose +her vocation from the great outdoors. + +Knowledge of the girl must, however, be supplemented by a wide +knowledge of vocations to be of real value to the teacher or parent +who is preparing to give vocational counsel. Final choice may be +reached only after the girl and the vocation are brought into +comparative scrutiny, and their mutual fitness determined. In rare +cases the choice may be made by the swift process of observing a great +talent which, in the absence of serious objections, must govern the +life work. Oftener the process is one of elimination, or of building +up from a general foundation of the girl's abilities and limitations, +and her possibilities for training sufficient to make her an efficient +worker in the line chosen. + +A knowledge of vocations presupposes, first of all, a grasp of the +essentials of the work, and hence the characteristics required in the +worker to perform it. What sort of girl is needed to make an efficient +teacher, nurse, saleswoman, or office worker? How may we recognize +this potential teacher without resorting to a clumsy, time-wasting, +trial-and-error method? These are matters with which schools and +vocational guides all over the country are occupying themselves. +Perhaps we cannot do better than to examine somewhat these +requirements for some occupations toward which girls most often +incline. + + +THE PRODUCING GROUP + +The girl who is by nature a maker of things may be a factory worker, a +needlewoman, a baker, a poultry farmer, a milliner, a photographer, or +an artist with brush or with voice, or in dramatic work. She is still +one who makes things. We see at once how wide a range of industry may +open to her. + +How shall we know this type of girl? First of all, by her interest in +things rather than in people. With the exception of, the singer and +the dramatic artist, whose production is of an intangible sort, the +girl who makes things is a handworker by choice. The extent to which +her handwork is touched by the imaginative instinct of course measures +the distance that she may make her way up the ladder of productive +work. The girl's school record will usually show her best work with +concrete materials. She draws or sews well, has excellent results in +the cooking class, works well in the laboratory. At home she finds +enjoyment in "making things" of one sort or another. She displays +ingenuity, perhaps, in meeting constructive problems. If so, that must +be considered in finding her place. + +Handwork for women includes a wide range of occupations. Let us now +examine some of these kinds of work. + +[Illustration: _In the packing room of a wholesale house. The +untrained girl finds it easy to obtain factory work_] + +_Factory work._ This term covers many departments of manufacturing +industries. In the main, however, they may be classed together, since +in practically all of them the worker contributes only one small +portion of the work incidental to the making of candy, or artificial +flowers, or coats, or pickles, or shoes, or corsets, or underwear, or +anyone of a hundred different products, some one or several of which +may be found in nearly every American town. + +The great advantage of factory work, as the untrained girl sees it, is +that it is usually easy to obtain and that it promises some return +even from the start. Hence a large proportion of untrained girls who +leave school as soon as the law allows enter the factories near their +homes. + +The great disadvantages of factory work, laying aside for a moment +many minor disadvantages, are that it not only requires no skill in +the beginner, but that it produces little if any skill even with years +of work and offers practically no advancement for a large proportion +of the workers. It should therefore, be reserved for girls of less +keen intelligence, and other girls should if possible be guided toward +other occupations. + +Teachers must make themselves thoroughly familiar with working +conditions in local factories, since there will always be girls who, +because of their own limitations or the limitations of their +environment, will find themselves obliged to take up factory work. +Under the teacher's guidance girls should make definite studies and +prepare detailed reports of local conditions with respect to working +hours, character of work, wages, possible advancement, dangers to +health, moral conditions, advantages over other occupations open to +girls with no more training, and disadvantages. Girls should at least +go into factory work with their eyes open, that they may pass their +days in the best surroundings available. + +_Dressmaking_. The possibilities for the girl entering upon work +connected with dressmaking with the ultimate object of becoming a +dressmaker herself are far wider than in the case of the machine +worker in shop or factory. The immediate return for the untrained +girl is far less, but the farsighted girl must learn to look beyond +the immediate present. Not all girls, however, will make good +dressmakers. Not all, even of the producing type of girl, will do so. +Certain definite qualities are required. The girl who would succeed as +a dressmaker must possess ingenuity, imagination, and the visualizing +type of mind. She must see the end from the beginning, and must be +able to find the way to produce that which she visualizes. She must be +a keen observer. She must have confidence in her own power to create. +She must possess manual dexterity, artistic ideas, and, if she aims at +a business of her own, a pleasing personality and keen business sense. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +A millinery class. Millinery requires of the girl a certain degree of +creative ability] + +_Millinery_. Millinery requires in its workers the same general type +of mind required for dressmaking, and in addition a certain millinery +faculty or creative ability. The girl who can make and trim hats +usually discovers her own talent fairly early in life. + +_Arts and crafts._ This somewhat elastic term we use to include a wide +range of occupations which have to do with articles of use or ornament +which are handmade and which require skill in designing or in carrying +out designs. Embroidery, lace making, rug and tapestry weaving, +basketry, china painting, wood and leather work, handwork in metals, +bookbinding, and the designing and painting of cards for various +occasions are familiar examples of this kind of work. Photography, map +making, designing of wall paper and fabrics, costume designing and +illustrating, making of signs, placards, diagrams, working drawings, +advertising illustrations, book and magazine illustrating, landscape +gardening and architecture, interior decorating, are other lines +offering work to men and women alike. + +The range of work here is no greater than the range of qualities which +may be happily and usefully employed in arts and crafts. All branches +of the work, however, are alike in demanding a certain degree of +artistic sense and deftness of manual touch. An accurate, observant +eye is an absolute essential, and, for all but the lowest and most +mechanical lines of work, imagination, originality, and an inventive +habit of mind make the foundation of success. In some lines a fine +sense of color values must underlie good work, in others the ability +to draw easily. All work of this sort requires the ability to do +careful, painstaking, and persevering work. Given this ability and the +artistic sense before mentioned, the girl's work may be determined by +some special talent, by the special training possible for her, or by +the openings possible in her chosen line of work within comparatively +easy access. + +[Illustration: Photograph by C. Park Pressey +A youthful farmer. The Census figures for the year 1910 report +one-fifth of all women employed in gainful occupations as engaged in +the pursuit of agriculture and animal husbandry] + +_Agriculture._ The Census figures which report one-fifth of all women +gainfully employed as engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry are +somewhat startling until we observe that southern negro women make up +a very large number of the farm workers reported. Even aside from +these, however, there are many women who are finding work in +gardening, poultry raising, bee culture, dairying, and the like. The +girl who is fitted to take up work of this sort is usually the girl +who has grown up on the farm or at least in the country and who has a +sympathy with growing things. She is essentially the "outdoor girl." +She must be willing to study the science of making things grow. She +must be able to keep accounts, that she may know what she is doing and +what her profits are. Above all, she must have no false pride about +"dirty work." Properly such a girl should have entered upon her career +even before she has finished her formal education, so that "going to +work" means merely enlarging her work to occupy her time more fully +and to bring in as soon as possible a living income. + +In this sort of work the girl possessing initiative and an independent +spirit will naturally do best, since there are comparatively few +opportunities for such work under supervision. Care must, however, be +exercised by vocational guides in suggesting, and by girls in +choosing, the independent career. Usually it is the girl who has shown +promise in independent work at school or at home that will make a +success of such work later in life. The girl who relaxes when the +pressure of compulsion is removed will not be a success as "her own +boss." It goes without saying that the girl who does well as her own +superior officer will be happier to do work upon her own initiative +than merely to carry out the plans made by others. Agricultural work +will sometimes offer her exactly the conditions she desires. Many +successful farm-owners are women, and their work compares favorably +with that of men. + +_Food production_. It is common, in these days, to meet the assertion +that the preparation of food, once woman's undisputed work, has been +almost if not quite removed from her hands; and that, even where she +may still contribute to this work, she must do so in the factory, the +bakery, the packing house, or the delicatessen shop. There are, +nevertheless, still many women who are fitted for cooking and kindred +pursuits who will not find an outlet for their abilities in any of the +places mentioned. In the main, factory production of food is like +factory production of other things--a highly differentiated process, +in which the individual worker finds little satisfaction for her +desire to "make things" and little, if any, opportunity to contribute +from her ability to the final result. + +In the canning factory she may sit all day before an ever-moving +procession of beans or peas, from which she removes any unsuitable for +cooking. Or it may be an endless procession of cans, upon which she +rapidly lays covers as they pass. In the pickle factory she may pack +tiny cucumbers into bottles. In the packing house she may perform the +task of painting cans. None of these occupations is more than mere +unskilled labor. None is suitable for the girl who likes to cook, and +who can cook. The number of such girls is already fairly large and +will undoubtedly increase as the domestic science classes of our +schools do more and better work. + +[Illustration: An up-to-date factory. In the factory the work is +necessarily routine, and the individual worker finds very little +satisfaction for her desire to make things] + +Opposed to the theoretical statement that food is or at least +to-morrow will be prepared entirely in the public-utility plants +outside the home is the practical fact that home-cooked food, +home-preserved fruits and jellies, and home-canned vegetables and +meats find ready sale and that women who can produce these things do +find it profitable to do so. There is, consequently, a field for some +girls in such work. + +[Illustration: Cooking class at Benson Polytechnic School for Girls, +Portland, Oregon. In spite of the statement that foods will be +prepared in the public utility plants, the trained, accurate worker +may find a ready sale for home-cooked foods] + +Not all girls, on the other hand, who have taken the domestic science +course are fitted to take up this work, even if a market could be +found for their work. Only the expert, that is, the precise, accurate, +painstaking cook, can secure uniform results day after day. Only the +rapid worker can do enough to insure pay for her time. Only the girl +with a keen sense of taste can properly judge results and devise +successful combinations. Only a business woman can buy to advantage +and compute ratios of expense and return. This combination, of course, +is not to be found every day. + + +THE DISTRIBUTING GROUP + +_Salesmanship_. Passing from the class of work which has to do with +making things to that group of occupations which has to do with the +distribution of various products to the consumer, we shall naturally +consider, first of all, the saleswoman. In any given group of young +and untrained girls drawn as in our schools from varying environment +and heredity, the _natural_ saleswomen will probably be in the +minority. I do not mean that girls may not often express a desire to +"work in a store" as apparently the easiest and most immediate +employment for the untrained girl. This may or may not indicate that +the girl has a commercial mind. The girl who is really interested in +commercial undertakings is easily distinguished from her fellow +workers in any salesroom. She is not the girl who lingers in +conversation with the girl next to her while a customer waits, or who +gazes indifferently over the customer's head while the latter makes +her choice from the goods laid before her. To the real saleswoman +every customer is a possibility, every sale a victory, and every +failure to sell distinctly a defeat. The fact that we see so few girls +and women of this type behind the counters in our shopping centers is +sufficient indication that many girls would have been better placed in +other occupations. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +Hardware section of a department store. Salesmanship offers large +opportunities to the real saleswoman, who considers every customer a +possibility] + +We find, however, in 1910, the number of saleswomen reported as +257,720, together with 111,594 "clerks" in stores, many of whom the +report states are "evidently saleswomen" under another name. There are +also about 4,000 female proprietors, officials, managers, and +floorwalkers in stores, and 2,000 commercial travelers. This gives us +a large number of women who are engaged in the sale of goods. For the +girl of the commercial mind, salesmanship in some form presents +certain possibilities, although there is far less chance for her to +rise in this work than for a boy. She must begin at the most +rudimentary work, as cash or errand girl, and her progress will +necessarily be slow. She will require an ability to handle with some +skill elementary forms of arithmetic, an alert and observing mind, an +interest in and some knowledge of human nature, and good health to +endure the confinement of the long day. She will be fortunate if she +finds a place in one of the stores in which a continuation school is +conducted. At such a school in Altman's department store in New York +the girls pursue a regular course designed to be especially helpful in +their work, and are graduated with all due formality, in which both +public-school and store officials take part. Such a school helps girls +to feel a pride in their work and to feel that they are under +observation by those who will recognize and reward real endeavor. +Filene's in Boston and Wanamaker's in New York and Philadelphia are +other notable examples of such schools. + +In a government report previously quoted we find interesting figures +as to the possibility of advancement for the saleswoman. In a study of +twenty-six of the largest department stores in New York, Chicago, and +Philadelphia, employing more than 35,000 women, the workers were +classed as follows: + + Per Cent + Cash girls, messengers, bundle girls, etc 13.2 + Saleswomen 46.2 + Buyers and assistant buyers 1.2 + Office and other employees 39.4 + +"It will be seen," adds the report, "that the opportunity for reaching +the coveted position of buyer or assistant buyer is small." + +The disadvantages and dangers of salesmanship for girls, other than +small pay and improbability of much advancement, we shall consider in +a later chapter. We may say here, however, that these disadvantages +and dangers, for the really commercially minded girl, are to a certain +extent neutralized by her nature and possibilities. She is the girl +whose mind is more or less concentrated on "the selling game." Her +nerves are less worn because of a certain exhilaration in her work. +She is the girl who passes beyond the underpaid stage and is able to +live decently and to rise to a position of some responsibility, partly +because of her concentration and partly because she has been able to +resist the influences about her which make for mediocrity or worse. + +_Office work_. The girl emerging from high school and looking for work +is usually on the lookout for what in a boy we call a "white-collar +job." Especially in the case where the girl has been kept in school +at more or less sacrifice on the part of her parents, both they and +the girl feel that the extra years of schooling entitle her to a +"high-class" occupation of some kind. Girls are far less willing than +boys to "begin at the bottom" and work up through the various stages +of apprenticeship to ultimate positions near the top. They resent +being asked to take the "overall" job and fear mightily to soil their +hands. + +[Illustration: Office girls at work. The successful office worker +must be neat and accurate and have a temperament in which pleasure in +arrangement takes precedence over joy in production] + +Twenty-five years ago a large proportion of high-school graduates went +at once into the teaching force, where they succeeded (or not) in +"learning to do by doing," without professional training of any sort. +Now, however, teaching as a profession is in many places fortunately +reserved for the girls who prepare in college or normal school; and a +larger proportion of girls who cannot have this professional training +are looking for other occupations. Office work attracts a large +number, and, with present-day business courses in high schools, many +girls find employment as stenographers, typists, cashiers in small +establishments, bookkeepers, or general office assistants. In any of +these positions girls without special training or experience must +begin at very low wages. Whether they rise to higher ones depends to +some extent at least upon the girls themselves. + +What sort of girl shall we encourage to enter office work? Not the +girl whose talent lies in making things, for to her the routine of the +office will be a weary and endless treadmill entirely barren of +results; nor the girl who requires the stimulus of people to keep her +alert and keyed to her best work; nor the girl who cannot be happy at +indoor work. Office work seems to require a temperament in which +pleasure in arrangement takes precedence over joy in production; in +which neatness, accuracy, and precision afford satisfaction even in +monotonous tasks. Coupled with these a mathematical bent gives us the +cashier or accountant or bookkeeper; mental alertness and manual +dexterity, the stenographer; a talent for organization, the secretary. + +Girls who enter upon office work directly from high school must be +content with rudimentary tasks and must beware lest they remain at a +low level in the office force. Girls with more training may begin +somewhat farther up, the best positions usually going to those whose +general education and equipment are greatest. Stenographers are more +valuable in proportion as their knowledge of spelling, sentence +formation, and letter writing is reinforced by a feeling for good +English and an ability to relieve their superiors of details in +outlining correspondence. It is not enough that bookkeepers know one +or several systems of keeping business records, or that cashiers +manipulate figures rapidly and well. More important than these +fundamental requirements is the determination to grasp the details of +the business as conducted in the office in which they find themselves +and to adapt their work to the needs of the person whose work they do. +General knowledge and the ability to think not only supplement, but +easily become more valuable than, technical training. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +The successful secretary must have a talent for organization] + +A careful study of local conditions as they affect office positions +will enable girls and their guides to have a better conception of +requirements and rewards in this field. A valuable study of conditions +among office girls in Cleveland has recently been published which +sheds considerable light on the ultimate industrial fate of the +overyoung and poorly trained office worker. A more general study is +found in the volume on _Women in Office Service_ issued by the Women's +Educational Union of Boston. + + +THE SERVICE GROUP + +The third, or service, group of workingwomen covers without doubt the +widest range of all. Here we find the domestic helper (or servant, as +she has usually been called), the telephone operator, the librarian, +the teacher, the nurse, the physician, the lawyer, the social worker, +the clergyman or minister. All degrees of training are represented, +and many varieties of work, from the simplest to the most complex. + +Strictly speaking, service has to do with personal attendance and +help, but it is constantly overlapping other lines of work. The +household assistant is not only a helper, but at times a producer; the +telephone operator and the librarian are distributors as well as +public helpers; the secretary is an office worker, although she is a +personal assistant to her employer as well. For successful work in any +of these lines, however, a girl must possess certain definite +characteristics, to which her peculiar talent or tendency may give the +determining direction as she chooses her work. + +In service of any sort the girl is brought into constant relation with +people. Hence she must be the sort of girl to whom people and not +things are the chief interest of life. She should have an agreeable +personality, that she may give pleasure with her service; she needs +tact, that she may keep the atmosphere about her unruffled; she needs +to find pleasure for herself in service, seeing always the end rather +than merely the often wearisome details of work. Beyond these general +qualities we must begin at once to make subdivisions, since the +additional traits necessary to make a girl successful in one line of +service differ often widely from those required in any other line. We +must therefore take up some of the lines of work in more or less +detail. + +_Domestic work_. The untrained girl who naturally falls into the +service group has a rather poor outlook for congenial and successful +work as conditions exist. With ability which she perhaps does not +possess, and with training which she cannot afford, she would +naturally become a teacher, a nurse, a private secretary, a librarian, +or a social worker. Without training, she finds little except domestic +service open to her; and domestic service finds little favor with +girls, or with students of vocational possibilities for girls. + +These are unfortunate facts. For the untrained girl of merely average +abilities, with no pronounced talent or inclination, but with an +interest in persons and a pleasure in doing things for people, helping +in the tasks of homemaking ought to prove suitable work. It is, +however, the one vocation for the untrained girl which requires her to +live in the home of her employer, thus curtailing her independence, +rendering her hours of work long and uncertain, and cutting off the +natural social environment possible if she returned to her own home at +the end of the day's work. The social position of girls in domestic +service, especially in the towns and cities, is peculiarly hard for a +self-respecting girl to bear. It is in large part a reflection upon +her sacrifice of independence. The derisive slang term "slavey" +expresses the generally prevalent public contempt. It is small wonder +that a girl fears to brave such a sentiment and as a result avoids +what is perhaps in itself congenial work in pleasanter surroundings +than most noisy, ill-smelling factories. + +Almost all the conditions surrounding the domestic worker are such +that it is practically impossible to say except of each place +considered by itself whether or not it is a suitable and desirable +place for a girl, or whether work and wages are fair. Practically no +progress has been made in standardizing household work. The factory +girl knows what she is to do and when she is to do it and how long her +day is to be. The housework girl seldom knows any of these things with +any degree of certainty. Any plan which will make it possible to +regulate these matters according to some recognized standard, and +which will enable domestic workers to live at home, going to and from +their work at regular hours as shop, factory, and office employees do, +will help very materially to solve the problem of opening another +desirable vocation to the untrained girl. + +The untrained girl who is willing to accept a difficult and trying +position in a private kitchen with the idea of making her work serve +her as a training school for better work in the future may make a +success of her life after all. Such a girl will have good observing +powers and ability to follow directions and gauge the success of +results. She will have adaptability, patience, and a very definite +ambition. For domestic service may be a stepping stone. + +For the high-school girl a better opening may sometimes be found as a +mother's helper. Many women who find the ordinary household helper +unsatisfactory give employment to girls of refinement and high-school +training who are capable of assisting either with household tasks or +with the care of children. Girls in such positions are usually made +"one of the family," and are sometimes very happily situated. Their +earnings are often more than those of other girls of their +intelligence and training who are in offices or stores; but there is +of course little chance of advancement, and there is still the +prejudice against domestic work to be reckoned with. Here, as with +household assistants, the greatest drawback is probably lack of +standardization of work and of working conditions. + +The girl who wishes to become a "mother's helper" must have a natural +refinement and some knowledge of social usage if she is to be a sharer +in the family life of her employer. She must use excellent English, +must know how to dress quietly and suitably, and must not only _know +how_ to keep herself in the background of family life, but must be +_willing_ to remain somewhat in the shadows. + +Probably no better field for the investigation of these trying +questions could be found than the high school. The ranks of employers +of domestic help are being constantly recruited from the girls who +were the high-school students of yesterday and have now taken their +places as housekeepers. The high school then, where the problem may be +approached in an impersonal manner quite impossible later when the +question has become a personal one, is the proper place in which to +study the domestic service question and to attempt its standardization. + +The higher positions involving domestic work are more in the nature of +supervisory employment. Many women are employed as matrons in +hospitals, boarding schools, and other institutions, as housekeepers +in hotels, club buildings, or in large private establishments. These +positions of course call for women who are not only thoroughly +familiar with the work to be done, but are skilled in managing their +subordinates who do the actual work. They require women who have +administrative ability, knowledge of keeping accounts, proper +standards of living and of service, and initiative. + +For the woman who has a desire to enter business for herself there are +openings in the line of domestic work. From time immemorial women have +managed lodging and boarding houses, sometimes with good returns. They +are also the owners and managers of tea rooms, restaurants, laundries, +dyeing and cleaning establishments, hairdressing and manicure shops, +and day nurseries. All these occupations can be followed successfully +only by the woman of business ability and some technical knowledge. +They require not only knowledge but aptitude on the part of the +worker. They are usually undertaken only by women of some experience, +and are the result of some earlier choice rather than the choice of +the vocation-seeking girl. + +[Illustration: The true teacher represents a high type of social +worker] + +_Teaching_. The teacher differs from the person who has merely an +interest in human kind in the abstract, because she has a special +interest in one particular class of human beings--those who are most +distinctly in the process of making. She is interested in children, or +she should not be teaching. This, however, is not enough. The girl who +wishes to teach must possess certain well-defined characteristics. Her +health must be good, and her nerve force stable. Temperamentally she +must be enthusiastic and optimistic, but capable of sustained effort +even in the face of apparent failure. Her outlook must be broad, and +her patience unfailing. Intellectually she must be a student, and if +she possess considerable initiative and originality in her study, so +much the better. She must not, however, become a student of +mathematics or history or languages to the exclusion of the more +absorbing study of her pupils, nor even to so great a degree as she +studies them. The true teacher represents a high type of social +worker. Many girls enter upon the work of teaching badly handicapped +by the lack of some of these essential qualities and are in +consequence never able to rise to real understanding and +accomplishment of their work. + +Teaching in these days is a broad vocation, covering many different +lines of work; probably no occupation for girls is so well known with +both its conditions and rewards as this. In general, more girls than +are by nature fitted for the work stand ready to undertake it. There +is nevertheless difficulty for school officials in finding real +teachers enough to fill their positions. For the right girl, teaching +has much to offer. + +_Library work_. The librarian in these modern days is a most important +public servant, and many openings in library work are to be found. The +services to be performed range from purely routine work to a very high +type of constructive service for the community. In the small libraries +an "all-round" type of worker is required. In the larger ones +specialties may be followed. In these larger libraries there are to be +found permanent places for the routine workers. In smaller ones each +worker should be in line for even the highest type of constructive +work. + +The routine worker in the library is merely an office worker, and the +same girl who would do well at the mechanical tasks of an office will +do well here. The real librarian is of a different sort. She must have +the neatness, precision, and accuracy of the office worker, to be +sure; but to these she must add a broad conception of the place of the +library in the community, and must display initiative and originality +in bringing it to occupy that place. She must know books; she must +know people. She must be in touch with current history, and be alert +to place library material bearing upon it at the disposal of the +people. She must have quick sympathies, tact, the teaching spirit +(carefully concealed), and much administrative ability. And she must +be trained for her work. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +A well-equipped library. The successful librarian must be +scientifically trained for her work] + +_Nursing_. The nurse is in many ways like the teacher, and the girl +who has the right temperament for successful teaching will usually +make a successful nurse, temperamentally considered. Her mental +traits, or perhaps more exactly her habits of thought, may be somewhat +different. The teacher must be able to attend to many things; the +nurse must be able to concentrate on one. Originality and initiative +are less to be desired, since the nurse is not usually in charge of +her case directly, but rather subject to the doctor's orders. She +must, nevertheless, be resourceful in emergencies, and of good +judgment always. She should be calm as well as patient, quiet in +speech and movement, a keen observer, and willing to accept +responsibility. Absolute obedience and loyalty to her superiors is +expected, and a high conception of the ethics of her calling. +Underlying all these qualifications, the nurse must have not only good +health but physical strength. + +[Illustration: Copyright by Keystone View Co. +During the World War nursing offered to women perhaps the largest +opportunities for service. Here is shown Princess Mary of England in +the Great Ormond Street Hospital, London] + +_Social work_. This term covers many occupations which overlap the +work of the teacher, the nurse, the secretary, the house mother or +matron, and even that of the physician and lawyer. The field of work +is a large one, including settlement leaders and assistants, workers +in social and community centers and recreation centers, vacation +playgrounds, public and private charities, district nurses and +visiting nurses sent out by various agencies, deaconesses and other +church visitors, Young Women's Christian Association leaders and +helpers, missionaries, welfare workers in large manufacturing or +mercantile establishments, probation officers, and many others. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +Settlement work at Greenwich House, New York. The settlement worker +to succeed must be truly altruistic] + +The social worker must of course have the same suitability for +teaching or nursing or any other of the various tasks that she may +undertake as has the teacher or nurse or other person who works under +different auspices. She must have in addition a truly altruistic +spirit, a deep earnestness which will survive discouragement, and a +real insight into the circumstances, handicaps, and possibilities of +others. This insight presupposes maturity of thought; and the young +girl must serve a long apprenticeship with life before she is at her +best as a social worker. It sometimes seems as though no field was so +exactly suited to the abilities of the married woman who has time for +service, or the mother whose children are grown, leaving her free +again to teach or nurse the sick or bring justice to the little child +as she was trained to do in her youth. + +Less common vocations for women--but still often chosen after all--are +reserved for those whose abilities are so specialized and so striking +that they compel a choice. Singers, artists with brush or pen, the +natural actress, the journalist or author, need usually no one to +guide their choice. Our great difficulty here is not to open the +girl's eyes to her opportunity, but to restrain the one who has not +measured her ability correctly from attempting that which she cannot +perform. The same is true of girls who aspire to be physicians, +lawyers, or ministers. Some few succeed in all these vocations. Many +more have not the scientific habits of mind, the stability, or the +endurance to make a successful fight for recognition against great +odds. + +Many girls mistake what may be a pleasant and satisfying avocation for +a life work. For the girl who will not be held back, there may be a +life of achievement ahead, with fame and all the other accompaniments +of successful public life; or there may be the disappointments of +unrealized ambition. We must see that girls face this possibility with +the other. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE GIRL'S WORK (Continued)--VOCATIONS AS AFFECTING HOMEMAKING + + +Choice of vocation is far from being a simple matter for either boy or +girl; but for the girl who recognizes homemaking as woman's work, +double possibilities complicate her problem more than that of the boy. +_The girl must prepare for life work in the home, or life work outside +the home, or a period of either followed by the other, or perhaps a +combination of both during some part or even all of her mature life_. + +It is the part of wisdom for us to study vocations in their relation +to homemaking. Will the girl who works in the factory, for instance, +or who becomes a teacher or a lawyer or a physician, be as good a +homemaker as she would have been had she chosen some other occupation? +Will she perhaps be a better homemaker for her vocational experience? +Or will her life in the industrial world unfit her for life in the +home or turn her inclination away from the homemaker's work? + +These questions have somehow fallen into the background in the steady +increase of girls as industrial workers. "Good money" has usually come +first, and after that other considerations of social advantage, +working conditions, or local demand. Marriage and motherhood are still +recognized as normal conditions for most women, but we let their +industrial life step in between their homemaking preparation in home +and school, with the result that many lose physical fitness or mental +aptitude or inclination for the home life. We treat marriage as an +incident, even though it occurs often enough to be for most women the +rule rather than the exception. At some time in their lives, 93.8 per +cent of all women marry. + +The first broad classification of vocations in their relation to +homemaking is: (1) those which are favorable to homemaking, (2) those +which are unfavorable, (3) those which are neutral. + +It must, however, be recognized at the outset that few hard-and-fast +lines between these groups can be drawn, and that "the personal +equation" is as important a factor here as in most personal questions. +It is true, nevertheless, that helpful deductions may be drawn from +facts which it is possible to gather concerning the physical, mental, +and moral results of pursuing certain occupations as a prelude to +marriage and the making of a home. + +In a general way, economic independence, that is, the earning of her +own living by a girl for several years before marriage, tends to +increase her knowledge of the value of money and to make her a better +financial manager. Probably this same independence makes a girl +slightly less anxious to marry, especially since in most cases she has +hitherto been expected to give up her personal income in exchange for +an extremely uncertain system of sharing what the husband earns. +Independence of any sort is reluctantly laid aside by those who have +possessed it. This very reluctance on the part of girls ought to be a +force in the direction of economic independence of wives, a most +desirable and necessary condition for society to bring about. Gainful +occupation has then much to recommend it and little to be said against +it as part of the training for matrimony. + +Certain occupations, however, are so essentially favorable to the +girl's homemaking ability and to her probable inclination to make a +home of her own that we do not hesitate to recommend them as the best +directions for girls' vocational work to take, _other things being +equal._ We have already said that the girl distinctly not home-minded +is more safely left to her own inclinations. She would not be a +success as a homemaker under any circumstances. Other girls may be +made or marred by the years which intervene between their school and +home life. + +[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood +The value of domestic work of any sort as a preparation for +homemaking is generally admitted without argument.] + +The value of domestic work of any sort as a preparation for homemaking +is generally admitted without argument. Closely in touch with a home +throughout her maturing years, the girl may undertake her own +housekeeping problems with ease and efficiency. Conditions as they +often exist, however, especially for the younger and untrained +domestic worker, do not allow the girl to obtain other experience +quite as necessary if she is to become not merely a housekeeper but a +true homemaker. The untrained girl who enters upon domestic work at +fourteen or fifteen should have opportunity--indeed the opportunity +should be thrust upon her--of attending a continuation school, where +the special aim should be to counteract the narrowing tendency of work +which revolves about so small an orbit. Ideals of home life are either +lacking or distorted in the minds of many working girls, and when such +girls become wives and mothers they strive for the wrong things or +they fall back without striving at all, taking merely what comes. They +fail to be forces for good in their family life. + +[Illustration: Demonstration by teacher in domestic science. Teaching +affords excellent preparation for the prospective homemaker.] + +Teaching and nursing may be grouped together as excellent preparation +for the prospective homemaker. It may be contended that the teacher +and the hospital nurse spend years outside the home environment and +that their minds are turned to other problems than those of +housekeeping. This contention is undoubtedly true; and if we were +striving merely to make housekeepers, it might be worthy of serious +consideration. The home, however, as we have defined it, is a place in +which to make people, and both the nurse and the teacher serve a long +apprenticeship in this sort of manufacture. Expert workers in either +line concern themselves with the bodies and the minds of their pupils +or patients. They, together with physicians, lawyers, and social +workers, have opportunities which can scarcely be equaled for learning +by observation and experiment about the human relations that will +confront them in their own homes. They learn to be resourceful and to +meet the emergencies of which life is full; they have the advantage +of trained minds to set to work upon the administrative problems which +underlie successful home life. + +[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood +Women medical students. Physicians and surgeons have unusual +opportunities for learning by observation and experiment about the +human relations that will confront them in their own homes] + +A question may arise as to the physical fitness for marriage and +motherhood of the girl who has given her nerve force to the exacting +and often depleting work of nurse, teacher, or physician. It is +unquestionably true that nurses and teachers do often wear out after +comparatively few years at their vocation, although of the majority +the opposite is true. This merely means that conditions surrounding +these vocations should be studied with a view to their improvement, if +necessary, since we believe the vocations to be suited to women and +women to the vocations. + +Office work may prove an excellent training for certain phases of +homemaking work. Neatness, accuracy, precision, the doing again and +again of constantly recurring tasks, all find their place and use in +the housekeeper's routine. The calm atmosphere of the well-kept office +even when typewriters and calculating machines are rattling is a +better preparation for an orderly home than the rush of the department +store or the factory. Purely routine workers, who put little or no +thought into their daily tasks, will enter upon homemaking lacking the +initiative that homemakers need. But the able office worker is not +merely a follower of routine. The greatest lack of office work as +preparation for a homemaking career is that the girl's interests +during so large a part of her day are led away from the home and all +that pertains to it. She works neither with people nor with the things +which go to make homes. Probably, on the whole, office work in a +general way may be classed as a neutral occupation, which neither adds +to, nor reduces, in any great degree the girl's possibilities as a +homemaker. + +Salesmanship for girls, especially in the great department stores of +the cities, is a vocation of at least doubtful advantage for the +home-minded girl to pursue as a step in her training for managing her +own home. In the quiet of the village store, with few associates in +work, and with one's neighbors and fellow townsmen for customers, +salesmanship takes on a somewhat different aspect. But the city store +means usually hurry, excitement, nerve strain, a long day, with quite +probably reaction to excessive gayety and hence more nerve strain at +night. It means spending one's days among great collections of finery +which tend to assume undue importance in the girl's eyes. It means +constant association with people who spend, until spending seems the +only end in life. It means almost always pay lower than is consistent +with decent living if the girl must depend alone upon her own +earnings. And none of these things tends toward steady, skillful, +contented wifehood and motherhood in later years. This question of +underpaid work is of course not found alone in the department store. +But, wherever it is found, we may be sure that it tends on the one +hand toward marriage as a way of escape from present want, and on the +other toward inefficiency in the relation so lightly assumed. + +The factory girl is in many respects in a position parallel to that of +the saleswoman. She earns too little to make comfortable living +possible. She too must leave home early and return late, wearied by +the monotony of a day in uninteresting surroundings, with neither +energy nor inclination for anything other than complete relaxation and +"fun." This desire for relaxation leads her often away from a crowded, +ill-supported home in the evenings, until the habit settles into a +confirmed disposition. This is a decided handicap for a homemaker. +Coupled with the mental inertia resulting from years of mechanical +work without thought, it provides poor material from which to make +steady, responsible, efficient women. We have already noted, however, +that factories differ widely. It follows of necessity that the girls +who work in them come from their work with all grades of ability. + +The actress, the artist, and the literary woman are usually spoken of +as far removed from the true domestic type. This I cannot believe to +be true, except in individual cases. All these women, as makers of +finished products, stand far nearer to the traditional type of woman +than many others we might name. The life of the actress tends more +than the others perhaps to break home ties, but in the case of real +talent in any direction ordinary rules do not apply. The actress, the +artist, and the writer are much more likely to carry on their work +after marriage than the teacher, the office worker, or even the +factory woman. Many of them succeed to a remarkable degree in doing +two things well. Many more, of course, are less successful, but we +must not overlook the fact that the failures are more noised abroad +than the successes. + +It is a matter for regret that most women, upon leaving an industrial +career for marriage, drop so completely out of touch with their former +work. In the case of the untrained woman, who has received little and +given little in her work, it is a matter of no moment; but when years +have been given to skilled labor, it is economic waste to have the +skill lost and the process forgotten. Many times the woman finds +herself after a short life in the home obliged to earn a living once +more for herself or it may be for a family. She returns to her +teaching or her office work or a position in the library; but she is +no longer, at least for a considerable time, the expert she once was. +Why should not the former teacher keep up her interest in educational +literature and the new ideas in what might have been her life work? +Would it not be well for the one-time stenographer to keep a gentle +hold upon the quirks and quirls which once brought to her her weekly +salary? A young mother of my acquaintance who was a concert violinist +of much ability has found no time for more than a year to practice, +"since baby came," and thousands of dollars spent in making her a +player are being thrown away. To some this might seem the right thing. +She has found "the home her sphere." To others it seems a serious +waste. We advocate often that the middle-aged woman who has reared her +children should return in some way to the work of the world outside +the home. In the case of the trained woman her training should be made +of use in such return. She should, however, beware lest her tools are +rusty from disuse. + +We may not perhaps leave the questions involved in a discussion of +vocations as they affect homemaking without noticing that certain +occupations are considered especially dangerous to the moral stability +of girls. Nursing, private secretaryship, and domestic service present +dangers in direct proportion as they bring about isolated +companionship for the girl and a male employer. Girls must not enter +these employments without the knowledge of how to protect themselves +from lowering influences. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE GIRL'S WORK (Continued)--VOCATIONS DETERMINED BY TRAINING + + +The question of vocation choosing begins to make itself felt far down +in the grammar school, first among the retarded and backward children +who are old for their grades and are merely waiting and marking time +until the law will allow them to leave school and go to work. These +children are usually either mentally subnormal or handicapped by +foreign birth and so unable to grasp the education which is being +offered them. + +As soon as they are released the girls go to the factory, to the +store, or to help with some one's baby or with the housework. No other +places are open to them, and their possibilities in any place are few. +They cannot rise because they are mentally untrained. + +The upper grades of the grammar school lose annually many children who +would be able to profit by the help the school offers to those who can +remain. Some drop out because they see no need of remaining when the +factory will employ them without further knowledge. Others chafe at +spending time on what seems to them, and what sometimes is, quite +unrelated to the life they will lead and the work they will do. Some +leave reluctantly, because their help is needed in financing a large +family. Many go gladly, because they will begin to earn and to have +some of the things they ardently desire. And until yesterday the +school paid little attention to their going, regarding it as one of +the necessary evils. Still less attention did it pay to what these +pupils became after they left. The school's responsibility ended at +its outer door. + +Now that these conditions are being changed, the school is finding +responsibilities and opportunities on every hand. The foreign-born are +taken out of the regular grades where they cannot fit, and are taught +English by themselves first of all. The subnormal children are studied +for latent vocational possibilities, and where minds are deficient, +hands are the more carefully trained for suitable work. Courses are +being revised with a view to holding in school the boy or girl who +wants practical training for practical work. Secondary schools have +taken their eyes off college requirements long enough to consider +fitting the majority of their pupils to face life without the college. +Studies of vocations are being made; vocational training is being +offered; vocational guidance is at last coming to be considered the +concern of the school. + +Vocational work is sometimes concentrated in the high school, but this +is reaching back scarcely far enough, since those who do not reach +high school need help quite as much as the older ones, while those who +expect to continue their training can do so better if they have some +idea of the goal to be reached. + +What are the options that the grammar-school teacher may present to +the girls under her care? + +First of all, as we have already said, the school records must be kept +with care and discrimination, so that the teacher may know the girl to +whom she speaks. With the records in hand, she will ask herself the +following questions: + + 1. Is further training at the expense of the girl's family + possible? Do the girl's abilities warrant effort on her + parents' part to give her further opportunity? + + 2. Could the girl's parents continue to pay her living expenses + during further training if the training were furnished at the + expense of the state? + + 3. Could the girl obtain training in return for her personal + service, either with or without pay? + + 4. Would the girl be able to repay in skill acquired the expense + of her training, whether borne by herself, her parents, or the + state? + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +A flower-making class for girls of various ages. There is no reason +why vocational work should not begin in the grammar school] + +Lines between obtainable work for the trained and the untrained girl +are fairly sharply drawn, and the possibilities for each type must be +clearly understood by the guide. If it is evident that training cannot +be obtained before the girl must begin to earn, the choice is +necessarily a narrow one. The factories in the neighborhood should be +thoroughly studied, and, under the guidance of the teacher, girls +should prepare detailed reports with respect to their working +conditions. The "blind-alley" job should be plainly labeled, that it +may not catch the girl unaware. Girls who must take up factory work +should at least be enabled to choose among factories intelligently, +and if possible should be fortified with an avocation that will supply +them with the interest their daily task fails to inspire and that will +provide an anchor against the instability toward which the factory +girl tends. + +[Illustration: Millinery class in a trade school. Where trade schools +do not offer such training, there are opportunities for apprentice +work for girls] + +The possibilities for apprentice work with dressmakers or milliners or +in other handwork should also be made known. Girls begin here, as in +the factory, at simple and monotonous tasks, but the possibilities of +advancement are far greater and mental development is unquestionably +more likely. The ability acquired by such workers, as they progress, +to undertake and carry through a complete piece of work is not only +satisfying to the workers themselves, but of value in later years. +They learn to analyze their constructive problems and to work out the +various steps of the work to its ultimate conclusion--a knowledge +which the factory girl never attains. + +Some few girls will need to be shown the possibilities which lie in +independent productive work. For the girl who has talent or even +merely deftness in manual work, coupled with initiative and some +degree of originality, such work may bring a better return than +working for others. Most girls, however, lack courage to start upon +independent work, especially if they are in immediate need of earning +and are untrained. It often happens, however, that they do not +appraise at its true value the training they have received. The +grammar-school girl, under present methods of teaching, is often fully +qualified to do either plain cooking or plain sewing, but since she +does not desire to enter domestic service, she considers these +accomplishments very little or not at all in counting her assets for +earning. Some girls have found ready employment and good returns in +home baking, in canning fruit and vegetables, or in mending, making +simple clothes for little children, or in making buttonholes and doing +other "finishing work" for busy housewives. Work of these sorts, +undertaken in a small way, has often assumed the proportions of a +business, requiring all of a young woman's time and paying her quite +as well as and often better than less interesting work in shop or +factory. A girl of my acquaintance earns a comfortable living at home +with her crochet needle. Another has paid her way through high school +and college by raising sweet peas. + +The untrained girl who loves an outdoor life has fewer opportunities +than other girls unless she is capable of independent work. If she is +capable of this and has sufficient ability to study her work, +gardening and poultry or bee culture may open the way for her to work +and be happy. School gardens, poultry clubs, and canning clubs have +shown many a girl what she may do in these ways. + +[Illustration: Courtesy of U.S. Department of Agriculture +Some girls have built up a good business canning fruits and +vegetables at home] + +Many times too little is realized of the possibilities of these +grammar-school girls who are crowded by necessity into the working +ranks. We cannot shirk our responsibilities in regard to them, +however, although they escape from our school systems and bravely take +up the burden of their own lives. Quite as many of these girls as of +more favored ones will marry and be among the mothers of the next +generation. The work they do in the interval between school and home +will leave its impress even more strongly than upon the girl whose +school life lasts longer and who is therefore older as well as better +equipped when she enters upon her work. Few of these younger girls in +times past can be said to have done anything other than drift into +work which would make or spoil their lives and perhaps those of their +children after them. It is well that the responsibility of the school +toward them is being recognized and met. + +[Illustration: A prosperous poultry farm. Poultry farming opens the +way for the girl who loves an outdoor life to work in the open and be +happy] + +A distinct duty of the grammar-school teacher is to make known the +facts concerning short cuts for grammar-school girls to office work. +Unscrupulous business "colleges" sometimes mislead these immature +girls into believing that a short course taken in their school will +enable the girls to fill office positions. Facts are at hand which +show the futility of attempting office work under such conditions, and +teachers should be very careful to see that all the facts are in the +possession of their pupils. + +In the early days of high schools usually the only distinction, if +any, in courses was "general" and "classical." To-day we have many +courses, or in the larger cities different schools fit boys and girls +for varying paths in life. The college-preparatory course or the +classical high school leads to college. The commercial course or +school leads to office work. The manual training or industrial or +practical arts course or high school leads to efficient handwork. The +trade school leads to definite occupations. The difficulty now is to +help girls choose intelligently which course or school will best meet +their requirements. This involves vocation study in the grammar +school. + +[Illustration: Benson Polytechnic School for Girls, Portland, Oregon. +The trade school leads to definite occupations. The girl with +mechanical ability may find her vocation in millinery, dressmaking, or +the various sewing-machine trades] + +The girl who terminates her formal education with her graduation from +high school may find herself not very much better placed, apparently, +than the girl who has dropped out of school farther back. Many +openings into desirable occupations are still closed to her. Often +her opportunities, however, are much greater than they seem. All facts +go to show that the high-school girl makes more rapid progress in +efficiency, and therefore in pay, than the younger girl, even when she +seems to begin at the same work. Some fields, too, are open to her +that are not usually possible for the grammar-school girl. In office +work the high-school girl who has specialized in her training may make +a very creditable showing. Many thousands of high-school graduates are +received into telephone exchanges where with a brief period of +practice they become efficient workers. A very few high-school girls +become teachers in country schools without further training, but the +number is decreasing every year. If she meets the age requirement, the +high-school girl may enter a training school for nurses, gaining her +specialized training in return for her services to the hospital. + +The high-school girl who can spare time and money for some further +training finds a larger field open; but, to make the most of what high +school has to offer, her plans should be made as early as possible in +the high-school course--at the very beginning if it can be managed. +The girl must know what further training she is making ready for, must +choose electives in high school to help her make ready, or possibly to +offset the specializing of this later work by some general culture she +may otherwise miss entirely. Vocation study, therefore, and vocational +guidance must be quite as much a part of the course for the girl who +will "train" for her special work as for the girl who goes directly +from the secondary school to her vocation. + +One high-school Senior writes: "My special vocation has not yet been +chosen, but if it becomes necessary for me to earn my own living I +should like to be either a nurse, a teacher, milliner, or director of +a cafeteria. I would probably choose the position that was open at the +time." + +Here we have the girl who is in no hurry to choose, and who probably +has a more or less vague notion of the comparative conditions, +requirements, and rewards of the four vocations she mentions. In +contrast to this, listen to a high-school student who has been +studying herself and her possible vocation in much detail in class +work. She says: "I find that I have made good school records only in +subjects where I had materials I could see and handle. I have never +done well in arithmetic or mathematics, but in drawing, physics, +elementary biology, and domestic science I made good marks. I do not +like to sew, because it tires me to sit still. I enjoy cooking and +marketing. + +"I like to plan meals and to make up new recipes. I hear that +hospitals and institutions employ women at very good salaries to buy +all the foodstuffs used in their kitchens. The expert dietitian also +plans meals and arranges dietaries. I learn that Teachers College, +Columbia, has courses of study leading to this profession, and I have +written to ask for full information." + +In the class of which this girl is a member, each girl is considering +her future as this one is doing. Each gathers all available data in +regard to the vocation she is studying. Her reports become a part of +the class records. She makes as full a report as possible as to the +duties and responsibilities of the occupation, the schools or training +classes that prepare for it, the length and cost of preparation, +possibilities of employment, salaries paid, and other details. + +Since training cannot alter fundamentals, but merely builds upon the +girl's nature and heredity, the same classifications obtain in the +choice of the girl who can have training as in that of the girl who +goes untrained to her vocation. There are still the producers, the +distributors, and those who serve; and it is still important that the +girl should find a place in the right group. + +The producers will include the designers, the interior decorators, the +expert dietitians, the municipal inspectors of food and housing, rural +consulting housekeepers, state or country canning-club agents, the +women who organize and carry on model laundries, either cooeperative or +otherwise, the managers of manufacturing enterprises, the farmers, the +photographers, the artists, the journalists, and the authors. + +The distributors are chiefly represented by the higher type of office +workers, who are the "idea thinkers" of the business world, since they +neither make nor handle products, but merely manipulate the symbols +which stand for the products they seldom if ever see. The women who +manage buying and selling enterprises for themselves usually belong to +the trained group. + +The service group among trained women is a large one, including +nurses, teachers, doctors' and dentists' assistants, various social +workers, librarians, secretaries and other confidential office +assistants, directors or "house mothers" in school and college +dormitories and in institutions, dentists, physicians, lawyers, +ministers. + +Within the group there is wide range of choice, differing +qualifications are necessary, and varying training is to be +undertaken. Girls, with the help of a vocational expert, should +analyze their physical and mental qualities and habits, and should +study somewhat exhaustively the vocation for which they seem to find +themselves fitted. + +"I should like to be a nurse, or a teacher, or a milliner, or the +manager of a cafeteria" will not do, since those vocations presuppose +some years of widely differing training. Perhaps the girl will narrow +the choice to nursing or teaching. Then she must place over against +each other the two professions--special qualifications required, +length and cost of training, personal obstacles to be overcome, and +especially the demand and supply of nurses and teachers in her +locality. Upon these depends the girl's chance to succeed when she is +fitted and launched. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +The children's ward in a hospital. The nurse must be resourceful and +possess good judgment] + +The student who takes up college work, not as a specialized training, +but as a completion of her general education, stands somewhat by +herself. Such a girl may perhaps put off vocational decision until she +is part way through her college years. The college sometimes awakens +ambitions and brings to light abilities not hitherto discovered; and +even when this does not occur, the choice may be made from the highest +and most responsible positions filled by women. From the college girls +we draw our high-school teachers and college instructors, our +doctors, lawyers, and preachers, in so far as these professions are +filled by women. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +Among the many vocations belonging to the service group teaching is +one of the most popular] + +We are confronted by the statement, made again and again and +reinforced by formidable rows of figures, that the more training a +girl receives, the less she is inclined to marry or, if she does +marry, to have children. The fact seems undeniable that in our larger +eastern women's colleges, at least, not more than half the graduates +marry up to the age of forty, which we may accept as the probable +limit of the marriage age for the average woman. The natural inference +is that a college education in some way prevents or discourages +marriage. This may or may not be true. To be quite fair, the +statistics should cover the coeducational colleges as well as the +colleges for women alone. Also some attempt should be made to +discover how the likelihood of marriage is affected by the age at +which girls finish their college course. Do the younger girls of a +college class marry, while the older ones do not? Are the younger +married graduates more often mothers than the older ones, or do they +have more children? + +[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. +The influence of the librarian extends far beyond the walls of the +library] + +If it is true that training is interfering with marriage and +motherhood for our girls, the next step is not necessarily, as some +modern hysterical students of the question seem to suggest, that we +immediately cut out the training which, in case they do marry, will +make them far more valuable wives, mothers, and members of the +community; but rather so to time and place the training, and if +necessary so to alter its character, that any such tendency away from +marriage will be removed and that the trained women of the college and +professional school shall be available for the great work of mothering +the nation of the future. + +A final word as to the place of the vocational guide in the choosing +of vocations may not be amiss. That every teacher should consider +himself or herself a helper in this most important work we must agree; +but that any teacher must walk carefully, and use the guiding hand but +sparingly, is equally true. + +The object of vocational help is not merely to keep the "square peg" +out of the "round hole." The girl arbitrarily placed in a suitable +occupation may never discover why she is there, and may be handicapped +all her life by a deep conviction that she fits somewhere else. "Know +thyself" is a good old maxim yet. The teacher or vocational guide is +fitted by the place of observation she holds to help the girl to study +herself and the possibilities that life holds out to such as she thus +finds herself to be. The final choice should be made by the girl. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +MARRIAGE + + +Marriage may, or may not, in these days, be the opening door into the +homemaker's career. Many a young woman is a homemaker before she +marries. On the other hand, women sometimes marry without any thought +of making a home. + +But, after all, it is safe to assume that marriage and homemaking do +go hand in hand. The great majority of wives become managers of homes +of one sort or another. Shall we then frankly educate our girls for +marriage--"dangle a wedding ring ever before their eyes"? Or shall we +regard marriages as "made in heaven" and keep our hands off the whole +matter? + +The proportion of marriages in the United States which terminate in +divorce was in 1910 one in twelve. Divorce in this country is now +three times as common as forty years ago. The success or failure of +marriages cannot, however, be measured merely by the divorce test. We +cannot avoid the knowledge that many other unhappy unions are endured +until release comes with death. When we say unhappy marriages, we mean +not only those which become unendurable, but all those in which +marriage impedes the development and hence the efficiency of either +party to the contract. Unhappy marriages include not only the +mismated, but also those whose unhappiness in married life is due to +their own or their mate's misconception of what marriage really means. +It is obviously impossible even to estimate the number of marriages +which are happy or unhappy; but we are safe in saying that the +processes of adjustment in many cases are far harder than they ought +to be, and that many marriages which seemingly ought to bring +happiness fail of real success. + +In view of the fact that so many marriages fall short of what they +might be, it would seem that some sort of assistance to the girl in +choosing a husband and to the young man in choosing a wife would be +wise, such as the instruction we give boys and girls to enable them to +be successful in the industrial world. In short, it is not enough to +prepare girls for homemaking by making all our references to marriage +indirect. Young men and women are entitled to more knowledge of +marriage, its rights, privileges, and duties; they need to realize +that in these days of complex living marriage is a difficult relation +which requires their best energies and wisest thought. + +The modern marriage differs from the marriage of earlier centuries in +direct proportion as the status of woman has changed. The ancient +marriage, and indeed the medieval one, and the marriage of our own +grandmother's time began with submission and usually ended with +subjection. But the modern marriage at its best is a spiritual and +material partnership. It is the modern marriage at its best and +otherwise with which we have to do. + +Half a century ago girls married at eighteen or even earlier, took +charge of their households, were mothers of good-sized families at +twenty-eight or thirty, and were frequently grandmothers at forty. + +Nowadays early marriage is the exception. For years the marriage age +has been steadily rising, until some students profess to be alarmed at +a prospect of marriage disappearing, the maternal instinct becoming +lost by disuse, and the race finally becoming extinct. However, the +maximum marriage age, at least for the present, seems to have been +reached, and statistics show a slight dropping within the last two or +three years. + +The forces operating to fix the marriage age are exceedingly complex. +The higher education of girls has undoubtedly been a large factor in +the postponement of marriage. Its effect has been wrought in a variety +of ways. The increasing years in schoolroom and lecture hall have been +directly responsible in many cases. The ambitions aroused account for +many more. The increased ability of girls to earn their own living and +public acceptance of their doing so have practically removed "marriage +as a trade" from the consideration of girls and their parents. Girls +no longer need to marry in order to transfer the burden of their +support from father to husband. Instead they may "go to work." And +once at work they are often reluctant to give up a personal income for +the uncertainties of sharing what a husband earns. Then, too, the +broadening effect of education makes marriage in the abstract a less +absorbing, momentous subject for the girl's thoughts. Also the rebound +toward selfishness coincident with woman's "emancipation" leads girls +to put off what they are sometimes led to consider a sacrifice of +themselves. The tragedies of the divorce courts are directly +responsible for many a girlish determination not to marry, a +determination which is broken only when the first zest of mature life +has passed and when the woman begins to long for the home ties she has +resolved to deny herself and decides to take the risk. The increased +cost of living and the ever-increasing responsibilities of rearing, +educating, and launching a family of children lead many young people +to postpone marriage until they can command a larger income. The +strain of modern industrial life, with its fierce competitions and its +early discard of the elderly and unfit, finds many girls who would +otherwise marry burdened with the care of parents who can ill spare +the daughter's help. + +[Illustration: The Halliday Historic Photograph Co. +LOUISA M. ALCOTT +Miss Alcott's lifelong devotion to the interests of her family is a +well-known story. She made a happy home for them, and at the same time +attained marked success in the literary field.] + +If all these obstacles to early marriage could be overcome, the +question of the wisest time for marrying might be approached fairly +and squarely on its merits. + +Too early marriage means immaturity in choice, with the possibility +always of unfortunate mistakes and sad awakening. Too late marriage, +on the other hand, means settled convictions which often result in +that incompatibility which seeks relief in divorce. The plasticity of +youth at least _promises_ adaptability. The mature judgment of later +years ought to afford a wise choice. Between extreme youth then and a +too settled maturity is the wise time. + +In order to approach the ideal in the marriage relation, the time of +marriage should be so placed that the girl is (1) physically fit, (2) +fully educated, (3) broadened by some experience with the world. + +She must not be too old to bear children safely, or to rear them +sympathetically as they approach the difficult years. She must not be +physically worn by excessive industrial service, nor with enthusiasms +burned out by the same cause. Probably between twenty-two and +twenty-five the girl reaches the height of physical fitness. She may +also by that time have completed a liberal education, and she may even +have done that and also have put her training to useful service. It +would be better if girls completed their college courses earlier than +most do. However, since the great majority of girls do not have a +college education, the generally increased age of marriage cannot +rightfully be laid, as many seem to lay it, at the doors of the +college women. Schemes of education in the future will undoubtedly try +to remedy the defect of present systems in this respect. If most girls +could finish their training in college or professional school at +twenty, as some do now, the world would be rewarded by earlier +marriages and probably more of them. There would be more children, +reared by younger and more enthusiastic mothers. The more difficult +professions, which could not be successfully undertaken by the girl of +twenty, would then be reserved, as they generally are now, for the +women whose ambition is unusually strong and absorbing. Attempts are +frequently made to show that ambition is becoming an inordinately +prominent quality in all women, but there are few facts to support so +wide a contention. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Paul Thompson +RUTH MCENERY STUART +Mrs. Stuart was one of those in whom the talent for homemaking and +the talent for creative literary work existed side by side. On her +husband's plantation in Arkansas she found many of the types for the +characters in her stories] + +The girl graduate of twenty, reinforced by from two to five years of +work in the vocation she has chosen, is usually fit, physically and +mentally, for marriage. More than that, she may by that age, usually, +be trusted to know what she wants, even in a husband, if she is ever +going to know. + +In the day when girls married nearly always "in their teens," wise +choice of a husband called for selection of a man considerably older +than the girl herself. This disparity is less common in these days, +and is really less desirable than it once was. The girl of the earlier +time reached maturity of mind earlier than the girl of to-day with her +prolonged education, and much earlier than the boy of her day did. He +was still being educated in school or as an apprentice, and was hardly +ready to undertake the responsibility of a family at an age when the +girl's scanty education was long since completed and it was considered +high time that her support was laid upon a husband's shoulders. + +It used to be said, "Men keep their youth better than women," so that +any disparity in age at the time of marriage was soon lost. This is no +longer true as it was once. The early marriage, with early and +excessive childbearing, overwork, and the numerous restrictions that +custom laid upon her, were responsible for woman's loss of youth. +These conditions no longer exist. The woman of forty or fifty can now +usually hold her own with the man of her own age in point of youth. + +[Illustration: LOUISE HOMER AND HER FAMILY +Madame Homer's great success in the difficult art of operatic singing +has by no means interfered with her career as a homemaker.] + +Another consideration in favor of more nearly equal age lies in the +fact that formerly men did not look for wives who were their mental +equals. They did not really desire mental equals as wives. To-day they +do, or, if there still lingers in the minds of some of them the old +notion that wives must be clinging vines, the lingering notion will +soon be gone. The marriage of equality possesses too many advantages +for both parties to be thrown aside. The wife who can think, who is +mature enough to be capable of real partnership, is the wife surely of +to-morrow, if not of to-day. + +Among the forces that control marriage may be mentioned (1) physical +attraction, (2) continued social relationships, (3) dissimilarity, (4) +affection, (5) barter. + +It is usually difficult to say of any marriage that any one of these +forces alone caused the mating. It may have been physical attraction +together with everyday companionship; or physical attraction and +dissimilarity or strangeness, resulting in what we know as love at +first sight. Or it may have been affection of slow growth, or +affection with an element of appreciation of worldly advantage, or it +may have been a little physical attraction with a great deal of desire +for social position or wealth, or, ugliest of all, it may have been +pure barter, without personal attraction of any sort. For these worldy +advantages you offer, I will sell you my body and my soul. + +To secure the finest marriages for girls we must insure three +conditions: (1) high ideals of marriage among our adolescents, (2) +better knowledge of men, and (3) wise companionships during the years +from fourteen to twenty-five. + +[Illustration: MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON +The South is justly proud of this poet of no mean rank who gave +herself unstintedly to her home duties and responsibilities] + +Physical attraction on one or both sides is undoubtedly the greatest +force in marriage selection. It is only when physical attraction +exerts its influence upon a girl whose ideal of a husband is low or +vague or incorrect that the danger is great. Physical attraction is +not love, but it may be--often it is--the basis of love when it exists +between two who are suited to a life together. + +Generally speaking, girls will find married life easier, and their +husbands will find life more satisfactory, when the two have been +reared with approximately the same ideals. The girl who falls in love +with a man largely because he is "different" from the boys among whom +she has grown up often finds that very difference a stumbling block to +domestic happiness. Marriages across such chasms where there should be +common ground are more hazardous than between those whose education, +social training, friends, and beliefs are of the same type. When they +do succeed, they undoubtedly are the richer for the variety of +experience husband and wife have to give each other; and, too, they +show an adaptability on the part of one or both which argues well for +continued happiness. Commonly, however, they do not succeed. + +There are, also, deeper matters than these to be considered. Is this +man or this woman worthy of lifelong devotion? Is the love he offers +or she offers in return for the love you offer, the love that gives or +the love that merely takes? Has he been a success at something, +anything, that counts? Has he a sense of responsibility in marriage +and the burdens it brings? Does he desire a home? Do his views as to +children reflect man's natural desire to found a family or merely the +selfish desire for the freedom and luxury which the absence of +children may make possible? Has he a right to approach fatherhood--is +his body physically and morally clean? + +[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood +COLONEL AND MRS. ROOSEVELT WITH MEMBERS OF THEIR FAMILY +Colonel Roosevelt's own family was preeminently one in which the +father shared with the mother a keen sense of the responsibilities of +marriage and the highest ideals of home life] + +These are serious questions with which to weight the wings of a young +man's or a young woman's fancy. But the attraction which cannot stand +before them is not safe as a basis for marriage. Many a young man or +woman has willfully turned closed eyes to the selfishness or the +irresponsibility which will later wreck a home, because attraction +blinded common sense. + +Barter, the lowest form of marriage, exists and has always existed +whenever the material benefits that either husband or wife expects to +derive from the connection are the impelling forces in the union. The +woman desires wealth, social position, a title--or perhaps nothing +more than security from poverty or the necessity of work outside the +home, or perhaps no more than the mere security of a home itself. The +man in other cases desires wealth, or social position, or a wife who +will grace his fine home, or some business connection which the +marriage will afford. And upon these things men and women build, or +attempt to build, the foundations of home life. + +It is not true of course that every girl of moderate means, or without +means, who marries a man of wealth does so because of his money. Nor +is it always true when the cases are reversed. Love may be as real +between those two as between any others. But when it is true that the +marriage is an exchange of commodities, it is no different from +prostitution under other circumstances. In fact, it is prostitution +under cover, without acceptance of the stigma which for centuries has +been the portion of voluntary selling of the body to him who cares to +buy. + +[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood +JULIA WARD HOWE AND HER GRANDDAUGHTER +In the life of Mrs. Howe was exemplified the identity of ideals of +husband and wife. They worked side by side in the literary field and +in their philanthropic and reform work] + +Eugenics, a modern science which aims at race regeneration, lays down +many laws and restrictions for those who are selecting their mates. By +the following of these laws and restrictions in the selection of +husbands and wives, undesirable traits in the offspring are to be +weeded out and desirable; ones are to be fostered and increased. +That these laws should be studied with the care used by breeders of +plants and animals goes without saying. That if they are followed +strictly the number of marriages would be materially reduced, at least +for a considerable time, is doubtless true. That marriages in which +eugenics has played the major part in selection will present new +problems is probably equally true. If marriages were mere temporary +unions, for the purpose of obtaining offspring, eugenic principles +could not be too exactly nor too coldly applied to the selection of +mates. But since marriage implies living together and becoming, or +continuing to be, worthy members of the community, and since the +offspring are fashioned no less by the conditions of their upbringing +than by heredity, selection of mates must involve more than looking +for eugenically perfect fathers and mothers for the generations yet +unborn. Eugenics, however, is in infancy as a science, and, like the +human infants it would protect, must react to the environment in which +it finds itself and must feel the chastening hand of time before its +value can be known. Agitation in the direction of allowing posterity +to be "well born" can never be out of place. What being well born is +and how it shall be attained is a worthy subject of research. As a +cold, exact science, however, eugenics can never hope for application +without some consideration of the personal equation which makes +marriage at its best not a mating merely, but a joining of souls. + +Choosing a husband or a wife is, after all, merely the beginning of +the marriage problem. Good husbands are not discovered, but made, from +originally good or perhaps indifferent or in rare cases from even poor +material, by the reaction of married life upon what was previously +mere "man." Even so with wives. + +[Illustration: CAROLINE BARTLETT CRANE +Mrs. Crane, an expert on sanitation, has successfully applied the +principles of good housekeeping to civic affairs in many cities, and +has thus made women more of a factor in the community at large] + +The successful marriage presupposes unselfishness, even carried if +necessary to the point of sacrifice, but it must be unselfishness for +two, not for one alone. Neither the "child wife" who must be carried +as a burden, nor the complacent husband who forms the center of a +smoothly revolving little world patiently turned by a silent wife, has +any part in the marriage of equality--the only marriage worthy of the +name. + +The successful marriage calls also for freedom--again for two. Women +sometimes hesitate to marry because the old idea of marriage involved +loss of individuality, and they have little faith in men's readiness +to accept any other idea. Men, on the other hand, fear to marry +because the "new woman" demands so much for herself--development, a +career, a chance to work out her own ideals of life. The man sees +little in this for himself but the "second fiddle" which woman for +centuries played to his first. Ideal marriages, however, do take place +in which there is no sacrifice of personality--in which, indeed, each +lives a fuller life than would have been possible without the +marriage. For this to be realized, there must be full recognition of +the responsibility of each for his or her own deeds, and a standing +aside while each works out his destiny. This does not mean a +separation of interests nor an abandonment of common counsel. It means +merely that in individual matters each must have the freedom enjoyed +before marriage took place. It must mean for women some sort of +economic independence, and in addition a spiritual independence such +as men enjoy. When this freedom is cheerfully given, and in return the +wife gives a like liberty to the husband, the great incentive to +concealments and deceptions or to nagging and controversy is removed. +The petty annoyances of the day are lessened, trust is increased, +and both man and woman find their strength increased rather than +depleted by the relation. + +[Illustration: Courtesy of George Herbert Palmer +ALICE FREEMAN PALMER +Mrs. Palmer's was one of the ideal marriages in which husband and +wife each lived a fuller life than would have been possible without +the marriage. Happy in her home life, Mrs. Palmer yet had time to +achieve a brilliant success in administrative educational work] + +Common interests are an almost certain safeguard in most marriages. +Common duties are more often than not a source of difficulty. An +untold number of matrimonial ventures fail because of inadequate +responsibility in adjustment of expenses to income. Many more are +rendered inharmonious by failure of parents to agree as to the +management of children. In both these directions increased knowledge +will do much to secure harmonious action. Family traditions are more +than likely to clash when they are adopted as principles of family +discipline. "Children must mind," says the father, in memory and +emulation of his father's method with him. "Children must not be +coerced," says the mother, who has been reared by a different method. +Clearly a course in child psychology would have been of value to these +parents in determining a common procedure. There is probably no +subject upon which either father or mother finds it so hard to yield +to the other's way as upon this. Each feels, and rightly, that the +material to be trained is so precious, and that failure, if it comes, +will be so stupendous, that neither dares do what seems wrong to his +own mind. Nothing but common knowledge and a predetermined policy can +solve this problem so near to the root of success or failure in +marriage itself. + +Girls are commonly taught too little of the duties of married women to +their husbands. They look for a lifetime of unalloyed bliss. If they +fail to realize their impossible dream, they turn their faces toward +the divorce court. Many girls have had too smooth a pathway, too +little of responsibility, and too little of disappointment, before +undertaking the serious duty of establishing and maintaining a +lifelong partnership. There has been little in their lives to +prepare them for long-continued relations of any sort. On the other +hand, the same girls have equally little idea of what they have a +right to expect of marriage for themselves. Much of the necessary +adjustment is left to chance. + +[Illustration: Photograph by Paul Thompson +AMELIA E. BARR +Far from interfering with her career, Mrs. Barr's home interests were +the inspiration for it. Thrown on her own resources by the death of +her husband, who sacrificed himself in a yellow fever epidemic in +Texas, Mrs. Barr took up writing to make a living for her children] + +Scarcely any phase of woman's part in marriage is arousing more +attention at present than the question of childbearing. Women, and +especially educated women, are accused of sterility or of +intentionally avoiding motherhood. They are said to believe that +children interfere with their careers, that they can render greater +service to the world in public work than in childbearing. They "prefer +idleness and luxury to the care of a family." The "maternal instinct +is fading." They threaten us with "race suicide," the "extinction of +mankind," a silent world given over to dumb beasts who have not yet +learned the principles of "birth control" and "family limitation." +Thus on the one hand. + +On the other: "The world is better served by the small family well +reared than by the large one necessarily less well cared for." "Women +are not merely the instruments of nature for multiplying mankind. They +have a right to some time for living their own lives." "The maternal +instinct has not faded, but merely come under control of a wisdom +which directs that it shall not bring forth what it cannot care for." + +And so on, with added arguments for either side. + +In all these discussions of birth control the fathers or the husbands +who desire not to be fathers are usually left in the background. As a +matter of fact, however, men as well as women desire luxury and +freedom from the care of a family. It is a general sign of the times, +not a characteristic of one sex alone. Men as well as women fear for +their ability to care for and educate large families. With the +demands of our present complex existence bearing heavily upon them, +one can scarcely wonder at the hesitation of either man or woman to +add again and again to their already pressing cares. There is but one +remedy--not to cut off education for women, as some suggest, but to +learn the joys of a simpler life which will afford people time and +strength and means to bear and rear their young. To this end let us +teach our girls and our boys something of the essentials of a useful +and a happy life, and teach them how to eliminate the non-essentials +which waste their time and spirit. + +Who can best instruct the girl in what we may call the ethics of +marriage? Her mother? Usually the mother's viewpoint is too personal. +Her teacher? Most of her teachers are unmarried and know little more +about the subject than she does herself. A specially selected married +teacher? Perhaps, but only if she is a deep student of human nature +and of marriage from a scientific standpoint. + +An ideal course for every girl somewhere before her education can be +considered complete would cover "woman's life" as (1) industrial +worker, (2) wife, (3) mother, (4) citizen, (5) civic force. + +Here, without undue "dangling of the wedding ring," girls might study +marriage as an important phase of woman's life. Such a course, +simplified or elaborated to suit the circumstances of the girls who +participate, might well be given in all girls' schools and colleges, +in continuation schools, in settlement-house clubs and classes, in +rural clubs and neighborhood centers. For, reduced to its simplest +terms, marriage in the tenement rests upon the same principles as +marriage in the mansion. + +Happily married, or happy unmarried, with her life work stretching +before her, the girl enters upon her heritage of work. We have +trained her to be a homemaker, but we need feel no regret in regard to +her training if she finds her life work in an office or a schoolroom +or a hospital. She may never "keep house," although we hope that she +will some time help to make a home. But, whether she becomes a +homemaker or not, a true understanding and appreciation of the value +of the home and a knowledge of the principles underlying its +maintenance will make her a broader woman and a better worker than she +could otherwise be. In the home, or wherever she may be, she cannot +fail to show the girls who are growing up about her what home means to +her and what it means to the race. And in her hands we may safely +leave the future of the home. + + + + +SUGGESTED READINGS + + +GENERAL BOOKS WHICH INTRODUCE THE READER TO THE LARGER PHASES OF THE +WOMAN MOVEMENT + +BRUERE, MARTHA B. and ROBERT W. _Increasing Home Efficiency_. New +York: Macmillan. + +COLQUHOUN, MRS. A. _The Vocations of Woman_. New York: Macmillan. + +GILMAN, CHARLOTTE PERKINS. _Women and Economics_. Boston: Small, +Maynard & Co. + +KEY, ELLEN. _Love and Marriage_. New York: Putnam. + +SCHREINER, OLIVE. _Woman and Labor_. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. + +SPENCER, ANNA GARLIN. _The Challenge of Womanhood._ + +TARBELL, IDA M. _The Business of Being a Woman_. New York: Macmillan. + +Some of these books are conservative, others very radical. They are +recommended, not because the writer agrees with them, but because +every mother and teacher who acts as a vocational counselor should +know both conservative and radical points of view. + + +MORE DISTINCTLY VOCATIONAL BOOKS + +BLOOMFIELD, MEYER. _Readings in Vocational Guidance_. Boston: Ginn & +Co. + +The following articles in this book are especially recommended: + + "The Value, during Education, of the Life-Career Motive." By + CHARLES W. ELIOT. + + "Selecting Young Men for Particular Jobs." By HERMAN SCHNEIDER. + + "The Permanence of Interests and Their Relation to Abilities." By + EDWARD L. THORNDIKE. + + "Survey of Occupations Open to the Girl of Fourteen to Sixteen + Years of Age." By HARRIET HAZEN DODGE. + +BREWER, J.M. _Vocational-Guidance Movement_. New York: Macmillan. + +BREWSTER, EDWIN T. _Vocational Guidance for the Professions._ Chicago: +Rand McNally & Co. + +BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D.C. + + _Bulletin 1913, No. 17._ "A Trade School for Girls." + _Bulletin 1914, No. 4._ "The School and a Start in Life." + _Bulletin 1914, No. 14._ "Vocational Guidance Association." + Papers presented at the organization meeting, October, 1913. + + _Annual Reports_ of the Commissioner of Education: + 1911, chapter viii, "A School for Homemakers." + 1914, chapter xiii, "Education for the Home." + 1915, chapter xii, "Home Economics." + 1915, chapter xiv, "Home Education." + 1916, chapter xvii, "Education in the Home." + +BUTLER, ELIZABETH BEARDSLEY. _Women and the Trades._ New York: +Charities Publication Committee. + +----. _Saleswomen in Mercantile Stores._ New York: Survey Associates. + +DAVIS, JESSE BUTTRICK. _Vocational and Moral Guidance._ Boston: Ginn & +Co. + +DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR, Washington, D.C.: + + _Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor._ + + Contains nineteen volumes on "Condition of Women and Child + Wage-Earners in the United States." The most comprehensive + study of conditions of women in industry before the war. + + _Bulletin No. 175._ "Summary of the Report on the Condition of + Women and Child Wage-Earners in the United States." Gives + in condensed form the findings in the nineteen volumes. + +GOWIN and WHEATLEY. _Occupations._ Boston: Ginn & Co. + +HOLLINGWORTH, H.L. _Vocational Psychology: Its Problems and Methods._ +New York: D. Appleton & Co. + +LASELLE and WILEY. _Vocations for Girls._ Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. + +LEAKE, ALBERT H. _The Vocational Education of Girls and Women._ New +York: Macmillan. + +MCKEEVER, A. _Training the Girl._ New York: Macmillan. + +PRESSEY, C. PARK. _A Vocational Reader._ Chicago: Rand McNally & Co. + + This book shows the teacher the kind of stories that can be + used for inspiration for grade-school girls. + +PUFFER, J. ADAMS. _Vocational Guidance_. Chicago: Rand McNally.& Co. + +WOMEN'S EDUCATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL UNION OF BOSTON: + + _Vocations for the Trained Woman_. + + _The Public Schools and Women in Office Service_. + + + + +THE INDEX + + +Acting as a preparation for homemaking, 201 + +Adolescent girl, 130-150. _See also_ Girl + +Agriculture, possibilities in and qualifications for, 173 ff. + +Arithmetic applied to household problems, 114 ff. + +Art courses as education for homemaking, 40, 118 f. + +Artist, work of, as a preparation for homemaking, 201 + +Arts and crafts, possibilities in and qualifications for, 173 + +Auburn, Washington, Central School, manual arts courses in, 119 + + +Bibliography, 241 f. + +Bruere, Martha B., quoted, 18, 51 f. + +Budgets, 50 ff. + +Building problems, 32 ff. + + +Census, statistics regarding women in industry, 151, 152, 153, 154 + +Chapin, Dr., quoted, 50 f. + +Child: + imitative instinct as influencing training of, 90, 102 + training for habits of industry, 96 ff. + training for self-control, 93 ff. + training for sympathy, 90 f. + training for unselfishness, 95 f. + training the little, 86-101 + +Church: + as a means of betterment in the community, 67 + girl influenced by, 84 f. + homemaking as influenced by, 84 f. + women and the, 67 + +Citizenship, woman and, 71 f. + +Clothing (_see also_ Dress): + problems of, in the home, 57 ff. + problems of, for the adolescent girl, 139 ff., 147 f. + +Community: + church as a means of betterment in, 67 + home, relation between, and, 62 ff. + working women, relation to, 157 ff. + +Consolidated school, 110 + +Continuation schools, 179 f. + +Cooking classes in grammar schools, 110 f. + + +Decoration of the home, 40 + +Department stores: + continuation schools in, 179 f. + statistics concerning women employed in, 180 + +Dietetics, knowledge of, necessary to the homemaker, 54 ff. + +Divorce, dangers of, 82, 218, 220 + +Doll's house as a means of teaching the child mechanics of + housekeeping, 102-121 + +Domestic work: + as a preparation for homemaking, 196 f. + as a vocation, possibilities in and qualifications for, 185 f. + +Dress (_see also_ Clothing): + principles of selection, for the adolescent girl, 139 ff. + problems of, for the adolescent girl, 139 ff., 147 f. + +Dressmaking, possibilities in and qualifications for, 171 f. + +Education: + for homemaking, 25 f. + of women, effect on home life, 8 ff. + +Educational agencies involved in "woman making," 75-85 + +Eugenics as influencing marriage, 230 + + +Factory work: + as a preparation for homemaking, 200 f. + possibilities in and qualifications for, 170 f. + +Father, characteristics of the ideal, 23 f. + +Feeding problems in the home, 53 ff. + +Financial knowledge necessary for homemaking, 49 ff. + +Food production, possibilities in and qualifications for work in, 175 ff. + +Food questions, study of, in schools, 118 + +Frederick, Mrs., quoted, 18 + +Furniture, principles governing selection of, 42 + + +Games, training afforded by, 123 ff. + +Geography applied to household problems, 116 + +Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, quoted, 56 + +Girl: + adolescent, 130-150 + church's influence upon, 84 ff. + dress problems of the adolescent, 139 ff., 147 f. + educational agencies involved in training the, 75-85 + health of adolescent, methods of safeguarding, 130 ff. + inner life of, 122-129 + plan for training adolescent, 136 ff. + school center of society of, 129 ff., 143 ff. + teaching the mechanics of housekeeping to, 102-121 + work of, 151-217 + +Grammar school, part played in vocational guidance, 204 ff. + + +Hall, G. Stanley, quoted, 76 + +Handwork, classification of, 170 ff. + +Health of adolescent girl, methods of safeguarding, 130 ff. + +Heating apparatus, 35 f. + +High school, part played in vocational guidance, 211 ff. + +Home: + as a means of training for homemaking, 81 ff. + building problems in, 32 ff. + clothing problems in, 57 ff. + community, relation to, 62 ff. + decoration of, 40 + establishing a, 27-48 + feeding problems in, 53 ff. + furniture, principles governing selection of, 42 + heating problems in, 35 f. + income in, apportionment of, 50 ff. + industrial revolution, effect of, on, 7 ff. + industries in, 12 ff. + labor-saving devices in, 44 ff. + running the domestic machinery, 49-72 + servant question in, 44 ff. + site for, selection of, 31 f. + the ideal, 18-26 + urban conditions as affecting, 10 f. + waste disposal in, 37 ff. + water supply in, 36 f. + women, effect of education of, on, 8 ff. + +Homemaking: + community problems in country and city affecting, 28, 30 + dietetics, knowledge of, necessary to, 54 ff. + education for, 25 f. + educational agencies involved in training for, 75-85 + financial knowledge necessary for, 49 ff. + home's influence in training for, 81 ff. + tasks suitable for the small child, 109 + teacher's responsibility in training for, 78, 80 f. + the real business of woman, 14 ff. + vocations as affecting, 194-202 (_see also_ the specific vocations) + +Home work, school credit for, 105 ff. + +Housekeeping: + tasks suitable for the small child, 109 + teaching the mechanics of, 102-121 + +Hygiene, study of, as a preparation for homemaking, 120 + + +Income, apportionment of, 50 ff. + +Industrial revolution, effects of, on home life, 7 ff. + +Industries (_see also_ Vocations): + in the home, 12 ff. + women in, Census statistics concerning, 151, 152, 153, 154 + women's wage statistics, 160 + +Industry, teaching the child habits of, 96 ff. + +Imitation, evils of, 59 f. + +Imitative instinct, influence of, in training the child, 90, 102 + + +Labor-saving devices in the home, 44 ff. + +Leominster, Massachusetts, a school lunch room, 111 + +Library work, possibilities in and qualifications for, 189 f. + +Literary work as a preparation for homemaking, 201 + + +Marriage, 218-240 + age of, for women, 152, 219 f. + factors influencing, 226 f. + ideals of, 226 f. + +Massachusetts plan of school credit for home work, 106 + +Millinery, possibilities in and qualifications for, 172 + +Montclair, New Jersey, school lunchroom, 111 + +Montessori materials as means of teaching habits of industry, 98 + +Mother (_see also_ Woman): + characteristics of the ideal, 21 ff. + community institutions, relation to, 65 ff. + school, duty to, 65 ff. + + +Nearing, Scott, quoted, 18 + +Newark, New Jersey, Central High School, lunch room in, 111 + +New York City, Public School No. 7, model school home, 113 + +Nursing: + as a preparation for homemaking, 197 ff. + possibilities in and qualifications for, 190 f. + + +Occupations. _See_ Vocations; _see also_ the specific occupations + +Office work: + as a preparation for homemaking, 199 + possibilities in and qualifications for, 180 ff. + +Oppenheim, quoted, 120 + +Oregon plan of school credit for home work, 106 + + +Physiology, study of, as preparation for homemaking, 120 + +Puffer, J. Adams, quoted, 152, 155 + + +Reading for the adolescent girl, 146 f. + +Reform, woman's opportunities in, 68, 70 f. + +Salesmanship: + as a preparation for homemaking, 200 + possibilities in and qualifications for, 178 ff. + +School: + art courses contributing to homemaking knowledge, 118 f. + consolidated, 110 + continuation, 179 f. + cooking classes in, 110 f. + homemaking, duty to educate for, 35, 47 f., 76 ff. + mothers' relation to, 65 ff. + sewing classes in grammar, 110, 111 f. + vocational guidance, responsibility in, 167 ff., 204 ff., 211 ff. + +School credit for home work, 105 ff. + +School gardens, 108 + +Schreiner, Olive, quoted, 152 + +Servant question, 44 ff. + +Sewing classes in grammar schools, 110, 111 f. + +Sex knowledge, instruction in, 80, 128, 148 ff. + +Social work, possibilities in and qualifications for, 191 ff. + +Society: + school and playground center of girls', 126 ff., 143 ff. + woman's place in, 3-17 + +Suffrage, 71 + + +Tarbell, Ida M., quoted, 15 + +Teacher: + as a vocational guide, 167 ff., 204 ff., 211 ff. + homemaking, responsibility of, in training for, 75 ff., 78, 80 f. + +Teaching: + as a preparation for homemaking, 197 ff. + possibilities in and qualifications for, 188 f. + + +Urban conditions as affecting home life, 10 f. + + +Vocational guidance: + considerations in, 163 ff., 194 ff. + grammar school's part in, 204 ff. + high school's part in, 211 ff. + need for, 161 f. + object of, 216 + school's part in, 167 ff., 204 ff., 211 ff. + teacher's part in, 167 ff., 204 ff., 211 ff. + +Vocations (_see also_ the specific vocations): + as affecting homemaking, 194-202 + choice of, considerations in, 163 ff., 194 ff. + classification of, 163-193 + determined by training, 203-217 + distributing group, 178-183 + producing group, 169-177 + service group, 184-193 + + +Wage statistics, 160 + +Ward, Lester F., quoted, 15 + +Waste disposal, 37 ff. + +Water supply, 36 f. + +Womanhood, present-day ideals of, 1-72 + +Woman (_see also_ Mother): + and citizenship, 71 f. + as buyer, 70 f. + church, relation to, 67 + community's relation to working, 157 ff. + education of, effect on home life, 8 ff. + in industry, Census statistics, 151, 152, 153, 154 + marriage age 152, 219 f. + reform, opportunities in, 68, 70 f. + society, place in, 3-17 + status of, views concerning, 5 f. + the real business of, 14 ff. + wage statistics, 160 + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE FOR GIRLS*** + + +******* This file should be named 15595.txt or 15595.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/5/9/15595 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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