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diff --git a/25046.txt b/25046.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..433c0f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/25046.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5653 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Canadian Girl at Work, by Marjory MacMurchy + +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: The Canadian Girl at Work + A Book of Vocational Guidance + +Author: Marjory MacMurchy + +Release Date: April 11, 2008 [EBook #25046] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CANADIAN GIRL AT WORK *** + + + + +Produced by This ebook was produced by: K. Nordquist, +Charles Bidwell, David T. Jones & the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net + + + + + + + +The Canadian Girl at Work + + +_A BOOK OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE_ + +By + +MARJORY MacMURCHY + + +Prepared at the Instance of the Minister of Education +for Use in Ontario School Libraries + +[Illustration: logo] + +Printed by Order of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario + +TORONTO + +Printed and Published by A. T. Wilgress, +Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty + +1919 + +Copyright, Canada, 1919, by the +MINISTER OF EDUCATION FOR ONTARIO + + + + +PREFACE + + +The object of _The Canadian Girl at Work_ is to assist girls in finding +satisfactory employment. The further aim of showing them what constitutes +a right attitude toward work and toward life through work, underlies the +account of each occupation. The book is meant for girls, and for the +assistance of fathers and mothers, of teachers, and of those who are +interested in questions of training and employment. + +The life of the average woman is divided, generally, into two periods of +work, that of paid employment and that of home-making. No adequate scheme +of training for girls can fail to take account of this fact. They should be +equipped with knowledge and skill for home-making, and assisted in making +the best use of their years in paid work. Happily, it appears from an +investigation of the conditions affecting girls as wage-earners that the +knowledge which helps them to be good home-makers is necessary to their +well-being in paid employment. Technical training and skill are not more +helpful to a girl at work than specialized knowledge in matters of food, +clothing, health, and daily regimen. Lack of training in home-making is +probably the greatest drawback which a girl in paid employment can have. +Her business during her first years of paid employment may not require much +skill or experience, but her living conditions require all the specialized +woman's knowledge that training can give her. + +To bring about in the life of a girl a satisfactory connection between +paid employment and home-making, and to show the home employments in +their rightful place as occupations of the first importance, are necessary +objectives in any book of this character. + +When considering the employments of to-day as part of their own lives, +girls of the twentieth century may well look back through the long ages +to women's work in the past.[1] The study of anthropology appears to +indicate that in primeval ages women began the textile industry and, +possibly, agriculture. There seems to be no doubt that they were primitive +architects, and that they tamed some of the smaller domestic animals. They +had most to do with the preparation of food and may have introduced the +use of herbs and medicines. They were spinners, weavers, upholsterers, +and sail-makers. Most of these employments were taken up by men and +specialized and developed almost past imagination. It is evident that +women have always worked, and worked hard. If they had not done so, the +race would not have reached its present position, and women themselves +would have remained undeveloped, without a realization of their own +possibilities. + +The history of Anglo-Saxon times shows women engaged in spinning, weaving, +dyeing, and embroidering, carrying on these industrial arts in the home, +side by side with the work of the house. The work of women in home +manufactures was a by-industry, not occupying the worker's whole time, but +nevertheless an important occupation. Later, women were employed in many +kinds of industrial work as assistants to their husbands and fathers. It is +doubtful if wages were paid for such work. Employment of this kind is not +to be thought of merely as a romantic or picturesque accompaniment of home +life. Houses and comforts centuries back were not such as they are to-day; +and the work of women was toil, side by side with men who toiled also. + +The modern factory did not originate industrial work. The factory carried +many industries away from the home where they had originated; and women +followed their work to large establishments where they were trained to +work collectively. The statement can be made with truth that machinery +has made it possible for women to perform work for which their strength +would otherwise have been insufficient. Through the industrial revolution +brought about by factory work, the general body of women workers became +wage-earners, rather than unpaid workers who contributed to the financial +earnings of their fathers and husbands. + +In Canada, the process of development of women's work in the past fifty +years has been rapid. The grandmothers of the women of this generation +carded wool and used spinning wheels within the memory of workers of less +than middle age. One old woman who died not many years ago told how she +used to bake in an oven out-of-doors and had dyed homespun with butternut. +The soap cauldron stood on the levelled stump of what had been once a +forest tree. Candles were moulded in iron moulds. Household industries were +carried on expertly in the homes of pioneers by the women of the family. + +When these days had gone, there followed other days in which the children +of the pioneers devoted themselves to the schooling so highly esteemed but +rarely enjoyed by their parents. The boys, after school life, turned +to business, railway employments, teaching, banking, farming, became +ministers, lawyers, doctors, or gave their thoughts to politics. +The girls taught school, were milliners or dressmakers, went into shops, +or became the wives of nation builders in every walk of life. A few were +nurses, journalists, doctors, or missionaries. + +The work of that generation has been followed by a century in which +Canadian girls are invited to share in nearly every form of activity. This +great freedom with its many opportunities has come for noble ends. What the +girls of to-day must strive to do is to take up their work with a vision of +what it may be made to mean--men and women in co-partnership laying the +foundations of a new earth. + +It is probable that the social and domestic conditions of the earliest +workers were far below those of the average worker of to-day. But, although +present conditions are better than those of the past, the process of +amelioration should be greatly advanced by this generation. The increasing +opportunities of girls, both in home-making and paid employment, are likely +to become a contributing factor in the humanizing of every form of +industry. We have learned to realize the possibilities of machinery. +What we must do now is to imagine and realize the possibilities of the +individual worker. This can be done only through study, experience, and +actual work in industrial occupations which offer employment to women. + +The woman of the home has work of unrivalled value. She has to study new +standards of living, to help to control the food supply, to improve the +health of children, and to lower the rate of infant mortality. A standard +of living in each community might be tabulated by women home-makers. Such +information should be available in each locality and should be accessible +to all classes in the community. How are workers--girls, boys, men, or +women--to know on what sums individuals and families can live and maintain +health and efficiency in one district or another, if these matters are not +studied, determined, and published for their use? + +[Footnote 1: Acknowledgment is made to Miss B. L. Hutchins' _Women +in Modern Industry_. G. Bell & Sons]. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + + PAGE + +Preface iii + +CHAPTER + + I. Thinking About Work 1 + + II. The Girl Who Works in a Factory 4 + + III. The Saleswoman 9 + + IV. The Girl at Work in an Office 15 + + V. Learning After the Position is Found 20 + + VI. What Every Girl Needs to Know 24 + + VII. The House Worker. Domestic Science 28 + + VIII. The Teacher 33 + + IX. The Work of a Nurse 39 + + X. Dressmakers and Seamstresses 45 + + XI. The Milliner 50 + + XII. Making One's Own Clothes. Home Millinery 53 + + XIII. Telephone and Telegraph Girls 56 + + XIV. Hairdresser and Manicurist. Waitress 61 + + XV. Farm Work for Women 65 + + XVI. The Librarian 71 + + XVII. Work for the Girl at Home 76 + + XVIII. The Home Employments 82 + + XIX. Journalism. Writing. Advertising. Art. Handicrafts. + Designing. Photography. Architecture. Landscape + Gardening. House Decorating and Furnishing. + Music. Acting. Dancing 88 + + XX. Banking. Law. Medicine. Dentistry. Pharmacy. + Chemical Industry. Civil Service. Social Work 94 + + XXI. Going into Business for One's Self 99 + + XXII. New Work for Women 102 + + XXIII. Money and Wages 107 + + XXIV. Spending. Saving. Investing 112 + + XXV. Health 116 + + XXVI. A Girl's Reading 121 + + XXVII. Necessary Work 126 + +XXVIII. What One Girl Can Do for Another 129 + + XXIX. Civic Duties and Responsibilities 133 + + XXX. The Best Kind of Work 138 + +List of Occupations 141 + +Bibliography 146 + +Index 149 + + + + +THE CANADIAN GIRL AT WORK + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THINKING ABOUT WORK + + +Thinking about work is the beginning of one of the happiest and most useful +of our experiences. Through work there comes to us the pleasure of a +growing knowledge of the great world and its wonders, the delight of +intercourse with other people, and the happiness of friendship with our +fellow-workers. Work well done is a doorway to whatever good things we most +desire. Best of all, perhaps, to the girl who is earning her living, is the +satisfaction of feeling that she is a useful citizen, doing her part in the +development of Canada. + +Canadian girls have a wide field from which to choose their particular form +of occupation. To choose wisely is a duty we owe to ourselves and to our +country--to ourselves, because a wise choice helps to secure our happiness +in work; to our country, because she has a right to the best we can offer +her in return for the peace and freedom in which we live under her laws. + +Every year new varieties of employment and new positions in old employments +are being added to the field of work for girls and women. Work at home is +being systematized, and new devices are increasing the efficiency of the +work of a home. Among the girls who are beginning work to-day are some who +will develop further the management of the home on modern economic and +social lines. Forward-thinking people anticipate a great advance which will +be made by the girls of the twentieth century in the management of homes. + +But what of the workers outside the home? Opportunities of employment +are steadily increasing. Already women are making a business of growing +vegetables and flowers, are engaged in the work of poultry farms, +bee-keeping, and in dairy production. Women are undertaking the work of +chemical experts in factories. Girls are driving motors and collecting +waste. They are shopping experts, employment experts, house furnishers, +agents for renting houses, and one woman has become an expert in testing +flour for a great milling industry. These are new employments. Hundreds of +thousands of girls and women are at work in the long-established women's +employments, as factory workers, saleswomen, stenographers, house workers, +telephone and telegraph operators, waitresses, milliners, dressmakers and +seamstresses, teachers, and nurses. + +Some opportunities for employment are close at hand; others are farther +away. Sometimes it is best to begin with the nearest work. But in any case +the girl should take time to think of her employment. There are various +helpers to whom she may turn when she is beginning to think about work--her +father and mother, her teachers, the Government Employment Bureau, a good +private employment expert such as may be found in the Young Women's +Christian Association, or an older friend who is able to advise her and, +finally, the girl should help herself. She should think carefully of the +kind of work it seems likely that she may get to do and ask herself what +employment she finds most attractive and whether she has some aptitude +for it. + +The following are some of the questions a girl should ask herself when she +is thinking of her employment: Shall I be able to improve and become more +skilful in my work? Will the work give me good companionship? Are the +surroundings clean and comfortable, and will they be good for my health +and the health of other workers? Is the employment likely to give me a +fair wage? + +The statements made about wages in different employments apply generally to +the scale of wages paid in one particular city. No one set of figures can +be given which will state accurately the wages in many cities and towns and +country districts. The value of wages cannot be estimated properly by the +girl unless she knows at the same time what her living expenses are to be. +She must know, too, the standard of efficiency required in the employment. +These questions are discussed specially in Chapters XXIII and XXIV. When +the girl reads any statement concerning wages, she should remember that the +figures given represent only an approximate estimate. That is, while these +wages have actually been paid in one place, the same wages will not be +offered in these employments in every part of the country. Generally +speaking, the figures quoted represent mid-war wages. + +The most important fact for the girl to learn about employment is that +when she does well-chosen work in the right spirit, she will find in it +happiness and usefulness. Through her work she will learn what an +interesting place the world is, and because she is a worker she will be +the companion of great workers who are advancing civilization every day. +She may feel sure that there is work for her to do, that she will find +work good, and the world a friendly place. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE GIRL WHO WORKS IN A FACTORY + + +A girl's first impression of a factory is likely to be that it is a busy +place. The people at work and the work itself will seem strange to her. +She may even feel that she will never get used to her new surroundings. +But she should not allow herself to be discouraged. Although she may have +forgotten her first day in school when she was a little girl of five or +six, no doubt the schoolroom seemed to her then a very strange place, but +how quickly it became familiar and homelike. + +The girl will enter the factory as a learner. Her wages will not be high, +but she will be paid for her first week, although it is hardly likely that +her work at first will be worth the money she receives for it. One of the +more experienced factory employees will be given the task of training her. +So the girl beginning work in a factory is really learning as she did at +school although now she is getting wages. The factory finds it worth while +to train beginners, and it does so in the hope that they will become +capable operators who will be in their places regularly. + +One of the most important truths for the girl in the factory to realize is +that the more there is to learn about her work the better her future will +be as a worker. If there is so little to learn that she needs only a few +days to become independent of any training, then she will be sure to find +unskilled girls and low wages in this place of employment. She should not +be satisfied permanently with such work. The best positions are for skilled +employees and, therefore, every girl ought to become a skilled worker. +To be a skilled worker means that you can command good wages and that you +are more certain of steady employment than an unskilled employee, since +your employer will wish to retain your services even when the work in the +factory is slack. The girl, therefore, should not be anxious to find that +there is little to learn about her work. When she discovers that it will +be some time before she can carry on all the operations required, then she +may be sure that she is learning an employment which will be of value to +her. It is exactly the same as in school. No one was ever so clever as to +be able to learn to read in one day, yet we all know how well worth while +it is to be able to read. + +How is the girl to choose the industry in which she hopes to find work?[2] +She should make inquiries about a factory before she enters it. She may +have a friend who is working in a whitewear factory, or a biscuit factory, +or who is making boxes. The friend probably will be willing to speak to the +foreman or forewoman about the girl's employment. But she should notice +the surroundings in which she means to work. Is the workroom light and +airy? Are the conditions under which she must work sanitary? Are the +workers respectable and well-behaved? If she is to work where there is +machinery, it should be properly guarded, so that she will not be in +danger. She should not choose a factory where the hours are longer than +the average nor one where over-time is encouraged. The management also +should be fair and considerate. + +The kind of work carried on in the factory should give her an opportunity +to become a skilled worker. If the girls employed are all young girls +earning only a low wage, and there is little chance of promotion, then, +while it may be convenient for her to begin in such a factory, she should +not be content to stay there. She must be sure to make herself a skilled +worker, with a good chance of promotion and a fair certainty of receiving +a higher wage than is usually paid to a beginner. + +When the girl knows the kind of factory for which she ought to look, she +may very well ask herself what qualifications she should possess in order +to become a successful factory worker. She should be healthy, of good +average physical strength, quick in her movements, with some natural +mechanical ability, good eyesight, and quick, steady hands. If she is to +begin where there is power machinery, it is an advantage to have had some +practice in running power machinery. Such practice she can get at a trade +or a technical school, most of which have night classes. Otherwise there +is not very much that a girl can learn about the actual work of a factory +before she enters it. She must make up her mind, however, to learn when +once she is in the factory. She should learn as many different operations +as possible. Nothing so increases the value of a worker as to be able to +fill a number of different positions. She should try to understand as much +of the business of the establishment as possible. Then she will find +herself taking a keen interest in the work and she will be better able to +enjoy her own part in it. + +The girl's first wage in a factory is not likely to be large enough to +cover all her expenses. But, when she is a skilled worker, her wage should +provide her with reasonable necessaries and comfort and leave a margin for +saving, emergencies, and improvement. Every worker should realize that good +conditions are an important part of what one gets for one's work. It is +advisable to be satisfied with a little less money in an establishment +where opportunity is given for promotion, the guarding of health, and +recreation, and where the surroundings are clean and attractive, sometimes +even delightful, rather than to get a little more money, and be driven +beyond one's strength, or compelled to spend a great part of the day in +unpleasant surroundings. Lunch and rest rooms, a separate locker for her +clothes, books to read, an open tennis court or other opportunity for play, +are greatly valued by the girl at work, as they constitute, in reality, +a bonus in addition to her wages. + +As soon as she is experienced, the girl in the factory is almost certain +to find herself on "piece-work." That is, instead of being paid a daily +or weekly wage, she will receive a set price for each article or "piece" +completed. + +Speed in piece-work as a rule is a means by which she can earn high wages. +The wages of a beginner in a city may be eight or nine dollars a week; +wages vary, however, according to the locality and the character of the +work. The wages paid to experienced operators vary in a number of cases +from fifteen to twenty dollars a week. Exceptional workers who have special +ability earn more. With regard to piece-work, the girl should have +sufficient judgment not to force herself beyond her strength. She may lose +her health by a few years' overwork and become unable to support herself. +The speed of the worker is a subject for careful study both by the girl and +her employer. The girl will find that she can maintain high speed for a +certain length of time only and that her output actually will be greater, +week in and week out, if she slackens when she begins to feel a strain. + +The most successful girl will not change about readily from one place to +another. If a girl is certain that she can improve her work and her +position, and if she has come to a careful decision, feeling sure that her +present conditions are not what they might be, then she will be wise to +change her place of employment. But the young girl who changes every few +weeks or months is in danger of spoiling not only her prospects as a paid +worker, but her whole life. While this danger is found in other +employments, it is perhaps greatest in the case of the factory worker. + +"Some of the finest people I know," said a well-known factory owner not +long ago, "are at work in our factories." This may be said as truly all +over the country. It applies equally to men and women workers. Generous, +unselfish, efficient women and girls, as are many of these workers, are +a source of strength to their families and the country. They are using +their lives wisely and well, whether they continue as paid workers or +leave the factory to take charge of the care of a home. + +[Footnote 2: To write down even the names of the industries which are +carried on in factories with the help of girls and women would occupy +much space. A few of the more important places of industry in which +girls are employed are whitewear factories and other factories which +have to do with the making of clothes, factories where food is prepared +for household use, twine factories, paper-box establishments, cigar and +tobacco factories, bookbinding establishments, brush-making factories, +manufactories of leather, carpets and rugs, boots and shoes and buttons, +cotton and woolen-mills, and knitting mills. These are only a few of the +factory employments, but the list shows how necessary the work of girls +and women is to the nation's industry.] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE SALESWOMAN + + +The employment department of a big store is the testing place through which +many girls who mean to be saleswomen must pass before they reach the store +itself. Naturally the girl should be careful to do herself justice when she +goes to the employment department. The head of the department will be +certain to note her appearance carefully. The girl should make sure that +she is cleanly and neatly dressed; she should speak quietly and politely; +and she should show that sincere willingness to be cheerful, obliging, and +agreeable which she will find one of the best aids in her life both at work +and at home. To enter a store no particular training is required. The girl +leaving school when she is fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen, who is able to +read and write correctly and who has a thorough knowledge of the common +rules of arithmetic can hope to obtain a position in a store. + +Having once obtained a position in a large store, the girl will find +herself part of an establishment where perhaps hundreds or thousands of +people are employed. It is probable that her position will be an easy one +suited to her age, without much responsibility, and with small pay, but, +if she shows interest and willingness to learn, she will be in line for +promotion. There are many positions which carry with them great +responsibility, and correspondingly large wages. A girl's chance to +occupy some day such a position depends largely on herself. She should +try to understand as much as possible about the store and its methods and +rules, and she should make her work part of the successful work of the +establishment. + +In a large store the younger girls are employed as messenger girls, parcel +girls, markers, or, after some time in a store, a younger girl may help in +the care of the stock. The payment received in these positions is small. +Indeed, the problem of the youngest girls in the store is not an easy one. +The girl herself should try to realize that this big store in which she is +employed must be to her what the high school or college is to other girls +who stayed at school when she went to work. Here, in the store, she should +continue her education, which is to take the practical form of a business +training. + +Unfortunately, some of the girls thus employed are indifferent to their +work. These are the inattentive, listless girls who look about them idly, +instead of attending to the needs of possible customers, or who spend more +than half the time talking to their friends visiting the store or to their +fellow-workers. One large establishment reports that only one third of +their staff become skilled in salesmanship. Another famous firm of +employers says that twenty-five per cent. of their girls do not improve, +another twenty-five per cent. are only fairly satisfactory, while fifty +per cent. are satisfactory. The girl who enters the employment of a store +should determine to become a skilled saleswoman. + +Fortunately, the work of the saleswoman is steadily rising in its standing +as a good occupation. It is becoming skilled employment. Already there are +a number of schools which teach salesmanship, and many of the larger +departmental stores have courses of instruction for their salespeople. +The managers of these stores say that this training pays both the store and +its staff of employees. After training the employees make better wages and +the store earns a higher percentage. Any girl who wants to be a saleswoman +should, if possible, take a course in salesmanship either at a business +college, a trade school, or at a Young Women's Christian Association, or +she should try to find a position in a store where there is a school for +employees. + +Our young saleswoman will study her store, she will take lessons in +salesmanship, she will be interested in her work and eager to learn. Such a +girl will find that the place of her employment is a world in miniature, +where she can study life and human nature and where she may become a useful +and well-equipped member of society. No girl who is a good saleswoman can +fail to learn how to deal with many different kinds of people and to have +many opportunities of making friends among her fellow-workers. + +It is not difficult for the average girl to become an efficient saleswoman. +To recapitulate--she should be neat and pleasing in appearance, quick to +learn, willing to obey, with good manners and bright intelligence, and she +should be interested in her work. She should have a "head for figures," a +knowledge of correct English, and ability to work quickly and courteously +at the same time. She should, of course, have a thorough knowledge of the +commodity she is selling. The more accurate her knowledge of materials, +the better saleswoman she will make. She should also take a personal +interest in the wants of her customers. Her object is to sell articles +which will give satisfaction. + +The average earnings of saleswomen at times seem disappointingly small. +It should be remembered, however, that the indifferent or careless girl +lowers the average. The successful saleswoman, after some years of work, +may earn from fifteen to twenty dollars a week. A great many girls earn +less. The beginner may get five or six dollars a week or, if she is in an +establishment which pays no employee less than a certain amount, she may +get seven or eight dollars. The girl who earns less than eight dollars a +week after a year or two years is not a successful saleswoman and is not +likely to be kept on in any well-managed store. The saleswoman who is +dissatisfied with her wage may ask at any time to have reference made to +her actual sales, of which an account is kept. Wages are based on sales. +Sometimes a commission is paid on sales over a certain amount. In any case, +the girl feels that there is a direct connection between her successful +salesmanship and her wages. Character, skill, tact, and energy are all +required for successful salesmanship. The saleswoman who really gives +herself to the work of serving and satisfying her customers finds her +employment an exacting one. + +A saleswoman may be promoted to have charge of stock; she may become +assistant buyer or head of a department; and in somewhat rare cases she +may become a buyer. These are all responsible positions requiring unusual +business ability and character. The salaries are high. If a saleswoman has +excellent business ability, she may, after years of experience, become an +important influence in the management of the store. Some departments offer +greater opportunities than others. The more expensive the article to be +sold, the more is required from the saleswoman. A very young girl will +not be found selling coats and cloaks or expensive suits and dresses. +"The customer who is spending a large amount of money wants to have +confidence in the judgment of the saleswoman," is the saying of an expert +in store management. + +The large department store, while it affords training and opportunity +to the girl who intends to become a competent saleswoman, employs many +girls and women in occupations other than salesmanship. In the store there +is a large clerical staff, including stenographers, who may receive +promotion to the position of private secretaries and bookkeepers. +Telephone and telegraph operators are among the employees. The store +shoppers act in connection with mail orders and orders received by +telephone. The advertising department employs writers, artists, +proof-readers, and card and sign writers. Milliners are employed in the +millinery department and fitters and dressmakers in the alteration +departments. Manicurists and hair-dressers carry on their special +occupations, and waitresses are employed in the store lunchroom or +restaurant. Trained nurses have positions in the store hospital and visit +employees in their homes. Machine and handworkers carry out special orders +in making curtains, cushions, lampshades, etc. A store school employs +teachers of salesmanship and store system. + +Many girls are employed as saleswomen in smaller stores which need only a +few employees. The system of the great store is not so necessary in a small +establishment, yet the individual saleswoman in the small store holds a +responsible position. Sometimes a girl with business ability becomes in +time assistant manager, or even part owner, of such a store. Ideas and +initiative will tell wherever they are found, and the girl who is really +interested in salesmanship will succeed in a large store or in a small one. + +The hours are fairly long, sometimes longer than the average in women's +occupations, but they are no longer than the hours required in many +professional and other employments in which women are engaged. + +The well-advised saleswoman will have interests outside of her work. She +should study some interesting branch of knowledge and cultivate a hobby. +She will find both pleasure and benefit in belonging to a club or other +association. One of the most interesting developments in the large +business establishment where numbers of men and women are employed is +the organization for comradeship and improvement. Thrift is encouraged; +opportunities are provided for exercise; sometimes those on the staff of +such an establishment are offered housing of an attractive kind at +moderate prices. The girls of the establishment may be provided with a +club house. + +Altogether, the character of this employment is complex and interesting. +It is an attractive occupation, in which the girl is brought into +relationship with people with whom she can help to develop a sociable, +co-operative life, tending to improve her own character and usefulness +and that of others. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE GIRL AT WORK IN AN OFFICE + + +The girl who hopes to succeed in office work should be able to spell +correctly and should have a good general English education. It is true that +some girls have taught themselves to spell correctly after they have +entered business offices; and ambitious, sensible girls, who find that +letters dictated to them contain words the meaning of which they do not +know, study until their vocabularies are greatly enlarged and improved. +But, while they are learning, the employer is not receiving the service +to which he is entitled. + +The only practical way for the average girl to enter a business office is +by studying stenography. But to have a really satisfactory school training, +the girl who means to be a stenographer should be ready to pass the +entrance examination into a college or university. Three or four years' +attendance at a high or secondary school is a necessary preparation for +first-class office work. The girl who is a college graduate is not too +well equipped to be a stenographer. Even if a girl is compelled, by the +necessity of earning her living, to begin office work early, still she can, +by determination, courage, and hard work, equip herself with a good +business education. But it is only the exceptional girl who can do this. +The girl who wishes to engage in office work should have three years, if +possible, in a good secondary school, before she enters a business college. + +The business college should be chosen carefully, and the girl in training +should attend the classes for nine months or a year. This is the least time +required for satisfactory training. Unfortunately, too many students take +only six months, or even three, at a business school. The result is that +they begin work only partly equipped with training for the office. Many +employers complain that stenographers are incompetent and careless. +One reason for this is that they have not had sufficient training; their +stenography, typewriting, and other instruction have been only half +mastered. Office work would be a better employment for girls if these +half-trained and incompetent workers were not lowering wages, irritating +employers, and limiting the work and responsibility with which girls +would be entrusted if the average stenographer knew her work thoroughly. + +The girl who leaves a business college to enter an office should not feel +that there is nothing more to learn. No one can be a thoroughly competent +stenographer until she has been a year at work in an office. The school +teaches her how to handle her working tools. But the real problems of +office work are solved only in the office. There are endless details to +be mastered. Every office has its own rules and customs and its own +methods. It is necessary to learn how to meet people and deal with them. +The girl must study the people with whom she works. She must learn how +her employer likes to have his work done. The best workers keep on +learning year by year. + +Many of the qualities which go to make the ideal home-maker belong to the +ideal worker in an office. The business girl will need self-control and +tact. Her manners should be quiet and agreeable. An office is a place for +work; and part of the usefulness of a business girl is in helping to make +it a good place in which to work. She should therefore understand order and +method. She should be tranquil and well poised. She should get her work +done quickly without seeming to be in a hurry. Such a girl is a treasure +in an office. + +The business girl should be dressed suitably for her occupation. One of the +first lessons for her to learn is that no employer is likely to believe +that she can do good work if her general appearance is careless or untidy. +Her dress should be quiet and pleasing, and it should not distract her +attention from her work. A workmanlike dress can be very attractive. +Business girls as a rule show taste and judgment in choosing their clothes +and in keeping every detail of their appearance neat, suitable, and +pleasing. Thrift in the matter of dressing and a suitable appearance +are necessary factors in the success of a business girl's work. + +The business girl must be trustworthy. She cannot be a success if her +employer is in doubt as to whether she may talk about office business +outside. Her memory should be good. It is a great help to have someone +at hand who can remember a business conversation, where to find documents, +addresses, and other memoranda. The girl will find that it is +unsatisfactory to spend much time in social conversation. If she wishes +to earn and keep the good opinion of her fellow-workers and her employer, +she will attend to work, with only an occasional remark on anything not +connected with office affairs. + +The salaries earned by business girls vary greatly. There are girls at +work in offices who are paid as little as five, six, or seven dollars a +week. But these girls are very young, they are badly trained, unable to do +good work of any kind, and they should hardly be called stenographers. They +can address envelopes, do a little typewriting, answer the telephone, and +so on. The well-equipped office girl should realize that she must keep up +the standard of her employment, as one which needs thorough training and +competent, well paid workers, so the work of the girl in business may +remain a highly-respected and desirable occupation. + +The supply of first-class office workers is never sufficient to meet the +demand. A common wage for younger competent stenographers who have had +some experience is twelve dollars. Experienced stenographers may get +fifteen, eighteen, twenty, or twenty-five dollars, according to the +positions they occupy, the character of the work, and the responsibility +involved. Girls with managing ability may be promoted to hold important +positions. They may become assistant managers of offices or confidential +clerks or secretaries. Women in these positions receive salaries of from +two to three thousand dollars a year. In an exceptional case a woman who +is a manager may receive four or five thousand. But such positions and +such women workers are rare indeed. Eighteen dollars a week is regarded +as a good salary for a capable stenographer of some years' experience. +The average stenographer receives as a rule two weeks' holidays with +wages. This is an important consideration for it helps to secure her +health and general well-being. + +It is often said that a small office offers the best opportunity for a +clever girl to win promotion. She is given work of all kinds to do and can +make herself indispensable to her employer. On the other hand, the work +may be easier in a large office since it is organized on well-established +lines. Salaries, generally speaking, are higher in large offices, but +there are fewer opportunities for promotion. + +An unusually competent office girl with some capital may become a public +stenographer. But, in order to succeed, she must have business ability and +should understand clearly what she can afford and what she cannot afford +in office equipment, rent, and so on. The work of a public stenographer is +very exacting. Many stenographers are employed in the service of the +Government. In general, an examination is required for a position in the +civil service. The work and hours are regular and not exacting, and the +pay is good. Many girls, however, find work in a business office more +interesting, and opportunities for promotion are also better. + +Some girls who have not the ability to become expert stenographers, may +be exceptionally good typists. Such girls may find employment in typing +letters from phonographs or dictaphones. Work with multigraphs, +adding-machines, or comptometers is required in larger offices. Special +positions may be obtained by girls who are of a mechanical turn or who +have considerable manual dexterity. The girl who devotes herself to +bookkeeping, if she has special ability, may occupy an important business +position. + +In whatever capacity she may be employed, the earnest and competent +office-worker will find herself highly valued and well paid for her share +of responsibility in the world of financial and commercial development. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +LEARNING AFTER THE POSITION IS FOUND + + +The first few days, sometimes even the first few weeks, are often a little +difficult for the girl who has found a position and goes to work for the +first time. But she can take with her a few simple resolutions which will +make most of her difficulties disappear and which may even change them into +helps rather than hindrances. She can remember that all the responsible +people she knows have had these same difficulties and have overcome them. +This thought will encourage her to believe that what others have done she +can do also. There is much that she may gain from this new position. It is +like an open door whereby she may enter a new world. + +The girl who is in her first position will find that she must adjust +herself to conditions very different from those of home and school life. +At home all her personal concerns have been of supreme importance, and +she has been the object of unceasing love and care. At school her best +interests have still been consulted, and she has been taught how both to +work and play. She now begins to give back value for the care which has +been taken of her at home and the teaching which she has received at +school. After she is able to work for herself, it is really no one else's +duty to support her. She cannot expect that busy people in the office or +workroom will stop to listen to her. If she is feeling dull or discouraged, +or if something has gone wrong in her private affairs, these things have +nothing to do with her fellow-workers. They also have their private +affairs. Therefore she must learn to be cheerful, not to talk about her own +troubles, and to be, in brief, a grown-up, sensible, considerate person. + +Two illustrations may help the girl to understand this difference between +life in paid employment and school days or life at home. A girl once was +offered a position in a large establishment by the man who was the head +of the business. She had certain training and gifts which made him believe +that she could do good work in his business. After her appointment she +found that she was under the direction of the manager's chief of staff, +who, as she soon discovered, had wanted someone else. She began to think +out the position in which she found herself. "It is quite plain," she said +to herself, "that the chief is a more important person than I am. He is not +going to lose his position because he does not like me. It would not be +just or right or good business if he did. The truth is that if I do not +get on with him and convince him that I can do good work I am going to be +a failure. It is part of my business to get on with the chief of staff." +She had made the important discovery that it is wise to put oneself in the +background and to work harmoniously with one's associates. After a year's +hard work she had the satisfaction of being told by her chief, that, +notwithstanding his early dissatisfaction with her appointment, she had +won his approval, for she had convinced him of her efficiency. + +The other illustration can be given in a few words, but it teaches a truth +about paid employment which many girls need to learn. One day a woman +called to see an important public man on a matter of business. When she +came he was dictating a letter. He saw his caller as soon as he had +finished. Before the conversation had well begun, his secretary came to +the door and asked him to what address he wished the letter sent. When the +secretary had gone out again, the man looked at his visitor and said +laughing, yet with an expression of annoyance, "I cannot teach my secretary +that it is her work to look up addresses. She is here to save me trouble. +I am not here to save her trouble. But I cannot get her to understand +that." The girl in question was behaving in her work as if she had been a +spoiled child at home. It is to be hoped that she would have been ashamed +to ask her mother, for instance, to tell her an address which she could +look up for herself. Yet this girl was being paid to find addresses as +part of her work. + +The girl who is beginning paid employment will have to learn largely from +others how her work ought to be done, but she must learn to depend on her +own observation. Questions must be asked occasionally, but it is unwise to +ask too many. Ask information only from those who are willing to answer. +Everyone in the world of work is busy as a rule, and comparatively few +people will stop their work to explain to someone else how a task ought to +be done. There are two classes of workers--those who require direction +always, and those who are able and willing to take responsibility. The girl +at first begins under direction but, as soon as she is familiar with what +she has to do and understands a good deal of the purpose of her work, she +should try, if possible, to develop responsibility. It is a good plan to +study how other people do their work. There is sure to be someone among +one's fellow-employees who is a specially good worker. Study the methods +and character of this worker and learn from your observation how to do your +own work. The girl in a new position should resolutely avoid association +with lazy, indifferent, and idle fellow-employees. One of the first lessons +for her to learn, and sometimes one of the hardest, is that her time is not +her own. It belongs to her employer, who is paying for her work. Therefore +her own social engagements have no claim on her working hours. + +It is apparent that certain qualifications and characteristics ensure +success in paid work--good temper, self-control, common sense, kindness, +and a sense of what is fair are of inestimable value to the girl worker. +Moreover, she must be in earnest in her determination to find work and keep +it. She should have some secondary employment at which she can work if her +regular employment is slack. And through all the changes and difficulties +of her working life, a girl should know how to keep well, for health is a +great asset. + +She should add to these essentials a feeling of responsibility and a desire +to understand the problems of management in the business in which she is +employed. In addition, let her have that sense of honour which will keep +her from a betrayal of confidential information. The loyal worker is always +valued and respected. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +WHAT EVERY GIRL NEEDS TO KNOW + + +The world the girl has to live in is the everyday world we know. Some +people say that the world is commonplace, and so it is if we look at it +from one point of view. But the truth is that the commonplace and the +wonderful are so closely joined together that it is impossible to separate +them. The girl needs commonplace gifts to live in the world, or she will +not prosper. She needs also to be able to see and understand the wonderful +side of life. To appreciate both the commonplace and the wonderful should +be part of her endeavour. A great deal depends on her training. What shall +we choose for her? She may work at home or in paid employment, but she +needs certain training, because she is a girl, just as a soldier needs +training, because he is a soldier. + +First, the girl ought to know how to keep well. Good health is a precious +possession, and we may have a great deal to do with whether we are strong +and healthy or weak and half-ill most of the time. If the girl is to be a +home-maker, she needs good health. What a sad place a home is if the +home-maker is a constant sufferer! If the girl is in a shop, a factory, an +office, a telephone exchange, a school, or a hospital, unless she is a +reasonably healthy girl her success in her work is greatly lessened, if +indeed it is possible for her to succeed at all. If she is an actress or +an artist, she undergoes a constant strain on her nervous energy. Artists +and actresses need good health, possibly more so even than the average +woman in paid employment. So, no matter what the girl is to do, she should +be healthy. + +But she requires certain definite kinds of knowledge, so that she may know +how to keep well. The first is knowing what to eat. There is scarcely +anything that interferes more with the health and success of the girl +worker than ignorance of what is nutritious food. A woman who is very fond +of girls who work and who knows hundreds of them, said once that she would +like to give every girl she knew this knowledge about food. There is no way +of acquiring it except by learning. Our ideal girl will learn food values +and how food should be prepared. Every girl in the world, no matter who she +is, is better off for this knowledge. It is part of the foundation of good +health. The girl in business requires a special warning to be sure that her +luncheon gives her sufficient nourishment for her work. + +In order to be healthy, girls must know, also, how to dress. This should +include some knowledge of the making of clothing, how to cut out, and how +to sew, and also some skill in mending and re-modelling. Looking into the +future for the well-being of our ideal girl, we see that her appearance as +well as her health depends not a little on her skill as a wise buyer and +maker of clothing. Her early income as a worker is not likely to be large. +It may be very small. It will need all her skill to make the best use of +this income. + +In order to acquire skill in the management of food and clothing and so +ensure her health, a girl must understand the management of money. Some day +she will have the spending of an income. Either she will earn the income in +paid employment, or it will be part of her work as a home-maker to manage +the spending of the house money. Now, money cannot be spent wisely except +by planning. The girl should learn how to divide her income, to allot so +much for food, so much for clothing, so much for shelter, so much for +improvement, recreation, and holidays, so much for the dentist and the +doctor, so much to be saved, so much for religious obligations and +benevolence, and for safety a margin over, because there are always +unforeseen calls on one's income. This planning for the proper division of +her income may sound at first a little bewildering. But after all, what is +it but learning what we can afford to spend? We begin by buying a little +carefully, and as we go on we acquire knowledge and skill. Few things which +the twentieth century girl can learn will stand her in better stead in +everyday life, or help her more constantly, than knowing how to spend her +income wisely, honestly, and helpfully. + +We have spoken at some length about food and clothing as they affect +health. Quite as important to health are rest and recreation. A girl needs +not only plenty of refreshing sleep, but play also and what most people +call "good times." It is a mistake to suppose that we can be healthy +without play. Often when we are out of sorts, sad, depressed, and gloomy, +and our friends are sorry for us and think something dreadful must have +happened to make us so unhappy, all that we need in reality is sleep, +fresh air, exercise, and play. It is not being a heroine to be sad. +Most real heroines are happy people. There is nothing heroic in making +other people depressed by our gloomy faces. The ideal girl is healthy +and happy, she sleeps eight hours or more at night, and plays a +reasonable part of her time. To play all the time is very dull, even more +dull than to work all the time. But each day, if possible, one should have +some happy play time. + +Then, too, the ideal girl will try to see that she helps others to be as +healthy and happy as she is herself. Part of the value of knowing how to +keep well is that it teaches us how to keep other people well. We should +know how others should be fed and clothed and cared for. The girl of the +twentieth century needs some knowledge of nursing. It is not necessary +for her to be a trained nurse, but she should have some of the knowledge +and skill of the trained nurse. + +Among the things that every girl needs to know is something of the +importance of friendship. The best gifts in the world are love, kindness, +faithfulness, sincerity, and purity. It is through our relations with +other human beings and our love for them that we begin to understand the +love of God. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE HOUSE WORKER--DOMESTIC SCIENCE + + +A young woman who is now the author of two successful novels earned the +money she needed to attend a teachers' training school by working as a +domestic servant. It was the quickest and most convenient way for her to +earn a certain sum of money. Her decision and independence of character +kept her from hesitating for a moment to make use of this employment. One +young woman who is a capable real estate agent takes a position as an +experienced general servant when her usual business is slack. A woman at +the head of a large business, which she originated and developed herself, +earned her living as a domestic until she was twenty-five years old. There +is no reason why any of us should be kept from doing good domestic work if +it is the most suitable and convenient employment for us. + +The disadvantages of domestic work, as it is generally arranged at present, +are that the house worker is required to live away from home; her own +special sleeping and living accommodation is sometimes not of the best; she +has comparatively little time that is absolutely her own; she feels that +she is placed at a social disadvantage as compared with other girls who are +her friends and who are earning a living in other paid work, and she may be +lonely, as a consequence of being often the only paid worker in the +household. These are facts to be considered. But it is possible that a +re-arrangement of household work, undertaken by modern employers and clever +modern girls, who have a gift for household management, as well as +character and initiative, may provide a solution for these disadvantages. + +The advantages of domestic work include good wages, and more comfortable +living conditions than the average paid worker can secure for herself. The +house worker has also variety in work, freedom to move about at her work, +and freedom from the rigid rules necessary in big business establishments. +She is afforded an opportunity to become a highly skilled worker, and she +can find a permanent position if she is competent and wishes to remain in +one place. Above all, the house worker is getting the best training for +home-making. + +The wages of the house worker include board, lodging, and washing, and +often some part at least of her working clothes. She has two weeks' +holidays with wages. She may save in a year a quarter or a third as +much money as the entire earnings of her girl friends. At twelve dollars +a week, working forty-two weeks in the year, the girl in a factory can earn +five hundred and four dollars, out of which she has of course to pay all +her expenses. The house worker who is earning twenty-five, thirty or +thirty-five dollars a month can easily save two hundred dollars in a year, +and a number of them do so. Girls in other paid employments, who pay board +and lodging, washing, and carfare out of ten or twelve dollars a week, +are practically unable to save anything. + +A competent house worker is beyond the fear of unemployment, while the +possibility of unemployment or of being laid off for a number of weeks is +an anxiety to many other paid women workers. When she marries and has a +home of her own to take care of, the house worker is at a great advantage. +She can take up the work of a home easily, and her management is a success +from the beginning. + +The accomplishment most frequently required from the domestic worker is +ability to cook. The girl who has a natural gift in this direction should +take pains to develop it. She may have to begin to earn her living when she +is quite young. In this case she should apply for a position as second maid +in a household where a cook is kept, and she should be careful to learn +from the cook all that she needs to know in order to become a professional +expert in cooking. Or she should look for a position as house worker with +an employer who is herself a good housekeeper and who is willing to train +her. + +The improvement of housework conditions is largely in the hands of +household employees. If a young woman is an excellent cook and a competent +household manager, she can make practically her own conditions with women +employers. If she prefers to live at home or in a room of her own outside +the house where she is employed, she can explain to her employer the hours +that she is willing to be on duty and how the work of the house can be +arranged so that she can accomplish the greater part of it during these +hours. She will be certain to find some intelligent woman employer who +will agree to her conditions. Only the first-class worker, who can plan +and carry out her plans successfully, will be able to do this; and every +woman employer may not see the benefit of such an arrangement. There are +a number of households where the woman in charge will be glad to accept +service during half the day, but here also the house worker must be first +class. The trained domestic worker of high qualifications, able to do her +work to perfection, and to consider intelligently how the work of the +household can be organized, will add greatly to the standing of this +employment. + +The house worker should have a fairly good general education. The better +her general education, the more successful she is likely to be. She should +be intelligent, obliging, and adaptable. She should have a strong sense of +honour, for she is largely on her own responsibility, and the welfare of +the home is often trusted in her hands. The ideal household employee should +have some of the qualities of the artist. The work of a fine cook is +artistic, and the perfect care of a house requires both the eye and the +hand of an artist. No woman can be a success as a paid house worker who is +not kind. She often has some part of the care of children, and it is wrong +to have an ill-tempered or unkind person in charge of, or in company with, +children. Besides this, the care of a house, the cooking of food, +cleanliness, and the work of adapting oneself to the wants of others cannot +be carried out well and cheerfully unless the worker responsible for this +work is kind. + +Wages are unusually good in domestic work as compared with other +employments for women. Some girls, however, are underpaid. A girl may +receive, for instance, twelve dollars a month. No girl with initiative or +knowledge of housework needs to remain in such a position. Wages vary from +twenty, twenty-two, to twenty-five, thirty, and thirty-five dollars, +according to the locality, the nature of the work, and the skill of the +worker. A first-class cook commands high wages. So also does a first-class +managing housekeeper. A general servant of ability and character, who +undertakes most of the work of a household, with the exception of the +washing, will receive twenty, twenty-five or thirty dollars. In some parts +of the country her wages may be higher. If trained workers, who have +special gifts for household management and who feel that they can do better +in this employment than any other, would undertake the re-organizing of +house work, this occupation should take its rightful place as one of the +best occupations for the average woman. + +From a consideration of domestic service we naturally pass on to those +occupations of girls which grow out of a knowledge of "domestic science." +The study of domestic science is making itself felt in the homes of the +country and is opening up many avenues of employment for girls. The +management of clubs, hotels, restaurants, tea-rooms, cafeterias, and +lunch-rooms in connection with colleges, departmental stores, and banks, +affords employment for those who have the gifts and training necessary. +Special cooking for invalids, the supplying of specialties, such as +marmalade, pickles, preserved fruit, canned fruit and vegetables, salted +nuts, cakes of various kinds and other dainties is work which is being +carried on successfully by numbers of women and girls. The girl, in +considering employment, should remember that she will be at an advantage +in any specialized women's employment and that the world is offering her +opportunities for good work which a few years ago had not been dreamed of. +The occupation of house work, household management, cooking, all the arts +of the home, will well repay the enthusiasm and energy of every girl who +has a gift in this direction. What the girl with ability for this work +needs to bring to her problem is, not only enthusiasm and energy, but +originality and initiative. "I have a real gift," she should say to +herself; "how can I make the best use of it?" + +Universities have established departments of domestic science, and there +are also domestic science training schools. Numbers of graduates find +positions as instructors. Many other positions are open to the domestic +science graduate. Practical experience is required in most of these +openings. After graduating it is advisable to find a position as an +assistant. In this way the young woman in this occupation will become +fitted to hold the most responsible and remunerative posts. There are +possibilities in household work and domestic science which have not yet +been realized. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + THE TEACHER + + +Two girls were playing a game of tennis together. One of the girls was a +skilful player, but the other knew little of the game. In a few minutes +the skilful player came to the side of the net where the other stood. +"See," she said, "this is the way to hold your racket. This is the way to +strike the ball." The unskilled player grasped the idea, and immediately +much pleasure was added to the game for them both. + +A singer was giving a lesson to one of her pupils. She explained to her +carefully how to stand, how to breathe, and how to let her voice flow +easily and naturally from her throat. The pupil's voice became to her +thereafter something more than it had ever been before. + +Two men in a business office were discussing whether or not they should +undertake a new enterprise. One of the men, seeing that the other man had +not yet perceived the principle underlying the business situation, drew a +sheet of paper in front of them on the desk and made on it a series of +calculations. "I understand now," the other man said, "I see the risk and +how you have made provision for meeting it." + +The skilful tennis-player, the trained singer, the able business man were +sharing their knowledge with others, showing them how to make the best use +of their powers. That is to say, they were teaching others. Every person +is to some extent a born teacher, but some men and women make teaching +their life work. + +Many girls teach for a few years before entering some other occupation. +Perhaps they earn money in this way to take a course at a college or +university, and afterwards they may either return to teaching or enter +some other profession. There are other girls who are what we call "born +teachers." They love more than anything else, guiding, training, and +helping children. It is no trouble to them, but rather a delight, to +show and direct, gently, repeatedly, untiringly, along the path of +knowledge. Girls who are born teachers should receive every encouragement +to devote themselves to teaching until they have homes to look after and +children of their own to teach. Many good teachers teach only for a few +years and do excellent work. But it is to the "born teachers" that we +must look for the happiness of the school and its highest development. + +The girl who means to be a teacher should look forward to spending a number +of years in school. She will enjoy this, for the teacher must be a student +and must love studying. It may be that her family cannot afford to keep her +at school. Then she can do what so many other girls have done. She can go +to work to earn money for her own support, and while doing this she can +save part of her earnings so that later she may return to school. The +school vacation in summer offers opportunities for paid work, and every +girl of energy and determination can find work to do. + +The girl who is to be a teacher should never be satisfied with a minimum +of learning. If this is her attitude toward school, then she should never +be a teacher; because no girl or woman can be a good teacher who does not +love to learn. The office of a teacher is a sacred trust, since she is +responsible for the future well-being and happiness of little children. +So if the girl does not love to learn, she should find some work other +than teaching. + +Provincial Governments in Canada have charge of education, and each +Province has its own regulations, carefully framed, to provide good +teachers for the children of the Province. The girl who is to be a teacher +must pass a series of examinations, the first two of which are for teaching +in lower grades and higher grades of the public schools. The graduate of a +university has a standing which enables her to teach classes in high +schools and collegiate institutes. + +The girl may continue her studies while she is teaching in a public school, +and she may either take her next examination without attending further +classes, or, when she has saved enough money, she may return to school for +a few sessions before trying her examination. The girl who has energy and +ability and who loves study is often able to obtain an excellent education +for the teaching profession in this way. It is necessary, however, to warn +girls who find study very difficult, that it is doubtful if they should +think of trying to pass this series of examinations. If they love teaching +and have a true gift for it, they will probably be able to take the first +examinations, which are comparatively easy. The higher examinations may be +beyond their reach. This fact should not depress them. Their work is with +the little children, and there is no better work in the world. + +The most important qualities for a teacher are a sympathetic understanding +of human nature, a keen sense of justice, and a sense of humour. These are +great qualities, but the girl who means to teach should notice that they +may be both acquired and developed. Any one who gives all her energies and +gifts to teaching will find that the work is a strain. The teacher should +not allow her work to become set in a fixed routine. She should guard +against becoming autocratic and unprogressive. She should never cease to +be herself a student. Each day should add a little to the sum of her +knowledge. She may begin the study of new subjects, and thus keep a +certain freshness in her mental attitude. More important, however, than +the knowledge gained from books, is her interest in the life of the +community in which she is living. + +The salary of the teacher varies according to the community in which she +lives and the grade of teaching in which she is occupied. It may be taken +as a general rule that teachers do not become wealthy. They are not highly +paid, considering the time spent in preparing to teach and the quality of +their work. Their salaries, however, almost invariably ensure them a fair +average of comfort in food, clothing, and shelter, an opportunity to save, +to continue their studies, to travel a little, and to enjoy their holidays, +which are longer than the holidays of the average worker. A teacher's +holidays are necessary for mental and nervous recuperation and should +include some study and improvement in aims and methods of work. The rewards +of the profession are not in money and leisure merely. Teachers have the +respect and affection of the community to a degree enjoyed by few other +workers. + +If a girl begins to teach in the schools of a city, she will enter a +thoroughly systematized and complex organization. In the city the teacher's +salary is increased automatically year by year if her work is satisfactory. +In towns and villages salaries are lower, but living expenses are lower +also. In partly settled districts and districts where there is as yet +little appreciation of the value of good teaching, salaries are low. +Maximum salaries for women who have taught for a number of years in the +public schools and have unusual ability as teachers may be as high as nine +hundred or one thousand dollars. These women teachers, with their ability, +would probably make more money in other occupations, but their work would +hardly be of the same service to the community, nor would they have the +same feeling of satisfaction in doing it. The salaries of women in high +schools and collegiate institutes vary from seven or eight hundred dollars +to eighteen hundred, two thousand, or twenty-four hundred. Women who are +lecturers and professors in colleges and universities are paid amounts +similar to the higher salaries in collegiate institutes. + +The average salaries of women teachers in the public schools of Ontario +for 1917 were as follows: Cities, $795; towns, $628; incorporated +villages, $573; rural schools, $580. + +Besides the ordinary teaching of the class-room, girls may be attracted to +the teaching of special subjects. The girl who studies for kindergarten +work needs to have an active imagination, a sympathetic understanding of +child nature, a happy disposition, and both vocal and instrumental musical +training. There are also domestic science teachers, teachers of special +classes for handicapped children, teachers of manual training, sewing, +millinery, music, physical training, arts and handicrafts, and commercial +subjects. The girl of special opportunities and gifts may become a teacher +of languages. Other girls may teach privately in households. Others, if +they have capital and some business ability, may establish small private +schools of their own in neighbourhoods where such schools are required. +Recreation centres and playgrounds, settlements, the training of foreign +children, call for unusual or special gifts and energies from girls and +women who teach. There are also executive and administrative positions in +large schools and school systems which may be obtained by women teachers +of experience. + +There are still discoveries and advances to be made before perfect training +and education can be secured for our children. Girls who teach may hope to +aid in making these discoveries. Patient work, constructive imagination, +and enthusiasm are required in the great enterprise of advancing education. +As an inspiration, the lives of great teachers invite young teachers of +this century to follow their examples of devotion and leadership. It is not +many years since a woman teacher in Montreal saved as many of her children +as she could and stayed to shepherd the other little ones who perished with +her in the burning school. The name of Sara Maxwell is an inspiration to +every Canadian child who hears her story. She gave her life to protect and +comfort her pupils and became one of that great number of teachers who have +proved that theirs is a high calling. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE WORK OF A NURSE + + +There are many wise sayings about the trained nurse, two among which may +be given here. One of these was spoken by a woman who is herself a +distinguished trained nurse, and the other by a woman in a public position +who has met many people and is a good judge of character. The nurse said, +"Trained nursing will make a woman very good or it will harden her." The +other woman said, "I have never known a nurse who was not glad to be a +nurse and who was not thankful for a nurse's training." These two sayings +show that the work of a trained nurse is no ordinary occupation. The girl +who becomes a nurse-in-training is preparing to enter an employment which +will have a great effect upon her character. + +A girl must be twenty, in some hospitals twenty-five, years of age before +she is accepted by a training school of good standing. If she prefers to +enter a school connected with a children's hospital, she may be accepted +when she is twenty. The work of a nurse calls for physical strength and +endurance, and it has been found that girls under twenty or even under +twenty-five are not strong enough to stand the strain of hospital work. +A very strong healthy girl under twenty may say, "Oh, but I am strong +enough to stand the strain." She is mistaken. It is not only physical +strength which is required, but physical endurance, and these extra years +are needed to develop this endurance. If a girl who hopes to be a nurse +leaves school when she is seventeen or eighteen, the best work she can +undertake in order to prepare for nursing is work in her own home. +Another way in which she may spend part of her time profitably is in the +reading of good books, so that she may store her mind with thoughts and +information which will be helpful to her in dealing with her patients. +No woman who is a nurse can be too well read, or too well informed in art, +music, biography, history, and the public affairs of the day. If a girl, +who feels that nursing is her real work, prefers to earn her living between +the time when she leaves school and the day that she is accepted as a +probationer, she may enter some other calling, and meanwhile may add to her +useful knowledge both of people and of work. She should also save some +money, for while the training of a nurse is not expensive, still as +probationer and, later, as nurse-in-training, she will need money for +necessary expenses. + +The intending nurse should make a few financial calculations before +she begins her course of training. The hospital will give her exact +directions as to the clothes she will need for her work while she is a +probationer. She will require some spending money, and she should be +provided with a good stock of clothes, especially underwear, shoes, and +stockings. When she is accepted as a nurse-in-training, she may be given +by the hospital a monthly allowance which is supposed to provide her with +clothes and the books required for her studies. This sum varies in +different hospitals. Generally speaking, it is fifteen or twenty dollars +a month. In any case, the sum will be hardly sufficient to cover all her +expenses, although it is wonderful on how little money nurses-in-training +have been able to manage. Some hospitals do not give their +nurses-in-training any money and require that the nurse should pay +a sum for her instruction. It is usual for these hospitals to provide +nurses-in-training with uniforms, caps, and aprons. + +Most training schools require from applicants an educational standard of +four years in a high school or matriculation status. Young women who are +college graduates may take the training of a nurse after they leave the +university. The business girl or the girl in any other occupation who +means to be a nurse and who has left school before reaching the necessary +standard can prepare for her training by attending evening classes or +studying by herself or with a friend. + +The intending nurse should choose with great care the hospital in which +she means to train. The standing of the hospital will have a marked +influence onher career as a nurse. Some hospitals are justly famous for +the excellent training which they give. The usual length of time required +is three years. A number of hospitals, however, have courses of two years. + +The time of probation lasts three, four, or six months. During this time +the probationer will be tested for endurance, neatness, earnestness, and +ability. No probationer who is untidy or who is wanting in personal +cleanliness is accepted in a training school. The professional appearance +of the nurse is essential to her success. Few women are more attractive +in appearance than a nurse in uniform. + +Nurses-in-training live in a nurses' home which is one of the hospital +buildings. In these buildings the nurse will spend by far the greater part +of her time for two or three years. The hospital is a world in itself, and +the nurse will have few interests outside its walls. Most nurses regard +their years of training as a time of growth and wonderful experience, and +the average nurse is very happy during this time, although a great deal of +the work is not pleasant and almost all of it is hard. The nurse learns +that work of any kind may come within her province. She will have to do +anything which helps toward the recovery of her patients or contributes +to their comfort. Some of her experiences will teach her resolution and +bravery. Speaking of such experiences a nurse once said: "As long as you +can do anything to help, you can manage. It is the being able to help +that matters." The life of the nurse-in-training is regular, and the +hospital regime is such that as a rule nurses-in-training are healthy. + +The nurse should have good health and a good constitution. In some cases, +however, a girl may be in poor health because she has no definite +occupation or object in life. Training as a nurse has often helped to +establish good health. The girl who applies at a hospital training school +requires a doctor's certificate, and the doctor will be able to tell her +whether she is strong enough to undertake the work of a nurse. She should +be a girl of strong character, steady nerves, clear mind, and good +judgment. She must acquire the habit of obedience if she does not already +possess it. A nurse, like a soldier, is under authority and has to carry +out directions exactly as if they were commands. In her work she will need +tact, discretion, and firmness, and with her firmness she must be always +and unfailingly kind. Her voice and manner should be as pleasing as +possible. No unkind or rough woman should ever have anything to do with +the work of nursing. + +Short courses in nursing are given in some cities by the Young Women's +Christian Association. The St. John Ambulance also has given instruction +in nursing for a number of years. Since the beginning of the War, various +courses have been arranged for Red Cross nurses. The honourable work of +what are known as V. A. D. (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurses proves how +valuable any good instruction in nursing is, not only for the individual, +but also for the community. It is not too much to say that the whole +service of nursing in the world would not have been adequate if it had not +been for the training and work of volunteer nurses. The War has proved +beyond all question the extraordinary value of the trained nurse. + +After graduating from the training school, the nurse may undertake private +nursing or she may follow her profession in institutional work. Private +nursing is exacting, and the nurse must be strong and capable. Her hours +are longer and much more irregular than when she was in training, and often +she will be on her own responsibility. She will feel, however, that she is +doing work of great value, and she will win the regard of many of her +patients and their families. The good standing of the training school is +an assistance to the nurse when she looks for cases. If she is favourably +known to doctors, she is likely to have as much work as she can manage. +Hospitals often engage their graduates to return for private cases. A usual +charge for a graduate nurse is from twenty-one to thirty-five dollars a +week according to the nature of the case. A nurse in private work cannot +work uninterruptedly throughout the year. Her name is on a nurses' +registry, which is generally conducted by an association of nurses or by a +private individual. Returns from these registries show that the average +nurse is employed about ten months in the year. Many graduate nurses earn +from eight to nine hundred dollars a year in private nursing, while some +earn a thousand or twelve hundred, but this is exceptional. + +Nurses who are not graduates are sent out by some registries. Their charges +vary according to the case. These women are sometimes called convalescent +nurses and, in cases where a graduate nurse is not required, they fill a +real need in the community. + +As a general rule, a trained nurse does not continue in private nursing +longer than ten or twelve years. Frequently, at the end of that time, her +health necessitates a change of occupation. Others continue their work +successfully for many years. + +Many trained nurses prefer institutional rather than private nursing. Head +nurses in hospitals receive from thirty to sixty dollars a month. There are +also nurses who superintend private hospitals. A few nurses of executive +ability, business knowledge, and experience in nursing, become +superintendents of hospitals, but not of the largest hospitals. A number +are heads of training schools. Such leading nurses receive salaries +varying from one thousand to two thousand dollars a year, with living +expenses in addition. The work of a woman superintendent who is a trained +nurse includes the financial management, responsibility for the nurses, +training of the nurses, the care of patients, and the oversight of the +hospital. Few individuals are equal to such work and responsibility. Other +trained nurses become matrons and housekeepers in private hospitals, +sanitaria, and colleges. Some are district nurses. Public health nurses +assist in supervising the health of a city and give instruction in +cleanliness, sanitary science, and the care and feeding of infants. +Private schools, colleges, factories, and departmental stores employ the +services of trained nurses. + +A few children's hospitals give short courses in training for children's +nurses--an employment for which many girls are specially fitted. This +course must not be confused with the regular instruction of the trained +nurse, as it is not on a level with the profession of trained nursing. +A children's nurse with hospital training will receive twenty or +twenty-five dollars a month; in some instances such a nurse is paid +higher wages. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +DRESSMAKERS AND SEAMSTRESSES + + +The head of a dressmaking department in a large store in a city, when +asked how she prepared herself for her position, told this story. "I never +took any lessons; but I had always made my own dresses and my sisters'. +I remember walking down the street of the little town where I lived, one +day after my father died, and as I passed the door of the best dressmaking +shop in the town, it occurred to me that the man in charge of the store +had often said that he would gladly pay me good wages if I would work for +him. I made up my mind while passing his shop that day that I would not +work for him, but that I would open a dressmaking establishment of my own. +I did so, and it succeeded from the first. After a few years I thought I +should like to move to the city. I applied for the position here and was +appointed." + +A second instance shows how a girl may have ability which she has not at +first understood how to use. In this case the girl was anxious to enter +another occupation. She wished to be a painter and had studied for some +years both in Canada and abroad. Needing to earn some money, she found +that she could sell dress designs to a manufacturing establishment, but +there was not a large demand for such work in the city where she lived. +Accordingly, she and another girl, also an artist, took a studio in a city +which was a centre of fashions, and together they worked on dress designs +for exclusive shops. They both had some money saved, and one of the girls +had a small, regular income. The first girl proved to have a very rare +sense of colour and design. It is now her work to make colour combinations +and provide the ideas for original designs, while the second girl, who is +a good draughtsman, executes the coloured drawings. These girls are now +recognized as two of the best costume designers in the city where they are +working. + +It is apparent, then, that the girl with good eyesight, clever hands, and +a fine sense of colour and form, is likely to be a success as a dressmaker. +But how is she best to prepare herself for her chosen occupation? She +should practise sewing, either by hand or machine. She should cultivate +steady application to such work, and she should not object to spending a +good part of her time indoors. She should have a certain amount of taste +and some ingenuity in carrying out her own ideas or the ideas of others. +Manual skill, originality, and artistic ability are required by the +successful dressmaker. The girl who means to make dresses for others, +should, herself, dress quietly and in good taste. + +If the girl is able to continue at school and has a natural gift for +dressmaking, the best way for her to learn her trade is to spend some +years at a technical school. Here she will be taught sewing in all its +phases--fitting, finishing, designing, the choice and use of materials, +and the business details of dressmaking. The dressmaker cannot learn her +trade once for all and go on repeating operations which do not require +originality. Styles change, and season by season she will have to adapt +and carry out alterations in fashion which will tax all her ability. +If she cannot give more than two years to learning her trade in school, +she is still at a great advantage when she enters a dressmaking +establishment. She will understand all the different processes and will +be able to work in the various sections, thus gaining far more rapidly +in experience than if she had had everything to learn from the beginning. +Actual trade experience will teach her a great deal. If, however, she is +obliged to leave school at fourteen, she should at least have had the +advantage of the instruction in sewing which is given in the public +schools. It is probable that she may be obliged, when she enters a +dressmaking establishment, to act as a messenger girl. She should make +sure, however, that she is not used for running messages only. It would be +better for her to accept less pay, with the understanding that she is to +be taught the details of dressmaking, than to earn more money and have no +opportunity to learn. The more she tries to understand and imitate the work +of experienced dressmakers, the better will be her training. The custom of +having apprentices has fallen rather into disuse, and the girl will find +the learning of her trade left largely to her own initiative. As soon as +she begins to have some skill in the operations of the workroom, she should +attend evening classes in sewing, fitting, finishing, and designing. She +should wait, however, until she is sixteen or seventeen before she attends +these classes. While she is learning from other dressmakers, she will have +sufficient work for a few years. + +The first work she will be given to do will be finishing the underside +of dresses, felling and binding, sewing on buttons, pulling out basting +threads, and working button-holes. After this, the younger workers begin +to specialize in skirt-making, waist-draping and waist-finishing. +The designing and cutting are the work of a head dressmaker. There are +also sleeve makers and their helpers, embroiderers, and collar makers. +One of the younger workers is called the shopper and is sent to wholesale +and retail establishments to buy furnishings, trimmings, and materials of +various kinds. + +The working hours in large establishments are eight, eight and a half, and +nine hours. Smaller businesses have hours from eight to six o'clock. +Dressmaking is somewhat seasonal, and the dressmaker must reckon, to some +extent, on slack time. Generally speaking, there are two dull months in +summer and one in winter. + +A messenger girl may begin at from five to eight dollars a week. +A dressmaker who does machine work and who does not specialize in other +work, may earn ten dollars a week. Other wages range, according to the +worker's ability and the work she can do, from twelve to fifteen, and from +sixteen to eighteen dollars. Head dressmakers who cut out and design, +receive salaries of thirty dollars a week in large establishments, less in +smaller establishments. In somewhat rare cases a head dressmaker is paid +more than thirty dollars a week. + +The experienced dressmaker, who is at the same time a good business woman, +may conduct an establishment of her own which will bring her in anything +from one thousand to six thousand a year and over. But she must be able to +manage matters of capital and credit, understand buying, and succeed in +winning the favour of her clients. Custom dressmaking is being increasingly +limited to high-class and exclusive work. The small and highly specialized +dressmaking factory is affecting the custom trade. Girls, therefore, who +are thinking of dressmaking as an occupation, should examine opportunities +in the exclusive factory, since this branch of the industry is becoming +increasingly important. + +Another department of dressmaking to which no reference has yet been made +in this chapter is the work of the seamstress who sews by the day in the +homes of her employers. If she is really a competent dressmaker, her +employment is assured. But it is a mistake for a girl or young woman +without training or experience, or without a dressmaker's gifts, to +undertake dressmaking by the day. A dressmaker--to define the term--is one +who understands cutting, fitting, and making dresses sufficiently well to +undertake the occupation as a trade. A girl should be at least eighteen or +twenty before she becomes a day seamstress. In this work she is on her own +responsibility and is handling goods of some value, so that she needs +judgment as well as knowledge. The rates of payment are from a dollar and +seventy-five cents to two dollars and a half a day, meals included. +Sometimes the home dressmaker may be paid even three dollars or more a day, +but in this case she must be quick, and her work must be exceptionally well +done. The ordinary seamstress should be a neat sewer and should know how +to fit, but she is not expected to design or to make elaborate costumes. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE MILLINER + + +Millinery, like dressmaking, is partly a factory trade. But it is also, +like dressmaking, carried on in shops and in departmental stores. The +average girl is interested in hat-making, and is able to turn out a hat +which she can wear with satisfaction. But a first-class milliner is really +an artist. Her hands must be skilful and quick, her touch light and sure. +She must have a sense of colour and form, and originality and creative +ability. A girl who combines these gifts with business ability is likely +to make a success of an establishment of her own. + +Training for this occupation may be obtained in several ways. The girl who +can afford to remain at school may take a course in millinery at a trade +or technical school. She may then obtain a position in a millinery +establishment as a maker of hats, and will receive a beginner's salary +according to the quality of her work. She should have no difficulty in +advancing rapidly in her occupation if she has the necessary gifts. + +The girl who leaves school at fourteen may find a place as messenger girl +in a millinery shop or a millinery department. Some milliners make a +special point of training their own helpers, and any girl who enters an +establishment of this kind will receive valuable instruction. There is a +danger, however, that the girl in some shops will find her work confined +to running messages. In this case she will not become a trained milliner +and her prospects of advancement are poor. She should, therefore, see that +she is being taught her trade. It is usual for an apprentice to work for +two seasons without pay, and if she is being well taught she should be +satisfied. In places where living expenses are high, as in large cities, +girls are often allowed a small sum per week while they are learning. + +The young milliner's first work is learning how to make bands for hats and +to make and sew in linings. Making frames for hats follows--the frames are +of wire and buckram. The girl has next to learn how to cover frames with +materials of different kinds--silk, velvet, lace, chiffon, etc.--and she +as a result learns to know intimately and to handle skilfully delicate +and costly fabrics. From being an apprentice she becomes an assistant +maker and then a maker of hats. She may then be promoted to the work of +a trimmer. The work of the trimmer is considered one of the most difficult +stages in the creation of a hat. The girl who aspires to this work must +have an eye for beauty of line and she should know how to harmonize the +trimming to the shape of the hat. In smaller establishments the trimmer is +also the designer. The girl who has original ideas is always the most +important in an establishment. For this reason the designer commands the +highest salary. + +Assistant milliners may earn wages varying from seven and eight to fifteen +and eighteen dollars a week. In an exclusive business a first assistant may +get as much as twenty-five dollars a week, but she will need to be a good +saleswoman and a successful manager in the workroom. The milliner in charge +of a department or one who is managing an exclusive millinery shop of +recognized standing, receives a high salary. As a rule the woman who buys +abroad and does so with judgment and skill is in receipt of the largest +income that is given to a milliner. These cases are all exceptional. A +moderate millinery establishment owned and managed by a woman is likely to +produce an income of one thousand, fifteen hundred, or two thousand dollars +a year. + +Experience shows that ability to sell hats counts for almost as much as +ability to create. Tact, skill, patience, must be combined with the genuine +gift required to find the hat which will be most becoming to a customer, or +to know how to alter a hat so that it may suit the taste of the purchaser. +Once it is proved to a customer that the milliner has this gift, her custom +is assured. + +A point of the first importance to the girl who means to be a milliner is +the fact that millinery is a seasonal trade. The spring and fall trade may +give her employment for seven or eight months only in the year. In the +better millinery establishments the girls are laid off without wages six +weeks or two months. In large departmental stores other positions are found +for the girls and they may be without employment for only a few weeks. But +the girl must understand that if she is earning ten dollars a week for +thirty weeks in the year as a young milliner her income is only three +hundred dollars. For this reason it is wise for the young milliner to have +a second occupation. She may spend her summer months working in an hotel +as a waitress or caring for children or picking fruit. In the winter slack +season she may find a position as a saleswoman. If she can afford to remain +at home, she may spend the time in replenishing her own wardrobe, and +sewing for members of her family. She may also get some orders for making +hats from friends and relatives. She should use the slack season to attend +classes in design and salesmanship, skill in which will increase her +efficiency and her earning power. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +MAKING ONE'S OWN CLOTHES. HOME MILLINERY + + +In the chapter on "What Every Girl Needs to Know" we found how important +it is that girls should have a good deal of general knowledge of the +cutting and fitting of clothes, design, what constitutes right line and +beauty, the characteristics and uses of materials, and what is called +style, which is really often only good design and good workmanship. Girls +should welcome every opportunity to learn skill and judgment in spending +their allowances or their wages. The girl who buys wisely is able to make +the same amount of money give her twice the return in value which a +foolish girl who buys carelessly receives from her ill-considered +investments. + +It is a wise plan, therefore, for every girl to learn a good deal about +dressmaking and to be able to cut out and sew many of her own garments. +She should also study buying. The best teacher she can have in learning +how to buy is generally her own mother. But sometimes her friends will be +able to give her help in this way. Girls who work in factories where +clothing is made, and girls in shops and stores, learn from their work +when blouses, coats and skirts are skilfully cut and well made. But this +is part of the general knowledge that every girl should have. One girl +can easily help to teach another who in return will be able to assist her +friend in other ways. Not to be equipped with this skill in dressmaking +and in buying makes the girl largely dependent on others as far as her +clothing and appearance are concerned, and in this way she may be placed +at a disadvantage both in her work and in her life at home. + +For the same reason every girl should learn something about the making of +hats and of the materials used in millinery. To be able to make her own +wearing apparel is one of the principles of economy for the girl. She may +be able with this knowledge to provide herself with a becoming hat for a +small amount of money. She will know, too, whether the amount asked for a +hat is reasonable, and will often be able to resist an extravagance +because she will be able to tell that she is being asked to pay a +considerable sum of money for an article which is intrinsically not worth +the expenditure. The girl who can make her own dresses, blouses and other +wearing apparel and who is an adept in home millinery possesses knowledge +which has a direct money value. She is much better off financially than +any girl who cannot sew and who is not able to trim her own hats. + +The wage-earning girl has often a very small income in the first years of +her experience in paid employment. She can afford to spend only very small +sums for her coats, blouses, skirts and hats. Often she tries to make her +necessary clothing in the evening after her paid work is over. It is very +difficult for her to do this if she has had no training in dressmaking or +in millinery. But if she has learnt how to cut out and to sew and how to +trim her own hats, work which otherwise would have been extremely difficult +becomes interesting and successful. It is well to remember also that girls +with very little money, if they must buy their clothes because they do not +know how to make them, are compelled to buy only the cheapest things which +wear but a short time. + +For the worker who is well established in her employment and has a good +income, home dressmaking and millinery become questions of health, time +and energy. This worker should make the best use of her strength. It is +often wiser for her to pay someone to do this work for her since she can +afford to do so, though she sometimes may regret the days when she found +time to enjoy making a blouse or trimming a hat. She has, however, the +satisfaction of knowing that without this special knowledge of dressmaking +and millinery she would not be able to buy wisely the wearing apparel +which she requires. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH GIRLS + + +The telephone girl who enters her employment in a city gains the first +knowledge of her trade in a school which is maintained by the company. +She fills out an application, stating how old she is, how long she has been +at school, and whether she is living at home or boarding. She should be +sixteen or seventeen years old, and it is better if she has had one or two +years in a high school. Her work will require accuracy, and she must be +quick in thought and action. There should be no defect in her speech, and +she should be at least five feet in height since she requires a good reach +on the telephone board. Girls who go into this work should have strong +nervous systems. The necessity for rapid and constant action, the strain on +thought and nerve, and the call for resourcefulness and coolness, all of +which are connected with the work of a telephone operator, are a constant +drain on nervous energy. + +The girl remains at the training school two weeks or longer and during +this time she is paid by the company exactly as if she were at work. +Payment varies in different parts of the country. But the girl at school +generally receives a beginner's wages. + +In small towns and country districts, the beginner learns to be a +telephone operator by substituting for the regular operator. There is less +pressure in telephone work outside of cities, and there is more room for +initiative than in a large city exchange. + +Telephone exchanges in cities are large airy rooms, well lighted, well kept +and ventilated. These rooms are pleasant places in which to work, and the +telephone company provides lunch and rest rooms for its staff. A matron +takes general charge of the girls, and a dietitian looks after the food +provided and advises the girl employees with regard to their health. +In the rest room are comfortable chairs and a lounge. The management +provides tea, sugar and milk and the dishes in the lunch room. The girls +may buy cold meat, bread and butter, biscuits and other food for a small +charge. The hours are eight in the daytime and seven for night operators; +this length of working day is regarded as the utmost which can be required +from girls in telephone work. There are two rest periods in the day, +besides time for lunch. + +In the school the young operator is trained to answer requests for numbers, +to make and break connections, and to keep account of calls. She is taught +to enunciate clearly and to speak courteously and agreeably. She learns to +know the board and its numbering. The board is divided into sections and +each section comprises a complete multiple. Each multiple consists of eight +panels, the panels being divided into "banks." Each bank contains a hundred +"jacks," every one of which represents a customer. When a connection is +made, the telephone operator connects one jack with another by means of a +cord and two plugs. By the time the girl is an experienced operator, she +has become accustomed to the little flashing lights constantly appearing +in front of her, which mean that a connection is asked for. + +The operator in a city begins with ten or eleven dollars a week. In two +or three years if she is a satisfactory operator she should be earning +fifteen. A supervisor receives from sixteen to eighteen or twenty. +The duties of the supervisor are to walk up and down behind the girls at +the board so that she may be certain they are giving satisfactory service, +to check delays, and to help in difficulties. For instance, if a call comes +through from a fire or accident, the operator will often give it in charge +of the supervisor immediately so that there may be no delay. The chief +operator who is responsible for the whole service and who has the +management of the working force is paid from twenty-four to thirty +dollars a week, according to the size of the exchange and the amount +of work involved. + +Skilled operators are often employed in private exchanges and when they +are competent they earn from twelve to fifteen dollars a week or more. +The most important switchboards are in hotels, apartment houses, public +and governmental offices, stores and private offices. The work is often +exacting and in many cases requires executive ability and resourcefulness. +The operator is expected to answer calls, make connections, answer +questions and keep account of the number of calls made. Sometimes important +business depends on the good-will, executive energy, judgment and quick +thought of the girl at the switchboard. A young woman of strong vitality +and good mind--where she has responsibility and can use initiative--finds +this work fascinating. Such a worker sometimes wins important promotion +because she is able to show that she can manage both people and critical +situations and has business and financial judgment. + + * * * * * + +Telegraphy also offers employment for girls, but not to the same extent +as the telephone exchange. The automatic machine has made a considerable +change in this occupation. The Morse operator is now employed to a much +smaller extent than formerly. There are still a number of men and women +who are Morse operators, but they are being replaced to a certain extent +by girls who operate automatic machines. The machines are extremely +ingenious and do away with the necessity for the operator to understand +or use a code. + +Telegraph companies in some cases maintain a school for the instruction of +Morse operators, and girls who enter telegraphy receive a weekly wage while +at the school, as is the case with girls in the telephone school. In some +cases instruction is given during work in the operating room. Schools are +at central points only. If the girl who wants to learn telegraphy lives +in a small town or in the country, she must be taught by the telegraph +operator. A number of girl operators are to be found in country offices. +The writer remembers specially two of these girls. One was in a telegraph +and cable office down by the sea. She had been a telephone operator and +had learned telegraphy from the telegrapher in the same office. The other +girl was in an inland railway office, and had learned from her brother, +who had held the position before her. Both these girls were earning good +salaries. + +The hours in a telegraph office in the city are from eight to six, with a +luncheon hour. The room in which the girl is at work is crowded with +machines and people. There is a good deal of noise and a great pressure of +business, much of which is important. The girl needs to be thoroughly +interested in her work and to have steady nerves in order to do well in +telegraph operating. It will take her several years to become a competent +Morse operator. An automatic machine is operated by a typist. The companies +apply a simple psychological test by means of which they can judge whether +the applicant has the power of concentration necessary for accuracy and +success in this employment. + +Many girl operators have charge of agencies in different parts of towns +and cities. These girls have agreeable work under no great pressure in a +quiet place, although with a certain amount of responsibility. + +The wages paid girls who operate automatic machines vary according to the +age, ability and efficiency of the workers, and the locality where the +work is done. Typists may begin at seventy-five dollars a month, with +increases up to eighty-five. Girls in training as Morse operators are +called check girls and may receive thirty, thirty-five or forty-five +dollars a month with an increase in the second year to fifty dollars. +Women who are Morse operators belong to the same union as the men and +receive the same wages. In larger places they begin at eighty-five +dollars a month and receive increases up to one hundred and twenty-three +dollars and twenty-five cents. + +Both telephone and telegraph operators are in a sense public servants, and +may win the respect and gratitude of their clients. They sometimes suffer +from a lack of appreciation of their really arduous work; but as a rule +the public recognizes good service. These workers often show loyalty under +trying and exacting circumstances. On many occasions girls have risked +death from fire and flood by staying at their posts to warn others of +danger. During the Great War there have been instances of telephone and +telegraph operators performing services as faithful and as brave as many +of the deeds on the battlefield. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +HAIRDRESSER AND MANICURIST. WAITRESS + + +Hairdressing and shampooing, manicuring and chiropody, are almost +exclusively the work of girls and women. There has been a decided +improvement in these employments, and any girl who takes a serious +interest in making herself a thoroughly trained worker in one of these +lines of work, provided she has the gifts which are needed, is likely to +find her occupation becoming more and more necessary and esteemed. + +To be entirely successful in work of this kind a girl should have engaging +personal qualities. Just as a doctor or nurse with abundant personal +vitality gives health and encouragement to patients by being in the same +room with them, so the girl who gives massage after a shampoo quiets and +soothes the client with whom she is working and who has come in for a rest +as well as to have her hair shampooed. A girl with this power to soothe is +a helpful person. She will never lose a customer who can remain with her +if the customer has once experienced the difference between an ordinary +treatment and the superior work of the girl who is gifted by nature with +a personality which both soothes and invigorates. + +While a girl may begin her training as young as sixteen, it is better if +she is nineteen or older. Some experienced women say that no girl should +begin work of this description younger than twenty. She should apply for +a position as a helper in a shampooing and manicuring establishment or +with a chiropodist. Sometimes the pupil is expected to pay a fee of +twenty-five dollars or more for three months' instruction. But in many +good establishments it is held that the work of a beginner is very soon +worth something. It is not necessary, therefore, for the girl to pay a fee +in order to become trained. She may find a place where she will be paid a +fair wage for a beginner within a short time after she has been accepted. +But if the beginner pays no fee for her instruction, the head of the +establishment will expect rightly that the assistant will remain in her +employ two or three years at least so that she may repay the time and care +which have been given to her training. In a year and a half a good +assistant should be earning from ten to twelve dollars a week, and in two +or three years her weekly wages are likely to be fourteen or sixteen +dollars. If she takes some responsibility in managing the work and +workrooms, she may earn as much as seventeen or eighteen dollars a week. +In some establishments tips are allowed. The girl should understand, +however, that as a rule wages are lower where tips are permitted. It is +better for her to be employed in the best kind of establishment where the +highest wages are paid. In such an establishment tips are unusual. + +The helper is likely to begin by taking care of the rooms and toilet +articles, washing brushes, combs, etc., and carrying out miscellaneous +orders. The attractiveness of the rooms depends on the perfection of +these details. + +After some years spent in a good establishment the young woman may +undertake appointment work. She should choose carefully the district in +which she means to work, so as not to interfere with any other shampooing +or manicuring business. She should not take away customers who belong to +the business where she was trained. She will need to have some money +saved in order to provide herself with the necessary articles which she +has to carry with her, as well as tonics and lotions. Her expenses will +also include a telephone, carfare, printed cards, and so on. She should +estimate her expenditures carefully to determine how much she is making +over all expenses by the week, the month, and finally by the year. +The summer months are likely to be slack, and this should be taken into +account. She should arrange her appointments so that she may make the best +use of her time and energy, and she must keep appointments punctually. +A successful business of this kind may realize a weekly return of from +twelve to eighteen dollars. Such a worker by the time she has saved some +capital to invest may be able to start an establishment of her own, +but she should do so only after a careful calculation of the expenditure +required. + + * * * * * + +The modern tea-room has changed to some extent the occupation of the +waitress. The modern lunch room in the same way makes a feature of the +class of girls who attend on customers. They are expected to be especially +quiet, deft and well mannered, and they should be dressed with that entire +suitability to their occupation which is a mark of the well-bred girl. +These girls have often been brought up with no special occupation in +view--possibly they had not expected to earn a living by paid employment. +But the opportunity comes to find work in a tea or lunch room, which is +owned or managed by a woman friend, and they gladly enter on their new +occupation, pleased as every normal girl should be to be busy and to earn +an income. It is possible for the girl who has duties at home to spend part +of her day as a waitress in a lunch and tea room. The same gifts and +knowledge which make her a success in her work at home cause her to be +prized as a waitress. She understands how a table should be set. Quickly +and deftly she lays the table after each customer has been served. Her +touch and movements are noiseless and pleasing to watch. She is interested +in what each customer wants. She is thoughtful and has a good memory, is +good tempered and not impatient. She has an instinct for placing and +arranging food so that the man or woman at the table feels that he or she +is being waited on by an intelligent, well-mannered person. In spite of the +high standard of the service required, the pay is rather small. It may not +even cover all the girl's expenses. She has the advantage, however, of +limited hours and leisure to carry on her duties at home. + +The work of the regular waitress is in an hotel, restaurant, women's club, +or in the dining rooms connected with apartment houses and private hotels. +Women who work in such places should be neat and smart in appearance and +should wear dresses of a uniform standard, generally black with white +aprons, cuffs and collars. A good home training is of great assistance to +them in their work. They should have common sense and good judgment, and +be polite to customers and fellow workers. Perseverance, intelligence and +physical strength are required by waitresses. A girl who is naturally +erect, with a good carriage and graceful walk, is at an advantage in this +occupation. She needs to be kindly and thoughtful and to take pleasure in +serving her customers. She has to understand and remember her customers' +checks, and the amount of the checks she hands in ought to equal the +average cash sales of other waitresses. Many customers make a point of +coming to the same waitress every day, and she should remember where they +prefer to sit and how they like to be served. + +One advantage in this work is that the worker is given two, sometimes +three meals, in addition to her payment in actual money. In a number of +establishments the tipping system prevails, which provides a girl with an +added source of income. The average Canadian girl, however, dislikes being +tipped, and there are many objections to the tipping system. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +FARM WORK FOR WOMEN + + +Among those who choose work on the land as a special employment are girls +and women in the country who have the opportunity to give either part of +their time or all of it to farm work, and others from the city who prefer +an outdoor life. The problems of the city girl or woman who wishes to +engage in farm work are how to acquire skill and experience in her +business, capital for land and equipment, labour, transportation and a +market. The girl on the farm can solve these problems with an advantage +of fifty, seventy-five, or one hundred per cent. as compared with the girl +who migrates from town or city to carry on independent productive work in +the country. + +Most girls and women in the country are familiar with farm life, and know +beforehand what they require for success in any kind of farm work. Eggs, +poultry, cream, butter, vegetables and fruit are sent to market by women +who are also home makers. There is, also, a growing movement among a few +able country women to make their productive work so extensive as to +constitute one-half or one-third of the whole work of the farm. Thus in +some instances a third of the farm land may be devoted to a poultry farm; +and its management is in reality an extensive business, undertaken with +all the thought, planning and attention which are given to a large farm +project. Productive work of this character is successfully carried on by +a few women. + +A restricted number of women who have lived previously on farms and are +thoroughly familiar with farming conditions have undertaken farm management +successfully. Such women are exceptional and there is no present indication +that this employment will be taken up to any large extent by women. The +farm manager must be strong enough to do her own work when she is unable +to procure assistance, and she may at times have to live alone. + +The girl who lives on a farm and who has the endowment needed has an +exceptional opportunity to engage in productive work on her own initiative. +She should secure a plot of land on the farm for her own use. When the +other labour on the farm is being done, it takes little extra time and +exertion to do what cultivating is necessary on the girl's plot of land. +In this way she can arrange with little trouble and at little expense for +any manual labour which is beyond her own strength. A girl or a woman who +goes into the country from the city to engage in independent productive +work finds the problem of labour one of her greatest difficulties. In this +as in other respects the girl whose father or brother is a farmer is at an +advantage. + +A young woman thus situated has her land secured as her share of family +good will, or at a small rental after her business has begun to pay. An +arrangement, as has been pointed out, can easily be made for the manual +labour required. She has an opportunity to learn her work thoroughly, and +to experiment, before she actually goes into business. She can arrange for +necessary fertilizers at an advantageous rate. Finally, the means of +transportation to market, and the market itself which has been found for +the products of her father's farm, often can be used for the products which +the girl has chosen to raise on her plot. + +If she is particularly attracted to flower-growing, the girl on the farm +may devote herself to growing violets for market. She must study violets +carefully. She should be an authority on the subject. She should learn to +understand their appearance, habits and diseases. She should know just what +to do for her plants, how to feed and tend them, how to get the best +results, how to make a violet blossom the best blossom of its kind that can +be offered for sale. Besides this, she must know how to pick violets, how +to grade them, how to pack them, and when and where and how to send them to +market. It would appear practically certain that if the farm produce is +sent to market, the girl may send her violets, properly handled and packed, +at the same time, and she will be likely to find a ready demand for her +flowers, if she offers fine violets for sale. + +A woman who is a bee-keeper writes as follows of how a woman may acquire +skill in this country employment. "A good beginning for the woman who is +to keep bees is to read Maeterlinck's 'Life of the Bee.' If after reading +such a book the girl or woman who thinks she would like to be a bee farmer +is still further interested in bees, then she may decide to go into bee +culture. + +She should offer herself as apprentice to an up-to-date bee-keeper as soon +as the spring work begins and stay with him to the end of the season. +The following spring, if still inclined for the work, she should buy from +her employer two, four or six prosperous colonies of bees. If she prefers +to do so, she may take a short course in bee-keeping at the Ontario +Agricultural College, Guelph. + +Characteristics which the bee-keeper needs are a cool head and steady +nerves. She should also have determination to succeed and some +indifference to pain. + +Some difficulties which may be encountered are bad choice of location, +winter losses and poor seasons. There is heavy lifting to be done, but +generally a lad in the neighbourhood can be hired to come for part of +the day to help. By ingenuity a good deal of the lifting can be avoided. + +The advantages of bee-keeping are a healthful, outdoor occupation which +takes one's mind off real or imaginary worries, with a certainty of small +profit in spite of set-backs and large profits in favourable seasons. +Bee-keeping is a good occupation for the woman who is suited to it, but +not every woman can be a successful bee-farmer. + +When the bee-keeper's work calls for larger space she may rent outyards +from farmers in the locality. Her market is likely to be found near where +she lives. Those who know that she keeps bees will bring her orders. +Bakers use a considerable amount of honey. If the bee-keeper lives near a +good road for motorists, she may put up a sign saying 'Honey for sale,' +and the demand probably will be larger than she can supply." + +A woman who moved from the city to the country is now favourably known as +a grower of flowering plants for marketing. She began as a student of wild +flowers and became a wild flower specialist. The first money she made from +flowers was earned as the result of her wish to give to a missionary +society. She bought seeds from a reliable dealer, parcelled them out in +selected varieties, and sold the packages. She also planted the seeds in +her own garden and studied the plants carefully. The occupation grew until +it took up most of her time. A larger garden was obtained and expert +knowledge was acquired gradually in the growing of perennials. The demand +for her plants grew steadily. When she made a change from a city garden to +a country place, greater expenditure was necessary, and the cost of labour +became a serious item. But the beauty of outdoor life and love for her +special work have counter-balanced all difficulties. Her business is now +well-established and successful. + +The principal difficulty, according to one authority, for girls and women +in the business of farm production, is that they have to find out that +they must learn to understand facts with which they think they are already +familiar. A girl on a farm, for instance, makes up her mind to undertake +poultry farming as a business. She may be of the opinion that she knows +all about poultry, from the kind of buildings which ought to be used to +the nature of any disease likely to attack poultry. This believing that +she knows all about poultry, or vegetables, or fruit, when in reality a +good part of the knowledge she has is imperfect, will be a great obstacle +to the girl in such work. The girl of good judgment will set to work to +study her subject with enthusiasm and perseverance. As a rule people who +understand a subject best are slow to believe that they know all there is +to know on that subject. + +The girl or woman who hopes to leave town or city life to engage in work +in the country should have a certain amount of capital, not less, it has +been said, than five thousand dollars; but the amount of capital required +depends on the locality. A greater amount than five thousand dollars may +easily be necessary. She will also need a small income, since she may not +be able to support herself wholly by this work for a number of years, if +indeed she does so ultimately. She should be strong physically and should +enjoy manual labour. She should be fond of an outdoor life and of whatever +kind of work is involved in her enterprise. She should like animals and +growing things, and be able to live without constant social stimulus. + +The Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph has trained a number of young +women in different branches of agricultural production. Short courses may +be taken during the year, and the special classes during the summer months +are most useful and popular. + +The special need for production which developed during the War induced +many girls and young women, including a number of women students from +universities, to volunteer for farm work. During the summer months some +hundreds of young women engaged in fruit picking and worked in canning +factories under government supervision, and were lodged in club houses +managed by the Young Women's Christian Association. Others undertook +various forms of work connected with agriculture, meeting with success in +their employment and with public approval. In the summer of 1918 a special +course of instruction for young women in farm work was arranged at the +Ontario Agricultural College, and later regular courses were established +throughout the year. Women now may qualify for the degree of Bachelor of +Science in Agriculture at the Ontario Agricultural College and at Macdonald +College, Quebec. Wider opportunities for women in agricultural employment +are thus being recognized. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE LIBRARIAN + + +Library work, although unusually attractive, does not employ a great many +workers. The work is pleasing, it is valuable to the community, and the +associates with whom the librarian works are trained and intelligent. + +Almost any girl who loves books and reading may be attracted to library +work. She should test herself first to see if she has other necessary +qualities before she makes up her mind to train as a librarian. A girl +who really dislikes detail and who fails in detail work is hardly likely +to succeed in this occupation. The usefulness of a library depends on a +constant routine of work faithfully performed by its staff. An assistant +does not spend her time in reading new books, although the best type of +library worker must always find time for reading. The librarian is +working for the interests of others. Her mind should be sensitive and +alert to the needs of the public. She must love books, but it is equally +true that she should be a lover of humanity. If she feels only impatience +and irritation when she is asked to leave some routine work to find a +special volume for a boy or girl, man or woman worker, or some old person +who has come into the library to read, then she should not be in library +work. + +The standard of education required for a librarian is constantly being +raised. The entrance examination to a university is often required as the +minimum in academic training. A librarian cannot be too well or too widely +educated, and it is generally agreed that sound scholarship is required in +a library. This point should receive careful attention from the girl who is +thinking of library work. A position as an untrained assistant is not +easily found. More and more, it is becoming a profession for men and women +who are college graduates and who in addition have taken professional and +technical training in a school for librarians. + +Training in library work may be obtained in different ways. The girl may +enter a library as an assistant where she will be taught the methods of the +library in which she is working. As has been said, she should be interested +in books and people. She should be neat, accurate and quick in her work, +widely read and well informed. The payment which she will receive may not +at first be sufficient for her support, so that she will need either to +have saved some money earned in another employment, or to be able to live +at home, remaining partly dependent on her own people until she has +acquired skill as a librarian. + +After she has worked in the library as an assistant, she should attend +classes in a school for librarians. The library training school, conducted +under the authority of the Department of Education for Ontario, has a +course of several months, with lectures, instruction, and practice work. +Library boards frequently grant leave of absence to librarians and +assistants so that they may attend this school. Application for admission +should be sent to the Inspector of Public Libraries, Department of +Education, Parliament Buildings, Toronto. + +Library schools in the United States give courses of one and two years in +all the branches of librarianship. These schools require for entrance +either that the applicant has a standing equal to the second year in a +university, with a knowledge of French and German, or a university degree. +Any young woman who is a college graduate and has a certificate from one +of these library schools is likely to find good employment in a library. + +The technical training which a library assistant must acquire, either in a +library or at a library school, includes the classification of books +according to subject, the cataloguing of books, some knowledge of binding +and repairing, the arrangement of books on shelves, the use of open +shelves, how to serve the public, filing and use of periodicals, how to use +reference books of all kinds, preparation of reading courses for clubs, +how to make the library useful to boys and girls at school, and practice +in the children's library. + +In a small library, while the work is not greatly divided, one librarian, +possibly with an assistant, must carry on all the work of the library. + +In large libraries, the work is divided into a number of departments, +each of which is in charge of a responsible head, who may have several +assistants. Over all the work of the library is the head librarian. + +The administrative side of library work calls for executive and business +ability. The best experience for a young worker whose gifts are in this +direction is to be obtained in a small library. She may, if she has +training, become director of such a library and she will gradually win +promotion to a larger library, unless she finds that the work where she +is suits her capacity better. + +The cataloguer labels the books as they come in and prepares cards which +will represent the books in the catalogue. A book may be asked for under +several different classifications, and the skill of the cataloguer is +required to decide how many cards are needed and under what headings the +books should be listed. + +The reference librarian has work of an altogether different character. She +is constantly in touch with the public. All kinds of questions are brought +to her. The reference department sometimes maintains a telephone service; +that is, clients may telephone inquiries to the library and the information +needed will be looked up and telephoned to them within a reasonable time. +The reference librarian requires a complete knowledge of books of +reference, encyclopaedias, bibliographies, and dictionaries of all kinds, +and she must be skilful in their use. + +The circulation librarian has charge of the collection of books to be +loaned to the public. She must be familiar with the collection and should +understand the tastes of those who use the library. Book exhibitions and +announcements are under her care, and she generally has charge of a number +of assistants. + +One of the most pleasant and yet one of the most exacting positions in a +library is that of librarian in the children's room. The children's +librarian must be fond of children and should be able to control and +influence them for good. She should have the wish to instruct and she +needs a rich endowment of imagination, since this is necessary in order +to understand children and to sympathize with them. + +Other openings for librarians are in scientific schools, medical schools, +and in some law firms and business houses where the keeping and filing +of documents are of special importance. Librarians in such positions are +on their own responsibility and sometimes do important reference and +bibliographical work. Civic and engineering libraries, municipal libraries, +libraries on music, architecture and art, the cataloguing of prints and +pictures, special work in bibliography and indexing, offer in a few cities +opportunities to trained and gifted librarians. + +Salaries of from six to eight hundred are not uncommon for library +assistants who have training or experience. In a number of positions the +library may be open during limited hours, or on certain days only. But when +all a librarian's time is required an effort is made to pay a salary which +will ensure for the librarian a reasonable standard of comfort. The better +paid positions have salaries of eight or nine hundred up to twelve, +thirteen or fourteen hundred for women librarians in charge of branch +libraries, heads of important departments, and chief librarians. + +A woman's work in a library offers opportunities for service and +self-improvement. The profession is fairly well paid. It requires +careful training and constant study. Enthusiasm, ability and initiative +may make the librarian one of the most useful and influential citizens +in the community. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +WORK FOR THE GIRL AT HOME + + +We have been referring so far to girls who are earning a living in paid +employment, working usefully and happily in almost all the occupations +which make up the gigantic output of national activity. Many thousands +of girls at home are doing household work which is just as necessary +to national well-being. + +Chapter Eighteen on The Home Employments, which follows this chapter on +Work for the Girl at Home, is intended to state more fully the importance +of the occupation of home making. The present chapter is planned to suggest +lines of remunerative work for girls who are helping in home making, but +who require spending money and a healthy, active interest in life and +people outside the home. + +Every girl who is helping to make a home may be certain that she is one of +the world's necessary workers. The home people are dependent on her more +directly and to a far greater extent than the work of the office or factory +is dependent on the girl who is a paid employee. The girl at home may not +seem to have anything definite to show for all her daily tasks. As one home +maker said of her own work: "Just a lot of dishes washed and a lot of meals +cooked and eaten." But the working efficiency of all the members of the +household is dependent on this work, and not only their working efficiency, +but their happiness as well. The output of a factory can be expressed in so +many thousands of dollars and cents. But the work of a home is expressed in +a spiritual and mental, as well as in a physical, total. + +The girl who is doing necessary work for the home should be paid an +allowance, unless the family income is so limited that it is impossible to +arrange for one. It should be understood in every case that the work of the +girl has a money value, as well as a value which cannot be recompensed +except by affection. When the family income does not permit of an adequate +allowance, happily the girl is often able not only to support herself with +work which allows her to continue her home occupation, but to make a +contribution to the upkeep of the home. The girl at home who is making an +income from other work should save part of what she makes for investment, +for some special training, or for recreation and travelling. + +The home girl should remember that her expenses are small. She does not +pay for board and lodging as is generally the case with the girl in paid +employment. There are a hundred small incidental expenses met by the girl +who goes out to work which are not necessary for the girl at home. She has +no set hours to keep and she has time to sew, to make clothes and trim hats +without over-tiring herself as the wage-earning girl often does if she is +her own dressmaker and milliner. The working clothes of the girl at home +may be very simple. She does not need to go out every morning to her work, +and for this reason can dress more economically than her wage-earning +sister, and still be neat and fresh. + +Let us suppose that the girl at home needs to earn an income, either small +or fairly large. The first step she should take is to think carefully over +her own possibilities, and the possibilities of the neighbourhood in which +she lives. What can she do that is worth payment, and where can she find +someone who is willing to buy what she has to sell? + +She may have a gift for sewing and dressmaking. If she is really capable +and can do satisfactory work, she may easily build up a small business +among her friends and their friends in the making of smart blouses. +The girl should always remember that poor work is never worth while. +Her blouses should be better than anything her clients can buy at a store. +They should have distinction and style of their own, and a fineness and +individuality which the stores cannot rival. If her gift is undeniable but +her workmanship is poor, she should take lessons at a school of dressmaking +and make herself a first-class worker. She may possibly undertake dresses, +although blouses generally are more useful and more possible for the girl +at home. In the same way, the girl with a gift may specialize on hats, but +her hats must be professional in workmanship and individual in style. + +Perhaps the girl at home is a born cook. Home-made bread is always in +demand. But it must be the best that can be produced. A specialty in +home-made cakes of certain kinds may be made profitable. Candy-making is +often carried on successfully as a home industry. But the home girl who +does work of any kind for profit must have business sense. She must +itemize her expenses accurately. Cakes or bread which have not turned out +well should never be offered for sale. To do so is not fair to the worker, +for one of her most valuable assets should be the fact that her work is +always satisfactory. + +The work of the home has changed greatly in the last fifty years. Once +rugs, carpets, blankets, yarn, soap and candles were made at home. If the +girl can find a market for home-made rugs she might make rug weaving a +profitable employment. The same is true of soap. In these days of thrift +and economy, days when work must be better done than ever, a girl might +induce the women of a neighbourhood to let her become a local soapmaker. +But she would have to be certain of herself and of the work. A co-operative +canning kitchen would be a great benefit to the women of any community, and +two or three home girls who could count on a certain amount of time for +this work could manage the kitchen. This work would be specially suitable +for girls in a small town or country district. They could arrange for a +market in a neighbouring town or city. The arrangement could be made +through a local Women's Institute or Home Makers' Club. "Canning circles" +have been managed successfully in some parts of the country. If the girl +wants a small business of her own in preserving fruits and canning +vegetables, she may develop a market in her own neighbourhood. If her home +is in the country she may arrange to supply a store or a number of +housekeepers in a neighbouring town, or she may help to form a circle and +work with other girls. + +Selling flowers, choice fruit and poultry may be made money-making +occupations by either country or city girls. First, the girl should know +her specialty. She should not merely know something about it, but she +should make herself an absolute mistress of it. Her flowers should be fine +in quality and colour. They should be properly handled and properly packed. +To begin with, of course, they should be properly grown. Nothing is left to +accident in a successful business, and the home girl should see that she is +not in any way behind professional dealers in her line. If she is selling +hand-picked fruit, the people who buy from her should know that they will +receive only the best. Those who buy are willing to pay a higher price for +any specialty which is the best of its kind. + +Girls whose interests are of a different character may find other paying +employments. To find the employment depends largely on the study of one's +capacity and one's neighbourhood. Is there any opening for a lending +library? Then the girl who is fond of books and reading and who understands +the average taste in reading, provided she can find a little capital, may +start a lending library. It is possible that there may be a library in the +neighbourhood which would be glad to engage her services a few hours in the +day. There are villages and country districts where a girl living at home +could make a success of a small library. + +The girl with a turn for keeping accounts might become a visiting +bookkeeper. Doctors and dentists often have their accounts kept by someone +who is not altogether in their employ. A good business connection of this +kind might be worked up in a neighbourhood. Or a girl might answer the +dentist's or doctor's doorbell and telephone during certain hours in the +day. She could give attendance in his office at the same time. A girl is +often able to find employment for some hours a day in a store in the +neighbourhood of her home. A village store which is also the post office +may engage her as an assistant for part of the day. + +Mothers in a suburban neighbourhood are often glad to have some girl at +home look after their children one or two afternoons in the week. To +undertake work of this character successfully the girl should be fond of +children and able to manage them. If she can tell stories well, she might +form a circle of children to attend a children's hour. A visiting mother's +help would be a boon in many neighbourhoods. + +The possibilities of paying employment for girls at home who have +initiative and some spare time are almost limitless. The girl's ingenuity +is the only measure of what she may do in the way of paying work. The field +of success of two such girls of the writer's acquaintance is the lovely, +old-fashioned home garden. One girl has made a specialty of poultry. Her +stock is of the best. She sells eggs, both for household use and as +"settings." The other girl grows roses in the garden and from her own +success as a rose grower she has become a seller of rose bushes. They are +both happy in their employments, and they continue to be home makers as +well as business women. The income is not the only benefit which the girl +at home receives from such work as this. Her work brings her into contact +with other people, broadens her interests, increases her usefulness, and, +moreover, is often a recreation. The home-maker needs outside interests. +The girl at home is never dull, or unhappy because she is dull, when she +has an avocation in addition to her work and life in the home. + +To unite her home-making and her other employment successfully, the girl +should learn how to organize her time. A girl, for instance, might look +after poultry while she waits for the kettle to boil. The same time might +be taken for work in the garden. Heat that is used to cook dinner will +help to can or preserve. The day's work should be planned carefully if +time is to be put to the best use. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE HOME EMPLOYMENTS + + +The more thoroughly women and girls understand paid work outside of the +home, the more clearly they recognize that work in the home is of high +standing, intellectually, artistically and spiritually. The most able women +in outside work are constantly looking back to the home, hoping that they +may be able to introduce into home life and management much that they have +learned in other pursuits. + +One of these women whose name is associated with a famous business success, +in writing of her own work recently said: "I believe that work which is +most commonly thought drudgery can be made attractive and beautiful if it +is approached in the right spirit, and I feel more than that--that until +all women are awake to this, and really enjoy their work--whether it is +running a home and bringing up their children, or being out in the world +in business--they will never be as efficient as men are in their field." + +We should be careful then to know how a girl should equip herself for the +home employments. If she will look back to chapter five, "What Every Girl +Needs to Know," she will find that in order to develop into a young woman +able to meet the problems, work, responsibilities and joys of life, she +should know how to keep herself and other people well. To keep herself +well, she should understand the values of food and how to prepare food; +she should know how to dress, which includes knowing how to make and mend +clothes; and she should know how to rest. In order to keep other people +well, she must know what food should be given to babies, to people at work, +both men and women, and to old people. She should also be able to judge +whether they are properly clothed and cared for. If possible, every girl +should have some knowledge of nursing. She may not be a trained nurse, +but she should have some of the knowledge and skill of the trained nurse. + +One of the finest of the home employments is this great work of caring for +people and keeping them well. One of the functions of a home is to preserve +the health of its inmates. + +Fortunately, any girl who wants to learn the art and science of home making +may learn at home or in school, or she may go to special classes where all +these domestic subjects are taught. There is hardly any study which is more +delightful, because one has the pleasure of working with one's hands as +well as studying. A girl who is a good cook, and knows how to cut out +clothes and sew them, has a good part of the knowledge of the home-maker. + +What else does the girl need to know before she can feel that she is +properly trained to have charge of a home? The girl should be prepared +to find that home-making requires a varied and very interesting training. +The best home-maker needs a thorough knowledge of household accounting. +The business girl understands that the factory, the store and the office +can not be managed successfully unless the manager understands all about +the bookkeeping of his business, for the books of the business should +show the exact condition of the enterprise. The home is not a business +and yet it requires some knowledge of business. + +Much of her own happiness and usefulness and the happiness and usefulness +of others will depend on her knowledge and ability to handle an income. +She should read the best books and magazines on household management. +If the girl has no books of her own she should ask for advice and help +at the public library. + +The home maker has many interests and an endless variety of duties. +She needs to study--and if need be to take some action to try to +control--the sources of food supply for her household. She must decide +what manufacturing work should be done in the house. Are bread and cake +to be baked at home? What preserving and canning are to be undertaken? +How much clothing is to be made in the house, either with or without help? +In every case the decision has to be made according to individual +requirements. It may pay one home maker to bake her own bread; in the case +of another, her time and strength may be needed in other ways. The problems +of mending, and of taking proper care of household furnishings, are part of +the duty of the home maker. She should also be an expert buyer, and should +be able to judge of the quality and price of fabrics and of their +suitability. If she employs a houseworker, she must be able to plan the +work of her helper. It is important that the home maker should be fair to +everyone whom she employs. Wages, hours, food and shelter, treatment and +standing, should all be of the best character that she can give. The very +nature of a home is based on right human relations. Nothing that is +unjust or unkind should be tolerated in the management of the home or +its relationships. The home is not managed for profit, but for human +well-being. This fact alone places the work of the home maker among the +first and best employments. + +By far the most important function of the home is the care and training of +children. No girl or woman can have too great a talent, or too careful a +training, or too fine a personality, to devote all she has to the care of +little children. It is a very wrong thing for anyone to undertake +ignorantly, or to fail to be interested in, the best care of the health +and feeding of infants and their early training. All girls who have had +anything to do with the care of babies know how very delightful babies are, +and how worth while it is to take care of them and to win their affection. + +The twentieth century girl has to deal with two aspects of home-making, +one of which is an old aspect revived, while the other is a principle new +in its application to the work of the home. We have been taught by the +stern necessity of the Great War the importance of the food supply of the +world and the household. Every woman who is a home maker should have, if +possible, a small garden in which to grow vegetables. Even if she lives in +an apartment, she may arrange to have a garden allotment in co-operation +with others. Gardening is one of the oldest of the home maker's +employments. + +The principle which is new in its application to the work of the home +is co-operation. So far home makers have carried on their affairs +independently, each woman very largely by herself. Suppose a group of ten +women, practical, experienced home makers, with sufficient business sense +to recognize fair business dealing, were to decide to arrange for some of +their home making work in partnership. A great deal of the household +buying of coal, bread, flour, canned goods (when buying canned goods is +advisable), sugar, and other groceries, meat, poultry, butter, eggs, etc., +might be carried on to great advantage in partnership. Canning, preserving +and baking might be undertaken by one or two of the members of the group, +or a professional worker might be engaged to do this work for the ten +members. The actual expenses should be shared fairly and a considerable +saving would be effected when the output was distributed amongst the +members. In the same way, the co-operative group might arrange for +household help. One skilled houseworker might assist with the work of +three or four households. Washing, ironing, cleaning, dusting, mending, +dressmaking, sewing, shopping, and the care of the telephone, could be +carried on either partly or wholly by members of the group in return for +other service, or by paid helpers who in every case should be reliable +experts. + +The principle on which successful co-operative work is based is the forming +of a small group of well-known and trusted individuals to carry on work +either in production, or buying and selling, or in both, with the sharing +of expenses and the elimination of commission and secondary profits. +Co-operation is admirably adapted to the work of home-making. The girls of +the twentieth century, with courage, cleverness and enterprise, may bring +a new blessing to the work of the home through the use of co-operation. + +While the home-maker recognizes that her first interest is the work +and the life of the home, she must also be interested in the affairs +of the day. The home is the heart and kernel of the affairs of the world. +It is a mistake to try to get rid of the work of the home; the right way is +to enjoy it; just as a doctor, an actor, a writer, a manufacturer or a +merchant enjoys his or her work. The affairs both of the home and the world +belong to the woman home-maker. We should take pattern by English and +French women, for the English woman is keenly interested in political +affairs and is able to discuss them with understanding, and the French +woman is admired by all because she is her husband's business partner and +can continue the business in his absence. A partner with responsibility is +better and happier than a worker without responsibility, and of infinitely +more value to the community than an idler without an intelligent interest +in life. + +No true home can exist without the recognition and love of spiritual +interests. Home life is intended to promote the growth of kindness and +mercy. The woman of the home must also help in providing recreation for her +family and herself. Thus home becomes the best and happiest placein the +world and is worth all we can give in time, energy and love to make it so. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +JOURNALISM. WRITING. ADVERTISING. ART. HANDICRAFTS. DESIGNING. +PHOTOGRAPHY. ARCHITECTURE. LANDSCAPE GARDENING. +HOUSE DECORATING AND FURNISHING. MUSIC. ACTING. DANCING. + + +Many girls who have definite gifts are specially interested in the +occupations described in this chapter. As a rule, the girl with a decided +talent has no difficulty in choosing the employment which she wishes to +follow. But she sometimes is in doubt as to whether her ability is +sufficiently great to justify her in choosing an art rather than a +handicraft, or an art rather than a profession, or whether her gift should +not be used in a directly practical business pursuit. One of the purposes +of "The Canadian Girl at Work" is to teach the work of whatever kind may +be interesting, and that the standing of the worker depends on the skill +and perfection with which the work is done. Good art is found in many forms, +but never except as the result of work, devotion and a gift. If the girl, +in any artistic employment, helps to make the ordinary surroundings of +everyday life more beautiful and more suitable she is using her gifts to +advantage. + +The girl who wants to write may find a suitable and enjoyable field in +journalism. Some instruction in journalism is given in colleges, more +often in connection with college papers than in any other way. But the +usual method by which a girl is taught journalism is by working on the +staff of a newspaper. Such positions are not easily found. Application +may be made at newspaper offices for a regular position when one becomes +vacant. While she is waiting to obtain regular work, the girl may write +special articles and submit them for publication. We may take for granted +that she enjoys writing, but she should be able to choose subjects on +which to write. One of the first questions that an applicant for newspaper +work is likely to ask is: "What shall I write about?" This question the +writer must learn to answer for herself. She should know what is +interesting and worth writing about. The journalist, besides enjoying +writing and having some gift of expression, should be keenly interested in +people, and should have enthusiasm for her work. The hours are long and +the rate of payment not particularly high, but the true journalist is +always in love with her work. Positions for women on newspapers are varied +in character. Some women are general reporters and take assignments from +the city editor. Others are in charge of a woman's page and may have one +assistant or more than one, working under their direction. Some are special +writers, covering a certain amount of general work and having a specialty +in addition, such as music and drama, book reviewing, a page for children, +fashions, market reports for women, and so on. An assistant on a woman's +page may begin at ten dollars a week, and as her work increases in value +she may receive twelve, fifteen or eighteen dollars a week. The woman +journalist in charge of a woman's page is paid as a rule from twenty to +thirty-five or forty dollars a week. Few women journalists are paid larger +sums. + +A number of other positions are held by women in connection with weekly +newspapers, magazines and publishing offices. Salaries vary all the way +from ten or twelve to thirty or forty dollars a week. The average salary +for the woman journalist who has proved her ability is in the neighbourhood +of twenty-five dollars a week. Many newspapers and some printing offices +employ girls as copy holders. These girls begin at a weekly wage of seven, +eight or nine dollars, and when they become expert, receive higher wages. +The best paid positions for women proof readers are held by those who have +proved their ability to compete with men expert in the trade. Women proof +readers belong to the men's union and their wages are the same as those +received by men. + +An employment which is becoming more important for women journalists and +writers is the writing of advertisements. Much advertising is addressed +almost exclusively to women and women have proved that they can do work +of this description to great advantage. Salaries are high as compared with +salaries in other women's employments. The work is difficult and requires +a distinct gift, besides a knowledge of how to write and of what is being +written about. The woman who is doing advertising writing needs accurate +knowledge of a number of special fields, such as fashions, the history of +costume, period furniture, and so on. + +Work for the girl who is gifted with an unusually fine sense of colour +and form is developing rapidly. To be a painter, a woman should have an +outstanding gift, and it is generally necessary for her to have an +independent, or at least a supplementary, income. Many young women +painters add to their income by teaching, and girls who live at home are +able to continue the study of painting for their own pleasure and in part +for an additional income. The training of a painter is long and costly, +and while the gifted girl has happiness in her work, the occupation of an +artist is exacting, although it may not seem so to the public. Girls with +artistic gifts may find employment in illustrating, designing, bookbinding, +handwrought jewelry, woodcarving, embroidery, and in weaving from original +designs. The girl who is attracted to photography may obtain instruction +in a photographer's studio, but the artistic photographer will have to +depend largely on herself in developing the possibilities of her work. +A number of women have achieved success in artistic photography. + +To work successfully in any of these occupations, the artist must be +trained and should have special gifts. Training is obtained partly in +schools, partly in studios at home and abroad, and from working with +other artists. Some of these artistic occupations pay well; in others +payment is variable and more or less uncertain. + +The woman architect needs a special gift and should be trained as +thoroughly as possible in draughtsmanship. Her next step should be to +obtain a place as draughtswoman or general assistant in an architect's +office. Promotion afterwards will depend largely on individual ability. + +Architecture and houseplanning are fields of work not yet occupied to any +large extent by women. Girls with gifts for work of this character should +be encouraged to enter these occupations, provided they have perseverance. +It is always difficult to enter a new field, but a few women are already +successful architects, and the advantages which should be possessed by +women in designing houses are obvious. When a woman plans a house she +considers it from the standpoint of a home and takes into consideration +the nature of the people who are to live in the house and also the kind +of work they will do both in the home and in the outside world. + +Landscape gardening has, as yet, been developed little in Canada. There +are, however, a few establishments carrying on such work and in one or +more a woman is a partner. + +House decorating and house furnishing have also been entered on as +professional occupations by women. House furnishing in particular offers +a promising field for girls with the necessary training and endowment. +Many girls have ability for this work, and as the employment is being +developed commercially, the opportunities for girls in house furnishing +should increase with some rapidity. + +Payment in all these fields of artistic work depends not only on the +ability and skill of the worker, but in particular on the degree in which +the products of her art are planned to meet the needs and desires of a +large public. The individual worker who expects her work to find its own +public is far less likely to have a steady income than the worker who is +employed by some large firm. If the artist or the worker in handicrafts +feels that she must work alone, or if she works better by herself, then +she should have either an independent income or an alternative occupation; +otherwise she will need a well-developed business sense in order to handle +the products of her skill to the best advantage financially. + +In music, the gifted girl may be a teacher, or may appear in public as a +player or singer, or she may combine teaching with public appearances. +Teaching music has been systematized to a marked extent. Many young +musicians who teach are engaged on the staff of the conservatory or +academy where they obtained their instruction. Musicians who appear in +public generally possess, along with musical ability, a more or less +impressive personality. A number of teachers who have made a decided +success are in receipt of good incomes. A performer or singer needs to +have unusual ability to earn a large income. Women musicians not +infrequently make fine accompanists and may devote themselves to this +branch of their art. In general, what has been said of the remuneration +in other arts applies to music. But the systematizing of the teaching of +music by institutions has a tendency to steady the income of the music +teacher. Training of the best kind is long and costly, but any other kind +is unsatisfactory. + +In order to attain standing as a professional actress a young girl should +have special physical training, voice culture and a broad literary +education. She should know something of singing and dancing, and she should +learn how to walk well and how to speak correctly and impressively. Part of +this training may be obtained at schools of dramatic expression which are +often connected with conservatories of music. The people of the stage work +harder than the average trained or untrained worker. Their hours are longer +and they endure more discomforts. There are few spectacular successes, and +still fewer genuine reputations for genius in dramatic interpretation. +Seasonal unemployment is prevalent in this occupation. Salaries seem to be +large, but very few are large in reality. If we reckon the number of weeks +throughout the year during which payment is received, it appears that few +actresses earn a good income. A young woman of decided gifts may become an +individual entertainer. + +Dancing has recently come more into favour as an occupation, regarded +both as giving physical training for health and as an art. The teaching +of art dancing is undertaken by some conservatories of music and also by +individual teachers. + +All work of an artistic character requires an endowment of imagination, +sympathy, insight, and artistic ability. The artistic worker gives a great +deal, and does not enjoy or suffer temperately. It is impossible to do +good work unless the whole being is thrown into the effort. Unless the +artist possesses financial, as well as artistic, ability, the pecuniary +reward is likely to be uncertain. But the individual with decided gifts +rightly is dissatisfied in any other occupation. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +BANKING. LAW. MEDICINE. DENTISTRY. PHARMACY. +CHEMICAL INDUSTRY. CIVIL SERVICE. SOCIAL WORK + + +Among girls at work and at school are those whose mental capacity is +developed strongly. They enjoy thinking out problems. They analyze +situations, because they want to understand why some particular fact +happens to be true. These girls may be executive and practical, but they +are always thinkers. If possible, they should remain at school in order to +continue their studies. But although a girl who is intellectual may have +to go into paid employment early, there is no reason why she should not +eventually find her way into work for which she is better fitted. + +Employment for the intellectual girl is varied, just as the intellectual +girl herself, according to her individual capacity, is fitted for a number +of different occupations. Banks have long employed girls as stenographers +and a number of young women have held junior clerkships. But now the work +of a ledger-keeper or teller is sometimes given to a woman, and there is +a prospect for the intelligent girl with capacity for financial affairs to +find a position in a bank, suited to her gifts. There are a few women in +accountants' offices. The number of women who act as insurance agents is +increasing, and it is considered that they have special advantages in +insuring other women. A small movement, therefore, has already begun to +introduce women into the higher branches of business and finance. In order +to be successful in financial work, a girl will need to prepare herself as +carefully as possible. She should understand something of business law and +should be familiar with the machinery of banking and credit. The study of +economics and popular government are part of her preparation. Women who +have taken a university degree in economics are already influencing the +fields of work which may be entered by the girl with a good intellectual +endowment. + +Women lawyers are doing good work in many of the larger cities, especially +in the United States. The training required is long and somewhat expensive. +There is no reason why a woman lawyer who has training and the legal +instinct should not be a useful and successful worker. After graduating, +she may find herself confined to office work altogether. If she has greater +capacities, she may have difficulty in making opportunities for using them. +Occasionally she may find employment in government service in connection +with laws regarding children and factory work. Work in social service has +attracted the attention of some young women to the study of law. In dealing +with family difficulties through a "settlement," the social worker becomes +impressed with the importance of understanding what legal redress may be +obtained for some just grievance, and applies herself to legal study. Work +among immigrants and foreigners unable to speak English is also encouraging +the study of law by young women who are social helpers. This field of +employment for women is not likely to be large, but it is growing. + +The woman physician is an important social force in modern life. Some +medical colleges require for admission a university degree, so that the +course of training may cover seven or eight years. As a rule only girls +who are strongly attracted to medical work and who are specially gifted +for it, undertake the study of medicine. In addition to university work +and medical school training, the young woman doctor if possible should +spend some time on the staff of a hospital and should take postgraduate +study either before beginning private practice or shortly after. For the +first few years she may hardly be able to meet her living expenses. She +may, however, obtain a position as a school physician or with an insurance +company. The woman physician needs strength, health, a fine nervous system, +idealism, self-control, unselfishness, and knowledge of human nature. +Every fine quality which she possesses will be of service in her work. +Her ideals cannot be too high, but they must be balanced with common sense. +She needs also to be gifted with intellectual force. Her patients should +have confidence in her skill and also in her character. + +Dentistry offers to women a good although restricted field of employment, +and so also does pharmacy. The woman dentist needs scientific accuracy, +mechanical skill and good nerves. Her training is shorter than that +required by a physician and will cost less. Her first employment may be in +schools. Work with children offers the woman dentist special inducements; +she may find employment doing children's work for another dentist. +When she opens an office of her own, she will need a thousand, fifteen +hundred or two thousand dollars in order to make a successful beginning. +The woman pharmacist requires to attend a college for two years and to have +had experience in a drug store before she can obtain a certificate. +Accuracy, skill and carefulness should make her a successful druggist. +If she has business ability, she should be able in time to manage +a business of her own. + +Young women who have graduated in science from universities are finding +openings for chemical work in a number of industries. One girl who has +specialized in botany recently discovered "a growth" which was injuring +the quality of paper turned out by the mills of a paper company; she +was able to tell the manufacturer how he could solve his difficulty. +The chemical expert is constantly increasing in industrial importance. +Teaching and laboratory work, therefore, are not the only employments +open to the girl with an aptitude for scientific work. + +A number of able women find employment in the Civil Service. They are +required to pass a Civil Service examination. College graduates hold +positions in the higher grades, while many women clerks are employed as +stenographers and in minor positions. The statistical office, forestry, +trade and commerce and the labour department, all need expert assistants. +While few of the higher offices are held by women, still women with +special knowledge and ability are being employed in increasing numbers by +the government. + +The income earned by professional women is likely to be comparatively small +at first. These occupations are all full time employments and require the +undivided attention of the worker. After some years of steady application, +the professional woman is fairly certain to receive a reasonable, even a +good, income. Two, three, and four thousand dollars may be regarded as +incomes which may be obtained with reasonable certainty by women who are +successful in their professions. + +The intellectual girl should choose her work wisely. She is a good student +and while she is in training it may seem to her that she will have no +special difficulties of any kind to face. + +When she comes to follow her occupation in everyday life, she will find +that personal initiative, judgment, and executive energy in affairs are as +valuable as the ability to master a problem in her study or in the +laboratory. If her studies have left her isolated from human nature, she +will find this want of understanding and sympathy a heavy handicap in +whatever occupation she may enter. Scholarship cannot be made fruitful +in everyday life unless it is used in the service of humanity. + +One of the modern employments for young women of education which is +increasing rapidly in its scope is to be found in social work. A broad +general training and a special interest in humanitarian work are required +by those who enter this occupation. The missionary and the deaconess may +be regarded as forerunners in some sense to the modern social worker. +Many Canadian women of the finest aspiration have become missionaries in +distant lands; women physicians have accomplished work of great value as +medical missionaries. The deaconess of to-day may be a graduate of such +training schools for social workers as the Departments of Social Service +and Social Science in the University of Toronto and McGill University. +The special training of the social worker includes lectures in economics +and sociology and the history of philanthropy, discussion of social +problems in classes, and "field work" under the guidance of experienced +workers. Positions for those who take training in social service are found +in "settlements," and in connection with "Big Sister" associations, and +Charity Organization Societies. Welfare departments in stores and +factories indicate the growing importance in modern industry of work which +has to do with social factors in employment. The trained social worker may +find a position as secretary, statistician, visitor, investigator, +lecturer, dietitian, nurse, or as a clerk or executive officer, in child +welfare, civic improvement, or family relief work. Young women who mean to +undertake such work should have, not only training, but common sense and +idealism. Salaries are sometimes low, and much valuable work is contributed +to social betterment enterprises by young women who live at home and are +able to give their time and work free or for small remuneration. There are, +however, a number of well-paid positions in connection with social service +work. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +GOING INTO BUSINESS FOR ONE'S SELF + + +Responsibility is something in which we all should share. If girls will +observe people, they will see that human beings grow and become better able +to work and help others through the exercise of responsibility. The girl or +woman at work who feels her responsibility and is able to act on her own +initiative is more valuable than the worker who always has to be told what +to do. By gradually learning how to take responsibility, the girl becomes +fitted to go into business for herself. + +In the first place, few girls actually enter paid employment or business +life with the intention of becoming independent proprietors. It is only +after some years' experience of work that the idea occurs to them. +A trained nurse may have been in private practice three or four years +before she begins to think that she would like to own and manage a private +hospital. For the properly qualified and equipped woman, this is a good +business enterprise. A number of nurses are conducting excellent private +hospitals. The work is exacting, the hours are long and the responsibility +is heavy. But any girl who thinks of going into business for herself should +know at once that all these conditions are true of every independent +business that is worth while. + +The business woman requires a precise technical and financial knowledge of +the business which she means to enter, and she needs as well originality, +a fund of ideas, courage, initiative, imagination, that feeling of capacity +for responsibility and enterprise which is like love of adventure, +judgment, nerve and character. She should not be too excitable and yet she +ought to be keen. She should not be easily disturbed and she ought to be a +steady worker. Above all, she requires to be able to deal with people, both +customers and employees. + +Instances of women who have been successful in business enterprises may be +quoted which do not seem to conform to the requirements specified. But if +they are examined, these instances will show that the women in question +have fulfilled the conditions of success almost exactly as described. +A woman has succeeded, for instance, in managing her own country inn. +She was in a totally different employment before she started this +successful enterprise. But she had already bought, built on, and sold with +a margin of profit, three or four other properties. She had learned how to +buy land to advantage in the neighbourhood of a city. She bought her +present property, choosing a few acres which were already in fruit or in +use for growing vegetables. There was an attractive, large, old-fashioned +farm house on the premises, the property was near a railway station and +situated on a road constantly used by motorists. Other enterprises of the +same kind were studied by her. The food provided was made a specialty. +Every expense which could be lessened in connection with the property was +considered. A flock of poultry was kept. The fruit was either sold or put +down for winter use in the inn. + +In almost every instance the successful woman of business enters on her +new enterprise in a small way. A girl begins by making and delivering +lunches to the staff of a large office building. Later she adds other +buildings to her list. She sells cakes, sandwiches and preserves from her +own home. Having saved some capital, she embarks on a down-town tea room. +Every detail of her business is planned as it expands and the management +is entirely in her own hands. The successful management of a large +business would have been impossible for an inexperienced girl, but it +comes easily to the young business woman. + +In the same way a nurse began a business preparing supplies for doctors. +Soon she added invalid cookery to her other work. Her venture developed +into a business partly catering, partly a dining club, and in part a depot +for surgical dressings and home made cooking for invalids. Another woman +has inherited a large catering business from her father. It was a +considerable business when she became manager, but she had gone to work +with her father as soon as she left school. Still another woman has +established a system of hairdressing businesses. She began with one room +in one city. Her business has been extended to over forty cities. No chance +good fortune can account for successes such as these described. Managing +ability, foresight and character are responsible for a great part of the +achievement. The woman in each case made the discovery that the best +commodity of its kind offered to the public in the right way must bring +success, if the business enterprise itself is well managed. + +Examples of the wise judgment of women in business are found in every large +community. A girl who makes good marmalade for home consumption began to +make and sell this product in a small way. She is now part owner of a large +business. A woman who went into a factory as an office helper proved to +have a gift for designing dresses. After spending a number of years in the +employ of the firm with which she began work, she has gone into partnership +with a woman dressmaker in a small specialized factory. A large wholesale +fish business is owned and managed by a woman, whose knowledge of the +business, including sources of supply and distribution, is entirely +adequate. + +Women who own and manage business enterprises when they succeed often do so +because of their womanly qualities. There is no conflict between capable +thorough work and womanliness. The normal woman has always a capable and +helpful side to her character. She generally retains in affairs her +gentleness, considerateness, and patience in dealing with all sorts of +people. No quality is more important in business than a natural ability to +understand and sympathize. A woman's ideas may be original and her +knowledge of business details exact, but it is her power to work with +others and to make the best of them which is the highest part of her +business ability. Many of the businesses owned and managed successfully +by women are connected with food, clothing, health, physical, mental and +moral training, and personal well-being. The woman's advantage in business +has to do most frequently with perfection in detail, personal supervision, +knowledge of the highest home standards, and with making her commodity a +little the best on the market. The best women in business excel in making +conditions for their employees ideal. They plan to give their workers +opportunities for education and training, and sometimes help them to start +in business for themselves. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +NEW WORK FOR WOMEN + + +One of the best known doctors in the country has chosen a special trained +nurse to act as his anesthetist, that is, she accompanies him and assists +in giving his patient the anesthetic when he is about to perform an +operation. This girl when she entered the training school of a hospital +had no idea that she would specialize in this way as an assistant to a +famous surgeon. Her work is but one of the many examples of the usefulness +of the trained woman worker. Varied opportunities in employment may be +discovered by girls who are in earnest in finding the best work they can do. + +A number of the new employments for women are connected with food, clothing +and home making. The woman who fits herself to be a food expert may make a +good income as a writer or lecturer, provided she has the necessary gifts +as well as knowledge and skill. A food expert is sometimes employed in +large departmental stores. Such a specialist is often found in charge of +the dining-room of college residences. Dietitians are a necessary part of +the staff of a hospital. The woman who qualifies as an expert on food is +entering an occupation which is being recognized as of the first importance. + +A visiting household expert who is competent to advise in the arrangement +of household work and who is skilled in household accounting is a new +worker in the oldest occupation for women. A food demonstrator is sometimes +sent out by the government to teach canning, preserving and drying, and to +explain new household processes. Women experts in poultry keeping and +vegetable growing are also in government service. Women specialists have +made a study of public marketing. Many women have made a success of the +business of catering, of tea and lunch rooms, and of food specialties such +as mushroom growing, raising squabs, preserving, pickling, and spicing +fruits. In hotels, there are women managers, chaperones, hostesses and +matrons. The old-fashioned boarding house is still a useful institution, +and the girl who will undertake to keep house for a group of professional +women on a co-operative plan is a modern worker likely to find remunerative +employment. Any woman who has the capital to establish a well-arranged, +well-organized home where expensive, high-class board may be obtained, in +a city, or in the neighbourhood of a university, is certain to attract as +many clients as she can accommodate. + +Clothing and house furnishing offer fields of new work for women. +The expert shopper in these departments is already in demand. An adviser +in dress for women has made her appearance as a paid worker. Many women +could save time, trouble and money if they could go to an expert for +consultation about their clothes. A girl who is a specially good shopper +should be able to build up a business among her friends. + +Some women have made a success of high class laundry work. Girls who will +undertake fine washing and mending of delicate fabrics are in demand. +There is a greater need for the expert who will take classes in health +exercises for women. Teachers trained in the Swedish gymnasium system are +likely to find employment. Others are required for children who need +special care. Courses of training are already planned for teachers of +this description, and the occupation is likely to develop considerably. +Social work is constantly requiring helpers in new departments. +Investigators, secretaries, statisticians, lecturers, health workers of +various kinds, are employed by social organizations. Welfare workers have +made their appearance in factories. Employment departments of factories +and shops are offering work to the woman who is an expert in employment. +Others are in the service of civic and government employment bureaus. +The vocational adviser is to be found in colleges and is employed by +organizations of a benevolent character. + +Rent collecting as an occupation for women was begun in Great Britain by +Miss Octavia Hill. A woman in this country with capital invested in an +office building, who has had business experience, manages her own building +and collects the rents. Other women are employed as managers and agents +for apartment houses. The real estate business has been entered by women +who sell real estate, and accompany prospective tenants to houses and +apartments. Other somewhat unusual employments for women are publicity +writing in various commercial and public campaigns, and lecturing on +various phases of modern life. Women are also commercial travellers, +conductors of entertainments, pageant managers, window decorators, brokers +and financial advisers, theatrical managers and producers of plays. +They find employment as civil engineers and in research work of various +kinds. Women have succeeded as conductors of foreign tours, and as +lecturers on current events for women's clubs. + +Some of these occupations may appear out of the way, and even romantic, +to the girl who is choosing her work, or who is already at work in some +paid employment. But in every case, the pioneer worker needs special +training and experience. New work requires more originality, perseverance, +and if possible better preparation than may be necessary in standard +employments. + +In conclusion, a word may be said to the girl or woman who has been at work +for some years. She should take stock at intervals of the work she is doing, +and of her prospects and possibilities. Let her devote some clear thinking +as to whether her work could not be re-arranged to the advantage of her +employer and herself. Purely routine work is scarcely ever as well done as +it might be. She should ask herself, "Can I improve my work? Is there any +new line in which I can develop? What special knowledge and skill have I? +Am I using all the capacity I have? Does my work need to be changed or +re-organized?" The girl or woman at work should not be satisfied with a +superficial answer to these questions. It is generally possible to improve +one's own work, by thinking about it carefully and by trying. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +MONEY AND WAGES + + +The weekly wage on which some girls live comfortably will give others only +the bare necessaries of life, and sometimes not even that. + +The girl's real wages are what she is able to get for the sum of money +she is paid in exchange for her work. Before she can judge whether her +wage is good or poor, she must know how much her board and lodging will +cost, the cost of clothes, and the total amount of her other expenses. +She should know what additional advantages there are in the place where +she is working. If there are disadvantages, she should consider them also +before she can tell whether the wage offered is a good or a poor wage. +Local prices, and the difference in the cost of living between one place +and another, must be learned by the girl at work before she can estimate +the value of her wages. + +During the time when she is becoming skilled in her occupation it is +difficult for the girl at work to support herself entirely. If she is +living at home, her family will help her. But she should always remember +the girl who is not living at home, and should feel that it is her duty +not to lower this girl's wages below a living standard. Every girl at work +should make an effort to know what a living wage is in the place--town, +city or country--where she is employed. Wages for skilled workers should +be of a good standard, that is, the wage paid should be sufficient to make +the worker efficient and comfortable. Even the beginner should have a +living wage. + +Prices of food, clothing and board, and the other expenses which one +has to meet, are different in town, city and country. When the girl +wage-earner changes from the place in which she lives, she should find +out beforehand as accurately as possible how much she will need to live +on in the place to which she may be thinking of going. + +If we do not think accurately and carefully about what we earn and what +we spend, we shall likely always remain undeveloped in judgment and +character, and shall not be able to take the responsibility which should +come to every mature person. + +A girl worker in one employment may necessarily have a different scale of +expenses from a girl at work in another occupation. For instance, it costs +the average stenographer more to keep up her standard of efficiency than it +does the average girl in a factory. The stenographer also has to spend more +time and money in preparing for her occupation. A girl in a factory who is +earning twelve dollars a week is better off financially, therefore, than +the stenographer earning twelve a week. A woman physician may have a yearly +income of two or three thousand dollars. A teacher who has an income of +fifteen hundred dollars a year may be better off financially. The physician +has to pay the rent and upkeep of her office; she must have someone to +answer her telephone and to take messages; she may need a conveyance so +that she can get about to her patients. Her training and the equipment she +uses in her work are more varied and expensive as a rule than those which +are required by a teacher. + +We should remember that while what we earn is important, there are other +considerations as important. The joy of the worker in her work is the first +consideration. The born teacher, like the born doctor, is happier in her +own employment. An income is a necessary possession, but it does not give +that happiness which work alone can give. Very few of us work for money +altogether, while many of us work to earn a living, which is a different +thing. To be self-supporting through work which we enjoy is one of the +greatest blessings of our existence. + +It is impossible to state an amount which will represent accurately a +living wage for girls who are beginning work in all the towns, cities or +country districts of Canada. At present a living wage in a city may be +nine, ten, eleven or twelve dollars a week; in places outside cities it +may vary as greatly. Girls at work should look for an employer who +recognizes reasonable standards and pays such wages as far as possible. +The more loyal girls are to such employers the better working conditions +will be for everyone. + +Skilled and highly trained workers require, and receive, wages far above +the sums mentioned in the preceding paragraph. + +The girl should estimate the value of her yearly income. This is important. +She may be a milliner and have steady employment for only thirty or +thirty-five weeks in the year. If she is paid a weekly wage of twelve +dollars, her yearly income will amount to three hundred and sixty or four +hundred and twenty dollars. She must find some other occupation for the +rest of her time or her total income will amount to three hundred and +sixty dollars, or four hundred and twenty dollars and no more. + +The trained nurse who is paid twenty-five or thirty dollars a week when she +is on a case, will make a mistake if she forgets that she will not be able +to work without intermission throughout the year. She may be engaged in her +employment only forty weeks in the year. Nurses may earn no more than eight +or nine hundred dollars in twelve months. Even the most capable factory +worker does not earn her highest wage every week in the year. She should +be careful to reckon her income by the year, not by the week. + +The girl at work exchanges her yearly income for food, shelter, clothing +and a number of other requirements, such as doctor's and dentist's fees, +carfare, and washing, holidays, recreation, savings, etc. If she earns +twelve dollars every week in the year her income will be six hundred and +twenty-four dollars. Out of this she may pay five dollars each week for +board, or two hundred and sixty dollars a year. If she spends between one +hundred and twenty-five dollars and one hundred and fifty dollars for her +clothes in the year, she will have about two hundred dollars for other +needs. + +What she uses her money for gives to the girl the real meaning of her wages. +Her income means food, clothing, and a house to live in. Besides that her +income means many small expenses, a little holiday and recreation, a little +kindness to someone, church collection, a gift to someone who is in need, +some small pleasure for the girl herself. It should also mean a savings +account. Something will be said about saving in the next chapter. But here +it may be said that if we spend everything we have from day to day, we are +left with little choice in spending. Choice in spending is a test of the +girl's character. We may choose to spend our spare money for candy. But if +we do we shall probably not be able to buy a volume of poetry which we +should love to keep and treasure. We may need a warm coat, but the money +we might have had for it we spent for a second expensive blouse when we +had one pretty blouse already. It was money we had saved which helped us +to go to a course of lessons in gymnastics, and that course may have cured +a tendency to headache. + +The average girl hopes that her wages will increase, and this is right. +An employer once said of the amount that he was willing to pay his most +useful employees: "I feel that if a girl is not able to make a good +bargain with me for her work, she will not be able to make a good bargain +for me with others." The best and surest way for the girl to increase her +wages is to think out some plan for increasing the value of her work, and +then if necessary to say to her employer that she has been able to make +her work more valuable. + +A word of warning about wages may not come amiss here. If our wages are +too low, the best way to go about raising them is to act ourselves, not +to expect others to act for us. The best results are likely to be obtained +by giving your employer some increased advantage, and by seeing at the +same time that he gives you an equal advantage in your income. But never +feel ill-used, because that lessens your happiness and your power to help +yourself. Remember it is your own difficulty and you are the person to +find the way out. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +SPENDING. SAVING. INVESTING + + +There is only one way by means of which we may know accurately how we are +spending our wages. To know this we must keep accounts. Perhaps the girl +has an impression that accounting is dull and troublesome. But this +impression, if she has it, is a mistaken one. + +This chapter on Spending, Saving and Investing is not written to keep the +girl from having what she wants. It is written to help her to make the +most of her wages, so that she will get the most use and pleasure from her +spending. A pretty blouse does not make up for the prettier colour that +ought to be in the girl's cheeks; it rather makes one notice more readily +that the girl herself is not looking her best. To be well dressed and well +cared for, to make the best of herself, a girl should learn to keep +accounts and to plan her expenditures carefully. She has often seen a man +poring over his business books, because he knows that by doing so with +good judgment he can improve his methods. Similarly, the time a girl +gives to the study of her accounts will also be to her advantage. + +One business woman who has made a study of her expenditure has the +following list of headings for her private account book: Board and +lodging; clothes; laundry; dentist and doctor; car tickets and stamps; +contribution to family life; books, magazines and papers; church and +benevolence; gifts and entertainment of friends; holidays and travel; +recreation, candy, music, and the theatre; study; clubs and societies; +miscellaneous; taxes; saving and investment. The girl at work can usefully +make a study of these headings since they, or others of the same character, +are used by women in business who desire to lead normal, generous and +helpful lives. The business woman just mentioned says that the money she +has for her income would give her no satisfaction if she had not people of +her own to love and if she were not helping to take care of them. From +this statement any girl will understand the meaning of the heading +"contribution to family life" in this business woman's accounts. + +The girl at work, however, can begin her accounts in a much simpler form +than the foregoing. The list of headings given above have been evolved +to fit the life of a woman who has been at work for a number of years. +A girl's first accounts may be as follows: Board and lodging; clothing; +recreation and holidays; dentist and doctor; church and charity; savings; +miscellaneous. + +Mrs. Ellen Richards, whose work in teaching people how to live wisely +is making her name more famous every year, gives in one of her books a +division of a family income which every girl should study and try to +understand: Food; clothes; rent or housing; light, heat and wages +(operating expenses for the house); miscellaneous, including books, +education, church, charity, savings, life insurance, doctor, dentist, +travel and pleasure. Various divisions by percentages have been made of +the family income. The one chosen by Mrs. Richards is based on an income +of $1,000 a year. The percentages are 30 per cent. for food; 20 per cent. +for rent; 15 per cent. for clothing; 10 per cent. for operating expenses; +and 25 per cent. for miscellaneous. + +It will be seen that there is a great deal for a girl to learn about the +spending of money. She will readily understand that it is impossible for +her to use her wages or income to the best advantage unless she knows what +she is spending it for, and in what proportions. Every girl should make +a division of income fitted to her own needs. + +It is not always possible to follow the percentages which Mrs. Richards +recommends, but it is possible and wise for every girl to know what are +regarded as proper divisions for a family income, and to plan her own +expenditures with such percentages as a guide. + +Sometimes girls are called "fortunate" or "lucky" because their affairs +seem to turn out well. In reality, these girls have planned carefully and +have carried out their plans faithfully. A well managed life is not an +accident, or a piece of luck; it is the result of careful planning, and +persistent application. + +The girl who saves has a freedom of action unknown to the girl who has +never had a bank account. We all find a compelling necessity to spend +money for food, shelter, clothing, carfare and other incidentals. But when +these wants are satisfied, the wise girl puts by a certain part of her +income. Then she can begin to exercise a power of choice. She may take +some training which will help her to get a better position, she may learn +a new occupation, or she may study music or designing. Possibly she needs +a rest and change; if she has money saved, she may rest for a few weeks. +If she has spent all her money, she must continue at work. Then, too, she +should guard herself by the possession of a bank account against sickness, +and being out of work. Even a small sum saved every week enables a girl to +feel strong and self-reliant. The habit of saving calls for self-control, +far-sightedness and imagination. + +Girls invest their savings in various ways. A girl may help her people to +buy a house, sometimes with a garden attached. This is a good investment in +most circumstances. The girl should take an interest in the garden and help +to grow vegetables and flowers. Possibly the garden lot may be large enough +for poultry as well as vegetables. Or the girl's family may live outside +the city, in which case a good part of the food for the household may be +produced in the garden. It was one of the glories of Belgium before the war +that many of her wage-earners lived in the country and grew a good part of +their own food. They kept hens and pigs; and there was almost no +unemployment or destitution in Belgium. + +The girl who saves generally begins with a bank account and should learn to +understand banking. The Canadian Government has an advantageous system of +annuities which offers young investors an excellent return for them money. +Girls and boys alike should study these annuities. Life insurance is a +helpful form of investment for those who have dependents. The girl at work +should not put her savings into speculative investments. Business men of +the best standing say it is pathetic to see the waste of girls' savings in +unwise investments. One of the best investments a girl can make is to +continue her education. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +HEALTH + + +Health has more to do with our successful employment than most of us have +yet realized. To prove that this is true a woman who is an employment +expert told the following story: + +"The other night I was sitting in my office waiting for a girl who could +not come to see me in the daytime. The manager of a business house who +was interested in the girl had asked me if I would advise her how to change +her work from one employment which she liked fairly well to another in +which she was greatly interested. I had formed no particular idea of what +the girl would be like. My day had been full and I had had no time to +consider her case, knowing only that she wanted to change her work, and +that she was a girl who was already earning her living. + +"She came in, looked at me with a straight, steady glance and offered me +her hand with a simplicity which took no note of the fact that an older +person is supposed usually to make the first advance. The fact that we +shook hands gave me an opportunity to notice that her hand was neither +nervous nor tremulous. The quality of her handclasp can be summed up in +saying that it was reassuring and agreeable. I wonder if most people know +how all these points are noticed by employment experts and employers. +The way in which the girl looked at me and the way in which she shook +hands told me that she was physically and mentally in good condition. + +"She was about five feet ten, and unusually well built and well developed. +She was dressed in noticeably good taste. She was a rather large woman, or +rather girl, for she was only a child in years. She was not what anyone +would call 'a beauty,' but she was so splendidly well and carried herself +so finely that she made an excellent impression. I do not know when I have +been so much attracted by anyone. Almost any employer would have given her +a position if he had had one vacant which she could fill. I wish all girls +could realize what an advantage it is to be well physically and mentally +and to look as well as this girl did. + +"When I came to question her I found that her story was unusual from the +point of view of employment. I thought from her appearance that she might +be eighteen or nineteen. But to my astonishment she told me that she was +fifteen and that she had been earning her living for nearly a year. +She was a stenographer and had had three years' training in a high school +of commerce. Her father had died and she was helping to support her mother. +Several factors were against her satisfactory employment. She was under +age and she had not completed her school course when she went to work. +From these two facts it would have been natural to suppose that she would +obtain a poor position, both in the character of the work required and in +payment. She was earning fifteen dollars a week, a rate of payment three +or four dollars a week higher than the average wage paid beginners in the +city where she was employed. It was her splendid health, her look of +substantial character and her good manner which had won this girl +employment when another girl of fifteen, less healthy and less developed, +might have failed to find any satisfactory position at all." + +A time is likely to come in the world's history when the laws of right +living are so well understood that poor health will be regarded as +blameworthy. In a number of cases we must regard it as blameworthy now. +To be in the company of a radiantly healthy person is a cheerful blessing. +Let us make up our minds to be this kind of blessing to our friends. + +Happily we can do a great deal to make ourselves healthy. We need to eat +wisely, to dress properly and to rest well. Every girl should learn to +regulate these things wisely for herself. Other people can only help to +make us healthy, but the real work of being healthy we must do for +ourselves, and this means daily attention and daily care. A famous doctor +said once that the average baby is meant to live; all the baby asks is to +be given a good chance. In the same way the average human being is meant +to be healthy. Health depends--the statement is so important that it will +bear repeating--on care in eating and resting and on proper clothing. +Health depends also on cleanliness, inside the body and out; this means +cleanliness in every respect. A daily bath and proper attention to one's +body are essential to health. + +The girl should learn as soon as possible that her health as well as her +appearance will depend on her taking daily exercise. She may suppose that +exercise is a dull tiresome thing which she is told by other people to +take, but which in itself has no interest for her. Here, as in other +things, the girl must learn to be her own captain, her own commanding +officer. She should give herself orders to take daily exercise. If any of +us needs a lesson in keeping well and beautiful, we can get that lesson +from our little friends the birds. Every creature, wild and tame, winged +and four-footed, takes the most scrupulous care of its physical condition. +They clean, stretch, brush, polish, until every feather or hair, until +every muscle and sinew is in fit condition. + +We should think of our bodies as fine instruments which are given into our +keeping. The human body is the finest and most wonderful instrument in +the world, and it is sad and amazing how often we fail to take the most +ordinary care of it. There are different systems of exercise, and the girl +should find one that will bring all her muscles properly into play. +Five or ten minutes' exercise a day is all that is required. There are +many muscles which are not used in walking or ordinary play, and if these +muscles are not exercised regularly then that fine instrument your body +will get out of good condition and will not show correct and beautiful +lines. A girl should train herself to stand properly. A simple test by +which she can tell if she is holding herself rightly is to walk a few +steps on tiptoe. In order to do this she must hold herself correctly. +To have a good body, well shaped and in right proportion, it is necessary +to hold one's self correctly all the time. Habits such as these are not +acquired all at once. It is only by persistence day by day that the girl +will learn to walk and to stand properly and will find that her body is +becoming lithe, strong and healthy, an instrument which it is a joy to +use and which will make her appearance as attractive as it ought to be. + +When anything goes wrong which we do not understand, it is generally +necessary to consult a physician. Special care should be taken to see +a good doctor or dentist, if anything is wrong with eyes or teeth. + +Other aids to health and happiness are sunshine and fresh air, drinking +plenty of good water, useful work, good temper, and good times. To be +healthy and happy we must also give affection and kind help to other people. + +Like everyone else, the girl at work needs holidays. Two weeks in the year +is a usual allowance; but three weeks are better than two. After the girl +has become a responsible and important worker, she will find two holidays +in the year a good investment for health, a short holiday and a longer one +of three or four weeks. + +To be angry, bad tempered and to think unkindly are all harmful to one's +health and destroy a great part of one's happiness. No one can be a +successful worker of a high type who is habitually jealous or bad-tempered. +Good thoughts are an aid to both health and happiness. In the same way one +needs what are called "good times." Many girls love walks in the country +with a number of companions. Learning to know birds and flowers by sight, +and keeping a record of those found, and when and where they were found, +is an enjoyable pursuit of endless interest. Learn to keep and cherish all +the festivals of the year--Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving, and other +holidays. Charades and plays, games and dancing, picnics and excursions, +may be made enjoyable and delightful and should help to keep girls healthy +as well as happy if they are planned with good sense and restricted to +suitable times and places. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +A GIRL'S READING + + +Anyone who has developed a love for reading possesses resources for +self-improvement and enjoyment which are almost limitless. This love for +reading a girl may acquire when she is young, or she may develop it at +any time. It is worth while taking some trouble to learn to read well. + +Reading for the girl at work should include newspapers and magazines as +well as books. She should learn how to read newspapers, because as a great +journalist said once, "A newspaper is a sign post telling the traveller +which road he ought to take." In this sense we are all travellers and +every worker needs to read his sign post which is a newspaper. To each +girl some parts of a newspaper are more important than others; much +depends on her occupation and on her relations to life. The business man +reads the newspaper to find out what is happening that will affect his +business. The girl at work should read what we call foreign news, that is, +news about countries other than our own, and she should read also about +important happenings in our own country. We ought to read the newspaper +carefully so that we may be in touch with the rest of the world. We should +read important local news, that is, news of our own neighbourhood. +We cannot understand our neighbourhood unless we know what is going on in +it. A new library may have been opened, a new church or picture gallery. +Some worth while person may be speaking whom we may go to hear. There may +be trouble in the community which we can help to put right. The person who +is really living in touch with progress must give some time to daily +newspapers. + +But there is a good deal in a newspaper which one does not need to read. +A newspaper is a report of daily happenings, sometimes even of rumours. +These should be published, so that the truth may be arrived at, but the +girl at work should find the parts of the newspaper which are her special +concern and should not give much time to the rest of the paper. She should +learn to distinguish facts from rumours and opinions. The girl who is +learning discrimination in buying will find some of the advertisements +useful reading. + +Magazines are more like books than newspapers. Sometimes they are not +so useful as newspapers. But they are often entertaining, and good +entertainment is a fine thing. There are magazines which make a special +feature of publishing articles on what is new in art, science, music, +politics, etc. A number of good magazines are devoted especially to the +interests ofwomen. The girl should not attempt to buy many magazines. +A great many of them are alike. She should find one that meets her needs, +and sometimes she should vary her choice. + +It is important that she should see some of the best publications which +have to do with her own line of work. If the girl is working at home she +should read about home questions. Admirable new publications are being +issued on all kinds of household matters. If a girl is a saleswoman or +stenographer, she should see what is being written on these subjects. +It is a mistake for any worker not to make herself familiar with what +other workers in her own occupation are doing. + +Besides reading for our work, we have minds and souls to keep and +cultivate. Reading of the right kind is a great help in encouraging +the growth of mind and soul. Books, when they are good of their kind, +and when read in the right way, teach us; give us rest, change and +variety; entertain and amuse us; and are a refuge and consolation. + +We can learn a great deal from a good book of fiction. One writer has said +that she obtained the greater part of her education from reading novels. +Stories explain to us the endless varieties of human nature. We learn to +know people from reading good novels, and after a while we are able to +criticize the characters in the stories from the people we know ourselves. +Then we can tell whether the novel is true to nature, or whether it is +only a poor mistaken interpretation of life. Many novels have to do with +famous places as well as famous people. It would be a great loss if we had +to give up all the good novels in the world. The best novels help us to +understand how wonderfully important life is. + +Other realms of knowledge and delight are found in biography and history. +Scarcely too much can be said in praise of good biography. The girl should +ask at home or in a library for an interesting life of some famous person. +Perhaps she is specially attracted to a hero or heroine of history, to +some famous writer, artist or musician. In any case, she may ask the +librarian to advise her which biography to read first. While reading +famous histories, such as Greene's Short History of England, she should +not fail to read the history connected with her own neighbourhood. World +history and the history of countries other than our own are also important. + +Besides fiction, biography and history, the girl is likely to find herself +longing to read some of the great poetry of the world. Here again she may +ask the advice of the librarian. We can hardly know the full beauty of +God's world until we have read some of the writings of the great poets. +The girl who is really fond of reading will enjoy essays and the letters +of famous people. Girls who love art and music will find good books on such +subjects. Almost anything one can imagine has been written about in a book. + +While she should read well and wisely, the girl should not turn into a +bookworm. Unless our reading fits us for better thought and better action, +we should examine into what we are reading and change it for something +better. Reading should never be a hindrance to work, but a help. Nor should +we put reading in the place of people. It is a poor plan for any girl to +prefer books habitually to intercourse with her friends. + +A number of fine books deal with social and economic questions. These +subjects appear also in many novels. The girl who wants to see conditions +improved for the sick, the poor, and the unfortunate may again ask advice +from the librarian. The biography of a woman like Miss Nightingale, or such +a book as Ruskin's "Sesame and Lilies," will interest girls of this class. + +A few rules will help us in our reading. Whatever book we read should be a +good book of its class. Suppose we want to read a light and entertaining +book for amusement and relaxation, then it should be good entertainment, +well written, well planned, delightfully easy and gay in style. Do not read +books which make you wish that you had not read them. Shun books which make +one feel that life is not worth living. We can always judge the character +of a book by the importance it gives to life. A book that has a great +vision of life is a great book. In the same way we should not read books +that make us think poorly of people. The finer the book the more clearly +it shows how worth while every individual is. Any book that separates us, +or turns us away, from the highest, happiest things is not worth the time +which we might spend in reading it. There is something wrong with a book +which leaves us indolent and listless. Books that we should choose, +therefore, are those which make us feel that life is worth living, that +people are worth while, and which keep us in love with the highest things +in life. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +NECESSARY WORK + + +There is a question which everyone should ask herself about her work: +"Is the work that I am doing adding anything to the wealth and well-being +of the world? Is it necessary work--that is, is any one single person +dependent to any extent for his or her existence on what I do?" + +Necessary work has to do with providing the necessaries of life. These are +food, clothing, shelter, light, heat and every other service or commodity +which helps to keep us alive and adds to our efficiency as human beings. + +Anyone, therefore, who is producing food or preparing it is a necessary +worker. So are the great armies of workers who are engaged in producing +materials out of which all kinds of necessary clothing are made, and +other workers who make necessary clothing from wool, cotton, linen, etc. + +Such workers occupy an honourable place because our lives actually depend +on them. Their daily work adds to the wealth of the world and makes it +possible to improve the standard of living for everyone. We could spend +much time naming the occupations of necessary workers, such as fishermen, +sailors, railway men, farmers, miners, and many others. Sailors and +railway men are not directly engaged in creating new wealth as the farmer +is, but food would not do us much good if there were no one to bring it +to market, so all transportation workers are necessary workers. + +Mothers of children add infinitely to the wealth and well-being of the +world. Every girl or woman whose work it is to prepare food and make a +home is a necessary worker of honourable rank. The paid house worker is a +necessary worker and has this honourable rank. + +Whether or not we are engaged in necessary work makes a great difference +to the steadiness of our employment. If we are doing necessary work, we +are much more certain of steady employment than we can be if our work is +connected with providing luxuries or other commodities which are not +essential to the maintenance of life. + +About twice in every ten years, the world, or part of the world, +experiences what is known as a financial depression. Perhaps crops have +failed in many countries, or unwise people have been speculating madly, +or a great amount of money has been invested in utilities which will not +become productive for a number of years. Whatever the reason is, the world +passes through a time of business depression. Every worker, young and old, +should remember that these times of depression will recur. In good times +when we are earning good wages we must prepare for these bad times when +wages may be lower, or we may be out of work altogether and have no wages +for some months. If we are not primary producers, such as the people in +the classes named above, then it is wise for us to learn how to do some +necessary work so that when a business depression comes, if we lose our +usual employment, we may turn to this other vocation which we have learned. + +Some girls earn wages by curling feathers. Now feathers are a luxury. +No one needs to wear a feather in her hat in order to keep alive. But we +know that we must eat, be clothed and have shelter in order to live. +In times of great business depression people stop spending money, as far +as possible. They cease buying feathers and other luxuries. In this way, +girls who earn their living by doing work connected with luxuries are +likely to lose their employment during times of financial depression. But +if the girl who has earned her living curling feathers is a good cook, +she is reasonably sure of employment even in bad times. Workers such as +artists of all kinds, musicians, writers, actors, painters, sculptors, +handicraft workers, architects and so on are likely to experience +difficulties during times of financial depression. Many workers in these +classes agree that it is advisable for them to have other work of a +different character which they may use as occasion requires. + +The girl who is a musician may add to her profession a knowledge of +poultry farming or rose growing. Roses may be called a luxury, it is true, +but the world will never consent to live without roses. Or the girl who +is an artist may make and sell blouses. The girl who is a writer may find +productive work of the same character as the musician, or she may turn to +fruit farming or become a paid housekeeper. Every worker should make an +effort to understand the connection between the character of her work and +the likelihood of her obtaining steady employment. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +WHAT ONE GIRL CAN DO FOR ANOTHER + + +"No work will have as much happiness as it ought to have, or will be as +well done as it should be, until fellow-workers exchange experiences and +advice with one another." + +Every girl can learn something about her work from others in the same +occupation. To learn from a friendly fellow-worker is pleasant and easy +compared with the difficulty that we find in learning from people who are +not specially interested in showing us how to work. Some of the happiest +groups of workers are those who have organized to promote friendship and +good feeling amongst girls and women who are in the same occupation. + +This is what the girls of one such group say of the benefit of belonging +to a friendly social organization of which the members are fellow-workers: +"It improves our work, because we know how the others do theirs and we +want to do as well as they do. We talk over problems in our work, and +hearing the various ideas and solutions that others have thought out helps +us in solving our problems. We do not meet to discuss our work primarily; +as a rule our gatherings are for enjoyment and recreation. But work every +now and then comes into general conversation and in this way we learn. +It is a help to have for a friend one of the best workers in your +occupation. You try your best to keep up with her. If any of the girls +needs a new position, or is in difficulty about her work, she may talk it +over with one of the older workers. In the same way we advise one another +about wages. We can find out what is the average wage and the best wage +paid in the occupation and what are the average hours of employment. +Many girls in the club have found new positions and have been able to ask +for and get higher wages through the advice and help of other club members." + +Every girl knows what a help it is to work with others when sewing, +mending, dressmaking and trimming hats. The girl in paid employment finds +this work more trying than the girl who remains at home, because the girl +at home generally has spare hours during the day when she may do work of +this character. A mending circle meeting once a week could plan some +entertainment to accompany work. One of the circle might read aloud, or +all the members might take turns in telling a story and adding in some +way to the evening's entertainment. Girls in such a circle could all help +in blouse making or in millinery. One or more of the members might have +a special gift in cutting and fitting. Others might be more skilful in +sewing. One or more of the girls might have a special gift in buying. +The possibilities of co-operative work of this kind for girls in the +twentieth century are very great indeed. + +There was a time in the history of the world when work of this kind was all +done in private homes. Women and girls worked together at home, spinning, +weaving, sewing and dressmaking. A great part of such work is now done in +factories. But girls know that they still have mending, sewing, dressmaking +and millinery to do. People are seldom well advised if they do work of this +kind in isolation. The work is often not so well done and the worker is +lonely and apt to be discouraged. It is part of the duty of the twentieth +century girl to restore happiness and companionship in all this women's +work, a great part of which is still done by hand. The happy circle of girl +workers is often the best solution to the problem of how this work of +making, trimming and mending should be done. + +One such group of girls, in this case, a group of stenographers, who, as it +happens, have all come from farm homes, have made a success of co-operative +housekeeping. There are eight girls in the group. The city in which they +work is by a lake and during the summer months these girls rent a cottage +on the lake shore outside the city. They have the cottage for four months. +Two girls undertake the housekeeping for a month at a time, which means +that each girl has one month of housekeeping responsibility and three +months when she helps only with tidying and cleaning. Their individual +expenses for rent and housekeeping amount to $4.50 per week. This is an +excellent example of the good to be obtained from co-operative effort. + +Other girls find companionship, recreation and improvement in reading +circles, study clubs, and clubs for walking, snowshoeing, skating and +other outdoor enjoyment. Clubs formed to promote play and exercise are +among the best of these organizations. Some circles are for dancing; +others are dramatic clubs. Practically every group of this kind undertakes +some benevolent work, and should do so in order to share happiness and +good times with others. Such clubs entertain the inmates of hospitals, +children's and old people's homes, give Christmas trees to children, send +gifts to the needy, or work for benevolent organizations. + +The club for outdoor play is one of the most important of group +organizations. It has a wonderful effect on the health of its members. +Tennis, basket ball, cricket, hockey and croquet are played by groups of +girls who often challenge boys' clubs and are able to enter such contests +with skill and ability. The gardening club is one of the many ways in which +a club of girls can raise money to help in benevolent and other objects. + +To form a group of this kind successfully the girl members require to have +kindly impulses and enthusiasm, a willingness to work and play together, +and the wish to be useful and to do something worth doing. Other requisites +are a few simple rules, loyally lived up to, and one or two girls who have +organizing ability. Leaders should train others to lead also, and each girl +should take her turn in leading and in following. + +The ideal group is not made up of girls exclusively, but should take its +pattern as much as possible from family life. The girls of the group play +together and work together. But the fathers and mothers of some of the +girls will be glad to be honorary members and should share at times both +in work and in play. A boys' club may be a friendly rival in games and may +co-operate in benevolent work and entertainment. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +CIVIC DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES + + +Learning to be a good neighbour is an active enjoyment which lasts us all +our lives. Our civic duties and responsibilities may be summed up by saying +that they are the duties and opportunities of a good neighbour. We should +study our civic duties and responsibilities carefully so that we may know +how to vote rightly and wisely when we are given an opportunity to vote on +public questions. + +The privilege of voting as a citizen is of the highest importance. But +it is not by any means the only duty or opportunity of a good neighbour. +Women have exercised the right to vote only of recent years, and still in +a number of countries women do not yet vote. They can and do give service +in many other ways. Every man and woman who has the franchise should +record an honest and intelligent vote. But those who vote should give +other service as well. Those who are too young to vote have other +opportunities to work for the community and for the nation. + +The right to vote in Canadian elections for the Dominion House of Commons +was given to a limited number of women for the first time in 1917. By an +Act of Parliament which became law in 1918 all women in Canada have the +right to vote in Dominion elections under the same conditions as men. +Women of twenty-one and over have the right to vote in the Provincial +elections of Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, +and Nova Scotia. + +What is the meaning of learning to be a good neighbour? + +Let us take the cases of three Canadian girls. One lives in a country +neighbourhood, one belongs to a village, and the third is a city girl. +Each of them lives in a house on a road or street. Other houses in which +neighbours live are not far away. The city girl's next door neighbour is +close by; there is more space in the village; and where the country girl +lives everyone owns a farm so that there is abundance of room between one +neighbour and another. + +The community in which she lives gives each of these girls certain good +things. It gives her the school where she is educated. The roads that lead +to different places where she needs to go are provided by the community. + +When a great many people live close together, the community has to provide +other necessary things. The girl in the country neighbourhood, unlike the +city girl, needs no special playground because she has many beautiful, +safe places where she can play; also her father can provide his house with +pure water with comparative ease, whereas in a city or town, the council, +which is the government of the local community, provides water and +playgrounds. The city girl is used to having these things provided for her +by the community, and the girl in the country often does not stop to think +of the space, light, air and water which are hers so freely and abundantly. + +What we call the community is all the people who live in one district, +which has boundaries to mark it off from other communities. Certain +utilities, such as roads, schools, courts, water, lighting, parks, +playgrounds, and many other things, are kept up by taxes, which are paid +by the people of the community. + +Sometimes taxes are objected to as burdens. But it is honourable to pay +taxes for the upkeep of a good community. Money raised by taxes should be +spent wisely, honestly, and not extravagantly. It is the people's money, +and proper value should be received for what the community spends. We +should all see as far as possible that the money from taxes is spent +properly. + +Every girl, boy, man and woman, is a citizen of some community and nation, +and has a duty to see that the community and nation are well managed and +well governed. + +There is a beautiful word, common, which is sometimes misused in one of +its meanings. One of the meanings of the word "common" is "belonging to +all." Common property means property belonging to a certain number of +people. A "common" is a piece of public property. A common duty is a duty +which belongs to all. There is no common or public property in your +neighbourhood, and there is no common duty in your neighbourhood, which +is not yours. + +To be a good neighbour has both a public and a private meaning. You are a +good neighbour to the people who live near you if you help to take care of +them when they are sick, do everything you can to keep them healthy when +they are well, and are kind when they are in trouble. A good neighbour +is a quiet, peaceful, law-abiding citizen, pleasant and useful in the +neighbourhood. What you do as a good neighbour for the people who live +next door, you do as far as you are able for the community in which you +live. The best rule ever given to the world for being a good neighbour +is contained in the story of the Good Samaritan. The more we study that +story, the better we will understand our duties to our neighbours and +the community. + +Women and girls should be specially interested in such questions as +education and the training of children, in public health and safety and +public justice, in markets and everything having to do with the food +supply, and in the proper treatment of immigrants. The nation cannot do +its best unless girls and women help by being good neighbours and citizens +in all these and other matters. + +Perhaps the most valuable possession that any girl has is her character. +The honest, kind, likeable girl, who keeps her word and is a good friend, +is valued by everyone who knows her. The character of a nation is not +unlike the character of the individual. We love our country. We would give +her the best service. The best we can do for her is to make her national +character honest, kind, strong, helpful and lovable. Every individual in a +nation has a civic duty and responsibility to make that nation a good +neighbour. + +A Canadian woman of seventy years said once to a younger woman who was a +professional worker, "My dear, tell me about the hospital where you are +working. I have heard that conditions are not all they should be. I want +to know, because if I know I may be able to help in making what is wrong +right." She was a quiet, gentle woman, charming in manner, and somewhat +shy and reserved. She never talked about disagreeable things. On this +occasion she believed it was her duty to make sure whether there was a +wrong, and if there was to try to put it right. No one ever heard anything +said about this matter in public, but after some time the management of +one public institution was greatly improved. Age, experience and wisdom +can help in these wonderful ways. Girls may learn from such women. + +We learn best to be good citizens in our own homes. Study public affairs +and community questions with your father and mother, brothers and sisters. + +Those who read Queen Victoria's Letters, which have been published, notice +that in her girlhood she was a simple, gentle, innocent girl, not specially +clever, but eager to learn, resolved that everything in the government of +her country should be explained to her so that she might understand it. +It was her duty to know the details of that great government, and she was +determined, no matter what it cost her in work and study, to know and +understand her duty. In her later letters she appears as an old, very wise +woman, one of the first statesmen of her age. Queen Victoria had great +responsibilities. Ours are smaller. But no girl, whether she works at home +or in paid employment, can reach her highest development in the twentieth +century without living up to her civic and national responsibilities. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE BEST KIND OF WORK + + +Summing up what we have been able to learn, and what the world has learned, +about employment, it is generally agreed that hard work is best. By hard +work is meant work which requires from us the putting forth of all our +energies and which calls for all our gifts. Work is very beneficial. As a +man has said, "It takes the nonsense out of people," not the fun out of +life, but the nonsense out of people, foolish, wrong, mistaken ideas which +make people disagreeable to work with or play with or live with. It is not +until our work, and methods of doing work, make use of all our ability and +capacity that we know how fine work can be. You remember the story in the +Bible which tells how Jacob wrestled with an unseen adversary until the +breaking of the day. Then when Jacob was asked what he would have, he +answered, "I will not let thee go except thou bless me." So work when we +do our best with it blesses us. + +Musicians speak of "technic" in playing and artists of "technic" in +painting. Technic is skill, but it is more than skill. It is skill and +individuality joined together. There is technic of a certain kind which we +all may acquire in our work. Perhaps a story will explain best what this +technic is. A beautiful girl who had all the gifts of a great actress but +was untrained once made an extraordinary success in one of Shakespeare's +plays. Later she failed utterly. She had not had that patient unceasing +practice which makes every performance a high level of acting. When she +felt inspired, she could act; but when she was dull or tired or out of +sorts, her inspiration failed her, and she had no technic or skill in +acting to fall back upon. + +The good cook practically never fails in what she makes. She may not feel +like cooking her best every day, but she knows how, and all her good work +in the past stands by her skilful hands and makes her cooking a success +every day. In the same way, the practised writer can rely on a certain +technic or skill in writing even when he is dull and jaded and yet there +is work which must be done. + +In your work, no matter what it is, do your best every day as far as you +are able, and by and by this skill in work will stand beside you like a +friend and will help your hands and mind. + +Have you ever noticed how a mother who has brought up five or six children +of her own, takes a baby up in her hands? Such skill in handling an infant +is one of the most beautiful things in the world. The mother can do it +well, because she has done it often, with all her heart. + +We often hear of success and failure in work. Good work is made up of both +failure and success. One failure may spur us on to do better work than we +have ever done before. A failure may teach us a great deal if we will learn +from it. Do not be cast down because of failure. Find out what its lesson +is. Do not be too much uplifted over a success. It may turn out a hindrance +if we grow conceited over it. Both success and failure are temporary phases +of good work. + +We should learn not to try too hard, or be over anxious about work. +Once an old gentleman who had taken up golf late in life said that his +caddy had taught him a great lesson. "You are too anxious." the little +boy said. "Just do as well as you can and don't be so anxious. You would +play a better game that way." + +We do not always believe when we are learning that work will be enjoyable. +We have to learn _how to work_ before we can get the full enjoyment from +our occupation. You had to learn how to skate and how to dance before you +enjoyed skating and dancing. Trying to skate and trying to dance and being +awkward, and not knowing how, does not give one the full enjoyment of +skating and dancing. But when we do know how and have become skilful, how +delightful these recreations are! When we know how to work, work also is +full of enjoyment. + +It is well to remember that work is a permanent part of our lives. Do not +think of it, therefore, as a harsh or unfriendly part of life, but realize +the meaning of employment as one of our greatest possessions. It is a means +by which we can enter into the full enjoyment of our own faculties and +which helps us to understand the importance of life. The comradeship of +work is very real and lasting. The girl who goes forward, therefore, into +her life's work with a determination to do her best, while she will often +meet hard problems, is certain to find usefulness and happiness in her +employment. + + + + +LIST OF OCCUPATIONS + +Accompanying, see music. + +Accounting. + +Acting. + +Advertising. + +Anaesthetist. + +Architecture. + +Auditing. + +Banking. + +Basketry. + +Bee-keeping. + +Blouse making. + +Bookbinding. + +Bookkeeping. + +Business managing and owning. + +Butter making. + +Buying, see store employment. + +Candy making. + +Canning. + +Care of children. + +Catering. + +Cheese making. + +Chemical industry. + +Children's clothes making. + +Children's nurse. + +China decorating. + +Chiropody. + +Civil service. + +Commercial traveller. + +Companion. + +Composition, see music. + +Comptometer operating. + +Concert singing and playing. + +Confidential clerk. + +Cooking. + +Costume designing. + +Dancing. + +Deaconess. + +Dentistry. + +Designing fabrics, wall papers, etc. + +Dictaphone operating. + +Dietetics. + +Domestic science: + Cook, special cooking, dietitian, manager of clubs, hotels, restaurants, + tea rooms and cafeterias, lecturer, teacher, writer. + +Domestic service, see house employment. + +Draughting. + +Drawing. + +Dressmaking: + Designing, sewing, buying, machine operating, managing and owning. + +Embroidery. + +Employment expert. + +Enameling. + +Entertainer. + +Etching. + +Expert in flour testing. + +Factory employment: + Machine operators, designers, forewomen, stenographers, bookkeepers, + nurses, dietitians, welfare workers, travellers, managers and owners. + +Farm work for women: + Farm managing, bee-keeping, plant growing, flower growing, poultry and + eggs, butter, milk and cheese, vegetables, fruit growing. + +Farm managing. + +Florist. + +Flower growing. + +Food demonstrating. + +Fruit growing. + +Governess. + +Hairdressing. + +Handicrafts: + Basketry, book binding, china decorating, embroidery, enameling, + jewelry making, leather work, metal work, pottery, stencilling, + weaving, wood carving. + +Home making. + +Hostess, in hotels, clubs, etc. + +House decorating. + +House furnishing. + +House employment: + Cook, laundress, housemaid, children's nurse, seamstress, ladies' maid, + companion, mother's help, housekeeper, household manager and organizer. + +Illustrating. + +Instructor in wireless telegraphy. + +Insurance. + +Investigating, see social work. + +Jewelry making. + +Journalism. + +Landscape architecture. + +Landscape gardening. + +Laundry. + +Law. + +Leather work. + +Lecturing. + +Library work. + +Machine operating. + +Manicuring. + +Map making. + +Massage. + +Medicine. + +Metal work. + +Milk farming. + +Millinery: + Making, designing, selling, managing, owning. + +Missionary work. + +Mother's help. + +Motor driving. + +Munitions. + +Music: + Accompanying, composition, concert playing and singing, teaching. + +Nursing: + Institutional, private, military, public health, schools, + superintendents of hospitals and training schools, managing and + owning private hospitals. + +Office employment: + Stenographer, typist, bookkeeper, confidential clerk, secretary, + billing clerk, cheque clerk, fyling clerk, dictaphone operator, + comptometer operator, librarian, manager. + +Painting. + +Pharmacy. + +Photography. + +Police woman. + +Postal clerk. + +Pottery. + +Poultry farming. + +Proof reading. + +Real estate: + Agents, rent collectors. + +Salesmanship. + +Sculpture. + +Seamstress. + +Secretarial work. + +Sewing by the day, see seamstress. + +Shampooing. + +Shopping expert. + +Social work: + Secretaries, statisticians, visitors, lecturers, dietitians, doctors, + nurses, field workers, investigators, parole officers, officers of + institutions, superintendents. + +Statistical work. + +Stencilling. + +Stenography. + +Store employment: + Messenger girls, parcel girls, markers, assistants, stenographers, + shoppers, house furnishers, assistant managers, managers, assistant + buyers, buyers, advertisers, nurses, dietitians, welfare workers, + employment experts, owners. + +Teaching: + Public schools, high schools, colleges, private schools, music, + dramatic, domestic science, kindergarten, arts and handicrafts, + lecturing, teaching handicapped children, manual training, sewing, + millinery, dressmaking, physical training, gardening, commercial + subjects, governess, tutor, secretary, supervising. + +Telegraphy: + Morse operating, automatic machines. + +Telephone employment: + Operating, supervising, private switchboard operating. + +Vegetable growing. + +Vocational advising. + +Weaving. + +Welfare work. + +Window decorating. + +Wood carving. + +Work for the girl at home: + Blouse making, children's clothes, candy making, sewing, dressmaking, + millinery, bread making, cake and jam making, pickles, marmalade, + catering, shopping, embroidery, laundry work, mending, making + underclothes, canning, raising fruit and flowers, poultry and eggs, + vegetable growing, managing a lending library, teaching, mother's help, + house work for neighbours, doctors' and dentists' secretary, + visiting bookkeeper, visiting housekeeper. + +Writing. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY. + + +Art of Right Living, The, by Ellen H. Richards: Whitcomb & Barrows, + Boston (1904). + +Business of Being a Woman, The, by Ida M. Tarbell: Macmillan, New York, + 1916. + +Careers: Women's Employment Publishing Company, London, 1916. + +Classified List of Vocations for Trained Women, by E. P. Hirth: + The Intercollegiate Bureau of Occupations, New York, 1917. + +Commercial Work and Training for Girls, by Jeannette Eaton and Bertha M. + Stevens: Macmillan, New York, 1915. + +Cost of Cleanness, The, by Ellen H. Richards: Wiley & Sons, New York + (1908). + +Cost of Food, The, by Ellen H. Richards: Wiley & Sons, New York (1901). + +Cost of Living, The, by Ellen H. Richards: Wiley & Sons, New York (1899, + 1905). + +Cost of Shelter, The, by Ellen H. Richards: Wiley & Sons, New York (1905). + +Democracy and Education, by John Dewey: Macmillan, New York (1916). + +Domestic Needs of Farm Women. Report No. 104: U.S. Department of + Agriculture, Washington, 1915. + +Domestic Service, by C. V. Butler: G. Bell & Sons, London, 1916. + +Economic Needs of Farm Women. Report No. 106: U.S. Department of + Agriculture, Washington, 1915. + +Economic Position of Women. Vol. I, No. 1. Proceedings of Academy of + Political Science: Columbia University, New York, 1910. + +Educational Needs of Farm Women. Report No. 105: U.S. Department of + Agriculture, Washington, 1915. + +Fatigue and Efficiency, by Josephine Goldmark: Charities Publication + Committee, New York, 1912. + +Food and Household Management, by Helen Kinne and Anna M. Cooley: + Macmillan, New York, 1915. + +Home and the Family, The, by Helen Kinne and Anna M. Cooley: Macmillan, + New York, 1917. + +Household Administration, edited by Alice Ravenhill and Catherine J. + Schiff: Grant Richards, London, 1910. + +Increasing Home Efficiency, by Martha Bensley Bruere and Robert W. Bruere: + Macmillan, New York, 1913. + +Industrial Democracy, by Sidney and Beatrice Webb: Longmans, Green, + London, 1897. + +Intercollegiate Bureau of Occupations, New York. Reports. 1911-1913, + 1914-1915. + +Life and Labour of the People of London, Vol. 4. Women's Work, + by Charles Booth: Macmillan, London, 1902. + +Life of Ellen H. Richards, by Caroline L. Hunt: Whitcomb & Barrows, + Boston, 1916. + +Living Wage of Women Workers, The, by L. M. Bosworth: Longmans, Green, + New York, 1911. + +Long Day, The: The Century Company, New York, 1905. + +Making Both Ends Meet, by S. A. Clark and Edith Wyatt: Macmillan, + New York, 1911. + +Minimum Cost of Living, The, by Winifrid Stuart Gibbs: Macmillan, + New York, 1917. + +Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission, Part 2. The Unemployed. + +New Era in Canada, The, edited by J. O. Miller: J. M. Dent & Son, + London and Toronto, 1917. + +Profitable Vocations for Girls, by E. W. Weaver: A. S. Barnes Company, + New York, 1913. + +Report of The Ontario Commission on Unemployment, 1916. + +Road to Trained Service in the Household, The, by Henrietta Roelofs: + National Board Young Women's Christian Associations, New York, 1915. + +Saleswomen in Mercantile Stores, by E. B. Butler: Charities Publication + Committee, New York, 1909. + +Shelter and Clothing, by Helen Kinne and Anna M. Cooley: Macmillan, + New York, 1915. + +Social and Labour Needs of Farm Women, Report No. 103, U.S. Department of + Agriculture, Washington, 1915. + +Survey of Occupations Open to the Girl of Fourteen to Sixteen, by H.H. + Dodge: Girls' Trade Education League, Boston, 1912. + +Trade Union Woman, The, by Alice Henry: D. Appleton, New York, 1915. + +Vocational Mathematics for Girls, by Wm. H. Dooley: D.C. Heath, Boston, + 1917. + +Vocations for Boston Girls. Bulletins. Telephone operating. Bookbinding. + Stenography and typewriting. Nursery maid. Dressmaking. Millinery. + Straw hat making. Manicuring and hairdressing. Nursing. Salesmanship. + Clothing machine operating. Paper box making. Confectionery manufacture. + Knit Goods manufacture: Girls' Trade Education League, Boston, 1911, 1912. + +Vocations for Girls, by Mary A. Laselle and Katherine E. Wiley: Houghton, + Mifflin Company, Boston, 1913. + +Vocations for the Trained Woman, Vol. 1, Pts. 1 and 2. Women's Educational + and Industrial Union, Boston: Longmans, Green, New York, 1910, 1914. + +Wage-Earning Women, by Annie Marion Maclean: Macmillan, New York, 1910. + +Ways of Woman, The, by Ida M. Tarbell: Macmillan, New York, 1915. + +Welfare Work, by Dorothea Proud: G. Bell & Sons, London, 1916. + +Woman and Labour, by Olive Schreiner: T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1911. + +Woman--Bless Her, The, by Marjory MacMurchy: S. B. Gundy, Toronto, 1916. + +Women and the Trades, by E. B. Butler: Charities Publication Committee, + New York, 1909. + +Women and Work, by Helen M. Bennett: D. Appleton & Company, New York, 1917. + +Women in Modern Industry, by B. L. Hutchins: G. Bell & Sons, London, 1915. + +Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Boston. Reports, 1913, 1914. + +Work-a-day Girl, The, by Clara E. Laughlin: Fleming H. Revell Company, + New York, 1913. + +Youth, School and Vocation, by Meyer Bloomfield: Houghton, Mifflin Company, + Boston, 1915. + + + + + +INDEX + + + PAGE + +Accompanying 92 + +Accounting 94 + +Acting 93 + +Advertising 90 + +Anaesthetist 102 + +Architecture 91 + +Art 90 + + +Babies 84 + +Bank account 114 + +Banking 94 + +Bee-keeping 67 + +Best kind of work 138 + +Biography 123 + +Blouse making 78 + +Boarding house management 104 + +Bookbinding 90 + +Bookkeeping 19, 80 + +Book reviewing 89 + +Books 123 + +Broker 105 + +Business college 15 + +Buying a house and garden 114 + + +Canadian Government Annuities 115 + +Candy making 78 + +Capital 65, 69 + +Care of children 84 + +Cataloguer 73 + +Catering business 101, 104 + +Changing about 8 + +Chemical industry 96 + +Children's librarian 74 + +Children's nurse 44 + +Circulation librarian 74 + +Citizen 135 + +City girl as neighbour 134 + +City, town and country wages + and expenses 108 + +Civic duties and + responsibilities 133 + +Civil service 19, 97 + +Cleanliness 118 + +Commercial traveller 105 + +Comptometer operating 19 + +Concert singing and playing 92 + +Conductor of foreign tours 105 + +Consulting a dentist 119 + +Consulting a physician 119 + +Cook 30 + +Co-operation as applied to + work of home 85 + +Co-operative housekeeping + by girls 131 + +Co-operative principles 86 + +Country girl as a neighbour 134 + +Country walks 120 + +Custom dressmaking 48 + + +Dancing 93 + +Deaconess 98 + +Dentistry 96 + +Departments of Domestic + Science 32 + +Designing 90 + +Designing costumes 45 + +Dictaphone operator 19 + +Dietitian 98 + +Difference between home + and work 20 + +Difference between school + and home 20 + +Division of family income 113 + +Domestic Science 28 + +Dress 17 + +Dressmaker 45 + +Dressmaking, qualifications + for employment, 46 + training, 46 + wages 48 + +Dressmaking as a business 48 + +Dressmaking as a factory trade 48 + + +Embroidery 90 + +Employment department 9, 105 + +Employment expert 105 + +Entertaining 105, 119 + +Estimate of yearly income 109 + +Examinations 35 + +Exercise 118 + + +Factory employment, + qualifications for, 6 + training, 4 + wages 6 + +Fair wage 109 + +Farm work for women 65 + +Farm managers 65 + +Festivals 120 + +"Field" work 98 + +Financial adviser 105 + +Flower growing 66 + +Food 25 + +Food demonstrator 102 + +Franchise 133 + +Fresh air 119 + +Friendships 27 + +Fruit growing 79 + + +Getting on with fellow workers 21 + +Girl who really wants work 23 + +Girl's accounts, The 113 + +Girl's reading, The 121 + +Girls' Clubs 131 + +Girls with intellectual gifts 94 + +Going into business for + one's self 99 + +Good Samaritan, The 135 + +Good thoughts 120 + +Good times 26, 119 + +Government employment bureau 2 + + +Hairdresser 61 + +Hairdressing and manicuring, + qualifications for employment, 61 + training, 61 + wages 62 + +Hairdressing and manicuring + as a business 62 + +Handicrafts 90 + +Hard work 138 + +Headings for girl's + account book 113 + +Headings for private account + book of business woman 112 + +Health 116 + +Health as an aid to + good employment 116 + +Health and beauty 117 + +Health exercise expert 104 + +Helpers in finding work 2 + +High character of teaching + as a profession 36, 38 + +History 123 + +Holidays 119 + +Home employments 82 + +Home gardens 85 + +Home girl's advantages 77 + +Home girl's allowance 77 + +Home maker 84 + +Home maker a necessary worker 127 + +Hotel manager, hostess, + chaperone 104 + +House decorating 91 + +House employment, + qualifications for, 30 + training, 29 + wages 29 + +House furnishing 91 + +House worker 28 + +Household accounting 83 + +Household expert 102 + +How to choose place of + employment 5 + +Humanizing work (preface) iv + + +Illustrating 90 + +Improving one's work 106 + +Incomes of professional women 97 + +Increasing one's wages 111 + +Institutional nursing 44 + +Insurance 94 + +Interests outside work 13 + +Investigators 105 + +Investing 114 + +Investing in an education 115 + + +Jewelry, handwrought 90 + +Journalism 88 + +Journalist 88 + + +Keeping other people well 82 + +Kindergarten 37 + +Knowing how to keep well 24, 82 + +Knowledge of nursing + required by average girl 26, 83 + + +Landscape gardening 91 + +Laundry work 104 + +Law 95 + +Law and social work 95 + +Learning after the position + is found 20 + +Learning from others 22 + +Learning how to be a + good neighbour 133 + +Learning how to work 140 + +Lecturer 37 + +Librarian 71 + +Library work, qualifications + for employment, 71 + training, 72 + salaries 74 + +Life insurance 115 + +Limited hours for house worker 30 + +Living expenses 107 + +Living wage 107 + +Luxuries 127 + + +Magazines 122 + +Making one's own clothes 53 + +Management of clubs, hotels, + tea-rooms, etc. 32 + +Managing a tea-room business 100 + +Managing money 25, 83 + +Manicuring 62 + +Manicurist 61 + +Marketing 104 + +Maxwell, Sara 38 + +Medicine 95 + +Mending 25 + +Milliner 50 + +Millinery, qualifications + for employment, 50 + training, 50 + wages 51 + +Millinery a seasonal trade 52 + +Millinery business 51 + +Money and wages 107 + +Mothers 139 + +Music 92 + +Music teaching 92 + + +National character 136 + +Nature of a home based on + right human relations 84 + +Necessaries of life 126 + +Necessary work 126 + +New employments in food, + clothing, and home-making 102 + +New work 102 + +Newspapers 121 + +Nursing, qualifications for + employment, 42 + training, 39 + salaries 43 + +Nurses' registries 43 + +Nurses' training schools 41 + + +Office building management 105 + +Office employment, + qualifications for, 16 + training, 15 + wages 17 + +Organization for comradeship 129 + +Other occupations for + milliners 52 + +Outdoor clubs 131 + + +Pageant mistress 105 + +Painting 90 + +Pharmacy 96 + +Photography 90 + +Piece work 7 + +Plan for spending 112 + +Poetry 123 + +Poultry farming 69 + +Preserving and canning 79 + +Private hospital 99 + +Private nursing 43 + +Privilege of voting 133 + +Probationer 41 + +Producer of plays 105 + +Proof reading 90 + +Proper division of family + income 113 + +Provincial and national + franchise for women in Canada 133 + +Public health nurses 44 + +Public marketing expert 104 + +Public stenographer 18 + +Publicity writer 105 + + +Qualifications for the + successful home maker 83 + +Qualifications that help to + ensure steady employment 23 + +Qualities of the successful + business woman 99 + +Questions the girl should + ask herself 2 + + +Reading circles 131 + +Reading on one's work 122 + +Real estate agents 105 + +Real wages 107 + +Recreation 26, 131 + +Red Cross nurses 42 + +Reference librarian 73 + +Remunerative work for the + girl at home 76 + +Rent collecting 105 + +Reporting 89 + +Research work 96 + +Responsibility 99 + +Rest 26, 118 + +Richards, Mrs. 113 + +Righting a wrong 136 + +Routine work 71 + +Rules for reading 124 + + +Safeguarding employment 127 + +St. John Ambulance 42 + +Saleswoman 9 + +Saving 112 + +School nurses 44 + +School of salesmanship 10 + +Seamstress 48 + +Second employment 128 + +Self-support 20, 109 + +Sewing by the day 48 + +Shopping expert 104 + +Skilled work 4 + +Social and economic questions 124 + +Social engagements have no + claim on working hours 23 + +Social work 105 + +Special care of children 104 + +Special cooking 32 + +Spending 112 + +Standards of living in + different employments 108 + +Statistician 105 + +Stenographer 15 + +Store employment, + qualifications for, 9 + training, 10 + wages 11 + +Success and failure in work 139 + +Sunshine 119 + +Superintendents of training + schools and hospitals 44 + + +Taking stock of one's position 106 + +Taxes 134 + +Teachers of special subjects 37 + +Teaching, characteristics of + girl who should become + a teacher, 35 + training, 34 + salaries 36 + +Technic 138 + +Telegraphy, qualifications + for employment, 59 + training, 59 + wages 60 + +Telephone employment, + qualifications for, 56 + training, 56 + wages 57 + +Telephone girl 56 + +Telephone school 56 + +To read well 121 + +Town girl as a neighbour 134 + +Trained nurse 39 + +Training for home making 83 + +Typist 19 + + +Understanding each other's + work 129 + + +V.A.Ds. 42 + +Vocational adviser 105 + +Voting by women 133 + + +Wages 107 + +Wages, explanation of + figures quoted 3 + +Wages for skilled workers 107 + +Waitress, qualifications + for employment, 64 + training, 63 + wages 64 + +Weaving 90 + +Welfare work 98 + +What every girl needs to know 24 + +What is harmful to health + and happiness 120 + +What one girl can do + for another 129 + +What the home maker + needs to know 84 + +What wages should give 107 + +Woman's page 89 + +Wood carving 90 + +Work necessary to health + and happiness 3 + + +Young Women's Christian + Associations 2, 11, 42, 70 + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Canadian Girl at Work, by Marjory MacMurchy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CANADIAN GIRL AT WORK *** + +***** This file should be named 25046.txt or 25046.zip ***** +This and all 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