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| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-02-11 15:21:02 -0800 |
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| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-02-11 15:21:02 -0800 |
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+ line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 3em; } + .ph2 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; + page-break-before: always; } + .blackletter {font-family: 'Old English Text MT', serif; font-weight:bold; } + .x-ebookmaker p.dropcap:first-letter { float: left; } + </style> + </head> + <body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75350 ***</div> + +<div class='tnotes covernote'> + +<p class='c000'><strong>Transcriber’s Note:</strong></p> + +<p class='c000'>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.</p> + +</div> + +<div class='titlepage'> + +<div> + <h1 class='c001'><span class='large'>THE</span></h1> +</div> +<p class='c002'>EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN.</p> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c003'> + <div><span class='small'>BY</span></div> + <div><span class='xlarge'>JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER.</span></div> + <div class='c003'><span class='blackletter'>London:</span></div> + <div>MACMILLAN AND CO.</div> + <div class='c004'>1868.</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c005'> + <div><span class='small'>LIVERPOOL:</span></div> + <div><span class='small'>T. BRAKELL, PRINTER, COOK STREET.</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span> + <h2 class='c006'>THE EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c007'>The economical position of women is one of those subjects on +which there exists a “conspiracy of silence.” While most +people, perhaps, imagine that nearly all women marry and +are supported by their husbands, those who know better how +women live, or die, have rarely anything to say on the subject. +Such social problems as this are certainly painful; they may +or may not be insoluble; they must not be ignored.</p> + +<p class='c008'>The phrase “to become a governess” is sometimes used as +if it were a satisfactory outlet for any unsupported woman +above the rank of housemaid. When we see advertisements +in the newspapers, offering “a comfortable home,” with no +salary, as a sufficient reward for accomplishments of the most +varied character, we sometimes wonder at the audacity of +employers; but when we learn that such an advertisement, +offering the situation of nursery governess, <em>unpaid</em>, was +answered by <em>three hundred women</em>, our surprise has in it +something of despair.</p> + +<p class='c008'>The truth is, that the facts of society have changed more +rapidly than its conventions. Formerly muscles did the +business of the world, and the weak were protected by the +strong; now brains do the business of the world, and the +weak are protected by law. The industrial disabilities of +women, unavoidable under the earlier <em>régime</em>, have become +cruel under the later. There is neither the old necessity of +shelter, nor the old certainty of support.</p> + +<p class='c008'>The census of 1861 gave nearly six millions of adult +English women, distributed as follows:—</p> + +<table class='table0'> + <tr> + <td class='c009'>Wives</td> + <td class='c010'>3,488,952</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'>Widows</td> + <td class='c010'>756,717</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'>Spinsters over 20</td> + <td class='c010'>1,537,314</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'><hr></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'>5,782,983</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>The census also gives the numbers of women who work for +their own subsistence, as follows:—</p> + +<table class='table0'> + <tr> + <td class='c009'>Wives</td> + <td class='c010'>838,856</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'>Widows</td> + <td class='c010'>487,575</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'>Spinsters (above or under 20)</td> + <td class='c010'>2,110,318</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'><hr></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'>3,436,749</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p class='c008'>In the first place, then, it appears that marriage, as a means +of subsistence (to say nothing of the indecorum of looking +forward to it in this light) is exceedingly precarious in two +ways. The proportion of wives to widows and spinsters in +1801 was just about three to two, while of these wives themselves +nearly one in four was occupied in other than domestic +duties, either as her husband’s coadjutor, as in farm-houses +and shops, or, of necessity, as his substitute in cases of his +desertion, or helplessness, or vice. In the second place, the +number of widows and spinsters supporting themselves, which +in 1851 was two millions, had increased in 1861 to more than +two millions and a half. The rapidity of the increase of this +class is painfully significant. Two and a half millions of +Englishwomen without husbands, and working for their own +subsistence! This is not an accident, it is a new order of +things. Of the three and a half millions of women—wives, +widows, and spinsters—engaged in other than domestic occupations, +it is probable that scarcely a thousand make, without +capital, and by their own exertions, one hundred pounds a +year. The best paid are housekeepers in large establishments, +a few finishing governesses, and professed cooks. 43,964 +women are returned as outdoor agricultural labourers—a fact +worthy of remembrance when it is said that women are too +weak to serve in haberdashers’ shops. Women, refused admission +to such shops on the pretext that they are not strong +enough to lift bales of goods, have been afterwards traced to +the occupations of dock porters and coal-heavers. In practice +the employments of women are not determined by their lightness, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>but by their low pay. One newspaper still scoffs at the +desire of women to be self-supporting: but starvation is a +sufficient answer to sneers. As a favourable symptom of the +last few years, I may add that 1822 women are returned as +employed by the Post-office. 213 women are returned as +telegraph-clerks. It is instructive to note the way in which +the salary of these women telegraph-clerks has fallen. When +the telegraph companies were first formed, the pay of a female +clerk was eight shillings a week, to be increased by a shilling +yearly, until it reached fourteen shillings a week. So great, +however, has been the competition of women for these situations, +that the pay has been reduced to five shillings a week, +a sum on which a woman can scarcely live unassisted. In +France the women telegraph-clerks have met with a worse fate. +The government took the management of the telegraphs, and +dismissed the women, because they had no votes to bestow on +the government candidates. The exclusion of women from +the suffrage has been called a harmless injustice; but there is +no injustice which is not liable to become an injury.</p> + +<p class='c008'>At present the principal employments open to women are +teaching, domestic service, and sewing. I come to consider +the remuneration of the highest profession open to women.</p> + +<p class='c008'>In 1801 there were 80,017 female teachers in England, of +whom the majority were governesses in private families. It is +difficult to ascertain the average salary of governesses, because +the Governesses’ Institutions in London and Manchester, which +are the chief sources of information on the subject, refuse to +register the applications of governesses who accept salaries of +less than £25 a year. The number of this lowest class may +be guessed from the fact that for a situation as nursery governess, +with a salary of £20 a year, advertised in a newspaper, +there were five hundred applicants; as I have already stated, +three hundred applied for a similar place with no salary at all. +To return to the higher class. The register of the last six +<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>months at the Manchester Governesses’ Institution shows an +entry of—</p> + +<table class='table1'> +<colgroup> +<col class='colwidth4'> +<col class='colwidth22'> +<col class='colwidth6'> +<col class='colwidth18'> +<col class='colwidth6'> +<col class='colwidth24'> +<col class='colwidth20'> +</colgroup> + <tr> + <td class='c011'>54</td> + <td class='c011'>governesses</td> + <td class='c011'>who</td> + <td class='c011'>asked for</td> + <td class='c012'>£30</td> + <td class='c011'>and under,</td> + <td class='c013'>per annum.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c011'>20</td> + <td class='c011'>„</td> + <td class='c011'>„</td> + <td class='c011'>„</td> + <td class='c012'>40</td> + <td class='c011'>„</td> + <td class='c013'>„</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c011'>19</td> + <td class='c011'>„</td> + <td class='c011'>„</td> + <td class='c011'>„</td> + <td class='c012'>50</td> + <td class='c011'>„</td> + <td class='c013'>„</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c011'>17</td> + <td class='c011'>„</td> + <td class='c011'>„</td> + <td class='c011'>„</td> + <td class='c012'>60</td> + <td class='c011'>„</td> + <td class='c013'>„</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c011'>10</td> + <td class='c011'>„</td> + <td class='c011'>„</td> + <td class='c011'>„</td> + <td class='c012'>70</td> + <td class='c013' colspan='2'>and upwards.</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p class='c014'>These sums, it must be remembered, are expressions of what +governesses wish to receive.<a id='r1'></a><a href='#f1' class='c015'><sup>[1]</sup></a> Taking nursery governesses +into the account, and remembering that the above statistics +refer only to the higher ranks of the profession, it is probably +not too much to say, that from 0 to £50 a year is the salary of +nine governesses in ten. Situations offering more than £50 +are the prizes of the profession, but are generally such as to +compel a serious outlay on dress and personal expenditure. +It is difficult to imagine how the majority of governesses +manage to scramble through life, when we remember that their +position involves several journeys in the year, that they must +sometimes provide for themselves during holiday seasons, and +that they must always dress as ladies. Miserable must be +their means of providing for old age or sickness, to say +nothing of claims of affection or of charity throughout life, +or the means required for self-culture.<a id='r2'></a><a href='#f2' class='c015'><sup>[2]</sup></a></p> + +<p class='c008'>Probably there are few portions of society in which more +of silent suffering and misery is endured than among female +teachers, and in the class which supplies them. Charitable +people who have opened little “Homes” for decayed governesses +can tell histories of struggling lives and crushed hopes +<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>which it saddens one to hear. The reports of Bethlehem +Hospital and other lunatic asylums prove that not a few poor +governesses find their way thither. Some are found in +Penitentiaries among the fallen. Inquiry shows that insufficient +food while out of situations, added to the mental trials +of an unloved and isolated being, have driven some of these +governesses to opium or to strong drink, until, penniless and +degraded, they have sought a refuge among penitents where +there was nothing to pay. “Her funds are exhausted, and +she earnestly seeks a re-engagement;” words such as these, +taken from an advertisement in the <cite>Times</cite>, headed—“To the +benevolent,” are no unfrequent symptom of a deep and wide +distress. Some determined women there are who have devoted +to self-culture as much of their pittance as could be spared +from the barest needs of life, and of whom it is known that, +night after night when they went to bed, they have tied a band +round their waist to keep down the gnawings of hunger. One +such I know who has risen by her force of character to almost +as high a place as it is at present possible for a <em>woman</em> to +occupy in the educational world, but who is not yet free from +sufferings entailed by years of mental anxiety and bodily privations. +An insufficiency of the necessaries of life is not the +bitterest complaint of many of these sufferers, who by their +lives protest that man does not live by bread alone. “Worse +than bodily privations or pains” (I quote the words of one +of them) “are these <em>aches and pangs of ignorance</em>, this unquenched +thirst for knowledge, these unassisted and disappointed +efforts to obtain it, this sight of bread enough and +to spare, but locked away from <em>us</em>, this depressing sense of +a miserable waste of powers bestowed on us by God, and +which we know we could have used for the lessening of evil +and the increase of the happiness of our fellow-creatures.”</p> + +<p class='c008'>The desire for education which is widely felt by English +women, and which has begun to find its expression in many +<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>practical ways, is a desire which springs from no conceit of +cleverness, from no ambition of the prizes of intellectual +success, as is sometimes falsely imagined, but from the +conviction that for many women to get knowledge is the only +way to get bread, and still more from that instinctive craving +for light which in many is stronger than the craving for bread. +“Amongst the wealthier classes,”—I give the words of one +who has much knowledge of that of which she speaks—“women +are better provided for materially, though even here +they are often left to the mercy of the chances of life, +indulged and petted whilst fortune smiles, left helpless to +face the storm of adverse circumstances; but here, more often +than elsewhere, one meets with those sad, dreary lives, that +have always seemed to me amongst the worst permitted evils +of earth,—</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c016'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in6'>‘A wall so blank</div> + <div class='line in6'>My shadow I thank</div> + <div class='line'>For sometimes falling there’—</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c014'>is true of many a life. Even sharp misfortune is sometimes +a blessing in a life of this sort; something to do, and leave +to do it. I do not say that any possible education, any +freedom of career, any high training of faculty, would spare +<em>all</em> this waste; some part of it is of that sad mystery of life +which we cannot explain, and for the unveiling of which we +can only wait and pray. But I am quite sure that much of +it is altogether needless, and comes from the shutting up in +artificial channels of those good gifts of God which were +meant to flow forth freely and bless the world. If I could +only tell, as I have felt it in my own life, and in the lives of +other women whom I have loved, how wearily one strains +the eyes for light, which often comes not at all!</p> + +<p class='c008'>“God knows it all, and if men do not know it, it is because +they have been, I will not say they are, cruelly and criminally +thoughtless. I wish some of those men who talk as if +they imagined our life a delightful one, could but be women +<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>for one little year, and could feel the dreariness I speak of, +feel too the intense longing to be up and doing, helping +in the world’s work which is God’s work, and know the +depressing effect of that inaptitude, which is the want, not +of capacity or of faculty, but of training. The serious work +of life needs all the help that women as well as men can +bring to it, and for helpfulness something more than goodwill +is needed. Always have my own ignorance and helplessness +been the hindrances to that for which I would have freely +given my life; and I know that other women feel in just the +same way: I have heard and known too much of thoughtful +women not to be sure of this. Confessions of this kind, +the simplest and frankest confessions of ignorance, and of +why that ignorance is painful, have been made to me many a +time by women whom the world pleases to think clever, but +who are too true-hearted to believe the world.</p> + +<p class='c008'>“It is not as luxury that we crave knowledge, but as bread +of life for ourselves and others. We want it that we may +distribute it to others, with helpful hands and words of +blessing. We want it as the lever by which we may help to +raise the world. If we thought only of gratifying vanity, +there are easier and shorter ways to that end. Whilst men +are a little too apt to depreciate the intelligence of women as +a class, they are apt to over-rate the intelligence of individual +women whom they may happen to know and esteem. +Many a woman is credited with power merely because she +has never been brought to the test of performance.”</p> + +<p class='c008'>For the amelioration of the condition of female teachers +two things are necessary: the first is to raise the intellectual +status of qualified teachers, and to accord a juster social recognition +to their profession; the second is, to find other +occupations for those who are unfit to teach, and only take to +teaching because they can do nothing else.</p> + +<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>The first of these objects will be materially advanced—</p> + +<p class='c008'>1st—By the establishment of places for a higher education +than schools can offer, such as the projected College for +women. Mr. Bryce, in his interesting “Report on Schools in +Lancashire,” says, “The teachers cannot be greatly blamed +for this” (i.e. inefficient teaching), “since it is the result of +the inadequate provision now made in this country for the +instruction of women. Conceive what schoolmasters would +be, if there were in England no Universities, or any foundation +schools either of the higher or the lower grade, and if the +private schools, by which alone education would then be +supplied, were to lose the reflex influence and the stimulating +rivalry of these public institutions. This is exactly what +the state of the teachers of girls is now.”</p> + +<p class='c008'>2ndly—By the accordance of University certificates to +women, provided always that these University certificates +possess intrinsic value, declare a due amount of knowledge +and of capacity to teach, and are given “with scrupulous care +to none but deserving persons.”</p> + +<p class='c008'>Governesses would, I hope, not be the only women who +would avail themselves of these privileges. Everything is +good which tends to break down the line of social demarcation +which still, to a great extent, separates governesses from +other ladies, as once it separated schoolmasters from other +gentlemen; and it is greatly to be desired that women +with a real talent for teaching, whatever their social +position, should actually teach for a few years, and raise the +profession of governesses, as the profession of schoolmasters +has been raised, by an infusion of disinterested zeal and the +energy of a voluntary choice.</p> + +<p class='c008'>Any effort in the cause of governesses is important, not +only as it affects individuals at this moment engaged in the +profession, but still more in its bearing upon the future of all +English girls and women, through the prospect which it holds +<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>out of an improved education for the daughters of the middle +classes, who, more and more, will have to maintain themselves. +And if we think how much honour and dignity ought to attach +to the office of a teacher (rightly understood) we should, from +the highest motives, be anxious to raise the character and +social standing of those who seek that office. For this question +of woman’s education is far from being one of intellectual +progress merely; it is a question of deep moral import, and +enters far into the heart of society, affecting the best interests +of men as well as those of women. Mr. Francis Newman +says, “the increased influence of women” (through education +chiefly) “will keep in check the liquor traffic, and other +abominations which men too readily excuse.” The connection +of this question of woman’s education with some of the +most grievous of social problems is closer than might be +supposed. De Tocqueville asked an American gentleman why +open immorality, such as England has to shew, was so rare in +New England: the answer was, “because of the greater +respect which men have for women, the women who are their +equals in society.” It will not be for themselves alone that +enlightened and educated women will demand respect; they +will claim it also for poor women, whom it is too often deemed +a light matter to injure in the worst way, and even for the +fallen, who through the voice of their happier sisters shall +yet demand, not only compassion, but the respect due to every +human being, however clouded with misery and sin.</p> + +<p class='c008'>When, on the other hand, we consider the best means of +relieving the profession of Governesses by drafting its incompetent +members into other occupations, the whole question of +the employment of women rises before us, a painful and even +a terrible problem. Three principal obstacles stand in the +way of such an enlargement of woman’s opportunities. These +are—</p> + + <dl class='dl_1'> + <dt>(1.)</dt> + <dd>Prejudice of employers and of the public. +<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span></div> + </dd> + <dt>(2.)</dt> + <dd>Combinations among workmen to exclude women from their trades. + </dd> + <dt>(3.)</dt> + <dd>Defective education and training of the women themselves. + </dd> + </dl> + +<p class='c008'>I will consider these in order—</p> + +<p class='c008'>(1.) Prejudice is slowly dying out, but indifference remains. +Educated men who can help, who <em>would</em> help if they knew the +need, have not yet learnt that need. I do not blame them +with any bitterness. There has been enough already of bitterness +on the one side and of levity on the other. But an +acknowledgment of past error lies at the base of every true +reform. Let that be acknowledged here, which every thoughtful +observer must see, that through all ages of the world’s +history the more powerful sex have been liable to use their +power carelessly, not for protection only, but for pain. So +comes it that at this day just and chivalrous men find themselves, +(as Lord Palmerston said of the Emperor of Russia), +“born to a heritage of wrong and oppression.” They cannot, +if they would, at once alter the structure of the society around +them. But even of these just men I complain that they <em>do not +see</em>. If they saw, they would act; and ought they not to see? +Our best men too often know nothing of the lives of any +women except those with whom they are immediately connected, +and whom they guard in comfort and ease. They do +not think of those who sit in cold and want outside. Many a +tender-hearted but not large-hearted man, on hearing some +hint of hardships among women outside his own circle, +thanks God that <em>his</em> dear wife or daughter is exempted from +them, and so dismisses the subject. When once such men are +brought to see and to feel, we invariably find them <em>more</em> +indignant than women themselves, who are well schooled in +patience. Much of this misery is strange and unknown to +men, and was certainly never designed by them. The old +social order has changed, giving place to the new, but women +<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>have fallen out of line with the onward movement, fettered by +their own cowardice and the careless selfishness of men. +Custom and use press heavily on women, they endure long +before they dare to think whether the system under which they +suffer is a right or a wrong one, whether their burdens be +removable or no,—whether, in short, they have fallen into the +hands of God or man. Even when they are fully persuaded +that their burdens are removable, they have no voice to +raise. They are unrepresented, and the interests of the unrepresented +always tend to be overlooked.</p> + +<p class='c008'>(2.) The exclusion of women from trades is in most cases +notoriously based upon a coarse selfishness. Take the instance +of the china painters at Worcester. “It appears that both +men and women are employed in this art, but that the women +having excited the jealousy of the men by surpassing them +in skilful execution, and consequently earning better wages, +were by them forcibly deprived of the maulsticks on which it +is necessary to rest the wrist while painting. Thus the women +are at once rendered incapable of any fine work, and can only +be employed in the coarser kinds of painting. The masters +submit to this tyranny, though to their own disadvantage, being +probably afraid of a strike or riot if they resist, and the women +are forced to yield from the fear of personal violence from +their less skilful but heavier-fisted rivals. This story appeared +in the <cite>Edinburgh Review</cite> for 1859, and it is surprising that it +did not excite more general indignation.” The conduct of the +Apothecaries’ Company is worse than that of the china painters, +inasmuch as doctors have not the excuse of indigence to justify +their exclusiveness. The <cite>Daily News</cite>, in a recent article, +concludes an account of some of the proceedings of that body +with these words:—“We recommend these facts to the good +people who think that coercion, restriction, and the tyranny of +combination are peculiar to any one class of society. It will be +a great day in England when the right of every individual to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>make the most of the ability which God has given him, free +from interested interference, is recognised, and to that goal we +are surely advancing; but our progress is slow, and it is very +clear that it is not only in the lower ranks of the community +that the obstructive trades’ union spirit is energetically +operating.”</p> + +<p class='c008'>The chivalry, or the justice of educated men could scarcely +be brought to bear upon a subject where chivalry and justice +are needed more. In this matter, of the bad effects of +trades’ unions, much may be hoped for from the known +character of working men themselves, as a class. They are +not wanting in justice, in tenderness of heart, and in a shrewd +perception of right and wrong when they are placed before +them: but they need enlightenment and instruction,—and +they wait for it,—from those who are their superiors in education +and trained intelligence. Untold good might be done, and +much future misery averted, if those among our leading men +who have the ear and the confidence of working men would +(themselves first instructed) bring before them fairly and +patiently, such subjects as these. Economics lie at the very +root of practical morality, and it is to be hoped that men of +influence, and genius, and experience of life, will address +themselves gravely to the task of instructing the working +classes on this most grave subject.</p> + +<p class='c008'>The common objection brought before the Society for promoting +the Employment of Women, is that a risk would be +thus incurred of decreasing the employment of men. Now, +in the first place, this is by no means certain. No one proposes +to interfere with the men at present working at any trade; +but while the demand for young men at high wages in the +colonies continues practically unlimited, it may be questioned +whether the admission to a sedentary employment at home is +not a pitfall as often as an advantage. Many a young man +would be healthier and happier at some manly trade in Canada +<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>or Australia, than in standing behind an English counter or +plaiting straw. To take only the trades connected with +women’s dress and such matters, the census of 1861 gives the +following numbers of <em>men</em> employed in trades, some of which +would seem as distinctly appropriate to the one sex, as +soldiering and sailoring to the other.</p> + +<table class='table0'> + <tr> + <th class='c009'></th> + <th class='c010'>Males.</th> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'><a id='r3'></a><a href='#f3' class='c015'><sup>[3]</sup></a>Mercers, Drapers, and Linen Drapers</td> + <td class='c010'>45,660</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'>Hair Dressers and Wig Makers</td> + <td class='c010'>10,652</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'>Haberdashers and Hosiers</td> + <td class='c010'>4,327</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'>Straw Hat and Bonnet Makers</td> + <td class='c010'>1,687</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'>Washermen and Laundry Keepers</td> + <td class='c010'>1,165</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'>Stay and Corset Makers</td> + <td class='c010'>884</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'>Milliners and Dress Makers</td> + <td class='c010'>803</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'>Artificial Flower Makers</td> + <td class='c010'>761</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'>Berlin Wool Dealers</td> + <td class='c010'>63</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'>Artists in Hair—Hair Workers</td> + <td class='c010'>42</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'>Baby Linen Makers</td> + <td class='c010'>13</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'><hr></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'>66,057</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p class='c008'>Disabilities of sex are parallel to disabilities of creed, and +the economical results are likely to be the same. Silk weaving +was driven <em>into</em> England by the revocation of the Edict of +Nantes, and I believe that now several light trades are being +driven <em>out of</em> England by the industrial proscription of +women. “But supposing,” says Miss Boucherett, “that the +competition for employment were so great that whatever was +added to the prosperity of one sex must be deducted from +that of the other, is it just that the whole of the suffering +thus caused should be laid upon the weaker half of humanity? +How great a contrast is there between the spirit of Christianity, +and the course of conduct too frequently pursued in this our +country!”</p> + +<p class='c008'>“Be just before you are chivalrous,” many a woman is +tempted to exclaim, when she finds every door through which +<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>she might pass to a subsistence, closed in her face with +expressions of deference. Signs have not been wanting which +have justified the saying “that a selfish disregard of the +interests of women, and indifference to their sufferings, is the +great national sin of England,—and all national sins, if +unrepented, meet with their punishment sooner or later.”</p> + +<p class='c008'>(3.) The defective training of the women themselves is the +most serious of all the hindrances which I have been considering. +Here it is that the vicious circle returns upon itself. +These women cannot teach, because they are so ill educated, +and again, they are so ill educated that they can do nothing +<em>but</em> teach.<a id='r4'></a><a href='#f4' class='c015'><sup>[4]</sup></a> Many a woman rejected from the shop-till or +housekeeper’s room for ignorance and inefficiency, is compelled +to offer herself among the lowest class of nursery +governesses, or, failing all, to embrace the career, the avenues +to which stand ever wide open, yawning like the gates of hell, +when all other doors are closed.</p> + +<p class='c008'>The fault of this defective training lies mainly with the +middle-class parents who, as the Endowed Schools Commissioners +say plainly enough, educate their daughters to get +husbands, and for nothing else.</p> + +<p class='c008'>Education was what the slave-owners most dreaded for their +slaves, for they knew it to be the sure road to emancipation. +It is to education that we must first look for the emancipation +of women from the industrial restrictions of a bye gone age. +In the meantime I may surely say that no lover of his country, +of justice or of God, can see this misery unmoved. “He +looked for judgment, but behold oppression, for righteousness, +but behold a cry.”</p> + +<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>I sometimes hear it said “I am weary of this question of +the rights, or the wrongs, of women.” Undoubtedly there +are many who are quickly weary of any thought which is +perplexing or painful: nevertheless the facts remain the same—that +women constitute one half of the human race, that +whatever effects them, for good or evil, affects not one half, but +the whole of the human race, and that the <em>primary</em> education +of all generations of men rests in the hands of women.</p> + +<p class='c008'>There are two classes of advocates of the improvement of +the education and condition of women. The one class urge +everything from the domestic point of view. They argue in +favour of all which is likely to make women better mothers, +or better companions for men, but they seem incapable of +judging of a woman as a human being by herself, and superstitiously +afraid of anything which might strengthen her to +stand alone, prepared, singlehanded, to serve her God and her +country. When it is urged upon them that the women who +do and must stand alone are counted by millions, they are +perplexed, but only fell back on expressions of a fear lest a +masculine race of women should be produced, if we admit any +theories respecting them apart from conjugal and maternal +relationships.</p> + +<p class='c008'>On the other hand, there are advocates who speak with some +slight contempt of maternity, in whose advocacy there appears +to me little evidence of depth of thought, or tenderness, or +wisdom, and which bespeaks a dry, hard, unimaginative +conception of human life. They appear to have no higher +ideal for a woman than that of a <em>man</em> who has been “tripos’ed,” +and is going to “get on in the world,” either in the way of +making money or acquiring fame. They speak of women as +if it were a compliment to them, or in any way true, to say that +they are like men. Now it appears to me that both these sets +of advocates have failed to see something which is very true, +and that their ears are deaf to some of the subtle harmonies +which exist in God’s creation—harmonies sometimes evolved +<span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>from discords—and which we are much hindered from hearing +by the noise of the world, and by our own discordant +utterances.</p> + +<p class='c008'>The first class of advocates do not know how strong Nature +is, how true she is for the most part, and how deeply the +maternal character is rooted in almost all women, married or +unmarried: they are not, therefore, likely to see that when a +better education is secured to women, when permission is +granted them not only to win bread for themselves, but to use +for the good of society, every gift bestowed on them by God, +we may expect to find, (as certainly we shall find,) that they +will become the <em>more</em> and not the <em>less</em> womanly. Every good +quality, every virtue which we regard as distinctively feminine, +will, under conditions of greater freedom, develop more freely, +like plants brought out into the light from a cellar in which +they languished, dwarfed and blanched, without sun or air. +The woman is strong in almost every woman; and it may be +called an infidelity against God and against the truth of nature +to suppose that the removal of unjust restrictions, and room +given to breathe freely, and to do her work in life without +depression and without bitterness, will cause her to cast off +her nature. It will always be in her nature to foster, to +cherish, to take the part of the weak, to train, to guide, to +have a care for individuals, to discern the small seeds of a +great future, to warm and cherish those seeds into fulness of +life. “I serve,” will always be one of her favourite mottos, +even should the utmost freedom be accorded her in the choice +of vocation; for she, more readily perhaps than men do, +recognises the wisdom and majesty of Him who said—“I am +among you as he that serveth.” In Him,—“in Christ +Jesus,” says the apostle, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, +there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male nor +female.” It has been the tendency of Christianity, gradually +and slowly, to break down all unfriendly barriers between races, +and to extinguish slavery; and last of all it will—this is our +<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>hope—remove disabilities imposed by the stronger portion of +society upon the weaker.</p> + +<p class='c008'>What do we lose by the abandonment of national exclusiveness? +Is labour demoralized because slaves are free? Does +<em>service</em> cease when servitude is at an end? Common sense +alone, without the help of historical knowledge, might lead us +to suppose that women will not do their <em>special</em> work in the +world worse, but better, when justice shall be done them.<a id='r5'></a><a href='#f5' class='c015'><sup>[5]</sup></a> It +is in the name of <em>Christ</em> that the removal of burdens and disabilities +is preached: much wisdom might be learned regarding +some of these matters if people would look more closely at +this, and note that this is the Person in whom all virtues +which are considered essentially womanly, as well as those +which are considered essentially manly, found their perfect +development. A little meditation on this double truth—that +in Christ all distinctions are done away, and that in Him, +nevertheless, were exhibited in perfect beauty the distinctive +virtues of the feminine character—would suggest some lessons +which the world has been very slow to learn, would tend to +remove groundless fears regarding the consequences of the +abandonment of many unreasonable and unchristian theories +which prevail, and to counteract the materialistic doctrine +which has sunk too deep into the heart of our so-called +Christian community, a doctrine which amounts to this, that +“the weaker races, classes, persons must struggle on unaided, +and if they are trampled down and die out, the fact proves +that it is better for the world that they should perish, so only +a stronger and higher stock will remain;”<a id='r6'></a><a href='#f6' class='c015'><sup>[6]</sup></a> a doctrine of +which we see the fruits in our wickednesses in Asia, &c., and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>which takes its stand on a supposed “law of nature” that the +weak must go down.</p> + +<p class='c008'>The tone in which certain foolish popular writers speak of +unmarried and childless women betrays both coarseness of +feeling and ignorance. They speak of these women as having +altogether missed their vocation, and as necessarily dwarfed in +affection and motive, because they have not performed certain +physical functions. We are all mothers or foster-mothers. +The few exceptions to this rule,—the cases in which the maternal +feelings are weak or wanting,—are to be found among +mothers of families as well as among childless women. I +have known many unmarried women in whom all the best +characteristics of maternity are stronger than in some who are +actually mothers. It would be wise of the State to avail itself +of this abundance of generous womanliness, of tender and +wise motherliness which lives in the hearts of thousands of +women who are free to bring their capacities to bear where +they are most needed. The country counts by tens of thousands +its orphan and outcast children, in workhouses, and in +the streets of our great cities. These orphans have lately +been called “the children of the State:” for the care of these +children of the State alone, mothers and nurses of the State +are needed, women who must be free to some extent from +domestic ties of their own. These workhouse children are +not likely to grow up to be useful to the country or other than +dangerous classes, while they are left wholly to the mercy of +vulgar, uneducated people.<a id='r7'></a><a href='#f7' class='c015'><sup>[7]</sup></a></p> + +<p class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>Leon Fauchat exclaimed, when told of crimes committed in +our country against children,—“<span lang="fr">Est-il possible que ces choses +soient permises par une nation qui a des entrailles!</span>” “Take +heed that ye offend not one of these little ones,” are words +of most solemn import: when women begin to deserve and +acquire more weight in the community, the warning contained +in them will be better understood. The interests of children +will not remain unrepresented any longer than women remain +so. I say this with certainty, knowing the nature of woman. +It will not be left to an indignant father, or philanthropist, or +to an impassioned poetess, at long intervals to translate in the +ears of the public the inarticulate cry of the children:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c016'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in4'>“They are weeping in the playtime of the others,</div> + <div class='line in8'>In the country of the free,</div> + <div class='line in4'>For the man’s grief abhorrent, draws and presses</div> + <div class='line in8'>Down the cheeks of infancy.”</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'> · · · · ·</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in4'>“They look up with their pale and sunken faces,</div> + <div class='line in8'>And their look is dread to see,</div> + <div class='line in4'>For they mind you of their Angels in their places,</div> + <div class='line in8'>With eyes meant for Deity:</div> + <div class='line'>‘How long,’ they say, ‘how long, O cruel nation,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Will you stand, to move the world, on a child’s heart,</div> + <div class='line'>Stifle down with a mailed heel its palpitation,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And tread onward to your throne amid the mart?</div> + <div class='line in4'>Our blood splashes upwards, O our tyrants,</div> + <div class='line in8'>And your purple shows your path;</div> + <div class='line in4'><em>But the child’s sob curseth deeper in the silence</em></div> + <div class='line in8'><em>Than the strong man in his wrath</em>.’”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c008'>The ears of my reader would not endure to hear what I +could tell, what my eyes have seen, of outraged innocence, of +horrors and miseries endured among the children of the poor. +I am not unmindful of the benevolent enterprise there is in +our country, the orphanages, schools and homes springing up +everywhere. God be thanked for these! but they do not yet +meet the evil; and we must remember that stone walls do not +shut out crime, nor regulations confer blessing; these institutions +<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>themselves fail in their purpose unless the compassionate +motive which originated them be sustained in a constant and +abundant flow. The histories of many charities in foreign +countries and at home prove that institutions devised by loving +hearts for protection and blessing, have become, for lack of the +constancy of the internal impulse, neither more nor less than +“habitations of cruelty.” What I here complain of is the +thriftless waste of good feelings, of emotion,—emotion which +on the one hand is ill trained, and consequently takes a false +or unreal direction, and on the other is wearing itself out, unclaimed. +Tears shed over sentimental works of fiction or +some imaginative woe might well be bestowed on the realities +around us. Surely there is room enough among <em>them</em> for the +promptings of a mighty compassion! Surely there is cause +enough <em>here</em> for tears! “Mine eye runneth down with rivers +of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.”</p> + +<p class='c008'>And there is other work on every side waiting to be done by +women,—the work of healers, preachers, physicians, artists, +organizers of labour, captains of industry, &c., while on the +other hand women are waiting to be prepared for service, and +ready to bridge over, as they alone can, many a gulf between +class and class which now presents a grave obstacle to social +and political progress.</p> + +<p class='c008'>The second kind of advocacy of the rights of women, of +which I spoke, may be said to be simply a reaction against the +first. It is chiefly held by a few women of superior intellect +who feel keenly the disadvantages of their class, their feebleness, +through want of education, against public opinion, which +is taken advantage of by base people, their inability, through +want of representation, to defend their weaker members, and +the dwarfing of the faculties of the ablest and best among +them. These women have associated little with men, or at +best, know very little of their inner life, and do not therefore +see as clearly as they see their own loss, the equal loss that it +<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>is to men, and the injury it involves to their characters, to live +dissociated from women: they therefore look forth from their +isolation with something of an excusable envy on the freer +and happier lot, which includes, they believe, a greater power +to do good, and imagine that the only hope for themselves is +to push into the ranks of men, to demand the same education, +the same opportunities, in order that they may compete with +them on their own ground. They have lost the conception of +the noblest development possible for both men and women; +for assuredly that which men, for the most part, aim at, is not +the noblest, and yet that is what such women appear to wish +to imitate; they have lost sight of the truth, too, that men +and women were made equal indeed, but not alike, and were +meant to supplement one another, and that in so doing,—each +supplying force which the other lacks,—they are attracted +with a far greater amount of impulse to a common centre. +When St. Chrysostom preached in Constantinople, that “men +ought to be pure, and women courageous,” he was treated as +a dangerous innovator, a perverter of the facts of nature, a +changer of customs. I hope that many such innovators will +arise, who will shew forth in practice the possibility of the +attainment of a common standard of excellence for man and +woman, not by usurpation on either hand, nor by servile +imitation, but by the action of each upon each, by mutual +teaching and help. The above misconception, like many +other errors, results from men and women living so dissociated +as they do in our country; hence comes also all +that reserve, and incapacity for understanding each other +which has existed between the sexes for so many generations, +those false notions about women which are entertained in +society, and great injury to the work, and happiness, and +dignity of man and woman alike: for it may be truly said +that many of the most serious evils in England are but the +bitter and various fruit of the sacreligious disjoining of that +which God had joined together, the disunion of men and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>women, theoretically and practically, in all the graver work +of life.</p> + +<p class='c008'>The following account of the School of Art, in Newman +Street, London, is interesting, as affording some illustration +of this subject. Mrs. Heatherley writes, “This School was +begun on the separate principle, about twenty-three years +ago, by Mr. James Mathews Leigh. I first knew the place +in 1848, when I studied as an amateur. Mr. Leigh, whilst +agreeing to the idea of mixed classes as a theory, always +declared that the men’s conduct and conversation would +render it impossible for any lady to come amongst them, and +they were certainly very rough in manner when, after Mr. +Leigh’s death, we took the school. We were warned that we +should be ruined by introducing the mixed system. Very +soon both parties found the convenience of studying in the +Gallery every day, instead of having to take their places on +alternate days. Finding it succeed, at the end of 1861 we +admitted ladies to the evening school: there are about two +hundred students in the course of the year. Great individual +freedom is allowed, and a most friendly feeling exists +amongst the students. Every one who knew the place +before the admission of women agrees that there has been +great improvement; quite another tone prevails. We have +never had to dismiss anyone for conduct that was disapproved. +From here went the first ladies to the Royal +Academy, one of whom, a girl of about twenty-one, gained +the gold medal, last December, for the best historical picture. +As a general rule, where there are equal facilities, the women +are the most successful. The Academy ceased to admit +them when their numbers reached about twelve, and now +takes them in only when the time of studentship of others +expires. They made this change at the end of two years, +without giving any notice here or at any other school, to the +great disappointment of a number of girls. This I think is +an act of hardship, as there has been shown positively that +<span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>no incompetence exists. Unless there be chances offered to +women of being able to follow a profession, parents will +invest in consols, as a general rule, rather than in a superior +education. The mention of our school may be useful, +because there are doubts in many minds as to the expediency +of free intercourse between young people, and facts are +better than theories. The more that is done to bring young +men and women together in a rational manner, the sooner +we may hope to arrive at a social state less immoral than the +present.”</p> + +<p class='c008'>I am persuaded that anyone who will candidly and carefully +consider the histories of separate communities of men or +women, for educational or other purposes, must see that the +evils attendant on such a system as they represent outweigh +its conveniences. The arrangement is for a given period, but +not so the evils which accompany it, for they,—and of this men +are not ignorant,—too often leave their effects, I may say their +curse, throughout life. The objection rises at once of the +difficulty of adopting any other arrangement than the present, +which may be called an unnatural one. This objection will be +more effectually met by facts than by reasoning, and in time +facts will speak for themselves, while up to the present they +attest that whenever the experiment of a different system has +been tried, the difficulties have been found to be very much +less than it was believed they would be, before the trial was +made.</p> + +<p class='c008'>To conclude this part of my subject, although I grant that +too much stress cannot be laid upon the improvement of the +education of women who will be actually the mothers of a +future generation, yet I wish, on the one hand, that persons +who only look at it from this point of view would take more +into account the valuable service our country might command +if it but understood the truth about the condition and feelings +of its unmarried women, and that a more generous trust were +felt in the strength of woman’s nature, and the probable +<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>direction of its development when granted more expansion, +while on the other hand I should like to see a truer conception +of the highest possibilities for women than is implied in the +attempt to imitate men, and a deeper reverence for the God of +nature, whose wisdom is more manifested in variety than in +uniformity. It cannot be denied that a just cause has sometimes +been advocated by women in a spirit of bitterness. +Energy impeded in one direction, will burst forth in another; +hence the defiant and sometimes grotesque expression which +the lives and acts of some few women have been of the injustice +done to them by society. This will cease, and while it +lasts, it ought to excite our pity rather than our anger. It +must be remembered that it is but a symptom of a long +endured servitude, a protest against a state of things which +we hope will give place to a better. It is folly to regard it as +the natural fruit of that of which we have scarcely seen the +beginning. Acts of violence on the part of a long oppressed +nation are not the offspring of dawning liberties, but of a +doomed tyranny. Again, no important reform can be carried +without a measure of attendant confusion. Evil agencies are +the most vigilant for destruction at the beginning of a great +and good work, and many lives have to be consumed in its +inauguration. Any evils which may at first attend a social +reform ought not to alarm us: they are transient; they are +but the breakers on the bar which must be crossed before we +launch into deep waters, but the “noise and dust of the +wagon which brings the harvest home.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>There is a near future and there is a far future; there are +plans for the near future and plans for the far future. The +world is full of plans for the near future; not so of plans for +the far future. There are people who do just what comes +first to their hand to do, there are others who do all for a near +future, others again who do all for a far off end. The first +and the last have much in common; it is the second aim, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>which when exclusively pursued, misleads. Plans and schemes +for the near future gain and obtain with most people; not +unfrequently they wither away like untimely fruit: those +who look afar off prevail, yet not they, but rather He prevails +in them, who taught them to stretch their vision to the distant +horizon, and enables them to bear with composure the disappointment +of present hopes.</p> + +<p class='c008'>Some say, “in order to insure success for this or that +movement, you must have a scheme beforehand, a well-planned +system, a fixed principle of action, else you will be +blown hither and thither.” Without offering any opposition +to such a theory, there are others to whom there appears but +one principle of action,—to fix the eyes on the far future, and +to do to-day the work of to-day; each day to undo the heavy +burdens as they come to their hand, each day to break some +link of the chains which bind, and to let some who are now +oppressed go free. God guiding these efforts to the desired +end.<a id='r8'></a><a href='#f8' class='c015'><sup>[8]</sup></a> They have more faith in that which grows from +within than in that which is planned from without, and built +according to the preconceived plan. Such plans or schemes +as must be adopted by them are made as elastic as possible, +so that the builders can avail themselves, at each step, of +experience gained, and be ready to correct or undo any part of +the work without sacrificing the whole; they are content with +the light which falls on the path immediately at their feet, and +with the fairer light in the distance. Perhaps it is by such a +principle of action that we can best supply “the needs of the +times,” and it is the possibility of adopting such a principle +in times of need that alone can ensure permanence in usefulness +for the venerable institutions of the country. What such +institutions generally do is to resist all movement, or if they +admit any change, it is only to crystallize anew in an +<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>altered form. Almost all true help is special; and crystallized +institutions seldom have help to give for great and +special necessities. But there are times when an impulse, +having its origin in the <em>hearts</em> of men, is found to be stronger +than custom and use; if it cannot work within the established +bounds, or by existing machinery, it will work without them. +Somehow or other difficulties vanish before such an impulse, +and much is accomplished which before was held to be +impossible.</p> + +<p class='c008'>I cannot conclude these remarks without expressing the +gladness and gratitude with which I am filled when I see the +earnest spirit in which some of the best and most thoughtful +men are beginning to consider these matters; and I venture +especially to acknowledge the kindness of men in high educational +positions themselves, whose sympathies have lately +been enlisted on behalf of the women-teachers whose struggles, +and sorrows, and social disadvantages I have tried to indicate. +Mr. Maurice says, very truly, “Whenever in trade or in +any department of human activity, restrictions tending to +the advantage of one class and the injury of others have +been removed, there a divine power has been at work counteracting +not only the selfish calculations, but often the +apparently sagacious reasonings of their defenders.” If we +were not assured that there is indeed a divine power at work +in all these things which some of us have so deeply at heart, +we should lack the only stimulus which enables us to work +on, to live and to die for that which we hold to be right and +true; for “except the Lord build the house, their labour is +but vain that build it.”</p> + +<div class='lg-container-r'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Josephine E. Butler.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c017'><em>May, 1868.</em></p> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c003'> + <div><span class='small'>T. BRAKELL, PRINTER, COOK STREET, LIVERPOOL.</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class='c018'> +<div class='footnote' id='f1'> +<p class='c008'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. Miss Strongitharm states in respect of the Governesses’ Institution at Manchester—“Remember +that those who register here are the favourable specimens +of the class, the governesses who accept salaries under £20,—and their name is +Legion,—being excluded by the Rules of the Institution, and that the salaries +asked by no means represent, in most cases, the salaries obtained—a governess +being often too glad to get a home on almost any terms.”</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f2'> +<p class='c008'><a href='#r2'>2</a>. The condition of governesses in schools is, on the whole, better than in +private families; they have more companionship and independence, and, except +in the very poor schools, are better paid.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f3'> +<p class='c008'><a href='#r3'>3</a>. Census for England and Wales. Vol. ii. Occupation of the people: summary +tables.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f4'> +<p class='c008'><a href='#r4'>4</a>. “In one of Jerrold’s sketches, Mr. Isaac Check is asked, ‘What can you do?’ +Now as Isaac had not dined for three days, he thought himself justified in saying—‘<em>Anything.</em>’ +Hunger thus conferred the cheap diploma of omnipotence: why +not of omniscience too? In a bitter moment I have been tempted to say that a +governess is too often a poor lady who knows nothing, and teaches everything for +nothing.”—<em>Dr. Hodgson.</em></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f5'> +<p class='c008'><a href='#r5'>5</a>. “I have preached,” says Theodore Parker, “the equivalency of man and +woman—that each in some particulars is inferior to the other, but, on the whole, +mankind and womankind, though so diverse, are yet equal in their natural faculties; +and have set forth the evils which come to both from her present inferior +position.... But I have thought she will generally prefer domestic to public +functions, and have found no philosophic or historic argument for thinking +she will ever incline much to the rough works of man, or take any considerable +part in Republican politics.”</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f6'> +<p class='c008'><a href='#r6'>6</a>. F. Newman.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f7'> +<p class='c008'><a href='#r7'>7</a>. I have spoken of the incompetency of a vast number of teachers, an incompetency +sometimes natural, more often the effect of want of training. But I +believe it is widely acknowledged that women generally have a great aptitude for +teaching boys as well as girls. Mr. Bryce, in his Report, says, “The bright point +in this otherwise gloomy landscape is that women are naturally skilful teachers, +and that they are, as far as my observation goes, zealous and conscientious +teachers. Whenever I happened to hear the teaching of a lady of good ability +who had herself been thoroughly educated, its merits struck me as at least +equal, and probably superior, to those which would be found in the teaching of +a man of the same general capacity and education. Women seem to have more +patience as teachers, more quickness in seeing whether the pupil understands, +more skill in adapting their explanations to the peculiarities of the pupils’ +minds, and certainly a nicer discernment of his or her character. They are +quite as clear in exposition as men are, and, when well trained, quite as capable +of making their teaching philosophical. I must confess myself to have been +also impressed by the interest which they so often took in their pupils, and +their genuine ardour to do their best for them.”</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f8'> +<p class='c008'><a href='#r8'>8</a>. “Is not this the fast that I have chose? to loose the bands of wickedness, +to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break +every yoke; is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the +poor that are cast out to thy house?”—Isaiah lviii. 6, 7.</p> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c004'> +</div> +<div class='tnotes x-ebookmaker'> + +<div class='chapter ph2'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c005'> + <div>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + + <ul class='ul_1 c003'> + <li>Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + + </li> + <li>Used numbers for footnotes, placing them all at the end of the last chapter. + </li> + </ul> + +</div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75350 ***</div> + </body> + <!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57e (with regex) on 2025-02-11 20:30:43 GMT --> +</html> + diff --git a/75350-h/images/cover.jpg b/75350-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ecd67a --- /dev/null +++ b/75350-h/images/cover.jpg |
