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diff --git a/75350-0.txt b/75350-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3715dad --- /dev/null +++ b/75350-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,936 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75350 *** + + + + + + THE + + EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN. + + + BY + JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER. + + + =London:= + MACMILLAN AND CO. + + 1868. + + + + + LIVERPOOL: + T. BRAKELL, PRINTER, COOK STREET. + + + + + THE EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN. + + +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. + +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, _unpaid_, was answered by +_three hundred women_, our surprise has in it something of despair. + +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 _régime_, have become cruel under +the later. There is neither the old necessity of shelter, nor the old +certainty of support. + +The census of 1861 gave nearly six millions of adult English women, +distributed as follows:— + + Wives 3,488,952 + Widows 756,717 + Spinsters over 20 1,537,314 + ————————— + 5,782,983 + +The census also gives the numbers of women who work for their own +subsistence, as follows:— + + Wives 838,856 + Widows 487,575 + Spinsters (above or under 20) 2,110,318 + ————————— + 3,436,749 + +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, 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. + +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. + +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 months at the +Manchester Governesses’ Institution shows an entry of— + + 54 governesses who asked for £30 and under, per annum. + 20 „ „ „ 40 „ „ + 19 „ „ „ 50 „ „ + 17 „ „ „ 60 „ „ + 10 „ „ „ 70 and upwards. + +These sums, it must be remembered, are expressions of what governesses +wish to receive.[1] 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.[2] + +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 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 +_Times_, 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 _woman_ 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 +_aches and pangs of ignorance_, 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 _us_, 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.” + +The desire for education which is widely felt by English women, and +which has begun to find its expression in many 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,— + + ‘A wall so blank + My shadow I thank + For sometimes falling there’— + +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 _all_ 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! + +“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 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. + +“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.” + +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. + +The first of these objects will be materially advanced— + +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.” + +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.” + +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. + +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 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. + +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— + + (1.) Prejudice of employers and of the public. + + (2.) Combinations among workmen to exclude women from their trades. + + (3.) Defective education and training of the women themselves. + +I will consider these in order— + +(1.) Prejudice is slowly dying out, but indifference remains. Educated +men who can help, who _would_ 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 _do not see_. 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 _his_ 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 _more_ 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 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. + +(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 _Edinburgh Review_ 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 _Daily News_, 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 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.” + +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. + +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 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 _men_ employed in trades, some of which would seem +as distinctly appropriate to the one sex, as soldiering and sailoring to +the other. + + Males. + [3]Mercers, Drapers, and Linen Drapers 45,660 + Hair Dressers and Wig Makers 10,652 + Haberdashers and Hosiers 4,327 + Straw Hat and Bonnet Makers 1,687 + Washermen and Laundry Keepers 1,165 + Stay and Corset Makers 884 + Milliners and Dress Makers 803 + Artificial Flower Makers 761 + Berlin Wool Dealers 63 + Artists in Hair—Hair Workers 42 + Baby Linen Makers 13 + —————— + 66,057 + +Disabilities of sex are parallel to disabilities of creed, and the +economical results are likely to be the same. Silk weaving was driven +_into_ England by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and I believe +that now several light trades are being driven _out of_ 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!” + +“Be just before you are chivalrous,” many a woman is tempted to exclaim, +when she finds every door through which 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.” + +(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 _but_ teach.[4] 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. + +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. + +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.” + +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 _primary_ education of all +generations of men rests in the hands of women. + +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. + +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 _man_ 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 from discords—and which we are much hindered from +hearing by the noise of the world, and by our own discordant utterances. + +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 _more_ and not the _less_ 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 hope—remove +disabilities imposed by the stronger portion of society upon the weaker. + +What do we lose by the abandonment of national exclusiveness? Is labour +demoralized because slaves are free? Does _service_ 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 +_special_ work in the world worse, but better, when justice shall be +done them.[5] It is in the name of _Christ_ 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;”[6] a doctrine of which we see the fruits in our wickednesses in +Asia, &c., and which takes its stand on a supposed “law of nature” that +the weak must go down. + +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.[7] + +Leon Fauchat exclaimed, when told of crimes committed in our country +against children,—“Est-il possible que ces choses soient permises par +une nation qui a des entrailles!” “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: + + “They are weeping in the playtime of the others, + In the country of the free, + For the man’s grief abhorrent, draws and presses + Down the cheeks of infancy.” + + · · · · · + + “They look up with their pale and sunken faces, + And their look is dread to see, + For they mind you of their Angels in their places, + With eyes meant for Deity: + ‘How long,’ they say, ‘how long, O cruel nation, + Will you stand, to move the world, on a child’s heart, + Stifle down with a mailed heel its palpitation, + And tread onward to your throne amid the mart? + Our blood splashes upwards, O our tyrants, + And your purple shows your path; + _But the child’s sob curseth deeper in the silence + Than the strong man in his wrath_.’” + +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 +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 +_them_ for the promptings of a mighty compassion! Surely there is cause +enough _here_ for tears! “Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for +the destruction of the daughter of my people.” + +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. + +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 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 women, theoretically and practically, in all the +graver work of life. + +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 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.” + +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. + +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 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.” + + +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, 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. + +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.[8] 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 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 _hearts_ 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. + +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.” + + JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER. + + + _May, 1868._ + + + T. BRAKELL, PRINTER, COOK STREET, LIVERPOOL. + +----- + +Footnote 1: + + 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.” + +Footnote 2: + + 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. + +Footnote 3: + + Census for England and Wales. Vol. ii. Occupation of the people: + summary tables. + +Footnote 4: + + “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—‘_Anything._’ 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.”—_Dr. Hodgson._ + +Footnote 5: + + “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.” + +Footnote 6: + + F. Newman. + +Footnote 7: + + 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.” + +Footnote 8: + + “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. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES + + + ● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + ● Used numbers for footnotes, placing them all at the end of the last + chapter. + ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. + ● Enclosed blackletter font in =equals=. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75350 *** |