THE NEW WOMAN IN THE HOME.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 414, 25 January 1909, Page 10

THE NEW WOMAN IN THE HOME.

It sounds paradoxical, but is, I believe, generally true, writes. Evelyn Sharp in the Manchester, "Guardian," that tho woman who knows .best how to look after her home is the jvoman who most frequently has the enterprise to leave it! . Someone said to me the other day in this connection, -tlmt if sho nnds herself at any time withqut a servant sho sends for help, riot to those-of ner. friendswho live at home with nothing to do except to keep house, but to those who are out in the world earning their living or pursuing a career. And I suppose no intelligent person will deny that the dayhas gone Tjy for considering it. more womanly on tho part of a housewife to spend all 'her time, in household matters than it is for her to profit by modern inventions and to get through her home duties in time to enable her to be a human being as well. • Certainly, , it is "a significant fact worth noting by those reactionaries who seem to think that the sign-manual of true womanliness is a tendency to be slow over housekeeping that-tho general movement towards woman's liberty and devoidjment has coincided with a more particular, movement towards hei intellectual development within the'home. '■ It is intensely interesting to find that another step forward has been taken recently by the establishment in the. Women's Department at King's College, London, of a course iii homo science ana household economics, which is to be on a level- with degree courses in other subjects and will possibly lead in time to the creatioii of a degree in domestic 1 science at the universities—although at present thoro is a strong feeling among scholars that a kitchen .is not acadeiilte "'At'King'e'-Gollege: they thav&vavoided. this criticism of their scheme by calling their .kitchen- a, cooking laboratory and- furnishing jt,with more test tub.es than-saucepans.■'■_-.. ''.Although domestip:work in.the-masculine mind always seems 'to , mean nothing but the preparation of meals, as a college subject it includes much 'more. The ideal aimed at in tho King's; College'scheme _is a three years' degrbe course, ■ with a diploma, the first jeav of which shall be devoted to science, with especial reference, naturally, to household needs. As one of the lecturers, speaking broadly, put it to me, "Chemistry, for girls should always begin with soap' and soda." So perhaps at the end.of the first year's, course the student will be in a position; to explain to the servant at home why tea made! with water that has boiled for hours ia scientifically unsound as weir as extremely nasty, .and. how dust C.ban ,be.re- : I moved entirely from a room, and not: merely i transferred from tho carpet to the books and the pictures. I may bo unduly.sanguine in looking for a. result of this kind, but 1 I believo "I; am ;right in rsuggestingT that this. jis : the, soft of practical -application .that will follow from . the teaching; o£ ■: housework in co-relation with science. In-the'remaining two years .'of the ideal course the work-will be carried on right up to degree standard, and biology, science—dealing with the values of dress materials as well as with sanitation and so on—will, with household economics, from an important part of the scheme. Household economics will deal with the historical ispect of housekeeping, and should be by no means the least interesting Subject taken, s.eeing ;hpw the ordinary working arrangements, of the . household have been ./revolutionised even, within the lsst fifty years. Not only has. the'advance.of modern thought altered the whole character of domestic service,'.but our sources of food, supply , have, undergone: a complete, change since—for instance, the introduction, of frozen meat and ■ tinned; foods—and these changes are; still going on, a fact to .-.be; noted by those oldfashioned people who think--that-to be truly femiuino a woman must adhere to the housekeeping methods of fifty years ago. .'L some-times".-think nothing ■wouldvciiro;':the- oldfashioned person so effectually. , as to ; take him at his word and become an .exact copy of the old-fashioned housewife of. fifty years ago;, '•■.,'■ •■":'•■' :: . ■' ■■ ■■ ■•:•- .•■:-.•'■"■ For many students, however,; the three years'; course is at present and a,one : year!s course is open to those older women, many of them teachers, who already possess enough scientific knowledge to-be able to profit by the other classes. ' It is also-:to be made possible before long,.by the enterprising co-operation>bf of certain girls'- high' 'schools,- for-'-girls to take the first year of the degree course at school, sb ; that they may be ready.to enter.on the second year of ,the course at King's College. ■ ' To' those who follow closely the psychological trend of modern movements thp ; chief interest of this new-departure , in the. college curriculum will not lie so much in the actual knowledge_to, be acquired, but rather, in its immense-significance as a -social and aneducational: factor.-i It means that, domestic subjects, will no longer be .considered fit-only .for the attention of women tbo'stupid to take up.-:o.ther subjects. ;Tt means that the -.teacher"'.of dpmestiq scienco will have, to occupy the same.position in school.or college as" any.other, science mistress. It means;that the ideal, woman in the home will;iii the future he a real person instead of an amiahje ! nonentity. Miss Katharine Bryant, domestio science teacher at the Manchester High School for Girls, put the matter in a nutshell in her, paper read before' tho Association of Domestic Science Teachers last May when j she said: '-I maintain that these domestic subjects, if .properly taughty have in -themselves the elements of an intellectual education. ;,'■ .' ..' But I wish most emphatically to say that I do not advocate the teaching of domestic-,arts ,in schools .as a refuge for the destitute or as a subject for the mentally deficient.". . ■■■:,.•...-'