WOMAN IN INDUSTRY A RACIAL EVIL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2675, 21 July 1913, Page 8

WOMAN IN INDUSTRY A RACIAL EVIL.

The work of woman in industrial and professional occupations, so much in evidence in modern times, is “an unmitigated evil,” declares The Medical Record (Now \ork). This is qualified l by the statement that the writer, as j becomes the editor of a medical jour--1 nal, takes solely “the point of view of , health and of the good of tho race.” 1 How much doubt soever there may be from the economic standpoint about 1 the radical changes wrought in the I commercial and industrial world by the i appearance of women on the field, ! whether as aids or rivals to their masculine predecessors, lie thinks that the hygienist and eugenist may stand hero . upon firm ground. Ho goes on: “Considered from this aspect, the | wholesale employment of woman is an unmitigated evil. It goes without saying that that if women refuse to hear and bring up healthy children they will not fulfil their physiological duty, and the nation must suffer. Woman’s par- , ticipation in industrial occupations has during tho past decade effected great transformations, which have not tended to the advantage of her productive and reproductive strength. In short, industrial and professional work, to a great extent, unfit a woman for motherhood and domestic life, as is plainly shown by tho umvillingnos of the present generation of women to undertake the duties of motherhood and home. In addition it is distinctly against the interests of the race, mentally and physically, that a mother shoiild engage in outside work. Infants should be breast-fed, which is imposisble if the mother is working away from home; when young they should be constantly under tho eye of the mother for the sake of their physical, mental, and moral health, and if this is not done they, and ultimately the race, will suffer harm. At the present time a lamentable waste of women is going on, and the matter requires immediate attention. Tho fact must he recognised that the role of woman has changed, that this change is not for the hotter—at least, nor from a medical point of view—and while allowing that the old state of affairs has gone, never to return, at tho same time steps should be taken to endeavor to deal with existing conditions in such a manner that the race will suffer as little as possible. A neoesary movement in this direction is to find out exactly how matters stand by initiating measures for tho compilation and publication of national and international statistics relating to the participation of women in industrial pursuits.”