FAMILY LIFE IN NEW YORK

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 July 1931, Page 10

FAMILY LIFE IN NEW YORK

married women as workers

The most surprising discovery one makes about family life in New York is the number of husbands and wives who are wage-earners. Married women in employment have increased by many thousands in the last year or two, and particularly since the finan--01(1*1 cra<9h» The New York correspondent of the “News Chronicle” says:—“There is a legend that American women are spoiled darlings, pampered by absurdly indulgent fathers and husbands, who overwork abominably to buy them every luxury. Perhaps that was true of the older generation. Possibly that may still be true of the wealthy fringe. But one has only to use one’s eyes and ears to find it is not at all true of the girls of the middle classes, starting out to-day in a world where everything is uncertain, where jobs are hard to get and keep, where home making is expensive.

“It is the impatience of the American young woman that is responsible for this change. She sees no reason why she should endure a long engagement, sitting with folded hands until the prospective husband earns a salary sufficient to keep both in reasonable comfort. She embarks upon a career with the full intention of continuing it after marriage; indeed, that understanding is often the corner-stone of the union. Sometimes she fixes the wedding day and finds a job simultaneously. Nowadays, the bride’s earning power is at times as important a factor in the match as the dowry is (or was) in France.

“Having seen so many tragedies of the great depression, this modern young woman revolts against the idea that the well-being of a whole family should depend on one job—the father’s. Her job is a defence against the wolf. At a party or dinner one may discover by tactful inquiry that most of the married couples present are workers. The explanation is nearly always the same. It affords a higher standard of living, it promises greater security in a hazardous period. “That few objections are raised to this large employment of married women is probably due to the tough individualism of America, which objects to restrictions on labour. Neither the professions nor the trades appear to have the feeling on the subject that one meets at home. Besides, there are myriads of women who keep their single names for their vocations. One can never be sure. To put it gently, this custom often leads to confusion. The dewy-eyed and baby-faced Miss Z, who flutters through a Wall Street office without a care in the world, turns out to be the faithful stay of an out-of-work husband in the suburbs.

POINTS OF ADVANTAGE. “The tooth of economic distress bites hard in a country which has no unemployment insurance schemes and in which, because of custom, it is difficult to be thrifty. In these thin days many a home has been kept afloat by a young wife in office, in shop, in school. “This social phenomenon has its good and bad consequences. The married woman in employment appears to have improved the prestige of her sex even more than the bachelor woman who forced open the doors of the professions and showed she could be wholly independent of men. A woman who enjoys economic independence and is also able to fulfil her destiny in home-making can feel proud of her position, even though the dual burden is heavy. She can, at least, lead a successful revolt against petty tyranny. It has made the pompous type of man less of an oracle in his home. No longer is he invested in the glamour of- ‘wider horizons, larger interests.’ “The change has broadened women’s interests, given them a wealth of new subjects to talk about, and New York women are among the liveliest of conversationalists. A woman who has spent her day amid the thrills of this city’s business makes a bright companion at the dinner table. “There are, however, some curious consequences of another order. Marriages are often wrecked because the

wife is earning more money or becoming more successful in her profession than her husband. The masculine ego is wounded to the core. Feminists may smile in a superior way, but that particular form of masculine vanity is too deeply-rooted to wither in a decade or two. “Then again, a husband and wife who have been working in separate offices during one of those tearing New York days sometimes find they are no comfort to each other in their leisure hours. Rasped nerves grate on rasped nerves, and household cares appear as back-breaking as the last straw. “As might readily be assumed,

children are getting fewer and fewer among the middle classes. The best stock dwindles away, while in the wretched tenements of the East side, the recruiting ground of the gangs, there is never any shortage. Also, there is the none too easy problem of the men displaced by married women. To offset that, however, it must be remembered that countless women are supporting husbands and children.”