WOMEN AS WAGE-EARNERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8986, 17 September 1892, Page 6

WOMEN AS WAGE-EARNERS.

. [BY MISS MINNIE PHELPS.] It is a geometrical axiom, that '"ihings which are halves of the same thing, are equal to one another." It follows, then, that woman, being the one-half of the human whole, is equal to the other halfthe male fraction—and they, being "one," have a common interest in all that relates to either sex—in the present case, the struggle for existence. Two-thirds of the human family are labourers, either brain or muscle. One-half of the whole is woman, and the question presents itself, What is the per cent, of women as labourers and as wage-earners, and what is the accredited value of that labour ? Let us see. In 1840 Harriet Martineau visited America, and found seven employments open to women; so great lias been the development since then, that in 1881, or eleven years ago, there were iu the United States 300 doors open, and in Canada 227. According to a return presented recently, there were in two main departments or labour in the States, 535,000 persons employed, and over one-third, or 180,000, were women, while in the adjoining province there were 45,000 women employed. All these women were side by side with men, battling with the same difficulties, requiring just as much to eat, and clothe, in actual cost as male workers, producing goods which upon the world's market receive an equal value, yet for the production of which women have to accept from one-third to one-half less wages. So much for facts. Back of the many plans for the betterment of women as wage-earners, is the foundation upon which both man and woman must build,—the ballot. For, as Canon Kingsley once said, ""Woman will never have social equity until she has legal equity." That which is true of women as wage-earners to-day, was true of the working man in England fifty years ago, when, during that great famine, mass meetings were held all over the country, and John Bright told them the remedy lay in their obtaining the franchise. So far we have followed Miss Phelps; now we have a little to say as to other difficulties which women have to contend with, and that is the old-fashioned, back-breaking, barbarous custom of washing clothes. It is all very well to talk to a woman, who almost dreads washing-day, about giving her the franchise, but she thanks you not. Tell her, however, of a new method by which her work will be done in half the time, with less than half the labour, and she will thank you from her soul. This the Speedwell Washer will do, and is doing in many a home, as letters of acknowledgement daily prove; for twentv-seven shillings and' sixpence Messrs. T. and S. Morrin will be pleased to execute your order; or, McGlashanandCo., Palmerston Buildings, Auckland, the patentee's sole agents. We fancy women as wage-earners would give a good record with this,