THE HOME AND THE OFFICE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3912, 5 March 1929, Page 64

THE HOME AND THE OFFICE.

By Esther. (Special for the Otago Witness.) If all, or nearly all, girls are to be trained to be economically self-support-ing and to enter business or professional work as soon as their school days are over, what is to become of the homes of the future? So many people will be inclined to ask on reading such view’s as those epitomised by me in my article of February 19. The author of the book then noticed, Miss Vera Brittain, very strongly, and in my opinion rightly, deprecates “ stop-gap ” work for girls—work taken up not as a serious vocation and a means of economic security through life, but as a means of providing sufficient money for immediate needs and perhaps a freer and more independent life than that of the stay-at-home girl, the girl herself and her parents vaguely looking to marriage as her natural destiny. The first objection to this complacent view is that it is problematical whether the girl will marry. In New Zealand , we are not in the same position as in Britain, where there nearly two million surplus women; here women are actually in a small majority, but this is dwindling and will soon disappear, while large towns show a slight preponderance of women. But numerical proportion is not the main thing.- So much enters into the idea of marriage in our advanced stage of social development that there are many chances against the two right people being drawn together and finding no obstacle to their marriage. Certainly very many nice and attractive girls remain unmarried. " Secondly, marriage, even if it seems financially safe when made, by no means affords absolute economic security to the wife. Her husband may die, or become invalided; or misfortunes of, many kinds may reduce them to poverty. Many women in such..j}jnfortuna,te positions, have been glad to resume work as teachers or in some business calling. Even if they are not able to take up Again just the kind of work they had - before marriage, the business training. they have had and the habits of regular

work once formed will make it easier for them to enter satisfactorily on other work.

But supposing girls do marry, and marry tolerably early. It does not follow that they will be less capable of managing a home than the purely domestic girl. If, as should be the case, they have been accustomed to do things for themselves and to help systematically in household work, they will be fairly efficient in domestic matters. Then the development of their intelligence by business training and work, and the habits of regularity and accuracy gained, will enable them readily to learn anything further in the domestic line and to manage their houses efficiently. A business girl may not be so skilied at first in household matters as her sister who has spent her years since school in doing the work of "the home and has done it capably, but she can learn, and even at first she will be more efficient than many a girl who has done no work outside her home and has done her housework in a muddling, unsystematic way. Intelligence and character count very largely in housework, as in work of any kind, and any training which forms habits of industry, alertness, method, and accuracy will go far to prepare a girl for the management of a home.

Under the 7 old state of things when two, three, or perhaps more, daughters remained at home for years doing nothing but a little housework and sewing they could hardly help drifting into time-wasting, inefficient ways. The work did not require more than two, at most, competent workers, and with four or five there would be always waste of time and energy, and often friction. At present when, if there are several daughters in a home of average means, one only remains at home to assist her mother, or perhaps to take entire responsibility for the housework, she is likely to be far more competent domestically than when work and responsibility are divided. In such a case tlie daughter ■who fills a place which without her someone must be paid to fill should receive adequate remuneration; that is only fair. If the parents are poorly off the brothers and sisters who earn money should contribute to pay her what would be paid to another person engaged to do the same work. Unhappily there is a tendency for the domestic daughter who stays at home to be under-valued, and, unless she stands up for herself, to be .expected to work for her keep and a little pocket money.

To do definite work, to be self-sup-porting, confers independence and dignity. But the work must be useful and be well done. It is the service given, not the money received, that makes one truly self-supporting. If one gives less .in, sendee than the fair equivalent of what one is receiving in money one is virtually taking what

one has not earned, and ethically tins is more humiliating than to receive the surplus money as a free gift. Some feminists talk very unreasonably about the humiliating .economic ' dependence of non-wage-earning married women. A woman who has a home to manage and children, to rear is usually much more than self-su_pporting in a social and ethical sense. If, owing to poverty, she has not the money to spend for herself that she would have if she were doing the same work in a stranger’s home, well,, she is not one of the pecuniarily fortunate. If, owing to. her husband’s thoughtlessness or selfishness, she does not receive a fair share of his income to spend independently that is to his discredit, but it does hot derogate from the value of. her services. Yet some feminist writers apply the term • “ parasites ” indiscriminately to all married women who do not work for money. It is an instance of how a fixed idea may warp a person’s views, the fixed idea here being the economic equality of women with men. To come back to the question of girls 1 taking work as a fill-time occupation instead of a permanent calling. Whether it is their' lot to marry or not, this practice tends to slackness. A girl who consciously or sub-consciously entertains the idea that she will not ■work more than a few years is not likely to be keen to improve herself as a worker and to rise in her calling. If she is not naturally conscientious she is likely to take only, pains enough to keep her present place, or perhaps she may not much mind losing it. This has a deteriorating effect on her own character, and if this way of regarding their work is common among young women in any calling it must necessarily contribute to make women's work regarded as inferior to men’s. This tends to keep down rates of pay for women, and to make men preferred for the better positions. Thus women who must remain in the labour market, and who perhaps are keen about their work and ambitious to rise, are liable to suffer through the slackness of girls who regard their work as temporary.

In our days the best and safest plan is for every girl to choose some calling with careful consideration of her own qualifications for it and of the prospects it offers, and to aim from the first at high efficiency in it. If a girls is fond of housework, or does not dislike it, and feels no attraction towards any other work, she may train to become thoroughly competent in some domestic line. A highly qualified cook or housekeeper will command wages far above what are paid to ordinary typists and other less skilled business ■workers. There are many good openings for skilled domestic workers- in schools and institutions. The number of callings open to women is fairly large and is always increasing; but initiative and practical sense are needed to seize on the best openings available. As for the problem of domestic helpers for the home, that must be solved by planning houses and housekeeping so that there will be little or no need for hired help, and by raising the status of domestic work so that there will be a fair supply of competent domestic workers available for those who cannot or do not wish to dispense with them.

As for the question whether a woman should or should not follow her economic occupation after marriage, this, I think, is a matter to be settled in accordance with individual ability and circumstances. In the majority of cases a woman who desires a true home life will do better to give up her outside work; and certainly many women will be glad to do so, and will find abundant interest and scope for usefulness in their home. It is only- the few whose work is of such a high quality that it would be a distinct loss to the world if they gave it up. But women who are devoted to their work and who feel that they are achieving excellence in it will not be willing to. give it up, and sometimes it would be regrettable that they should do so. Whether they can successfully reconcile the claims of home and businesses will depend on their individual ability, character, and circumstances. To those who say that a woman should make the choice between marriage and an independent career, and not attempt to combine the two, it may be pointed out that widows and women with financially incompetent husbands have been commonly expected to be both breadwinners and home-makers, and that they have often acquitted themselves remarkably well in their double task.

Lately we have seen a * woman renounce her parliamentary career for the sake of the home, and I think most people will applaud her choice. Mrs Philipson has stated that she desires to be free to give herself up to her children during the most impressionable years of their lives. Later, perhaps, she will again be a parliamentary candidate, or at least will occupy herself in some civic capacity. After all, the years of childhood and early youth are not very long, and in these days of small families children may be grown up and out in the world when their mother is still in the prime of life. Then she may again take up some vocational work, or she may engage in local public affairs, or .in useful social work of some kind. For these latter spheres of work her early business training and her domestic experience will both be highly useful to her.