WORK OF WOMEN.

Timaru Herald, Volume C, Issue 15301, 21 March 1914, Page 3

WORK OF WOMEN.

CREATORS_OF_INDTJSTRY. there is -nn nmoient conviction that women have 1 alwaS helo I I,PPOr + t , e <: * other Sn themselves; that their 'labour has never been reckoned worth their Veen ? but that tho difference has bin obhginSv mado up by somebodv. A very furor and IS?"? "* tlle ¥ tM T of and her share m tlie world's workserves to d lspc l this curious idea Woman -as the creator of industry; sl£ has always performed a major share of tho wori'd s work, iCwT P lO T ance of the past and of us lesson has bred m many persons of to-day an attitude toward woman and seli-sustaininn; labour which must be corrected. There lias been a marve.' Sou/; increase of common sense in the iasu lew years; but even yet there are too many women who wear an apologetia manner because thev earn the-"r bread, and too few who are apologetic because they don't earn it! Even vet there is a great deal of confusion* in many minds about women 'going to work.' As if they had not always Tieen very busily at work maintaining thenise.ves and others. . . "The workaday girl is no-new product. But she works, now, under new conditions, many of which are bewiifcler. lngly strange, not to her only, but to her family, to her employer, and to the social order of which she is so important a part." WORK THAT IS HELPFUL. Many women think that because thev have no part m the business world there is tor them no practical wav of helping with the world's work, let there is work, plenty of it, for everv woman who has a mind to be helpful fSo much time is spent in work that counts for nothing, so much thought is given to self atone. Many an idle woman really fancies herself industrious. But is it in fruitful effort:- 1 Fruitful effort always contains elements of service to others. Cooking and sewing are fruitful, because they are directed toward family health and comfort. . But effort need not be so definitely useful and active to be.fruitful. A ha-lf-hour spent in sympathetic and helpful conversation with a maid, or in cheerful visiting with disheartened people; an hour employed in taking an invalid out riding, or in reading aloud to a sick woman, or in writing a hopeful letter to one who is depressed in spirit, are all- fruitful. There is a splendid—and usually neglected—opportunity for such spiritual nursing in the average hotel or boarding-house. The woman who, in unselfish .aspiration to spend a fruitful life is hunting a job where she may be of service can generally find it in the very hotel or apartment or boarding-house iri which she lives. If she is childless she can spend eight hours eveiy working day in voluntary motherly service for the children of others. If she is houseless how can she spend a day in greater productive philanthopic work that in some branch of her city's housekeeping; ? There is so much work to do on every hand, and. so few capable hands to do it, that'" no woman need be idle. A day of fruitful effort for others is something foi' many a woman to think about.