Middle Class Under-Employed

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 277, 23 November 1936, Page 10

Middle Class Under-Employed

im.readiig number of women have no talent whatever for housework. Bnd regard the home as a cro.-s bet wet a in prison and a workhouse, writes Mr L. E. M. Joad. professor of philosophy Bnd psychology at the I n -ersily of London. Inevitably, they wish to escape. The desire for escape is comjnon to boi’» wort ing-ri t.- . and middh Hass housewives, altlu'i -'h it springs trora diffcj.nt causes. ' Working class mm an aie almost inevitably overworked, ami wha r with cleaning, cooking, washing-up, sewing. D.aking clothes lot childten, keepire them quiet "it home or packing them ol? to school, managing tee house-!'Fd q<. penditure on an in I'icquate income, and sustaining tin* 0.l u unwehome alien tions of their hii'Laiids, spend th- . lives.in a routine • < Laras-md drudge y botching every job and mastering none. The sufferings of middle class worn' i from undrr-miipi'.* ■ ent suircely less than tho e of voikini! class won •”i from over-employno it. f | he grow th - f transport facilitie- and the incren-e in mechanical ami ri-.-i! appliances liave stripped • !■>?--ik duties of ah that lent them dbjnty and gave them

interest, and sul>i.tilled ihe perfunctory performance of an automatic routine. The middle-class women neither ; brews nor bakes; she does not wash; she has no skill in lhe making o. -on- ! serves, and no intere.-t in lhe p'.’ ! lion of food. She does not, in fact, I prepare food at all; she takes out of j cans food that is already prepared. ! bhe does not cook, so much as warm up food that others have cooked for . her. She has no skill in shopping, but orders from the stores by telephone or (from the tradesman's van that calls at I the door. Hhe gets her heat from the i gas con pany, her water from the muni- • ipality. Thus Ihe skilled and varied duties that om-e elevated domestic work into a craft have dwindled into a round of warming up. washing up, cleaning, | sweeping and bed-making which the wou an of average intelligence and energy <an perform in a couple of hours, find ing herself on their completion with interests unawakened and faculties Tunning to waste to get through, as best she may. the vast tracts of unoccupied • leisure which constitute the wilderness I of her life.