WOMEN’S CHANCES AS BREAD-WINNERS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 30, 25 July 1891, Page 206

WOMEN’S CHANCES AS BREAD-WINNERS.

HHEKE is no good reason why every girl should not be trained to earn her own living. If she is never obliged to use the knowledge she acquires, it will do her no harm to possess it. With very rare exceptions, boys are educated with this end in view ; yet if a man brought up in luxury is thrown upon his own resources at nineteen or twenty, he is not as helpless a being as a woman of the same age, reared under similar conditions, who is suddenly forced to maintain herself. His sex and physical strength enable him to undertake many kinds of work from which she is debarred bynatural limitations. WHY should the weakest be made, by ignorance, the most heavily-weighted in the struggle for existence ? Why should she not be taught practical methods and manual dexterity as a com pensation for her physical disability. Have parents the right to allow their daughters to grow up without providing them with a means of defence against the evils of poverty and dependence ? DEFINITE training counts for a great deal in this age of the world. To know how to do a thing well is essential to success. There is room at the top, but to arrive at that desirable elevation, an aspirant must be able to pass many competitors. Those who are left behind are the slipshod and careless, ami those who do not know how to do the thing they profess to do. THERE are many openings, and a girl’s tastes and natural bent should determine the direction of her education. The mother, who has studied her child from infancy, ought to know her so thoroughly as to prevent her from making a mistake in choosing the path she is to follow. tpHE secret of success is to do something that everyone L wants done and to do it to perfection. No matter how humble the employment may have been originally, perfect mastery of it ennoblesit, and makes success in it certain. This ean only- be attained by patient, hard work. When it is gained, the girl holds in her hand the key that will unlock the door to independence. A first rate workwoman never lacks employment long, whatever her calling may be. She can command good prices, because her work recommends itself. ARCHITECTURE seems, in many respects, an ideal profession for women. The average woman knows the needs of a home much better than the average man does, particularly in the matter of cupboards. Why then, if she has any constructive ability, can she not plan a dwell-ing-house at least as well as he can? Scientific cookery, millinery, dress making, nursing, offer a good incometo those who choose to train themselves to follow them as professions, and are not content to take them up untrained to lag behind as drudges. Type-writing, book-keeping, telegraphing, afford many opportunities to experts in their mysteries. Even humbler crafts, as clear-starching, china mending, pickling and preserving will give a competence to those who have mastered them. Superiority of workmanship turns the scale. THE general education should not be neglected. The more a person knows tne better fitted she is to learn. All knowledge is interdependent. Only let parents see that each daughter has her own special pursuit in which she excels. Something that she can lean upon in time of need, with the calm certainty that it will not fail to afford her a subsistence.