Notice where savagery still persists, women remain in the same condition as in primitive times. Read of the African women, and the Bushmen of Australia.
The study of the Hebrew women is the next point, for they advanced from a comparatively obscure position to one of honor. The Greek women may be compared with them. Read of the life of the Roman women. Next will come the study of the Anglo-Saxon women, working with their hands, but intelligent and forceful. Study the women of the next period, that of the Crusades. Read of the romantic lives of some, and follow with a paper on the women in convents and their occupations. From this point on, women"s work remained much the same for the leisure cla.s.s; but as life grew socially more complex, work became more intricate and varied.
The study of cottage industries may be mentioned here. Have several papers showing the life of the time our own colonies were established, and the work done by women. The important thing to be noticed is that all women worked; idleness was not in fashion. They spun and wove, they knitted and dyed, they made candles and table linen, and cotton and woolen clothing. Some few still carried on cottage industries or taught dames" schools, and a few managed farms or kept shops or taverns; but most of them were employed in the home exclusively.
About the middle of the nineteenth century came the great world-wide industrial revolution which forever changed women"s work, and for a time the work of men. Read of the introduction of machines into the English districts where the hand looms had been in use. Have papers or talks on conditions everywhere in this transition period. This was the beginning of the great work of women in factories. Especially in New England, factory work became a large part of life. Daughters of farmers, of shop-keepers, of the owners of the mills themselves, and many school-teachers in vacation, were employed from five o"clock in the morning until seven o"clock in the evening. There was no social stigma put upon them. Read from the early history of Mount Holyoke.
Mill towns were considered models of quietness and morality because of the presence of hundreds of women. Their life was full of intellectual stimulation; lyceums brought the best lecturers: Emerson, Lowell, and other great writers and orators often spoke; the women edited and published little newspapers of their own. Lucy Larcom was a mill girl; read her poem called "An Idyl of Work," and her paper published in the _Atlantic Monthly_, volume 48, called "Mill Girls" Magazines."
But the hours of work were too long, the boarding houses too poor, the pay too meager. Gradually the American girl was replaced by the foreigner, and this period of work was at an end.
From this point factory work, as we know it, will open before the club.
Study it especially in relation to cigar and cigarette and candy making, and in clothing industries of all sorts. Describe conditions as factory inspection has discovered them; notice the unsafe buildings, the long hours, heavy fines, and low pay. Discuss what should be done to remedy such evils. Have some of these questions taken up: Should Women Enter Trade Unions, or Is Organization Unnecessary? Do Strikes Pay? Should Women Insist on Compensation for Injuries and Old-Age Pensions? Can a Woman Work All Day and Still Bear Healthy Children and Bring Them Up Properly? Should There Be Mothers" Pensions? What of Night Work for Women? Describe the life of the night scrub-woman in a city. Read "The Long Day."
Turning to the work of women in shops, notice that it was about 1859 when the first women took this up. Compare the conditions then with conditions to-day. Describe welfare work. Discuss the "living wage," and question whether this should not depend on competence. What of lack of recreation and social life? Does the low wage drive girls to immorality?
What can be done locally to better conditions in our shops?
This all leads up to the enormous subject of women"s work to-day. It is said that three hundred lines of work are open to them, and clubs should select what they prefer to study. Among the many books of reference to be found on these and similar topics are: "Woman and Labor," Olive Schreiner (F. A. Stokes Co.); "Women and Economics," Charlotte Perkins Stetson (Small, Maynard); "Women in Industry," Edith Abbott (D. Appleton & Co.); "The American Business Woman," J. H. Cromwell (G. P. Putnam"s Sons); "Women"s Share in Social Culture," Anna G. Spencer (Mitch.e.l.l Kennerley); "The Long Day," D. Richardson (Century Co.); "Woman and Social Progress," Scott and Nellie Nearing (The Macmillan Co.); "The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living," Anna Steese Richardson (Dodge); "How Women May Earn a Living," Helen C. Candee (The Macmillan Co.); "The Business of Being a Woman," Ida M. Tarbell (The Macmillan Co.); "Mrs.
Julia Ward Howe and the Suffrage Movement," by Florence Howe Hall (The Page Company).
CHAPTER XIV
WOMEN"S PROBLEMS OF WORK--CONTINUED
I--TO-DAY
Clubs may begin this study with the problems of the woman in the tenement. There is the home itself. She is hampered by a small, crowded s.p.a.ce in which to bring up the family; there is insufficient light and air, it is too cold in winter and too hot in summer; there are few conveniences for washing or cooking; beds are generally uncomfortable, the walls are c.u.mbered with clothing, there is no s.p.a.ce for the children to play and no privacy.
The first paper may describe the home in detail and be followed with a reading from "How the Other Half Lives," by Jacob Riis.
The next paper may take up certain difficulties of management the woman in the tenement must contend with. If she takes in work, tailoring, or flower making, or anything of the kind, s.p.a.ce is even less than before.
If she goes out to work, the care of the house falls on the children, who are overworked and neglected. She seldom knows how to buy economically, or cook appetizingly, or make clothing for her family. If the husband loses work, she must feel the stress of need. All the tenement life tends to send the children to the streets for amus.e.m.e.nt and air, the husband to the saloon for entertainment. The boys are apt to grow up without the instincts of home, and the girls often become immoral.
The third paper may present some solutions of her various problems.
There are laws requiring s.p.a.ce and air in tenements, and landlords who neglect their buildings may be made to better them; the work of the Legal Aid a.s.sociation in these and other respects is to be studied.
Then women of the tenements should be brought into touch with Friendly Visitors and settlements, taught to clean up, to sew, to buy, to cook, to make home attractive. The children must be put into day nurseries if the mother goes out; the school teacher must come in to advise about the growing children; the music settlement may possibly give a hand; certainly the cla.s.ses for boys and girls in the settlements, and the libraries, and evenings of recreation there may help them. The Little Mothers" Aid a.s.sociation, and the fresh air work, the recreation piers, the small parks, and many other helps may be drawn upon. All these and others should be described.
Read from the report of the "Housing Reform," published by the Charities Publication Committee at 105 East Twenty-second Street, New York; also from the pamphlet on "Remedial Loans," National Federation of Remedial Loan a.s.sociations, 31 Union Square, New York, and the report of the Little Mothers" Aid a.s.sociation, 236 Second Avenue, New York, and from material from the National Federation of Settlements, 20 Union Park, Boston.
II--THE SICK POOR IN CITY AND COUNTRY
The second meeting may be on the subject of the sick poor, in country and city. One paper may be on personal experiences among the poor in country districts--what their conditions are, what is lacking, how to help them without injuring their pride. Discuss how relief can be given without pauperization. If possible have some one speak of the work in the country, such as is done by the neighborly settlement of Keene Valley, New York.
The state of things among the city poor is even worse than in the country. Mention the trouble if the man of the house is sick and out of work, and there is no other wage earner. Speak of the state of things when there is a new-born baby; describe the sick child alone all day with few toys or none, and the chronic invalid in the slums. Read "The Lady of Shallott," by Elizabeth Phelps Ward in Little Cla.s.sics.
The third paper or talk may present the brighter side of the picture. It may tell of what individuals have done in great gifts for hospitals, clinics, and work for cripples and babies, of pure milk and free ice, of dispensaries, of food for convalescents, of floating hospitals, and parties of mothers and babies at the seash.o.r.e. Read from descriptions of these and other helpful society work.
Notice also what is being done in teaching consumptives to live on the roof, in keeping babies safely on the fire escape, in the work of the visiting nurse, the care of the cancerous poor, and the general wave of helpfulness going out in every quarter. Information on all these points and others may be had by writing to the charity organization of any large city, or to a settlement. Club women should make practical these two subjects--of the tenement-house woman and the sick poor--by discussing what the club can do to help.
III--THE WOMAN WHO WORKS FOR PAY IN THE HOME
The third problem for study is that of the woman who works for pay in the home. This naturally falls into two divisions:
There is first the woman who takes in sewing, either by the piece or by wholesale, making trousers or cloaks, or artificial flowers, or conducting any of the home trades. Have a presentation of each of these, with the hours spent on the work, the pay, the effect on health, and the lack of care the children receive.
The second part of the subject is that of domestic service. One paper should be on employment bureaus, their worth, the morals of many of them, and the laws governing them.
A second brief paper may be on references and their ethics. The subjects of the supply and demand of servants, of the relation of mistress and maid, of the hours of work, of wages, of the maid"s room, her time off, her friends, the care of sick and old servants, may all follow. Discuss: What can be done to give us better servants? Do servants" unions help matters or make them worse? Are clubs for servants desirable? Can employers combine to make relations between mistresses and maids better?
IV--WOMEN WORKERS IN MILLS
Work in the factory is the problem which follows next. The sweatshop work is of great importance. Note how many women are away from home all day; how there is a season of overwork and a dull season without pay; the steady use of the sewing machine, with or without power; the poor ventilation and sanitation of the shops; the dim light, causing loss of eyesight; the fines; the effect of noise and confusion on the nerves of the women; all these are of deep interest. Read from the reports of the National Consumers" League, to be obtained by writing to Mrs. Florence Kelley, 106 East Nineteenth Street, New York, and let the club women decide to insist on the use of the white label on the garments they buy.
The work of manufactories and mills may be divided into as many papers as there is time; there is the work of women in the canneries with its hours of labor and often with night work; the work in mills, the danger from machinery, and the impaired health of employees. Read from "Woman and the Trades" by Elizabeth B. Butler, published by the Russell Sage Foundation, 105 East Twenty-second Street, New York. Discuss the condition of women workers in mills and manufactories, and the strength of their children. Where mills are near at hand clubs may find out if the machinery is protected, if there is accident insurance or an employers" liability, and whether there are pensions.
There may be a paper, to close the subject, on strikes of women workers and how much they have accomplished. Read from "Fatigue and Efficiency,"
by Josephine Goldmark.
V--THE PROBLEM OF CHILD LABOR
The problem of child labor properly comes under the problems of women, for the mother is responsible for the child"s health and development.
The first topic is that of the child at home who must take the mother"s place, do the housework, care for the children, a.s.sume the responsibility. What of her health and schooling?
Then there is the child who does paid work at home, extracts nut meats, makes artificial flowers and the like. What of its pay? Is it a fair one? What of the effect of long hours of confinement?
Street occupations come next; these are largely taken by boys, and the work of the newspaper seller, the district messenger, the boot-black, the errand boy, should all be studied. Is their health impaired? Are their morals endangered? Are the boys educated?
The work of children in mills and factories is often most distressing.
Conditions in gla.s.s factories, mines, canneries, silk mills, in the shrimp industry, and in the Southern cotton mills are all to be studied.
Note the great numbers of children so employed: in Pennsylvania in 1914, 33,000; in Ma.s.sachusetts, 12,000; in North Carolina, 10,000, and in other States large numbers. Discuss the future of such children.
Compare the work of bound-out children on farms and in the country generally. Read Mrs. Browning"s "Cry of the Children" and E. K.
Coulter"s "Children in the Shadow."
One meeting should take up the laws of the State on child labor. See "Some Ethical Gains Through Legislation," by Mrs. Florence Kelley, which gives valuable material on this point, and a pamphlet by Josephine Goldmark, called "Child Labor Legislation," published by the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Philadelphia. The Child Labor Committee at 105 East Twenty-second Street, New York, will send pamphlets free of charge.
VI--THE SHOP GIRL AND HER LIFE
The next great problem of woman"s work to-day is that of the workers in retail shops. This may be made extremely interesting if the chairman of the program will arrange to have the club members interview in advance a number of shop girls, and find out something of the conditions under which they work, of their pay, their home life and other points, and give personal reports.