ust possible that society has lost as much in the parents as it
has gained in the children? Couldn't we have got the same product some
cheaper way? Or a better product by more efficient home management?"

WOMEN'S WORK

Perhaps the saddest of all the misfits are to be found amongst women, or
it may be that their cases seem to us to be saddest because there are so
many of them. Under the old-time regime there was but one vocation open to
women--that of wife and mother. Regardless of aptitudes, physical strength
or weakness, personal likes or dislikes, all women were expected to marry
and bear children, and to qualify successfully for a vocation which
combined the duties of nursemaid, waitress, laundress, seamstress, baker,
cook, governess, purchasing agent, dietitian, accountant, and
confectioner. In the early days of this country, in addition to these
duties, women were also called upon to be butchers, sausage-makers,
tailors, spinners, weavers, shoemakers, candle-makers, cheese-makers,
soap-makers, dyers, gardeners, florists, shepherds, bee-keepers,
poultry-keepers, brewers, picklers, bottlers, butter-makers, mil-liners,
dressmakers, hatters, and first-aid physicians, surgeons and nurses. In
more modern times, women have entered nearly all vocations. But even yet
there is much prejudice against the woman who "descends" out of her
traditional "sphere." The woman who is not a wife, mother, and
house-keeper--or a domestic parasite, housekeeping by proxy--loses caste
among the patricians. Many men and, on their behalf, their mothers and
sisters, shudder at the sordid thought of marrying a girl who has been so
base as to "work for her living." And so stenographers, clerks,
accountants, saleswomen, factory workers, telephone operators, and all
other women in the business world are about 99 per cent temporary workers.
Even in executive positions and in the professions, most women look upon
wages and salaries as favoring breezes, necessary until they drop anchor
in the haven of matrimony. And even those who most sincerely proclaim
themselves wedded to their careers, in many instances, exercise their
ancient privilege, change their minds, and give up all else for husband
and home.

Every normal woman was intended by nature to marry. It is right that she
should marry. She does not truly and fully live unless she does marry. She
misses deep and true joy who is not happily married--and usually feels
cheated. But the same may be s