every way the equal of man and
should be permitted to engage in all of man's activities on an equal
footing with him, or with that other army which declares that woman's
place is the home and that every woman should be a wife, mother, and
housekeeper.

Doubtless there are many wholesome and needed reforms being agitated with
reference to women's work. Doubtless, also, there are many pernicious
changes being advocated by both the sincere but mistaken and the vicious
and designing. It is not the purpose of this chapter to discuss these
reforms or to favor or to oppose any of them. We shall, in this chapter,
discuss the problem of vocation for women under present conditions.

BROAD SCOPE OF WOMEN'S WORK

The present day finds women at work in practically every field of human
endeavor. There is no profession, business, trade, or calling which does
not count women amongst its successful representatives. Nor does the fact
that a woman has married, has a home and children, debar her from
achievement in any vocation outside the home which she may choose. Madam
Ernestine Schuman-Heinck, with her eight children; Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
with her ten children; Katherine Booth-Clibborn, with her ten children;
Ethel Barrymore, with her family; Mrs. Netscher, proprietor of the Boston
Store in Chicago, with her family; Mary Roberts Rhinehart, with her
children; Madam Louise Homer, with her little flock, and thousands of
others are examples of women who have been successful not only as
home-makers but also in art, literature, professional or commercial
vocations.

Since this is true, it follows that, theoretically at least, woman may
choose her profession in precisely the same way that man chooses his.
Practically, however, this is not true in most cases. Undoubtedly, a very
large majority of women have happily married, are sufficiently provided
for, and are happier, healthier, more useful, and better satisfied with
life in the home than anywhere else. Notwithstanding the fact that our
girls, almost without exception, enter upon the important vocation of
wifehood, motherhood and home-making with almost no proper training, their
aptitudes for the work are so great and their natural intuitions in regard
to it so true, that unquestionably, large numbers of them in the United
States are happy and satisfied and have no part and no interest in all the
hue and cry in regard to women's rights or women's work.

WOMEN NATURAL-BORN WIVES AND