MOTHERS

The natural tendency of the majority of women for maternity and
home-making must be taken into consideration. Some boys play with weapons,
others with machinery, still others are interested in dogs and horses.
Some boys are natural traders, others love to hunt and fish, while you
will find an occasional lad curled up in a big chair in the library
absorbed in a book. But practically all girls play with dolls, which is a
sufficient evidence of the almost universality of the maternal instinct in
women. The pity is that our educational traditions, almost without
exception, are those handed down to us from schools and universities which
educated boys and men only. We are therefore educating our girls to be
merchants, lawyers, doctors, accountants, artists, musicians; in fact,
almost anything but mothers. Twenty years ago, this was universally true.
To-day, fortunately, the light has begun to break, and in many schools,
both public and private, we are beginning to teach our girls domestic
science, the care and feeding of infants, pre-natal culture, home
management, economic purchasing, and other such important subjects.

VOCATIONS FOR MOTHERS

Occasionally we find a girl who has no talent for housework or home
management. She is not particularly interested in it. She finds it
monotonous and distasteful. For these reasons she probably does not do it
well. On the other hand, she may have keen, reliable commercial instincts
and be well qualified for a business career, or she may be educational,
artistic, literary or professional in type. Such a woman has, of course,
no business trying to keep house. She may have a strong love nature and
ardent maternal desires. If so, there is no reason why she should not
marry and become the mother of children. If she does, however, she should
turn the management of the home over to someone else and seek
self-expression and compensation in the vocation for which she is best
fitted. This, of course, is no easy matter. Many men either have violent
or stubborn prejudices against any such arrangement. Whether or not she
can take her true place in the world depends upon the courage,
determination, tactfulness, and personal force of each individual woman.

WOMEN AS TEACHERS

There is one occupation for women which is thoroughly established,
entirely respectable, socially uplifting, and fully approved by even the
most conservative and fastidious. This is teaching. The result is that the