er is the custom of making them eat in their employer's
kitchen. These are minor details, perhaps, but nevertheless they count
for much in the lives of women who earn their own living, and anything,
however small, that tends to raise one's self respect, is worthy of
consideration. Perhaps, too, while the word "servant" (a noble word
enough in its history and its moral connotation) carries with it a
stigma, a sense of degradation, among the working women, it should
be avoided.

Briefly summed up, then, the present disadvantages of housework compared
with work in factories, stores, and offices, are as follows:

Enforced separation from one's family.
Loss of personal freedom.
Lack of promotion.
Unlimited hours of work.
No day of rest each week.
Non-observance of legal holidays.
Loss of caste.

In the present comparison of housework with work in factories, stores,
and offices, a recital of the advantages of domestic service, even under
the present method of housekeeping, must not be omitted, for such
advantages are important, although unfortunately they do not outweigh
the present disadvantages.

To the woman whose home ties have been disrupted by death or discord,
and to the newly arrived immigrant especially, housework is a great
boon, inasmuch as besides good wages, all meals and a room to sleep
in are given her. Moreover housework is the only form of labor where
unskilled work can command high wages. This, however, is much more
fortunate for the employee than for her employer.

Housework in itself is certainly _not worse_ than any other kind of
manual work in which women are engaged; it is often more interesting and
less fatiguing. It also helps a woman more than any other occupation to
prepare herself for her natural sphere of life:--that of the home maker.
A girl who has spent several years in a well ordered family helping to
do the housework, is far better fitted to run her own home intelligently
and on economic lines than a girl who has spent the same number of years
behind a counter, or working in a factory or an office.

Again, work in a private house is infinitely more desirable, from the
point of view of the influence of one's surroundings, than daily labor
in a factory or store. The variety of domestic duties, the freedom of
moving about from one room to another, of sitting or standing to do
one's work, are much to be preferred to the work that compels the worker
to stand or sit in one p