ings on the novelists, poets, playwrights, and artists
of to-day. A special study might also be made of the cathedrals of
England. See "The Cathedrals of England," by Mary J. Tabor (The Page
Company).

CHAPTER XIII

WOMAN'S PROBLEMS OF WORK

INTRODUCTORY

The outline given here may be amplified by taking up in the same general
way the conditions of life of women in several representative countries,
both the rich and poor, the workers and the women of leisure, closing
the year with an outlook on the whole woman question of the world.

The first point to be taken up is the life of the primitive woman. She
was the great laborer. The man hunted and fished and fought, and the
woman sowed and reaped, did the drudgery of the home, made clothing,
prepared food, and bore the responsibility. As civilization slowly crept
in she relinquished many of her out-of-door tasks and developed greater
ability to meet the steadily increasing problems within doors.

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 class; 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