k itself.
As a training, however, a private post is incomparable. With the woman
who works for a commercial firm, it is a different matter. Women of
the best type who do this work, have a right to complain when they are
without chance of promotion. They feel that they should be given the
same opportunity of rising in the business, whatever it may be, as is
open to any intelligent office boy. The reply of the employer is, that
while the office boy, if promoted and given increasing pay, may be
expected to stay with the firm for a lifetime, there is not the same
certainty of continuity of service from women clerks, who may at any
time leave to get married. There are cases, however, where women have
stayed on after marriage when it has been made worth their while.
One woman who entered a firm as a young girl, continued with the
firm after marriage, and is now, as a widow, working for the same
employers. There is no reason why such cases should be exceptional.

The calling, the conditions of which we have been considering, suffers
from its accessibility to the half trained and undisciplined of
various social grades. When, however, the righteous complaint of the
employer against the incompetent and scatter-brained has been heard,
the fact remains that among women clerks and secretaries there is an
exceptionally large proportion who give, for a moderate return and
limited prospects of advancement, conscientious, loyal, and skilful
service.

[Footnote 1: See Appendix II., p. 317.]

[Footnote 2: Satisfactory secretarial training may be obtained in
London from reliable teachers for a fee of 25 guineas for a year's
course. It is, however, necessary to make searching enquiries before
arranging to enter any school, as some of these neither give a sound
training, nor obtain posts for their pupils as their advertisements
promise. [EDITOR.]]

[Footnote 3: First rate secretarial preparation includes more than
merely technical instruction. It gives a sound business training as
well, and, in addition, insists on one or more foreign languages. A
girl who hopes to become something more than a shorthand-typist ought
not to scamp her professional training: this should, of course,
follow her school-course--_i.e._, not begin until she is seventeen or
eighteen. Graduates, who have specialised in foreign languages,
may also advantageously prepare for the better secretarial posts.
[EDITOR.]]

[Footnote 4: Apart from monetary prospects alt