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A FOREWORD

Fortunate are we to have from the pen of Mrs. Dickson a book on the
vocational guidance of girls. Mrs. Dickson has the all-round life
experiences which give her the kind of training needed for a broad and
sympathetic approach to the delicate, intricate, and complex problems
of woman's life in the swiftly changing social and industrial world.

Mrs. Dickson was a teacher for seven years in the grades in the city
of New York. She then became the partner of a superintendent of
schools in the business of making a home. In these early homemaking
years there came from the pen of Mrs. Dickson a series of historical
books for the grades which have placed her among the leading
educational writers of the country. During the long sickness of her
husband she filled for a while two administrative positions--homemaker
and superintendent of schools.

Her three children are now in high school and are beginning to plan
for their own life work. With the broad training of homemaker, wife,
mother, teacher, writer, and administrator, Mrs. Dickson has the
combination of experiences to enable her to introduce teachers and
mothers to the very difficult problems of planning wisely big life
careers for our girls.

The book is so plainly and guardedly written that it can also be used
as a textbook for the girls themselves in connection with civic and
vocational courses. The only difficulty with the book for a text is
that it is so attractively written on such vital problems that the
student will not stop reading at the end of the lesson.

J. ADAMS PUFFER

"Vocational guidance has for its ideal the granting to
every individual of the chance to attain his highest
efficiency under the best conditions it is humanly possible
to provide."

PART I

PRESENT-DAY IDEALS OF WOMANHOOD

"How to preserve to the individual his right to aspire, to
make of himself what he will, and at the same time find
himself early, accurately, and with certainty, is the
problem of vocational guidance."

VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE FOR GIRLS

CHAPTER I

WOMAN'S PLACE IN SOCIETY

Any scheme of education must be built upon answers to two basic
questions: first, What do we desire those being educated to become?
second, How shall we proceed to make them into that which we desire
them to be?

In our answers to these questions, plans for education fall