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2 STATISTICS AS TO THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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_—=«»*- Much Mvolving As An ..Ag Importa...
solves to the domestic duties which constitute , _tlioir proper occupation , and th . at all unmarried females' should employ themselves exclusively
in preparing * for marriage . It is further represented that women , if placed in a position of independence as to means of livelihood ,
will not be so disposed to marriage ( which is a ' public benefit ) as if they were compelled to regard that contingency as their only source
of support . It is no part of our present task , to criticise the view of marriage ,
and the motives which lead to it , thus presented to our notice . We are now only dealing with the question as a matter of cold statistics ,
and of the way in which , they boar upon rival theories . The amount of acceptance which these rival theories as to the
proper province of the female population have met with , may be gathered from , the statement that in 1851 there were 2 , 846 , 097
females engaged in some description of remunerative labor ; . besides about 500 , 000 wives and daughters of persons engaged in trades and
occupations of a nature to make it likely that they assisted in the business and did not restrict themselves exclusively to domestic
affairs . We may therefore conclude that by upwards of three millions and a quarter of our female population , out of the total of 10 , 700 , 000 ,
the latter theory of their proper province is at present repudiated ; or , if we exclude from the comparison all children under fifteen years
of age , the number of females employed in occupations other than domestic will be 3 , 107 , 791 out of a population of 7 , 043 , 701 .
Of course the vast majority of these industrious three millions belong to the working class of society ; but the argument against
the employment of females for the reasons stated is necessarily general , and must , if valid at all , apply to the poorer as well as to
the richer classes . Marriage is not more the business of one class than of another ; the poorest wife has to discharge the same
domestic duties as the most wealthy ; and the female artisan is as able to gain independence by her exertions , and as liable to whatever
influence such independence may exert upon matrimony , as her more educated sister-worker .
_ISxisting practice , then , is not in accordance with the theory under consideration ; for not only do unmarried females employ
their time in industrial pursuits , instead of spending it wholly in the business of husband-hunting , but a great portion of our married
female population find it consistent , or make it compatible , with the domestic engagements which are supposed to constitute their only
proper occupation ., ' to devote a considerable portion of tlioir time to remunerative employment in the various trades and manufactures .
The actual number of wives thus returned as employed in 1851 , was , in round numbers , 780 , 000 out of 3 , 460 , 000 wives ; and that
no doubt was an imdor-sfcatomeiit . Of course this fact does not prove the theory to be erroneousas it may very easily be replied
, that society loses more by the ill-consequences to husbands and
children , of the absence of domestic care and instruction , than it
2 Statistics As To The Employment Of The
2 STATISTICS AS TO THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1860, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031860/page/2/
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