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THE REVIEWER REVIEWED. 203
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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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
. . The ' Saturday Review' Has Addressed...
Kadical , must lose by the lowering of their earnings to the full extent But of the the * Saturday gain ?* Reviewer' has another plea . Women he
. considers so much in demand for domestic duties that there are scarcely any disposable for other employments . If this were true ,
what a paradise might they not find in this world ! Where so few were disposable for ordinary work , how small must be the
competition among governesses , shirt-makers , shoe-binders , slopclothesstitehers , and the few other employments into which women have
forced their way : how eager the demand among masters where woman ' s work was needed ! Might we not expect to hear of enormous salaries paid hersons who chose to indulge in the costly
u luxury niversal of proverb employi of ng the y woman p ill-payment 's labour of ? woman Unhapp ' s work ily , however is not wholl , the y
without foundation . It is no dream that educated governesses take salaries lower than are paid for the lowest kind of unskilled male
labour . The " Song of the Shirt" did not fall on ears unused to listen to the tale of needlewomen's misery .
Why is women ' s work ill-paid ? Here lies the -whole question . _' The critic tells us that where there is any employment fitted for
wi them ll be , the darin interests of h to emp ive loyers him will a lesson draw even women in political into it . economy But we . g
There are such g enoug things as custom , and other disturbing influences amonthe laws of that science . Men will chooseas a rulethe
cheapest g and best thing that is available for their , purpose ; _^ but not all menand not everywhere . The Mussulmanfor instance
would probabl , y prefer a bad dinner , if the good one , were only to , In order not to interrupt our argument with the discussion of abstract princileswe
* p , some have granted important our qualifications Reviewer ' s , proposition which we w to its fullest lain , throwing extent ; "but the in blame truth , if , it we requires weary our readers , on our economical contemporary . It is otherwise not asserted by fixed any political econo If
mis soan t , that increased the amount number of of _employment hands must , profitable compel some or to becom , e wholl a " y , or quantit in part y . , " idle . It , is only maintained , that the sum appropriated to addition the remunera to the tion number of labour of work is , at any
g equalised their iven value time with , , so like much the the supp and value ly no , and more other all . On are things a full sudden , y must employed fall , and . But the deman while d the increase new workers till peop it is , lostwhile those who would bthe
w opera ould tion gain of what a just the economical others law — , have slightly taxed previousl those who y got had nothing something , , the w y orld rise of would cap in it profits at al . once The would gain sum , by by appropriated all a law the no increased less to certain that produc emp , lead lo tion yment immediatel . If , which wages y to our fall increased ive contemporary profits increased accumulation rise : work now calls at a a
the " fixed same quanti rate ty of , " the remuneration growth of which therefore sum can b , no we means admit ,- fixed alone . g It is liableunder the possible circumstances supposition supposed of , a to sudden an immediate , and , violent and , change inevitable y would increase quicld , which y furnish even new , on emp the lo im y - - If doubts
is men certainl whether t t this and y the as we cap e have ital t any imag fund loss hig ined to of her workmen , the let by countr him ask merely y of can himself the . expand temporary enormous whether or . recover waste the rate our of itself wealth contempora of interest , so in rap the on ry idl cap recent y and ital
be Russian , assured a war momen that . Our th , ere any countr is nothing ywomen reason , in who the teachings not political of that economis valuable ts , ma branch y take hear of human t , and , which is favourableto the reform which
advocate knowledge . which is opposed , but everything , we
The Reviewer Reviewed. 203
THE REVIEWER REVIEWED . 203
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1858, page 203, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051858/page/59/
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