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    (190)

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    XXX.—SOME OF THE WOEK IN" WHICH WOMEN"

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    : ¦* In this age of women workers, and m...

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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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    (190)

    ( 190 )

    Xxx.—Some Of The Woek In" Which Women"

    XXX . —SOME OF THE _WOEK IN" WHICH WOMEN " ARE DEFICIENT . —»—

    : ¦* In This Age Of Women Workers, And M...

    : ¦* In this age of women workers , and minds full of earnest ambitions and generous and noble aims , it is sad and strange to mark how

    many of our sex still pass _tlirough life laboring under the demon ennui and the curse of an 'aimless and purposeless existence . Nor

    does this assertion apply only to the higher classes—there are many amongst the daughters and sisters of farmers and

    tradespeople whose minds never seem to expand beyond the narrow female routine of dress , gossip , fancy needlework , novel reading ,

    and a smattering , it maybe , of bad French and atrocious music . We are almost inclined to believe , that to be usefully employed

    is in their minds synonymous with being vulgar . So regularly is the dirty strip of useless embroidery brought out before

    company ; so carefully huddled away on the appearance of " gentry " is the heap of undarned household stockings or family " white

    work . " Nor does the mischief stop here . Not content with following the aristocracy in what they consider a genteel and refined mode

    of life , they imbibe with the very uselessness of their employments a distaste for the more homely work in which their woman's mission

    most assuredly lies , and an ill concealed contempt and down-looking upon their honest , homely , hard working parents . Yet these are

    the women to whom our tradespeople and farmers look for wivesthe young and rising generation ! They will learn , perhaps , in

    future years the full value of baking , brewing , cheese-making , and house-keeping . They will be obliged to learn it , and practise it , for

    their living will depend upon it ; but there will be first of all a weary un-learning of all their silly heads have been filled , with—a

    lowering of their pride—a degradation of their fancied gentility - —unhappiness and misery that their honest hard working parents

    . never dreamt of when they thought to give them an " edication , " blacing them at some frivolous boarding-school far removed frona

    wholesome y p home influences , and having them taught French in quite another language to what is spoken across the channel ! Nor

    are the higher ranks much excluded from the same folly . Taught first by ignorant and prejudiced servants in the nursery , placed

    afterwards under the training of well-taught and fashionable governesseswanting in nothing but the home affections , is it wonderful

    that our , daughters and sisters should grow up accomplished , fashionable , refined , and ( low be it spoken ) useless and

    emptyheaded members of society ? We challenge many a young * wife and youthful matron to say

    if it be not the simple truth that when she entered the married state she hardly knew the difference between beef and mutton , a , nd

    assuredly was far inferior in household knowledge to the lowest

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1859, page 190, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051859/page/46/