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IN REGARD TO WOMAN'S WORK. 341
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.
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» I Should Not This Year Have Brought Be...
carried on with perfect ease and propriety by all ladies desirous of taking part in any of the sections . I believe I may truly affirm
that never before in the world ' s history have women met with such . ¦ equal courtesy and true deference as that which has been shown
them here . For this reason , among many others , I feel that it peculiarly
behoves women to show that they can appreciate and respond to this loyal justice on the part of men . To show that , being under
no restraint and no repression , they can discuss the great question of social welfare , on which the ultimate fate of tlie nation in its
corporate and its domestic life chiefly _dejDends , with moderation and honest impartiality . And I do believe that , on referring to the
newspaper reports , or examining the Transactions of the last five yearsevery one will admit that our sex fully deserved the noble
confidence , reposed in them by the gentlemen of this Association ; that they have neither wasted its time in frivolities , nor offended
it by one unwomanly word . During this period an immense progress has in one sense been
made in public opinion . The importance of all questions relating to tlie female population of the country has heen admitted by the
press and by the people . Nay , I believe that any Bill affecting the welfare of women would now receive more attention in Parliament ;
than it would have done five years ago _; and that many men would now feel doubly bound to plead the interests of those who
could Since not therefore there plead there for themselves is no longer . any occasion to strive to
, , obtain a hearing , sure to be granted to us for every reasonable or practical I am doubly anxious that any discussion we may
carry on this purpose year , should be marked by a desire to see and admit all sides of our questionand that we should each of us carefully
, state that which we believe to be truth . Nowin slimming the papersarticles and speeches which
,, up , have been everywhere promulgated on the question of woman's workwe fbid that at the threshold of the question we are met by
two distinct , theories , _Lipon neither of which is it possible to speak or act exclusiveland yet it will make a great difference to our
speech and to our y , action whether in the depths of intellectual and xnoral conviction we abide by the one or by the other theory . I
will put it as simply and as shortly as possible : —Do we wish to see the majoritof women getting their own livelihoodor do we
wish to see it provided y for them by men . ? Are we trying , to assist the female population of this country over a time of difficulty ;
or , I are feel we bound seeking to say to develop that I regard a new the stat question e of social from life a ? temporary
point of view , and that I should greatly regret any change in the public _oiDmion of all classes which would tend to make the men of
this country more unmindful of the material welfare of the feniale
members of their families .
In Regard To Woman's Work. 341
IN REGARD TO WOMAN ' S WORK . 341
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1862, page 341, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071862/page/53/
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