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% ON THE ABOPTION OF PROFESSIONAL LIFE B...
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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.
——.. ^ We Do Not Propose To Consider In ...
Red by the unceasing exertions of Mrs . _Balfoiir . If women are allowed by public taste to give dramatic readings ( and all the
civilised world which can understand English flocks to , hear Mrs . Fanny * Kemble , ) there is no sort of reason to be alleged why the inferior
degrees of theatrical talent , or impressive elocution , should not be employed with advantage in the service of Mechanic ' s Institutesand
kindred societies . If women can write books which the world , will gladly read , they can also deliver lectures which the world will
gladly hear , and they may be trusted to do so with ample delicacy and dignity . If Mrs . Stowe when in Englandhad iven ' readins '
from Uncle Tom , the Crystal Palace would not , have g contained her g audienceand if she might have read her own novelwhy miht she
not 66 abolition have , told movement the Eng . " Many h peop a le woman some of to the whom experiences , the earning g of the of
an honest livelihood is an absolute necessity , -would know how to v read an interesting paper to the audiences of our provincial towns ,
without departing one iota from the refined demeanor of private life . It may be that as time goes onother professionsand
modifications of those now practised will rise , into importance , ; that of the teacher will surely receive more attention , and be rendered more
noble in its requirements and in its results . There yet remain for us to consider the chief obstacles which meet a woman desirous of
overcome adopting any them professional . career , and the best way of helping her to
The first question raised is invariably this—how far domestic duties ought to interfere with the devotion of young women to an art .
Of course where poverty compels recourse to non-domestic exertion , this question is never raised ; but if the aspirant is in easy
circumstances , what then are the claims of parents , brothers , and sistersas opposed to those made by the successful cultivation of a
, profession ? Feeling sure that no stern law can be laid down to meet cases which are infinitely various , and claims which depend on
the health , the age , and even the temperaments of a domestic circle , we are inclined to urge strongly a few of those arguments for
professional life , which may serve to counterbalance those which _, many in authority will be ready to urge against it .
In the first place , the demand made upon a daughter ' s time depends very muchnot only on the circumstancesbut on the rank of
the family . We , do not consider respectable laborers , or small shopkeepers to be in a state of poverty , yet the custom of their class
necessitates that its unmarried female members should work , instead of eating the bread of idleness at homeand when from the firsta
girl is destined to be apprenticed to a dressmaker , , or enter on house , - hold service , we hear nothing of the dreadful gap occasioned by her
absence from the parlor or the kitchen . It is accepted as a matter of course , and the parents console themselves with each other and
is with a far the greater younger pleasure children than , while her _absenc occasional e 1 / 9 a return pain . The the stranger way in
% On The Aboption Of Professional Life B...
% ON THE ABOPTION OF PROFESSIONAL LIFE BY WOMEN .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Sept. 1, 1858, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01091858/page/8/
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