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146 THE MAKKET POK EDUCATED FEMALE LABOE...
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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.
¦ -^* I Have Been Asked To Prepare A Pap...
universall by tlieir husbands y considered . If to a be lad a misfortune y lias to -work an exception for her livelihood to the ordinary , it is
, rule . All good fathers wish to provide for their daughters ; all good husbands think it their bounden duty to keep their wives . All our
laws are framed strictly in accordance with this hypothesis ; and all our social customs adhere to it more strictly still . We make no
room in our social framework for any other idea , and in no moral or practical sphere do the exceptions more lamentably and thoroughly
prove the rule . Women of the lower class may work , must work , m the houseif not out of it— -too often out of it ! But among us ,
it is judged best , to carefully train the woman as the moraliser , the refiner , the spiritual element .
I will not here enter into any discussion of this theory . Nay , for my own part , I have little or nothing to urge against it , if it
were practicable in action . It may be that the benefit conferred on society by a class of tender , refined , thoughtful women , secluded
from its rougher paths and grosser problems , is inestimable . "We can hardly imagine what a civilised country would be like without
such a class of women , for they nave existed in all ages , enriched benefit by the hi they gher confer forms does of literature now largel and y exist art . in I certain feel keenl directions y that , and the
upper might and uiMier middle certain classes moral , if conditions the theory of be a realised material for provision the whole fop
all educated women were humanly possible , which it is not . It is not possible ! Let us not forget this . Educated women
must work It is not my fault that I am obliged to assert this ; nor your fault if you are compelled to believe it . Our theory and
our practice are wide apart in this matter , and the cause of the discrepancy is as deep as the cause of strikes or commercial crises ;
nay , deeper still * as the cause of misfortune , improvidence , or cTiine in human _nattire . -:
, The aristocracy are rich enough to make some invariable , though scanty , provision for their female members , but the middle class is
at the mercy of a thousand accidents of commercial or professional lifeand thousands and thousands of destitute educated women
have , to earn tlieir daily bread . I should only be tiring you if I entered into further details ; besidesthese very details are supplied
, by the a few actual extracts eases in . a Probabl printed y report every from person which present I intend has a to female give
relative you or intimate friend whom trade-failures , the exigencies of a numerous householdor the early death of husband or father has
compelled to this course , ; it is in the experience of every family . Of course the first resource of these ladies is teaching ; nothing
else is obviously present to them . Now listen to the result . Tlie largest reports charities of the Governesses and most efficient ' Benevolent _organisation Institution s for , the one assistance of the
of industry which exists in the kingdom , reckon fifteen thousand
governesses as an item in our population ! Fifteen thousand
146 The Makket Pok Educated Female Laboe...
146 THE MAKKET _POK EDUCATED FEMALE LABOE .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1859, page 146, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111859/page/2/
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