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    226 WHAT CAN EDUCATED WOMEN DO?

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    ; *' We Should Not Omit To Mention That ...

    _suggest two answers . Firstly , that the difficulty appears to have been turned or overcome in the case of teachers for certificated schools .

    They receive a competent training , they work for several years , and then they frequentlyet nobody argues that therefore it is

    foolish and expensive y to marry train ; certificated female teachers . Secondly , the qualities required in the hihest class of female superintendents

    are rather those which are matured g by a life ' s experience than those which can be instilled into a woman by the efforts of others .

    For the matron of a workhouse , or the superintendent of a factory , we do not want a clever girl , however well trained and

    certificated ; we want a woman of mature age , whether single , married , or widowed we want firmnessdiscretionand experience of life . If

    a candidat ; e possesses these she , will soon , learn the technicalities of her occupation ; and if she do not possess them all technicalities will

    be but broken reeds . I am now speaking of the highest class of moral qualificationsof the rarest candidates for the most responsible

    , social professions ; for the subordinate brandies of employment some similar system to the training school must be adopted , and

    certificates of ability bestowed . If these women marry ( as it is to be hoped they will ) they will carry into domestic life a very superior order of

    attainments and of qualities ; as mothers of daughters they will exercise the best of influence over the next generation of their sex , and

    if they become widows , and if their husband ' s misfortunes ( as in innumerable instances ) compel them to work , they will form a sort of

    reserved fund for the filling of the highest posts of responsibility . Upon the articular organisation of these necessary training

    institutions I do p not feel competent to speak ; while there are many ladies who possess all the requisite knowledge ; but I consider it

    amply proved within the last half century that the want of the action of women in our English social institutions is a crying want of the

    age , —it must be supplied , and the way to supply it will be found if we look for it .

    "When I read over what I have written , I see plainly that it will appear to convey only the merest truisms to those who have been

    long engaged in philanthropic labors . It has all been said over and over again in the last twenty years . But that is no reason why it

    should not be reiterated , for the beneficent effects of educated female loyment in social institutionsis yet far enough from being a

    popular emp creed with the English peop , le . An idea may be broached in books and pamphlets , and obtain great hold over a select class of

    minds , long before it penetrates familiarly into the columns of the newspapersand becomes really incorporated with our national

    thought . Therefore , , by systematically urging these things in a monthly periodical , it is to be hoped that a new range of readers

    will be touclied . And we must not forget that it is absolutely necessary to convince the middle class before any of these reforms

    can be carried out and paid for . Who control the workhouses ?

    "the guardians of each parish ; chiefly tradesmen and sho |) keepers .

    226 What Can Educated Women Do?

    226 WHAT CAN EDUCATED WOMEN DO ?

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1859, page 226, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121859/page/10/