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LOCAL SOCIETIES. 221
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
A Paper Head At The Meeting Op The Assoc...
class school may be established very cheaply , and tliat useful instruction does not repel parents or children ; and when we consider
that the inferiority of their education is one of the principal causes lower of the middle difficulty class in finding ,, I think suitabl that e emp the loyments opening for 1 of women good of useful the
schools for children of that rank may well come within the scope of local societies for promoting the employment of women .
In starting this school a clergyman who had considerable local influence gave great assistance by getting pupils ; and I would
venture to recommend that , when practicable , the co-operation of the clergy should be sought .
No difficulties with regard to religion have arisen : when the parents wish itthe children learn the Catechism of the Church of
, England ; when tills is not the case , they learn a portion of Scripture instead .
There is another -way in which local societies might perhaps do good service to the cause ,
' There often appear in newspapers advertisements to the effect that " an apprentice is wanted" to the wood engraving business , or
the hair-dressing or photographic trades—" a premium required" is for frequentl the y business added . ¦ would In many be instances preferred a clever to a boy girl ; who and had when a tast the e
advertiser was known to be a person of respectability the Society ' might advantageously pay the premium , and so secure a fair start
in life to a deserving young woman . This plan has been tried to a small extent by the London Society ,
and promises well , though hardly sufficient time has passed to render its success as an experiment certain . Several other
tradesbesides the three mentioned would afford a good opening to aclever girl .
In every part of the kingdom ., and in various ranks of life , women are suffering from a scarcity of employment . Restricted to
a few occupations , for which their numbers are too large , the value of their labor is unduly depreciated by competition , so that they are '
not paid what their work is worth to the enrployer , as men are , but receive only a small portion of its value . Thus we see women in
the fields doing far more than half a man's work , and receiving far ' less than half a man ' s wages . In large towns we see them working
fourteen hours a day as needlewomen for 4 d . In a higher rank they go out as governesses at salaries so low as to make it impossible
suffering for them from to save an any unn thing atural for and their artificial old age depression . Everywhere of wages they , being are
excluded either by prejudice , bad education , or sometimes by combinations among workmen , from , occupations that are really suitable '
to them . Everywhere , therefore , are local societies required , ' Every should town devote , and itself even to wat village ching , would over the be interests the better of the for weaker one , which sex , ' -
and protecting them from oppression . It should assist with money , '
Local Societies. 221
LOCAL SOCIETIES . 221
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1861, page 221, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121861/page/5/
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