Independent. 54: 2691-3. November 13, 1902.

Housework versus Shop and Factories. Mary E. Trueblood.

There is no need to say to any one in this country that housework is the last occupation the intelligent American working girl will seek. If there is any doubt on this point, listen to the conversation of any group of housekeepers or spend a morning at an employment office.

For one trade to be persistently shunned by intelligent workers while the others are overcrowded cannot be an accident, and to find a definite reason for the unpopularity of housework by comparing it with other occupations was the object of the investigation that furnishes the data for this article. In the State of Massachusetts, where this investigation was made, shoe factories, textile mills, department stores and restaurants are the principal industries that attract girls away from housework -hence these were chosen for comparison. The information was not obtained by writing, but by observation and by conversation with the girls at work and at home. This was essential, since my one object was to find out the attitude of the girls toward housework, and to ascertain what satisfaction their own work afforded.

It is an interesting fact that of the five occupations the shops (department stores) contained the highest per cent. of American-born girls, while of the houseworkers considered not one was born in the United States. Ireland furnished the largest number, while the others came from Canada, England and Scotland. Apparently the choice of work was made with little regard to the healthfulness of it, for in housework alone was there no deterioration in strength reported. A few years of work in the mills and factories affects the health of fully half the girls. A sticher in a shoe factory was quite right in saying: "The stitching room will take the bloom out of any girl's cheek." In the textile mills there is a marked contrast between the bright, active girls who are beginning and the dull-faced, lifeless women who have worked a few years. The work in shops and restaurants is wearing, but for the most part the

girls seem to have vitality enough to rebound when the day's work is over. The good health of the houseworkers and waitresses is to be accounted for in part by good food. The former have, as a rule, the same food as the family, the latter take their meals in the restaurants where they are employed.

The following table showing the average weekly income may seem to offer a reason for factory work being preferred, but the difference here indicated is more apparent than real, for in almost all the shoe factories there is a dull season from three to five months of the year, and work in the textile mills varies with times of prosperity and depression:

In shops, restaurants and housework there is little lost working time, so that in the long run it is doubtful if more money is to be made in mills and factories than in the other three occupations. The cost of living for the girls working in textile mills appears small in the table because several of those considered were living in corporation boarding houses, where expenses are exceedingly low. These, however, are not popular, and are gradually disappearing. The houseworker not only earns more than the shop and restaurant girl, but by reason of living in a family she has the opportunity of doing for herself many things that they must pay for. The girls of all occupations understand perfectly that "housework pays well."

The per cent. of savings was largest among houseworkers, as was also the amount of money given for the support of others. The shop girls saved least and also gave least. The difference in expense for necessary clothing and in standards of living accounts for this in large measure. A shop girl wisely remarked: "The question is not how much can I save, but how much can I afford to save. I owe something to myself.”

As to working hours, the shop girls fare best of all. The average for those considered was 8.2 hours per day, excepting Saturdays in summer, when it was 4.6. For the waitresses the average was 9.5 hours. Where there was Sunday work there

was invariably extra pay. Working hours in mills and factories are limited by law to 58 per week, the arrangement always being such as to give, the Saturday half holiday. Houseworkers seldom know the exact number of working hours. The estimates given ranged from 72 to 151⁄2 hours per day. The average was 11.6, and that for seven days in the week instead of for six. Probably one hour should be deducted for meals, but as much or more should be added for the time when the girls were "on call." Without exception there was one day "off" each week —that is, after having worked as long as a full day for the shop, the houseworker was allowed time out from three until ten P. M.

In vacations also the shop girls have the advantage. Half reported from one to two weeks with pay, the others were allowed the same without pay. The Saturday half holiday in summer takes nothing from their wages. A few restaurant girls were given vacations with pay, but most of them, and also the factory and mill workers, were given any length of time desired without pay. In housework there seemed to be no fixed custom in regard to vacations. Some of the girls mentioned length of service as a condition, as was the case in many restaurants and shops. A few had two weeks' vacation with pay.

The difference in intelligence and education in the five occupations was marked. The shoe factory and shop girls were much better educated than the others and also showed greater intelligence and higher standards of living than the mill or house workers. With them a comfortable room and a certain amount of free time for recreation and self-improvement are necessaries of life. The night schools and classes in clubs of various kinds afford for all who wish it an opportunity to continue their education. The wish "to know more" was the one expressed more often than any other among these working girls, and the efforts that some were making to educate younger brothers and sisters were nothing short of heroic. Ten hours of work in the textile mills leaves the girls with little strength or ambition for any sort of exertion in the evening. Houseworkers as a class are prevented by lack of time from making use of the means of improvement offered to other working girls. The objection that

they would not make proper use of free evenings even if they had them is neither here nor there. Observation does not give weight to the argument sometimes made that education unfits girls for house workers. It does however, raise their standards and make them unwilling to conform to the traditional requirements of housework. The remedy for dissatisfaction is not to be sought in ignorance, but rather in education that teaches the dignity of labor and gives means for fuller enjoyment to girls whose lives are peculiarly lonely and barren because shut off almost exclusively from relatives and friends and surrounded by people of a different station in life. In shoe factories, shops and restaurants many of the girls seemed to really enjoy their work. No doubt the excitement of a crowd and the association with others doing the same work accounted for it in part. They knew, too, that their work was definite and would end at a fixed time. It was particularly noticeable in these three occupations that the girls respected themselves, their work and their employers. They seemed to feel themselves a part of the commercial world and that they were helping to do a large thing. Among houseworkers it was impossible to detect any feeling that their work was important. Very few seemed satisfied with their employment, but in no case was objection made to the work itself. Those receiving the best pay were often the most dissatisfied. Truly no amount of money can compensate a self-respecting person for the loss of a reasonable amount of free time and independence. No one who is acquainted with the recreations of other working girls-the evenings at a club, a sewing circle, or a neighborhood party, the trolley rides, wheeling parties and excursions into the country or to the seashore-will wonder to hear them say, "We will never give up our evenings and Sundays." This was invariably the first objection given when they spoke of housework. A particularly bright and successful saleswoman said she drifted into the store, but she would prefer housework if it were not for the long and irregular hours. Another who liked the work itself said she would not do it for any one but her mother, for, aside from the long hours, there was more unpleasant contact with the employer than in a shop. The following are the comments of some of the others: "I prefer

housework, but that takes me entirely away from home and takes more time."

"If conditions were right I would rather do housework than anything else, but I would not have a woman say 'my servant,' referring to me."

"I did housework four years before coming to the restaurant, but I must have independence. I rent a flat and relet rooms; if you have a hen house, just so it is your own, you can take some comfort."

"I came to the restaurant after doing housework thirteen years. I like this much better, for my time is my own and my room; if I wish to have my friends in and serve a cup of tea I can do it."

"Work is heavy, customers are hard to please; but when the store closes I am free!"

"I tried housework, but came back to the mill; I will not be at everybody's beck and call."

Very few mentioned the loss of social position as an objection to housework, altho it was occasionally implied. The feeling seemed to be not that the work itself was either degrading or unpleasant, but that a girl must necessarily have lost her self-esteem who would sell all her time but half of one afternoon in each week, who would submit to be called a "servant," who would be willing to receive her friends in somebody's kitchen, and who, instead of learning her trade and being left to do as she had learned, must constantly be subjected to the whim of each new employer.

To summarize the advantages of the houseworker:

The excess of wages above living expenses is greater than for girls in shops and restaurants, and taken from year to year is almost as great as in mills and factories.

The work is more healthful than in mills, factories or shops. The demand for workers is little affected by prosperous or dull times.

The older and more thoughtful women of all occupations recognize another advantage: Houseworkers are better prepared for contented lives in homes of their own. The other girls not only know little about the care of a house, but they form a taste