Women and Their Work

Mrs Arthur Lyttelton

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781138189768
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317279990
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

First published in 1901, this title lends insight into the position of English women in the workforce at the turn of the twentieth century. The conditions of women changed rapidly throughout the 1800s, leading to more varied choices in terms of career and lifestyle. However, this title also reveals the limited status of women even one hundred years ago, as Lyttleton urges that women must decide between a family life and a career. Women and Their Work will be of interest to students of Sociology, Women's History, and Gender Studies.

WOMEN AND THEIR WORK

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY

DOI: 10.4324/9781315641430-1

IT is a truism to talk of the change that has taken place in the position of women during the nineteenth century, and, like other truisms, this one also is somewhat of a neglected truth. People assume the fact, and they rejoice at it or bewail it, and comment on the inconveniences or the advantages which accompany it; but they hardly realize what it means. It has been said that there is more difference between the England of the present day and that of the beginning of the nineteenth century, than there was between the England of 1800 and the England of Charles I. And if this is true of the whole state, it is certainly true of the position of women. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, speaking generally, only two of the occupations which women now practise were open to them, and those were domestic life and society. There were, it is true, a few literary women and ‘blue-stockings’; but, as a rule, the interests of women were restricted to pleasing men, to the family, and to the household. No professions were open to them; social and philanthropic work in any organized sense was unknown; games, save of the feeblest sort, would have been deemed unsuitable; and the light French sandalled shoes of our grandmothers would not permit of their walking in the muddy lanes which did duty for roads. Nearly all the outdoor occupations and amusements which play so large a part in the lives of women now were unknown. The ideal woman was delicate in health, retiring, and weak. She fainted frequently—at any rate, in books—and her one aim was to get married, because there was no other possible career which would not stamp her as a failure. She differed markedly in many ways from her descendants.

Now, the change which has taken place has been brought about less by pioneers and preachers and reformers than by the gradual increase of general enlightenment and civilization. The facilities for moving about, the safety of our streets, the macadamized roads, have been the causes on the one hand which have made it possible for women to act and move independently, just as on the other the advance in medical science has prescribed both physical and mental activity, and has made impossible the old view that physical and mental vigour was a thing which should be avoided, or if by chance it was possessed, should, at any rate, be elegantly concealed. There were masterminds in the past, as there have been during the last century, who saw that in the greater equality of men and women, and in the development of all the powers of the latter, lay the true progress of the race, but till the circumstances of life changed their task was well-nigh impossible. Here and there throughout history occur instances of women who have been received as equals by men, but for the mass of women equality could only be produced by civilization.

But what does this equality mean? and what change of thought does it involve? There is no doubt that the whole tendency of the present condition of things is to modify gravely the idea of the relation of men and women which formerly existed, and which still lingers on in various ways. Rousseau stated the relation bluntly: ‘For this reason the education of women should always be relative to that of men. To please, to be useful to us, to make us love and esteem them, to educate us when young and take care of us when grown up, to advise, to console us, to render our lives easy and agreeable—these are the duties of women at all times, and what they should be taught in infancy.’* The misfortune is, that to aim at pleasing men is like aiming at being happy—we only attain to it by trying for something else. To bring up women in the idea that their only object in the world should be to please and be of use to men, is almost to disable them from fulfilling the relation in its higher aspects. A woman may possibly please a man, she may conceivably educate him when quite young, and look after him when he is old, she may even render his life easy and agreeable; but she will not make him esteem or love her, neither will she advise him or be useful to him in any real sense, unless the inspiring motive of her life be not to please men, but, as the Shorter Catechism has it, ‘To glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever.’ Now, when Mrs. Fawcett contrasts, as she rightly contrasts, this great religious ideal for all mankind with the ideal which Rousseau holds up for women, one cannot but ask, Is civilization taking us nearer to the one and further from the other? Is the change in the position of women a gradual development of civilization, and more, a steady unfolding of the Christian ideal of life? or is it merely a side result of the great social changes of the nineteenth century, requiring watching and stemming, as some think even strenuously resisting; on the whole a regrettable phase, and one which it is hoped will soon be followed by a salutary reaction? That is the question which is before us to-day.

*See Mrs. Fawcett’s preface to Mary Wollstonecraft’s Introduction to the ‘Rights of Women,’ p. 15.

‘If a great change is to be made in human affairs, the minds of men will be fitted to it; the general opinions and feelings will draw that way. Every fear, every hope, will forward it; and then they who persist in opposing this mighty current in human affairs will appear rather to resist the decrees of Providence itself than the mere designs of men. They will not be resolute and firm, but perverse and obstinate.’* Now, it would seem as if the women’s movement in all essentials fulfilled the conditions laid down by Burke. The minds of men have been in great measure fitted to it; general opinions and feelings have, it cannot be denied, been drawn that way. Hopes have forwarded it, for it has not lacked enthusiastic advocates; fears—although they have delayed this or that portion of the advance—have, as before in history, only raised up fresh friends, and the main part of the stream has gone on its way, If the women’s movement, like the democratic movement and the reformation movement, is really ‘a mighty current in human affairs,’ it should—as it would seem—possess the very characteristics which do exist in it.

*Burke, ‘Thoughts on French Affairs’ (Works, vol. vii., p. 85).

And further, if we examine the other great changes and developments which have taken place in the world’s history, we find that they have invariably been accompanied by certain drawbacks, certain extreme views and extravagances, certain temporary overthrowings of cherished beliefs and ideals. These things are not part of the movements themselves, although by many contemporaries they have been supposed to be so; but they are the necessary and unfortunate consequence of human fallibility, and it is only by degrees that what is extravagant and erroneous drops off and perishes. Therefore, if the change in the position of women is really one of the great developments of the world, we should actually expect to find these errors, and also we should in this case expect to find that they are of the peculiarly irritating nature which accompany the transition period between youth and maturity, because the condition of equality between men and women means the growing up of women from a state of tutelage and protection to one of freedom and responsibility.

The period of transition from youth to maturity is perhaps the most unattractive which exists. Childhood and youth have their virtues and their charm, and so has maturity; but the period of passing from one to the other is marked by self-assertion, self-consciousness, self-righteousness, by an extravagant belief in the truth of somewhat slightly-founded opinions, and by a contempt for the views of others. And often the greater the intelligence and capacity of the individual, the more difficult and unattractive is the time of growing up. Now, it is these very signs and characteristics which by many earnest and well-meaning people are given as a reason for objecting to the women’s movement. They regret, as everyone always regrets, the peculiar charm and attraction of youth, and they do not look forward to the reappearance of all that is worth having in that charm when the individual has attained to maturity. On the contrary, they are convinced that the period of transition is permanent, and that the faults which accompany it will always be there. Women, they fear, will lose their peculiar qualities; they will be unsexed, and will become bad imitations of men. And they say, ‘Let us put back the clock, for the drawbacks of this condition of things are greater than its advantages.’ Now, in the first place, it is easier to say this than to do it, and Nature has a way of revenging herself on those who meddle with her progress. But apart from this, it may well be possible to show that all these unfortunate and alarming symptoms are characteristic, not of the equality between men and women, but of the transition into that condition of equality, and that they will accordingly disappear as soon as it is an established fact. It is by no means an established fact at present. The position of women is still uncertain. Voltaire’s saying that ‘ideas are like beards; women and young men have none’; and Dr. Maginn’s, ‘We like to hear a few words of sense from a woman as we do from a parrot, because they are so unexpected,’ linger on, and have a way of turning up in the most unexpected places. And the position of asserting that you have got ideas, and could talk sense on other matters besides housekeeping and the management of children if anyone would listen, is not one adapted to call forth charm and an attractive personality. On the contrary, it makes women self-assertive, and teaches them to consider themselves as a class; for nothing is more certain to force people into a class than the sense that they are under any disability or are regarded as inferior. And then all questions are regarded from the point of view of the class; and the taunt of inferiority on the one side is met by an assertion of superiority on the other, which is as false as the first. When equality is granted, assertion will be meaningless. The answer to the woman who asserts that she can acquit herself as well as a man will be, ‘Go and try,’ and experience will soon show what is the truth. But until there is equality, we cannot hope to hear the last of the phrase ‘we women,’ or to cease to be told that women, only because they are women, are able and likely to reform the world.

One proof of the fact that all these objectionable and alarming qualities are transitional may be found if we examine the work which women are doing now together with men. Masses of women, for instance, are doing excellent work on Boards of Guardians and other public bodies, work which is universally recognised as being useful and thorough. And yet nobody supposes them to be unsexed, or believes that they are rapidly losing their womanly qualities. On the contrary, it is by the exercise of these very qualities, the special qualities of women, that they excel, and that their work becomes valuable. The quickness of women, their rapid perception, their power of endurance, which when translated into active life becomes a refusal to be beaten, all these are of the utmost value, and show no signs of disappearing. Women who are doing public work certainly do not become poor imitations of men, but they do add to their own special qualities certain others of sense and judgment, and become eminently capable women, whose opinion is sought for and respected. The work of women, as soon as it is accepted as a matter of course, loses the aggressive element, and settles down into its own special place, and no proof has been forthcoming that the dangers which were feared have been experienced. On the contrary, the proof is all the other way, and the work which women have done together with men on public bodies has found few to criticise it. The result, with but few exceptions, has admittedly been favourable to the work itself, and to those who have done it. Therefore we may fairly appeal to the past in support of the assertion that greater opportunity will produce better work, and that, as equality of position becomes assured, and as women grow up, these particular faults, so far from increasing, will gradually pass away.

But, after all, the number of women who are doing work of this kind is very small compared with that of the whole mass of women whose lives will be affected by this great change. And it is the effect upon them that is feared by those who wish to put back the clock. They believe that all this development and activity will end in unfitting women for family life, and that thus it will be harmful, and not beneficial, to the race. Now, it is very easy to laugh at this belief, but this is not the way to alter it. As a matter of fact, it is a very serious drawback to the true progress of women, because it often withdraws from among the supporters of the movement people whose guidance and whose help would be most valuable, and it tends to throw the whole advance of the movement into the hands of those who represent the more aggressive and uncompromising side of it. The question is, how to convince opponents that their ‘fears may be liars,’ and that, just as certainly as that the women who are doing public work are doing it successfully, so the greater knowledge, freedom and responsibility of women in general will actually improve them, and make them more fitted for a true family life. It would seem that the burden of proof lies with women themselves. It is no doubt true to say that the attitude of men, of fathers and brothers and of men in society, often makes it very hard for a woman to advance rightly. Constantly she is thwarted, discouraged and laughed at; constantly, even when none of these things actually happen, she is tacitly kept in the background; and in the end she either does not get on at all, or she progresses in the wrong direction. And, again, it is no doubt true to say that the withholding of the franchise is very prejudicial to the right development of women, and that the education given by the vote is essential to their true progress. But the fact remains, that one great reason why the vote is withheld is that men are not convinced that power may be safely placed in the hands of women, and, therefore, while it is of course necessary to press for what lies at the root of the matter, it is also essential to show that whenever power is placed in the hands of women, it is exercised at any rate as wisely as when it is placed in the hands of men. Now, no one can show this but women themselves, and so it is with women at this moment that the power to advance and the power to convince lie. It is they who can, if they will, hasten the end of the transition period, and prove that they are going forward in accordance with a great moral awakening and development.

There has, of course, already been immense progress. Many new opportunities have been opened to women of which they have taken a right advantage; and this is not only true of women who have adopted professions, or have come forward in various ways, but of women as a whole. Yet in the case of the upper and middle classes there would seem still to be a great lack of knowledge and training, a great lack of that discipline of the mind which leads to the power of forming opinions and of holding them strongly when formed, that is, of conviction, and, lastly, a great lack of a true power of judgment. It is the last point which is really in dispute between the advocates of the women’s movement and its opponents, because judgment is the real test of fitness for power and responsibility. If the latter are right, women never will possess sound judgment, because there is inherent in their nature an instability which makes it impossible to trust them; if the former are right, this lack is produced, not by nature, but by defective training and education, and it will disappear as women receive and provide for themselves a better position. There seems to be no reason why women should not obtain at any rate the two first of these things. Knowledge and training can be acquired, and so can the faculty of what I have called conviction. There is very little true conviction at present amongst the rank and file of women of the upper and middle class. There is more amongst the poor, or at any rate amongst women of the industrial class, because the battle of life is harder with them, and they have to mix with many whose views of life differ from their own. Life in a mill or a factory, with its struggle and stress and its crowd of neighbours, leads to the forming of definite opinions, and so to what I have called conviction. But the sheltered, easy lives of the women of the other classes do not naturally lead to it. It has been said that three years of the life of an eldest son with no profession will ruin any man, and the position of well-to-do women who live at home and do not marry is, for perhaps the most valuable years of their lives, not wholly unlike that of an eldest son. There are perhaps no temptations to actual wrong-doing, but the temptations to idleness are as great. The result is that when they reach the beginning of middle life it is constantly found that they have no convictions worth mentioning. They have taken no trouble to form opinions, or to acquire the knowledge and the reasoning power by which these opinions may be formed. They have not tried to take interest in the views of others. They have not studied human nature enough to know why certain people are likely to believe certain things; neither have they acquired the knowledge of facts which will enable them to tell how far weight is to be attached to any particular statement. Of course, it is impossible, amongst the multitude of interests of the present day, to have a true opinion on every subject, but the woman who has acquired one real conviction, after due consideration and reasoning, will at any rate know what it means; and while she realizes that there are many subjects on which she has not sufficient knowledge to form an opinion, she will at any rate avoid indifference, which is of all things the most deadly. If women could generally acquire a wider knowledge and a deeper power of conviction, the whole race of women and of men would benefit. Take, for instance, the question of philanthropy and social reform. How few of the women engaged in this work in country parishes and districts have considered the questions they are dealing with ! How few have read anything whatever on the subject, or have any definite opinions on the problems they are helping either to solve or to make more difficult! How few even know that there are any problems to solve ! Or take the very difficult question of morality. It is certain that women have a great duty laid upon them in this matter, and they ought to take an active part in promoting a higher code of morals in their families and also generally; and it is also certain that if women were thoroughly convinced on the subject, if they cared above all other things that their sons should in this matter fulfil the law of Christ, then, even if they never mentioned the subject in any direct way, they would have a strongly beneficial influence. When once there is in the mind a strong conviction on any point, then all the minor words and actions, the indirect touches in daily life, will make for its fulfilment, and the effect of these is immeasurably greater than any direct exhortations or commands. But in numberless cases there is substituted for this conviction, this hunger and thirst after righteousness, a mild belief that on the whole it is well to be good, a mild hope that the people one cares for are so, and a sense that the subject is difficult and disagreeable, and that the responsibility for any failure lies elsewhere.

There was amongst our grandmothers an ideal woman who is almost entirely a person of the past. In the days when no great amount of knowledge was open to women it was possible to lack many of the attainments which are general and almost commonplace now, and yet to have just the grit, what I have called the conviction, which impressed the bystanders, and which trained up sons and daughters to be the true servants of God. But the increase of education and of opportunity has made this kind of woman rare amongst the richer classes, although she is still to be found amongst the poor. If a thing is impossible, the character does not suffer from its absence; but should the opportunity exist and be refused, and refused because of slackness and indifference, then the character is injured. Has not the change come about in this way? The women of a past age, when manners were rougher and life less civilized than it is now, knew more of life and of the uglier facts of life than do their more sheltered sisters of the present day. And this often stood them in good stead. Nowadays we often find with surprise good women, both gentle and refined, who yet seem to have practically no effect on those who surround them, whose sons are not high-minded, and whose daughters are frivolous and useless. The character of such a woman is the result, not of a trained mind and of the Christian warfare, but of circumstances. Naturally good, she has no temptation to do wrong; she has been shielded from the knowledge of evil, she has felt no necessity for knowledge, or for learning what sort of lives others are living outside her own circle. Her opinions are not her own, but are those of others, and consequently can have no inspiring force, cannot attract and encourage others to goodness. And yet there are many who would consider her as the ideal woman, oblivious of the fact that a woman of her type a hundred years ago, when the surroundings were very different, would have acquired her gentleness, her purity and her refinement by means of real effort and conflict, whereas nowadays it is possible to possess these without any conflict or effort worth mentioning. But the necessity for conflict and effort is never absent, and if women lead sheltered, easy, happy lives, it is the more incumbent on them to seek the education and the mental training which can alone fit them for life in its fullest sense....

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Title Original Page
• Table of Contents
• Chapter I Introductory
• Chapter II The Family
• Chapter III The Household
• Chapter IV Philanthropic and Social Work
• Chapter V Professions
• Chapter VI Recreation
• Chapter VII Frienship
• Index