ENFORCED DEPENDENCE
Thou givest man bread. Let my aim be to give man himself.—Froebel.
HERE was a time when women, like statesmen, were economically free. They spun and wove, manufactured, planted, harvested, cooked. Land was cheap and needs were few. The women gave a part of their time to the state in rearing citizens, but they did not give all. They were self-supporting, in great measure; therefore, self-respecting and capable.
But women lost their economic independence when industries were taken from the home.
Farming, dairying, spinning, weaving, tailoring, laundering, baking, dressmaking, millinery, building, carpentering, are all done on a big scale, outside of the home, where the women, because they were mothers, could not follow their industries.
Women are left with the dependent occupations of working for the state and working for their husbands, for neither of which can they collect money.