“And altogether, you were there?”
“Twenty-five years.... Why do you ask?”
“I was thinking how little they appreciated you.”
“Mr. Kipps told me,” Miss Holland said with a reminiscent smile, “that it would never do to pay women employees more than fifty a week; they wouldn’t know what to do with the money.”
“He didn’t!”
“Oh, yes! He claimed it would demoralize them. He used to say they would be sure to throw it away on ‘fripperies.’ ‘Fripperies,’ you remember, was a great word of his.”
“It still is!”
“Mr. Kipps’ attitude is typical, I think, of the average employer of women. This is a man-made world, as perhaps you’ve noticed, my dear. Did you ever stop to consider the injustice to which working women are subjected? Do you realize there are about twelve million working women on pay-rolls in the United States, that twenty dollars a week is a very high wage for any one of them to receive, and six million of them, or half of the entire number, earn between ten and twelve a week? ... I happen to have the statistics issued by the woman’s bureau of the Department of Labor.”
Miss Holland pushed herself up erect from her chair, and her face showed the pain the effort cost her.
“Can’t I get it for you?” offered Jeannette hastily.