TABLE OF CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| [I.] | The Uneasy Woman | 1 |
| [II.] | On the Imitation of Man | 30 |
| [III.] | The Business of Being a Woman | 53 |
| [IV.] | The Socialization of the Home | 84 |
| [V.] | The Woman and her Raiment | 109 |
| [VI.] | The Woman and Democracy | 142 |
| [VII.] | The Homeless Daughter | 164 |
| [VIII.] | The Childless Woman and the Friendless Child | 190 |
| [IX.] | On the Ennobling of the Woman's Business | 216 |
THE BUSINESS OF BEING A WOMAN
CHAPTER I[ToC]
The Uneasy Woman
The most conspicuous occupation of the American woman of to-day, dressing herself aside, is self-discussion. It is a disquieting phenomenon. Chronic self-discussion argues chronic ferment of mind, and ferment of mind is a serious handicap to both happiness and efficiency. Nor is self-discussion the only exhibit of restlessness the American woman gives. To an unaccustomed observer she seems always to be running about on the face of things with no other purpose than to put in her time. He points to the triviality of the things in which she can immerse herself—her fantastic and ever-changing raiment, the welter of lectures and other culture schemes which she supports, the eagerness with which she transports herself to the ends of the earth—as marks of a spirit not at home with itself, and certainly not convinced that it is going in any particular direction or that it is committed to any particular worth-while task.
Perhaps the most disturbing side of the phenomenon is that it is coincident with the emancipation of woman. At a time when she is freer than at any other period of the world's history—save perhaps at one period in ancient Egypt—she is apparently more uneasy.