Here, without undue "dangling of the wedding ring," girls might study marriage as an important phase of woman's life. Such a course, simplified or elaborated to suit the circumstances of the girls who participate, might well be given in all girls' schools and colleges, in continuation schools, in settlement-house clubs and classes, in rural clubs and neighborhood centers. For, reduced to its simplest terms, marriage in the tenement rests upon the same principles as marriage in the mansion.
Happily married, or happy unmarried, with her life work stretching before her, the girl enters upon her heritage of work. We have trained her to be a homemaker, but we need feel no regret in regard to her training if she finds her life work in an office or a schoolroom or a hospital. She may never "keep house," although we hope that she will some time help to make a home. But, whether she becomes a homemaker or not, a true understanding and appreciation of the value of the home and a knowledge of the principles underlying its maintenance will make her a broader woman and a better worker than she could otherwise be. In the home, or wherever she may be, she cannot fail to show the girls who are growing up about her what home means to her and what it means to the race. And in her hands we may safely leave the future of the home.
SUGGESTED READINGS[ToC]
General Books Which Introduce The Reader To The Larger Phases Of The Woman Movement
Bruére, Martha B. and Robert W. Increasing Home Efficiency. New York: Macmillan.
Colquhoun, Mrs. A. The Vocations of Woman. New York: Macmillan.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Women and Economics. Boston: Small, Maynard & Co.
Key, Ellen. Love and Marriage. New York: Putnam.