Women and economic evolution: or, The effects of industrial changes upon the status of women

by Theresa Schmid McMahon

When legislation provides women with a longer noon hour than men, it is an acknowledgment of the fact that many women, so many as to make legislation in their behalf a crying need, are employed outside of the home and at the same time carrying the burden of maintaining a household after working hours. The extra half hour at noon allowed married women is time in which to prepare the noonday meal for the members of the family. Beneficent as legislation is in behalf of married women looking toward the welfare of the race, it is significant of the fact that women are being forced out of the home into the industrial field and compelled to assume heavier burdens than the men. To restrict fecundity under such circumstances, or to refuse to be mothers at all, is hardly a reproach to the women who are thus forced to toil, but rather a reproach to civilization imposing home-making, motherhood, and breadwinning upon the supposed weaker sex.

In communities where women take their places with their husbands in the factory or work-shop, industrial changes do not affect the marriage rate. It is where women are not expected to contribute to the family income, and where men’s wages are at first by no means adequate to meet the expenses of a household, that the marriage rate is affected.

Nevertheless even under these circumstances, where there is no outlook but one of poverty for the future, marriages are often formed.

The decrease of the marriage rate among people who live close to the margin of subsistence is not as apparent as among people whose income warrants a scale of living which gratifies the higher social wants. What is often attributed to the selfishness of men is a growing consciousness of the responsibility which marriage involves as well as an increase in the responsibility itself. There is a greater need of money outlay than ever before, and with the decreasing importance of women’s labor in the home, the financial strain is so great as to prompt men to postpone marriage until they are able to support a family in comfort, comfort meaning not merely sufficient food and clothing for physical well being but a scale of expenditure characteristic of one’s class.

The increasing independence of women is an effect of the postponement of marriage on the part of men rather than a cause. When men no longer assume family responsibilities as soon as they become voters, or shortly thereafter, women are forced into avenues of employment for a livelihood. The lengthening period which a man dedicates to preparing himself for his life work makes it just that much more difficult for the women of his class to marry early.

When once established in the industrial field and confirmed in certain habits of life associated with a higher plane of consumption than they can hope for in a home of their own, women are not so eager to give up the luxuries and opportunities for personal expression which their work may afford, for matrimony. This is especially true at an age when marriage has lost much of the romance youth endows it with. When life is comparatively easy, and the romantic period of youth is passed, the economic factor assumes greater importance in matrimonial alliances. To lower one’s economic and social status, even when prompted to do so by high ideals and motives, receives little commendation from an enlightened community and its “How could she?” savors more of contempt than admiration.

Among the higher social classes—although the same tendency is showing itself in all classes—there is a growing consciousness of the individual’s importance as a social unit, rather than his importance as a part of the family unit. His ties to society are growing at the expense of family ties. This changed attitude does not arise from selfishness for never in history have men shown greater ability and willingness to sacrifice personal interests to the interests of society. There is a rapidly growing sentiment on the part of each that he is indeed his brother’s keeper, and he is responsible for evil industrial and social conditions. The time favors, not the family as opposed to the community, but the family as a part of the community.

Says Howard, “More threatening to the solidarity of the family is believed to be the individualistic tendencies arising in existing urban and economic life. With the rise of corporate and associated industry comes a weakening of the intimacy of home ties. Through the division of labor the ‘family hearth-stone’ is fast becoming a mere temporary meeting-place of individual wage-earners.”[85]

Thus we are rapidly approaching the time when men can no longer consider marriage an economy. A wife tends to become a luxury to the average man in so far as she adds nothing to the income of the family and increases its expenses.

It is true many married women among the professional classes work outside the home, but the practice is not sufficiently widespread to meet with the general approval of a conservative society. When this practice becomes common, provided there is no corresponding decrease in the salaries of men and the increase of the income of the family is marked, marriage will become more attractive to men.