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

by Theresa Schmid McMahon

The fact, as Phelps notes, that so little difference exists in the infant mortality-rate in the various countries of the world in spite of increased medical knowledge may be indicative of a social evil common to all countries, namely poverty.

The people who come from Europe and make up the tenement districts are the poorest class at home, and many of them have never been properly nourished. A United States Emigration report says, “The Poles are a most prolific race, of strong and good physique, but rather anaemic in appearance, owing to insufficient diet;” of the Bohemians, “the people are industrious and economical. Their homes are primitive and barren of everything except necessities.” One of the reasons the Italian comes to this country is “the fact that the needs of the people have outstripped the means of satisfying them.”[93]

It is most often real hunger that drives the emigrant to a new country in the hopes of bettering his condition. And perhaps it is generations of hunger, of malnutrition, on the part of the mother that is responsible for the inability of the new-born child to resist infantile diseases, or that prevents its natural birth. Thus the economic sins of one generation are visited upon the next. There is indeed danger of race degeneracy if the mothers and fathers of the future generations are to be the underfed and the underpaid of the present time.

When necessity forced men to invade women’s field of work they did not assume the heavier tasks because of their inconsistency with motherhood, but because they were those tasks most in harmony with their habits of life. Primitive women’s work was severe, but it was work consistent with a stationary life which was desirable in the bearing and rearing of children. Convenience helped to determine habits of life and they in turn developed into customs. These customs were responsible for many of the sex barriers, and class barriers of later historical times.

The individual belonged to a class and his status was apparently fixed. There was complete subordination within the class and competition became class competition rather than individual competition. Thus occupations were fixed and the plane of living showed little variation from one generation to the other. There was no incentive to leave one’s class, and little possibility of doing so. The individual’s future was secure. At least it was not a game of chance, and children had an equal chance at prosperity or starvation with their parents. The son followed the occupation of his father which was in all probability the occupation of his grandfather as well. The daughter was content with the status of her mother, for she knew nothing different. She accepted things as they were, just as her brother did, and whether her lot was hard or comparatively easy, it was not for her to question it.

Wherever this social regime exists, the birth-rate is high. But wherever class barriers are let down, and there is a possibility of the individual shifting from one class to the other, competition between individuals grows keen and individualization progresses by leaps. The tyranny of custom and tradition ceases, and the lower classes can with impunity imitate the higher classes. This creates an insatiable desire for invidious distinction. The means to attain the desired end are purely economic. The mother often engages in gainful occupations to raise the plane of living and gain social prestige. An increasing family becomes of vital concern to both parents because it would entail a foregoing of luxuries which have to them become necessities.

This same overwhelming power of new wants is in a large measure responsible for the increasing number of women in the professional fields of work. To them it is an economic necessity. When measured by the mental torture involved it is as essential to maintain the standards of one’s class as bread is to the poor Russian peasant. A girl will stand behind the counter from morning until night displaying goods to exacting customers in order to maintain her standard of dress. If she fails, she suffers probably as much as if her supply of food were insufficient to satisfy her hunger.

The decrease of the birth-rate among the middle classes is thought to be psychological. The Royal Commission on the decline of the birth-rate in New South Wales after a careful investigation came to the conclusion that the reasons for limiting the birth-rate “have one element in common, namely selfishness.” Other investigators call this force egoism, individualization, or the result of a struggle to maintain the standard of life common to a class, all of which means an increased consciousness of self. Ross says, “In the face of the hobby-riders I maintain that the cause of the shrinkage in fecundity lies in the human will as influenced by certain factors which have their roots deep in the civilization of our times.”[94]

With the decrease of the importance of women’s work in the home, and the increase of the necessity for them to enter the industrial field, the birth-rate will continue to fall. Women’s invasion of the fields of work outside the home will eventually result in a marked decline in fecundity. So long as individual competition prevails in the business world, the successful women will be those without the handicap of small children. Mothers of small children cannot compete successfully in the industrial world with the women who have no ties making demands on their time or energy. Here lies the real danger arising out of the necessity of women seeking employment outside the home. Under the present industrial regime motherhood is not compatible with business careers.

As long as the home was an industrial sphere and demanded the entire time and energy of women there was little chance on their part for individual development. But with the transition of work from the home to the factory, women’s interests ceased to be necessarily centered about the hearth, and many of them developed an individuality formerly characteristic of men only. Freed from the cares of maternity women are quite as radical as men. It is maternity that is largely responsible for the conservatism of women and their indifference toward affairs outside the home.