XIV. WOMAN’S RESPONSIBILITIES FOR HOME ADMINISTRATION
Thus, though the human constitution is still imperfectly understood, though its intricacies and the details of environmental influences are still mainly undefined, the women of every nation must nevertheless see to it that progress in the administration of the home keeps pace with modern demands for revised methods and less conservative practice, in order to give every chance of normal health to their occupants.
It is a serious reflection upon many housekeepers that the hall-mark of progressive civilisation, namely growth in power to organise, is generally absent from their domestic methods. The time will come when it will be to them a matter for the deepest searchings of heart that they are directly and inexcusably responsible for a mass of the disharmonies which disfigure the fugue of family life. The fact is too certain to be denied. Homes have not developed in proportion to the opportunities offered, and the chief opponents to progress have been their organisers. The economic link they form between the physical economics of the individual and the social economics of the nation has been unnoticed. Reference to the hygienic significance of due economy of time, of strength and of health, as well as of money, has hitherto been generally met with incredulous smiles; and though home has 268 been extolled as the place for children, how scant has been the attention devoted to their legitimate requirements, and how few demands for special training have emanated from, or been attempted by, those who have undertaken the sole charge of young lives during their most important and impressionable years.
The new movement, designed to foster the science and art of right living, cannot gain strength and influence unless it receives the whole-hearted support of the millions of women whose lives and energies are absorbed in the care of man’s physical needs. It behoves them to recognise that intuition and tireless industry are insufficient qualifications for their imperial service, and they must themselves promote the substitution of systematic training for rule-of-thumb anomalies.
This training must be varied and comprehensive. No other profession is concerned with so many interests nor associated with more fateful responsibilities. For those who can afford the time, it should include a general acquaintance with the biological basis of life, and should further direct attention to the vast mental and moral endowments which give pre-eminence to our race. The products of literature and art and the records of natural and moral science afford ever present evidence of the extent of these endowments, and of the executive capacity associated with their utilisation.
Chemistry must play a prominent part in the training, were it only for the insight it gives into the 269 inviolable law of cause and effect! besides which physiologists tell us that the chief commerce of our bodies with their environment is chemical; therefore, this subject becomes an indispensable element in any comprehensive course of domestic training. Without a working acquaintance with the physics of water, of heat, or of air, a housewife is at the mercy of her architect, if not of her plumber and her servants. In the absence of an introduction to bacteriology she lives in constant perplexity over the vagaries of her larder; and is at a loss to understand the sources of fermentation or the methods of infection by the majority of known diseases. Without an insight into economics she is helpless in the hands of the advertiser or the vendor of patent preparations, all of whose wares are warranted to perform impossible feats with an infinitesimal expenditure of trouble. At their best these preparations are expensive, and at their worst they are injurious to health.
Some personal practice of the domestic arts is also advisable even for the wealthy; it is indeed essential to a right adjustment of the daily duties in a home, though naturally the degree of skill acquired will depend on the style of living. A study of hygiene in sufficient detail is of course imperative, and while it will remove difficulties by explaining common errors in diet, habits, and dress, it will be found materially to lighten labour. Finally, hygiene will render extraordinary assistance in the right rearing of children and in the general arrangements of family life.
The objections may here be advanced that the study of these scientific subjects is uncongenial to those whose temperaments are artistic or literary; upon these people sanitary science has surely meagre claims, while life is not long enough for all to pursue such exhaustive studies. The reply to the first objection must be in the negative. There can be no health under modern conditions of existence unless those who assume responsibility in the affairs of men possess a scientific acquaintance with its right regulation. The subjects just enumerated are the very pillars which support the temple of Hygeia. But, for the encouragement of these complainants, be it added that the temple walls demand decoration; the shelves must be filled with wholesome mental provender; the gifts of both artist and author are therefore contributory to harmonious living, and an unlimited scope is offered to their utilisation. The building which shelters a healthy family, for instance, should be characterised not only by advances on existing provisions for convenience but by symmetry in its parts. The test of beauty (use, ease, and economy) can certainly not be passed by a large proportion of modern houses, neither do they provide the space which gives to each occupant “a chance to utilise his own gifts or to pursue his own hobby.” Space needs in its turn regulation, for the saving of steps must be considered and compactness is essential. Decorations and furniture should also be suitable in form and colour to their purpose, not a mere heterogeneous confusion of 271 inappropriate colours and articles, out of tune one with the other.
The natural needs of normal children, too, must be more taken into account in the future than in the past, and the conveniences offered by scientific progress must be far more generally introduced into the most modest homes. Here is a huge field for intelligent, artistic work; for true beauty and real utility are near of kin.