By Mrs. St. Clair Stobart
(From “War and Woman.”)
In the days when such proverbs as “The woman, the cat and the chimney should never leave the house”, “Bonne femme est oiseau de cage”, “A wife and a broken leg are best left at home”, were current in every household, there was some reason why women should remain at home. For within the home were conducted—by women—all the industries of life. In those days women not only made jams and pickles, cured the hams and bacon, concocted wines and medicines, they also designed and embroidered all the curtains, tapestries and carpets; the making of beautiful laces, the spinning, the weaving, the sewing and the knitting of all the garments was committed to the charge of women. In those days when the control of all that made life worth living was with woman, she did not need, nor did she seek, outside occupations, which indeed consisted chiefly of the less intellectual pursuits of hunting and fishing. There was plenty of scope within doors for the intellectual, industrial, and artistic faculties of every active-minded woman. If it is true that woman was more honored at that time when she remained indoors than she is now, this was not because she remained at home, but because all the arts and crafts of life were in her hands—within the home. But now all this is changed, through no fault of the woman herself, and, except for the young wife and mother who has plenty of occupation in the rearing of her family, there is not enough work within the home for additional active-minded and able-bodied women, the numerous daughters, sisters, cousins, aunts, who need occupation, but who have no family of their own because there are not enough men to go round.
The Poor and Good Housing
By Elizabeth Cook
(From Speech on “Housing and Morals in Richmond.” Quoted from “Woman’s Work in Municipalities.”)
Can children raised in Jail Bottom, whose only outlook is a mountain-like dump of rotting and rusty tin cans on the one side, and on the other a stream which is an open sewer, smelling to heaven from the filth which it carries along, or leaves here and there in slime upon its banks, have any but debasing ideas? Can parents inculcate high moral standards when across the street or down the block are houses of the “red light” district? Is the world so small that there is no room left for the amenities of life? Are ground space and floor space of more value than cleanliness and health and morality?... It is certainly a fallacy that the poor do not want good housing.