Vocational Guidance for Girls | Page 4

educated to earn her living in the market of the world, no
longer marries simply because no other career is open to her; when she
does marry, she is less likely than formerly, statistics tell us, to have
children--the only remaining work which, in these days, definitely
requires a home. Marriage and homemaking, therefore, are no longer
inseparably connected in the woman's mind. Girls are willing to
undertake matrimony, but often with the distinct understanding that
their "careers" are not to be interfered with. To them, then, marriage
becomes more and more an incident in life rather than a life work.
[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. A typical tenement house.
Congestion means discomfort within the home and decreasing
possibility for satisfying there either material or social needs]

A third disintegrating influence as affecting home life is the great
increase of city homes. Urban conditions are almost without exception
detrimental to home life. Congestion means discomfort within the
home and decreasing possibility for satisfying there either material or
social needs; while on every hand are increasing possibilities for
satisfying these needs outside the home. Family life under such
conditions often lacks, to an alarming degree, the quality of solidarity
which makes the dwelling place a home. No longer the place where
work is done, no longer the place where common interests are shared,
the home becomes only "the place where I eat and sleep," or perhaps
merely "where I sleep." The great increase of urban life during the last
half century is thus a very real menace, and, since the agricultural
communities constantly feed the towns, the menace concerns the
country-as well as the city-dweller.
[Illustration: Photograph by Brown Bros. In the cities there are
increasing opportunities for satisfying material and social needs outside
the home]
Believing that for the good of coming generations the true home spirit
must be saved, we shall do well to admit at once that the old-time home
was an institution suited to its own day, but that we cannot now call it
back to being. Nor would we wish to do so. There is no possible reason
for wishing our women to spin, weave, knit, bake, brew, preserve, clean,
if the products she formerly made can be produced more cheaply and
more efficiently outside the home.
There is danger, however, of generalizing too soon in regard to these
industries. There is little doubt that in some directions, at least, the
factory method has not yet brought really satisfactory results. How
many women can give you reasons why they believe that it no longer
"pays" to do this or that at home as they once did? Do the factories
always turn out as good a product as the housekeeper? If they do, does
the housekeeper obtain that product with as little expenditure as when
she made it? If she spends more, can she show that the leisure she has
thus bought has been a wise purchase? Is she justified in accepting
vague generalizations to the effect that it is better economy to buy than

to make, or should she test for herself, checking up her individual
conditions and results?
The fact is that the pendulum has swung away from the "homemade"
article, and most of us have not taken the trouble to investigate whether
we are benefited or harmed. It may be that investigation will show us
that the pendulum has swung too far, and that, in spite of factories
mechanically equipped to serve us, some work may be done much
more advantageously at home. It is even possible, and in some lines of
work we know that it is a fact, that homes may be mechanically
equipped at very little cost to rival and even to outclass the factory in
producing certain kinds of products for home consumption.
Spinning, weaving, and knitting are doubtless best left in the hands of
the factory worker. But, under present conditions, buying ready made
all the garments needed for a family may be an expensive and
unsatisfactory method if the elements of worth, wear, finish, and
individuality are worthy of consideration, just as buying practically all
foodstuffs "ready made" presents a complex and disturbing problem to
the fastidious and conscientious housewife. There is at least a
possibility that it would be as well for the home of to-day to retain or
resume, systematize, and perfect some of the industries that are slipping
or have already slipped from its grasp. It is possible to reduce some
processes to a too purely mechanical basis.
[Illustration: Keystone View Co. Linen-mill workers. Spinning and
weaving, whether of cotton, linen, silk, or wool, are more satisfactorily
done by factory workers than in the home]
A woman lived in our town who wasn't very wise. She had a reputation
for making homemade pies. And when she found