Wanted: a Young Woman to Do Housework

Wanted, a Young Woman to Do
Housework, by C.

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Wanted, a Young Woman to Do
Housework, by C. Helene Barker
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Wanted, a Young Woman to Do Housework
Author: C. Helene Barker
Release Date: November 22, 2004 [eBook #14117]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WANTED, A
YOUNG WOMAN TO DO HOUSEWORK***
E-text prepared by Stan Goodman, Melissa Er-Raqabi, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

WANTED, A YOUNG WOMAN TO DO HOUSEWORK

Business Principles Applied to Housework
by
C. HÉLÈNE BARKER
Author of Automobile French
New York Moffat, Yard & Company
1915

PREFACE
This little book is not a treatise on Domestic Science. The vacuum
cleaner and the fireless cooker are not even mentioned. The efficient
kitchen devised in such an interesting and clever way has no place in it.
Its exclusive object is to suggest a satisfactory and workable solution
along modern lines of how to get one's housework efficiently
performed without doing it one's self.
If the propositions that she advances seem at first startling, the writer
begs only for a patient hearing, for she is convinced by strong reasons
and abundant experience, that liberty in the household, like social and
political liberty, can never come except from obedience to just law.
C.H.B.

CONTENTS

PART I
CAUSES OF THE PRESENT UNSATISFACTORY CONDITION OF

DOMESTIC LABOR
Ignorance and Inefficiency in the Home 1 Difficulty of Obtaining
Women to Do Housework 11 The Disadvantages of Housework
Compared with Work in Factories, Stores, and Offices 19

PART II
BUSINESS PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO HOUSEWORK
Living Outside Place of Employment 31 Housework Limited to 8
Hours a Day 47 Housework Limited to 6 Days a Week 61 The
Observance of Legal Holidays 75 Extra Pay for Overtime 81

PART III
EIGHT HOUR SCHEDULES IN THE HOME
Eight Hour Schedules for One Employee 93 Eight Hour Schedules for
Two Employees 109 Eight Hour Schedules for Three Employees 121


PART I
CAUSES OF THE PRESENT UNSATISFACTORY CONDITION OF
DOMESTIC LABOR
Ignorance and inefficiency in the home. Difficulty of obtaining women
to do housework. The disadvantages connected with housework
compared with work in factories, stores, and offices.

IGNORANCE AND INEFFICIENCY IN THE HOME
The twentieth-century woman, in spite of her progressive and
ambitious theories about woman's sphere of activity, has allowed her
housekeeping methods to remain almost stationary, while other
professions and industries have moved forward with gigantic strides.
She does not hesitate to blazon abroad with banners and pennants her
desire to share with man the responsibility for the administration of the
State, but she overlooks the disquieting fact that in the management of
her own household, where her authority is absolute, she has failed to
convince the world of her power to govern. When confronted with this
accusation, she asserts that the maintenance of a home is neither a
business nor a profession, and that in consequence it ought not to be
compared with them nor be judged by the same standards.
Is it not due perhaps to this erroneous idea that housekeeping is a
failure to-day? For the fact that it is a failure cannot be hidden, and that
it has been a failure for many years past is equally true. Recent
inventions, and labor saving utensils, have greatly facilitated
housework, yet housekeeping is still accompanied with much
dissatisfaction on the part of the employer and the employee.
There are only a few women to-day who regard domestic science in the
light of a profession, or a business, although in reality it is both. For
what is a profession if it be not the application of science to life? And
does not work which one follows regularly constitute a business?
Many women, however, do not regard housekeeping even as a serious
occupation, and few have devoted as much time, thought, and energy to
mastering the principles of domestic economy as of late years women
of all classes of society have willingly given to the study of the rules
and ever changing intricacies of auction bridge. Some consider their
time too valuable to devote to domestic and culinary matters, and
openly boast of their ignorance. Outside engagements, pleasures,
philanthropic schemes, or work, monopolize their days, and the
conduct of the house devolves upon their employees. The result is
rarely satisfactory. It is essential that the woman who is at the head of

any concern, be it a business, a profession, or a home, should not only
thoroughly understand its every detail, but