Women Workers in Seven Professions | Page 8

advantages, the chief of which is complete freedom
when school duties are over.
It would not be surprising if all women who have incurred the heavy
expenses of preparation for a teaching career, were dissatisfied with the
very small return they may expect by way of salary. Certainly if we
judged by the standard of payment, the profession might well appear
unimportant. Men and women alike receive inadequate remuneration in
all its branches, but, as in other callings, women are worse paid than
men. One might imagine that the training of girls was less arduous or
less important than that of boys, since no one suggests that women
teachers are less conscientious or less competent than their male
colleagues. Now that at every stage co-education of the sexes is
becoming less unusual, it is wise policy in the interests of men as well
as of women, to make the standard of remuneration depend, not on the
sex of the worker, but on the quality of the work. Otherwise men will
gradually be driven from the profession, as is already the tendency in

the United States of America and, to some extent, in elementary
teaching in this country. Needless to say, the women's salaries need
levelling up: it would be hopeless policy to reduce the men's maxima to
those of the women. In many secondary schools and in at any rate some
elementary ones, there is too great a discrepancy between the salary of
the head and that of the assistants. Here again, teachers might
endeavour to arrive at some united expression of opinion. All would
probably agree that the profession should be entered for the sake of the
work itself, and not on the remote chance of becoming a head-mistress.
But while the difference in salary is very great, it is inevitable that
ambitious teachers must aspire to headships, even though they be better
suited to class work.
Finally, it may be repeated, that with all its drawbacks, the teaching
profession has much to recommend it to those who desire to make it
their life-work. It is not suited to all comers: it makes heavy demands
on mind and body and heart; it gives little material return. But it gives
other returns in generous measure. For teachers it is less difficult than
for most people to preserve their faith in human nature, less impossible,
even in the midst of daily routine, to believe in the dignity of labour,
and to illuminate it with the light of enthusiasm and aspiration.
"... whether we be young or old Our destiny, our being's heart and
home, Is with infinitude, and only there; With hope it is, hope that can
never die, Effort, and expectation and desire, And something evermore
about to be."
[Footnote 1: The ideal inspector is, of course, a help and not a
hindrance to the teacher, acting as a propagator of new ideas and
bringing into touch with one another, workers who are widely separated.
But the reach of most inspectors far exceeds their grasp.]
[Footnote 2: See table at end of section, p. 82.]

II
WOMEN AT THE UNIVERSITIES AND UNIVERSITY TEACHING

AS A PROFESSION
When a girl is about to leave school at the age of seventeen or eighteen,
she is often as little able to determine what profession she wishes to
adopt, as is her brother in similar case. If she is intelligent, well-trained
and eager to study, her natural impulse is to go to college, and to get
there, it is still usually the line of least resistance to say that she wishes
to become a teacher. When there are pecuniary difficulties in the way,
the decision must be taken still earlier. The unfortunate child in the
elementary school used to be compelled to make her choice at the age
of twelve or thirteen, often to find later on, when the first barriers of
pupil-teaching and King's Scholarship were surmounted, that she was
not really suited to her profession or that continued study was
uncongenial. Even now, when the system is different and better,
children are bound too early by a contract they find it hard to break. It
cannot be too often insisted that every intelligent child who is worthy
of a junior or senior scholarship, is not therefore of necessity
predestined to the profession of teaching--a profession so arduous, so
full of drudgery and of disappointment that it should be entered by
those only who are sure of their mission, and full of the spirit that
makes learning and teaching a lasting joy.
There should be other paths from elementary and secondary school to
the University than that which leads to the teacher's platform.
Moreover, granted that the desire to teach is a real one, and that the girl
has aptitude, it ought still to