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    EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN. 363

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    ^ ¦ <» The Fact Revealed In Tlie Census ...

    their own accounts or keep their books , the money they receive and expend is roughly written downand once a month a regular

    accountant comes who examines into , the detailsstrikes the balance and sets everything to rihts . Nowthis is a profession , that women ,

    could enter without the g smallest , inconvenienceand bwhich a considerable number could be comfortably supported , . y

    . When a tradesman has no son , it would surely be far better that he should bring up his daughters to succeed him in the "business ,

    than train them to the hopeless profession of a governess ; for the large millinery establishments carried on by women show thatwhen

    _projDerly taught , they are capable of conducting mercantile affairs , . . The obstacles to this social change are of two kinds ; * imaginary

    oiies proceeding from prejudice , and those which are of a solid nature . An imaginary one is the impression that no profession is

    genteel but that of teaching , and that a woman would lose caste who employed herself in any other manner . Small account should

    be made of this however ; for prejudices will never long withstand the money test . If women , found they could gain a comfortable

    subsistence in an ungenteel manner , they would soon abandon their fanciful gentility .

    . ; . Another obstacle is the impression that women are so intellectually inferior to menthat they would be _incaj > abie of performing

    the duties of such offices , in a satisfactory manner . Now this prejudice , like the former , would not long withstand the money test . If

    enrployers found that they could get female clerks to do their work as well as menand at a cheaper ratethey would soon employ

    them in _j _>? _efe : reiice , . , _< But the question is , could women _Tbe found who could fulfil these

    d _, uties in a satisfactory manner , and if not , what is the reason ? < Does it proceed from the hopeless and irremediable cause of natural

    stupidity , or is it the badness of their education which occasions their _incaj _3 acity ? It is Taj belief that only a very few and exceptional

    women could at present be found who would be capable of performing the ordinary duties of a clerk . A gentleman who spoke on this

    subject at the meeting- of the National Association for Promoting : Social Scienceat Bradfordstatedthat being anxious to make his

    daughters good , arithmetici , ans , he , directed their governesses to in- . struct them in the science , but received an answer from several in

    succession that , if he wished the young ladies to learn the rale of tjireehe must employ a tutor . None of these teacherstherefore

    could , have given satisfaction as accountants . . In . ladies , ' schools a , master is invariably employed to instruct the pupils in arithmetic ;

    now why should the schoolmistress put herself to this extra expense if'it were not for the fact that none of the female teachers in the

    house understand it ? It _ajDpears from these facts , that although a few women of the middle ranks might now doubtless be found

    capable of acting , as accountants , yet that the number of them is very small . ' The deficiency v ' in point of grammar is almost as great

    vox . xv . 2 c 2

    Employment Of Women. 363

    EMPLOYMENT _OF WOMEN . 363

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 1, 1860, page 363, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01021860/page/3/