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    84 MIDDLE-CLASS FEMALE EMIGRATION.

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    _ V Some Years Ago The Fishermen Of A Sm...

    tlie antipodes , but to break down the barriers which impede their entrance into suitable employments at home . To do

    sowould , I have endeavoured to show , benefit not only these unhappy womenbutby conducing to a more advantageous

    dis-, , tribution of employments , benefit the community at large . Besidesconducing to a better division of labour however , the relief of

    females from existing restraints on a choice of employments : would call a new class of labourers into activity ; that is to say

    , in the language of Smith , would increase the proportion of those engaged in useful labour to that of those who are not

    so employed . Many women who are now supported at the expense of others , or on private property of their own , would , if a

    pleasant , profitable or honourable career were" open to them , embark in it joyfullyinstead of passing their livesas at present

    , , they do , in a process as nearly allied as possible to vegetation . Thus would the gross wealth of the country receive a clear addition

    to its bulk , by an amount exactly corresponding to the produce of this new fund of labour . " _*

    "We are especially anxious to draw attention to this aspect of the questionin the interest of the colonies themselves . It is not

    , disputed that a larger infusion of the feminine element in colonial society would in itself be beneficial . It will _noto scarcely be denied

    that for women to be respected in that society , it is essential that they be independent . It seems further to be proved that there are

    no new and special fields open to them abroad which are closed at home . It is therefore not difficult to see that in the colonies as well

    as in England , to offer a greater variety of occupation fco women is the most direct way , economically speaking , of serving the general

    community . To take one case in point . In Sydney the wages of domestic servants range from £ 20 to £ 30 a year . The wages of

    printers are from 10 s . to 13 s . 4 d . a day . Is there any reason why female compositors who may be so inclined , should not emigrate

    and earn better wages than can be obtained by domestic work ? Againit can scarcely be doubted that if female physicians were

    , once _established in England , there would be a large demand for their services in the colonies , and they would be at least as well

    paid as the highest class of governesses . There seems to be no sufficient reason why the whole of the lighter kinds of work in .

    colonial towns , including clerkships , serving in shops , & c , should : not be given over to womenthe strong arms being thus set free for

    the rougher work . Herein , , as appears to us , lies the true solution of our difficulties . To look upon female emigration merely as a

    means of relieving the overstocked home labour-market , is an unfair view of the question . The redundancy of women is not the chief

    cause of the deficiency of remunerative employment . Other causes ,

    P Considered rofessor * " The Emancip in Po its litical Economic ation Econ of Aspect Women in the . " from Un B iversity y Existing Arthu of r H Dublin Industrial ouston . , A . M Disabilities ., Whately :

    84 Middle-Class Female Emigration.

    84 MIDDLE-CLASS FEMALE EMIGRATION .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Oct. 1, 1862, page 84, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01101862/page/12/