The objections to the industrial rights of women must be noticed briefly. It is said that the proper sphere of women is domestic life, and that she is by nature unfit for the strug gles of industry. It appears from the census that just onetlialf of women above twenty years of age are confined to domestic life. . About a third of the adult female population are either of independent means, or support themselves by non-domestic industry; the. rest occupy a secondary position in the industrial world, by; assisting their husbands in. business. But though the number of women engaged in industry is great, they are con fined to poorly-pAid occupations, and their labor is for the most part unskilled. Gen erally speaking, the women of the middle class take no par, in industry. The real issue is therefore narrow. It is not,'shall women be admitted to industry? for that is. settled; but, shall skilled and educated female labor be allowed? There is no evidence. that women have no capacity but for the meanest employments. What they are fit for; can be finally deter-nined only by actual trial. All that the advocates of women's rights. ask is, do not anticipate the result, or foreclose the experiment. Some think that while it is desirable women should not be left unoccupied, they should not be admitted to indus: trial occupations, but society should seek a field for unmarried women, in some works. of charity or religion, or in some semi-domestic pursuit. This proposal is an attempt to establish. in this country, that provision for unmarried women that is supplied by the monastic system in Roman Catholic countries. The objection to it is clear. If this semi-domestic pursuit is the most agreeable and lucrative to women, they will, of course, hail the discovery of it with gladness; but if it is not, they may decidedly object to make: martyrs of themselves.
A common objection is, that to take women from domestic work would harden them, and destroy the peculiar traits of their character. Now, a great part of what used to be the work of the household has passed to another province, spinning, weav ing, brewing, and baking were at one time domestic work. If women are to do their ancient customary work, they must follow it abroad. Those who believe that the pecu liar attributes of women are an artificial product of civilization, may feel alarmed at any disturbance of the present condition. But the genuine distinctions between the sexes flow from organization, and will not be obliterated by similarity of education and employment; on the contrary, no feminine charm would be lost, but women would be more spirited, more intelligent, and fitter companions for men.
It is an argument sometimes relied upon that an admission of women to industry be prejudicial to men, because it would increase the supply of labor, and thereby lower the rate of wages. This objection is founded on the principle that, when the wage-fund is constant, the rate of wages falls as the laborers more numerous, and rises as they become less numerous. But the competition of women is, to some extent, an exception, for if they do not work for themselves they must be supported out of the wages of men. If, however, wages were to fall below the ordinary standard of comfort, the tendency would be, by fewer births or emigration, to reduce the excess of laborers till the supply of labor should be adjusted to the required standard of wages; and expe rience shows that wages are not permanently lowered by the admission of women to industry. In the working-class wages adjust themselves to a scale enabling a working man to maintain a wife and family.
In the last place it is said that active life is inconsistent with the cares of maternity. This, of course, has no application to the large class of childless women; and there can be no necessity for prohibiting women from entering into industrial life if their situation renders it impracticable. The incompatibility between active life and maternity may safely be left to look after itself. From the returns in the census it appears that one out of eight married women are employed in non-domestic labor; but, since many of their occupations arc not incompatible with household duties, and since many have no chil dren to attend to, it seems probable that only among a small number of the working class the duties of maternity are sacrificed to outdoor employment. It is, however, a moot-point how far maternity interposes a barrier to the industrial education and employment of women. In the working-class the mother usually nurses her children, for she could seldom make a profit by engaging in an another employment, and hiring a servant; but if women were employed in skilled and well-paid occupations, they would probably leave nursing, which at present is unskilled labor, to servants. The solution of the problem must, however, be left to trial and experience. One principle, at any rate, is clear; except in so far as women are occupied as mothers, they should be employed in the most remunerative work. That would be beneficial to men, for it would relieve them of a pecuniary burden; it would be beneficial for it would make them independent.
The women of the middle class, led astray by a mistaken aspiration to aristocratic leisure, have held aloof from the struggles and rewards of industry. This operates injuriously in various ways. It creates an unnatural competition with working-women, as in needle-work. Middle-class women often discharge duties that might well be left to upper servants. If they entered into commerce and trade they would fit themselves for, and require, a higher kind of occupation than those thankfully accepted by poor and untaught women. At present the higher walks of business, and even subordinate offices of trust and skill, are monopolized by men; hence women engaged in the lower employments derive little pecuniary benefit from trustworthiness, experience, or judg ment, and have no hope of rising. If they should attempt to better their condition they are left without encouragement or support. The exclusion of women of the middle class from industry is hurtful to themselves. It often leads to poverty of the bitterest kind—the poverty of gentlewomen. It leaves them without occupation, a prey to ennui and bad health. It also forbids perfect companionship and sympathy between the sexes. The whole scope of a man's education is toward industry. In it he lives, and moves, and has his being. But of this world women have no direct knowledge. Hence a want of intellectual sympathy between men and women and an absence of any common standard of reasoning and evidence. Nor is -this all. The virtues upon which indus trial and public life repose do not derive due support from women. They are ignorant of the difficulties that beset moral problems under circumstances of which they have uo experience, and their moral wisdom can hardly go beyond traditionary saws. Indeed, their influence is sometimes on the wrong side. A man will be reluctant to injure his family in their pecuniary interests for some point of conscience that his wife does not sympathize with, or for objects that she does not understand.