waitress, laundress, seamstress, baker, cook, governess, purchasing agent, dietitian, accountant, and confectioner.  In the early days of this country, in addition to these duties, women were also called upon to be butchers, sausage-makers, tailors, spinners, weavers, shoemakers, candle-makers, cheese-makers, soap-makers, dyers, gardeners, florists, shepherds, bee-keepers, poultry-keepers, brewers, picklers, bottlers, butter-makers, mil-liners, dressmakers, hatters, and first-aid physicians, surgeons and nurses.  In more modern times, women have entered nearly all vocations.  But even yet there is much prejudice against the woman who “descends” out of her traditional “sphere.”  The woman who is not a wife, mother, and house-keeper—­or a domestic parasite, housekeeping by proxy—­loses caste among the patricians.  Many men and, on their behalf, their mothers and sisters, shudder at the sordid thought of marrying a girl who has been so base as to “work for her living.”  And so stenographers, clerks, accountants, saleswomen, factory workers, telephone operators, and all other women in the business world are about 99 per cent temporary workers.  Even in executive positions and in the professions, most women look upon wages and salaries as favoring breezes, necessary until they drop anchor in the haven of matrimony.  And even those who most sincerely proclaim themselves wedded to their careers, in many instances, exercise their ancient privilege, change their minds, and give up all else for husband and home.

Every normal woman was intended by nature to marry.  It is right that she should marry.  She does not truly and fully live unless she does marry.  She misses deep and true joy who is not happily married—­and usually feels cheated.  But the same may be said of every normal man.  The difference is that, according to tradition, marriage is woman’s career, while man may choose a life work according to his aptitudes.  Because of prejudice, however, it is rarely that the happily married woman makes a business or professional career.  Husbands, except those who do so through necessity or those who are unafraid of convention, do not permit their wives to work outside of the home.  Because of false pride, many men say:  “I am the bread-winner.  If I cannot support my wife as she should be supported, then I do not wish to marry.”  And so thousands of women sigh away their lives at work they hate while a hungry, sad world suffers for what they would love to do.

The waste of these misfits is threefold:  First, the women lose the opportunity for service, profit, and enjoyment which should be theirs.  Second, the world loses the excellent services which they might render.  Third, oftentimes these women are very poor housekeepers.  They simply have not the aptitudes.  Their husbands and their families suffer.

WOMEN WITHOUT HOMES