“Six days shalt thou labor” has all the sanction of scripture, of morals, and of common experience.  It is only fair that women who work in private families should have one day out of seven as a day of rest, even as their more fortunate sisters in the business world.  If by adopting such a law in the home the housewife found that her work was performed far more efficiently and willingly than at present, would it not be as much to her advantage as to the advantage of those she employs to limit the hours of household labor to six days a week?  Many housewives may object to this proposition inasmuch as the work in a home can not be suspended even for a day.  But when two or more employees work in a private home, it is very easy to plan the housework so that each employee may have a different day of the week as a “day of rest,” without the comfort of the family being disturbed by the temporary absence of one of the employees.  It is only in families where one employee is kept that it may make a very serious difference to the housewife when her “maid-of-all-work” is away for one entire day each week.  Nevertheless the comfort of an employer ought not to outweigh justice to an employee.

There are many ways of regulating the housework, as will be seen in the schedules at the end of this book, in order to give one day of freedom each week to household employees without causing much inconvenience to the housewife.  By continuing to refuse this privilege to women employed in domestic labor, housekeeping is becoming more and more complicated.  Already it is such a common occurrence in some cities and in many parts of the country, not to find any woman willing to do housework, that many housewives are beginning to think that their future comfort in all household matters will depend entirely upon new labor saving devices and upon the help of the community rather than upon the increased knowledge and skill of domestic employees.

There exists a prevailing impression, too, that housework has lost its dignity, and that at this period of the world’s social history, it is impossible to restore it for women have stepped above it.  But this is not true.  The fact is that housework has remained stationary while other work has gained in freedom and dignity.  Without noisy protestations, or indignant speeches delivered in public, women have slowly and silently, one by one, deserted housework as a career on account of the narrowing, servile, and unjust conditions inseparable from it at the present day.  Let these conditions be removed and new regulations based upon modern business principles take their place, and then it will be seen that housework has never lost its dignity, and the very women who abandoned it will be the first to choose it again as a means of earning their livelihood.