IS DOMESTICITY PERILOUS?

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1002, 17 December 1910, Page 11

IS DOMESTICITY PERILOUS?

. . household duties lead .to insanity.' is the latest question which women, are- asking .themselves, and - any authorities; oil' the. subject-.that' happen to be within- coo-ee; .'says writer. ,-Isn t.-.itvau alarming thought? I'or, since servants a?o becoming; more and more "extinct," . who amongst us can escape the domestic round? Domestic tasks—yes, duties ,if you'will— rail now to th<y lot of us all. The latest reports from Victoria and New South Wa!es_ show that a treineudous proportion of the insauo last' year were "houseliold workers, including-sisters,-daugh-ters, and wives." It would .be interest-' if'theso -.ivcre servants,. or -if they . merely. had. housework ■ thrust upon them, with disastrous-results'.' -The idea that/ sweeping - and' scrubbing are enough to drive a woman mad" is something quito -new, though cverv woman makes free uso of that remark to unrWM tV ti ° f ciroum stancos to undertake either occupation. That the. home and .nomo duties form the proper, correct environment and metier for women has been,-asseverated by- men •since -time.".immemorial;!ana up to now wo have, accepted ,tlie Even business women," clerks;.. doctors, actresses, and. others,•'."who had:,broken tlmt y tho° m .ti'animels, liavo felt that there was something; in' that time;worn statemijiit. ..But perhups the dailv round- and common' ,fask at-home - hid hey . stayed there, would - havo upset their mental equilibfium.. One house maid always change-her place deKbe?jp.fj eT y three months.- ' ■ "IM tto , mad if 1 washed up the same-pattern?d for longer," said she" Who then, can blame her? .. "no,