A WOMAN’S CHOICE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 97, 24 April 1912, Page 8

A WOMAN’S CHOICE.

WHY SHE ABANDONED BUSINESS (By X in London Doily Mail.) Recently 1 heard a critic remark that the modern woman has one fetish, she adores and in the worship of which she will give up almost everything that really matters in a woman’s life, and the name of this fetish is independence spelt with a capital I. When I asked him what he considered “really mattered in a woman’s life,” he replied that the making and the keeping of the home were the greatest assets of feminine happiness, and the woman who forsook the home merely for what she called the “independent” life and went out into the world to battle with the competition in the labour market lost far more than she gained, and gave up the greatest privilege any woman can possess. What Sha Lost. Now .1 happen to he one of those women who insisted on pursuing an independent career when no economic conditions compelled me to earn my living. In common with many other girls i thought that the daily routine of domesticity and the keeping of the home was dvdl work that brought little oi no excitement into one’s life, and 1 yearned to exchange my comfortable [ sitting room, bright and pretty with the flowers I grew myself in my own garden, for the business office which would at least give me a chance of seeing what the workaday world was like. Looking hack on many years of a business life 1 spent under very favourable conditions and in following an occupation 1 liked, I am tempted tc , wonder if the experiences that have come to me can ever compensate for what I feel I lost by giving up my home. There must ho many women who ask themselves tin's question. Nowadays it is the fashion for girls to leave their homes and “work,” a word that invariably means doing something in an office and having definite hoursfor starting and leaving off, pins the addition of a weekly or monthly salary. Let me try to answer this question of loss and gain, as my experience is hut one among many others. We women who, for no pecuniary, reason, give up domesticity and leave the shelter of our homes and perhaps the companionship of our parents invariably begin by falling in love with our new “careers.” Whan ths Movslty Were Off. I, with other girls, have gone through the sainc excitement of “being on my own,” of possessing a latchkey, and perhaps of being accountable to no one for the hours 1 kept. At first the new life appears very interesting, and wc look back with horror upon what we are pleased to call the “colourless” round of domesticity. Then by degrees the novelty weais off. Presently there comes a time when working outside the home seems less attractive and begins to jar upon one. After a couple of years I was surprised to find myself thinking how nice it would be to have a kitchen of my own, where I could learn to do my own cooking, and many a time J have found myself turning over the leaver, of a cookery book with just ns much interest as I took in the most absorbing fiction. And somehow the thought of spending the morning in the routine of housekeeping began to grow quite attractive. It would he delightful, I thought, to have a real home of one’s own, instead of living in chambers, where one has “.attendance” and was waited upon by comparative strangers. “The woman who works has a brooder outlook and a wider mind than the woman who stays at home all her life,” said one of my fellow-workers rather grandiloquently. “At least site doesn’t rust or live in a narrow groove, and as she comes in contact with a variety of minds, her own becomes more stimulated and therefore she herself grows more interesting.” The Woman Who Know More. Now this all sounds very attractive. No woman wishes to Jive in a rut and become drab and dull. But when I begun frankly to compare myself and my fellow-workers with the women who were content to stay at home and to remain “home-makers,” I rosily could not see that wo “workers” were so much superior or even more interesting. For instance, my own cousin Francos had a knowledge of domestic lore that often bewildered mo. Bather depressingly I remembered the week when I went to stay with her, and the domestic machinery suddenly stopped, because the cook and housemaid fell ill with influenza, and no one could ho procured at a moment’s notice to take their places. It was certainly the moment of the domestic woman’s triumph, for I, who talked so grandly of rny “wider knowledge of the world,” was soon forced to hide my diminished head before my cousin’s wonderful proficiency in the art of keeping a house going without any hitch. Of what use were my business qualifications when 1 could neither make a poultice nor a cup of hoof tea, cook a dinner, sweep and dust a room satisfactorily, plan a week’s menu, know which vegetables were in or out of season, or look after turn sick maids k Before Frances’s skill I felt really humiliated and abashed, and I could not help wondering whether her wider domestic knowledge was not of far more use to the world than any merely technical ability as a paid business woman. Soon ! began secretly to feel the truth of what I had been wont to laugh at .as the merest platitude, ami I found myself writing on my blotting pad: “Woman’s real kingdom is the

home.” But when 1 would have returned to my own home the opportunity was past and gone, i had lost my parents, and there was no home to which to return. Bach to Domesticity. Besides, 1 felt that my domestic talents had atrophied for want of use, and it seemed to me that I. had become a soulless machine. "Within the past few months, however, I had tin 1 choice of starting, a home of my own or continuing my office work. Without a moment’s hesitation 1 gave up my post and have willingly taken up the practical study of housekeeping. Perhaps there is less excitement but there is infinitely more real dom in my present life than in im days which; I spent in husiimrs. 1 do not find that the domesticated v. •: • men with whom I come in contact ar. cither less interesting or narrower noutlook than any of my fellow workers, and there is a certain rcstfulness about them that is very charming to one who has seen so many ol her companions grow thuly more restless and neurotic through the storm and stress of office work. Soon I hope to have the privilege of being a “homo maker” for one 1 have met since my return to domesticity, but even were that prospect not in view, I have realised that woman’s real happiness lies in the home and not in the office, and that she loses more tfhan ‘she gains by giving up her privileges.