Of Interest to Women.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 2, 26 March 1920, Page 12

Of Interest to Women.

THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTIC LABOUR. This is the problem of to-day for women. It is fundamental in its relation to them and their activities; it is vital in its importance. Together, with the cost of living, it probably occupies and worries the brains of more women to-day than any other aspect of the economic and social puzzle. And it is greater than the majority of those who discuss it over the teacups of Invercargill, realise it to be. Like every other probleni of the kind it has subtle and intricate relations to every other aspect "of our individual and collective life. It cannot be solved by itself ; it can hardly even be stated without involving other questions equally difficult of solution. In this, the first of a series of articles intended to deal - with the subject, one can only try to clear the ground, mark it out, observe the lie of the land and indicate some of those inequalities, discrepancies and defects that must be removed or filled up before the problem has even a remote chance of

solution. What is domestic labour ? What, in the conditions we are here familiar with, are its distribution and remuneration ? In what estimation as a form of service, is it held . by the average member of our community. How far are we from having it satisfactorily and cheerfully performed, and what are the reasons for our shortcomings ? Having considered these questions first, we shall be in a position to inquire later what can be done to improve matters. Domestic labour may be taken to mean all work connected with the maintenance of a household; the cleaning of the premises and furniture, the washing and ironing of clothesp linen, etc. , the preparation of food,, and accompanving matters, the care of children while in the home, together with the planning and management necessary to the satisfactory carrying out of all these things. All this, and I daresay more besides, comes under the term "domestic labour." There is a class of cleaning and maintenance work also in connection with business and public premises tliat is of so kindred a nature that it cannot be overlooked in considering the subject at large; but we will try to keep it apart, dealing with it perhags in a separate article, and emphasise chiefly at present these various activities in their relation to the home. The first thing that must strike us is indeed their variety. Domestic labour, if the above enumeration be accepted, includes work requiring both a trained hand and a trained- mind demanding intelligence and experience in its higher branches as well as technical skill, necessitating for . the successful performance of any considerable part of it, vigour of both body and brain. The next thing to be observed and emphasised is the fundamental importance to the community of this domestic labour. People sbould certainly be well. fed — and by "well" I mean* wisely and sufficiently, not in such a way as to tickle their palate and make of them epicures and gourmands, instead ■ of men and women. Gne of the foundation stones of wellbeing is a sound physique, and you cannot have it with under-feeding or over-feed-ing, or any other kind of wrong feeding. Then, being fed, our people must be clothed and kept clean ; they must be looked after in sickness and nursing is really but a branch and out-grown off-shoot of domestic work. Their place of abode must also be swept and garnisbed. If we could secure clean, well managed healthy homes for every orie of our families, the millenium would not be far to seek. Let us now consider what are the distribution and remuneration of this various and important form of service. We shall base our estimate on the observed conditions in our own community. In the first place it appears, and glaringly, that those who do most of this fundamental and important work, receives least for it in material recompense. Except where paid labour is employed, the wife and mother is also the manager as well as the drudge. Those women who discuss over their afternoon tea the impossibility of securing a suitable maid servant, and imagine that this impossibility is the whole domestic problem, should consider carefully this aspect of the case. It is here that the domestic labour problem differs from all other labour problems. It does not come under the same law of supply and demand. A woman marries — presumedly among us, because she "loves" the man she marries, or for some other equally vague reason— and she finds herself confronted with the various and arduous duties of a profession that demands the knowledge of several trades as well; and for remuneration she must

_ • — ~ « take what her husban^ can or will spare to give her. She may be intelligent, conscientious, high-minded, cultured, and capable; she may be indolent, untrained, vulgar and incompetent ; it does not matter one whit so far as her remuneration goes in material things. We must acknowledge at least in theory the justice of the demand that those who do the greatest service to the community shoMd receive the -best the community can give in rest, recreation, and those comforts, re-, finements and luxuries needful to make life worth living, but the theory has not merely out-distanced the practice it has Tost sight of it altogether. The question of the distribution and remuneration of domestie labour does not involve merely the engaging pf the servant maid and fixing of her wage, it involves the economic dependence or independence of the wife and mother; it involves the question— whether we should not cease to approve even if we cannot yet hope to alter, a system of things in which the woman who gives her all, not to 'mention her best to maintain and rear a family, is often in practice less considered and receives less of the coigforts and. amenities of life than she

who contributes far less to the general well-being and the prosperity of the body social. Women of easy circumstances ask too much and give too little in comparison with their poorer sisters. The woman who cannot get a maid to answer her door-bell, and serve her meals, should consider the case of her fellow who cannot get a rest after a long day's toil because there are stockings to darn and dishes to wash. We war;t the most workers in the homes where there is most to do, but under present conditions, how are we going to get them there ? (To be continued. )