What eight million women want

s described in a former chapter, domestic service is a dangerous trade. Of the 3,966 unfortunates who came under the examination of the Bureau's

ormatory, one of the two New York State institutions for delinquent women, in an examination of a group of one thousand women, found four hundred and thirty general houseworkers, twenty-four chamber-maids, thirteen nursemaids, eig

hundred and sixty-eight girls. Of these ninety-two were d

umber twenty-nine had worked in private homes as domestics. Bedford Reformatory receives mostly city girls; Albion and Rochester are suppli

possibly engage. Assuredly it seems to possess certain unique advantages. Domestic service is the only field of industry where the demand for workers permanently exceeds t

partment store would be worth about ten dollars a month, without board. The wages of a competent houseworker, in any part of the country, average over eighteen dollars a month. Add to this about thirty dollars a month represented by food, lodging, light, and fire, and you will see that the competent hou

edly affects the attractiveness of domestic service as a profession. But the lower social position is in itself no explanation of the high

in any other social or industrial problem. For the increasing dearth of domestic workers, for the lowered standard of efficienc

right to intrude some homes and ask questions for the good of the community. "How many children have you?" "Are they all in school?" "Does your husband drink?" We have not y

study of wages, hours of work, difficulties, advantages, and disadvantages of domestic service. Professor Salmon's book, "Domestic Service," giving the results of the inquiry, is a classic on the sub

zen cities, by organizations of women which associated themselves for the pu

Co-operating with them were the College Settlements Association and the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, which together established a scholarship for the research. This research was most ably cond

e of domestic service as an industry, the first scientific study of domestic workers as an ind

trade, is really no trade at all. The domestic worker is no more a part of modern industry than the Italian woma

tury civilization: two left-overs from a past-and-gone domestic system of industry. One of these is the tenement sweat shop, where women combine, or try to combine, manufacturi

gh to seek work in a factory or shop, is ever found in a swe

ew women of intelligence who are naturally so domestic in their tastes and inclinations that they shrink from any work outside the home. Such

ed legislation in almost every State of the Union, regulating hours of work, sanitary conditions, ventilation, and in some cases they have been given protectio

etter and juster and healthier conditions for workers in all the industries is bound to continue. So long as manufacturing was carried on in the home, no such protective leg

gislators that sweeping and beating rugs might be included among the dusty trades; that bending over steaming washtubs, and almost immediately afterwards going out into frosty air to hang the clothes, might be harmful to throat and lungs; that remaining

tate the terms of their own employment. If they elected to demand pianos and private baths they could get them; that is, if instead of remaining isolated individuals they could form themselves into an industrial

nctive repugnance to the medieval system on which her household is conducted, that she shuns it, runs away from it whenever she can. Housekeeping as a business is a dark mystery to her. The mass of women in the United States probably hold, alm

g of cooking, or of any department of housekeeping. Even when she has had some instruction in household tasks, she almost never connects cooking with chemistry, food with dietetics, cleanliness with sanitation, buying with bookkeeping. She is an amateur. A

rs provide their servants with good beds; of course, not quite as good as other members of the household enjoy, but good enough. Some set aside pleasant, warm, well-furnished rooms for the servants. But Miss Kell

omplained that her last maid was untidy. Then she showed the applicant to t

still another, the maid spent her night of rest on a mattress laid over the wash tubs in a baseme

owless, are very commonly provided in city flats. Even in spacious count

dows so high that no one could see out of them. When the architect remonstrated she sa

a little impatiently when she returned. She was silent for a moment, then she said: "Do you know that every time you send me to the pantry it means a walk of three and a half blocks? Thi

work in a hotel, if it's like that? Why do

town all summer. My room was up in the attic, with only a skylight for ventilation. During the day, except for the time I spent sitting on the area ste

hese girls say, to find a mistress who is willing to allow her maids to leave the house except on their days out. They concede certain hours

being required to remain after hours on t

other industry. When the household employs only one servant the isolation is absolute. The girl is marooned, within full sight of others' happy life. Even when k

ere induced, by members of the Women's Trade Union League, to take up domestic service until the close of the strike. As the girls were in acute financi

f girls accustomed to using one set of muscles. The long hours and the confineme

the girls found places, was provided with a servants' sitting room. There was absolutely no provision made for callers. For a se

they have a servant class. Every house of

room for servants, even in mi

nds even in the kitchen. "Are we allowed to receive men visitors in the house?" chorused a group of girls, questioned in a fashion

mestic service, is traceable to American methods of dealing with servants. The domestic, belonging, as a rule, to a weak an

for human intercourse. They must have associates, friends, companions

lace. But most of them have no other place to meet. And it is not difficult to comprehend that clandestine appointments in dark corners as a rule do not conduce to proper behavior

ll. Hardly ever does a settlement club admit a domestic to membership; rarely does a working girls' society or a Young Women's Christian A

for domestics, since no other class of women seemed willing to associate with them. The proposal was voted dow

y, whereas the park bench after dark and the dance hall and its al

girls. They need social intercourse, they need laughter and dancing and healthy pleasur

of family, friends, social position. The last is of greatest importance, because the woman without a social position has ever been regarded by

r whose downfall he had, years before, been responsible. A somewhat similar story in real life, with a happier ending, was told me by the head of a woman's reformatory. This o

ot that poor girl. She never made any claim on me. When I saw her there in court, among the dregs of humanity, her face showing what her life had b

r progress. Several times in the course of the year the man visited the reformatory, and at the end of that period he was allowed to see the girl. This institution happens to be one of the few where a rational and a hum

shelter of a family, is sometimes precarious, her sit

riod of unemployment as a pleasant vacation. But in most cases, in citie

h homeless women, and their predicament is peculiarly acute, for their friends

s you are describing. Our girls are respectable. They meet their friends at church. They come to

mployment office that sent her to you? What do you know of the world inhabited by servants and the people who dea

rawn? Do you care to know how a domestic spends the time between places, how she gets to your kitchen or nursery, the kind of homes she may hav

own where she earned her living as a cook offered Nellie so little diversion that she determined to

, or rather tossed sleepless in the agency lodging house, on a dirty bed occupied by two women besides herself. In all her life she had never been inside such a filthy room, or heard such frightful conversat

r work unmolested. At the end of the week her mistress presented her with a low-necked satin dress and asked her if she would not like to assist in entertaining the men. Simple-minded Nellie had to have the na

n she reproached the agent for sending her to a disreputable house he shrugged his shoulders and

office in Chicago which sent girls to a resort in Wisconsin which was represented as a summer

e disreputable houses in summer places. To these the proprie

icked her out of the house. The investigators for the Intermunicipal Committee on Household Research saw this girl in a hospital, insane and dying from the t

s from servants and fees from employers. They encourage servants to change their employment as often as possible. Often a firm will send a girl to a place, and a week or two later will send her word that they have a better job for her. Sometimes they arrange with her to leave her place afte

he writes her flattering ones, or loans her a reference written by some woman of prominenc

del employment agency law, passed by the New York State Legislature, providing for a strict licensing system, rigid forms of contract, regulation of fees, and inspection by special of

s buildings. In Philadelphia, only three per cent of employment agencies were found in business buildings. Chicago made a little better showing, with nineteen per cent in business houses. The difficulty of properly regulating a business which is carried on in the privacy of a home is apparent. When an agency is in a business building it usually has conspicuous signs, and often the rooms ar

ere closed by law, hundreds, perhaps thousands of domestics temporarily out of work, would be turned into the streets. Many are unfamiliar with the cities they live in. Many more are barred from hotels on account of small means. Of

cent of all offices in the four cities examined. For greater accuracy the investigators made a brief survey of conditions in cities, such as S

oyment office, while at other times they are obliged to have recourse to the cheaper places, where standards of honesty, and perhaps also, of p

service. Some of the conditions they can change. Others they cannot. No one can alter

how much sewing into the shop. As the cost of living increases, more and more co-operation will be necessary, especially for those of moderate income. At the present time millions of city dwellers have given up living in their own houses, or even in rented houses. They cannot afford to ma

s one servant problem. But the housekeeper still has another "servant problem," and I have

voring to understand the causes of evil. They are securing the appointment of educated women as probation officers in the courts which

eepers of the country to play an important part in this work. Every woman in the United States who employs one servant has

of working women are out of tune with democracy. The right of the domestic worker to regular hours of labor, to freedom after her w

worker to social opportunity must b

kers. There are club rooms and recreation parlors where the girls receive and meet their friends-including their men friends. A group of liberal-minded women established this unique institution, which is well patronized by the superior class of domestic workers in Yonkers. The dues are small, and memb

ing a long list of farmhouses and village homes in the mountains and near the sea where wo

also deal with the employment agency. Some women's organizations have already taken hold of this department. The Women's Educational and Industrial Union of Boston conducts a very large and flourishing

till much work to do in securing reformatories for women. New York is the first State to establish such reformato

e notorious for the low state of its morale. They sent only seventeen women to Bedford Reformatory, where a healthy routine of outdoor work, and a most effective system administered by a scientific penologist do

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