MARRIED WOMEN AND WORK.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—As one married to a " working woman," may I give testimony from the husband's point of view ? With one or two essential differences the lives severally led by my wife and myself bear a singular resemblance to those described by Mrs. Reid (whose article, I think, provoked the subsequent correspondence) as being followed by herself and her husband. As Mr. Reid has so far remained inarticulate, and as some of your correspondents seem to regard his situation as not alto- gether enviable, I feel impelled to testify to my own great satisfaction in very similar circumstances. To begin with, if my wife devoted the whole of her extremely active mind and unusual gifts to purely domestic and social affairs, I feel that not only she, but also I and the children, would very soon suffer from what one might liken to the vibration and strain of a high-speed engine running on an insufficient load. No doubt there are plenty of women who find husband, children, house and friends as much, or even more, than they can cope with, but surely if the number and spacing of the children are wisely regulated with an eye to her and their own well-being, a healthy, intelligent and well-educated young woman has a right to demand more of life than the worthy, but somewhat embusque job of being somebody's " Domestic Providence." My own profession fully occupies me for a good five and a-half working days a week, and often takes me from home, and I have the great pride and satis- faction of knowing that not for a moment of the time we are apart is my wife unoccupied, lonely or restless, but is at least as usefully employed as I am myself and working with the same zest and absorption. Instead of merely being the spending partner, her earnings constitute a substantial part of the family income ; sufficient, apart from rent, to pay all the household expenses.
Before she took up her profession—which involves work at an office and at home in about equal proportions—my wife was somewhat perfunctory in her social contacts and was, perhaps, more introspective and aloof from the world of action than was well for her full development or for her happiness. Now she has found a congenial way of extending and expressing her personality and has made a large number of real friends, like-minded with herself, entirely through con- tacts established in the course of her chosen work. That, probably, is the key of the question—the work being well chosen and thoroughly congenial. It is usually necessary to a man's happiness and success, but probably more so for a woman. No doubt her choice is necessarily more limited,1 but I hazard that the limitations are more due to prejudice , and stinted education than to physical or temperamental _ differences.
Finally, I should like to say that my " quarter-time wife " has the happiest, most flourishing and most devoted nursery, the most loyal and helpful household, and the most efficiently,
economically and comfortably-run small house that I know. For my part, my interest'in her work, her achievements and her friends is an important part of my life, and her withdrawal and absorption into ordinary domesticity would be a real loss not only to her, but to me, certainly to the children when they are a little older, and, I am persuaded, to the community
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