SHOULD MARRIED WOMEN WORK ?
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I cannot believe there will be any " discussion " on such a subject. Surely every woman will reply by asking why married women should not work.
Again there arises another question. What is work ? Some women do not call it " work " to have to order dinner, engage servants, see that their houses are properly cleaned and so on. To the present writer these matters are, under present circumstances, the hardest work that a married woman has to undertake. On the other hand, hard manual labour, either in one's own garden or in someone else's garden, has given me far more pleasure than sitting down to a game of bridge. If your question means should a married woman leave her home early in the morning before seeing to the ordering of the household that makes for her husband's comfort and for her children's health and happiness, to return late in the afternoon tired and sometimes cross ; then my opinion is that she had better find work • she can do at home. Painting, music, writing, designing, all these need work, hard work too, but can be carried out at home and need not interfere with home life.
It will be said that it is not everyone who can paint or make music or write or design. But every woman can do needle- work, and there is usually plenty to be done, especially where there arc children. It is always a pleasure to feel that, though one is not- being naid for such work, it prevents • unnecessary expense. Of one thing I am certain ; that is, that no life can be thoroughly happy unless the greater part of the day is given up to hard work, either with brain or hands, better still if it is
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