24 OCTOBER 1908, Page 14

THE UNEMPLOYED WOMAN AMONG THE WELL-TO-DO.

rTO TEL EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Snt,—I think an older woman would have very little difficulty in answering the letter of your charming and obviously young correspondent "S. B." (Spectator, October 17th) as to what a married woman of the class just below the very rich can find to do with her time. Leaving aside the enormous questions of social work, school management, philanthropic work—in which it may be pointed out to your correspondent that any woman would soon rise above the hackwork and drudgery should she display any special aptitude—she could find very complete employment for the whole of her time should she treat the four walls of her house as a field of scientific research. Take, first, the question of her children. She may have a capable nurse and the best governess in the world, but all the same she will find that if her children are to have "education," as distinct from teaching, she must give it herself. For instance, in the case of the town child, only the mother can give the child the faculties of outdoor observation and delight in the common things of Nature which are such valuable parts of its mental training. Only the mother will have time—is not the inquiry of your correspondent as to how to spend her time a sufficient proof of this ?—to take the child to Kew, or further into the country, where wild flowers may actually be picked and dissected, and habits of observation of

outdoor things established. The "unemployed woman" may say that she knows nothing of botany, but in the study of a scientific subject which she is to pass on to her child she will escape what your correspondent complains of as "a certain uselessness in reading and learning which is to have no other result than to pass a few hours of the day." The result of her study of botany will be of incalculable benefit to her child. Again, there is the science and philosophy of educa- tion, on which it is impossible to deny that the mother of a family is usefully employing her faculties. And generally she will find (I am not speaking without experience) that if she wishes to have an insight into the characters and minds of her children, she will do well to take some branch of their education into her own hands. The whole field of religious and moral education also must be hers, and I can never understand why young women cheerfully accept this responsibility, and yet give themselves no sort of systematic training in the matter. In the second place, there is the theory and practice of domestic science, which should cer- tainly be raised to a more honourable plane than at present. If the unemployed woman has no children, she will at any rate have more time to devote to the science of the home Why should she not, if her husband is away all day, take advantage of the new University course of Domestic Science at King's College? Should she shrink from the three years' course for students, she would find the one year's course, or even the study of a single subject, of infinite use to her. Applied chemistry, the study of the constituents of food, adulterants, preservatives, &c., would lead to extremely good results if studied by the housekeeper, while sanitary science and applied hygiene, or the course of the special economics of the household, could not be considered in the light of learning pursued for the purpose of passing a few hours of the day. Some of the Polytechnics, too, if she is of a practical turn Of mind, supply the same teaching in a less advanced form.

Of course, all these suggestions may be met by the answer: "But what are the married women to do who do not like looking after children or the care of the house ? " I would most humbly venture to submit to them that, having married, it would be an exceedingly good thing were they to embrace these courses of study all the same. Young men who take up the work of clerks very often complain that they do not care for sitting at a desk all day, but all the same, being clerks, they have to continue to do so. Matrimony in one of its aspects may be considered as a profession. It is more than certain that the work of the home would be far more ably carried out if this side of the marriage contract were brought to the notice of every bride, whether she has or has not enough money to pay for an efficient staff of servants.—I am,