Page:Women Wanted.djvu/190

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174
WOMEN WANTED

Industry has been made over to adapt it to maternity! A baby used to be the crowning reason of all against woman's industrial employment. Even if you didn't have one, you might have. And they were very likely to tell you they couldn't bother to have you around. If you did succeed in getting employment, some committee was sure to go "investigating" while you were away from home, and they'd report that your parlour was dusty and that your children had a dirty face. You tried to tell the sociologists, of course, that it wasn't so bad for children to have a dirty face as a hungry one, and you'd wash them on Sunday. But no one would understand and you never could adequately explain. Now you don't have to any more.

Every facility for first aid for the housekeeping the woman in industry has left behind her, is being arranged. They have bought a few more cups and plates and it has been found that the meals at public schools that used to be for poor children can just as well be for everybody's children. It's a great help to the maiden aunt. And if you haven't one, and you feel that you must go home to dust the parlour or to see that little Mary puts her rubbers on when she's out to play, why that can be arranged. The London Board of Trade, in a special pamphlet on "The Substitution of Women in Industry," pointed the way to all nations with this paragraph: "The supply of women can be frequently increased by adaptation of the conditions of employment to local circumstances. For example, one large mill in a