Chapter 1

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's Work This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's Work Author: Virginia Penny Release date: September 8, 2015 [eBook #49912] Most recently updated: October 24, 2024 Language: English Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49912 Credits: Produced by Ann Jury, Heike Leichsenring, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN: A CYCLOPÆDIA OF WOMAN'S WORK *** Transcriber's Notes: Text originally marked up as bold is surrounded by =, text in italics by _. All footnotes can be found after the Appendix, before the Index. Obvious printer's errors have been remedied, a list of all other changes can be found at the end of the document. Note: There are many opening or closing quotation marks missing in the text. As in most instances, it is impossible to say where the quotation was meant to begin or end, those errors have not been corrected. Only instances where quotation marks were obviously missing or superfluous, were such added. Equally, "Employee/s" is found in various different spellings throughout the book; this inconsistency has been retained. THE EMPLOYMENTS OF WOMEN: A Cyclopædia of Woman's Work. BY VIRGINIA PENNY. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY WALKER, WISE, & COMPANY, 245 WASHINGTON STREET. 1863. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by VIRGINIA PENNY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. TO WORTHY AND INDUSTRIOUS WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES, STRIVING TO EARN A LIVELIHOOD, This Book IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. It is very easy to obtain book after book on "The Sphere of Woman," "The Mission of Woman," and "The Influence of Woman." But to a practical mind it must be evident that good advice is not sufficient. That is very well, provided the reader is supplied with the comforts of life. But plans need to be devised, pursuits require to be opened, by which women can earn a respectable livelihood. It is the great want of the day. It is in order to meet that want that this work has been prepared. The few employments that have been open to women are more than full. To withdraw a number from the few markets of female labor already crowded to excess, by directing them to avenues where they are wanted, would thereby benefit both parties. At no time in our country's history have so many women been thrown upon their own exertions. A million of men are on the battle field, and thousands of women, formerly dependent on them, have lost or may lose their only support. Some of the mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters of soldiers, may take the vacancies created in business by their absence--others must seek new channels of labor. An exact estimate of woman as she has been, and now is, furnishes a problem difficult to solve. Biographies and histories merely furnish a clue to what she has been. Prejudice has exaggerated these portraitures. Woman as she now is, save in fiction and society, is scarcely known. The future position of woman is a matter of conjecture only. No mathematical nicety can be brought to bear upon the subject, for it is one not capable of data. More particularly is it difficult to define what her future condition in a business capacity will be. Man will have much to do with it, but woman more. I know of no work giving a true history of woman's condition in a business capacity. Socially, morally, mentally, and religiously, she is written about; but not as a working, every-day reality, in any other capacity than that pertaining to home life. It has been to me a matter of surprise that some one has not presented the subject in a practical way, that would serve as an index to the opening of new occupations, and present the feasibility of women engaging in many from which they are now debarred. It is strange there is no book on the subject, in any language, for it is a world-wide subject. Its roots are in the very basis of society--its ramifications as numerous as the nations of the earth--yes, as the individual members of the human family. The welfare of every man, woman, and child is involved in the subject. For who is entirely free from female influence--who is devoid of interest in the sex--who exists free from relationship, or any connection with woman? There is no man that is not involved in what affects woman, and the reverse is also true. It should therefore be a subject of paramount interest to all. Particularly does the subject appeal to the heart of woman. If she does not need to make a practical use of information on the subject, she will find its possession no disadvantage. It may assist her, from motives of friendship, or benevolent feelings, to advise and direct others. Is there any woman, not entirely devoid of all sensibility, but desires an amelioration in the condition of the working class of her sex--those who earn a mere pittance, scarce enough to keep body and soul together? The work of single women has never been very clearly defined. Those that are without means are often without any to guide them; and the limited avenues of employment open to women, and the fear of becoming a burden on others, have poisoned some of their best hours, and paralyzed some of their strongest powers. There is a large amount of female talent in the United States lying dormant for the want of cultivation, and there has been a large amount cultivated that is not brought into exercise for the want of definite plans and opportunities of making it available. It exists like an icicle, and requires the warmth of energy, thought, and independence to render it useful. It shrinks from forcing itself into notice, like the sensitive plant, and may live and die unseen and unknown. Widen, then, the theatre of action and enterprise to woman. Throw open productive fields of labor, and let her enter. Of those who speak so bitterly of women engaging in some pursuits now conducted by men, we would inquire, What would you have destitute single women and widows do, by which to earn their bread? You surely would not have women steal, that cannot obtain employment. What, then, can they do? Why may they not have free access to callings that will insure them a support? Those that oppose them, generally do so from selfish motives. Many men would banish women from the editor's and author's table, from the store, the manufactory, the workshop, the telegraph office, the printing case, and every other place, except the school room, sewing table, and kitchen. The false opinion that exists in regard to the occupations suitable for women must be changed ere women have free access to all those in which they may engage. Yet I would love to see thrown open to women the door of every trade and profession in which they are capable of working. "Women have not devoted their time and talents to mechanical arts, except to a very limited extent, and only within fifty years. How then could they be expected to equal men in proficiency, who have from the creation of the world been so employed, and who have had the advantage not only of their own exertions, but the experience of their fathers and forefathers to profit by? The superior mechanical talent of the United States is becoming known throughout the civilized world, and some of the work dictated by that talent is executed by women. Some persons complain that women would become more material--less spiritual--if engaged in manual labor. We think not, if it is of a kind suited to their nature. Contact with the world does not always wear out the fineness and delicacy that we love in woman. She does not necessarily lose that softness and gentleness that render her so lovely. A few women may by nature have a fondness for masculine pursuits; but the number of men that have from training and circumstances a partiality for feminine pursuits, is much greater. It has been estimated that there are 95,000 females earning a livelihood in New York city and its vicinity, by their labor, aside from those engaged in domestic pursuits; and I am confident there are at least 100,000 men in the same city engaged in pursuits well adapted to women. As women become more generally educated, their energies will be increased--their limits of thought expanded. They will seek employments consistent with honor and delicacy. They will desire the elevation of their sex, and do what they can to bring it about, regardless of the shafts of ridicule sent by selfish men and heartless women. "By elevating the standard and augmenting the compensation of woman's labor," a complete revolution would be wrought in the social and political standing of woman. Let woman once surmount the difficulties that now oppose her, and take her stand with dignified reserve, laboring and claiming what is her right as much as men--free labor and fair wages--and liberal men will applaud and admire her. As a friend of my sex, I have made investigations, and obtained statistics that show the business position of woman at present in the United States. I present such employments as have been, are, or may be pursued by them, and give what information I can obtain of each one. I may have omitted a few, and there may be some that are not yet recognized as a distinct business. I have made the study a speciality for three years, and spent an almost incredible amount of labor and money in doing so. I have visited factories, workshops, offices, and stores, for the purpose of seeing women at their vocations. I have gone through wind and snow, cold and rain. If I could have had the time and opportunity, I would have endeavored to see, also, something of their home-life. Much of the verbal information I give is impartial, as it has been given by those with whom I talked in a casual way, they not knowing I had any object in view; and frequently it was done in a respectful, yet off-hand way, when making purchases. I have often bought articles merely for an excuse to talk with people, and gain information on their occupations. I desire to present to those interested a clear and succinct view of the condition of business in the United States, the openings for entering into business, the vacancies women may fill and the crowded marts they may avoid, the qualifications needed for a selected pursuit, and the pursuits to which they are best adapted; also the probable result pecuniarily of each calling honorably pursued: in short, it is intended as a business manual for women. I wish to make it a practical work--useful, not ornamental. It is more a bringing together of facts, than a presentation of ideas--more a book of research than reflection. Yet the statements given are important, not merely as facts, but as being suggestive of things essential to or connected with occupations. The limits of each subject must necessarily be short, as I wish to form a volume to come within the reach of every one that would desire a copy. Any female who has in view the learning of any occupation mentioned in this book, would do well to go and see the process before making arrangements to that effect. And she should exercise her own judgment in making a practical use of that information. Many pursuits are now followed by women for which it was once thought they were incapable. My book is not sectional in its feelings. It is intended to benefit women of the North, South, East, and West of this vast Republic. In the large cities of the North, most working women are acquainted with others engaged in different occupations, and so may learn of places to be filled in them. In the South, a smaller number of women have been dependent on their own exertions, owing to the existence of slave-labor, and the comparative smallness of immigration. I strongly advocate the plan of every female having a practical knowledge of some occupation by which to earn a livelihood. How do men fare that are raised without being fitted for any trade or profession, particularly those in the humbler walks of life? They become our most common and ill-paid laborers. So it is with woman's work. If a female is not taught some regular occupation by which to earn a living, what can she do, when friends die, and she is without means? Even the labor that offers to men, situated as she is, is not at her disposal. No reproach should be cast upon any honest employment. The dignity and value of labor in the most menial occupation is superior to idleness or dependence upon others for the requirements of life. What destitute but industrious woman would not be glad to earn for herself a snug little cottage, to which she may resort in her old age, from the cares and conflicts of life; to enjoy the independence of a competency, earned by remunerative and well-applied labor? I will not be responsible for all the opinions advanced by those who have furnished me with information. The reader will often have to form her own deductions from the statements made. My work may not accomplish, by a great deal, the end proposed, but I hope it may be the means of securing, by honest industry, a livelihood to many now dependent and desponding. If it does not in itself accomplish any visible good, it may be the means of bringing forward some better method by which the desired end may be effected. It may perhaps impart information by which the philanthropic may best employ their time and means in advancing the welfare of others, by pointing out the wants of dependent women, and how best to meet those wants. It may open the way of usefulness to women of leisure and talents. If it saves any of my sex from an aimless and profitless life, I will feel that something has been done. In that way some may be kept from despair and sin. And it is certainly better to prevent evil than to cure it. Some have means, and if a plan were presented to them, they would engage in its execution. Connected with this subject is a fervent desire on the part of the writer to see houses of protection and comfort provided in our cities for respectable and industrious women when out of employment. Wealthy, benevolent people might build them, and appropriations be granted by the cities in which they are planted. Such a structure in each of our cities and towns would be a refuge to the weary, a home to the oppressed, a sanctuary to the stranger in a strange land. When the place of gaining information is not mentioned in this work, it will be understood that New York city was the place. It will be remembered that most of the information was obtained from October, 1859, to February, 1861. I hope much anxiety of mind, and uncertainty in the selection of a pursuit, will be prevented by my book, and many precious hours thereby saved for active, cheerful employment. If there should seem to be a want of practicability in any of the subjects I have treated upon, I think, after some reflection, it will disappear. Some of the employments presented may not find encouragement and proper compensation until our country becomes older, and calls for more variety in labor. I hope I may not hold out any unreasonable expectations of employment, or excite any hope that may not be realized. My ideas may appear vague and indefinite to some, but even such may perhaps pick out a few grains from the pile of chaff. But we must be doing, not saying--moving, not sitting--accomplishing something, not folding our hands in indolent ease. The active, restless spirit that pervades our people calls for action. It will not do to rest passive and let events take their own course. The progress of the age calls for earnest labor.