Educating the DaughterBy Josephine Pitcairn Knowles(From “The Upholstered Cage.”)
By Josephine Pitcairn Knowles
(From “The Upholstered Cage.”)
The day has now arrived when nature and fairness are proclaiming that the same expenditure of time and money must be bestowed on the girl as on the boy, and she should be regarded as an investment in the same way as the boy now is. It has always been realized that unless he is given a good education and then started properly in life, that is, given a “shove off,” as it were, he won’t do much, and so all efforts in a family of small means are concentrated toward helping launch the boy in life. The idea, of course, being that he must support himself, and very likely keep a wife and children, therefore it is more important for him to get on well than for the girl, who has her parents to keep her until she marries. There would be nothing against this theory if it were sound; but where the theory breaks down is that girls and women nowdohave to earn their own living, and this necessity is on the increase, and the point is that the women have often to do it on inadequate material; the girl earnsherlivingwithoutthe previous training,withoutthe school or college training,withoutany capital having been spent on her as a premium,withoutall the advantages the boy started with.