ABSTRACT
Since. the pages that follow will be concerned mainly with that section of working women who do earn money for their work, it is. necessary to stress at the outset the fact that the paid workers are but a small section of the army of women who work for their living. What is peculiar in the position of the woman worker is that, while she is still young-generally under 25she changes over from one kind of work to another. She expects this to happen. Society expects it to
This transfer from paid to unpaid work is the great governing circumstance in th~ life and condition of women. It is called "ceasing to be employed on marriage ". But, for the vast majority, that phrase is an entirely false description of what, in fact, occurs. False· in fact, the description is also false in implication. To the nation, the work done by women after marriage in their homes is quite as important as any work done in factory, field or office. Factory, field and office work are there in order to sustain and make possible a decent life in the home. The home is the focus of value. It is what the rest is for. This is true and, in words, admitted to be true, where there are children. No one who thinks for a single moment denies that what they are given in the home is an indispensable and vital element in the sound growth of the nation. Its hopes are located in their minds and bodies, and the background in which those minds and bodies grow depends on the woman who makes it. What is not so fully recognised is that even where there are no children the home-maker is contributing an element to the life of the nation not only in the domestic work she does, but in the atmosphere which only she can create. The power to do the work of the home, in this
" occupied " the women working in their homes at work for which they would have been paid if they had been doing it in other people's homes. Normally, however, as in I93I (the last available counting), " occupied ", for the Census, means not working but working for cash : what the Americans call " Gainfully employed ". Unless this is borne in mind, an entirely unreal picture of the working world emerges. With this precaution well in mind, it is possible to look at the I 93 I Census figures, since they give the broad background of fact.
