Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/226

 married women. Such legislation would be a terrible step backward, and a lowering of the married status which would effectively reduce the number of satisfactory marriages. The other way is the better one. Let the child-bearing woman be suitably maintained for her important work, and allow the childless married woman or the married woman with grown-up children to pursue her calling; it will be better for her and better for society as a whole that she should do so.

The competition of the married woman teacher with the single woman teacher has given rise to an interesting controversy on the question of married women's labour. There are interesting and effective arguments on both sides. It is certainly hard on a girl who has, at some cost, and at great toil, secured her training, to find herself unable to get a post, especially when she knows that many teachers who are employed are married. On the other hand, the married woman is frequently an excellent teacher, with very special qualifications for her work, especially amongst infants, and is much more usefully employed teaching than in dusting rooms and boiling potatoes, which others less intellectual can do. Moreover, she frequently has some one at home to maintain. The matter, seemingly, is not one for legislation but for local arrangement. A fixed rule, closing the