The Canadian Girl at Work: A Book of Vocational Guidance

NECESSARY WORK

There is a question which everyone should ask herself about her work: "Is the work that I am doing adding anything to the wealth and well-being of the world? Is it necessary work—that is, is any one single person dependent to any extent for his or her existence on what I do?"

Necessary work has to do with providing the necessaries of life. These are food, clothing, shelter, light, heat and every other service or commodity which helps to keep us alive and adds to our efficiency as human beings.

Anyone, therefore, who is producing food or preparing it is a necessary worker. So are the great armies of workers who are engaged in producing materials out of which all kinds of necessary clothing are made, and other workers who make necessary clothing from wool, cotton, linen, etc.

Such workers occupy an honourable place because our lives actually depend on them. Their daily work adds to the wealth of the world and makes it possible to improve the standard of living for everyone. We could spend much time naming the occupations of necessary workers, such as fishermen, sailors, railway men, farmers, miners, and many others. Sailors and railway men are not directly engaged in creating new wealth as the farmer is, but food would not do us much good if there were no one to bring it to market, so all transportation workers are necessary workers.

Mothers of children add infinitely to the wealth and well-being of the world. Every girl or woman whose work it is to prepare food and make a home is a necessary worker of honourable rank. The paid house worker is a necessary worker and has this honourable rank.

Whether or not we are engaged in necessary work makes a great difference to the steadiness of our employment. If we are doing necessary work, we are much more certain of steady employment than we can be if our work is connected with providing luxuries or other commodities which are not essential to the maintenance of life.

About twice in every ten years, the world, or part of the world, experiences what is known as a financial depression. Perhaps crops have failed in many countries, or unwise people have been speculating madly, or a great amount of money has been invested in utilities which will not become productive for a number of years. Whatever the reason is, the world passes through a time of business depression. Every worker, young and old, should remember that these times of depression will recur. In good times when we are earning good wages we must prepare for these bad times when wages may be lower, or we may be out of work altogether and have no wages for some months. If we are not primary producers, such as the people in the classes named above, then it is wise for us to learn how to do some necessary work so that when a business depression comes, if we lose our usual employment, we may turn to this other vocation which we have learned.

Some girls earn wages by curling feathers. Now feathers are a luxury. No one needs to wear a feather in her hat in order to keep alive. But we know that we must eat, be clothed and have shelter in order to live. In times of great business depression people stop spending money, as far as possible. They cease buying feathers and other luxuries. In this way, girls who earn their living by doing work connected with luxuries are likely to lose their employment during times of financial depression. But if the girl who has earned her living curling feathers is a good cook, she is reasonably sure of employment even in bad times. Workers such as artists of all kinds, musicians, writers, actors, painters, sculptors, handicraft workers, architects and so on are likely to experience difficulties during times of financial depression. Many workers in these classes agree that it is advisable for them to have other work of a different character which they may use as occasion requires.

The girl who is a musician may add to her profession a knowledge of poultry farming or rose growing. Roses may be called a luxury, it is true, but the world will never consent to live without roses. Or the girl who is an artist may make and sell blouses. The girl who is a writer may find productive work of the same character as the musician, or she may turn to fruit farming or become a paid housekeeper. Every worker should make an effort to understand the connection between the character of her work and the likelihood of her obtaining steady employment.

WHAT ONE GIRL CAN DO FOR ANOTHER

"No work will have as much happiness as it ought to have, or will be as well done as it should be, until fellow-workers exchange experiences and advice with one another."

Every girl can learn something about her work from others in the same occupation. To learn from a friendly fellow-worker is pleasant and easy compared with the difficulty that we find in learning from people who are not specially interested in showing us how to work. Some of the happiest groups of workers are those who have organized to promote friendship and good feeling amongst girls and women who are in the same occupation.

This is what the girls of one such group say of the benefit of belonging to a friendly social organization of which the members are fellow-workers: "It improves our work, because we know how the others do theirs and we want to do as well as they do. We talk over problems in our work, and hearing the various ideas and solutions that others have thought out helps us in solving our problems. We do not meet to discuss our work primarily; as a rule our gatherings are for enjoyment and recreation. But work every now and then comes into general conversation and in this way we learn. It is a help to have for a friend one of the best workers in your occupation. You try your best to keep up with her. If any of the girls needs a new position, or is in difficulty about her work, she may talk it over with one of the older workers. In the same way we advise one another about wages. We can find out what is the average wage and the best wage paid in the occupation and what are the average hours of employment. Many girls in the club have found new positions and have been able to ask for and get higher wages through the advice and help of other club members."

Every girl knows what a help it is to work with others when sewing, mending, dressmaking and trimming hats. The girl in paid employment finds this work more trying than the girl who remains at home, because the girl at home generally has spare hours during the day when she may do work of this character. A mending circle meeting once a week could plan some entertainment to accompany work. One of the circle might read aloud, or all the members might take turns in telling a story and adding in some way to the evening's entertainment. Girls in such a circle could all help in blouse making or in millinery. One or more of the members might have a special gift in cutting and fitting. Others might be more skilful in sewing. One or more of the girls might have a special gift in buying. The possibilities of co-operative work of this kind for girls in the twentieth century are very great indeed.

There was a time in the history of the world when work of this kind was all done in private homes. Women and girls worked together at home, spinning, weaving, sewing and dressmaking. A great part of such work is now done in factories. But girls know that they still have mending, sewing, dressmaking and millinery to do. People are seldom well advised if they do work of this kind in isolation. The work is often not so well done and the worker is lonely and apt to be discouraged. It is part of the duty of the twentieth century girl to restore happiness and companionship in all this women's work, a great part of which is still done by hand. The happy circle of girl workers is often the best solution to the problem of how this work of making, trimming and mending should be done.

One such group of girls, in this case, a group of stenographers, who, as it happens, have all come from farm homes, have made a success of co-operative housekeeping. There are eight girls in the group. The city in which they work is by a lake and during the summer months these girls rent a cottage on the lake shore outside the city. They have the cottage for four months. Two girls undertake the housekeeping for a month at a time, which means that each girl has one month of housekeeping responsibility and three months when she helps only with tidying and cleaning. Their individual expenses for rent and housekeeping amount to $4.50 per week. This is an excellent example of the good to be obtained from co-operative effort.

Other girls find companionship, recreation and improvement in reading circles, study clubs, and clubs for walking, snowshoeing, skating and other outdoor enjoyment. Clubs formed to promote play and exercise are among the best of these organizations. Some circles are for dancing; others are dramatic clubs. Practically every group of this kind undertakes some benevolent work, and should do so in order to share happiness and good times with others. Such clubs entertain the inmates of hospitals, children's and old people's homes, give Christmas trees to children, send gifts to the needy, or work for benevolent organizations.

The club for outdoor play is one of the most important of group organizations. It has a wonderful effect on the health of its members. Tennis, basket ball, cricket, hockey and croquet are played by groups of girls who often challenge boys' clubs and are able to enter such contests with skill and ability. The gardening club is one of the many ways in which a club of girls can raise money to help in benevolent and other objects.

To form a group of this kind successfully the girl members require to have kindly impulses and enthusiasm, a willingness to work and play together, and the wish to be useful and to do something worth doing. Other requisites are a few simple rules, loyally lived up to, and one or two girls who have organizing ability. Leaders should train others to lead also, and each girl should take her turn in leading and in following.

The ideal group is not made up of girls exclusively, but should take its pattern as much as possible from family life. The girls of the group play together and work together. But the fathers and mothers of some of the girls will be glad to be honorary members and should share at times both in work and in play. A boys' club may be a friendly rival in games and may co-operate in benevolent work and entertainment.

CIVIC DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Learning to be a good neighbour is an active enjoyment which lasts us all our lives. Our civic duties and responsibilities may be summed up by saying that they are the duties and opportunities of a good neighbour. We should study our civic duties and responsibilities carefully so that we may know how to vote rightly and wisely when we are given an opportunity to vote on public questions.

The privilege of voting as a citizen is of the highest importance. But it is not by any means the only duty or opportunity of a good neighbour. Women have exercised the right to vote only of recent years, and still in a number of countries women do not yet vote. They can and do give service in many other ways. Every man and woman who has the franchise should record an honest and intelligent vote. But those who vote should give other service as well. Those who are too young to vote have other opportunities to work for the community and for the nation.

The right to vote in Canadian elections for the Dominion House of Commons was given to a limited number of women for the first time in 1917. By an Act of Parliament which became law in 1918 all women in Canada have the right to vote in Dominion elections under the same conditions as men. Women of twenty-one and over have the right to vote in the Provincial elections of Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia.

What is the meaning of learning to be a good neighbour?

Let us take the cases of three Canadian girls. One lives in a country neighbourhood, one belongs to a village, and the third is a city girl. Each of them lives in a house on a road or street. Other houses in which neighbours live are not far away. The city girl's next door neighbour is close by; there is more space in the village; and where the country girl lives everyone owns a farm so that there is abundance of room between one neighbour and another.

The community in which she lives gives each of these girls certain good things. It gives her the school where she is educated. The roads that lead to different places where she needs to go are provided by the community.

When a great many people live close together, the community has to provide other necessary things. The girl in the country neighbourhood, unlike the city girl, needs no special playground because she has many beautiful, safe places where she can play; also her father can provide his house with pure water with comparative ease, whereas in a city or town, the council, which is the government of the local community, provides water and playgrounds. The city girl is used to having these things provided for her by the community, and the girl in the country often does not stop to think of the space, light, air and water which are hers so freely and abundantly.

What we call the community is all the people who live in one district, which has boundaries to mark it off from other communities. Certain utilities, such as roads, schools, courts, water, lighting, parks, playgrounds, and many other things, are kept up by taxes, which are paid by the people of the community.

Sometimes taxes are objected to as burdens. But it is honourable to pay taxes for the upkeep of a good community. Money raised by taxes should be spent wisely, honestly, and not extravagantly. It is the people's money, and proper value should be received for what the community spends. We should all see as far as possible that the money from taxes is spent properly.

Every girl, boy, man and woman, is a citizen of some community and nation, and has a duty to see that the community and nation are well managed and well governed.

There is a beautiful word, common, which is sometimes misused in one of its meanings. One of the meanings of the word "common" is "belonging to all." Common property means property belonging to a certain number of people. A "common" is a piece of public property. A common duty is a duty which belongs to all. There is no common or public property in your neighbourhood, and there is no common duty in your neighbourhood, which is not yours.

To be a good neighbour has both a public and a private meaning. You are a good neighbour to the people who live near you if you help to take care of them when they are sick, do everything you can to keep them healthy when they are well, and are kind when they are in trouble. A good neighbour is a quiet, peaceful, law-abiding citizen, pleasant and useful in the neighbourhood. What you do as a good neighbour for the people who live next door, you do as far as you are able for the community in which you live. The best rule ever given to the world for being a good neighbour is contained in the story of the Good Samaritan. The more we study that story, the better we will understand our duties to our neighbours and the community.

Women and girls should be specially interested in such questions as education and the training of children, in public health and safety and public justice, in markets and everything having to do with the food supply, and in the proper treatment of immigrants. The nation cannot do its best unless girls and women help by being good neighbours and citizens in all these and other matters.

Perhaps the most valuable possession that any girl has is her character. The honest, kind, likeable girl, who keeps her word and is a good friend, is valued by everyone who knows her. The character of a nation is not unlike the character of the individual. We love our country. We would give her the best service. The best we can do for her is to make her national character honest, kind, strong, helpful and lovable. Every individual in a nation has a civic duty and responsibility to make that nation a good neighbour.

A Canadian woman of seventy years said once to a younger woman who was a professional worker, "My dear, tell me about the hospital where you are working. I have heard that conditions are not all they should be. I want to know, because if I know I may be able to help in making what is wrong right." She was a quiet, gentle woman, charming in manner, and somewhat shy and reserved. She never talked about disagreeable things. On this occasion she believed it was her duty to make sure whether there was a wrong, and if there was to try to put it right. No one ever heard anything said about this matter in public, but after some time the management of one public institution was greatly improved. Age, experience and wisdom can help in these wonderful ways. Girls may learn from such women.

We learn best to be good citizens in our own homes. Study public affairs and community questions with your father and mother, brothers and sisters.

Those who read Queen Victoria's Letters, which have been published, notice that in her girlhood she was a simple, gentle, innocent girl, not specially clever, but eager to learn, resolved that everything in the government of her country should be explained to her so that she might understand it. It was her duty to know the details of that great government, and she was determined, no matter what it cost her in work and study, to know and understand her duty. In her later letters she appears as an old, very wise woman, one of the first statesmen of her age. Queen Victoria had great responsibilities. Ours are smaller. But no girl, whether she works at home or in paid employment, can reach her highest development in the twentieth century without living up to her civic and national responsibilities.

THE BEST KIND OF WORK

Summing up what we have been able to learn, and what the world has learned, about employment, it is generally agreed that hard work is best. By hard work is meant work which requires from us the putting forth of all our energies and which calls for all our gifts. Work is very beneficial. As a man has said, "It takes the nonsense out of people," not the fun out of life, but the nonsense out of people, foolish, wrong, mistaken ideas which make people disagreeable to work with or play with or live with. It is not until our work, and methods of doing work, make use of all our ability and capacity that we know how fine work can be. You remember the story in the Bible which tells how Jacob wrestled with an unseen adversary until the breaking of the day. Then when Jacob was asked what he would have, he answered, "I will not let thee go except thou bless me." So work when we do our best with it blesses us.

Musicians speak of "technic" in playing and artists of "technic" in painting. Technic is skill, but it is more than skill. It is skill and individuality joined together. There is technic of a certain kind which we all may acquire in our work. Perhaps a story will explain best what this technic is. A beautiful girl who had all the gifts of a great actress but was untrained once made an extraordinary success in one of Shakespeare's plays. Later she failed utterly. She had not had that patient unceasing practice which makes every performance a high level of acting. When she felt inspired, she could act; but when she was dull or tired or out of sorts, her inspiration failed her, and she had no technic or skill in acting to fall back upon.

The good cook practically never fails in what she makes. She may not feel like cooking her best every day, but she knows how, and all her good work in the past stands by her skilful hands and makes her cooking a success every day. In the same way, the practised writer can rely on a certain technic or skill in writing even when he is dull and jaded and yet there is work which must be done.

In your work, no matter what it is, do your best every day as far as you are able, and by and by this skill in work will stand beside you like a friend and will help your hands and mind.

Have you ever noticed how a mother who has brought up five or six children of her own, takes a baby up in her hands? Such skill in handling an infant is one of the most beautiful things in the world. The mother can do it well, because she has done it often, with all her heart.

We often hear of success and failure in work. Good work is made up of both failure and success. One failure may spur us on to do better work than we have ever done before. A failure may teach us a great deal if we will learn from it. Do not be cast down because of failure. Find out what its lesson is. Do not be too much uplifted over a success. It may turn out a hindrance if we grow conceited over it. Both success and failure are temporary phases of good work.

We should learn not to try too hard, or be over anxious about work. Once an old gentleman who had taken up golf late in life said that his caddy had taught him a great lesson. "You are too anxious." the little boy said. "Just do as well as you can and don't be so anxious. You would play a better game that way."

We do not always believe when we are learning that work will be enjoyable. We have to learn how to work before we can get the full enjoyment from our occupation. You had to learn how to skate and how to dance before you enjoyed skating and dancing. Trying to skate and trying to dance and being awkward, and not knowing how, does not give one the full enjoyment of skating and dancing. But when we do know how and have become skilful, how delightful these recreations are! When we know how to work, work also is full of enjoyment.

It is well to remember that work is a permanent part of our lives. Do not think of it, therefore, as a harsh or unfriendly part of life, but realize the meaning of employment as one of our greatest possessions. It is a means by which we can enter into the full enjoyment of our own faculties and which helps us to understand the importance of life. The comradeship of work is very real and lasting. The girl who goes forward, therefore, into her life's work with a determination to do her best, while she will often meet hard problems, is certain to find usefulness and happiness in her employment.

Accompanying, see music.

Accounting.

Acting.

Advertising.

Anaesthetist.

Architecture.

Auditing.

Banking.

Basketry.

Bee-keeping.

Blouse making.

Bookbinding.

Bookkeeping.

Business managing and owning.

Butter making.

Buying, see store employment.

Candy making.

Canning.

Care of children.

Catering.

Cheese making.

Chemical industry.

Children's clothes making.

Children's nurse.

China decorating.

Chiropody.

Civil service.

Commercial traveller.

Companion.

Composition, see music.

Comptometer operating.

Concert singing and playing.

Confidential clerk.

Cooking.

Costume designing.

Dancing.

Deaconess.

Dentistry.

Designing fabrics, wall papers, etc.

Dictaphone operating.

Dietetics.

Domestic service, see house employment.

Draughting.

Drawing.

Embroidery.

Employment expert.

Enameling.

Entertainer.

Etching.

Expert in flour testing.

Farm managing.

Florist.

Flower growing.

Food demonstrating.

Fruit growing.

Governess.

Hairdressing.

Home making.

Hostess, in hotels, clubs, etc.

House decorating.

House furnishing.

Illustrating.

Instructor in wireless telegraphy.

Insurance.

Investigating, see social work.

Jewelry making.

Journalism.

Landscape architecture.

Landscape gardening.

Laundry.

Law.

Leather work.

Lecturing.

Library work.

Machine operating.

Manicuring.

Map making.

Massage.

Medicine.

Metal work.

Milk farming.

Missionary work.

Mother's help.

Motor driving.

Munitions.

Painting.

Pharmacy.

Photography.

Police woman.

Postal clerk.

Pottery.

Poultry farming.

Proof reading.

Salesmanship.

Sculpture.

Seamstress.

Secretarial work.

Sewing by the day, see seamstress.

Shampooing.

Shopping expert.

Statistical work.

Stencilling.

Stenography.

Vegetable growing.

Vocational advising.

Weaving.

Welfare work.

Window decorating.

Wood carving.

Writing.

Art of Right Living, The, by Ellen H. Richards: Whitcomb & Barrows, Boston (1904).

Business of Being a Woman, The, by Ida M. Tarbell: Macmillan, New York, 1916.

Careers: Women's Employment Publishing Company, London, 1916.

Classified List of Vocations for Trained Women, by E. P. Hirth: The Intercollegiate Bureau of Occupations, New York, 1917.

Commercial Work and Training for Girls, by Jeannette Eaton and Bertha M. Stevens: Macmillan, New York, 1915.

Cost of Cleanness, The, by Ellen H. Richards: Wiley & Sons, New York (1908).

Cost of Food, The, by Ellen H. Richards: Wiley & Sons, New York (1901).

Cost of Living, The, by Ellen H. Richards: Wiley & Sons, New York (1899, 1905).

Cost of Shelter, The, by Ellen H. Richards: Wiley & Sons, New York (1905).

Democracy and Education, by John Dewey: Macmillan, New York (1916).

Domestic Needs of Farm Women. Report No. 104: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1915.

Domestic Service, by C. V. Butler: G. Bell & Sons, London, 1916.

Economic Needs of Farm Women. Report No. 106: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1915.

Economic Position of Women. Vol. I, No. 1. Proceedings of Academy of Political  Science: Columbia University, New York, 1910.

Educational Needs of Farm Women. Report No. 105: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1915.

Fatigue and Efficiency, by Josephine Goldmark: Charities Publication Committee, New York, 1912.

Food and Household Management, by Helen Kinne and Anna M. Cooley: Macmillan, New York, 1915.

Home and the Family, The, by Helen Kinne and Anna M. Cooley: Macmillan, New York, 1917.

Household Administration, edited by Alice Ravenhill and Catherine J. Schiff: Grant Richards, London, 1910.

Increasing Home Efficiency, by Martha Bensley Bruere and Robert W. Bruere: Macmillan, New York, 1913.

Industrial Democracy, by Sidney and Beatrice Webb: Longmans, Green, London, 1897.

Intercollegiate Bureau of Occupations, New York. Reports. 1911-1913, 1914-1915.

Life and Labour of the People of London, Vol. 4. Women's Work, by Charles Booth: Macmillan, London, 1902.

Life of Ellen H. Richards, by Caroline L. Hunt: Whitcomb & Barrows, Boston, 1916.

Living Wage of Women Workers, The, by L. M. Bosworth: Longmans, Green, New York, 1911.

Long Day, The: The Century Company, New York, 1905.

Making Both Ends Meet, by S. A. Clark and Edith Wyatt: Macmillan, New York, 1911.

Minimum Cost of Living, The, by Winifrid Stuart Gibbs: Macmillan, New York, 1917.

Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission, Part 2. The Unemployed.

New Era in Canada, The, edited by J. O. Miller: J. M. Dent & Son, London and Toronto, 1917.

Profitable Vocations for Girls, by E. W. Weaver: A. S. Barnes Company, New York, 1913.

Report of The Ontario Commission on Unemployment, 1916.

Road to Trained Service in the Household, The, by Henrietta Roelofs: National Board Young Women's Christian Associations, New York, 1915.

Saleswomen in Mercantile Stores, by E. B. Butler: Charities Publication Committee, New York, 1909.

Shelter and Clothing, by Helen Kinne and Anna M. Cooley: Macmillan, New York, 1915.

Social and Labour Needs of Farm Women, Report No. 103, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1915.

Survey of Occupations Open to the Girl of Fourteen to Sixteen, by H.H. Dodge: Girls' Trade Education League, Boston, 1912.

Trade Union Woman, The, by Alice Henry: D. Appleton, New York, 1915.

Vocational Mathematics for Girls, by Wm. H. Dooley: D.C. Heath, Boston, 1917.

Vocations for Boston Girls. Bulletins. Telephone operating. Bookbinding.
Stenography and typewriting. Nursery maid. Dressmaking. Millinery.
Straw hat making. Manicuring and hairdressing. Nursing. Salesmanship.
Clothing machine operating. Paper box making. Confectionery manufacture.
Knit Goods manufacture: Girls' Trade Education League, Boston, 1911, 1912.

Vocations for Girls, by Mary A. Laselle and Katherine E. Wiley: Houghton, Mifflin Company, Boston, 1913.

Vocations for the Trained Woman, Vol. 1, Pts. 1 and 2. Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Boston: Longmans, Green, New York, 1910, 1914.

Wage-Earning Women, by Annie Marion Maclean: Macmillan, New York, 1910.

Ways of Woman, The, by Ida M. Tarbell: Macmillan, New York, 1915.

Welfare Work, by Dorothea Proud: G. Bell & Sons, London, 1916.

Woman and Labour, by Olive Schreiner: T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1911.

Woman—Bless Her, The, by Marjory MacMurchy: S. B. Gundy, Toronto, 1916.

Women and the Trades, by E. B. Butler: Charities Publication Committee, New York, 1909.

Women and Work, by Helen M. Bennett: D. Appleton & Company, New York, 1917.

Women in Modern Industry, by B. L. Hutchins: G. Bell & Sons, London, 1915.

Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Boston. Reports, 1913, 1914.

Work-a-day Girl, The, by Clara E. Laughlin: Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, 1913.

Youth, School and Vocation, by Meyer Bloomfield: Houghton, Mifflin Company, Boston, 1915.