The author surveys the economic position of women, using census data and contemporary examples to show that large numbers of women must earn their own living. She critiques the assumption that marriage provides subsistence, documents the limited, low-paid occupations open to women—teaching, domestic service, sewing, clerical work—and examines the consequences of precarious salaries, especially among governesses: frequent poverty, social isolation, and even decline into illness or destitution. The essay argues that social conventions and legal exclusions restrict opportunities and calls for changes in education, employment access, and remuneration to secure women's independence.