[The Business of Being a Woman by Ida M. Tarbell]@TWC D-Link bookThe Business of Being a Woman CHAPTER IV 3/23
Far from these problems being purely of a menial nature, as some would have us believe, they are of the most delicate social and spiritual import.
A woman in reality is at the head of a social laboratory where all the problems are of primary, not secondary, importance, since they all deal directly with human life. One of the most illuminating experiences of travel is visiting the great chateaux of France.
One goes to see "historical monuments," the scenes of strange and tragic human experiences; he finds he is in somebody's private house, which by order of the government is opened to the public one day of the week! He probably will not realize this fully unless he suddenly opens a door, not intended to be opened, behind which he finds a mass of children's toys--go-carts and dolls, balls and tennis rackets--or stumbles into a room supposed to be locked where framed photographs, sofa cushions, and sewing tables abound! To the average American it comes almost as a shock that these open homes are the _logic of democracy_.
It is almost sure to set him thinking that after all the home, anybody's home, even one in such big contrast to this chateau as a two-story frame house, on Avenue A, in B-ville, has a relation to the public.
He has touched a great social truth. To socialize her home, that is the high undertaking a woman has on her hands if she is to get at the heart of her Business.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|