Vocations for the trained woman : opportunities other than teaching

Preface

This book is the outgrowth of a conviction that many women who are unfitted for teaching drift into it because it is the vocation with which they are most familiar; that the teaching which results is injurious to both teacher and pupil; that many who make poor teachers might become able workers if wisely guided into other fields. To suggest to such women, and to others about to choose an occupation, some lines of work now open to them and the equipment which they should have to justify a hope of success in any given line, is the purpose of the following papers.

The work was begun by Miss Mabel Parton, Director of the Research Department of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 1906 to 1909, with the co-operation of Miss Annie Marion MacLean, Professor of Sociology, Adelphi College, Brooklyn, representing The Inter-Municipal Research Committee. Two research fellows were to gather facts from representative men and women engaged in various occupations in Boston and New York, and their reports were to furnish material for the book. The articles by Miss Gertrude Marvin in the present volume represent the beginning of the investigation in Boston, which was made possible by the generous contribution of the late Mr. Henry S. Grew and of Mrs. Henry Pickering. As it soon became evident, however, that thorough studies must involve longer time and more labor than was then available, the plan was modified. An English publication, "The Finger Post, a Guide to the Professions and Occupations of Educated Women/' suggested a series of articles by specialists, and this idea was at once followed up by Miss Parton in Boston and Miss MacLean in New York. When, later, serious illness obliged Miss Parton to withdraw wholly from the work, a general editor became a necessity; and with the continued interest and aid of Miss MacLean, the added help of Miss Marion Parris, Associate in Economics at Bryn Mawr College, and the assistance of the many who have vi PREFACE

generously contributed papers, the following articles have been brought together under the title "Introductory Papers." It is the further intention of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union to publish, under the direction of the Research Department, a series of studies in fields of work here outlined.

The articles in this book, written largely by men and women at work in Boston and New York, or the two States, Massachusetts and New York, represent the situation in these two sections. It is obvious, then, that local conditions must be taken into account in reading them. The personal point of view must also be reckoned with. Articles giving individual views of given fields for which statistics cannot be got without elaborate investigation are, in their very nature, personal and in danger of being prejudiced. The different sections cannot, then, definitely figure the facts. They do, however, suggest clearly enough the present possibilities for women in various occupations.

Each contributor has been asked to cover the following topics : the nature of the work, the training necessary or desirable, the opportunities and compensation, — maximum, minimum, and average. The sections have been arranged according to the kind of training that leads to the different occupations or to the nature of the work itself. The better known professions — law, medicine, architecture— have of necessity been omitted, to make room for vocations less known and less easily inquired into. The field of arts and crafts has also been left undeveloped, because every inquiry has brought the warning that "it is only the exceptional genius or the craftsman with exceptional training who can, at the present time, earn a living wage by the artistic crafts, without giving time and vitality to teaching the craft." It has seemed wise, however, to include a few special forms of teaching for which the demand is great and the supply inadequate.

In some articles mention is made of sources from which further information may be obtained. Questions bearing upon the possibilities of work in any given occupation may be sent to the Appointment Bureau of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, 264 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts, which has been established for the purpose of directing trained women into vocations other than teaching.