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Show II ii Dorothy Dix Says l ! i It's a pity that the average woman who marries today : : : doesn't look upon matrimony as a job as weft as a carrier, i; ! i; By DOROTHY DIX, The World's Highest Paid Woman Writer Ifr- It has been well said that marriage is the highest and the noblest of all careers for a v.roman to pursue, and the lowest and most despicable of all professions for her to engage in. It is the glory of this age that for f Ihe first time in tho history of the - world women CAN make a career of '. marriage, and are not driven into it j as a profession. i lTP t this generation girls had to I marry in order to get a home and food j and social positions for themselves. 1 The girl of today can make her own bread and butter and achieve her own i place in the sun, and so she is free not to enter into marriage unless she can bring to it that which alone makes marriage right and holy. The average woman who marries nowadays does look upon matrimony as a career, but it is a pity that she doesn't also look upon it as a job her Job, in which she must make good by actual performance and by turning out fii"4 class work, just as she would do if sne were holding down a good situation in a business office or was yinsing n the Metropolitan opera. Many a woman thinks that as long kgfl as she loves her husband well enough uy to die for him, she has done her full v duty by him, and that the state of her affections give her a right to nag him and kill him with bad cooking and waste his money. Never was there I a greater mistake. A good heart does not atone for a bad dinner, and the j' affection that does not express itself In terras of service and unselfishness ' is a mockery. In matrimony, as elsewhere in life, to make a success we have got to ; deliver the goods. That is why the ; woman who does not make a cheerful ; and comfortable home has defaulted on her part of the marriage contract. Now this job of home-making is the biggest, the most important, and the most complicated that any human being be-ing ever undertakes, and yet there is only an occasional woman who has any pride in her work, or goes about performing it in a craftsmanlike way. Nine housewives out of ten are openly open-ly envious of every woman who writes or paints or is a buyer in a store, and is contemptuous of her own job and expresses tho wish that she "could j do something." "That she could do something!" J When she has a man's destiny, and j J the souls and bodies of little children 1 in her hands!" "That she could do I something!" When It has been given E her to make a place that can bo a haven of refuge for the storm-tossed of the world, a sanctuary, a bit of 'j Heaven on earth! i Of course, the underlying reason why women hold domesticity In such poor esteem is because it is the only :. work that carries with It no pay en- ' velope and brings no financial inde- pendence. A wife is the. only laborer vrho is not considered worthy of his hire, and who Is still spoken of as being be-ing "supported" by the husband for whom she toils from ten to sixteen ; hours a day. Doubtless women would put more interest In domestic work if they did not know that in the great majority ! of cases they would receive neither ' appreciation nor pay for It. On the other hand, perhaps men would be more willing to pay if women turned out a better job. Certainly the man who gets a slovenly and shiftless wife must feel that bo has been stung in ) the transaction, and that whatever he ! ,, , ,. gives his wife is more than she deserves. de-serves. If women could only be brought to realize that when thoy marry they not only fulfill their natural destiny, but undertake a practical job In which it is up to them to make a success, it would do aore than anything else to lighten the load of domestic misery that crushes down the heart of the world. Suppose on her wedding day the bride said to herself: "I have undertaken under-taken a new business. Honceforth, it's my job to make my husband happy, to be a thrifty housewife, to be a good wife and mother, and I am going to go about this job just as I would any other job. If I wanted to keep a good situation in any business office, I would master every detail of the business. bus-iness. I would be prompt at my work. I would keep myself looking neat and tidy. I would be good natured and accommodating, ac-commodating, and not sass my boss every' time he offered the slightest criticism. And then she added with a twinkle in her eye: "I wonder if more wives wouldn't be better wives if they didn't knew that matrimony Is a life partnership, part-nership, but Instead a job that they could only hold so long as they made good in it?" oo |