[
7]
II.
outside of the shelter.
Many years ago, in April, 1859,
Harriet Martineau wrote an article on “Female industry,” in the
Edinburgh Review, and stated very forcibly the wholly changed conditions of women's labor since the days when “
Adam delved and eve span.”
She called attention to the simple fact that a very large proportion of English women now earn their own bread, and that upon this changed condition the whole question must turn.
“A social organization,” she said, “framed for a community of which half staved at home while the other half went out to work cannot answer the purposes of a society of which a quarter remains at home while three-quarters go out to work.”
She pointed out that while it might formerly leave been true, as a rule, that men supported women, it was also true that this state of things had already ceased to be the general fact.
“Three millions out of six of adult English women work for subsistence, and two out of the three in independence.
With this new condition of affairs, new duties and new views must be adopted.”
