Evening Star Newspaper, February 17, 1929, Page 33

Living Standards Changé (Continued From Third Page.) from their age of emotional maturity, and young women are the chief suffer- ers. They don't choose to wait, there- fore they are ushering in the two-earner family living standard. It is a very basic change in more than one respect. There are living today mil- lions of husbands and wives of over 40 who recall the hardships endured in early married life, operating on the one- earner standard. The wives were just as brave and willing, but the one-earner standard was the traditional hard and fast rule, and husbands were adamant in holding to it, thinking that they would be humiliated by any other plan. Moreover, the wives were untrained for any occupation, and even if they dreamed of so practical a solution as a two-earner family standard they were frustrated by their own economic capac- ity. They turned their energies to petty and often ridiculous economies. The women’s publications of that day are complete books of revelation concerning this pathetic situation. Articles on how to make a sugar barrel into an accept- able porch chair or how to make their own soap out of kitchen scraps were common, Although the day of the apartment was beginning, wives still overelaborated their household duties rather than study principles of efficiency and time and labor saving. The epoch was one of penny saving for women in the brave but futile effort to make a one-earner family standard suffice. Now in Spending Era. ‘Today the entire psychology is re- versed. We are in not a “saving” but a “spending” era, and women have ac- quired enough economic insight into family economics to match man’s insight into industrial economics and see that carning more and spending more makes far faster progress than penny saving, at least during an era of general busi- ness expansion. It is a simple mathe- matical matter—the time and enel required to save a dollar can often be used to earn §2, if a person is competent and trained. This is the economic truth which woman has learned in respect to family economics, and she is capitalizing | this knowledge. Woman is training herself before to be an economic earner, and her motive is triple plated. Not only is it the motive of easing the start in marriage, but it is also one of self- preservation, looking toward accident and change which might at middle thrust her out into economic depend- ence. This was always the serious Achilles’ heel, of the one-earner family standard, bearing down bitterly upon woman. The third motive Is frankly self-re- spect and self-indulgence, for women are not content to be deprived during their best years, under the one-earner system, of the good thi of life; nor are they to be in the position of complete economic subjugation to man, as implied in the one-earner standard. Powerfully Motived. ‘The two-earner family standard is therefore powerfully motived from wom- an’s sh;l:, although on the man’s side s0o much idealistic as practical and economic at its base, despite the more human and high-sounding campaign ideas in which it wes dressed. ‘Women Are Practical ‘Women are enormously practical, and nejther political notions of freedom nor personal ambitions to have careers are probably as powerful as the plain desire to have a larger family income, such as is provided by a two-earner standard. To women such an adequate two-earner family standard of living spells more education for their children, more com- forts, better clothes and better homes, at an age early enough to enjoy them and enhance the pleasure of living. 1t is one of the bitterest of American tragedies, from the point of view of women, that the wife who “slaved and saved” in the earlier years of marriage, without means or leisure to look well, cultivate her mind and take care of her- self personally, reaches middle life and sometimes riches despoiled to capacity to enjoy them, and only too often also despoiled of her husband's emotional interest. She is a crippled veteran of the one-earner system, from the mod- ern woman's point of view. An equal amount of “slaving” as an economic earner would have produced enough income in early years to pro- vide comfort, even luxury, and would have kept up her personal standards and would have stimulated her inter- ests. It appears to be the truth that the competent woman economic earner keeps up high personal standards. Escape Early Difficulties. ‘The couple who begin a married career on & well adjusted basis of mu- tual consideration and operate a two- earner standard find themselves skip- ping many of the difficulties of early married life. In the first place, their matrimonial venture is adequately financed, which is perhaps the greatest lion in the path of marital happiness, as it is in the path of business success. Adequate capitalization of any economic venture means that a long-time plan may be operated. A home may at once be planned for and financed, insurance may be provided, and even an automo- le. At the same time an adequate supply of modern household equipment may be purchased to make the domestic “plant” ready to produce. ‘This is an age of machinery and there is now a very considerable and valuable array of domestic machinery in the well planned, systematic home capable of producing the leisure time necessary for the woman wage earner. The same principle which makes it im- portant for a factory to be modern in its equipment applies to a modern home operated on a two-earner standard. The one-earner standard home is actu- ally a drag upon American industry during the first five or ten years for yeung couples in the average financial position. They cannot afford to buy the goods needed for a modern family. Installment buying has grown vast as & method of alleviating this very situa- tion, but it is not really adequate for the task, for to stretch it to adequacy mlkedl- family finance dizzy and un- soun Pace for Expenditure. A $40-a-week man can't very well take on installment obligations to the extent of a quarter to a half of his L . Any business man knows that even if unlimited credit is offered him by bankers 1t is unsound to borrow more t | than a certain ratio. It is the earn- rigin Tnumber of women in mdum%eount of them has not been taken since the 1920 the farmer and farm laborer'’s ‘wives are in a special sense economic nrnl:n like the married city wives who worl Farm wives’ earnings show in the avoldance of purchase of certain goods which they “themselves manufacture. ‘This was the manner in which all wom- en in an earlier pioneer and rural era were economic earners. Being now dis- u:cdum \:{b:-!n people, we h.lv’et d!lwxv- e necessary, as always has been in all ages, for the family economic standard to be a two-earner one. The one-earner is arti- ficial, inadequate and unsound from many angles, and it may be the truth 10 say, further, that the general revolt of women resulting in suffrage, was not g the egoinst the bride who stays on her | ings which set the pace for expendi- ture, except at the start, whmuum- talization of the enterprise and the “plant” or equipment is important. The initial capital in the form of savings is often completely lacking in ymmlw d‘l;lllrrhm‘:tfl &h maklu it par- teuls logical earning power orbothumubamedum;bng&ot avel These fioq rage young man! credit, have done their part in remov- in; feminine onus of social opinion Derfectly” resor ed to color that it need be only no need of going Touble of making it yourseld. © ‘mol comb ‘or " soft it through f—nl ey s of men and women who s - omen Who use this preparation.—Adver- 8 ™% SUNDAY STAR, WASHYNGTONW, D. C, FEBRUARY 17, 1929—PART 2. business job, and it appears to be up to men to remove the remnant still exist- ing of masculine onus of social opinion against permitting a wife to work after e. 1t is, of course, important to face and answer the arguments of the conserva- tives regarding the social effect of the two-earner family standard. Does it not make too great a drain on woman's vitality, inasmuch as she cannot and should not escape responsibility for the home? The answer is two-fold—Afirst, modern men are willing to share more of this home responsibility than in one- carner days; second, it must frankly be admitted that only selected women can carry the double load of & wage earner and homemaker, Those Who Suffer. But as the wage-earning wife in most cases has the choice of accepting the one-earner family economic standard of living, whatever it is, and not going to work it seems ‘to force no arbitrary hardship upon her. The hardships that occur are mainly among those who are in the lower income ranges and who cannot afford to hire help in their homes. Domestic help wages have risen out of all proportion to the quality of Special! 50 Afiinster ugs service performed, and this bears down heavily upon two-earner families in the lower income ranges. The wage-earning wife frequently ‘must pay out for service very nearly all she earns, and the curious thing is that many prefer to do so rather than to re- lapse to a one-earner standard. This explains the extraordinary—and in the main successful—effort being made by wage-earning wives to reduce the labor of gmmemaklng 50 as to make in-living servants unnecessary. Thus we have tremendous increases in apartment house building, restaurant eating and home equipment sales. Hundreds of thousands of women do a very fair job of taking care of their homes and holding a position at the same time, and it is only fair to say that many do a better job of home- making than women who do not work. ‘There are, of course, also great num- bers of part-time workers among mar- ried women, salespeople in department stores, waltresses in restaurant chains, hotels and so forth. These manage their homes fairly easily. ‘The crux of the conservative criticism of the two-earner family system is, of course, the child. The responsibfe an- swer to it must be unequivocal; a wom- an with children must make them her fGirst allegiance, and during certain periods of childhood the one-earner family system must prevail. However, it is absurd to attempt to fix a Per- manent one-earner standard upon the family merely for the reason that a mother’s real job during certain infant periods is her children. Out of an adult woman’s economic earning period of, say, from 24 to 54, there is possibly an average of only eight out of the 30 years during which she might be said to be incapacitated for economic earn- ing activity. a For some women this would be only three or four years, and for others per- haps 12 years. In either case there re- main many years of possible economic service which would be of greater eco- nomic benefit to the home, as well as more personal satisfaction to the mod- ern-minded woman, than if she con- fined herself entirely to her home. In this conection it should be noted that thousands of women whose hus- bands are in the higher income levels have in recent decades expended a pathetic volume of energy in a vague kind of social and club work or other activity of very doubtful value—work the equivalent of which, in wage-earn- Former Prices Up to $49.75 Choice of two sizes, 9x12 feet or 8Y%x10Y; feet, conven- ient for most rooms. Many of them are seamless—all are beautifully woven in a variety of patterns and their quality and durability are unquestion- ed. For Monday They Are Priced at ... An Amazing Offer of 75 Room Size Wool Brussels Rugs The housewife seeking a durable, attrac- tive looking rug for year-round service and satisfaction will be delighted with this assort- ment of room size rugs now offered at an amazingly low price. Regular prices, $27.00 to $33,00. SIZES 9x12 FEET OR 8% x10Y, FEET. CHOICE... “Rome” Day Bed and Mattress $36.85 This new and artistic shaped Day Bed has dec- orative panel ends, and is complete with cretonne pad and valance. ing activity, would not have called for any greater expenditure of energy. In- deed, soclety women are now, with mucn common sense, casting aside the old soctal reluctance to go into business and entering every sort of economic activity. They do not need a two-earner finan- cial standard of living for their families, but they do need a two-sarner psycho- logical standard for their energies and self-respect. It should also be noted that increas- ing numbers of professional women manage to carry their work load and look after their childrea without any interruption except a short period around child birth. Such women do not have to punch time cl and are able enough to set their hours of ac- tivity to fit their duties as mothers. There is gradually developing a whole range of new professions for women which may roughly be classified as professions of mother displacement; baby nurses, children’s play,directors, companions, mothers’ assistants, man- aging housekeepers, governesses, etec. They are bound to grow, for the woman wage earners on the higher levels of income are distinctly increasing. A badly needed reform is the re- ‘-_ STAN T gt moval of the social stigma on house- work as a profession, for the contin- uance of which women are paying a|the very heavy premium. Housework should be a respected profession entered into by self-respecting, intelligent women trained for the job, just as nurses are. ‘This will ease the situation greatly on fiomm levels for the two-earner fam- y. ‘The two-earner family economic :tmflm;d uemsx here to stay Ax:_t.i‘,ll l:’l integral part of modern prospe: an social psychology. It is to be judged by it fruits, which are contentment and self-expression for women, greater com- fort and luxury, more education for children, easement of the problem -of marriage for young people, reduction of the heavy load upon a father's shoul- ders, prevention of dry rot and parasit- ism among women and increased gen- eral business prosperity. 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