It  is  well  that  women  are  able  to  support  them-
selves. Many  a  rash  marriage,  many  an  uncon-
genial one  is  prevented  by  the  independence
with  which  a  wage-earning  woman  can  await  her
happiness.  Women  also  find  in  pre-marital  years
of  wage-earning,  a  disciplinary  training  in  or-
derly, methodical  habits  which  is  invaluable  to  a
future  wife  and  mother  whose  autocratic  position
in  the  household  might  tempt  her  to  unsystematic
work.  "  It  is  noticeable,"  says  Helen  Bosanquet,^
"  that  girls  who  are  engaged  in  skilled  industries
are  better  fitted  for  their  home  duties  afterwards

*  Helen  Bosanquet,  The  Family.
67


THE  PEOPLE'S  SCHOOL

than  girls  engaged  in  rough  and  unskilled  work."
And  surely  better  fitted  than  untrained  girls  pre-
viously occupied  at  nothing !

Yet  the  hard-headed  man  sometimes  objects
that  a  program  for  thorough  trade  education
may  suit  boys,  who  are  a  stable  industrial  factor,
but  that  it  is  useless  to  teach  a  girl  her  whole
trade,  because  she  so  seldom  needs  it.  The  ques-
tion is  more  than  economic ;  such  instruction
trains  her  mind  to  unified  thinking  —  a  habit
surely  priceless  whether  the  concrete  problems
of  her  trade  are  of  further  use  to  her  or  not.
