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Young working girls; asummary of evidenc

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NEW YORK STATE SCHOOL
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INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR

RELATIONS

 

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YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

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YOUNG
WORKING GIRLS

A SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE FROM
TWO THOUSAND SOCIAL WORKERS

EDITED FOR

The National Federation of Settlements

mw
BY
ROBERT A. WOODS anv ALBERT J. KENNEDY
Its Secretaries

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
JANE ADDAMS
Its First President

 

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
Che Vivergide Press Cambridge
1913

Cram.

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COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF SETTLEMENTS

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Published September 1913

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PREFACE

THE inquiry of which this volume is the
outcome was undertaken immediately upon
the formation of the National Federation
of Settlements in 1911,in pursuance of one
of the chief objects of the Federation —
‘“‘to bring together systematically the re-
sults of settlement experience in specific
directions, and to make such results avail-
able to all who may profit by them.”

The vital and baffling nature of the prob-
lem of the adolescent girl of the tenement-
house family and the city factory or de-
partment store has come to be so keenly
felt among settlement workers that there
was no uncertainty as to the topic which
should be the first for codperative study
throughout the country.

The earliest of two schedules which
will be found in the appendix was prepared

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vi PREFACE

as the result of many conferences with
settlement residents from different cities,
and was widely circulated not only among
the settlements of the country, but among
many persons of experience in other forms
of work among girls. The appeal of the
subject and the broad sense of responsi-
bility with regard to it were shown by the
earnest, thorough, and widespread response
which was made to the questions. Aside
from individual replies, the entire staff of
many settlements arranged series of con-
ferences at which there was careful and
detailed consultation about matters of fact
and judgment covered by the schedule. In
cities where the settlements are federated,
the house conferences led up to general
conferences for the city as a whole, differ-
ent branches of the inquiry being consid-
ered in sectional meetings and the sectional
conclusions reported upon in the general
gatherings. The New York Association of
Neighborhood Workers secured the valu-

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PREFACE vii

ableservices of Miss Harriet McD. Daniels
as director of the study among its constit-
uent members, and she gave it a large pro-
portion of her time during a period of
eighteen months. The editors have had
the use of the results obtained in New York
City, which are also to be published sepa-
rately in full local detail.

The replies to the questions in the first
schedule, coming in from all these sources,
supplied the material of a preliminary re-
port at the annual meeting of the Federa-
tion in June, 1912; and this report was
made the basis upon which further sug-
gestions as to certain phases of the inquiry
were sought. The second or supplemen-
tary schedule was then prepared, embody-
ing a number of interesting and impor-
tant clues not developed in the first series
of questions, and with increased emphasis
upon hopeful lines of action as indicated
by specific conditions. The response was
again thorough, cordial, and general.

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viii PREFACE

It is the universal testimony of those
who have participated that the personal
and group study of the schedules has been
of marked value in arousing workers among
girls to the many-sidedness of their prob-
lem, and in leading to new and more ef-
fectual forms of service. It is hoped that
the completed presentment may open the
way for further analysis, for fresh experi-
ment, and, above all, for illuminated and
comprehensive action. :

The editors wish to express their hearty
appreciation of the cumulative team work
of the settlement residents of the country
in connection with this study; and desire
particularly to thank numerous friends
outside the settlements for their helpful
and often precious contributions.

SoutH Enp House, Boston.

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CONTENTS

Foreword, by Jane Addams xi
* I. Causes Within and Without 1
II. Preparation for Industry 11
III. Entrance on Industry 20
«IV. New Attitude toward the Home and the
Neighborhood 34
«V. Inadequate Home Life as a Cause of
Moral Strain 41
* VI. A Better Family Setting 69
eVII. The Morality of Sex 84
_ VIII. Recreation and Character 101
IX. Forms of Constructive Recreation 121
“X. Elements of Good Club Work 133
XI. Mixed Clubs of Boys and Girls 149
XII. Education in the Realities 154
* XIII. Preparation for Young Womanhood 160
XIV. A Provisional Platform 164
Appendix 169

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FOREWORD

Because the modern industrial city is
so new that we are as yet ignorant of its
ultimate reactions upon human life, the
following study should be valuable, as a
revelation of the impressions and scars
which this new type of city makes upon
that most highly sensitized material, the
body and soul of the young girl at the
moment she is most keenly conscious of
her surroundings.

That the study is confined to those girls
who live in the most crowded quarters of
the city, and who work in its least skilled
industries, makes it none the less significant ;
for the young girl is quite as sensitive when
she is rudely jostled in noisy tenement
houses and factories as she is when shel-
tered in the silence of woods and country
lanes.

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xii FOREWORD

These young people, with their new-
born instincts, whether walking in the
teeming streets or inthe open fields, contin-
ually test the achievements and short-com-
ings of the life about them, by their own
standards of romance as old as the world.
At moments they are curiously aloof and
critical, and they are prone to feel sep-
arated from their elders by a great gulf
which is, indeed, seldom crossed unless the
elders make the first effort.

Settlements have always hoped to know
something of the inner lives of their con-
stituents, realizing that such knowledge
must be based upon years of simple com-
panionship and mutual understanding. In
so far as the conclusions in this study show
sympathetic insight, that mission has been
successful.

It is possibly in keeping with the mul-
tiple object of the study, that it records
the experiences of more than two thou-
sand people who are daily concerned with

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FOREWORD xiii

the welfare of young girls, and that these
experiences gathered from a score of cities
fall so easily into a composite impression.
Jane ADDAMs,
Hutt House,
CuIcaco.

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Young Working Girls

CHAPTER I
CAUSES WITHIN AND WITHOUT

We all move insecurely in a variety of
situations to-day because old sanctions have
been weakened, and no com- Confusion of
pelling motives have been de- t#ndard.
veloped to take their place. The confusion
of standard among adolescent girls, which
is everywhere noticed and commented
upon, is after all but one aspect of this more
general confusion.

Women in particular have not only had
to meet the general moral uncertainty of
the age, but in addition have had to face
the serious moral problems forced upon
them by the reorganization of their sphere
of life through its invasion by modern in-

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2 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

dustry. Young women of every class —
those folded in homes above the average
as surely as their sisters born and bred in
working-class neighborhoods — have been
affected by the unrest which has been
created through this situation; though
domestic, industrial, and recreative condi-
tions have conspired to intensify the strain
which is placed on working girls.

Chief among such is the pronounced de-
Causes of con- ficiency and weakness of family
ae life. The average working-

Cc1encies Oo:
family ove Class home in the city is so
sight 5 physically inadequate that it
automatically produces ill health, nervous
tension, and a desire to escape, all of which
are predisposing causes of moral laxness.
Even more serious is the fact that mothers
‘and fathers often fail in appreciation of their
larger responsibilities. Thus little effort is
made to prepare the daughter forthe oppor-
tunities and dangers of her work in life,
and the girl has constantly to face situations

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CAUSES WITHIN AND WITHOUT 3

unfamiliar to herself, and even to her
mother, at atime when her judgment is un-
formed, and her emotions least controlled.
Training and knowledge, which should be
given in the home, have to be picked up
in the street. Only infrequently do parents
consciously organize the home to protect
the daughter from herself and others, to
minister wisely to her physical and recrea-
tive needs, and to sustain her in those vague
reachings-out after a larger and fuller life
which are characteristic of adolescence.
Industry, too, in requisitioning the young
life of the nation to its service, and in fail-
ing to safeguard it properly Gears
while so engaged, is at fault. ganized in-
Young girls are herded into ee
overcrowded, inadequately lighted, and
badly ventilated workrooms and _ stores,
made to assume taxing muscular positions,
forced to spend their strength beyond rea-
son, and held to tasks without regard to
the trying period of adolescence or the

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4 °~ YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

needs associated with periodicity. The
lowered vitality which results from pre-
mature or ill-regulated work is universally
believed to be a potent cause of moral
evil, a danger made all the greater by the
suddenness with which a hitherto sheltered
child is thrown on her own resources and
made responsible for her fate. Employers
of young girls have not assumed anything
like a fair share of responsibility in pro-
perly organizing the environment in which
work must be performed, nor in provid-
ing adequate oversight while young women
are in their charge.

A serious cause of lowered standards is 8
to be found in the disintegration of neigh-
(5) neighbor- borhood life in towns and cit-
hood break- ies. When the family moves
pons frequently, or when the neigh-
borhood affiliations are lost amid the influx
of a new and alien population, the out-
look of the family on the community is
suddenly narrowed, and the vigorous moral

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CAUSES WITHIN AND WITHOUT 5

responses which go with vital participation
in local loyalties are no longer called out.
Time and energy are lost in running about
to former habitats to keep up old acquaint-
ance. There are many instances of girls
who have been demoralized upon moving
into bad neighborhoods. The loss of the
sustaining power in old traditions, in the
sympathy of old neighbors, and in the de-.
sire to stand well in the eyes of those one
knows best, withdraws Powerful motives
of righteousness. In time young people
become accustomed to making casual and
promiscuous acquaintances rather than
seeking friendship. The “downtown”
habit, a sufficiently serious threat to young
life even without the loss of proper neigh-
borhood attachments, is intensified.

The intensity of desire with which the
adolescent girl craves pleasure, es
and the conditions under which  cialized recre-
it is gratified, are further po- "5
tent causes for confusion of standards. The

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6 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

working girl necessarily seeks her recreation
in the evening, and thus unduly prolongs
the hours during which strain is placed on
muscles and nerves; contracts bad emo-
tional habits ; and weakens body and spirit .
alike. The widespread commercialization
of every form of recreation, and its trans-
ference from the restraints and guardian-
ship of the home and neighborhood to
that no-man’s-land which in every city is
devoted to commercialized pleasure resorts,
further emphasize the evil results of inef-
fective home lifeand badly organized indus-
try. The purveyors of recreation exhaust all
means of awakening the desire for their
wares ; the young girl naturally craves a
share in the profusion of pleasure which
she sees everywhere on sale; and, as such
participation only too often calls for the
more ample resources of some man, the
way is opened for moral compromise.
These extraneous tendencies toward
moral confusion are greatly reinforced by

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CAUSES WITHIN AND WITHOUT 7

the physical changes and the mental ex-
citation which characterize adolescence.
Among the more compelling (,) adoles-

motives of this period is the cence itself.

desire to discover and experiment with
one’s powers and to impress one’s self on
the world. Acutely conscious of her in-
dividuality, the girl desires that it be rec-
ognized and appreciated. Driven to self-
expression, she wavers between day-dreams
and sudden spurts of energy which drive
her to endeavor to do everything and to be
everything. Most of allshe hopes toaccom-
plish something important which will se-
cure her power and admiration; and this
impulse leads to much of the unrest, desire
for variety, showy dressing, loud talk, and
apparent lack of manners which so often
characterize the adolescent girl. Parallel
with the desire for recognition is a craving”
for freedom and independence, which in
industrial neighborhoods is unduly empha-
sized by the fact that the girl has become

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8 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

a wage-earner. Instead of assuming adult
prerogatives with due deliberation, she
often secures a degree of power over her
elders which makes her the immediate
master of her fate. With these qualities,
however, goes a tendency toward intro-
spection and an underlying susceptibility to
religious and ethical influence.

A practically overwhelming conscious-
ness of sex, combined with a growing desire
for companionship, leads the girl into
short-lived and cliquey alliances with those
of her own sex, and into various forms of ad-
venture with members of the other sex. She
develops an absorbing interest in the indi-
vidualizing, esthetic, and associational as-
pects of dress. She longs to be popular with
men, craves a “beau” or “steady,” and
begins to think of marriage. The longing
for companionship adds strength to the
natural desire for a “good time,” and in-
tensifies her delight in parties, “shows,”
and dances. Her interest in organization,

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CAUSES WITHIN AND WITHOUT 9g

however, is less native than is the case with
the boy, and has to be awakened by some
demonstration of its practical utility.

Side by side with this awakening to self
and the complementary other is found an
elemental desire to bear burdens, which
often lies dormant because it is not called
into use. Many girls develop a fine loyalty
to any form of work which calls out the
best that isin them. The desire ultimately
to become proficient in household man-
agement is almost universal, though the
actual purpose is weak and calls for ex-
ceptional sympathy and leadership. Social
responsibility is gladly accepted where the
motive is made attractive and compelling.

Naturally enough a period of feverish
physical, mental, and emotional activity is
not distinguished by the more stable quali-
ties. The girl is overinfluenced by impulse,
and has not learned to weigh and judge.
Haste and inexperience open the way to a
multitude of dangers, and her chief need is

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10 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

for guidance and protection. The tradition
of all human experience is in the direction
of affording this protection: it isonly within
a generation that it has tended to be with-
drawn. Rightly considered, the wonder is
not over the confusion which exists, but
that the young life of the nation has kept
itself so true and so clean.

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CHAPTER II
PREPARATION FOR INDUSTRY

Wuite the glowing possibilities in-
volved in the coming industrial career of
the children, and the assist- Attitude of
ance which they may be ex- families.
pected to render, are unfailing subjects of
consideration among working-class fami-
lies, the proportion of parents who en-
deavor definitely to prepare their children
for an industrial career is very small. The
exception occurs in the case of German and
Jewish immigrants, who alone seem to
understand the increased power which pre-
paration gives. As one result Hebrew girls
are everywhere crowding the high and
commercial schools, and taking their place
beside children of families with a start
of one or more generations. Low-grade
American families, residual Irish, and the

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Z

12 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

majority of other immigrants, are careless
in the matter of preparation; though the
children sometimes return of their own
accord to the evening school. It may be
set down as a law, however, that the lower
the family, physically and morally, the
earlier the girl has to go to work; with
the correlative rule that willingness to pro-
vide preparation depends rather on eco-
nomic status than on judgment or experi-
ence, developing automatically as the family
acquires a margin to fall back upon.

It is the universal consensus of opinion
that under present conditions the years be-
Thetwo tween fourteen and sixteen are,
wasted years. in essence, wasted to the girl
herself, to the family, and to industry.
No one of the parties concerned receives
a return commensurate to the effort ex-
pended. As only a small proportion of girls
earn enough to sustain them, the majority
remain in greater or less measure a charge
on the family. The girl’s enthusiasm for

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PREPARATION FOR INDUSTRY 13

work, which might have made her a cap-
able operative, is exhausted before she has
attained a degree of physical stamina and
manual skill to fit her for work of a fair
degree of productiveness; and in this in-
dustry suffers. But though the years be-
tween fourteen and sixteen are of small
account to the family and to industry, they
can be of supreme importance to education.
While irresponsible, the girl is extremely
impressionable, and is accessible to influ-
ences that could be used to make her
powers more highly productive. Her prime
need is for restraint, encouragement, and
physical, mental, and emotional guidance.
These years, therefore, should be released
to education for the purpose of building
up moral, mental, and physical fiber and
of preparing for industry.

So damaging are the effects of premature
entrance on industry that some Home a.
social workers hold, as against *try-
the factory, and without proper oppor-

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14 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

tunity in school, that the girl between
fourteen and sixteen would gain even by
remaining at home. The majority, how-
ever, are of the opinion that, taking into
consideration the average tenement home
and the average tenement neighborhood,
they would even, as a bitter last resort,
accept the factory. In cases where the
mother works out, the girl is too largely
placed on her own resources, and is exposed
to danger. Where the mother remains at
home, the girl would probably have no
continuous responsibility, and would idle
away her time.

It is also believed that very little gain
would be secured if the girl continued to
Gana attend a public school, con-
school cur- | ducted as our schools are at
rs present. The desire to obtain
money and the restlessness natural to the
period are so strong, that the teaching
could not lay hold upon her. Therefore,
she had better be engaged in industry,

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PREPARATION FOR INDUSTRY 15

which at least secures the formation of
certain useful habits not as yet inculcated
in the public schools. The school, to fur-
nish a sufficient alternative, must evolve a
radically new type of teaching adapted to
her present capacities and her future needs;
which includes the laying of a foundation
both for industrial employment and for
the career of housewife. s
Opinion is divided as to the value of
specialized trade preparation asa univer-
sal prescription. Many girls are vatue of trade
too restless to succeed in a trade schools.
school; a large number remain in indus-
try for only a few years; the increasing
economic pressure caused by the high cost of.
living makes early wage earning more and
more necessary. It isalso feared that com-
pulsory training for specific trades might so
narrow and hamper public instruction that
the more important cultural motive of pre-
‘paring for life in its fullness would be lost.
Practical instruction that pushed aside the

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&
16 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

preparation of the girl for her ultimate life
work as wife and mother would necessarily
defeat its own ends. It is, therefore, insisted
that in connection with every public-
school course in trade training, a substantial
portion of time be given to the study of
domestic science.

There is no question whatever concern-
ing the value of the trade school for those
who are prepared to benefit by it. It serves
as a bridge between the day school and
industry, gives the girl a chance to dis-
cover what she is capable of doing, pre-
pares her to face difficulties and to demand
better conditions of work, arouses her am-
bition to succeed, and offers a more definite
and self-respecting entrance on industry.
It develops the faculties of concentration
and application, which are so essential to
an industrial career. It raises standards,
creates higher ideals of work, gives breadth
and vision, and trains in the value of time,
attention, courtesy, efficiency, and team

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PREPARATION FOR INDUSTRY 17

play. Parents very generally are anxious to
secure such training for their daughters as
soon as it is demonstrated that thus their
earning power is increased.

It is the general opinion that young
girls seeking positions are often exposed
to serious moral risk. The fact 440.3) ee
that a girlis young, not worldly-_ in seeking po-
wise, and under no special pro- Panne
tection, makes it easy for the unscrupulous
to take advantage. Naturally there is
specially grave danger in approaching ho-
tels, and other places of night resort. Over
fifty per cent of the young women inter-
viewed in several recent studies carried on
by settlement and other social workers,
admit having been solicited while looking
for work.

Perhaps the most common method of
seeking work is through companions or
friends, and it is customary for boys and
young men to secure positions in the fac-
tories where they work, for girls known

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18 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

to them. The results of this practice are
at least questionable. Another very com-
mon method of seeking work consists of
calling at addresses found in the newspaper
advertisements, or aimlessly applying wher-
ever a “girl wanted”’ sign is displayed. A
proportion of girls also seek work through
the commercial employment bureaus,
which are almost universally irresponsible.
In a number of cities it has been found
that such agencies hardly ever refuse to send
girls into the “redlight” districts. Only
a small number of girls register with the
philanthropic agencies.

Most social workers question whether a
girl should ever seek a position through
Other steps in @ Newspaper advertisement, or
# programme. call at employment offices other
than those of high-grade philanthropic
institutions, unless in. the company of an
older person. One of the most important
next steps in public administration is the
regulation of all employment agencies by

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PREPARATION FOR INDUSTRY _ 19

law and the development of a type of pub-
lic employment agency which shall have
definite educational standards. In the mean
time philanthropic employment organ-
izations should make a business of com-
piling white lists of factories and shops.
Societies should be formed to stand behind
the young girl; to see that contracts are
carried out; and to prosecute those who
attempt to take advantage of her lack of
protection. Every effort should be made
to extend the present movement to estab-
lish vocation bureaus in the public schools.
The Board of Education and high-grade
employers should unite to safeguard those
seeking positions and to prosecute evil-
doers. Parents should be brought to see
that a vocation is better than a job; and, in
general, induced to take a vital interest in
the conditions that surround their daugh-
ters while they are absent from the home.

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«
CHAPTER III
ENTRANCE ON INDUSTRY

Wuere the conditions under which
work is performed are good, the hours ~
Physical ef. | reasonably short, and the task .
fects. itself congenial, it is generally
agreed that girls over sixteen are likely to
be physically benefited by entrance into
industry ; and it not infrequently happens,
in the case of those predisposed to nerv-
ousness and hysteria, that their health is
markedly bettered. Girls of fourteen and
fifteen, on the other hand, so frequently
become mentally and physically stunted
by premature employment, that the ma-
jority of participants in the present study
believe that girls in this period should
never be subjected to the strain. Work of
any sort hastens the sense of physical and
emotional maturity, which is in itself a

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ENTRANCE ON INDUSTRY 21

source of danger. The failure to secure
outdoor exercise in this period of physical
maturing, and the constant use of one set
of muscles, is likely to blight and warp the
body. The enforced attention demanded
by some machine processes results in over-
stimulation on the one hand, or listlessness
and dullness on the other. And where, as
in many workrooms, the air is vitiated,
the hours long, and the effort itself hard
and uncongenial, injuries at once deep-
seated and severe are all too frequently
fastened upon the worker. As in many an-
other contest with environment the fittest
acquire powers of resistance, and survive;
the unfit lose their youthful looks, grow
thin, pale, and round-shouldered, suffer
from backache, eye troubles, and loss of
vigor, and drag out a burdened and bur-
dening life.

It is very difficult to compare the ad-
vantages and disadvantages of various forms
of occupation for adolescent girls, because

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22 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

conditions vary in different communities
and within the same industry. The fac-
Advantages tory has decided advantages as
sat a place of work; though box
factories ; factories, candy factories, and
laundries are everywhere condemned as
unfit for adolescent girls. The laws gov-
erning the conditions under which women
may work; the location of the factory;
the length of the working day, the regu-
larity of work, and the number of holi-
days; the placing and condition of toilets,
rest-rooms and lunch-rooms, — are all of
prime importance in determining the ap-
propriateness of each particular factory as
a place of work for adolescent girls.
Among the disadvantages of the factory
are the stress of work, often under cramped
and extremely confining conditions; the
mental stagnation which results from the
characteristic operations called for by ex-
treme specialization; the nervous strain
incident to piece-work ; the constant dan-

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ENTRANCE ON INDUSTRY 23

ger of accident; the relatively low pay; and
the hardship caused by seasonal change.
The men and women with whom the fac-
tory operative is brought into touch are a
critical factor in determining the fitness
of any particular form of work. Though
the factory is morally more protected
than certain other employments, condi-
tions are far from what they should be. In
many places girls work side by side with, or
in the near vicinity of, men. They some-
times become careless in their conduct,
slack in manners and conversation, im-
modest in dress, and familiar to a degree
that lays them open to danger. In many
factories, too, girls of loose or even bad
morals work in close association with chil-
dren just starting their industrial career.
Among these there are always some who
deliberately endeavor to win others to
their own practices. The sure lowering
of tone which such companionship brings
about may be the least of the resultant

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24 ‘YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

evils. With a few exceptions, the degree
of supervision and the character of the
direction accorded young girls in factories
are not adequate. At the very least, employ-
ers should use greater care in selecting
their operatives; should place young girls
as far as possible in rooms by themselves,
in the charge of responsible women over-
seers; and should guard against promiscu-
ous mingling during working and noon
hours.

Despite the disadvantages which have
been noted, the factory is universally con-
sidered the most available place of work
for the average girl. The organization in
factories is constantly being improved,
there is more and more attention being
given to sanitation and ventilation, and
benefit features of various kinds are be-
coming common. The factory operative
is not forced to spend an undue sum of
money on dress; the work itself offers a
chance for occasional visiting and recrea-

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ENTRANCE ON INDUSTRY 25

tion; there is less likelihood of confusion
of standard than is the case where the girl
works in a store or office; the growth of
trade unions among women is bringing
girls into constructive comradeship with
one another, and enabling them to secure
more equable conditions of work.

The department store is universally be-
lieved to represent a dangerous type of em-
ployment for adolescent girls. (2) depart-
Taken at its best, we may admit ™"t stores;
that the work is varied and refining; that
it provides excellent training in neatness,
quickness, and courtesy ; and that the chance
of direct promotion, the reasonably short
hours, the superior social standing, and
the provision of rest-rooms, lunch-rooms,
and other welfare features, all represent
real values. The disadvantages, however,
are grave and numerous. The work is try-
ing on mind and body; the environment
is exciting and confusing; the physical
conditions are only moderately good;

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26 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

wages are low; there is little opportunity
for the development of character ; and the
outlook on the future is far from encour-
aging. In addition the girl has to live in
the highly developed atmosphere of temp-
tation to expenditure with which every
shop is charged ; necessarily meets the cus-
tomers on their most superficial side; is
almost inevitably tempted to adopt the
false standards which she sees everywhere
about her, and hence to become dissatisfied
with simple, wholesome living. These
demoralizing influences are further inten-
sified by the practical requirement of the
shop management that a considerable por-
tion of her income be spent on dress.
Worst of all, the girl is inevitably exposed
to moral temptation under many forms.
She is open to the solicitation of employ-
ers, heads of departments, and other men
employees; her work locates her in such
a way that she may with fatal ease become
involved with traveling men, procuresses, _

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ENTRANCE ON INDUSTRY 27

and other designing people; she is often
thrown with companions among her own
ranks who are already committed to evil.
Under conditions such as these a girl must
possess moral stamina to guard herself
against taint.

Office work is more or less out of the
range of the average girl from working-
class neighborhoods, because it
requires at least a partial high-
school education, with special training be-
sides. The office secures the advantages
of a refined environment; the work itself
has cultural value, awakens responsibility,
develops character, and promotes standards
of achievement; hours are easy; pay is
more generous than in the case of the
store and the factory; incentive to advance
is quite general; and social standing is bet-
ter than that in any other available form
of work open to girls.

There are dangers, however, which need
to be guarded against. The girl is thrown

(3) offices;

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28 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

into direct relations with a few people,
and while the men with whom she is asso-
ciated are not so intentionally unscrupu-
lous as in the case of many dry-goods es-
tablishments, it is increasingly clear that
they are often a “little too human.” The
office in which a considerable number of
girls are employed is the safest, especially
where there is a competent woman as of-
fice manager.

Housework is generally frowned upon,
and there are few settlement workers who
know any number of girls so
engaged. The house-worker is
cut off from her family; the hours are
long and irregular; there is only slight
opportunity for recreation, and that un-
supervised; holidays are few; the work
takes the girl out of the main currents of
modern life, and isolates her in a back eddy;
she is constantly conscious of a galling lack
of freedom, independence, and considera-
tion from others, and of a distinctly low-

(4) housework.

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ENTRANCE ON INDUSTRY 29

ered social standing; and the danger of

_Moral contamination is even greater than
in many other forms of work. On the
other hand, the girl who chooses house-
work is likely to be better housed, better
clothed, and better fed than she would be
at home; secures training in a vocation
natural to women; in proportion to her
capacity is relatively more highly paid
than in any other form of work; and al-
most universally establishes a better type
of home life when she marries than is
possible for the factory or shop girl.

Any form of work will increase a
girl’s capacity and character somewhat.
Whether or not the increase is Character 'de-
in proportion to the effort ex- Heuhk as

pended, depends on the nature ty.

of the work and the attitude of the girl
toward her task. Asa rule the girl does not
enter on work in the same serious spirit
which distinguishes the boy. She finds it
hard to free her mind from the thought of

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30 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

marriage, and therefore does not look upon
her employment as one that is likely to
extend indefinitely into the future. Only
a very small proportion of girls see in their
work anything but a makeshift. Yet those
who regard it as worthy of their best in-
itiative often develop the beginnings of
an admirable sort of executive ability. In
commercial establishments where there is
opportunity to demonstrate capacity, and
to rise in the scale within the occupation
itself, there are frequent instances of wo-
men employees who by dint of intelli-
gence and character gain posts of very high
responsibility. Remarkable characters are
found in every kind of industry, and no-
thing in recent social phenomena is more
striking than the group of young women
who have come out of the factories to lead
in theorganization of women’s trade unions.

‘On the other hand, a great part of the
work carried on by women is stultifying
rather than inciting, and in the long sin

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-

ENTRANCE ON INDUSTRY 31

actually undermines character. Yet the
degred of accuracy required in the crudest
form of employment calls for a certain
moral accomplishment; the general ex-
perience gained often makes the girl more
liberal in her ideas, offers her a wider
basis of comparison, and affords wholesome
human competition; and, provided her
service is not continued through too many
years, is of real value in preparing her to
be the counselor and guide of her children.
At the majority of settlements much
time and thought are devoted by club lead-
ers to the task of building up the Deepening
interest of each adolescent club aia
member in her work. It is the work.
universal testimony, however, that in the
case of those girls who have left school at.
fourteen, with no training for work and
no preferences in the matter of occupa-.
tion, little can be done to develop interést.
After a girl has wandered from factory
to factory for a year or two, such effort is

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32 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

almost hopeless. The best way of securing
a response is to induce the girl to obtain
training preliminary to entering work ; to
assist her in securing a position where the
process is interesting, the conditions good,
the compensation on a rising scale, and
wherethere isa spirit of comradeship among
the workers. In certain instances a know-
ledge of the processes of manufacture from
beginning to end of the article on which
she works increases the girl’s interest in
her particular part of the work. Lectures
and talks intended to help her see the
relation of her work to industry in the
large are often stimulating. A knowledge
of the industrial revolution in England, of
the significance of the introduction of ma-
chinery, and of the aims of trade unionism,
make the girl not only more intelligent
but more productive than she would other-
wise have been. Most settlements provide
a certain number of activities: which are
specifically organized to advance the effec-

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ENTRANCE ON INDUSTRY 33

tiveness of the girl asa worker. Club train-
ing in itself makes for personal and indus-
trial standards; thus young stenographers
are often helped in their English and
letter-writing. Most clubs provide numer-
ous talks on clothing, health, and conduct.
Experienced business men and women
give addresses on the conditions of success.
Especially powerful with young girls is
the knowledge that a well-liked club leader
is observing them and is concerned for
their progress.

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CHAPTER IV

NEW ATTITUDE TOWARD THE HOME AND
THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Tue pay envelope—at once the su-
preme symbol and potent instrument of
General influ- newly gained power —and the
eee whole realm of fresh experi-
industry. ence that grows out of entrance
into industry unite to create a revolution
in the girl’s attitude toward herself and
toward life. Her personality expands with
almost startling rapidity ; and her opinion
of herself as an independent and all-con-
quering being is reinforced by evident ma-
terial accomplishment. She gives expression
to this new-found personal and industrial
capacity by more startling forms of dress-
ing her hair and by arraying herself in
more compellingly attractiveclothing. Her

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ATTITUDE TOWARD THE HOME 35

manner becomes more pronounced; she as-
sumes a “grown-up ”’ attitude, and begins
to treat her juniors and sometimes her sen-
iors in such a way as to emphasize her
possession of a stake in the world; she
affects a spirit of bravado, and desires to be
distinguished for “dash” and “go.” She
becomes increasingly interested in the big
life about, and dreams of a speaking part
in the great drama.

The desire to test the world often leads
to frequent changes of position and com-
panions. Interest and belief in the wo-
manly ideal is likely to be adversely af-
fected by the new standards of efficiency
and power which industry holds before
her. She seeks a few more or less decid-
edly intimate attachments with girl com-
rades, for purposes defensive and offensive ;
and the rapidity with which she often-
times enters into free association with men
results in breaking down the delicacy of
her moral reserve.

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36 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

Changes so serious as these naturally
have their effect on the girl’s attitude to-
eae ward the home. She recognizes
tude toward that she could not, even.if she
thehome, -_ would, explain the difference
which entrance on this new realm of in-
finite variety has made, though she feels it
to the roots of her being ; she is quite sure,
however, that the members of her family
do not understand. The outside world and
the home may become two almost an-
tagonistic phases of her existence; at the
very best the home is no longer the center
of the world, but has become chiefly a
place in which to eat and sleep. The girl
accepts the standards of the new world
rather than those of the home. Not infre-
quently she becomes discontented with her
home and ashamed of her parents. She
chafes under authority, becomes impatient
with narrow conditions, desires to escape
discomfort, seeks freedom from home re-
sponsibilities, demands more in amusement

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ATTITUDE TOWARD THE HOME 37

and clothing, becomes dictatorial toward
younger brothers and sisters. She begins
to enter into hitherto forbidden amuse-
ments, and justifies herself by the claim,
“I am earning my own living and can do
as I please.”

The home changes, too, in its relation
toward the girl. She has suddenly become
powerful where shortly before Changed atti-
she was weak. The family and [°° %

home toward
the neighbors now respect her the girl.

as a self-supporting individual and are ready
to grant her some leeway. The house fur-
nishing may be modified to suit her ideas,
and some regard is paid to her desires in
the matter of food and clothing. In cases
where the family life is good, the girl prac-
tically always develops a spirit of codpera-
tion and rejoices to have a share in building
up a finer type of family life; she begins
to realize the cost of living; she gains
a new respect for what the achievement

of her parents represents. Unfortunately,

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38 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

however, the homes which call out this
_ attitude are in an extremely small mi-
nority.

The neighborhood, too, suddenly shrinks
in size and importance: the girl sees that
Changed atti- it is not the world; and she be-
Sania Sh gins to question it. New stand-
neighborhood. ards acquired at work and the
opportunities which the possession of
money brings lead her into other neigh-
borhoods, and she begins to take an out-
sider’s point of view of the local com-
munity. The old neighborhood ties in
which the family had its setting are likely
to be broken ; acquaintances are scattered
in various portions of the city; and the
girl lives in the excitement of new blend-
ings of companionship and constantly
changing stamping-grounds of pleasure.
She often becomes ashamed of her neigh-
borhood and looks down on it in her own
mind ; becomes caustic in her judgments
on the neighbors; takes on a veiled su-

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ATTITUDE TOWARD THE HOME 39

periority of manner toward her old asso-
ciates; and remarks to her new friends,
“I don’t go with anybody round here
now.”

If, as is so frequently the case, the quar-
ter is often disparaged by outsiders, she may
feel herself heavily handicapped with the
opprobrium which such a background in-
volves. Instead of desiring to better her
environment, she longs to be rescued from
it. Marriage is her usual solution, but
marriage with the imaginative hero who
will place her where her dreams point.
Under this impulse the majority of girls
prefer the company of the unknown men
they meet at work rather than of those liv-
ing in their own community. Yet many
of them, after a time, take up with their
old neighborhood associations, especially
if they have kept touch with some local
‘clique which sympathizes with them; anda
dance is generally sufficient for reéntrance.
That there is a decided tendency in this

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40 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

direction is seen by the number of work-
ing girls who return to settlement clubs
which they have deserted for a year or
two.

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CHAPTER V

INADEQUATE HOME LIFE AS A CAUSE OF
MORAL STRAIN

One of the most powerful causes of the
present lowered physical and moral stand-
ard so often noticed among
working girls is found in the
material breakdown of the home. Over-
crowding has its results in stunted growth,
lowered vitality, retarded mentality, fre-
quent headache, nervousness conscious and
unconscious, and the conflagration-like
spread of tuberculosis and other diseases.
Morally it breaks down the feeling of
privacy, and hence brings on loss of self-
respect, of modesty, of order, of neatness.
In general its dehumanizing effects are
seen in failing amenities, in the disin-
tegration of the family, in a tendency to
focus life on the streets, in increasing

Overcrowding.

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42 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

habits of criminality, and in the preva-
_ lence of every phase of low-grade citizen-
ship.

Among the more alarming aspects of
overcrowding is the necessity that several
persons share the same sleeping-room,
and, very commonly, that three or more
persons occupy the same bed. The dis-
turbance within and without the house
and the universal lack of ventilation result
in lowered vitality, nervousness, irritation,
depression, uncleanliness, and the dissemi-
nation of disease. Hardly a married couple
in any crowded neighborhood have a room
to themselves, and children sleep with
their parents up to the approach of youth.
It is almost inevitable that children should
come to know the innermost reserves of
marriage, as a result of which many are
led to surrender their chastity and even to
participate in gross immoralities. It is uni-
versally agreed, however, that the dam-
age is nothing like so great as might be

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INADEQUATE HOME LIFE 43

expected; and that many girls are not only
not conscious of lack of rest, but are so
habituated to congested conditions that
they are unwilling to sleep alone.

The food of the average working-class
family is rather improper than insufficient.
The stores in industrial neigh- Food.
borhoods are almost universally poor; flies
abound ; oftentimes the food is sold in a
condition not fit for consumption. Meals
are generally ill-prepared and needlessly
expensive; they are almost always unat-
tractively served; and too much is spent
on crude luxuries. Much undernourish-
ment is due to a dietary made up largely
of bread and pastry, with unlimited tea
and coffee. It is not unusual for the vessels
containing these beverages to remain un-
emptied and unwashed over considerable
periods. Meals are hastily eaten, and this
fact has its certain ill effects on health.

Many working girls assist at home in
the evening to the extent of washing their

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44 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

own clothing and helping with the dishes.
Most of them do as little as they can,
Housework 220 the majority of mothers try
after the day's to spare the working daughter.
= Many club leaders feel that
the working daughter ought to do some
housework. It should not be carried on
until late in the evening, and should be
compensated for by adequate and enjoyable
recreation.

It appears that the chief cause for the
breakdown of standards among girls is to
Family deteri- be found in the prevalence of
oration: (x) the a type of family life which is
me sadly lowering that average
standard which has been known as the
“ American home.” And the very heart
and core of this failure centers in the
character of the parents. The working-
class father fails in interest and sympa-
thy with his children. Such interest as he
manifests is rather general than particular
and individual; he has no deep desire to

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INADEQUATE HOME LIFE 45

share the experience of the child; he does
not appreciate his daughters as personali-
ties. He isa ruler, generally not positively
unkind, though often stern and unsympa-
thetic, and seldom if ever close to the heart
of the family. Not infrequently he is
something of a martinet, with a liking to
boss and be obeyed. He takes little active
part in the family life ; he has small influ-
ence compared with the mother, though
in a crisis his word prevails. Occasionally
he is brutal, especially when he becomes
intoxicated. Cruelty, however, finds its
victims largely among young children, for
when the girl becomes a wage-earner she
seems to be protected from physical harm.
Yet a lack of responsibility is sometimes
shown which amounts to cruelty, as where
much-needed medical treatment is re-
fused, or where the girl is forbidden to
entertain friends, or where innocent and
necessary forms of recreation are not al-
lowed. Immigrants, on the whole, seem

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46 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

to exercise a more considerate family over-
sight than the average among the low-
grade American-born. German and Irish
fathers are the most interested in their
daughters as individuals, and the Jews next.

There is a general feeling that fathers
frequently hold their children in the light
of natural purveyors; though exploitation
is rather family than personal. The tradi-
tion that the daughter is a family posses-
sion to be relinquished only at marriage
is as strong among working people as it is
among the well-to-do. Exploitation for
family purposes is universal among the Ital-
ians, with whom the children are definitely
considered an economic asset; and the same
is largely true in the case of the Irish.
While the Syrians do not so commonly
send their girls out to work, they place
heavy burdens upon them within the home.
The Jew expands this motive, giving it
a more far-sighted form, in his struggles
to educate his children ; and in some de-

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INADEQUATE HOME LIFE 47

gree frees himself from it by his very ef-
forts.

The girl’s earnings are appropriated,
especially among immigrants, in order to
buy a house, to rent a larger tenement, to
care for a growing family, to furnish a par-
lor, or otherwise to enlarge the family re-
sources. The evil is not at all in what is
done, but rather in the spirit which prompts
it. Most girls rejoice to be able to contri-
bute to the family; it is only when parents
neglect to make the child a partner in
their plans that there is likely to be hard
feeling. No individual likes to be merely
a pawn in another’s game, with the feel-
ing that as soon as some coveted end is
secured and paid for she no longer counts,
and is in a way to be cast aside.

The mother is always humanly inter-
ested in the children, though she is often
almost powerless before the
problem presented by the work-
ing daughter. Her ineffectiveness is in

(2) the mother;

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48 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

part due to lack of experience in the fun-
damentals of modern life; she does not
understand the environment in which the
daughter moves, nor the particular temp-
tations of to-day. Nearly all mothers,
whether foreign-born or American, are
almost altogether without the range of the
dominant interests of their working daugh-
ters. The mothers were brought up ina
different age and in a different world; the
spiritual ideals of their country and time
may even cry out against this age. Their
standards are often wholly inept, and they
find themselves incapable of supplying
that advice which would meet the daugh-
ter’s more modern experience and com-
mon sense. Among many instances in
which the mother’s failure to sympathize
with the daughter resulted in tragedy, may
be mentioned the case of a girl who ran
away with a young man because she was
not allowed any time for recreation. The
mother had always worked hard and felt

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INADEQUATE HOME LIFE 49

that it was normal and right that her child
should do likewise. Another mother prac-
tically drove her two daughters into lodg-
ing-houses because she found it impossible
to sympathize with their overwhelming
desire for further education. She wanted
every possible penny in the treasury of
the family: the two girls were irresisti-
bly drawn by the lure of self-culture and
self-advancement.

Equally damaging in its effect on the
adolescent girl is the mother’s failure to
organize the family life in such a way as
to promote the rounded growth of the
children. In many families —following
ancient tradition—the father represents
the stern and autocratic side of the family
government, the mother acts as a go-be-
tween or buffer for the children. She is,
therefore, divided between placating her
husband and getting the children what
they want. Under the stress of this diffi-
cult relation, she gives up trying to meet

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50 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

problems, and adjusts the family order
with the least possible immediate friction
to all concerned. Too busy or too over-
’ wrought to make herself vitally a part of
the girl’s life, the daughter seeks other
companionship and gives her confidence
to strangers. Some slightly older person
may be chosen as adviser and confidant,
whose influence then outweighs that of
the home. Thus family conditions often
conduce to those outbursts of homo-sexual-
ity which constitute a more or less morbid
tendency among adolescent girls. Here it
becomes a cause of friction, altogether de-
prives the girl of the outlook of an older
woman on life, and frequently keeps her
from responding to older people altogether.

This failure in sympathy and interest is
often emphasized by the attitude of the
up-to-date daughter toward her mother.
Self-will and loss of regard lead many girls
to take advantage of the mother, deceiving
her concerning their movements and way

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INADEQUATE HOME LIFE 51

of life. Untruthfulness is extremely com-
mon, and a very large proportion of older
girls habitually lie to their parents. In
time the working girl comes to lose re-
spect for the home-staying woman. Her
heroines are in the working world. She
envies either the rich who do nothing, or
the high-class business woman: the home-
builder seems prosaic and unromantic. In
immigrant families it is sadly frequent that
the daughter becomes ashamed of the mo-
ther, who seems to be all that is un-Am-
erican. As one girl complained, “She talks
so funny and wears a wig, and does such
queer things, I could not go out with her.”
Girls even leave home and board because
they feel that their parents belittle them
before others.

Part of the difficulty between the mo-
ther and daughter is due to the feeling of
the times about the moneymaker. It is
generally believed among girls—and this
belief is constantly reéchoed in their ears

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52 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

—that the wage-earner has the right to
a very considerable degree of personal lib-
erty. The girl who earns her living feels
that she should not be restrained. This
attitude is frequently acquiesced in by the
mother; who knowing her own ignorance,
and her inability to give the time and en-
ergy necessary to looking after her daugh-
ter’s affairs, shifts responsibility on the girl
by allowing her to come and go as she
pleases. A certain portion of the difficulty
is also due to the selfishness of girls, who
might frequently give something more of
sympathy and time to lightening the bur-
dens of the mother, and providing her an
occasional opportunity to swing into the
currents of modern life.

The relations between the girl and her
brothers and sisters are, in general, less
(3) brothers helpful than might perhaps be
and sisters; expected. Where there are not
too many children, where the divergence
of ages is not too great, and where the home

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INADEQUATE HOME LIFE 53

is something more than a bedroom and
a lunch-counter, the reciprocity between
brothers and sisters is often fine, and the
adolescent girl is ably assisted in holding
her standards. Thus it not infrequently
happens that the children are in better
touch with one another than with their
parents, and carry on excellent team work
in building up the home. The younger
ones are helped to a better education, a
better position in life, a greater degree of
recreation, than that which fell to the lot
of the working young people, and the
whole standard of the family is raised.
Where there is constant pressure of pov-
erty, the family relationship is often sor-
did. The older sons and daughters lend
their influence to getting the younger
children into work at the earliest possible
age. The girls of the household are forced
to give way unduly ta.the boys, and even
go the length of supporting them in idle-
ness and providing them with money to

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54 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

spend in saloons. Brothers hardly ever as-
sume a fair share of the responsibility of
keeping up the household, or caring for
aged or incapacitated parents, or helping
younger children. The whole burden is
all too frequently thrown on the girls, who
are impelled to overdo, and often to sacri-
fice the opportunity for a home of their.
own. ’

A considerable number of families take
boarders to eke out income, although this
custom varies with the city and
the nationality. The practice is
always evil. At its best it emphasizes both
the quantitative and qualitative effects of
overcrowding within the family ; where it
is carried to such an extent that the stranger
is herded into the family sleeping-rooms, it
almost always leads to the breakdown of
modesty. It not infrequently results in im-
morality, sometimes of the grossest sort.
The boarder is generally a foreigner, and
hence looked down upon by the American-

(4) boarders.

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INADEQUATE HOME LIFE 55

ized young people, and when he takes sides

in the family difficulties, as often happens,
further friction is aroused. There are not
a few social workers who believe that the
practice of taking boarders should be regu-
lated by law.

The fact that the girl has become a
wage-earner, automatically makes her a co-
operating member of the fam- The girl as a
ily group. The great majority combuing
of girls turn over their income family.
without question to the family, and are
proud and happy to be able to do so.
Among the Jews, the Irish, and some other
nationalities, it is quite customary for the
father, the daughters, and the sons, all to
hand over their pay envelopes unopened
to the wife and mother; one of the most
striking demonstrations in modern life of
the fundamental power of the family tie.
Here the cash nexus, lifted above sordid-
ness because it represents the entire resource
of the family group, stands forth as at once

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56 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

a demonstration and a symbol of the in-
eradicable force of a spiritual bond.
There is widespread agreement of testi-
mony that, on the whole, this custom of
handing over the income is a good one. A
girl’s wages hardly ever cover the entire
cost of her living; she is still in reality a
dependent member of the family. The fact
that theincome is contributed to the home
gives the moral right of support when for
any reason she is out of a position, a right
frequently spoken of by the daughters
themselves. The girl usually receives some
portion of her income for spending money,
fifty cents a week being mentioned as an
average sum. It is the universal experience
also that the girl gives very little thought
to the value and use of income. She does
not know the real extent of her power as
a worker, and usually has very hazy ideas
on the value of money. Where she lives
at home the mother plans the daughter’s
expenditure on the basis of her broader

~
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INADEQUATE HOME LIFE 57

experience. Where she is thrown entirely
on her own resources or is permitted to
expend her income, she usually lives be-
yond her means, and spends her money
so as to secure only part of its value.
There is sound opinion to the effect
that the practice of turning all the income
into the home should be qualified when the
girl enters the latter part of the age period
under consideration. The family frequently
fails to recognize that the girl is enter-
ing adult life, and should be indulged in
a more generous scale of living. Her in-
creased wage often seems pure gain, and
through it she sometimes becomes per-
manently committed to an undue share
of the burden of supporting aged parents
and younger children. Thus the propor-
tion of wage that should go for cloth-
ing and recreation is overmuch curtailed.
While parents are often just to their
daughters in providing absolute material
necessaries, they fail to see that to provide

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58 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

for recreation only as an exceptional lux-
ury is likely to lead to alternatives which
promote the daughter’s moral undoing.
An intolerable situation arises in cases
where the girl becomes engaged and ex-
treme stress is used to keep her within
the family for the sake of her income.
Desperation and outright immorality are
the frequent consequence.

Few girls assist personally in the detailed
improvement of the order of the home.
On the whole, the family does not take
kindly to the leadership of daughters ;
though there are striking instances, espe-
cially among the Irish, where a girl does
much to bring the family into larger and
better quarters and adds up-to-dateness in
furniture. The great majority of girls
have to look forward to the time when
they shall secure a home of their own
before putting their ideas into operation.
Increasing experience indicates that a great
proportion of them do succeed in making

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INADEQUATE HOME LIFE 59

better homes for their children than those
in which they themselves have grown
up.

The family sense of responsibility for
the girl who goes to work is universally
admitted to be greatly unde- Family re-
veloped, and the majority of ee
parents are careless concerning work;
the place and conditions under which the
daughter works. Bad influences are ac-
cepted as the responsibility of the boss
or of government. At best, parents are
only occasionally anxious or a little puzzled.
The struggle for a living is so keen that
everything else is unimportant. The vital
question is that of putting the girl at
work; her safety is merely incidental.
«I do not know where she works, but I
know what she gets a week,” fairly rep-
resents the attitude of the average parent.

In the majority of families it is literally
true that the parents have but a vague
notion where the daughter works. The

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60 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

exceptions to this rule are the Syrians and
Italians. Sometimes a brother or sister
knows; though this again is a matter of
chance. Few parents inquire into the
moral conditions surrounding the daugh-
ter’s employment, or the type of work-
people with whom she is associated. Oc-
casionally physical conditions are noted,
provided they result in a cold, or acci-
dent ; but only because they have become
costly.

The great majority of parents also
know nothing about what happens to their
daughters as they go to and return from
work. At first, some account is taken of
time, and the family is likely to be anx-
ious if the girl does not come home at a
reasonable hour. But soon, especially if
there is occasional over-time work or some
plausible excuse, the parents become qui-
escent, feeling either careless or helpless.
The father is generally more insistent than
the mother, because he fears moral lapse.

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INADEQUATE HOME LIFE 61

He does not wish to have the family dis-
graced ; though as to any less matter he is
likely to be little concerned.

Parents take somewhat more responsi-
bility upon themselves for the daughter’s
time after working hours, al-
though here, too, the general
tendency is in the direction of carelessness.
The majority of parents are uncertain
where their daughters spend their even-
ings; and, unless they are very late, little
question is aroused. There is general ac-
quiescence in the moving-picture show,
one performance a week being considered
a very meagre allowance. Many parents
have a vague fear of dances. A girls’ club,
whether it be by itself or is part of a settle-
ment system, is always considered proper;
but club appointments are sometimes used
by the girls themselves as pretexts under
which to go elsewhere. It is worth re-
peating that all efforts of parents to guard
their daughters are complicated by the

of recreation.

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62 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

restiveness which wage-earning girls feel
under question or restraint.

It is the universal opinion that the main
line for the solution of the problem of
Methods of amily responsibility lies in the
developing education of parents. This fun-
responsibility: damental service should be ren-
dered principally by the school and the
settlement. From the very beginning set-
tlements have acted as informal vocational
advisers, and within the past few years
many houses have set apart the time of a
resident who devotes herself to that serv-
ice. In consultation with the parents the
effort is made to map out the girl’s career
for a period of from six to ten years, based
on the natural qualifications required for
those occupations which make a special
appeal to the girl and her parents, on the
degree of preparation required, on the age
at which the girl can take up the chosen
occupation most advantageously, and on
' such of its desirable or undesirable features

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INADEQUATE HOME LIFE 63

as require consideration. Once the girl has
a position, the curiosity of the parents
is aroused concerning the name of the
firm, the street location, the means of in-
gress and egress, the sanitary conditions,
the personality of the boss, the number
and kind of men employed, the prospects
of promotion, the use made of the lunch-
hour, and the girl’s companions at work,
at lunch, and returning home. Certain club
leaders distribute white lists of shops and
employers to the parents; make a practice
of loaning books such as “ The Long Day”;
urge the family to sacrifice with and for
the girl until she obtains the right kind of
a position; and take mothers to visit the
scenes of their daughters’ work and recre-
ation, good and bad conditions and influ-
ences being pointed out. Residents of set-
tlements should make increasing efforts\to
become acquainted with the entire family’
of every girl club member. For whenever
a club leader fails to develop the family

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64 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

_ interest back of each girl in her club, she
loses a precious opportunity. Families, too,
should be brought together as families
under settlement auspices, and they should
be encouraged to attend parks, dances, and
recreation centers as a unit.

Newspapers might profitably make com-
mon cause with social workers and school
teachers in bringing the seriousness of the
situation before parents. Vocational guides
should not only give their services to find-
ing positions for young people, but should
make the connection between the school
and the home, and educate the parents
to their duties. School nurses and trained
social-service visitors should be employed
to keep in touch with homes; clergymen,
teachers, and other responsible people
should be induced to devote some part of
their time to the task of enlightening par-
ents; neighborhood exhibits with moving
pictures showing the risks to which girls
are exposed should be given; children

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INADEQUATE HOME LIFE 65

should be encouraged in every possible way
to. make confidants of their parents; and
finally the family responsibility for the girl
should be increased by raising the age at
which she may go into employment.
Good neighborhood life provides friends
and companions at home, keeps the life of
the girl within its normal set- yaiue of good
ting, and constitutes an essential _ neighborhood
source of moral safety. Every ca
real neighborhood surrounds its young
women with a measure of chivalry, and
expects them to live up to its instinctive
ideals. The average girl is sustained by the
normal, legitimate expectations of some at
least of her family and its supplementary
circle of friends; and is moved by the crit-
icism of these peers of hers. The whole
neighborhood background is impressive
with suggestion of the standards which
have thus year after year been created.
When she goes outside the restraint and
stimulus of the neighborhood, she opens

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66 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

herself to dangers both from within her
own nature and from the new environ-
ment. Every effort should, therefore, be
made to bring the girl by a gradual process
into the broader incitements of life, so that
she may not have to face the mentally
alluring and overbalancing effects of a num-
ber of new experiences apart from those
home and neighborhood ties by which
character is vitally sustained.

It is easily evident that practically all
the sources of moral contamination to
Lineaments of Which girls are exposed find an
agood home. approach through some failure
or inadequacy in home and family life;
and that the home, therefore, marks the
chief point at which constructive social
work must center. What, then, have we
a right to demand of the working-class
home? In the first place, the physical
equipment of the household should be up
to the average of what the income of the

family can provide. The food should be

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INADEQUATE HOME LIFE 67

both good and abundant, the rooms suf-
ficiently numerous to allow each member
of the family a certain degree of privacy
and to insure a fair night’s rest, and the
home absolutely released from any neces-
sity of taking boarders. The possession of
a piano and some music is helpful. The
father and mother should be just, sympa-
thetic, unselfish, good-natured, and have
some of the results of education. The
prime requisite in the father is ability to
earn a fair income; firmness on the larger
questions of principle; and willingness re-
ally to participate in family life. The good
mother must be a thrifty and capable
housewife, in possession of stable moral
standards, and with time and energy to
give to the needs of her children. It is the
universal feeling that she ought to belong
to a club and have some contact with the
outside world. The régime of the home
* should be based upon regular habits; re-
cognition of the responsibility of each

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68 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

member ; system, neatness, and a fair share
of individual belongings. The group should
be welded together by an interchange of
ideas and experience, by home training in
moral issues, by the interest of all in one
another, by frequent family parties and pic-
nics, by the recognition and observance
“of family anniversaries, and by religious
unity. Applying this standard with every
allowance, the highest percentage of good
homes among tenement families in the
judgment of the most optimistically in-
clined codperator in the present study is
fifty per cent. A few replies were received
from workers who felt the situation so dis-
heartening that they guessed as low as one
per cent. The averdge of many hundreds
of estimates, made by social workers with
regard to their own communities, fell below
ten per cent.

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CHAPTER VI
A BETTER FAMILY SETTING

Mosr settlements devote a great deal of
time and effort to the structural upbuild-
ing of family life. Prenatal Family team
nursing, though still relatively Ply.
undeveloped, has already strengthened the
organization of family life in many in-
stances, and much is hoped from this type
of service as its possibilities are further
developed. It is especially necessary that
the leaders in such work definitely set out
to reach the father and to secure his in-
telligent interest in the mother’s condition,
and in the long-range welfare of the un-
born child. Any gains made at this time
carry out over the years and become a
powerful factor in establishing a sense for
the family.

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70 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

Instruction at the settlement in home-
making for the mothers, combined with
the visits of resourceful teachers to the
home, is found to be among the more suc-
cessful methods of building up family
life. The house-mother who takes pride
in the cleanliness, beauty, and comfort of
her rooms, the excellence of her food,
the charm of her well-set table, generally
has little difficulty because of lack of fam-
ily unity. For one thing, such effort brings
mother, father, and children together at
meals, which is itself, in this grade of life,
an exceptional and almost infallible mark
of successful family organization.

The encouragement of simple hospital-
ity, especially when offered to guests who
include the whole family in their inter-
est and have the power to awaken group
response, often assists in promoting family
unity. The celebration of anniversaries,
birthdays, and public holidays by the fam-
ily also lifts its life into consciousness and

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A BETTER FAMILY SETTING 71

symbolizes its strength and reality. The
importance of domestic science in all these
celebrations centers in the fact that among
working people, not less than among the
well-to-do, the visible rejoicing is in terms
of edibles;-a specially sound tendency in
the case of a growing family where no
expenditure is likely to return such divi-
dends as that which goes into nourishing
food.

Once the physical basis for a good
home life is secured, the discovery and
encouragement of common interests of
any kind among the members of the fam-
ily is most helpful in bringing about group
unity. At numerous settlements family en-
semble playing is encouraged by urging
brothers and sisters to take instruction on
different instruments. An investment in
pets draws the members of some family
groups together. A considerable number
of settlements make a specialty of teach-
ing games that can be played at home

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72 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

without special equipment, or provide a
lending library of games. The picture loan
has been found to be a strong binding
force between parents and children, a
special space being set apart for the settle-
ment print. A conscious endeavor is made
to promote new interests through the pa-
rents as well as through the children, by
stimulating the elders to take the children
to art museums and to other places of edu-
cational recreation.

Many settlement workers encourage
parents to assign some specific responsibil-
ity in the care of the home to each child.
At summer camps, especially, the effort is
made to induce boys and girls in their
middle teens to assume the care of small
brothers and sisters ; a responsibility which,
with a little patient oversight, is continued
in the city.

Family misfortunes can often be used
as a means of unifying the group. The
payment of a debt, or the provision of

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A BETTER FAMILY SETTING 73

proper care and opportunity for sick or
handicapped, often calls out hitherto un-
suspected reserves of strength and feel-
ing; and correlatively, family success some-
times draws the members of the family
together. The public exhibition of treas-
ures of craftsmanship in the possession
of immigrant families in Boston notably
fostered their confidence and pride. The
participation of children in neighborhood
entertainments, on the one hand, and the
revelation of the mother in an unaccus-
tomed réle at a settlement function, on
the other, have created a degree of family
appreciation and respect which has been
of great utility. The common discussion
of hopes and plans for the future, especially
if these involve some real advance in the
standard of living, naturally becomes a
strongly unifying force.

The expedients which we have just
considered begin and end within the
family circle. There is another sort of

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74 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

device, which, though the setting is out-
side the home, is yet arranged to build up
its fabric, and to strengthen that inner
understanding on which the home rests.
The settlement, by organizing always with
the family relationship in mind, has been
able to secure the participation of various
members of the family in a round of ac-
tivities, and hence to revitalize the com-
mon interests of the home. Occasionally
the members of the women’s clubs invite
their husbands to a supper or party, or or-
ganize special good times for their chil-
dren. Mothers are more and more asked
to act as chaperones at settlement dances
and parties. Girls’ clubs invite their mo-
thers to entertainments or parties; cook-
ing classes prepare a meal to which parents,
brothers, or sisters are invited; brothers
and sisters are encouraged to attend a
dancing class together. It is found useful
to ask the same speaker to address the
women’s, the girls’, and the boys’ clubs,

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A BETTER FAMILY SETTING ~— 75

on an identical subject, so as to furnish
an increasing number of topics for family
conversation. Certain settlements keep
open house at a definite time and encour-
age the whole family to attend. Settle-
ments and public schools alike encourage
mothers and fathers to keep in close touch
with the interests of their children in the
school and to participate in the meetings of
the parents’ association. Very useful, also,
is the effort of certain settlements to pro-
mote family outings and family vacations,
by providing picnic grounds and cottages
for family occupancy. Here that wonder-
ful reinforcement of personal relationship
which outdoor life provides, and which
settlements have found so powerful a fac-
tor in promoting their own influence, is
returned definitely into family channels.
If there is any single point at which
practical social work generally is weakest,
doubtless it is in securing the interest and
support of the father of the family in its

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76 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

aim and endeavors. Such work is largely
in the hands of women, and the tradi-
Better under- tion that the father is merely
standing © a shadow in the background is
and daughter; strong in philanthropy. The
editors of this report have experienced
great difficulty in securing any substantial
testimony upon the relation between father
and daughter.

Resourceful workers among girls are
convinced that much more visiting should
be done in the evening, in order that the
father might be seen and talked with per-
sonally. Every effort should be made to
appeal to his pride in his women-folk and
to induce him to individualize them. Par-
ticularly necessary is.it to convince him of
the inner struggles of the adolescent girl
and the difficulties she has to face. Most
fathers have no notion of the strength
of this storm and stress, though they are
grieved when misunderstandings with the
daughter arise as a result of their ignorance.

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A BETTER FAMILY SETTING 77

Unfortunately they rarely acknowledge it,
and too often the bad feeling which arises
from the breaking of the natural bond
multiplies with the years. The father
should, therefore, be appealed to on the
ground of his superior knowledge of the
dangers that surround the girl; and his
attention should be called to the implica-
tions which have to be drawn from facts
whose relation to his child he may not have
recognized. Heshould bespecifically drawn
out and committed on the girl’s school
career, on the question of vocational op-
portunity, on her social life and recrea-
tional needs. He should be consulted about
his daughter’s club relations and should
receive regular reports concerning her pro-
gress at the settlement.

The growth of trade unionism among
women has already furnished a bond be-
tween father and daughter in many in-
stances, and in certain neighborhoods there
are now coming to be cases where the fa-

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78 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

ther should be stimulated to catch up with
his daughter in this respect. Along with
all such efforts, of course, must go the.
striving for shorter hours of work, so that
the men of the future may be freed to par- -
ticipate more roundedly in family life.

Equally important is the task of arous-
ing the girl’s interest in the father. Cer-
tain leaders have been successful by creatin g
more sympathetic insight and a better per-
spective with regard to the father’s place
and service in the family, hence promating
the daughter’s understanding of the in-
wardness of the apparently prosaic parent.
It is also very useful to instruct the girl in
important passing events, especially those
which, in their larger significance, have a
bearing on local affairs; and to encourage
her to go to her father for advice.

Many settlements are appreciating the
need of additional male residents and the
duty of making the house more attractive
to neighborhood men. There should be

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A BETTER FAMILY SETTING 79

clubs for fathers, and the few settlements
which have made the beginning of this
kind of work bear testimony to its power
to strengthen and reinforce the whole
scheme of family life.

The mother, also, though not to the
same degree as in the case of the father,
fails to understand the daugh- 0.6
ter’s point of view, and requires mother and
that kind ‘of interpretation ae
which is only possible through the acquaint-
ance which the social worker supplies. The
discussion of questions, such as the propor-
tion of the girl’s earnings to be used by the
family; the denial of desired, and some-
times necessary, clothing; the girl’s need
of pretty things, especially when they are
so temptingly placed before her, an expe-
rience which the mother did not have in
her youth; the moral temptations which
constantly face young girls; the sometimes
unjust demands for help in the house-
hold after the girl has stood on her feet

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80 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

all day; the irritation brought on by the
mother’s constant complaints in regard to
her own troubles, — oftentimes overcomes
misunderstanding, and brings the mother
and daughter together. In the case of
the mother, however, this interpretation
through conversation is reinforced by the
addresses and discussions which go on in
the women’s clubs, practically all of
which have occasional lectures on ques-
tions of discipline, recreation, work, and
outlook on life. In a number of instances
immigrant wonien are formed into clubs
to study English, the better to communi-
cate with their daughters.

Settlement residents also adopt every
means in their power to encourage mothers
and daughters to seek recreation together.
With this object in view entertainments
are organized ; young and old are engaged
in pageants and celebrations; vacation par-
ties which include parents and children
are fostered ; special effort is made to in-

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A BETTER FAMILY SETTING _ 81

duce mothers to act as chaperones at social
events where the daughter shines.

As in the case of the father, the prob-
lem of interpretation faces both ways,
and the consensus of testimony is to the
effect that it is easier to bring the daugh-
ter to appreciate the mother’s point of
view than the reverse. Many workers
among girls encourage them to inquire
into the mother’s early life, especially in
its romantic aspects. They point out the
bravery and high resolve involved in im-
migration; the deep spiritual significance
of the hopes and longings of mother-
hood; the value of old-country customs
and observances. The recent appreciation
of peasant needlework has raised many
mothers in the estimation of their daugh-
ters. The growing custom whereby girls’
clubs entertain the mothers of members
gives opportunity for the girl to see her
mother in a fresh setting and under con-
ditions that permit the older woman to

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82 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

manifest other phases of her personality
than the sole accustomed one of the house-
hold drudge. It is interesting and sig-
nificant that librarians and public-school
teachers are increasingly sending mothers
who seek advice about their adolescent
daughters to the settlements, where they
can meet leaders of experience in working
with girls.

Though the age period under review in
this study divides itself into two equal parts,
Family re- it is generally conceded to be
a oe very difficult if not almost im-
velopment. possible to work out with any
degree of sharpness the dividing lines
between the earlier and the later stage.
As club members reach the age of four-
teen, the residents of several settlements,
through home visiting, endeavor to make
the family appreciate the fact that the
girl is no longer a mere child; that her
position in the household should be dig-
nified; and that definite responsibilities

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A BETTER FAMILY SETTING 83

should be given her. The mother is en-
couraged to have patience with the girl’s
varying and difficult moods, by being re-
minded that the club leader faces the same
difficulties. Again at sixteen it is the cus-
tom to have a frank talk on the spirit of
youth and the certainty of a budding in-
terest in sex. The family should be made
to see that there are serious responsibilities
resting upon it with respect to the care of
the girl; that they are in duty bound to
make the home attractive and to guide her
carefully into the relative safety of responsi-
ble womanhood.

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CHAPTER VII
THE MORALITY OF SEX

Opinion is practically unanimous that
for some years there has been a gradual
Lowering of though appreciable tendency
itanclards, toward deterioration in moral
tone among a great proportion of adoles-
cent girls in tenement districts. This con-
dition is attributed partly to the general
laxity of the age, partly to immigration,
and partly to the breakdown of family and
neighborhood life. Many young girls fall
into immorality because they are unhappy
at home, out of sympathy with the other
members of the family, hungry for affec-
tion, and without any direct outlet for their
emotional energies. This unsatisfied inner
life, combined with low personal and com-
munity standards, leads them into danger.
A few morally contaminated girls set an

n

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THE MORALITY OF SEX 85

example which spreads and affects a ma-
jority of the young life of the neighbor-
hood; as where a physician in one of the
large cities stated that he had taken care
of most of the mothers in his locality,
not one of whom was immoral; but their
daughters were largely so.

There is ground for belief that a large
number of girls are morally lax. Very
frequently a young woman will carry on
illicit relations over a considerable period
with a man to whom she is devoted and
emerge without catastrophe. “A girl can
have many friends,”’ explained one of them,
“‘but when she gets a ‘ steady,’ there ’s only
one way to have him and to keep him; I
mean to keep him long.” It is again the
common opinion that there is a large num-
ber of adolescent girls who involve them-
selves in immoral relations more or less
indiscriminately, believing that if they do
not accept money they keep themselves
without the sphere of prostitution. Failing

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86 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

to realize the consequences, many girls in
this class sacrifice themselves for a good
time, or for presents in the shape of jewelry
and clothing. The tendency in this direc-
tion is indicated in certain cities by the
increasing number of girls from depart-
ment stores and factories who are treated
for venereal diseases in the various dispen-
saries and hospitals.

Moral lapse is increasingly understood
to refer, not to the breaking of the law,
but to discovery, and the penalty of lapse
is interpreted as misfortune rather than the
result of sin. The girl who lapses takes an
attitude varying from feigned nonchalance
to the deepest shame, which is, however,
often chiefly distress over the ostracism
involved. And it is the universal experi-
ence that the girl who falls finds it almost
impossible to regain her self-respect in
communities where she is known. While
there is need, in tenement neighborhoods,
of the wiser experience of to-day in such

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THE MORALITY OF SEX 87

cases, concern may well be felt over a gath-
ering undercurrent of sentiment that the
girl can count on escaping the larger meas-
ure of disgrace if the father of her child
marries her.

At present the sentiment of the average
girl toward instances of moral lapse is con-
stantly less censorious. When Public senti-
brought face to face with the Tr Onad
practical thing itself in the case lapse.
of a friend or acquaintance, the individ-
ual girl is likely to be ignorant and curious
alike, spellbound, shocked, interested, and
fascinated. Criticism takes the form of
sneers; is rather conventional than sincere
and deep-seated; and is not always un-
mixed with a certain degree of admir-
ation for the success with the other sex
which the difficulty implies. Most girls
have at best a vague sense of the bearing
of lapse on the future, and it is generally
felt to be almost impossible to place the
matter in such a light that the average

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88 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

girl will recognize the harm created by
moral wrong, except through some actual
observation of its bitter results.

The home, too, often fails in its proper
moral reaction toward these tragedies. In
Sentiment of SOme homes there is only in-
the home to- difference, provided marriage is
ward lapse. the outcome; in others there
may be extremeintolerance. Thereismore
often family self-pity than any realization
of the failure of the family group itself.
which such a lapse implies. In most cases
the neighborhood attitude is one of mild
revulsion toward the man and greater re-
coil from the woman. It is neither as in-
different on the one hand, nor as indignant
on the other, as the family.

Without exception it is believed that
the girl who becomes morally lax has
Evil begin- been influenced in that direction
nings previous before she enters upon the age
toadolescence.  Deriod under consideration ; if
not physically, at least in thought. Famil-

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THE MORALITY OF SEX 89

iarity with degrading sights and unclean
language often affects her character to
such an extent that she does not compre-
hend the significance of her new feelings
and desires, and goes astray almost with-
out volition. Children are led: into evil
by their companions and by older young
people, as well as by many forms of sug-
gestion. The seeds of contamination are
sown on the streets and in the alleys; in
certain candy and other small stores in city
neighborhoods, whose vicious proprietors
teach some of the worst forms of immor-
ality ; in the day schools, and especially in
the Sunday Schools; in the very homes of
the children. The community has so far
failed to take account of the number of
sexual perverts at large, and the serious
fact that every such individual is likely to
be an extremely active center of practically
continuous contamination. Though all
these influences affect the innocent-minded,
yet moral lapse is very seldom to be traced

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go YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

to lack of knowledge of the risks and con-
sequences of evil. The underlying cause is
lack of ideals; the ignorance and careless-
ness of the families and neighborhood ; the
failure of parents to live up to their obvious
duty.

' The girl is in no way prepared intelli-
gently to face the moral dangers which
Moral prepar- arise in adolescence by the in-
ea end struction given in the public
schools ; school: There are a few excep-
tions to the baldness of this statement, as
in the case of children who have been
influenced by an exceptional teacher. Yet
even those who cite exceptions admit that
the school must be radically changed be-
fore it will be able to exert real moral
influence. Its equipment and instruction
must be strengthened at many points.
Among next steps to be taken are the in-
stallation of decent toilets; the supervis-
ion of basements; more home and school
visitors with nurse’s training, to give their

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THE MORALITY OF SEX ' gt

time to developing a basis of understand-
ing between parent and child ; avery much
higher grade of teacher; a sound experi-
mental approach to the problem of instruc-
tion in matters of sex; the development
of a corps of special leaders to take charge
of such instruction in the grammar schools ;
a regular course of studies planned about
natural history, hygiene, physiology, sci-
ence, and home-making; and the multi-
plication of carefully supervised but demo-
cratically grganized group activities outside
of school hours among boys and girls.

It is the universal sentiment of the con-
tributors to this study that comparatively
few girls come under adequate
and forceful religious leader-
ship. The Catholic religious organizations
make an attempt at sex instruction, al-
though such teaching is in general far
from wisely given. Occasionally a leader
arises from among the members of a teach-
ing order, or even among the laity, who

+

(2) the church;

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92 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

is wonderfully influential; but these stand
out as exceptions. Even more, the sects of
Protestantism, considering their resources,
have failed to affect girls as they should.
Of late years the Jewish religious authori-
ties have become much concerned about
moral declension among their young peo-
ple and are striving to develop more ef-
fective forms of moral influence. It is un-
doubtedly true that the relative decay of
religion is in itself one very serious cause
of moral breakdown; and there is im-
mediate and pressing need of more vital
religious teaching on these fundamental
questions of character.

Settlements, too, have been lacking in
the degree of attention given to specific
(3) the settle. ethical teaching. This is partly
ee because, to a very great extent,
settlement workers belong to forms of
faith alien to those of the neighborhood
constituency. It is increasingly felt, how-
ever, that a sufficient basis of understand-

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THE MORALITY OF SEX 93

ing has been reached to permit settle-
ments to enter the field of practical morals
without danger of misconstruction of mo-
tive. Instruction, however, should be car-
ried on, wherever possible, in codperation
with the religious leaders of the neighbor-
hood; the traditions of the local church
should be kept in mind; its particular
shade of moral emphasis should be en-
forced; interest should be developed in its
traditions and faith; and every opportunity
taken to strengthen those particular moral
idealisms which are native to the people.

The most telling cause of immorality
is to be found in the comparative disin-
tegration of the home. In a
sense it is encouraging that the
large majority of these moral tragedies
can be traced to some serious structural
disorganization of the family. It is true,
however, that a surprisingly small pro-
portion of homes exert positive and con-
structively sympathetic support in helping

(4) the home.

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94 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

the girl maintain her moral standards. In
certain cases the support is positive with-
out being sympathetic, the home standing
emphatically for virtue and righteousness,
though it does not discerningly safeguard
the girl. Even where the moral sense of
the family is real, if it is not sufficiently
reinforced by a vital religious faith, it may
prove quite ineffectual as against the facts
of city life.

_The helpfulness of instruction in sex
hygiene depends chiefly on the instructor.
Value ofin. “Ot present the average work-
struction in ing girl “knows everything the
ex tygiene. wrong way,” and only instruc-
tion based on scientific knowledge can
correct this. The subject-matter of in-
. struction should not be predominantly
‘physical, but rather ethical and spiritual ;
and direct sex instruction should make up
the smallest part of the teaching. The
definite problem is that of building up a
sound coherent attitude toward life and

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THE MORALITY OF SEX 95

human nature; of lessening the stress and
hardship of living, so that boys and girls
can realize the best that is in them; of
demonstrating what it is that makes a true
home; of awakening loyalty to the present
and the future self, to the home, and to
the neighborhood. Instruction should be
spread out over a considerable time rather
than compressed into one or two talks.
There is great advantage in beginning with
young children before the age of sex con-
sciousness. Instruction can succeed in the
end only as every one— and especially par-
ents, teachers, and religious leaders— be-
comes awake to its necessity and signifi-
cance.

It is generally agreed that mothers
should be induced to discuss with their -
daughters questions of sex hygiene and sex
relations, the responsibilities of mother-
hood, and the value of home life. Many
mothers, however, believe that their daugh-
ters know nothing about such subjects and

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96 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

prefer that it should be so; others are
frankly afraid to treat the matter; others
feel that they have no vocabulary for the
explanation. To meet these two latter situ-
ations certain settlements have organized
talks before the women’s clubs, and in a
few instances have collected a small library,
the books of which are loaned to mothers.
Though the task of inducing mothers to
give such instruction is beset with diffi-
culty, it is indicative of the distinctively
settlement method of meeting responsi-
bility by helping its proper bearer to carry
it; a course which is, under present con-
ditions, infinitely harder though in the end
much more rewarding than the opposite
one of imparting instruction directly. It
is interesting and significant that in one
city the school authorities maintain classes
to teach mothers how to instruct their
adolescent children.

Where the mothers cannot be induced
to give the necessary instruction, most

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THE MORALITY OF SEX 97

settlements set about securing the parents’
permission to present the matter to their
daughters. This is done through explana-
tions before the women’s clubs, and by
calling on individual mothers and explain-
ing clearly and frankly the dangers of ig-
norance. There is always a proportion of
women who are certain that any instruc-
tion is unwise; but the majority are glad
to be relieved of responsibility by which
they are more or less consciously worried.

The best opinion is in favor of individ-
ual instruction for adolescent girls, though
before adolescence instruction may well
be given in groups. Where the individual
approach is not practicable, which is the
common condition, the group should be
kept small; six being the number most
mentioned. As far as may be, the mem-
bers of the class should be a club group,
of like age and experience. Wherever
possible the subject should be introduced
incidentally. General discussion should fol-

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98 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

low the talk, and future individual con-
ferences should be systematically encour-
aged. In a few instances books are lent
after a talk to girls who desire them. There
are very exceptional instances in which a
measure of success is attained with large
groups. In such a case it should be de-
liberately planned to include not less than
twenty-five in the group, in order that the
individual may be lost in the whole. It is.
universally agreed, however, that it takes
a genius to get results in this way.

There are several leading motives to
which intelligent social workers appeal in

Interests promoting practical morality.
hi ‘ 2

is Everything possible should be
character. done to ennoble the relations

between the sexes; to purify the tradition
concerning romance through the spread
of the great novels; to eliminate cheap
kissing games, cheap plays, and low dances;
to create a love of fine things in the home,
in literature, and in life generally ; to mul-

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THE MORALITY OF SEX 99

tiply opportunities wherein young people
themselves assume the responsibility of
planning recreation, conducting negotia-
tions, expressing ideas for groups, and
holding office. Many adolescent girls are
greatly strengthened by being helped to
the acquisition of some characteristic skill
or power, especially where it leads to ad-
vancement in their work. Certain are for-
tified through encouragement to save, to
work against special odds, or to meet new
and trying situations. Participation in a
good home and early religious training,
especially where religion is interpreted in
terms of responsibility to others, are safe-
guards of a constructive sort. There is a
strong feeling that membership in trade
unions and in organizations for the promo-
tion of woman suffrage is a vital source of
character growth to working girls. But
the most often mentioned source of moral
power is capacity for leadership. The girl
who excels in athletics, dancing, dramatics,

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100 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

skating, music, intellectual interests, home-
making, or even in the artistic side of dress,
apparently has a superiority over the aver-
age girl which goes far toward compelling
a general standard above that which she
finds about her.

The net result of experience with work-
ing girls is that they have remarkable ca-

: pacity of moral resistance. On

Underlying . 5 :
niet the whole the discerning social
vitality. worker is constantly moved by
the knowledge ot their instinctive recti-
tude. The most serious meaning of this
chapter is not that a great proportion of
girls are unchaste, but that of all those
who escape that fate practically every one
has her whole moral nature grilled, har-
rowed, and distraught, by tests and strains
that are well-nigh overwhelming in their
intensity and persistence.

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CHAPTER VIII
RECREATION AND CHARACTER

THE young working girl’s search for
recreation is fraught with moral danger at
many points. She is, to begin with, usually
over-fatigued after her day’s work. She
does not find sympathetic incitement to
happy pastimes in her home. Asa rule, the
neighborhood is unequal to the organiza-
tion of its own amusements. On account
of her very limited financial resources, she
is thrown into economic dependence upon
young men, who may often be practically
strangers to her, for her good times. Under
conditions such as these she goes out into
the evening life of the city, where the
whole balanced relation of responsibility
and confidence between the sexes is weak-
ened, and a vast system of commercialized

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102 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

amusement accentuates every item among
the risks which she must encounter.
Physical and mental fatigue must be ac-
counted as an important cause of moral
Effects of laxity. Even after making full
physical fa- = allowance for the fact that
tigue on the :
desire for many factory .and shop girls
Pleagure. find satisfaction in the com-
panionship afforded by work, in the often-
times gay noon hours, and in the ride to
and fro on the cars with companions; and
admitting that both health and morals are
conserved in those workrooms where the
air is good, the sanitary provisions adequate,
the companionship sound, and the over-
sight both intelligent and considerate, — it
still remains true that the enforced atten-
tion required, the monotonous repetition
of a few movements, and the repression of
all youthful spirits during working hours,
put a check on the deep-seated desire for
spontaneous action which is so character-
istic of, and necessary to, adolescence.

yi

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«

RECREATION AND CHARACTER 103

Over-weariness has two effects on the
desire for pleasure. The girl who has
stood all day long at some monotonous
occupation frequently complains that her
feet ache too much to make walking or
dancing enjoyable. She finds it necessary
to go to bed at the earliest possible mo-
ment in order to be ready to endure the
morrow. On the other hand, the girl who
has been sitting at a machine all day is
often so wrought upon by the irksome-
ness and the monotony of her occupation
that she is willing to go to almost any
length to obtain relief for her pent-up
spirit. The repression of the day creates a
degree of tension that is overwhelming in
its demand for some form of spontaneous
pleasurable excitement. Where this re-
action is not restrained or guided, it fre-
quently manifests itself in a form so crude
as to amount to hilarious license. If, how-

_ever, the impulse for recreation is satisfied

in a wholesome manner, the girl is rested
4

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104 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

and refreshed and far more capable of
performing her work in the most efficient
and productive manner. Under present
conditions the fatigue of industry is fre-
quently reinforced and augmented by late
hours, highly nervous pleasures, and un-
hygienic homes; and this cumulative ex-
haustion may so weaken both the finer in-
itiative and the power of inhibition even of
girls of sound principle, that they are led
into acts that later bring to them bitter
regret and humiliation.

It is acommon conviction that the chiv-
alry which once marked the relation be-
Modem ind tween the sexes is disappearing.
ieee Consideration for and protec-
between the tion of women,is less and less
see seen in factories, in stores, in
the cars, and on the streets. The effects,
however, are more noticeable in work-
ing-class neighborhoods. Overcrowding
forces a crude realization of the sex rela-
tionship on young people at a very early

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RECREATION AND CHARACTER 105

age, and undermines the ideal of true com-
panionship between menand women which
should prevail. Girls in their general rela-
tions are more and more assuming the full
independence of the wage-earner. They fre-
quent places of amusement so far as their
income will carry them without escorts,
though they seek the company of male
acquaintance for its prestige. In a large
number of cases they are giving up the
custom of being sought after, and them-
selves frankly make the overtures ‘to men
whom they desire to attract. Compared
with former standards, the present relation
between the sexes often seems somewhat
unlovely. The result of this new attitude
is beginning to carry over into home life.
The personal relation between the husband
and the wife, where the latter has earned her
own living, is frequently not so fine as it was
under the old order; especially if the hus-
band is unable to support the wife as amply
as she provided for herself before marriage.

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106 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

While a large proportion of girls be-
tween fourteen and sixteen are not finan-
eeniens cially dependent on youths for
onmen for such forms of recreation as the
recreation’ _ moving-picture show, the cheap
dance, and the cheap theater, they do tend
to rely on the other sex for balls, excur-
sions, club outings, and other pleasures in-
volving unusual expenditures. In the years
between sixteen and eighteen, the girl
becomes more dependent on men finan-
cially and personally. On the one hand,
she spends more on dress and adornment
and her amusement ideals involve a larger
expenditure; on the other hand, she con-
sciously tries to be attractive and to secure
attentions. In many cases she takes a girl
companion, with whom she roams the
street or haunts the lobbies of theaters and
grill-rooms, adventuring in the search
after association and pleasure. It is a gen-
eral opinion that young women are more
and more freely entering saloons and cafés.

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RECREATION AND CHARACTER 107

In a large number of cases this does not
mean that the girl is depraved. It often-
times happens that her budding esthetic
instincts find their most poignant satisfac-
tion in the light, music, and decorations
of gaudily decorated resorts, which she at-
tends mainly for the intellectual stimulus
which they supply. The habit, however,
lays her open to temptation which she is
ill-fitted to meet. There is always the dan-
ger that she may enter on illicit relations;
or, failing to find an outlet for her spirits,
become apathetic and hysterical. Every
girl‘should be in possession of a moderate
sum for her own use in order that she need
not be so ready to accept promiscuous
overtures.

The leading amusement ideal of the
adolescent girl is the dance-hall. After
that, in order of popularity Aes
may be mentioned restaurants recreation:
and cafés, the moving-picture () “8:
shows, the theaters; in some communi-

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108 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

ties skating-rinks; and promenading the
streets. Coming from the monotony of
work, and from oftentimes dreary home
surroundings, the dance-hall, with its
lights, gay music, refreshments, and at-
tractive surroundings, seems everything
that is bright and beautiful. It offers the
most available way of meeting members
of the other sex, provides opportunities
of conquest, affords even the chance ‘of
meeting men from a superior station in °
life, and perhaps of falling in with the.
Prince Charming who will take her away
from all that is sordid and unlovely to the
Land of Heart’s Desire.

While practically all workers among
girls believe that dancing may be one of
the best possible forms of recreation, pro-
vided there is clean air, proper lighting,
decent music, a good floor, and early clos-
ing, the public dance-hall is everywhere
believed to be a source of evil, and at best
radically in need of regulation. Among

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RECREATION AND CHARACTER tog

the next steps that are absolutely requisite
is that of altogether barring the sale of
liquor, and to the same end of prohibiting
the issuance of return checks; of establish-
ing a legal age under which young girls
cannot attend, with a rigid enforcement
of the requirement; of providing police
supervision so as to prevent disorder and
to keep out immoral women; and of
eliminating the dangerously prevalent in-
decent dances of the past few years. It is
generally believed that each public dance-
hall should be in charge of a police officer
and a police matron, who should be trained
social workers. But, on the whole, the pub-
lic dance-hall is never good, and is always
particularly unfit for girls under eighteen.

Municipal dances under the manage-
ment of city officials are so experimental
that it is still too early to draw conclu-
sions. In a few cases such dances seem to
show hopeful possibilities. So far, how-
ever, they have not been undertaken in a

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110 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

sufficient spirit of responsibility, and no
effort has been made to arouse a commu-
nity sentiment strong enough to sustain a
higher standard than that of the commer-
cial resorts. If the municipal dance-hall is
to become common, it should be definitely
organized so as to accomplish real con-
structive results, such as that of acting as
a social center for the whole family.

So far very little attention has been de-
voted to the matter of guarding adoles-
cent girls on their way home after dances.
While it is a general impression that much
evil originates between the dance and the
home, there is a divided difference of opin-
ion as to ways of controlling this interval.
In a few instances social workers have
themselves seen girls home, though this
is a custom chiefly among settlements lo-
cated in Italian neighborhoods where such
guardianship seems natural. A few work-
ers among girls believe that chaperonage
is unnecessary if liquor has not been sold..

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RECREATION AND CHARACTER 111

It is the universal belief that the early clos-
ing of dances and a higher standard of con-
duct at the dance itself would go far toward
safeguarding the period after the dance.
The main source of safety, however, is
believed to consist in keeping recreation
under the influence of home and neigh-
borhood life. Dancing-places under strict
supervision should be provided in every
community, the clientele drawn from
within a few blocks, the freedom of the
hall offered only to carefully chosen in-
dividuals and organizations, and the dance
dismissed by eleven o’clock. Under con-
ditions such as these it is believed that
young people would naturally go home in
groups and avoid temptation. Next to the
safeguard which grows out of proper neigh-
borhood life comes that of enlisting the in-
terest of parents and older members of the
family, who should always be notified of
the exact hour at which the dance closes.
German and Jewish families are more

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112 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

careful in this respect than those of other
nationalities, the daughters attending wed-
dings and other social events with their
parents. It is the general opinion that par-
ents should be held responsible for the
safety of their daughters, and that the
burden should not be loaded on the public.

The effect of the theater on young
working girls is naturally suggested by the
type of theater which they
generally frequent. They can-
not spend the sums required to attend
the better theaters and the high-grade
plays. The cheap theaters, on the other
hand, demoralize both by their sensation-
alism and sentimentalism and produce very
much the same effect as the cheap unreal
novel. Attendance is followed more by
unrest and dissatisfaction than by any sense
of fulfillment. Yet the high-class drama is
believed by all settlement workers to be a
valuable instrument of education. It is
more inspiring than books, supplies defi-

(z) the theater;

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\I
RECREATION AND CHARACTER 113

nite standards of word and deed, along
with romantic dreams which are of real
moral value.

The present moving-picture show is a
great gain over the acted melodrama which
it has supplanted. The old (,)themoving-
admixture of false piety and_ Picture show;
mawkish sentiment as a covering for crude
and low views of life, once so frequent in
the melodrama, was deeply injurious. It
was a definite gain to be rid of this, though
the moving-picture shows, at the start,
offered little if any improvement. The
National Board of Censorship, made up
largely of social workers, has done much
to bring about a better grade of films.
Much, however, remains to be desired. As
recreation, the average show is too passive,
requiring no thought and leading to no
self-expression. It stimulates the desire for
thrills, and habitual attendance makes all
evenings spent away from the “ movies”
seem insufferably dull. Some of the great-

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114 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

est dangers also arise from conditions
apart from the show itself. As with all .
cheap theaters the crowds outside the door,
the lurid and sensational advertisements,
and the absence of all chaperonage, are
sources of danger; but with the moving-
picture theater there is the special risk
which comes through the often question-
able vaudeville interspersed with the pic-
tures, the danger of undue familiarity made
possible by dim lights, and the likelihood
that the much more easy conversational
relations among spectators will lead to
improvised and clandestine acquaintance
with men. All these factors have an in-
jurious effect greater than that of the per-
formance; and the problem is largely
shifted from the stage into the audience.
The roller skating-rink has almost en-
tirely disappeared from the large cities of
(4) the roller the country, and is found only in
skating-tink; some of the smaller towns and
villages. The old objections of dust, lack |

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RECREATION AND CHARACTER 115

of air, fatigue, and general promiscuity
still hold.

The school center is believed to be a
promising factor in the solution of the
problem of recreation for ado-. (5) the school
lescent girls, especially if it will center
provide for the girls who now go to low-
grade dance-halls as their only recrea-
tional resource. The existence of the
school center as an alternative would also
make it easier to secure the more drastic
legislation necessary in order to regulate
the commercial recreation places. The
ultimate value of the school center will de-
pend on the degree of protection which it
affords the girl. If thorough supervision
fails, the center becomes just as unfortunate
as any other method of bringing people
together. Its right organization must
mean that the girls come from the vicinity,
are among acquaintances at the center, are
within their neighborhood environment as
they leave it at the end of the evening. So

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116 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

organized, the center affords protection of
a high order in helping the girl maintain
her standards. She is hedged in by the
public opinion of the neighborhood, of
her teachers, and of her accustomed com-
panions. The educational bond is in itself
elevating and protecting. The coming and
going within a familiar neighborhood is
not likely to be alluring or dangerous.
The center itself, by raising the standard
of neighborhood loyalty, tends to build up
the moral sense of the community. It is
much to be regretted that thus far there
has been little or no success in bringing
families as a whole to the school center;
though the girl is not fond of going to
places of amusement where she is under
the eye of members of her own family.
While the school center has a great
future before it as it becomes fully devel-
oped and broadly applied, in the mean-
time the settlements have the duty and
opportunity of making bolder and larger

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RECREATION AND CHARACTER 117

experiments, by way of suggestion, toward
meeting the more publicrecreational needs
of their communities. The solu- 4, cement
tion of local recreational prob- and recrea-

lems depends on the nature of “™ "°°

the neighborhood and the degree of sup-
port granted to the settlement. In con-
gested downtown districts, where public
recreation is heavily commercialized, the
settlement can do much to organize the
demand for a better type of performance;
and can make such organization a real
means of influence. In neighborhoods
which are somewhat removed from the
center of the city, and have a life of their
own, the settlement might undertake to
control and direct the amusement of its
local community. It is believed by many
that it would be a very profitable experi-
ment for a settlement federation to select
a normal neighborhood, make a survey,
and attempt a large-scale recreation pro-
gramme as an experiment. This would

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118 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

involve good-sized dances, reading-rooms
for adults, the provision of some theatrical
performances, moving pictures, good con-
certs and music, the development of festi-
vals, and the celebration of holidays. In
such a neighborhood an educational agency
might compete with commercial amuse-
ments at the cost of a relatively small
‘subsidy.

In all environments there should be sys-
tematic education of public opinion as to
Educating recreational standards. Social
ce orhood workers should undertake more
opinion. detailed study of the question
of recreational supply and demand in their
neighborhoods, and newspapers should be
asked to publish the findings. Lectures
should be given in the public schools,
exhibits prepared, and moving- picture
demonstrations provided, in order to set
forth some of the dangers associated with
improper recreation. Individual social
workers should also make it a part of their

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RECREATION AND CHARACTER 119

task to enlighten the mothers of young
girls. Through women’s clubs and com-
munity gatherings an attempt should be
made to build up a neighborhood stand-
ard on questions of this sort. Laws should
be secured providing a greater degree of
municipal regulation of dance-halls, thea-
ters, moving-picture shows, and other forms
of commercial recreation. Over against the
attraction of such larger resorts at impor-
tant centers of traffic, neighborhood cen-
ters maintained by settlements and other
agencies must be far more generous of
opportunities of pleasure which can reach
every member of the local community.
The broadest and most urgent need,
however, is for the thorough supervision of
‘commercial amusement resorts. Multiplying
This supervision should be supervised
largely in the hands of women, sectestion.
who must be given all necessary police
authority. Even more important than the
function of following and seeking to inter-

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120 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

cept girls who are definitely involved in evil
ways, is that of carrying out many needed
forms of preventive work. It should be
their duty to attend public dance-halls.
They should be stationed, in particular,
about the entrance to the dressing and
toilet rooms. They should attend the the-
aters and keep an eye on young girls who
are unattended by older people, and see that
the proprieties are observed. They should
mingle in the crowds at the amusement
parks, especially among the girls just out-
side the gates, and see that they do not go
off with strange men. They should fre-
quent the streets upon which young girls
promenade; they should watch the res-
taurants which are frequented by young
couples with a tendency to drink too much;
and should visit hotels and lodging-houses
for the purpose of seeking girls who have
been decoyed there.

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CHAPTER IX
FORMS OF CONSTRUCTIVE RECREATION

THERE is widespread agreement of testi-
mony among settlement workers that the
normal recreational provision Normal
for young working girls should ee
consist of one half-holiday, pre- weekly.
ferably in the open; one evening de-
voted to a club; one evening for attend-
ance on a party, theater, or moving-picture
show; and an occasional red-letter event
in addition to this average. It is the gen-
eral belief that most girls spend too much
time away from home, and might profit-
ably be required to remain within doors,
except for a walk, several evenings a week.
When conditions are especially favorable
a girl may be encouraged to attend even-
ing school ; when they are the reverse, and
the home is wholly insufficient and de-

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122 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

grading, many settlement workers encour-
age adolescent girls to attend several set-
tlement events weekly.

It is also very generally felt that the
difficulty in the question. of recreation is
partly one of judgment in the use of
money. There ought, in the first place, to
be some money available for this purpose.
The average working girl should receive
at least ten per cent of her wages; never
less than twenty-five cents a week, and
where possible, something more.

Many girls handle from one to several
dollars weekly, and have little to show for
it. On the whole, it seems the general
experience that too much is spent on
commercial recreation; that in this, as in
other directions, not knowing the value of
money, girls secure a minimum return-in
pleasure céntent.

The . most popular, and in some ways
the most valuable, form of settlement rec-
reation is found in the settlement dancing

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CONSTRUCTIVE RECREATION 123

parties, which are prepared for by the set-
tlement dancing classes. In one or two in-
stances settlements haveinduced vajues in rec-
high-grade dancing teachers to ‘tion.

take classes of neighborhood girls, with
astonishing results in the quality of danc-
ing and the outlook toward life and recre-
ation. Girls who have been trained to
dance properly are protected in some de-
gree by that knowledge. Equally impor-
tant is the fact that the settlement-club
boy is taught to respect women, to address
his partner correctly and to hold her pro-
perly in the dance, and to forbear the use
of impure language. Though “social”
dancing is most in demand, folk-dancing
is receiving more and more attention,
and its appeal may be expected to be-
come general by persistent educational
effort. The most necessary factor in the
management of settlement dancing parties
is that there be a definite understanding
concerning the standard to be reached and

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124. YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

that the start be taken from the best that
the community sets for itself. The majority
of settlements incline to sanction frequent
small dances rather than large ones. It is
generally felt, however, that large dances
are valuable when they are organized by
a committee of young people, who them-
selves assume the financial responsibility
and look after the order of the floor.
The girls themselves take two attitudes
toward settlement dancing parties. A cer-
tain proportion believe them “ high-toned,”
and attend commercial dances sparingly
or not at all. Others, however, consider
the settlement dances “slow,” and prefer
the large hall, the variety of partners, and
the freedom of dancing allowed in the
commercial resorts. Yet settlement dances
have a decided effect on neighborhood
standards. The fact that parents are more
willing to permit their daughters to at-
tend such parties, and the tendency on
the part of the young people themselves

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CONSTRUCTIVE RECREATION 125

to demand some of the better and more
attractive features which distinguish settle-
ment events, affect both public and pri-
vate dances. It is generally believed that
settlement dances in competition with the
lower-grade public resorts should be quite
frequent. More settlements might support
a dance-hall open every evening, with a
good floor, good music, decorations of a
better sort, and proper supervision.

Next to dancing, dramatics are found
to be the most useful recreational resource.
When a play is rehearsed under careful
supervision and direction by leaders with
high standards, the dramatic club affords
opportunity for personal expression and
personal achievement, provides real recre-
ation, becomes a source of education in as-
sociation, organization, responsibility, and
the management of finances, and brings
together family groups as such at the per-
formances. Athletics, group singing, the-
ater parties, and week-end parties to the

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126 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

settlement vacation house, are all highly
successful forms of educational recreation.
Certain settlements are giving a consider-
able degree of attention to reviving the
old-fashioned circle games and surround-
ing them with an atmosphere of fresh and
lively interest.

Most useful and necessary are those va-
rious forms of work devised to help girls
in developing their capacity for self-amuse-
ment, and to take advantage of the wealth
of recreative possibilities associated with
home life. To this end they are encouraged
to acquire skill in embroidery and fancy-
work, to read aloud at home, and to visit
among friends who have a helpful and
stimulating influence.

In a certain number of cases settlement
residents have secured the good will of the
Caserta proprietor of the local dance-
with agencies hall, and act semi-officially in
of recreation. aay . 2 -

supervising parties or in refusing
the application of clubs which are known

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CONSTRUCTIVE RECREATION 127

to be disreputable. It is commonly a part of
settlement service to visit the commercial
halls regularly and report conditions to the
proper agencies. In a short time proprietors
come to accept this kind of oversight, and
in numerous instances conform themselves
to its demand. It is the general opinion
that every public dance-hall should beunder
strict surveillance, and that the supervisors
or chaperons should be paid by the city and
not permitted to accept gratuities of any
sort from the managers of the halls.
Settlements. have often been able to pre-
vent the establishment of moving-picture
shows under conditions which involved
undue physical or moral risk, and most set-
tlements exercise a degree of oversight in
the matter of films and vaudeville. In New
York a number of settlement residents have
served on the National Board of Censor-
ship. Proprietors of neighborhood mov-
ing-picture shows frequently ask the head
of the settlement to indicate any feature

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128 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

which they find objectionable. In several
instances a mass meeting of parents has
been called, and better conditions secured.

In a certain number of cases settlement
residents attend the public playgrounds,
where they serve as instructors for groups
of girls. Several houses located among
factories have organized dancing classes
which meet in the playground building
during the noon hour. Other settlements
codperate with municipal gymnasia by or-
ganizing groups of girls to attend, and the
same service is rendered in connection
with the municipal “hikes”? now con-
ducted in several cities.

The recreational services of the school
center and of the settlement as things
apart have been mentioned. The settle-
ments, however, nearly everywhere make
active contributions in promoting the
recreational use of the public schools. Cer-
tain houses arrange for the services of an
instructor in folk-dancing in the school

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CONSTRUCTIVE RECREATION 129

hall for neighborhood girls over fourteen ;
others supply school visitors; still others
make definite efforts to induce girls to at-
tend the public-school lectures and con-
certs. The growth of the public-school
recreation center, in a few instances, has
reduced the amount of formal educational
work carried on in settlements, and to
some extent the dancing classes and the
clubs; a much desired result which is
giving settlement workers the necessary
freedom to meet the problem of recrea-
tion as it appears objectively in the com-
munity, and to coGperate with a wide
range of recreational agencies.

There are several directions in which
the beginnings of finer forms of recreation
are being established. The wage-earner’s
theater leagues in various cities, organized
to bring the price of seats within the reach
of working people, have made it possible
for settlement residents to press the ques-
tion of attendance on good plays, under

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intelligent leadership. The increased use
of public libraries is brought about by en-
couraging young girls to attend story-tell-
ing hours, where such are provided, and
in the case of older clubs by sending drama-
tic groups to read over plays. In a number
of instances girls are taken to art museums,
where interest is aroused in the various
collections by appropriate explanations and
simple suggestions for further study.

The possibility of including parents in
the amusements of young people is partly a
Engaging par- matter of nationality ; thus it is
ents in young ° .
people’s comparatively easy in the case
recreation. of Italians and Syrians, and very
difficult with the Irish. Close codpera-
tion between the mother, the club leader
and the girl herself is necessary. It is also
desirable on occasion to secure the actual
participation of parents in play, thus elic-
iting that fresh awakening of sympathy
and comprehension which action alone
calls forth. Entertainments organized by

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CONSTRUCTIVE RECREATION 131

mothers’ clubs for their daughters have
been tried with great success. Club leaders
should also visit the homes, talk with the
parents, contrast the opportunities of to-
day with those of previous generations,
and point out the true bearing of the pres-
ent situation. By showing them the dan-
ger which lies in wait for the girl who
attends commercial amusement resorts,
and suggesting the need of home and
neighborhood recreations, great good has
already been accomplished. Most impor-
tant of all is the effort to assist the parents
themselves in arranging little parties, pic-
nics, or celebrations in which the daugh-
ter and her friends will be the center of
interest. A few settlements have been suc-
cessful in giving Sunday teas for families,
to which all the members come; where
mothers and fathers meet the club leaders ;
and where young people are drawn together
in a thoroughly and peculiarly wholesome
intimacy. Most settlement workers also

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132 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

believe that more pains should be taken
to keep the mother informed as to the
girl’s engagements at the settlement; and
in urging that parents make themselves
acquainted with her whereabouts when-
ever she is away from home.

Among other successful expedients may
be mentioned the interest secured through
asking parents to act as chaperons and to
serve refreshments at settlement parties,
to help prepare costumes for plays and
fancy dances, and to attend athletic, drama-
tic and other events in company with their
daughters; through inducing girls to give
Sunday afternoon teas for mothers; through
interesting parents in all the detail of
the girls’ picnics and summer vacations;
through organizing home festivities in
which club leaders can participate; and
through well-rounded schemes of neigh-
borhood recreation ‘which automatically
involve a large number of homes.

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CHAPTER X

ELEMENTS OF GOOD CLUB WORK

THE chief motive of all club and class
work is the development of character and
the fulfillment of life. This Underlying
large aim is variously subdi- a a
vided, depending on the local work.
situation, and the angle of vision of the
leaders. Certain workers place their em-
phasis on individual. development, taking
form in the effort to induce the girl to
exercise her natural capabilities through
study or more suitable work, to foster her
individual expressiveness, to give her a
chance to be happy ; others seek to guide
the first deliberate ties which the girl es-
tablishes with others, to train her in the
technique of the various forms of associated
action, and to develop a sense of social
responsibility ; practically all endeavor to

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134 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

build up the moral power of the girl by
filling her mind with better thoughts and
ideals than she would find unaided in her
own environment, and guide her through
the actual steps of experience into a sound
view of life.

It is thoroughly established settlement
policy to meet the physical and mental
Howto meer "eeds of which lack of stability,
thetmaits of shifting moods, and tendency
adolescence. tgward emotionalism are symp-
toms, through activities which have per-
manent constructive value. But no setting
forth of such pursuits should for a moment
obscure the priceless value of personal in-
fluence. It is the universal testimony of
all workers among girls that club groups
should be small, and that each girl should
stand in definite relationship with a force-
ful leader of experience, as well as with
the settlement as a whole. The leader
gains much if she has known the girl
before the period of adolescence sets in.

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ELEMENTS OF GOOD CLUB WORK 135

Above everything else leadership demands
that supreme patience which comes of the
recognition that the girl does not know
herself, that she naturally makes heavy
demands for sympathetic interest in her
own problems, that it is wise prodigality
to give her such individual attention as
she demands from those whom she likes.
It is also the general opinion that it is
helpful to explain the physical and spirit-
ual meaning of adolescence ; Hivplaining the
though such explanation has to physical and
spiritual mean-
be carefully safeguarded. Talks ing ‘of wdolex.
are best given individually, or °"*
in small groups, by a thoroughly informed
and skillful person, with precautionsagainst
later morbid discussion. By explaining the
causes and outlining simple forms of treat-
ment for a recurring tendency to weep
or for “rowdy” feelings, girls are often
helped not only to understand them-
selves, but to have patience with their
moods.

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136 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

It is generally agreed that there should °
be some striking change in the character
Development Of organized recreation to mark
in organized the beginning of adolescence,
beginning of and some club leaders believe
adolescence. that a difference might well be
made at twelve years of age and a more
marked change at fourteen. The chief
effort of the club leader should be given
to preventing the loss of sympathy with
the more conservative interests of home
and family, and to assisting the girl in
establishing as many high-grade human
ties as possible. Hence if is of the utmost
importance to keep club groups together.
The plan of work outlined for the club
should meet the girl’s idea of herself as
a new and ‘responsible individual. Folk-
dancing, nature study, literary interests of
any kind, handicraft, and a considerable
amount of purely recreational activities,
should be provided; and all of these may

be included in a single varied programme

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ELEMENTS OF GOOD CLUB WORK 137

if they are needed to keep up the mo-
mentum of the club group. Discipline
should be steadily enforced. In so far as
possible the girl should be led to see the
individual and social significance of the
changes created by adolescence; she should
be brought into the larger world as a
delegate to the general club council, or
through mass meetings with the members
of the different clubs. She should have
some social responsibility put upon her,
and be actively participant in some form
of community self-expression.

The most experienced leaders change
the theme of club work often, providing a
considerable range of different Adapting
activities in the same evening, oe
recognizing the desire for a adolescence.
spirited and swiftly moving “time.” In
cases when a mood unsuited to the
work in hand intrudes, the programme is
changed(to meet it)or discontinued. Much
club and class work is unsuccessful because

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138 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

the leaders fail to gauge the need for va-
riety and try to hold a group too closely
to one form of effort. Frequent change
of activity, however, is balanced by insisting
that each unit of work be finished and com-
plete. Variety of programme is not per-
mitted to breed shiftlessness or sloppiness.

In addition to the average class work,
liberal provision should be made for the
satisfaction and discipline of the emotions.
Singing, dancing, and dramatics should
be liberally and spiritedly promoted, but
always with an advancing standard in view.
The world’s great romances should become
an unquestioned and highly prized posses-
sion through story-telling, reading aloud,
and the encouragement of private reading.
The master strokes of human genius in a
wide variety of other fields should also be
brought within the girl’s horizon. During
the latter part of adolescence it is possible
to appeal more directly to the girl’s sense
of responsibility. Latent moral ideas are

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ELEMENTS OF GOOD CLUB WORK 139

easily brought into consciousness and dis-
cussed; thus the parents, their problems,
their point of view, their sacrifices can be
talked over; and the beauty of family help-
fulness, loyalty, and unity can be explained.
Attractive and admirable leaders, however,
are more than ever necessary; and hero-
ines, more or less distant, to pattern after.
In a few settlements the girls enter a senior
department at the end of the age period
under consideration. In this new stage
more freedom is given, relations with the
older boys’ clubs are established, and the
girl definitely graduated into the status of
young womanhood.

Organization is not popular with girls,
whose extreme individualism makes it dif-
ficult to hold their collective at- Principles and
tention. Small groupsare, there- ae
fore, doubly necessary, made up for girls.
of a nucleus of congenial souls, to which a
limited number of additions are gradually
made of girls who are known to as many

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140 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

as possible of the original members. In-
ternal cliques are best controlled by mag-
nifying the common interests and by
variety of work. The club should be self-
governing, with frequent change of off-
cers, who should be given a large measure
of responsibility. A good share of the
control of the club should be in the hands
of the members, who should have privacy
and freedom to work out their own desires
and motives. The oversight should be
strong, gentle, continuous, by one leader,
who must be sufficiently enthusiastic and
capable to engage the interest of the mem-
bers in those activities which she wishes
to see carried out. Influence should be ex-
erted as far as possible through suggestion.
Much individual attention should be paid
the girls outside the club meetings. The
final need in leadership is the power to
establish friendship with each girl in the
club.

Within the club, loyalty to the group

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ELEMENTS OF GOOD CLUB WORK 141

should be fostered in every possible way.
Club songs, pins, anniversaries, and parties
are useful. The meetings themselves should
stand the test of the girls’ idea of a good
time. There should be a sufficient variety
of activity so that each girl may find some-
thing that strongly engrosses her attention
and interest; and a number of good times
with a sufficient quality of distinction to
cause them to stand out as brilliant events.
Opportunity should be afforded the club
to exercise hospitality toward parents or
others, and in accordance with the normal
promptings of the developing emotions
of this period the girls should be brought
to feel themselves definitely a part of some
large scheme of usefulness.

Though girls are not spontaneously
drawn to administrative routine, they can
be interested in offices, reports, and busi-
ness meetings, and they should be encour-
aged to take part in such procedure. The
technique of committee work develops

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142 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

character and capacity; gives the power
to speak on one’s feet, to reason logically,
to undertake executive work; and pro-
motes tolerance, earnestness, and conscien-
tiousness. Invaluable as such work is,
however, only a fraction of an evening
can be devoted to it, and the remainder
must be filled up with activities which
unmistakably appeal to the girl.

Large meetings of girls are successful at
some settlements. Such gatherings secure
the inspiration that comes through num-
bers, and under proper conditions can be
made part of a plan for developing social
responsibility. Those meetings are most
appreciated where the time has been di-
vided between a supper, a talk of a serious
kind, and a period of jollity to finish off.

The problem of securing the club lead-
ers best fitted to work with girls in this
Qualifications age period is, of course, a diffi-
of club leaders. Cult one. Even after the initial
difficulty of securing the right type of wo-

Zé

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ELEMENTS OF GOOD CLUB WORK 143

man, with the human attitude which a spe-
cific desire for such work gives, the prob-
lem of assisting her to give of her own best
is an important one. “If residents and
volunteers might themselves have some-
thing of the same training, under an ex-
pert, which we are trying to give our girls,
they would be much better prepared to
influence adolescents,” writes one frank
worker among girls. The problem of di-
recting the inexperienced leader, so that
the club may not suffer while she is per-
fecting her technique, is naturally serious.
Growth in such capacity can be brought
about “ through studying sympathetically
the individual girls,” through “being less
serious,” through “ meeting and consult-
ing together with other club leaders more
frequently.” A course for workers among
girls, which would include instruction in
physiology, psychology, dramatics, educa-
tional story-telling, social and folk danc-
ing, parlor games, and the organization

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144. YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

of entertainments, would be extremely
valuable. Several settlements have special
conferences or even regular meetings for
the discussion of problems connected with
work among girls. The plan of organiza-

tion followed at the Henry Street Settle-
ment, New York, and outlined below, has
had conspicuous success."

I «¢Jn general, the success of the club work may be attrib-
uted to the highly developed club organization, and the sys-
tem of training club leaders. The girls’? department controls
the clubs, classes, and circulating library from the time the
children leave the kindergarten until they are eighteen years
of age, when they are promoted to the senior organization.
There is a head of the department, a resident secretary, and
this year, with the increase of clubs and classes, an assistant
clerical secretary. A new club leader at once feels herself part
of an established system. She is coached by the head of the
department as to the ideals and history of the clubs and the
traditions of the house; the secretary finds a place for her as
assistant under the leadership of a capable club leader, for no
new recruit, unless she has had experience elsewhere, is al-
lowed to take charge of a club until she has proved herself
thoroughly capable. There are monthly meetings of club leaders
with the head worker, the head of the department, and the
secretary. These may be likened to faculty meetings. Here
is where the club leader gets her general training; here the
club schedules are arranged, the club programmes discussed,

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ELEMENTS OF GOOD CLUB WORK 145

All settlements endeavor to reserve time
which can be devoted to visiting girls in
their own homes. Such visits visiting in
are universally appreciated, ex- the home.
cept in the case of low-grade Irish-Amer-

,and questions of discipline and the problems of individual chil-
dren are brought up. The staff is divided into committees
responsible for special interests —for instance, to the chair-
man of the dramatics committee all dramatic ventures must be
submitted, so that the house standards may be upheld for fes-
tivals, pantomimes, and plays. The club leaders as a group
have taken up courses of study. The head worker through the
monthly meetings keeps the leaders in touch with civic and
national affairs, so that they may comprehend the significance
of their work, and feel that they are codperating with those
larger forces in society which are making for progress.

««In these meetings the leader gets her general training,
but it is in the club work itself that she receives more special
training. The secretary of the department watches the club
leader handle her group, helps her with difficult children,
plans her programme with her, and in the case of her neces-
sary absence takes the club, so that the girls are not demoralized
by being sent home; and attendance is made a serious obliga-
tion for them. The secretary does all the purchasing of mate-
rials for the clubs, and each club treasurer hands in her dues
to the clerical secretary, and receives a statement of the club’s
finances. Even the younger children’s clubs meet the cost of
materials used and pay a small fee to house.”’

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146 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

ican families, where the girl sometimes
objects. The main value of such visiting,
however, accrues to the club leader rather
than to the girl directly. Only in this way
is it possible to understand the fashion in
‘which the family life and the environment
are related to the outside activities wherein
the leader sees the girls. Many workers,
however, believe that the most valuable
calling is that done before adolescence.
Though the girl is less approachable at this
period, the fact that the leader has been
an outstanding friend doubles her influence
when adolescence is reached. As a rule
visits are best made by appointment. The
girl is then fully prepared; and, as the object
is acquaintance rather than investigation,
there is every reason for making sure of her
codperation beforehand. It is often wise,
however, to call upon the mother when the
daughter is not at home, and as her child is
almost always a puzzle to her the visit often
brings leader and mother close together.

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ELEMENTS OF GOOD CLUB WORK 147

A very large proportion of settlement
workers visit in girls’ homes on Sundays,
though it is the consensus of sunday
opinion that Sunday is not a “siting.
good day for a first call of a stranger to the
family. The most profitable Sunday calls
are among Italians, Syrians, and Jews.
Irish girls are usually away from home.
Many settlements reverse the order by
keeping open house themselves on Sunday
afternoon and evening, with a fireside gath-
ering and conversation.

The custom of visiting girls who work
in department stores, or in offices where
the employees are immediately visiting girls
before the public, is common; *
and is helpful on both sides. It is generally
believed to be inadvisable to visit factories
during working-hours. The managers dis-
courage the practice, and girls who are on
piece-work often dislike to lose time. The
noon hour in factories, however, is utilized
to much advantage by some settlement

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148 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

workers for personal calls, and by others
for the collection of savings from large
numbers of girls. Many settlement resi-
dents believe that it is useful to visit places
of work even though one does not ask to
see the girls. The operatives are pleased that
an acquaintance has visited the factory,
and they talk more freely on conditions
of employment, the character of overseers,
and other details of occupation. One of
the best things that the settlement can
undertake is to educate employers to the
need of thoroughly humanized and re-
sourceful oversight of adolescent girls in
the factory.

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CHAPTER XI
MIXED CLUBS OF BOYS AND GIRLS

THERE is considerable divergence of
opinion concerning the age at which boys
and girls should be brought together into
clubs. A few club leaders hold that boys
and girls ought to meet regularly from
childhood on; others would have them
meet occasionally from childhood, though
under rigid supervision; many are con-
vinced that the fourteenth or the sixteenth
year is early enough. It is the universal
opinion that while the adolescent boy and
girl should not be encouraged to séek one
another’s society too early, yet the first
gatherings should be brought about before
they begin to meet on the street corners.
To teach young men and women to asso-
ciate together in free and fine fulfillment

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150 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

is a unique and priceless part of the edu-
cational service of the settlement.

In practice, workers among girls are
torn between the desire to bring older
boys and girls into the same circles and
the sense of the difficulty of managing
such groups. Moral risks are always in-
volved in forming mixed groups, not be-
cause of what may happen while its mem-
bers are under supervision, but because the
most inflammable material in the group
may then so easily continue the meeting
outside.

In general, the success of the mixed
club depends on the age of its members,
the degree of supervision maintained, and
the resource of the leader. In only a few
instances is there any record of successful
mixed clubs under sixteen, and in these
clubs a superhuman amount of oversight
and guidance seems necessary. In general,
the most successful mixed clubs are or-
ganized at the end of the fourteen to six-

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MIXED CLUBS OF BOYS AND GIRLS 151

teen period, and continue for several years
after that. As a matter of principle, how-
ever, it is universally believed that when
there is already a natural grouping of
young men and women, it should be rec-
ognized precisely as is the gang in the
case of club work among boys. The di-
rector must be discerning, gentle, and ex-
ceptionally facile in planning games and
other occupations that have a common in-
terest. The chief reason why there are so
few mixed clubs is because experience has
demonstrated the exceeding difficulty of
securing the essential type of leadership.
Apart from actual mixed clubs, there is ,

a well-defined tendency, however, to pro-
mote meetings between boys’ and girls’
clubs. Joint monthly gatherings for sing-
ing, dancing, debate, dramatics, and a
weekly or monthly house dance, have been
found successful. In many settlements
there are found cases of a boys’ club and a
girls’ club whose members are accustomed

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152 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

to associate together, and.such clubs take
turns in entertaining each other. One
house consciously endeavors, whenever a
boys’ or a girls’ club is organized, to bring
together a group of friends and acquaint-
ances of the opposite sex. Clubs of girls
are often encouraged to invite young men
of their acquaintance to parties or dances.
Competition with boys’ groups is valuable
if individual self-assertion can be obviated.
Proper competition often stimulates to
action and leads to. increased productive-
ness in organized activity, though it may
become dangerous if it commercializes
the spirit of the club. In any case the em-
phasis should not be that of pitting boys’
and girls’ clubs against each other, but of
bringing the two into a certain number of
common coéperative enterprises.

Other than dancing the most success-
ful interests which have been found to be
suited for mixed groups are, first of all, dra-
matics, then table and acted charades, sing-

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MIXED CLUBS OF BOYS AND GIRLS 153

ing, debates, parties, trips to museums and
the theater, talks and lectures, and, to a
limited degree, outings into the country.
Excursions, as a general rule, are looked
on askance because of the impossibility
of preventing young people from pairing
off and breaking up the party. Such out-
ings are successful only in cases where all
the members of the group are sufficiently
trained through long association in club.
meetings to be dependable. The most hope-
ful expedient in preserving a high degree
of order at social events is the direct par-
ticipation of the young men and women
themselves in the detail of organization
and management.

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CHAPTER XII
EDUCATION IN THE REALITIES

Tose forms of educational work which
train both the brain and the hand, or which
Educational particularly develop originality,
work: (x) individuality, and imagination,
gymnastics ; .

are considered the most valu-
able. Chief among these are dramatics,
music, reading, — including topics of the
day and short stories, — dancing, house-
hold art, hygiene, nature study, gymnastics,
ethics, and home games. The most gen-
erally advocated form of gymnastics is folk-
dancing, in that it is an artistic expression
of personality, gives grace and poise, and,
by throwing the mind into a happy state,
affords an outlet for nervous as well as for
physical energy. National dances have
been found to be of unusual worth in
some immigrant neighborhoods, where

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EDUCATION IN THE REALITIES 155

they are used to create loyalty to race and
customs, and bring the girl into touch
with some of the elemental expressive art-
forms of her ancestors. Many settlement
workers, however, believe that purely
gymnastic training is of more all-around
value, in that it develops restraint, puts an
impress upon bearing, promotes decision
of character, quickness of judgment, re-
source, energy, and self-control; interests
the girl in fair play; and offers a perfectly
normal opportunity for teaching sex hy-
giene. The new gymnasium games, which
are so largely free from the atmosphere
of mechanical constraint, are beginning
to open important possibilities in these
directions for working girls.

The sad wrong in the present educa-
tional situation lies in the fact that the
adolescent girl finds so little (,) domestic
kindling interest in preparation science;
for the long years of her life as housewife
and mother. It is believed that the attrac-.

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4

156 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

tive power in domestic matters can best
be increased by changing the emphasis
from cooking to homemaking. The pic-
turesque and dramatic aspects of house-
keeping should be emphasized; constant
insistence should be laid on the dignity of
woman’s tasks in the home; housework
should be made a fine art and linked with
all that is best in life. Mastery over its
technique should be shown as an asset to-
ward a really successful match ; and’a sane
view of marriage presented. Model apart-
ments and cottages should be furnished
in connection with every settlement, and
ought to be developed as a part of the
public system of education as quickly as
possible.

Instruction should be given in the
sources, constituents, values, and qualities
of food ; in the sanitary care of the house-
hold; in the upbringing of children; in
the various arts and crafts connected with
furnishing, — all worked out dramatically

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EDUCATION IN THE REALITIES 157

and presented with much inventiveness and
variety. "The model apartments should also
be made the center of a scheme of hospi-
tality, so that the work itself may become
associated with interesting and stimulating
social relations. The instructor should be
a person of all-around experience in life,
and not merely a student or a pedagogue.
She should instruct with imagination and
be able to arouse enthusiasm. Instruction
should be followed up and reinforced by
visits into the homes of the pupils. Club
leaders should also, wherever possible, in-
vite girls to their own homes, and offer
them the opportunity to observe and parti-
cipate in a well-organized domestic estab-
lishment. It is also suggested that girls
should be involved as much as possible in
the practical preparation of food for the
settlement picnics and country vacations.

Without exception, settlements endeavor
to promote interest in the refinements of
life, and new methods toward this end are

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158 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

constantly being devised. Residents, how-
ever, might well do more to make their
(3) the refine. houses as simply and vitally
ments of life. beautiful as may be. The stand-
ard of taste in settlements is, on the whole,
not as high as it should be, and there is
still much to be done to make the equip-
ment express the love of beauty. Good
club leadership is again the chief necessity,
because refinement of spirit and deport-
ment is caught rather than taught. Girls
come to imitate good manners, and are grad-
ually affected by the suggestion of good
fashion in dress. They are also influenced
through the class work, especially the
homemaking classes, where the serving of
the meal offers opportunity for instruction
in ways of setting the table, in devising
decoration out of things that cost little or
nothing, in good manners, and in conver-
sation. The model tenement offers the
chance to develop the sense for worthy
furniture, fabrics, decoration. The sewing,

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EDUCATION IN THE REALITIES 159

embroidery, dressmaking, and millinery
classes open the way for object lessons in
design, color, and the power of simplicity.
Visits to art museums, to exhibits of crafts
work, to selected stores, to theaters and
concerts, are all helpful. The decorations
involved in parties, festivals, dramatics,
and pageants are often made a vehicle of
instruction in the principles underlying
good taste. The sale of photographs and
crafts work has been found successful in
some places. Classes in handwork, espe-
cially in pottery, embroidery, stenciling,
leather and other materials, can be used
to build up artistic appreciation.

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CHAPTER XIII
PREPARATION FOR YOUNG WOMANHOOD

THERE should be ways of magnifying
the importance of entrance into the full sta-
Marking the tus and responsibility of young
ae womanhood, one of which
womanhood. might well be a social event
analogous to the coming-out party. Many
settlement workers, however, express them-
selves unfavorably toward a coming-out
party for working girls, on the ground
that it does not fit into the ideals of
working-class life, and that differences of
standards among nationalities would greatly
complicate any attempt to give form to
such an idea. A few club leaders think
that something analogous might be devel-
‘oped by giving a party for each club as it
becomes a member of the senior council,
or by making such a party the climax of

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PREPARATION FOR WOMANHOOD 161

the homemaking courses of the settle-
ment, the event taking the form of a sub-
sidized graduation exercise.

The majority of adolescent girls spend
much time in thinking about marriage,
very little of which is serious. attitude to-
A certain proportion of them, wardmarriage.
however, especially among more recent
immigrants, marry before eighteen. To
such early marriages various considerations
move them. Some simply “lose their
heads.” Others accept the first offer that
comes. “Any girl lucky enough to get a
man to marry her is to be envied”; “I
might as well, it may be the only chance
I?ll have” ; «I don’t wish to work all my
life, so I may as well take him.”

The average girl sees in marriage a step
toward freedom, or an opportunity to be
rid of disagreeable work in the factory or
in the home. Occasionally a calculating
one voices her wish to avoid marriage
until assured of sufficient income so that

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162 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

she may be certain of finding release from
present drudgery, her dread that marriage
may prevent her having a good time, or
her recoil against bearing children and
experiencing the cares of family life.
While in her romancing, the girl natu-
rally centers her thoughts about the man-
Attitude to. agement of a home, she does
ward vocation not look upon housekeeping as
of housewife. 4. trade to be learned, but ex-
pects to blossom into domestic compe-
tence after the marriage ceremony. Some
few girls have a forehanded interest in
cooking; a still smaller number manifest
a workmanlike zest for homemaking;
hardly any think to prepare themselves for
motherhood. From the very start the in-
terest of the girl is divided between present
wage-earning and future housekeeping.
She has to look over a period of years be-
fore taking up her life career, and is mean-
while distracted by a largely or wholly
unrelated wage-earning occupation. On

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PREPARATION FOR WOMANHOOD 163

the whole, the girl cannot be expected to
be quite so specifically interested in house-
work as the boy becomes in his vocational
career. Perhaps the fundamental fact is
that not until girls come from something
better than the present order of tenement
homes, will there be a proper incentive
from within to undertake hard work in
the direction of preparation for marriage.

The model apartment is the most valu-
able expedient in arousing interest in house-
work as preparation for marriage. In a
number of settlements there are now “ sup-
per clubs” of girls, who come directly from
work and prepare the common meal.
Under such circumstances it is easy for
the club leader to point out the frequency
with which the affection of husband and
children is lost because the wife and mo-
ther is not trained to make a physically
comfortable home.

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CHAPTER XIV
A PROVISIONAL PLATFORM

Tue object of the present inquiry was
rather to secure the facts about the ado-
lescent girl than to develop a well-knit
and adequate system for meeting them.
Suggestions in this direction were invited,
however; and a synthesis of the imme-
diate next steps proposed includes the main
principles upon which social work among
adolescent girls ought to proceed.

The most strongly emphasized sugges-
tion, coming in many different forms, and
from many different sources, is that which
calls for the multiplication of neighbor-
hood recreation, organized and carried on
in a protecting and stimulating network
of thoroughly developed neighborhood ac-
quaintance and codperation. There should
be, in each local instance, the indoor social

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A PROVISIONAL PLATFORM 165

center and the outdoor playground; a con-
tinuous year-round programme; and the
most inspiriting leadership. Every such
enterprise should be closely involved with
thoroughgoing effort to connect the home
with all organized leisure-time interests.
Every individual girl should also be under
the guidance of a trained and resourceful
woman, who will really know the girl in
the background of her home; assist in
every possible way to make the family
relations wholesome; and endeavor to pro-
mote harmonious and stimulating inter-
course with other homes. Without the
spread of efficient neighborliness in these
ways, even the most carefully managed
scheme of recreation may fail to provide
against some of the worst collateral evils,
which by no means begin and end with
the commercialized forms of amusement.

The need of trade training, always con-
tinuously supplemented by instruction in
the care of the home, is keenly and very

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166 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

widely felt. The “two wasted years”
will continue, in the minds of social work-
ers, to represent a most serious and pointed
challenge to both industry and education.
The one must withdraw its claim on
these years; the other must utilize them
so that adolescents may actually be taught
how to lay hold on life. Only in this way
is it possible for the school to exercise
that concrete influence upon industry, on
the one hand, and upon the home, on the
other, which will serve to sustain the
working girl in many of her difficulties
and dangers.

Guidance for girls in the choice of oc-
cupation and actually launching them on
their industrial careers, will soon be a pub-
lic-school function; meanwhile, this duty
should be assumed by private neighbor-
hood agencies. From the very moment
the girl enters on employment, she is in
need of continuous and penetrating over-

sight. The tasks assigned her, the hours,

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A PROVISIONAL PLATFORM _ 167

the wages, her comings and goings, should
be under the notice of some one intelli-
gently concerned about her aside from the
official inspectors of factories and stores.
Responsible relations should be brought
about with movements toward better in-
dustrial conditions, first through leaders,
and then so far as possible by the initiative
of the girls themselves. Here the trade
union for women represents a most im-
portant interest and resource. The effort
for certain forms of legislation should be
included in this policy ; and the chief sug-
gestion in this direction is that of a legal
minimum wage for women.

Instruction in the hygiene and ethics
of sex is universally considered to be of
urgent importance, though the question
of practical procedure is a subtle and com-
plicated one. There are as yet no very
clear results of experience. It is obvious,
however, that such instruction must be
carried on in a background of close ac-

‘

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168 YOUNG WORKING GIRLS

quaintance with the home and neighbor-
hood. As balance against the ever-present
danger into which industrial and commer-
cial pursuits project so many adolescent
girls, it is strongly urged that the age of
consent be raised at least to eighteen. The
adequate legal penalty thus provided would
tend to correct one of the most cruel, if
not most dangerous, anomalies in our
social order. No assured results can be at-
tained so long as society in all its grades
stands committed to a double standard of
morality, and a broad campaign of public
education is advocated for the purpose of
leading effectually to a more humanized
moral attitude on the part of boys and
young men.

THE END

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APPENDIX ©

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APPENDIX

SCHEDULE ON THE PROBLEM OF THE ADO-
LESCENT GIRL BETWEEN FOURTEEN AND
EIGHTEEN

I. GENERAL,

1. Is the confusion of standards now so gen-
erally complained of common to all young
girls?

2. How far is this confusion the result of dis-
tinctive industrial and recreative conditions
affecting the adolescent girl, and how far is
it the result of general conditions affecting
everybody in her walk of life?

3. Is the fact that a girl goes from the compara-
tive protection of the home, the schools, and
the neighborhood to the lack of protection in
industry a powerful cause?

4. What are the dominant interests character-
istic of girls in this period? Is there any
motive which is powerful above all others ?

IJ. THe Girt AND THE Home.
1. Family relations.

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172

APPENDIX

a. The father: Exploitation of children.
Use of girl’s salary for his own or family
ends. Lack of interest in children as in-
dividuals. Cruelty.

6. The mother: In what way does the often
radically different outlook upon life on
the part of mother and daughter affect this
problem ?

c. Brothers and sisters.

d. Boarders.

2. The girl as a wage-earner.

a. Attitude of the girl in turning in her in-
come to the home? Is the attitude of the
other members of the family toward her
a just one in this matter?

3. The physical home.

a. Hygienic, moral, and social effects of
overcrowding.

4. Provision for sleep. Lack of rest from
sleeping with others.

c. Improper and insufficient food.

d. Undertaking housework after a day’s labor.

4. Attitude of family toward girl.

a. Feeling of responsibility on the part of
the parents in respect to place of work;
conditions of work; coming and going;
companionship; amusement; places where
evenings are spent.

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APPENDIX 173

6. How can parents be educated to interest
themselves in the conditions which sur-
round their working daughters?

c. What is the effect of the loss of adequate
neighborhood life through migrations of
the family, or for any other cause?

5. Influence of good home life on the girl’s
career.

a. How large a proportion of average girls
have adequate homes?

6. What are the qualities in good family life
which best assist the working girl? How
can they be more generally developed?

c. How large a proportion of girls rise in
industry and assist in bettering the home
and family ?

d. How do well-organized neighborhood re-
lations assist in building up a girl’s char-
acter ?

III. Inpustry.

1. Effects of entrance on industry.
a. What are the physical changes that en-
trance on work brings?
b. In what characteristic ways does the girl’s
new attitude toward life manifest itself ?
c. What is the changed relation to the home?
How does it manifest itself?

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174

da,

a

f

g

APPENDIX

Is there a changed attitude toward the
neighborhood? In what way does it show?
What is to be said concerning the advan-
tages and disadvantages (moral and eco-
nomic) of factories; department stores ;
offices ; housework?

How far do girls develop in capacity and
character in their work?

What is the effect of wage and budget
problems on the girl in this period?

Preparation for industry. Are the years be-
tween fourteen and sixteen wasted ?

a.

>

é

a SS

What differences of attitude toward the
need of preparation are discoverable among
families of various grades, types, and na-
tionalities?

Would there be a distinct general gain if
the girl between fourteen and sixteen were
at home or at school ?

. Value of trade schools? What is their

effect on the average girl?

. Are young girls led into moral danger in

seeking positions?
What is the general method of going
about securing work?

> What is to be avoided?

How can the necessity of trusting to
chance for a position be done away with?

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APPENDIX 175

IV. REcREATION.

I.

To what extent does work affect the desire
for pleasure? Are the lives of girls in shops
dull? Are girls overtired ?

2. What is the leading amusement ideal ?

3. How far are young women dependent on

men for amusement? What is the effect of
being without spending money and forced to
seek recreation outside of income?

. In how far has the old relation between men

and’ women broken down under our new in-
dividualism ?

. What is the effect of the theater and the

moving-picture show upon the girl?

. In how far and in what ways do settlement

dances and dancing classes affect the neigh-
borhood ? What is the feeling of the girls
towards settlement dancing ?

. Dance-halls. Their regulation by law ; where

tried and how successful, What can be done
to do away with the sale of liquor in connec-
tion with dances?

. How is the better grade commercial dance-

hall regarded? Are there such?

Municipal dances. How successful have these
been, and do they offer any hope for the
future?

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10.

II.

12.

13.

APPENDIX

What provision is made for seeing that young
girls reach their homes safely ? How can the
morals of the situation after the dance be
conserved?

What is the influence of the skating-rink ?

The school center. Does this throw a greater
degree of protection about the young girl than
other forms of public provisions of amuse-
ment?

Needs in recreation.

a. In how far can the settlement work out a
programme of recreation for its neighbor-
hood?

4. How can the settlement educate neigh-
borhood public opinion ?

c. How can the settlement multiply enter-
tainment in which there is the closest kind
of supervision ?

V. Moratiry.

I.

2.

3:

Is there a growing lack of moral standards in
industrial neighborhoods? Are people un-
moral because unthinking ?

How far is moral damage the result of igno-

rance? Would teaching in sex hygiene be
of benefit ?

Is the girl who becomes morally lax already

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10.

II.

12.

APPENDIX ' 4177

influenced in that direction before she enters
this period (fourteen to eighteen)?

. In how far is the girl prepared for this period

by the public school? In what way could the
school strengthen its work in this direction ?

- In how far do girls of this age come under

adequate and forceful religious instruction
and leadership ?

. In how far does the home exert positive and

sympathetic support to the girl in maintain-
ing her moral standards?

- What is the attitude of girls of this age to-

ward moral lapse?

- Have they any real sense of its bearing on

the future ?

. Is there a growing feeling that discovery is

the only danger in such a lapse?

Is there a tendency (as the Chicago study
seemed to show) for young girls to sacrifice
honor solely for a good time, thus keeping
themselves in their own opinion outside of
prostitution ?

Is there a growing tendency for girls to go
into saloons, cafés, and cheap hotels?

What are the vital moral and intellectual
interests that enable some girls to become
moral leaders ?

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178 APPENDIX

VI. Wuat are ELEMENTs oF Goop Crius-Work

FOR GIRLS OF THIS PERIOD?

1. Is it not advisable that there should be some
striking change and development in organized
recreation for girls to mark the beginning of
this period?

2. What are the working principles which gov-
ern the organization of clubs in this period
so as to secure the greatest degree of loyalty
and codperation?

3. How valuable is committee and other routine
work of organization ; competition with boys’
clubs; large meetings of girls?

4. How can parents be brought into the recrea-
tion interests of young people?

VII. Mixep Cups or Boys anp GIRLS.

1. At what ages ought boys and girls to meet
together?

2. How successful are mixed clubs? In how
far is it profitable to take such groups on
excursions, picnics, to amusements, etc.?
Elements of difficulty.

3. How far do you recognize the natural groups
or sets among young men and women?

VIII. Epucationan.,
1. What forms of educational work are most
valuable in this period?

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IX.

APPENDIX 179

Value of gymnasium; folk-dancing.

What can be done to increase interest in
domestic instruction?

To what extent is an effort made to create
interest in the refinements of life? What
methods are used and with what success?

PREPARATION FOR THE FOLLOWING PERIOD.

I.

2.

3-

What sort of thought do girls in this period
give to the real problems of marriage?
Could something analogous to the coming-
out party and its point of view be developed?
How can girls be specifically interested in
the technique of their future vocation of
housewife as boys are interested in their
prospective occupations ?

Next STEPS IN A PROGRAMME,

Suggestions are asked as to the need and
value in work among girls, of trade organ-
izations, vocation courses, playgrounds and
recreation centers, or any plan of action
which seems to promise good results.
Interest in organization of women’s unions.
More playgrounds.

Further trade schools.

Special visitors interested in the work and
life of the girl.

December 20, 1911.

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180 APPENDIX

SECOND SCHEDULE ON THE PROBLEM OF
THE ADOLESCENT GIRL BETWEEN FOUR-
TEEN AND EIGHTEEN

I. GENERAL.

1. To what extent, in what ways, and through
what forms of organization do you recognize
and use the characteristics of the adolescent
period in general, such as lack of stability,
shifting moods, tendency toward emotional
experience, etc.?

2. In what ways do you attempt to meet the
problems growing out of the differences in
the girls’ outlook in the two periods four-
teen to sixteen, and sixteen to eighteen ?

3. Would it be a serviceable thing to bring
girls together and talk to them of the physi-
cal and spiritual meaning of adolescence?

II. THe Home.
1. What can be done to unify family spirit ?

2. How can the father’s interest in the daugh-
ter be more individualized and increased ?

3. How can the father’s interest and participa-
tion in the home and family life be increased?

4. How can the misunderstanding between
mother and daughter be lessened and over-

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III.

APPENDIX 181

come? Have you attempted to do this

through —

a. Home visiting ?

6. Talks on the adolescent girl to mothers’
and women’s clubs?

c. Studying the old-world traditions of the
family and endeavoring to lead the girl to
appreciate her parents’ point of view ?

d. Parties given by the mothers to the girls,
and by the girls to the mothers ?

. In what other ways have you attempted to

overcome this difficulty ?

Is there any way of making plain to the
working-class family the subtle but impor-
tant differences in a girl’s outlook in the two
periods — fourteen to sixteen, and sixteen to
eighteen?

How develop the qualities in good family
life which best assist the working girl ?

INpusTRY.

I.

What methods have been found successful
in stimulating family responsibility as to the
working conditions which surround the girl ?
How can the girl’s interest in her work be
developed and sustained ?

Do you attempt to show the girl the need
and significance of efficiency ?

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182

APPENDIX

IV. RECREATION.

I.

ae

+

7-

What specific forms of recreation have you
found most valuable? Significant points in
the organization and direction of each? '

What would you consider a normal amount
of amusement per week for the average girl ?
Specify in terms of shows, clubs, parties,
money, evenings spent at home, etc.

In how far has the settlement been able to
enter into constructive codperation with
municipal or commercial neighborhood agen-
cies for recreation?

Specific relations with or criticism of —

a. Moving-picture shows.

4. Public dances.

To what extent are public dances in the
neighborhood under a helpful legal statute?
Degree of success of the school-center
movement in your neighborhood? What
changes does the opening of a school center
make in your work ?

How can the girl’s recreation be kept in
right relation with the home?

V. Morats.
1. Should sex hygiene be taught individually?

If in groups, what size should the group be?

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APPENDIX 183

2. How can the codperation of the mother of
the girl be secured in the work of teaching
sex hygiene?

3. What can the school do? What can the
church do?

4. Do you consider it necessary or only wise
that club leaders should understand fully the
physiology and psychology of adolescence?

5. How develop a neighborhood standard of
wholesome romantic feeling? What use do
you make of the world’s great romances ?

6. How can the saloon and the café be regu-
lated?

VI. Vistrinc.

1. Do you make a definite effort to visit adoles-
cent girls in their own homes? With what
effect ?

2. Do you visit girls at work?

3. Do you attempt to use Sunday as a visiting
day? Do you endeavor to enter into the
Sunday recreation of young people?

VII. Crius anp Crass Work.

1. Some settlement workers believe that much
club work fails because it has no underlying
motive other than to entertain the girl and
to be friendly with her. What is the aim
of your club work?

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VIII.

APPENDIX

. Would it be possible to outline forms of

club work which would help in guarding
the girl against herself and building up her
best powers? What would you suggest ?

. Specific instances of successful clubs, with

some analysis of the reasons for the degree
of result attained.

. Specific ways in which parents are being

engaged in the recreation interests of young
people.

. Practical ways of handling mixed clubs of

boys and girls. Note successful examples.

. Examples and technique of parties, dances,

and other gatherings of boys and girls.

. Specific examples of successful domestic

science groups with analysis of qualities that
make for success.

. Specific examples of forms of work which

aim directly at promoting the refinements
of life.

Tue Furure.

1. Specific instances of the girl’s attitude to-

ward marriage.

2. Analysis of successful ways of interesting

girls in the technique of housework as pre-
paration for marriage.

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APPENDIX 185

IX. REstiDENTSs AND VOLUNTEERS.
How can both residents and volunteers be pre-
pared for their tasks of influencing the adoles-
cent girl roundedly ?
X. Examples.
Isolated instances of good single strokes of

work or influence with adolescent girls.

Nore. — As the nationality of the girl has its effect on
nany of the answers, each person replying to the schedule is
equested to state what nationality is chiefly dealt with.

January I, 1913.

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