Advice on Working and Saving, 1887

From Grace H. Dodge. "Working and Saving," in A Bundle of Letters to Busy Girls on Practical Matters; written to those girls who have not time or inclination to think and study about the many important things which make up life and living. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1887. 88-99.

Dear Girls:

We are all workers--busy bodies; and I think there is not one of us who could not say, "It seems as if a woman's work was never done." Some of us have home cares, and from the making of the fire before six o'clock until nine or ten at night, when the children or family are in bed, we have few idle moments. We find so much to do even in our small rooms or houses. Others of us are due at seven o'clock at factory or shop, and have eight or nine hours of manual work, with only lunch time off. When we get home, if there is no housework there is sewing or planning for clothes, and if we find time for any recreation or fun, we are wondrous busy up to a late hour. Again, there are some of us who use our fingers, and as dressmakers it is sew, sew, sew, until we get tired of needles and thread. Still there are among us those who have brain work combined with hand effort, and as teachers, telegraph operators, stenographers, clerks, or bearing still heavier responsibility, we come to night tired both in body and in mind. Some are ashamed of being called workingwomen, but why should we be? Is it not a grand thing to be a worker, and to have ability to work? Nowadays hundreds of girls are proud of being workers who might stay at home and be supported by father or mother. They wish to feel able to care for themselves. No honest work degrades us, rather uplifts and strengthens us. I like to feel myself a worker, and to count as true friends many who labor from early to late in shop or factory. . . .

When we are at home we serve for love, from a sense of duty, but when we go out from home into any position we expect to serve for more than these things--for money.

Here, then, are the two points of our letter today--Work, Money; serving, and the wage received for said service. . . .

First. Set your mind on the work, whatever it is, feeling it is necessary and cannot be shirked. Second. When the mind is fixed and it is to be done, try and take a cheery view of the work. There are two words which are often used, "Don't worry." Apply them to the work to be done, and put after them, "over it." Third. Endeavor by system and order to simplify the work. Bring your brains to it and try to lighten it by planning for it . . . .

Fourth. Put your heart into your work . . . . Fifth. Do the work as well as you can, and try and take pride in the doing. Sixth. Make the work yours for the time being, and even if it is done for others, feel it your own, and show interest in it. Seventh. Quiet, slow work usually tells better in the long run than that done with rapid, spasmodic effort . . . . Eighth. It is hardly necessary to add the thought of faithful, thorough work. No one will ever succeed or be advanced who does not do earnest, true work. I have heard it said that one reason why women cannot compare with men as "wage-earners" is, that they do not do faithful, thorough work, for they do not think of work as a life pursuit, bur rather as a necessary means of tiding over those years before they marry, and have some man to do the money-earning for them.

Girls, I would not like to think this true, but rather to feel that we women are so anxious to become skillful, thorough workers that we at all times are doing our utmost to fit ourselves for that duty which is ours. Happy women also, for we realize that we must work, and are doing the best we can in a cheery, earnest manner.