Volume 5 Article 2 Number 11 The Iowa Homemaker vol.5, no.11

1925 Choosing the Profession of Homemaking Anna E. Richardson Iowa State College

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Recommended Citation Richardson, Anna E. (1925) "Choosing the Profession of Homemaking," The Iowa Homemaker: Vol. 5 : No. 11 , Article 2. Available at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/homemaker/vol5/iss11/2

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I VOLUME 5 APRIL, 1926 NUMBER 11

Choosing the Profession of Homemaking

By ANNA E. RICHARDSON Dean of the Division of

T is not so many years since the only FOR A LITTLE HOUSE wisdom in handling difficult personal re­ I alternative open to a young lations, nor does it make for happiness. was eicher to choose homemaking as Oh, to have a little house! ! 'llbe second challenge which homemaking her life occupation or to remain a respec­ To own the hearth and stool and all! makes is that the· homemaker be socially table but much pitied "spmster" or maid­ and spiritually fitted for the great respon­ en aunt. The inteTvening years have The heaped-up sods upon the fire, sibilities of wifehood and motherhood. bro'Ught great changes and now the cen­ The pile of turf against the wall! Some interesting studies have been sus lists show something like 160 occupa­ made of the personality traits which are tions in which women are employed. To have a clock with weights and chains of prime· importance in homemaking and Has opening the doors of industry and of the methods by which personality may of the protessions thinned the ranks ot and pendulum swinging up and down! be developed. Those interested in home­ homemakers? :Not perceptibly for it is A dresser filled with shining delf, making as a profession will find this a still the occupation which claims the Speckled white and blue and brown! very rich field for study, for she who greatest number of workers and into would choose homemaking must be equip­ which the majority of our well trained I could be busy all the day ped to meet its demands and be willing women go. to give time and effort in preparation. Special training is not essential for en­ Clearing and sweeping hearth and floor, Homemaking is the most important of all trance into this occupation, for selection And fixing on their shelf again of the occupations in which men and wo­ is made largely upon the basis of that My white and blue and speckled store! men are employed both on account of important yet somewhat intangible some­ the importance of its product-happy, thing, the sum total of which we call per­ healthy, useful citizens-and because of sonality. Success, however, comes to her I could be quiet there at night the significance· of the social and spiritual whose training and experience fit her to Beside the fire and by myself, forces which s'Urround it and which it meet the· manifold demands which this Sure of a bed and loth to leave controls. vocation makes. The ticking clock and shining delf! Homemaking makes many and exacting What are some of the challenges of the demands in skill, personality, unselfish modern homemaker? First, that she be Och, but I'm weary of mist and dark, and generous time and effort but in turn vocationally efficient. This means that it meets out the largest returns in hap­ she should know as much about running And roads where there's never a house piness to her who meets its challenge. her job as she expe·cts the man she mar­ nor bush; ries to know about his; that she be mas­ And tired I am of bog and road, THE OLD HOUSE ter of its techniqoues and skills; that she effectively manage her business and at And the crying of wind and the lone­ 0 kindly house where time my soul en­ the same time maintain the social and some hush! dows spiritual values which make· for sympa­ With courage, hope and patience mani­ thetic understanding and happiness in And I am praying to God on high, fold, our personal relations. And I: am praying Him night and day, The emphasis in homemaking is shift­ How shall my debt of love to thee be told, ing from the doing of many things to the For a little house-a house of my own­ Since first I heard the sweet voiced rob­ wise management of the family's resour­ Out of the wind and the rain's way. ins rouse ces of tim,e energy, and money. The -Padriac Colum. home of two generations ago was a pro­ The morn among thy ancient apple ductive enterprise in a very real sense. boughs? 'fhe with the help of her The women, the CO'Ilntry over, do most Here was I nourished on the truths of old, of the buying and the farm home is no turned raw materials, such as B:ere taught against new times to make wool, cotton, flax, and all variety of general exception to this. Therefore, to stuffs by means of human energy into fin­ be intelligent as buye-rs becomes one of me bold, ished products for use in the home as the important duties of the homemaker if Memory and hope the doorposts, 0 dear , hO'Use furnishings, and food. her home is to be economically sound. house! There was no question then as to the eco­ How can she choo.se intelligently? First, nomic contribution of the household, it by carefully studying needs, and then by Heaven's blessing rested on thy dark eithe-r was economically sound or the understanding value-s in the marketed gray roof, family's wants were not supplied. product. And clasped thy children age to lapsing Today, the woman in the home no long. In place of expenditure of so much age, er furnishes to a great degree energy in physical effort the time is fast approach­ the shape of woman power, but she is ing when management of machines will Birth and the grave thy tale till time's required to intelligently control and man­ leave free time. How will the home­ release; age to her ends energy in the shape of maker use this time· so as to give to the Poverty did not hold from thee aloof; labor-saving equipment in her own home, family the largest returns? Only with or the results of energy in the shape of leisure comes the opportunity for recrea­ Of lowly good thou wast the hermitage; manufactured goods. Woman's place in tion, play, and for developing fine family Now falls the evening light. God give the economic structure is decreasingly relations without which no home in a real thee peace! sense exists. LeiB'Ure· alone, however, that of a producer and increasingly that -George Edward Woodberry. of a chooser of goods, a consumer. does not give us understanding parents,